grace & gratitude | march

“March came in that winter like the meekest and mildest of lambs,

bringing days that were crisp and golden and tingling,

each followed by a frosty pink twilight which gradually lost itself in an elfland of moonshine.”

― L.M. Montgomery

Even though spring doesn’t officially begin for another couple weeks, here in the South, it seems to creep in the moment we flip the calendar page. March and its foggy mornings and warm afternoon sun usher in a new season. Forsythia appear out of nowhere to trail up trees and tangle with bushes. Henbit and red sorrel cover dormant fields in a tapestry of purple and red. Daffodils, the flower of March, pop up in everyone’s yard. The days get longer and hotter, pollen allergies kick in, and Mom starts talking about mowing the grass and the kids start asking about going swimming.

Somehow, winter is over. Spring, which for us is more or less summer with an occasional breeze, is here.

I don’t know about you, but I feel as though I’m coming into spring entirely unprepared for it. Those hazy winter months that kick off the year are behind us now, and it seems like spring is the true marker of a new year. The world starts turning faster now, and each month goes by quicker, until the year is over and the cycle begins again. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. 😅

Much like the blooms and baby birds outside, I feel like I’m waking up again, and with it comes the I-slept-too-late-today rush. Already a week into March, and I still haven’t sat down to write out my plans and goals or figure out exactly what happened in February. Those first couple weeks seem like ages ago, and the last two went by all too quickly. Our extra day this year seemed to disappear!

February began with a bit of anxiety—tax season + me despairing over my singing voice days before I helped lead worship—and then it just got plain busy with Valentine’s Day and Lent and managing my nana’s store while she was out with neck problems and my papa had a heart cath (they’re both doing much better, thank the Lord!). And our first anniversary for Tell Me You Love Me TOTALLY crept up on me, so we celebrated with an impromptu sale that shot our little anthology up to #1 in Christian Short Stories on Amazon! 🥳

I had great plans of doing a lot of reading and guitar-practicing and artsy stuff, but things just got so hectic. I did manage to make soap for the first time ever! It was surprisingly easy (I had a kit 🤭), but I still have a long ways to go in making it look purty. 😜

And then, I wrapped up February by getting stung by a bee on my foot (not the first time that’s happened) + catching cold at the same time. Also happened to be the same week I was running the store, so I’m sure all our customers were entertained by me hobbling around with a swollen foot. 🤦‍♀️

And March begins with four-wheeler rides, romance movies (we’re a month behind), snuggling with feverish children, and homemade conchas. Here’s to the rest of the month being just as laid-back, but with less snot. 😂

scripture of the month

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Romans 1:16-17 ESV

gratitude

music & singing & worship

malachi & bible studies

God’s promises & healing & protection

new dress

story ideas & brainstorming

anthologies 💝

working with ✨Laura Frantz✨

alpha readers

valentine’s day & cookies & white chocolate raspberry coffee creamer

lent & prayer & fasting

my patreon

homemade blueberry lemon soap

grace

Well, February was a bit of a dud in the writing realm. I wrote 0.000 words in all 5,987,625 of my projects. Seriously though, I didn’t finish my OS&S story—yet. And I’ve been so swamped with stuff that editing and organizing the anthology as a whole has also been at snail pace lately. But I rushed through organizing/publishing TMYLM and stressed myself (and no doubts the authors involved too) out tremendously, so I want to take this antho slow and give myself and everyone else involved plenty of grace. This is a casual, leisurely, enjoyable project. So is the press itself, which I also have made zero progress on. sighs

BUT I did finish one of my main client editing projects, which was awesome! 🥳 I’m currently booked through the spring and part of the summer, and I’m contemplating changing up my availability…so if you’re interested in booking me to edit your story this fall, now’s your chance! You can learn more about what I offer + how to book ahead here!

And I did not intend for that to become a self-promo, but I am unashamed.

Most of my time this month has been trained on brainstorming a new story (that I’ll hopefully be able to work on, but I’m not going to pressure myself) + sending out emails (almost) every other day (ish) for a Hosea Bible study! It’s simple, but between writing the commentary each day, coming up with discussion questions for every chapter, designing the emails, and then sending them out, it takes me about an hour. 😅 Ya girl is slow.

Otherwise, I did manage to do some unexpected things. I posted something for St. Valentine’s Day here on le blog and posted THRICE on my Patreon (my new record for amount of posts in a month). If you’re not a patron, you’re missing out on EXCLUSIVE CONTENT. That means, what I share on Patreon, I don’t share anywhere else. Stories, articles, tips, quizzes, behind-the-scenes, and more—just for those special rovers and romancers. 😉

I also got alpha readers for my OS&S story, which has been a BLAST! I have the best readers. 🥰 And, as mentioned earlier, we celebrated one year of Tell Me You Love Me!!! If you’re looking for edifying romance that’s sweet and moving, without any of the icky stuff or secular agenda, look no further than our little collection of short stories! We’ve got something for every reader—even the ones who don’t typically like romance.

As far as reading went, I finished The Hunger Games trilogy a week into February and proceeded to forget about reading until Valentine’s Day rolled around and I realized I should read a romance. So I picked out a stack of books (one classic, one nonfiction, two new novels—all of which are purple, it’s insane) to read by the end of February. Suffice to say I’m still slogging through book one: Emma. Am I enjoying it? Absolutely! Has it been extremely difficult for me to sit down and focus on it for longer than three pages at a time? Also absolutely!

So my February reading list has rolled over into March. Oops.

goals

So, I seriously haven’t taken the time to write down my goals or make any plans for March. Which isn’t hard to believe considering I was a week into February before I truly realized it was February already. Naturally, I’m down to two editing projects to work on (I want to finish one this month and start on the other). And I’d like to edit at least two of the submissions for Of Storm & Sea. Speaking of OS&S, I’d also like to finish my submission for it…but the more I think about it, the more I realize it may be longer than I’d originally anticipated, so if I could at least write 2k in it, I’ll be pleased.

Of course, I hope to wrap-up my Hosea study and put together a mini Malachi study for my on-its-way resource library. And if I can manage to post once or twice here, on my Patreon, and on Instagram, I’ll be happy. Here’s to figuring out a consistent posting/marketing schedule, folks! 🥂 (Let’s pretend that’s peach tea, for my teetotalers and fellow under-agers out there. 😜)

Oh, and I would really love to get back to podcasting before Spotify stops letting me record audio. But don’t hold me to that, if you please.

Anyway, speaking of posting, I have way too many ideas/topics and zero direction/focus…so I would love to know what y’all want to see from me in March! Anything you want me to rant about or give advice about? Anything on your mind or heart? Anything I’ve mentioned in the past but never expounded upon? (I think I owe y’all a post about mindsets and heart postures…)

You know the drill—let me know in the comments!

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It’s your turn, my lovelies! What are your goals for March? Things you were grateful for in February? What’s spring like where you live (Malana, you must answer this one)? Don’t forget…what would you like to see on here this month?

Y'all have a beautiful, restful spring, everyone! 💕

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