My Thankfulness Jar

The New Year is quickly approaching and there is one thing I am so excited to do. I cannot wait to open my Thankfulness jar! I started doing a Thankfulness jar two years ago, and I am absolutely certain I will continue to do one each year for the rest of my life. It has helped me to put things into perspective in ways I never could have imagined, and for that, I am grateful.
A Thankfulness jar is really simple to do, and it is a great way to remember to count your blessings. The best thing is, you don't have to start at the beginning of the year, so no pressure, and it is okay if you forget it for a few weeks. You see, a Thankfulness jar is just a container that you fill with slips of paper that have things you're thankful for or good things that have happened to you written on them. All through the year you put in papers that say things like 'I got an A on my paper', 'I had a great time on vacation', or 'I'm so thankful for my best friend'. Things that remind you of the good things you are thankful for. Then, on New Year's Eve, after you have hopefully filled your jar, you pull out all of your papers and read them, which will remind you what a wonderful year you have had, even if there have been struggles or pain.
I love doing my Thankfulness jar because it helps me to send out the old year and bring in the new on a high note. It tells me just how much I have to be thankful for, and I always determine I will have more papers with each passing year. I like to try to beat my record, so to speak. It most certainly keeps me writing papers!

Book-Lovers Day

              Today is the first official Book-Lovers Day! Book-Lovers Day, every Tuesday, is the day where I will share sneak peeks of my upcoming books, short stories I have written, book reviews for some of my recent reads, and everything else that has anything to do with books. Books are one of my passions, so it seems fitting to have a specific day when I share that passion with you.

On this first Book-Lovers Day I thought I would do something special, start it off with a bang so to speak. So, I am debuting for the first time ever the book description for my new novel Without You, which will hopefully be out sometime in the spring! I hope you enjoy!

Without You

By: Mackenzie Carol

“…I don’t know what I would do without you.” I said affectionately.

“Me either.” Chandler responded.

            I, Miranda Baker, was fairly content when I spoke those words, not for the first time, to my boyfriend Chandler Anderson that early fall day. I was a senior in college, I had been with Chandler for over four years, and he and I were starting to plan out our future together. I thought life could not get any better, and that I could handle anything. Little did I know, however, that I was about to encounter the hardest trial I could ever imagine.

            Faced with the challenge of my life, I left the familiar for the unknown, trying to accomplish that which may have been impossible. With each passing day, I confronted my fears head-on, just trying to avoid the one horror I could not stop thinking about. The fact that there was a chance I would have to move forward with the rest of my life, without him.

Mid-Week Pick-Me-Ups

              Happy Wednesday! Guess what, you are halfway through the week! Is that not something that will brighten your day? On this beautiful, sunny day, I thought I would share a few of my favorite pick-me-ups.

Books! Books are the best pick-me-ups for rainy days, bad days, or any day. I may be a little biased, but no one needs to know that. I typically like to stick to Christian fiction or classics, so I do not really have something for everyone, but the books I like are good, I can tell you that. A few books I have been crazy about lately are Dear Mr. Knightly by Katherine Reay- a book about a troubled graduate school student who is infatuated by Jane Austen, Persuasion by Jane Austen- a classic young love lost because one wasn’t as rich as the other tale, Jo’s Boys by Louisa May Alcott- a continuation of her beloved Little Women, Save the Date by Jenny B. Jones- a wonderful fake-engagement story that will certainly keep you laughing, and She Walks in Beauty by Siri Mitchell- a historical novel about a girl pressured to marry up, and The Headmistress of Rosemere by Sarah E. Ladd, a book about the headmistress of a girls school. I practically devoured these books, as I do most any book I read, so they come highly recommended.

I have found in my daily walk of trying to be closer to my Savior, that the verse that helps me the most is 2 Timothy 4:17- “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me.” It never fails to remind me that God is always right there to pick me up when I fall and to strengthen me when I fail.

And last but not least, two songs that I constantly have on repeat are Scandal of Grace by Hillsong United and Something in the Water by Carrie Underwood. Scandal of Grace has been one of my favorite songs since I first heard it sometime around the beginning of the year, and I have had it as the song for my alarm since it is the best way to wake up in the morning. Singing the words about how Jesus willingly died for us even though he did nothing wrong, and how much we want to be like him always picks me up as I go about starting my day. I had heard how amazing Something in the Water was before I actually heard the song, but I was not fully expecting how great it really was. I tear up nearly every time I hear the song, because it is true. I am changed, thanks to God meeting me where I am, and thanks to the ‘something in the water’.

               My last pick me up, which is not a regular pick me up but rather one fitting for the day, is the fact that there are only 49 days until Christmas! I cannot wait! So here is a picture of snow!

Mackenzie Carol

Fall!!!

                I am coming back from my hiatus to say, it’s fall, it’s fall, it’s fall!! My favorite season is finally here and that is a reason to celebrate! So in honor of that, and the fact that my birthday is in only seventeen days, and the fact that I hope to have my first book finished and ready to publish by the end of the year, I am posting a short story! Since I wrote it for my homework for the writing class I am taking, and I got an A on it, I thought you would like to read it. Enjoy!

                                                       Her Wayward Uncle                                                          

                                                         By. Mackenzie Carol

                From her chair in the middle of the library, Amelia clutched the book in her hands, her eyes searching the room. She had been engrossed in the story before her when a sound had jerked her back to the present. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary, the nineteen year old turned back to her book, but she continued to listen for noises. Since she was alone in the large house, the strange and unknown noises scared her more than they usually would. She shook her head. Clearly the book she was reading, a thrilling mystery, was making her imagine things that were not there. She knew there was an old, ornate object cleverly hidden in the room, and that was not helping matters either, but she tried to focus on her story. When she had just reached the scariest part, Amelia heard and detected a person in the room. Hugging her book to her chest, she slipped out of her chair, her jaw dropping at what she beheld.

                Her uncle was swinging on the chandelier! With a gasp, Amelia dropped her book, frightened and wondering what her uncle was doing there. As if reading her mind, her uncle called down, “I was looking for a book on one of the top shelves when I saw a mouse.” Calmly he continued to tell her his absurd story, claiming his ladder, which he was using to grab a book from the top of the shelf, got toppled in his fright, so he jumped to the chandelier to keep from falling. Amelia knew better. A smart girl, she was sure he was looking for the valuable and mysterious object that was somewhere in the room. Her great-great grandmother had cleverly hidden it in the house, and had admonished her children never to search it out, not for the next hundred years. Since it was a story the whole family knew, there was no doubt someone would not follow her wishes. Apparently her uncle, still hanging from the chandelier, had decided he was not going to wait the five years left before the youngest member of the family was given the go ahead to find it.

                Lowering herself back into her chair, Amelia retrieved her book, still on the floor, and placed it back on her lap, never taking her eyes from her uncle. He must have realized she knew why he was really there as he looked like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Quietly he asked Amelia if she would help and put the ladder back against the wall. For a moment, she considered leaving him there, but her good sense won out, and she replaced the fallen ladder. He quickly scrambled down. When Amelia shot him an angry and reproving look, he cowardly sped from the room, slamming the door behind him. Amelia smiled from her chair, wondering if that would finally teach her wayward uncle to follow the rules.

Mysterious Ways

                God works in mysterious ways, doesn’t He? The funny thing is, no matter how mysterious or strange His ways may seem, they always work out better than we could have ever imagined. Every time I turn around, I find that something has changed for the better, or I have changed for the better, all because of something working out exactly the way God wanted it to. Ironically, I find myself praising Him and telling Him how amazing and smart I think he is, even though during the hard time, while He was molding me and shaping me, I was complaining about how much I hated my situation.

                But wait, that’s not even the best part. The best thing is that He keeps on working! He keeps on molding me, all through my complaining and whining, while I roll my eyes and tell Him what a horrible father I think He’s being. He. Still. Keeps. Working. On. Me. My protests don’t halt His hands for even a millisecond. He knows that in the end I’ll realize just how perfectly His plan has been unfolding, and that the hardest parts were when He did His best work.

                He really is the perfect Father, even though sometimes it sure doesn’t seem that way. And I know, no matter how much I hate the situations He puts me in, I know I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Resolutions

                So, I know this is a little late, but I want to talk about resolutions. Not necessarily New Year’s resolutions, but just resolutions in general. Like, resolutions to make this year the best possible. I read something a few months ago that said, ‘this will be my year,’ and I really love the message that sends. The way I look at it, it’s saying that I will make this year the best yet. That’s a great motivation, don’t you think?

                I also love the New Year’s idea I did last year, and am doing this year, which is to write down every good thing that happens to you, even if it’s silly, or everything that changes you for the good on a piece of paper and put it into a jar. By the end of the year, the jar should be getting full, so on New Year’s Eve, you pull it out and read them all, to bring in the New Year on a good note, remembering all the wonderful things that happened.

                So this year, rather than making resolutions to lose so much weight or to do so many things or get certain things, I challenge you to write ‘this will be my year’ on a piece of paper and hang it somewhere you will see it often. Then, find a nice sized jar and a small notepad, and get to writing all the good things that happen. Let me know how it goes. I already have three! It’s an amazing encouragement, and it also helps you to see how you’ve grown. At the beginning you may write something that means a lot to you, but by the end of the year, you could find you couldn’t care less about that event. You never know!

My book: Lives Changed

So, despite the fact that I haven't gotten anywhere near ten comments on my Struggles post, I am going to post a synopsis on the book I'm working on anyway. I'm getting super excited; I'm on my final stages of editing before I publish it as an E-book. I haven't decided on a cover image yet, but I am pretty happy with how the story's turning out.
I don't really know what else to say on the subject, except that I hope you really enjoy the synopsis below, and the book to come!

Six friends. Six lives. Six months. How many trials can one group take? Is God still there in the midst of it all?
Jessica, Austin, Lindsey, Landon, Tia, and Luke are all just figuring out how to love and what being a Christian in this world really means when their lives are turned upside-down. Will they turn to God and each other to get through the pain? Or will things be lost as they find their lives changed?

(Let me know what you think!!)