9 Years of Blogging - Some of My Favorite Posts

I can't believe I have been blogging for NINE YEARS. It's like having a child...watching it grow over the years. There have been lots of changes and boy, can I see lots of growth in my writing over the years.

My blog didn't start out as a book blog, but one where I would share snippets from our life, a quote or tip here and there, and maybe a few products or books I liked.

I found I really liked sharing about books and the readers did too, so I did a lot more book blogging. That has taken me so far in the last nine years that I never would have imagined. I get PAID to read and review books. I have had conversations and been praised by best-selling authors. I have met some amazing authors and book bloggers that never would have crossed my path before this blog. Plus, I have been exposed to some awesome books over the course of these nine years that I never would have even thought about reading.

I truly am Living the Dream and I'm so thankful to all of you who read and share my blog posts and reviews. I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite posts over the last nine years. Enjoy!

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My very first book review I ever wrote on my blog: THE GROSSE ADVENTURES . At this time I was giving Storytime at our library and our librarian asked me to look over this book as she was considering getting the set for our library. I agreed and then decided to share my thoughts on the blog.

Three days later I shared my review of a book we read for the book club I was in at the time, DOWN RIVER by John Hart. I had already been using Goodreads.com pretty regularly by this point so it was natural for me to write my thoughts on a book. Once I placed these first two reviews on my blog back in August 2008, the rest is history. I remember shortly after these reviews, I started receiving requests in my email inbox and books began arriving in my mailbox. I began placing book reviews on my blog pretty consistently after this. Boy, have my review styles changed since 2008.

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In September 2008, I attended an author reading and met, William Kent Krueger. I have since met him again and interviewed him. One of the many authors that I absolutely adore. He made me realize that authors are just everyday people and that I could certainly spark a conversation with them.I feel blessed to be able to interview authors and share snippets from their lives with you.

According to my label statistics, I've written 473 book reviews on my blog! That's a lot of books! I have even begun regularly reviewing children's books. I didn't even remember that my very first review on the blog was a children's book until I was writing this post. I'm glad I am making children's books a priority on the blog. It's where the love of reading begins!

 I also had the privilege of offering product reviews on my blog as well. That has been fun as I've had the opportunity to try products I normally wouldn't, but things that our family has benefited from. I haven't been lucky enough to offer a product review of a car or trip, but maybe someday! Some of my favorite product reviews include:

Hask Hair Products
Rug
The Beast.

I've also shared a lot about my family on the blog. When I turned 40, I shared photos of our lives every week. I attempted to try that again by sharing Sunday Snippets for a time. But, frankly, life is so busy and it has been hard to share on a regular basis, plus now that I have teenagers, they are more resistant to me sharing about them on this space. But, I am so glad I did, because it has been fun looking back on some of those posts as they pop up when I am looking through previous posts. Some of my favorites about our family include:

Halloween Memories
What We Want You to Know
A Full Weekend
My Mom's Dream Memorial
Dandelions are Useful?
Scenes from Our Week: Week 22

I also love quotes and forms of inspiration and sharing those with you. For awhile I ran quotes and inspirations on Mondays, but I've since just posted them when I feel the nudge. Some of my favorite quotes I shared on here include:

Winter is Dead
Spread Happiness
Life is Hard
Slowing Down
Unplug


I'm so grateful to all of you who stop by and see what I'm sharing in this space. I appreciate the comments and emails you send to let me know that you are out there. I'm looking forward to a new year full of great books, inspirational moments, and memories that last a lifetime.

Sunday Snippets 1.25.15

Another busy week has been left in the dust. I can't believe we are in the last week of January already! Another busy week is ahead, but today I'm slowing down and hoping to see American Sniper with some friends.  I could be doing laundry, organizing our daughter's room, cleaning, etc, etc, but I'm trying to continue to work on that "Balance" in my life and make time for fun with friends and my husband.

I hope you enjoy a few snippets from our week.

Reagan's basketball team won a very tough tournament with some very close games.  These girls are so much fun to watch and play so well together. They know how to be a TEAM!

Since we didn't have school on Monday,

 it was the perfect day to have Reagan's birthday date.

 We did a lot of shopping so she could spend 

her birthday money and gift cards that she received.

Reagan had fun trying on things at Claire's.

Of course, the date had to include ice cream and Reagan insisted on Cold Stone Creamery.

The cool thing was, 

it was RANDOM ACTS OF COLD STONE

 at that particular store at that particular moment.

We could have any ice cream treat we wanted for free! How cool was that?!?!

Plus, since we were out celebrating Reagan's birthday, they gave us a gift card too!

Free ice cream tastes so much better!

Basketball is still in full swing with all three kids! 

Here is Patrick in one of his games this week.

On Saturday, we all got up at the crack of dawn, correction....before dawn even broke....

to attend the Science Bowl at Iowa State University. 

Patrick and three other classmates competed.

Before attending, I thought I was fairly smart, but after today I am not so sure.

These kids competed against much larger schools, 

Juniors and Seniors who have already had 

Biology, Chemistry, and Physics as well as Calculus.  

They lost all four matches, but never lost their cool and did their best. 

For being freshman, who are all very involved in numerous activities 

and don't just study science in their spare time (I swear there were kids who do that), 

I was very proud of them!  

We go back again in a few weeks with Bennett 

for the Middle School Science Bowl. Should be fun!

Yesterday was also the Winter Formal at school.  Patrick and his date looked fabulous.

What a fun night for Patrick and his friends!

As I was uploading photos, I found this one on my phone that Reagan took during our lunch at Iowa State yesterday. The glasses are "fashion glasses". Isn't she adorable!?!?

There is another full week looming ahead including a show choir trip to Minneapolis.

I guess if I wasn't busy, I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

Thanks for sharing in the snippets of our life here in Iowa.

I hope you continue for look for the big and small joys in your week!

Sunday Snippets 11.2.14

On Sundays I like to share snippets from our life here in small town Iowa.

The last few weeks have been really busy for us. I thought life might be slowing down a bit since some of the kids activities are done. But, this week still kept me moving. I am still subbing nearly every day and I had my second cold of the season so I hope that I am covered now for the whole winter. 

During the month of November, I hope to take some time to reflect on all my blessings. The biggest blessings in my life are my husband and children. But, there are so many other blessings I am grateful for. I hope you can spend some time reflecting on those blessings this month.

Enjoy some of the snippets from our week!

I am super excited about my new camera. The perks of subbing nearly everyday include earning the money sooner that I planned to purchase this Canon EOS Rebel T5. I don't have all the buttons and whistles figured out yet, but I am loving the results of the photos I have taken with it already.

All the photos below are from my new Canon. 

Patrick's final performance on the field this year. Marching band has been so much fun for him as well as all of us. I will miss the performances, but am excited because I have several years of marching band ahead of me with Bennett and Reagan coming up. 

It was really foggy last Friday night, but the band still rocked the stadium!

At one of their competitions this season, 

the drumline earned Best Percussion. That was pretty exciting!

Saturday was my husband's birthday! After Reagan's basketball practice, we headed out for breakfast and a little Frisbee Golf. It was a beautiful morning!

Even though my game didn't go so well and I eventually gave up, I had fun watching the competition....

...and enjoying the final days of fall's beauty all around us.

That evening we had family over to celebrate Pat's birthday 

and enjoy his favorite food, Spanish Rice, using his mom's recipe. 

Last Sunday was our annual Fall Leaf Raking Day.

We have two large Blaze Maples in our backyard that drop lots of leaves.

Stormy was excited to be able to join us outside.

The kids were great helpers getting all the leaves raked into a pile.

Stormy loves to climb our trees and we found her running up and around them all afternoon.

The good thing is she always comes back down! 

Reagan took over my job of driving the tractor this year.

She was pretty excited and enjoyed her "important" job.

The best part of raking the leaves is jumping in the pile.

And, of course, the required pictures for mom!

My favorite photo of the whole day! 

Thanks for sharing in our joyful moments of the past couple weeks. 

DIY Decoupage Letter "G"

I first saw this idea on Pinterest, HERE,  

and wanted to make it for our living room wall.

It just so happens there is a man 

in our small town that makes these letters

in any size or font you want.  

Check out his Etsy shop, HERE.

So, I had him cut me a 2 foot letter "G" 

with plenty of space. 

I just asked for it to be sanded and not painted.

I then painted it myself with black acrylic paint. 

The time-consuming part was finding all the photos I wanted to use. 

I wanted to use photos from over the past several years.

I cut and pasted them into a word document.

Then I resized them to be smaller, depending on the photo.

I basically fit 2 photos on each page in the word document.

Then I printed them in black and white at the best quality setting.

I printed them on thicker, high quality printer paper, NOT photo paper.

Once they were all printed out, I cut the photos.

Then I placed them on the letter to see how they would fit.

I made sure I had the same amount of photos of each child, 

because I'm fair like that.

Then I started pasting them on the letter.

I used ModPodge and a sponge brush. 

I worked in a section, making sure they all fit. 

Then Icontinued to move around the board,

applying the ModPodge in thin strokes over top of the pictures. 

Once it was dry, I applied a thin a second coat.

I have been so anxious to get this "G" and other things hung on our living room wall.

Below is how our wall has looked for quite awhile.....

One sad, small piece of art.

But now......

I finally have a WALL! 

It is just what I wanted.

The family rules art I have had for awhile.

The "Enjoy the simple things" vinyl art 

was a gift a few birthdays ago from my friend, Mary.

The domino, a 2 and a 3 for our family (Pat and I and then 3 kids) 

is from Barn Owl Primitives. 

She has awesome art at reasonable prices. 

Be sure to check out her Etsy store, HERE!

The little "G" I found on clearance at a store that was going out of business.

Finally, the fall frame I just picked up at Hobby Lobby in their fall section.

I plan to place a new frame and photo in that spot throughout the year. 

The shelf came in a three pack of various size shelves from Target.

I even got my painting of the poppies hung up.

 I painted it at a Wine and Paint event this last spring.

It was a ton of fun and I highly recommend it if you have the chance.

I am not creative, artistic, nor do I have excellent decorating abilities.

But, I am certainly happy with how everything looks and how

my letter "G" turned out.

It really makes our living room feel like home!

Thanks to my husband, Pat for helping me get everything hung up! 

Sunday Snippets 8.31.14

On Sundays, I like to share snippets from our life here in small town Iowa.  

As we get into the school year, our lives get busier. 

It seems there is always something going on.  

I'd love to hear snippets from your life as well.

Find joy in the snippets of your daily life!

We have had an office in our home since 2008. My husband used it on days he wanted to work from home. It was a huge help when his office in downtown Cedar Rapids was flooded during the flood of 2008. But, now that his office is in our small town, he was hardly ever using it. So, I decided it would be helpful if I actually had an office. We cleaned it out and I got it all set up for me. I am so excited. I have been more productive and love being able to sit at a desk rather than on the couch with my computer. 

On Sunday we participated in a Bags (Corn Hole) Tournament. 

Pat and I were partners and Patrick and Bennett were partners.  

The boys were pretty thrilled that they placed better than we did, 

receiving 3rd place. We got 4th. 

Reagan has been BEGGING to make cupcakes and finally,

 Sunday afternoon we made them. 

Strawberry cake with pink and purple icing. YUM!

Cross Country season kicked off on Tuesday.  

Patrick's (in the blue) 1st high school meet and he rocked it, 

finishing with his fastest time ever. 

His official time was 21.29 for a 5K. 

The race was ran with all the high school boys together 

rather than a Varsity race and a JV race. I think he did awesome!

Have you heard of a Lemon Drop Melon?

I hadn't either but saw them at Hy-Vee this week. 

I love trying new fruit and thought the kids might like it.

It was sweet with a bit of tart.

Bennett said it reminded him of a Granny Smith apple.

I thought it was like a Honeydew Melon with tart.

It is smaller than a cantalope and was $2.50.

Also this week I treated myself to a pedicure and lunch at Panera. 

A friend of mine is in school to be a nail technician, 

so I "sacrificed" to be one of her customers.

Then I headed to Panera with my book and had a delicious lunch.

Their new flatbread sandwiches are quite tasty. 

I had their southwestern flat bread with summer corn chowder. 

I'm anxious to try out their other flatbreads.

I live in a small town of 700, so we have to drive nearly thirty minutes - hour to get to a fancy cupcake shop. The popular one in Eastern Iowa is Scratch Cupcakery. They have locations in Cedar Falls, Waterloo, West Des Moines and Coralville. The cool thing is they also have a Cupcake Truck that travels to small towns for a scheduled 2 hour visit. 

They offer 10 different cupcakes for $2 each or $22/dozen.

I stood in line for just 15 minutes to get 6 cupcakes. Totally worth it! They sold out of all of the 500 cupcakes they brought in 56 minutes! I hope they come back soon!

From top to bottom, left to right:

O Happy Day, Wedding Day, Raspberry Love, 

Chocolicious, Cookies and Cream, and Molten Caramel

Saturday was the neighboring towns Sauerkraut Days. 

It kicked off with a 5K at 7:30 AM. Patrick ran and I ran/walked with my friend, Therese. 

Patrick had another best time, finishing at 20:59, 

cutting off 30 seconds from his previous best time on Tuesday. 

Let's just say, Therese and I were a tad....bit behind him. 

Then it was time to get ready for the parade. Gotta love small town parades!

Patrick marching with the band, above.

It isn't a small town Iowa parade without tractors.  

My Sister-in-Law, Kelly and her son Matt

My husband's brother, Steve driving his Oliver in the parade.

After the parade we had all the free hot dogs and sauerkraut we wanted,

plus some delicious peach pie. 

In the afternoon, Patrick was in his final Sheltered Reality performance.

This has been an amazing group to be a part of the last three years, but

due to a busy high school activity schedule, we had to let it go.

But, we will never forget our time with Sheltered Reality and how you can

"Take a Chance"

"Never Give Up"

and do

"Whatever It Takes"

in any situation.

If you are in the Midwest, you may have a Sheltered Reality group near you. 

Check out their website and schedule, HERE and find a show near you. 

In fact, they are at the Minnesota State Fair today!

They are amazing! 

Patrick with Steve the founder of Sheltered Reality

Ok, this was kind of a full week, but these were truly just snippets from our life.

There is always something going on, and next week will be just as busy.

Tune in next Sunday for more snippets from our life.

You never know what you might see.

Remember to find the joy in your daily snippets!