Morning Meanderings… Anticipating Book Club.

Published on January 8, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)22 Comments

Good morning! My second day off of the New Year and I am chilling this morning with a great cup of coffee and the laptop.

Yesterday was full but in good ways. I helped the Library take down their Christmas decorations and put the new window up about the Winter Book Club program where we are featuring different book clubs in the area and their favorite reads in the window. Ir was fun to do the first three. I forgot to take a picture but I will get one when I stop in today. After the Library I had coffee with my friend Connie where we brainstormed our winter retreat coming up in February, a 5K I will be working on setting up in June, and the Wine and Words Literacy event being planned for August.

Last night I watched the city council meeting on tv and was voted in as a Library Board Member.

I think, it’s going to be a fun year. 😛

Today I am anticipating tonight’s Bookies Book Club meeting and review of In The Belly Of Jonah by Sandra Brannan. Sandra will be skyping with us tonight. Usually I am working on Tuesdays and I run from work to prepping dinner for my hubby to book club, but today being a bonus day off – I am excited to take my time planning what I will be bringing for food and who really knows what else could be up my sleeve… 😀

My question(s) to you this morning (as I seem to be in full Book Club mode) is… are you in a book club or have you ever been? What do you read as a group? How do you choose your books? Do you do anything besides reviews – ie… travel together, go to movies or other events….

Morning Meanderings… I Need A “Do-Over”

Published on January 5, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)25 Comments

Happy Saturday ya’ all!

I hope the start of the New Year has been wonderful to you! Over here, I think I am officially going to start the new year n the seventh.

This week has been a blur pretty much from the 29th of December last Saturday when I worked seven hours on my day off and moving forward. Every day I have had big commitments that I had to work towards and the new year here was merely a blur – a connection of one ay to another just like all the rest.

I admit…. I am a little saddened by that.

For years my tradition has been to post a book on January 1st that was one that I had been waiting to read and excited to review. I think that traditions goes back to just after high school, long before I was blogging and back when I was writing book thoughts in journals (oh yeah… I still have them). Sadly, I have not read one page yet this new year. I pick a book up, and never get it opened. The closest I have come to reading so far this year is when I fell asleep with a book on my lap, ready to read…. but not quite connecting eyes to page.

Ok, ha… not really like her…. more like in the recliner, all the way back with a blanket…. but you get the idea. 😛

So this morning I am off to set up for a 10 year anniversary party for tomorrow. Then I need to do some shopping for it, then I have to train someone in for IHN for tonight (still in our serving of the homeless week through tomorrow morning), and then I have my hubbies Christmas party for our company tonight. (*insert smile here*)

Tomorrow I will be tearing down IHN at 5 am and then prepping the final touches on the 10 year party that will start at noon. When all is said and done with that – after clean up, I am off the radar (work wise) until Wednesday. 😀

Seriously, I am not going to be such a downer…. good things are coming…. I just need to get there. 😀

Happy Saturday everyone! 😀 Read something for me 🙂

Rolling Into 2013… Heres To A SMOOTH Year!

Published on January 1, 2013 by Sheila (Book Journey)53 Comments

Good morning and happy New Year! Of my gosh what a week it has been already as those of you who participate in the Monday What Are You Reading Meme already have noticed… I forgot to put up the post.

😯

I know right? My weekend was a big one where I worked and I set up for our homeless week and by the time I got done running it was Sunday evening ay 8 pm and seriously, it must have fallen right out on my head. Unbelievable. Ugh….. we will be back with that meme next week 😀

But hey, its 2013 right and anything is possible! I love New Years. I always look at them like a white board all clean and ready to see what I am going to put on it. I feel like I needed a white board this year – desperately and now here we are! 😀

Of course I am starting out behind with already missing my end of the year post that I have been working on but still is not finished. For this morning I can give you these pics I created of my year:

Things I wish for this new year is: Better time management, a cleaner more efficient blog schedule and blog.

One thing I miss is I really have not had time to get behind the challenges this year and I have signed up for none. I would like to add at least one maybe two, so what challenges are you signed up for this year? I need ideas. 😀

Right at the point of WHELMED

Published on December 29, 2012December 29, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)37 Comments

Good morning or afternoon or evening depending on where you are and when you read this. 😀 I have just entered the week I have been referring to as “Hell Week” for the past month and yeah, I know that isn’t the best way to put it since it is all good stuff… but unfortunately the name stuck.

This afternoon around 2 I will meet up with a friend and teammate to do some shopping for events coming up this week. Right from there I will go to work and prep some things for tonight and the weekend and be home probably around 7:30 pm.

Tomorrow, Sunday I will need to be at the church around 7 am and leave around noon. Then I will shop for our IHN serving week (Homeless week) which starts tomorrow. I will pick up the guests at 4:30 pm, and a group of friends will come and we will all do dinner together and then I will stay overnight there.

Monday morning after I take the guests to the day center I work a half day. Will hopefully go out to dinner and maybe a movie with my hubby.

Tuesday I work a full day and have lots of prep work to do for Wednesday which is our annual members meeting.

Wednesday – work all day, train new people in with IHN and do the members meeting… I will probably not come home between 8 am and 9 pm.

Thursday – start working on all members info I gathered last night and cleaning up from the big meeting and prepping for the 10 Year party which is Sunday.

Friday – possibly my day off… depends on what needs to be done for the 10 Year, probably some shopping. Maybe some set up.

Saturday – train in new people at IHN, then our company Christmas Party.

Sunday – up at 5 am and tear down IHN, clean up and move the van to the next hosting church. Hopefully get to the 10 year party set up by 8:30 am to help as that starts at noon. Clean up and home by 3 pm… I hope. 😀

On the bright side… horizon…. goal, whatever you want to call it… I am taking Monday the 7th and possibly Tuesday the 8th off.

Listing my week out was actually therapeutic… I see tiny pockets of free time in there that I need to take full advantage of. Hopefully Monday, Tuesday and Friday will give me a little time to re-energize. I am an introvert that needs to charge up my batteries by being alone, preferably with a book. 😀

For todays Saturday Snapshot I thought it would be fun to actually show pictures of my Saturday morning. A snapshot of what my life looks like now as I simmer at the feeling of whelmed…. but not quite overwhelmed:

20121229_085203 — The recliner I am hanging out in this morning… snuggled up with my favorite blanket.

20121229_085215 — COFFEE CUP and the book I plan to finish today.

20121229_090519 — Breakfast of scrambled egg whites, spinach, and shrimp left over from Christmas.

Now I am going to check out a few of the other Saturday Snapshot posts (Thank you Alyce), write a review, make a meme button for our Library, send out a book club email and year end voting form and hopefully spend a little time int hat book pictured above before it is GO TIME.

May your week be a lot less crazy then mine…. bear with me while I get through this marathon of events.

Morning Meanderings… Missing The Action!

Published on December 22, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)35 Comments

Morning all. 😀 For today’s Saturday Snapshot I thought I would reflect a little on the fun events I took part of in 2012. Winter, is not my favorite season. It leaves me feeling….

restless.

As the days have become colder and yeah, whiter, I find myself thinking of the warmer weather more and more, and yeah I know I have a long time to wait for it but maybe some sunny pictures will help. 😀

**This was the first mud run Amy and I had participated in. It gave us both the fever for more….**

**This is one of my favorites because I did the color run with my son Justin.**

This is my favorite event pic of the year – the girl with the 65177 number is my friend Belinda, I am directly in front of her with the little ponytail. Both are arms I raised trying to get as much color on us as possible.

Ahhhh… that feels better. On January 13th Amy and I are doing a 5K Obstacle course in the cities called The Iceman. I am pretty excited!

I am working on a Challenge for my Fitness website Team Kickin It. I hope to have it up this weekend so if you are interested, please watch for it – I think it is going to be fun and I would love people to join me. 🙂

So…. This is The End?

Published on December 21, 2012December 21, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)18 Comments

Happy December 21! So here we all are on the day that generated news articles, jokes, movies, count down timers… and more. It is like the end all right, the end of an era of a Mayan trend. As I look at my window at the sun shining its hard to imagine anything different.

Some friends of mine are going to a Mayan “End Of The World” party tonight. Al and I are going to a friend’s house who has a standing get together each year the Friday before Christmas. Not Mayan themed, but if I owned anything “Mayanish” I would probably wear it. 😀

SO in light of this day… I must share some of my favorite (perhaps a little inappropriate) jokes I have seen regarding the Mayan calendar… I am so sorry, but I must get this on the blog:

Ok – I have to work out yet, have a lunch date with friends, a little shopping to do, and then home this afternoon to read a bit and prep my food for tonight’s gathering. I hope your 12-21-12 is a good one.

Any fun plans for today or through the weekend? Any Mayan jokes to share?

Morning Meaderings… Book Reviewers, Do You Ever Forget To Review A Book?

Published on December 18, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Good morning fellow book lovers! I can’t tell you how good I feel. But – of course I will try…. 😀

After the craziness and business of life recently I have reached a week of four days in a row – YES! Four Days in a row that I have no commitments after work. A moment of silence please for my sanity 🙂 WOO HOO!!! This means that I can:

Christmas shop at my leisure

Go to the grocery store without feeling rushed

catch up on reviews, memes, things I wanted to check out

READ.

😛

So…. this morning I was putting the finishing touches on a review of Round House that I wrote for the her Voice Magazine. I also wanted to send in my review of Insurgent by Veronica Roth as it was placed in the best of 2012 by Goodreads. So I do a search for my Insurgent review. AND I search. I find it in my Monday What Are You Reading post as a “to be read”, I find it in another morning post on my deck while I was reading it. But alas – no review. 😯 Seriously, I forgot to review it.

Please, please tell me that has happened to you.

In other not so craziness, this morning I started listening to 14 by Peter Clines and I am thrilled. Sometimes audio takes a while for me to get in the rhythm of the read, but this one started out with a real good vibe, I liked the narration right away, and the story line and I literally had a smile on my face this morning as I listened.

So that’s my morning meandering. Hope all is going smoothly in this week before Christmas for you.

Oh, and if you are a reviewer – and you have forgotten to review a book… please share. I could use the “OOPS!” Company. 😀

Morning Meanderings… Library Budget Cuts

Published on December 15, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)24 Comments

Good morning. In light of world happenings yesterday I need a distraction from the incredible pain that has been let loose into Connecticut. I can not even imagine…. and my heart cried for each and every one of those who have been hurt by this unthinkable tragedy.

That said…

This last week I went to a public hearing in support of our local Library. Two weeks ago, while the city was planning the 2013 budget, our local Senior Center spoke up that they needed more funding and the city pulled $20,000 from the Library budget to give to the Senior Center.

This is a tough decision – both are very worthy non profits. I knew for our local library this was a huge blow that would possibly include reduction of staff hours and services like the Book Mobile that delivers books to the surrounding area.

I went in support of the library while they hashed through this decision to finalize the City Budget. I have never sat through one of these meetings before and it was both amazing, and harsh as they battled it out – and in the end…

the library lost the funding.

There were moments I actually teared up to think of how hard our Library works to provide great services and now how much harder they will have to work on their own budget to make ends meet. This makes me think, as book lovers what can we do to help support our libraries?

I am going to post more on this topic later when I have more time to process…. as for now, I will share a few pictures for Saturday Snapshot. These pictures are from the 22nd floor of a hotel (gah – can not recall the name….) in Minneapolis when I was with my Library Team for the Literacy Institution I am assisting in. The floor is called “windows and it is all huge windows all the way around this huge meeting space. I imagine in the summer it is beautiful – but even here you can get a little sample:

Kind of a rambling post …. but yeah. There it is.

Today I am off to a morning brunch Christmas party and then coming home as it is a rainy wet day here in Central Minnesota and I do not want to be in it.

Morning Meanderings…. Counting Up the Casualties….

Published on December 14, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)11 Comments

Good morning! How is everyone doing with the Christmas planning, parties, preparations, etc… I am a bit wiped out. I have a Christmas brunch tomorrow morning that needs a white elephant gift, and a Christmas party here on Sunday afternoon that needs a white elephant gift. Our work one is on Wednesday…. *whew*

I thought his morning I would give you an update on Mater – the rescued Beagles/Bassett Hound (a Bagel 😛 ) we rescued in July and gave a home to.

I have mentioned before that while he is big… he is still a pup at now 9 months old and loves to chew. Over the past 5 months I have lost shoes, shirts (he ate the beads off one), a credit card (my bad… I left it on the coffee table after ordering on-line), and yes the occasional book. 😯

Being a small dog person… this chewing destructive thing is all new to me.

But as you can see above, he is a sweetheart (that’s a bone he has there – those he is welcome to chew. 😀 )

Just a couple of mornings ago he was up all night. Running around the bedroom – up, down, up down… he would not sleep (its like having a baby in the house!) When I got up in the morning I discovered he had eaten my favorite slip on sandals:

Mmmmm hmmmm…. these slips on were the shoes I wore around the house in the evenings, all summer long, they went with me everywhere for casual where – cabin, Florida, Georgia, Honduras…

*sigh*

and of course after running around all night like a wild one…. this is what happened in the morning:

Mmmmm…. hmmmmm.

Sure. You all are sleeping now. I think I need more coffee…. 😛

Today I have a big mailing to do, sort through the Pampered Chef and get it delivered, pick up items for the breakfast brunch tomorrow and dig into reading Round House, which is first on the list.

How is your Friday shaping up?

Morning Meanderings… pics of the past

Published on December 8, 2012 by Sheila (Book Journey)20 Comments

Good morning! What a surprise! Another Saturday I am running out the door, this time to gun training class (dont ask… Bucket List thing 😛 ) but I wanted to put some pics up for Alyce’s Saturday Snapshot.

A couple days ago I was digging through some old papers and started looking at pictures. This time of year from Thanksgiving to Christmas is always a little harder on me as I think a lot about my family, all of which who are gone from this earth at young ages.

I thought today I would post a couple of my dad with the King Salmon he caught in 1979: