Frédéric Chopin - Nocturne 20 in C Minor Sharp

This is one of the songs I am learning on the piano. I love it!

Blessings

~Elizabeth

Quotes with Dickens

"Dreams are bright creatures of poem and legend, who sport on earth in the night season, and melt away in the first beam of the sun, which lights grim care and stern reality on their daily pilgrimage though the world."

~Charles Dickens

"There might be some credit in being jolly."

~Charles Dickens

Blessings

~Elizabeth

Evening Solace

Evening Solace

By Charlotte Bronte

The Human heart has hidden treasures,

In secret kept, in silence sealed; - -

The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures,

Whose charms were broken if revealed.

And days may pass in gay confusion,

And nights in rosy riot fly,

While, lost in Fame's or Wealth's illusion,

The memory of Past may die.

Buy there are hours of lonely musing,

Such as in evening silence come,

When, soft as birds their pinions closing,

The heart's best feelings gather home

Then in our souls their seems to languish

A tender grief that is no woe;

And thoughts that once wrung groans of angusish

Now cause but some mild tears to flow.

And feelings, once strong as passions,

Float softly back - - a faded dream;

Our own sharp griefs and wild sensations,

The tale of others sufferings seem.

Oh! when the heart is freshly bleeding,

How longs it for the time to be,

When through the mist of years receding

It woes but live in reverie!

And it can dwell on moonlight glimmer,

On evening shade and loneliness;

And, while the sky grows dim and dimmer,

Feel no untold and strange distress - -

Only a deeper impulse given

By lonely hou and darkened room,

To solemn thougth that soar to heavan

Seeking a life and world to come

Blessings

~Elizabeth

Flower pictures

These are some flower pictures I have taken. I enjoy taking pictures, it is a little hobby. I don't have a really good camera, so some pictures I want to take don't turn out so good. But these turned out great I think.

I love the purple hints in this flower.

Blessings

~Elizabeth

Ducks on a Pond

Here are some pictures I took this summer. I really like them, and how they turned out. Let me know what you think!

I like this one best.

Blessings

~Elizabeth

Book Review: The Road from Home

Title: The Road from Home

Author: David Kherdian

published: 1979

Genre: Biography

"David Kherdian re-creates his mother's voice in telling the true story of a childhood interrupted by one of the most devastating holocausts of our century. Veron Dumehjian Kherdian was born into a loving and prosperous family. Then, in the year 1915, the Turkish gobernment began the systematic destruction of its Armenian population." - the back of the the book

This book is one of the saddest books I have ever read. So many people die. I often wished through out the whole book that I could change history. I think what made this book more sad for me was that many of the characters were real people, who were really there. This book disturbed me a lot too. I was thinking all the time how on earth could people possible be so cruel to other people? It is so hared to imagine for me that anyone would want to kill another person so much. How can someone hate some one without any reason?

I love stories that take place around real things that happened, and when the story is a real person I am much more interested. The story is well, written, I was only a little confused about who was related to who, an who lived where in the beginning. It was very hard to put the book down, you wanted to know what would happen, and if she would escape. There where lots of times what you wanted to cry in the book because of what was happening. It didn't help that I was sick when I was reading it. With the way it was written I felt like I was walking through the whole thing with Veron.

One of the things that stood out to me was how people helped each other. They watched out for each other. It was very touching. People worked together to get out of the horror they where in. They would share their food. It reminded me of Christ.

The book is a little violent, but I think that would be expected, and I really don't think you can tell a story like this, and get away with out putting in some of the violence. I think it brings the story even more to life. It really tells about what happened to the Armenians.

I have always thought that is sounds really weird to say that a supper sad book is one of your favorite books. Well despite this being a really sad book it is one of my favorites. I think that is because it is a true story, and I didn't know about the Armenian extermination. I might have had a vague awarness of it, but I really didn't know about it. Now I know and I will never forget. I gained very strong feelings for not forgetting. Here is the reason why...

"I have given orders to my Death Units to exterminate without mercy or pity men, women, and children belonging to the polish-speaking race. It is only in this manner that we can acquire the vital territory which we need. After all, who remembers to day the extermination of the Armenians?" -Adolf Hitler

(I have put in italics the part that I wish to emphasis)

This quote chills me to the bone! Not just because it is Hitler, and Hitler gives me chills in general, but because of what it is that he is saying. He is saying that it is alright to kill the Polish, because no one remembers what the Turks did the Armenians. It is really horrifying! It makes me feel strongly that we need to remember these people, and what happened to them. So that in the future we can stop something like this from happening again.

Some books feel like they are trying to bring History to life, other like they are just telling a story, and then the ones that tell to remember. This one is to remember.

Blessings

~Elizabeth

The Importance of Writing

One Sunday quite a while ago I had a conversation with a friend. She was wondering why schools always teach writing. Her opinion was that once you where taught the basics there was really no need to lean any more. Once you know how to write you don't need anymore instruction. She new how to write so she didn't understand why at her school they had to cover it every year. I am probably not saying this quite the way she said it, but this is what I got out of what she said.

Now when I was young I did not like writing. It was like pulling teeth for my mother to get me to write anything. Part of this came from that fact that I didn't like having to write long paragraphs and papers that I would actually write out by hand. This problem was solved when I figured out how to type on the computer. The other problem I had was what do I write? How do I say what I want to say? The assignment would tell me to write something, but not how to write it. This has been solved when we got IEW(Institute for Excellence in Writing), which is an amazing program by the way. I did at some point realize that if I wanted to get anywhere in the world I would have to write, so I did try more, and I tried also not to give my mom so much grief about it. The only thing that I find really bizarre is that ever since I was old enough to understand that people write books, I have wanted to write books. I use to dream about becoming a famous author. I have not lost this desire to write books. I just find it weird that as much as I hated writing I loved books and wanted to write books.

Now everything has come together and I am now a very very big fan of writing. I love poetry, and enjoy trying my hand at some. This is a 108 degree change for me.

This friend got me thinking as to why we need to learn writing. Why do we cover so much? Why is there such a big emphasis on it in school? This is the conclusion that I have come to.

You can write 'I like chocolate'. but does that really express much? If I said wrote 'I like chocolate', and I like peanut butter"; would you be able to tell I like chocolate more that I like peanut butter? No. But If I wrote 'chocolate has a wonderful delightful creamy flavor, that makes me feel happy. Chocolate makes a wonderful dessert for any occasion.' And for the other, 'peanut butter is a creamy condiment, that is great on sandwiches.' Now you can tell I like chocolate better than peanut butter.

You can write anything, but can you write it well, and express it with grace and ease? Can you say what you are thinking, and express you ideas well? I most certainly am not very good at expressing what I am thinking in writing or speech. But I have a blog that I write on anyways, and if I don't practice I wont get better.

Being able to share what you are thinking, write a book, poem, or anything at all. You need to be able to write with elegance, and ease. Writing is a key form of communication in our society, so it makes sense that it is one of the things taught most to us. We cannot share what we have learned with out being able to write. If we cannot write well it does not makes us seem very intelligent. But we if we know how to write and thoroughly understand the art of writing, then we can write well. We need to be able to communicate our thoughts clearly. This is not something that is at all easy. I have found that I am not very well able to express my thought even with speech, and I find talking much easier than writing. We need to practice and work on writing to develop this skill.

Being able to communicate well has been one of my parents' goals from the time that I was little. Though we have had a lot of trouble finding a writing program that actually explained the process to us has be extremely difficult. *Enter IEW* Now all our problems have been solved!

Anyway this post is my ramblings about why writing is important, there are tons of other reasons to be sure, as to why writing is necessary, but this is the one that has stuck out to me the most. I hope this has not been very boring for you all.

Blessings

~Elizabeth

My latest musical discovery

So I recently discovered Meav from Celtic Woman. I love her voice and the sound of her music. I love her name too! Meav is no longer with Celtic Woman, and has started her own solo career. This song is is Irish(gaelic).





Blessings

~Elizabeth

A little lack of inspiration

So I am just doing a random post with pictures form some period dramas I like. Just to talk about them. Also since I am out of posting ideas at the moment. Hopefully some will come to me soon.

I love Ester Summerson! She is so sweet, lovely, and feminine! She is one of my favorites right up there with Elinor Dashwood and Jane Bennett. I like all the hair arrangements in this series. They were all so lovely.

I love lady Deadlocks hair. She always has it so wonderfully arranged. She is very elegant, I like that. A little uppity maybe, but elegant. I love all her dresses too. They are elegant just like her.

Has anyone else noticed that this dress....
looks just like this dress. Or is it just me?
I love Marian's dress. This is my favorite dress from the whole movie. I like Elinor's too. Margret is so cute in this picture! Marian's hair is lovely. I wish I could get it to be that curly, but mine just wont. *sigh*

The Greek Festival is tomorrow!! I am very excited!!! I can't wait to go!! :) :)

~Elizabeth

Narnia and the theory of relativity

My family has been listening to the Narnia series, my sisters and I love these books! Who doesn't? While listening I noticed that the Theory of Relativity was in it. Maybe I am the only person who has not noticed it, and everyone else has noticed this already. I was just slow to notice it.

Anyway one day while listening to these books. I realized C. S. Lewis was talking about the theory of relativity in his books. You know how time moves at different speeds in our world and Narnia, but when we where in Narnia and our world we don't notice the difference. Why? Because of the theory of relativity.

Time always seems to move at a "normal" pace, no matter how fast or slow it is actually moving. Time in Narnia moves faster than time in our world, this has been proven throughout the books. But when we are in Narnia it seems to move at the same pace as in our world, because time moves relative to us. I have not studied the theory of relativity in any great depth, I do know a little about it, and understand enough to see that it is used in Narnia.

I am probably very poorly explained it to you, but I hope you can get an idea of what I am saying. :)

Blessings

~Elizabeth