Category:

Quick post....

4/25/2011

Hey, everyone! I've only got a few minutes to post, because we're leaving soon, so let's see if I can do this...

First of all, you might be wondering where we're going. Well, everyone is going to load up in the car except for Noah, and we will go drop Nathan and Nicholas off at BCCS (our old school) to finish their SATs (Nathan had to leave early last week for an ortho appointment, and Nicholas just didn't finish in time for us to leave). Next Dad and I will drop my mom off at work and then run by the RV to pick up my tennis shoes. Oh, we're housesitting our friend's house for them as of yesterday because they're going on vacation this week. We're taking care of their dog, two cats, and fish while we're here - oh, and their pet snail. :)

Anyway, now we're getting to the most exciting part: After picking up my tennis shoes that I forgot at the RV, my dad is going to drop me off my friend's house...because I'm going camping with her!! Her family usually goes to this family church camp every year, and we went the last two years, but this time we can't go, for a couple of reasons, including the fact that we're housesitting for these peoples (they have an awesome house, BTW), so she invited me to go with her family this year since it was her turn of her siblings to invite a friend to camp (wow, that was a total run on sentence!!). Anyway, the camp is only three days this year, today thru Wednesday, but I know I'll have fun - and then I'll still get to spend time with my family this week, since it IS Spring Break (I'm glad for the break from schoolwork!).

Oh, yes, and we painted Easter eggs yesterday...lots...so lots of egg salad sandwiches!! :)

So, yeah...well, there was another thing I wanted to mention, but I gotta go now. God bless y'all, and HAPPY (belated) EASTER!!!! He is RISEN!!!!!

0 Comments

Ecological Succession and SATs

4/15/2011

0 Comments

I’m wiped. This morning my brothers, my dad and I spent, like, two hours digging and dumping ecological succession. At least, that’s what my mom said it’s called. I call it annoying weeds that grow in water. It’s like the land grows out onto the water - very weird. Y’know how the Perrella’s have a lake behind their house, and they have a dock going out, and then a little wooden raft tied to the end of the dock? (Well, you probably didn’t know that, but now you do.) Because of ecological succession, grass and weeds have grown all the way out to the end of the dock and about twenty feet past the wooden raft, so no one can use the raft. It’s nice sitting out on the dock, but it’d be even nicer to be able to go out on the raft.

So this morning, while we’re eating breakfast, my dad says, “I’ve got good news and good news about today. The first good news is that you don’t have any schoolwork today! I haven’t seen your scores on the SATs you took yesterday, but I know you had a great attitude about them, so this is your reward. The second good news is: We get to play on the lake today!” While the boys cheered, I groaned. They didn’t know what he meant by playing on the lake. I did.

For about two hours, I yanked weeds, yanked weeds, and - guess what? - yanked weeds. In muddy water. Digusting. Actually, I’m glad we got it done. Well, half way done, at least. We’ll finish it up another time... sometime. :)

Oh, and about the SATs, I mentioned, no, they aren’t college SATs. They’re like FCATs for homeschoolers. Sort of. Anyway, my mom mentioned them on her blog post. We went to BCCS, our old school, to do them. It was great to see familiar faces, and there were other kids who also were homeschoolers who signed up just for the SATs, like us. I knew a few of them from F.I.S.H. (Families Instructing Students at Home) - we were part of F.I.S.H. for a while. Like my mom said, the first part of the SATs was yesterday, and next Thursday will be the second part. We did the easy sections yesterday - Reading Comprehension, Reading Something (I forgot), Language, and Spelling. At least, those are the easier ones for me. Next time we’ll be doing the harder ones - two Math sections, Science, Social Studies, and Bible. I’m pretty sure those are the other sections, at least.

BTW, today my friend came over and we hung out until her older sister picked her up. I had a lot of fun with her. Right now Nathan’s friend is here, and we’re gonna eat dinner. I guess I better go - I’m hungry! God bless!!

0 Comments

Some Awesome God-sightings, as my friend calls them...and also God-things...or God-winks...etc. =D

3/28/2011

3 Comments

I had a great weekend - I hope everyone else did, too!

First of all, Saturday was an all in all good day. But I had a lot of fun on Sunday! We had an amazing little church. In my opinion, it was the best we'd had in several weeks. I think the reason that I liked it so much was all of the worship time - we sang lots of songs yesterday and I really enjoyed it, even if the songs were just spur-of-the-moment, let's-see-if-we-can-remember-all-of-the-words-or-at-least-the-chorus. =D

Oh, and I had a really, really good quiet time a few days ago, too. =) In the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 8, Paul says: "We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know." I've heard the 'knowledge vs. love' part tons of times, but this time it really hit me. I've been praying a lot for the last few years about my control-freak-ness over my brothers - if that makes any sense. Basically, I tell them what they need to do - what they should be doing - ALL the time, and most of the time, it's not my place, even if I politely ask them. Constantly. I was telling my mom the other day, I know that I could just say, "OK, I'm gonna stop telling my brothers what to do." And I actually tried that. It didn't work. I needed a change in my heart, but I needed God to show me how my heart needed to be changed - I just didn't know! I didn't know exactly why I couldn't stop myself from telling the boys what to do when they so did not want me to. So I kept praying for His help, that He would show me what to do, what the next step was - though I could've been also seeking Him more throughout the day and searching His Word more diligently and prayerfully. But, anyway, He showed me in this verse what my first step is. To focus on love. I'm so focused on knowledge - I always think, "He obviously doesn't know what he's supposed to be doing, but I know what he's supposed to be doing, so I have to tell him what he's supposed to be doing." I know, it sounds so simple. But I didn't get it. But God did, and I praise Him that He showed me and is leading me through it! I pray that I will continue to learn to focus on love, which builds others up. God bless!!

3 Comments

Finally!

3/23/2011

0 Comments

I know, I know, I haven't blogged in quite a while. Sorry 'bout that! I guess I better get started...

This afternoon my mom and I went over to my friend's house, and I playing games with my friend (I'm leaving out names 'cause I don't know if they would be OK with me posting their names on here) while my mom talked her my friend's mom. Oh, and my friend's two older brothers made this awesome video about their dad. Some of the stuff I could relate to, because their dad counsels people, too, and so they said that their dad would get home from work and they would be like, "Hey, how'd work go?" and he would say, "I can't tell you. It's confidential." :) It was funny. I think once they finish editing it, I could post it on here. :) Anyway, I had fun with my friend. She is homeschooled, like me, and has three brothers, like me, and.....she likes to play Hangman and Chinese Checkers, like me (that's what we did today). Oh, and we played chess, too, but in the middle of the second game, I accidentally bumped the table and the pieces on the chess board got messed up. Oops. Oh, well - she was going to win, anyway. :)

Tonight, I'm going with one of my other friends to her youth group (surprise! I have more than one friend! We homeschoolers actually do have social skills! :) Just kidding. BTW, this friend is also homeschooled.) I've been going for a few weeks now...next week, we're going to Laser Tag. Tonight, we're studying the second part of Noah's life. Last week we did the first part.

Nothing much is going on with us. I'm really wanting to go back on the road. Like, right now. Well, after youth group tonight. :) But I am growing to accept where God has me right now. It's just hard sometimes, not knowing where we're going, why we're here, or what in the world God is doing with us! But last Sunday I had this peace, all day, and it's been with me since. I may not know the reason I'm here. But I can, while still keeping in mind that God has a big, perfect Plan for my life, start working on growing closer to Jesus and being more devoted to Him. If I follow God, He'll lead the way. It's as simple as that. :)

God bless!!!

0 Comments

Cut Finger and Fallen Tree (haha)

2/27/2011

0 Comments

This past week was very pleasant, and fairly uneventful - well, except for two highlights. One was bad, one was good. The good news is that the Reiblings got rid of a dead tree in their backyard! Nathan mentioned that in his recent post. The bad highlight kind of, um, happened to me. I was cutting up something for lunch on Thursday, and the knife I was using slipped and cut my finger. It bled for a while, but thankfully if I kept it pretty still it didn't hurt. I was a little freaked out because it was kinda deep, but my dad wrapped it up nicely. Even though my dad reassured my mom that I didn't need stitches, she was afraid that I did. Today she finally took me to after-hours, after (haha) we had a late breakfast and wonderful little church. My mom knew that they most likely would not give me stitches since it was already the fourth day after the, ah, 'incident', but she wanted to hear what the doctor would say. We had to wait for a while, and when the nurse brought us (finally!) into the procedure room, she basically told us that if I had needed stitches, I really should have come in earlier, and that the doc probably wouldn't give me stitches. Later my mom said she was thinking, "Yeah, yeah - tell us something we don't already know." Anyway, long story short, the doctor was very helpful (he actually said that he usually tried to talk people out of getting stitches on their hands, for a few different reasons, unless it was really bad, of course), and we walked out of there without stitches and with a splint, which is very, very helpful. If I hold my finger in a wrong position, or strain it a certain way, it'll hurt and I can tell that it's not good for the healing of my cut. But now that the splint is on, I can do things (like typing this blog :-D) without being afraid of straining my finger and opening my cut again. So, yeah, that's nice.

Anyway, sorry for boring you with all the unnececesary info about my cut. :-) One more thing: please be praying for health for our family and the Reibling family. Within the last two weeks, almost always one of the two families has been sick. The germs have been flying. Right now my mom and Mrs. Reibling are both a bit sick, especially Mrs. Reibling. So, prayer would be great! God bless, y'all!!

0 Comments

Awesome Day at the Beach!!!!

2/21/2011

2 Comments

The day at the beach yesterday was amazingly incredible! We got there at almost noon, I think, and the six of us had little church while Mr. Leu (aka Scott, in my mom's blog) did some laundry and had his time with God. After eating the lunch we had packed, my family then walked the agonizing length of across the street to get to the beach (haha). I sat with Mom and Dad on the beach chairs, taking pictures of Nicholas scooping up water and tossing it out in an arch, Nathan creating his sand castle, and Noah...um...I'm not exactly sure what Noah was doing. :-)

Soon Mrs. Leu and her two daughters and young son arrived and, along with Mr. Leu, joined us at the beach. The boys made a sand castle while we three girls (we three kings of Orient are bearing gifts...sorry :-) random burst into song) tossed a football and then walked along the beach. There was a huge sand castle that someone made! I took a picture of Jordan and Brianna (sorry if I spelled your names wrong!) next to it. Then we girls made a sand castle of our own, a kind of miniature version of the big one. :-) Then we connected the boys' sand castle/tunnel/recliner (as shown by Nathan) to the girls' sand castle, and Jordan and Sammy, the Leu's little boy, made a tiny wall all around our empire. It was awesome. :-) Here are some of the pictures that Mom and I took:

I hope everyone had as great of a weekend as we did!! Today we just did schoolwork and laundry. Same old, same old. And I got to write a 5-paragraph essay - oh, joy! :-) But I found a topic online that I liked - the topic that was assigned from the textbook seemed kinda dull, so Mom said I could pick another one. :-)

God bless, y'all! :-)

2 Comments

He is Always Here

2/12/2011

2 Comments

The service at the Crossing Church today was incredible!! Pastor Greg and his wife, Tamara, have started (as of last week) a series called ‘textual relationships’. Every once in a while he and his wife will do a series where they preach together each week, which I think is pretty cool. But it’s not just for couples – it’s some amazing tools for having a healthy relationship or friendship with anyone, along with a lot of awesome verses from the Bible to back up the message. This evening they used James 4:1-12, in The Message version, as their main passage from the Bible. I loved this week’s sermon…as I did last week…and the week before…our church – no, God is on a roll! :-)

But I think what made it so amazing for me today was the great start I had with the worship songs!!! Omar was the main singer for the first song, and, man, was it amazing!! Omar is just so on fire for God, especially through music. While everyone else sings beautifully, too, we hardly get to hear Omar anymore (he used to sing a lot for the kids where I helped out last year, but now I believe he’s focused on the older youth). His joy is just so radiant, and it makes me so joyful! All in all, church this evening was a powerful, inspiring message and a full-of-joy-and-thankfulness-and-true-praise worship service!! (If that made any sense :-) haha).

BTW, yesterday I got the exam and everything for my eyes – everyone there was SO nice!! – and I’ll get my glasses in about week. I’m excited. :-)

I’ve just started to read the book ‘The Hiding Place’, and last night I watched the movie. Wow. Corrie ten Boom and her sister Betsie and her father and her brother...wow. So amazing. It was so inspiring and heart-breaking and encouraging and eye-opening all at the same time. Completely incredible. As part of the special features after the movie, we watched a few short videos of Corre ten Boom – she was still alive when the made the movie, I believe, and these videos were included. She was a truly amazing, Christ-filled woman. As we were watching this 80-something-year-old woman talk with a young, alive, joyful spark in her eyes, I thought sorrowfully, “I missed her. She was a true follower of Jesus, delighting in the Lord, walking with our God, and I can’t meet her face to face. I missed her.” But then I thought, “No. I might have missed her, but I did not miss the Light that she trusts in, the One who makes her so alive and full of a love for others like no other. Him I will never, ever miss. He is always here.”

2 Comments

Great Quiet Time with God this Morning!

2/11/2011

0 Comments

“After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.” Acts 18:23

This was a verse in our reading (according to the Life Journal) this morning. I had to read the chapter, like, three and one half times before I actually ‘got’ some stuff. :-) Haha. Anyway, when I (finally) was able to apply this verse to my life, this is what I thought:

Antioch was the Gentile center of Christianity, right? It was also kind of a resting place for Paul in the midst of his successful yet slightly strenuous (he was beat up a few times) travels. He stayed there for ‘some time’, and - I imagine - he was fellowshipping with his friends a lot, swapping stories of what’s been happening with them, helping each other out and encouraging one another, etc. God gave him some time to rest and be in a familiar territory with his friends.

Hmmm...sounds a little like us, huh? Right now, we’re in our hometown, being encouraged and encouraging others, fellowshipping with friends at our church and around town, helping each other out, etc. Even though we want to go, God’s giving us some rest - and, at the same time, testing our faith and trust in Him. Eventually, at God’s Will, we’ll ‘set out’ from here, and follow God’s lead to ‘travel from place to place’, ‘strengthening all the disciples’.

This afternoon, in about an hour, Mom and I are going to go get my exam and order the frames (and lenses, obviously) that we like. I’m excited, but a little nervous - I hope I made the right choice for my glasses. They’re really nice frames, but I’m still a little concerned that I won’t like them in a few months. I guess I shouldn’t be worried about that. I just hope that my eyes don’t change much more than they are now - in other words, I hope that we don’t have to order new lenses in a year! :-) Anyway, just pray that everything goes smoothly! Thanks. God bless!!!

0 Comments

Thankful

2/8/2011

1 Comment

I feel so thankful right now!!! Here's some things I'm thankful for (not in order, just randomly listed as I think of them):

~The online group of teen girls, 'led' by Nancy Rue, that I'm part of. These young women and already adult woman are so amazing... so beautiful, encouraging, open, transparent - we are all so close in Christ. It's incredible.

~My pillow!!! I have the best pillow ever. It's a real feather pillow, and it's SO comfy - do you remember the previews for the 'Despicable Me' movie? As the little girl says: "IT'S SO FLUFFY!!!" :D Haha.

~Nathan, Noah, Nicholas, my mom, and my dad. I thank God every day for my wonderful, Christ-filled family!!! Although we might not always act united, we are, day in and day out, spiritually and emotionally, encouraging each other, talking about God's Word together, having fun and laughing with each other, helping each other out with schoolwork, 'emotionally responding' to one another (all you couples who were in the marriage class that my parents taught - or any marriage class - will understand that one :D haha), and just love, love, loving one another. :-)

~My friend's youth group at her church! I've been going to my friend's youth group the last two or three weeks with her. On Saturday they had a lock-in (y'know, a big overnight stay - well, it's not big compared the the Crossing church youth group's lock-ins - her youth group is only a total of about 20 kids, and I really enjoy small youth groups), but I just stayed until 10:30 PM (my mom picked me up) - but I still had SO much fun!!! You don't even want to know what we crazy teenagers did...

~Christian songs!!! I just had a sudded urge to look up (on YouTube) the song 'Blink' by Revive. It's really good. Here's a link to an awesome music video of another song, '(Jesus) Bring the Rain' by Mercy Me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG6Qd0sJ9_A

~GOD!!!!!!!!!!! JESUS!!!!!!!!!!! THE HOLY SPIRIT!!!!!!!!!! Glory be to our awesome God!!!!! Oh, He is SO good. And praise be to God for our His One and Only, our Lord and Savior, Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Jesus Christ!!!!! And thank You, God, for Your wonderful Holy Spirit, the Stream of Living Water, our Helper, Counselor, Advocate, Advisor, and Friend. Amen!!!

1 Comment

Another Post!

2/3/2011

0 Comments

Yesterday was a very nice day, as is today, so far. Nathan, Nicholas and I went for a short bike ride around the block (our neighborhood - everyone here calls it 'the block') yesterday afternoon. We saw an elderly man - a friend - walking his dog, and we stopped and talked with him for a few minutes. We also saw another one of our neighbors in their car, about to go to the vet. Their cat, Amelia, had almost attacked a baby screech owl! Thankfully they were able to get the owl before any harm came to it. :-) It was really cute - they had it in a box or something with a towel over the box as a lid, and the owl was in the corner sleeping. It had had a very rude interruption to its nap time. :-)

This morning we've been doing - what else? - schoolwork. :-) I've already finished my math and classifying and writing some sentences for grammar. Now I'm about to write an expository essay. What a joy. :-) I like narrative writing much better, along with poems. And this afternoon I'm going to a gymnastics thing with my friend. It's at this place that I used to go to gymnastics at, when I was younger. Today they're having some kind of 'Bring Your Friend to Gymnastics!' thing or something. :-) Oh, and our Grandma and Grandpa (Drees) are coming over tomorrow!! They live up in Michigan. I can't wait to see them.

Y'know, earlier this morning I was really irritated - with trying to schoolwork and concentrate over all the noise (I wonder who was making noise...) and some other stuff. Finally I asked Mom if I could go outside and read the grammar lesson. I grabbed a camping chair and looked around the backyard for a place to sit. I decided to see if the chair would fit in this little fort-thingy that Nathan, Nicholas, one of our friends and I built with sticks, vines, and palm fronds. It's pretty cool, but a little unstable. Anyway, I squeezed the chair into the opening, set it down, turned around to sit in the chair - and bumped a stick that was apparently holding another stick. I carefully put the two sticks back where I assumed they belonged, and accidentally caused a whole wall to come toppling down. Oops.

Frustrated, I snatched the chair, textbook and pencil and moved the chair away from the fort. I brushed off the debris from the seat, and sat down. As I looked back at the damage I had caused by slightly pushing one single stick, I thought, "I don't even know why we thought that dumb fort would work. You can't build something that will crumble at the slightest touch, and then actually expect it to stay firm." Then I had a whisper-thought, "Nicole, you can't expect to stay joyful and peaceful and loving when things go wrong if you haven't built your temple with the right supplies."

Oh. Yeah. I knew that.

It made me think of the verses in Corinthians: “But each one should be careful how he builds. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. 14 If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. 15 If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” (Corinthians 13:10b - 15)

If I build up my building - the temple that I am in Christ - with worthless, fragile items like sticks and vines, I will crumple at the slightest poke, the smallest test. Those flimsy items can be anything, like false trust and happiness in things like electronics, outward beauty, fake friends, a ‘comfortable’ environment (your comfort zone at your school, church, work - not looking at people and situations with God’s eyes and reaching out with His love), etc. They can be small things that can widely differ for your life, but no matter how big or small they might be, they will be burned up in God’s holy fire.

I don’t want to have a trashy, teetering temple. I want a shining, sturdy temple, one that gives generously, is peaceful and patient in trying times, and ‘loves the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

God bless!

0 Comments

<<Previous

Hey, peoples! :) I'm glad you found my blog - now I'm going to tell you to go to another blog! ;) This is my old blog (hence the post to the left over there), so you can go to my new blog (with Blogger) with this link: *Forgiven Mess*

A Lot about Me,
Nicole Gregory:

I am your untypical 13-year-old girl (well, I like to think of myself that way). :) I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and I try my best to obey my awesome God. I like writing and enjoy reading even more. My favorite Christian author is Nancy Rue. My two favorite colors are teal and fuchsia. I love animals, especially dolphins, dogs, cats, and horses. My favorite Christian radio stations are JoyFM and K-Love, and some of my favorite Christian singers and bands are Francesca Battistelli, Britt Nicole, Chris Tomlin, Matthew West, J.J.Heller, Mandisa, MercyMe, Casting Crowns, Sidewalk Prophets...the list goes on and on and on. I am home-schooled and I love it! I lovespending time with the wonderful friends God has blessed me with! I love my family who I always thank God for. :) By the way, I am a TRIPLET, with three brothers, Nathan, Noah, and the youngest by a year and a half, Nicholas. God has blessed me abundantly, and I can't wait to see what He has in store! God bless!!

Awesome pic I took of Nicholas at the beach!

Here are some places that I posted from while we were on our road trip

RSS Feed

A Lot about Me,Nicole Gregory:

Awesome pic I took of Nicholas at the beach!

Archives

Here are some places that I posted from while we were on our road trip

A Lot about Me,
Nicole Gregory: