Snow Day Reading!!

At the beginning of last week it became obvious that I would be soon having a few snow days. As the week progressed, the prediction for snow turned into Blizzard Warnings! So I did what any reader would do, I made sure I made it to the library to check out the books I had on hold! I couldn't leave them sitting on the shelf not being read. Below is what my snow day reading piles looked like before the storm.

Out of the 23 books I had on hand for snow day reading, I finished 16 books. Most were picture books, but after the reading rut I had last fall I was thrilled to read that many books! I'll be post about some of my favorites in the next few days. We ended up getting between 15-18 inches of snow! So I was outside shoveling for most of Sunday, but I had some great podcast episodes that I listened to. It made the time go by fast.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey. The kid's version was started by Jen at Teach Mentor Text and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. 

I have not been able to do a lot of reading this week. I am participating in a pilot program for the new management system of the iPads that we have in my county. So I have been working late at school doing activities related to that. Friday was the only night late school week that I got home before 9:00pm!

I did manage to read one book yesterday. I read Finding Someplace by Denise Lewis Patrick. Click here for a summary on Goodreads. This book was another book about Hurricane Katrina. It was an easy read that kept my interest. i could see how the book was going to end before it got there, but that didn't detract from the overall story. The book gave some details of the aftermath, but not too many to make it not appropriate for an elementary school setting. As terrified as I am about hurricanes, I'm always drawn to those books.

Hopefully I will be able to read more and post more this week. I'm going to try and write some reviews of the books that I read from my last post. What have you been reading?

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

It's Monday!! What Are You Reading?

This meme was started by Sheila at Book Journey. The kid's version was started by Jen at Teach Mentor Text and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. 

I've hit the ground reading this January. Since school started in August, I struggled to get a lot (well, any) reading done. Which in turn meant I didn't get much blogging done. I was just so frustrated with myself, so part of my nerdlution is to do more reading and blogging.

I have already read 14 books so far! One was even a grown up book! And there were a few titles from my Must Reads in 2016! I've decided to read one or two grown up books a month. Sometimes I just need something different. Below is what I have read so far. I'll be posting about the books this week. Some I enjoyed more than others and some I really really loved! What have you been reading this week?

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

Must Reads of 2016

As I looked back at 2015, I knew that I didn't have the best reading year. There were lots of things that got in the way of my reading during the second half of the year. I am determined not to let it happen this year. Pictured below are my Must Reads of 2016. A few are not brand new books, but ones that have been on my to read list for a while. I can't wait to see what books others consider Must Reads of 2016. I know I will be adding more to my list as I read other posts!

I've added a few others to my Must Read list since I made the graphic above.

*Penguin's Christmas Wish by Salina Yoon
*It's Not Time For Sleeping by Salina Yoon
*Firelight (Amulet #7) by Kazu Kibuishi
*Horrible Bear by Ame Dyckman and Zachariah OHora


Also if you know of any great nonfiction I should be reading, let me know. Nonfiction is my book gap. I usually enjoy the books that I end up reading, but I don't actively seek nonfiction books to read.

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

My 2016 Nerdlution

I've been doing a lot of thinking about what my Nerdlution should be this year. Last year I carried mine beyond the 50 days. I was very successful, see my post here. This post is also shares my one word for 2016. If you don't know what Nerdlution is, read Christopher Lehman's post with FAQ's.



After much thought, my Nerdlution is year is going to be all about me. My one word for 2016 is balance, which has been lacking in my life. I tend to spend a lot of time working on school work and I don't spend time doing things that aren't related to school. Well over winter break I decided that needed to change! So below is my plan.

*At least one a month get a group of friends together and have dinner out.

*Take two nights each week to work on either my cross stitch project or work on my scrapbook or any other project that has nothing to do with school.


This fall I didn't do a lot of posting to my blog or being a presence on Twitter. I missed all the Twitter chats that I participated in and the friends that I have made. I also didn't do as much reading as I wanted to. So below is my plan for getting back to Twitter, blogging and reading.

*Go to the public library at least twice a month for new books.
*Blog at least twice a week on the books I'm reading. One post will hopefully be my "It's Monday! What Are You Reading" post.
*Be present on Twitter and put on my calendar a reminder for the different chats so that I don't forget.

I'm hoping that this Nerdlution will help me feel less adrift this year. I didn't feel settled and that I was just putting out fire after fire without getting anywhere. I'm going to hold myself to this Nerdlution so that I can start to have a little fun in my life again!

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)

2016: A Brand New Year

I've been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting during these first few days of 2016. For me 2015 was a mixed bag of successes and in my mind, failures. I'm OK with the failures because the successes were pretty big.

Over the past few years, my weight has been creeping up higher and higher. Every year I make some vague resolutions about losing weight. I never followed through for more than a month. On New Year's Eve in 2014 I wrote myself a letter about where I wanted to be in my life on New Year's Eve 2015. I sealed up the letter and didn't open it up. 

My big success in 2015 was losing weight. In my letter, I wanted to lose 20 pounds. Well, I lost almost 60 pounds!! I've posted about my weight loss journey, complete with two pictures, here. It has been a struggle at times, but for the first time I was actually successful. 

This process took over my life/mind and I didn't accomplish many of my other goals for 2015, but I'm OK with that. Losing weight was such a huge task that took all of my focus. I think that in 2016 I will be able to focus on other things because I know what it takes to lose the holiday weight that I've put back on.


I like the idea of having one word to focus the year. For 2016, my one word is:


     Balance 

In the past few year I have not been able to find a balance between my school life and my personal life. My school life has taken over completely, especially since August 2015. There were some changes this school year that I didn't have control over, so I've had to take back over many responsibilities that I had given up. This did not help with any balance in my life. I was looking online for an image to help me remember my one word. I found many, but I'm so scared to post any due to copyright issues. So I looked through my personal photographs and found the perfect image from my trip to Arches National Park this past summer.

Check back tomorrow for my Nerdlution. This is were I'll outline my goals for this brand new year!

Happy Reading!!

Stacey (@libraryjo92)