Living a Joyful Life

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Fish & veggies Tuesday: Chicken & veggies Wednesday: Pizza Thursday: Late lunch. Friday: Mac & cheese from Trader Joe's Saturday: Breakfast for dinner Sunday: Corn beef, cabbage, veggies, and Irish soda bread. We didn't have our Irish meal on St. Patrick's Day because we had bloodwork scheduled for the following day. What I'm Reminiscing About... All of my trips to visit my nephews and nieces when they were growing up. I can't believe how fast time flies and how fast my nephews and nieces have grown and are growing up. Right now, I have 2 nephews and 2 nieces in college, nephew who is a senior in HS, niece who is a junior in HS, nephew who is a sophomore in HS, nephew who is a freshman in HS, nephew in 5th grade, and nephew in 3rd grade. What I'm Loving... March Madness! What I've Been Up To... My nephew and his basketball team won their county championship game and then they won the championship game ...

  Change of Plans –Sarah Dessen My Rating: 4 stars (really 4.5) From acclaimed and #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah Dessen comes a romantic coming-of-age novel about an unassuming girl who learns to stand on her own while falling in love during a life-changing summer. This is Sarah Dessen’s first novel in a number of years and I am so excited to have a new release from her. This novel is expected to be published May 5th, 2026. I won this book in a giveaway on Goodreads. I’m not allowed to really say anything about the book as it has yet to be published but I will say that I loved it so much and I really hope Sarah Dessen doesn’t have another big gap between publishing novels because I love her writing so much. I’m pretty sure I’ve rated all of her novels either 4 or 5 stars. Two Can Play -Ali Hazelwood (a novella) My Rating: 5 stars I loved this novella so much and  I really wish it was a full length novel. I loved the main characters and the secondary characte...

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Pizza Tuesday: Chicken pot pie Wednesday: Cheeseburger, sweet potato Thursday: Pot stickers from Costco, vegetable, rice Friday: Pizza Saturday: Fish & pasta Sunday: Chipotle What I'm Reminiscing About.... My trips to visit my family, especially when my nieces and nephews were young. What I'm Loving... Spending time with my mom and my cats, watching the Olympics. What I've Been Up To... Cleaning and organizing my room, watching the Olympics, spending time with my mom and my cats. My pain is so bad. I've been dealing with chronic hip pain since 2017 and it's really debilitating. What I'm Dreading... Pollen season/spring allergies. I am allergic to pollen so it's not a fun time when the pollen arrives. What I'm Working On... Organizing and decluttering, my content schedule for Youtube for March. What I'm Excited About... My nephew N's team is in the playoffs for basketball. They won their first playo...

  One Christmas Morning –Rachel Greenlaw My Rating: 4 stars My mom saw this book in a store for me and thought I would like it and she was right. The main character is stuck repeating the same day in the body/mind of different women in her life. I really enjoyed this concept.   Once Upon a Holidate –Susan Mallery My Rating: 4 stars I didn’t know this was the 6th book in the series when I picked it up but I think the only thing I missed was the backstory of the other secondary characters in this book. This includes three POV’s… Wynn Beauchene, Garrick McCabe, and Garrick’s grown daughter. I loved this book a-lot.   Anatomy of an Alibi –Ashley Elston My Rating: 5 stars This novel is so good, I could not put it down! I loved everything about it. This was a great thriller/mystery. If you loved First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston, I highly recommend this novel as well. I loved the dual POV’s in this novel.   Heart Life Music –Kenny Chesney My Rati...

  What We're Eating This Week... Monday: Pot stickers, rice, veggies Tuesday: Chicken, sweet potato pie Wednesday: Pasta & meatballs Thursday: Leftovers I'm not sure about the rest of the week. What I'm Reminiscing About... The two trips I took to the Caribbean. I wish I could afford to go to the Caribbean every year because I love the Caribbean ocean so much. What I'm Loving... Spending time with my mom, spending time with my cats, watching sports. What I've Been Up To... Watching lots of sports (NFL football, college football, NBA basketball), reading, watching TV & movies with my mom, filming for my YouTube channel. What I'm Dreading... I always get the blues in January because Christmas and the holiday season go by so fast. To cheer myself up a bit, I make Christmas last as long as possible. I give my Christmas playlist another listen in January, I still watch Christmas movies in January and February, I read a few Christmas books in January. I leave ...

  Currently reading? I haven’t started a new book for 2026 yet.   Your book goal of 2025? 70   How many books read in 2025? 72   Fiction/Non-fiction ratio? 72/0 Favorite book(s) read? 1.          One Golden Summer –Carley Fortune 2.          Rage –Linda Castillo 3.          A First Time for Everything –K.L. Walther 4.          Atmosphere –Taylor Jenkins Reid 5.           Deep End –Ali Hazelwood Least favorite(s)? Mint to Be –Katie Cicatelli-Kuc   Longest title? Dinner With Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show –Bethany Joy Lenz   Shortest title? I read a few books with a one word title.   How many re-reads? 2   How many audio books? 0   How many of this year’s books were from ...