Bright Eyes' Blog

Words. They are powerful small things. Edward Bulwer-Lytton once said “The pen is mightier than the sword.” That is true, because pens write words. I love words especially in the form of books or quotes. Words have the power to lift someone up, or to tear someone down. In today’s world, there are so many places to share words. Some people say kind things, but many more say unkind things.  That’s why I wanted to share with you some of my favorites words, in the form of quotes.

I hope you like them as much as I do,

Bright Eyes

“I am not afraid, I was born to do this.” – Joan of Arc

“Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through, no matter what.” – Harper Lee

“Imagination is the air of the mind.” – Philip James Bailey

“No need to hurry, no need to sparkle, no need to be anyone but oneself.” – Virginia Woolf

“No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank

“The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” Nelson Mandela

“Throw your dreams in the air like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back: a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” – Anaïs Nin

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage.” – Brené Brown

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” – Oscar Wilde

“We become what we think about.” – Earl Nightingale

“The world only exists in your eyes. You can make it as big or as small as you like.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde

“I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after… and altered the color of my mind.” – Emily Brontë

“Fears are paper lions.” – Amelia Earheart

“Courage dear heart.” – C. S. Lewis

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein

“I’d rather be vulnerable and be hurt, than be closed off and never feel a thing. – Bright Eyes

I. AM. SO. EXCITED. FOR. FALL. I love, love love, love, love fall. It’s my favorite season and it’s right around the corner. Reasons I love fall:

1: sweaters and jeans. I break out all my comfy clothes for fall.

2: warm drinks. I drink an abundance of tea and Starbuck’s chai tea lattes in the cooler months. Here’s my favorite recipe: https://detoxinista.com/chai-latte/

3: the leaves: The color of the leaves is gorgeous in the fall. Amber, crimson, and dusty brown leaves are everywhere. (plus, the leaves crunch as you walk in them)

4: apples: Apple cider, apple picking, apple sauce, apple butter, homemade apple pie. I love all things apple.

5: the air: For some reason the air smells different in the fall. It’s usually crisp and cool every day.

6: the sky: 80% of fall days are adorned with beautiful blue skies. The other 20% are drizzly with gray skies and I love those days too, because they highlight the color of the leaves.

7: pumpkin picking: Every fall my family and I go to a pumpkin patch and pick pumpkins for carving. Then we take them home and carve them out.

8: Thanksgiving: I love having my family all together for one meal on Thanksgiving. My mom, grandma, and great aunt are all fabulous cooks, so we always have tons of leftovers. My dad also makes this flaky, buttery pie crust for all of the pies that everyone in my family looks forward to.

Post your favorite season and why in the comments section below.

Happy fall,

Bright Eyes

Hello! I hope you all are enjoying the last few weeks of school. This is my last full week in school, next week I am taking Memorial day off and Thursday is my last day. Yay! Lately I have been reading a lot about our dying natural resources, like bees, the Great Barrier Reef, and forests. I decided to make a website with some of my favorite websites about conservation listed all in one place. The link is https://conservationresources.weebly.com/. Check it out and visit the websites listed their.

I hope you will be inspired to help save our planet,

Artist

Hello, friends! I am so sorry it has taken me so long to write. Lately I’ve been struggling with letting go. My family has moved twice in two years, and both times it has hurt to leave wonderful friends behind. I wasn’t exactly angry with God, just sort of upset. It’s hard to let go of people you care a lot about, especially when you don’t have much time to say goodbye. In Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 11,it says “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, ” Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” I know that was this verse says is very, very true, but it’s hard not being able to see the plan. It also does not make the hard parts of life any easier. A couple of Sundays ago, my pastor preached on stewardship. He preached that God gives us all the good things in our lives, but that ALL art didn’t really click until a couple of days later. I was reading in my Bible and found this verse in Job. Job was a guy who had everything. The Bible says that he had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 oxen, 500 donkeys, 7 sons,and 3 daughters. He obeyed God, so God blessed him. Then one day, Satan went to God and said, ” This guy Job only obeys you because you blessed him. If you let me take all that stuff  away, he’ll turn away from you and curse your name.” God knew, though, that Job was faithful and would obey him even if He took all Job’s blessings away. So He allowed Satan to take all of his blessings away. The house that all Job’s children were in caved in and killed all of them, his enemy’s stole his donkeys and oxen, fire burned the field that his sheep were grazing in and killed them, and some of his other enemy’s stole all his camels. Through it all, Job said, ” The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed is the name of the Lord.” Even though Job lost everything, he was able to praise God, and have faith in His plan. That’s when it all clicked for me. God gave me my friends, and he could take me away from them too. I should still praise Him, and be thankful for the time I had with them. That’s the most wonderful thing about God. I can still miss my friends, but I know that whatever I am going through is part of His plan. So I don’t have to worry about anything that may happen. May God be with you friends,

Artist

Wow! Summer has gone by so fast! I am sort of sad and excited to say the the Johnson and Smithens- Copeland family are moving. Again. Sigh. Well, now that I’ve given you the news,I will hand it over to the dolls (by the way, my dolls a pretend moving to Boston, it’s not for real) Hi guys, it ‘s Rue. Guess what, we’re moving to Boston! If you look at a map of the U.S. it seems soooo far away from California. Before I get too far into this let me explain the oops. Sooo, I may or may not have been watching TV while I was writing the first blogpost and I totally messed up Saige and my ages. Saige is really 12 not 14 and I am 11 not 13. This morning Saige looked  at the post and found my mistake. she made me vow that I would never be watching TV and writing a post again. Saige and I have decided that we’re narrowing down our interest field because of our newest additions. They are Bob the snake and Pom Pom the shelter pup. So I will be working on ballet, art,reading and writng. Saige will be working on theater, piano, training Pom Pom, and sewing. Hopefully cutting down on activities will give us more time for the pets.I hope you enjoy the rest of the summer,

Rue

Bonjour, everyone! It’ s Rue again. Today I’m going to write about my fabulous Sat . I love my teachers at my school, but nothing beats the weekend. Last Saturday  I slept in till 9 and Saige slept in till 10. I can’ the believe someone could sleep so late on a Saturday! When I woke up I put my running stuff on and went for a quick run around our neighborhood. If you run in the late spring in California, you have to run in the morning or else it gets waaaayyy too hot. When I got back Sleeping Saige still wasn’t up so I had cereal. By the time I had finished washing dishes, Saige was up. After she ate breakfast and we got dressed, it was 11. We then decided that we would go for a picnic in our garden. There isn’the enough space in our backyard for a garden so we own a plot next Seashell Park. It’s a 5 minute walk from our house. So I made grilled cheese for us, Saige got 2 cartons of milk, and Cooper, well, Cooper sat and begged for a piece of cheese. Once we had every thing packed, and Cooper on a leash, we were off! Once we got to the garden, I let E.B, my chicken out of her coop.E.B. lives in a coop next to my garden because if she lived in the yard, Cooper would scare her to death. After we ate we made a quick stop home to change into our bathing suits, grab sunglasses, put Cooper in his kennel, grab towels,and slap sunscreen on. We took the bus to the beach which, thank goodness, is only 12 minutes away. If it would have been longer, I might have fainted because, the swelling California heat and too many people  crammed on a bus equals unbearable heat. Once we got to the beach, Saige stretched out her towel on the warm, glowing sand and started tanning. I ran into the ocean, splashingand skipping farther and farther into the ocean.  Then I dover underwater. The water was refreshinglying freezing compared to the heat. I sprinted up to the shore and dumped a handfull of salty, frigid, ocean water on Saige’s back and she sure yelped. I leaped back into the water and this time, she followed me.”Payback time!” she declared, smacking her arms on the water near me. As if to get away from the pain of the smacking, the water left up to my face, like hundreds of micro sized bees stinging me. I dove under water, and pulled Saige’s feet from under her so she fell backwards into the water. We played like this for 2 more hours. After that, we dried off and I went shell hunting. I have a big box under my bed full of shells and interesting rocks that I ‘ve found at the beach. I only found one new rock on Saturday. It was bright red, either streaks of darker, cherry colored red running through it. Then Saige announced that it was 4 and we needed to go home. There were less people on the bus on the way back, and the driver had the air conditioning on, so the ride wasn’t so bad. Once we got home, I let Cooper out so he could use the restroom. I hopped in the tub and had a quick rinse to get all the sand and saltwater out of my hair. While I was changing into my pjs, Saige took a quick shower too. Once we were both squeaky clean and in our fuzzy pajamas on, we decided that we were going to order pizza. It was 10 to 6, and neither of us felt like cooking dinner. We called the pizza place and they said the pizza that we ordered would be to us in 10 to 15 minutes. While we waited, we turned on Shark Tank. Just as one of the people were going to make a deal, the doorbell rang. I reluctantly shut the TV off and headed down stairs.Saige brought the pizza into the dining room, and we finished the whole thing. We were both exhausted, so we went straight to bed. And that was my fabulous Saturday.

Rue☆

 

Hi everybody, it’s Rue. Today I’m  going to write about my house. I live in a grey 2 story house with white shutters and a red door. It has 2 bedrooms and a bathroom and really cool attic that we use for our TV hangout room. When you walk in through the front door you go into the kitchen. It has white cabinets and blue countertops and a raised bowl sink. Our dog Cooper has his bed in there and he eats in there too. Next to the kitchen is the dining room. It has a white table with two chairs and a fire place made of red brick. On top of the fireplace there is a black mantle and on the mantle is a big red pitcher with flowers on the front of it that we keep water in. If you go to the next room there is our bathroom. It, like the rest of the house has wood floors and it has a dark grey counter and a glass tub. Over the glass tub there is a shelf where we keep all our shampoo and conditioner and soap. Oh, and Saige  keeps her bath salts up there too. And there’s a toilet. Everyone needs a toilet. On the second level there are our rooms. That sounds so funny! My room has a bed with a denim headboard, pink and grey comforter, and a fuzzy pillow and a cat pillow.Next to my bed is a white nightstand with a grey top. I keep my reading glasses and my retainer on it. I also have a wooden floating desk that, in the middle is a book shelf. On the top of my desk I keep my foam chicken that looks like E.B., and my laptop. In the left hand corner of my room I have an easel. On it is a painting of Salt, my horse. Underneath it I keep my big books that won’t fit in my desk/bookshelf. In Saige’s room, she has a vanity made of wood and metal. The vanity itself is a round table and above it there is a oval shaped giant mirror, the chair is high backed and the back has a heart in the middle of it. Her bed is a yellow scrollwork bed and in the scrollwork there are hearts. Next to her bed she has a nightstand where she keeps most of her makeup.Boy, she has a lot of it. At the end of her bed she has a organizer where she keeps all of her sewing stuff. At last, on the third floor we have our attic. It has a big colorful floor rug, and a bunch of storage bins for all our toys. In the right half of the room we have a round table with a foldout chair and a regular chair and on top of the table is our TV. Oh, I almost forgot! On the left side of the kitchen we have our music room. My keyboard and flute are in there and Saige’s guitar and tambourine are there too. We’ll, that’s all of our house. Thanks for reading,

Rue ☆

Hi! Sorry it took me so long to write another post but, as most people know, life can get really busy. Anyway, my dolls decided that they want to write on my blog this summer, and I told them they could. So, every post that says The Summer Doll Diaries is “written” by them. I’m handing the computer off now……… Hello, blog readers! My sister and I are going to write biographies about ourselves so you can get to know us better. Here it goes!

RUTH

full name: Ruth Ginger Smithens-Copeland

nickname:Rue

age: 12

hobbies: You ready for this? Horseback riding, drawing, reading, gardening, knitting, photography, and running

pets: Salt and Pepper, my mares, and E. B. White, my hen

favorite animal: cat (I really wish I had one!)

favorite song: If We’re Honest by Franchesca Battestelli

favorite celebrity: Franchesca Battestelli

favorite food: grilled cheese

favorite movie: Mulan

favorite tv show: Shark Tank

favorite toy: Caroline, my American Girl doll

favorite characters: Mulan, Wooton from Adventures in Odessy, and the Cheshire Cat

word to describe you: energetic

best friend: My neighbor Bella Lowe. I can’t imagine life without her!

number of times in life that I moved: 3 Born in Massachusetts, then moved to New Jersey, and then moved to Washington, and finally to California.

siblings: Saige, my big sis

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAIGE

full name: Saige Lolani Smithens-Copeland

nickname: none. I really don’t like  them!

age: 14

hobbies: designing clothes, sewing, hairstyling, doing makeup, pet grooming, and cooking

pets: Cooper, my golden doodle

favorite animal: The kiwi! I love how it stands out in the crowd.

favorite song: I Will Trust In You by Lauren Daigle

favorite celebrity: Lauren Daigle

favorite food: seafood pizza

favorite tv show: Beat Bobby Flay

favorite toy: is my sewing machine considered a toy?????????

favorite characters: Alice from Alice in Wonderland

favorite movie: do I have to only choose one?

word to describe you: stylish

best friend: Kit Kitteredge

times that I moved in my life: 3

siblings: Rue, my younger sister

 

 

Dear 3rd Grade,

Hi! I haven’t thought about you for a while now, and I miss you. I miss my small 4 person class, easy math( think no hard algebric equations like I’m learning right now!!!!!!!!) pizza days, and that absolutley FABULOUS teacher I had. I miss the castle and snow days. Now I don’t get any because my school is my house. I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy miss Genius Hour.( I know a lot about Shakespere from it.) But, my dear 3rd grade you are the past, not the present. Thanks for all you taught me, the people you helped me meet and for making me actually say” Can we stay in school for the whole summer? Please?????” on the last day of school and showing me that You win the 40 book challenge when you actually record the books you read. You will never, ever be forgotten *wipes tear from face*

Yours truly,

Artist

My wonderfilled life is full of strugles, fails, triumphs, and victories. You see, life doesn’t always go according to our plan.I’ve moved for the third time in my short life, and I was became a homeschooling kid. My life story isn’t perfect, but I am here today saying what doesn’t kill ya makes ya stronger. Through some life changes, God has shaped me and molded me to be the person I am today. My plans have been wrecked many a time.I ‘ve learned the most important thing is family,and that faith, hope, and love will bring you home. I change more and more everyday I’m on this earth. I wish that sometimes I didn’t need a slap in the face to teach me a lesson, but sometimes it’s needed.I truly have a wonderfilled life.

I miss you all and wish you the best,

Artist