Owlowiscious Girls

I usually take a break here in December to focus on Advent and wrap up my Popsugar Challenge.  I needed to give a personal update and to say I am still reading just much more slowly.   I was doing okay with the old schedule and with the challenge up until our family has had a bit of a crisis NOT involving Lucy's Type 1 Diabetes diagnosis but rather my husband's job and his mental and physical health.  I have been in support and cheerleader mode.  It doesn't leave much time for reading and reviewing but, you know, seasons of life and all that.  It is very important not to let my personal goals and preferences to take center stage.  I need to be here for my husband and for my family.  Sure, I am going to miss this part of my life and I will be here from time to time just not in the way it use to be.  What I have been trying to read these last few weeks: I started the complete collection of Little Women , Good Wives, and Little Men about...

September Stats: 32/40 & 5/10  Total: 37/50 1. A book becoming a movie in 2019: *2. A book that makes you nostalgic: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett 3. A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction): *4. A book you think should be turned into a movie:  The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell *5. A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold *6. A book with a plant in the title or on the cover:  Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling *7. A reread of a favorite book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling *8. A book about a hobby: Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Fredrick *9. A book you meant to read in 2018: Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick 10. A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title: NOVEMBER BOOK *11. A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover:  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay Pin) *12. A book inspired b...

It took awhile to get motivated this week to be honest.  Last week I didn't get to write at all because our family was picking out a kitten!  Can you believe it?  I will post more pictures once we get the poor thing out of the cone of shame because she was spade and will have to have it one for nearly 2 weeks.  Also since I didn't make dinner last week I ordered a pizza but it took FOREVER to be ready so I didn't even get home till nearly 8 o'clock.  But I was able to spend some quality time reading The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell with Ariana.  This is a fun story about wizards who are being persecuted by the warriors but a boy wizard named Xar and a girl warrior named Wish team up together in an unlikely twist of fate.  We are a little half way done.  It is very suspenseful so far and Ariana is so worried about what will happen to her favorite character named Squeezejoos.  I did manage to read with Hermione, too. ...

September Stats: 28/40 & 3/10  Total: 31/50 1. A book becoming a movie in 2019: Looking for Alaska* 2. A book that makes you nostalgic: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett 3. A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction): Natalie Grant books 4. A book you think should be turned into a movie: 5. A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 6. A book with a plant in the title or on the cover:  Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling 7. A reread of a favorite book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling 8. A book about a hobby: Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Fredrick 9. A book you meant to read in 2018: Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick 10. A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title: NOVEMBER BOOK 11. A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover:  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay Pin) 12. A book inspired by myth/legend/...

I miss writing.  I miss not feeling guilty for loving to read and write.  Unfortunately bad luck seems to follow me or to say it a bit more dramatically- the Devil is attacking but God will overcome.  It has been a very rough end of summer and this obvious disrupts my schedule which in the grand scheme is the least of my worries, but I know for me just doing what is "normal" for me will at least help me feel like "normal" has returned.  Sorry about being cryptic but the situation is so complicated and sensitive I am not at liberty to share.  But  I can say that I will keep reading and writing.  That will not change.  I just have no idea if it will be once a week, once every few weeks, or once a month. Let me see if I can begin again..... This was the first official week of the start of school where we live.  I decided to try to do theme weeks again.  I am going to keep them going through 2020 so that I have plenty of time to plan the...

August Stats: 26/40 & 2/10  Total: 28/50 1. A book becoming a movie in 2019: Looking for Alaska* 2. A book that makes you nostalgic: Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett 3. A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction): Natalie Grant books 4. A book you think should be turned into a movie: 5. A book with at least one million ratings on Goodreads: The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 6. A book with a plant in the title or on the cover: 7. A reread of a favorite book: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling 8. A book about a hobby: Absolutely Truly by Heather Vogel Fredrick 9. A book you meant to read in 2018: Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick 10. A book with POP, SUGAR, or CHALLENGE in the title: NOVEMBER BOOK 11. A book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover:  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay Pin) 12. A book inspired by myth/legend/folklore: Circe by Madeline Miller 13. A book published posthumously: ...

There are only about a couple weeks left for the official library reading and I am so behind.  I have been listening to so many audio books just to get the books in.  I was particularly feeling guilty with all the clutter in the house that I didn't read for FOUR DAYS!!!!  But here is where I am in my Library Bingo:  I only have made one Bingo so far!  I will give you a quick run down of what I have read since my last update.  Audio book on my bingo A book based on mythology First book in a series An Award Winning Book Reread a favorite Your choice- literally finished this while typing this entry Also today is the Reverse Dewey 24 Hour Readathon and I didn't have much time to prepare.  I won't even really be able to participate because tomorrow is Ariana's Theater Camp performance and I do not want to miss it or be absolutely exhausted for it.  So I don't know what time I should wake up tomor...

A couple of days ago I read a memoir for the library summer reading challenge.  It was very moving and really changed my perspective on my own personal day to day struggles.  This book is about the author, Frank McCourt, and his experience of growing up in Ireland from 1930s-1940s.  His father was almost always drunk and the family is always on the brink of starvation.  This memoir is unique in that it doesn't contain the appropriate quotation marks which might bother people.  I know it bothers me when I read a Cormac McCarthy book a couple years ago, but I would encourage you to give this book a try.  I highly recommended it.  It caused me to be so grateful for the life I live now and my own growing up years.  This book is also mostly written in the voice of a child which really shed light on so many things that kids can see that seem so hypocritical and at the end of the day it is.  Which brings us to the Catholic church.  McCourt ...

I love going to the library.  I don't think that was a secret or anything I just needed you to know.  I especially love the summer reading programs for ALL ages.  Since last year I took on that huge project for The Great American Read and did a fair amount of reading (12 books) but didn't put a conscious effort into participating in the library programs.  Oh, sure I put my tickets in every time I read a book but I didn't go to any events and my kids barely read at all.  I would like to change that this year.  I am going to take lots of picture, of course, and see if I can read 20 books by the end of summer.  I am basically going to have to read a book every 2 or 3 days.  The theme this year is A Universe of Stories- I believe it is in honor of the 50 year anniversary of the moon landing.  So there is a lot of planet and space type stuff around our library.  They even put up a summer reading photo type both. I have finished 2 books...

We have ONE MORE WEEK OF SCHOOL!  At this point my reading is suffering largely in part of keeping the kids motivated to finish this last week.  Getting to bed and waking up on time has been a real struggle.  I haven't had time to put holds on books and have suddenly taken full advantage of my Kindle and the Library2Go and the app Libby.  I still prefer holding a real book but this will have to do for now.  I have been mostly reading kids books but those totally count.  I haven't kept to any one particular schedule. This is what I have been up to..... I reread and partially listened to The Hunger Games Triology by Suzanne Collins.  I loosely put it in my challenge prompts "a book with an item of clothing or accessory on the cover" because of the Mockingjay Pin and someone said I could put Catching Fire as a "cli-fi book" so I did.  Whether it counts or not would be up for debate but that is where it is going because I am too far behind. ...