I'M BACK! // Nano Update // Life Update // Blog Update

*excitingly waves while jumping up and down* Hey y'all, I'M BACK FROM HIATUS! <3 

The month of April literally flew by and as much as I enjoyed having a little time off from blogging, I am SO glad to be back! I must say, I missed posting and thought of all my wonderful readers every Wednesday I didn't post in April. 

Since I have returned, I have lots of new things happening in my life right now! Today's post, I'm going to catch you up to date on how my April Camp Nano 2019 went as well as let y'all know about some life happenings and blog changes I'm going to try! So lets dive right on into this post! 

Camp Nano Update:

➳Week one was AWESOME! I was able to reach 9,429 words. (Which was really good because last Camp Nano in July 2018, my goal was to write 10,000 words in the whole month!) So, I was off to a great start and loving all the fun word wars going on in our "Cabin." Also, on day four, I upped my overall word count goal to 15,000 words instead of 12,000 words.

➳Week two was... more of a struggle. I was starting to get some ideas but wasn't sure how to go about them. I might have even experienced a little writers block on occasion. In the second week of April, I only wrote 3,576 words.

➳Week three I got my second wind! Sort of. I started skipping some scenes (chapters) and wrote the ones that I saw coming next. I did this because I wanted to keep the words flowing and not get stuck on my plot problems, or editing what I had already written. For some reason the perfectionist in me found it extremely hard not to go through and start editing. This week, I was able to crank out 2,000+ on some days! I had decided to once again higher my overall April Nano goal to 20,000 words... but by the end of week three, I upped it again to 25,000 words! 

➳Week four was great, if not a bit scattered. I seemed to start certain scenes then go and write a new chapter only to go back and finish the other scenes I had started. At times, I was going back and forth. More word wars helped me! (Fun Fact: Word wars are so much fun! I have learned that I can write anywhere from 200-300 words in only ten minutes if I am racing the clock... and a cabin mate. It's was a blast!) 

And... on the 25th of April, I WON CAMP NANO! I made it to my goal of 25,000 words! I am very pleased to say that my first (and very rough) draft of Third Chances is well on it's way. In the grand scheme of things, I'd say I wrote a good 1/4 of my story! 

Also, I want to thank all my cabin mates for cheering me on during the month of April! And for showering me with confetti + gatorade (blue raspberry NOT cherry!) *winks* Hehe, I had a lot of fun with you girls! :) 

Now for some of my favorite Nano snippets... I know since these are all out of context, they will probably sound like a jumble of a mess, but I thought I'd share some with you anyway! And I have each snippet labeled with a number so I'd love for you to vote which one was your favorite snippet in the comments below! =)


Snippet 1

"The aroma from the kitchen downstairs not only awoke Amy from a dreamless sleep, but also awoke a flood of childhood memories. Some good, mostly bad memories. Memories that she had thought she tucked away in a dusty corner of her brain." 

Snippet 2

"Personally, she liked the idea of being creative and imaginative, but she preferred to be structured and intentional. She tried to be as much different than her inconsistent mess of a childhood as she could. Maybe her mother liked teaching art so much because she was good at making messes. Especially with making a mess of parenting. Tina Bennard—now Bulien—was known for scribbling outside of the lines and and making up her own rules, boundaries that were never the same." 

Snippet 3 “Natt, I really don’t know the answers to those questions. I wish I did, so I could make plans and sketch out how I want my life to operate, but I truly don’t think we are meant to know exactly how things will pan out. I think that’s where trust comes in. A few day’s ago, well, actually on my way home from college, I had a flat tire, and me and God had a little talk. I was wrestling, kind of like Moses did when God asked him to take a leap of faith. I decided to try trusting Him, it’s a work-in-progress, but I’m still trying my hardest to trust Him. With finding a job, with finding a guy, exedra.” She paused her speech, trying to decide if she was a hypocrite for telling her friend to trust God when she was still struggling to take her own advice.
Natty spoke then, saving Amy from her scattered train of thought, “You’re so right, you know that? Woah, girl, we are on the same brainwave or something, because I’m going through the exact same thing. Trying to trust God, but still hanging on to my worry. Are you sure we aren’t twins or something?”

Snippet 4

“Bye, Amy.” Jennie said, looking back at her with a glance of sadness that squeezed Amy’s heart like a lemon being squeezed to make lemonade. Just the taste in her mouth was not anything like a sweet lemonade, but a sour and bitter tasting one."

Snippet 5
"Breakfast was cold biscuits and gravy with a small serving of eggs that were more recognizable as Styrofoam, colored yellow with food coloring, than labeled as scrambled eggs. They tasted like chemicals, nothing like fresh eggs strait from the chicken coop at the ranch. Home seemed farther and farther away as this unplanned vacation grew longer."

Snippet 6

"Trisha proved to be such a sweet and motherly host. The small older lady had crinkles around her chocolate-brown eyes and a apron around her petite waist. The first thing she had done when she saw Amy was to give her a bear hug, squeezing her harder than Amy thought possible for such a tiny woman."

Life Update:

Other than keeping my fingers busy pounding on the computer keyboard for Nano, I did a lot of other things in the month of April! 

April Happenings:

• Tricked my little sister for April fools day.
• Knee-deep in a online cooking class! Put on by Rouxbe and Forks Over Knives.
• Research for Nano.
• HOT CHOCOLATE DRINKS! 
• Taking way too many spring pictures! 
• Cooking a lot more for family meals.
• Groomed Rosie (she is almost all the way done shedding her winter coat!) 
• Seedlings are growing so well! Our tomatoes are looking better than ever before!
• Ran a 5k in 29 minutes! 
• Black raspberry ice cream sandwich! Yum!
• Spring flowers and rainy days.
• Wrote a piece of flash fiction. 
• Packaging more Honey Oatmeal soap.
• Celebrating sisters birthday! 
• First tulip bloomed on April 11th.
• Randomly looking up unique baby names.
• A Sabbath walk in the woods = more flower pictures!
• Committing to a 14 day food plan that entailed no sugar or flour.
• Lots of smoothies!!! Like-- so many smoothies!
• Making new recipes. Trying out homemade BBQ sauce! 
• Making chocolate raspberry oatmeal bars! They are amazing, btw! 
• April 16 I was at 15,690 words in Camp Nano! 
• Got new writing glasses for when I'm on the computer to block part of the blue light...
• Helping papa build a raised bed. 
• Hard life changes. 
• Made scrunchies for the first time! Yay! They are so fun and easy to sew! 
• Having fun with photo filters with little sis! 
• Working out at gym and/or jogging on our road. Three times, I went 5 miles! 
• Driving.
• Freeing Wilber (our mini pig) from the wire fence he had gotten stuck in... that was traumatizing, thankfully he's ok!
• Movies with the fam! 
• Winning Camp Nano! Whoop whoop! 

April songs: 

• Church praise group songs for practice.
• Maddy & Tae's album.
• Lauren Daigle's album.
• Carrie Underwood's album. 
• Random songs on the radio.

April quotes (sorry, most of them are writing related quotes... Hey, what can I say, I needed inspiration!): 

"Chocolate comes from cocoa,

Which is a tree

That makes it a plant.

Chocolate is salad!" 

"And one day 

the girl with the books

became the woman writing them."

"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on." - Louis L'Amour 

"Very few writers know what they are doing until they have done it."

"Logic will get you from A-Z, Imagination will get you everywhere." 

"I'm writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand in a box so that later I can build castles." 

"Writing is a profession for introverts who want to tell you a softy but don't want to make eye contact while doing it." #laughingsohardrn

"If you truly are going to be a writer, there must be somewhere within you the drive, the desire, to put pen to pater, fingers to keyboard, and actually write." 

"A writer is simply a photographer of thoughts." #sotrue

"Writing is only reading turned inside out."

"life is like a camera, you focus on what's important, capture the good times, develop from the negative, and if things don't work out, take another shot!" 

Blog Update:

Since I have been gone for a whole month, I am SO ready to get back into a blogging schedule! But- it's time to mix things up a bit! So, guess what? Are your ready?

*drumroll* 

I'm going to start posting twice a week! 

Yes, you heard that right! From now on, I will be posting Monday's and Wednesday's! (Or at least trying it, we shall see how it works out! *winks*) But for the month of May, I will be posting twice a week for sure! After that, we'll see how things are going! 

But that's not all that is going to change, I am wanting to start posting some other content in addition to my poems and devotionals that I post on Wednesdays. Therefore, the Monday posts will be for random other things basically! (Lifestyle posts, thoughts, other poems, rambles, writing related, flash fiction, writing prompts, book reviews, blog series, collabs, tags, photo dumps, diy crafts, just whatever-is-on-my-heart/mind-at-the-time kind of posts!) Whew! The possibilities are endless! 

I'm just wanting to expand my horizons. I'm hoping to be a little more real-life in my posts. I love sharing my poems and devotions, those will not cease to exist. I'm just hoping to add to them, not take away from them.

My monthly wrap-up posts will be on posted either the last Monday or last Wednesday of the month... 

So, that's how things are looking right now, hopefully these new ideas sound fun to you! 

Did you participate in Camp Nano? Favorite snippet? What new has happened in April for you? Do you think this new posting schedule sounds like a good idea? Got any suggestions on posts you would like me to do? Hope you are having a great day! And I'd love to hear from you in the comments below!