Sunday Post with Berls | January 1st 2023!

January 1st 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

Happy new year friends!! I hope the end of 2022 treated you well. So much has happened over the past few months, but there’s absolutely no chance I’ll be able to catch you up fully here. I’d have to right a short story to scratch the surface! But some major highlights since my last Sunday Post on September 18th!

• That day was actually Dante’s 3rd birthday and we had a really nice, simple Cocomelon Wheels on the Bus themed pool party for him.
• Dante is continuing to thrive in therapy. He now goes to Speech Therapy 2x a week, Occupational Therapy 1x each week, ABA therapy for 30 hours a week and we will be starting Feeding therapy sometime in the upcoming weeks because he is continuing to increase in food pickiness. But his language is blossoming and we’re now really focusing on getting in some verbs to go with all the noun labeling he’s doing. He calls me, Kiko, Buffy, Tio Phil, Tio Zach, brother, Helena (sister in law), Tia Tequilla, Tia Melissa, Jr, and Mason all by name now when he sees them (not to mention all his therapists)! It’s amazing to see/hear. Oh and he now can tell you that his name is Dante and that he’s 3 years old.
• Work is going well. I can’t believe how incredibly lucky I am to have found a position at the EXACT right moment I needed it that has such flexibility. I pretty much work from 9am – 1pm every day (from my house all but 2 days each month). I’m still learning a lot and continue to be challenged. I like it — I don’t love it the way I did teaching (which is my true calling) but it meets my family’s needs financially, as well as health benefits and flexibility. In December I was surprised to receive an award for always going above and beyond (which came with a $500 bonus). That was really cool and reassuring, since I do have major imposter syndrome.

So things are going really well overall. But it’s a lot to balance and keep track of! I very easily find myself overwhelmed. I’ve even stopped doing my bullet journal because I just can’t keep up with it. That being said, I love blogging and the blogging community, so I’ve tried to get myself organized enough to return to the blog this year. I actually had off the past week and I’ve tried to use a lot of that extra time to get caught up and even a little ahead on the blog. I didn’t get near as much as I wanted to done, but I hope it’s enough to help me make my return.

Blog News

Michelle and I have announced a few challenges during our extended break – if you didn’t see them before it’s not too late to sign up:

 

COYER is back for a 10th year!! We’ve changed things up (again) to celebrate this huge milestone. Check out the COYER sign up post and join us for as much or as little as you’d like.

Do you have some goals for reading/blogging in 2023? Join us in making some resolutions that we hopefully can keep in 2023!

We’re hosting a special Can You Read a Series In A Month? Challenge (#SIAM) for the month of January. Read a series of your choosing our join in on the conclusion to Anne’s 2022 Night Huntress readalong for a bonus entry in the giveaway. I’ll be joining in reading Night’s Rebel for the readalong.

While Michelle and I were on our extended blog break, My TBR List took a brief pause as well. We announced it’s return in December asking for y’all to vote for the book we would review at the end of January. We’ll be back January 7th asking you to vote again. I hope you can join us with your own TBR Lists!

Challenge update – How I did in 2022:

I Participated in in 7 Challenges, plus the Goodreads Challenge, this year. Here’s how I did:

1. COYER Seasons & COYER Community 2022 –
   1. Winter – 23 books (final count for Winter)
   2. Spring -34 books (final count for Spring)
   3. Summer – 35 books (final count for Summer)
   4. Fall – 26 books (final count for Fall)
2. Bookish Resolutions – I failed at all of my goals… but I did do really well with most of them until about June!
   1. Blog ahead at least 1 week. 
   2. Keep a blogging planner.
   3. Visit & comment on 7 posts a week.
   4. Reply to comments each week.
   5. Review books before starting a new book/on the same day –
3. The Backlist Reader Challenge –  52/50 books
4. 2022 Audiobook Challenge –  109/75 books
5. 2022 Library Love Challenge –  54/24 books
6. 2022 Finishing the Series Challenge – My goal was 5 series and I completed six!
   • Completed:
     1. The Ivy Chronicles by Sophie Jordan – read books 2 and 3 this year, finishing the series.
     2. Amos Decker by David Bald Baldacci – read books 2-6 (#7 expected later this year)
     3. Witchless in Seattle by Dakota Cassidy – read books 8-13 this year
     4. Georgina Kincaid by Richelle Mead – read books 3-6 this year (thanks to Anne for realizing I could count this one!)
     5. Mine by Cynthia Eden- read books 4 -6 this year.
     6. Mystic Bayou by Molly Harper – read book 4 – 6 (including 1 novella)

FitReaders (hosted by Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About & Felicia The Geeky Blogger)

My big goal for 2022 was to lose weight every month. I ended the year down 5 pounds from where I started 2022. Not an amazing turn out, but I’m glad to at least not be up!

Challenges I plan to do in 2023:

1. COYER Upside Down – I will (of course) be doing all components of COYER this year. I don’t ever set a book goal but since I did manage 118 qualifying books last year (out of 150 read!) I’d like to shoot for 100 books this year.
2. Finishing the Series – I found it really satisfying to catch up on 6 series last year and I’m excited to join in again this year. Six series puts me firmly in the B list category, so I’ll aim for that again this year (5-8 series).
3. Library Love – Another returning challenge! I way surpassed my goal last year, so I’m raising the bar this year. I’ll be shooting for Library Card On Fire with 60+ books from the library.
4. Thrifty Thursday – this is a new challenge this year, but it goes perfectly with COYER and I really need to work on those freebies! My goal is to read at least one freebie each month (so 12 all year).
5. 2023 Audiobook Challenge – When I joined in last year I had no idea what number of the books I read were audio – I just knew I read a lot. But after last year I have a better guesstimate and I’ll be aiming for the 100 Club!
6. Backlist Reader Challenge – Another returning challenge from 2022! It’s very satisfying to know I read 50+ books last year that I had been meaning to read and never got around to. So I’ll be setting the same goal this year!
7. Bookish Resolutions – As co-host I feel like I gotta pull this one off right? I’m going to try to make smarter goals this year though:
   1. Review all books on goodreads within 1 week of reading them.  I just have to get back on track with this goal and then I’ll be golden!
   2. Keep up with My TBR List each month! Even if Michelle and I don’t manage to buddy read each month, I really want to make sure we keep this fun meme going.
   3. Complete all my COYER tasks on time. We have a Trello board to keep up with all the things that need to be done for COYER. My goal is to not fall behind on my assigned tasks.
   4. Sunday Post at least once each month. Even when I get busy I want to do at least a monthly check-in with my Sunday Post so I can continue to feel connected to the blog community. I hope to post weekly, but this is my minimum goal.
   5. Set aside minimum 1 hour each week for blogging. That might be 1 hour of visiting, 1 hour of post writing, 1 hour of writing reviews, 1 hour of COYER tasks. But at least 1 hour each week (could be in split up times) to make sure blogging doesn’t get skipped.
8. 12 books from 12 friends – I wanted to do this last year but was too late to the party. So I’m excited to have the following 12 books to read in 2023:  
9. Goodreads Challenge – I am once again going for 150 books. It seems to be the perfect goal for me these past couple years.

How did your reading challenges wrap up? What are your goals for 2023?

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