Happy and Hopeful

I was thinking about writing a negative post about all of the things wrong with the world right now... not just my little world but the world in general... you know what I mean. However, I figured since there was enough negativity going around without me contributing I'd post something happy and hopeful. :) So since I normally like to think about the negative things in life, I'm going to counter that by posting five positive things going on in my life right now (besides the "still alive", "have a great family", ect. ones). Comment on what is positive in your life right now!

1. I have a really great prayer group that meets weekly that has not only helped me with prayer but also just support and friendship. After our hour or so of prayer we will talk afterwards, catch up on how we're all doing, talk about books, movies, ect. and I absolutely love it! It's a really great time to just wind down as I spend some time with God and then some time with my fellow Christians. 
2. I didn't fail my return demonstrations (have to do it in front of a teacher) for NG tube insertion and catheter insertion. For me that's a big deal as I always think I'm going to fail everything. 
3. I can now drink my coffee black. For me that's positive as I never used to and I would dump a heart attack's worth of sugar and creamer in it. No more! That's what being an nursing student does to you... I want every spare centimeter of my cup to be full of pure black coffee.
4. I have an electric blanket to snuggle up in at night. Since I'm always cold this is very important to me as it is absolutely frigid in my house every night.
5. And finally but certainly not lastly I JUST STARTED WATCHING DOCTOR WHO AND IT'S ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO WATCH IT!!!!!!! :)

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Certified Tolkien Geek

Yep! Certifiable! This past week I finished The History of the Lord of the Rings, which is all of the drafts and notes of JRR Tolkien for The Lord of the Rings compiled by his son Christopher Tolkien. When I returned them to the person I borrowed them from he told me that he thought that I could get the certificate of Tolkien geekdom now. So I'm taking it. While there's so much more I want to read and re-read from Tolkien I would say I've tipped into the certifiable geekdom realm. So I made myself a certificate and I am going to print it out and carry it around with me all the time so all shall know.

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

A Little Bit of Everything (Especially Memes)

I know you were concerned that I wouldn't have a blog posts this week and that therefore your week would be woefully incomplete! I didn't want your week to be woefully incomplete so I am giving you a blog post. :) As mentioned in the title, this blog post will just have a little bit about everything (especially memes). So brace yourself!

School

Not going as well as I want it to but it's going. We started clinicals recently and I'm surprisingly really enjoying them. I am giving you some nursing memes today that are pretty good. :)

Tea

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've kind of been in the tea drinking mood recently. I bought some tea actually... haven't bought any in awhile. I now have two different chai teas (one black and one green), an herbal ginger tea, and a blueberry acai green tea. They're all really delicious! I also have some tea memes for you! 

Blogging

You may have noticed I added a whole bunch more tags to my blog posts. This is for two reasons, one to make it easier for y'all to find a post on a specific topic, and two, I'm given to understand it increases blog readership if you have a bunch of tags as the tags are used as keywords in searches... or something like that. I even have a blogging meme for you today! 

And just a couple more random memes to brighten up your day! :)

P.S. Notice my new blog layout? How do you like it? My brother is taking a HTML CSS class and he put the border around the date header. By the time he's done with his class I'll really have some fancy stuff on here. :)

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Not Romance

I know this has been bothering you for a long time. It probably haunts you at night and most certainly infests your daydreams. At first it wasn't too bad. You only occasionally woke up in a cold sweat screaming "Austen... romance?" Then it got worse. Every time you blinked your eyes the image of Pride and Prejudice came closer... and closer.
That is why I write this blog post, that is why you are here. To alleviate all of your deeply set worries once and for all. Jane Austen's novels are NOT, and NEVER will be romance novels.
Granted, there is romance in the novels and they are kind of a running theme in each of her books but they aren't the only theme. At this point I'd also like to say that I don't mind a little romance.  However, when it comes to Jane Austen I believe that there is a lot more than a romantic theme running through her books or else they wouldn't be what they are.  What I first think of are the witty lines and overall great writing.  Everything about how Austen writes is amazing (almost inconceivable)! With her words she paints such incredible characters that you will come to love, hate, or there are sometimes those characters that you really aren't sure about your feelings toward them (Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Jennings, Miss Bates and Lady Bertram come to mind).  I guess that sentence kind of transcended into my next thought about the great characters in Austen's novels. Some of my favorite literary characters come from Austen's novels: Elizabeth Bennett, Mr. Knightley, Henry Tilney, Anne Elliot, Fanny Price, Colonel Brandon, Mr. Darcy and then moving on to secondary characters that I also love: Mr. Bennett (despite his failings), Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, Eleanor Tilney, Anne Taylor and even though I don't like him he will forever crack me up- Mr. Collins. When it comes to Austen there is also the morals that she brings into every story. Her heroes and heroines are not perfect and spotless; they struggled with the same things you and I do. They have flaws they must work on: prejudiceness, micro-managing, naiveness, ect. Her "good" minor characters all interesting in that while there some of them that just aren't your favorite you still somewhat like them because of their uniqueness.  Here again I am thinking of Mrs. Bennett, Mrs. Jennings, Miss Bates and Lady Bertram.  It seems that Austen crafted each of her character with such precision. I think she must have had a lot of fun creating some of them (Mr. Collins).
I was talking to my mother about this and she made a great point that if Jane Austen's novels were just romance novels, they wouldn't have lasted this long and been remade into movies over and over and over again. There is a lot more to them than romance.

Did you catch my three movie/TV show references/quotes I made? Comment below and let me know!

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Monthly Resolutions- October 2013

October brings pumpkins, apples, and harvest! For a lot of people Halloween is the main attraction of the month but in my family we always celebrate October 31st as Reformation Day and we'll have a campfire, roast hot dogs and s'mores, and read the story of Martin Luther.  A new month also brings new goals... so here are my October resolutions!

Read through Philemon, Hebrews, James, and 1&2 Peter 

I'm really enjoying reading through the New Testament. I actually started doing it on my phone's ESV bible app instead of reading from my bible. That only started because I accidentally left my bible at my parent's house so all I had was my phone and then I really liked that because I could put notes on verses and favorite verses and it would save it all. I really don't like marking up my real bible. 

Read or Re-Read at least three books

That seemed to be a good number for me last month. I feel like I have a pretty good rhythm of reading right now. I normally read my Tolkien while I eat lunch... just a chapter maybe more depending on how much time I have. Then in the evening or if I have free time (haha) I'll read my other book, which is more leisurely reading. Normally I don't have two books going at the same time but I'm making it work right now. Also, for fun and to keep me motivated, my younger brother and I are doing a challenge for the month of October to see who can read the most pages. I would do books but that's not always fair. We'll see how it works out. He has a lot more time to read than I do but I read a lot faster than I do so maybe it will all even out. :)

Write a blog post per week

I felt like this goal was really good for me last month as it kept me on a schedule. So I'm continuing it this month and hoping for good results.

Pray Daily

My list of things to do when I am bored of studying.
Hoping they'll make me think twice about pausing my studying
as well as keep me focused on still doing
something beneficial if I'm not studying. 

I really want to get to the point with my praying where I don't have to make a goal of it... I just do it. As I mentioned in my September report card I am also attending a weekly prayer group where we pray for about an hour which I have really enjoyed. 

STUDY!!!

Self explanatory. I have no elaborate goals for how many hours I should study every day or week this time. Let's just say... a lot. I didn't do so well on my last test so I really need to delve in a lot deeper in the future. 

Stay more organized

Last month I become more organized this month I need to keep that up and stay more organized. I need to put it on the calendar, set a reminder if necessary, put it on my to do list, put it on my grocery list. Whatever it takes.

Keep up with my Spanish

Since I am not taking any Spanish classes this semester... and maybe never again, I want to try and keep up with my Spanish myself to the best of my ability. My newest endeavor to do this is getting Spanish devotionals through Bible Gateway. I am forcing myself to translate those and I think it is actually helping. :) On a side note, I just recently signed up to get daily devotionals from Bible Gateway and I really like them! I would highly encourage you to get the Charles Spurgeon one and the C.S. Lewis one. Those are my favorites. :)

So those are my goals for this month... what are yours?

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Monthly Report Card- September 2013

It has been a busy September with nursing school. I used to think I had no life... now I KNOW I have no life.

Read through 1&2 Thessalonians, 1&2 Timothy, and Titus

I actually was able to get through them a week before I needed to. Obviously my counting skills need some work as I thought the number of chapters was going to end up perfectly with the number of days in the month.

Read or Re-Read at least three books

I read The History of the Lord of the Rings: The Treason of Isengard,  The Book Thief, and The HIstory of the Lord of the Rings: The War of the Ring. I'm also currently reading Wives and Daughters. 

Write a blog post per week

I did it... twice a couple weeks! It came to a total of seven blog posts not including my resolutions posts! :) I actually have felt really good about my blogging this month. I know I mostly gave y'all recipes but I don't think that is anything to complain about.

Pray Daily

I did better about that then last month but I still didn't quite make it daily. I started attending a prayer group at my church weekly which I have really enjoyed. We pray for about an hour. This has really put me in a great mindset about prayer. 

STUDY!!!

Working on my calendar/planner while drinking some tea.
I'm in the tea mood right now. :)

I did alright. I know I didn't get fours in every day for sure. However, I think I got enough studying in... though I know I could have gotten in more and would have benefitted from it. 

Become more organized

Well my whole daily word document diary fell through after about a week but I have become a lot more organized now. I've been sure to put things on my calendar and set reminders on my phone/computer as well. All in all I think it was a success. I even went ahead and put my schedule for Worshipers in Training (my church's storytime) into my calendar and set reminders so I wouldn't get taken unaware. Now that my schedule is all organized I guess it's time to work on my room.... :(

So there's my month. Not too bad but definitely room for improvement! I'll be back later today with my October resolutions. :)

DON'T FORGET TO LIKE THE BLOG ON FACEBOOK!!!! :) 

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

The Versatile Blogger Award

So two posts in a day? What's up with that? Well I just found out I've been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award!!! This is my first blogger award I've been nominated for so I'm kind of just a little bit SUPER excited. :) I was nominated by Morgan from Morgan's Blog, which is a fun blog with all sorts of interesting fashion tidbits and other fun stuff. Thank you Morgan!
So I'm supposed to include seven fun facts about myself but as y'all know all facts about myself are fun. ;) So anyways, here are my seven facts. I tried not to include any that you could find anyways on my blog.
1) I'm always cold.... I guess except for when it is like 100˚ but only then!
2) Drinking tea is actually a mood thing for me. I have to be in the mood to drink tea... lately I've been in the mood.
3) I'm a phases kind of a person... like as I mentioned with drinking tea. Sometimes I am in a phase of eating pancakes, other times I'm really into eating salad. However, I am ALWAYS in a greek yogurt phase.
4) I'm always tired. If you know me well, you already knew that.
5) I don't talk to Siri all the time on my iPhone. I really pretty much never do. I can think of a couple distinct times that I remember talking to Siri since I got it in April.
6) I quote movies, YouTube videos, books, my family, and anything else that could possibly be quoted. Originality doesn't exist with me.
7) I saw a meme the other day that said "Having inside jokes with yourself." I looked at that and I knew that was me. Yep... no life. :)

I think those facts about me were INCREDIBLY fun!
So now for my nominations for the Versatile Blogger Award.
Suzanne from Just Another Girl
Kaylin from Average Christian Geek
Hayley from Victorious Heroine
Katie from Katie Lyn
I assume we can't nominate someone who has already been nominated but if I could I would totally nominate Morgan again!
There were supposed to be fifteen nominations but I can't think of anyone else! Sorry if I forgot you!

If you were nominated the rules for the award can be found here. Have a great day!

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

The Lord of the Rings Movies: What I would have done differently

So y'all know I LOVE the Lord of the Rings books but I've never really shared my feelings about the movies... apart from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I was quite young when the first movie came out... seven to be exact. However, I had to read them before I got to see the movies... my Dad's rule.  So I was just seven years old when I read the Lord of the Rings because there was NO WAY I wasn't going to miss out on seeing those! I absolutely loved them as a kid. It has now been several years since the movies were released. I've matured a lot in how I view the movies and though I still really enjoy them, I now see the errors that were made, some of which were just in my opinion UNFORGIVABLE!!!! Let's review them shall we?

Aragorn and Arwen Scenes

You know what I'm talking about. The million and one romantic scenes of them together that never ever EVER existed in the book. The whole Aragorn and Arwen relationship was really blown out of proportion in the movie. Besides my disliking this change because it wasn't in the book, I also just disliked them because (you know me) they were icky romancy gag me stupidity! I can't believe that far more important scenes from the BOOK were left out and THOSE were put in. 

Sam, Frodo, and the stairs of Cirith Ungol

I think you know what scene I'm talking about here too... the scene that once again, was NOT IN THE BOOK but somehow made it into the movie. I really dislike this scene because it completely goes against the character of all of the characters involved... except Gollum I suppose. Frodo would not have believed Gollum over Sam and he most definitely would not have told Sam to go back! Sam would assuredly have NEVER left Frodo. And, as mentioned afore, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN IN THE BOOK!!!!!!!!! 

Faramir

Like they REALLY messed him up. You know, in the book he's supposed to be DIFFERENT than Boromir but in the movie they have him make the SAME mistake Boromir did, though granted in the end he makes the right decision. I really liked Faramir in the book, he's one of my favorite characters. There are certain qualities about him that caused him to make the right choice when Sam reveals that Frodo has the ring. It completely went against his character to have him do what he did. And, once again, IT WASN'T IN THE BOOK!!!

Those are my three main aggravations with them movies that really irk me to no end (as you may have noticed). You'll probably get the idea from what I wrote that I am a stringent "movie has to be like the book" kind of a person but I'm really not. Normally I'll be fairly lenient when it comes to movies staying true to the book. However, when movies add in scenes that aren't in the book (so they have NO reason to add them in) that are just stupid and don't help the movie at all, then I get very unhappy. 

There are a few other complaints I have about the movies that I have learned to partially forgive Peter Jackson for so I will spare you form those rants. Those listed above are most definitely my top ones though. What are your thoughts on the changes the Lord of the Rings movies made from the books? Do you have other parts of the movies that you find unforgivable? Share your thoughts in the comments section! 

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

Recipe- Pumpkin Baked French Toast

I know you're beginning to notice a new trend...a trend where I am pretty much only posting recipes anymore. It's because they're GOOD! And perhaps I'm too busy or too lazy to write you out a real blog post...
Today I bring you what I practically lived off of last week. I had it for breakfast every day and if I could I ate it at lunch or dinner also. I really REALLY loved it and it is probably best that it is gone now. Today I bring you pumpkin baked French toast!

Pumpkin Baked French Toast

Ingredients
3 1/2 C cubed bread of choice
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (or a little extra cinnamon)
3 T sugar or sweetener of choice
1 1/4 C milk
1 Cup yogurt (the original recipe called for tofu or yogurt but I'll die before I use tofu and obviously I live by greek yogurt so...)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
Directions
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except bread and stir well. Grease an 8X8 baking pan and pour  the cubed bread into the pan. Cover evenly with wet mixture and then cover the entire dish with a lid or saran rap and refrigerator overnight. The next morning, preheat oven to 400 F and bake 30-35 min. Top with maple syrup or eat plain (it is actually very delicious plain). I enjoyed it both hot and cold.
NOTE: You may need to adjust milk and bread proportions depending on the type of bread you use.
Recipe from Chocolate Covered Katie.

I know you all are worried about seeing my cup of coffee in the picture but we've had this conversation before. I like coffee AND tea. Actually I've really gotten into a tea drinking mood recently so you may see some more tea inspired blog posts around here soon.
Have a great day and don't forget to like my blog on Facebook! :)

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.

On this Blustery Friday

On this blustery Friday I bring you a quick blog post before I dive into studying.
First off, look to the right... the right side of my blog page. Observe there where it says "Like me on Facebook!" Now, like me on Facebook.
That was simple.
Secondly, get your hoodies out and get some apple cider, hot chocolate and of course TEA cause cold times are ahead!
That's all... have a great Friday! :)

Lois Johnson, avid writer, tea drinker, and reader but first and foremost, avid Christian.