giving up control + depending on God

9 / 8 / 209 / 8 / 20

If I can sum up what the Lord has been teaching me over this past year in one word, it would be dependency. It’s easy to say that as Christians we are dependent on God, but I never really knew what that looked like until the past few months. Going into my freshman year, I had no idea what to expect, and I was filled with big expectations and a filtered view of what I thought college would be. I guess I only focused on the good things that people told me about college and glazed over the difficult things: mountains of homework, roommate situations, friendship struggles, homesickness, and just adjusting to a totally new life away from home.

my productive summer morning routine

7 / 28 / 20

Hi everyone! This post is definitely a long time coming, seeing as it’s almost August and about to not be summer anymore, but I really wanted to share my productive summer morning routine that I’ve created over the past couple of weeks! I’m the type of person that craves routine and consistency, and I’ve definitely been slacking this summer. It’s been hard to stay consistent when I would wake up at random times depending on when I had work/how tired I was/how late I stayed up the night before. I would always be motivated the night before to have a productive morning, but when I actually woke up the next day, I lost motivation and slacked off. It’s definitely been hard to stay disciplined and wake up early enough to follow my routine, but I feel so much better throughout the day!

Link Roundup Vol. 2

7 / 15 / 207 / 15 / 20

Happy July! I feel like June seriously flew by, and we’re already halfway through summer! I’ve had a pretty chill past few weeks. Besides going to the beach for a few days, I’ve mainly been at home or at work all of May and June. I’m leaving for Hilton Head in a few days, and I’m so excited because I’ve never been to South Carolina before! It honestly doesn’t even feel like a real summer with everything going on, so I love getting out of town for a few days and having some time at the beach. Today’s post is a little link roundup from some of my favorite posts, sites, and products I’ve seen in the past few months! I did one of these back in November and it’s so fun to compile all my recent links into one post, enjoy!

Fort Morgan Beach Recap

6 / 30 / 20

This past week, I went on vacation with my family to Fort Morgan Beach, Alabama, and it was such a fun, relaxing trip! We honestly didn’t do much and just stayed at the condo/beach the whole time, but it was so nice to relax by the ocean and pool all day. I was there from Saturday to Wednesday with my younger brother and grandmother, and then the rest of my family came down Wednesday night and we were there until that Saturday. This was the longest I’ve been at the beach, but I soaked up every minute of it! It was kind of overcast most of the week, with rain a couple of days at the beginning, but it was so humid compared to back home in Oxford. Overall, it was so good to get away for a bit!

Photo Diary No. 3

6 / 21 / 20

Hello and welcome back to another photo diary post! These are some of my favorite posts, because they are basically a big recap of the past few months with lots of fun pictures. I absolutely love taking pictures/videos to have to look back on, and it was a goal of mine for this year to be more intentional with taking pictures and capturing memories. Since I haven’t done one of these in a while, this will be a bigger photo dump than usual, but I cant wait to do one at the end of the summer with all my summer pics!

summer 2020 bucket list

6 / 15 / 20

It’s officially my favorite season and the best time of year- happy summer! I know it’s already halfway through June, but I wanted to share a little summer bucket list I put together a couple of weeks ago. I love making a bucket list every year to give me ideas of stuff to do so I’m not just sitting around my house all day. Of course, I never actually get everything on my list done, but it’s fun to brainstorm ideas and try to have a carefree summer! This summer is definitely different than ones in the past, with corona and all the craziness going on. My original summer plans got canceled, so I’ve been spending most days working at a local boutique or reading at the pool. I do have a few fun trips sprinkled throughout the summer tho, and I’m really looking forward to making the most of it!

Recent Quarantine Reads

5 / 7 / 2012 / 16 / 21

If you know me, you know how much I loveeee reading. I say this all the time, but I definitely go in phases with reading where I read a lot, then get in a rut and it’ll take me a month to get through one book. I started off the year strong and read a few books a month for the first part of the year, and then kind of got in a slump around March. With quarantine and everyone staying home, the library was closed, and I only had a couple of books at home that I hadn’t read already. After reading those, I was kind of unmotivated to read any new books and found myself choosing Netflix over books for a while. Then a few weeks ago, I found a few people on instagram that were sharing a lot of their book recommendations, and I got super inspired all over again. I was adding so many new books to my GoodReads account and getting so many options to read next. Needless to say, I’ve been on such a big reading kick for the past few weeks, and I can’t wait to share my recent reads!

April Recap

5 / 1 / 204 / 30 / 20

Happy May! April flew by, but it was probably my favorite month of the year so far. I say it all the time, but the weather and sunshine always affects my mood, so all the spring temps made me so happy! I hate the cold, and I think it was 60s and 70s almost every single day this month. April wasn’t super eventful (we are still in quarantine haha), but I was trying to stay motivated and productive this month instead of laying around all day, like I did some in March. There were definitely some lazy days, but I tried some fun projects, got into a new workout routine, and best of all- officially finished freshman year!

Recent Eats + Meals I Want to Try!

4 / 28 / 20

While it is a little weird living at home again, I definitely love being back with family and having my regular kitchen to cook more and make my own meals again. I love trying new recipes and yummy meals, which was definitely difficult in my dorm microwave or tiny dorm kitchen. Now that we’re in quarantine, we’ve kind of gotten into a weekly rotation of family meals and recipes, and it’s been so nice to have my mom cook for me again! I’ve also been helping with dinners and planning the meals every once in a while, and I love getting recipe recommendations. Today I’m sharing some recent quarantine eats + recipes on my to-try list!

Books I’ve Read in 2020

3 / 18 / 2012 / 16 / 21

One of my goals for 2020 was to read more, and so far I’ve definitely kept up with that goal! Towards the end of 2019 I got on a big reading kick since i was home for winter break and was determined to keep it up in the new year. My original goal was to read at least two books a month, and as of today, I’ve read 10 books (and counting!) and I thought I would share my favorites. I got really into mystery books and found some contemporary mystery books that I loved, and I’ve also been trying to read more Christian/faith based books to fill my time. With all the corona virus craziness happening right now, MSU has switched to online classes, which means I’ll have lots of extra time at home to read even more!

Healthy College Grocery List + Easy Meal Ideas

1 / 13 / 20

Now that I’ve been at college for a few months now, I’ve started to get into a routine and carve out times for cooking in my dorm. It’s not exactly meal prep, but it’s always nice to have food on hand for whenever I want to heat it up or refrigerate it for later. There are three dining halls on campus that I rotate between, but they don’t always have the best options, and sometimes I don’t feel like leaving the dorm. We have a microwave and full fridge in our dorm, and then down the hall is a kitchen with a stove/oven. It definitely takes a little extra effort, but eating healthy as a college student doesn’t have to be that hard!

Focusing My Heart on Advent

12 / 5 / 19

It’s officially my favorite time of year- the holiday season. Christmas has always been my favorite season, and there’s just something about December that makes me feel so much happier and in such a good mood. Christmas trees are everywhere, jolly music is blasting through the car speakers, and gifts are perfectly wrapped with a bow. But even though there are so many great material things that go along with Christmas, it can be hard for me to keep in mind the real reason for the season- Jesus’s birth. I say it every year- I really want to focus on the Lord this year. But it’s so hard for me to stay consistent with my advent readings and focusing on my relationship with Jesus. So far this December, I’ve been trying to really focus my heart and stay calm this advent season.

Link Roundup

11 / 30 / 19

Hello from my comfy living room couch! I am finally out for Thanksgiving Break and being home makes me so happy. I ran some errands with my mom, went to the bookstore with my brother, went for a run, then the whole fam set up our Christmas tree and ate soup for dinner. Now we’re all watching Elf together- so happy! Over the past few months, I’ve collected a bunch of random websites, blog posts, and other links that I wanted to share. These are in no particular order, but enjoy!

Photo Diary No. 2

11 / 22 / 19

Hello and happy Friday! We’re so close to the end of the semester, and I seriously cannot wait. I have three more classes until I can go home for Thanksgiving break, and it couldn’t get here soon enough. It’s weird because during the week I feel like time drags by, but when I look back, the semester went by pretty fast. I’m almost done with my first semester of college, which is absolutely crazy. I want to do a full recap with more of my thoughts in a different post, but today’s post is a photo diary of some of the highlights of first semester.