1. I love reading about and watching love stories. I especially love segments that ask couples who've been together for 50-plus years about the secret to a successful long-term relationship. The details vary from couple to couple but the lesson is always the same: if you want your relationship to stand the test of time, you've got to put in the work.

2. Don't go to bed angry. Trust me. Things won't look better in the morning if they're still unresolved.

3. Do not make big spending decisions on your own. Even if you choose to keep your bank accounts separate, (we do) and it's spending the money you earned.

4. If you can't learn to live with the little annoyances, it probably won't work out. Because pretty soon that small thing will start to grow at an irrational rate and become all that you see.

5. Be willing to compromise. On everything.

6. Keep your own interests and hobbies.

7. Keep dating each other! This one is so important, especially for those of you planning on having kids. Don't let the romance between you fizzle. Set aside time every week or month for just the two of you.

8. Talk it out. Don't just assume that your partner understands or even knows how you're feeling, even if it should be obvious. And don't limit this to just things that make you sad or angry. Talk about the good things, too!

9. If you see something that needs doing around the house, don't wait for your partner to ask you to pitch in. Just do it. And don't make a big deal out of it. Relationships are a partnership. You should be helping each other out with everyday tasks without being prompted.

10. Always kiss each other goodnight and goodbye. You never know when it could be your last.

My marriage is far from perfect, and that's OK. But here's what I know: we made a promise to each other and every day we work to keep that promise. Ten years after our first date, Chris still finds a way to make me smile (even when I really don’t want to), and we’ve yet to go to bed angry. He is my biggest supporter and my best friend, and I couldn’t imagine going through life without him by my side.

One of my goals for 2019 was to try at least one new recipe each month. We did a pretty good job of breaking out of our dinner rut and managed to add a few new dishes into our rotation. Not all of the things we tried made it onto the blog, but I wanted to share the recipes I (mostly) followed.

Instant Pot Stuffed Shells - To be fair, mine didn't turn out looking anything like the pictures in the original recipe, but they were really good. Getting the shells stuffed was the most difficult part of the whole thing.

Taco Roll Ups - These were an instant hit and a nice deviation from plain old tacos.

Instant Pot Chili Mac - These chili noodles, as Alexis calls them, are so yummy.

Instant Pot Tuna Noodle Casserole - This was probably my favorite new recipe of the year.

Tortellini Soup - You can make this with or without chicken. It's so creamy!

Mini Chicken Pot Pies - I don't do the fancy criss cross tops but they still turn out good!

Baked Garlic Parmesan Squash - These have officially become my new favorite appetizer. They're so good that my family has started requesting them for get togethers.

Easy Chicken Enchiladas - Another fan favorite, these look so much more complicated than they are.

Mini Pizzas - These are so much fun to make with little ones. Alexis loved creating her own pizza.

Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo - Nothing special here, just a super quick recipe for chicken Alfredo.

Share your favorite recipe(s) in the comments!

There are a lot of "rules" when it comes to fashion, and I break pretty much all of them. With the exception of sweaters and long sleeved tops/dresses, I wear my favorite pieces year-round. Dresses are particularly easy to transition from season to season. When the weather cools down, add a sweater, cardigan, or jacket, and swap out sandals for flats or boots. If it's really cold, which rarely happens in south Alabama, add tights. I like ankle boots with shorter dresses and tall boots with longer dresses, but that's just me.

This dress from Amazon comes in five different patterns. I went with the apricot because I liked the almost vintage feel of the pattern. The warm yellow mixed with the light blue and green makes me think of the countryside. It's quite stretchy around the top and the straps are adjustable. The tie at the waist is just for decoration, but the top buttons are functional. I went with my usual size medium.

My ankle boots have quickly become my go-to pair. The almond shaped toe and the way the shaft is dipped in the front make them super flattering. They work with any bottoms and are the perfect dark neutral that's not black. I'm wearing size 7.

No doubt about it. Southern winters have crazy mood swings. Most days, I have no idea how to dress. It's a good thing I like wearing boots in all seasons! And the last few weeks, we've experienced them all. So here's a look at what I've been wearing through Mother Nature's mood swings, as seen on Instagram.

I read a lot in 2019. It was probably the biggest way I reclaimed myself last year. There were several years in a row where I didn't read for pleasure, and I hope to never go back to that reality again. Last year I discovered a lot of new-to-me authors and rekindled my love of fantasy. Today I'm sharing the books and series that made lasting impressions, left me with a book hangover, and/or that I've already re-read at least once.

Nine Perfect Strangers: When nine people check into a health resort for the weekend, none expect to be drugged or locked in a room by a psychopathic 'guru.' I liked this book because of the relationships between the characters, both the pre-existing and developing ones. As the plot thickened and unfolded, I found myself saying "wow" multiple times.

A Beautiful Poison: This book kept me guessing until the very end, and when the villain was revealed I almost didn't believe it. This was hands-down the best mystery I read in 2019.

Neverland & Pan's Revenge: This little duet is a retelling of Peter Pan, except the roles of good and evil are a little twisted around. This story left me with my first book hangover of the year, and I ended up re-reading it a few months later.

The Moonlit Garden: If historical fiction is your jam, definitely check this out. There's a lot of switching around between past and present as the main character digs into the history of a famous violin with ties to her family. The character development may be the best part about this story.

The Night Circus: To paraphrase my original review, this book was magical. From the way the author weaves all the characters together without leaving the reader confused to the characters themselves and the truly unexpected way in which the conflict is resolved, I couldn't put this book down.

The Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy: Dark Witch, Shadow Spell, and Blood Magick were my first reads by Norah Roberts. The series focuses on three cousins as they continue their ancestors' quest to rid the world of a great evil.

The Librarian's Coven: This series was such a different twist on witches and magic. A woman who doesn't know she has magic is hired to work in the library of a magical university where she discovers she possesses a forgotten magic. When an ancient evil is released, she and her coven must save the world.

Terraway novels: I'm actually re-reading this nine-book series right now. That's how good it is. I love the main character, and the author did such a good job of developing her and the rest of the cast. They're all multi-dimensional. When the main character, October, learns the fate of two worlds is on her shoulders, she works to overcome her mental illness and past traumas to save thousands. These books made me laugh out loud, think about deep issues, and cry.

All the Pretty Monsters: This series was a pleasant surprise. I avoided it for most of the year, but am so glad I took the chance in December. A young gypsy moves to a small town in search of her mother's killers, stumbling into a magical world she didn't know existed and a war she wants no part of. These books were laugh out loud funny and filled with adventure and captivating characters.

The Wrecker & The Gangster: These are just two of Clive Cussler's Isaac Bell detective books. He's my new book boyfriend, by the way. What I love about these books is that it doesn't matter if Cussler tells you from the get-go who the bad guy is or if you're figuring out who as you go, his writing is so compelling, his characters so well-written, that you won't be able to put these books down.

Not previously reviewed:
The Kit Davenport Series
Author: Tate James

I've hesitated to share this series because it's in the reverse harem genre, which is definitely niche and I don't know how many of you would be comfortable cracking them open, but in the interest of this post, I felt like I couldn't leave this series out. I read it twice last year. Kit is a one of my favorite heroines, and I love all her guys for different reasons. Throughout the series they find themselves up against multiple evils all bent on the same goals but not working together. Part of why I like this series is that Kit doesn't stay good throughout, which made her more human and likable.

Her Guardians
Author: G. Bailey

I enjoyed this series so much, I actually bought it. I've actually read it three times now. Winter finds herself at the center of a world she didn't know existed and only she can unite the supernatural races. If you like wolf shifters, vampires, angels, and witches, this series is for you.


Power of Five
Author: Alex Lidell

This is another series I purchased after reading. Lera is mortal and magically, but reluctantly, tied to a group of Fae warriors. The first four books are mostly about Lera's developing power and relationships with the rest of her quint. The final book was released in nine shorter episodes, but will soon be available in two books that I intend to buy to complete the collection (I missed the cover on book 6). Lera is probably my favorite heroine from last year.


The Guild Codex: Spellbound
Author: Annette Marie

This series is incomplete, but I couldn't not include it in my favorites. When Tori responds to a job ad for a bartender, she has no idea it's for magicals, and they certainly don't expect a human, but she's there to stay. Tori ends up joining one of the teams and helps close cases, collecting magical artifacts along the way. The next installment, Lost Talismans and a Tequila, is coming soon.


Nevermore Bookshop Mysteries
Author: Steffanie Holmes

Mina Wilde returns home after her career in fashion comes to a screeching halt, taking a job at the local bookshop, which is run by none other than Emily Bronte's Heathcliff. The famous anti-hero, along with criminal mastermind James Moriarty of Sherlock Holmes' fame and Edgar Allan Poe's raven, Quoth, are among the characters from stories that have been pulled from their pages into our world. Mina and the trio find themselves in the middle of mystery after mystery. I am impatiently waiting for the next book in this series, Prose & Cons, to be released later this Spring.

The end of the year is, more often than not, difficult for me. The end of 2019 has been no different, and last week I found myself so completely overwhelmed that I hid in my closet and cried for 10 minutes. Then I regained my composure and moved on with life. I feel like I did a lot of 'moving on' in 2019. Moving on from a job I had become stifled in. Moving on from a woman who felt like she was being pulled in a million different directions she didn't want to be going. Moving on to reclaim some of the person I used to be back when I loved every part of who I was.

2019 was a pretty big year for our family, as well. We adopted a cat, Cooper. Alexis started PreK. We finally got our roof replaced from Hurricane Michael. We repainted our entire house and replaced our downstairs floors.

At the beginning of every year I set goals for myself. Last year I set five: try a new recipe each month, schedule daily tech-free time, cut back on soda, attend one kid/family event a month, and have date night twice a month. I'll be totally honest. I completely failed at all but two (and forgot about one altogether).

Last week I wrote down ten general goals for 2020. They range from starting a scrapbook for Alexis to reaching and maintaining a certain level of monthly ad sales for the magazine to photographing two outfits a week for the blog and making more time for friends both near and far.

I do have a couple of resolutions on top of those goals. The first is to fold and put away laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer. The second is to clean up the kitchen every night before bed. Feel free to place your bets now on how long those last...

No matter what your goals or resolutions are for 2020, I hope this year brings you lots of love and laughter. Happy New Year!

I was a busy reader in December. I was mostly working on getting my current and TBR lists a little more manageable, but as you'll see I added in a previously unmentioned series, but I don't regret it at all. In fact, that series is probably my favorite thing that I read in December and in a totally unexpected way.


The Bullets trilogy (Sunshine & Bullets, Summer & Smoke, and Love & Lead)
Author: Coralee June

I only had Sunshine & Bullets on my list to read and had no idea it was part of a trilogy. In a nutshell, this series is about a young woman, Sunshine, and the men who love her. After discovering a terrifying and deadly secret about her father, Sunshine goes into hiding, but her men eventually find her. The group then joins forces to bring Sunshine's father to justice only to find there's an even bigger bad pulling his strings.


All the Pretty Monsters series (Gypsy Blood, Gypsy Freak, Gypsy Origins, Gypsy Moon, Gypsy Rising, and Gypsy Truths)
Author: Kristy Cunning

Amazon repeatedly recommended this series to me, but I kept passing it over (mostly due to the book covers, which is something I know not to do!). So I finally took the plunge with the first book, Gypsy Blood, and was quickly sucked into this world. A young gypsy, Violet, moves to the town where her mother was killed, determined to find her ghost. Instead, she stumbles into a supernatural world she had no idea existed. Centuries ago, a group of gypsies performed a spell to become immortal and in the process all became monsters. Violet is also a monster but it's not until the final book that you find out the whole truth. These books were laugh-out-loud funny, full of adventure, and had such interesting characters. I could not put these books down...and am seriously considering re-reading them soon.


Wicked Webs: Black Widow's Revenge
Author: Coralee June & Raven Kennedy

This book is a prequel to a book I read earlier in the year but didn't review, Void. Motley is a vampire who was awarded a scholarship to attend the most prestigious supernatural academy in the world. Upon graduation, she's recruited by an agency that is secretly creating a new breed of supernatural creatures by invited demons to possess their 'recruits.' Motley is fused with a higher-level demon, Black Widow, and together with her mates seek revenge.


The Snow Gypsy
Author: Lindsay Jayne Ashford

I was so excited to start this book, then when I started reading it I found myself moving through it at a snail's pace. It's not that the book wasn't good. It definitely was. It was just sad, and I have to be in the right head space to read these type of stories. Rose is searching for her brother, who disappeared during WWII somewhere in Spain. Along the way, Rose befriends a gypsy woman, Lola, who adopted a child after her mother was killed by soldiers in the massacre that also killed Lola's family. The three form their own little family and face so many hardships, none of which were unheard of during that time period. I learned after I finished the book that the story is based on the journey of a real woman.