April 2018 Monthly Highlights

April just flew by quickly. I can't believe that this school year is already almost over. My girls have a lot of end of the year testing and other activities going on in May. Definitely going to be another busy month. I am happy with the books I read this month.

March 2018 Monthly Highlights

I can't believe it is already April! I know I say that every month, but it is true. Time has been flying by so quickly. I didn't read that many books in February (a total of two) and between the lack of reading and being super busy, I didn't post a Monthly Highlights for February. I was still quite busy during March, (which is why I had no blog posts), but I am happy with all the reading I did get done. I had fun spending time with family and friends. We did a lot of fun things during the girls' spring break from school. 

January 2018 Monthly Highlights

Wow, January flew by quickly. And here I am still thinking about how it is already 2018 and now it is February. I am still in my funk, (grieving and not wanting to do much of anything) but I have been trying hard to keep busy. I am happy with the amount of books I read in January and I have been busy sewing and crocheting different things. Which really helps keep my mind from wandering. I also have been slowly working on blog posts. I am looking forward to seeing what all will happen in February. 

October 2017 Monthly Highlights

Hi! So for me, October started off as a pretty good month. I read a ton of books, I still had hope for finishing most of my challenges (including my goal of reading 100 books this year, I had a plan) even though I am seriously behind on every one of my goals.

This year has been a challenging year for me. I still love reading, but it hasn't been as big a part of my life as it usually is. I've been reading less. I've had several months where I didn't read any books or only read a couple instead of several.

It also has been one of those years where things happen and it feels like a snowball that just continues to roll and grow until it starts going down a hill picking up speed and getting bigger until it is just completely out of control. Like I said earlier, I haven't been reading and blogging much this year which has been difficult for me. We've been sick, had injuries, panic attacks, a hurricane, and heartbreak.

The latest thing has been heartbreak. Which for me has been the hardest. I haven't talked about it much at all. Mostly just with my Mom, Grandma, and my husband. I've had a heart to heart with a close family friend, she is like family to me. And I did finally talk about it a little bit with one of my best friends. I hate Cancer. I have participated in Relay for Life several times and it has always moved me to tears. Cancer hurts everyone it touches, it hurts the people that have/had it. Their families. Their friends. The news when you hear a loved one is no longer in remission, hurts a lot. But you still have hope, still pray that they can fight it again. But sometimes no matter how hard that person fights, cancer wins.

My heart breaks because I love and will miss person we lost. My heart breaks for his Dad, Mom, Stepmom, and siblings, because I can't imagine the pain of losing a child, a sibling. My heart breaks for his grandparents, because I can't imagine the pain of losing a grandchild. My heart breaks because I am sad that the next time I visit, I won't see him again. 

As of now, it has been almost a month. I'm still sad, it will always bring a tear to my eye. I see things and people that remind me of him and it brings tears to my eyes. But now I am going to focus on memories. Focus on the pictures I have with his bright smiling face and remember the way he made everyone smile around him. And I am going to hope that someday in our future there will be a cure for cancer, a time where it won't come back.

March 2017 Highlights

March was a super busy month for me personally. But a very slow reading month. I spent a lot of my free time doing some Spring Cleaning around my entire house. 

February 2017 Highlights

February started off as a strong and quick reading month for me. But by the middle of the month I slowed down a lot. Then I think I hit a bit of a reading slump. I did a lot of fun non-reading activities during February though! 

January 2017 Monthly Highlights

January was a pretty good reading month for me. I finally read a series that I have been meaning to read for years. (Plus the new novella and book that came out last year, so in the end I am kind of glad I ended up waiting.) 

December 2016 Monthly Highlights

Well, December went by quickly! It didn't help that I was sick for about half of the month. First with a cold, then a week before Christmas I think I had the flu. I was completely miserable then. Goodbye, 2016 and Hello, 2017! 

Happy New Year, Everyone!!!!

I can't believe it is already a new year. I didn't get as much accomplished in 2016 as I wanted to blog-wise. But I did get a couple scrapbooks done for my girls, taught myself to crochet via Youtube videos, and met most of my reading challenge goals. So I am happy with what I did get done. 

Overall, 2016 wasn't exactly the best year. There are several celebrity deaths that surprised me and saddened me a lot. David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Alan Thicke, and Carrie Fisher, especially. All because these were people that I didn't know personally, but they still influenced my life in one way or another. 

I still get sad when I think of David Bowie's death. I cried for a while when I heard the news. I also remember a few days later I heard one of his songs on the radio while I was driving with my youngest daughter, and I fought back tears. Then after the song ended and another one began, I remembered "Oh yeah, 'Two for Tuesday'". Luckily, I was almost to the store, so I was able to park and cry in my car. My daughter asked, "What's wrong, Mommy?" And I told her, "Mommy just really loves David Bowie's music, and it is sad because he died recently." She then said to me, "Oh. I really wish I could have met him." Which made me smile and I told her that I wish I could have too. 

There are some other things that disappointed me this year, but I am choosing to look at the good things that have happened instead.  Because there are a lot of good things that have happened as well. 

Enough of me rambling about the year. Here are the books I read in December and how I ended with my 2016 Reading Challenges!

November 2016 Monthly Highlights

October 2016 Highlights

Wow, October was an extremely busy month for me. So I didn't spend a lot of time reading. It doesn't help that I am also in the biggest reading slump. I just haven't felt like reading. I have spent a lot of my month working on crocheting projects. 

September 2016 Highlights

August 2016 Highlights

May 2016 Highlights

May started off a bit slowly for me. I had a HUGE BOOKISH HANGOVER from reading The Raven King (The Raven Cycle #4) by Maggie Stiefvater at the end of April. So I didn't feel like reading much. But then my pre-order of A Court of Mist and Fury arrived and I couldn't wait to read it! Which helped with my TRK feels. But then I had an even bigger bookish hangover! I had a hard finding motivation to read, so it felt like I didn't read a lot. I still ended up reading 11 books in May, which I am pretty happy about! 

April 2016 Highlights

March 2016 Monthly Highlights

February 2016 Highlights

Well, I was really busy this month. I was sick for a couple of weeks. Which resulted in me not reading as much as I wanted and not posting nearly as much as I planned to. March is going to be an extremely busy month for me for many reasons, so I probably won't read that much then either. (I do have a lot of post I plan to write for March!) Hopefully I will have the chance to catch up on the reading and blogging stuff in April that I miss in March. 

January 2016 Highlights

Where did January go? It doesn't feel like it is already February 2016! Time is flying by!

October 2015 Monthly Highlights

September 2015 Highlights

1. Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass #4) by Sarah J. Maas
2. Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between by Jennifer E. Smith
3. Lock & Mori (Lock & Mori #1) by Heather W. Petty
4. Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles #1) by Marissa Meyer (Reread)
5. Ash & Bramble by Sarah Prineas
6. Hunter (Hunter #1) by Mercedes Lackey

August 2015 Highlights

1. Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams
2. Hollywood Witch Hunter by Valerie Tejeda
3. Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman
4. Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell
5. Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood

2015 GoodReads Challenge:

75/125

2015 #365DaysofYA Challenge:

Hosted by Kate from Literary Kate  and Sarah from What Sarah Read 

Read This Month:

None read this month! 28 total so far.

2015  Debut Author Challenge:

 

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl 

18/12 Books GOAL REACHED!

Read This Month:

1. Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams
2. Hollywood Witch Hunter by Valerie Tejeda

2015 TBR Pile Reading Challenge:

Hosted by Bookish

15/25 Books

Read This Month:

None this month.

2015 Fairytale Challenge:

Hosted by The Daily Prophecy

6/15 Books

Read This Month:

1. Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

2015 NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge:

Hosted by Falling For YA

31/25 Books GOAL REACHED!

Read This Month:

1. Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams
2. Hollywood Witch Hunter by Valerie Tejeda
3. Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman
4. Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

2015 Flights of Fantasy:

Hosted by Alexa Loves Books and Hello, Chelly

6/15

Read This Month:

None this month

2015 Reread Challenge:

Hosted by So Obsessed With and Belle Of The Literati

3/20

Read This Month:

None read this month.

2015 Prequel & Sequel Challenge:

Hosted by Novel Heartbeat and Writer Grrl Reads

0/50 Points (I still need to post reviews and figure out my point total)

Read This Month:

None read this month.

2015 Real Book Challenge:

Hosted by Swoony Boys Podcast & Fic Fare

15/45

Read This Month:

1. Six Impossible Things by Fiona Wood

I didn't do too well in August (and didn't really read anything in July) so I am pretty behind on my challenges. Hopefully I will catch up some in September!

How was your August? What books did you read? How are your challenges going?