Happy Friday friends! I hope that you have had a lovely and wonderful week! This week was...so so precious and yet... held some challenging moments. Unfortunately I ate something that while marked specifically "gluten free"... was not and I have been slowly recovering. Those that have known about this and been praying- thank you so much. I am still in a lot of pain and feeling pretty poorly so I appreciate your thoughts and prayers! In addition to this I share below about some changes that have occurred and thank you for your sweet comments and support!
Also, can I just say- how have we already celebrated July 4th?!? I am honestly shocked.
Summer. Please slow down.
Here are some of my favorite things from this past week! First of all....
(1) A Sweet July 4th Long Weekend
We had the sweetest July 4th long weekend. While I worked on Monday, we just had a lovely time. I hope y'all had a relaxing and fun 4th also!
I am so excited that y'all are loving the new Happy Birthday Collection of Key Chain Junk Journals now available in the shop! There are so many new collections coming and I am SO grateful for ALL of your support of #keychainjunkjournals!!
Want to read more about these specific journals? On Wednesday I posted an entire blog post about them which you can read about HERE.
And stay tuned because this coming week we will be posting our "back to school" collection (including a college collection)! I can't wait to show you these collections!!
You can go directly to the shop by clicking HERE!
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3. An Important Ethical Decision
Last week some things came to light with the company that I had chosen to collaborate with for our cruise to Alaska. To be honest over the last 6 weeks there were very disturbing things that took place and things that I kept hoping were just honest mistakes. As I tried very hard to work with somethings that I was told, I finally decided to look more closely at the contract that we had signed and realized that this company had flat out lied to me. In the process they were going to cause me to personally pay money that they had agreed to cover, but were hoping I wouldn't find out. Now, that may not be a big deal to some people, but because I will always be honest and real here about my travel experiences on the blog I couldn't go forward knowing that this company does not operate with ethical standards. I couldn't imagine or fathom that if they were trying to "impress me" so that I would write a good review for them what they would do if I was someone who was just traveling with them. I mean I can not even begin to imagine in this day and age with money being tight for so many people that they would want to cover up something and let a customer believe that they owed more money than they did?!?
I contacted them again last week (this has been multiple emails a week at this point), attempted to see if they would correct the things that they were doing wrong and instead they were more annoyed that they got caught. The email I received from the VP last Friday... it was beyond just rude... it was unprofessional. It also definitely implied that I should be grateful to be having this experience. I felt like a person who was bothering them because they had gotten caught. Over the last weekend I prayed a lot about what to do. I have never broken a contract before, but the thing that stood out to me was that my character and reputation and ethical collaborations are more important than any experience I could have. My mom was in full agreement with me and so I wrote and explained the decision.
When their flippant response came back (no apology, no trying to make things right, some sarcastic comments and a bit of even mean girl mocking from the vice president that what they had done wasn't a big deal and it was just a "misunderstanding", etc.) it was obvious that the right decision had been made.
I share this to say... our character, our morals, and our our word is extremely important. I am disappointed in this company (one that I had respected before) and the way that they have chosen to operate. But more than that... I have so much peace and am thankful that is the direction that I chose to go. While I am sorry I won't have fun Alaskan cruise content, I am excited to see and share different adventures that I know will come up. I also want you to know that everything you read here on the blog I truly endorse. This - and this company I could never recommend to anyone.
If you are having to make a difficult choice about something, I can't urge you enough to choose the ethical route. At the end of the day friends our character is the most important thing.
Y'all- I first talked about this wrinkle cream back on the blog in 2013 (click HERE to read) (the product title has changed a little bit since then but it is still the same product!) and I still love this. I continue to use it each day and I can tell you that it is wonderful. It is on sale for less than $11 and I can't recommend it enough! You can find it on Amazon HERE!
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5. Overwhelmingly Grateful
A year yesterday we were in a very different place. Mom was in the ER, heading into the ICU for a stay, and we had no idea that she was fighting anaplasmosis or what the next days, weeks, and months would look like with a cascade of different things.
To be at the spot we are at now... it has just been absolutely beautiful. Numerous times throughout the day I just thank the Lord so much. The little moments were always precious, but they are even more precious now. Thank you for all of your prayers for us last year and as we continue forward. We are so incredibly grateful.
If there is anything that I could specifically pray for you, please feel free to send an email. I would be honored to pray for you!
On Thursday of this week I shared again about my Chronic Grace series books. While I don't often share about them, I am so grateful for the help and support they are to so many people! For less than $5 these books are the perfect gift for yourself or a loved one. These books are for those struggling with a chronic illness or those that love them. There are currently two books in the series:
There are more coming, but if you have a chronic health condition or have a loved one who does these simple, practical, and encouraging books are for you or loved ones. These are also the perfect books to gift a friend who may be a caretaker. If you are looking to support a friend the 12 Things to Do book is extremely helpful! You can find the series HERE!
With Caravan Sonnet turning ten years old I thought it would be fun on Fridays to share some older posts from the blog! One of the things that Caravan Sonnet developed into was a a resource for those looking for road trip itineraries around the United States and World.
One of the most popular posts is one that I wrote back in 2017 about the one week New England, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia Itinerary that I planned and took in the early Fall of 2017! This extremely popular post went viral several years ago (!!) and if you are looking at planning a similar trip you can find the post HERE!
I am in the midst of planning a really fun fall road trip that I can't wait to share more with y'all about soon!!
Interested in other Road Trip Itineraries available on the blog? Check out these links below:
I hope that you have a wonderful Friday friends! Thank you for making this such an incredible space to come to and connect with every single day. I am so blessed!!
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