Tag: goals

This Week – New Year with good intentions

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Check out my wall of books! These are the 334 books (minus one that I finished after I took this picture) that I read in 2023. I’ve seen a few bookstagrammers do this and I started planning at the beginning of December to get the books from the library that I needed (which was a lot!). You see there were loads of picture books, which came from homeschooling for half a year and from being a panelist for the Cybils Awards.

But, now we’ve turned the page to a new year with new goals and intentions. I’m not an organized person. I tend to get everything done either right away or at the very last minute and most everything else gets lost in the middle. So, I’ve got a list of daily goals, weekly goals, and monthly goals. It’s a lot, but I’m hoping to teach myself some of the skills that I always seem to struggle with. So far I’m 100% on my 9 daily goals and I’m over half done with my 11 monthly goals. I also have a weekly goal of blogging 3 times a week and that has clearly not gone as well. I’ll get there eventually.

Bookish Events

I went with a friend to my first Silent Book Club! This meet up was downtown at the Cleveland Public Library. It was fun, but not exactly silent, lol. The idea is that you take your book to a public place where other bookish people will do the same and you all sit together and read your books. Sort of a social, but not really, book club without the homework. There were 19 of us. It was intriguing enough to try again when they meet at a Barnes & Noble.

Have you heard of this? Have you tried one?

Currently reading

Books I finished this week

I’m off to a very slow start.

Women’s Health: Your Body, Your Hormones, Your Choices by Holly Thacker (a Cleveland Clinic Guide)

As a woman of a certain age, this was a quick book explaining what happens during perimenopause/menopause and some of the things you can do to keep yourself as healthy as possible. It’s an older book and didn’t go into great detail, but it was a nice overview.

Travel to Israel by Matt Doeden.

A very quick introduction for elementary school kids at only 32 pages. Lots of nice photos and just enough information to get started with a study of Israel and what’s going on there now.

Movies

Jason and I actually made it to the theater! We both really liked The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, 2022. I haven’t read any of the Hunger Games books, but love the movies. This is the story of Coriolanus Snow way before we meet Katniss meets him. How does he become the man we know in the trilogy? I thought it was great although I had a question or two in spots. Have you seen it? What did you think?

Plans for the Weekend

When I get my to do list done today I’m hoping to visit you all! I miss checking in with you all. Do you have plans for the day?

Linking up with The Sunday Salon.

January Wrap Up and Free Book

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I’ve decided to add a new feature to by blog and I hope you’ll like it.  It will replace my free books for the month post.  There is a free book in this post somewhere but you must read on to find it 🙂  They’ll be free book with each of these wrap-ups.

So, I bought this great planner because I decided to enter the world of the productive again instead of the “I’ve got a baby and I can’t get anything done” whine that I had been using.  I make monthly, weekly, and daily goals and I have a way to track them.  I get to check off goals and it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something. I had 5 daily goals for the month: 10,000 steps (22/31), meditation reading (29/31), 8 glasses of water (keep in mind that I HATE water 22/31), a note to Jason (14/22), One Line Mom Diary (29/31).  I think I did okay and look forward to improving on these numbers in January.

I’ve added two more things to my daily goals for February.  One is a secret til the end of the month, but it is a true challenge and the other is this challenge…

A Month of Letters. This goes along with my bucket list goal of writing 1000 letters, so I’m going to give it a try.  Why not join in?  If I have your address don’t be surprised to find something in the mail from me this month 🙂 I want to thank Care for helping me find this one.

I have a friend named Molly, some of you may know her as the Bumble, and she has been doing a series of posts about lessons learned in Regina Brett’s book, God Never Blinks.  I have enjoyed this series and hope you are reading it too.  Regina is a local writer and has a new book titled Be the Miracle.  She will be signing books in the area this month and I plan on attending one of these events.  Would you like to win a signed copy?  Just leave me your email address in a comment.  I’ll accept entries until I attend the signing, but neither of us knows when that is so better do it now, the next signing is Sunday 🙂

Those are my thoughts for my January goals and a few of my plans for February.  Are you someone who needs a list to accomplish things, too?

2010 Goals and Challenges

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I’ve been blogging for two full years now and loving every minute of it.  2009 was different in that I became more involved with the book blogging community and because of it found the need to figure out how to use a Reader and to keep track of my ever-increasing Reading Wish List.  Last year I made a goal to read 130 books and did it by finishing #130 at 5pm yesterday.  I also wanted to read 30 non-fiction, but only ended the year with 19.  This was the only reading goal or challenge I failed last year 😦

In 2010 I am lowering my reading goal to 105.  I need to have a little less stress at the end of the year and I want to make time for some chunky books I want to read.  I’ll make my non-fiction goal 12.  I let you all choose 50 of the books I’ll read this year and I’m excited to see what you’ve chosen! 

I do have a few other things that will be happening in 2010.  My weekly quiz will move to Tuesday mornings so that I can participate in The Bumbles Monday Movie meme more often.  I will also continue to give away books on the first or second day of each month and give my 5 word movie reviews at the end of each month.  On Fridays (except for today :)) I’ll feature a favorite movie or an author interview.  And as I was looking over old posts I found one that I’d like to continue on a monthly basis, so look out!  And I’ll be posting about 2 reviews a week.  I think that’s enough to keep me busy, don’t you? 

Here are the reading challenges I’ve joined for the year.  I am looking forward to them all.  The challenges really help me focus and I need that.

New Author Challenge 2010This is my first year trying this challenge and I’m going to go for 35 new authors.  Go here for more details.

The Colorful Reading Challenge.  This is my first year, but the goal is to read 9 books with 9 different colors in the title.  I have 7 on my shelves already, so this will help me clear some shelf space too.  Click here for more details.

Sign up for the 2010 A to Z Challenge I loved this one last year and look forward to the challenge again this year.  Last year I read a few books that I never would have tried and ended up loving them, so I have high hopes for this year.  Click here for more details.

 This one helped me so much last year.  I am committed to reading 55 of my own books this year.  You all voted to choose 50 of those and I’m excited to see what you’ve chosen for me.  Click here for more details.

I finished Round 1 and am signing up for Round 2.  I need to walk 100 miles by March 31st.  And I need to not leave 8 1/2 miles for the last two days!  Click here for more details.

Looking for the Short Story Challenge?I haven’t read short stories since college, but I do have a few languishing on my shelves so I’m signing up for the Bronze level and will read one short story collection a quarter for a grand total of 4.  Click here for more details.

Musings and looking ahead

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It is my goal every year to read a book a week.  Last year I completed only 40, so I’m hoping this blog will keep me honest.

This was my first blog post last January.  I feel like I’ve come so far since then.  I have become more comfortable in putting myself out there, which was one of my reasons for starting the blog in the first place.  I have a hard time showing my writing to anyone unless it is perfect and complete (you can guess how often this happens!) and this has been a great opportunity for me to write a ‘first draft’ on the fly and send it out to the masses. 

This year has brought some surprises.  I have also learned that it is possible to make friends on the internet.  I ‘see’ some of you more often than I see some of  my best friends.  I did not realize that blogging would be as addicting and as time consuming as it is.  And I found even more book obsessed readers out there than me!  I am not alone 🙂

As for my initial goal of reading a book a week, well, my final count is 96, so obviously, blogging works.  I’ve decided to make my 2009 goal 130 books, at least 30 of those non-fiction.  I did sign up for one challenge and you can keep track of my progress on under 2009 Challenges. 

There are a few things I’m going to try and make happen in 2009 (I’m avoiding the word resolution or goal).  The first thing I’d like to accomplish blogwise and lifewise is getting myself organized.  If I can do this the rest of this will easily follow.  I’d like to host a giveaway and a few author interviews.  I like that you participate in my quizzes, so I might offer prizes here and there just for fun!  I’m going to try an improve the look of my blog-I still haven’t taken the time to figure some of this stuff out.

I think that’s enough.  Thanks for sharing 2008 with me.  I look forward to a great 2009 and hope the year is a great one for you too 🙂

My shattered goal

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My goal for starting this blog in January was to keep a running tally of the books I read for the year with a review.  Every year it is my intention to read a book a week, but I never quite make it and I thought the blog would keep me honest.  I decided to count my books so far for the year and I’ve already read 59!  I can’t believe it.  This blog has been a great motivator.

As I looked through my list I picked my five favorites so far this year.  On Writing by Stephen King is my favorite this year, hands down.  I also really liked Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr, Fear & Trembling by Amelie Nothomb, Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore, and The Bone Collector by Jeffrey Deaver.

Anyone else have a favorite for the year so far?