Christmastime...

Today is Christmas Eve, as you're surely well aware.  I could go into what Christmas means to me, but to be honest the list is so long that I don't have enough time to share that with you.  I just wanted to post a quick article to wish you  and your family a very Merry Christmas and I hope that you remember what Christmas is truly about.

Not about the presents or the tree.  Not about Santa or snow.  Not about shopping or giving the best present.  And it's not about having the most decorated house on the block or sending out the cutest Christmas cards.  It's about Christ's birth and everything his sacrifices gave us.  And it's about being with family to celebrate these opportunites and to become closer as Christ would want us to be.  Not fighting over the little things.

Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas Eve and Christmas.

With eternal love and blessings,
Officially Inspired 

Oh-Wait-that's MY name?!?

So yesterday my school hosted a mini meet for Power of the Pen--which I was totally excited about and totally nervous about (it was my last chance to make the Traveling Team--kinda)!  So when we went to round one of writing, we were given this prompt:

Seeing is believing.  Use this as the central theme of your narrative.

Immediately I loved it!  But then I thought--now everyone is going to write about Santa.  I should probably put the Santa idea back in my vault and write about vampires or something.  But then it also occured to me that the judge isn't going to want a Twilight repeat.  She's probably sick of vampires by now.  So back to the Santa idea I went.  My pen was ablaze as I wrote about a 16 year old girl who didn't believe in Santa anymore.  But on the night of Christmas Eve she wakes to the sound of hooves on the roof.  She runs outside and Santa is on her roof.  She doesn't believe it's Santa, she thinks he some kind of clever Christmas robber or something.  She climbs up on the roof and finds it is Santa.  But he's yound, skinny, and has jet black hair.  He tells her that the image of Santa was created so faulsly so that he could live with humans without being noticed.  His workshop is really a popular toy store.  Ever heard of Toys 'R' Us?  He's 16 too.  Been that way since 201BC.  And they fall in love.

Describe what happens when enemies are forced to work together.

This was our second promt.  Again a genaric idea came to mind about two school girls, but I quickly pushed it out of mind.  Instead I wrote about a girl having to cook Christmas dinner with her witch of a mother-in-law.  Her mother-in-law yells at her for everything she does, no matter what.  She snaps and decides to leave, but her husband convinces her to stay.  So when they all sit down for dinner and uncover the food, everything is as dark as Snow White's hair--it looks like burnt charcoal.  Everything is silent, but then she and her mother-in-law start cracking up.  Neither of them really knew why they were laughing, but it didn't matter.  All she knew was that her mother-in-law was no longer her worst enemy.

So, my Santa story won Best of Round 1.  Scoring a 1--97 quality points.  Story number two scored a 1--98 quality points.  Giving me FIRST PLACE FOR THE EIGTH GRADE!  When they called my name for Best of the Best my jaw dropped and my heart stopped.  It took me a minute to realize that they had called my name.  So I jogged up there and got my journal and my coach's dad gave a little speech about my story and I sat down.  They announced 8-1st place for 7th grade.  And then 8th grade.  They got all the way to 2nd place, and I knew I wasn't getting 1st.  But then they called my name.  It still took me a minute to realize that they had called my name.

My reading teacher from last year was there (she took a year off to be with her new baby) and she knew I had gotten first because she worked in the judging room.  She said she had to stay to watch my reaction.  My librarian was there too.

My parents and siblings were there and I recieved this trophy: (sorry not a great picture--lighting's bad.

The picture at the top is of my Best of Round journal.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

With eternal love and blessings,

Officially Inspired

P.S.  Leanna Renee Hieber, if you by chance read this--I have your newspaper copy, I just need to send it to you.

Snowflakes...

Snowflakes

Hanna

We are each unique

As we land here on Earth

A destiny all our own

Ever since birth.

Sometimes we’re small

And sometimes we’re not

Delicate and frail

Intricate and wrought.

Little cold flakes

Amount to so much

Perhaps that was God’s plan

The way he made us and such.

Like the snow that falls each winter

We are each unique in our own way

Alone we are but a beautiful flower

But together we’re a magnificent bouquet.

As we fall,

Each a gift from God

We land on Earth

Which, at first, is quite odd.

A lot of adjusting,

As you’re well aware

But it’s all quite worth it

Though life’s not fair.

Our icy beings

But warm hearts

Who we are

Sets us apart.

One of a kind

Never the same

As if we’re finger prints

Or a full name.

Each a treasure

As we fall from the Lord above

We meet new friends

And we’re always loved.

We cannot change the world

All on our own

But together we can

And, my, how we’ve shone!

Yes we may but be small snowflakes

Here on God’s big Earth

Be He has a destiny for us

Ever since birth.

This is one of the two Christmas feeling poems that I wrote this year.  I hope you enjoyed it!  The other poem will be posted soon.  It is called How Many of Us? and is a free-verse poem.  Please let me know what you think of this piece! 


Well, I must get back to writing--though I won't say what I'm going to be writing because it's actually a surprise for someone who may or may not read this post but the might is what keeps me from saying.  I should shut up now before I say too much, no?

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

With eternal love and blessings,

Read my post...

Hey!  I posted a new post on my brother's blog http://www.swosports.blogspot.com/ You should check it out.

I also made the new logo/blog header at the top of his page.  Here's a look at it:

So anyway, I really like how it turned out. :D 

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

With eternal love and blessings,

I lied...

If you'll recall back to my post about seeing New Moon on opening day I said that I couldn't wait until June 10th, 2010 which I said was Eclipse's release date.  Well, I was wrong.  So far I've heard June 10th, June 23, and June 30th.  Well--the official release date of Eclipse the movie is June 30th, 2010.  Here's how I know for sure:

<--Please note the June 30, 2010 printed here.

So there you have it.  I don't have much more to say than that.  I just thought I should let you all know incase you're relying on me to know when to get your tickets or something.  Which, why would you?  lol.  But June 30th is the release date!  I'll be back from Myrtle Beach just in time to go see it!!

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

With eternal love and blessings,

Officially Inspired

Christmas Feelings...

<-- "Snow Flowers" by me. :D

So, I'm a Christian, so I naturally celebrate Christmas. Which, I'm sure you're well aware, is coming up. Every year around Christmas time I get certain feelings that I am never sure how to express--and I'm not sure I'll ever find a way to do that truly. I'm working on a 'poem' and so far, I'm liking it. I'll post it here when I'm done with it.


Last year, however, I wrote something called The First Snow--a year ago yesterday to be exact. I'm going to paste it here, just for you to read. I have no hopes of publishing this truly, so spread it around to your friends and family if you want--but try to get the message from it. It's a short passage, so it won't be too time consuming, but I think the little time you take to read it, will be well worth it.

The First Snow

Hanna

The snow started falling in blissful patterns. Lightly then harshly. Flakes then puffs. As I walked outside I could feel the chill of the morning creep upon me. I could see the puffs of my breath. Winter was here and along with it came the first snow fall of the season. I bundled my coat tighter and rubbed my hands together forcing more circulation into them. I got into my car and turned the heat on high. As I drove off to work the sun's bashful beams came timidly from behind a cloud that looked as though it was made up from thousands upon thousands of the purest snowflakes.

By the time that I had reached my office the snow was glistening with the sun upon it. I was awestruck by this. All I could do was stare out my office window.

That was when I realized it. The snow was so peaceful compared to this chaotic world. In a world where wars rage and people fight, where people die at the hands of their peers, where we lose dears ones to diseases with no cure, where children's parents neglect them so much they must beg for food, where people, good people, lose their jobs because the company can't afford to pay them anymore. And then there's snow.

The snow comes and goes as it pleases. It doesn't need worry about the little things the we humans do everyday. It's blissfully happy as it is. There was a time, I'm sure of it, when we were, too, like the snow. Maybe centuries ago, but what changed? What happened to make us like we are now? Blood thirsty, power seeking, money greedy, people? Not that all of us are that way, of course.

So what does the snow represent to me? It represents hope that one day we will return to being like the snow and all wars will end along with all fights. Maybe one day we need not fret over the little things and rejoice over the important things.

Why do I feel this way?

Because snow brightens our world.


Maybe one day we will be snow.

© Copyright 2008 HannaTheWriter (UN: hannathewriter at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
HannaTheWriter has granted Writing.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.

Musings...

Okay, so I'm not exactly sure what I wanted to post about today--I just felt I needed to because I haven't posted in a while.  To be honest, I can't remember my last post off of the top of my head which tells me that it's been a bit too long.  Hmm...that's really going to bother me until I can remember it...Hang on, I need to see. *Opens a new Internet Window*  Whoa!  It's been since Thanksgiving!  (A week and one day ago!) That's quite a while--still not breaking my amazing record of I can't remember the total.  

Like I was saying, I'm not sure what to post about mainly because I haven't had a whole lot going on.  Writer's Block, fighting with Mr. Brunk, hanging with family, reading--same old, same old.  But I did start a new book, which I feel guilty about because I still haven't been able to push through the Bill O'Reilly book, nor have I yet to finish Seer of Shadows by Avi.  But we had a book talk at school yesterday and The Lightning Theif by Rick Riordan happened to be on the list and (I'm going to go against everything I've ever believed in...) since I saw the preview for the movie--I had to read this book!  So, I'm going to read it.  I'm on chapter 4 and so far, it is hilarious and I love it!  There's just one problem with this--it's a series, so I'll probably have to read those books after I finish this one.  Plus add the other books from the book talk to my list of multiple books to read.  *Sigh* The life of a reader.

I got my mid-term today!  I can't believe we're already half way through the second quarter!  I got straight A's.   Yay me!  We also went to our local career center today and that was really cool.  We got to see the labs of different programs and some of them are really great opportunities--but I'm not sure if they're really for me.  The Teaching program seems really great, but teaching isn't my main career goal now.  It's writing.  Although, there's not program I can take that's writing (journalism maybe...but...still...) and there's no degree that qualifies you to publish--or for that matter--that promises you publication.  So...If I did go to the career center--I would go for teaching, and that's what I'd go to college for--but I wish there was something that offered a creative writing lab at the junior and senior level instead of waiting until college.  But teaching would be a great fall back, and it's something I think I'd enjoy.  But writing shall always come first because that's what makes me who I am. 

So, since this post has been very...random, I'm just going to pick a random picture to go with it.  Ah, I do love this picture of Rob.  It's actually on a button I have and that's actually what lead to the 'fight with Mr. Brunk'.  Ha-ha.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

With eternal love and blessings,
Officially Inspired