Living a Joyful Life

Currently reading? My True Love Gave To Me: A short story Anthology (it’s a re-read) Your book goal of 2019? It was 45 and then I changed it to 50 once I hit 45. How many books read in 2019? 55 Fiction/Non-fiction ratio? 49/6 Male/Female authors? 0/55 Favorite book(s) read? My top 6 favorite books: Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella One Christmas In Paris by Mandy Baggot Shamed (A Kate Burkholder Mystery) by Katie Castillo You’ve Been Volunteered (A Class Mom novel) by Laurie Gelman Least favorite(s)? 25 Days Til’ Christmas by Poppy Alexander & My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan Longest title? Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness: How to Stay Sane and Live One Step Ahead of Your Symptoms –Ilana Jacqueline Shortest title? I have more than a few books whose titles were two words. How many re-reads? 0 ...

What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Chicken, broccoli, tater tots Tuesday: Pizza and I'm not sure about the rest of the week What I'm Reminiscing About... All of my trips back home to NY to visit my family during the Christmas season What I'm Loving... The Christmas season. What I've Been Up To... I got to spend the whole day yesterday with my best friend and her son. My best friend and I met through our old job as teachers at a daycare. Her son was also in my class. He is my buddy. We went to Target, TJ Maxx, Office Depot/Max, & Michael's. Of course, we got Starbucks at Target. We went out for lunch at Chick Fil A. We went back to her house for a little bit and then we went and watched her son's Christmas concert. I've also been watching tons of Christmas movies, watching Youtube videos, and reading Christmas books. What I'm Dreading... Nothing at the moment. What I'm Working On... F...

1. Niece/God-daughter O's birthday On the 16th, my niece/God-daughter turns 14. Unfortunately, I don't live near her so I won't get to celebrate her big day with her but I will be there in spirit. I am so very proud of the young woman she's becoming. She is so smart, extremely talented, and so beautiful. I love her so very much and miss her like crazy. Credit: This site 2. New Christmas Albums I'm obsessed with the new Christmas albums by Idina Menzel and Lea Michele. My favorite songs on Idina's album are At This Table , Christmas Just Ain't Christmas , and We Wish You The Merriest (ft. Josh Gad). My favorite songs on Lea Michele's album are Christmas In New York and Do You Want To Build A Snowman? I also highly recommend Idina Menzel's first Christmas album as well. Credit: This Site 3. Root Canal I had to get a root canal this week (this definitely isn't a favorite from this week). The procedure wasn...

I'm linking up with Jana & Steph for the Show Us Your Books Link-up! The Wedding Party  -Jasmine Guillory I liked this book. It wasn't my favorite book by Jasmine Guillory but it was still enjoyable. I rated this book 2 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Graphic Novel: A Modern Retelling of Little Women -Rey Terciero I love the original Little Women . This book was good but I was left hoping for more from it. I read it in a day. Since it's a graphic novel, it was a really quick read. I rated it 2 stars. The Gift of Happiness  -Holly Martin I love Holly Martin's Christmas novels. This novel did not disappoint. I loved it so much and I highly recommend it if you like Christmas novels. I rated it 4 stars. Christmas At Silver Falls -Jenny Hale Jenny Hale is another author whose Christmas novels I love. This was another great one! Again, if you like Christmas novels, I definitely recommend this no...

What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Left-over chicken stir fry & dumplings Tuesday: Ham, Baked potato, beets, and corn muffins Wednesday: Leftovers Thursday: Thanksgiving dinner Friday: Leftovers Saturday & Sunday: Either leftovers or something else (not sure yet) What I'm Reminiscing About... Lots of family memories as well as all of my trips to NY during the Holiday season. What I'm Loving... Christmas movies, music, and books! Making planner related Youtube videos. What I've Been Up To... My 2020 Erin Condren Life Planner arrived this month. On November 7th, I helped my best friend decorate for her wedding. We also got our nails done together. November 8th, we had the dress rehearsal for the wedding (I was a bridesmaid) and then we went to a really fun bowling alley and had food and bowled. November 9th, was my best friend's wedding day and I was so honored to be a part of her special day. I filmed and upload...

In 2011, I purchased my first Erin Condren Life Planner. Fast forward a few years later and I started joining planner/planning related groups on Facebook. I found the group Planners Gone Wild and I've met so many amazing friends throughout the planner community because of this group. The admins of the Planners Gone Wild group put on a huge planner conference once a year called Go Wild. In 2016, the first Go Wild was in New Orleans. I did not attend that one. The admins knock the Go Wild planner conferences out of the park each and every time. Their attention to detail is impeccable. All of the sponsors, speakers, volunteers, entertainment, etc. do so much work for this event and it truly is a huge accomplishment that they pull off each year.  In 2017, they had the conference in Nashville, TN and that was my first conference that I attended. Here is a blog post about that trip:  Go Wild 2017 . In 2018, they had the conference in Austin, Texas. I've been meaning t...

I'm linking up with Jana & Steph for the Show Us Your Books Link-up! Big Sexy Love by Kirsty Greenwood I liked this book. It wasn't my favorite book I've ever read (I rated it 3 stars on Goodreads), but I still enjoyed it. I want to read this author's other books so I added them to my TBR (to be read) list. No Judgments by Meg Cabot I adore Meg Cabot and her novels. She is one of my favorite authors. I really liked this book and would definitely recommend it, especially if you are a fan of Meg Cabot's work. I rated this book 4 stars. A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult Jodi Picoult is another favorite author of mine. I really liked this book. Sometimes I can have trouble keeping up with her books because of all the different characters and how the chapters are told from the different characters' points of view. I rated this book 3 stars. How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson I loved this book a lot. This is ...

What We're Eating This Week... Monday: We went to Chili's. I had chicken fajitas. Tuesday: Chicken wings, cauliflower, French fries Wednesday: Chicken stir-fry I'm not sure about the rest of the week. What I'm Reminiscing About... Visits to NY to spend time with my family. What I'm Loving... It's my favorite time of year... Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then the Christmas season. I'm loving watching Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music. My cats have been snuggling with me a lot lately and I've really been enjoying that. What I've Been Up To... Filming and uploading videos for my planner Youtube channel. I've also been reading a lot as well as watching tv/movies. What I'm Dreading... Nothing that I want to talk about at the moment. What I'm Working On... Other than filming and uploading videos for my YT channel, nothing much. What I'm Excited About... Basic...