Bookworm Wednesday: April

It’s Bookworm Wednesday! The first Wednesday of every month we all blog about our reads, include this graphic below, and link back to Katie and I!

Then you can go through the links to get ideas from others on what to read next 🙂

2016 Bookworm Wednesday dates:

May 4th
June 1st
July 6th
August 3rd
September 7th
October 5th
November 2nd
December 7th

This month I read two books. Well, really just one book because the other one has been a couple months in the making but March is when I finished it.

Ahhh book #1, Reshaping It All by Candace Cameron Bure was finished within days. I read while I took a bubble bath…am I the only one? Say you do too.

And when I was hanging out with my grandpa…

And in the airport. If I can get excited about a book, there’s no stopping me!

Speaking of excited, I was so excited to read this book that I may have driven to the next town over the night before I left for vacation because they were the only store that had it in stock. I mean, we all know by now that I love me some Candace Cameron Bure. After all, I would invite her on my talk show. I have already read Balancing It All

along with Dancing Through Life.

To see what I thought about those, click here.

As for Reshaping It All…I think I had higher expectations for it that it really didn’t measure up to. I was really excited about this one because I remembered reading in one of her other books that she really dove into her struggle with an eating disorder, so I thought that’s what it was really going to be about. Candace definitely touched on the subject but it wasn’t as in depth as I was hoping for. When I think back on this book I remember her talking the most about her parents, how she was raised, and how that affected her physical life (and really all parts of her life). She too struggled with insecurity, body image, etc. like a lot of us so it was nice to see how she put that into perspective with her faith.

There were also parts at the end of the chapters where she wrote famous quotes and Bible verses and to be honest, I just skipped over them. I really wanted to read the content. I loved that she included recipes at the end of every chapter though!

Overall, if you’re a Candace fan I would definitely recommend you read it because you still learn about her and her life, but if you’re not a Candace fan you probably won’t find it very interesting.

 The other book that I read was for my online Bible study: So Long, Insecurity which was over the series of two months.

My Thoughts:

There was soooooooo much content. It was good information, but when you’re doing the study for 10 weeks and you have to read 2 chapters a week it gets to be a little much. This personally moved too fast for me and my liking. Since I can’t cut down the size of the book, I would spread the study out more. I thought there were a couple times it felt like Beth was rambling.

On the other hand, I loved what Beth had to say. I found myself thinking “oh my gosh she’s right” a lot of the time. Beth had a lot of interesting points and I love that she pulled stories of other women into the book as well. There are so many of us that struggle with this ugly beast and it’s so heartbreaking. There were also a lot of verses mentioned that I wrote down and will refer to again. I am planning to put them in the back of my Bible.

OBS Participant Thoughts:

I sent out a survey to everyone who participated in the study to see what they thought. My opinion is one thing, but I also wanted to get the opinions of everyone else who participated.

100% of the survey participants thought it was a good study overall and would recommend it to a friend.

Here’s a few things that our OBS participants liked:

• The message was something I really need in my life.
• I liked the book that was chosen a lot. It was very relatable with good examples.
• I found myself agreeing with what the author said very often and I could apply different scenarios to my own life.

Here’s a few things our OBS participants didn’t like as much:

• I like studies that have questions that you can fill in throughout the reading.
• I felt there was a lack of communication. I wish we could’ve all discussed it together some way.

If you’re wanting to follow along with this study, just purchase the book and go through all of my OBS posts! You still can!

Next month, the goal is to read 3 books, but with it also being the end of the semester I don’t know how much time I will have to read. I’m almost done with book #1 so that’s a good sign. 😉

And if you’re looking for more book posts:

Book(TV)worm Wednesday – March
Bookworm Wednesday – February
Bookworm Wednesday – January
Bookworm Wednesday – December
Bookworm Wednesday – November
Bookworm Wednesday – October
Bookworm Wednesday – September
Books in July
Books (and some Netflix) in June
Books in May
Books in March

Happy reading this fine Wednesday!

Monthly Goals: Aug Update/Sept List

Okay, back at the end of July I posted about my August goals. So today while I thought I would post my September goals, i’ll update you on those goals from August. Are you ready???

1.  Read 2 new books
   1. I read The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks and The One & Only by Emily Giffin. Out of these two The Longest Ride was definitely my favorite, I finished the last 3/4 of the book in a day. It also got 4.5/5 stars. The One & Only is perfect for small town football fans. It received 3/5 stars, and Giffin fans say they weren’t disappointed.
2. Do something nice for someone else
   1. Okay, working at a restaurant the last thing you want to do is work all day, both shifts. That normally means waiting on people for about 11 hours. I haven’t worked all day in probably 2 years. One of my friends begged me to pick up her Friday night shift after I worked Friday morning. Seeing as it was not something I wanted to do I definitely thought it was a nice thing for someone else.
3. Work out 3-4 times a week
   1. Oops this was a total failure. I probably should not have made this my goal when I was out of town the first half of August. I only met this goal this past week.
4. Host a get together at my house
   1. While it wasn’t at my house, a couple of us girlfriends went to a friend’s apartment to hang out.
5. Make 8 new recipes
   1. Blueberry Waffles
   2. Blueberry Jelly
   3. Fried Brussels Sprouts and Cauliflower
   4. Grilled Lemon-Garlic Zucchini
   5. Pastry Crust
   6. French Vanilla Coffee Creamer
   7. Sea Bass alla Fiorentina
   8. Proscuitto-Wrapped Scallops
6. Figure out what i’m doing about school
   1. I will be transferring to the University of Texas at Dallas. I applied the other day and will receive confirmation sometime soon. I’ve officially gotten it figured out and couldn’t be more excited.
7. Spend more time in God’s word
   1. Wow, I didn’t even make it to Church this month and I am not very happy about it. Rather embarrassed actually. But this will change.
8. Buy something for myself
   1. Nope, I didn’t do this either. I think I put it off because I bought my sisters birthday present this month, which was rather expensive.

 SEPTEMBER’S GOALS:

I’m going to be completely honest and just say that I will have to do a few less goals this month with all of my activities. Here’s to beginnings of new months!!

1. Get to Church EVERY Sunday and spend the Lord’s Sabbath day resting. I am not going to work and I changed my availability, but I will use Sunday as my family day, spend time on school work day, and rest day for the upcoming week.
2. Make 5 new recipes.
3. Work out 3-4 times/week. This will be especially challenging due to all of things I will have planned during the week, but my doctor said it is necessary for someone of my age to get their heart rate up at least 30 minutes 3-4 times/week, and it’s very healthy too.
4. Establish a routine, whether it be a weekly/daily/monthly routine.
5. Buy myself 2 new things because I didn’t do it last month. This is especially difficult for me because I just hate spending my hard-earned money on myself, isn’t that weird? It may be a bargain, but I will do it!
6. Grow my blog! I’m hoping to gain more followers. So help me and share with your friends and family. And tell me what you like or dislike 🙂
7. Get 3/9 of my Christmas presents. And a birthday present for mom!

Friday Favorites

I wish I hadn’t been posting so late, we’ve been moving stuff around our house and getting back into the swing of things from being back from vacation. Today’s Friday Favorites with Andrea, Erika, and Narci are going to be my favorite things to do! Because, what are we without our hobbies?

1. Cooking

2. Working Out/Doing Yoga

3. Reading

4. Finding a good bargain

5. Scrapbooking

6. Like yesterday’s post said…gardening

7. Going on adventures!!

Come back Monday for my post about our vacation last week! Have a great weekend!!

Goals for August

Tomorrow starts August…what?! Where has the time gone this year?

Because August is the 8th month of the year, I’ve decided I want to create 8 goals for myself during the month of August. I’ll share them with you, and hopefully it will help me be accountable.

1. Read 2 new books
2. Do something nice for someone else
3. Work out 3-4 times a week
4. Host a get together at my house
5. Make 8 new recipes
6. Figure out what i’m doing about school
7. Spend more time in God’s word
8. Buy something for myself

 

Pretty simple today. Friday favorites tomorrow! 🙂