Update + 4 Random Things

Hi friends! Well that was an unplanned little break in there! Long story short, I've been having computer issues which have been a big pain. But thankfully, my computer's back in action so I am too! Sooo, I just wanted to update y'all on things going on in my life!

1 / I have been spending lots of time in Scripture and it's so wonderful. There's a new app from Proverbs 31 Ministries called First 5 that I really love. In the app, you can set an alarm and then as soon as it goes off in the morning, it prompts you to read through a short scripture reading and devotional. It makes for such an easy starting point to get some Bible reading in every day. I'm going to write a post about my favorite Bible/faith apps soon but for now, y'all should check it out!

2 / I really want to get a hedgehog this fall. I know, I might be crazy. But seriously guys, I've been thinking about this for ages and I just want a little prickly friend. Plus, you can't say no to this. It's just a little tricky to have a pet when I'll be back and forth between Florida (college) and North Carolina (home).

3 / I've decided that stamp collecting isn't just for weird old men. In case you don't believe me, just look at these beautiful coastal bird stamps for postcards. Or these, these or these. Also: did you know you can get stamps mailed to you? Anyone else think that's weird?

4 / I've been loving the global marketplaces that instagram has been featuring. When I was in Provence, France, my favorite thing was always to go to the market every morning. Like the colors and the smells of fresh bread and produce was the happiest way to start off your day! The Souks Market in Marrakesh, Morocco was my favorite!

Alright. There's your daily dose of randomness! I'll be back with some normal posts soon, I promise. Stick around ;)

So What Have I Really Been Up To?

Confession: I hate writing posts about my life. Like does anyone want to read these? But in the spirit of building those relationships I talked about the other day, I want to give you a peek into what my life has been like the last few weeks! And also--I want to know what you've been up to! Leave me a comment and update me on you. :)

Anyways, the last time we really chatted was all the way back in March. Wat. 

Since then, I finished my first year of college (and I'm still trying to figure out how to answer the ever-present "OMG, how was college?!" question). I passed all my exams, most with flying colors. I spent a whole lovely month with my best friends from home (NC) and my family and H, before leaving to spend a few weeks in Europe, traveling through Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. That was fun. I could obviously make that into a few posts in itself, but we'll leave it at that.

And now? I'm in Michigan, for the summer as always. This summer, I'm working at the ice cream shop in town and I'm already mentally preparing myself for the late nights and sugar temptations. I'll be taking an online class in a few weeks (Food Economics....funnnn) and just doing the same old. 

That's pretty much it! Now, your turn. How's life?!

Why Long-Distance Relationships (Sometimes) Rock

(This picture has nothing to do with this post, but it looks kind of pretty right? Taken in Marseille, France.)

Welp. Sometimes life has a way of getting ahead of you. I had glorious plans for my blog this summer--I was going to get back to posting (nearly) every day, commenting on all my fave blogs (I promise I'm reading, just silently) and staying in the game. 

But I kind of forgot that I sort of have stuff going on. You know, life. I promised a June Recap on Wednesday (umm, like five days ago). But H came to visit and we had five glorious days of pretending to be tourists, eating yummy food and having feel-talks. 

Having H come visit is and was so wonderful. He's my best friend and the one who knows the most about me in the whole world. So obviously, having him 800 miles away from me two months out of the year and 450 miles away for another 9 months of the year sucks. But long distance has been really good for us in a lot of ways.

We form separate lives. In North Carolina, H and I have a lot of mutual friends, which is great. But sometimes, I just want to go shopping and he just wants to watch movies and drive around with the boys (or whatever they do). 

We've learned to communicate more effectively. We both work a lot and because of the service around where I live, our phone calls are infrequent and often cut off in the middle. Hearing his voice is so much more special to me now that I don't get to hear it all the time. 

We've learned to trust each other, so much. The first time we lived apart, I struggled with jealousy about a certain female friend of his (who, by the way, was totally on the prowl). Since then, we (meaning I) have learned to trust him and ourselves and our relationship. 

Lastly, receiving handwritten cards and letters = the best. I think that's self-explanatory. There's something so familiar and homey about getting them and recognizing his weird handwriting and the way he never dots his 'i's.

Also, I have more time to catch up on Netflix without date nights. Kidding. 

Anyways. Rambling over. 

This has been a sappy post about H, thanks to my dad for buying him a plane ticket to visit me and to H for loving me. Love you poopface. Sorry for writing a blog post about you without asking you first. 

THE CASE AGAINST SCHEDULING BLOG POSTS

(photo by me, at Alcatraz)

There are a lot of great reasons to schedule your blog posts ahead of time. By writing posts ahead of time + scheduling them, I've been able to take time off to study for exams, vacation or just busy times. Any of you bloggers who have tried scheduling out posts ahead of time know that it can be an extremely convenient practice.

But over the last few months as I've been scheduling posts as much as two or three weeks in advance, I've felt more out of touch. Some days I don't even know what post is going live, only that it's a Monday/Wednesday/Friday so there must be one!

I find that I don't mention much what's really going on in my life...because it would be weeks-old news by the time it went live! For example, in the last couple posts, I haven't mentioned that I've been in the Sierra Nevadas on a hiking trip for the last two weeks. But that's because I wrote those posts a month ago!

Somehow, that just doesn't feel right. I want you to know what's going on right now, and in the same way, I want to be updated with you and my favorite bloggers. If I was just writing for a newspaper or something, scheduling would be fine. But because blogging is about community, I'm feeling the need to add that little life update back into my posts.

I'm not saying I'll never schedule posts again! I probably will when I'm on vacation or during exam weeks. But I'll try to write my posts less than a day or two ahead of time when possible so that I can stay in tune with what's currently going up on my blog. Make sense?

I will still keep an editorial calendar (which I recommend all bloggers do!) and will probably plan out posts ahead of time to some extent. But I want to make sure I focus on sharing more of the day-to-day details, and that just doesn't happen when I schedule posts. 

So I mentioned that I wanted to share more of what was going on in my life, like right now? Here's what I've been doing lately:

• I graduated, just over two weeks ago. Super exciting! Super crazy! Super busy!
• Two days later, I flew to San Francisco with my family.
• Over the last two weeks, we've been hiking through Sequoia, Yosemite, Big Sur, Kings Canyon and Lake Tahoe. We've been swimming and rafting and sleeping in yurts (no, really!) and ziplining and driving (so much. How is California so big?!) and so much more!
• I'm currently in Sacramento with friends, getting ready to fly home tomorrow.
• It's been crazy exciting but I'm ready to come home to NC.

Now that I've updated you, I want you to tell me. What have you been up to? Do you schedule posts? Tell me why you do or don't!