Living a Joyful Life

Here are the books I read in May: One Golden Summer –Carley Fortune My Rating: 5 stars Another amazing novel from Carley Fortune. Since 2022, when her debut novel came out, her books have been my favorite book of the year each year. Her writing style is just so lovely. The setting of this book is my very favorite… it takes place at a lake. I cannot rave enough about Carley Fortune and her books and I highly recommend all of them. One Death at a Time –Abbi Waxman My Rating: 3 stars (really 3.5) I really enjoy this author. This is her latest novel. This was her first mystery novel and I enjoyed it a-lot. I didn’t see a lot of the twists coming.   Worth The Risk (Watertown University Book 1) –Clara Mott My Rating: 4 stars I really enjoyed this book. I really loved the relationship between the main characters. It was so beautiful to see how supportive of each other they were. I loved the relationships that the main female character had with their friends and that ...

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Leftovers Tuesday: Grilled cheese & veggies Wednesday: Chicken, broccoli Thursday: Takeout Friday: Salad Saturday: Mac & cheese Sunday: Leftovers What I'm Reminiscing About... My trips to the lake, my happy place. What I've Been Up To... Family visit from my sister C, bestie day with my best friend A and her daughter A, reading, watching sports/TV/movies, spending time with family. What I'm Dreading... Something very hard that my family and I are going through right now. It's been a very tough year. If you are the praying kind, my family could use all of the prayers right now. Thank you. What I'm Working On... My YT content schedule for June. What I'm Excited About... Visit from my sister C, spending time with my bestie and her daughter, the Knicks being in the NBA playoffs. What I'm Watching/Reading... Watching: Regular TV shows, MLB baseball, NBA playoffs, Netflix, movies Reading: I'm about to start ...

In April, I ended up reading four books which considering I had only read one book as of April 20th, I'm pretty proud of. Here are the books I read in April 2025: Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave (Book #5) –Elle Cosimano My Rating: 4 stars  If Goodreads had a half star system, I would have rated this book 4.5 stars. Another fabulous novel in the Finlay Donovan series. I think this series would make a great TV show on a streaming network. The novels are always so fun and entertaining. I love the relationship between the main character and her nanny/best friend/room-mate as well as the relationship between the main character and her love interest. Check & Mate –Ali Hazelwood My Rating: 4 stars I love Ali Hazelwood’s novels so much. This was a YA novel. Do I like or know anything about chess? No. That didn’t matter though because I loved the storyline. I loved the relationship between the main characters. I also really loved the relationship between the female main character an...

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Fries & cheesy bread Tuesday: Chicken with rice & veggies Wednesday: Salad I'm not sure about the rest of the week. What I'm Reminiscing About... My trips to the lake. What I'm Loving... My family came to visit for a week and I loved spending time with them. I've also been watching a lot of sports (baseball, college basketball, NBA). What I've Been Up To... Watching sports/TV/movies, spending time with my family. What I'm Dreading... Nothing at the moment. What I'm Working On... Filming & uploading videos for my YT channel. What I'm Excited About... I won second place in the Men's March Madness Bracket challenge. If Duke had beat Houston in the final four, I would have won first place for the second year in a row. What I'm Watching/Reading... Watching: All of the sports, TV shows, movies, and two Netflix documentaries. Reading: I read 4 books this month. My book blog post will be up next we...

  Currently… (What I've Been Doing Lately)   Celebrating: Winning second place in my March Madness Men's bracket challenge Drinking: My typical drinks: Iced coffee, water, Propel, Olipop Eating: Salads Reading: I finished Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave (book 5 in the series) by Elle Cosimano the other day and haven't started a new book yet.  Listening: A playlist I found on Spotify that has music I loved as a teenager. It's a been a fun nostalgic throwback. Watching: Men's & women's March Madness, MLB (Let's Go Mets), NBA, regular tv shows, Netflix Wanting: All of the stickers/planner acessories & books, as per usual. Haha. Loving: Spending time with family. Feeling: I'm always feeling so tired. Welcome to life with a chronic illness. Buying: Barebell Protein Bars, Peace Tea Iced Teas. Excited About:  My family visiting soon! Planner launch season for Erin Condren & Callie Danielle! Grateful For: My amazing ...

  Here are the books I read in March: While we’re Young –K.L. Walther My Rating: 4 stars (really 4.5 stars but Goodreads doesn't have a half star system) I always love all of K.L. Walther’s novels. Her novels are always so fun to read. This book is told from multiple POV’s and it worked perfectly. If you’re looking for a great YA author, I highly recommend K.L. Walther. Deep End –Ali Hazelwood My Rating: 5 stars I love this book so much. This novel was such a fun read. I enjoyed it from the start. I also loved that the sports that were focused on in this book were diving and swimming. I was on my local swim team growing up and if any of the high schools I attended had had a swim team, I would have tried out for the team. I loved this book so much and I didn’t want it to end. Not In Love -Ali Hazelwood My Rating: 5 stars Another fabulous novel by Ali Hazelwood. I love the relationship between the main characters and I loved the relationships between the main characters...

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Pasta with meatballs Tuesday: Caesar salad I'm not sure about the rest of the week. What I'm Reminiscing About... I'm still reminiscing about my two trips to the Caribbean. I wish it was summer right now because if I can't be in the Caribbean ocean, I'd take the pool or lake. I just love the water. What I'm Loving... Watching college basketball. I am in a March Madness Bracket Challenge with my brother, nephews and a bunch of people they know. Last year, I won it all. Right now I'm in 5th place going into this week's games that start tomorrow. What I've Been Up To... Watching lots of college basketball (both men's and women's), reading, filming for my YT channel, going to physical therapy appointments for my hip (unfortunately, they don't seem to be helping). What I'm Dreading... Pollen... it's been so bad here and my allergies are a mess even with being on two allergy medications. What...

  Here are the books I read in February 2025: The Rival –Emma Lord My Rating: 4 stars Emma Lord’s novels never disappoint. She knocks it out of the park in every novel she writes. This story focused on two rivals who compete over academics and pretty much everything else. Not only are they rivals but they have grown up together because their parents are best friends. This novel focuses on the start of their college journey and it’s a doozy. I highly recommend this book and all of Emma Lord’s novels. If Goodreads had a half star system, I would have rated it 4.5 stars.   Dinner with Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show –Bethany Joy Lenz My Rating: 3 stars I was really looking forward to this book as Bethany Joy Lenz is one of my favorite actresses (she was one of the stars of One Tree Hill which is one of my all-time favorite TV shows and she’s starred in a lot of Hallmark movies and some Lifetime movies that I love). So this book was a good read but not a favorite....

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Turkey, potatoes, veggies Tuesday: Cheesy bread (had a salad for a late lunch) I'm not sure about the rest of the week. What I'm Reminiscing About... My two trips I've taken to the Caribbean (2011 and I think 2016) which both happened in February. What I'm Loving... My sister C, BIL A, niece A, and nephew M came to visit for 8 days and it was really nice to see them and spend some quality time with them. I couldn't do a lot because of the pain in my hip but we manage to do a few things that didn't require a lot of walking for me. What I've Been Up To... Spending time with family, cleaning, relaxing. What I'm Dreading... The pollen coming with the start of Spring. I'm allergic to it and it bothers me so much. What I'm Working On... March content schedule for my Youtube channel. What I'm Excited About... Spending time with family, bestie day with A & A. What I'm Watching/Reading... Watching: ...

  In January, I typically still read Christmas books that are leftover from my TBR that I didn't get a chance to read in November or December. Here are the 5 books I read in Janurary 2025: The Christmas Crush -Noelle Douglas My Rating: 3 stars This was a cute Christmas romance. It talked a lot about baked goods so I was always wanting sweets (but I always crave sweet in general). While I thought the novel was good, it wasn’t my favorite Christmas novel I’ve read and not one I’d re-read. The Sleight before Christmas (Holiday Hijinx series #2) –Kate Stewart My Rating: 3 stars I was so excited to see a second book in this series. I didn’t love it as much as the first one (The Plight before Christmas) but I still really enjoyed it. The first novel in this series follows the story of Whitney. This novel follows the story of her sister, Serena & her husband Thatch. I would love to see more novels in this series.   Single & Ready to Jingle –Piper Rayne My Rating: 2 stars (...