Happy 2018 to all! Do you do resolutions? Have goals for 2018? Reading goals? Life goals?

You know what they say about the best laid plans...
2017 was a whirlwind for me. 2018 I hope I can relax a little and enjoy life. So far, not exactly what is happening but I am trying. My word of the year is JOY.

I am thankful to have discovered a new way to connect with my faith within the last few weeks and I am looking forward to exploring my creative unabilities in 2018. Here's a look at some of my work with Bible Journaling recently:

This one is my favorite

The monogram is copied from a gift I received for Christmas

and this one is my second favorite

I expect (hope) to get better as I acquire more tools and of course, time. Time is needed to read books  and I did not have much of that in 2017 with the selling of a house (which was/still is a heartbreak for me) and moving to a brand new house. No more pond pictures or pretty trees from me, sadness.

So with all that drama, I only read 13 books in 2017 but here's the summary from Goodreads. Thank God for Goodreads because I would have forgotten half of what I read already.


I did complete an entire trilogy by Petra Durst-Benning and I also read a Pulitzer Prize winner, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr towards the beginning of the year which really was a great start to my year! But then I said "honey, I love you, and I know you want to move. So let's get the process started." Someday he will appreciate my sacrifice.


I enjoyed some new authors with what I call 'comfort reads' which are fun, easy to get into type of a story for me when everything else is falling apart around me. Suspense/mystery/thriller Gone Girl style with authors like Paula Hawkins, Ruth Ware and JP Delaney. And of course I got caught up on my favorite male author Billy Coffey (There Will Be Stars was a 5 star read of 2017 along with All The Light We Cannot See). He is one that I actually pre-order his books regardless of cost.
And I managed to finish a book I had to put down a year or more before by female favorite author Elizabeth Chadwick.

What I found is that I struggle immensely with actual physical books. eBooks are a much better fit for my routine these days. With Amazon Prime I get a free book a month, plus with Kindle unlimited I can download any of the eBooks in that unlimited status. And of course if my library has anything available I can borrrow eBooks from them as well but they have a 2 week loan period and I can't hang with that timeframe. A huge change from five years ago, right?!

After I am done with my current read (book two of the All Souls Trilogy) I am reading A Wrinkle in Time as the January selection for a local book club that I am a co-host of. Why why why why


Other than all that -- kids are well, I have a sophomore and a fifth grader now, and Sweetie is still the light of my life :)
meow!

PS I turned off commenting long, long ago.. so go find me on facebook to say hello!