Chaos Thy Name is Renovation

No, seriously, the above gif is literally how I have felt for the past two weeks.  My landlord and the handyman have been here off and on throughout the last two weeks working on a couple of renovation projects in the house.  Yeah, couple.  Simultaneously.  2 bathrooms, both getting new toilets, one getting new flooring, new light fixture, and hopefully that will be the end of it until the landlord decides to come back and finish painting the hallway, change the lightbulb in the hallway, and then later this summer work on the bedrooms one at a time to rip up the carpet, replace the flooring and paint the walls.  Oh yeah, I'm seriously looking forward to all of that in the middle of a Florida summer!  NOT.

Beyond that, that's why I've been quiet for the last few weekends because that's when they've been coming in to do most of the work and I honestly spend most of the time curled up in my room with headphones on and music blaring and my nose in a book. 

My current read has been flipping through The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde which I devoured in about one sitting.  I'm attempting to mark some of my favorites before it has to go back to the library, and this is definitely a book that I need to add to my own personal collection because her work is absolutely fantastic.  I've also recently finished Warriors 1 which is an anthology edited by George R.R. Martin as well as The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen.  I will have reviews of those coming, I've also recently read another collection of poetry that I'm greatly in love with, The Princess Saves Herself in this One, by Amanda Lovelace, which I got through Netgalley.  

I also have 2 books from Netgalley that I will be getting to within the next week or so because I want to get the reviews up and ready before their publication dates.  Which reminds me, I need to update my information with Netgalley.  I also have several books out from the library that I need to get to both physical and digital so there will be lots and lots of reading happening! 

Here is the current list of books that I will be plowing my way through within the next 3-4 weeks (in no particular order): 

1. Blood Vow - J.R. Ward

2. Commonwealth - Anne Patchett

3. The Kept Woman - Karin Slaughter

4. Small Great Things - Jodi Picoult

5. In Other Words - Jhumpa Lahiri

6. A Spy in the House - Y. S. Lee

7. The Declaration - Gemma Malley

8. The Bone Witch - Rin Chupeco

9. The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett - Chelsea Sedoti

10. The Wicked + The Divine: The Faust Act 

11. The Wicked + The Divine: Fandemonium

12. Tokyo Ghoul: Vol 1

13. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Only a handful of these are digital books, the rest are physical copies.  I'm looking forward to pretty much all of them (I've read To Kill a Mockingbird before, it's been awhile, though).  I also have a few reviews that I'm in the process of working on, and hopefully, will have lots more posted for you this week.

Time to get busy! 

-Caedy

Thankful Thursday: Little Things

Hello lovelies!!!  I hope you had a good day!  Mine as usual had its ups and downs mainly because I had to work today and then there was grocery shopping.  That is always a tax on me mentally because it means that I am out and dealing with people longer and ultimately it means that my paycheck goes away or rather what isn't meant for bills goes away. 

However,  today I am thankful for the little things. A child's laughter,  a friend offering an ear,  conversations about random things with a stranger that is now an awesome unicorn in my book.  Also,  the highlight of my day was the visit from Ronald McDonald at work today.  This guy is definitely perfect for the role.  I even got my picture with him too. 

I am still definitely in the market for a new job.  Though I am very thankful that I do have a job that helps me be able to provide for myself as well as those I live with. It is not the best job and I do not make the most money,  but I do have that source of income. 

Alright,  it is time for some Beat Bobby Flay and then head to bed. 

Night lovelies. 

-Caedy

Tuesday Thoughts: Lazy days

Today was my day off,  the only one I will have until Sunday.  I had a small list of things that I wanted to get done and I got some of it done.  What I didn't get done will be finished tomorrow morning before work.  There will be a new vlog going live in the morning and there will be a blog post tomorrow too. 

I need to focus on my reviews because I have let them fall to the wayside and they have built up so much.  So I am hoping to get at least 2-3 reviews a week up with maybe a few extra as back up. 

Sorry today's post is so short am achy and my meds are kicking in. 

Good night lovelies!!!

Till tomorrow.

Sunday Reflections: The Search for Positivity

This past week has put a lot of things in perspective, including the fact that I am someone who seriously needs to start focusing on the positive things in my life.  I need to be more grateful, more thankful, and more concerned with making myself happy and keeping myself that way.  I need to start cutting out the negativity and negative influences and people in my life, cutting out the toxic and start focusing on surrounding myself with people who want to see me grow, see me flourish and strive to leave a more positive impact on the world. 

Last week was rough all around, and in all honesty, I know not every day can be filled with rainbows and unicorns, but that doesn't mean that I can't find something positive that happens each and every day.  I have mentioned before in a previous post that I spend time every day considering the entries that go into my gratitude log each day for every month.  That is a big, big part of my evening routine.  I am thinking of maybe adding a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) tracker to my bullet journal each week and maybe do at least 3 RAKs a week - that don't usually cost too much money.  I will have to think about what I could add to the trackers, maybe keep some of them the same and change out a few ideas.  What ideas do you have to add to a RAK list? 

I spent most of today just zoning out and allowing my body to reboot from the absolute chaos that I've been dealing with.  Even this evening, I know there are things I should be doing, however, they are not important to bringing some peace to my cluttered mental state at the moment.  I am thinking, however, that I will be changing my bedsheets before I go to bed - something fresh for me to curl upon.  Or maybe I will change them tomorrow since I think it has been a couple of weeks since I put the sage ones on.  

Anyway, I do have a new vlog up on my youtube channel - it is from last Wednesday, something short.  I still have the one from Friday to edit and that one will hopefully *fingers crossed* go up on Tuesday because I'm going to sit and edit it tomorrow after work.  

I think that might be all I have for you today without getting into too much personal crap that is really not suitable for the blog or the vlog.  So, I'm going to toss my headphones on with some meditation sounds and go do a little bit of meditation.  Have a fantastic day and I'll see you for Tuesday's post! 

-Caedy

Two for One...WLW and Thankful Thurs

I have legitimately been all over the place this week emotion wise.  This week has been physically and mentally draining for me.  I had two days where my anxiety was pretty much at peak levels for most of the day...though the worst of the two days was Tuesday.  Wednesday the anxiety didn't kick in until the afternoon and I somehow managed to keep that particular anxiety attack low-key which is a first for me.  Though, I am still not thrilled that I have had two major anxiety attacks in the past week - the first was the most awakening if you can call it that.  Mainly because it was concerning my health care, and ultimately what having the new administration do to potentially strip me of my health care - coupled with the fact that I was struggling to find a doctor that would see me (since my original assigned PCP was booked solid for new patients until late April or early May).  Ultimately I found a new doctor, and I'd gone to see him Wednesday morning, and he's actually really, really nice.  I am glad that I made the choice to go to him, and quite glad that the office is legit like a 10 min walk from my house.


This weekend I seriously hope to get quite a few things done including finally getting around to filming my bullet journal faves youtube video, not sure when it will go up, but I at least want to get it filmed so I can start editing it.  I also have to edit the vlog for this week - which I will probably do either tonight or tomorrow and get that up Sunday.  I am considering starting to vlog every day, but I don't know we'll see what happens.  My life really, really isn't that interesting and I dunno.  However, I've found that just randomly vlogging has helped calm me down when I feel things starting to go kinda in a direction I don't like. 


I am thankful for the ways that I can express myself in this journey that is life.  The fact that I can cover so many things in different ways is something that makes my heart smile, and now if I can just stop procrastinating and start being more productive I will definitely be a lot happier. 


Also, I am working on getting myself in shape - I am thinking I might kick my C25K back into gear and do a little bit of a workout this afternoon, or at least do something inside since it's starting to get hot AF outside right now.  The joys of living in Florida in January...when the weather isn't being a bipolar hot mess.  Though we are supposed to get rain all weekend so chances are most of my workouts will be done inside...meh, I can live with that.  I also need to figure out my meal prep for next week and get that going. I don't know my schedule yet because it isn't freaking done...I am honestly hoping that it is up by the time I leave work tomorrow at 2, but I'm not going to hold my breath.  I might end up taking a walk up to work on Sunday to try and get my schedule.


As for my wish list items this week, they are all stationery related.


I am looking for stationery sets.  Goulet Pens has some that I am seriously contemplating getting when I have the extra money to splurge.   However, I'm also looking for some cheaper ones that I can use for writing to my pen pals.  It doesn't have to be super quality paper or anything like that - lately I've been using the stationery that I have had in my scrapbooking box for ever and that was purchased in the printer paper section of Wal-Mart years ago.  So, what are some of your favorite stationery goodies?


Thankful Thursday, I think I covered that a couple of paragraphs up.  I am hoping that I can continue to find the light in each day and continue to add a little bit of myself to those that I come across.  Please be kind to one another and remember that you don't know the fight that someone else is fighting - a smile and a kind word goes a long way. 


I think that's all I have for today, so I'm going to leave you with two of my favorite songs.  I have listened to these songs on repeat a couple of times on some of my bad days, and some of the days that I've been dealing with things that I can't entirely figure out and ultimately they have helped me realize that I am the biggest and strongest driving force in making the changes I want to happen in my life.

Thankful Thursday:Gratitude

For the past few months that I've been using my Bullet Journal, I have been allowing myself to reflect on things that I am thankful for.  Each month I build a Gratitude log into my monthly pages.  Spending time each day, reflecting on the things that I am most grateful for.  

Gratitude

The state of being grateful

There are days when finding something I am grateful for is trickier than others - and it's those days that I am most thankful for having a roof over my head, food to eat, and a warm bed to curl up in at night.  There are other times when what I'm grateful for might be something silly or trivial but has played some larger part in allowing me to make it through the day - such as the shot of vodka that enriched my lemonade last night or something along those lines.  

I usually attempt to fill in my gratitude log at about the same time daily, usually about the time I reflect on the bible verse that is listed as the verse of the day on my bible app.  I take time to reflect on the verse, and then I turn to my gratitude log and think about the things that I am thankful for.  This also gives me a chance to go over my day and figure out what I've done on my to-do list as well as plan out some of my tasks for the next day.  

That is how I've ended my day pretty much every day for the past 6 months (with the exception of a small handful where I was sick, or ended up not truly having the focus to deal with anything because of various factors).  However, those days that I've missed, I've always used time the following day to reflect and fill out the previous day to ensure that my log is always as complete as I can make it.  Many of the days might have more than one thing on it, other days might have only one thing, it all depends on what items stand out to me the most that require a specific marking on my gratitude log. 

On that note, I'm going to end this post and fill out my gratitude log for today and begin my evening routine.  

Have a wonderful rest of your day and a fantastic Friday! 

-Caedy

Tuesday Thoughts: Books and BuJo

Current status! 

No, seriously, I'm furiously typing and attempting to get loads of content up for this week.  I've got a couple days off and that means filming (If I'm lucky) and getting a heads up on some of my blog posts, as well as hopefully getting a few things done around the house that need to get done...I won't bore you with the list, but they are things like laundry and coloring my hair and things like that.

Anyway, as you can tell from the title, my thoughts today are on books and bullet journals! These two things are pretty much my life as of late, as well as my music which I've been completely absorbed in the last few days when I'm not binge watching things on Netlfix (yeah, I'm shameless like that...Oh, Shameless...that's a good show, need to watch more of it! Later >.>).

I figured I would share a few of my favorite Bookstagram and BuJo Instagram accounts! I know you'll love em, and you should definitely give them a follow...as well as follow mine, which can be found below. 

My Instagram

My new bookcase. Need more than one but this is a start and I have my favorites on display. At least some of them. #bookcase #shelfie #sunday #organizing #books #bookaddict #reader #allthethings

A photo posted by Caedy (@caedy) on Dec 11, 2016 at 8:53am PST

Favorite Bookstagram Accounts

These are just a couple of my favorites, but if you look through #bookstagram #bookstagrammer hashtags on Instagram you will find a wealth of others that are absolutely fantastic!  No, seriously, check them out! 

Got so much snow today and I'm just not having it. I miss going outside everyday to take bookish pictures. Now, the weather is uncomfortable. 😞 I want Spring to come already. | #bookstagram #readersofinstagram #bibliophile #igreads #booksofinstagram #bookworm #bookdragon #bookphotography #bookish #booklr #vscobooks #goodreads |

A photo posted by w e n d y (@suburbiareads) on Jan 9, 2017 at 6:07pm PST

The reading challenge is on! My goal is to read 50 books this year. Last year I read 40, it's time to step it up. In fact, today I just finished "The Lost World" by Michael Crichton. I can't lie I enjoy the scientific dialogue and questions concerning life, the universe and everything. What are you reading this week?

A photo posted by Angela J. Ford (@aford21) on Jan 9, 2017 at 6:41pm PST

Favorite BuJo Instagrams

By far one of my favorite spreads in my #BulletJournal last month! Kim @tinyrayofsunshine inspired me to start logging my gratitude over a year ago, and I just love how the practice has evolved since then. - It's great to look back on, and even more so when times are tough. Approaching life daily with gratitude has been such a mindset shift and a huge part of my personal development over the past couple of years. I find myself looking at the world through new eyes, constantly on the search for new things to be grateful for each and every day ☺ - #bulletjournal #bohoberrytribe #leuchtturm1917 #wearebujo #tombowdualbrushpens #gratitude #attitudeofgratitude #miraclemorning

A photo posted by Kara 🌸 Boho Berry (@boho.berry) on Jan 7, 2017 at 1:52pm PST

Y el cartero llamó a mi puerta para traerme mi nueva leuchtturm ❤️

A photo posted by Study Tips (@mylittlejournalblog) on Jan 9, 2017 at 5:57am PST

Zoom in 🔍 #bulletjournal #bujo #bulletjournaljunkies #bulletjournaling #bulletjournals #bujojunkies #bulletjournalcommunity #planneraddict #bulletjournallove #planner #bujoinspire #plannercommunity #bujolove #notebook #bujoaddict #studygram #bujocommunity #studyblr #showmeyourplanner #leuchtturm1917 #lettering #journal #bulletjournalnewbie #planning #plannerlove #handwriting #handlettering #bulletjournalitalia #study #stationary

A photo posted by A planner addicted Girl 🇮🇹❤ (@mybujostory) on Jan 10, 2017 at 5:36am PST

Okay, so if you've followed me this far, thank you so much!  These are a few of my favorite Instagram accounts and I figured I would share some of them with you today.  They are where I get some of my inspirations from, especially the Boho Berry account.  Kara's stuff is absolutely amazeballs and I adore her so very much! 

Anyway, I think I'm going to wrap up this blog and get to work on a few other things I've got planned to go live today!  Love you all! 

Goal for today - dealing with those personal deadlines like a bawse! 

Tuesday's Thoughts

Hello lovelies!!  Welcome to a wonderful Tuesday (wonderful in that I have a day off and it's blissfully gloomy and rainy outside, which means that I've done nothing but nap and read all day!).  I also happened to do a thing.  A little thing, but it gets my youtube channel up and running with my first video!  The quality is not the best, but I'm still working out the kinks and getting familiar with my editing software.  

So, it was a fun thing to do while I was out the other day (filmed before I'd realized that I was suffering from strep throat and not just a cold).  I enjoyed the time out with my niece and I'm considering taking up vlogging in addition to my regular blogging in 2017.  We will see how that goes! 

So I've the video down below for you to check out!  Subscribe and let's get this ball rolling! 

I've already started my first two books of 2017, and I am absolutely loving each of them for different reasons.  I'm currently reading The Unbecoming of Myra Dyer by Michelle Hodkin and The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski.  Both of which fall into the Listy A to z challenge, and I am using The Unbecoming of Myra Dyer for my first book in the PopSugar 2017 Reading Challenge.  I am also doing Book Riot's Read Harder challenge.  I've even updated my reading spreadsheet to track all three of these challenges.  It will be interesting to see where my reading takes me this year.

Do you have any book recommendations that could help me fill these challenges? More authors of color that I need to read? LGBTQ+ authors that I need to read? I'm open to any and every suggestion! 

Until next time lovelies, 

Caedy