Wanted: Your Opinions!

According to my planned autumn schedule, I'm supposed to be sharing a "Moved by a Movie" post with you tomorrow. As it is, I watched a couple of movies recently that I could have posted about, but I've been kind of busy and I wasn't overly motivated. (Although the two I was contemplating were great ones, which I've posted reviews for already!)

So, you get this random post instead. I hope you don't mind!

Included in this post is a question, a schedule, and a discussion.

A Question

Which would you prefer for my Friday posts - "Moved by a Movie" posts or "Fall Friday" posts? Or maybe book discussions? (See third topic below.)

I'm thinking about maybe doing fall/autumn themed posts on Fridays (like I somewhat did last year) and doing some "Moved by a Movie" posts every once in a while (I guess when I'm actually "moved"...). Sorry for the indecisiveness! If you have a preference or any other suggestions, please share your thoughts!

A Schedule

Since it's been several months since I've shared my fall semester 2011 schedule with you, I thought I'd share it officially today so you can see what I'll be studying. Maybe I'll be inspired during my mid-week days to write posts about them sometime!

• Civil War Era (History) (M, W,F)

• History of Modern Africa (M, W, F)

• Pilates/Cardio (M, W)

• Shakespeare (M, W, F)

• Women of Faith (T, TH)

• Personality Theory (T, TH)

A Discussion

As for the discussion, I guess this is more a question of whether you would like to do a discussion or not. ;) If you could vote on the poll below, that would be great! Thank you!

New Season = New Design and New Schedule!

Today I'm heading back to school for the fall semester of my senior year at college. (Classes start on Wednesday!) In the meantime, there's lots of "new" going on around here!

New Design

As many of you have already noticed, I've changed the blog design to fit the upcoming season. I was browsing the Scrappin' Blogs website, and I came across this template in their Autumn/Fall Layouts. It's called "Festival of Fall Template 1." I fell in love after I tried it out, so I didn't have to browse long! And how fitting to celebrate a new seasons with a "Festival of Fall!"

Some of you may recognize the main picture from our hiking trip during Camp Humility 2011. This was a picture my mom took at Prairie Creek State Park in California. I believe it was either part of or near to the short Revelation Trail.

What I love about the template combined with the picture is the contrast. In the Seasons of Humility (click HERE to read the poem that inspired my blog title), fall is a time of letting go. It's the beginning of a new cycle of humility, as it's a time when we realize that we have to humbly let go of having to have our own way and timing, and trust that God's plans are best and right. The template shows the autumn leaves, beautiful and yet still sad in their dying state. But the main picture shows the redwoods - constant, firm, and lasting - just like God's love and Presence.

New Schedule

Along with the new blog design, I have a new schedule for the fall, one that will hopefully keep me posting regularly, but also not too stressful to maintain (since I'll be back at college). Here's the plan:

• Mondays for the Military - I'd like to keep this feature going for now. My hope is that it encourages those who are in the military or are part of a military family, and that it inspires all of us to live a sacrificial and loving life. I have some book reviews, author interviews, and giveaways scheduled for the rest of September. Hopefully there will be more to come!

• Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and/or Thursdays - These days will mostly include book reviews and college news, but be prepared for anything in-between, as well!
  

• Moved by a Movie (Fridays) - I love contemplating movies and finding something meaningful and inspiring to take away from my time watching them. Sometimes these posts will be like a movie review (discussing the whole movie) and sometimes I'll just take one aspect of the movie and expound on that. Mostly, though, these posts will be more devotional than review. I hope these posts will encourage you and help you to critically think about the movies you love and what they have to share. (My semi-recent posts, It Will Be All Right (Emma) and The Polar Express: A Journey of Faith are a couple of examples of what this feature will be like to some degree.)
  

Don't worry! I also have a couple of events up my sleeve...

• October: "Heartsong Presents" Tribute - A week of reviews, interviews, discussions, and giveaways pertaining to the "Heartsong Presents" books. This line will be discontinued soon, so this is our chance to celebrate the great books in this series and thank the authors!

• December: "Love Finds You" Blog Party - This is another celebration of a special line of books from Summerside Press. More themed author interviews, giveaways, and fun awaits - just in time for Christmas merriment!

• Plus, we still have our monthly Contentment Reading Challenge posts for the rest of 2011!

Final Thoughts

Of course, these plans are subject to change off and on, but I hope you like the overall schedule! I like to think of the weekly schedule as the season of M&Ms - "Mondays for the Military" and "Moved by a Movie" posts, that is! ;) I think I'm going to include my "Moved by a Movie" posts on my Movie Reviews page, but I'll denote them by adding an "MM" after the link.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions!

Mystery Week Begins Tomorrow!

If you love mysteries (books and movies), you'll love the line-up this week! Lots of book and movie discussions galore for all you mystery fans out there. And if you're not a mystery fan (yet), then perhaps this week might get you started down a new and enjoyable path. ;)

As a reminder, here's the game plan for "Mystery Week" (July 18th-22nd):

• Monday: Special Book/Author Feature (Who's the author? Well, it's a mystery that you'll have to solve by checking in on Monday!)
  

• Tuesday: Miss Marple, "The Pale Horse" (Movie review and discussion)
  

• Wednesday: Death on the Nile (Book review and discussion)
  

• Thursday: Sherlock Double Feature--Review/discussion of the 2010 episode "A Study in Pink" and the book A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
  

• Friday: Murder on the Orient Express (Book review and discussion)

• Saturday: I might throw in a review of "Hallowe'en Party" or "Vendetta" if I find time!

Don't forget you can watch "The Pale Horse" (and "Hallowe'en Party," as well as "Vendetta" starting tomorrow) online on the PBS Masterpiece website for free!

Lost in Thought

I'm hoping the picture of me above gives the impression of being lost in thought. Maybe it will also give the impression that I could use some extra thinkers today--because I need your help!

A recent poll showed that out of the 4 people who voted, 2 were "mostly" enjoying the new weekly schedule, and 2 were "very much" enjoying the new weekly schedule. What I would like to know is:

• What parts of the new weekly schedule do you most like? (See sidebar for an overview of the schedule.)
• What parts do you not like as much?
• Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

The funny thing is, I get so caught up in putting things together and planning for the future that I forget that some of the best posts and ideas come spontaneously. Those serendipitous moments can be wonderful, and I want to be sure and leave room for those. In fact, I had a moment like that last night, and I would be delighted if you would take the time to read my last post, "Touched by an Epitaph."

But do you still like the idea of having some sort of schedule in between themed weeks? I would appreciate any and all feedback on my blog! Thank you for sticking by me!

Winner of Abbie Ann!

Congratulations to Carole!!!

Here's the randomized list from Random.org if anyone cares to see where they placed. =)



"There were 9 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Carole
2. Merry
3. Ariel
4. Karen
5. Barbara
6. Katie
7. Maureen
8. Sheri
9. Carmen

Timestamp: 2010-08-07 06:57:26 UTC"

Be on the lookout for my e-mail, Carole!

Thank you all for entering the drawing and for participating in "Reading Retreats" Week. It was a blast, and I hope you all enjoyed it!

This upcoming week will be my first trial run of the "New Normal Weekly Schedule" (as posted in the sidebar). I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the new schedule! The two weeks following that will be more themed fun, so I hope to see ya'll there!

I'll also be putting up a new poll soon, so if you could vote on that I would appreciate it! Thank you, and have a wonderful weekend!

Home of the Great Bonanza

Hello from Virginia City, Nevada! I'm on another family vacation in one of my favorite places to visit. We're staying at a Bed & Breakfast, and I have a lovely view of the town and the surrounding hillsides. I love the atmosphere here, the people, the sights to see . . . everything! It's so good to be here again!

You may recognize the name of this place from the TV show Bonanza (or you might also recognize the name if you love the history of the Old West like me!). This ghost town and tourist trap is chock full of history, and I'm more than happy to immerse myself in it once again!

I'm not exactly sure what this week's posts will consist of, since I don't technically have a theme for this week and I don't want to kick-off the new weekly-themed posts just yet, but if all goes according to my plan (and hopes) then here's some of what will be coming your way soon:

• Post with my entry for the WOW! Women on Writing Flash Fiction contest (The winners were supposed to be contacted the second or third week of July, and since I haven't been contacted I don't think I made it. But I still would like to share my entry with you!)

• Surprise Interview (I can't say much more than that or else it wouldn't be a surprise. But it will be fun--trust me!)

• Updates on the goings-on here in Nevada (We're also planning on seeing a show in Reno, so I'll have to let you know about that, too!)

After this week, we should be able to get back into a groove once again. We don't want to be like on The Emperor's New Groove:

--"You threw off my groove!"
--"I'm sorry, but you've thrown off the Emperor's groove."
--"Sssoooorrrryy!" (The one who threw off the groove shouts as he is thrown out the window.)

Yes, we do not want anyone being thrown out the window. So we'll have to find that groove! To help us with that, I've made my decision on which weekly-themed posts to implement. I probably could wait a little longer, but think of the groove that must be restored! ;) Just kidding! It's probably more due to the fact that I'm over-eager and a tad impatient. So, here is the schedule for those weeks that are not special-themed weeks:

• Sundays by the Sea
• Mondays for the Military
• True Love Tuesdays
• Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and/or Saturday: These days will be reserved for book and movie reviews, college news, etc.

This sort of schedule will be implemented more frequently during the school year, but don't worry! I'm still hoping to have plenty of special-themed weeks, too, particularly around various holidays. And there might also be some fun, random weeks that will surprise you, too! Grooves are good, but ruts are not.

If you would like to see a description of the three choices in bold above, click HERE or check out the sidebar. And if you would like to visit the Virginia City, Nevada website to find out more about this great place, click HERE. (The photo above can be found at this link. I should warn you, though, that old-timey piano music plays as soon as you go to the website!)