Good Things: February

I ran across this idea on Kapachino who got the idea from The Literary Wife. I love the concept of trying to focus on the positives on life. And I am going to try to do this: record at least one good thing every day for a year. Here's February's list:

Dinner and Star Trek with one of J's friends.
Awesome craft meet and greet over lunch.
Sick, but great TV shows to comfort.
Laurie R. King author event at Santa Clara library.
Started The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and actually like it.
J came home early, so dinner at Rok.
Finished ST:TNG Season 1.
Possible good news, but must wait for confirmation.
A partial confirmation.
A good night's sleep.
Lots of energy for house cleaning.
Reading The Forgotten Garden... awesome book.
Walked to the library, found some great books.
J sent me flowers!
Energy for card making.
Sick, but J took care of me.
Spent the day lounging.
Another day relaxing and reading.
A great card class to get me out of the house.
Free craft night with Pam and new friend Kati.
Chicken salad sandwich and mocha at the coffeehouse.
Started Battlestar Galactica.
Almost completed "Reviews by Author" page on blog.
Fun and yummy Dishcrawl in Mountain View.
Awesome stamp club night.
Good news confirmed.
Got a chunk of reading done.
Beautiful sunny day for a walk.

Thanks to You

I found this wonderful meme idea on Ruby Bastille. I thought it would be a great way to share my life with my readers. So here we go with my Thankful Thursday.

1) Peppermint and ginger -- I have been very nauseated lately, but these flavored hard candies seem to keep it down.

2) Crafting friends -- I had two amazing nights crafting this week. I love the hobby and the ladies are so nice.

3) Old 80s movies -- J had introduced me to some great ones this past week.

4) Books -- Feeling sick, books are my only friend.

5) Gummy bears -- Another trick to keeping the nausea down. Sucking on a gummy bear seems to help and they are oh-so delicious.

Thanks Abound

I found this wonderful meme idea on Ruby Bastille. I thought it would be a great way to share my life with my readers. So here we go with my first Thankful Thursday.

1) Peet's Coffe and Tea at Boudin SF -- A friend and I stopped here for lunch and I got so excited that they serve Peet's. I love Peet's. Just wish the closest branch was closer. A mile is a bit far to walk to get coffee, especially when it's really hot.

2) My friend for inviting me to see a local author speak at the library -- I've been wanting to go to more bookish events, but feel weird going alone. So excited that I could go with someone. And the author, Laurie King, was amazing. Now I need to read all her books.

3) Great books -- They have the ability to pull me out of a depressive cycle. Thank you authors for writing great books!

4) Amazon -- Found our book club book for a decent price. I'm on a book buying ban and don't really want to spend much money on these. Thank you random third party store for selling through Amazon.

5) The Internet -- For being able settle disagreements...

Book of Lists: Perfect Day

I ran across this idea on At Random, I followed her links to Kapachino's original post. This month's topic is "perfect day." I decided to write up an ideal itinerary...

Sleep in, breakfast in bed
Morning spent lounging at the beach (no swimming, the Pacific is too cold)
Lunch at a cafe
Afternoon at a museum
Swim in the pool
Dinner with wine at a good restaurant (perhaps The Fish Market)
Movie at the theater
Dessert, something chocolate
Sex (just being honest)
Curling up in bed with a good book

An entire day spent with J with no technology or chores.

Next month:We’ll be posting on March 4 and the topic is “I’m good at.” We can all stand to have a little more self-confidence, I think, so let’s talk about it.

Good Things: January

I ran across this idea on Kapachino who got the idea from The Literary Wife. I love the concept of trying to focus on the positives on life. And I am going to try to do this: record at least one good thing every day for a year. Here's January's list:

The boys finally got to go sledding
Lots of new clothes for not much money
Great lunch with Beth and Sarah
Fun tie-dying pizza party with Tori and Alli
Basketball game with Sarah, Avery, Melanie, and Laura
Saw Lincoln with mom
Monday night Munchies with half-price pints
Going home to California
Relaxing at home
Walked two miles
Finished season one of American Horror Story
Finally went to the grocery store
Last day of Bout of Books Readathon 6.0 -- lots of reading
J is finally getting over his illness
First card class of 2013
Quiet day of reflection
Surprise dinner at The Firehouse
Yummy salmon at The Fish Market
Dinner and board games with J's coworkers
Finally finished The Passage
Finished the entirety of The West Wing
Helped Pam with a team building exercise at San Jose State University
J came home early today
Read two books
Got ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery
Finished linking book reviews to reading challenges
Fun book club meeting (A Long Way Gone)
Start of Stamp Club and lots of buying of craft supplies
Quiet day reading at home
Lovely free crafting night at Panera.
Created ~10 cards.

T-Ts

I found this wonderful meme idea on Ruby Bastille. I thought it would be a great way to share my life with my readers. So here we go with my first Thankful Thursday.

1) An opportunity -- A crafting friend asked me to help her with a team building exercise she was contracted to do. It was nice to help other with card making. Interesting morning.

2) Good Things list -- I started listing one positive things per day in my Book of Lists. It's helping me stay positive.

3) Beautiful sunshine --After the cold and dreary Midwest, the warmer temps and sunshine is really putting me in a better mood.

4) A Winter's Respite Readathon -- Thanks to Michelle @ The True Book Addict for hosting this great winter readathon.

5) Crafting supplies -- Ready to get back to crafting. Love rediscovering my crafting supplies.

Thankfuls 2013

I found this wonderful meme idea on Ruby Bastille. I thought it would be a great way to share my life with my readers. So here we go with my first Thankful Thursday.

1) A healthy J -- He's been sick since I got back from Indiana.

2) California weather -- The frigid Midwest is just not me

3) Crafting friends -- Tuesday night class was just so much fun

4) New crafting friends -- Hoping to see some of the ladies I met at another class

5) Evernote -- Making my blog planning and writing so much more organized

Vacation Highlights

I came back to California a few days ago, but I thought I would share some of my vacation highlights. I"ve spent almost three weeks in my hometown hanging out with the boys, family, and friends. Komets hockey game from the nose bleed section! We had free tickets because the stepfather's chorus group was singing the National Anthem. The boys' friend Tommy also came. They seemed to have a ton of fun.

Seeing the Cougar Hunter boys play at the bar. My my Beth, did you drink all those! Nope, but the pic was too good to pass up. Plus, 80s hair band music and crazy hairsprayed hair. Who could turn that down?

Christmas extravaganza! Based off of the looks on the boys' faces, I think they got some good presents. Hanging out with the family for presents time and then seeing Santa Claus! Finally stockings and Santa gifts on Christmas morning.

When I arrived in Indiana the ground was cold but bare. A few days later, it looked like this. Well, I definitely don't love the cold, I do love the snow. It looks so pretty.

The pretty Christmas tree in the outdoor mall. I couldn't get a pic of it, but at night it has changing color lights that flash and spiral up the tree. Very cool effect!

The kids ringing in the New Year with their sparkling juice and Pepsi.

My favorite Christmas presents. An awesome bag from my mom. My laptop fits in it perfectly.

Tie-dying party with our friends. They were being washed when I left, so I'll have to wait to see what they really look like.

Book of Lists: Looking Forward

I ran across this idea on At Random, I followed her links to Kapachino's original post. This month's topic is "Looking forward." I decided to take that as what I am excited about this coming year. Not what I want, but what I know is coming soon...

The picture is a bit hard to read so here are the items.

Looking Forward

to getting back to sunny California
to the beach
to swimming in the pool
to exploring more of the Bay Area
to finishing Stargate Universe
to losing a few pounds
to awesome food
to next Christmas
to the drive-in
to a lighter work load for J
to Spring Break
to possible family/friends visit to California
to the Farmer's Market
to going to concerts
to daily energizing walks
to finally watching The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones
to March birthday extravaganza
to hanging our framed art
to getting our scrapbooks up to date
to planning summer vacation
to reading some great books
to decluttering the office
to card class
to movie marathons
to new movies (Star Trek! Oz!)
to next month's list
to getting a job
to knocking off tasks on my Day Zero Project
to wearing my new dragonfly necklace
to buying and using hiking boots
to new clothes

Just a few (or a lot) things I'm really looking forward to in the next year. I've already stated on some of them (reading good books, planning summer vacation).

I again did just a page in the composition notebook with colored inks. I'm completing this month's list back in my hometown (2000 miles away from current home), so I really don't have any supplies to decorate or embellish. But I still like how it turned out.

Next month: We’ll be posting on February 4 and the topic is “perfect day.”

2012 In Review

I saw this great survey on Erin's It's All Happening blog. Check her out! I would add pictures to this, but I don't really have the time or patience right now. Next year, I promise.

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before? I moved to California, I took a road trip to the East Coast, I stuck my feet (the only part I could stand, it's super duper cold) in the Pacific Ocean, and I rode in an ambulance (not wanting to repeat that). Three of those things were fun, one wasn't at all. Can you guess which is which?

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't make any life resolutions. I made some blog resolutions and accomplished most of those.

3. Did anyone close to you have a child? Nope. I have a few acquaintances that did, but I'm not that close with them. And I rediscovered friend had a child, but we're in the process of becoming closer.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Thankfully no.

5. Where did you travel?

Spring Break Road Trip: Ohio (Dayton for Air Museum), Hershey PA, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
Move out West: Sioux Falls SD, Mitchell SD (Corn Palace), various SD roadside attraction, Mount Rushmore, Dinosaur National Park, All points in between Omaha and Sunnyvale CA

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012? A baby...

7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory? Let's just go with the entirety of August. Joy and then sadness.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I survived a whole summer with the boys in a new town. And I somehow survived moving 2000 miles. Crazy crazy!

9. What was your biggest failure? Figuring out my career path. I was a teacher in Indiana, lost my job there, moved to Omaha, became a receptionist, moved to California, and nothing... I want to figure out what I want to do and commit.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? A cold after moving to California, but not a big deal at all. Of course, in August I suffered a miscarriage.

11. What was the best thing you bought? A Great America season pass. The park is about 10 minutes from our house and for $60 a piece, the boys and I spent many days completely entertained. It was a great investment!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? I have to give it to the boys for dealing with the move and a completely new situation. The past two years have been a bit crazy, but I hope now we've found our permanent home.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Many many people during the run-up and aftermath of the election. I don't care what side you're on, being hateful is just not acceptable. I took that opportunity to do a serious defriending of many on Facebook. I feel much cleaner and positive now.

14. Where did most of your money go? Spring Break road trip, the move west and the boys for summer. Although the truck was covered by J's new company, we found many a new thing that needed to be bought after getting to CA. Plus vacations are always costly, but we have some great memories from our trip west.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Vacation and moving west. I am really loving the west coast (much much more than I thought I would). Turns out I love the bay area, I just am not a fan of Los Angeles.

16. What song will always remind you of 2012? Mumford and Sons (anything from Babel), Carly Rae Jepsen "Call Me Maybe", The Lumineers "Ho Hey", Grouplove "Tongue Tied", Imagine Dragons "It's Time", Gotye "Somebody that I Used to Know." I could go on. I really really love discovering new music.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? Let's see. A) Marginally happier probably. Although I definitely had some sad moments. B) Fatter. That pregnancy and depression episode really helped gain the pounds. Weight loss is one of my 2013 life goals. C) Poorer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Swam and exercised. I have both activities at my fingertips, but somehow I just lost the will in the fall.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Complaining. I really got down and complained about a ton of things throughout the year. 2013, I want to be more positive.

20. How will you be spending Christmas? I spent Christmas in Indiana visiting with my family and old friends. J stayed in California and I really really miss him. Tuesday, I'm back on the West Coast.

21. Did you fall in love in 2012? After all of the life changes, fell more in love with J throughout the year.

22. What was your favorite TV program? So many great shows to choose from. I am going to go with Doctor Who, Castle, Once Upon a Time, The West Wing (rediscovery), Stargate (SG1, Atlantis, and Universe), The League, Suits. I could go on and on.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I'm going to go with no on this one. Hate is a very strong word. I may have been upset with people from time to time, but I don't really hate anyone.

24. What was the best book you read? Here's my Top 10 list. I narrowed down my 184 reads to 10, I can't really narrowed it down any more.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? The Lumineers. I absolutely adore their album.

26. What did you want and get? Books, books, and more books. I have an addiction.

27. What did you want and not get? A baby...

28. What was your favorite film of this year? Either The Hunger Games or The Hobbit. Two amazing movies.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 30 in Omaha and did nothing. Well, that's not true. J took me out for dinner. But I didn't have a party or anything.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? A baby... (notice a trend here)

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012? Comfort, but adventurous I tried to incorporate new pieces into my wardrobe, specifically more dresses and skinny jeans. Next year, I want to incorporate more dresses into my wardrobe and experiment with layering.

32. What kept you sane? Reading. Getting lost in a great book is my escape from all the frustrations and disappoints in the real world. It's my refresher.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I don't really know...

34. What political issue stirred you the most? Anything to do with women's health. I was just disgusted with all the ideas swirling out there about "legitimate rape" and not covering preventative health care and abstinence only sex education and abortion. Ugh! If we want health babies, keep abortion, give sex education, promote preventative gyno visits, and support women and their support systems in all situations.

35. Who did you miss? My Indiana friends and new Omaha friends.

36. Who was the best new person you met? Collectively, I am going to go with my crafting ladies. I now have a great group that I see regularly. And some of those women are now great book club friends (Pam, Liese, and Angi!!!!). I can't wait to get closer to all these amazing women.

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012. I can withstand much more than I thought before 2012, but I also realized that I need good support people. J is amazing, much more than I give him credit for. He was there for me during crazy vacations, moves, and major physical and mental health issues.

2012 Life Wrap-Up

January

The first month of the year was all about recovering from the holidays. The boys spent all break with us in Omaha. Unfortunately I was still working most days, so they spent a lot of time hanging out in the house with J. We did get a ton of board games played and books read. After they left, it was back to the daily grind of work.

February

The second month always seemed to be a quiet one. Not much happened. We braced for the cold that never got too bad. I read, watched tv, and of course, worked.

March

Things got very interesting in March. It was my, the boys', and J's birthdays. I turned 30! Not as weird as I thought it would be. I still feel like I'm 25 (which is probably a good thing). Plus, I am really looking forward to this decade. It has to be better than my 20s. To celebrate, I posted pics and stories from all of my thirty years each day of the month. Check out the beginning of the My Years posts. Beyond birthdays, J was offered a job for a company in Silicon Valley. We always figured that we would move out west at some point, but this was very unexpected. After a few phone interviews, we flew out for a weekend to do a final interview and look at living situations. I spent the weekend driving around the San Jose area. I even popped into a great little Egyptian Museum. And J and I visited Sonoma Valley for a great wine afternoon. Back in Omaha, we discussed the situation and decided that moving was our best opportunity. He said yes, they worked out moving packages, and we planned on moving at the end of April!

April

Before all the moving stuff came up, J and I planned a Spring Break road trip with the boys. We drove to Indiana to pick them up and then headed east to Ohio and Pennsylvania. All in all it was a great trip. I love old fashioned road trips. Plus I got to visit some cities that I've never been to (hello Pittsburgh and Philadelphia!). And I got to visit one of my Top 10 American Attractions... Fallingwater! I made my mom really jealous with that! After getting back, J flew out to California to start his job and secure housing. He came back to Nebraska and a week later we packed up the truck and traversed the western half of the country to our new home.

May

May was all about settling in and getting to know my new town. First things first, I located and obtained a library card. Always a priority for me! Plus, I found a coffeehouse, supermarket, park, DMV (CA driver's license), movie theater, and many many favorite nearby restaurants. I also trolled Meetup and found a great card making group. I really love some of those ladies. On the blog, I topped the month off with a bit of a political rant with "I am a Citizen."

June

The boys traveled out to the coast to spend the summer with us. We started a great two months of adventures and exploration. Our activities were documented in my Sunnyvale Summer posts.

July

July was full of tons of adventures with the boys including the beach, the amusement park, summer camps, pool days, library visits, and trips to San Francisco. I also confirmed my suspicions that I was pregnant. Very happy news.

August

The boys returned the first week of August to Indiana for school. I am so grateful that they love their school and teachers. It makes the situation a bit easier to handle. Unfortunately the heartache continued with my mid-month miscarriage. More information about my experience can be found here.

September

September was a month of healing and restarts. I had to deal with aftermath of my miscarriage. My hormones made me absolutely crazy for a few weeks. I also decided to finally make an appointment with a therapist to discuss the event and my past and current depression woes. It didn't help that we had multiple apartment issues: fridge quitting randomly, dishwasher not really cleaning, and a dripping ceiling. And J was super busy at work. I hardly saw him.

On a brighter note, I accomplished a ton of crafting. I really jumped in with both feet. The end result found a home in my mother's flower shop in November. I also got a jump on Christmas projects. Obviously I can't tell you what they are, but they were greatly appreciated.

October

Some of the ladies I craft with decided to start a very informal book club and asked me to join. We had our first meeting! Such fun. With the holidays we had our second meeting in December. But hopefully this will become more of a monthly occurrences. I also reconnected with an old high school friend who is now living in San Francisco. I met her husband and adorable baby boy. We had a few fun lunch/shopping dates. I'm sure we'll continue these after the new year.

November

Starting slow, things got crazy when I flew back to Indiana to spend almost two weeks with the boys and family. We had tons of fun and ate some great food for Thanksgiving. I really needed that visit to reconnect with old friends and break out of my day to day routine. I came back to California refreshed.

December

Just like November, it started slow, and then I traveled back to Indiana for the holidays. Check back in few days for some vacation highlights.

2013 Blog Resolutions

I have very specific goals for 2013.

1. Read over 60,000 pages -- This past year I read over 60,000 pages. I would like to continue that trend. Of course, this is a related, but not a direct effect of how many books I read. I have the ultimate goal of 1,000,000 pages read. I'm on my way.

2. Get rid of at least one box of books -- There are ten boxes of books in the closet right now. I really want to get rid of these, but I feel ridiculous about getting rid of books that I haven't read yet. So I am focusing on reading my own books.

3. Finish any series started -- For this goal, I've actually signed up for a series finishing reading challenge this year.

4. Finish 75% or more of the reading challenges I join -- A reasonable goal I think.

5. Read more on the iPad -- I want to transition from physical books to digital ones. But first I need to complete goal #2.

6. Be stricter about DNFs -- I have gotten better about be discriminating when it comes to books. If I don't find myself fully into the book by page 50, I reevaluate whether or not I want to finish.

7. Read the book before seeing the movie -- I have multiple books I want to read before watching the movie. This is a big goal.

8. Do at least six readathons -- I did 11 last year, I think I can commit to at least 6 for the coming year. In fact, I have my first one this next week with Bout of Books 6.0.

9. Focus on my perpetual lists -- I am attempting to integrate these into my TBR list for 2013. We'll see how this goes.

10. Limit by book buying -- I signed up for the Double Dog Dare Challenge for January through April. I hope to continue my book buying ban, excluding book club choices, through June. I just have too many books in my possession to buy more.

Revisiting the 2012 resolutions:

Be better at planning for my reading -- I did this fairly well, but there's always room for improvement.
Participate in at least one readathon per quarter -- Done, done, and done!
Be better at chronicling my crafting -- I would like to do more, but I did get better.
Put more family updates -- So-so
Reinstitute Quote Wednesdays -- Done
Branch out into some new music for Music Mondays -- Done
Not commit myself to every meme I find interesting -- I got much better at selecting these
Share more interesting links, blogs posts, articles, etc. -- So-so
Clean out my Goggle Reader -- I got better at this...
Post at least once a week on another blogger's site -- Failed miserably
Get moving on my Day Zero Project -- Movement, but I would have liked more
Possibly include movie reviews? -- Not really

More about the blog move...

On Christmas day I received a surprise gift from Wordpress.com, a suspension of my (old) blog. Yep, a suspension! I logged in like usual to work on some drafts and double check what I already had and this message popped up at the top: "Warning: We have a concern about some of the content on your blog. Please click here to contact us as soon as possible to resolve the issue and re-enable posting."

The click here was a generic email back to wordpress.com. No explanation, no nothing. So I emailed and then freaked out a bit. What did I do? I sat and waited. No response. 12 hours later, no response. I checked the forums. It seems this had happened to a ton of people, but no real explanations were given. I waited some more and then called J freaking out. He calmed me down and after checking into it, decided that it was time for me to move. So he started the process. Bought a domain name, got new emails, hosted on our server, and transfered almost everything into the new system. I dove in and started to piece things back together. 99% of what I had here is now there. I was setting myself up to thinking that I would have to start from scratch, but my lovely knows things... hee hee. So I got a new blog.

After two silent days, I finally received an email from Wordpress.com.

We currently need to limit the number of scheduled posts per WordPress.com site, and your site has exceeded more than 100 of these. Can you please edit your posts and limit those currently scheduled to a more reasonable number (less than 100)? Placing posts in draft status and scheduling/publishing them later is a workable, alternate method. An automatic system check is now in place for this. Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience.

Really Wordpress, what the hell? You change something and instead of mentioning it or warning, you just suspend my blog. Of course, I sent this to J and he thought it was just absolutely ridiculous. So we are sticking with moving to my own domain. There may be a few posts still on here as I signed up for some giveaways in January and the other blogs already have address, but I will be primarily checking my new blog (this one)...

Time to start again!

Change of Venue...

The other day I had a random suspension of my original blog. No warning, no explanation, no way to contact other than a generic email. So I freaked out, then emailed them. No answer. No nothing. I looked in the forums and found tons of people with the same issue. And the results were almost unanimous. The blog was suspended, then deleted without explanation. I have yet to hear anything back from the support team, so I'm assuming the blog will be deleted any day now. I still can't access anything. I freaked out, called J, and he quickly bought me a domain and set up a new blog. And I kind of hate it. No, I don't hate it. It's just a bit wonky. I have to relearn how to do everything. I have to add all my features back in. I have to understand the formatting. I'm not in love with theme, but it was the best available to me at the time. I'm still getting used to this new place. But I'm determined to make the best of it. I've loved blogging this past 2+ years. I want continue. I want to add to my circles. Speaking of, I have no way to let others know of my switch since I can't put anything on the original blog. Oh well, hopefully people find me. Or at least I get some new followers.

So here I am blogging in a new place with a new name, hoping to continue enjoying this hobby of mine...

Year End Break

It's that time of year, when I leave the blogosphere for a few weeks. I love taking this time to decompress, organize, reflect, and plan ahead. I will also be updating my columns to reflect upcoming events and 2013 reading challenges. If you happen to log on during this process, it might look a bit messy, but rest assured it will be fixed by the first week in January. Plus I'm in freezing Indiana with the family. I want to spend time curling up with a mug of tea, a few cookies, and the boys while watching a movie. I'll be back after the first of the year (tenatively Jan. 6th...) To everyone out there reading my blog, if I don't see you in person...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Black Friday Shopping

Remember the time years ago when you would faithfully make a Christmas list. For me, I loved going through the Sears catalog circling the items I wanted. My boys love doing that to the Toys R Us catalog. At some point, all of us stop making Christmas lists. At least we stop writing them down. Well I am reviving the tradition. I'm making a Christmas wish list and it can be found on Amazon. Just search for my name. *Hint hint*

It's Turkey Day!

For all you Thanksgiving families out there, Enjoy your day! Eat some great food! Give thanks for all you have. I know I will...

Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange

Care to join me? Click the picture above!

This year, the Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange is organised by me at Leeswammes’ Blog and by Courtney of Stiletto Storytime. Anastasia of Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog has passed the baton on to us. Anastasia is the originator and ran this very popular event for two years. Courtney and I were sorry to hear Anastasia wasn’t running it this year, so we’re very pleased she allowed us to take over. As we’re a little late announcing this event we’re more or less taking Anastasia’s text from last year, with her permission (thank you so much, Anastasia!).

The Book Bloggers Holiday Card Exchange is an event in which book bloggers send each other a holiday card around the Christmas period (the end of December). This isn’t just for people that celebrate Christmas, though! Everyone is can join in the fun.

Info

1. Sign up for the exchange by November 30, 2012.

2. Emails with partner info go out December 3, 2012 (please check your spam folder if you didn’t get the email, then contact us).

3. You have until December 13, 2012 to send your card(s).

4. Since it’s a book-lovers card exchange you have to include something book-related in your card. Some ideas:

Write about a book you’ve read recently.
Give a few book recommendations to your partner.
Tell a book-related story.
Something else book-related that you think up yourself.

5. Since this is a book blogger holiday card exchange, you need to be a blogger who blogs at least sometimes about books to participate.

6. The swap is open internationally. It’s too cumbersome trying to pair up people who do/do not want to send internationally, so everyone must be willing to send internationally.

7. You can exchange up to five cards. You won’t always get a card from the same people you send your cards to. It will nevertheless be an awesome thing.

Some Things to Remember

1. You HAVE to send a card. A card is something like this. You can make it yourself or buy it at the store. Everything you write must be contained in the card itself. Letters are not cards. The card doesn’t have to be book-themed OR holiday themed (but it might be nice if it was). We suggest you refrain from sending specifically religious-themed cards, because that sort of thing tends to offend people, even if you didn’t mean to offend them.

2. You HAVE to write something book-related in your card (see above). You can’t just say “happy holidays.” You COULD just write a list of books and that’s all, but I don’t think that’d be a lot of fun, do you?

3. You DON’T have to send anything else but the card, but if you want to stick in something else that’d be fine. A bookmark, for instance, would be really nice. Whatever you send: it has to be flat enough to fit in the envelope– no upgrading into package territory, here.

4. The most you should spend is $5. The point of the exchange is that it’s cheap enough for us money-less people to participate in, so everything should cost $5 and under. I don’t know if you can even buy a card that costs more than $5. Can you?

Oh, and the Twitter hashtag is #bkcardex.

I'm heading east to the cold...

I'm off to Indiana to see the family for the holiday season. I'm sure there will be lots of food, lots of laughs, and lots of flowers (in the shop). I'm excited to see everyone, especially the boys, but hesitant about the cold. I think I'm acclimating to North California weather and this will be a shock to the system. I'm packing tons of layers, basically whatever's left of my winter wardrobe and hoping for moderate temps. If you are traveling, be safe!

Ready to Throw It All Out (Part 2)

Check out Part 1 here. Part 2: The Office aka the most dreaded room in the house.

Does anyone else have this problem? The Office becomes the catch all room. Things go in and never again see the light of day. Things start out as very organized and then just magically become a crazy mess. We have this problem. At one point after moving in, this room was beautifully organized. And then it seems that life created chaos.

My main goals:

Restack/organize boxes in the closet
Reorganize the crafting supplies
Reduce the crafting supplies (make stuff/give away stuff)
Reduce my curriculum boxes/crap
Pick up/put away the random crap lying around
Encourage J to take care of his random crap (left side of the room)

I tackled the curriculum boxes first. In reality, I was trying to find my flash drive that held all my school files. I thought it was in the curriculum/teaching supply boxes. But after digging through all five boxes, it didn't appear. I'm a little concerned that it has completely disappeared. But I am happy that I made a mess. It gave me an opportunity to reduce the crap and reorganize the leftover. I managed to get rid of an entire box! I also repacked the leftover curriculum so that it makes sense (US History together, government together, etc). In the process I pulled resources for my tutoring student. Overall I feel a lot better about the leftovers. I tried to condense things into the must haves.

I restacked the boxes (books and curriculum) in the closet. They need to be reduced, but that requires reading and then getting rid of the books. I am determined to reduce the boxes by half by June 2013 (without adding to the boxes, of course). I need to focus on reading from my own books instead of going to the library or book store. I have a plan. Now I need to follow through. Until then, the boxes were restacked, but as you can see they are leaning a bit. I also would love to get J to go through his four book boxes and reduce. That is a task for when he's not busy, which will probably be 50 years from now...

On to the crafting supplies. I had a couple of interesting projects this week. After finishing those, I took the opportunity to reorganize my supplies into an easier to grab order. I got everyone separated into easier to grab sections. I also organized my 8.5 x 11" paper into color spectrum. Hopefully this makes it easier to find. Finally I crafted a ton this week so I was able to reduce my overall supply piles.

J is so busy that he doesn't have time to do any housekeeping. Since he won't really be dealing with the crap any time soon, I think I will just shove his crap to the area around the desk.

Total reduction: One box. Two trash bags. Stack of completed craft projects for Christmas/birthday/holiday gifts. Easily found supplies/books/curriculum.

Coming soon: Part 3 (kitchen/living room/closets)