Happy New Year!

 New Year! New Goals! New Challenges. New resolutions! 

So I had a great year for reading! I read a lot of amazing books! So many awesome books. 255 is the number but I'm sure about 5 or so are missing from my pile but that's because I'm behind on reviews. Seems to be a trend last year I was chasing on reviews. One of my goals is to write the review right away instead of waiting. 

December was a great month I read some of my favorite books of 2023. 

I read 41 novels in December. 

My favorites are 

Filth by Torri Heat

Kidnapped by the Krampus by Emily Shore

Summer Sparrow by Emmerson Hoyt

Sanctuary of the Shadow by Aurora Ascher

I'm taking part of #boutofbooks

I'm also going to try to do more photo a day challenges. 

On the agenda this month 

I'm starting 2024 with The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent my bestie and I have the Owl Crate edition. 

I'm hoping to read a series a month but maybe more but finish at least 12 in addition to my current active series. 

This is the pile of physical copies that I plan to read in January! 

What are your plans for the new year? 

New Month New Adventures

Happy April! 

New month with all new goals. Mine are all over the place. I have so much I want to do and accomplish this month. I've been all over the place a while and need to get centered again. 

First off my daughter designed me a new blog logo. I love it she did a great job for being just 12. I wish I had her art skills. She captured my personality just right. Currently my hair is mermaid blues but I'll be going back to pink in the future after this mermaid hair phase.

Goals

Blog daily as I've got a bunch of content written to use as well as a bunch I still want to write. Plus I'm so behind on reviews. I have a whole pile I need to write but I keep finding myself distracted by so many new books coming out. 

More social media posting as I'm lacking. I've got all this content to post but I haven't been doing it. I also want to post a few videos on Tiktok but I've not done that yet. 

More reading! Never enough and I'm currently reading a bunch of books at once which isn't normal for me at all. 

Use my bullet journal daily. I was super excited and ordered the black dot paper which I want to love but it just makes it so much harder for my creativity to pop out and it ends up looking boring. I'm going to keep working at it. I need to start my April layouts after this. I do have another journal that has white dot paper that I suspect will be turned into a blogging and bookish journal maybe more nerdy stuff. 

More crafty I've been doing a lot of crochet projects and started doing string bookmarks or bracelets depending on who you are talking to. So far all of them keep getting snagged by my daughter. So I ordered some beads to make some for her. 

I made a hodgepodge instagram post to start off the morning.  

This am after a spin class I made a yummy breakfast egg wrap with onion, cheese, ham, eggs and avocado in a tortilla. Super tasty quick and easy to make. 

My daughter and I found TruFru dark chocolate strawberries which are amazing and our new addiction. 

Starting off with a lovely Forever Nuts latte with steamed milk. It's amazing how well this tea brews beautiful pink and looks all pale pink with the steamed milk. 

My bullet journal is still naked but soon to be very colorful. 

My bestie Anna and I are reading From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout. We are only a few chapters in but I think we are both loving it. 

I'm sure I have a whole bunch more goals on my list as I'm looking at my current list. Do you have any goals for April? 

Fall Reading List

I've been in a little bit of a reading slump recently. I decided to create a fall reading list and hopefully, I'll be able to read all of these and then a bunch more. I'm currently 48 out of my goal of 250 books so I need to read a bunch more or I won't even be close by the end of the year. I have all of these already loaded and ready to go on my kindle. I have a pile of physical books ready to go as well. 

I think I have a great list of reading options for the next few months. 

What's on your fall reading list? 

#Reading Diaries #1

I've been wanting to start a weekly discussion post but I always end up intimidated by the whole idea and end up putting it on the back burner. I also wonder if anyone going to read what I have to say? Do I have anything interesting to say? I end up always being my own worst critic. I'm just going to go for it and if I end up talking to myself every post that's ok at least I'll have done them. 

I signed up for three blog posts challenges for 2018. 2 of them are full of topics and the 3rd is all about writing them. 

I may not be the best but I'm going to give it a shot. Hopefully, I'll get better as the year goes on. 

Today is a little catch up on my 52-week challenge. I'm going to smash three together 

1. Meet my best friend Anna

Normally I would say my husband is my best friend but I do have a bestfriend who is amazing even if she does live far away. I moved to California to be with my husband but it was so hard to make friends so for years it was my friends back home that I talked to but we grew apart. 

Over the years I made a few friends but none that I would say became my best friend. After starting a base bookclub I found some new friends but one stuck out we instantly hit it off and over the years she's become the best friend I've ever had. Of course, because we are military so eventually her husband was given orders moving them to Washington state. 

It's been tough I miss having my partner in crime and it's the little stuff I miss the most. I've found that keeping busy keeps me distracted and I try not to think about the fact that she's not here. I know we will always be best friends we just happen to live far away. I admit that I've been distant because it still hurts that she's gone but I'm going to work harder on our friendship. I can't imagine my life without her. I can hope that when we are old we will be close together and maybe we will end up in the same retirement community. She's someone I can always count on, who doesn't judge and always supports me. She's one of a kind and I'm blessed to have found her. This is the last time I've seen her in person this summer but won't be the last. We have a long life together. 

2. My favorite things 

This one is a fun easy one. I love books lots and lots of books. I keep buying books faster than I can read them. I have bookshelves overflowing with books. I eat sleep and breath books if you ask my husband. I also never leave the house without a book. I take on my kindle with me everywhere and even have multiple just in case. I also have the app downloaded on my tablet and my phone. I just love books. 

I love to blog it's a big part of my morning it's become my own little space all mine. I love to talk about books but now I'm branching out a little more into more parts of my life. I need to work on my commenting I find myself more a blog creeper but it's on my list to change that. 

I'm a little obsessed with coffee and food. In this picture, you can see my yummy coffee and a batch of chia seed pudding. It's become my quick yummy morning go to after a good workout. I love to bake and haven't done as much as I would have liked but I'm planning on changing that. 

I love journalling it's become one of my newer hobbies in the last few years. I've started my 2nd bullet journal it's become an intricate part of my day. I love how it gives me the flexibility to customize it just to meet my needs. 

Last but not least I think of myself as super crafty. I love to crochet, doodle, painting, create jewelry and other projects. I have a bucket list of crafty projects that I want to do this year. This project that I'm currently working on is a blanket and the yarn for a hat. 

3. Meet my Family  

I have a daughter who is 8 she's growing like a weed. I have a son from my younger days. He's already 16 and soon to be 17. He can't wait to be done with school.

Last but not least we have two big dogs. Khaleesi is my separation anxiety nutcase bluetick coonhound. Grimm is my stubborn husky malamute he's also my dream dog. While he acts more human or catlike she's a snuggle bug as I write this she's stretched out on the sofa next to me. 

1st discussion post how did I do?