Candidly Kristen #7 – June 2018

Hello, hello, friends! And happy July!! I cannot believe June is already over. This episode of ‘Candidly Kristen’ took me by surprise because June felt about 5 minutes long. I wrote some more personal posts last month already, but I’ve been loving these monthly recaps as well.

Previous ‘Candidly Kristen’ posts:

Life After the LSAT, May 2018, April, March, February, January

• LSAT… just lots of LSAT…
  • I spent the first part of June studying and then taking my first LSAT! I just got my scores back this week and I was happy with the results. I may take it again in the fall, and I’ll start applying to law school in a few months, ahhh!
• Re-opening of PaintedGracebyKS!
  • Once the LSAT was over, I devoted time back to my Etsy store and this blog! I re-opened my shop after a short break for final exams and LSAT studying. I launched some new, digital products and I currently have some items on sale and free shipping!
  • I’ve been considering re-naming my store to something more general (since I now also have digital, non-‘painted’ items) and to re-brand it as my second Instagram account, which may transition to an Etsy/photography/creativity account. I’ve got a lot of different passions and projects so it’s a little hectic to find a balance between working on all-the-things and not spreading myself too thin.
• Covecrest summer camp
  • I’ll link my two blog posts about Covecrest here and here in case ya missed them!
  • I won’t drone on about camp any longer (since I already did in those posts 😉 ) but it really was such a week full of blessings and true and utter peace of mind. Camp was a whole other week of June, so time really has flown by.
• Growing in faith
  • Through camp and my personal faith journey, I’ve been cherishing and nourishing a new appreciation for church, mass, and prayer this month. I attend weekly mass with my family (and one of my best friends who is in the process of becoming Catholic), so it’s easy for the awesomeness and goodness of church to lose meaning when it becomes routine. But after attending daily mass at camp, I have a new perspective and appreciation for this blessed time.
  • It’s always a blessing to grow in friendship with other people who are strong in faith / growing in faith, so that’s another big ‘thank you, God’ for this month!
• Relaxing, actually
  • Reading is always one of my favorite parts of summer. I’ve been reading like crazy and loving every minute (errr… more like hour) of it. I spent hours at a time reading and I’ve been finishing about a book a day… and I’m proud of that. I’m honestly grateful for these days when I can just dive into a book and not worry about much else, besides spending time with my two favorite furry friends.
• Rays game!
  • My family and I watched the Rays beat the Astros this weekend, which I really enjoyed. My mom and I are not exactly good sports fans, but I really do like baseball, and we had great seats!
  • Another escapade of my year/summer so far has been all the places I can eat soft pretzels… Soft pretzels are ranked pretty high up there with ice cream for me, so it’s become a running joke/tradition that I get a soft pretzel every place we visit. So eating this one, enjoying a good ole’ baseball game and hanging out with my family was a pretty perfect day.
• So, Kristen, how are you??
  • If you’re reading this, it means you’ve probably been tuned into the madness and wild ride that is my life. Things have not been all too peachy and sunshine-y for me these past few months, but the clouds have finally started to roll away and the sun has really been shining on me this month. My mental health has gotten much better, but it’s still some time I work on daily. This change is another God-thing, and camp really hit ‘refresh’ on my mind and stress level.
  • I currently have some of the best friends I have ever had, and I am soso grateful for them. I’ve said it and I’ll say it again, we simply do not tell the people we love, that we love them enough. I definitely don’t. I don’t have many of my close friends nearby for the summer, but I’m cherishing the ones I do have around and spending all the time I can with them. I’m excited for the start of a new semester coming up, and I’m excited to see where Kristen Shane goes next.
• Blogging!!!
  • Wow, I almost forgot this segment for the month!
  • June was my best month ever in terms of blog views! My monthly pageviews more than doubled, without me changing my monthly social media/blog routine. In fact, I had my highest day of pageviews ever, while I was at camp, not on my phone, and not sharing a single thing to social media… how does that work?! I wish I knew what I did for that blog-goodness last month, because I’d love to do it again.
  • I feel like I’ve been rambling about June long than June actually lasted, so I’m going to wrap it up. This blog is hands-down the best decision I’ve ever made, and I can’t imagine my life without it. When I say we don’t appreciate ‘our people’ enough, that includes you, my friend! Thanks again for being here, I hope you’ll stick around.

With love,