Blog Birthday & Giveaway! (Update – now over)

The giveaway is over, thank you to all who entered! Let me know how you all liked it. I’d love to do another one sometime! 

It’s been an entire year since I started my blog, and wow, has life changed since then! Last September my family was still living with my grandparents in Arizona. My mom had recently started her blog and I enjoyed writing little posts on hers, so I decided to begin my own. I spent that day in the back room, clicking and typing away at the computer, occasionally creeping out to ask my mom questions. Figuring out the quirks of WordPress. And facepalming in frustration because of the quirks of WordPress (which I still do sometimes). But it was a lot less complicated than I first thought. 

I love blogging! I don’t post as much as I should, and it hasn’t exactly boomed. But it’s done what it was intended to do, which is share the love and encouragement of Jesus with others in the broadest way that I can. It’s also gotten me into the community of Christian bloggers, which I didn’t even consider at the beginning but now they’re some of my dearest friends! 

So, in honor of one year and also all you readers, I’m going to do a giveaway! 

The prize will be a package of goodies handpicked by me. 

To get one entry you must follow my blog. That’s it! But for one additional entry each you can 

1. Comment below and/or
2. Give my blog a shoutout on social media.

BUT for 3 additional entries, you can give Chronicles in Bloom a shoutout on your own blog. 

The giveaway ends September 29th, which is a week from today. At which time I will draw names and announce the winner! Then I will contact the winner and get their mailing address. 

I will post specifics about what the prize will be, but it will include a notebook that I picked myself. I know THAT for sure. 😂

Thank you all so much for reading and following and leaving lovely comments on my blog! And a special thank you to all my blogger friends, because you guys really encourage me to keep writing. 

I ❤️ you guys! 

There and Back Again

I’m so, so sorry about my delay in writing a post guys. It’s been almost a month I think! That’s awful! 

As some of you may know, I went on a week long trip to Arizona very recently. I thought I’d write a little about it and share some pictures with you all! Altogether we drove for about 16 hours, but it was blissful. Besides the dogs barking that is. I watched the epic classic Ten Commandments, read, blogged, and ate for the first 6 hour stretch (ABQ-Flagstaff).Driving into the campground at Flagstaff was magical – it was so cool and fresh and hidden in hills and pine trees. We set up camp and ate tortilla soup, and then we loaded back up and took a short trip to downtown Flagstaff. It was so much fun, and my only disappointment with the trip was that we didn’t get to visit again. We went to the cutest coffee shop and I enjoyed a delicious cappuccino. After all the older people were supplied with caffeine we went back to our trailer, where we snuggled around a campfire and had “delicious hot schmoes.” The next day we woke up early and headed to the Grand Canyon where I promptly got the worst sunburn of my life on my left shoulder. I WAS ONLY IN THE SUN FOR A COUPLE MINUTES PEOPLE! So, if you ever plan on visiting the Grand Canyon (or anywhere where the sun shines) put that sunscreen on. Anywhoo, the Canyon was amazing. The air was so fresh and so chilly and I was dazzled. We spent a good couple of hours there exploring before we drove back to the trailer where an amazing beef roast was waiting in the crockpot (#trailerlyfe). That night we played a game we made up called This or That. Like “Batman or Superman?” or “Spaghetti or Pizza?”. You have to answer and you mustn’t give an explanation. It was fun, especially in front of a nice sized campfire. The next morning we took our time packing up and leaving, which was nice. It took us about 4 hours to get to Tucson, during which I listened to music, watched Back to the Future III*, and stopped in Phoenix for IN-N-OUT. My California longings were temporarily appeased. We drove into Tucson in broad daylight which I don’t think has ever happened.I spent the next 4 1/2 days hanging with my Nana and Pawpaw, Tio, Aunt and Uncle, and all 6 of my cousins. It was a ton of fun.The drive home was quite uneventful besides a stop in Hatch for a snack (oh and I watched Back to the Future II* – yes it was out of order don’t judge 😂). So, that was our trip! Sorry if I bored you out of your mind with my ramblings. 

*disclaimer: I edit movies so I’m able to watch things like Back to the Future 

Have any of you been on fun trips this year? I’d love to hear about them!