Four years of blogging // Plus a random life update because...why not?

Hello, my friends!  I find myself once again in the position of feeling that perhaps an explanation for my absence would be in order at this juncture...but on the other hand we've all been so busy lately and the blogging world isn't the happening place it used to be and I'm afraid I've sort of created the habit already of not being a very regular blogger, so perhaps in the end you all really didn't notice that I've not been around much so...whatever.  I really didn't need to say all that and you really didn't need to hear it, but I did and you did so let's live with it and move on, okay?

What I really came here for today was to commemorate the fourth year anniversary of Sunshiny Corner!  Yes, the dear little place that you've all grown so found of (or perhaps sick of...or indifferent to...or whatever it may be) is now a whopping four years old.  And when I say whopping I mean that as if four years was a very long time indeed.  But honestly, when I really think about it, it doesn't seem all that long at all.  In fact, it seems like it ought to have been longer than four years ago that I published my first post.  Time is a funny thing.  It really is.

But anyway, it's that time of year so I should do my typical blogging stats, I suppose.  (This is mostly for my own sake because I like to keep records of things.  Not that I've actually gone back much and reviewed these records, but still I may want to someday.  You never know.) 

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Pageviews:  45, 495

Number of Posts Published: 151 (Wow!  I only wrote ten posts this past year.  I hadn't realized.  But that settles it, my whole spiel at the beginning of this post was totally unnecessary.  I should be explaining my presence in the blogging world, not my absence.  Good grief.)

Top five most viewed posts: 

Living in a World where Love Comes Softly (What to expect and a bit of friendly advice): 575 views

Why Frodo is NOT a weak character: 363 views

The Long Awaited, Greatly Anticipated, Ask Me Anything Answer Post // Part 1: 244 views

Ask me some questions and I'll tell you some lies: 215 views

Two Years of Blogging: 213 views

Followers: 65

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All right.  So.  Yeah.  That was cool.  *shrugs* 

Happy birthday, Sunshiny Corner.  We're all very thrilled about this grand event.  We really are.  In fact, the more I talk about it the more thrilled I become...so thrilled in fact that...(excuse me, I just had to yawn for a second)...  

Where was I?  Oh yeah, we were celebrating.  Nice, well, that was fun.  

....

Now onto the random life update.

So.

What's been going on in Miss March's life this past year?

Well, quite a bit actually.  In fact, this has been a most eventful year indeed.  Let's see if we can't sort of split it up by month or something and give this post the bit of structure it is thus far sadly lacking.

May 2018:

NATALIE AND OLIVIA CAME TO VISIT ME!!  And it was one of the grandest, most amazingly fun times of the year.  (See our group post here for further information.)

June 2018:  

Dear me, I'm not sure what happened in June.  Let's just say it was mostly a combination of working at the motel during the day and watching Boy Meets World during the evening.  That's probably pretty accurate.  :P

July 2018: 

More twenty hour work weeks at the motel (oh so long, so hard, haha!) and more late, late nights of Boy Meets World (oh so long, so fun!).  Also...my niece was born!!!!  Super fun times! :D :D

August 2018:

"More work at the motel?  More Boy Meets World?"  Why yes!  However did you guess???

September-December 2018:

1) I got facebook and made a step toward the modern age.  (Don't worry though, it didn't last long.  I got rid of it at the beginning of 2019 and settled back into my previously old-fashioned ways.  And I feel much better about that.  ;)) 

2) I flew out of the country for the first time in my life.  I went to a Bible school in England with a bunch of perfect strangers.  I learned to talk and initiate conversations with said perfect strangers.  However, I also found homesickness to be a very real thing, and making friends (real friends) a very difficult thing.  I wanted to go home.  I didn't want to do this school thing for the next six months.  But I doubted myself.  Would I be forever branded as a quitter if I didn't finish?  Would I be making the wrong decision?  I have a tendency to worry that the thing I don't want to do is most likely the thing God wants me to do and vice versa.  So it was a struggle.  Many days and nights of crying and asking God, "What should I do?  Should I go home?  Should I stick it out?"  And yet my heart just kept crying out to go home.  And so I finally made the decision.  I would go home for Christmas break as planned, and then not return for the second half.  And oh my! There was huge relief in making that decision.  I had a sense of God saying to me that it was okay.  And a huge, huge sense of His love and care for me in that moment which was truly beautiful and encouraging.

Of course...haha, once I'd made my decision then I started to make some real friends.  Which sent me into a bit of a tailspin, second guessing myself again since I was now finding that being at school was not quite so unbearable as it had been before.  Did that mean I should actually come back for the second half????  (Oh the agony of self doubt!) But in the end, God gave me peace in only attending school for three months, and looking back on it now I am so, so grateful that things worked out the way they did.  I can see His hand in it all the way.  And I don't regret those three months of school either.  Just because I didn't finish doesn't mean the time I had there was wasted.  Oh indeed not!  I truly believe I grew a lot in those three months.  I see it as having been a really great time of learning to lean on God and trust Him even during those confusing times when you have no clue what it's all for, or where you're headed.  I'm also so grateful for the friendships I made there.  So yeah, that was my September through half of December. 

And then I came home. 

January 2019:  And then it was time to look for a job!  (Oh joy!  Oh ecstasy!)  So I put in an application to a Christian theatre nearby and I had an interview but before I heard back...it was time for some more traveling!  My older sister has always wanted to go to England and she and her best friend had been planning a trip for several months.  I decided to tag along.  So the three of us took a nine day trip to England, Scotland, and Ireland.  We stayed three nights in London, three nights in Edinburgh, and three nights in Dublin, and oh my!! It was such an amazingly fun time.  From taking long extensive walks from one part of the city to another--seeing places I've only ever read about in books or seen in movies--to eating picnic suppers on the floor of our hotel room and staying up late for our nightly viewing of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, to just talking and laughing and greatly enjoying one another's company.  It was wonderful!  And I'm still kind of amazed when I think about it.  I've been to England, Scotland, and Ireland!! Those have always been the three countries that I wanted to visit, and I've done it!  Wow.  Life really does take you places you never expected to go.

February 2019:  When we got home from our European tour, I found that I had not gotten the job at the Christian theatre.  Which was disappointing.  (Rejection is never a fun thing.)  But whatever.  You kind of have to just take it on the chin, and move onto the next thing.  So I did.  I put in an application to Aldi and Chick-fil-A and got interviews for both places.  Chick-fil-A, to my utmost surprise, called me back and offered me a job the same day I had my interview.  So I took it.  A full time job.  I, Miss March, (the one who has stressed out so many times over the few little hours I was working outside the home) have my first full time job!  And wonder of wonders, it hasn't really been all that stressful!  Not like so many of my others jobs anyway.  Though I think I've come to realize that the reason my other jobs were so stressful was probably greatly owing to the fact that they were part time jobs and so I wasn't there often enough to really become proficient at the work.  Anyway, I've been at Chick-fil-A for two months now and it really has been a great place to work.  My managers and coworkers are all super encouraging and supportive and that helps a lot.  So yes, I am grateful for my new job. (For the reasons mentioned above...and other reasons, too.  ;))

March-April 2019:  March and April and have actually been rather eventful in and of themselves, but I'm afraid that's going to have to be a story for another day, because goodness! This post is long enough already, don't you think? 

So yeah.  That's a bit of an update on my current life situation.  And now I want to hear from all of you!  How have you been?  What have you been up to?  I feel like I haven't heard from a lot of you in a long time.  Let's talk, shall we?

Most sincerely yours,
Miss March (a.k.a. Alyssa)