One Long Week

Well, guys, it's been a long week. I've had a cold with a fever for almost a week now, and I failed at every single goal I made for February. Earlier last week I went through a couple days where God asked me to trust Him with something that I really didn't want to trust Him with. That's been an interesting lesson in trust, and not questioning decisions that have been made.

On Saturday my family went to a wedding, and on Saturday night we buried our dog Ascari who had been run over by a car. It was hard to let go of the little guy, and I miss his presence around the land. 

On Sunday I learned that a family friend is not doing very well. Even though they've been in a nursing home for months, it's hard to hear that. It's been a tough week. I miss my dog, and I miss my comfort a lot. It would also be nice to be able to breathe through both sides of my nose, but the cold is keeping that from happening anytime soon. 

But as I got to thinking about all of that, I realized just how attached to comfort I was. I hadn't trained with Ascari for two months because it was so cold. I didn't want him to die because it hurt. I didn't want to trust God because that meant discomfort for me. I am so ready to be over my cold, cause I want to be comfortable again. 

Living comfortably was never something I was supposed to aim for. I knew that in my heart, but I still aimed for it in my life. This week I've noticed just how much I aim for it in all the things I do. And I don't have any great answers here. I'm just taking this a day at a time, asking God to show me how to focus on serving Him, not myself. I've just acted on instinct more then I care to admit. The call for comfort is strong and it's fighting an upward battle with myself to not give into the selfish wish to always do what I want. But God keeps giving me bits of rest in listening to Bible, in arranging flowers and making plans with friends. 

This is a good life, y'all. It's been a long week. A really long week, but Good is good, and He's teaching me through the long days. 

When Letting Go Hurts

When you feel broken 

But whole 

When you’ve cried many tears 

But feel better than before 

When letting go hurts 

And moving on is hard 

But amidst the pain 

Is a tiny little spark 

Of something like adventure

Something that tells you 

Something better is coming 

That all this crying 

Is for a reason 

And all the uprooting now 

Is to make room for something new 

And a gentle voice says 

“You won’t even miss this” 

And even though it seems crazy 

You believe that voice

Spring, Weeding, and No Good Ideas

For the last two weeks or so I've been trying to write a meaningful post. Something more than just slapping up poetry or highlight's posts. I've got tons of drafts in folders, and lots I just scrapped. The honest truth is, I don't feel very good at blogging right now.  

Spring is coming over Texas right now. I've been spending a lot of time outside, and today it hit 87. Today I spent most of the day raking leaves out of the garden out our living room windows (It's a big place). Tomorrow my sister and I are going to finish it off and start weeding out the beds. I used to hate weeding, but I kinda love it now. I like sticking on audio books and working away a couple hours. The only downside today was that I saw a spider approximately way huger then it should have been(I yelped kind of loud). That dampened my enthusiasm for a bit. ;)

I've taken the week off Instagram. That's been interesting. I don't miss it as much as I thought, but I've been sad not interacting with my friends on Instagram. 

I have sat so many days with my computer on my lap, wishing for some kind of determination to write. Blog posts, poetry, fiction, it wouldn't matter to me, I just want to write something good and words aren't seeming to come right now. 

So I've been reading a lot, weeding, and soaking up sunshine. This month has been utterly unproductive, but its been showing me some important things about slowing down. About not putting off important things. About learning to trust God with my problems. 

Yeah, so this post was completely random. Hopefully, I'll be struck by some amazing inspiration soon. Until then, the garden is going to look great. ;) 

How have you been? How's your month going?

January Highlights

Hello everyone! January was a good month. I did not accomplish as much as I had hoped, but it was good anyway. =)

I completely cleaned out my room in the first part of the year. I got rid of a lot of stuff, and it was super nice to start the new year with a clean room.

So we were pulling some boxes out of our storage shed a few months ago, and the floor broke through. So we pulled some resources and built a new shed. Some friends came over and helped build it, but I did pitch in a little bit of help with hauling dirt for under it.

So many pretty sunrises.

After saving coins in a box for a long time, I finally cashed it in and got enough to buy a Sprocket (A mini photo printer) with!

I tried water marbling and loved it. =)

I stayed up till one AM with my sister watching the eclipse. I hate staying up past midnight, but it was so worth it to watch the eclipse.

A good part of my month was spent sorting through photos from the past six months and deleting blurry/duplicate/bad ones. It was a lot of work, but so worth it.

Our power went out at our house, so three of my sisters and I played a game of Pandemic by candlelight. (I knew there was a good reason I kept that candlestick holder around)

My babysitting job started up again. I get to hang out with some of my favorite kids. It doesn’t get much better than getting paid to play hide and seek and hug little kids.

I got to meet Gray Marie for lunch. As always, it was delightful.

And to end the month off, a dear friend of our family died. He had been a supporter of our family since we moved in twenty years ago, and it was hard to say goodbye. (I wrote a post about him here)

My favorite book from the month was Live Without You. <3 My least favorite was The Crux Anthology. It just wasn't my thing. 

Hard into Holy Brin Lael

Misty Waters A Farmgirls Life

An Adventure Stories by Firefly

Top ten books of 2018 The Destiny of One 

The Doings of Kate Once Upon an Ordinary

Identity, Dreams, and Future Sunshine and Joy

How was your January? 

Firestarter: Launching a Blog that Blazes

Recently I got to be a Beta for Livy Lynn's new program Firestarter: Launching a blog that blazes and it was an amazing experience. Up ahead is a review and a code so you can get a huge discount on the program. 

I was so excited when Livy asked for Beta’s for a new project. I jumped at the chance and haven’t regretted it at all.

This 20-day course is packed full of some of the best advice I’ve heard about starting a blog. Firestarter cover’s everything from how to choose the best platform for your needs, to growing your social media, to how to make money from your blog.

She gave some really solid advice on why you should start a blog, why you should try to make money from it, and why you should connect with your readers.

And the best part? This whole course is done from a Christian perspective. I found that refreshing since most advice I’ve found is from a secular view. Livy is not overly preachy, so I don’t think non-Christian’s would find it annoying.

It’s all done into bite-sized days, and while I personally would probably take more than 20 day’s to be able to accomplish all of this, it’s doable. I had so much fun working through the printable at each step.

Photo is linked to the Firestarter page

My only disclaimer is that this course is packed full of advice, which you probably won’t all agree with. For instance, there is a whole day on how to grow your Pinterest, something I am not interested in at all. And Blogger isn’t even mentioned, so if you use it, a lot will apply to you, but you’ll have to figure out some things on your own. Still, there is a lot in here.

Overall, this was a lovely course that made me excited about blogging again. I now have step by step instructions on how to go about growing my blog, and I will probably refer back to this for months to come (if not years).

If you’re looking for a solid Christian course on how to get your blog started with a bang, or how to improve your existing blog, Firestarter is for you. 


You can get the corse here and use the code Mikayla at checkout to get 100 off! That means it will only be 50 dollars!

I want to be honest with y'all, I am an affiliate for this program, so if you use my code, I will receive a commission. But I didn't just become an affiliate because of money, I became one because this program is amazing and I learned SO much from it. I wouldn't be recommending it except I loved it so much!

If you check out the program, let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear your thoughts!