Living a Joyful Life

What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Christmas Dinner: Prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes, string beans, brussels sprouts with bacon, salad, rolls Tuesday: Cheeseburger, fries, lima beans Wednesday: Stir fry I'm not sure about the rest of the week. What I'm Reminiscing About... Nothing at the moment. What I'm Loving... The holiday season. Watching all of the many Christmas movies! NFL & college football. What I've Been Up To... My mom had surgery two weeks ago on her foot so I've been taking care of her. I've also been watching a ton of Christmas movies and football. I've also been watching lots of Youtube and reading. What I'm Dreading... The holiday season going by too fast (as it always does). What I'm Working On... I've been filming for my Youtube channel and I've also been scheduling out my January content for my channel. What I'm Excited About... All things Christmas! What I'm Watching/Reading... Watching: NFL and colle

  Books I Read in November: The Holiday Mix-Up – Ginny Baird My Rating: 3 stars This book was cute but I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would. I felt like it was a little repetitive. The ending was really sweet, though.   There’s something about Merry –Codi Hall My Rating: 5 stars I loved this book so much. The characters, the setting, the plot… I loved it all.   Along Came Holly –Codi Hall My Rating: 5 stars Another great novel by Codi Hall. This book, There’s something About Merry and Nick & Noel’s Christmas Playlist are part of the Mistletoe Romance series and I highly recommend this series. The characters, the setting and the plot for all of these books are just so lovely.   The Christmas Orphan’s Club –Becca Freeman My Rating: 4 stars I really enjoyed this novel. I liked the characters, the setting, and the plot. The only thing I didn’t like about this novel was that it was flipping around between different Christmases during 10 years a

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Late lunch of Chipotle so I just had some vegetables for dinner. Tuesday: Buffalo Wild Wings I'm not sure about the rest of the week. What I'm Reminiscing About... My trips to visit my family during the holiday season! What I'm Loving... Watching all of the Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music. What I've Been Up To... Watching football, reading, planning out my content for my Youtube channel for December & January, watching Christmas movies, filming for my Youtube channel. What I'm Dreading... That the Christmas season will go by too fast, like it does every year. I always have the post-Christmas blues in January. What I'm Working On... Planning out my content for my Youtube channel for December & January. What I'm Excited About... All things Christmas! What I'm Watching/Reading... Watching: Football, Survior, Dancing With the Stars, Sullivan's Crossing (I highly recommend this show),

  The fall of Bradley Reed –Morgan Elizabeth My Rating: 3 stars This is the third novel in the Seasons of Revenge series. I really enjoyed this novel and I recently found out that there will be a fourth novel in this series. Faking Christmas –Kerry Winfrey My Rating: 4 stars This is my first Kerry Winfrey novel that I read (I have two more of her books on my Kindle) and her other books are on my TBR list. I really loved this book. The fake dating and enemies to lover’s trope were present in this novel. I love Christmas novels so much.   The Christmas Wager –Holly Cassidy My Rating: 4 stars This novel was super cute. I loved the relationship between the two main characters. I thought the concept of the holiday games in the book was so fun and unique. The Christmas Café –Eliza Evans My Rating: 5 stars This is Eliza Evans debut novel and I loved it so much! I loved the relationship between the main characters, the setting, the plot… I loved it all. However, it m

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Pepperoni roll Tuesday: Sausage & veggies I'm not sure about the rest of the week. What I'm Reminiscing About...  The last time the Mets were in the World Series in 2015. What I'm Loving... Spending time with family and friends, reading, watching sports/tv/movies, these new cookies I found at the grocery store. What I've Been Up To... Bestie day with ABA, time with mom, filming, reading, watching sports/tv/movies. What I'm Dreading... Nothing at the moment. What I'm Working On... Content schedule for November & December. What I'm Excited About... MLB playoffs & World Series, high school and college football and the NFL. What I'm Watching/Reading... Watching... All the football and baseball, Hallmark movies. Reading...  A Winter in New York by Josie Silver. What I'm Listening To... Morgan Wallen, Sam Hunt, Eric Church, Bailey Zimmerman, Jessie James Decker, Zoe Clark, Van Morrison. What I'm

First Down (Beyond the Play #1) –Grace Reilly My Rating: 4 stars A romance novel that centers on sports? Sign me up! The sport in this book is football. I love the relationship between the two main characters and I love that both of their POV’s were in the book. Breakaway (Beyond the Play #2) –Grace Reilly My Rating: 3 stars The sport featured in this book is hockey. I enjoyed this book but the one thing I didn’t like was that I felt like there were so many more sex scenes compared to the first novel in this series. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind some sex scenes in books but I felt like there was too many of them in this book. Still, I did enjoy the relationship between the two main characters like I did in the first novel of this series. Stealing Home (Beyond the Play #3) –Grace Reilly My Rating: The sport featured in this book is baseball. I enjoyed this book. I like this series. All That’s Left to Say –Emery Lord My Rating: 4 stars I liked this book. I f

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Leftovers (pepperoni roll & salad) Tuesday: Pasta Wednesday: Leftovers I'm not sure about the rest of the week. What I'm Reminiscing About... Walking home from school growing up in September with the crunchy leaves under my feet. What I'm Loving... Football. I've been watching a ton of football. I watch my nephew's football games through a streaming service since I don't live close to them. I've also been watching a ton of college football and NFL. What I've Been Up To... Besides watching football, I've been reading a lot. I've also been watching lots of movies and TV shows. I have been filming for my Youtube channel. What I'm Dreading... This Sunday, will be the 1 year anniversary of Pumpkin's passing and I've been very sad and heartbroken about it. What I'm Working On... I'm starting to film my October content for my Youtube channel. I also took everything out of my dresser an

                                                                   Talking at Night –Claire Daverley My Rating: 3 stars I saw that one of my favorite authors loved this book which is a debut novel and I decided to give it a shot. I really liked the relationship between the two main characters. One thing I did not like about this book was that the conversations did not have quotes “ around them. I found that frustrating.   Summer Stage –Meg Mitchell Moore My Rating: 4 stars I really love Meg Mitchell Moore’s writing. This book was told from three different POV’s and it was so good. The Captain’s Daughter –Meg Mitchell Moore My Rating: 4 stars Another great read from Meg Mitchell Moore. This book was very sad at some parts but overall it was a really great book. I really love her style of writing and I can’t wait to read the rest of her novels.   We Ship It –Lauren Kay My Rating: 3 stars This book centered on a very academic and strict rule following teenager

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Sausage and pasta Tuesday: Tacos  I'm not sure about the rest of the week. What I'm Reminscing About... My recent four day trip to the lake that I grew up going to. What I'm Loving... I had lots of family time this month! What I've Been Up To... Trip to visit my family, trip to the lake, bestie day with my best friend and her daughter. What I'm Dreading... Nothing at the moment. What I'm Working On... My schedule for my Youtube videos What I'm Excited About... All of the family time! What I'm Watching/Reading: Watching: Sweet Magnolias Season 3 (re-watch), Quarterback, Outdaughtered, Hallmark movies, baseball and pre-season football Reading: I just finished reading Left Field Love by C.W. Farnsworth and I loved it What I'm Listening To... Sam Hunt on repeat What I'm Doing This Weekend... Filming videos and watching sports What I'm Looking Forward To Next Month... All things fall!

  The Names They Gave Us –Emery Lord My Rating: 4 stars This book was good, however, for me it was very emotional. I love Emery Lord’s writing but this book was very sad. I loved the relationship between the main character and her parents and her friends. A Week at the Shore –Barbara Delinsky My Rating: 4 stars This was a good book as well. It had some twists that I wasn’t expecting. I loved the relationship between the main character and her daughter and the main character and her love interest in the novel. The Start of Me & You –Emery Lord My Rating: 5 stars This book was so good. Like I said above, I love Emery Lord’s writing. I loved the relationship between the main character and her group of best friends and how they were always there for each other during the good times and the bad times. I also loved the relationship between the main character and her love interest and how their relationship developed from a friendship. The Map from Here to There –Emery