Title: Unashamed
Author: Jessie Minassian
Publication Date: May 21, 2015
Rating: 5 Stars (Yay!) 
Price: $10.57
Pages: 192
Link for Paperback
Provided by: Tyndale Publishers

You might remember my recent testimony post where I talked about some of the things that I have been struggling with, mainly just not living my life intentionally for God. This book was a perfect thing for me to be offered! 

Most likely you are dealing with something thats holding you back and you wish you could overcome it too! Youre not alone and this book is just the thing to help. Let me quick add in the blurb and then I'll start sharing what I thought--

Blurb: 
Are you living in silent shame, hiding a “secret sin”? Maybe you numb life’s pain with a bottle, razor blade, or sex. Maybe you “binge and purge” or act on feelings for other girls. Whatever your “secret”―shocking or not―if you’re trapped by it, you’re trapped by it. And chances are you’re not getting help because you’re too scared of what people would think if they found out.

Unashamed breaks the silence about the sins girls think they have to hide. With daring and a touch of humor, author Jessie Minassian shares her own story of struggle and victory. God longs for you to live in the freedom He died for!

So whether you’re caught in a cycle of sin yourself or just want to know how to help the silent sufferers all around you, let this book be the beginning of your journey toward health, healing, and freedom in His love for you.

My thoughts:
See, it starts out where the author dives into her weaknesses and how we all dealing with stuff-- and what makes this book unique is that Jessie Minassian, the author, plain out brings some of these to light. You just dont see that alot. 

She says its okay if people know about our pasts because we dont have to stay in those old ways. We dont have to live with burdens and shame because its never too late to turn around! 

There were real life stories that added a casual touch as well as discussion questions that tied them back to the theme..... Actually, there were so so many amazing things I took from this book and I'm going to list some of them out here and now. 

Obviously this breaks every single rule of what a review should be, but too bad. 

This book is five stars, a really quick read, and I can recommend it to everyone and anyone, and specifically to those that are struggling with this that or the other thing. 

If you are interested in these messages below, you can read a sample of the book here as well as purchase the book from Amazon in both Paperback, Audio and the Kindle Edition. 

Whenever I stay somewhere (Last summer I spent 3 weeks away from home: 2 on vacations and 1 at camp) I am always recognized as an overpacker. Here is both everything I can think of to pack, as well as a bolded list that is more of the basics. 

(Actually not quite everything, but if I would list everything, that would be really embarrassing. Like who takes along your very own hymnal to the beach? #me #awkward) 

If you are looking for "How to pack two and a half weeks of things" in a carry on... lol, This post is not for you :) You'll probably want to check out this post with a thousand and one hacks: 

Please note that this is my own personal "general" list and you'll have to reconstruct your own personal one to fit your needs. For example, for camping, dont forget shelter, food, etc that are not on this list. If you wont have a bed, consider an air mattress.

Similarly, for my camp I might add one white item (tshirt, fabric, socks, whatever) to tie dye as well as a woods outfit: (old dark skirt I dont mind getting beat up, old shoes I can run in, knee highs, long sleeve shirt, and a tshirt each in dark colors) as to play Capture the Flag and such. To go on vacation I might bring my laptop and more foodstuffs like popsicles, grapes, and a family size bag of chips. 

I was not going to include links to the products that I use, but that also might be a great starting point if you need to pick some of this stuff up. The Amazon ones are affiliate links, but not all this stuff can be bought from Amazon. 

1- 2 Swimsuits
2 Swim Skirt/ Pants
1 Goggles and Noseplug (ugh, I'm so weird)
1 Swim Covering
1 Swim Towel
1-2 Regular bathing towels

5-8 T-Shirts 
5-8 Skirts (aka shorts for you)
1 garment bag for these skirts and shirts and stuff-- with many pockets
1 suitcase for the random unnessessary things you want to bring... but lets put them in a suitcase to get them through security, I mean The Parents. 
2-6 Old navy camis/tanktops
1 Long sleeve/ jacket
3-5 Bras
4-6 pairs of socks (mix of footies, thick ones, long ones, knee highs)
3 packing cubes. Ive yet to use these but will link what I get when I do. 
1 pair of sneakers
1 flats/sandal pair that you can dress up or down
1 other pair that you are wearing when you go. 
6-9 pairs of undies
3-5 pajama sets
1 silk Sleep Bonnet
6 Amish pins :) 
1 bandana
5 hair ups and all the bobby pins you can locate (I would imagine, dunno)
2 Coverings (refer to left sidebar, y'all)
10 clippies (you only need 2 at a time but I lose them so so often)
1+ Prewap roll
1 Menstrual cup *and or* for all you old school people
1 Week of pads and tampons

^ If you want to read more about cups and why I use them, check out my recent post here. 

1 tooth brush
1 travel toothpaste
(if you wear makeup or have a special face mask or make up removers or razors those go here)
1 soap 
3 small hair oils (coconut and castor and argan and the deep conditioner)
2 small shampoo bars (or your small bottle of shampoo/conditioner)
1 Tangle Teezer hair brush (or the Wet Brush if you want)
3 Q tips
3 pills of (Tylenol, etc) stuck in cap erasers 
1 deodorant
1 Chapstick
1 Small First aid thingy with band aids and alcohol wipes
1 bottle of lotion (that actually does more than smell pretty)

1 digital/temporary camera
1 small tripod
1 extra memory stick
1 mp3 player
2 charger cords (camera and mp3)
1 charger booster
1 umbrella
1 digital watch
1 combination (no key needed) lock
2 flashlights with new batteries 
6 batteries because we all know that youll only need them if you dont have them
1 laptop-- depending
1 Battery Alarm Clock that you definitely dont need for camp
2 Packs of Gum or Jolly Ranchers depending on my mood when I'm packing
CD's and DVD's as needed
1 Song book?? (the important ones in thehymnal I mentioned earlier that I still need to make copies of) 
money, as needed
Passport things, as needed
a phone, as needed 
3-25 books to read (depending on how social you are going to be forced to be during this week. 
2-3 summer assignments (insert tears)
1 Calculator for said assignments as needed, I love the Casio 300ES  Natural Display :) (graphing: here)
1 diary/ journal (if you keep one)
1 writing binder if you write
1 Compact Bible (and maybe an extra New Testament for kicks if you are yours truly)
5 pens
2 erasers
2 pencils (w/ lead unless you have a sharpener handy)
4 pieces of pretty stationary that you will not use
4 Envelopes already addressed that you also will not use
4 Stamps  that you will not use but you cant have an envelope without stamps so...
1-2 small games (deck of cards, Spot It,dutch blitz, etc)
2 Yarn so people can think you are weird and you wont have to talk to them
2 Crochet Hooks
1 Scissors
1 Roll of Tape
1 Roll of Duck Tape that might be useful (if you dont like someone in your room)
all the markers (you can never have to many :) )
1 Box of 120 crayons (for long car rides and only if you will have air conditioning)
5-15  Awesome coloring wheels (I have a link that explains this somewhere.... here: http://geometrip.com)
Or 1 puzzle book 
 
1 plastic shopping bag
1 purse style bag
1 waterproof wet bag
1 huge drawstring bag (for laundry)
1-2 waterbottles (I have a 6 cup one and/or 3 cup one and they will start out full of ice)
1 bug spray can
1 sun screen tube or in spray bottle-- I use the baby kind 

1 Sleeping Bag
1 Blanket that is really warm
1 Really Soft Throw
1-2 Pillows
1 wooden desk (handmade-- its a "desk" with legs that fold under, used daily in my bed, but also in the car for trips, etc

<div align="center"><a href="http://majesticgoldenrose.weebly.com/" title="MajesticGoldenRose" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.weebly.com/uploads/2/5/5/8/25584587/1388170_orig.jpg" alt="MajesticGoldenRose" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Okay so back September 6th of 9th grade I wrote one of my better papers, a history 5 paragraph essay on the French and Indian War. It reads like this, but please dont actually read it because there are more important things below and I'm only attempting to draw more traffic, lets be honest here:

    Sometimes, people will argue over how things came to be, over what triggered certain events to happen. Most commonly, one might think of evolution, in contrast to, say, creationism. For someone new to this manner of thinking, of questioning, it is important to know that it’s certainly not limited to science- history can provide many examples as well. One such, just to mention it, would be the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. While the concept of this is all well and good, on the other hand, it is important to note that in other circumstances the trigger, or sometimes triggers, is quite obvious. In fact, it is known that clearly the French and Indian War started the chain reaction that would begin the American Revolution. It could be said that the French and Indian War was a significant cause of the American Revolution, because of economic reasons, England’s uncalled-for presence, and the intolerable conditions in general.

    To begin, it could be argued that the French and Indian War was a significant cause of the American Revolution, because of economic reasons. Let it be made clear that at this particular time, England was about to go belly-up, so to speak. Their debt was an effect of the French and Indian War and quite frankly, the King was not willing to pay money for the colonists benefit, being at this time, protection from the natives after Pontiac’s War. In order to solve the debt problem, a large tax carries over the ocean to the colonies from England. The colonists have not one, but two problems with this taxation: first of all, they think that they deserve a reward for helping defeat the French and secondly, it was illegal to be taxed without representation in Parliament. In any event, the French and Indian War was a significant cause of the American Revolution, because of this economic struggle.

    If follows, then, that the French and Indian War was a significant cause of the American Revolution, because of England’s uncalled-for presence. At the present time, the colonists had become spoiled. Unlike their ancestors who established Jamestown and Plymouth, they were fully accustomed to modest wealth and health. So much so, that they were appalled by England’s indecency. For example, the British arrogantly sicced the Quartering Act on the colonists meaning that they, by law, had to house and feed British soldiers. What adds to the misery is that these soldiers were there only to be enforcing unfair rules, such as the Proclamation of 1763. For lack of better words, the mother-country, England, was proving to have an uncalled-for presence. For an illustration of this, a person would have to look back on the seventeenth century, when the first colonies were being founded and the colonists were being granted rights such as protection from an enemy. Such a thing, now that no wars really remained, was unnecessary; they no longer feared the French, who for the record, were no longer even on the continent. In other terms, the colonists no longer needed the British, so in this way, the French and Indian War was a significant cause of the American Revolution, because of England’s uncalled-for presence.

    Furthermore, the French and Indian War was a significant cause of the American Revolution, because of the intolerable conditions in general. To elaborate on the Proclamation of 1763, mentioned earlier, it stated that settlers couldn’t move west of an imaginary line drawn through the Appalachian Mountains. Though the King, likely, wanted only to keep his people happy and unharmed, this rule didn’t sit well with the colonists, and in fact, it angered them greatly. With this in mind, one needs to remember that the land that had been taken from them was the very land that they had fought so hard to for in battle and warfare. So, as the years progress to the time of the Quartering Act, the people are becoming outraged. Shortly after this, in 1765, comes the Stamp Act which requires colonists to not only pay tax on sugar and molasses, as declared in the previous year, but on newspapers, legal documents, licenses, deeds, insurance policies, contracts, as well as playing cards. Remember, that these colonists have no representation in Parliament, and this is very much unfair. Without delay, the lawyers and journalists, a people greatly affected and with the most power to boot, expressed their frustrations. By this point, the general population began to boycott British goods and slowly but surely, one can begin the see the flame of the American Revolution ignite. Thus, one could see that the, the French and Indian War was a significant cause of the American Revolution, because of the intolerable conditions in general.

    All things considered and simply put, it could be contested that the French and Indian War was a significant cause of the American Revolution, because of economic reasons, England’s uncalled-for presence, and the intolerable conditions in general. To highlight a few various points, the war debt and the Proclamation of 1763, there is a distinguished theme leading back to the French and Indian War… which, of course, can be recognized as a significant cause of the American Revolution. This fact is simply not debatable; there is no denying it. By and large, the real question, one often overlooked, is whether or not England’s response to the French and Indian War was justifiable.

So..... now we have some writing websites Ive come across, for creative writing, that I'm going to use to assess this essay:

1) http://www.hemingwayapp.com/

This is a new site and totally awesome. Here are some of the stats its telling me about my paper:

Readability: Grade 14 (lol, and Ive gotten up to Grade 17, however that happens since King James is only 12th)
Paragraphs: 5
Sentences: 38
Words: 901
Characters: 4511

18 of 38 sentences are hard to read.
9 of 38 sentences are very hard to read.
14 adverbs. Aim for 2 or fewer.
6 words or phrases can be simpler.
1 uses of passive voice. Aim for 8 or fewer.

These dont look like much, but they are great for dissecting a text for what should be improved. Aim for critiquing more than this but if you ever have to do a talk, this might be a way to dumb it down. 

I AM TOTALLY GOING TO USE THIS REGULARLY. AKA YOU CANT PASS UNTIL YOU CHECK THE LINK OUT.

2) http://www.wordle.net/create

Okay this one really serves little purpose except to pinpoint the most common words and make a pretty picture with them.

The more you use a word, the bigger it is.

3) https://iwl.me/

The next stop for my paper was "I Write Like" and that site told me that my writing was most similar to James Fenimore Cooper. Ever heard of him?

Get this:

James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. His historical romances of frontier and Indian life in the early American days created a unique form of American literature. He lived most of his life in Cooperstown, New York, which was founded by his father William on property he owned. Cooper was a lifelong member of the Episcopal Church and in his later years contributed generously to it.He attended Yale University for three years, where he was a member of the Linonian Society, but was expelled for misbehaviour. Before embarking on his career as a writer he served in the U.S. Navy as a Midshipman, which greatly influenced many of his novels and other writings. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the five historical novels of the frontier period known as the Leatherstocking Tales. Among naval historians Cooper's works on the early U.S. Navy have been well received, but they were sometimes criticized by his contemporaries. Among his most famous works is the Romantic novel The Last of the Mohicans, often regarded as his masterpiece.

So thats kind of funny, with all this war stuff "right up his alley", lol.... I crack myself up. :)

And, I get a badge :)

4) https://750words.com/

This one I had to create an account for which sort of makes me sad :(

I pasted in the first 750 words and this is what I got, only the webpage was a lot better quality than this image....