1) My trip to Puerto Rico was the first non-cruise vacation for my mom and me in a really long time. Actually, excluding our weekend trips to Savannah, it’s probably the first real vacation outside of cruises we’ve taken together. (We didn’t travel as a family when I was younger.) And, guys, we’ve been spoiled by cruise ships. We quickly learned how much we enjoy not having to worry about where to eat every single day for every single meal. I missed just going down to the lido deck for lunch at the buffet and to the dining room for a yummy, sit-down dinner. Instead, every meal felt like a production. We not only had a find a place to eat (that would suit our very picky tastes!), but also had to figure out a way to get there. Should we just find a restaurant within walking distance or take an Uber? It’s funny because people who don’t enjoy taking cruises cite this very reason for why they don’t like them: having their meals decided for them. They want the freedom to explore interesting restaurants and cuisines! I’ve always said this is exactly why I like cruising (not having to come up with a place to eat every day/night), and this trip to Puerto Rico taught me that it’s completely true. I truly missed the simplicity of dining.

2) I am one of those weirdos who hasn’t done much travel by plane in my life. I’ve done a lot of road trips and cruises, so this trip to Puerto Rico was only the third time I’ve been on a plane. (I know, I know.) I have a lot of friends who have a ton of anxiety when it comes to plane travel – I’m talking “need a Xanax or a few glasses of wine before the flight” type of anxiety – so I was interested in how I’d deal with it. Turns out, no anxiety problems here! Maybe it’s the meds I’m on, but I found the whole experience rather fun and exciting. From lifting off to being in the clouds to touching down, it was all incredible to me. I even really enjoyed being in the airport. The people watching is sublime and I enjoyed just kicking back with my Kindle as I waited for my flight. It made me want to do a whole lot more plane travel – and soon!

3) When I’m in my normal life, I don’t really drink alcohol all that much. Maybe I’ll get a drink if it’s happy hour and there’s a special, but usually not. But when I’m on vacation, all bets are off. I’m getting a drink with every meal, who cares if that pina colada is $15? GIMME. It’s as if I completely switch to this different person – Vacation Steph. Vacation Steph must have a drink with her meals because otherwise, she’s not vacationing in the right way. It’s funny, the identities we give ourselves. At home, it’s rare for me to have a drink. On vacation, it’s rare for me not to have a drink. Maybe I think I’m not having the right amount of fun if I don’t drink while on vacation? I don’t feel that way at home; even if all of my friends are drinking, I don’t feel the need to do so, too. Or is it the money aspect? On vacation, I can spend money because I “earned this vacation dammit.” In my real life, I’m much more frugal and spending $9 on a cocktail feels sickening. It’s an interesting dichotomy… I know I could give up alcohol completely and not feel as if anything was missing from my life. But would I feel like something was missing from my vacation? That… I do not know.

4) I have discovered that I am a lazy traveler. I wish I was not. I wish I was someone who enjoyed scouring travel recommendation sites and finding interesting places to visit, but making so many decisions is overwhelming. Hence why I love cruising. With cruising, I don’t have to try to find the best deal on a hotel or Airbnb while praying those handful of bad reviews aren’t the more accurate picture. With cruising, I don’t have to decide where to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every single day. With cruising, I don’t have to plan what to do every day and look through lists upon lists of “top X things to do in Y place.” Cruising is just so damn easy. There’s very little decision making. The biggest decisions I have to make is whether to do an excursion or walk around while we’re in a port. To go to the dining room for sit-down breakfast or the lido deck for continental breakfast. To play bingo at 3pm or take a nap. To spend some time in the sun or stroll around the decks. Cruise life is perfect for the lazy traveler and that’s who I am.

5) I’ve long felt a bit of shame at the fact that I am not as well-traveled as I think I should be. Most of my travel has involved taking a cruise to tropical islands. I’ve been to Jamaica and Mexico and St. Thomas and the Bahamas… but only for a few hours and never to truly explore these islands. This past vacation was my first time in an airport since 2012. And 2012 was my first time in an airport ever. (A while back, I read a Twitter thread that had a shaming tone about people who haven’t been on planes a lot in their life, and apparently, that sense of shame has stuck with me.) Truthfully, though? I enjoy tropical, touristy vacations. I enjoy taking cruises. I have a limited amount of money to spend on vacations and a limited amount of time to take them, so why should I spend it doing something that doesn’t make me overwhelmingly happy? Why should I worry that other people scoff at all the cruises I take and think I should opt for less touristy travel? Backpacking through Europe or road-tripping across the country doesn’t appeal to me. A European cruise, on the other hand, most definitely does. I’m not going to apologize that my preferred method of travel is by cruise ship, and I’m sure as hell going to stop feeling shame about my lack of experience with airlines.

Here we are at the beginning of another year. It’s crazy how fast time passes, isn’t it? I don’t feel like it was all that long ago that I was welcoming 2016, but suddenly, 12 months have passed by and I’m thinking ahead to what I want out of this new year.

The truth is, I don’t exactly know what I want out of 2017. I know I want to travel. I know I want to save money. I know I want to get healthy. I know I want to finish my novel. But those are just goals. If I achieve them, great. If not, that’s okay, too. I guess what I’m mostly seeking from 2017 is fulfillment. I want to be fulfilled and satisfied with my life. I want to feel good about myself.

But, still, I made some resolutions for this year. We’ll see how many of them I achieve and if I even remember them by the time 2018 rolls around. So much can happen in a year and I’m excited to see what will unfold over the months in this one.

Here is what I’m hoping to accomplish in 2017:

Quit fast food and soda

Every year, I make some sort of weight loss goal that I never attain. This year, I want to make a healthy living goal. After thinking long and hard about my eating habits and how I want to feel, I know that these are two addictions I need to cut. I eat fast food maybe one to two times a week, more on a really bad week. I don’t feel like I’m hugely addicted to fast food, but it’s more that I rely on it when I didn’t meal plan well or am feeling upset and want to feel better. If I can cut it out completely, all the better! And it’s the same with soda. Over the past month, I’ve dropped down to one soda a day and I’m just going to continue dropping the number of sodas I drink until I don’t have the urge for it anymore. (The cold turkey method doesn’t work for me; I’ve tried it in the past.) Here’s to a healthier 2017!

Read four “classic” novels

I’ve already decided what the novels will be: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Count of Monte Cristo, Pride and Prejudice, and The Handmaid’s Tale. All of these novels may not be classic novels in the literary sense of the word, but they feel classic to me and that’s all that matters. (Heh.) I am terrified to read The Count of Monte Cristo because it’s nearly 1,300 pages (!), but someone counted it among one of their favorite novels on the What Should I Read Next? podcast, so I think I’m going to give it a shot. (My backup plan is to read 1984 by George Orwell if I can’t make it through the book.) I want to read more widely this year, books that I wouldn’t necessarily pick up on my own, so I’m excited about this reading goal!

Save $1,000 in an emergency fund

I am placing a priority on this goal this year. It’s ridiculous to not have a emergency fund, being nearly 30. My goal is to place $50 a paycheck into a separate savings account (and to have that money transfer automatically so I can pretend it was never there to begin with!) My money habits are not the best, and I acknowledge this, but every year, I’ve gotten a bit better at how I spend and save money and that’s all I can ask of myself.

Start seeing a therapist

This is another goal that I constantly have on my yearly resolutions and there are reasons why I keep putting off finding a therapist. My last therapist experience wasn’t positive, therapy isn’t cheap, my social anxiety means making phone calls to make an appointment terrifies me… I could go on. But I’m inspired by the people in my life who have taken the plunge and started therapy, and inspired by the change it has wrought in their lives, so I’m going to work hard to mark this goal as complete.

Write my novel

I was hoping 2016 was going to be the year that I finally wrote my novel, but it didn’t happen for me. I continued to get in my head about writing and my work-in-progress, and ended up quitting and starting over a dozen times. I also had to put writing to the wayside when my freelance work picked up, but I’m hoping to make fiction writing more of a priority in 2017.

Get a tattoo

Honestly, I have no idea what I’m waiting for, divine intervention? I know the tattoo I want. I know where I want it. I know I will feel so happy when I get it. Time to stop being a baby and do the thing.

So here’s to 2017! I’ll check in on these goals every few months in the hopes I actually stick with them throughout the year and can mark more than a few of them complete.

Do you have any goals for 2017?

So, remember how I wrote this nice blog post in mid-January about joining up with Beth Moore’s Siesta Scripture Memory Team and how I was going to memorize two verses a month to round out the year with knowing 24 Bible verses by heart?

Yeah. That.

I completely fell off the memory verse bandwagon and I’ve been feeling very guilty about it. But just because I fell off the bandwagon doesn’t mean I can’t hop back on, right?

Right.

So I am back on track and I have FOUR verses to share with you all. I have the first two memorized and I’m working on the second two. Now that I’m back on track, I’m finding such joy in finding verses that hold meaning to me and speaking them aloud a few times a day. They comfort me and help me to put my focus back on what truly matters.

“So then, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you may do, do it all for the honor and glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31 AMP)

Over the past few months, I have felt myself repeating a version of this verse in my head as I pull into the parking lot at work. The idea of everything I do – even the things I have to do that I don’t want to do – should be done for God’s glory. Work is on the upswing right now, but there were many, many weeks where I was very unhappy and had a lot of anxiety about my job. I felt myself connected to this verse. While God doesn’t want us to be miserable, I think it also is important to realize that we need to put our full effort into whatever we are doing. I need to approach my job as doing something to honor God, to glorify Him. I think once I started wrapping my head around that and realizing it’s for Him, frustrations and annoyances started leaving, little by little.

There are so many more actions you can tack onto this verse. It’s not only about doing those things you don’t want to do. So then, whether I write or read or talk or clean or exercise or eat or laugh or sing or dance or love… do it all for the glory of God.

“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NLT)

This is one of my favorite Bible verses. It’s a great comfort to me when I’m facing troubles of my own, but I’ve never fully memorized it. It’s a longer passage than I’m used to, but it holds such a great message. We will face troubles, we will face sorrows. Following Jesus is not meant to be easy, but we have such peace in His guidance. I know I feel so much lighter when I know I’m following in His footsteps, and not trying to do this all on my own.

I love that last sentence. I say it with drama.

TAKE HEART! I have OVERCOME the world!

He has overcome it. He has battled it and defeated it. He carried the cross, He took the nails, He died for me. And He rose. He lived. He overcame.

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8 (NIV)

I love this verse. I can’t remember how I found it, but this version of it paints such a vivid picture for me. I have felt attacks on my spirit lately and it leads me to feel far away from God. This verse reminds me that I need to be aware and on alert – the enemy is looking for my weaknesses, he’s ready to pounce at any moment. I can’t – won’t! – let him win.

“Commit your actions to the Lord, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 (NLT)

I’ve been focusing on the New Testament for all of my verses so far, and I wanted to sneak in a Proverb into my studying. This one is just me in a nutshell. I am huge on setting goals. I just can’t fathom a life where I’m not setting goals and working to achieve them. Lately, though, I seem to be setting goals and then not putting in the work that needs to be done to achieve them. I’ve been lazy and unmotivated, to be as honest as I can be.

So when I stumbled on this verse while searching for a Proverb, my eyes lit up. It felt as if was written exactly for me. Is that what I’ve been missing? Is it because I haven’t been coming to God with my plans and asking for His help and guidance with them that they’ve fallen apart? This verse tells me that I need to have God on my side with all my goals, no matter how trivial they seem. Think about it: do I want to have His help on my side, or not? If my goals are aligning with His will, He’s going to help me see them through to completion.

What verse/saying/mantra gets you through a tough time?

This year, I’m taking part of Beth Moore’s Siesta Sister Scripture Memory Team (how’s that for a mouthful?). Basically, the premise is memorizing 24 Bible verses in a year’s time. On the 1st and 15th of the month, a post on her blog goes live where she gives us the verse she’ll be studying for the next 15 days and then participants leave comments with their own Bible verses. Currently, there are 11,000 women participating! Isn’t that amazing? I think it’s incredible and I’m so excited to spend this year diving more deeply into memorizing Bible verses and making my faith a more active part of my life.

For my first verse of the year, I chose one that I’ve been turning over and over in my head for months.

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not until the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14 (KJV)

I’m really attracted to the meaning of grace. The bare bones of the definition is getting what we don’t deserve. It’s the entire basis of faith, at least for me. This free, uninhibited love that God pours out to us. We are undeserving of it, yet no matter how many times I mess up, how many times I fail, how many times I fall – God’s still standing right there, open arms. I want to get this word tattooed on my skin – and I’m dead serious when I say that. The word grace means so much to me, because of how very often I need it.

And no, I’m not trying to be Ms. Super Christian with a King James translation of the verse, but I pulled up this translation and the word dominion stuck out to me. Dominion. Rule. Authority. Control. Influence. Power. SIN has no POWER over me. No authority. No control. No dominion at all.

It gives me goosebumps.

For my second verse, which I’ll be memorizing for the next 15 days, I chose this one:

“So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18 (HCSB)

One of the tenants of this challenge is to choose verses that hold a lot of meaning to you. Something that deals with what you are going through right now. It makes the memorization more meaningful. I had to hurry and find this verse, as I completely forgot about it until I saw Beth Moore’s post yesterday morning. But it still holds a lot of weight and meaning to me. I know I can tend to get caught up in the day-to-day, in the struggles, the triumphs and the pitfalls. I can get so bogged down in it. This verse is about keeping our eyes focused on the hope we have in Jesus Christ.

I know I can get so worried about the little things, worried I’m not living up to my potential or people don’t like me or I need to do more, see more, be more but when it all comes down to it: I’m doing the best I can. I am enough. All of this is temporary. My focus needs to go back to the One who is forever.

For those of you who follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you noticed I had a little visitor this past weekend. Tootsie is my boss’s dog and she comes to work with him almost every day. She is adorable, sweet, and not very ladylike (what with her snoring and grunting and all that!). My boss was going out of town Wednesday night – Saturday night and I had mentioned in passing once I would totally watch Tootsie if he ever needed me to. So he took me up on it and I was glad to oblige.

At first, I was a bit worried how Dutch would do with the new intruder. He’s very possessive of me, but he’s also very calm when he’s around other dogs. For the most part, he’s a loner and doesn’t get all crazy when he sees other dogs.

Tootsie came home with me on Wednesday night and she was a bit panicky at first. The drive home from work was a little tense. She stayed in the backseat but cried a lot. She didn’t seem to know what to make of our house or Dutch. Our first night, I made the huge mistake of letting her stay in my room and when she started crying and trying to jump onto my bed (Dutch always sleeps with me on my bed), I let her come up.

I think I slept about four hours that night. If that. You see, Tootsie snores. Loudly. And she never stops snoring. Awake, asleep, on a walk. She snores. And since I need complete silence to get to sleep, it took me a long time to finally fall asleep but when I did, I kept waking up to Tootsie.

Thursday was a very hard day to get through at work. I’m not sure I can do the whole newborn thing anymore. I need my sleep! Sleep deprivation is not for wimps and I bow down to all you mothers. I don’t know how you do it.

The next two nights, Tootsie slept in the living room and I got over 8 blessed hours of sleep both nights. Ahhhh. Rejuvenating!

In any event, aside from the snoring, Tootsie was a delightful houseguest. Her favorite place to sleep in the house was a) on the arm of our loveseat or couch and b) in one of Dutch’s beds (even though she had one of her own.) (And yes, Dutch has two beds. Along with a handful of blankets. No. He is not spoiled.) Case in point, the cutest photo I think I have ever seen in my life:

It was interesting to see her and Dutch interact. Dutch is about 8 months older than her (he’ll be 10 next week) but his energy level compared to hers is completely different. I can take Dutch on a 3-mile walk and he’s fine. He may be a little slow-moving the rest of the day but he has no issues with the walk. Tootsie? I just took her to the mailbox and back (not even half a mile round-trip) and she acted like she was dying! Girlfriend needs some exercise. 🙂 He seems more like a puppy than she does, but people are always astonished when they find out how old Dutch is because he doesn’t act like it. I hope this means he will live to be 20 years old.

They weren’t exactly best buds, but they tolerated each other. We left them alone for about twenty minutes on Friday night and then for a good four-and-a-half hours on Saturday and they didn’t kill each other. So that’s good! And it was the cutest to see them together whenever someone walked by. It leads Dutch to bark ferociously and Tootsie would get up and stand next to him and just look at him, like, “Wait. What are we doing? Am I supposed to bark? What am I barking at?” And then she would attempt her bark. Which might be the cutest bark in the world:

It was a fun four days with them and I’m very glad I decided to do this. (Job security, anyone? Ha.) Tootsie was delightful! And so cute, it was hard to give her back on Saturday night. Alas, it helped me decide whether or not I’m truly ready to have another dog. I think I am but as cute as Tootsie was, I think I am a dachshund mom for life. But right now? I’m happy with just my little man.

And I will leave you with this. Tootsie snoring. You *know* I had to capture this on video! (Turn your volume up on this to hear it. Sound isn’t great for some reason.)

Are you a dog person? What’s your favorite breed?

This past summer, I somehow managed to read through the entire Harry Potter series. It was a big undertaking, but the best part of the entire thing were the weekly chats about the books. There’s something about Harry Potter that begs to be talked about and dissected and through that experience, I developed some great relationships. (And those people are still satisfying my Rupert Grint lust with links to pictures and videos. You guys are my favorites.)

When we finished the series, we were all a little sad not to have these weekly chats. It was fun to meet every week and talk about the book, but we did end up getting a little burned out. We had plans to continue our Twitter book chats but life got busy. So it was pushed aside for a while, until I brought it up again on Twitter last week. Somehow, I’ve volunteered myself to organize this book chat but I’m happy to do so. I’ve been meaning to join a book club for a while now and while I still intend to attend a non-virtual one, this one will work for me for now. (And do I even need to mention how doing this chat with some of my best Internet friends fills me with warm fuzzies? I didn’t think so.)

And this is where you come in!

Through Twitter, I think we’ve decided on the last Sunday in November for our first Twitter book chat. (Ironically, this is also the day before my birthday so I’m hoping I can join. I just don’t know what I’ll be doing then.) But now we need to decide on a time, a book, and a hashtag. I’ve created a poll for the time to see what works best with everyone’s schedules and want your suggestions for a possible book and hashtag (right now, #twitterbookchat could work, but I’m not sure if it’s too long. We could shorten it to #tbc.). I’ll choose 3-5 books from the suggestions, post a poll on Friday, and announce the November book on Monday. Then, you’ll have four weeks to read the book before our chat! (In the future, I hope to do this process a week prior to the month beginning.)

If you’d like to join, you’re more than welcome. Now RSVP needed! 🙂

For now, leave me book suggestions in the comments and your thoughts on what the hashtag should be. Don’t worry about repeating others’ suggestions, I’ll choose some of the most popular books to vote on.

I’m super excited about this so I can’t wait to see your suggestions!

(And I just realized my last three blog posts have centered around books. If you haven’t noticed, I kinda love to read.)

I need your help.

Last summer, I began to notice how bad my skin was breaking out. I’ve never been one to have a smooth, clear complexion but I never suffered from acne as a teenager. But, oh boy, is my face getting me back for those smooth years. I break out a couple times a week and it’s not pretty. I’m very hesitant to try any type of specialized acne cream because I think my problem is simply from eating too many sweets and drinking too much sugary soda. And I think it’s also due to not properly washing my face at night.

Because of that, I decided to go make-up free around Thanksgiving. I wanted to see if going make-up free would help my complexion at all. Verdict? Just a smidge, but nothing earth-shattering. Since then, I’ve been pretty lax on wearing make-up. I never wear it during the week (my job is not conducive to a full face of make-up) and only on special occasions. Right now, I’m using the Cetaphil system for my face-washing routine. I use the cleaner in the morning and at night, the heavier lotion for nighttime, and the lighter one for the morning time. What I’ve gained the most from this is a smoother-feeling face. I can’t say it does a great job at helping with shine control, but it does make my skin feel awesome and has helped to clear up my acne a little. And I think a cleaner diet would clear the rest up.

But I don’t want your help for my skin issues. I want your help regarding make-up. Currently, I barely wear anything because I don’t like how I feel when I wear it. It makes my skin feel heavy and oily, and I constantly have to reapply to keep the shine at bay. And I’m also concerned that I look like I’m wearing a separate head on my body, with the way I can never find a shade that suits my skin tone! It’s always either too light or too dark.

So I’m coming to you, blog world. I need your recommendations for great make-up: mainly foundation and skin coverage, but if you want to tell me your favorite mascara or eye shadow or lipstick, go right ahead!

Here’s what I’m mainly looking for:

• Something that covers well. As stated before, my skin doesn’t look perfect and I want something that can cover up the majority of it and still look natural.
• Something that works well with the shine ball I am. My skin thrives on being oily. I want something that helps to control it.
• Something that lasts. I have never met a foundation that lasts longer than a few hours. I hate reapplying every 2 hours.
• Something that’s light. I hate the feeling of make-up on my skin because it makes my face feel like it’s suffocating. I mean, it’s 2011. We have to have make-up that feels like air, right?

What say you, blog world?