I’m at Thanksgiving with my husband’s family. The large extended family has gotten together for over 50 years. This is the last year we will get together at the above house. My father-in-law died in the spring and the house is for sale. We’re doing one last Thanksgiving here. After this year one of my nieces plans to host the Thanksgiving gathering. It will be held in Indianapolis instead of Iowa which may mean a smaller gathering in the future. All things have to change at some point.
I’m grateful for . . .
Our large extended family that has made Thanksgiving such a wonderful tradition.
My husband and children. That we all love each other and can have fun together.
My health. After my surgery earlier in the month I realize once again what a wonderful thing it is to feel healthy.
My friends with whom I share stories and laughter.
Authors writing books. I love to read and am so grateful that so many authors are writing books I love to read.
My ebook reader that allows me to read at night, to set it on my lap when my hands hurt, to change the size of the font when my eyes need a bigger font, to carry hundreds of books in my purse.
My cats who give me so much pleasure every day.
My children’s dogs and cats I get to enjoy when I visit or they visit.
My house and yard. That we have a house and yard. And I love the serenity of my house and yard.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate Thanksgiving in November. And to everyone else I hope you’re having a wonderful day!
I’ve decided to do a monthly wrap-up post each month to see how I’m doing on my blog and what’s going on in my personal life. I plan to link-up to a couple of blogs that host wrap-ups and reviews of their months. The Month in Review is hosted at The Book Date, and the Monthly Wrap-up Round-up is hosted by Feed Your Fiction Addiction.
Personal life
Family
My personal life has been on a roller coaster the last couple of months. My father-in-law died the first part of May. It was sudden, but not too unexpected since he was 89 and not in the best of health. My husband is the executor of the estate so he’s been very busy. We’ve made several trips back to his dad’s house as we all try to get the house ready to sell.
Daughter moving to Indiana
Then one of our daughters was offered a promotion, but it meant moving to Indianapolis. She jumped at the chance, because it’s a great job. However, she found out about the new job the first of June and starts July 2. That meant getting her house ready to sell and getting her household goods moved. The household goods won’t get moved until the middle of July and she was lucky to get such an early date. Family members have pitched in to help with painting, decluttering and cleaning. After all the work the house and yard look amazing. Her house is a Tudor style brick home and almost 100 years old, but is in really good condition. It has the original wood floors and lots of unique details. She’s loved living there.
Front door
Living room with original gas fireplace
Dining room
The house went on sale June 26 and she got a full price cash offer at the end of that day! Amazing!! All the hard work really paid off. The buyers want to close on the house the middle of July which works great. We just hope it all goes smoothly.
I’ve come with her to Indianapolis and will stay until right after the 4th of July. Then I’m going to stay for a few days with my older daughter who lives in Illinois. My younger daughter will be swinging through the second week in July to go back to Iowa so she can watch the movers pack her household goods and I will ride back to Iowa with her. I’m going to miss being in the same city, but I think the move to Indianapolis is a great one for her!
TV & Movies
We got rid of our satellite TV since it doubled in price. Now we’re streaming Netflix, Hulu, PBS and Amazon. We’re slowly getting used to the new set-up. It seems to work well so far.
Yard & Garden
Daylily
We’ve had lots of very wet and sometimes very hot days in June, but the plants I planted this spring are growing. One of the daylilies I planted about a month ago has even bloomed! My new rose is growing and has lots of new leaves. We had to put a chicken wire fence around it to keep bunnies and other little rodents from chomping it. The Japanese beetles start coming out in July around here and I’m hoping we don’t have too many since they were terrible last summer. It got very cold during the winter here in Iowa so I hope that killed some of the grub stage. They’ve loved some of the roses when we lived in other parts of the country. My new rose is so small I’d like to give it a good start this first year.
Blog life
Reviews
I got a few more reviews finished and posted in June and quite a few others started. I’m also going to publish a post of my thoughts on the books read during a month. I have the January edition just about ready to post. It will have links to the review posts I’ve completed. I will also do a one or two sentence summary of those reviews. The books I haven’t reviewed on my blog yet will get mini reviews. I’m trying this method out to see how it will work. Hopefully, this method will at least get a few thoughts posted about my books.
I’m also trying to add at least a few sentences to Goodreads after I finish a book. That’s helping me when I sit down to write a review since I don’t always get my blog reviews started right away.
No internet in Indianapolis
I don’t have internet in Indianapolis, but when I get to Illinois I will have it so I’m hoping to work on blog posts as well as visiting other blogs. I didn’t get a chance to post much or visit other blogs and comment very much during the month of June. I’m hoping July will be a little better, but it also looks quite busy with some more travel planned.
Kimberly hosts the Sunday Post each week. I like to take part because it gives me an opportunity to look back at last week and forward to next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also love to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading.
Home
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Family birthday
A very busy week. This is my younger daughter’s birthday weekend so we’ve done lots of fun things this weekend plus doing a bit of planning during the week. My older daughter came from Illinois to help celebrate and we’ve all had so much fun. Saturday morning we went to a craft store which has lots of activities to choose from–painting pottery, fused glass, making candles as well as painting parties. We decided to paint pottery and we had so much fun we ended up staying over four hours. I painted a fox and a star lantern. My daughters painted an octopus and a dragon plus the birthday girl painted a winter scene on a small plate. We’ll see how they all look once they’re fired. We pick them up next weekend. We had so much fun! My husband didn’t paint pottery with us, but we all went out to dinner Saturday night and came home for birthday cake and a board game called Train. Such a fun day.
Yard work and home work
The weather was beautiful all week, but once again we got rain on the weekend! During the week we (mostly my husband) worked in the backyard. He’s putting in a brick extension on the patio (which is only a small cement slab now). He mowed and cleaned the yard a bit and put up bird feeders.
We also had new higher seat toilets put in. Our toilets were the original toilets in our 30-year-old house and the shut off valves were stuck so that made the job take longer.
Blog
I still haven’t decided what I’m doing for reviews, but I am trying to get more posts done ahead of time so when I have a busy week I will have things to post.
I forgot to post my sign up post for the HoHoHo Readathon so will do that this week.
Type M for Murder blog had a post by author Vicki Delany about Rapid Reads Novellas and the story she wrote for them. Rapid Reads Novellas are short books for adults with low literacy skills–ESL students, the elderly who might not have an attention span for a longer book, or anyone who wants an exciting fast read. This sounds like an excellent program. Vicki Delany also writes one of my favorite police procedural series–the Constable Molly Smith series.
What did you do last week? What did you read? What books did you collect?
Kimberly hosts the Sunday Post each week. I like to take part because it gives me an opportunity to look back at last week and forward to next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also love to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading.
Home and Blog
Hurricane Irma
I’m thinking about the people in Florida this morning as the hurricane arrives in Florida. I hope people are safe. I heard a story this morning that some people abandoned their pets–some left chained to trees or cars. Animal Control is picking up dogs and cats and taking them to shelters. It breaks my heart to hear about people abandoning their pets. I don’t know all the circumstances, but I just don’t want people to do that. And I think about all the people still in shelters in Texas and the earthquake in Mexico. It makes me think about the fragility of life on this earth.
Illinois and doctors
We decided this was a good weekend to visit our daughter in Illinois. We’re having a great time relaxing while our daughter works on a class she’s taking. When she’s not busy we’ve watched Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy 2 (both good). We’ve cooked scallops for dinner one night and gone out to dinner another night. It’s so good to spend time with her. She makes the trip to see us so it’s nice to come here.
My allergies have bothered me a lot the last couple of weeks so my doctor has suggested some new medicines to try. I’m hoping they kick in and start helping. My arthritis is causing my hands to hurt a lot so my arthritis doctor sent me to get “splints” for my hands. (I pictured something with wood…lol) for when I’m doing a lot with my hands. Plus I have hand exercises to do so I don’t lose more dexterity with my fingers and hands. Hopefully, the splints help. (I’m still trying to get used to them.) At lease using my Kindle is actually good since it’s not something I have to hold if my hands are hurting.
Television
This week I found another TV show to watch on Amazon Prime–Fortitude. It’s about a peace-loving town that is the furthest north of any town in the world (in the Norwegian part of Arctic Circle). They plan to build a hotel on the glacier near the town. However, a gruesome murder takes place. And strange things are happening in the town and everyone is hiding something. The show is part murder mystery and part something more than murder, but I’m not sure what yet. The murder is gruesome though they don’t show a lot of that, but there is a lot of swearing if that bothers you.
Blogging
I blogged more last week which was great. I hope to get more reviews done in the coming weeks. Next week it will be all about when we get home to see how much I get done.
I like this meme because it gives me an opportunity to take a look back at last week and forward to next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also like to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading. This is a great meme to take part in every week and I thank Kimba for hosting it!
Chihuly Glasshouse Sculpture 27 x 100 x23′
Last Week
Home & blog
Seattle has been so much fun. We went to a movie, ate lots of seafood, had wonderful whole wheat cinnamon rolls for breakfast several days and saw Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado. Seattle has a Gilbert and Sullivan Society which is 60 years old this year! They produce a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta every July. My husband and I really enjoy G&S so we try to come to Seattle to visit in July when we can!
Chihuly glass ball reflecting Seattle Space Needle
We also went to the Space Needle in Seattle (built for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair). We hadn’t visited for several years and planned to go up to its revolving restaurant. A lot of other people had that plan and there were no seats available so instead we ate at a restaurant at the base. Very good food and we had fun. Next door to the restaurant is the Chihuly Garden and Glass which we went to after lunch. It features the glasswork of Dale Chihuly. There are glass sculptures both inside and outside (mixed in with a garden). It is all fantastic!
Mille Fiori by Dale Chihuly (reminds me of glass garden in Stolen Songbird) 10 x 58 x 12′
Some of the glass pieces even reminded me of the glass garden in the book Stolen Songbird!
I managed quite a few posts this week which was great. I’m whittling away on my review backlog. Also I got another Saturday Shorts posted!
The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline by Nancy Springer
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Around the internet
Sync downloads
Sync is a site for young adult audiobooks. In the summer (beginning May 15 to August 20) they offer two free audiobooks each week.
July 17 – July 23
THE CASE OF THE CRYPTIC CRINOLINE by Nancy Springer, Narrated by Katherine Kellgren (Recorded Books)
THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES II by Arthur Conan Doyle, Narrated by David Timson (Naxos AudioBooks)
July 24 – July 30
HEADSTRONG by Patrick Link, Performed by Deidrie Henry, Ernie Hudson, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine and Scott Wolf (L.A. Theatre Works)
THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson, Narrated by Scott Brick (Tantor Audio)
I wish it was going to be part of Amazon Prime since that has increased in price. It will cost $9.99 a month. It doesn’t have any of the big publishers’ books so I’m going to have to get an idea how many books I would be interested in.
Next Week
Home & blog
We’re on our way home on Monday. We had a great time in Seattle. I have another trip coming up at the end of the month so lots to do when I get home. I don’t usually travel this much. Some of the trips were last minute and some planned several months ago.
Posts
Top Ten Tuesday
Review: The Golden City by Danielle L. Jensen
Review: Splintered by A. G. Howard
Sunday Post
What books did you collect last week? What are you planning next week?
I like this meme because it gives me an opportunity to take a look back at last week and forward to next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also like to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading. This is a great meme to participate in every week and I thank Kim for hosting it!
Last Week
Around the House
My husband is back at work. Very busy catching up. I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading which I’m enjoying. Also we left for the Midwest on Saturday to visit my husband’s dad in Iowa as well as our daughters. Monday is a federal holiday and we bought our airline tickets before the government shutdown so went ahead with the visit. It’s good to spend some time with our family.
Blog
Sunday Post–October 6
Fraterfest Read-a-Thon Results
Review: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
Review: Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
What I’m reading or listening to
Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (audio book)
Friday Night Bites by Chloe Neill (audio book CDs from library)
What I read this week
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
The Arrangement by Mary Balogh
E-books bought (or free at Amazon)
Lot of books this week–mostly because the price was so great. Of course, I’d kind of decided to stop buying so many books since I already have so many to read! As you can see it didn’t happen this week…
Fire by Kristin Cashore
Carniepunk by Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, et al
Celebromancy by Michael R. Underwood
Iron’s Prophecy by Julie Kagawa
Blade Song by J. C. Daniels
The September Society by Charles Finch
Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot
Kindling the Moon by Jenn Bennett
The Princess and the Wolf by Mette Ivie Harrison
Thirty-Nine Again by Lynn Reynolds
Around the web
Anya from On Starships and Dragonwings wrote a post about a new bogging platform called Medium. However, I’m afraid it would be another place I would spend lots of time browsing and reading and not reading books or writing on my blog! It’s in beta right now, but it does look interesting. It could provide:
A place for people who want to write posts, but not want to keep their own blog.
A place to repost posts from your own blog and possibly gain new readers.
My husband and I are in the Midwest for a long weekend visiting his dad and our daughters. After we get back home it’s back to work for him and trying to get back into my routine for me!
Posts on the blog
Top Ten Tuesday
Review: River Road by Suzanne Johnson
Review: The Arrangement by Mary Balogh
Sunday Post
What was your week like? Did you read (or find) some great books this week?
I like this meme because it gives me an opportunity to take a look at my last week and forward to the next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also like to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading. This is a great meme to participate in every week and I thank Kim for hosting it!
Last Week
Around the House
I was in Iowa this week with my daughter Karen. I’ve had a great time in Des Moines. Karen moved to Des Moines in June for a new job which she loves. My older daughter arrived Friday night for the weekend. We went apple picking on Saturday. It was a beautiful day…lots of fun.
Blog…Lots of posts this week! My daughter contributed a post which I appreciate. I hope she will write a few more now and then!
Sunday Post–September 15
Top Ten Tuesday–My Fall 2013 TBR List
Banned Books Challenge
New blog contributor
Banned books for what reason?
Review: Storm Front by Jim Butcher
What I’m reading
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (audio book)
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines
What I read this week
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
E-books bought
Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
February Thaw by Tanya Huff
The Lies of Locke Larmora by Scott Lynch
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
Divergent by Veronica Roth
Snow-Kissed by Laura Florand
For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund
Deliah’s Shadow by Jaime Lee Moyer (from Kobo)
Around the web
This week in my WordPress class we worked on monetizing our practice website–using affiliates, ads or selling products. We also did more work on the site and learned about social networking and how that can help a website or blog. Many people taking this class are building a small business blog or website. Only more week in the class. Next week we learn about WordPress SEO and how to use statistics and analysis as well as other WP tips.
Next week is Banned Book Week sponsored by the American Library Association. My daughter and I added a couple of posts this week about banned books. I don’t think books should be banned, but I do think parents should know what their children read though I confess I didn’t always know the books they read.
Even though my daughter comes out strongly against banning books she told me about reading The Color Purple by Alice Walker in high school. She wishes she hadn’t read it then. (It contains rape scenes and abuse by her father and husband.) She feels she could have read it later in life, but as a high schooler she was very disturbed by it.
Rita_h from My Home of Books is offering an Amazon gift card to someone who joins her challenge to read at least one banned/challenged book from the list at her site and review it during September.
Next Week
Around the house
I’m driving back to Chicago with my older daughter on Sunday and fly home on Monday. I imagine next week I stay busy catching up!
Posts on the blog
Review: The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
Top Ten Tuesday
Review: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Sunday Post
What was your week like? Are you enjoying fall? Did you read (or find) some great books this week? What do you think about banned books?
I’m in Iowa visiting my younger daughter Karen this week. I’ve finally talked her into occasionally contributing to this blog! I’m excited since she’ll bring a different point of view.
She wrote a post which will appear later today. It’s a post about banned books. I wrote about banned books yesterday and now Karen shares her thoughts. I don’t know how often she’ll write something…we’ll play it by ear.
Karen’s a 20-something who loves to read. We read some of the same books, but she has her own interests, too. I think she will soon add a post telling more about herself.
Now I need to work on my older daughter. But she just started graduate school so she’s pretty busy. Maybe she’ll appear here at a later date!
I like this meme because it gives me an opportunity to take a look at my last week and forward to the next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also like to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading. This is a great meme to participate in every week and I thank Kim for hosting it!
Last Week
Around the House
A pretty quiet week on the homefront. I spent a lot of time on the Internet working on my WordPress class!
Blog…I didn’t do as much as I had planned on my blog or visiting other blogs this week…just two posts 😦
Sunday Post–September 8
Review: An Artificial Night by Seanan McGuire
What I’m reading
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (audio book) (Not making much progress in this book. I’ve been listening to instructional videos when I get a chance.)
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman
What I read this week
Storm Front (The Dresden Files, book 1) by Jim Butcher
E-books bought
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Touch of Frost by Jennifer Estep (both audio & e-book)
Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews
Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock
Around the web
This week in my WordPress class we worked on customizing our practice website–tweaking the design of the website theme using HTML, CSS and PHP. The tweaking and editing are very basic, but it’s great to learn the things we can do with a little knowledge! Only two more weeks in the class. Next week we learn how to monetize the website (or blog) and use social networking.
Next Week
Around the house
Today is our son’s birthday. We celebrated with him yesterday. We spent the afternoon and early evening in WA DC and Alexandria…had a great day with him! He spent the evening at a concert with a friend and plans to spend his birthday with different groups of friends.
I leave on Monday to visit my two daughters in the Midwest. Most of the week I’ll be in Des Moines. My older daughter is driving to Des Moines for the weekend and I’ll ride back with her to Chicago and then fly from there back to the East coast.
Posts on the blog
Banned Books (challenge from My Book of Homes blog)
I take a look at my last week and forward to the next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I like to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading. This is a great meme to participate in every week and I thank Kim for hosting it!
Last Week
Around the House
I had such a great time with my younger daughter last weekend. Our son also joined in most of the activities. We were very busy and had so much fun together! We went to some museums, to a bar my son knew about which had a miniature golf course(!)–loads of fun and laughs playing miniature golf, a paddleboat on the tidal basin, lunch in Alexandria, dinner in Arlington, brunch in Washington DC. All so much fun. The rest of the week went by quickly as I tried to catch up on sleep! (The photo at the right is taken inside the Building Museum.)
Blog
Sunday Post–September 1
September 2013 Books on My Radar
Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
What I’m reading
Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (audio book)
Storm Front (The Dresden Files, book 1) by Jim Butcher
What I read this week
Scarlet by Marissa Meyer
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
E-books bought
The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
The Conquest of Lady Cassandra by Madeline Hunter
Midnight in Death by J. D. Robb (free on Amazon)
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (from the library)
Around the web
This week in my WordPress class we worked on plugins and images, videos and other digital materials. Lots of material this week!
Next Week
Around the house
Very busy with the WordPress class. I’m learning lots of great tips and techniques. I’m thinking a little about how I want this blog to look if I decide to self-host. I’m also thinking of creating a papercrafting/cardmaking blog so I’m trying to think of a name for that as well as content and format,
I’m going to visit my two daughters in the Midwest the week after this one so I’ve got to decide what I’m taking (my computer and Kindle, of course. but what else? Some clothes, I guess!)
Posts on the blog
Banned Books (challenge from My Book of Homes blog)
hoping they kick in and start helping. My arthritis is causing my hands to hurt a lot so my arthritis doctor sent me to get “splints” for my hands. (I pictured something with wood…lol) for when I’m doing a lot with my hands. Plus I have hand exercises to do so I don’t lose more dexterity with my fingers and hands. Hopefully, the splints help. (I’m still trying to get used to them.) At lease using my Kindle is actually good since it’s not something I have to hold if my hands are hurting.
Notes from a Readerholic 