Morning Meanderings – Page 26

Morning Meanderings… Sweet Books Are Made Of This!

Published on December 21, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)35 Comments

Good morning! Sunday and I feel like I need to wrap gifts, light the tree, and put on a little Christmas music. Finally…

I am in the mood for Christmas.

A few books came my way this week:

The top 5 books are a sweet win from Julie at Booking Mama, they are Christmas stories, a beautiful set from Penguin! (Better pic of them below)

The Year Of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller

Men, Women, and Children by Chad Kuttgen

PSYQ by Ben Ambridge (LOVE stuff like this!)

The Magician’s Daughter by Judith Janeway

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel

One of these above books is set up for my First Book Of The Year project. Can you guess which one it will be? 😀 YOU should join in for the first book too! It is fun!

That is the books! Have to run, I have a full morning and working on a little craft project this afternoon. Have a SUPER Sunday!!!

Morning Meanderings… Much Ado About Nothing

Published on December 20, 2014December 20, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Good morning! Saturday and I am in St Cloud preparing for day two of our Board Meeting for Camp Benedict. This has been awesome so far. Already we have made great strides to what camp will look like in 2015 and I am excited about the teamwork that has gone into those decisions.

Today we will wrap up by early afternoon. I am going to get ready, load my car, and then head down to the breakfast area to enjoy COFFEE and wait for the rest of the group to trickle down. My picture for today’s Saturday Snapshot came from the Lounge as we wrapped up our meeting last night:

It was just a funny pic to see Santa sitting at the bar. He wasn’t drinking anything, but it was still funny…. made we want to think of a caption for the pic 🙂 He was more than happy to oblige us for the picture.

Heading home this afternoon…. have a project I am working on for Christmas and I am excited to get started. 🙂

Morning Meanderings… On The Road Again.

Published on December 19, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)6 Comments

Good morning! It is Friday! The last Friday before Christmas! EEP! I think I have everything pretty much planned but you know how that goes… making a list, checking it twice…

Today I leave for St Cloud, about an hour away so not a major trip. I have a board meeting for Camp Benedict that starts this afternoon and will go until late tomorrow afternoon. The board will be staying overnight at the hotel we are meeting at and having dinner together which will be nice as we do not usually have a lot of “hang out and get to know you time”.

Of course… it is taking two days out of my Christmas planning but the trip to St Cloud does give me some time to check out a couple of stores in the area.

I do have reviews ready to go up and will have time to “stay in touch” so really, it is not like I will be gone at all 🙂

Morning Meanderings…A Fun Win and There’s Always Toast

Published on December 18, 2014December 18, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)9 Comments

Good morning. I am here this morning in my home. It is gently snowing outside, my head is still filled with funk but I am trying to push through it… I can not change the things out of my control… I can only pray for peace and the ability to move forward.

And then I thought, well at least there is toast. 🙂 Toast would be good… warm with coffee, maybe a little peanut butter on it and a little honey….

and then I remembered that we had chicken wild rice soup a couple of nights ago and we had company… and the bread was eaten. All of it.

Ok…

no toast.

Well, I do have a winner. 🙂 A couple of weeks ago I posted a quiz for those participating in the Harry Potter Readalong. It was a quiz on the Chamber Of Secrets and it was fun to create it. The questions came from things I learned as I read the book. Things I either never picked up on or had forgotten. Here are the questions and the answers:

(*Yes possible spoilers if you have never read the book)

1. How did Harry and Ron miss the Hogwarts Express? They were unable to get through the barrier to 9 3/4 (later to be discovered that Dobby had put a spell on it)

2. What did Ron have to do for detention for driving the car to Hogwarts? He had to polish all the trophies in the trophy room with Filch.

3. What did Harry have to do for detention for being in the car driven to Hogwarts? He had to answer Professor Lockheart’s fan mail.

4. What was the letter called that Ron received from his mother about taking the car? A Howler

5. What is the password to the Slytherin common room? Pure Blood

6. What healed Harry’s arm in the Chamber? Fawkes tears

7. How many points did Ron and Harry each earn for solving the Chamber Of Secrets? 200 points each

8. How was Dobby set free? Harry tricked Lucius into giving Dobby a sock

9. What did Ginny see her brother Percy doing that he did not want anyone to know about? He was kissing (snogging!) Penelope Clearwater

10. Where did Harry go at the end of the school year? Back to the Dursley’s

Thanks to everyone who took the quiz! It had a great turnout and for the most part everyone had the answers right. The hardest question appeared to be the points that Ron and Harry won, that one had a lot of different answers.

Our winner, using RANDOM.ORG is…

Hannah from Wordlily!

YAY Hannah!!! I am emailing the gift card this morning!

Watch for more quizzes and fun Harry Potter things coming up as we continue the readalong. Winners do need to be participants in the readalong – you can sign up here.

Today – I need to go shopping apparently 🙂 I require…. toast.

Morning Meanderings On Line Friendships/Connections Are AWESOME!

Published on December 17, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)21 Comments

Hey all. Mid week already!

So lately I have been a bit melancholy. Or I guess as Michelle from Gilmore says, I have ennui.

I am in a bit of a funk… have a few things going on that are weighing on my heart and I find the holidays a bit hard anyway. And while all this is going on….

Little treasures come in the mail…

Thank you Donna at Writer Side Up and thank you Jennifer at Literate Housewife.

and then I received this comment on a book review I had written a while back:

Sheila, just a little note to thank you for encouraging me to read Jodi Picoult’s book “Leaving Time”. Not for the first time, you placed a book in my path. I never read books about ghosts, but, this time, I did. I wasn’t disappointed and along the way I learned a lot about elephants. In your review you said “you are in for a treat and I must tell you do not miss this book!!!” You were absolutely right. Thank you.

and then I received an email from an author thanking me for reviewing his book and saying that when he read my review he literally jumped out of his chair in excitement, punched the air and did this:

Ok… that made me laugh.

Thank you online friends, fellow book lovers, authors, publishers, and anyone else I may have missed. Your comments of course make me smile… when you engage in this crazy online world with me I have to thank God for such an amazing way to communicate.

Morning Meanderings.. New Look To A LONG Overdue Room

Published on December 16, 2014December 16, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)34 Comments

Good morning! Happy Tuesday to you! Yesterday was an odd day in Minnesota. It has been around 50 degrees over the weekend and all our snow was gone. Then yesterday afternoon it rained HARD for a few hours and by evening it turned to snow. Now we probably have about three inches on the ground again. *sigh* Minnesota.

Over the weekend I painted our living room. It was a LONG TIME coming. When it was painted 10 years ago (I know, I know…) I never really liked it. It was a pinky, rosy…. well you will see…. anyhoo…. I have no idea what took me so long to change it…. but here it is… before and after:

(Above) This is before. The one wall… bottom right, is the wall that leads downstairs, the large space I painted about a year ago. I did not like that wall either.

After! Oh my gosh I LOVE IT!!! It is a rich chocolate color. It is officially called Study Brown (boring name!) but to me it is chocolate. It is a much warmer color and I love just sitting in the room and looking at it. Yes… I just look at it.

Funny note… I never tell Al (hubby) when I am taking on a project. I just do it. When he came home Sunday evening he looked in the living room and he says, “Oh, where did that table come from?” (Referring to the table that I moved from one side of the recliner to the other….)

I responded, “Is that all you notice?”

Al looked carefully around the room and could not pick out any other change.

*sigh*…. 4 1/2 hours of painting and arranging and nada….

LOL

Today I am working off a check list of things to do. Why does it keep getting longer??? It is our oldest sons birthday and he is coming over for dinner tonight. I have errands to do in town, and clothes to drop off to charity. I am on a de-clutter mission. It will be an audio day. 😀 (Although last night I did start Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.) Give it up for the Harry Potter Re-Read along!!!!

Morning Meanderings… A Few Books a Lot Of Color

Published on December 14, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)12 Comments

Good morning! It was a fun evening last night for my hubby’s company Christmas party. We went to a restaurant where you grill your own steak, shrimp, chicken, or pork chop. It is fun to stand around this large grill and talk while we are all cooking. The guys said they would like a grill like this at the shop. Hmmmm…. would work get gone, or would it just be a daily grill fest? 🙂
A few books came in this week:

It Happened In Boston by Russell Greenhan (Audio)

Dress Shop Of Dreams by Marisa de los Santos

Belong To Me by Marisa de los Santos (for Harper Collins Book Club Girls)

Walking The Bible by Bruce Feiler (for Harper Collins Book Club Girls)

The Secret Wisdom Of The Earth by Christopher Scotton

Those are the books in the house! This afternoon I am seriously considering painting our upstairs living room. It is currently this pepto bismo type color that has bothered me forever but I did not have time to work on it. I have an idea…. if I do it there will be pictures 🙂

I am off! I have a busy morning, and possibly a busy afternoon. It will be an audio day 🙂

Have you listened to audio while doing household projects? Have you thought about it?

Morning Meanderings… Dogs Life

Published on December 12, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Friday! Wow! I am home from an early morning coffee date with a friend and have been staring at this screen for the last 15 or so minutes looking for my topic. I know I know… I could have let it pass, prepped my review for later and been done with it, but no… for whatever reason.. I wanted to write something.

So..

you get my dogs 🙂

Dog people, you will get this. Dogs are so great. They love you no matter what, dont care what you look like or what mood you are in. They are loyal to a fault. I adore them. Yesterday afternoon I took these pictures of the dogs in my home. They crack me up. They are wherever I am like guards always on duty. If I move they move. They are not disgruntled in their life goals of following me around, but instead embrace it. I think this sums up their personalities:

Sammy... my "If you jump I jump" dog. — Sammy… my “If you jump I jump” dog.

Mater my "Whatcha doin? Is it food? Are you getting food? Are you thinking about food? Will there be food? I will just follow you in case there is food," dog. — Mater my “Whatcha doin? Is it food? Are you getting food? Are you thinking about food? Will there be food? I will just follow you in case there is food,” dog.

http%3A%2F%2Fir.4sqi.net%2Fimg%2Fgeneral%2F1000x540%2F1965220_RhqS43eY60cchM4qoWphH9Kr0Po7fCpsEoE22ILIkKE — Bailey (16 years old) my “DO NOT wake me unless it is time for me to get off the bed and go and sleep on the couch. AND if you could carry me from one cozy spot to the next that would be great. Thanks,” dog.

There they are… triple trouble. Do you have pets like this? Guardians of your heart?

Morning Meanderings… My Twisted Chopped Up Puzzle Pieces Life

Published on December 11, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)19 Comments

Good morning! Another day of coffee and audio and hopefully that book I am so involved in and cleaning and dinner and…

life is weird.

Now that it is winter and I officially and magically turn into an indoor girl it puts a whole new twist on this “staying home and writing” Me. I like it, I really do, I think I am just going through a phase now that the busyness of November is over and everything slowed down going into December… I am learning how to adjust to this new life.

I am writing. YAY! I love that. I am working on something new, as well as writing for a few magazines, and doing some freelance work. It is cool, it is exciting, it is what I always wanted…

and it is scary.

I am not used to managing all my time and I need to work on keeping to a schedule as it is really easy to:

1. Start writing and/or working on articles early and go through the entire day of doing nothing but that.

2. Get up, start cleaning and listening to audio and not accomplishing much else.

3. Fill up my day with outside appointments and friends and that’s about it.

GAH.

I know these are probably actually very acceptable as long as one or the other does not take over completely (always writing and doing nothing else but digging myself into hermitville…OR always cleaning and doing projects around the house while listening to audio and accomplishing nothing OR just hanging out filling up my time and living in a blissful bubble of fantasy)

My husband is a saint. He’s happy as long as I am happy.

I need to incorporate more exercise, YES Mr. treadmill I am talking about you. You are downstairs and waiting. And I know I need to start working off a schedule again – actually scheduling myself to write or complete a project. All of this is at my finger tips, I just need to do it. 😀

Ok… so that is a bit into my life…LOL As for what I am listening to… when I am bouncing around the house I am listening to The Year Of Reading Dangerously. When I am stationary at my computer working on updating information or something that does not take a lot of mind power, I am listening to Sins Of Our Fathers. When I am in the car I am listening to Winter Street. The book I am reading in the late evenings is Brutal Youth which is so hard to explain but has my fully engaged… it is about a private Catholic school with intense bullying, hazing.. there is so much in this book but I am soooo curious to know how it will all work out!

So that’s it. I am home today – I am writing. I am doing laundry. I am tackling cleaning out a closet. I have two reviews to complete for a magazine. I will plan dinner. I will get to that book. And my day is full and I am happy. 🙂

Morning Meanderings… Party Hangover

Published on December 10, 2014 by Sheila (Book Journey)8 Comments

Good morning! I am up and recovering from a fun filled amazing Tuesday. If you read yesterdays post you know I had a meeting regarding moving our Wine and Words event to a larger venue for 2015. It was a wonderful meeting and we are officially MOVED! My author search for the event will begin in about a month… if everyone I have in mind says “yes”, then we will be ready to announce by February.

HAZAH!

Then, last night concluded with our book clubs Christmas party and book discussion of Big Little Lies. I will write up the book discussion later, but it was a good one. We chose our read for January, Born To Be Perfect by Barbara Raghavan.

We also handed out our books from Harper Collins Book Club Girls project:

We had wonderful goodies, discussed life and books, and had a wonderful time doing it. LOVE my Book Club!!!

It was a full day of running from one thing to another and I am thrilled I accomplished everything I set out to. Today… I am a bit tired and have a lot to do so ONWARD!

Happy Wednesday all!!!