Borrowed books are fun, because it tends to mean that someone else has read them and thinks that you would enjoy them too. And that's cozy and fall-ish, right? I thought so. :D Most of mine for this category are actually non-fiction, which I found interesting. Don't forget to head back to the host blog for links to the other blogs participating in the party: Blog – Once Upon An Ordinary (wordpress.com)! Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends
Evidence Not Seen
Love and Respect
The Unexpected Request
Just Friends
Which do you tend to borrow more, fiction or non-fiction? Have you read any of these?
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It's that time again, the week of the Five Fall Favorites!! Get ready for a giveaway, free ebooks, and lots of book recommendations! I've been looking forward to this since... well, probably about since the last Five Fall Favorites was coming to an end! (For those who don't know, this is hosted by Kate Willis over at onceuponanordinary.wordpress.com. In celebration of books and fall, each day several bloggers, myself included, share five of their favorite books that fit a certain category. Kate's blog is where you can find links to the other blogs participating as well as the giveaway and the free ebook deals!) So, let's get into today's category! Today, as you've probably noticed, we're taking a look at our top five books discovered at the library! Facing the Giants
Anne of Windy Poplars
A Teen's Guide to the 5 Love Languages
The Swiss Family Robinson
Eight CousinsDon't forget to head over to Blog – Once Upon An Ordinary (wordpress.com) for the links to the other participating blogs! Have you read any of these? Have you ever had a book that you thought would be boring but you then ended up enjoying it? Today I'm taking the chance to introduce y'all to a handy friend that I made during my time away from the blog... Okay, well, it's not really a friend, but it's a helpful tool. :P Meet the Simplicity Planner! (You can check it out on Amazon here: Simplicity Planner: Griggs, Bethany: Amazon.com: Books). This is one that my friend, Bethany Griggs, made. Not that long ago, she put it up on Amazon for purchase. I'd had my eye on it for a while, but when last school year came to a close (and with that, my old planner was almost filled up), I went ahead and ordered it. I used it during July, August, and September and am looking forward to using it mroe during this school year. It is likely my favorite planner I've ever looked had, and I've been excited to share it with you! I can already say that it was worth every cent! So, first of all, I'm going to walk you through the features of it. :D The first main section of the planner is for quarter goals. I liked the idea of this, as laying out general goals for the next three months causes me to step back and think about the most important things that might be outside of the "daily grind." For each goal, as you can see, there is space to write details about it. I especially liked writing down my "why" for the goal. (I also just realized recently that I wrote what the goal was in the wrong space. But that's okay. :P ). This is the page following the quarter goals page. I haven't done it yet, but I'm curious to see how going back and thinking analytically about the last three months (and how I can in turn spend the next three months) will do for me. After the quarter goals section is monthly lay-outs. It is undated, meaning that you can use the planner any year or even start in the middle of a year and then go back and use the first months of the year the next year. There is also a small space for monthly goals to the side of the calendar. This next section, the weekly layout pages, is my favorite part of the planner and was probably what made me get it in the first place! Each week is done in a different color, a photo at the bottom corner, and a KJV Bible verse.
The habit tracker is nice for keeping on track with the quarter goals. It's also helped motivate me to do the smaller things that I need to do each day. As you might notice from these pictures, I don't personally use every box every week, but I think it's set up in a way that it doesn't feel incomplete if you leave some space blank. I just use what I want to that week; that's really the point of it: simplicity! And no, if you read through that writing and were wondering, my weeks are not normally as varied as this one looks. It just had alot of different things going on in it. :P Then, after the pages for each week, there is a section of quite a bit of blank lined paper. So far, I've used that for writing down a schedule for a day, for keeping track of quiz grades for a homeschool class I'm doing, and for writing down how long I spent on each thing in a day (to help me be motivated to use time wisely so that I could write things down that I was happy about :P). Basically, it could be used for whatever you find most helpful! Overall, I love the way that this planner has helped me to keep track of and accomplish goals simply. The Bible verses (in the King James Version!) are encouraging and remind me of Who ultimately matters when I go to look at my list of things to do. Plus the beautiful pictures, colors, and layout of it all make it fun and not stressful to pick up. I get excited to write down the things that I have to do! And... remember the Five Fall Favorites party last year? It's right around the corner! For anyone who wasn't here or doesn't remember, this is a week-long bookish event where several blogs share their top five favorite books in a category everyday for a week (except for that Sunday) in celebration of fall. Each day on the blog, I share a link to the blog that is hosting the event (where there are links to all the other participating blogs), and then I share five of my favorite books in that category. It's alot of fun! I hope to see you over here for it next week! Do you like to use planners? Have you heard of this one or thought about trying it out? Are you excited for the Five Fall Favorites?
This was something that I wrote for school, which is why it might sound a bit different from my normal writing style here on the blog, but I thought that it would still make a good devotional post. :D Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is the first step that a believer must ever take in their walk with God; without faith, one cannot even have a walk with God. We must have that confidence in things that we cannot see. At first glance, this sounds illogical. Faith in something you cannot even see? Couldn't this easily lead to believing a lie? After all, all religions take faith, and it is impossible that they are all simultaneously telling the truth. This is where I believe our definition of faith is sometimes skewed. Blind faith is not what God is calling us to have. Religions all over the world call for faith based on no or unsubstantial evidence, but God, the true God of the Bible, asks us to have faith after seeing the evidence that He has provided, not only in the world all around us (about the existence of a God and our fallen state of sin), but also in His Word (about why we should believe that He is that God and that Jesus is our access to Him). In Matthew 11, John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” Jesus did not just tell him to have faith as many today likely would, and He did not rebuke him for not just accepting what he'd been told. He instead responded, “Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.” He told them to go and show John again the evidence; Jesus Himself seems to be acknowledging that it was by this evidence that John would then be able to have faith, the substance of things not seen. We see similar situations when Jesus talked to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection, as well as when He first saw Thomas after He rose again. In both of these encounters, we see doubt, and we see that Jesus, though He does give rebuke for not believing that He was truly alive, also helps them to see the evidence. With the two on the road to Emmaus, “...beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). To Thomas He said, “Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing” (John 20:27). Thomas then responded, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Acts 1 is another place where we see that the evidence God provides leads to faith. “To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). The Lord could have chosen to appear to the disciples one time, but He chose to show Himself alive by many infallible proofs. Our faith is not to be blind. We are to place our faith in the One Who has shown us His many infallible proofs, both in the world around us and in His Word. No, we cannot see everything, and yes, we are to have faith, not through our own power but through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit; but this faith is not blind. It is informed by a God who has shown Himself to us. This faith is then the evidence of the things that we do not see. Do you have any thoughts you'd like to share on this?
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