The Bronze Bow

Now, this should be known to all of my followers and consumers of this post: I love to read. Yes, it's true. Reading is one of my favorite pastimes. Truly. I love to read. :)

As you now know, I love reading- and this is what I have been reading lately:

SPOILER WARNING!!!

"He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze."

The Bronze Bow By Elizabeth George Spear. This is one of my favorite books. Daniel is a young Jew who ran away to the mountains to escape the tyranny of the Romans, and his bad experiences as an apprentice to a blacksmith. There he joins a band of men who are making ready to fight to fight the Romans. Daniel works for this cause too, until his grandmother dies and he is forced to take care of his sister, who is possessed by a demon. Daniel begins his new life and prepares a group of boys to fight the Romans. He begins to hear about Jesus, and watches Him teach, wondering if He will deliver them from the Romans until he is convinced otherwise. After realizing that Rosh, the leader of his band from the mountains isn't the messiah he was looking for, Daniel relapses for a while, but continues to nurture his hate for the Romans. After Daniel's small band rescue a friend from the Roman's galleys, they don't try to reunite; the death of one of their members has convinced them against it. Daniel's sister Leah has made friends with a Roman and after Daniel's outburst at finding out, she relapses into complete silence and fear. The book ends with Jesus curing Leah and Daniel accepting Christ. It also has a romantic element to it, but I won't spoil it too much. It is an exiting book sprinkled with Spear's lovely description of emotion and landscape. I enjoyed this book immensely!

I'll try and keep an update of all the books I read. Happy reading!

The Joy of the Lord is my strength!

~Pandy

Snowflakes

It is finally snowing! Little white flurries, slowly falling to the ground without a sound. They all seem to have a purpose; a place to go. They aren't in a hurry to get there, however, they dance about creating a lovely silent melody.

Each snowflake is different. There have never been the same two snowflakes. Ever. Just like there is no person quite like another. I love to stare at pictures of snowflakes under a micro-scope. They are so beautifully unique.

WOW. God is so creative! He created millions, billions, trillions of dazzling snowflakes. And he created people too. If He can make a snowflake so gorgeous, imagine what He can do with us!

Thank you Lord, for the joy of snow!

~Pandy

"Did you know that doing the splits can make you flexible?"

He he! I couldn't help using this quote from my dance teacher. She was shaking her head at my class while she watched us try to execute that particular stretch.
So, this is how I practice the splits, as taught to me by one of my teachers. It has helped me keep my hips square, and made me much more flexible in the log run. Note: As all splits are, this exercise is done completely in parallel. EDIT:  I have recently discovered that not all splits stretches are executed parallel.  I would suggest doing this stretch turned out, since you would want to be turned out when doing a grand jete, or any other split-type jump.

Step One: Prepare.

Begin by positioning yourself on the floor in a deep lunge with your back knee on the floor, and your front knee directly over your front foot. Pull your back foot back as far as you can, but remember to keep both hips facing straight ahead. Your weight is balanced over your front foot. Stretch for 8 to 16 counts.

Step Two: Shift Weight
From your lunge, lean back so that your front leg is straightly pointing ahead, and your weight is balanced over your back leg. Feel your front leg stretching forward. Stretch for 8 to 16 counts.

Step Three: Do the Splits!
From the position in step two, stretch your front leg forward into the splits position. Keep your hips facing front the whole time! Stretch for 16 t0 32 counts.

Remember- always be properly warmed up before you do the splits. It is allot easier and you are much less susceptible to injury.

This stretch is great for practice in hip alignment. It has taken me time to get the splits and I'm still working at it, but it looks clean and nice when you get it.

The joy of the Lord is my strength!

~Pandy

Heaven and Dance- My Thoughts

Many times, while I dance, I feel discouraged. Then again, often I feel encouraged and invigorated by the strenuous exercise that unfolds to create an enchanting and graceful story in dance. The "enchanting and graceful story" that sparkles on the stage and inspires so many, doesn't just happen in performance and ballet class; it can be compared to our lifelong struggle to Heaven. When "you didn't brush through the floor on your tendu", or "your hips aren't square in your grand jete", you don't just give up! You keep going, correcting, and making mistakes, and trying again. This is an example of a Christian's struggle to heaven. If the saints gave up each time they sinned, what would happen? Many of the most amazing and inspiring Doctors of the Church led an at-first sinful life, but were converted and completely reversed their life, starting anew in Christ.

I don't want to give up! Not in dance, and not in my spiritual life.

Lord Jesus, please give me the strength to pick myself up again after each of my mistakes; I want you to be the center of my life. At school, at home, in all I do, even at the barre.

~Pandy

The Temperament Tangle

In the summer of 2011, a bunch of my friends and I put on the second anual basement play! It was called The Temperament Tangle. The plot consisted of six main super heroes, three good, and three evil. On the good side was, Miss Melancholy, an organized genius, with her good-natured sidekicks, Super sanguine Alyssa and Clarissa. On the bad side, Countess Choleric ruled with a firm had over the world and her side-kicks, Phlegmatic Phyllis and Phillipa.

The super hero's fight against the super villains ended in the conquering of Countess Choleric and her sidekicks, and all worked together for the better of the world!

I love putting on plays. This play took us about a month to put on (a very hectic month, I assure you!), and we all had a fabulous time! There were three songs, two of them to tunes from "Hello Dolly", and one a complete original.

One of my favorite preparations for The Temperament Tangle was making costumes. At JoAnns, I purchased a variety of colorful T-shirts, and cut and sewed away! Pretty soon, I had made two dresses out of two extra-large shirts, and ruffles and lace began to adorn all of the others!

The crown jewel of the costumes, however, was The Cape.

The Cape was modeled after a large apron that had been used for a cape in times before. With the help of my mom, we copied the apron pattern, and.......tada! An amazingly wonderful shiny red cape!!!

The great thing about "basement plays" is that we can be truly ourselves and shine for the Lord! We can sing and dance and praise God and easily avoid all of the bad stuff that it is all too easy to find in many other theaters. Of course, we aren't professionals, but this is still a way of glorifying Him.

The joy of the Lord is my strength!

~Pandy

Me!

Hi! I'm Pandy.

I love to be creative, and I am taking a classical ballet class. I also really like to read. Baking is also one of my favorites, and I am also home schooled. I am exited to have a blog, and I look forward to making more more posts!