You know how you sometimes get into book ruts, where nothing really grabs your attention? I'm experiencing the opposite. I don't know what it's called, but I've got so many fun books right now that I'm trying to read 5 at a time just so I can get my nose into them faster! I've got library books, ARCs, and a good stack of novels for giveaways - if only I could get to everything. My baby has decided that sleeping is for the birds, so we've spent a lot of time cuddling on the couch together. I get a lot of reading done this way, but not much else. Needless to say, I'm behind on just about everything. So, this is a quick round-up post of bits and pieces that have been going through my very scattered brain:

I regret to inform you that I have not yet made it to the post office. I apologize to all of you who are waiting for mail from me. This includes recent winners of my giveaway, my sister, my grandma, a missionary in Germany, and a sweet kid in Chile whose baby is going to be 5 before he ever gets the cute little sleeper I've been meaning to send. The post office is never my favorite place to go, especially when I have to drag my kids, so I'm hoping to find some time to sneak away this week and mail all the packages that are piling up around my desk. Thanks for everyone's patience.

You may or may not have noticed that I changed a few things on my layout. First off, I've been wanting a fun, unique blog header, but I didn't want to have to pay an arm and a leg for PhotoShop or pay a designer big bucks to do it for me. So, using a combination of Microsoft Publisher and Gimp, I made my own. I'm pretty proud of myself. I like it, even though it makes my layout look pretty busy. I don't know - what's your opinion? Too much work went into it to change it now, so you're stuck with it regardless, but I thought I'd ask ... I also worked on some of the sidebar and header text that seemed to be a little stale. Hopefully, I've perked things up a little around here. It's Spring, after all. Renewal, new life, and all that.

Oooh! I almost forgot - I'm also trying to figure out how to put tabs onto my layout so I can clean up my sidebars and make navigation a little easier. We'll see what happens.

I've been woefully negligent in reading and commenting on your blogs. I'm trying to catch up, but my feeder's still gasping under the weight of unread content. I have noted a few fun giveaways and such:

- Ricklibrarian posted a link to a list of "Feel Good Fiction With Substance," in other words, Books That Are NOT Depressing. I, for one, talk a lot about how doomy and gloomy novels seem to be lately. I loved the idea of this list. Check it out here.

- Amanda is hosting all kinds of giveaways on her blog this month. Right now, you can enter to win a copy of First Dog by J. Patrick Lewis and Beth Zappitello. The contest ends at midnight today, so hurry on over there. She's been posting like crazy this month, so keep an eye on A Patchwork of Books for lots of fun.

- Stephanie over at The Written Word is giving away copies of Therese Fowler's books Souvenir and Reunion. This contest ends tomorrow, so click on over there. Interestingly, I got an email to join her virtual tour a few hours ago, so look for reviews here soon.

- One of my favorite book bloggers, Shelley over at Chain Reading, just started another fun blog about giveaways and freebies. We could probably all use a little bit of that in this crap economy. Check it out!

- I'm sure there are lots more giveaways and such out in the vast book blogosphere. Do you have any to share?