Train Trips, Books, and Another Job

Me and my sister, Rebekkah. And yes, those are clip-on earings)

Life has been crazy busy lately. I thought I'd share what's been going on!

So yesterday I got to go on my first train trip! We had lent a car to a friend and needed to pick it up, so Mom, Grace, Rebekkah, and I all loaded up and took the train to Dallas. It was super fun. We got to sit in the obvservation car, which has lots of seats all facing to the huge windows. It took us five hours, and I spent most of it just talking to my sister. We played an super intense game of ISpy which had us in fits of laughter over how fast we had to do it.
One of the most interesting things about the train was all the people. We sat next to an Amish couple who barely spoke or smiled for the whole trip. There was a group of people all wearing tales and huge fox/dog heads. No comments there. There was also a couple who spent the whole trip playing games together like Scrabble. It was really cute to watch!
After we got the car back I ended up doing a two hour driving stent on the way home and did some of my first stop and go traffic. Fun stuff. ;P

I also tried out BookOutlet.com for the first time. Guys. That site is epic. Thanks to a coupon I got eight brand new books for 22$!! I am so excited to use them again. I have never had so many new books at once, so this is quite a treat for me! I'm collecting the new covers they are putting out for the Nancy Drews, and they had some for really cheep! If you want a ten dollar off coupon, like I used, sign up using this link: BookOutletCode.

One of my jobs ended rather ubruptly. They no longer needed a babysitter for the position I have worked at on Wednesday mornings for several years. I was sad to see it go, but it did make it easier for me to accept a job that came up in our neighborhood! An old friend of ours needs someone to come over every once in awhile and help her out with her dogs, and elderly mother, so my sister and I have started doing that. It is such a low stress job. The comute is five minutes, as appossed to the half an hour, to hour comute that most of my jobs are. Though to be honest, I never thought taking care of six poodles and an elderly lady would be so chill for me, but it's been great.

So there you go. A rather long winded acount of what's been going on with me lately. What's going on with you?

It's Okay to Stop

It’s okay to stop 

You don’t have to run now 

Take a moment and breathe

In and out 

Let this weight fall off your shoulders

You don’t have to keep the world spinning

You can take a rest 

So step back 

Let it go 

Get off social media 

Let your room be messy 

Don’t worry about what needs to be done  

Sit down on the floor 

Look up at the sky 

Feel sunshine on your skin 

Breathe in God’s rest 

And breathe out peace 

Take a moment 

It’s okay to stop

I promise 

January Highlights

I can hardly believe we are already a month and a half into the year. Time is flying right now!

This month, my sister Sarah and I made good progress in watching through Star Trek voyager (skipping episodes). It's been fun to see this installment of the Star Trek world.

I re-did the walls in my room. I was getting a little tired of how I had the decorations on my wall, so I took them all down, got rid of some, and put up some fresh ones. It's been nice to have a different 'view.' ;)

My frisbee group started meeting again! It has been a year since we have met on a regular base, so it's awesome to be back at it. We're a pretty small group, but it's still really fun!

Me at the zoo. =)

It's been too cold to go to the zoo lately, but in January we finally had some warm days and were able to go twice!

Allllll my jobs started back up this month. My babysitting jobs are mostly just in the school year, so they started back up. My hours are very different this year then last year, so it's been an adjustment, but I love working with the kids. One of my jobs is for a bible study, and I'm helping watch 6-10 year olds. This is my first time watching that many kids that are above the age of three, and it's been a big learning curve.

I got my hair cut! I've been wanting to do it for a while, so finally, my sister and I did it together. Quite honestly, my haircut did not turn out how I had intended, (the layers are super short compared to the rest of my hair) but it's still nice to have something fresh. =)

I started editing my NaNo project, Hiding. It's been slow going, but I really love this book, so it's been good to dive back into! I'll hopefully be posting more about that soon.

I started piano lessons with my sister Sarah. I have been intending to start them for years, and never quite worked up the gumption. But, seeing as it was a goal for the year, I knew I should go ahead and dive in.

I did a good bit of re-reading this month, so my favorite new book I read was The Bookshop Girl. It was delightful!

Bowing Low Firth out of Ten

Winter Photo Dump Aria Lisette

My 2020 Bookish Goals Once Upon an Ordinary

January 2020 Monthly Wrap-Up Now All I Know is Grace

Thoughts of Self Care & Sunbeams and Hay Bales A Farm Girls Life

2020: A Look Ahead & Current WIP Whimsical Writing for His Glory

How was your January? What did you do? 

Your Guide to Epic Buddy Reads (A Blog Collab with Kate Willis)

So, my friend Kate and I like buddy reading. We just finished reading our fifth book together and we thought it would be fun to do a blog post on buddy reads! We're sharing ten tips, so Kate has tips 1-5 over on her blog, and here I have 6-10, so make sure to check out her post!

6. Take notes if needed. (You don’t want to forget important details) 
I am the queen of forgetting details, so I always keep a running note on my phone of things I want to discuss with my buddy. Normal notebooks work great too! (Or you might be one of those epic people like Kate who doesn't need notes. In which case, I applaud you.)

7. Make a shelf on Goodreads.  (It’s really fun to look back over what you’ve read together.)
A Goodreads shelf lets you look back over what you've read with your buddies, and see what you've already done together. (Just for reference, here is mine, and Kate's)

8. Libraries are your friend! (Sometimes we don’t both own a book so we often pick them up from the library.)
Going out on a limb to buy a book your not sure about is not always fun, so picking it up from the library can be a great alternative! Some even let you barrow things online, which will allow you to put it on an e-reader.

9. Make sure each buddy knows they can DNF the book whenever. (We’ve never had to do this before, but it is good to talk about)
It's important to decide ahead of time that if either one of you gets uncomfortable with the book that you can stop. You don't want to make your buddy feel guilty if they feel like they can't finish it! I would recommend having a plan in place in case this happens, like having a backup book!

10. Eat cheesecake at the end. (We’ve done this over Skype.) 
This is one of the most important parts. It was originally Kate's idea and I wholeheartedly endorse it. Eating cheesecake is a great way to celebrate finishing a book, and the nice thing is, you don't even have to be in the same place to do it!

Don't forget to go check out Kate's post here!