Silence

Silence

A square broken clock

second hand dangling

A guitar I can't play

red picks wedged between strings

An empty page

nothing but sky colored lines

The leaves outside

drying and brown

not from the month but the heat

crunch before their time

but not in here.

Emma K. Shockley

Homemade hummus!

I just made my hummus and it is delish! And super easy! After getting the ingredients, it only takes ten minutes or less. There are tons of recipes out there, but here is the one I used.

I actually couldn't find any roasted garlic or garlic cloves so I just used minced garlic, and I think it turned out great. The downside is that from what I've read you can only keep it in the fridge for about 2-3 days.

Ingredients:

• 1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans (15 oz.)
• 2 tablespoons roasted garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano

Preparation:

In a food processor, process beans, garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and oregano until desired consistency. If hummus is too thick, simply add olive oil in small increments (1/2 teaspoon) until desired consistency.

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

Quote by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
How come no one says anything quotable anymore? I mean, honestly, 90% of quotes I hear are from centuries back. And 67% of statistics are made up on the spot.


I got an incense burner today :) And some incense, of course. It smells gooooddd. I'll be honest, many of the scents I smelled were pretty bad. But I got strawberry, honey almond, rose, cinnamon, and love... I think.

I'm going to attempt to make hummus tomorrow. I know I could buy it, but I think it would be more fun to make it, plus it would make me feel more accomplished ;P I'm also skeptical of the nutritional value of anything packaged. If it turns out, I'll post the recipe.

Speaking of nutritional... I just watched this documentary called Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. It was actually pretty interesting. Makes ya think how easy and quick it can be to "reboot your system" and lose a ton of weight (if applicable) or just get much healthier. Obviously it probably wouldn't be smart for someone of my size to fast and have nothing but fresh fruit and vegetable juice, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to add that in!

Still cranking out the paracord bracelets, hit me up if you're interested. I've also made kitty collars, and let me tell ya, they're pretty darn cute ;)

And Annie made a great model.... Tinkerbell is prettier, but I couldn't find her and didn't suppose she'd stand still for a picture at all, haha.

I kinda love my job. Really, caring for and helping animals all day... not too bad. It's sad at times, and frustrating at times, and tiring at times... but also a lot of fun. :)

I have been cracking my knuckles and popping my back and neck for really as long as I can remember. With some strong discouragement from Josh and after looking into some of the effects of doing it, I'm making an effort to stop. It's hard because it's such a HABIT, and also because it does hurt when I don't pop it. But I've already noticed that I feel like I need to pop them less and that they hurt less. My back is sore a lot, and I've found that some yoga moves can realign my spine and make me feel much better. I don't do it often, but I'd like to get back into it.

I think that's enough randomness for now.
Love and peace,
Emma

Puppies and kittens and babies, oh my!

I guess life can't be too bad when you spend every day with puppies, kittens, and babies :) Tuesday we did a c-section on a cat at work, and I got to help with it. It was so sweet, taking these little tiny kittens and rubbing them and getting them to breathe. Yesterday we had someone come in with 9 black and white half boxer, half pitt bull puppies. Adorable! And I've been babysitting a coworker's baby all day Monday and all day today. He's sweet.

We've been making more bracelet orders! I'll put some pictures of some new color combinations we've made. Also, if you'll look to your right, right over there ----> you'll see my facebook page widget, and if you'll just click on that, and take a look at our site, and hit that little "like" button for me, that would be awesome! And, of course, you can order a bracelet while you're there if you'd like :)

Online store!

Josh and I realized that some people who may be interested in a bracelet or other paracord product may not know us personally or may not live locally. We are looking into online store options, including Etsy. I made an Etsy store for us last night, so if you have an Etsy account this is a really easy way to order a bracelet from us! Just contact us on Etsy or with a comment here or on Facebook to let us know your size and the color/s you want, then add the item to your cart and pay with PayPal or a card! Even if you're not an Etsy member, you can easily and quickly register in order to buy from us on Etsy. This is the link to our Etsy store.

One other random thing... Saturday when we were hiking, we found this random wooden flute in a crocheted sleeve...

 And I'm pretty sure I found the guy who lost it........

Just sayin'.

Enter Title Here

I have the hardest time thinking of post titles.

Yesterday Josh and I went hiking at Mount Magazine again. We hiked 10 miles up the highest mountain in the state.. it was fun, but pretty tiring! It was some rough terrain, too.

We've been pleasantly surprised with the amount of orders we have already received for our Survivalistic Paracord Products business :) If you click on the link, it will take you to our facebook page where you can look at pictures of some of the bracelets we've made and contact us if you're interested. Oh, and if you "like" our page, it makes me happy :)

Paracord Survival Bracelets

Josh and I have started making Paracord Survival Bracelets and will be selling them online (through Facebook, or here :) ) for $6 each.
The point of these (besides that they look cool!) is that paracord is a super strong, durable, multi-purpose cord. It holds up to 550 pounds and has seven strands inside of a soft outer wrap. It is also fast drying, flame resistant, and doesn't mildew. Because of it's durability, it can be really useful in many situations and is good to have on hand. A good way to do that is to have a bracelet made out of it. :) These bracelets can be unraveled, producing 8 to 10 feet of paracord good for any use!
Anyway, if you're interested in purchasing one, just leave a comment or contact me through my Facebook (Survivalistic Paracord Products) and tell me what color/colors you want and a measurement of your wrist. Here's some pictures!

You Put Your Arms Around Me And I'm Home

I have once again slacked off from posting and it has been too long since I have done so. But, here I am.
Several things have happened since I last posted. One big (and awesome!) thing is that I got a job working at a vet clinic and quit working at the pizza place. It pays better, is a much better environment, and I like it much, much better. Praising the Lord for that. :)
I took a summer class, Earth Science, which kind of sucked but I was glad to get it done and over with. I'm even more glad, though, that it's over and I don't have to go for hours every evening after work anymore.
Josh and I have been doing a lot of hiking and stuff lately. The weekend before last we went to Mount Magazine and hiked to the highest point in AR, as well as several other paths... about 8 miles in all. Saturday we kayaked for about three hours at Montgomery Lake and found some neat islands and other places along the shoreline that we stopped at and hiked around in. We're planning to go back to Mount Magazine in the next couple weeks to hike the big, 9 mile trail, which may end up being 18 miles if we have to hike back to get to our truck. I even bought a pink fishing pole, on the terms that he would show me how to fish and, if I caught anything, take it off the hook for me. ;)

Here are a few pictures from our recent adventures.

How personal?

Dear readers,
As I was sitting at my desk (in my finally-cleaned room!) working on a paper for Advanced Comp, I was struggling with how to give personal examples without ratting out people I know. So my question is, how personal can/should a personal or familiar essay be? How can one be honest and open with their readers, without sharing too much personal information?

I also struggle with topics. I have a million things I could write about, yet I take forever to choose a topic for anything: essay, poem, story. I always want my topic to be good, interesting, and original. I really need to start on my fiction story for Imaginative Writing (actually, I should have already started on it). I just can't come up with a story that I really want to write about. If worst comes to worst, I can pull out something from my senior creative writing class and revise it a little. We'll see.

On a different note, Josh finished CPR and First Responders last week, passed with flying colors, and came home for the weekend. We got to hang out Friday night and Saturday, but it went by way too quickly. Plus, we both had to work for a while. He's on his way  back right now and starts Firefighter Standards tomorrow.

Midterms went very well, I didn't really have midterm tests, but the grades were taken from everything I've done so far. Straight A's, and I plan to keep it that way til finals. I'm taking a class this summer and between that, the extra hours I've been taking, and the classes I CLEPed out of I'm hoping to graduate a semester early, even if I need to take one more extra class.

I'll leave you with this photo I took with my phone. I know it's crappy because, well, I took it with my phone. But I liked this little flower, I call it Tiny Perfection. :)

Peace,
Emma

I Can Breathe For The First Time

Maybe ya'll are getting tired of this kind of post....... sorry :( I promise I'll post more interesting stuff soon.
But... here's another article. This one is title Children During the Holocaust. I wrote it a few years ago for a scholarship contest, which I did not win. But I put a lot of research and work into it, and learned a lot.. that's what counts, right? I'm such a homeschooler.

This one right here was also written for that ^^^ English class, and is a compare/contrast about Sneakers Vs. Flipflops.

Alright, that's all for tonight. Thanks for reading! Peace!
Emma