Living a Joyful Life

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Late lunch (Red Robin) Tuesday: Reubens Wednesday: Pasta with meatballs Thursday: Leftovers Friday: Takeout Saturday: Pizza/Salad Sunday: Takeout What I'm Reminiscing About... I tend to reminisce a-lot about when my nieces and nephews were younger. What I'm Loving... Spending time with my mom, cuddles with my cats, watching the World Series. What I've Been Up To... I've mostly just been taking it easy because of the constant pain in my hip. It's so hard to get comfortable and I hardly get any relief. What I'm Dreading... The rest of the year and the holiday season going by so fast. What I'm Working On... Filming videos for my Youtube channel. What I'm Excited About... Halloween and then all things Christmas starting on November 1st. What I'm Watching/Reading... Watching: My nephew's football games, the World Series, NFL, college football, TV shows, Hallmark, The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 3. Reading...

  Here are the books I read in September: Wish You Were Her –Elle McNicoll My Rating: 5 stars I loved this book so much. “An autistic YA homage to The Shop Around the Corner with a pinch of Cyrano, Elle McNicoll's Wish You Were Her is a triumph!” I love that it also featured the characters from Some like It Cold .   Maid for Each Other –Lynn Painter My Rating: 5 stars Another lovely novel from Lynn Painter. A millionaire and a house cleaner are a match maid in heaven in this sparkling new romantic comedy by Lynn Painter, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Happily Never After .” I loved the main characters so much!   The Sandy Page Bookshop –Hannah McKinnon My Rating: 5 stars I love Hannah McKinnon’s writing so much and her latest novel is just as amazing as her other novels. “The return of a prodigal daughter to her sleepy Cape Cod town brings the community together in this heartwarming all-new beach read from the acclaimed author of the “absol...

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Chicken rice dish with veggies Tuesday: Caesar salad Wednesday: Quesadilla Thursday: Tilapia, rice, veggies Friday: Salmon, leftover rice & veggies Saturday: Leftovers Sunday: Takeout What I'm Reminiscing About... My trips with my mom to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins in the fall when I was growing up. We would go to fall festivals, go apple picking, bake, and spend lots of quality time together. What I'm Loving... Spending time with my mom, spending time with my cats, watching football (my nephew's games, college football, and NFL), watching the Mets, reading, planning. ^My photo^ What I've Been Up To... Watching sports, reading, planning. What I'm Dreading... Being in pain every day. It's been like this for years and years and it's exhausting. What I'm Working On... My content schedule for October for my Youtube channel. What I'm Excited About... Watching my nephew's play football. Unfortunate...

  Here are the books I read in August 2025: Designated Hitter –Megan Cousins (Unwritten Rules #3) My Rating: 5 stars This is the third and last book in the Unwritten Rules series. I love Megan Cousins’ books. She writes some really amazing sports romances. If you love sports and reading romance books, I highly recommend her novels. You Must Be New Here –Katie Sise My Rating: 4 stars I downloaded this book free on Kindle Unlimited on a whim nd I’m so glad I did because I really like this author. This book was really good and I really enjoyed it. If you like mystery books, I recommend this author. The Vacation Rental –Katie Sise My Rating: 5 stars This book is so good. It was full of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming and I loved it a-lot.   We Were Mothers –Katie Sise My Rating: 5 stars Another great novel by Katie Sise. She writes really great mystery novels and I can't wait to read her other two mystery novels.   Slow Burn Summer –Jo...

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Roasted pork, beets Tuesday: Leftovers Wednesday: Salad Thursday: Stuffed pepper & zucchini fritters Friday: Leftovers I'm not sure about the weekend. What I'm Reminiscing About... I've been thinking a lot lately about when my nephews and nieces were little. They have grown up so fast. (2 nephews in college, 2 nieces in college, a nephew who's a senior in HS, a niece who's a junior in HS, a nephew who's a sophomore in HS, a nephew in 7th grade, a nephew in 5th grade, and a nephew in 2nd grade). What I'm Loving... Spending time with my mom, spending time with my cats, watching baseball, visit to see my family. What I've Been Up To... I visited my family for two weeks this month. I had a good time seeing everyone but my pain is so bad that it affects so much of my everyday life.  ^Personal photo that I took a while back when I was going to visit my family.^ What I'm Dreading... Being in pain every day. W...

  Here are the books I read in July: If Something Happens To Me –Alex Finlay My Rating: 5 stars This is another mazing novel from Alex Finlay. I love that his novels are dual POV’s. I did not see the twists coming in this one.   Rage –Linda Castillo (Kate Burkholder #17) My Rating: 5 stars This is the newest novel (#17) in the Kate Burkholder series. I love this series so much and I can’t recommend it enough. The novels are very easy reads so even though there are 17 of them, you’d be able to get through this series quickly. This is an Amish mystery series following Kate Burkholder who is formerly Amish and is now the Chief of Police in the Amish town she grew up in.   Mansion Beach –Meg Mitchell Moore My Rating: 4 stars (really 4.5) This is Meg Mitchell Moore’s latest novel. I really like her writing and I enjoyed this novel so much.   Call of the Loon –K. Sinko My Rating: 4 stars (really 3.5) This is the first novel I read by this au...

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Salmon and salad Tuesday: Burger and fries Wednesday: Reuben & chips Thursday: Reuben & salad Friday: Late lunch (Chiptole) Saturday: Salad Sunday: Stir fry What I'm Reminiscing About... My trips to visit the lake during the summer. I've been going to this lake since I was a little girl. What I'm Loving... Spending time with my family, being at the lake. What I've Been Up To... Spending time with my mom, trip to visit my family, trip to lake with my dad. What I'm Dreading... Nothing at the moment. What I'm Working On... Filming videos for my Youtube channel and planning out my August content for my channel. What I'm Excited About... I went to visit my family. During that trip, I went to the lake with my dad for 5 days. My dad, nephew Joey, and I went to a Mets game and we saw David Wright being inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame and have his #5 retired. David Wright is my all time favorite athlete and I w...

  Here are the books I read in June 2025: A First Time for Everything –K.L. Walther My Rating: 5 stars Another amazing novel from start to finish. I absolutely adore K.L. Walther and her writing. I loved everything about this book and this is definitely one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time.   Atmosphere –Taylor Jenkins Reid My Rating: 5 stars Wow, this book was incredible. I enjoyed it so much. I have loved all of Taylor Jenkins Reid novels. A significant part of this story was the relationship between the main character and her niece and I loved that storyline (and the other storylines in the book as well) so much. As an aunt to 10 nephews and nieces, that storyline really touched me.   The It Girl –Ruth Ware My Rating: 4 stars This is the first novel I read by Ruth Ware. I really enjoyed it. I totally did not see the ending coming. I definitely want to read more of her books in the future.   Love, Theoretically...