1. Jaded- Chase Goehring
2. A Thousand Year’s- Christina Perri
3. Glad You Came- The Wanted
4. Ocean Eyes- Billie Eilish
5. How Great Though Art- Carrie Underwood
6. What If’s- Kane Brown
7. Youngblood- 5 Seconds of Summer
8. Let It Go- Idina Menzel (Frozen)
9. Our Last Summer- Mama Mia
10. The Man- Aloe Blacc

To be honest I never listen to any of these songs. I have playlists that I listen to in the car depending on my mood. Sometimes I’ll go the country route and other times I’ll go more for today’s hits.

I most recently have listened to…

• Aladdin soundtrack
• Boo’d Up
• Crown Him
• Rainbow
• Sucker
• Hey Look Ma I Made It
• All of Christina Grimme’s The Voice Performances
• Don’t Give Up On Me
• Old Town Road (remix of course;)
• Someone You Loved
• Leave A Light On
• 7 Rings
• Death Was Arrested

Cookie Dough!

I seriously love eating cookie dough, chocolate chip especially. Yes it unhealthy, but that’s why it’s called a guilty pleasure. I usually just take a spoonful whenever I bake cookies. Occasionally, however, I will make eggless cookie dough so it’s safe to eat and then put it into a container to freeze it. I found a good recipe on Pinterest that I love to use.

Here’s one recipe

• 1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
• 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp of milk (add milk if it’s too dry)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips (or more if you want!)

This question took a lot of thinking, but I decided that I would love to be a journalist that gets to travel the world and write on their experiences. Getting paid to travel would be amazing. I love trying new foods and learning about new cultures. I would want my writing to have real impact and leave a legacy for those to follow me. I would want my family to be proud of my work. I would want to be proud of my work because if you don’t want to read it who would? The only downfall would be if I had to go by myself. I don’t think I could survive by myself in an airport, let alone another country.

Going back to the proud of your work thing, I think that is something people don’t think about or choose not to think about. You may be thinking, “what does she mean by that.” I mean by choosing not to think about it that it’s something people put on the side and save for later or ,more realistically, never. People choose not to do that extra step to make their work something to be proud of. They don’t do anything except the bare minimum because they simply don’t want to, choose not to. I struggle with it sometimes to, I’ll admit, but it’s important for me to remind myself to take the extra step, put in a little more effort, or spend a little more time. In the end if you do, you’ll be proud of what you’ve accomplished no matter what anyone else thinks.

On my missions trip to Africa I got to experience a Ugandan church service. The worship, fellowship, and sermon was amazing and life changing. A quote the pastor said that I will forever remember is “Do not let your desire to be great keep you from the path God is taking you on.” At that moment in my life I was convinced that I couldn’t measure up to the standard that I thought I needed to meet. Being on the trip showed me that I’m not going to be great at everything, and hearing this helped me to understand why be great isn’t so important. I don’t have to be this outstanding, popular person; I can simply be the person who God created me to be. I’m still figuring out exactly who that is, but life is a journey and I’m trying to follow God’s pathway.

Now I want you to understand the difference from the desire to be great and striving to do great. The desire to be great is the desire to be noticed. It’s wanting to be better than others. Striving to do great is completely different. It’s doing something well. It’s being proud of your work, but not being prideful or arrogant.

This is something I struggle with. It’s hard for me to not want people to notice me when I do well. Very often I simply need to remind myself that God sees everything, and He knows when I do my best and he loves me no matter what.

Some of my favorite toys when I was really little were my stuffed animals and blanket. I don’t really remember what else I played with because I was so little. I do however remember my favorite tv shows from when I was little. We watched Wonder Pets, Go Diego Go, Horseland, Dragon Tales, Little Einsteins, and of course, the Backyardigans.

When I got I little older I loved polly pockets, littlest pet shop, and my little ponies. We also played pretend a lot. My little sister Jeralyn and I played house, Pilgrims (I know it’s weird, but we loved it), Pocahontas, cooking, models, and princesses. My absolute favorite toy was my American Girl dolls. My sisters and I pretended to be their moms and took care of them every single day.

Another thing that my sisters and I loved to do was playing the wii. We played Mario Kart and we still do. The game we loved most was Just Dance. We played these games for hours without stopping.

I still have all of these toys and games at my house today. Your probably thinking that that’s a little strange, but we save them for cousins and nieces and nephews. When the kiddos come out to play at our house or if we babysit them, it’s so much fun to take out the same toys I loved as a kid. Getting to make memories out of old memories is something to be cherished.

I know this post is short, but I want to hear how you guys would answer this question. So what was your favorite childhood games or toys.

1. I love Jesus! I enjoy prayer journaling and worshipping my Lord and Savior.
2. I live on a farm. My dad works at our family farm/ranch, and during the summer and after school I work there as well just doing random things. (A ton of mowing)
3. I go to a private, Christian school. I love my school. The education and other extracurricular activities are amazing. I actually love that it’s small because it allows me to be friends with literally everyone.
4. I have 5 pets. We have two cats and three dogs. Our cats are adorable, our labs are huge, and our yorkie thinks she’s a little person. Fun fact: we used to have pigmy goats, and they were the cutest things ever. (Goat pic below) We loved them all and they brought lots of joy to our home.
5. I’ve played lots of sports. I was in track, but I really only liked the two mile. I ran cross country until I got injured and had to get a procedure done on my knee right before regions. I’m still in volleyball which I love. The best sport of all though, is basketball. I love my team so much and I can’t wait for our next season.
6. I love sea turtles. I always have. Their adorable and highly endangered. I love spending time researching about them and ways to help them. Save The Sea Turtles💚
7. I play two instruments. I play the flute in our school band, and I play the piano at home for fun. I have a guitar, but I’m not very good so it doesn’t count as a third instrument.
8. I have two siblings. I love my two sisters oh so much. One older and one younger. They are total opposites, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
9. I love coffee! Don’t get me started on my coffee addiction. I drink one or more large cups a day to keep me going. Local coffee shops are my favorites because they have quality coffee. Support your locals if you have any!
10. My sister says I have a good sense of style. I was trying to come up with more facts and my younger sister told me the next few. I like trying a little bit of everything from athletic to really fancy.
11. I’m somewhat artistic. I enjoy chalk (chalk pic below), drawing, acrylic and water painting, and all sorts of crafts. I get all my ideas from Pinterest. Even though I’m not the greatest at any of these I really enjoy it!
12. I’m usually an energetic person. I can get a lot done if I put my mind to it. I get up early and stay up late. I hate sitting around doing nothing all day, that’s one of the reasons blogging seemed like a good idea.
13. I’ve been to a different continent, and I’m about to go to another. Last summer I went on a missions trip to Uganda, Africa. (Pic below) It was the best experience of my life. This summer, actually in less than a month, I will be touring Europe with a singing group made up of mainly high schoolers. And I’m so excited to be going with my best friend and to have my mom come to.
14. I want to go to college and get some sort of business degree. As of right now I’m not sure if I want to take the small business route, entrepreneurship, or business management. I can see myself loving all of these. Good thing I have some time left to decide.
15. I dislike a lot of things, but two things I seriously hate are birds and clowns. They freak me out more than anything else in the world. Clowns is a pretty common fear, but birds I know is quite unusual.
16. I know I said 15, but I’m gonna add one more. I love lists and planning things. To do lists, shopping lists, or packing lists. I even have a blog schedule in a calendar app. (Picture below) I really enjoy the feeling of crossing the finished ones off and the satisfaction that comes with finishing the list or scheduled event completely. I get things done so much faster when I have a list.

The number one best comfort food has to be pizza. There are so many different kinds, different crusts, cheeses, sauces, toppings. There’s got to be a million ways to make a pizza. My personal favorites types would have to be Hawaiian, Chicken Bacon Ranch, and Margarita. If I had to live with just one food for my entire life, it would definitely be pizza.

Coming in at a close second for comfort food is cheesecake. Mmmmm! I love it oh so much. There’s also tons of different cheesecakes, but the best is triple chocolate.

Third, and how could I forget, is macaroni and cheese. It’s good out of a box and homemade. I have a good friend who literally makes the best mac and cheese ever! Y’all should try it sometime;)

Hmm! Fourth place I think would go to chips and guacamole. Guacamole is super easy and fun to make. Funny story: I had to do a 5-7 minute demonstration speech this year so I decided to make guacamole. I was so nervous that when I was cutting the limes to put in it I sliced my finger with a really sharp knife. Then I continued to make the rest of the guacamole with one hand, which was super hard, but it was delicious. My teacher and classmates didn’t even notice until then end when blood was dripping all over the table. No worries though; no stitches needed and I still got an A.

The recipe I used

– three avocados

– 2 limes (just use the juice)

– half a can of sliced tomatoes and jalapeños

– salt to the taste

Lastly, only because I don’t know if it really counts as food is coffee. I don’t know what I would do without it. I drink at least one 12 oz cup every morning, but usually more. It helps me stay awake and function all day. If you haven’t tried it, get a white mocha. They’re one of my favorites!

One of my biggest dreams is to be able to own a local coffee shop one day or start of chain of coffee shops that taste just as good as local shops do. Yeah I know, I dream big, but if you see the name Kerstyn Fast as the next big coffee chain founder, I told you so!

I am a Christian. I believe in the one true God of the Bible. I believe He exists in three persons, the Trinity, made up of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I believe God sent His Son, Jesus, to earth. Jesus lived a perfect life with no mistakes. That’s why when He died that awful death on the cross it paid the price for my sins and the rest of mankind if we trust in Him to do so. When we accept Him into our lives as our Savior, He washed away all of our mistakes and mess ups.

I believe God loves us unconditionally. God forgives us when we do wrong, but that doesn’t give us an excuse to do wrong. We are to live as Jesus lived the best as possible.

I was raised in a Christian home so God was always a part of our lives and I accepted Jesus into my heart at a very young age. I didn’t really struggle in my relationship with God until my junior high years when schedules got crazy and it was hard to make time for Him. I got a lot of encouragement from other people and that helped to get me out of that hard time. Although I still have hard times in my walk with the Lord, I know I have people to encourage me and I have God to lean on at all times. He’s always with me and I can count on Him to be there for me.

Since I have so many people that encourage me, I would like to share an encouraging verse with you guys!

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

1. When people chew their food obnoxiously. Whether it’s chewing too much food at once that it sounds gross or leaving your mouth wide open, it’s nasty.
2. When people are constantly late to things. I’m usually 5-15 minutes early to an event depending on how important it is, so when other people aren’t it seriously bothers me. If you plan ahead and give yourself extra time, you won’t be late. Being late makes you look non professional. We all have mess ups sometimes, but to consistently be late for everything kills me.
3. When people use plastic water bottles at unnecessary times. It really bothers me when people are at their house and go get plastic water bottles. The world already has enough trash, and it takes years for them to decompose. I even use a reusable water bottle when I’m not at home. It’s just a simply thing you can do to take care of the earth.
4. When people don’t try their best at what they are doing. It gets on my nerves when kids don’t try in school and then complain about bad grades, or when people don’t try at practice and then don’t get a lot of playing time in games. It’s just common sense that if you try as hard as you can to do something, your going to be proud of the result.
5. When people complain about not having money to do stuff, but they never work. You can’t rely on your parents for everything. If you want to do fun things with your friends or go on a date with your boyfriend, you might have to work a little.

Yes, these things all bother me, but it’s not the end of the world if people do them. Different people value different things so I understand that people might not care about these things the way I do. None of the things I listed above affect the way I would treat someone because they don’t make or break my relationship with them. Honestly coming up with all of these pet peeves was kind of hard, but it’s something to think about.

In ten years I would like to be…

• Married for sure
• In a nice sized apartment or small house
• Graduated from college with some sort of business degree
• Working at a steady job to pay off any college or house debt
• Have a nice car for my family (even if it’s only the two of us)
• Making money blogging or journaling

Although I know that most likely not all of these dreams will come true, I still strive to make them reality. I believe with hard work and determination you can do almost anything. Even if none or few of these come true I pray that I will be content with what I have.

A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.

-Colin Powell

I think one of the biggest problems that people have is laziness. There’s a difference between being content with what you have and simply not trying. People would rather have other people do all of the work for them, then feel accomplished by doing it themselves. Not only does doing a job well make you feel accomplished, but also it makes you more thankful for what you gained from it. Now I know we can all be lazy at times, but don’t allow your lifestyle to become lazy. If you find yourself being bored and lazy here’s a few thing you could try instead of sitting on the couch all day watching Netflix like I’m tempted to do sometimes.

Ten things to do when bored

1. Go out and get some exercise. It could be biking, going to the gym, or simply taking a walk.
2. Make some tasty treats. Bake some cookies or cupcakes to enjoy for the next few days.
3. Read a book. I know it sounds crazy, but sometimes getting lost in a book isn’t so bad after all.
4. Go out for coffee. This is one idea that I absolutely love because I’m a major coffee fan. If you don’t want to go alone you can always call up a friend.
5. Color an adult coloring book. It may sound childish to color or draw pictures, but it’s often quite fun and relaxing.
6. Clean your house. Yes, I understand that cleaning is not very fun at all, but if you turn on some good music it’s not so bad.
7. Go out with some friends. You could go mini golfing, bowling, or even to a movie. The important thing is spending time with your friends.
8. Make a planner. This one might seem a little different, but it’s good to have a schedule so you don’t find yourself being bored so much. Make it fun and colorful to fit your personality.
9. Three letters: DIY. They’re super fun and usually inexpensive. I love doing these arts and crafts things. You can look them up on Pinterest, YouTube, or basically anywhere.
10. Take some time to organize your things. I don’t know about you, but my closet is always messy. So, organize your closet, cabinets, bathroom, drawers, office; there’s literally so many things you could tidy up.