Blog & Personal Update

Sorry that I’ve been MIA lately. I’ve just been experiencing summer. I was going good until we took our summer vacation. Then when I returned, I just didn’t feel like blogging. 

I can tell you that I’ve thought about giving up my blogging and just recording my reading progress on Goodreads. Then I realized that there are some events in the reading blogosphere that I enjoy and look forward to taking part of in the upcoming months. So I’ve decided I’d just post when I feel like it. After all this is my blog, I can do want I want. It’s not like I’m making money from it. There are times where I just want to read and enjoy the book and not have to analyze my feelings about it. I almost feel like writing reviews has spoiled my love of reading. On the other hand, I’m reading more these days than I ever have.

One of the reasons I started blogging was because I wanted a place to discuss the books I loved and to help support the authors I’d discovered that needed more exposure. As I write this post I’m realizing that yes I’ve posted reviews on these books I’ve read. But I’ve not discussed them too much outside of my reviews or focused on the authors I’ve met through my reading and exposure to the internet book world. Maybe in my future posts I will try to focus on that. No guarantees. I’m just randomly typing my thoughts at this point.

Now to turn to a personal update. It’s been a good summer for me. My daughter was home for college. Shortly after returning home, she was accepted to study abroad next spring. This study abroad program isn’t a free program - we have to pay for it. My husband and I feel it’s a great opportunity and support it fully. To support herself, my daughter began job hunting almost immediately. She accepted a restaurant job and days after got an interview for a full time summer job at the plant where I work. So then she was faced with either giving up the restaurant job before even working her first day or working both jobs. Faced with having to pay for her study abroad program, she chose to work both jobs. So she spent the summer working 7 days a week - Monday through Friday at the plant I work and Saturday and Sunday at the restaurant. This meant we didn’t see a lot of her. But she made enough money for her airline tickets. I’m proud of her for her efforts!

We did have a week together in Orlando. It was the best family vacation we’ve ever had. We took my daughter’s boyfriend with us. The two of them and our son pal’d around a lot - searching for Pokemon a lot of the time. It’s the most I’ve seen my children willing spend time with each other and for the most part they got along. Our best day was the day we went to Clearwater Beach. I loved this day! It was relaxing and carefree! We spend an hour or two at the ocean and then were run out by a storm. We found a great local restaurant to eat at - Crabby Bill’s in Indian Rock Beach. I think it was our best meal of the whole trip. We ended that night at another beach searching for shells. It melted my heart to see my kids searching for shells for me because they knew that’s what I loved.

Now school has started again and my daughter has been back at college for two weeks. I’m not ready for summer to end. But I figure since the husband and kids are back at school, I might as well enjoy some cooler weather and football to go with it. My husband, son and I are planning to watch football all day (as soon as they return from the park from throwing some pitches :) ).

I hope you all have had a great summer as well! I know some of you have sent kids off to college and other great things. Feel free to share with me in the comments.