by Sarah | Jul 21, 2021 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Book Reviews, I'm A Reader, Redefining Perfect, Wordy Wednesday
I thought about doing one book per recommendation post – but then changed my mind.
I’m going to recommend One, one, and one every month. The genres may change, but it lends some variety.
This week we’re going to look at 3 books that I recommend for beach reads. One YA, One Mystery, One Romance.
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I literally read 1/3 of this as a beach read. I blazed through a hundred pages it in a couple of hours, sitting next to my mom. Enjoying the sun, listening to the waves, and getting lost in the world of Snow’s asylum.
The story is a light and easy read, while simultaneously has depth and darkness to keep it intriguing.
A definite recommend from me. I can’t wait to finish it. (this month, come hell or high water)
It’s not often that a mystery keeps me truly guessing until very close to the end. This one managed to do it.
The twist in this mystery is it’s told in reverse…so you think you know exactly where it’s going. You don’t.
It’s a quick read, and keeps you interested until the very end. The characters are engaging and deeply flawed.
Okay, I heard about this one LONG before I ever read it. Not sure what took me so long, but it’s a great, fun read.
Perfect for the beach, this spicy, sexy read will keep you interested…and LAUGHING. The humor is spot on.
And at least the sun will rose your cheeks to keep your blush hidden.
*~*~*
Those are my recommendations for this month! Hope you enjoyed.
What are some of your favorite books? I love adding to my TBR.
by Sarah | Jul 17, 2021 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Oola, Redefining Perfect
4 years ago I discovered Oola.
3 years ago I put my dream on the Oola bus.
2 years ago I achieved my Oola goal to move to Florida.
1.5 years ago I began my new Oola goal to become a nurse.
And then…
My Oola got lost along the way.
Our first 2 years here were ROUGH. The move was tough on all of us. Then Erik’s mom passed away. Then Covid. Then my dad passed away. We were facing the rapid aging of our dog. The girls were struggling with school in a Covid-filled world. We had a lot of issues with Erik’s car that led to some financial difficulty.
There was a lot weighing on our spirits.
Plus I was going to school, which was tough enough, but I was working full time while doing it, which made it ridiculously more difficult.
Stress, grief, more stress, more grief, even more stress…and I completely lost focus on any sense of Oola. My magic was left in the dust, my family was suffering, I didn’t have fun anymore, it was all one big struggle bus instead of an Oola bus.
I’d see my Oola books on my shelf and just…look away. I knew I wasn’t feeling it. I knew I wasn’t trying for it. Too much seemed a struggle.
I’ve now quit my job because it was too much…everything. I was far too stressed, worn out, and failing in school because I couldn’t keep up the pace.
Our finances are a worry and Erik has the added stress of being sole breadwinner for the next six months (I am seeking something PT, but that takes time…and I’ve not had any luck as of yet).
But I have been able to find me again. To gain some sense of focus and peace again.
I’m working my way back to Oola, and continuing to work on that big Oola goal.
5 months to go until nursing school is over.
I’m hoping to reclaim my Oola by then.
Wish me luck.
by Sarah | Jul 13, 2021 | All About Denver, All About Erik, All About Family, All About Kennedy, All About Me, All About Molly, All of Us, Blogging Life, Redefining Perfect, Top Ten Tuesday
Five months until Graduation! Hard to believe that in 5 months time I’ll be free from all of this schoolwork, tests, stress. It’s been a super difficult year and a half. 2021 has been exceptionally hard with me working full time as well as school full time – at least until I resolved that issue last month it was.
Now I’m dreaming of what I will do when I only have to work 3 days a week. When I can have freedom from studying, and an actually decent combined income for once in our 19 years of marriage. 6 months until I achieve my second Oola dream in life and find a new level of…well, oola. 🙂
So what do I want to do when I graduate? Oh, there’s plenty.
- Take a real, honest to goodness, 2 week vacation at Disney/Universal. I want to not be cramped by only so any hours/days that we need to cram every little thing into. I want to chill by the pool, spend some hours at the park, and maybe chill in the room with the family. A trip where we don’t have to plan every minute because we have ALL the minutes.
- Get another decent camera and start photography again. I miss my camera. It’s still here, but it’s ancient…and with all the wildlife I need some better lenses too. Maybe get hubby or one of my kids involved in it, too.
- Crochet/knit all the things. While I AM still crocheting while in school with supplies I had around…I have lots of projects saved that I want to work on.
- Get my Etsy business back up and running again. I miss the hell out of crafting. I miss making my jewelry and have some more things I want to try doing jewelry-wise. I can’t wait for the freedom to explore more projects.
- WRITE. More than my crafts, I miss making words. I miss my fun worlds and characters and hearing them chatter at me in my brain. Right now so much of my brain is vitals and anatomy and pharmacology…I want to revisit Dominion Falls, The Tribe, The Exceptionals, maybe even Lake Point again…and I want to find NEW worlds to create and explore.
- Beach time. I moved to Florida for the proximity to the gosh darn beaches…and I have not gone NEARLY enough. I am a water baby and want all the beaches.
- Travel. I want to see more of Florida, ALL of Florida. I want to pack up my kids and drive wherever. I also moved to Florida for freedom and getting-out…but school and covid and urgh…but my kids are going to virtual school next year and I’ll be working/schooling less. It’s time for us to get on the road.
- Go back to school. Weird, right? But I want my BSN. Employers want me to have that BSN. So I want to keep on going on. Not right away, but I want to start before 2022 is over.
- Tackle my bucket list(s). Next week I’m going to revisit and revamp. I’ve done a LOT more of my 50X50 list than I’ve actually managed to get around to marking as done, and some of the things need to be switched around. I also have a Florida bucket list and a Disney bucket list. I want to get back to checking things off. For a while I was doing 2-3/year on the 50X50, but the past 2 years they’ve been neglected due to moving, work-stress, school, and covid. I have a LOT to catch up on. Only 5 years until I’m 50…
- Get a personal trainer. I need someone to kick my butt to work it out…because while I plan on some plastic surgery eventually (a few tweaks I wanna make), I also want to get healthy again. I want to feel strong again…and I got that best when I was working out regularly and eating better.
What do you think I should do? I have other things…but they’re more practical/boring – like paying off credit cards and getting a new car. These were just about chilling out and being happy again. What do you think?
by Sarah | Jul 7, 2021 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Book Reviews, I'm A Reader, Redefining Perfect
With working full time, and school full time, I have been massively slacking on the fun reading…but I’ve kept up with audiobooks, and while on vacation I managed to start a couple of actual physical books. I cannot express how much I missed just sitting with nothing to do and getting lost in a book…which I did in the stereotypical “beach read” fashion. When I’m at home, my mind is always flitting to something else I can do and it’s more difficult to ‘get lost’ in the pages…but I hope to do it again soon…especially since I still have to finish those 2 books I started on vacay.
Onto the post:
What I Read
I’ve been wanting to read this since I saw it on netgalley (this is not a netgalley read…I borrowed from library). I wasn’t approved on netgalley…so when I saw the audiobook available at the library, I snatched it up.
It was a SLOW mover and I found my desire to keep listening waning. I knew it was going somewhere, the reviews were raving…but it was falling too flat for me.
The narrator had a pleasant voice and I enjoyed the characters…and I understand world building is necessary – but this one too too long for my taste. Maybe the sequel will move quicker since the world is built already?
Maybe?
I hope….
Hubby and I were EXTREMELY late to the GoT bandwagon.
Seriously, we just started watching it around 3 months ago…and we’re still not done (we’re moving slow and fitting it into our schedule…almost there…at the end of season 7 now).
Anyhoo…I thought I’d give the book themselves a go to see if I got even more out of it.
To be honest, I’m glad I watched the show first. The book gave a much deeper look into certain aspects and enhanced my watching of the show, rather than hinder it.
It’s a LONG listen (maybe my longest yet?), and I had to take it out twice in order to finish…but it was worth the wait.
When all else fails…Harry Potter.
I have re-listened to these so very many times, it seems silly to even include them in my monthly ‘what I’ve read’ post…but I am anyway.
Last time I listened to the series, I ran out of time on this halfway through…and just went back to the start rather than wait to take it out again. I shouldn’t have done that…because the ending is always so very interesting.
As always, happy to have read it. The narrator is always nice to listen to.
~Sigh~
I loved the Netflix movie. I really, truly, happily did.
So, of course I picked up the book hoping it would (as GoT did), enhance my enjoyment…
Unfortunately, this was one of the rare cases where I truly enjoyed the movie better.
That rarely happens. Utterly rarely.
I think this has been on my wish list forever and a day.
Moving states, I’ve found that the libraries here do not compare to mine in Indiana when it comes to stock, especially of audiobooks. They did, however, have this series. So I grabbed it.
It’s an enjoyable read, though a bit heavy on the typical YA tropes. Girl who has power that was oblivious to the power until it happened and everyone is annoyed with her and she’s woefully misinformed and CUTE BOY who doesn’t want to give her the time of day, until he does…but then there’s the other girl…
So yeah, tropey…
But still a fun read/listen. The narrator is pleasant and I don’t find the characters cloying or annoying…just…a bit in the box.
I’ve seen approximately half of the TV series, and 1 of the movies. I enjoy it, but I’m not totally geeking out over The X-files.
However, this book really sucked me in. I enjoyed getting to know a young Fox Mulder and his small, but intrepid, group of friends. His relationship with his parents…
And of course the enigmatic smoking man had to fit in there…
A book about the Believer before he became the believer that delves into serial killers and UFOs and secret organizations.
It was a lot of fun, a great mystery and really left me hoping for another about Mulder…
(I really, really, really, wish I could say the same for Scully’s book. It was a DNF for me. 🙁 )
A semi-perrenial favorite. Every time I give this wonderful, inspiring, lovely book a listen/read I say I should make it an annual read. I really should.
Last time I read it was on my drive down to move to Florida 2 years ago.
I should have read it five million times in the past 2 years. It’s that good.
And no, it’s not just about being creative in the artist/writer/performer sense…it’s about being creative in your life, period.
Such a good read.
Always, always leaves me inspired.
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What I’m Reading Now
I first read this book *checks goodreads* TEN years ago!! TEN?! Wow.
I remember it was a huge book, like 600-ish pages…and I read it in a weekend I loved it so much.
I wanted to read the rest of the series…but, alas…it’s been ten years. So, I have started again from the beginning and I’m SO glad I did because I remember NOTHING.
The narrator is wonderful, her accents are delightful, and voice soothing and highly tolerable.
Need to finish before my lending period is over.
This has been on my shelf for ages. I did, of course, enjoy Dorothy Must Die quite thoroughly…so I was excited to try this, but it languished on the shelf.
I picked it up at the beach on vacation and couldn’t put it down for 100 pages…until I needed to get back to the water because beach.
A fun, unique take on the twisted fairy tale.
I’m 1/3 through and need to sit my butt down and finish.
My crochet project is done, and midterms are over tomorrow…so hopefully I will finish this soon.
*
This was on my wishlist and my bestie bought it for me.
I also started this on the beach and got about halfway through.
It’s a wonderful, easy read for NF.
The take on green witchcraft and fitting it into every day life is fascinating and easy to put into practice.
Can’t wait to finish and continue using it for reference.
*
Currently the only netgalley book on my list (see aforementioned swampedness).
Enjoyable read so far…but I was hoping for more depth to the stories.
The stories are brief, clips really. Generalized tales rather than fascinating in-depth looks into the twisted path to the eventual diagnosis.
I will finish, but I’m currently only ‘eh’.
*~*
What are you reading these days? I’m always looking for suggestions!
Stick around…more updates coming soon!
by Sarah | Jul 5, 2021 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, Pagan Me Happy, Personal, Redefining Perfect
Once a month I’ll be posting a new Spirit Guide*. This is both for me to study and learn, but also to help inspire each month.
This month the animal has been creeping into my awareness. I’ve been super drawn to it in different ways unlike I’ve never been before.
The Bee.
These fascinating, and helpful creatures, are an oddity. Aerodynamically, they shouldn’t be able to fly – yet they do. They persevere and bend the laws of nature to fly about, pollinating everything in sight.
Bees speak to productivity, but also finding time for leisure. They tell you to examine your priorities, see if you are overextended, burning out. Or maybe you’re the opposite, lethargic and completely burned out.
The bee teaches balance in your life. Work, play, socialization, spirituality, it also has to all be in proportion.
I did not realize why bee came to me so aggressively until I looked it up.
I was completely overextended – overworked and over-brained. With working full time, and going to school full time, barely time for homework, much less family or fun.
I knew I was in trouble when I got done with 18 days of vacation and didn’t feel refreshed and ready to get back to work, but dreading the idea of stepping into my place of employment.
Before dipping into the meaning of the spirit guide calling me, I had reassessed my priorities and turned in my notice at work.
I was trying to do it all, and I just flat out could not.
In the past few weeks I have had time to stop and “smell the roses” like my bee guides do on a daily basis. My schoolwork has improved, and my health has improved.
There are fears, but I trust in my bee guides message of miracles and perseverance. The next six months will still be difficult, but I’m ready to stick it out and get this task of finishing school done…and to get back to the business of better grades than I was suffering through before.
So thank you, bee…for the message I didn’t even realize you were speaking, but guided me anyway.
What animal is speaking to you this month? Do they have lessons for you?
*Disclaimer: I use the term Spirit Animal with deepest respect to the Indigenous people. I have been studying under an amazing, powerful indigenous woman and I respect their beliefs in the highest. I use the term with much honor, and not as a joke or meme. I truly believe these animals come as messengers for me, and try to learn under them. Miigwetch.
Stealing Snow
Wallbanger
