Blogging Break

Hello Everyone,

I am going to take a little break from blogging this summer. Life has been so busy lately and will continue to be, leaving me without enough time to blog. And too, I don't have anything to blog about that will capture any of your attention at the moment. As you can see, I've been slacking these last few weeks. I thought it through and taking a break over the summer seems like a good idea so I don't have to worry about it.
I will pop in once and a while and comment on your blogs while I can. Meanwhile I will be back soon. Thank you for everyone who reads my blog and makes it ten times more worth it.

See you soon,

Pepper

Something to Laugh About

  I found this video the other day while browsing Youtube, wasting my time, ha! As I watched this, I found myself laughing and realizing that I did some of those things too! The video is not an insult of Christians or anything, but about a fellow believer seeing cliches among the Christian community and voicing them. Take a look :) 

If You Give a Girl a Book

School is almost out and that means I will be able to fully submerge myself into books once again. I got inspired from She Learns As She Goes because she answered some questions about her reading habits. Being a fellow reader, it's always interesting hearing about other readers. 

Do you snack as you read?

I do, but not very much because I worry I'll get food on the book!

What is your favorite drink while reading?

Iced tea or water are mostly what I drink.

Do you tend to mark your books as you read, or does the idea of writing in books horrify you?

Writing in books for me is fine but dog earring it, well... that is another story!

How do you keep your place while reading a book?

Paper scraps or if I'm lucky a book mark but mostly it's whatever's easiest to find. 

Are you the type of person who tends to read to the end of the chapter, or can you stop anywhere?

Personally, I like to stop at the end of the chapter but if I must, I can stop anywhere. If I stop at the end of the chapter, chances are I'll go ahead and go on ahead and say 'one more chapter' ;)

Are you the type of person to throw a book across the room or onto the floor if the author irritates you?

No, I've never done that before. I just won't read them anymore if they are that annoying! 

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you look it up right away?

Not usually. I try to figure it out by the surrounding words but if not I skip over it. I know, bad habit, I'm lazy that way! But if I'm using my Kindle and I don't know a word, I can just click on it and see the definition. 

What are you currently reading?

I have started reading a bunch of random books to see which one I want to continue to read. One I am starting on is Les Miserables, which has been very interesting so far!

What is the last book you've bought?

Last time I bought a book was when I went to the book sale in February and that was quite a lot of books to recall. 

Do you have a favorite time/place to read?

I like to read whenever I'm in the mood but I especially like to read in my room where it's quiet and I can read on my bed. 

Do you prefer series books or stand alones?

I don't prefer either. It depends if a series is really good or a novel itself is outstanding. :)

Is there a specific book you find yourself recommending over and over?

It would have to be the Princetta because of the story line, character development and overall beauty of the story. And also Captivating because it is a book every girl and woman needs to read! Two favorites. 

How do you organize your books?

I don't really organize them specifically. I just line them up on my desk and dresser and find a way to make room for more when new books come.

Reading goal this summer?

To read historical fiction books. I love reading while learning facts.   

If you do your own questions on your blog, please provide the link in the comments so I can see you answers! :)

Happy Reading!

Hands to Create

  "Though everything else may appear shallow and repulsive, even the smallest task in music is so absorbing, and carries us so far away from town, country, earth, and all worldly things, that it is truly a blessed gift of God."

                                       -Felix Mendelssohn  

This post is inspired by Lacey who got me thinking about music.

  Not just any music, but instruments.

My Great Grandmother's Piano <3 

  Earlier this week, I was having a really rough day. I had just got done with piano lessons and I felt like a failure. As I was going through my lesson with my teacher, the notes on the grand staff were not registering with my brain and my fingers were not obeying my thoughts. I was making no progress and everything on the paper in front of me seemed foreign. It made me start blaming myself afterward. Was I not practicing enough? Was I not putting enough effort into it? I have a recital in two weeks and the stress is so high I dream about my recital piece and forgetting how to play it! Agh!

  That's what had me down. I felt like a music failure. It was later that day when I was at school in the library that I heard jazz music being played. At first I thought it was the cafe playing their stereo overly loud, but when I came out I saw what it was. Five or six men playing instruments with ease and creating sweet music to my ears.

  I stood there, listening and absorbing the sound like a sponge. For some reason, it was redeeming to hear that sound after a bad day. It restored my heart and erased the stress that had been building up over the weeks. A group of regular guys coming together making something more than harmony with their talent. It showed me that someday I will be there. I have to keep going.

  That's when I fully understood how blessed I was to be able to play piano. Even if I was having a bad week playing or not, I was blessed. I have able bodied hands and ears that can create and hear fresh streamed music. It makes me so glad God created music! What would we do without it!? It stirs the souls emotions and brings the body to it's feet and we hear sounds of the creator when there is a strum of the guitar or a press of a key. The fact that there are instruments that make the sweetest, smoothest sounds in the entire universe is astonishing. 

Thank you God for music! 

The Lemon Meringue Pie

For my creative writing class, we were prompted to write a subject/verb/object sentence to warm up before we started writing our short stories. My teacher told everyone in the class to hurriedly write down a subject/verb/object sentence without much thought and then to read it out to the class. This is what I got:

Sarah baked a lemon meringue pie.  

He then told us, this would be the character and the beginning sentence to our story. I had the name Sarah (which happened to be my sister) and that she was baking a pie. This opened up many story opportunities for me. Here is the story that I wrote for it.

Dedicated to my sister, the mysterious pie maker. :)

source

The Lemon Meringue Pie

By: Pepper Hales

Sarah baked a lemon meringue pie. The soft white edges looked softer than silk and rolled beneath the hand mixer. She was the conductor to a symphony of ingredients. How Sarah loved the droning sounds of the mixer, creating something sweet under her direction. Stirring away all the complications of life. She took the meringue and scooped it on top of the tart lemon pie filling, putting it into the oven, burning her fingertips with clumsy maneuvering skills.

 Her stomach was in knots. It was always around this time when she was waiting for Jonathan to arrive home. His apartment was directly across from hers and he almost always left the hanging blinds open. From her kitchen sink she could see into his kitchen and small living room, mirroring her own. At six every evening he would come home and flip on the lights, illuminating a sadly furnished apartment that desperately lacked a woman’s touch. A plain white sofa, twenty inch TV and a glass coffee table with a potted plant in the middle that looked starved of love and water.

The timer jolted Sarah out of her day dream, picturing Jonathan’s smooth and kind face, the one that lingered beneath her eyelids as she dreamt alone at night. After carefully lifting the pie out of the oven and setting it on the stove; Sarah noticed Jonathan had come home. She peeked into his windows. Strong shoulders and dark chocolate hair smoothed to the side sat on the sofa watching TV with a blank, tired stare. This should cheer him up, Sarah thought as she eagerly waited for the pie to cool. This wasn't the first pie she made for Jonathan. It was actually pie sixty-seven. She had counted. Ever since he moved in one and a half years ago, Sarah had been secretly leaving fresh baked pies on his doorstep. She would press the door bell and leave the pie as the only trace of her presence.

 He enjoyed her gifts immensely. Sometimes the pies would be gone within a few days and others, even less. After the fifth pie, Jonathan replaced the pie pan with a note saying thank you and wondering who the mysterious pie maker was. Sarah was too shy. She’d never talk to him before. Occasionally they did meet in the mail room but Sarah put her head down, curls hiding her curiously blushing face. Jonathan was polite but never said much. Her heart ached for him to say more, stop her in her tracks and sweep her off her feet. That’s what always happens to the girls in stories so why couldn't it happen to her?

 Sarah wrapped the pie in a cake box with a satin bow, like she always did. She slipped on her jacket, buttoning the coat around her skipping heartbeat. With shaky hands she managed to put on her mittens, grab the pie and leave her warm house into the blustery winter evening. The walk to Jonathan’s house was not long. An elevator ride down and a quick dash to the apartment buildings next door, then another elevator ride up to his floor. His apartment was number 212. She had done the math from the building layout and crossed her fingers when she delivered her first pie, hoping it was the right address. It was. The first pie Sarah gave Jonathan was a Key Lime pie. It was risky, not a first choice for most people, but she wanted to make an impression. From his facial expressions across the expanse, she had been lucky.

 Although Sarah had devoted endless hours into delicately made creations, her hopes sank a little each time she left a pie on his doorstep. Doubt always clouded her mind. Am I just fooling myself? That one question lingering. She was afraid if he found out who she was, he would be disappointed. Maybe he was imagining this beautiful woman that glowed with grace and walked on shimmering clouds. Sarah was quite the opposite with clumsy feet and too frizzy of curls that did their best not to listen to her instructions to stay down.

 Sarah took the stairs instead, seriously wondering if she should deliver the pie. Each step was heavier than the last. When she reached his floor, she stood there for a minute, pie in hand. It warmed her fingers and smelled luxurious. She imagined what it would taste like- if Jonathan would like it as much as her. Lemon meringue was her favorite. She memorized the recipe by heart and had tweaked the ingredients until they obeyed at her command. This pie could melt the coldest of hearts. Each pie, how silly it sounded, was made with a little piece of her soul. Baking was her passion. Seeing people take a bite and their entire moods change to glee lifted her spirits and healed some part of her that she didn't know was broken. After much thought over the days before, Sarah made up her mind as she reached Jonathan’s door. This would be her last pie, Sarah was certain. Baking was not her way of luring a handsome man into the net. It was her way of creating harmony in a pan.

 She crouched down and laid the package at the foot of the door. It was simply innocent, wrapped in red and white. The door swished open before she could run away. Still squatting in the door way, she looked into a pair of sock covered feet. She felt her breath freeze like the icicles outside. Sarah peered up at smiling eyes.

 “Are you the one always leaving pies behind,” Jonathan asked with a twinge of astonishment.

 Sarah’s cheeks blazed and she stood up.

 His eyes were different up close. Dark with hints of hazel and mocha swirled into a chocolate mousse pie.

 “Yes I am,” She barely got the words out.

 Jonathan retrieved the pie, opened the lid and was silent for a minute.

 “Lemon meringue,” He asked, eyes still fixed on the golden brown peaks.

 “Yes,” Sarah whispered. He looked back at her while closing the lid. Jonathan didn't say anything and Sarah feared the worst had come. That he was freaked out by her, assuming she was a crazy stalker.

“Thank you. I mean, you've made me endless of pies and I've never officially thanked you,” Jonathan’s words were sincere. Not at all what she expected.

 “I’m glad you've enjoyed them. I've never had the nerve to say hello so I thought I would bake you pies instead,” Sarah said with a laugh. Then after a pause, “Your apartment is across from mine so I saw you when you moved in.”

Jonathan’s eyes crinkled into a grin, “I know how you feel. I've seen you in the mail room before, but you were too pretty to talk to. I never knew how to approach you. I’m glad I finally found out who this mysterious pie maker was and she happened to be here the whole time.”

Sarah hid her face from him. She found she could not breathe and her heart raced. Is that how he’s always felt about me?

 “Would you like to come in for a grand tour of the place?”

Sarah nodded but then spoke with a confident smile, “I’d love to.”

“And maybe a slice of pie,” Jonathan asked with as nervous as she was smile. Sarah went and searched for a pie server.