It Needs to be Said...

Hello, my blog-reading friends!

I wanted to take a post to specifically address something that, whether we like it or not, affects all of us in the current technological landscape. Something that is, unfortunately, almost inescapable on the internet at this point in time. 

That's right, I'm talking about AI. 

Recently, if you have been on the internet AT ALL, you know that ai is absolutely and completely EVERYWHERE. Every single website, it seems, definitely all the major ones, have some type of ai "help tool" or search engine for users. 

I'll be straight from the get-go. I am not here to write a full post about the goods or the bads or the uglies of ai. I'm not here to stand on a soapbox, or preach anything about anything, or compare opinions or moralities of any of this. Heaven knows that it is a crazy wild west out there with ai, what with how it's used, whether or not it's truly helpful in some ways, the data center controversy, the artist theft, and much, much more. 

My intention is not to address any of that in detail today. I simply wanted to assure each and every reader, that this IS, and HAS ALWAYS BEEN, an AI-Free Blog. And I intend to keep it that way. 

What I'm not saying is that I've never pulled up ai to help me figure out a word or two to use based on what I'm trying to express. It has been used as a dictionary/thesaurus and search engine type tool multiple times. But I have never and will never ask ai to spit out a full blog post for me. I believe that would be disingenuous, and frankly dishonest. Dare I say, even unethical. Not to mention it takes away one of the main purposes of this blog, which is to HAVE FUN by writing posts!

When you visit The Storybook Journal (which has been around for longer than 10 years at this point!) you are coming to read a slice of Amaris, her psyche, her ramblings, and her life. Me, and only me, Amaris (...though, if you look back far enough, I used to call myself "Phoebe" on this blog! My mom had me scared that someone was going to read my teeny tiny, barely-a drop-in-the-unimaginably-vast-bucket-that-is the-internet-blog and come and stalk me just based on my name... LOL). 

So anyways, what I'm saying is, despite the changing technology landscape, past, present, and future, this blog will remain the same as it always has. It will continue to be a digital journal, with ramblings of life and its emotions, ups, downs, and complexities. Another one of many (though still unique) perspectives of life, GOD, love, happiness, feelings, books, movies, coffee beverages, family, and marriage. 

And I seal this with a typed promise on my sidebar, which reads: 

"This is an AI-free blog"! 

This is my promise and vow to you, the reader! 

☆~☆~☆

There is one other note I had to convey, on a different subject. 

As you might know from recent previous posts, I had a baby in February (hooray!). And with the pregnancy craziness and the birth craziness, of course then followed by the newborn craziness, my posting schedule for this blog has gone a little awry. I WAS doing every Wednesday to post, and it was a pretty good schedule for me. My plan is to get back to that again, now that my schedule and routine is settling in with the new baby and my new normal! I know that I don't have very many regular readers, and that's ok. But for the readers I do have, I just wanted to remain communicative. I have been guilty of getting wrapped up in life for months at a time without even looking at this blog, much less opening up the drafts to write a post. But I wanted to continue posting on here somewhat regularly because it is a source of great enjoyment for me, as it has been for 10 long years! 

That all being said, I know I am a little late this week and am posting on Thursday. But I wanted to share that my intention is to do Wednesday every week, so that can be something we can all look forward to!

☆~☆~☆

Well, that is all, my friends. Thank you for reading. Thank you for coming back to my blog, again and again, to peek into my tiny corner in a sea of internet blogs, in a day and age where blogs are somewhat antiquated and dare I say, even out of style! But despite all that, thank you for being here, and thank you for reading! 

Until next time. ◡̈

~ Amaris // ☆

Life Updates ⟡ Recent Contemplations ⟡ July 2025

 Hello again friends!

(a note before starting - I legitimately didn't know what day it was and thought I had missed my usual Wednesday post. It turns out, I'm right on schedule and not late at all, LOL! Though I do expect to be off schedule here and there in the coming months. Read on to see why...)

------

If you have been reading the blog for awhile, you might have noticed I tend to have a schedule of posting on Wednesdays! I like having a routine when I can, for most things in life. It helps me take the guesswork out of when to get what things done to make sure I do all that I want to do!

My blogging desk setup!

 ⋆.˚⟡ ࣪ ˖ An Interruption of Your Regularly Scheduled Posts  ⋆.˚⟡ ࣪ ˖

This past Wednesday, however, was an exception. I was a bit "under the weather", shall we say. Not the usual way you might think though. I wasn't SICK sick... I was actually pregnancy sick! 

That's right, our little family is expanding. I am in fact pregnant with our second child!

My husband and I have been expecting this for a few months now. I was worried at first, because with my first son, I got pregnant right away when we started trying to conceive. But this time, it took just a few months. I was worried perhaps I was cut open wrong with my C Section and was preventing a new pregnancy. (Believe me, up until we got pregnant, the possibility/worry of that was very real for me. Especially considering how terrible my birth experience was with my son, and how everything was handled by the medical staff around me. But, that is a story for another post perhaps some day ... )

And as mentioned above, I have been feeling the sickness recently. It set in around 4 weeks. I won't directly share how far along I am for privacy reasons - but I'll just say come springtime I will have a new little baby to love. 

It's shaped like a <3

 ⋆.˚⟡ ࣪ ˖ Tummy Aches Are Fun ⋆.˚⟡ ࣪ ˖

Thankfully, the nausea is not terrible, and can be managed. As long as I eat very regularly, and make sure I don't get hungry, I can control how I feel. Which of course, isn't always possible. Sometimes it's too difficult to time it right, and I end up hungry and nauseous. In addition to the morning time, of course I have not eaten all night and can't really help that. So most mornings I wake up nauseous and then the nausea makes it hard to eat food for breakfast. It's really a mental battle getting breakfast down every day! But, once I can finally get down some food, I feel good for the next several hours. 

Outside of my Home Depot store taken Summer 2025

 ⋆.˚⟡ ࣪ ˖ Supplements Are Somewhat Helpful ⋆.˚⟡ ࣪ ˖

Additionally something that helps the nausea, that I discovered with my first pregnancy (with my son), is taking Vitamin B6. Especially before bed, during dinner or my last snack of the day. I have noticed a significant improvement in my overall tummy feeling the next day when I remember to take it! 

I also take Folate since it's one of the most essential vitamins for early pregnancy, and with my tummy issues it's really hard to eat enough in my diet on a daily basis. Of course, I still try. But I also take the folate. 

Other than that, I haven't been taking anything - I really try hard to avoid Tylenol, since I have read that recent studies suggest that Tylenol consumed during pregnancy can lead to higher risks of (I believe) ADHD and/or Autism in the child (I can't remember which on it is but it could also be both). I did however have such a bad headache recently that Tylenol was the only thing that pulled me through! 

Iced Earl Gray Tea from Course Coffee Roasters!

 ⋆.˚⟡ ࣪ ˖ Other Life Tidbits ⋆.˚⟡ ࣪ ˖

Besides the pregnancy, life has been a season of adjustments recently. Obviously pregnancy is a huge adjustment, especially with all the physical symptoms that come with it (I have had others besides the nauseous tummy, believe me). But life in general for me has been an adjustment for the last several months. 

Mainly the big change of me quitting my full time job in May to be home with my son. There have been many ups and downs since making that decision. 

1. Positive: More time with my son and time to play and develop

2. Negative: We only have one car, which my husband takes to work. Unfortunately his job is too far away from our home at the moment for me to realistically drop him off to keep the car very often at all. 

3. Negative: Having no car means being "stuck" at home, isolated. Similar to the above-mentioned mental battle of having to eat food with a nauseous tummy after a full night sleep on an empty stomach, so too is it a mental battle of keeping my spirits above water when I am stuck at home with no way to leave, all day, with a toddler (whom I love very much. But still). This has caused me to go into a bit of a depression due to the loneliness.

4. Positive: More time to do things I need to do around the house, like chores and food prep/cooking.

With the struggles above, I have not lost hope. Sure, plenty of days I feel hopeless. But I have not fully lost hope, I know that everything is a season, and nothing lasts forever. I have been in many seasons so far in my life, and one thing is for certain - GOD has not forgotten about me. He has not yet let me down, I just get impatient. But I believe and want to slow down and let a season exist instead of just wanting it to be over while being frustrated. Sure, many things about this season are frustrating. But I know He hears me. He tells me so, in little ways. He is always confirming His presence in my life. 

Somewhere, way up there

 ⋆.˚⟡ ࣪ ˖ Other Struggles & Opportunities to Seek God's Will ⋆.˚⟡ ࣪ ˖

One of the frustrations I have had with this seasons is with friendships. I, like many, have experienced friends both come and go in life. Some people are meant to be around for a long time and some only for a short while. I can understand that. But it's been especially difficult to grasp God's design for friendship as something I understand when I have lost 2 major friendships in the past 2 years. The situations were entirely separate from each other, and both caused by normal happenings caused by life shifts. But, they dampened my spirits about friendship. And left me wondering lots of things that I realized I didn't know:

• What does it mean to "be a good friend", according to the Lord? 
• How can I be a better friend to those around me? 
• What boundaries should I have for the people in my life? 
• What expectations should I have for my friends, and acquaintances? 
• How much effort is the right amount of effort to put into a person that I want to be friends with? 
• How much effort should I reasonably expect back from the person I'm putting effort into?
• How can I not take friendships ending personally, but instead maturely and with wisdom? 

And many more. 

It's been an area that I have felt convicted to seek the Lord on. I know SOME things about friendship that are directly quoted in Scripture off the top of my head. But I want to go deeper. I don't necessarily understand how the concept of those verses, and even the concept of Christ's work directly applies to my personal encounters with people. So, I'd like to find a few books on the subject and seek the Lord in prayer as I meditate on verses on the subject as well. 

I did this same thing recently with the concept of Forgiveness and it helped me immensely! 

Perhaps, depending on how I feel in the coming months of pregnancy, I will post about my discoveries and developments on the subject as way to perhaps stay accountable and committed to the mission.

Coloring while at Course Coffee Roasters

That is all I have for now, friends. I will try to post regularly, and even on my usual Wednesdays, when I can. I know that life will continue to shift as I get farther along in the pregnancy, and I may not feel up to doing everything I really want to. 

But have no fear, I am here. In the background of this blog, living life! You, reader, just don't know it! I will post when I can.

Until next time... 

~ Amaris // ☆

Post #100

 First of all, allow me to apologize for my negligence this Summer. So much has happened in my life (mostly good, don't worry...) in the past couple of months, and I've been learning a lot with many experiences as well as growing in the Lord. That's all good..... except that I've ignored this poor Blog for.... *checks last post* two months. :(
For that, I am sorry! I have heaps of posts in mind for the future, so don't worry; I'm not planning on 'giving up the blogging world' anytime soon.
Hopefully, this post (which I wrote a while ago but was too distracted with life to post it  -_- ) will propel me into posting all the posts I have in mind for you. With that, here is my special post for... you guessed it, POST #100 on The Storybook Journal!!!!

_____________________________________________________

The Blog: Yoo hoo... Amar-iss.

Me: ...

The Blog: HEY. YOU. OVER HERE.

Me: What? YOU again? *hides under covers*

The Blog: That's right, ME. Get over here.

Me: What's the problem?

The Blog: I never said there was a PROBLEM *scoff*. Just listen. Ok. Do you know what today is? Does your tiny little brain even understand the importance of this post?

Me: Uhhh...

The Blog: Come on, now...

Me: Hm... I KNOW! Today is a perfect day for you to leave me alone. BYE.

The Blog: HEY. COME BACK.

Me: Fine. But WHAT?

The Blog: Today marks something very special for your blog (that you OBVIOUSLY care so much about), The Storybook Journal!

Me: What? It's not the blogiversary... that's in September.. it's not my birthday, it's... OH WAIT.

IT'S THE HUNDREDTH POST!!!!!

The Blog: THAT'S RIGHT!!! YOU MADE IT TO POST #100!!! One zero zero!!

Me: Yippee! That's so cool- wait. So what are YOU DOING here?

The Blog: I'm here to interview you. On your blog. Me. I'm here to ask you questions.

Me: .... but why.

The Blog: OH WILL YOU COOPERATE? People LIKE interviews, ok? So sit tight, and I'm going to ask you stuff.

Me: Why do people like interviews, anyways?

The Blog: No idea. But here we go, you ready?

Me: Ok.

                                        ____________________________________________

The Blog: So what first inspired you to create a blog?

Me: (Is this thing on?) Ahem. Well, it actually started with my best friend. Yes, it isn't widely known, but my best friend is the first one who led the way to me wanting a blog.


The Blog: And how did it happen?

Me: My best friend told me about a blog called The Story Girl (some of you old-timers might remember Hayden Wand's old blog) a couple of years ago. At the time, I didn't even know what a blog was. But anyways,  I subscribed to The Story Girl's email list. As time went on, I discovered more blogs that I loved. Namely, Coffee, Classics, and Craziness, Wonderland Creek, and Raindrops on Roses and Whiskers on Kittens (now called Ramblings of a Redhead Girl), all of which I still follow and love to read.
I decided "Hey, I could probably do that too!" and I dove right in.


The Blog: How do you get ideas on what to write about?

Me: To be honest, most of them come from my over-active brain (I have trouble sleeping) at night. I enjoy paying attention to things I like or admire, then I toss around ideas of how I can make The Thing into a post. Reading other blogs also helps spark my imagination for blogging too.


The Blog: How did you come up with my name, The Storybook Journal?

Me: I was really into fairy tale vibes at the time. I played around with several options; one being The Homemaker's Journal, but I decided against that one because it made me sound like a housewife, plus there was already a blog on the internet by that name.
I thought the word 'storybook' sounded really whimsical and pretty, and then 'journal' sounded good with that, so The Storybook Journal came to be.
I still think the name is pretty epic. *pats self on back*


The Blog: I see. I must admit... *hem*... it is, in fact, epic. Do you think you will ever switch over to Wordpress like other bloggers sometime do?

Me: When I first started my blog, I actually began a profile with both Wordpress and Blogger. I tweaked with both of them until I decided that I preferred the Blogger system, and the rest is history. To be honest, I still think Wordpress is kind of hard to navigate, and I don't really see myself switching, but who can tell? I still might. :)
But as of yet, there are no plans to that effect.


The Blog: Last question, and be HONEST. How many blog drafts do you have?

Me: Welllll.


The Blog: I said be honest. How many?
 
Me: Ok, fine. Right now, there are 136 blog drafts in my post section.
Whenever I get even the smallest idea for a post, I write it in a draft right away.
That way, I can come back any time and either continue my thought into an eventual published post, or trash it because I ended up seeing it as a nutty idea that no one would enjoy.
So basically, a lot of those drafts are just little notes and snippets of what might eventually be a post. It's a system that works pretty good for me.


The Blog: There, see? We're done. Was that so bad?

Me: No, I guess not. Do you think the peeps will like this interview post?


The Blog: I don't see why not.

Me: Well that's good.


The Blog: After all, I'm in this one.

Me:Oh, whatever!! GoodBYE! *walks away*

______________________________________

The Blog: Hey, wait!

Me: What?

The Blog: You aren't FINISHED.

Me: Umm... yes I am. You said the interview was OVER, so I'm FINISHED.

The Blog: Actually, you're not. You forgot to tell them the super special magical surprise. 

Me: ..... what.......

The Blog: For Pete's sake! Did you seriously forget the giveaway???

Me: Oh, THAT. I DID forget it!!!

The Blog: Indeed, you did! Allow me. *Ahem*. Ladies, and gentlemen (prob. mostly ladies). Stay tuned for the next post, in which we will be announcing a Summer Giveaway, which ANYONE can have a chance to win! 

Me: Yes! So stay tuned... more information coming up on that soon!!!

The Blog: NOW you can go.

Me: Ok. Bye everyone!

The Blog: Bye!!

___________________________________

-Amaris
(+ Special appearance on the blog: The Blog)