Countdown to 2026 pt. 2// Sunday Post #77

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Week 2 done and dusted for the month. I am so excited for Christmas this year. I am usually stressed and not into Christmas, but this year, it just feels different.

I am still trying to reach my goodreads goal and I am reading Mangas and amazon original stories. I am utilizing my kindle when we go to library events. Onto the prompts. Most of these I read this year and then day 14 is the one I am hoping will be my final read of the year. 

Day 8: Baubles/ Ornaments: A very colorful cover

Day 9: Fairy lights: Something magical

Day 10: Under the Tree: Book you forgot you owned

Day 11: Mistletoe: A little bit of Romance

Day 12: Holly & Ivy: Book with great world building

Day 13: Feast: Book that was magnificent

Day 14: Christmas Pudding: One more book to squeeze in this year

Thanksgiving Week// Sunday Post #75

 The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Look at me posting for the second week in a row. It is Thanksgiving week and I am excited for the food. 

Last week was uneventful until Wednesday when we had a major family problem that came to light and it has changed plans for this week. This problem has changed plans for this week and will be a major focus starting in the new year. It also affected my reading plans and everything else. It made me question why I was wasting time reading when I need to focus on this immediate problem, but I can't do anything until New Year and it won't be such an expensive ordeal.

Today, we went to an event in our town where they hosted a free Thanksgiving dinner and gathering and it was good. We also got to hear our new mayor speak and it was re-assuring and hopeful to hear what plans she had to help the town. 

I am glad to say that my Christmas shopping is almost done and I may start my shopping in September from now on because it is honestly less stressful and I am looking forward to Christmas and I am a grinch. I have the plan to start shopping for my kids father daughter dance at the end of next month, and my oldest has Prom coming up this year as well, so ALL the dress shopping.

Like I said my reading was impacted this week, but not alot. But with Thanksgiving I am not sure how much I will be able to get too, so this may be my graphic novel and manga week.

current read

Where Have I Been???// Sunday Post #74

 

 The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Hello.... long time no chat. I had a difficult time remembering when the last time I did a Sunday Post was and it was at the beginning of the year. This year has flown by and I am not sure how to feel about it. I am about to be contradictory here in saying that a lot has happened but not a lot has happened. 

So much has happened. My oldest got her permit at the beginning of the year. We are still homeschooling. Work has been crazy busy and taking up the time that is not spend on homeschooling my kids. My oldest is in 11th grade this year and we are focusing mainly on her needed courses for her diploma and it has been kind of stressful.

Reading has been ok. I have been behind on my reading goal most of the year, mainly because I was in a slump and whatever free time I had, I didn't want to spend it sitting down reading a book or listening to people read to me. 

My blog took a hit and the only things that I was posting were reviews and that was put on the back burner alot as well. 

At the moment, I am in a reading mood and want to read everything. I have 20 books left to reach my goal and I have a good mix of novellas, manga, graphic novels, romance and some fantasy. 

Here are my current reads for the week:

HAPPY NEW YEAR// Sunday Post #73

 

 The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

This week has been a long but good relaxing one. My hubby had to go back to work this week and it was dead. He didn't have anything to do, so that meant sitting in the office and cleaning his part of the warehouse. 

I have been reading my stack of library books and I have already finished two books so far for the new year.

Besides reading, we have been gearing up and getting ready for the second half of the school year. I homeschool my kids and we are counting down the days till May 9th, which is our 180th day. But we are looking forward to some special days coming up next month. We are especially looking forward to the new Captain America movie coming out next month. 

On Friday, we went to the zoo because they do free fridays in the months of January and February and we took advantage because we had not been since December 2023. We finally got to see the Giant Pacific Octopus that had been delayed and she is a stunner. She was asleep when we got to see her but she was massive. We got to the zoo just an hour before closing time and all of the animals were either napping or running to their doors to be let back in. It was also a very windy day. 

We also have a new cat that is hanging around outside. He has been wandering the neighborhood and it actually scared my uncle and made him think that my indoor cat got out. My husband got him to come to us and we fed him and apparently that was the way to his heart because we are his now...lol. 

When we first got a good look at him while he was eating we noticed his eyes and right away, I named him. 

His name is Raymond. If any of yall have played Animal Crossing: New Horizons then you know the cat with the Heterochromia eyes. His is my favorite villager and the name stuck because everytime we say it, he comes running. We say anything else, he stays put. 

He has not come into the house because he is not fixed and I do not want him spraying, so if he sticks around he will be getting fixed during our spring break in March. Until then, we have set up a little cozy and warm area for him in our shop because the temps are going to be below freezing all this week. 

Hope everyone has a good week ahead. 

End of The Year Plans// Sunday Post # 72

 The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

I really dislike the time going back and wish we can just do away with it. I am making my end of year plans and holiday plans. I am just ready to start planning my next year reading goals and life goals. 

The last two weeks were better than the beginning of the month. I focused on my kids school and my work to keep myself from being sad and thinking. But this weekend, I will have to think about the sad things because my mom and uncle want me to plan my grandma's memorial. It's going to be today which is her birthday. She would have been 79.

Todays post is going to be my November TBR because I am genuinely excited about all of these and some are rollovers from my October TBR because I am still in my spooky mood.

I also have a ton of library books out that need to be read but does wont be due back until next month. I have some netgalley reads I need to get to. I am ready for Thanksgiving. My girls are going on a trip to my aunts house for the holidayand they will be gone for 5 days which will be the longest they have been away, They have been gone on 4 day trip and on that 4th day I was ready for my babies to be home.

Ready For 2024 To Be Over// Sunday Post #71

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Quick shoutout to Wendy from the Literary Feline. Thank you so much for the gift. I got it today (Saturday) and it made me cry and my husband got a little sniffle. He is not a reader. He was touched by your kindness. So thank you so much for putting a smile on our faces after another long week.

If ya'll haven't read my last Sunday Post, I talk about how my grandmas was in the hospital for a week and a half. My daughters,hubby and I went and spent a good portion of October 5th with her and a couple hours after we left, she passed in her sleep. She had been fighting going to sleep the whole day and night before. We were all telling her to take a nap and she was refusing. She knew. 

The whole week has been long and I have been stuck in my thoughts. I homeschool my kids and we did the bare minimum to count school days. My hubby got three days bereavement and those days had a lot of crying, silent treatment and screaming and blaming. 

Then Hurricane Milton hit Florida. I live in South Carolina, but my grandmother's home town Bradenton got hit. The house where my great aunt lived and my cousins got destroyed. The tree that they had in their yard that I am allergic to is completely gone. But thankfully, they evacuated and are safe. 

I am a person who does not like rushing the year by, but with 2024 being one of the worst since 2020, I am beyond ready for 2025. 

3 Months Later// Sunday Post #70 **UPDATE**

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Long time no talk. My last Sunday Post was June 30th. Alot has been going on and I have missed putting up a post every week. 

The past week and a half have been very difficult. My grandmother has been in the hospital since September 25th and on the 27th, Hurricane Helene came through my state and wiped out all of the power in the whole state. 

My neighborhood was without power for three days. The twisted thing about the whole situation is that we lost power at 5:30am and it was so windy. 11am same day, it was a beautiful day and sun shining and it got hot. On Saturday, my husband and I decided to take a road trip to go look for generators. We decided to go to a county that did not have a lot of outages at the time to see if there would be any generators. We were only able to find a power bank and that kept our fans going for two hours at a time. Saturday night was rough because we had to accept the fact that everything in both fridges and stand up freezer were wasted.

On Sunday morning we got our power back. It was a relief and I cried because our energy co-op had put out a statement that the restoration time would be weeks.. into November. During this whole ordeal, I couldn't get in touch with the hospital because their phones were down and I did not want to drive into the city because all of the power was out and streetlights were down. Now it sounds hypocritical that we went on a road trip on Saturday. The town we went to had power and it was smaller than our capital city.

I was glad that my grandma was in the hospital during the power outage because they have generators. She would not have survived this power outage at home.

Needless to say that this week has been even more stressful because we now have to be in talks with our home insurance who unfortunately don't cover spoiled food in the even of power outage. They suggested FEMA and we are waiting on that. Then there is the panic buying at our local walmart and grocery stores... and the fear mongering that another storm is coming on the same exact path.

Besides the stress of hurricanes and hospitalization, life has been ok. Work and home school have been taking up all of my day. The reading I do get to is going great. I am enjoying the time I do get to sit down and read about another world and other characters whose problems are different from mine.

I am just crossing my fingers and toes that this week will not have any disruptions because my middle daughter will be turning 14!

Around midnight my grandmother passed.

Mid Year Reading Update// Sunday Post #69

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Today's post was going to be an recap of the previous week, but there was an VERY unexected death in my family today and I am just still trying to process it because it is so hard to believe. So instead, I am going to do something that is easy and about books. Everyone on Youtube is doing their Mid Year freakout tags, and since I am on my youtube hiatus I will be doing mine on here.

Also today is my brother's birthday and my best friend's birthday. My brother wont be having a good one because of the death in the family.

The creators of the tag are linked down below. This is their YouTube channels.

creators of the tag ‪@IsThatChami‬ & ‪@EarlGreyBooks‬

 How is your reading going? It's going ok. I have read 43 books this year.

Best book you’ve read so far in 2023. So hard to choose between these two

Best sequel you've read so far in 2023. I am on my Bridgerton kick sooo.....

Favourite re-read. I am in the middle of my only re-read this year and that is Percy Jackson and the Lighting Thief

Genre you've been loving/reading the most. I am in my romance era

New release you haven't read yet, but want to. This is currently on hold and waiting for me to pick up from my library

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year. I did a top ten tuesday post I think last week on my anticipated releases.

Biggest disappointment. Spaceman in Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar

Biggest surprise. Where David Threw Stones by Elyse Hoffman

Favourite new author. (Debut or new to you) Lucy Score, Kate Quinn, Kimberly Lemming

Newest favourite character. Cinnamon from That Time I Got Drunk and Saved A Demon

Book that made you cry. Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

Book that made you happy. The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

Most beautiful book you've bought so far this year (or received) Pretend You're Mine by Lucy Score. The color gradiant of the pink and yellow makes me swoon. I am obsessed.

What books do you need to read by the end of the year? Again, I posted a summer reading challenge post for Top Ten Tuesday and if I don't get to most of those books by the end of summer, then I definitely want to read them by the end of the year.

Favourite video or post you've done so far this year. I don't have a favorite post of the year. I enjoy doing the top ten Tuesday posts.

Library Haul and Currently Reading// Sunday Post #68

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

This post is being posted so late but at least it's up and I feel productive. I feel that I have to share my progress on my summer reading challenge because I posted my entire 24 book TBR in my top ten tuesday post last week and I am so excited to get to the books and update ya'll with my progress. If ya'll haven't read that post, go here.

I have finished a book off of that TBR and that was Gone With the Wind. It took me two weeks to read it and I have it a 3 out of 5 stars. I know the book is very problematic with the slavery and racism. But there is no denying that Scarlett O Hara was a badass. Of course she was the worst when it came to people and a decent human being but she took care of her business. She became a business woman and did not give a flying fuck who didn't approve, she refused to go hungry again.

After that I picked up my first Lucy Score book Pretend You're Mine and I read the whole book in a little over 24 hours. I was obsessed. I am a sucker for any military romance and if you have any recommendations, please leave them in the comments. I did not want to put this book down for any reason. My kids and husband were the biggest distractions and I let them know it. I told them that my responsibility of cooking was about to be nonexistent because I did not want to stop reading. I ended up cooking and going back to the book. I got laughed at but it showed my hubby that I was obsessed because the day I finished it, we went shopping and he bought me my own copy. Sadly books 2 and 3 were not in store.

Since finishing that, I have read a couple pages from my next read The Catcher in the Rye. And that leads us into the library haul. I have a stack of classics that I wanted to get to this month but Gone With the Wind took most of the month, and I wanted to have a good classic list update for my year 3 classic club challenge update. Anyways here are the books that I will be reading this week and next month.

I hope everyone has an amazing week.

Summer Vacation// Sunday Post #67

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

Long time, no talk. I haven't done a Sunday Post in two months. There has been a lot going on but not a lot going on. Work, school work, paying bills, gardening, summer school, and swimming. Since our school year ended on May 6th, I have had anxiety about how the summer would be. There is so much I have wanted to get done and to do, that I am having trouble focusing on one thing and then I stress out about doing something and not doing other stuff that needs to be done. 

The past two summers I babysat and since I am no longer doing that because I do not need that stress and drama back in my life. I feel that I have too much time and to little time. We are a month into summer vacation and August 5th will be here before I know it and we will be starting another school year. 

All that to say is that I am enjoying my time and relaxing and trying to catch up on sleep, but my brain just wont shut up and I want to get stuff done. I am a walking contradiction.

Started reading Gone With The Wind on Wednesday and I am a little over 100 pages in and enjoying it so far or just the courting and frolicking between the families. I am so into Bridgerton at the moment and it is giving me Bridgerton vibes. 

Our Spring Break// Sunday Post #66

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly from The Caffeinated Book Reviewer.

HAPPY EASTER!!!!! It has been a while since I last did a Sunday Post. Not a lot has been going on. My husband quit the second job at Lowes. It was becoming more hassle than it was worth. The lady over him was scheduling him for full time work for part time pay and giving him days off and then going in and putting him on the schedule when that day would come up to get him in trouble. The longest three months of our lives it seemed but it did help tremendously around the holidays.

We spent the past week on Spring Break. I made a giant to do list and today is our last day before we start the last full month of school before summer vacay. That to do list only has two to three things crossed off. It bugs me but when I think back and look at our week, it was productive and relaxing. We got a lot of shopping done which our bank accounts are screaming at us. We got our dogs to the their vets. We got our youngest cat spayed on Thursday. 

We have been watching a ton of anime. My husband decided to start subscribing to Crunchyroll and he has been bingeing the hell out of Dragonball. We have been catching up on My Hero Academia. We started the anime One Piece and I really want to watch the live action. We started the second season of Spy Family and we love it. 

I finished the second season of Outlander.... I know, I know... I am so far behind. I read the second book in 2022 and while reading it I wanted to watch the second season and then I finished the book and it took me months to start the second season and just as long to finish it. It did renew my interest and make me want to pick up the third book immediately, but of course I have been spoiled for some things and I am not a fan of one of the characters that ultimately marries a certain someone. I am team Claire and Jamie just did her wrong.

We have been working on projects around the house still. We have been working on the fence around our property. It is a good feeling seeing so much progress. We are getting the yard cleaned and an old building that was falling apart finally being demolished. Didn't get around to cleaning our nasty green leaf filled and pollen coated pool, but that is the next thing to get done.

Reading wise, I had so many books on my TBR for the week, but I was delusional at the start thinking that I had so many hours in the week to do everything that the only things I read was two mangas. 

Here is a photo dump from the week. I am surprised that I didn't take more pictures but I was living in the moment. 

started my seeds

bought new patio chairs and enjoying dinner

working on the fence

the day before Cairan's spay

She rolled in dirt and pollen

My middle helping make dinner. Baked Ziti with Aldi cinnamon rolls

Easter baskets waiting to be plundered.

Hope everyone has a great week ahead.