A guidebook to the blog, the cast of characters, and the chapters that brought me here.
📖 Prologue: Welcome to the Blog
Welcome! I'm Steph — the voice behind Stories by Stephanie. I'm a Diet Coke-fueled, book-loving, overstimulated introvert living in Western NY with my two boys: Holden and Caleb.
The Story Starts Here is a guidebook to both my life and my blog. I write about everyday life, motherhood, mental health, reading, and all the messy, meaningful moments in between. This blog is where I sort through the noise, capture everyday chaos, and find calm in the pages of a good book. Whether you’re here for the books, the real life ramblings, or the quiet moments and tangled thoughts in between… I’m so glad you found your way here!
📚 Meet the Characters
Steph: Overstimulated bookworm, professional overthinker, Diet Coke loyalist, and storyteller of everyday chaos. Always reading, rarely peopling.
Caleb: Curious, brilliant, tech-obsessed, and deeply thoughtful. A sensitive soul with a big mind and a love for how things work. Read Caleb’s birth story →
Holden: Wild child, comedian, and chaos coordinator. Full of jokes, big feelings, noise, energy, and approximately one thousand questions. Read Holden’s birth story →
© Steph (1989), Caleb (2015), and Holden (2018)
🗺️ Setting: Rochester, NY
Where the weather can’t decide, the garbage plates are famous, and Wegmans is basically a religion. It’s chaotic, cozy, and colder than it has any right to be... but it’s home.
💌 Dedication
This blog is for the overthinkers, the bookworms, the quiet observers, and anyone trying to make meaning out of ordinary life.
📖 Table of Contents: What You’ll Find On the Blog
- ✨ One Minute Memoirs: short standalone stories about motherhood, memory, identity, and everyday life — small stories with big feelings.
- ✍️ Personal Essays + Storytelling: reflections on life, identity, and meaning in the everyday
- 📚 Books + Reading Life: reviews, reading recaps, monthly stats, library hauls, and the stories that shaped me
- 👩👦 Motherhood: honest stories from raising two boys
- 📖 New Chapters: essays on divorce, rebuilding, and rewriting life from the ground up
- 🌿 Mental Health + Introversion: navigating anxiety, quiet living, and self-discovery
- 💵 Money + Finances: budgets, spending, saving, and the ongoing work of tackling debt
- 🏃♀️ Health + Running: running milestones, fitness goals, and the ups and downs of weight and wellness
- 🍂 Seasonal Joy + Everyday Moments: cozy vibes, little celebrations, and the magic in the mundane
- ✨ Daily Life: snippets of chaos, laughter, and the ordinary moments that make up real life
- 🔁 Series: monthly recaps, goals, and other ongoing features
📖 Introduction
Books have always been my anchor, the thread that ties it all together. They've shaped my worldview, quieted my chaos, and offered comfort on even the hardest days. This blog started with books, and even as it’s grown into something more personal, they remain the heartbeat of it all.
I’ve lived a thousand lives through stories… and written my own life one messy, meaningful page at a time.
📚 The Chapters So Far
📖 Chapter One: Where It All Began
I started this blog back in 2009 as a college student studying English Lit. For many years, it was known as Steph the Bookworm. It began purely as a book review blog, a place to share what I was reading. Books gave me a voice when I wasn't sure of my own yet, and blogging became a way to join the conversation.
📖 Chapter Two: A Blog (and Life) Evolves
In late 2012, I bought my own domain and stepped away from the Blogger platform. That’s when things got more personal here. I still reviewed books, but I also began documenting real life: the wins, the hard stuff, the everyday chaos.
This chapter of my life was all about transition and early adulthood: my first house, grad school, marriage, and the start of my career. I also took up running, focused on my health, and lost a significant amount of weight. It was a period of growing up, of trying on different versions of myself, and the blog became the place where I worked through it all in real time.
📖 Chapter Three: Motherhood & Mayhem
In 2015 and 2018, I became a mom. My blog became a space to process life with littles, the beauty and the burnout. This was the season of birth stories, sleepless nights, and documenting both the exhaustion and the wonder of raising little humans.
But by 2023, my life flipped upside down, and blogging fell away.
📖 Chapter Four: Rock Bottom & the Rewrite
In 2024, life as I knew it unraveled. My marriage ended, I sold my home, and had to say goodbye to a version of myself I thought was permanent. I stopped blogging. I lost my domain. I lost that spark to write — and, for a while, the will to try. But rock bottom gave me something else: the raw material to start rewriting everything, not just on the page, but in everything else too.
📖 Chapter Five: Finding My Way Back
In 2025, I started to rebuild. My life, my voice, and my blog. I missed writing. I missed this space. With my old domain gone, I returned to Blogger and started salvaging what old posts I could from the Internet Archives. I also changed my blog name to Stories by Stephanie because I'd outgrown the old version of myself. I needed a name that fit my next chapter. So, this is my comeback story — one post, one moment, one day at a time. Read more about my rebuilding journey →
📖 Chapter Six: Between the Lines
Outside of blogging, my story is still unfolding. I’m raising two boys who are growing up faster than I can catch my breath. I’m navigating single motherhood, finances, and mental health while learning to build a quieter, simpler life that still feels full. This space isn’t just about what I’m reading or writing — it’s about living in the middle of it all, and telling the truth about it.
📖 Epilogue: The Story's Not Over
There’s no neat bow to tie this all up yet. I’m still writing… both my blog and my life. Follow along in my New Chapters series, where I'm rewriting everything, one page at a time.
📌 Chapters I’ve Bookmarked
Some of my favorite posts... the ones that feel closest to my heart. Honest, messy, reflective, or just plain fun.
📚 Turn the Page
The story isn’t over — I’m just on a new page.