Kaitlyn E. Bouchillon's Blog, page 8

For the One Who Is Dreading Winter (free print)

I grew up with palm trees overhead and flip-flops on my feet every single Christmas. Florida doesn’t exactly celebrate “the changing of the seasons,” which might explain why I will pull the car over just to get a picture of the leaves changing and clap my hands at the first snowfall.

For eighteen years, I experienced summer year-round. This has its perks of course, but it also means that when we say our final goodbye to summer and fall arrives in the south sometime mid-November, I become “...

What I Learned: Fall 2019

First things first — the $5 Amazon book discount? The one you’ve been emailing me about for weeks, asking when it would be live? Updatebelow. :)

One of the ways I intentionally practice appreciating the beautiful but so-very-ordinary stuff of real life and regular days is by keeping track of what I’m learning.

My friend Emily is the mastermind behind this simple but meaningful practice. Since 2016, I’ve joined her by jotting down notes of the small, the sacred, the silly, and everything in...

10 Free Fall iPhone Lock Screens

Last week, I heard the results of a recent study. On average, we pick up our phones 58 times and spend more than 3 hours on our phones every single day. For years, I’ve created free printables, lock screens, and bookmarks (you can find many of the resources here, or subscribe to emails for additional exclusive gifts). Now more than ever, the message of each lock screen feels important.

What will we look at 58 times each day? Will it be meaningful? Beautiful? A reminder of Truth before we’re...

Good Things Are Coming

On the last day of July, a splash of bright red caught my attention. It was over one hundred degrees and it seemed like summer might stretch on for an endless forever. In Birmingham, fall usually arrives mid-November. There wasn’t any reason to expect or even hope for a glimpse of fall this early on.

My heart needed it, though. It needed a hint that good things are on the way and He sees me even here, even now, in the waiting. Fall is my very favorite season, summer easily my least favorite, and...

God Will Not Miss Your Call

“Can you come pick me up? I don’t feel safe.”

A few weeks ago, my phone rang as a familiar name filled the screen. My day was just beginning, filled to the brim with deadlines and meetings.

Twenty minutes away, my roommate was just over halfway down the nature trail, enjoying an early morning walk on her day off.

Tennis shoes laced up and headphones in, she walked a familiar path while listening to a podcast, until a stranger suddenly began to cause a commotion up ahead. By the time my phone...

14 Can’t-Miss Books Coming in 2019: September-December

As you know, I’m just a little bit (ahem…) obsessed with books. Based on the number of shares and pins on previous book round-up posts, y’all feel the same way.

After several years of compiling these lists, I now split them into three posts due to the number of great releases each year. (Here are the lists for January-April of 2019 and May-August of 2019.)

There are dozens of fantastic books releasing this season, and I’m excited to share these 14 with you—perfect for fall book clubs, Bible s...

What I Learned: Summer 2019

One of the ways I intentionally practice appreciating the beautiful but so-very-ordinary stuff of real life and regular days is by keeping track of what I’m learning.

My friend Emily is the mastermind behind this simple but meaningful practice. Since 2016, I’ve joined her by jotting down notes of the small, the sacred, the silly, and everything in between.

More than anything else, this helps me pay attention to what’s happening around me, what’s happening within me, and what surprises me alon...

Ten Years Later: Thank You. (Let’s Celebrate!)

I’ve done all the things (including updating my budget spreadsheet and organizing my photo library) in an attempt to put off writing this post.

It feels like a big deal, and honestly I don’t know if I have the right words.

Let me begin with these two: thank you.

Thank you for showing up here, for reading my rambling words and in-process thoughts. Thank you for inviting me into your inbox, for subscribing as a way of saying “I don’t want to miss a single thing.” Thank you for sharing your tho...

Until Only He Remains

The post was originally published in the June 2019 issue of LifeWay’s HomeLife Magazine. I’m honored to be included in the print publication, and grateful for the opportunity to share the words with you here as well.

I came across an old journal while unpacking from a recent move, and my breath caught in my throat.

Life is full of surprises and changes, ups and downs and a whole lot of days somewhere in between. This particular notebook has moved with me from place to place many times, and I...

Darkness Doesn’t Get the Final Say

Nine years ago, at the age of seventeen, I had brain surgery to remove a tumor the size of a golf ball.

For months, sickness snuck up on me in the early morning hours and hung on until night fell and sleep took over. No matter who we spoke with or what we tried, there were no answers.

Until a Tuesday evening MRI, which led to a Wednesday afternoon “come in right away” phone call and surgery scheduled for the following Tuesday morning.

Over the weekend, in the few days between, my family and I...