I Finished A Book!

A bit of an update! I was a bad girl but made up for it by finally finishing a book! =D

2016 Fail!

2016 has been an epic fail for me in the reading department :( I hope it changes for 2017! I talk briefly about my hopes and some plans as well as show you the books I have gotten since I last recorded. I also tell you about what I plan to read by the end of this year :) I may be in the BIGGEST reading slump of my life but, I am not letting it stop me from reading at least a little bit!

Epic Fail! August Wrap Up and Tornadoes!

So, I totally epic failed this! I posted this on youtube like 2 weeks ago :( I could have sworn I posted it on here but, I was wrong. This is why I wish my computer had a better working camera because it would automatically upload it here.

July Wrap Up/Little Surprise!

Booktube A Thon Wrap Up/August TBR!

The title is pretty self explanitory and I did remember the right title after I finished recording (of course....) and it is SIX of Crows. Not Feast of Crows. Oops. I blame the headache.

Booktube A Thon Update!

I prepared incorrectly over the weekend but, I have fixed that and here is the end result!

Been A Little While

I have been so bad! I have been forgetting to post the videos to the blog!!!!! That's one thing I do miss about recording from my computer. It would automatically post the video for me......

So I missed one from about a week or maybe 2 weeks ago. If you would like to see it to catch up though, its on my YouTube page :) You can just follow the link I have on the side of the blog!

June Book Haul!

Little bit of a book haul! Haven't been reading much though :( The battle of the reading slump continues!

Sleep Deprived!

Forgot to post this to the blog yesterday. Sorry about that!

Update!

Yeah, it had only been 3 days since I posted but, I actually had some updates! Sweetness, right!? =D

I wish it would let me select a thumbnail when I do this on my tablet -_- Don't I just look attractive!? LMAO!

Lonely Ranting

This is what I do when I am lonely and bored :) LOL!

June TBR Change

Slight change for June but nothing major! Its just because I love my friends sooooo much! :)

May Book Haul/Finished Book/June TBR

Nothing out of the norm happened this week so, here is a quick video with all 3 usual book topics!

Birthday Goodies!

My birthday is tomorrow but we celebrated yesterday! I had lots of fun and got a lot of goodies!

Caught In A Storm!

Another Vlog update! Life, books, and knitting!

Baseball, Reading, and Knitting! Oh My!

A video to update you all on the business around here! It was easier because I have been too busy or tired to sit here and type all this up ;)

RYBSAT!

Tomorrow start RYBSAT! For those who may not know, it stand for Read Your Book Shelf A Thon. It's where you pick a point on your shelf to start and then you read as many books from that point on down the line as you can. Its a great way to knock out your TBR pile that may be ever growing!

Now, I really don't own a lot of books that I haven't read and those that I do have, I am currently reading them already. Actually, looking at my currently reading shelf on Goodreads, it's gotten quite out of hand. My solution? Going off of my Currently Reading "shelf" on Goodreads instead of my own personal shelf! Genius, right!?

Here is a link to my Currently Reading shelf so you can see what I will be working on this week!

Now, three of the books are library books, two of which are currently in my possession. They are The Martian by Andy Weir and Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, so I will be focusing on these two first since I will have to eventually return them. The other library on there is Ten Thousand Skies Above by Claudia Gray which, unfortunately I don't have right now. I will have to order it from the library again and there is no telling when I would get it. Depends if I have to put a hold on it or not. Even if I could get it right away, I more than likely wouldn't be getting it this week for the read a thon any way. So I will just finish it when I can :) Even without it, I still have 8 other books to read! So I definitely will not run out of stuff to read. Specially since three of those books are monsters O.o

In case any of you are wanting to check out this wonderful read a thon, here are their links. It starts tomorrow, May 1st and goes through May 8th!
Twitter
Goodreads

It is a lot of fun and I highly encourage you to join in if you can, if you haven't already :) If you have or are going to, let me know what you will be reading! I love hearing about all the books!

First Hiking Trip Of 2016!

I am late on posting this but, I had a major lack of motivation on top of needing to get the pictures uploaded to my computer. Its been crazy busy around here!

So, a couple weeks ago, we took our kids out for their first hiking trip ever! We had sooooo much fun and the kiddos did amazing! Of course we had to take pictures before starting our first trail :) I don't know why most of these turned out to be little videos when I was only taking pictures but, hopefully you guys can still see them all right.

The pictures (above) is my wonderful hubby, beautiful kiddos, and I am in there too :) We are in front of the bell that goes to the historical school that was beside us. The trail surrounding this is a nature trail that was specifically designed for kids. The park holds different events here for kids that teaches them about the different plants and wildlife that they can see on the trail.

Here we are, starting the trail! The kiddos were raring to go :) We will have to take them back when the leaves all come in on the trees. I absolutely love this park! It is beautiful no matter what time of year it is :)

The first thing we saw was a family of 5 turtles soaking up some sun on a log down in the pond below us. They were just like us and taking advantage of the beautiful weather that day!

Continuing on our journey until......

We come up on the beaver damn! They weren't out this time around which was kind of a bummer but, maybe next time they will be!

We didn't make it far past the damn when my daughter squealed and ran back to us. It turned out she almost stepped on this little guy! Its just a harmless snake and we were finding them everywhere!

We had finished the nature trail and were all up for going on another trail so, we picked the one that is right by the cabin that the hubby, me, and our friends rent every year for our D&D weekend. The kids loved getting to see the cabin where we stay at every year! We couldn't go in obviously, but they were just as happy looking at them. 

We got a lot of nature on this trail too! My son had almost stepped on this little guy who was just chilling in the middle of the trail. Lol! This trail had changed a lot since last September. We had been hit by several large storms and a lot of rain and it showed. There were parts of the trail that were so unrecognizable that, if I hadn't been on that trail a million times, I would have thought we took a wrong turn. The dock down by our cabin was broken in half! They had everything tied off with ropes so that the one part wouldn't float away. There were sooooo many trees that had been knocked down and some had to be cut because they fell over the trail. Normally downed trees are left alone, letting nature take its course. The rangers only intervene when peoples safety is compromised. Towards the end of the trail, there are these very steep stairs that you have to climb and half of that was destroyed by a downed tree. They had to go as far as making a turn in the stair case instead of it being straight like normal because part of the tree was still in the way. Other than the trees, you could see how high the water had gotten with the flood. There were parts where it had looked like it came almost up to the trail! And there is quite a bit of distance between the trail and the lake normally. Nature is absolutely amazing!

These are the mugs my hubby and I got to remember this amazing family trip! I am so happy we went and I look forward to going again! Definitely a trip to remember :)

Well, I am still chugging along on my books. My main focus is How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran since that is our group read for the Our Shared Shelf group on Goodreads. I will be honest and say that it is proving difficult to get through this book. I am not saying it's a bad book at all. I am not far enough along to be able to judge the book at all yet. It's proving hard simply because it is non fiction and, to me, that's not exactly "fun" reading. It is something I want to learn more about for sure which is why I am still going on with it but, I just can't seem to fight this........ block, that keeps me wanting to put this book down and pick up my YA books again. I honestly wonder if this is all because I am still kind of in a reading slump. The only time I have had this much trouble is when I had hated a book and like I just said before, I am not far enough in to determine if I hate the book or not so, that's not it. Frustrating but, I will get there!

Besides that, we have been experiencing some absolutely CRAZY weather! Anyone else having crazy weather where your from? We have gone from sunny and high 50s temps to blizzard like conditions and 30s temps in a matter of 24 hours! Luckily the ground was too warm so none of the snow stuck but the weather has been going back and forth like this for the last couple of weeks and my allergies and sinuses are just going haywire because of it.

Today it is cold and rainy. Tomorrow its supposed to be about the same temperature wise but we are getting a wintry mix. Oh joy. I can't wait for it to warm up again. Only a few more days of this crap! Cold and rainy weather seems to depress me a lot. Which isn't helping me at all while I am trying to get some motivation to get shit done. I need to finish the books I am reading and I also need to get some writing done. Which brings me to another of the many things I have going on right now....

I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo, which is going on all this month. I am just working on my story that I did for NaNo back in November. It isn't finished yet and at this rate, it still wont be finished this month. For all I know though, it wouldn't have been to begin with. I honestly think that there is probably a lot more that could happen in this story and I just don't know where it's going to go yet. I am trying to just let the story flow but, I am not happy with it thus far. It has potential but, I think I am going to rewrite it using the Three Act Structure that I saw another book and writing lover use. It sounds like something that would work really well for me so I want to give it a shot whether it is for this story or another one I have in mind. I will just have to wait and see.

Well, that's all I for now. I will talk to you all again soon!

Thanks for reading!!!!

Crazy Week and More Ahead!

So, Bloggiesta was last week (March 21-27) and it was a success for me! I got everything done that I wanted to and am even still very motivated to keep going. The chats that I participated in were also a ton of fun and I was so relieved that I wasn't the only one out there who had certain problems with things that I thought I should probably know. For example, I am not the only one who had trouble with Wordpress or has no idea how to design my own website from scratch. I have just had a blast with Bloggiesta and have built more confidence with my blogging. Overall great experience!

This week has been incredibly busy. It started off stressful and aggravating but has gotten better. I went to the library twice this week which is always a lot of fun! I had two books that I had been waiting for come in so I had to go get those but I always take my kids with me. They got some books as well and played for a bit. I tell you what, I am sooooo happy that my kids love to read too! It makes me so happy to see them reading or looking at books and they always want me or daddy to read to them. It's great and warms my heart <3

And since you guys will probably be wondering, the two books I got were "My Life On The Road" by Gloria Steinem. I have heard good things about it and it was also Januarys read for Emma Watsons Goodreads group, Our Shared Shelf. The second book is actually this months read for the same group. It's "How To Be A Woman" by Caitlin Moran. I have heard mixed reviews about this book. Everyone seems to either love it or hate it so, I am going to read it and form my own opinion. I have been wanting to expand my horizons when it came to the types of books I read and this is definitely different for me. Not only are these non fiction, they are about feminism. I don't call myself a feminist because, to be completely honest, I know nothing about feminism. From what I have read so far about what it is though, I am pretty damn close, if not a feminist. I am not calling myself one until I learn more about it though. With my love of learning about new things however, I am definitely looking forward to learning more.

We have also had my daughters softball meeting this week and she starts practice on Monday. She is going to have practice twice a week and then, in May, she will have her two practices a week and then also two GAMES a week! And that's just for her! I am going to be hearing from a coach for my son who is also going to be playing tee ball and that is going to be starting in a couple weeks! I am beginning to wonder if I am in over my head here and I am not sure how I am going to be able to handle all this. We have only one car and my husband usually works during the week so we are going to have to walk to everything. Thank god we live in a small town! At least the kids are happy. That's all that matters to me :)

So, obviously, it has been a crazy week and I have several more heading my way! I hope I can get through this without losing my mind! Probably not but, I am going to try! Haha!

Talk to you all soon! Thanks for reading!

Spoiler Free Heart of Betrayal Review

Heart of Betrayal by Mary E. Pearson. I really liked this book. It was not as good as the first one however but, still very good.

I thought this book was mostly slow going. The things that kept me going were the romantic developments, and that you get to get a glimpse of her power through out this part. You also learn some important story developments as well. These things were pretty spread out though. My experience with it went like this.......

1. Yay! I can finally read this! (I got it from the library)
2. Ok, this is a little boring. I'll give it a little longer though.
3. Oh! Awesome!
4. Ok, I really don't care about this part.
5. Ooo! Interesting!
6. Hmmmm.....this makes me wonder if.....
7. Ok. Boring again but, I still really want to finish.

And then....... BAM!!!!!

The last 1/4th of the book, I flew through. Things really started to happen and progress and I just couldn't put the book down.

I was disappointed that it took so long to really go anywhere beyond her sneaking around places but, I did still enjoy it. Sadly, I was so easily distracted through out this book. It leaves off on a cliff hanger though. One of those ones that can be pretty aggravating because I definitely need the third book like, yesterday!

My Rating: 4 stars

Well, that's all I got on this book. Good book over all! :)

Thanks for reading and talk again soon!

Spoiler Free Illuminae Review

Ok, so I am late in posting about this book since I read it last month. That's ok though. It's better late than never!

So, Illuminae by Amy Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. I originally bought it because of the hype and the fact that I am absolutely crazy about the cover design. I have only read one other sci fi series before this book and that was the LUX series, which I absolutely loved. I knew Illuminae was going to be different from LUX but, as I am wanting to broaden my horizons, I went for it. I knew that even if I didn't like it, it still looked awesome so it would be worth it.

I ended up liking this book though. I LOVED it! It is now one of my favorite books. I loved everything about this book. I loved the main characters, the story, and look of this book. I really like the way this story was told as well. I am a sucker for unique and this book was definitely that. One of the things that makes this book intimidating is the size of it. It was around 600 pages long after all! However, it was definitely one of those "looks can be deceiving" situations as you will actually fly through the book. There were a few illustrations and also a lot of pages that only had a couple words on them. Because of this, many people have been able to read it in a day. I am to busy to be able to do that without sacrificing the house work at the very least. Plus, I was in a heavy reading slump when I got this book. I think it took me a week or 2 to get through it. I absolutely hated having to put it down though! I really wanted to just do nothing but read this book but I couldn't. I have kids that need to eat :) The absolute WORST time that I had to put the book down was when I only had like, 20 pages left of the book and I had to leave for work. 8 straight hours without my book that I so desperately wanted to finish. I couldn't stop thinking about the book and talked to anyone who would listen about it. I couldn't wait to get home to finish. I closed that night so I had to wait until after 12;30 a.m. to be able to get back to my precious book. When I finally did get home, I didn't even change my cloths first. I sat down and finished the book in like 5-10 minutes. That's how much I loved this book and I SO can't wait for the second one to come!

So, as you probably guessed, this book got a 5 star rating from me (using Goodreads rating system).

Well, that's it for this post! Let me know if you guys have read this book yet or not and what you thought about it!

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Fixing Up The Blog

Yes, that's right. I am making some minor changes to the blog. You see, I have discovered why it is so hard for me to keep up with posting regularly, besides the sometimes no motivation. I have been having troubles finding things to blog about. I am sure blogging about the same thing over and over would just be boring and that is even if I had finished a book a week. Which obviously, I haven't. I have only finished 2 books so far which, I will be posting the reviews for in the next couple days. This is because I do more than just read books in my free time. I am a person of many hobbies, what can I say!

So, on that note. I have decided to stop trying to make this blog dedicated to just one of my many hobbies and blog about whatever I did in the week. Books will definitely be talked about as well as gaming, arts and crafts, and nature. Probably some healthy stuff too as I am recently looking into some things and learning to improve my and my family's lives. I am going to post at least once a week about what ever it was I did the most that week. I am hoping to post more than once a week but, I want to see where things go first. I will probably make changes and make things more organized as I go once I start getting the feel for things and where they are going.

As for the vlogs. I am not planning on doing any anymore right now. At least not until I can properly edit them and get a decent camera. I just haven't been happy with my videos and I want to put out good ones that I will be happy with and ones that you guys would like to see.

This being Bloggiesta week, it has motivated me to rethink my blog. I do like blogging very much and it has been aggravating and disappointing to not have anything to blog about because I haven't been reading as much as I wanted to. I have just been wanting to do other things and hang with my hubby and kids. So, I am going to make blogging less of a chore and put the fun back into it and blog about ALL the things I love in life :) I am excited about it!

However, if you guys do have any ideas of something you would like to read about, please leave me a comment and let me know what it is! I love blogging and sharing about my loves but, I also want this to be something you would enjoy reading. So don't be shy! :)

Thanks for reading and talk to you all soon!

Bloggiesta Spring 2016

So, I have recently discovered Bloggiesta and what it is all about. It is just the kick in the butt I need to start working on getting my blog off the ground. For those who have no idea about the wonderfulness of Bloggiesta, it is a fun way to better our organization for our blogs and also to fix and update them and just make them and us bloggers better in general. At least, this is my understanding and how I look at it. Now, I am a day late to the game as I didn't understand what Bloggiesta was all about until last night but, the good thing is, it is never to late to join in! So that is what I am doing.

MY TO DO LIST

• Write 2 book reveiws
• Change and update blog look and info
• Participate in at lest 1 Twitter chat
• Plan posts ahead of time
• Post a Bloggiesta wrap up

Spring Bloggiesta runs from Monday March 21 to Sunday March 27 and this is my plan for the remainder of the week. I am keeping it small just so I can get into the swing of things without feeling overwhelmed. You know, because this is a fun thing. Not something meant to turn into a stressful and hated event.

If you are interested at all in Bloggiesta and its wonderfulness, you can read all the information at their blog which is bloggiesta.com.

Thanks for reading and talk to you all soon!

2016 Reading/Booktube Plans

February TBR