Life Update + Plans For September And Beyond

Hi darlings, I’m back from my hiatus!! Which is super exciting, because I’ve missed you all so much. It’s been almost a month since I last published on here and ahh I’ve really missed posting. Thank you all so much for your patience as you all waited for me to finish my hiatus. It’s been an insane few weeks and truth be told, my life is still insane. A lot has happened since I last posted here, I’m now a public high schooler, which is a huge change. Fall is almost here, which is also something I’m very happy about (I’m not a huge Summer fan). Honestly, there’s so much to unpack in today’s post, so I guess,,, just keep reading!! 

A Big Long Rambly Life Update

So much has happened in the last month (August literally slipped away in a moment of time). As I already mentioned, I started going to a public high school (let me know if you guys want a post about that), and it is literally nothing like homeschooling. I have homework every night (my daily screen time has gone down from 5 hours and 30 minutes to 2 hours and 30 minutes. That means that I’m doing A LOT more schoolwork every day). I go to school from 8:00am to 3:25pm. That’s a long time haha. I have a lot less free time, which is actually good, it has taught me to be more careful with my time. 

I joined a writers workshop, The Young Writers Workshop (I highly recommend it!!) and I’m loving the support I’m getting on there. I’ve been writing more poetry as a result of meeting some wonderful poets there and it’s becoming my main creative escape. I love how everyone on there is so sweet and kind. YWW is honestly a lovely community and I’m so glad I joined it.

I did something terrifying last Friday. I got…. VACCINATED!! I’m now halfway vaccinated and I’m so proud of myself ahh. I was pretty nervous about the side effects, but so far all I’ve had is a really sore arm. I originally was not planning to get vaccinated, due to my fears of the side effects, but I eventually realized that with my brothers being very high risk and me being in a school with 400 kids, getting vaccinated was the best choice for both my health and the health of others around me. I get my second dose in a few weeks and hopefully my side effects will be very mild (if you’re religious, please please pray that I would have mild side effects). 

Plans For September And Beyond

Goals For September

• Read 5 books
• Read my Bible every day
• Workout every weekday
• Pray a Rosary once a week
• Write 30k words
• Write an article
• Get good grades
• Do 5 random acts of kindness
• Drink more water
• Blog at least once a week
• Take care of myself
• Have fun
• Get fully vaccinated
• Set up a home alter

Goals For Fall

• Finish writing Among The Pumpkins
• Win NaNoWriMo
• Get in shape
• Do something scary (face a fear)
• Be more positive
• Prepare for advent
• Submit an article to a magazine
• 200 blog followers
• Start updating blog
• Get good grades

Blog + Etsy Plans

As my blog grows more and more, I am beginning to see blogging as less of a hobby and more of a job. And you want to take your job seriously, right? I want to start updating my blog over the next few months, and hopefully eventually move to being self hosted. Updating my blog means that I will be adding better photography and making the overall aesthetic of my blog cohesive, editing previous posts to be more professional, hopefully starting up an Etsy shop + podcast + email list, and more!! My main goal is to have all this set up and ready by 2022. I will have more information about this coming soon 🙂

Another thing I need to address is that I’m closing down Stars & Stories. I can’t run two blogs at once, the pressure and pull between the two is exhausting. I had to choose one, and I chose Full Of Grace. Mind you, I’ll still be posting bookish posts here due to the fact that that I am struggling to find a niche. I think that my main goal for Full Of Grace will be to assist you in your walk with Christ Jesus. I find myself taking my faith more and more seriously, and can’t help but bring that onto my blog. 

Some Inspiration For Your September

Under blue skies,

on cracked rocks,

in dry heat,

in desert land,

grace is the hand that is never out of reach

reminding you:

you are not weak

because you are lonely.

♡ Morgan Harper Nichols

Many, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works.

♡ Psalm 40:5

My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;

I will sing and give praise.

Awake, my glory.

Awake, lute and harp!

I will awaken the dawn.

I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples;

I will sing to You among the nations.

For Your mercy reaches unto the heavens,

And Your truth unto the clouds.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;

Let Your glory be above the earth.

♡ Psalm 57:7-11

And one thing you’ll find is that you are royalty. You are a child pf the King of the universe. You don’t have to be overwhelmed by anything or intimidated by anyone. You’re God’s royal son or daughter, which means you can do whatever He calls you to do. All you have to do is try, and He will do the rest. 

Read this and take it personally: you are far from worthless.

♡ Live, by Sadie Robertson; page 78

That’s kinda it for this post, I dearly hope that you all found it to be enjoyable and helpful. If you are enjoying this post and/or my blog, please feel free to comment, click like, and follow me for more lovely content similar to this!! ♡

Musings About July + Looking Forward To August + Hiatus Announcement

Hiii darlings, I hope that your July went well. I know I say this EVERY MONTH, but guys, July flew by so quickly. My head is still spinning. Anyways, I have recently not felt like writing post beginnings and endings so uhh just enjoy this post <3.

July went by REALLY QUICKLY. It was gone in another *poof*, leaving me confused as to where time went to. Not a lot happened in July? I read barely anything, due to a really bad reading slump. I had a blogging slump. I had just an overall life slump. God did show me a lot during July though. I feel like I really learned more about Him and felt overall connected with Him? I discovered prayer journaling, which is basically writing your prayers to Jesus on paper. Because I struggled to pray in my head, this was a huge game changer in my prayer life. Like 30 people in my church caught Covid, and a few of them are really sick so uh please keep that in prayer. But anyways, like I said, not much occurred in July.

If it is in bold, it means I completed that goal

July Goals

• Be more positive 
• Start doing a longer bible quiet time with God
• Pray a decade of the rosary every day
• Try to post more faith building content here
• Do an act of kindness each day
• Do a mini ‘lenten’ two weeks before school starts to spiritually prepare myself for high school
• Get 100 followers on this blog

August Goals

1. Keep a steady routine
2. Make 3 new friends AT PUBLIC SCHOOL AHHH SCARYYY
3. Eat healthier
4. Be more positive
5. Journal nightly 
6. Drink more water

Podcast: WHOA That’s Good, With Sadie Robertson

Book: Live, by Sadie Robertson

Song: You Love Me Anyway, by Sidewalk Prophets

Honestly, August is going to be quite a rollercoaster. I start high school (PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL) and I’m petrified. It starts in a few days and it just keeps freaking me out. I’ve never been in a school environment that was not christian, so I’m fairly nervous. It is also on a college campus and I have college classes with college kids so uhh I’m so scared. If any of my readers have any advice for me about starting public school or just high school, please give it to me in the comments, I desperately need it. 

Because I am going back to school super soon, I won’t be able to post for a while. I’m planning to take a hiatus from August 4^th – September 1^st so that I can get into the rhythm of school. Thank you all for understanding <3.

I hope that your month of July was lovely and that you have a lovely August. If you’re enjoying this post, please feel free to comment, click like, and follow me for more content like this. 

musings about june & plans for july

hii darlings, i hope that you all have been doing well <33. i cannot, absolutely cannot believe that june simply went by in a *poof*. it’s insane. i don’t know what else to write for this introduction haha, so i guess just,,, enjoy this post? and go check my book blog, stars and stories, for a bookish wrap up of my month? it will be there about ten minutes after writing this post. so,, yeah. enjoy <3.

this month was,, a rollercoaster to say the least. i had days where i was really excited and hyped up over nothing, days where i was such an anxious mess, and days where i felt really messed up. the high school that i got into gave really intense summer assignments, and i haven’t gotten much of a summer vacation. i felt super creative and yet super burned out at the same time most days. i watched a lot of disney channel, because sometimes that’s the only non triggering thing out there. i fell out of my quiet time with God, and really struggled to get back into it. i didn’t post a lot, only because finding motivation was hard. i found quite a few songs that made me emotional. something really scary happened in my neighborhood that definitely terrified me, even though nobody was ever in danger during it. i cannot say what it was though, because it could potentially give away my location. 

on a more positive note, i did have some wins this month. for one, i found a few new hyper-fixations, tv show wise. notable shows i watched include phil of the future, once upon a time, jonas LA, and good luck charlie. i also read some lovely books, which i will be discussing in my monthly wrap up for my other blog. i wrote my first book review that wasn’t for school, you can read it here. i got camp nanowrimo all prepped (i’m writing a romance about rival pumpkin patches, am finishing up my fantasy novel, and attempting at writing flash fiction, using these prompts). i began going to a support group for girls with autism and ADD. that went really well, and although all the girls (there are three of them) are sixteen or seventeen, i don’t feel that much younger. i’ve finally found a place where i don’t feel like i’m being silently judged, so that’s lovely.

lately, God has really been putting this message on my heart: when you arrive in heaven, are you going to hear a well done my good and faithful servant, or a depart for i never knew you? i’ve been thinking a lot about my actions and their ramifications, along with this: woe to those who call good evil and evil good. both of these are things that i really think that God has been placing on my heart.

podcast: have you heard, with emma mae jenkins

book: story of a soul, by st. therese of liseux

song: remains, by olivia georgia

• be more positive
• start doing a longer bible quiet time with God
• pray a decade of the rosary every day
• try to post more faith building content here
• do an act of kindness each day
• do a mini ‘lenten’ two weeks before school starts to spiritually prepare myself for high school
• get 100 followers on this blog

rosy @rosyswritings posted her july bullet journal spreads and i love the watermelon theme of the spreads so much

madi @delightfulworldofdolls celebrated her 18th birthday at the AG store!! 

miriam @insidemiriamsmind posted about her favorite bullet journal supplies, and as a fellow bullet journaler, i really enjoyed reading this post

laurel jean @laureljean wrote a really hard hitting piece of flash fiction that has such a shocking ending ahh

heaven @glorifychristblog posted about being witnesses for the gospel 

rachel @joyfulcreations wrote about falling away from Christ vs continuing in his kindness 

megan @notsoperfect posted about what a friend we have in Jesus and just,, wow this was the post i needed to read

hannah @thestripedplaid posted advice for making etsy shop sales and as someone who is starting an etsy shop soon (hopefully) i really found it helpful

this post was mostly just my rambling, i dearly hope that despite that, it was able to encourage you. have a lovely month <3.

May 2021 Recap + Plans For June + Inspiration + Themes

Hii readers!! Happy first day of June (can you guys see how excited I am about new months?)! Today’s post is my usual monthly post, and I’m excited about it. Usually I don’t go through with my monthly plans, but hopefully this month I will (although you never know 😋). Did you guys notice that I just used an emoji for the first time on my blog?

Important note: I did not sleep much last night and I am tired so like be aware that this post might not make much sense at times haha. 

Important Things

• I wrote 1,211 words of my novel!!
• I graduated middle school, I’m officially a high schooler 🙃
• I called the girl who bullied me back in like 6^th grade to tell her I forgive her. That went really well, she reacted incredibly well and it was just a very good phone call.
• I purchased the supplies to make stuff for my Etsy shopppp !!
• Olivia Rodrigo released Sour and I’ve been listening to most of the songs on it on repeat 
• I started doing digital art!!

What I read

The Wardens Daughter, by Jerry Spinelli – 3/5 stars, I really enjoyed Stargirl, and after that I wanted to try some other Jerry Spinelli books. This book was pretty good, the writing style was well done and the characters were interesting. There were some surprisingly mature themes for a kids book, but overall it was a good read. It vaguely reminded me of Shug, by Jenny Han. I did remove two stars from it though because of the foreboding tone (which I did not like) and the bizarre dark plotlines (*trigger warning* there was a suicide of a main character and also a storyline about a serial killer).

Queen Of The Sea, by Dylan Meconis – 2/5 stars, I wanted to like this book. I really did, it just was too long. It was really interesting however, the backdrop of a convent in the 1600s added some depth, unfortunately the author focused on certain plotlines for too long. I was sad, it had the potential to be really good. 

Avalon High, by Meg Cabot – 5/5 stars, I started out this book hating it. Ellie was definitely ‘not like other girls’, which bothered me. However, the story grew on me and by the end, I was in love with all the characters. It was probably one of my best reads this month, and my only complaint is that it was too short. 

Center Of Gravity, by Shaunta Grimes – 4/5 stars, okay so confession, I actually read the beginning of this and then skipped to the end because OCD triggers. So, I missed quite a bit of the book haha. Anyways though, what I did read of it was really cute. 

Confessions Of A Boy Crazy Girl, by Paula Hendricks – 1/5 stars, I really REALLY wanted to like this book, I did. But it was just too preachy. I liked the meaning behind the book, I just didn’t like the way it was presented. 

Instant Karma, by Marissa Meyer – 4/5 stars, I was nervous that this book would be occult-ish and go against my comfort levels, but!! It did not. It was a really funny and cozy read, I greatly enjoyed it. After finishing it, I suddenly had the desire to volunteer at a marine animal rehab center haha. 

Ballad, by Blexbolex – 4/5 stars, this book was SO weird. I found it at the library randomly and ahh it was so interesting. I can’t do it justice by explaining it here, all I can say is that it’s super cool and that you need to read it (you can read it in 20 minutes). 

Pilu Of The Woods, by Mai K Nguyen – 5/5 stars, this was such a cute read. I loved the whole part about emotions and mental health, even though this was a kids book, I really enjoyed it. It was very cottagecore and adorable, you need to read it.

How My Goals Went

🍑 = achieved

🐛 = not achieved

• Write 10,000 words of my novel 🐛
• Wear my veil everytime I leave the house (I’m obsessed with my Catholic veil) 🐛
• Get 100 blog followers 🐛
• Read 15 books 🐛
• Read the entire Bible 🐛
• Pray one Rosary each day 🐛

So yes, I achieved none of my goals. That was sad. To be fair, I did set really hard goals haha.

Goals

• Write 3000 words of my novel
• Read 10 books
• Upgrade to a custom blog domain
• Get 100 followers
• Prep for Camp NaNoWriMo
• Start Etsy shop
• Start liturgical living 
• Pray one decade of the rosary every other day

*These quotes have nothing to do with this months theme, they are merely quotes that I like*

When you start to feel like things should have been better this year, remember the mountains and valleys that got you here. They are not accidents, and those moments weren’t in vain. You are not the same. You have grown and you are growing. You are breathing, you are living, you are wrapped in endless, boundless grace. And things will get better. There is more to you than yesterday.

― Morgan Harper Nichols

She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl. We did not know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew.

― Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl

She taught me to revel. She taught me to wonder. She taught me to laugh.

My sense of humor had always measured up to everyone else’s; but timid

introverted me, I showed it sparingly: I was a smiler. In her presence I

threw back my head and laughed out loud for the first time in my life.

― Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl

and perhaps

what made her beautiful

was not her appearance

or what she achieved,

but in her love

and in her courage,

and her audacity

to believe:

no matter

the darkness

around her,

Light ran wild

within her,

and that was the way

she came alive,

and it showed up

in everything.

― Morgan Harper Nichols

The sun is still shining,

the wind is still blowing,

and out in the wild

you are growing. 

Days may go by

without change

you can feel,

but what’s happening here

is most certainly real:

You are becoming

what you were meant

to become

out in the wild

in the arms of the sun.

― Morgan Harper Nichols, Storyteller: 100 Poem Letters

 If every person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary – the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God.

― R.J. Palacio, Wonder

the kind people

are running this world

they don’t know how 

their one little smile 

has saved many lives” 

― Noor Unnahar, Yesterday I Was the Moon

By becoming little and weak for me, [Jesus] made me strong and full of courage, and with the arms He gave me, I went from one victory to another, and began to ‘run as a giant’.

– St. Therese of Lisieux

I want to suffer and even rejoice for love, for this is my way of scattering flowers. Never a flower shall I find but its petals shall be scattered for you; and all the while I will sing, yes always sing, even when gathering my roses in the midst of thorns; and the longer and sharper the thorns may be, the sweeter shall be my song.

– St. Therese of Lisieux

Theme Verse Of The Month:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

– Colossians 3:12

Theme Of The Month: Kindness; this month I want to focus on making the world a better and more lovely place. Throughout this month I will be posting about kindness and how to be kind. A few posts that are coming include Truly Kind Characters & What We Can Learn From Them, Ways To Bless Those Around You, Books That Inspire Kindness, and Reasons To Be A Kind Person.

If you’re enjoying my blog and/or this post, please don’t forget to like it, comment, and follow me.

How was your month of May? What did you read? What are your plans for June? Let me know in the comments!!

XOXO,

Liesl ♡

PS: I am kinda having a blogging niche crisis, so I will be experimenting with various niches over the next few weeks. Thank you for understanding 💕.