I'm Back! Life Lately

Friends I am finally back after a two month break!  Yep, I decided to step away in May until the end of school and boy am I glad I did.  Life was just FULL and I decided to step away from the blog and mostly social media in order to manage life/stress and ALL THE GOOD.  Let's do a quick check in with what's been going on!

School's Out for Summer!  June 27th was the official last day for the kids and June 28th was my list day.  In the fall Anya will be in Grade 9 (high school), Halie will be in Grade 12 (last year of high school) and I will be entering my 18th year of teaching at full-time Vice-Principal in the same school.  

Anya's Celebrations: Anya wrapped up her dance season with a final showcase, did another spring of baseball, was cast as Dodger in Oliver Twist and was FANTASTIC.  Also, she celebrated her last year of elementary school surrounded by her friends, family and teachers.  Oh and landed her first parttime job at the lake!  What a busy young lady.

Halie continues to love her horseback riding and has already had three shows and has plans to keep going this year.  She also applied and received a horseback riding scholarship.  Halie continues to work in the city part-time, and is hoping to work in a vet clinic this summer to explore that as a career option (fingers crossed).

Photography has been AMAZING this spring.  Families, maternity, grads, young love, etc.  Unfortunately I've had to say no to a couple of people because I knew I just couldn't keep up.  Please feel free to follow my FB page or IG account.

Friends.  It's been so busy that we haven't had a lot of one -on -one time with our friends.  But we were lucky to gather some of our favorite people for a BBQ, games and fire in June.  So good for the soul.  Always invest in those friendships, that's all I know.

Trying something new.  My teen daughter talked me into lash extensions.  I was so worried that I would have a reaction, sensitive eyes, and a little worried that I would end up loving them.  GUESS WHAT?!?  I love them.  Sigh, another possible monthly bill.

Loving these lip stains for summer.  They are on sale right now for $6, regularly $20!!!!  Soft Coral & Fearless Fuchsia.  

Reading...Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the prequal to the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Honestly I have just picked it up again, after the busy spring season.  I did however listen to People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry which w2as cure and a perfect BEACH read.  

Wearing in June!

Next week, I'll be sharing my new favorite bikini that I feel comfortable and confident wearing on the beach this summer as my body continues to change and approaches 42.  See you on Monday!

Part Two: New Year, Same Me

 

Last week I looked back and reflected on my 2021 goals.  I am a firm believer in the power of the reflection process, not only as accountability but more as a check in with myself.  Through the process do you know what I discovered?  I really want to continue focusing on all the same things more or less in the upcoming year.  My word last year was CONNECTION and apart from a blip in February 2021 when I experienced a really difficult time and some short term depression, I really was able to stay connected to what my personal and professional goals and needs where.  What was important to me and I learned how to let go of things that no longer serve me.  

As 2022 began and the onset on yet another round of cation, lock-downs and plans falling apart, I felt that "down" feeling and "disappointment" settling over me.  We had planned to go to Mexico in February as a family to celebrate my dads 65th and my husbands 40th birthday.  With the current situation we've decided to cancel and not risk being stuck in Mexico.  As we closed out 2021 and began 2022 and I was wrestling with the decision and then this image from my friend @fashinablyfit_with_t came across and had me pause.

OPPORTUNITY

I liked that I had the power to look at myself, the situation around me, and see not just the disappointment, but what other opportunities might be able to emerge from this disappointment.  This reminded me that I had the power to change my outlook in most situations.  Now we are looking at booking a local trip to the mountains with our kids.  Something we've talked about for years but have never done because we've always had to choose between a hot holiday or a mountain vacation.  We will contribute to our local economy.  Is it prefect?  No?  Could it be terribly cold?  Yes.  And if we have to cancel we will and we will have to seek another opportunity.  

So this year as my goals and focus is staying similar to last year.  Here is a list of the goals I want to continue to focus on that fill-me up in a good way.

1.  Relationship with my girls.  As they are getting older, they are spending less tangible time with us.  This year I am aiming to do a monthly  family that focuses on reconnecting with them.  I know they are getting older and part of that means letting them grow their own friendships and relationships outside of our family, so this is a good compromise.

2.  Read and write more.  I've been aiming for 12 books a year but this year I am bumping it to 24 because I want to continue to listen to audiobooks as well as read.  I also want to include more non-fiction content into my reading this year.  I also want to incorporate journaling into my life.  I recently have started to think about how journals can give our children a glimpse of who we were at various times throughout our lives, even after we are gone from Earth.  I purchased this lovely journal with various prompts that makes me excited to write and reflect.

3.  Continue to grow my side photography business, but only as long as I am enjoying doing what I am doing.  I would really like to do a graduation photoshoot this spring so if you are local in the area and want to be my model, please reach out and check out A & H Snapshots.

4.  Fitness!  This year I am hoping to do a mini-triathlon, if it happens with COVID.  One of my main goals this year is to make a team for the Frank Dunn Triathlon event this summer. It's something I've wanted to do for years and years and although  I feel confident in my ability to do the biking and running portions  of the event, I know I can't undertake the full swim.  That being said, I do want to get back into the pool and restart building my endurance in swimming.  

5.  Finances.  Oh man.  We need to start thinking about our finances and how to best invest or how to save for retirement.  We are so overwhelmed by the information nd I'd love any advice you might have on where we should start.  One way I'd like to contribute to our savings is by getting back to consciously buying clothes I actually need.  The past few years, I've honestly just been buying whenever I really wanted something.  I am not a big spender but I do think I sometimes buy just for the blog or for something to do. So this year I'd like to track my actual spending in the fashion department and I hope to keep it under $1500.  Will see.  

We brought in the New Year with good friends at home.  Since I haven't made a fashion post in a bit, not to worry they are coming back, I will leave you with my sparkly dress that I wore to our home NYE party because why not!  Have an awesome week and tell me what are some of your goals for 2022?

Summer Reading List

I love to read.  In elementary school when we were coming up for alliterations for each of our names my class agreed that "Bookworm Bojana" was the perfect name.  Over the years my reading has evolved and ebbed and flowed.  One of my goals the last few years was to read one book per month that was not teaching related.  I have a book club that meets every second month and I prefer it that was because then I get to choose my own book and also have a book to discuss with other.  We also take the summer months off and this year I had a stack of books waiting for me thanks to wonderful friends who have been exchanging books through our lock-down time.  Here is what I read over the summer.  

★★★★ Untamed by Glennon Dyole
My girlfriend dropped this book off in my mailbox right after we went into lock down.  She left a note saying that she felt this was the book for me!  She was RIGHT!  I found this book insightful, forthcoming, honest, reflective and funny as can be.  Now as I return to work I keep telling myself I can do HARD things.  Glennon explores her emotions, her growth and development and realizations in an honest, insightful and often  funny ways.  Is it self help?  I don't think so.  For me its more affirmations.  Realizations that we all have stories.  We all have discoveries.  We all have truths we can acknowledged or not.  Loved it!

                                                   

★★★★★ Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand
I am giving this 5 stars because in terms of a beach read it was exactly what I expect form a beach read.  It was sweet, a little predictable but not in a way that doesn't want to make you keep reading, it had love stories that were complex and yet simple, and it was set on Nantucket.  I found this book in one of those little libraries at our lake while on a walk and it gave me so much joy to read on the beach.

                                                
★★★★★  Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
I had no intention of reading this book.  Honestly the title and the cover seemed borrowing to me.  It looked like a heavy book and summer time is usually for lighter reads in my world.  But this book was brought over by a friend and she highly recommended it!.  READ IT!  It's poetic at times,  it's inspiring, and heart wrenching.  It follows a young girl, abandon to survive in the marsh and to learn how to integrate with society just so she can survive.  There is a a look a how humans judge and these judgments prevent us from getting to know a person or helping them when we know they are in need.  It's also a page turner as a criminal trial unfolds and a side love story unfolds in different and more subtle ways than we are used to as readers.  Also, my husband read it and thought it was also very good!

★★★★ Kids These Days by Jody Carrington
This was a book for work, but it doubled up a book that I  also found insightful as a mom, teacher, administrator and member of society.  Jody is a trained psychologist that helps us understand and implores us to make connections with the children in our lives that are the hardest to love.  She explores how connection and relationship is a key ingredient to not only managing children we have in schools, but getting to know them and helping them when they are struggling to regulate themselves.  Overall good message, nothing extremely new and profound but also an important reminder how not to slip back into some of our old habits that are built on institutions and business model, rather than a human connection.  

★★★1/2  California Girls by Susan Mallery
Okay this book was good.  It was a good, easy, beach read.  It wasn't a book that I had to keep reading.  It followed three sisters and their lives at different intervals, one sisters marriage is falling apart, one is becoming a surrogate, and one is rediscovering her own self-worth and love after a break -up.  The only sister's story I was really into was the last one, although, I liked the way it followed all three.  If you come across it in the library, or a friend has it, or it's free, I would pick it up for an easy read but I wouldn't necessarily spend $$ on it.

What are you reading currently?  What should I add to my my "must read" list?

Books of 2019

Hello world.  How is everyone getting along this December?  I am finding slices of time to just slow down and enjoy the little things in life.  I am looking forward to having a break from work, 10 more teaching days.  I love my job but as you have  probably noticed with my inconsistency on here, it's been taking a good chunk of my time and energy.  Anyway, today I am reflecting on my 2019 goal of reading one book a month.  I killed it in the first 8 months of the year and then this last while has been a struggle but I reached my goal.  I love reading.  It calms me.  It grounds me.  It allows my brain to rest and put my life on hold for just a little while.  I feel it's similar to what people describe yoga does for them.  

Here is  my quick review of the books I've read in 2019.  

 BOOK of the YEAR!!!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Educated by Tara Westover  Hands down, without hesitation, my favorite book of 2019.  This book blew my mind.  I can’t believe what Tara went through as a child and my mind was blown to know that this type of lifestyle is still so prevalent in some parts of the country.  Tara is “home schooled” but really not until she is 18 at which point she enters college, having worked her butt off to pass the SAT’s.  She now has a PHD but no high school diploma.  READ this book!  It’ll test your outlook of families, your understanding of love, forgiveness and family bonds that are so strong even if other believe they aren’t what’s best for you.  Incredible and a story that has left a lifelong impact on me.
 

INTRIGUING STORY 

⭐⭐⭐⭐A House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhout  WOW!  Just wow!  This is a hard book to critique because it’s someones experience.  I can’t imagine anything like this happening to me and being able to survive it both physically and emotionally is difficult to imagine.  The book is about a young, aspiring journalist, Amanda, that after years of entering war-torn countries, ends up being kidnapped  and kept for over a year.  On the one hand I felt like, “what are you doing!!!!!  Everyone is telling you this is dangerous situtation to be put yourself in, especially not being affiliated with an actual newspaper or station.”  On the other hand she stays very honest and also takes responsibility for her actions throughout the story.  A hard but good read.  I would recommend it but it does move very slow at times.

 
SUSPENSE & PAGE TURNER

⭐⭐⭐⭐ I, Witness by Niki Mackay  Mystery.  Suspense.  Murder or not?    This one had it all!  Super good and a quick read.  Also, my husband really liked it and that’s a WIN.

 
EASY & BEACH READS

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Big Little Lies by Lianne Moriarty  YES!  YES! YES!  Are you looking for an easy, I can’t put this book down, this is it.  I read it over the summer and it was the best.  The characters are all interesting, they are complex and the plot is a page turner.  I liked it so much that I immediately went to Netflix to watch it on their with a star studded cast with Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern.

⭐⭐⭐ The Singles Game by Lauren Weisberger  Another easy ready.  Follow a young tennis player as she figures out how to balance the love and determination of being the best, while having a real life and relationships that are based on more than the game.  Beach read.

⭐⭐⭐⭐Sisters Like Us by Susan Mallery
  Another beach read to add to your list.  A lovely read about two sisters, their relationship with their each other, with their mother and with lovers.  I liked it and it was the perfect read on a beach in Mexico.  

SKIP 

⭐⭐ After You by Jojo Moyes  I wanted to like this book because  I loved Me Before You but it just didn't happen.  I don’t think I’ll end up picking up the last book in the installment to be honest.  Skip.

⭐⭐⭐Girl, Stop Apologizing: A Shame-Free Plan for Embracing and Achieving Your Goals by Rachel Hollis  I felt it was very similar to Girl Wash Your Face.  Good messages overall but I felt if you read the other one you can skip this one, or vice versa.

⭐⭐⭐ House of Sand and Fog by Andree Dubus III  I half read it, half listened to it.  Hmmmm.  It’s a story in which you don’t know who to root for.  All the characters are tragic, and the story ends in tragedy.  I don’t think I’d read it again, but it was one that I was conflicted during reading and it kept me reflecting. 

 ⭐⭐A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick  A strange novel.  I’ll leave it at that.
 

⭐⭐Inheritance by Dani Shapiro   I wanted to love it.  In fact I rallied for it with my book club group and then it was not that good.  The writing and the story just didn’t grab or sustain my interest, so I say SKIP it.

CURRENTLY
I am currently wrapping up 2019 with another easy, beach read, Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrant.  

Tell me, what should I read in 2020!