Hello and happy Wednesday!
Today’s post is a recap of my most recent three months of 2023, complete with general life updates, writing achievements, reading progress, and goals. And as always, I’m looking forward to hearing how life is going for you so far this year!
Let’s get started . . .
General Update
Well, this quarter has been pretty crazy! First of all, if you’ve been following my blog, you already know that I got married April 1st. I’ve talked about it a lot in other posts (like this one), so I won’t go into detail here, but a lot has changed since March. My husband and I have settled into our apartment, and have started to find a pretty good routine. It’s been a full past few months with lots of learning.
As far as everyday life goes, I’ve now stopped nannying and picked up more hours at my other job. The change has been a big and unexpected one, but my schedule is much closer to my husband’s now, and the extra time has allowed me to get back into some other pursuits, like volunteering at a local food pantry organization monthly, selling extra items online, and do a better job keeping food around the home. It’s been a blessing.
I’ve also had more time to write! Nothing ever feels like enough (right?), but I’ve been keeping up with blogging, diving back into fiction (more on that in a minute), and even accomplishing some extra things I’ve been wanting to work on for a long time (again, more information coming soon!). I didn’t realize how much I’ve missed writing!
Fiction
I’m super excited to say I’ve been working on Cabin Girl again! I only have three and a half chapters left to edit heavily, and from there on out, it will be getting final feedback and implementing small, subtle changes I’ve been writing down as I worked through the book this month. I’ve really enjoyed getting to immerse myself in the story again.
I do have a tentative release date in mind, but I’m waiting to announce it until after these last heavy edits are done, to make sure I can follow through. That’s been a problem in the past, haha. If you’re on my email list and/or street team, you should be receiving an email with updates sometime in July!
On the Blog
April had five, May had seven, and June has had four (counting this one), making a grand total of seventeen blog posts in the second quarter of 2023!
Here’s the long list of blog posts from this quarter:
~ 10 Christian Quotes About Marriage
~ The Trope Tag
~ Bucket Lists: A Discussion
~ Be The Reason
~ What Cats Do Book Tag
~ Happily Married (& wedding photos!)
~ My 2023 Growth Word
~ What’s On My Bookshelf Tag
~ 5 Life Skills I Want to Improve At
~ My Favorite Bible Verses
~ A-Z Bookish Tag
~ 30 Funny Pirate Jokes
~ Summer Bucket List Book Tag
~ Inside My Writing Toolbox
~ Summer Vibes Book Tag
~ and of course, this one!
Reading List
In the past three months, I’ve read another twelve books, staying pretty consistent with the first quarter. That makes twenty-three read so far. As expected, I’m probably only going to make it through half of my 100 books goal for 2023. But I’m still getting to read a lot of good books, and even try out some new-to-me genres, so that’s okay!
Here are a bunch of my favorites from the past three months:
~ What She Knew by Gilly MacMillan (contemporary/mystery)
~ To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (historical/classic)
~ A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (historical)
~ Seasons of the Storm by Elle Cosimano (fantasy/contemporary)
~ Operation Lionhearted by Maribeth Barber (sci-fi/intrigue)
~ The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald (classic/fairytale)
You can always keep up with my reading list (and reviews) on Goodreads.
Looking Forward
Funnily enough, just as I feel like we’re finding routine, we’re starting the process of yet another big life change – finding a house! Our lease runs out at the end of October, so we have until then to find somewhere else to go and move. Thankfully we still have a few months, but the amount of emails and phone calls I’ve made in the past few weeks has already been so far from my comfort zone, haha.
But that’s how life is, isn’t it? We take it one step at a time, and there’s always something to be figuring out, looking forward to, and working at. And that’s okay! God has been such a constant help, and I’m so thankful that I can always stop, take a deep breath, pray, and remember that we’re not alone in anything life can throw at us. We’re simply adventuring!
In the meantime, I’m planning to continue writing as much as I possibly can, and keep you all updated in each step. And if there are ever questions you have, or if you’d like to be involved in any way, please feel free to reach out and let me know! Thank you for your patience and all of the sweet comments recently. You are appreciated!
What have these past three months of 2023 been like for you? Have you made progress on some of your goals, or learned some important lessons? What are you looking forward to in the next quarter? Do you have any special summer plans? I’d love to hear about what’s been going on in your life!
Recent Posts:
To Kill a Mockingbird is such a good book! I wish you guys the best in finding a house 🙂
I agree! I was very pleasantly surprised!
And thank you! 🙂
Wow, just three and a half more chapters to edit in Cabin Girl!!! So exciting!!!
Yes!! I’m very excited 🙂
Also, just found that that somehow I haven’t been following your blog?? That has been rectified now, but explains why I haven’t been getting the notifications, haha. I thought I followed it ages ago!