Search This Blog

2024 Bookish Books Reading Challenge (Hosted by Yours Truly)

2024 Challenge Sign-Up Post

January Reviews Link-Up

February Reviews Link-Up

March Reviews Link-Up

April Reviews Link-Up

May Reviews Link-Up

June Reviews Link-Up

July Reviews Link-Up

August Reviews Link-Up

September Reviews Link-Up

October Reviews Link-Up

November Reviews Link-Up

December Reviews Link-Up

My Progress:


9 / 30 books. 30% done!

2024 Literary Escapes Challenge

- Alabama
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California (3)
- Colorado (1)
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho (2)
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana (1)
- Maine (1)
- Maryland
- Massachusetts (1)
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York (1)
- North Carolina (1)
- North Dakota
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon (2)
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- South Dakota
- Tennessee (1)
- Texas (1)
- Utah
- Vermont
- Virginia (1)
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Wyoming
- Washington, D.C.*

International:
- Australia (1)
- Canada (1)
- England (5)
- France (1)
- Ireland (1)
- Scotland (1)
- The Netherlands (1)

My Progress:


12 / 51 states. 24% done!

2024 Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Progress:


10 / 50 words. 20% done!

2024 POPSUGAR Reading Challenge


15 / 50 books. 30% done!

Booklist Queen's 2024 Reading Challenge

My Progress:


32 / 50 books. 64% done!

2024 52 Club Reading Challenge

My Progress:


27 / 52 books. 52% done!

2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge

My Progress:


21 / 40 books. 53% done!

2024 Pioneer Book Reading Challenge


13 / 40 books. 33% done!

2024 Craving for Cozies Reading Challenge

My Progress:


5 / 25 books. 20% done!

2024 Medical Examiner's Mystery Reading Challenge

2024 Mystery Marathon Reading Challenge

My Progress


17 / 26.2 miles. 65% done!

Mount TBR Reading Challenge

My Progress


15 / 100 books. 15% done!

2024 Pick Your Poison Reading Challenge

My Progress:


34 / 104 books. 33% done!

Around the Year in 52 Books Reading Challenge

My Progress


31 / 52 books. 60% done!

Disney Animated Movies Reading Challenge

My Progress


32 / 165 books. 19% done!
Sunday, May 27, 2012

TSS: Happy Memorial Day!





Outside my window:  It's a nice, quiet morning.  We're in the middle of a cool down (it was in the 80s yesterday and today, the temperature's only supposed to reach 90).  

I am listening to:  Nothing at all.  I always get up early on Sunday mornings so I can prepare my Primary lesson (I teach the 5-year-olds at my church) before anyone else wakes up.  So, I'm listening to the glorious sound of silence.

I am reading:  I stayed up last night to finish My New American Life by Francine Prose—not because it was such a page turner, but because, frankly, I was tired of reading it.  Maybe I'm missing its brilliance, because I thought it was dull and depressing.  At any rate, you can read my review of the book tomorrow.

I am going to read:  Next up is The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain.  I'm supposed to have a review of it up on Thursday for my good friends over at TLC Book Tours.  Then, I'll probably move on to two manuscripts I've been asked to beta read and then, I really want to read Between Shades of Gray (not to be confused with Fifty Shades of Grey) by Ruta Sepetys.  We'll see how much I get to this week!

On the blog this week:  I finished reviewing all the books that were finalists in this year's Whitney Awards competition.  I also talked about a YA dystopian and two books in a children's fantasy series that my daughter loves.  Good stuff.

Coming up on the blog:  I've got a fun giveaway coming up.  Check in on Wednesday to get all the details!

Around the Book Blogosphere:  I just got my first issue of Ladies' Home Journal.  It's not a magazine I usually read—I'm getting it as a replacement for another publication that went bankrupt or something.  At any rate, I noticed that it has a small "Notes/Books" feature, in which there's a section (at least there is in the June 2012 issue) that asks book bloggers for their favorite titles of the past year.  Weirdly, I haven't heard of any of the bloggers and I only recognized one of the books they recommended.  Am I that out of touch?  Ack!

I am thinking:  Maybe I should go back to bed.  It's not quite 6 and I've already done my lesson prep and half of a TSS post.  I've accomplished enough, right?

I am grateful for:  Veterans.  Tomorrow's Memorial Day, so naturally, I'm thinking about the men and women in my family who have sacrificed their time, energy and even their lives in service of this great country.  I'm always humbled by their patriotism.  So, here's a shout out to my brother, who serves in the U.S. Coast Guard and my brother-in-law, who's a Naval officer currently on deployment in Spain.  Being the sister of a military wife also means that I have great admiration for the spouses and children who keep things together on the homefront while their spouses and parents are away.  That's an incredible sacrifice in and of itself.   

Around the house:  So, guess what?  Looking around, you'd never know there was a flood in this house just a couple short weeks ago.  The damaged rooms have been repaired, painted and carpeted.  All the rooms upstairs, in fact, got shiny new paint.  They look great.  We've still got to return furniture and other items to their rightful places, but it's definitely looking good up there.

In the kitchen:  Maybe you can help me with this one.  I joined Weight Watchers (for about the five millionth time) on Friday, so now I'm on the look out for some good, healthy recipes.  Do you have any you really recommend?  How about great blogs/websites that are chock-full of low-cal stuff to make?  I'd love some suggestions.

High of the Week:  Taking control of my health by joining WW (again) felt good.  I also had a good time this week playing with the kids in the pool.  

Low of the Week:  My kids' last day of school was Thursday.  My 7-year-old son had been home for all of 10 minutes before he moaned, "I'm bored."  Gah.  It's going to be a long summer ...  

Family Matters:  We spent a couple of hours yesterday cleaning together.  With Owl City on the iPod and all of us working in tandem, it was actually kind of fun.

The coming week:  Not a whole lot is going on.  We'll celebrate Memorial Day in the pool, no doubt.  Also, my 3-year-old starts swimming lessons this week as well as a little community dance class, so that will be fun.  

Words of Wisdom:  God bless America.  I love this country more than I can express with words.  Thank you to all who give so much to her every day.  Happy Memorial Day, everyone!  Have a great week.

6 comments:

  1. Enjoy your weekend! I can relate to wanting to finish a book because you're tired of reading it...that's happened to me too often!

    But this week was not one of those weeks! Every book was totally engaging.

    I also enjoyed The Good Father last week; hope you do, too.

    Here's MY SUNDAY SALON POST

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sounds like a long summer indeed! ;) I don't have any good low calorie recipes that I know of. I count carbs not calories so I'm useless. Good luck. Oh, and I wish this cold front had brought our temperature to 80 it's clear down to the 50s here and I'm freezing!

    ReplyDelete
  3. skinnytaste.com Awesome if you're doing WW, and if you're not.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love it when you say, "only 90!" We had 90 here this wee too! And the AC wasn't working at the library, and I pretty much melted. I too am worried about the summer and everyone being bored. Ugh. Must think of projects.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the shout out. Love you!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I hate when a book gets to the point that you're just sick of reading it. It makes it so hard to finish.

    Thanks for sending Mark Nielsen my way. :D

    And, congrats on your 2.2 lbs loss. I think that's great. Like you said, every ounce does count! Some days/weeks, I only lose .2 lbs and I'm still ecstatic because it's a loss not a gain. :D Good luck with reaching your goal!

    ReplyDelete

Comments make me feel special, so go crazy! Just keep it clean and civil. Feel free to speak your mind (I always do), but be aware that I will delete any offensive comments.

P.S.: Don't panic if your comment doesn't show up right away. I have to approve each one before it posts to prevent spam. It's annoying, but it works!

Blog Widget by LinkWithin


Reading

<i>Reading</i>
End of Story by A.J. Finn

Listening

<i>Listening</i>
My Contrary Mary by Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand, and Jodi Meadows



Followin' with Bloglovin'

Follow

Followin' with Feedly

follow us in feedly



Grab my Button!


Blog Design by:


Blog Archive



2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Susan has read 0 books toward her goal of 200 books.
hide

2023 - Middle Grade Fiction

2023 - Middle Grade Fiction

2022 - Middle Grade Fiction

2022 - Middle Grade Fiction

2021 - Middle Grade Fiction

2021 - Middle Grade Fiction

2020 - Middle Grade Fiction

2020 - Middle Grade Fiction