The year 2017 was a huge gift from the Lord for my family and me. It was a year of growth, guidance, trial, and joy. At times, it was hard, but God always pulled through for us. Always. Through pain, trial, and fear, the Lord showed us peace, glory in His Light, and courage. This year was a year of learning that God is LORD and the path of life is truly a blessing. 

  The end of December sorta had me ‘ugh, here we go. Folks going back over their year as if these ‘highlights’ matter… and folks making goals like suddenly everything will change…’ but today, I realized that yes. Life goes on. Years come and go. Nothing magically changes. Time is just time – it isn’t a god. When we look over the past, let us see the good with joy and learn from the bad but never dwell on the bad. When we look toward the future, let us look to Jesus instead. Let Yeshua guide our steps, our goals, our hearts.

I’m going to do a brief overview of things that happened in 2017 because honestly… it is cool seeing how far Yahweh has brought me and my family. I probably missed things but oh well, this is last minute.

Gifts Of Life

• Mom went to the Sunshine Clinic and is being healed of Lyme disease. 
• Both Tory and my older brother Ryan’s wife are pregnant with their third babies, both girls.
• My Curly appaloosa baby, Mini, was born.
• I got my ’69 Ford truck in March!
• I won 1st place in kata and 2nd in sparring at the USEWF Annual Championships, also in March.
• We went to a WWII reenactment near by in September. Soo amazing.
• We took a few vacations to North Carolina. We stayed with my grandparents and had so much fun, every time we went! We visited Pigeon Forge, Cherokee, and went to Georgia in a mini day trip also.
• I turned 16 in October so there’s that. I’m practically ancient. ;P
• My mom and Tory started selling Paparazzi jewelry towards the end of 2017 and I’ve been helping them. It is so fun and we’re feeding the horses with the money – praise God!
• Mamaw and Papaw came down for Christmas and we had a blast.

• The solar eclipse happened in August. Neat.

• We sold one of our houses. We still live on our 10 acres but it’s about 6 acres now.
• We bought a bus! We’re going to either make it into a tiny house or build our Paparazzi business in it. Stay tuned!
• We did the Christmas boxes for the Samaritan’s Purse again. Love that tradition – we do it for my birthday.
• My blog, The Peculiar Messenger, turned 4 years old this year. I want to thank you each from the bottom of my heart – thank you for joining this journey!

World Of Writing

2017 was a big year for my journey of writing. Yahweh opened my eyes in so many ways and I tried so many new things. I also met a lot of wonderful fellow writer’s online and so that was a huge blessing! Here’s a list of the awesome craziness that happened!

• I wrote the 2nd draft of Seek, during Camp NaNo in April. The first draft of Seek, written in 2016, was only 140+ pages… the 2nd draft is over 380 pages.
• I printed a physical copy of Seek and ahhh guys, you must print your books and stories. So nice.
• I sent Seek out to beta readers. This was the first time I ever shared my writing with anyone outside of my family… and the results are so encouraging and helpful. I love my betas dearly. I didn’t edit anything – except one scene – before I sent it out. For this to be so unedited, I’m very happy with the feedback.
  • I edited a lot of Seek this year. Not done yet, but the betas are amazing and it is getting there.
• I wrote Jump – twice, actually. First draft in Camp Nano in July, and did most of the 2nd draft in NaNoWriMo.
  • So… that means I wrote two novels this year. Wow.
• I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time and won. I worked on Jump draft two for the month of November and it went great.
• I read over 100 books this year, thus meeting my goal of 100.
  • Quite a few of those were Indie books etc.
  • And it was mostly fiction. Though I did read Scriptures and nonfiction so.

Stepping Into 2018

Here are a few of my personal goals that I pray God guides me to do. However, the biggest goal is – share God’s Love! With anyone God leads me to share it and everyone. I pray to be a light, in real life and online, to others. I pray to share God’s joy no matter where I am, through everything.

• Read the entire Bible. I didn’t get that close this year to this goal… but I’m going to do it this year.
• Publish Seek. Once I finish the final edits and all that entails, I am seriously praying on publishing Seek.
• Finish writing and edit Jump. 
• Write another novel and/or novella. I’m giving myself room here – whatever I choose to write as a new project will most likely be done during Camp or NaNo.
• Earn money with my mom and sis in Paparazzi.
• Earn my blue belt in karate. Also, compete in the USEWF tournament again.
• Graduate 10th grade. Aha, as if I have a choice here. 😉 But I shall add it to my goal list to have a sense of accomplishment.
• Get my driver’s permit and license. I would have had my learner’s permit this year – I was all ready to go take the test – but we had multiple issues with the homeschool stuff. Ridiculous. But I think it’s ready now so… yeah.
  • Drive at night. This is a life dream for me, y’all. I want to drive at night. With Twenty One Pilots playing. Yes.
  • Take my Mom on a ‘date’ once and take her shopping to help out another. So, I’ll be doing this more than once, but still.
• Go to one state, at least.
• Learn one song on the piano. And remember it, haha.
• Garden again and produce some yummy meals.
• Spend time every month working with Taloowa and Mini. Taloowa is my Chickasaw/Choctaw mare and Mini is a foal – they both need attention and training this year.
• Develop photography skills. I got a really cool new camera for Christmas and I can’t wait to get to work.
• Continue to spread Lyme disease awareness. 
• Reach 250 WordPress followers. I’m currently at 170 so… we’ll see how this goes.
• Find and maintain a blogging schedule. OK, so, before we all start laughing… I mean this one this time… *laughs* *coughs* Yeah. Mean it. I’m going to get a schedule that won’t kill me and post regularly. I want to build this blog as a platform to spread Jesus and talk to others.

  2018 is another year. Day after day. But we’re not promised that – we’re not promised every day. We’re not promised life will be fantastic. We’re not promised anything except what Yeshua tells us… and He tells us to live for His glory, share His Word, and live for Him. That is what I pray to do. Not just for 2018 but for life! Yahweh has blessed me with an amazing family and that is what we will do. Live for the King.

God bless y’all!

-Angela Watts