Happy Monday, friends! Thanks for continuing to be patient with me as I ease back into regular blogging in a way that doesn't feel forced or obligatory. I've been surprised over the last two months or so at how little I've missed it, which speaks to just how caught up in the culture of 'I have to post every day!' I had gotten. I think I've successfully broken that habit, but now I've got rebuild a healthy blogging relationship.

It's always kind of a weird thing to find myself in a slump. I usually realize it after I've been in it for awhile. Whether that's me subconsciously ignoring the signs or just being too busy to notice them, I couldn't tell you, but I'd like to think I'm getting better these days at taking breaks and making my mental health a priority.

On the plus side, we're almost finished painting our house and will be moving on to the floors soon (although I can't say I'm looking forward to the physicality of that part), and the magazine has officially entered its second year so I'm no longer having to build each issue from scratch. With Alexis having a set schedule for school, I'm able to set a more firm schedule for myself when it comes to work, and while it's still not very comparable to a desk job, having a range of hours dedicated just to the magazine every day is definitely helping me set clearer boundaries with my time.

To anyone going through a similar season of life, I hope you know that things will get better and remember that it's not selfish to cut back on things (or people) that unnecessarily drain you. Your time to bloom will come back around.

I read a lot during my blog/social media hiatus. However, most of what I read was shorter stories that all fell into kind of the same genre, so I decided for the sake of this post to only include the four books that I didn't read in one sitting and that aren't part of a series that I'm in the middle of.


The Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy
Author: Nora Roberts

Comprised of Dark Witch, Shadowspell, and Blood Magick, this series focuses on three cousins living in the modern world who are fulfilling their ancestors' quest to rid the world of a great evil. The first book focuses on Iona, the second on Connor, and the third on Branna. Throughout the journey, they find love and connect with the original three.

My first foray into Nora Roberts is all thanks to my mother, who sent this complete series home with me one weekend. I've never had a desire to read any of Roberts's books, despite knowing many people (like my mom) who love her work. These sparked my interest because of the magic. I grew up on Harry Potter, lost myself in The Lord of the Rings, read everything Tamora Pierce wrote, and fell in love with The Paper Magician. Fantasy is my absolute favorite thing to read, be it based on the real or a made-up world, and this series did not disappoint.


The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
Author: Kelly Harms

Amy Byler has forgotten who she is in the years since her husband left her and their children. She's devoted herself to her job as a school librarian and mother, never taking time for herself, but then the wayward husband returns and wants to be part of his kids' lives...at least for the summer. Amy reluctantly agrees and heads to NYC to visit her college BFF, who also happens to be a magazine editor, and attend a school librarian conference. While there, Amy reconnects with herself as a woman and finally starts to move on.

I totally picked this book based on the cover and then spent the better part of a week reading it. This is not a book I would recommend to just anyone. It's a bit slower paced and the humor is understated, but I did like the story and Amy reminded me of my mom a bit. I also liked how the author incorporated journal entries from Amy's daughter throughout.

Man, what a month it's been. Usually, I have two or three days to take it easy between each issue of the magazine, but not this past month. First, an elderly relative succumbed to dementia so there was a funeral. On the day of the funeral, my dad - who had been sick for several days already - was hospitalized for the rest of the week. My grandfather ended up in the hospital the next day for pneumonia and was kept until the weekend.

The next week was distribution week, and it was the hardest one yet. With my mom back at school and Pre-K not started yet, we had to make special arrangements for Alexis, but I still ended up taking her with me on one day. Distributing magazines in 100-plus degree weather isn't any fun on my own and it's hell with a 4 year old. Add on top of all of that the fact that the September issue of the magazine was the most difficult thing I've worked on in a long time. The topic was special needs, and it kicked my butt.

I was also feeling the strain of working at home with my 4 year old. I don't regret our decision to take Alexis out of daycare for the summer, but I underestimated how tough it would be on me. I went from having the house to myself two to three days a week to never having the house to myself.

Between personal and family issues and work stress, I didn't need anything extra, and I realized I had been treating this blog and the social media associated with it like an obligation rather than an enjoyable hobby. So I decided to step back for awhile and get my head back in a good place. For the past four weeks, my only screen time has been work related or reading on my Kindle, and no - I didn't miss social media.

I am, however, ready to get back to blogging and everything that goes along with it. So stay tuned!

Happy Tuesday, friends. I realize it's been awhile since I've posted. After I tried to write a post for a week straight, I decided I needed to take a step back. That break unintentionally bled over into social media, and for the past two weeks I've been spending my spare time reading instead of posting. I had intended to be back with a post yesterday, but a stomach bug followed by an unexpected death in my family kind of derailed those plans, as well as put me behind schedule on work stuff. I've got some stuff in the pipeline though and hope to have a new post for you later this week.

This June was different than any other June. It's the first June in 10 years that I didn't have to be at an office Monday-Friday. It's also the first time since Alexis was born that she's spending a summer at home. That means figuring out a new routine, one in which I still get my job done and post regularly on the blog while also fitting in activities we wouldn't normally get to do. One of those new experiences is weekly trips to the library for story and craft time, which has meant not having large gaps between books. What's different about this month's reading round-up is that I didn't read any of these on my Kindle. Each one came from my local library. The first and last books I read this month each took about a week for me to finish, but that's because they were so well-written I didn't want to rush through them.

The Night Circus
Author: Erin Morgenstern

Summary: Two young magicians are pitted against each other in a competition held within a black-and-white circus. Le Cirque des Rêves moves from city to city without any advance notice and is only open at night. The two competing magicians, Celia and Marco, fall in love. They have no idea that the competition will only end when one of them is destroyed. The stakes are high, both for the two young people as well as those who work within and come to see the circus. Will the two lovers find a solution that benefits them all?

My Thoughts: Magical. I know it's cliche to call a book about magic magical, but it's truly the best word to describe this story. In fact, The Night Circus might be the best book I've read this year. From the way the author seamlessly weaves all the characters together without leaving the reader confused to the characters themselves and the truly unexpected way in which the conflict is resolved, I could not put this book down. But don't let that trick you into thinking I gobbled it up in one sitting. Oh no. This book is meant to be savored over several days. My only regret is that I waited this long to read it.


Big Girl Panties
Author: Stephanie Evanovich

Summary: After the death of her husband, 32-year-old Holly Brennan turned to food, and now she weighs more than she ever has. When she ends up seated next to personal trainer Logan Montgomery on a flight and he offers to help her, Holly takes it as a sign and agrees. Soon, the training sessions turn into romance, but Holly isn't Logan's usual 'type,' and they both have some issues with themselves that need to be worked out.

My Thoughts: This was your typical romantic comedy about an unlikely pairing. I liked that this one had both the male and female perspective and saw both of them grow. I thought the author deviated away from Holly and Logan to another couple a few times too many. They weren't badly written; I just felt like the story didn't benefit from being told from their points of view. Note: there are sex scenes in this book, but I thought they were pretty tame. However, one of the supporting characters is into spanking so if you're weirded out by that, I'd avoid this one as it dominates several discussions throughout.

Black Rabbit Hall
Author: Eve Chase

Summary: Four siblings lose their mother in a horse riding accident one summer. Their father, devastated by his wife's death but feeling his children need a maternal influence, remarries to his old girlfriend who has a teenage son. That son and the oldest Alton girl fall madly in love, but the stepmother forces them apart even after the girl comes up pregnant. Another untimely death sends the family into a deeper spiral, none moreso affected than the oldest brother who goes a bit mad. Flash forward thirty years when the stepmother, in an effort to try to make Black Rabbit Hall profitable again, tries to rent the estate out for weddings. The first customer? The long-lost daughter of that forbidden love. But she has no idea.

My Thoughts: This book was so beautifully tragic. Told from the perspectives of the oldest Alton daughter, Amber, and her daughter, Lorna, it weaves between the late 1960s and early 2000s effortlessly. Essentially, this book is about a family falling apart and coming back together. I highly recommend it, but you may want to keep some tissues handy.

I've been speed reading through books by a newly discovered (by me) author. They're all little 200-page books, with 3-4 in a series, that I can read pretty much in an afternoon. The whole series, that is. They're different from anything else I've read before, and I'm enjoying them, but I'm not sure a majority of you guys would, so I've decided to withhold them from these reviews for now.