CarissaExplainsNothing

Survival vs Thriving

I’ve been in survival mode for two years. As exhausting and depleting as it’s been, one big frustration is the lack of personal growth during this time. The 5 years leading up to these past two...

Me on the Focus on Your Own Family Podcast

Hi! I was the guest on my friend Stephanie’s podcast, Focus on Your Own Family. We had a great conversation about growing up in fundamentalist Christianity as a homeschooled pastor’s kid and ho...

Weird Ex-Evangelical Kid Memories

I’ve been digging through my garage looking for my boxes of random things I saved from childhood and ohhhh wow am I finding the weirdest stuff. 😂 I’ll be sharing more of these items on TikTo...

I wish life was just a bowl of… cherry lollipops

It’s Christmas in July 😆😁

Wearing this just once a year would be such a waste 🤷🏼‍♀️

I Was in a Cult

I’ve decided to start talking about “the cult.” So many questions come in on my socials and in DMs asking about my cult experience that I vaguely elude to occasionally. It’s time I start te...

Hope you’re all having a good week! ❤️

What I’m Listening To: Focus on Your Own Family

My friend Stephanie has a new podcast! Please check it out and support her by listening, leaving a review, sharing, etc.

2023-07-10 16:39:51 +0000 UTC View Post

Camp and all the things missed

I dropped my kiddo off at camp yesterday and walking around checking the place out I felt so happy for her and also sad for me that I never got to experience a non church camp or really any similar...

Quieting the Noise

I tweeted recently that I have too much social media now. 😆 It’s just… very loud. I added three new social media channels in the last two weeks for various purposes and they’ve cumulativel...

Tired

I saw a a post on social media recently (I can’t remember where I saw it 🙁) that explained that after a traumatic experience or a prolonged time of intense stress, grief, betrayal, etc. when c...

Grief

I took this picture right after I got my nose pierced on a whim. It was a couple of weeks after my dad died and I felt like doing something impulsive, so the nose piercing happened.

Today wou...

Not Ashamed

Every day now I get comments (almost all from men) shaming me for my body. Every. Single. Day. It’s usually because they don’t like that most of my shirts are low-cut, but also sometimes it’s...

What I’m Listening to: Holy Smokes Podcast

Although I don’t attend church anymore, I really enjoy this podcast and their conversations around spirituality. Recent episodes:

• Christianity Has a Consent Problem
• Black Women...
  2023-06-28 19:14:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Healing

2021 and 2022 were terrible years for me. Many good moments and positive changes, but also some of the worst things I’ve ever had to face. All the times of intense pain and serious trauma wore me...

Not the Doormat

When I was young I used to refer to myself as the “doormat.” It’s the thing that people walk right over without noticing, until it’s needed and not there.

Beginning to assert myself, ...

My Kid Thinks I’m Cool 😎

My daughter and her friends think I’m cool and I wonder if that means I’m doing something wrong. 🤣 Last month I volunteered to help run a game at her school for the last day of 5th grade par...

Friday… Already

I have no idea how it’s Friday already! This week flew by for me and I am not ready for the weekend, but here we are. So, happy Friday, all!

❤️❤️❤️

Viral

I’ve worked in influencer marketing and social media management in different capacities over the last 10 years and initially there was so much conversation about “going viral.” It felt like e...

Don’t Tell Anyone

There’s this song by Semler called “Don’t Tell Anyone” and as soon as I heard it I felt so understood. Semler (Grace Baldridge) is also a pastor’s kid and the song reminds me so much of t...

Dreams

I don’t know how to dream yet.

I’ve always had a big imagination and am forever the idea person. My number 1 strength, according to StrengthsFinder, is strategy and number 2 is ideation. ...

Getting Started

For me, the most difficult part of accomplishing anything is just getting started. I usually know exactly what I need to do, but feel stuck. I think this is why Monday is so difficult; that first p...

No Restrictions

Does this dress make my ass look big? Yes? Okay, good. 😆

I stopped wearing regular bras almost completely a year ago and switched to clothes that have some sort of built in bra-ish kind of...

Pride!

I went to Columbus Pride yesterday for the first time ever and loved the whole experience! I mean, other than the lonnngggg walk back to the car when I ended up getting sick. ☹️

There was...

Just Me

Sometimes the body dysmorphia hits hard and I have to pull back from all the things. The makeup, hair stuff, obsessing over what I eat, even fun filters I sometimes play around with on TikTok… I ...

Listening & Learning

I was raised in the evangelical church, specifically in a weird mix of fundamentalism and Pentecostalism. I was very intentionally kept from “the world” and only allowed to listen to and read a...

What I’m Listening To: An Audience of None

This podcast is one of my new favorites because Stephanie and Joshua and also some of my favorites! They talk about their experiences related to evangelical church world and all things Christian ch...

No Response

I’ve heard it said many times that no response IS a response. Right now, my lack of response is the very best way to handle people who are refusing to hear me and respect my boundaries. This prob...

Towels

Growing up I had this silly life goal of always having all matching bath towels. I don’t know why, but that seemed like a key indicator of success. 😆

I’ve yet to achieve all matching t...

Rainy Days

It’s raining where I’m at today, which is good because we really needed the rain. These are the sort of days that make me wish I could just lay around with a cup of coffee and a book instead of...