{Papers and Coffee!}

Editing essays this morning! Almost done with this semester!

It's cold out this morning, and I have a giant mug of coffee to keep me warm as I go through and proofread one of my papers. I am not overly fond of this step in the essay process, honestly... at least when it's my own work. But it has to be done, so I shall do it with joy!

Have a lovely Thursday morning, all! ♥

P.S. Editing is done!

To-Read List -- Updated Once More!

THE LIST://

The Red Queen -- Philippa Gregory
The Boleyn Inheritance -- Philippa Gregory

The Queen's Fool -- Philippa Gregory

The Virgin's Lover -- Philippa Gregory

World Without End -- Ken Folleett

The Norton Anthology of: (complete sets)
English Literature
World Literature
American Literature

The Mists of Avalon -- Marion Zimmer Bradley

Her Fearful Symmetry -- Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveller's Wife -- Audrey Niffenegger

Pirate Latitudes -- Micheal Crichton

Selected poems of Seamus Heaney

A-Z Aromatherapy -- Patricia Davis

On Writing -- Stephen King

The Book of Virtues -- William J. Bennett

Game of Thrones -- George R.R. Martin

The True History of Tea -- Victor H. Mair and Erling Hoh

The Bedford Anthology of World Literature

The Doctor's Wife -- Elizabeth Brundage

The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Wives and Daughters -- Elizabeth Gaskell

The Faerie Queene -- Edmund Sepnser

Robert Browning's Poems

Sherlock Holmes -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Shogun -- James Clavell

Les Miserables -- Victor Hugo

Dragon Rider -- Cornelia Funke
Jesus, CEO -- Laurie Beth Jones
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World -- Joanna Weaver

THE POST://

Philippa Gregory creates another masterfully written account of the life of queens in King Henry the VIII's court. This tale brings in dear Anne of Cleves firstly, who is ever so kind and sweet down to her core, Katherine Howard, a naive girl who thinks mostly of pretty possessions, and Jane Boleyn, a woman with a dark past haunted by the ghosts of her late husband George and his sister, former queen Anne Boleyn. This story, much like the book before it, is filled to the brim with family plotting and innocent desires for happiness and freedom, and it is all wrapped in a thick layer of court life affected by a very irritable king who, in his old age, suspects everyone of treason. Gregory has crafted a novel that is not only worthy of being classic historical fiction, but a thriller in its own right, and I highly recommend it to those who favor these two genres and day-in-the-life stories undermined by plotting and deceit.

As I read through these books, I am constantly amazed by Gregory's ability to portray an unlikeable character in a light that makes you pity them. Such is the case with Jane Boleyn, whom the reader does pity very greatly as she comes to grips in the novel that she is, indeed, human and has feelings. Dear Katherine Howard, while a young girl when we first meet her in the story, is vain and a little on the ditsy side. By the end of the book, though, we learn that she, while still very, very vain, is only ditsy because of her youth. Anne of Cleves, the poor dear, is perhaps the sweetest character I have read in a Gregory novel, and goes from being an awkward foreigner in England to a graceful lady who was loved by the country she looked over for such a short time. She was my favorite character in this novel, and I admire her kind nature and concern for the people she was brought in to rule beside the tumultuous King Henry VIII. 

All in all, a joyful novel full of emotion and the human nature!

On a side note, I am quite happy to have finished this novel, and not because I was tired of reading it. This is the fastest I have finished a book in about three years. I am overjoyed about that, truly! I used to be able to finish 300+ page books in four to five days. This one was 500+ pages and it took about a week, but that is better than several months! 

Onto the next book in the series, the Queen's Fool!

Rain-Rivers & Water-Blossoms

The rains have officially come. The entire week has been overcast and chilly, though today is quite humid. The sky is gray and threatens thunderstorms near constantly, and it is not uncommon to see a steady barrage of rain falling throughout an entire day and into the night. The yard squishes with every step, and pools of rainwater linger everywhere.

The rain has withheld for the time being, allowing me the opportunity to yank on some boots and run outside. The most darling patch of mushrooms sprouted some ways down the yard and I have been itching to photograph them since I saw them there this morning. They are darling in person -- quite the characters as they stand there silently and simply exist! 

Once their portraits were captured, I was lured about the yard by the few flowers that have not been washed away this week. I do not know their names, but there are sturdy bunches of them gathered in places where water does not run through during the river-rains.

I finished my work yesterday and have nothing left for the weekend except projects hanging above my head like the cotton webbing of clouds above today. I can say with all honesty that I do not wish to spend time on them right now, as my mind has been running strictly in work-mode all week. My Wednesday break was removed when a cough kept me from choir, so I dedicated the day to writing a paper. As a result, I am sitting about today feeling drained and almost useless. It is rest, though, I tell myself, and my feeling of needing to do something productive is no doubt my body's way of unwinding. No matter how hard I try to unwind, however, the knowledge of what work lies ahead winds me back up and I spring about like the hares that rummaged through the yard this morning in search of tender leaves to munch on... though my springing is with significantly less spontaneous freedom. Not much longer, though! Soon I shall be able to rest knowing I don't have to work quite so hard all the time. The mental drain is quite strong this semester, that is for certain, and I know I have vented on it quite a lot here, but I do not say it lightly. It has been rough. I am thankful and happy, but oh. It has been rough.

Thankfully, walks through nature help, even if that nature is only my own dear front yard, battered by rain and almost unrecognizable beneath layers of mud and foliage.

Happy Saturday, all! ♥

Productive + Positive!

Spring break is officially over. I went into this break rather down and out, as school has been overwhelming, but coming out I feel empowered. I wrote a rough draft of a nine page paper and outlined an nine-page research paper in the last few days of the week, and much of what was eating at me before has gone away completely. So I have come into this final three-week stretch feeling empowered!

Not a bad way to start the week... even if it is going to rain all week. There is a huge storm moving toward my lovely realm as I type this.

May flowers. Just keep those in mind. May flowers.

Wishing you all an empowered, productive Monday! ♥

To-Read List, Updated

THE LIST://

The Red Queen -- Philippa Gregory
The Boleyn Inheritance -- Philippa Gregory

The Queen's Fool -- Philippa Gregory

The Virgin's Lover -- Philippa Gregory

World Without End -- Ken Folleett

The Norton Anthology of: (complete sets)
English Literature
World Literature
American Literature

The Mists of Avalon -- Marion Zimmer Bradley

Her Fearful Symmetry -- Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveller's Wife -- Audrey Niffenegger

Pirate Latitudes -- Micheal Crichton

Selected poems of Seamus Heaney

A-Z Aromatherapy -- Patricia Davis

On Writing -- Stephen King

The Book of Virtues -- William J. Bennett

Game of Thrones -- George R.R. Martin

The True History of Tea -- Victor H. Mair and Erling Hoh

The Bedford Anthology of World Literature

The Doctor's Wife -- Elizabeth Brundage

The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

Wives and Daughters -- Elizabeth Gaskell

The Faerie Queene -- Edmund Sepnser

Robert Browning's Poems

Sherlock Holmes -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Shogun -- James Clavell

Les Miserables -- Victor Hugo

Dragon Rider -- Cornelia Funke
Jesus, CEO -- Laurie Beth Jones
Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World -- Joanna Weaver

THE POST://

I finished The Red Queen last night, and what an end it was. Of course, knowing history, I knew the outcome of the novel would have to be in favor of the Tudors, but the fangirl inside me was screaming at the top of her lungs in support of the Yorks and all the lovely little romances there. Ah, alas, such cannot be, but it was entertaining nonetheless.

The character of Margaret Beaufort was quite interesting and written ever so well. From her naive beginnings of wishing to be dedicated to a nunnery when she was just a girl, to her power-hungry ending as mother of the king of England, one cannot help but pity her. All throughout her girlhood, she was told that girls were useless creatures in a man's world, and as a result she dreamed of being as saintly as Joan of Arc. However, her life, dictated by her harsh mother, changed this faithful little girl into a harshly staunch woman who felt her only reason for existing in the world was to restore power to the then-ousted Lancaster family through her first and only son, Henry Tudor. Even when her choices were quite unreligous and unkind, I could not help but admire her faithfulness to her cause. I pitied her and the bitter woman she had become by the end of the book.

Overall, a wonderful read, especially right after reading the York side of this story through the eyes of Elizabeth Woodville (whom I also admired ever so greatly during my few months reading the book she was prominent in). Overall, a wonderful series to spend several months enveloped in, and I not only came out of this with a great amount of enjoyment and historical satisfaction, but also more knowledge of the War of Roses itself! This, my friends, is why I adore historical fiction.

Now, my literary rant is over. I have posted several days in a row here, I know, and with quite a bit of information, but I have felt inspired to do so! It must be the weather, which thankfully combats the gloomy mass of homework that I must quickly chew through in these remaining months of classes.

How a wonderful Thursday, friends! Go forth and read! ♥

(P.S. I have added my two newest books to the list. Hurrah!)

A New Season and Name

No, I have not gotten married. The name change is not that of my last name, nor of my first for that matter. For some time I have considered a simple change-of-name for my dear lovely blog here, and tonight I finally felt inspired to go through with it! (Of course, it may just as easily change back should I not like it tomorrow, but I really have been giving this a lot of thought!)

Why? Well, this blog is almost three years old. A lot has changed in three years, especially on the personal level. I feel much different than I did three years ago, and perhaps I wished to show this maturation through the renaming of my favorite little online journal. I have grown quite a bit, I feel, and I am unusually drawn to change. Good change. A moving forward sort of change. It is refreshing, and I rather like the feel of it.

A little history behind the name. As you can see, I have the words' definitions underneath them above on the banner. Of course, these are the present and past participle forms respectively, but they are the same. The idea behind it is this: life is a steady road. It is what we each make of it. Some roads are bumpy, some are smooth, and others are winding and wild, reckless as the land they cut through. Dabbling is the spontaneous act of, as parents put it when their children go about such things, getting one's fingers into everything. And fearlessly doing so. Incorporating something is the act of bringing random bits of everything together and making one big thing. I have always prided myself on getting into everything, and through high school I thought that was just a state of being. I was just naturally into everything. Now I feel it has become a serious part of the paving of my life road. I. Am. Into. Everything. All the time. Even if I am not physically doing something new or making something or travelling somewhere, my mind sure is! (I pray that made sense.)

So, for the time being, I am going to test out this new blog name. The content shall not drastically change, nor will the person whose fingers are relentlessly slapping at the keyboard to write this.... But she herself has changed. And she feels it in the air! More shall come, and she knows this for certain! 

(She does wish to know what you think, however, as your opinions as readers matter greatly. Please comment with your thoughts below!)

Join me on this ever-changing ride, dear readers! Wherever you are, whether I know you or not, let's all grow together!

Hope you all had a blessed, lovely Tuesday! ♥

P.S. These are blossoms from the sprout of the peach tree. I  don't recall if I told you all, but when a large pine fell last November, it crushed our huge peach tree. Thankfully, this little spindly wonder had already sprouted at the other's trunk, and it has flourished now that it is alone in the space. It has been a joy to watch it grow, and it's blossoms were so tender and fresh! Its first blossoms! A milestone for Baby Peach!

Of Bunnies, Blossoms, and Books!

Spring has come at last! I am thrilled beyond words, and now eagerly await steady warm temperatures to come and settle over the land. This week is supposed to be stormy, and even now the sunlight has taken on that odd yellow hue that is characteristic of stormy weather when the light filters through a thick sky-blanket of clouds. I spent a little time outside today and greeted the rabbits as the cool wind ruffled the wind around me. It was truly lovely and refreshing. Were I not sick at the moment, I should have liked to have spent a few more minutes outdoors, but the pollen floating about does not exactly make a stuffy nose any better.

Easter was a lovely day, and I am blessed to have such a wonderful family and church to spend the day with. A wonderful meal followed by wonderful fellowship and a great little Bible-study talk at the dinner table over cups of coffee and dessert. I thank God for letting me be able to relax in such a manner! 

Now I am on spring break, which I am also greatly thankful for. I have exactly one month left of this semester, and all that stands between that and me at this moment are two unwritten papers due in three weeks and a business plan. Inhale. Exhale. I can do this. I can do this. However, even while I'll be writing said papers over this break (toss in some math homework, too), I do plan to spend time fishing and crafting as much as my analytical mind will allow. At the moment I am taking a break from cleaning my room to write this, but I will be back in the grind tidying what has been destroyed by an overfilled school schedule. Oh how I cannot wait for summer and some freedom! I adore school, but this girl needs a break that lasts more than a week, I can tell you that.

I have also managed to come to add two new books to my reading list, both treasures I found at Goodwill. They follow my major and my faith, which makes them unique against my large shelf of fiction. However, I thoroughly look forward to sticking my nose into the pages! They are: "Jesus, CEO" by Laurie Beth Jones, and "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World" by Joanna Weaver. As I said, both seem to be very good reads and I will start them as soon as I finish "The Red Queen" by Philippa Gregory (which I have almost finished, by the way!).

Oh, not much else is occurring, truth be told. It is pleasantly slow today. I have begun to wonder if it is worth the effort to start random journals and record my thoughts, but I am afraid I won't be able to dedicate to such things because I have never been much of a diary keeper. But there are many things I could ramble on about here. Perhaps I should simply start rambling here! It could be quite entertaining, honestly.

On a random side note... I am feeling ever so Celtic/Medieval today. It must be the spring combined with the near constant reading of historical fiction. I need a Tudor gown. Now.

...To Pinterest!

Wishing you all a lovely week wherever you are! Try not to work too hard and allow yourselves a time to rest and enjoy the changing of the seasons!

Happy Monday! ♥

As the Saying Goes...

...April showers bring May flowers. ♥

The view from my bedroom while I write papers: cherry trees, green leaves, and an ambient song of a steady downpour and thunder.