The Storybook Journal: I Am Slowly But Surely Adjusting // June 2025

Here it is! The Life Update I've been promising.

A lot has changed in my life, which has prevented me from posting as often as I said I wanted to back in the beginning of the year. And apart from that, life has just progressed, like life always does, even in the mundane and somewhat boring ways.

But if I've learned anything as I've gotten older (I'm 27 now..... holy crap I'm old...) it's that the passing of time is very precious. My son will never be as young again as he was today. My body will never look quite the same as now. My marriage won't be in the same young stage as it is in right now. Life is so precious even in its mundanity!

So here they are, the bullet points of What's Been Going On!

⟢ I Quit My Full Time Job to Stay Home With My Son

(This one is a long one, LOL)

This one was a huge step in faith in which I quit my full time job doing inside sales for Home Depot, working from home. It was a great job, really, and I enjoyed it immensely! The job worked perfectly for me and my family for 2-1/2 years. I was able to have my son at home with me while working to provide the major part of our household income. All my breaks and lunches were right here at home, where I could cook, clean, play with my son, take a shower, etc. When I got off work for the day, I was right there at home ready for the evening, the second I clocked out. There was no commute, and no need to drive anywhere. I could (and frequently DID) wake up barely 10 minutes before my shift started to get those extra Z's!

But, all was not paradise. It was a full time job which meant 40 hours of my week that I didn't get to have full time attention to my son. We had to stay inside, all day every day. And what's more, the job itself became a bit of a problem. I've always been a good worker, with attention to detail, organized, and who worked well with other people. But towards the end of my time there, they had a few people leave and they weren't being replaced. So everyone else had to absorb the extra work, and it became tiring on many of us. What's more, my relationship with my boss began to deteriorate as I was dealing with the increased and changing expectations, which was made harder by the fact that the boss person just didn't do their job very well (let's face it, the boss was probably stressed too). It got to the point where I was feeling anxious to go into work. I would think about work on the weekends, and while I still loved many aspects of the job, I just wasn't excited to do it any more than I was stressed. Several workdays had me clocking out with tears of frustration. My husband had been encouraging me for months that we can quit this job and figure out the finances - "we're not stuck here, GOD will provide", he would say. But I was scared. I didn't know how we would figure out how to make it. I made a lot of money and I just didn't know how we could get it to work.

At the beginning of May, I reached my breaking point. I had a video meeting with my boss, and told her I wanted to go back to a store in 2 weeks, to work part time. The amount of freedom and excitement I felt! I still had no plan and no understanding of how we would make things work. But, I took the leap. The HUGE leap of faith. Frankly, I was scared to death! But, I did it anyways.

Here we are at the beginning of June 2025, and we are still alive and surviving. Yes, the money's tight. I miss being able to eat for my cycle (steaks during Menstruation, salmon and kombucha during Follicular, etc. etc.), I miss my regular massages, I miss being able to cook for other people more, and I miss many other aspects of the privileges of... you know, HAVING MONEY. But, we are working on it. And picking up hours here and there to make ends meet. We haven't been kicked out of our apartment yet so that has to show for something! And changes always lead the way to make new connection and new networks. I already have offers to do some clerical work for minimal hours at home for a few business partners that my husband and I know, on top of working 2 nights a week at a Home Depot store in my area. Things are still shifting and we are still getting used to everything, but there has been a tremendous amount of blessing and promise as GOD confirms the decision we made!

⟢ I Am Reading 25 Books in 2025

See my last post for a recap of the year so far in books! Here's the list of books I'm currently working through and hoping to finish soon:

The Story of Knights and Armor | by Ernest E Tucker (A book I read as a kid while homeschooling - I remembering liking it a lot and decided to pick it up for nostalgia's sake and also because it's a pretty easy read to get me to my goal!)
Tess of the d'Urbervilles | by Thomas Hardy (I found this at a book fair here in Saint Louis - I am only 3 chapters in but liking it so far!)
Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep | by Tish Harrison Warren (I had to read this one after loving Liturgy of the Ordinary so much. And already, this book has me tearing up numerous times already!)
The Flourishing Family: A Jesus-Centered Guide to Parenting with Peace and Purpose | by David Erickson (I followed them on Instagram while back because they aligned with my views on not spanking children, among many other parenting values that I hold to - this is a very hyped book that I'm very excited to get into. So far I have just read the intro!)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond | by Elizabeth George Speare (This is a favorite from when I was a teenager. I'm reading this with my "book friend", we meet on Mondays!)
The Lord of the Rings: Part One: The Fellowship of the Ring | By J. R. R. Tolkien (I'm reading this through with a few girlfriends! It has been very nostalgic and a great path down memory lane because I have only read the series once when I was a teenager!)
Mansfield Park | by Jane Austen (I'm probably going to finish this one next - I have been "speed reading" it to get through it in order to move on to Tess mentioned above. I plan to watch the movie when finished! Or is it a series? I don't actually know, LOL!)
Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, #2) | by Marissa Meyer (I'm having a hard time getting into this one. I'm not sure if I'll finish it honestly!)
Show Them Jesus: Teaching the Gospel to Kids | by Jack Klumpenhower (re-reading this with my hubby!)
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents (this one goes without sayin', you can just look at some of my recent posts for context, LOL!)
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work | by John M. Gottman (Ok, I like this book... but the amount of exercises is annoying and a little daunting. I just wanted to read something and didn't want or need something so hands on, and frankly that's making it take a long time to get through! Time will tell if it's overall worth it...)

While enjoying a Nitro Cold Brew from Course Coffee Roasters in St. Charles!

I have a few more books planned to read as well as some of these reach completion, but I will discuss those probably in a future post this year!

Ok, now for a few shorter updates (aka "shorties")!

⟢ Life With Malachi (aka "Poobiss")

"Poobiss" is the nickname we have given our son. He will be 2 this month! Every day is an adventure, and it feels like he picks up new abilities and developments every day! The latest fun quirk... he has started pretending his morning banana is a plane by swooshing it into the sky with his hand and making an airplane sound!

⟢ Making Lots of Sourdough Bread

Behold my newest food-related hobby! I picked this up about a year ago. I will have a post coming up soon in which I describe my current routine! But for now, I'll share one of my recent loaves:

I'm still working on my scoring -- but look at that crusty crust!!

⟢ Experimenting with Coffee Syrups / At-Home Brewing

Since quitting the job, one of the ways we are saving money is by making our coffee drinks at home. I have a method for making an at-home latte with the Aeropress. But syrups are really where I can be creative! Here is one of the recent recipes I came up with, I'm not sure what to call it, but it reminds me of a cookie of some sort!

1 cup cane sugar

1 cup water

2-3 tbsp (to taste) molasses

2-3 tsp (to taste) vanilla

1-2 tsp (to taste - not too much because it easily overpowers) almond extract

pinch cinnamon

Place over low heat on the stovetop and let it sit for at least 4 hours. The longer the better!

As you can see, the measurements are very much adjustable to your preference, the main portion to stay accurate is the sugar and water, because this is the simple syrup base. Everything else is just flavoring!

⟢ Art

I have been wanting to practice art more, especially with different mediums than I have historically used. My favorites in the past is vine charcoal and pencil. But this year I started trying to be more colorful, having bought a box of Crayola pencils and crayons! And very different as well, when I made my 2025 vision board collage, which was done with layers of magazine paper. Here are a few recent pieces: