Holiday Extravaganza Guest Post at I'm Lost in Books

Hey everyone! I'd love for you to head over to Becca's Holiday Extravaganza at I'm Lost in Books where I'm guest posting today. If you do, you'll find out about my love for The Grinch in all his forms! 

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Thanks

I plan to post a general thankful sort of post on Thursday, so for The Broke and Bookish's top ten today, I thought I'd stick with a bookish theme.

Top Ten Bookish Things I'm Thankful For

1. Book releases every Tuesday, though sometimes I wish they'd give us a little break so we can CATCH UP!

2. Author visits and signings, though I'm still too shy to really make good use of these connections.

3. Book bloggin' buddies. I've said it before and I'll say it again, you all make this worth it!

4. Swoony scenes, even though I'm still not sure EXACTLY what makes one, one.

5. Bookish people who get excited about other bookish and geeky sort of things, like bookish movies and Dr. Who.

6. Authors who tweet fun things and not just book promotion things. And authors who respond to tweets! Ah yes. That.

7. ARCs and sites and publishers that provide them, and devices that make it even easier.

8. Awesome sequels and series finales that make trilogies and series actually worth it.

9. Bloggers who participate in read alongs! Even if I'm hosting them!

10. Book club. Always book club!

Hmmm... do I have to stop at ten? I guess I will for now.

What bookish sort of things are you thankful for?

Happy 4th!

To wish you a Happy 4th here in the US I'm sharing one of my favorite songs! It's actually a Civil War song and is set to Civil War images, but still. I think it'll work for today too.




What patriotic song really moves you?

Thankful

Every year I make list at Thanksgiving of things I'm thankful for. I'm guessing those lists are starting to sound the very same each year! But still, it's fun to revisit the topic, even if they are all the same.

Here's what's on my mind this year:

**I'm thankful for being able to connect here with other readers. It's weird to think back to a time where I was just my own lonely self, reading and reading, with no one to talk and gush with. It's awesome this technology for sharing our interests. I hope we never take it for granted.

**I'm thankful for people who share their talents. The dude there at the top of my post for one, the authors who write the awesome books, the fellow book bloggers who end up sharing quilting tutorials, the amazing pictures I see on Instagram, the performers who I love to go watch in the theater... and on and on.

**Speaking of that, I'm thankful for all the many ways we can express creativity. Being able to create is an awesome thing, and I love that we have this aspect in our lives. It would be a dull awful life without it.

**I'm thankful for food, even it it's the bane of my existence. Stupid yummy food!

** I'm thankful for those people I spend all my time with... family, friends at work, IRL book friends... because we all know this is what it's really all about.

** I'm thankful for the ability to travel. We haven't gone to very many exotic places, but we we do get out and about to see the country now and then and it's awesome out there! I wish we could do it more, but maybe that time is coming, I hope.

** I'm thankful for health. That's a pretty big one, yes? Here's hoping it continues to stay good!

Well, so there's tons more I could list, but I'd say these are the main ones I'm pondering this year! Here's wishing you all a wonderful fun holiday weekend!

Stuff I'm Thankful For

Because it's Thanksgiving here in the US, I will now share with you a list.... a very random list.

I'm thankful for:

-- authors who aren't scared to put themselves out on paper and share it with the rest of us to ponder of, argue about, and sometimes tear to pieces.

-- authors who take the time to come out of their comfort zone and meet with fans

-- the fact that I will never ever run out of books to read.

-- health, something I'm realizing more and more is not to be taken for granted and is quite an usual thing to have.

-- chocolate in all its many forms.

-- music in all ITS many forms!

-- a warm house and quilts to snuggle up in when it's blustery outside, and a switch I can flip to cool things off when it's stifling outside.

-- those annoying, irritating animals we call pets who somehow seem to always make us smile and bring a sense of grounding to our lives.

-- libraries... may they never go out of fashion.

-- leisure time, so I can pursue random trivial pursuits that only exist to make me happy.

-- stories in all its many forms....including TV.

-- everyone who comments here and talks to me on Twitter... so that I don't feel too invisible.

-- family and friends of course!

-- warm water in showers.

-- milk

-- all sorts of other food stuffs

-- modern day appliances

-- gadgety things that are fun to play with

-- ice

-- and so so many other things!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Enjoy the day and don't go shopping until Friday so that stores will FAIL on Thursday night and re-think their strategy!

A Bit of Me(Me): Thankful

Today for our Saturday A Bit of Me(Me) post hosted by There's a Book, we are to talk about things we are thankful for, which of course, there's a lot!

Last year I did such a post and just made a nice long list. Here's the link to that if you want to revisit it. And what do you know, I still like and agree with all the stuff on this list!

Three years ago I even made a video about things I'm thankful for. Here's the wild thing, I actually found it! Perhaps you'd like to watch it?

This year, all I think I need to add is that I'm thankful for health and life and just existing! I'm thankful for the little things, all that stuff we take for granted. Being able to get up in the morning and have a day to do pretty much whatever I want. Being able to go to a fun job, read, play on the computer, take care of kids, make dinner, clean the house (yes even that), drive where I need to go, be involved in lots of things, be interested in lots of things and just living life. 

Yes, that's what I'm thankful for.

I'm Thankful For....

• libraries


• dishwashers


• quilts


• kitties


• drums


• cars


• levis and tshirts


• happy kids


• a supportive husband


• chocolate chips


• a huge extended family


• travel opportunities


• cameras


• indoor plumbing


• authors


• book bloggin' buddies


• Josh Groban


• mountains, trees, flowers and rain


• fresh tomatoes


• book shelves


• computers


• music


• Honey Bunches of Oats


• electricity


• book clubs


• memories


• grandma and grandpa


• air conditioning


• perms


• Ibuprofen


• ice cold water
• freedom


• and last, but not least, BOOKS!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

NaNoWriMo... NOT... and other stuff

I got a kick out of John Green's latest vlog so I thought I'd share.... especially for all you NaNoWriMo types! He cracks me up...



Good luck to all you writers. I wish I could try it, just for fun, but I decided to put that little thought on hold for now. Maybe some year.



In other news....


Want to learn more about my book club? We're featured today over at Booking Mama's so be sure to go check it out!



Oh, and it's time for all the fun blogger Christmas festivities to begin. If you want to participate in the Book Blogger's Holiday Swap, go sign up before Nov. 12. I promise, it's very fun. Then there's the Blog Advent Tour that's coming up during the month of December, so be watching The Written World for more details on that. And finally, we've got the Buy Books for the Holidays cause starting up again too, so don't forget to check that out!



Whew. What fabulous ideas everyone comes up with and all the work and organization that goes into everything. It's very cool.

The Fourth of July Weekend

We had a barbecue.... this was the beginning of the set up. I should have taken a picture of the finished look with way too much food, but by then, there was too much going on to think of cameras.

Then we went to a big celebration at the stadium....

.... and saw Blue Man Group....

.... and Miley Cyrus....

.... and fireworks!

Here's someone else's Youtube video of the event. This shows my favorite part... the jet flyover!

And then on Saturday, we had yet another family barbecue! Good thing we like those hamburgers!

Kicking Off the 4th

Every year our community puts on a huge 4th of July celebration. They always kick it off with a patriotic Sunday service which we've never attended until last night. That's because Glenn Beck was the keynote speaker, and we've been hearing so much about him that we just had to go see what he was all about!

The whole thing ended up being really quite fun. Hearing thousands of people saying the Pledge of Allegiance gets to me every time. They also had some wonderful patriotic songs going on, both band and singing. That was great too. Then finally Glenn Beck took the stage and wow... he is one powerful speaker. There's no falling asleep while he's talking that's for sure! He referred often to 9/11 which choked him up a bit, and to the signing of the Declaration of Independence. His whole message was one of trying to be more positive about our country. He said that we need to count on each other to make this country great and to do our part. He said that this country IS special and that we shouldn't get down on ourselves so much, because of all the problems it's going through. That we should hold our heads up high and get on with fixing things.

Anyway, it was fun and I'm glad we finally made the effort to go to this event. It was a great way to start this patriotic week!