Doings of 2016 Thus Far

My dear readers, it's been a long time since I've done a "doings" post, so I thought I'd bring you one today! A little update on my life in the year of 2016, thus far.

Well. I suppose we can go back to April, which was when my older brother and I stuffed his car with some of our belongings and headed out into the great unknown. Okay ... not the great unknown, but actually our childhood home - the state we grew up in. Which happens to be across the country from where our family currently resides.

(Found on Pixabay.com)

So I moved out. It was about a three-day road trip. It wasn't bad at all, considering we stopped at our aunt & uncle's house the first night, and a hotel the second night. By the third evening, we had reached out destination! (Wow. Was it really that long ago? It seems like just yesterday, that road trip ... or many, many years ago.)

In July, a family reunion was scheduled to happen at my grandparent's lovely home. So my whole family flew out and it was so good to see them after being gone for three months (the longest I'd ever been away from them!) I got to hug everyone and talk to them face-to-face, and snuggle my two-year-old baby brother! <3 It was the most fantastic time, having my mom and six younger siblings out here for a whole month! (My dad came out for a week before flying back for work).

(This is me and my little brother at a beach)

Oh, I should note that I finally got my first car, and have a small cleaning job! (Still searching for a steady job!)

It was a good summer. Lots of family time. Meeting new people. Making friends.

The day before my family left to go back home, in August, I headed out to a young people's gathering with a bunch of other people. My sixteen-year-old sister was able to come along instead of flying home! *grins* It was great! Except ... the road trip was EXTREMELY long. 30+ hours? No hotel stops. A couple breakdowns. Yes. We had a few fifteen passenger vans, and two of them decided now was the time to break down. 

Nevertheless, we still made it there and had a fun time (despite being exhausted). More meeting new people! ^_^

(Wandering around the grounds)

I did lots of canning, drying, freezing, and pickling this year! *grins* We froze strawberries, canned peaches, dried plums, pickled cucumbers, froze blueberries, canned pears, dried herbs, pickled beans ... Oh, and made applesauce. Etc. It was rather enjoyable. And I remembered how much I LOVE strawberries ... *wistful sigh* There's nothing like freshly picked strawberries.

(Found on Pixabay.com)

The month of October, I did a "healing-your-stomach" diet, which required me to eat simply meats and vegetables. After about four days, I was able to add in a fruit.

Now that it's November, I'm finally able to add in things like eggs, almond flour, almond milk, honey sunflower butter, CHOCOLATE (just a little!), and things like that. Yay! *smiles* I'm trying not to add in too many things at once, but Thanksgiving is coming, you know, and I want to be able to eat all that yummy food! ^_^

Well, most of it. I still can't have wheat, dairy, or peanuts (and trying not to have cane sugar), "healing-your-stomach" diet or not!

Are you excited for Thanksgiving? Take time this week to think of the blessings in your life! Praise the Lord! ^_^

(Found on Pixabay.com)

What else?

• Every Monday, from August 1st until yesterday, I did my Hidden Gems: Authors You Need to Discover blog series. If you missed any of the post, click on the link to review! *smiles*
• I finished my rewrite of Silver Rose! It's now 161,569 words. (Considering its word count used to be 187,233, I'm pretty pleased.) SUPER excited about the possibility of publishing in the near future. I sent it off to some people to read ... if you are interested in beta-reading Silver Rose, email me at swordmaidenofthelight (at) gmail (dot) com, and I will consider you! Otherwise, I can contact you for advance-reading later.
• I've cautiously starting working on Diamond's Quest {Called to Light #2} again. This is my third time starting over with writing it. Hopefully I got a plot that will stick finally!
• I won a lot of books these last two months! From authors such as S.D. Grimm, Lisa Tawn Bergren, Connilyn Cossette, Lena Goldfinch, etc.! Check out my Youtube channel for more on that!

• What am I currently reading?

A Lady Unrivaled {Ladies of the Manor #3} by Roseanna M. White. I love this Edwardian series!

And planning to read Anomaly {Anomaly #1} by Krista McGee, Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay, and Dawnsinger {Tales of Faeraven #1} by Janalyn Voigt next.

• What am I currently watching?

Hmm. Nothing much. I've been watching season two of Poldark (which has some skip-worthy scenes, just so you're aware); but the last episode infuriated me so much! Not sure what to do about this.

I'm very much looking forward to Beauty and the Beast {2017} and Ballerina {2016}. 

(Note: If you have any clean dance movies to recommend to me, please do!!)

In the past months, I've really enjoyed The Jungle Book, Desert Dancer, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Avengers, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

• What am I currently listening to?

I usually wait until after Thanksgiving to listen to Christmas music, but yesterday I started listening to Lauren Daigle's Christmas album on Youtube, and she has a couple gorgeous songs on there (such as 'Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas')! This isn't part of her album, but I love this song she sings called Noel (perhaps by Chris Tomlin?). It's absolutely breathtaking.

Anything more to say ... ? Nothing much, I suppose. But I have some exciting new blog posts coming up, so stay tuned! ^_^

Has the Christmas season feeling hit you yet? 

How has the year of 2016 been for you so far?

Do you do canning?

What are you currently reading?