Hey, friend!

I know, it’s been a while. You might be struggling to remember who I am and, if you’re subscribed to my email list, why you’re receiving a notification for the first time in weeks. I apologize for not posting. I went on vacation with my family and didn’t get back into it, and a few other things have been occupying my time, which I’ll talk a bit about in this post along with some thoughts about the holidays!

To start off, what have I been doing? 

What I’ve Been Doing #1: School

If you’ve read my homeschool post, you know that I’m homeschooled and have been for years. That doesn’t make high school easier though. School still takes up a lot of my time, can be challenging, and isn’t exactly something I can get out of doing. 

What I’ve Been Doing #2: NaNoWriMo

NaNo what now? Don’t worry if you’re confused– most people who aren’t writers are when someone mentions this funny acronym.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It happens every year during the month of November, and writers everywhere race to write 50,000 words in a month. It’s exciting, fun, and at times exhausting. You have to write approximately 1.6k words a day, and depending on how fast you write and how prepared you are, that can take a while.

Since I have this in here, you probably know what I’m going to say next: I’ve been doing it! I’m writing a fantasy novel, and there are just a few days left! 

Now let’s talk about the holidays.

Let’s Be Joyful

I know the holidays are coming up soon and how they’re going to be for each person this year is going to vary greatly on where you live, how your family feels about Covid, and what’s been going on. For some of us, it’s going to be hard. For others, it will be joyous.

But here’s a piece of hope for all of us: we don’t have to stop celebrating just because things aren’t what they were last year. We have a choice. We can choose joy in Jesus and celebrate the gifts He has given us and His coming, or we can choose the opposite and focus on everything that went wrong this year. 

I recently heard a really good song that was sung at my church. It’s called “Set My Heart” by Vertical Worship. Here are a couple of lines that have such great meaning:

"I believe You're moving even now,
Right here, right now.”

Jesus is moving even when we don’t see it. He’s moving and working even when things look hopeless, when the pressure is crushing us, when everything seems to be falling around us.

Jesus is there. He is there. He has saved us and we are free indeed. 

Thanksgiving Challenge

If you’re in the United States, yesterday was Thanksgiving! I know this post is going out on what is technically Black Friday, but that doesn’t mean thankfulness has to end there! In the comments of this post, write down 1-3 things that you’re thankful for. They can be big or small: I’d love to hear from you!

Here are three things I’m thankful for this year to start it off:

1. My parents for supporting me and working so hard to take care of me and my siblings.
2. My online best friends for being there especially during the hard parts of the year.
3. Lots of good food. Isn’t it great that God gave us so much variety? 

Go ahead and post your thankfulness and praises down in the comments below!

Final Thoughts

Thank you for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed, and please consider, if you haven’t already, subscribing to my email list to receive notifications when I post, three exclusive articles, and my newsletter when it comes out! I’ll be trying to get back into a blogging routine as NaNoWriMo comes to an end, so stay tuned! Happy (late) Thanksgiving! 

Have a blessed day,

~Caroline