Because of these classes, and also because of having family members on the mission field, I learned early in life the importance of supporting missionaries through prayer and giving.

Fast forward to now: Over the years I have often found myself in the role of Missions teacher at our church’s Vacation Bible School. This year I decided to include some information about the Lottie Moon Christmas offering for the International Mission Board and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for the North American Mission Board.

I ended up showing a short video about each of the ladies honored by these two offerings. I also ordered some books from the library about Annie Armstrong, which did not arrive in time to use at VBS. However, I did finally get around to reading them myself!

Despite the fact that I have known the name Annie Armstrong my entire life, I didn’t know much about her life work. She was a contemporary of Lottie Moon, the famous missionary to China. Lottie and others encouraged Annie to organize Baptist women into societies to support mission work in the United States and abroad. Annie successfully organized Maryland women into a state society, by taking the train to every Baptist church in Maryland and personally urging the women to help the cause of missions.

Her next goal was to organize the women convention-wide. During the post-Civil War era, this would have meant the southern states. She and her supporters ran into some opposition at the Southern Baptist Convention, whose leaders thought the women were vying for power. But it was just a few more years before the women’s good intentions were realized, and the Women’s Missionary Union was established as an auxiliary organization to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Annie was basically the Energizer Bunny of the late 19th century. She oversaw the publication of pamphlets telling churches about missionary work, wrote thousands of letters, visited churches, worked with orphans and German immigrants in her home city of Baltimore, sent “Missionary boxes” (sounds a lot like Operation Christmas Child!) to newly displaced Osage children in Oklahoma, and rode a train to Oklahoma and later Mexico to visit her “substitutes,” her name for missionaries on the field. She even partnered with Black churches in Baltimore, which I assume was uncommon at the time.

She worked tirelessly, refusing a salary. Near the end of her 18 years as corresponding secretary for WMU, there was a misunderstanding between her and some other women about opening a training school for women missionaries. She was deeply hurt, but instead of defending her position and risking causing division in Women’s Missionary Union, she quietly stepped down and let younger leaders take charge. In her elder years, she received word that a new offering would be named after her. At that time it was called the Annie W. Armstrong Thank Offering for home missions.

It would be hard to overstate Annie Armstrong’s importance in Baptist history and her importance in helping the SBC mission boards to thrive and grow. Even I, a hundred years later, was a beneficiary of her work in establishing graded mission programs for children. She is truly a hero of the faith.

I have been steadily working on my Scholé Sisters 5×5 reading challenge. I originally wrote about my plans in this post and later wrote a detailed review of the book Miracles, which is one of the books for the challenge.

In this challenge, a reader chooses five categories and then reads five books in each category. The first category I chose is Classic Dystopian Fiction. So far I have read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells and 1984 by George Orwell. Next up is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I will admit I am not enjoying this category, but I do think it’s important to know the major works in this genre. What dystopian books should I read after Brave New World?

My next category is C.S. Lewis. Being a member of a C.S. Lewis book club is helpful. Our book club has read Miracles and The Problem of Pain so far this year. Next, we hope to read some works by George MacDonald, since MacDonald’s writing was so instrumental in Lewis’s life.

My third category is Memoirs. I kind of stumbled into this one, because there were a few memoirs coming out I wanted to read anyway. First I read Becoming Free Indeed by Jinger Duggar Vuolo. This book was not super well-written (Jinger is not really an author, after all), but I’m so glad she wrote it anyway. There are so many Christians publicly “deconstructing” their faith right now, but Jinger is instead “disentangling” faith from fear.

Next, I read Beth Moore’s new memoir, All My Knotted Up Life. Beth Moore made headlines a few years ago when she left her lifelong denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. As a fellow Southern Baptist and also as someone who has sat under her teaching via video lessons, I followed this very closely when it happened. Since then, Beth is rubbing shoulders with more Progressive Christians, but as far as I have heard, she has not yet said anything that I personally consider off the mark theologically. Her memoir is beautifully written.

The third memoir I read was my dad’s! My brother and his wife got my dad a membership to Storyworth. He received weekly emails with writing prompts, which were turned into a hardback book! My dad is already a writer, so this was the perfect gift for him. I had heard several of his stories already, of course, but some of them were new to me.

The fourth and final category (for now) is Political Thought. Whoa! Dystopian Fiction and Political Thought on the same list! Who is the woman reading these books?

Anyway, I have taken an interest in the History of Communism, due to Lydia taking a class by that name and also reading some books, particularly Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher. In this book, Dreher references a book by Václav Havel called The Power of the Powerless. Havel became the first president of Czechoslovakia and then Czech Republic after the 1989 Velvet Revolution, which ended Communism in that country. The Power of the Powerless was written in 1979, when he had no idea Communism’s overthrow was so close at hand. The book is a bit of a chore to get through. The main idea is that people have a desire to “live in the truth,” regardless of the consequences and whether actual political change comes as a result. See my Goodreads review for more thoughts. I recently saw that Václav Havel wrote a memoir. I might decide to read this as a part of my memoirs category.

Speaking of Goodreads, feel free to follow me there! Here is a link to my Goodreads profile.

So that’s it for now! Any recommendations to fill out my categories? What about my fifth category? I have some ideas, but I would love to hear yours as well!

Episode 1

It had been a while since we played Minecraft, and we had kind of forgotten what to do on the first day. We basically got stone tools and then did nothing the rest of the day. When night came, we went down into the caves and mined. It was kind of bad because we were unprepared and didn’t have much food. However, I was able to find some iron and diamonds. I also found a mineshaft, which gave us a book enchanted with fortune III, which is a really good enchantment. We decided that in a later episode we would use the diamonds to make a diamond pickaxe, and then enchant it with the fortune III book.

Episode 2

We wanted to bring villagers to our base, because they can give you good trades. Some villagers trade enchanted books or armor. The problem was, villagers only spawn in villages, and we didn’t know where one was, so we decided to look for one. After a while, my cousin found one, but transporting villagers is easier said than done. You have to put them in a boat, and sometimes you have to drive a boat on land. After about an hour of trying, we rage quit and played Fortnite. A few days later, we decided to live stream it. The viewers in live chat encouraged us a lot and helped us get through the painful process. We ended up finding another village much closer to home, and we were able to boat the villagers we found there back easily. We made a dirt hut for them to stay in, and also made a simple crop farm and tree farm. We also got a dog, which someone from chat named Oswald.

Episode 3

We decided to build a staple Minecraft farm: an iron farm. Here’s how an iron farm works: iron golems spawn in villages to protect villagers. For the farm, you create a small chamber with beds and villagers inside which the game identifies as a village. This makes iron golems spawn on top of it. Then, you build a killing system on top; this burns the golems and collects the iron that they drop upon death. Putting the villagers in danger makes the golems spawn more frequently, which is why we put a zombie next to the villagers in the farm. We needed to name the zombie or else it would despawn, but we didn’t have a name tag. Name tags can spawn in mineshaft chests, so I went back to the mineshaft we found in episode 1 to try and find one, while my cousin gathered the rest of the materials needed for the farm. It took a lot of chests to get a name tag, but I eventually found one. I also found more diamonds, and a book enchanted with mending, which is arguably the best enchantment. As I was digging my way back up to the surface, I dug into a water cave, and almost drowned. But luckily I was able to survive (barely), and returned home with the loot. Building the farm was pretty simple. We just watched a tutorial and it was not very hard to build. The only hard part was getting the zombie and villagers into their different chambers. After a while we finished the farm and had infinite iron.

Episode 4

At the time, our base was just two beds and some chests in the woods. So we decided to make a house. The design was pretty simple: a circle made of a wood and stone pattern. We made four doors, with a path of iron blocks on all sides leading to the middle. We then made a smaller wall circle inside of the big circle. We made this two stories high, making a tower effect from the outside. On the inside, this created a circular hallway, with a circular room in the middle. In this room we added lots of chests to store our stuff, as well as some utility blocks such as a crafting table and an anvil. On the second floor of this middle area, we added our bedroom. In our bedroom we added two beds, a jukebox to play music, and one chest to store our most valuable and special items. The house took a long time to build, but by far what took the longest was the fog effect in the middle. You can make a fog effect by digging a hole and adding many layers of colored glass, with a light source at the bottom. Getting this light source was what took so long. The best light source is glowstone, only found in the nether. The nether is a very dangerous place, and I died for the first time while trying to get glowstone. But we did eventually get the fog effect, and it was worth it, because the fog is very cool. The last thing we did that episode was move our dog Oswald into the house.

Episode 5

This episode we decided to get the maxed out pickaxe we talked about in episode 1. We needed some levels to enchant it, so we made a simple mob spawner XP farm. We enchanted the pickaxe, got efficiency IV and fortune III, then used the mending book we had, and an unbreaking III book that we bought from a villager. This was almost maxed, except it had efficiency IV not efficiency V. The last thing we needed to do was make it netherite. So we went into the nether, and fairly easily got the four pieces required to turn diamond into netherite. (Only one player death occurred in the process). We named it the Clutch Axe, and celebrated having one of the best items in the game. We then wanted to show the viewers how strong netherite is, so we placed the Clutch Axe on a piece of TNT and then lit it. We thought that netherite didn’t blow up. Turns out it doesn’t, but only if it’s in the form of a block, and since we dropped it as an item, we lost the pickaxe. We just willingly blew it up. So we spent a very long time doing the same thing again, but this time, we combined it with another efficiency IV pickaxe, so it was truly maxed out. We made sure not to let the new pickaxe anywhere near TNT.

Episode 6

In order to beat minecraft, you need eyes of ender, crafted from one blaze powder and one ender pearl. Blaze (a nether mob) are the only source of blaze powder, and they can only spawn in nether fortresses. So we set off into the nether to find one, and we used a really good strategy to do so. You see, in the nether, there is lava instead of water, and nether fortresses often generate in a lava ocean. The best way to cross lava is using striders, a mountable mob that walks on lava. So we got two saddles and crossed the lava ocean on striders. We actually found a fortress close to our nether spawn, and went up to the top to try to kill some blaze. While killing some, I actually fell off the fortress and died. That slowed my momentum, and I died multiple more times while trying to get back. Luckily, my cousin did not die, and was able to clutch up and get the required amount of blaze powder to beat the game.

Episode 7

This episode we decided to beat the ender dragon, the final boss. This is what we needed the ender eyes for. When you throw an ender eye, it floats in the direction of the nearest stronghold, which has the end portal, but they sometimes break when thrown. You also need around 12 eyes to fill the portal. (Some portals spawn with a couple eyes already in them). When we set off to find the stronghold, we tried to use the eyes very sparingly, since we only had 14. This was a mistake because it took us several hours of looking around randomly to try to find the stronghold. We eventually accepted the fact that we would need to go back for more eyes of ender, so we threw the eyes until we found it. But we only had eight eyes when we got to the portal, so we went back home, got more, and came all the way back to the portal. The actual ender dragon fight was pretty easy, and we realized that we kind of over-prepared with our potions and golden apples. The dragon stood no chance. (My cousin died three times during the fight, but I couldn’t say anything because if I tried to make fun of him he would just remind me of how I also died multiple times in episode six).  After we defeated the dragon, we went to the outer end islands. The main prize here is the elytra, a pair of wings that allow you to glide and fly. They spawn in end cities, but only in the end ship, and not every end city has one. The first end city we found did not have an end ship. The second one did have an end ship, but it was glitched and was only half of one. Unfortunately, it was the half without the elytra. This made us rage, but after a while of searching, we eventually found two more end cities that both had elytras. We could now fly!

Episode 8

This episode we wanted to make a gold farm. Here’s how it works: you build a giant platform made of magma up in the sky. Zombie pigmen spawn on this platform. Zombie pigmen like to trample on turtle eggs, so you put a turtle egg above an iron golem. When a zombie pigman goes toward it, the iron golem hits the pigman. This makes all of the other pigmen get mad at the golem, so they run toward it. However, if you make a hole between the iron golem and the magma platform, they will fall down the hole, where you collect the gold and XP that they drop. Getting all of the magma required took a long time. In fact you need over 45 stacks of magma. (Each stack is 64 blocks). But what took even longer was filling in the platform. It wasn’t hard; it was just tedious placing every single magma block. It would have gone quicker, if it wasn’t for a ghast. A ghast spawned in, and blew up a shulker box (a portable chest) that had a healthy amount of magma in it. This made us have to go down and get more. (We later discovered that we had several stacks of magma in a chest that we forgot about, so we wasted a lot of time).  We did eventually fill in the entire platform, and also placed rows of slabs above it. This prevents ghasts from spawning. We then added the finishing touches to the farm, and completed it. This project took us basically an entire day of nonstop playing, but it was worth it, because we now have infinite gold.

Thanks for reading, and check out our Minecraft series on YouTube, because we are coming out with more episodes soon.

This weekend, my book club met to discuss Miracles by C.S. Lewis. Our group has read most of Lewis’s major works (and some of his more obscure works), and we agreed this is one of his hardest!

The reason this book was so hard was because it took Lewis forEVER to get to the point. I entered the book as a believer in miracles, but he does not assume this is true of all his readers. He spends several chapters establishing the philosophical grounds of whether miracles are possible. He describes two world views: the Naturalists, who believe the natural world is all that exists and that everything that happens is bound to happen, and the the Supernaturalists, who believe there is something beyond the natural world.

He hinges his argument toward Supernaturalism on the fact that people can think rationally. People have acts of insight. He argues that Reason (of the Supernatural) must come from an intersection between itself and nature. Here is a handy picture I drew to help me process this concept.

Finally, at the end of chapter six, he asks the big question: Does God introduce events which are not “the working out of the general character which He gave to Nature as a whole in creating her?” In other words, does God perform miracles?

In chapter 8, Lewis introduces a concept about miracles that makes a lot of sense. The actual miracle is a quick blip; a divine interruption. Then Nature takes the miracle and reacts to it using her ordinary laws. “Miraculous wine will intoxicate, miraculous conception will lead to pregnancy, inspired books will suffer all the ordinary processes of textual corruption, miraculous bread will be digested.” He will later call these Miracles of the Old Creation.

Lewis develops another insightful principle in chapter 12. That is miracles do not happen randomly or willy-nilly. “If they (miracles) have occurred, they have occurred because they are the very thing this universal story is about. They are not exceptions (however rarely they occur) not irrelevancies. They are precisely those chapters in this great story on which the plot turns.”

In chapter 14, Lewis discusses what he calls “The Grand Miracle.” I assumed the Grand Miracle was the Resurrection, but according to Lewis it is the Incarnation. Not just the virgin birth, but the idea that God came to earth as a man. He spends some time talking about the theme of death and rebirth seen in the folklore and mythology of many cultures, but strangely absent from Jewish writings. He concludes that the Judeo-Christian stories don’t need a shadow of this idea in their writings, because they contain the real story. Jesus descended to earth and reascended to heaven, and likewise he went in to the grave and resurrected.

In chapters 15 and 16 he distinguishes between what he calls Miracles of the Old Creation and Miracles of the New Creation. Miracles of the Old Creation are events like turning water into wine (water can always be turned to wine, but usually goes through the grape first) and multiplying bread and fish (grain and fish can multiply through natural processes; Jesus just sped it up).

Miracles of the New Creation are precursors to the Resurrection. Examples are Jesus and Peter walking on water, the raising of Lazarus, and the Transfiguration. In all these examples, Nature did not simply take its course after a quick interruption. Nature obeyed God in a new way.

He does differentiate between the raising of Lazarus and the Resurrection of Christ. Lazarus’s death was simply reversed. Lazarus went back to a normal, human life. But with Christ, six weeks after his resurrection, he withdrew “into some different mode of existence…. He is about to create that whole new Nature which will provide the environment or conditions for His glorified humanity and, in Him, for ours.”

He wrote SO much more in this book (Pantheism, red herrings, his view of Nature as a created thing with a personality), but what I wrote here is the basic essence of the book. It was definitely challenging, and I don’t know if I would have persevered through it without the date of the book discussion looming.

Miracles is going on my 5×5 challenge under my C.S. Lewis category. This category will include at least one more Lewis book, and hopefully and few books that influenced Lewis as well.

Chicago Bears

Da Bears were officially the worst team in 2022, with a record of 3-14. (Three wins, fourteen losses). This means that they will have the number one overall pick in the draft. Normally, the worst team has a trash quarterback, so they draft a new one with their good pick. However, the Bears actually have a half-decent quarterback, Justin Fields, who has been playing well this year. So that leaves the Bears with a question: Do they trade Justin Fields and draft a new quarterback? Do they trade away the number one pick? Or do they keep Justin Fields and use the pick to get a wide receiver or running back to help him out? I would probably keep Justin Fields and trade the pick, but we will have to wait and see what they decide to do.

San Francisco 49ers

The 49ers are one of the best teams in the league right now. In fact, they are who I predict to win the Super Bowl. (Sorry Chiefs fans). Their team is stacked. They have Deebo Samuel, Christian McCaffery, George Kittle, Fred Warner, and Nick Bosa, just to name a few. However, they have quite the predicament at quarterback. Last year, Jimmy Garoppolo was their starter. Then in the draft, they drafted Trey Lance, who everyone thought was going to be a star. Sadly, he injured his ankle early in the season, which left Jimmy G as the starter. Then Jimmy G got injured. This left rookie QB Brock Purdy to lead the team. Despite being Mr. Irrelevant (the last person taken in the draft), Brock has been playing very well. In his first start, he beat Tom Brady, A.K.A the G.O.A.T. So which QB will the ‘Niners keep? Jimmy Garoppolo, Trey Lance, or Brock Purdy?

Miami Dolphins

The Dolphins made a big trade this year, acquiring Tyreek Hill from the Chiefs, and he fit in very well with Dolphins receiver Jaylen Waddle. Hill and Waddle set the new record for most yards by a wide receiver duo in the first eight games of the season. However, Tyreek’s stats are not quite the same as last year. That is because last year he had Patrick Mahomes throwing to him, and this year he had Tua Tagovailoa. Tua to Tyreek looked like they would be one of the best combos in the league, and the Dolphins started out hot. Then in week four against the Bengals, Tua had a concussion, and after that, he had two more concussions. In the weeks that he played, he started playing noticeably worse. The Dolphins went from being one of the best teams to struggling to make the playoffs. So will they keep Tua, or look for someone else? Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson might be going into free agency, but he is more built for run-based offenses. Another option is veteran quarterbacks Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, because if they don’t retire, they will probably find a new team. I personally could see Aaron Rodgers throwing to Tyreek Hill. (Aaron Rodgers drops dimes). The Dolphins might just keep Tua though. If he stays healthy, he could be good. We’ll see next year. (I hope they keep Tua because I got my dad a Tua jersey for Christmas).

Pittsburgh Steelers

The Steelers drafted Kenny Pickett this year, but sat him for the first few games. When they decided to start him, he did okay, but the real reason for the Steelers’ success was left-outside- linebacker T.J Watt. He got injured in week one, and the Steelers struggled. After he came back, however, they started to win games. They went from one of the worst teams, to making a playoff run. (They finished the season 9-8, just missing the playoffs). T.J. Watt is definitely their best player, but Kenny Pickett started playing well also. He led a game winning touchdown drive in week sixteen against the Raiders, and in week seventeen against the Ravens. Steelers rookie receiver George Pickens has played well also (see photo for skill reference), and Pickett to Pickens is arguably better than Tua to Tyreek. Not to forget the Steelers’ star running back Najee Harris. So I think Kenny is the future of the Steelers, and if T.J Watt can stay healthy they might be scary good.

College QBs

The two main QB prospects are Ohio State QB C.J Stroud, and Georgia QB Stenson Bennet. Georgia is coming off a college championship, but Stenson Bennet is 25 years old, and C.J. Stroud is 21.This is why C.J Stroud is projected to be the number one overall pick, and will probably be drafted by a team like the Texans or the Colts.

These are my thoughts on the future of the NFL. I’m excited for the Super Bowl and for next year, when the Dolphins will fail miserably. (My dad is a Dolphins fan LOL).

My first category is “Classic Dystopian Fiction.” I chose this for a couple of reasons. First of all, my book club recently read C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy. The third installment, That Hideous Strength, is set in a dystopian world. George Orwell had an interesting response to THS, saying he wished it did not contain supernatural elements. I have heard that Orwell wrote 1984 as an answer to THS, although a quick internet search did not verify the fact.

Another book I read last year (with the Scholé Sisters!) is Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. It was written in 1985 about the dangers of our means of communication shifting from text-based to image-based. In the introduction to this book, Postman talks about how everyone was worried about Big Brother in 1984, based on Orwell’s book. But what he saw coming true at that time was the scenario described by Huxley in Brave New World. That is people are so distracted and entertained by technology, that they cease to care about tyranny.

All this to say, I have never read 1984 or Brave New World, and it’s time to change that fact! Hence my “Classic Dystopian Fiction” category in the 5×5 Reading Challenge.

To start the category, I actually chose a different book, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Lewis cites Wells as an inspiration for his Space Trilogy, so it seemed like a good place to start.

Scroll the pdf below to see my progress on the challenge so far!

A Aimbot – A type of hack that automatically hits every shot in shooting games, even if you are not aiming directly at your target.

B Battle Royale – A type of game in which a large amount of people all fight to the death,(every man for himself,) and the last person standing wins.

C Combo – Commonly used in Minecraft battle, to combo someone means to get several hits on them in a row before they have a chance to hit you.

D Dub – Short for “w” which is short for “win,” e.g. “We got the dub.”

E Elim – Short for “elimination,” but “kill” is a more commonly used word even if the game does not use the word kill.

F Farm – Commonly used in sandbox games such as minecraft, a farm is anything that cancollect resources for you automatically without you collecting them.

G G.O.A.T – Stands for “Greatest of all time.” Often used to describe NFL quarterback Tom Brady, because many people consider him the greatest football player of all time.

H High Risk, High Reward – Something that you have a high risk of losing or failing, but the rewards you get from it are worth it.

I Inc – Short for “Incoming” A good way to alert your team of an enemy quickly if you don’t have a lot of time to type.

J Sprint Jump – In a lot of games, if you jump while running, you move faster.

K Kill streak – The amount of kills that you get in a row, typically in shooter games.

L Leroy Jenkins – To run into battle without you or your team prepared to fight. Word origin: a viral World Of Warcraft video. 

M MLG – Stands for “Major League Gamer.” Often used to describe an MLG play, where a player does something skillful, showing that they are good at the game.

N Noob – Short for “newbie.” Implies that the person that is new is bad at the game.

O Ohio – There is a meme that Ohio is a creepy, apocalyptic dangerous place. Different versions include: “Wait, it’s all Ohio?” “down in Ohio” and “what is going on in Ohio?”

P Prot – Short for “protection.”

Q Quest – An objective or challenge that if you succeed, you receive a reward.

R RIP – Stands for “rest in peace.” Could be used if a video game character dies, but could also be used if something unfortunate happens.

S Sus – Short for “Suspicious.’ Word origin: the game Among Us.

T Touch Grass – People often say this to someone who is addicted to a game and has not been outside in a long time, therefore needs to touch grass.

U Ultimate Team – In EA sports games, the ultimate team is a game mode where you collect different virtual trading cards to build your team.

V Veteran – Someone who has played the game for a long time and is very experienced. Could be used for Esports or sports such as football or basketball.

W W00t –  A word used to express excitement. Fun fact: This word was the 2007 Merriam-Webster word of the year.

X XD – Used to portray laughter. It is supposed to represent the laughing with eyes closedemoji, similar to how “:)” can be used to portray a smiley face emoji.

Y Yeet – To throw something or send something flying. Could be used to describe something that happened to your video game character, e.g. “I got yeeted.”

Z Zombro – Alternate name for zombies. Commonly used to name Minecraft zombies.

My two favorite seed companies are Baker Creek and Johnny’s.

I had actually already ordered some seeds from Johnny’s, including THESE snapdrogons.

I recently also ordered a few things from Baker Creek, including Shishito peppers. I might be a few years behind, but I get the impression like these are trendy, especially when “blistered” in a hot skillet.

The big news is that I THREW AWAY many seeds from previous years. I only kept what I plan to plant this year (with a couple of exceptions), and most of the seeds are no more than one year old. It was bold and reckless, but now I feel somehow clean and unburdened.

I also ordered some biodegradible mulch film from Gardener’s Workshop. I have very strong weed pressure in my garden, so I’m hoping this will be less work than the newspaper method I used last year.

I am really itching to get started. Maybe I should put away the Christmas tree first.

Lydia wrote and illustrated Ferrars Family Christmas, which is a 5,000-word short story based on Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. We laughed when we realized each of the ten chapters is about 500 words each. This was the word limit back when Lydia was writing monthly for Young Writers Miscellany. She is well-trained!

It was a bit of an uphill climb figuring out how to get her story formatted and published. In the end, I used reedsy.com for the formatting and typesetting. I used Canva to create the ebook cover. Creating a cover for the print-on-demand paperback was a bit more challenging. Amazon provides a template, but you are on your own to import that template into the photo-editing software of your choice. My primary problem with this whole process was that the template was for a 5×8 paperback, but I had a 6×9 paperback selected for publishing. I could NOT figure out why my completed PDF kept ending up too small. (I created it in both gimp and Photoshop.) I won’t tell you how many hours I spent on this. Let’s just say it should go more smoothly next time.

Anyway, the story is lots of fun, and so are the illustrations! Click on this Amazon link (we priced the ebook and paperback almost as low are we were allowed) or read the PDF for free on Lydia’s blog.

Check it out and subscribe: lifeoflydia.com