June Crusade Recap

July 7, 2014 ~ Kirsten Fichter ~ 3 Comments

Whoa! When did July happen? Is it just me, or is this year just flying by? It’s already half gone? Whew!

Anywhoz, I just wanted to pop on for a moment and say a few things. First off, I hope you all had a very fantastic Fourth of July! My family and I traveled out of state to spend the holiday with my grandparents. Coincidentally, my grandmother’s birthday is also on July 4th, so we’re celebrating two “holidays” in one. *grins* Yes, we may or may not have too much ice cream.

A huge, big, glorious THANK YOU to Anne-girl of Scribblings for hosting another lovely June Crusade! I had immense fun with all my plot bunnies, and now my brain’s buzzing wanting to write on all eight of them at once. My Little Writer is not pleased with me, but… *shrugs*

Just for fun… and for those who were curious… here is a quick overview of my plot bunnies for the Crusade (clicking on the titles below the pics will take you to my original posts for that particular story):

Beyond the Thorns

Who doesn’t like the tale of Sleeping Beauty? *raises hand* Oh, me!! Me! And even though Tchaikovsky’s ballet adds beautiful music to the story, it’s still kinda dumb. So I’m retelling it… the way it really happened.

MC: Troy Gregorick

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A big THANK YOU to Anne-girl for designing this cover!

Le’seur’s Bells

Inspired highly by Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, this story sprung from the idea of telling a tale from the perspective of a deaf girl. How would she see the world? And more importantly, how would the world see her?

MC: Le’seur

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Samantha

I’ve always wondered what happened to the American Girls when they grew up. By general rule, I’m not huge on fanfiction, but too many ideas came for me to ignore. One month before Samantha turns 18, one very big historic event happened — the sinking of the Titanic in April of 1912.

MC: Samantha Parkington
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bonnie Rose

Beauty and the Beast meets Pirates of the Caribbean… more or less. I began this as a possible entry for Rooglewood’s BatB writing contest, and I’m having loads of fun with it. Currently, I’m at 7,100 words.

MC: Bonnie Rose Allaway

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Allen’s Revenge

Two brothers – orphans – want a new life, and who can blame them? They’ve suffered at the hands of cruel masters for far too long, and new opportunities on the lower island beckon constantly. There’s just one problem: they can’t leave together. And once they’re apart, how long will it take them to reunite?

MC: Allen Wolfhouse

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The David Team

This is kinda dystopian meets The Avengers meets The Scarlet Pimpernel meets… I’m not sure what else. A team of accidental superheroes, political groups intent on killing all Christians, and a boy named David that no one believes exists.

MC: Jonathan
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Riddle

Who doesn’t love fairy tales? And I especially love retelling them to fit my own desires. The Riddle is probably a lesser known fairy tale, but it’s still pretty neat. Start with your basic storyline of an unsolvable riddle, give an old woman a few reasons for murder, throw in a band of relentless robbers, and you’ve got one retold fairy tale.

MC: Prince Rian Ro’de Lar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Criminal, Like Jellybeans

I’ll admit — this one was way too much fun to dream up. A six-year old cellmate with a flair for Alice in Wonderland, and a Black Widow-ish character who gets stuck in a fantasy she despises. What’s not to love?

MC: Agent 6-1-2

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What about you? Who of my followers participated in the June Crusade? Did you manage all eight plot bunnies?

God bless!

Single Ladies And Valentines

February 8, 2013 ~ Kirsten Fichter ~ 1 Comment

Meghan over at Just As I Am is hosting a Single Ladies Blog Party for Valentine’s Day! Do stop by her blog and check it out! And as an ice-breaker, she’s asked that we fill out these fun tag questions.

1. White chocolate or milk/dark chocolate? My health requires that I say “no” (you knew I was allergic to chocolate, right?), but when I could eat chocolate, it was always milk chocolate.

2. Tea or Coffee? *cough*neither*cough* I like lemonade! Actually, I’ve learned recently that I cannot drink some teas because they contain soy lecithin (I’m allergic to soy for those of you who didn’t know), and I’ve tasted both tea and coffee and found the flavors contrary to my liking.

3. Movie or book on a night-in? Usually, with my family, we’ll watch a fun movie together, but if it’s a quiet sort of night, I’ll choose a book.

4. Rom-com or a tear-jerker? I’m not the type of person who cried during movies, so I’d have to say rom-com… even though cheesy romance flicks sometimes get on my nerves. Comedy improves it, I will give you that.

5. Who is the first literary couple to come to your mind? Emma Woodhouse and Mr. Knightley

6. Who is the first *movie* couple that comes to your mind? Eowyn and Faramir from LOTR

7. Roses or chocolate? The two things that make up Valentine’s Day. Well, unfortunately, I’m allergic to one and the smell of the other gives me asthma. If any guy tried to win my affection with a present of either of these items, I would seriously think poorly of his attempt to kill me. Does that answer the question? No? Hmm… I’m going to mimic Rachel and say that I like seeing roses growing wild outside, on a trellis or whatnot. Yes, lovely.

8. Fancy dinner in a 4-star restaurant or a simple picnic? Picnic. I’ve been literally banned from eating out due to allergies (sidenote here: don’t ever get allergies, especially a soy allergy; they’re such a pain!)).

9. Dream wedding scenario: outdoor family affair, or a formal church wedding & reception at a 5-star hotel? Outdoor family affair. If God has a mate planned for me, then my wedding would be a simple affair outside during the summer with my family and closest friends gathered around me. Let me quote Margaret Hale, for she sums it up quite nicely:

10. What was the last love song you listened to? Far Longer Than Forever from The Swan Princess soundtrack.

11. Favorite real-life/celebrity couple? My mom and dad. ❤ They're celebrities in my book!

12. One piece of advice about love: Never follow your heart. The heart is deceitful. Lead your heart, and follow God.

AND Jessica of Safirewriter is holding a book/period drama Valentine card contest, and I couldn’t help but enter.

Photo: P&P 1995

Quote: P&P 2005

Photo and Quote: Emma 2009

Photo and Quote: The Scarlet Pimpernel 1982

God bless!

Tales Of The Holidays And A Prayer Request

January 3, 2013 ~ Kirsten Fichter ~ 3 Comments

Yes, technically this should probably be split into two posts, but I don’t feel like typing out two different posts at the moment. So, if you’re really interested in reading this post, get yourself a hot drink (tea, if you must, otherwise I’d prefer you sip something else), sit back, and begin this epistle.

Okay, so maybe not epistle, but it is kinda long… and sorry… I didn’t have any pics to upload.

So much has happened in the last month that I hardly know where to begin. I have the sensation that I am sitting down to write a letter to good friends to inform them of a great chunk of my life that I have neglected to mention here on this blog. Hopefully, you will forgive my rambling, for I fear that I will fall into some sort of insane sentences and garbled paragraphs.

But anywho… to begin the tales of the holidays:

December flew by so quickly that it almost seemed as if the month had never happened at all. The first few days found my family in deep practice for three Christmas concerts. (You do recall that my family sings together, right?) On the 10th, we sang for an hour in a local mini “mall,” a grand mix of fun and sacred songs. However, due to weather and bad timing, we only had a few people show up. We had so many friends tell us (slightly paraphrased), “We’re so sorry we missed it! When are you singing again?” that my dad scheduled for us to give another concert on the 20th when we were able to invite a lot more people. We debuted some new songs this year, including a special rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas and Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella. For the third concert, we were supposed to sing for a local nursing home, but the concert got postponed for later in January when the facility was quarantined due to a flu outbreak.

Our classy blood cousins’ cousins came up for Christmas this year, and after years of hearing about them, we were finally able to meet. The evenings we gathered together for fellowship found us eating way too many cookies, talking so much that some of us nearly lost our voices the next day, and playing swell games around the dining room table, namely Four on a Couch.

Christmas Eve my family visited a local nursing home (not the one with the flu) and caroled. It’s amazing the blessing you yourself can recieve while being a blessing to others. It may seem a little thing to simply give some of your time and talent to bring a smile to the face of someone, but the feeling of joy his or her smile creates in your heart is something that you want to hold on to.

Christmas Day dawned early for me, waking up at 6:15 when my little sister, KT Bugs, crawled into my bed, asking to snuggle, which we did until the rest of my family decided it was time to get up around 9 o’clock. My mom made our family’s traditional breakfast: egg sausage casserole and cranberry coffee cake. My father read aloud the Christmas story from Luke 2 as we sat around the table and marveled at the wondrous gift of love that God sent the world. Then we all settled around our Christmas tree to exchange gifts. I was muchly excited to give Teddy and KT the doll dresses I made, two replicas of Disney princesses’ dresses: Belle for Teddy and Rapunzel for KT Bugs. My family, it is obvious, knows me absolutely too well, for I recieved 7 books for Christmas, including a splendid, glorificous copy of Bleak House! My sister also gave me a brick-sized volume of Les Mis, which I shall dig into once I am done with Bleak House.

On the Thursday following Christmas, our church hosted a New Years’ Taco Bar. It would have been pizza, but unfortunately, many of the families in our church have allergies, so tacos was a much simpler meal. It was here that I was first introduced to the word game Probe, which is now a big favorite of mine. For those of you who know Probe, you know with me how awesome it is, and fun it is to do words like auxillary. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, go find someone who knows how to play Probe and convince them to teach you, too.

And then our CBCs came for New Years (you all should know what that means by now…)! As would be expected, we stayed up after midnight on December 31st, singing and praying the new year in. We also made up a new way to play Apples to Apples, ate way too much pizza, memorized epic songs from our favorite soundtracks, and probably played The Wilds Bunch: Takin’ A Break CD nonstop for three days straight. You know, all the normal stuff you do with CBCs. And then we ended it all with a cold. I’m still taking cough medicine. But what’s a little cold to a grand, old visit with epic CBCs?

And more stuff happened, but I have either forgotten it or I am planning to writer about it later, so all of that will have to suffice for now.

I do have a huge prayer request to share with you all, and I do hope that you all have read down this post far enough to get to this point.

My mom’s parents visited my cousins this year for Christmas, and on the way home on the 27th, my grandparents got into a car accident, and my grandmother was seriously injured. She is still in the hospital, and has had quite a few surgeries on her legs. Praise the Lord, Granddad was unhurt, and Grandmom is doing better, but I would like to ask you all to add them to your prayer list. Please pray that the Lord would give the doctors wisdom as they care for Grandmom, that she would heal quickly, and that He would grant peace and comfort to my entire family. My parents are going to go visit them in the hospital on Saturday, and we kids are staying with our blood cousins for a few days while they’re gone. I know that God has His hands in this, and I know that He will be honored and gloried in whatever may happen, but it comforts my soul to know that so many people are lifting my grandparents up in prayer.

Many thanks, and God bless!

Merry Christmas… A Day Late… And A Reminder

December 26, 2012 ~ Kirsten Fichter ~ 1 Comment

I didn’t get a chance to get on yesterday and wish everyone a very merry Christmas! I hope you all had a blessed holiday with your loved ones!

My devotions yesterday led me to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, not normally what people would consider a Christmas chapter, but one that definitely cannot be overlooked. I wanted to share it with you all here.

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

This is why Jesus came as a babe in the manger. He came to suffer and die. For ME. For YOU. Because of our sin, Christ became a man and died to appease the wrath of the Father. He became the perfect sacrifice for an imperfect people. He took upon Himself the sins of the world, a world that gave Him only hate for His unending love.

But He did not stay dead. Oh, no, my friends. The true message of Christmas is hope because Christ did not just die. He rose from the dead on the third day and now He sits at the right hand of God. He paid the price of our sin and now offers the free gift of salvation to one and all. In a world growing more and more wicked, we can have true hope because He came and He died; because He lives, and because He saves. What greater joy can there be?

Hallelujah! The Savior is born!

*~*~*~*~*~*

Before I go, I would like to remind my dear followers of Lianne Taimenlore’s current giveaway. Don’t forget to enter to win your own copy of Jessica‘s new book, Annabeth’s War!

Merry Christmas, and God bless us, one and all!

Land Of The Free And Home Of The Brave

July 4, 2012 ~ Kirsten Fichter ~ Leave a comment

Happy Independence Day!!

O say can you see by the dawn’s early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,

O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.

Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Celebrating Fathers

June 16, 2012 ~ Kirsten Fichter ~ Leave a comment

Happy Father’s Day to the greatest Dad ever! I love you ever so much!!!

For Mother’s Day earlier this year, I made a collection of pictures of mothers from various films (you can find the post HERE). And so, following the pattern for Father’s Day… here’s my collection of fathers. (Please note: I don’t endorse all the films portrayed here.)

Mr. Potter from Miss Potter

Loris Barrow from City of Ember

Mr. Merriman from Felicity: An American Girl Adventure

Patrick Gates from National Treasure

Anthony Biddle from The Happiest Millionaire

Alec King from Road to Avonlea

Mr. Brown from Nanny McPhee

Geppetto from Pinocchio

Denethor from The Lord of the Rings

Mr. Woodhouse from Emma

The King from Cinderella

John Brooke from Little Women

Mr. Dorrit from Little Dorrit

Bob Parr from The Incredibles

Robert from Enchanted

Matthew Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables

Maurice from Beauty and the Beast

King Randolph from Barbie in the Twelve
Dancing Princesses

Mr. Musgrove from Persuasion

Adam Mitchell from Courageous

Caractacus Potts from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Mr. Hale from North and South

Mr. Bennet from Pride and Prejudice

Willie LaHaye from Love’s Abiding Joy

Jack Russo from Nim’s Island

Calvin Bower from The One and Only, Genuine,
Original Family Band

Mr. Weston from Emma

Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings

Captain von Trapp from The Sound of Music

Theoden from The Lord of the Rings

Miraz from Prince Caspian

Mr. Gibson from Wives and Daughters

The King from Tangled

For All Mothers…

May 12, 2012 ~ Kirsten Fichter ~ Leave a comment

Happy Mother’s Day!

I wish all mothers a wonderful day, and especially want to express my love and admiration to the best mother in the whole, wide world! I love you, Mom!

And for your enjoyment, here are a few pictures of mothers from films, in no particular order whatsoever. 🙂