August Monthly Chit Chat

August News

Our family has grown by six – yes, SIX – in the last month and a half. My brother and cousin both got married – to a pair of sisters – who each had two children of their own. It is hard to imagine these boys – whose diapers I’ve changed – married. Married with kids. And then my brother reported to Louisiana for a month and received the following award from his unit:

Yes, that is his face. Yes, that his his collection of cans from the one month he was in Louisiana. This fool is married. He bought a house. Didn’t even know his address. Heaven help us.

August is the official back-to-school month and I am proud to say I did not spend hardly any money on my classroom this year spent only more than half of my car payment on my classroom. The teachers have returned en masse and we all have the first week under our belts. But while I was celebrating a new year, I was also mourning the loss of my grandfather, whose funeral was the second day of school. Even though the year started off in a frazzled state, I am hopeful that this year will be a really good year.

Remember on that one FFF this past summer spring that asked about a recurring dream? Yeah, well, not too far into July I had one of them. Except this time there were TWO ex’s in it, one recent and one from several years ago. Read that FFF post and you’ll know the rest of the story.

I also decided to change a few things around in the Monthly Chit Chat to capture better what I’ve actually done in the previous month, so some of the titles below have changed!

Noteworthy Posts

I want to say in the last two weeks or so I have been paying attention to the numbers. I know, it’s a love-hate relationship. I typically completely ignore them. August was my BEST MONTH EVER since I’ve started blogging! I thought I hit gold when January was the best, but that has been surpassed with 1,494 page views in August. Wowzers.

I feel like the best post all month long was my Adolescent 101 Syllabus. I spent a godawful amount of time planning out that post and writing it. Other noteworthy posts that garnered plenty of attention were:

• Thoughts on Thursdays ~ Review Policies
• Top Ten Tuesday ~ Auto-Buy Authors
• Top Ten Tuesday ~ Authors I’ve Read the Most
• Thoughts on Thursdays ~ Your Blog Post Recommendations

I have to shed some light on another event that was going around last month. It Starts at Midnight, The Thousand Lives and Bookshelf Reflections all shared Shattering Stigmas post and it was phenomenal. Each posts focuses on something a little different, but they all encompass the focus on shattering the stigmas of mental illness. If you haven’t checked it out yet, go take a look. It is great insight into mental illness and the stigmas attached to them.

Reviews

How in the world did I write NINE reviews for last month? Besides my children’s book streak, I think this is the most that’s ever posted in a month. I should look into that, huh?

• Hush by Stacey R. Campbell
• Whisper by Stacey R. Campbell
• Silence by Stacey R. Campbell
• Scream by Stacey R. Campbell
• Family Magic by Patti Larsen
• The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
• Ella, the Slayer by A.W. Exley
• The Banished Craft by E.D.E. Bell
• The Secret Keeper by Angela Carling

Reading Challenges

Goodreads —  108/52 books

NetGalley —  16/50 books 

Shelf Love — 68/40 books 

TBR Pile — 74/50 books 

Beat the Heat — NEW! I completed 6 of my 8 last year, so I’m shooting for 8 again. 

Story Sprites — NEW! 11/20 squares I don’t know if I’m going to get all of these! 

Alphabet Soup  — I only need book titles that start with N and Q! 

Book Blog Discussion Challenge — 20/24 posts 

Reading Updates

   

   

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