blog – The HeartWord Way

Hello! I have no idea if anyone will even see this post because it has been soooooo long since I have posted. My last post was in 2021, five years ago.

I have been super busy during these past five years. I finished up my senior year of high school, and then promptly started college, where I spent four years getting a creative writing degree. It has definitely been a full but fulfilling five years. Unfortunately, because I was balancing classes, assignments, friends, family, and the scraps of free time I could find during my days, there was no time for continuing this blog.

However, I just graduated in May, so I am beginning a new stage of life. I’m figuring out what I want to do with my degree…and with the rest of my life (yikes!). Of course, I am still a writer. I want to write, publish books and short stories, and earn the term of “author.” But, as writers don’t have the most stable incomes, I am still figuring the rest of my “career” out.

Now that I am more fully stepping into my career as a writer, I figured it would be a good time to hop back on to this little space on the internet that I created a while ago. Writing, after all, was always supposed to be the main inspiration and topic of this blog — whether it’s just documenting my journey as a writer or giving more practical tips and advice on the writing process.

A huge part of this blog used to be my posts about my bullet journals, the spreads I created each month, and the advice I could give on that type of journaling. It has been a few years since I kept a consistent bullet journal, mainly because of the busyness of college life and because I was a little burnt out. I don’t know if that will be a topic that I will incorporate back into my blog because I don’t know when I will incorporate it back into my life yet.

The last main aspect of this blog was books — books I read, books I reviewed, and books I loved. Books are still a huge part of my life — first and foremost because I love reading. But books are also an essential part of my life because I am a writer. Reading is both inspiring and essential for refining my craft.

So… to make this a little more than just an update post…

What I Read in May

Here’s what I read in May!

I read the first three books (or volumes, as the author calls them) of the series called The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. Here are my thoughts:

Overall, it is a wonderfully delightful series that I have not been able to put down. Each volume is made up of Emma Lion’s journal entries about her life. It is set in 1883, St. Crispian’s (a town in London). It is a town that has all the wonderful odd quirks that create the typical small town charm. Emma interacts with those she knows in the town and occasionally gets into some escapades and scrapes that are humorous.

Volume 1 has a lot of exposition about the town of St. Crispian’s, Emma’s house, Emma’s history, and her current situation. As any avid fan of the series will tell you, the first volume can be a little slow. However, by the end of Volume 2, you should (and will) be thoroughly enjoying yourself. Volume 2 has a lot more dialogue, which starts moving the story along at a faster and more enjoyable pace.

So far, Volume 2 has been my favorite. My interest caught at the end of Volume 1, so when I started Volume 2, I was fully intrigued by the quirky town and characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the second volume and could not resist moving straight into Volume 3.

I am very interested to see where the series goes. There are currently eight published volumes, but the author has stated that she has plans for 25 volumes when the series is fully finished.

I have also been reading a memoir, but I’ll save my review for when I’ve read the full book.

The Future of This Blog

So, this post is really a test to see who’s still out there reading my blog, so I can get an idea of where I’m at. It’s also me just tentatively stepping back out into the blog world to remind myself of what it’s like to write a post and get out my thoughts about where I’m at in life and as a writer.

I still love the idea of capturing my journey as a writer and a creative person, just like I did eight years ago when I started this blog. So that will still remain the cornerstone of this little corner of the internet. I am perfectly happy to still incorporate book reviews because I am still an avid reader. As for what else…. We’ll just have to wait and see. I have a few more ideas in mind, but I’m also happy to hear any ideas/requests from readers.

So, maybe I’ll see you again here sometime soon. Until then,

Signing off,

Corinne

“Why, my soul, are you so dejected? Why are you in such turmoil? Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him, my Savior and my God.” (Psalm 42:11 CSB)

Greetings! I hope your November and Thanksgiving was wonderful! Today, I’ll be giving my November Monthly Recap.

Writing

My goal was to start going through my book, but I got no writing time in last month. None. I suppose I could’ve spent less time reading… but Legacy came out last month! I just HAD to spend every spare second reading it!

So, on the less desperate side of things, I plan to spend less time reading and more time writing this month.

Blogging

Well… I think we all know how blogging went for me this month, if you read my update post. No posts. No time to write.

But, this month will be better. I plan to get at least two posts out that will continue our bullet journal series.

Goals

My goals last month were:

Drink more water. I did start on my water goal, which was to get to the point where I drank three cups of water each day. I got up to two cups, but not three.
Read three books. I did reach this goal.
Study driving book. Nope. I didn’t. Not even once. I have a driving guide that I’m trying to get through, but I just haven’t had time to study it.
Work on going through your book. This is referring to the book I’ve written. As I said before, I didn’t have any time.
Do a devotion every day. I did not do very good on this goal.

My goals this month are:

Study driving book at least three times a week. Be finished with it by the end of Christmas break.
Get at least two blog posts out.
Work on going through my book.
Get to the point where you drink three cups of water a day.
Read at least two books.
Do daily devotions.

Books

Last month, I read three books and started one.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. This is the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, and I loved reading it for the second time. The first time I read this series, my mom read it out loud to me; so this is my first time reading the books for myself.
Legacy. Okay, I have a lot to say about this book, but I’m going to save it for a different post. I got a request to post about this book when it came out, so that can definitely be expected this month, for all of you KEEPER fans. This is the eighth book in the Keeper of the Lost Cities series and I enjoyed it. So. Much! Whenever I had a break in my school work, I buried my nose in this book. I CANNOT WAIT for book nine.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I finished this book for the second time, and had just too. Many. Feelings. Of course, I loved it all the way through and I started book seven the moment I finished it. 🙂

My goal next month is to read at least two books (this is less than last month because I want to focus more on writing and studying my driving guide). I plan to finish book seven of the Harry Potter series, and start another series of books (I’m not sure what I’ll read next).

Bullet Journal

I think I’m finally getting the hang of bullet journaling (says the girl who’s been bullet journaling for over a year). I’ve figured out a system that works for me, and I didn’t miss very many days of filling out my journal this month. That might sound kind of discouraging, given that I’ve been bullet journaling for over a year, but it has truly been an amazing journey. It has been so fun to figure all this out, and I am so happy that I decided to try it.

This month, I did a Christmas-y theme, given that it is December.

I used stencils to create this page, and I’m not thrilled with how it turned out. But it’s only the title page. I don’t really look at the this page a lot.

This is my monthly overview. I have my calendar, and a section for events and another section for goals underneath it. On the right page is a page for reviewing my month. The first two sections are for writing out the positive and negative things that happened during the month. The next two sections are for recording the books that I read and my water goal. Finally, I have a place to record memories and and a drawing of a snowman. Isn’t he just so cute?

Next is my mood tracker. This is a simple tracker. Each day, I’ll choose the snowflake that best shows how I felt and draw it in the empty space.

This is my December Brain Dump, where I can write down anything I want to remember.

Here is my Habit Tracker for this month. It’s the same as always: dates are written at the top, and on the side of the green line is where I will write my habits.

Finally, here is my weekly layout. I did this in gel pen because I couldn’t come up with any color schemes that I hadn’t used on my regular pens and I had a lot more colors to choose from with my gel pens. The left page has all of my extra information and the right page contains all of the daily sections. At the top of the left page, I have a section for my goals. I’ve decided to start doing three goals for each week as well as the ones for the entire month. Underneath that is a section to record all of the exercise that I do during the week. The section below that is divided in two- one for extra notes and one for my water tracker. Finally, I have my to-do list at the bottom of the page.

Life In General

Life in general last month was hectic. We just moved in to our new house last October, and this month was full of unpacking the house and going out. Then came Thanksgiving, and it was from house to house, dinner to dinner, family to family. So now, I’m glad to be back home, writing this post in front of my Christmas tree.

Next Time…

That’s it for today’s monthly recap. My next post will be about Legacy, so if you’re a KEEPER fan, stick around!

How was your November? Are you all set for Christmas? Are you a KEEPER fan? Tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading! Happy writing!

But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Matthew 6:3 ESV

Tag: blog

I’m Back! (+What I Read in May)