It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Sept 14

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and are about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to that ever-growing TBR pile! So welcome, everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and was then taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. 

Happy Monday, everyone! How did your week go? Feels like forever since I posted one of these. I'm not sure how much I will post the rest of this week because my schedule is jam-packed. No day off for me this past weekend, but the Rick's Place Golf Classic is September 19, and the Lil' Princess will be home for The Big E on September 20, so I will have a day off. 

Lots going on in my world. Several closings coming up. More new listings. No real medical answers. Feel like a bit of a hamster in a wheel right now. However, I did get to spend some time in the kitchen this weekend and enjoy the outdoors for a bit before our very rainy Sunday when I had back-to-back open houses. 

Chilling at home after work

Bought myself a larger Crock-pot

Made butter (saved the buttermilk), sour cream, and whipped cream

Finally wrote my review of The Ladies Hall by Vanessa Miller. You can read that here.

I should be getting back to The Eyes of River now that some reviews are done. 

Finished Staged by Caitlin Rother. Look for my review this week. Fingers crossed.

Loving Massawa by Pam Webber. 

Wrote my review of Food is Medicine by Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DRPH. You can read it here.

Finished A Christmas Carol Devotional: 25 Advent Reflections from Charles Dickens's Beloved Classic by Rachel Dodge. Fabulous! You can read my review here.

Check out my review of The Christmas Yes List by Melissa Ferguson here. Loved this one!

I am listening on Audible to Cratchit: A Christmas Carol Continues by R.M. Bouknight. Not sure how I feel about it yet. It's dark. 

Up next is the Beginner's Guide to Using an AI Assistant by Hank Quense.

Upcoming Events

• Evan's Stormy Voyage by Karen Charles - Sep 24 (Review at TC&TBC)
• She Forgot She Was Free by Giselle Mascarenhas - Oct 14 (Review)

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they added to their shelves the previous week. This weekly meme is now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach. 

I ordered Stupid TV, Be More Funny by Alan Siegel last week. I've wanted it for a while. Right now, it is sitting on my coffee table. 

Not sure how often I share my Booktrovert shelf, but here are the latest additions:

Mark Twain for Book Lovers edited by R. Kent Rasmussen

In These Hills by Tamera Alexander

Chapter One Again by Keelia Clarkson

And Then We Saw the Bag by Emma Adbage.

Christmas Year Round

Journey through Christmases Past explores the Christmas of 1813, which was a tough one for many areas of the world. This post also shares some of the decorations and what you see now. You can check it out here.

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

Shared some new book arrivals from Eerdmans Books for Young Readers that I will be reading soon. You can see them here.

Laura's Little Houses

Haven't had time to work on this blog lately. Maybe next week. 

That's it for me. It is now midnight, and I need to get Theo to the vet at 9, followed by a full day of appointments. Such fun!

Unwinding and Getting Back to the Grind

What is it they say about the best-laid plans of mice and men? Yeah, I intended to blog today. I also intended to get a blog post ready for tomorrow. So, needless to say, I did not participate in It's Monday! What Are You Reading? or Mailbox Monday today. Nor will I have a post ready for Top Ten Tuesday and Tell Me Something Tuesday tomorrow. I might make it for the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge, but that all depends on how tomorrow goes. 

Hope you enjoyed your Labor Day Weekend. While it didn't turn out the way I had planned (still need to write those overdue reviews), I can say that it was the first time I stood firm and didn't answer work calls when I said I wouldn't. I even put an out-of-office message on my phone. Here's to boundary setting. 

Here are photos from the weekend.

Theo stole a cat toy

My move downstairs gave Travis a 

new napping place

Chef's salad from The Earlee Mug in Granby

Two new children's book arrivals

Spent some time in the kitchen

Walked two days this week

I am preparing two rental listings and reactivating a multi-family listing tomorrow. Then I have a listing consult in the afternoon. I will pay for those two days off, but it was worth it. 

Reviews that I promise are on the way:

The Ladies Hall by Vanessa Miller - Excellent

Food is Medicine by Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DrPH - Superb information and very academic

The Christmas Yes List by Melissa Ferguson - Loved this so much I would go back and read it again if I had time

How to Train Your Mind by Chris Bailey - Excellent resource on meditation

Still reading or to read:

Massawa by Pam Webber

The Eyes of River by Cindy K. Sproles

A Christmas Carol Devotional by Rachel Dodge, which I am loving so much. 

Beginner's Guide to Using an AI Assistant by Hank Quense

Evan's Stormy Voyage by Karen Charles

She Forgot She Was Free by Giselle Mascarenhas

   

I also downloaded an audio version of Staged by Caitlin Rother because I promised her a review in June. When I have books in PDF format, it is harder for me to read them. NetGalley and Kindle files get read first, and printed books are even better since I can take them with me in the tub. I have muddled through the PDF, but to finish, I will listen in the car. 

I shared The Labor Day and Christmas Connection at Christmas Year Round this week. You can find that post here.

Hope to be blogging with all of you on Wednesday. Take care!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Aug 31

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and are about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to that ever-growing TBR pile! So welcome, everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and was then taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. 

Welcome to the last Monday and the last day of August. How quickly that happened. Hope you had a nice week. I worked and worked and then worked some more. No day off for me, but I'm looking forward to a day or two off this coming weekend. I did, however, get to spend some time in the kitchen.

Cookies!

Green beans and potatoes like my MIL 

used to make

Chicken cacciatore, which my MIL

 enjoyed cooking

Today is filled with medical appointments and work appointments. Would appreciate your prayers, as I have a suspicion based on recent bloodwork that I won't like what the doctor has to say. Hopefully, I am wrong. 

In my blogging and reading world, I still need to write my review of The Ladies Hall by Vanessa Miller. Amazing book! 

I didn't read The Eyes of River last week. 

Almost done with Staged by Caitlin Rother. 

Loving Massawa by Pam Webber. 

I still need to write a review of Food is Medicine by Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DRPH.

I am reading:

• A Christmas Carol Devotional: 25 Advent Reflections from Charles Dickens's Beloved Classic by Rachel Dodge
• The Christmas Yes List by Melissa Ferguson
• Beginner's Guide to Using an AI Assistant by Hank Quense

Upcoming Events

• Evan's Stormy Voyage by Karen Charles - Sep 24 (Review at TC&TBC)
• She Forgot She Was Free by Giselle Mascarenhas - Oct 14 (Review)

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they added to their shelves the previous week. This weekly meme is now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach. 

I am still pretending I have self-control by not ordering or buying anything new. Of course, I haven't done much other than work, so that has helped. 

Christmas Year Round

Journey through Christmases Past explores what might be the last analog Christmas in 1994. I will let you decide if that's true. You can read my post here. 

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

New feature alert! What Do You Think? will be reaching out to readers to ask their opinions on things. It might be very quiet, but we will see how it goes. Talking about author newsletters this week. Check it out here.

Laura's Little Houses

Nothing new this week, but ideas are always brewing. Season 2 of the new Little House on the Prairie is in production. I always have a hard time investing in a Netflix series because they cancel them so easily. I hope this series gets a longer run. 

That's it from me. I look forward to visiting you later today. 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Mailbox Monday - Aug 24

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are, and are about to be reading over the week. It's a great post to organize yourself. It's an opportunity to visit, comment, and add to that ever-growing TBR pile! So welcome, everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and was then taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. 

Welcome back! Hope you had a great week. We are creeping closer to the end of August, and I am ready! Not that I have time for it, but I really want to decorate for fall. I actually listened to Christmas music last week. I bought some new flour to try out different recipes, and this weekend, I made a bunch of chicken broth and banana bread. 

Shifting to reading...

Hope to write my review of The Ladies Hall by Vanessa Miller this week. 

I didn't read The Eyes of River last week. 

Dived into Staged by Caitlin Rother. 

Loving Massawa by Pam Webber. 

I need to write a review of Food is Medicine by Dariush Mozaffarian, MD, DRPH.

Also need to read:

• A Christmas Carol Devotional: 25 Advent Reflections from Charles Dickens's Beloved Classic by Rachel Dodge
• The Christmas Yes List by Melissa Ferguson
• Beginner's Guide to Using an AI Assistant by Hank Quense

I have 45 days on this devotional. 

I only have 14 days left on this one. Yikes!

Upcoming Events

• Evan's Stormy Voyage by Karen Charles - Sep 24 (Review at TC&TBC)
• She Forgot She Was Free by Giselle Mascarenhas - Oct 14 (Review)

Mailbox Monday is a gathering place for readers to share the books they added to their shelves the previous week. This weekly meme is now hosted by Vicki at I'd Rather Be At The Beach. 

Nothing new this week. I am pretending to behave. 

Christmas Year Round

Journey through Christmases Past explores Christmas 1954. You can read that here.

The Children's and Teens' Book Connection

Nothing new, but I will post something soon. 

Laura's Little Houses

Sharing my thoughts on the Netflix adaptation of Little House on the Prairie today at Laura's Little Houses. Check that out here. 

Photos for a new listing, therapy, and a final walk-through today. I will check in as I can.