8 of the World's Most Unnecessary Inventions

The Sideways Bike

Tomato Sauce Dispenser

The Bike Vest (click on it to view it larger)

Tic Tac Toast. I mean, seriously?!?

Ctrl+Alt+Delete Wand

Incognito Barefeet

Steering wheel tray... what happens when you turn it?

Shoe Umbrellas

Things I Wish I'd Known Before Starting a Blog

Things I Wish I'd Known Before Starting a Blog


1. It's not always easy
Those times when you have writers block.. really bad... and you have NO IDEA what to say!


2. In fact, it can be quite difficult.
Especially when you're going away for a week and you want to store up a whole week's worth of scheduled posts but you can't think of anything to blog about currently, let alone do double the posts for the next week! (Yes, guilty as charged.)


3. It's good typing practice


4. It gets easier and harder as you go along
Easier, as in, you have more readers and more experience. Harder, as in, you've already posted everything you want to say.

5. It's good brainstorming practice



6. You can't just post anything
Each post must be carefully planned and thought out. Too often have I posted something and then had to remove it accompanied with cries of, "That's a horrible photo of me! Don't you dare have it on your blog!" or, "You're not supposed to tell people that yet!"


7. At times, you wonder what possessed you to start a blog
Thankfully, those times are (sometimes) few and far between.


8. It's actually quite rewarding
Seeing people comment (although this doesn't happen very often) with, "I love your blog, Bonnie!" and comments like that. They make everything worth it.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.



Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae
May 3, 1915

Guest Post // Ghost Train

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a house in town with her parents and her brothers, Gottfried and George. The little girl’s name was Grace, and her favourite things to do in all the world were to dance, and to read.

One day in spring, the whole family went to the A&P Show together.

The first thing they did was to go into the Produce Shed and see if they or their friends had won any prizes for their baking and crafts. Mummy had won first prize for her wine. Grace hadn’t won a prize, but attached to her collage was a voucher for the video shop!

After they had been all around the shed, it was time for the Grand Parade. All the prize-winning animals marched slowly around the show ring, with one pipe band at each end for accompaniment. Grace was frightened when one of the huge Clydesdale horses was clumping straight towards her, but it turned away just in time.

When the parade was over, the family went down to where all the stalls and tents were. Gottfried and George stopped to climb on the tractors. While Grace and her parents waited for them, Grace peeped over her shoulder at the dolls’ house display until the stall-holder smiled at her, and she turned quickly round again. Then they went on to the rides.

Gottfried immediately shouted that he would like to have a turn on the mini jeeps. While Daddy paid for his ticket, Mummy invited George to ride on the merry-go-round. Then Daddy and Grace kept strolling along, peering at all the rides to see if there was one Grace would like. All of a sudden, Daddy stopped.

“Look, Grace! Here is a ghost train. I always went on it with my friends when I was a boy. Why don’t you try it?”

Grace wasn’t sure, but just then Mummy and the boys came along and encouraged her to go on the ride. So Daddy and Grace went up to the ticket man.

“Right,” he said, “that’s five dollars, thanks. Now young lady, you just keep your hands and head inside the car and don’t wave them about. Take your hat off now if you don’t want to wear it.”

Daddy helped Grace into the little car. She sat quite straight, with her hands in her lap. The ticket man started the engine and pushed her off into the dark tunnel, calling

“Good luck!”

The train wasn’t very fast. Grace sat still and gazed at everything around as she went past. There were cobwebs, and spiders, and rats, and red lights, and there was black cloth draped on all the walls. She was just trying to figure out how the white rat was making its glinting eyes flicker on and off when the black drapery to her right moved aside, and out stepped a shadowy figure.

“Why, hello,” said Grace softly, for she thought it was the ticket man, come to help the fading rat.

But no! It was not the ticket man! It was - a skeleton!!!

Grace looked at it serenely as the car steadily turned a corner. Anybody knew that skeletons didn’t just walk out from behind curtains. The car turned another bend and came out into the dull November light.

“Well?” asked her family, “How did you like it?”

Grace looked impassively at each one and said,

“Really, it was rather dull…”

About the Author // Hi! I’m Rhoda, and I live in the beautiful South Island with my parents and four younger brothers. I was baptised into the Reformed Church of Oamaru as an infant. Later, God worked in my heart so that now I love Him! I joined the church as a communicant member in November 2012. 

I blog at servingwithjoy.wordpress.com, with the aim of encouraging young women to serve God whole-heartedly, never forgetting the joy of life in Christ.

What We Do For Easter In Our Family

Easter is an awesome time. :) It's a time to remember Jesus's great sacrifice and what He did for us on the cross of Calvary. It's also a time to celebrate His victory as He rose again on Easter Sunday and defeated death forever!

What do we do, as a family, to celebrate Easter and teach the younger children the significance of it?

Well, on Good Friday we attend a church service.

We also have a special lunch meal together within our family. We shut all the blinds in the dining room so it is dark. We have red foods (this year we had grapes, watermelon, apples, tomatoes and plum juice to drink). One year we evendied our homemade bread red (food colouring or beetroot juice, I can't remember which)! We often also eat hot cross buns that meal.

Then we all sit down and eat. Mum or Dad explains that it is dark in our house because from noon until three o'clock in the afternoon darkness came all over the land where Jesus was being crucified. The food is red as a symbol of Jesus' blood that was shed for us.

This is actually supposed to be dark, it looks light because of the camera's flash. :)

We also do the Resurrection Eggs. It's a simple-to-understand but fun way to teach the Easter story to young children.


On Easter Saturday, in the evening, we make these biscuits. (Thanks Danella for writing up the recipe!) It's a wonderful biscuit recipe for younger children that explains the whole Easter story basically. Every ingredient is symbolic. [For example, you whack the walnuts with a wooden spoon to crush them. Then you explain that that is because Jesus was whipped and struck and mocked. (Mathew 27:27-30)] Do have a look at that recipe. It's really cool.


On Resurrection Sunday we take the biscuits out of the oven and eat them. We go to a Church service in the morning, and celebrate with the church Jesus's resurrection. And sometime in the day (usually after lunch) Mum will get out some chocolate Easter eggs and we'll eat them for dessert. :)



How does your family celebrate Easter ?

How I Write in my Diary

Lots of people have diaries. Some have journals. I've heard of them mentioned as notebooks, logbooks and even once a book of secrets!

The place where I write down my thoughts is my diary.

I've had several diaries over the years. My first was begun way back in 2010. Since then, I've been writing roughly one a year. At present I'm in my fourth diary.

Some people ask me what I write in my diary. "How do you keep a diary going for so long?" they ask. Well, I'll let you in on a wee secret. I never used to be able to write a diary. I would start one, write in it avidly for days, weeks, sometimes even months. Then I'd gradually write in it less and less, until it fizzled out forever.

So what has been different about my current diary? How have I managed to keep it going for so long?

Here's my secret.

I don't write in it every day.

KABOOM! Massive revelation! I don't write in it every day!

Seriously though, I believe that is what has kept it going. Too often I forget to write in it for weeks, even months on end. My biggest break in diary writing was about 2 1/2 months, I think. The key (I've found) is to not worry. I don't care if there are massive changes in the dates from one page to the next. Sure, I aim to write at least twice a week, but that often doesn't happen. I don't care!

I think there is this big shroud of mystery about writing in a book. I don't have to write in it every day. What law says I must? To tell you the truth, I haven't seen any that say so!

When I first began it I was mortally afraid some sibling would pick it up and (horror of all horrors!) read it. (Note: if you are worried about what someone will think if they pick it up and read it, there are two solutions. Either hide it in someplace they won't find, or don't write anything in it that you don't mind being read.)

Now onto the big reveal. What do I write in it?

Lots of things.


Sometimes I write the [kind of] boring stuff. "My foot hurts."




Sometimes I write the interesting stuff.
"I've learned that the secret to have joy is to put Jesus first, yourself last, and others in between."

Sometimes I doodle in my diary.

Sometimes I simply write a Bible verse that has been speaking to me recently.

Sometimes (when I am in the right mood) I write in elaborate and complicated codes or ciphers.

Sometimes I write the whole page in mirror writing or pig latin... just for fun.


Do you have a diary /journal / notebook / logbook / book of secrets? What do you write in it?

Jesus is Risen!

John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.

Romans 6:8-11
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 

What to Post When in Doubt II

I was rereading some archives of several blogs I follow the other day when I came across this post. It's What To Post When In Doubt, from The Chronicles of Storyteller.

In this post, Philip simply stated a whole bunch of ideas of what to post when in doubt. Here are his ideas:

* Post random posts.
* Post random pictures.
* Give your opinion about a certain topic.
* Review something you have read.
* Review something you have purchased.
* Give away free stories or recipes.
* Write a post admitting that you don’t have anything to write about.
* Run a competition.
* Make a poll and ask people to vote.
* Write down your favourite Bible stories and/or verses.
* Talk about your day.
* Inspire people to do some feat.
* Write random facts about yourself.
* Write a blog post suggesting things to do.

I thought that last one was pure genius. 

But I've gone one step further.

* Write a blog post suggesting things to do, completely stealing someone else's idea, then take all the credit.

You're welcome.

Have a nice day. :)

Good Friday

Isaiah 53:5:

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

So True

"The two greatest days in anyone's life is the day they were born and the day they knew why."

Awkward and Awesome

Awkward:

- When you are holding your adorably cute baby sister and a friend comes up to you and asks to hold her so you say, "Sure!" and hand her over and she bursts into tears as soon as she has left your arms.
- When your stomach randomly rumbles when you are with other people and there is absolutely NOTHING that you can do about it...
- When you're trying to get past someone but you keep stepping to the same side as them
- This moment:


- Being really really really really early to events.
- When you're trying to take a photo but the same person keeps stepping in your way.. then you move your position slightly until they are out of the picture... then they step in your way again... then the cycle repeats itself.
- Last night I got home late from work and was really tired and I was just sitting at the table eating my (cold) tea sort of listening to Dad read a book about a Little Red Caboose to Jacob. Lydia came in and asked what book it was... Dad replied, "The Little Red Cabbage". Lydia didn't notice anything wrong with that statement but as she walked out of the room I suddenly realised what he had said. "Dad, what did you say the title of that book was?" *Loud guffaws from Dad* "Just seeing if you were listening!" Lol... I don't really listen when I am tired.
- When you're trying to find your pocket...

Awesome:

- The colour royal blue
- When you are folding up washing and your little sibling runs up to you with a massive smile on their wee face yelling excitedly, "Can I help you, Bonnie???" (Yes please!)
- Fried potato
- Taking photos of Lydia and her class practicing their dance for the upcoming ballet show.
- This adorable wee sister -

- Helping train new netball umpires. It's really cool to watch them start to pick up more infringements as they improve.
- Seeing photos of other people's trips to exotic countries
- Being so excited about something that you literally cannot sleep.

300th Post and The Winner

Guess what.


It's my 300th Post on My Blog!


I don't know about you, but I love celebrating milestones like this. I think that these sorts of things should definitely be celebrated! Besides, it's fun.


Without further ado, let me announce the winner of the How Well Do You Know Me competition.





The winner...



is...



Laura B!



Congratulations Laura!


*cues fireworks and awesome music*





Yes, the winner is not a member of my family. Even my siblings who took part in the quiz got questions wrong. Besides, I had to give them a disadvantage because they are my siblings, after all.

So the eventual winner is Laura, who only got one question wrong - the colour of my eyes. Laura, my eyes are hazel, not brown. Just saying. :)

Expect an email from me sometime in the next few days!





Well done everyone. Except for that evil person masquerading as my name backwards who entered all the incorrect answers trying to be clever. I. Went. On. The. Hunt. And. I. Know. Who. It. Was. (Watch. Out.)

Have a wonderful day.

(And congratulations again to Laura who knows me the best out of all my blog readers!!)

A Plea To Enter The 'How Well Do You Know Me?' Quiz / Questionnaire Thingy

I must say, I was quite surprised at the responses to the "How Well Do You Know Me?" questionnaire. People that I thought knew me quite well (like my sisters for example, lol) got questions that I thought were easy wrong!! I guess it just goes to show that you never can tell. :) It's proving quite interesting seeing how much people don't know about me!

If you haven't entered yet, please do! Enter here. I'd love to have lots of responses so more people have chances to win.

morguefile

This is my 299th post... so exciting....

What awesome thing do you think I should do for my 300th post besides announce the winner(s)?

How well do you know me? (a.k.a. A Celebration of 300 Posts)

This. Is. My. 298th. Post.

*bows, waits for clapping to die down*

Okay, let's have some fun. :) I've made this little form with a few wee questions about me on it. Some are hard, some are easy. Most of the answers should be found somewhere on this blog. If you can't find/don't know the answer, that's okay, just make up something. :)

Have a go. There may even be an awesome prize for the winner.

(And just in case you haven't guessed by now, this is a celebration of my 300th post mark. I haven't reached it quite yet, but the big results on who knows me best will be posted as my 300th post. :) )



I'll let you know how you get on... :) Isn't 300 such a nice number?

Some Funnies for your Day

Exactly. Every time.

I can't believe that's the only thing they go by... is it seriously true????

If you want to view any bigger, just click on them.

Oh, and here is something quite interesting. Who ever thought that hotels like these existed?

What we were up to

This is what we were up to on Sunday (6th April) afternoon.

Who's taking photos of me on the computer????

Jacob on the trampoline :)

5 Reasons Why I Have Long Hair

1. I have Options (with a capital O)
Since I have long hair, I can do what I want with it. I can put it in a bun, a ponytail, plait it, leave it out long... whatever. If you have short hair you are very limited to what you can do with it.

2. It's Biblical
1 Corinthians 11:15 says "but if a woman has long hair, is it not her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering."

3. It gives me warmth and coolness. 
When it is winter and really cold, I have my hair out long to keep my neck warm. When it is summertime and warm, I do my hair up to keep myself cool and to keep my hair out of my way. The benefit of having long hair is that you get that versatility. If I had short hair I would be cool in summer but cold in winter.

4. It's all I've ever known
I've never had hair very short. Apart from when I was born, of course, and it grew after that. But other than that, my hair has always been long. I love long hair. Sure, I sometimes wish it was even longer and wavier and not this boring dirty brown colour (I have always wished for blonde hair), but it's certainly better (to my way of thinking, anyway) than having anything else.

5. I like it!
Okay, this is probably the main reason I keep my hair long. I like it. I like it a lot.


Girls with long hair, what are your reasons for having long hair?

Awkward and Awesome

Awkward:

-When you get told at Church that your younger sister looks a lot older than you. I am an entire two years older than Sophie.
- When someone posts on their blog that they are deleting their blog and you totally believe it before you get told that it was an April Fools post. So much Duh.
- Being late to things.
- When you get home from Church only to have your Dad tell you that the man standing behind you in Church had told him that it looked to him like your spine is slightly curved! This actually happened to my sister. Awkward!
- Trying to think of awkward things to post about...
- When you are chatting with someone on facebook and they do a typo and it is so embarrassing for them... it's probably the worst/funniest/most awful/silliest/most embarrassing typo I've ever seen that has happened in front of my eyes. It was really awkward though because it was obvious what he was trying to say but he was really embarrassed because it was a completely awkward typo... just goes to show that you should always proofread your messages before you send them!
- April Fool's Day = your brothers change all your clocks.
- Doing a photoshoot with your sisters when two of you are in a really hyper, silly mood and can't pose or do anything except fall about laughing and pull silly faces and all you want to take is some nice photos...
- Writing with the wrong hand 'just for fun'. Totally messy and unreadable.




Awesome:

- That Mum is writing a book!!! (Like, a proper one.)



I'll leave it at that for today....

Answers to the Riddles

In my most recent post, Requested Riddles, I posted 6 riddles for you to work out. Here they are again, with the answers.

1.) Has a blade of jagged cut.
Keeps the quickest hand out shut.
Goes in darkness. Wears a ring.
One is quiet. Many sing.
Answer: Key


2.) What is the unique characteristic of the following 3 words:coughing, thirsty and defiant? Answer: They all have three consecutive letters. couGHIng, thiRSTy, DEFiant

3.)One snowy night, Sherlock Holmes was in his house sitting by a fire. All of a sudden a snowball came crashing through his window, breaking it.
Holmes got up and looked out the window just in time to see three neighborhood kids who were brothers run around a corner. Their names were John Crimson, Mark Crimson and Paul Crimson.
The next day Holmes got a note on his door that read '? Crimson. He broke your window.'
Which of the three Crimson brothers should Sherlock Holmes question about the incident?
Answer: The note reads "? (Question MARK) Crimson. He broke your window." Pretty obvious, huh?


4.) Alexander is stranded on an island covered in forest.
One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process.
There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off.
How can Alexander survive the fire? (There are no buckets or any other means to put out the fire)
Answer: Alexander picks up a piece of wood and lights it from the fire on the west end of the island.
He then quickly carries it near the east end of he island and starts a new fire. The wind will cause that fire to burn out the eastern end and he can then shelter in the burnt area. Alexander survives the fire, but unfortunately dies of starvation from lack of food.

5.) How do you make seven even?
Answer: Remove the S

6.) You have to put a letter on the following word to make it a meaningful word. The only challenge is that you can't use 'E'.

S E Q U E N C _

Answer: You use the letter F. Because there is a dash _ underneath the letter place already, that conveniently serves as the base line of the E to make a meaningful word, SEQUENCE. (F + _ = E!)

How many did you get right?

Requested Riddles

A reader of this blog requested I do a riddle post, somewhat like this one. So here is my riddle post.


1.) Has a blade of jagged cut.
Keeps the quickest hand out shut.
Goes in darkness. Wears a ring.
One is quiet. Many sing.


2.) What is the unique characteristic of the following 3 words:coughing, thirsty and defiant?

3.)One snowy night, Sherlock Holmes was in his house sitting by a fire. All of a sudden a snowball came crashing through his window, breaking it.
Holmes got up and looked out the window just in time to see three neighborhood kids who were brothers run around a corner. Their names were John Crimson, Mark Crimson and Paul Crimson.
The next day Holmes got a note on his door that read '? Crimson. He broke your window.'
Which of the three Crimson brothers should Sherlock Holmes question about the incident?


4.) Alexander is stranded on an island covered in forest.
One day, when the wind is blowing from the west, lightning strikes the west end of the island and sets fire to the forest. The fire is very violent, burning everything in its path, and without intervention the fire will burn the whole island, killing the man in the process.
There are cliffs around the island, so he cannot jump off.
How can Alexander survive the fire? (There are no buckets or any other means to put out the fire)

5.) How do you make seven even?

6.) You have to put a letter on the following word to make it a meaningful word. The only challenge is that you can't use 'E'.
S E Q U E N C _

What do you think the answers are?

New Blog

I'm not going to post on my new blog, don't worry. It's just an online place to put the notes on the debating workshop that my Dad and I ran at our public speaking group the other day. If you are interested in what we said, the notes and blog are here.

Answers and Results to the Changes competition

First of all, I would like to say that I was thrilled to see how many people entered my changes competition.

I was surprised how many people thought that the ABC123 page had been changed to Guestbook, even though that has been changed for about 3 months! Another really common (false) change was that people thought I had changed my About Me page. Really? About 4 weeks ago, yes. :)


Here are the changes I made. (In no particular order.)


1.) I changed the width of my sidebar

2.) I changed the colours of the links (purple to pink)

3.) I changed the colour of my blog background to a darker purple

4.) I changed the colour of my blog description text

5.) I changed the font of my page titles in the page bar at the top of my blog

6.) I completely deleted my 'Photos' page

7.) I moved the 'follow by email' gadget up in the sidebar, and the 'total pageviews' gadget down from my sidebar to the bottom of the page

8.) I've taken away the place where you can give the blog however many stars you think it's worth.

9.) I've taken away the place where you can vote for what type of people read your blog. eg, Friend of mine, fellow chocolate lover etc.

10.) I've added 'Written just for you by Bonnie Smithies' at the end of each blog post.

Results

The winner was...



Matthew Mischewski with 5 points! (I will email you with your prize hopefully sometime soon.)




Second place goes to:

Sophie with 2 points!



All of the rest of the entrants had 1 point each.



Well done everyone!! Lots of people commented on how hard it was... so maybe to make it easier next time you should keep a closer eye on my blog and then you'll be able to tell when I change it!