What a week this has been! It has both seemed to fly by super fast and also drag on. So bizarre. Part of it is because work has been a bit crazy. I think I mentioned before that I’ve been covering for a co-worker who has been out due to recovering from surgery. I’m also trying to plan for being gone for vacation, which is not next week, but the week after. I don’t know if my co-worker will be back by then, so there is a whole lot to prepare for before I leave. That doesn’t include what I have to do at home to get ready or packing.

We have to fly on a plane. I hate planes.

Otherwise, it’s been a pretty good week, just busy. I’ve also started rehearsals for Sister Act this week, so not only have my days been hectic, I’ve been gone every evening. I don’t have rehearsal tonight, so I can go home and rest up a bit. Early bedtime for me! Such an exciting life I lead!

Let’s take a look at reading progress:

• I’ve been doing much better with my posts on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. I’ve read chapters 25 to 29 this week, although I didn’t write up a post for 29 yet. I meant to yesterday, just ran out of time, so if I get going this afternoon/evening, I might post two of them today to make up for missing it yesterday. My goal is to finish this one before I leave for vacation, which works out perfectly for one chapter each day. Let’s see if I can do it!
• Good progress made on Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey. I read chapters 38 to 46 and boy, did it take a dark turn! I wasn’t necessarily expecting that. I think I’m about halfway through the book now.
• I read chapters 28 to 30 of Where I End and You Begin by Preston Norton, finishing that book. I really, really enjoyed it, and you can see my review for it here.

That’s not as much as I’ve done in the past, but I’m making good progress and quite frankly, it’s hard to focus on just reading right now with all the other stuff I have going on. Lucky for us, books are always there to come back to. 🙂

You’ll probably see me again later today for more Harry Potter goodness. Otherwise, have a wonderful weekend!

I can’t believe that May is practically over! This year is going by so fast, and while May has been crazy and hectic, it has also been pretty damn productive. I actually feel slightly optimistic for the first time in a while, which is insane.

Starting off, I was finally able to get back to the doctor and get back on some meds to help manage my chronic pain. I’ve been unable to go for almost a year, and from what I can tell, things are starting to work. It’s only been a week, but I have seen some improvements to my pain levels, and also my ability to sleep through the night. That right there makes all the difference in the world.

As I have mentioned in the past, I had to pull my daughter out of school and finish 8th grade homeschooling her. She is also finally on some medication that is helping her anxiety and severe depression. We finished taking our end of year exams last weekend, so homeschooling is done for this year. We are hoping she can return to public school next year so she can start high school with her friends, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

My last announcement is that I will be going back to the theater! As some of you know, over the past five years, I have discovered my love for community theater and have performed in several shows. Because of my health and my daughter’s issues, I have had to take a break from it, but this summer I will be in a local production of Sister Act! It’s a fun show, one I’ve done before, and although I won’t say since they haven’t officially posted the cast list, I have a pretty big part. I’m super excited! It’s going to be a blast!

So now, let’s talk about the blog. This month, I’ve done 37 posts. That’s pretty good! I know I took a little bit of time off around the middle, so I’m happy with that number. Those 37 posts include:

• 2 Added to GoodReads lists
• 3 Blog Tours
• 1 Cover Reveal
• 2 Book Reviews (outside of blog tours)
• 12 Chapter-A-Longs
• 1 Announcement
• 3 Nostalgic Reads
• 3 Teaser Tuesdays
• 1 Top Ten Tuesday
• 5 Wrap-Ups (including this one)
• 4 WWW Wednesdays

And I *might* have two more posts this afternoon – another Chapter of Harry Potter and a book tag post that I just saw last night. We’ll see how it goes. I love this blog so much and really appreciate all the other wonderful bloggers I get to interact with. You guys bring me such joy!

Let’s take a quick look at the reading progress for this week, shall we?

• I did really good with Chapter-A-Longs this week, y’all! I read and posted Chapters 19 to 24 in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! And I might get to posting another one this afternoon! My goal is to finish Goblet of Fire before I leave for vacation later in June and then start Order of the Phoenix when I get back.
• I read chapters 6 through 27 of Where I End and You Begin by Preston Norton and it has been really, really good. I can’t wait to share this review with you!
• I read chapters 27 through 37 of Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey, and should get to more of it this weekend. I’m coming up on the end of my ARCs in preparation of being gone for vacation, so I will have more time to devote to this going forward.

Only three books, but honestly, I’m okay with that right now. It’s letting me focus a bit more and really, I need to do that to get through Kushiel’s Avatar. And then, it will be time to finish the Throne of Glass series.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Whew! This has been a crazy week for me! Work has been much more hectic than usual, between training a new employee and also getting training myself to cover another employee that is going out on medical leave. I’ve felt a bit pulled in many directions all at once, but I think we’re all good now.

It’s meant a bit less reading and a bit less blogging, which is unfortunate since that is one of my big stress relieving activities. I love talking about books, what can I say! I’ve also been spending a lot of time with my daughter, who is fourteen and has had a lot of issues that we are dealing with. I don’t remember if I mentioned it here (I think I did, but don’t trust my memory), but we did have to pull her out of school and home school her for the rest of the year. It has been very challenging, but I just ordered her end of grade exams from a testing service and once she finishes those, we are done for the year. Very much looking forward to that! It has been a roller coaster, that’s for sure!

Reading log:

• I read the first five chapters of Art of Death by Becca Vincenza. This one is for a blog tour coming up towards the end of this month.
• I read the first six chapters of The Bone Charmer by Breeana Shields. Another blog tour book for this month.
• I read Chapter 14 of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling.
• I read The New Girl by R.L. Stine for a Nostalgic Reads post, which you can see here. I love these because I can knock out an entire book in usually about an hour.

And . . . that’s really it? I only started those two books so that I could finish them in a timely manner for the tours. If not for that, and the Nostalgic post, I may not have read anything this week. Seeing that brings on the fears of another dreaded reading slump, but I don’t want to start thinking that way. I’ve been doing so much better and having so much fun. No backsliding!

I am hoping to get another Harry Potter Chapter-A-Long post up today, but I’m starting to wonder if I need to quit trying so hard on those. My original goal was to have one up every day, but that was when I was attempting to finish one HP book per month, and that’s definitely not going to happen with Goblet of Fire if I want to keep doing the Chapter-A-Long posts. I’ve gotten some positive feedback on those, so I’m guessing y’all enjoy them as much as I enjoy writing them. It would obviously be easier if they went to being a once per week deal, but that would take FOREVER to get through the whole series. So I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it.

I’m also planning on getting another Nostalgic Reads post up this weekend – heading back to Sweet Valley! That’s only if I can find a copy of the next book. Due to crazy week (see above), I forgot to look for one in advance like I usually do. If I can’t find it, I’ll come up with something else.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Oh lordy, you guys, it’s finally Friday. I am so so so so grateful for that. This week has lasted forever and it’s been a rough one for me. Lots of strange, stressful things going on in my personal life, some good and some bad, but all just incredibly tiring. Working through it all as best I can though, which is all I can do. I would certainly appreciate any good vibes you can send my way. The next month or so is going to be very, very difficult.

Despite all this, I did manage to get quite a bit of reading done, which is nice.

• I read chapters 69 through 75 of Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas, finally finishing that book! It was really, really good and I can’t wait to jump into the next one, although that will take me a while to get to.
• I also read chapters 6 through 37 of What We Do For Love by Anne Pfeffer. also finishing that book. It looks like a lot of chapters, but most of them were pretty short. This book was a fairly quick read, but I enjoyed it! More about that next week.
• I only read chapters 11 through 13 for my Chapter-A-Long with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling. I’m going to try and aim for at least five chapters/posts for next week.
• I read All Night Long by Kate William/Francine Pascal for my Nostalgic Reads series. I like doing those because I can down a book in one setting, something that is pretty impossible to do with most of the stuff I read. You can see that post here.
• Continued my progress on Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey, reading chapters 4 through 16. Not too shabby there. I am so excited to be reading that one. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to cross off anything on my “Complete the Series” list, and once I finish this one, I’ll be able to do just that.

These posts might be boring to some of you, since I post similar stuff on WWW Wednesdays, but it does help me see that I am making a lot of progress, which makes me feel better about how things are going. I love making lists and logs about things that I’m working on. Clears out the head space for new things.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I will hopefully be here tomorrow with a new Nostalgic Reads post – not Sweet Valley High this time! Branching out a little!