Gracelyn Sparks

Hey guys! Yep, it's that time of the month. Today I'm going to be giving you guys an overview/update of April. This month has been interesting. Challenging at some times, exciting at others, so today I thought I'd just give you guys a quick overview of all of it :) If you guys didn't know, my mom, younger sister, and I all have birthdays in April. Judah turned 9 on the 7th, my mom's birthday was the 11th (let's just say she turned 25 haha), and I turned 13 on the 12th, which was coincidently Easter! It was a bit weird having my birthday on Easter haha, but it was pretty good. Sadly, I wasn't able to see any friends on my birthday, but I was still able to message them and they sent me some really sweet messages, so thank you to them <3 ^-^ Most of the month we were on break, but we started school back again on the 20th of April. As I've mentioned in a previous post, we're doing online school, which actually wasn't too much of an adjustment,...

Almost everyday something happens that we don't expect. It could catch us totally off guard and change our day completely, or it we could just roll with it. Maybe it's something simple like falling or a quick change of plans. Those things might catch us off guard, but we roll with them. Some things though, are harder to get back up with. We don't understand why they happen, and it can take days, weeks, months, or even years sometimes to get back to normal. It could be losing a loved one, getting a serious injury, or facing a big change. Take for example, this virus that has spread all over the globe. I remember back in January, at our school we looked it up, and a lot of sources—including our school—said it was fake news. And that seemed easy to believe, it wasn't as bad then. And somehow, just a couple of months or even weeks later, things exploded. It spread to the States, and Europe, and Africa. Big events like the NBA were cancelled, and eventually schools ...

Yes, we have officially come to this subject. School. Ah, what a controversial topic. As you guys may know, COVID-19 has caused a lot of schools to close. In fact, probably almost all of them. And some schools have gone online. So we've started doing school online. We use G Suite, which has a bunch of cool tools you can use like Google Classroom, Google Hangouts, Google Docs, etc. So far it's gone pretty well. Today I wanted to give you guys some tips for school. These are mostly for online classes/homeschool, but some of them could probably be used for real school. I am actually using these and adding more as I find what has helped me. I hope you find them helpful! - Turn your phone on SILENT Don't put it on vibrate or turn down the volume. Put it on silent!! Even when your phone vibrates or rings quietly, it can still be a distraction and you'll find yourself checking it. Believe me, I do. If you know you won't check it even if you put it on vibrate or ...

Hey guys! What's up? I hope you had a great February! I literally can NEVER say February. Do you say the "ru" or no? Haha, I guess life has its mysteries. 😂 Anyhoo, Feb wasn't too chaotic. There was Valentine's Day... I didn't have a valentine, but I'm not complaining 😂 And I seriously can't think of anything else that we did... wow 😂 ------------------------------------------------------- But one thing I wanted to start sharing are verses each month. So, drum roll please, the VOTM (Verse Of The Month) is 2 Corinthians 4:9: "We are persecuted but NOT forsaken. Struck down but NOT destroyed." This verse has really been meaningful to me. God never leaves us. Even when we feel like God's turned his back on us, or he doesn't care, he's still there. And he promises us freedom and peace, whether on this earth or in heaven. God never said it would be easy, but he did say he's stay with us. He gives us the strength ...

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! I hope you guys had an amazing 2019, and I hope you have an amazing 2020! It’s crazy how one year takes forever when you’re in the middle of it, but as soon as it’s over it seems like it went by really fast! I decided to combine my December and January post because there wasn’t a lot that happened in either month. Well, a lot happened, but most of it was between the months.             First of all, Merry Christmas! I hope you had an amazing Christmas, and I posted a song on my YouTube channel about Christmas here in Mozambique/Africa, which I’ll talk more about later. We were able to start Christmas with presents and a delicious breakfast with our friend Laura. I am so thankful to the Lord for all of the presents I got, and I hope my family liked my homemade gifts 😂 . We pretty much just chilled Christmas day, but that night we started our trip to South Africa.    ...

Hi guys! Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you guys had an amazing Thanksgiving, and I hope that you had plenty to give thanks for! But first off, one of my friends has started a blog about a month ago. You guys should check it out  here .  Anyhoo, (which I now realized I've spelled wrong all along, oops 😂) the main two things that have happened since my last post are: (1) I graduated 6th grade and (2) Thanksgiving passed! Also, my dad had his birthday! Graduation came first, so I'll start with that. Ok, but honestly it feels like I've been in the 6th grade FOREVER! I had about a semester left of 5th grade when we first moved to Nacala, Mozambique, but I did 6th grade work (we homeschooled). Then, when we went to that private school (to learn Portuguese) I was in 6th grade, but we kind of did 7th grade work. After that, we moved here (to Pemba) and we went to an international school where I did the 6th grade (again). So I've pretty much been in the 6th grade for a year ...

Hey guys! Sorry for the late post, like usual.  😂😅 I need to clarify something though, in case you’re confused. At one point I was going to start posting weekly, but now things are so busy with school and everything that I just don’t have the time to do that. So, now I will be trying to post as often as possible, but hopefully at least once a month. This post is for September/October, so you can look for my November post sometime in the near future or early December, and maybe a post before then. Anywho, sorry for all of the inconsistency. We’ve just been really busy! Honestly, we just got back into a routine last week. But don’t worry, I’ll make up for it. :) To start it off, we finished the first half of the last term! Woohoo! I honestly can’t believe that next week is the last week of school! The last day of school is the 30th, and on the 30th   is my grade’s graduation. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but at our school we have primary (Kindergarten-6th) and Se...

Woohoo! I hope everyone had an awesome summer break! After finishing our end-terms we got a three-week break! Okay, I know three weeks isn't that much compared to about two to three months, but hey, I'll take what I can get. It's not really summer break though. Let me explain. The school year here goes by the English school year, which is from January to December. Yep, year-long school. But I guess it's not THAT bad. There are three terms, and within each term there are midterm and end-term exams. After every midterm exam we get one week of break. We just finished our second term end-terms and then had a three-week break. Anywho, I'm going to skip the boring statistics about how kids in year-long school benefit from it. Besides, this is break. I may only have until the 26th, but that's not stopping me from trying to avoid math and overall memorizing things at ALL costs! :) Anywho, during the first week of break, we pretty much just sat home and played Minec...