Morning Meanderings – Page 25

2015…. a look back… and a look ahead

Published on January 4, 2015January 4, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)49 Comments

I am a little late to this party, but really felt I wanted to put in my own thoughts on the past year and what I hope is to come. I already posted about my favorite books of this past year, this post is a bit more personal.

On the blog front 2014 was one of renewal. The first part of the year I was wondering if my blogging days were over. I was reading, but not taking the time to review. When I though about writing a post or visiting other blogs I found I really didn’t have the desire or ambition. I was not ready to give up on Book Journey, but suddenly understood why some blogs and bloggers just disappear from the online world. Honestly, I was scared I was losing my mojo. Then, I went to the Book Expo in New York in May and it was like my battery was recharged. Hanging out with friends, fellow bloggers who I chat with here on line is something amazing. Something MAGICAL. Spending time with authors and publishers, and of course the books; the incredible books that I wanted to read, I wanted to talk about… I knew Book Journey was not over, not by a long shot. (*cue the Rocky theme*)

And honestly, thank goodness for that because in July my personal life changed drastically. I made the decision to leave the job that I worked at for 10 years to work more consistently on my writing. It was a big step… a scary step… and honestly it is still scary. It has been a big adjustment and family and friends have been supportive in this decision. The road has not been smooth since that decision… honestly it has been a wee bit bumpy. I am working hard to believe that in all of this God has a plan and He is directing me into something amazing. But really, I have never been a very patient person. 😉

2014… not a favorite of mine. 🙂 I am so thankful that my desire to write at Book Journey returned as the connections I have made on line here since 2009 are ones that I cherish, connections that have helped me through these changes in my life. There are so many of you I feel that I know… I know where many of you work, what states you live in, about your families, about your dreams… and not in a creepy stalker way – but in a way that we share on line. When one of you comment I love being able to think, “oh good, _____________ must be over the flu” or “______________ is back from vacation!” It is like another world out there and those of us who do this know what I mean.

So… 2015. YAY. I mean seriously, YAY. I love the idea of a fresh slate. And right now, my slate does not get much cleaner than this. When I return after our trip I have lots of plans to implement in my life, in my home, and here on Book Journey. I hope you will notice the changes… I can not wait to get started! 🙂

Last year I chose a word to represent the year. Some of you may remember the One Little Word post. My word for last year was embrace. I wanted to embrace whatever came my way, and well… I think I forgot about my word about 4 months into the year. For 2015, my word for the year is: Emerge

If you wish to choose your own word for the year, here is a great list to work from.

emerge

1. to rise or come forth from or as if from water or other liquid.

2. to come up or arise

3. to come into existence; develop

4. to rise, as from an inferior or unfortunate state or condition.

Books that came in this week:

All The bright Places by Jennifer Niven (audio book)

Left Behind -The Iphone That Saved George Washington by David Potter (audio book)

A Plague Of Bogles by Catherine Jinks (audio book)

Sired By Stone by Andrew Post

Fabrick by Andrew Post

Everything that came in this week was either Middle Grade (MG) or Young Adult (YA)

Wrapping this one up, here is to 2015! Today I have a list of things to prepare for our trip. I am anxious, but I think it is all doable. 🙂

Morning Meanderings… The One In Which I Get Sick

Published on January 3, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)44 Comments

So yeah.

A couple of nights ago I was folding up the blankets downstairs before I went to bed and I sniffled. As soon as I did it I felt that little twinge in my throat, a little soreness. “No!” I thought… not now.

But yes now.

Yesterday I felt it when I woke up… the light sinus pressure, headache, runny nose… I sound like a walking advertisement for some powerful drug (which by the way if you know the name of. I may need it STAT!) I took some aspirin and tried to carry on with my day, a few errands up town lunch with girlfriends, and then I was going to go shopping for the upcoming trip on Monday.

As the lunch went on with my friends I knew I was not going shopping. I was fading into the booth and I was longing for my comfy chair and blanket. So yeah… home I came and I curled up with said blanket… ate dinner with my husband and then was in bed by 9 pm.

For the record… going to bed at 9 for me leads to me up at 3:30 am, cleaning out leftovers out of the fridge so I can fill the dish washer and start it… I read a few emails… thought “this is nuts” and went back to bed until 7.

Today… still sniffly, light headache. sore throat. I am pretty sure it is sinus’s from our funky no snow in Minnesota weather that has been in the 20’s and 30’s and not the temp is dropping and we should not see above zero for a while now.

Any hoo… I ramble. My list of things to do must be worked on today. I need to go and change out the Library window from Christmas to something just wintery… I need to start packing…

and eventually this afternoon I hope to sit down and enjoy my book.

Happy Saturday everyone. 🙂

Morning Meanderings… 3 Days and Counting and a Few More Readers!

Published on January 2, 2015 by Sheila (Book Journey)46 Comments

Good morning. 3 days left before I head out of my home and on my way to Australia. Honestly I am anxious. It’s a big trip. I want nothing more right now than to hug my dogs and stay at home. It’s like leaving my kids…lol. I will be fine once we get going but for now I am no nervous about the distance, the lack of communication back here to home, the inability of being able to help if anything is needed….. (ha! There I go thinking I actually can control things again!)

On a lighter note, if you popped in here yesterday you would have seen the pictures of many of the bloggers/ book lovers that sent me a picture of them and their planned book for the first book of the New year. Throughout the morning the bottom picture changed frequently… late pics came in, I accidentally missed one.. and then by the afternoon I had a handful more that I decided I would just post them again today with all the additions.

All in all, between the pictures, and the posts, we had over 70 participants in this one day meme. I was thrilled with the turn out.

Today I have lunch with friends and then I will do a little shopping for the trip. Having that part done will be a step in the right direction. I am getting there… baby steps…. but I am getting there. 🙂 Reading my first book Station Eleven and so far really enjoying it!

Morning Meanderings… The Trip Unveil

Published on December 31, 2014December 31, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)60 Comments

Good morning! It is the Morning of New Years Eve and I am honestly happy to see 2014 go. It was not an easy year and I am looking forward to a fresh year and see what it holds in its days.

One of the things I have been hinting a bit at is that my hubby and I are taking a trip. And not just any trip, for us, probably the trip of a lifetime. On January 5th we are going to Australia and will not be back until January 23rd! It’s crazy not like us. In fact we have not ever been on a vacation together without the kids. I am torn between exhilaration and anxiety.

We will be heading to Sydney, staying a couple of nights there and then boarding a cruise ship on January 10th. We have stops in Australia and New Zealand. We are going with 4 other people and I will be sending pictures as I can and posting as I can.

In the meantime, of course I am packing and planning, house sitters, dog sitters, wood stove sitters, and even…

blog sitters.

After the 5th, I have asked a group of regular chatters here on Book Journey to host a morning meandering. I have had a positive response to this and am excited as their posts have already started coming in. I think you will enjoy the visitors here at Book Journey… they will be nosing around my archives, chatting books and movies, and some will be sharing how we “met”. It looks like it will be fun and I will pop in as I am available.

I am planning the books I will be taking and few real books will make this trip so I am planning on loading up the Kindle. I suspect between the LONG plane rides and the sea time I will have plenty of time to enjoy books.

It’s all a little crazy for this small town girl. 🙂

This will also be the last day that you can send me your pictures of the first book that you will be reading into the New Year. At this point you do not need to fill out the form to join. If you want to be part of the “Reading around the world” collage, send a picture of you with your book today to: journeythroughbooks@gmail.com and I will add you. This New Years post will go up tomorrow morning.

Have a super last day of 2014!!!!

Morning Meanderings… Archived! (and a bit about Libraries ;) )

Published on December 30, 2014December 30, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)26 Comments

Good morning (or afternoon or evening depending on where you live).

Over the weekend I got it in my head that I was going to go through all my old posts and make an alphabetized page of all my book reviews for easy reference. For the record… it was a bigger project than I had anticipated. I worked on it in afternoons while listening to audio, and in the evening while watching movies, and off and on throughout the days…. and it took me three days to complete it. It is however… done.

While it was a LOT OF WORK (I have been reviewing since early 2009), it was also quite the walk through Book Journey history. As I made my way into the older reviews I actually discovered a lot.

I had forgotten many of the older titles that I had once reviewed and was surprised by some of the earlier titles that I had accepted. There were a lot of so-so books in the early years, but there were also great reads such as this one and this one . And this one. Ok there were a lot. I also discovered that I have reviewed Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone between book and audio… 4 times. Yes! 4 times! I interviewed many authors in the early days and almost every review had a giveaway. I also read a lot more James Patterson and Kristin Hannah than I had thought.

Many of the books that I reviewed in the early days were my own, from the library, and often for book club. I used a lot of color in my writing then… blue, red, green… and I bolded my entire posts. My first book sent to me from an author was Dragon House by John Shors. It was an excellent read. My first book tour was a book called A Will To Love by Kim Smith and I used a little picture to represent the tour:

Some of the non book review posts I ran into were the very first Morning Meandering was in August of 2009. I also discovered that in 2009 I was signed up to participate on another Harry Potter Readalong! I had also created a meme called Word Verification Balderdash (Ryan from Wordsmithonia will remember this one, he was great at it!) We would create meanings for the fun word verifications we had found while commenting on blogs. Some of them were hilarious! My favorite non bookish post was one where I interviewed myself as the Wicked … err sorely misunderstood witch of Snow White (I have no idea why I did this and had actually forgot about it), the post is actually a bit funny…

So over all the project was a success. It was more work than I had anticipated but it was fun to go back through every post I have written. I laughed and I eye rolled. It was all good. 🙂

Before I go today I wanted to share another Library Challenge. I had started a Library Challenge here for 2015 and forgot that Felicia from Geeky Bloggers Book Blog hosts one as well. I would encourage those of you interested in the library challenge to take a look at hers too… in many ways they are the same (so its really no more work), but she has a cool link to join in a Goodreads group which is pretty cool. Also… check out her challenge pic…. SO COOL. I am joining in and will do this one along with my own challenge. On hers I think I will go for Thrifty Reader which is a goal of 24.

Morning Meanderings… Sunday Books and Lyrics… Oh YEAH!

Published on December 28, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)14 Comments

Good morning! Happy Sunday! I am looking forward to a day of some projects, perhaps some reading, and even a little dancing.

First lets talk about the books that came to my home this week. Hello books!

The Housemaid’s Daughter by Barbabra Mutch

Salt and Stone by Victoria Scott

Walking On Trampolines by Frances Whiting

Cold COLD Heart by Tami Hoag

13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do by Amy Morin

AND I received a set of books for Christmas from my son:

Yes! The boxed set of The Harry Potter books with the new covers. LOVE IT! Smelled them all!

On another note, I posted a while back a post called Sweet Books Are Made Of This and Jill from Rhapsody In Books commented that I had put that song in her head. And I thought… I can do better than that. SO here is the music…. hit play and then sing/dance along to the new words below. You are welcome Jill. 😀

Sweet Books

Sweet books are made of this
Who am I to disagree
I travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody’s reading for something

Some books just want to use you
Some books just want to get used by you
Some books just want to abuse you
Some books just want to be abused
Sweet books are made of this

Who am I to disagree
I travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody’s reading for something

Hold your head up, readin on, keep your head up, readin’ on
Hold your head up, readin’ on, keep your head up,readin’ on
Hold your head up, readin’ on, keep your head up, readin’ on
Hold your head up, readin’ on, keep your head up

Some books just want to use you
Some books just want to get used by you
Some books just want to abuse you
Some books just want to be abused

Refrain

LOL. So that’s the extent of my limited talent for today. Off I go! Have an AWESOME Sunday!

Oh, and are you ready for the first book of the year?

Morning Meanderings… Christmas, Weather, and A New Year Is Coming

Published on December 27, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Good morning! We made it to Saturday! My house is quiet, the boys are gone, Al is out working, and the day is all mine. LOVE days like this. No agenda. Nada. I thought for Saturday Snapshot today we would take a peek at Christmas, but first… look at this shot out my front window this morning…

Central Minnesota - 12/27/14 — Central Minnesota – 12/27/14

Yup. Central Minnesota has no snow. Some are complaining. I get that there is no tubing, skiing, snowmobiling… but to me it means there is no super cold, super wet, slippery roads, driveways to plow, sidewalks to shovel…. I’m good with this. 🙂

Christmas as I mentioned yesterday was lovely. We had a great day of food and games and movies. We opened gifts and hung out together.

Good times! Now this week is fairly quiet but I have a big trip coming up soon so need to prep for that. (More details to come!)

For those of you participating in the First Book Of The Year (and I hope you all are!) please send in your pic of you and the book by December 31s so I can prep the collage to go up on January 1st. Details about first book are here.

Morning Meanderings… Christmas Wrap Up

Published on December 26, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)29 Comments

Good Morning! How was your Christmas? We had a wonderful time here at the house with the boys and board games, movies, and cooking. We opened gifts in the morning and I received:

All my gifts were amazing and I was able to use them all right away:

The candle and scents I found a home for and put to use. Mmmmmmm

The bowl set (I always need bowls) was used for our dinner.

I received pull tabs in a card and won $100!

The Harry Potter book set the ones with the NEW COVERS, I smelled the new book smell 🙂

We ended the night or perhaps early this morning (about 2 a.m.) with Harry Potter 5 and 6. I love picking out things I had not noticed before (for instance, the Umbridge gag gift at the Weasley’s Joke Shop in the 6th movie). This morning Justin and I are going to watch the8th movie which is the second half of book 7. Our goal was to get through the movies 3 – 8 over the last couple of days but it just didn’t happen so we have to pick and choose. 😀

I hope everyone has had a lovely holiday! I am looking forward to a little reading this afternoon, the house is pretty much cleaned up and Justin has plans with friends this afternoon so I will have the house to myself. Book time for sure 🙂

Morning Meanderings… Sumo Potter

Published on December 24, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Every once in a while I see something on Pinterest and I think, “I can totally do that!” This would be one of those times…

I seen this Harry Potter ornament and thought of Justin right away (My Harry Potter geek and accomplice son). I went out and bought the paint, brushes, clear ornament… seriously how hard could it be?

I covered my table with newspaper and supplies.

I spent one day alone putting on coats of the beige and letting it dry overnight.

Then I spent the next day working on hair, glasses, and the scar… letting it dry.

And then I tackled the scarf.

The results?

Yup. I call him “Sumo Harry”. His face is too wide, glasses too thick… he looks like a sumo wrestler. LOL….

So…

project put away… I have another plan… an easier one… 😉

Have a SUPER Christmas Eve everyone! My son will be over in a few hours and I am happy to spend the day with him. We may take in a movie, and tonight we are having pizza… keeping it low key for the plans for tomorrow. 🙂

Morning Meanderings…Christmas Eve Eve

Published on December 23, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

Happy Christmas Eve Eve for all of you who do Christmas. Things are wrapping up (*pun intended) nicely here. I have most of the shopping done, the tree is set and tomorrow Justin will roll in about noon to start our two days of awesome Christmas time fun! I am not sure what will be on our agenda yet other than board games, movies, snacks, and hanging out. In other words… it is perfect. 🙂

This morning I have a small list of last-minute items from the grocery store, one last gift stop, and then I should be done. I am heading out early (now!) to hopefully beat the hordes of last minuters such as myself. Once home I think I will pop into a book for a while… it has been a lot of audio lately and I could use a little book time. 🙂