Sunday Post with Berls | February 12th 2023

February 12th 2023

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kim @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

News at Home

Wow what a week. I feel like I’ll be exhausted from this week for a long time. Monday was busy, working and getting ready to leave for Austin. I had a surprise meeting with my lead, letting me know that our principal FE was leaving for another team as of late next week, which means I’ll be moving into that role a bit. Definitely nervous about that!

Around 5:30 I was done with everything I had to do and spent the next 30 minutes just hugging on and playing with Dante. Around 5:50 Franky and Helena arrived (they stayed to help out and make it like a sleepover), which was good because Dante was distracted when it was time for me to leave at 6. He did give me a big hug and said “bye mama” but he wasn’t upset because they were there.

My trip was fine, just exhausting. I rode with my boss and a woman from another team – it was a 3.5 hour drive, but we stopped for dinner on the way – so we got to Austin around 10pm. We were staying at AMLI, which is apartments but some of the units are like hotel. I was in a 2 bedroom 2 bath with the woman I met on the drive down. So it was pretty private, but not as great as a hotel room by myself (which was the original plan but things were sold out so that was the only option.

I did a FaceTime call with Dante to say goodnight Monday night. It was sweet – he saw me on the screen and said “Hi Momma!” and he kept saying “hug” which of course I couldn’t :(. But we did some air kisses and it was really sweet. Apparently, though, he cried for like 10 minutes after I got off the phone. So Tuesday night we skipped talking and I just watched him and talked to Kiko.

Tuesday was a LONG day – especially for an introvert. We met for breakfast at 7:45 and were in meetings, breakouts, meals, networking, etc until I returned to my “apartment” at 10pm. I was sore and so tired. But I have a friend in Austin that I haven’t seen in 4 years and this was our only chance to connect. So she came to the apartment and we drank a bottle of wine on the balcony and talked until 3am. It was actually the least exhausting part of the trip because it was my only time with someone I KNEW and could relax with.

Wednesday was shorter, but still long. I woke up at 7:30 and quickly dressed and packed. We loaded the car with our bags at 8:30 so we could check out and then it was another morning of sessions and networking. At lunch time my boss asked us if we would rather stay or leave – all that was left was lunch and a concert (Mark McGrawth I think), so nothing work related. We opted to leave and made it home by 3:30. I put my suitcase down at the front door just as Kiko pulled in after picking up Dante from therapy. I had a great afternoon home with my baby and when it was time for him to go to bed (8:30), I lay down with him and passed out. Slept until 8am the next morning!

Work was a blur the rest of the week. There was an announcement on Thursday that as of June 5th they will be requiring all Walmart and Sam’s Tech employees based out of a hub to work in the office 2 days each week. That’s a huge shift from our 2 days each month and when I talked to my manager about it, he was clearly unhappy and said that there’s very little support for it coming out of Sam’s leadership — this is a Walmart thing. That said, we will have to comply but my hours on those days will be very flexible. He said he knows my priority of taking care of Dante and his therapy schedule and he will support that. So I don’t love it, but at least I have a good boss and it won’t impact my ability to take care of Dante.

Friday I got a 2 hour massage – I have a membership that I haven’t used in 3 months so it was essentially free, just tip. And my body really needed it after the week I’d had. Saturday morning I met up with a friend to help her out with a volunteer thing she had to do – she’s in Junior League and needed to put in an appearance but she needed to bring her toddler (2 months older than Dante) and newborn (6 weeks) with her. So we made it a morning – I brought Dante and we put in her appearance and then walked around the mall with the kids and had a great time. There was a part of the presentation where they were announcing the presenter and everyone clapped. Dante clapped and said “yay!” which made everyone chuckle and the presenter said, “thank you!” It was cute and I just love that he’s finally found his voice. Even if I had to step out because he wouldn’t stop talking LOL!

Blog News

Not much to report, except that I’m doing abysmally at blog visiting again. This week was a LOT and I hope to get back on track next week.

Last week on Because Reading

• [7 Feb] Tell Me Something Tuesday: favorite authors with genres you don’t love
• [9 Feb] Barbarian Alien by Ruby Dixon ★★★★
• [9 Feb] Barbarian Lover by Ruby Dixon ★★★★½
• [9 Feb] Barbarian Mine by Ruby Dixon ★★★★
• [9 Feb] Ice Planet Honeymoon by Ruby Dixon ★★★★
• [11 Feb] #MyTBRList Results and Linky: February 2023
• [12 Feb] Sunday Post with Berls | February 12th 2023

Challenge update

This week I finished:

Nothing! I’m currently reading several though…

I’m participating in 8 Challenges, plus my goal of 150 books (on track!), this year. Here’s how I’m doing.

1. COYER Upside Down Chapter 1 – 15 books
2. Finishing the Series – my goal is 5-8 series.
   • Series In Progress
     1. Well Met – I read book 2 & 3 so far this year. I need to read book 4
     2. Sean King and Michelle Maxwell – I read book 4 this year, still need to read 5 & 6
     3. Ice Planet Barbarians – I read book 6 this year, still need to read 7 – 22 (may not finish this year….)
   • Completed Series:
     1. Transplanted Tales – I read book 4 this year, which is all that is published so far (but I do think more are coming, so this is probably going to end up back in progress)
     2. Spoiler Alert – book 3 was the only book I hadn’t read, so that series now caught up!
3. Library Love – 5/60 books
4. Thrifty Thursday – my goal is 1 book each month:
   1. January – Just Folking Around by Penny Reid
   2. February – Marking Time (read in January, review to come in February)
5. 2023 Audiobook Challenge – 9/100 books
6. Backlist Reader Challenge – 9/50 books
7. Bookish Resolutions  – here are my goals:
   1. Review all books on goodreads within 1 week of reading them. Nope totally behind here and I have a feeling I won’t be caught up until next weekend.
   2. Keep up with My TBR List each month! well the posts are good, but I’m a little behind on reading this time.
   3. Complete all my COYER tasks on time. Yes! This I am keeping up with thanks to our Trello board!
   4. Sunday Post at least once each month. First for Februar!
   5. Set aside minimum 1 hour each week for blogging. 
8. 12 books from 12 friends – I shared the graphic in my first Sunday Post of the year but here are the books my friends have picked for me: (I haven’t read any yet)
   1. Filthy Rich Vampire by Geneva Lee Albin ✔ Read in January
   2. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
   3. Morning Star by Pierce Brown
   4. Slay by Brittney Morris
   5. Pride and Protest by Nikki Payne
   6. Blacktop Wasteland by SA Cosby
   7. A Psalm for the WIld-Built by Becky Chambers
   8. Discipline is Destiny: The Power of Self-Control by Ryan Holiday
   9. The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky
   10. What Angels Fear by CS Harris
   11. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
   12. The Darkening by Sunya Mara

#FitReaders2023

Felicia the Geeky Blogger and Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About co-host this fitness-oriented group and I’m glad to be part of it for another year.

Goals for 2023:

This year I’m just focusing on habits that make me feel good and may/may not lead to weight loss. And rather than over-arching year long goals, I’ll be updating my goals on a week-by-week basis.

This week: To say that I did poorly would be an understatement unfortunately. I’m the heaviest I’ve been since Dante was born and it’s hard not to internalize that with some good, old fashioned self-hatred. And wine lol.

Next week: something has got to give! Baby steps are not working because I’m not doing it. I need some old fashioned tough love. I think I’m going to try and just do all the things… maybe I’ll fall short, but if I try all the things and fall short that’s better than 1 thing and falling short, right? Maybe? so yeah eating, exercise, the whole shebang. We’ll see how it goes.

How was your week? What are you Reading?

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