Monthly Wrap-up: April 2018

I am a couple of days late getting my April wrap-up posted because of technical difficulties. First of all, the power cord for my laptop bit the dust a couple of weeks ago. And second my internet has been very finicky lately. Thankfully I was able to buy a new cord and my connection seems to be working at the moment.

April was a busy month. We had family visiting from out east, there were several birthdays and I have starting working more hours. We also had some pretty crazy weather and still had snow on the ground until about a week ago.

Charlie turned 1 on the 19th. I can’t even fathom how fast the past year went. I’m now a mommy to a toddler! We had a double birthday party for him and my dad (who was celebrating his 60th). It was a wonderful day.

Unfortunately April was also a month of tragedy in my country; first with the Humboldt Bronco’s bus crash and then the van attack in Toronto. I’d like to send my condolences to all those who are involved.

The Road Home by Beverly Lewis 
Genre: Amish Fiction, Christian Fiction
Rating: 2.5/5
Note: I was sent a copy of The Road Home by Beverly Lewis by the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. 

Rumors (Luxe, #2) by Anna Godbersen
Genre: Historical Fiction, YA Lit
Rating: 4/5

The Stats

Total Number of Books Read: 2
Total Number of Fiction: 2
Total Number of Non-fiction: 0
Total Books Sent for Review: 1
Total Books Read from My Shelves: 1
Total Library Books Read: 0

Formats Read:

Physical Books: 1
eBooks: 1
Audio Books: 0

 

Currently Reading

 

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Monthly Wrap-up: March 2018

Hello and welcome to my monthly wrap-up for the month of March.

I turned 31 years old on the first of the month. Unfortunately the flu went through my house and we had to post-pone my birthday celebration. Once we were all feeling better, we had a nice family dinner. My favourite part was receiving my first birthday card that said “Mom”.

Charlie turned 11 months old on the 19th. He is doing great and learning so much everyday. His current favourites include; monkeys, ABC Kids TV videos on Youtube and trying to copy everything his Pop does. This morning he will have his first visit from the Easter Bunny, along with a turkey dinner with family.

You may recall that several weeks ago, I posted a 21 Day Anxiety Challenge. Well the flu interrupted my progress, but I have completed some of the tasks, just not in the order listed on the image I shared. My progress with the challenge includes:

• Spend 20 Minutes Outside. I’ve been going out on walks several times a week.
• Get hydrated. I’ve been taking a water bottle where ever I go, that I sip on throughout the day.
• Take a long bubble bath. Nothing calms me down like a relaxing bath, paired with a good book.
• Snuggle with an animal. My cat Nova starts off his day with cuddles every morning.

I really hope to do some meditation and yoga during the month of April.

I’ve started to use my Instagram more during the month of March. If you would like to follow me click the link below:

https://www.instagram.com/melissaleesredhousereviews/

Books Completed

Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks
♥♥.5       2.5/5
Genre: Short Stories, Fiction

Everything She Lost by Alessandra Harris
♥♥    2/5
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense
Note: I was sent a copy of Everything She Lost by Alessandra Harris, from the author in exchange for an honest review.

The Meeting Place (Song of Acadia, #1) by Janette Oke & T. Davis Bunn
♥♥♥♥         4/5
Genre: Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction

The Stats

Total Number of Books Read: 3
Total Number of Fiction: 3
Total Number of Non-fiction: 0
Total Books Sent for Review: 1
Total Books Read from My Shelves: 1
Total Library Books Read: 1

Formats Read:

Physical Books: 1
eBooks: 2
Audio Books: 0

Total Books Read in 2018: 7

Currently Reading

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.

Links

Book Date

Monthly Wrap-up: February 2018

I’m a little late posting this wrap-up because cold and flu season is just sweeping through my house at the moment. First Charlie had a cold and was teething at the same time. So this made for one unhappy baby. He finally kicked that then got hit with a stomach bug. Thankfully he seems to be feeling more like his happy, cheeky self again.

I seem to be having trouble with my images in the past couple of posts I’ve made. I’ve tried to save them on my Google account, then add them through there, but the link up option hasn’t been working. Instead I was copying the image link from my Google albums then pasting them into my posts. It looked like it worked at first, but once they were published I noticed the link was broken. Its getting kind of frustrating to be honest. WordPress is still new to me, so I’m slowly figuring it all out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Books Completed

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4) by J.K. Rowling
♥♥♥♥       4/5
Genre: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Series

 

Seriously… I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres
♥♥♥     3/5
Genre: Non-fiction, Humor, Autobiography, Audio book

 

Summer at Sunset (Summer, #2) by Beth Labonte
♥♥♥.5          3.5/5
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Romance, Series
Note: I was sent a copy of Summer at Sunset (Summer, #2) by Beth Labonte from the author in exchange for an honest review.

 

The Stats

Total Number of Books Read: 3
Total Number of Fiction: 2
Total Number of Non-fiction: 1
Total Books Sent for Review: 1
Total Books Read from My Shelves: 1
Total Library Books Read: 1

Formats Read

Physical Books: 1
eBooks: 1
Audio books: 1

Total Books Read in 2018: 4

2011 Reading Catch-up Challenge Update:
Seriously… I’m Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres
Books Completed: 4/15

Currently Reading

Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks

Everything She Lost by Alessandra Harris

 

Wishing you all a wonderful March.

Happy reading.

Currently Reading: February 11, 2018

Posting a quick update to record my reading progress.

We are currently snowed in here. Over the past couple of days we just got dumped on and its really quite beautiful. Driving in it isn’t very fun though. Does anyone else enjoy shoveling snow? I do! Too bad my heart doesn’t agree, so I have to really limit myself. It makes me miss the days of my childhood where I’d spend the day outside sledding, building snow forts and snowmen. Ah those were the days.

Does anyone remember Crazy Carpet sleds? They are also known as Flying Carpets..

I had so much fun with these as a kid, but man were they ever hard on the knees.

Now lets talk books..

My Reading Progress

I finally finished my re-read of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This is as far as I’ve ever read in the series, however I plan to remedy that in the months to come. I’m looking forward to continuing the series, but I’m kind of worried I won’t be into the remaining books like I was the first 4. Did anyone else have this problem with the HP series? I enjoyed The Goblet of Fire, but the third book still remains my favourite. It surprised me how much of the plot I had forgotten. So in a way it was kind of like reading it for the first time.

Currently Reading

I’ve made great progress with these two books. I hope to finish off Ellen’s book tonight and Beth Labonte’s later in the week.

What are you all reading? Leave me a message in the comments.

Happy reading.

Links

Hosted by: Book Date

Monthly Wrap-up: January 2018

January was a pretty busy month for me. I’ve started to slowly get back into working again. Although I didn’t make an specific New Year resolutions, I’m trying my best to make better decisions and to take better care of myself. Its hard to do when you have a little one. Even harder when you are a single parent. But I’m trying my best.

Charlie has learned and grown so much since Christmas. He is now over 9 months old, with two teeth and two more coming through. He never ceases to amaze me or melt my heart.

As you will see from my monthly wrap-up below, I only completed 1 book in January. However I’m actually pretty please with the amount of reading I’ve fit in this month. I’ve been slowly re-reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as well as an eBook by Beth Labonte.

I came to realize that in the past year I put a lot of pressure on myself to finish a book by the end of the month. I’m trying a new approach to this. I’m just going with the flow. I’ll get it finished when I can. And if that so happens to be a few days into a new month, then that is ok. I know this will change up my monthly wrap-up totals, but allow me to take my time and enjoy the stories I’m reading more.

Books Completed

40 Love by Madeleine Wickham
♥♥.5      2.5/5
Genre: Contemporary Fiction, Audio Book

The Stats

Total Number of Books Read: 1
Total Number of Fiction: 1
Total Number of Non-fiction: 0
Total Books Sent for Review: 0
Total Books Read from My Shelves: 0
Total Library Books Read: 1

Formats Read

Physical Books: 0
eBooks: 0
Audio Books: 1

Total Books Read in 2018: 1

Currently Reading

February TBR

Hosted by: Book Date

Currently Reading: January 21, 2018

It’s been a while since I did a Currently Reading post. Time is absolutely flying.. my baby boy is 9 months old now! How did that happen? My tiny little baby has turned into a cheeky handful. And I’m loving every minute of it.

Another thing I haven’t done in a long time is upload a picture to Instagram. I’d really like to start using that more.. Here is my latest post:

Finally unpacked one box of books. This is all I have space for atm. 📚 #bookstagram #bookblogger #canadianbooks #canadianblogger #shelfie #booklover #momlife #charmedaroma #tbr #tbr2018 #toomanybookstoolittletime #laddershelf #homemade

A post shared by Melissa Lee (@melissaleesredhousereviews) on Jan 19, 2018 at 12:03pm PST

 

My Reading Progress

Last week I completed my first book of the year:

40-Love by Madeleine Wickham (Aka Sophie Kinsella) is a contemporary novel that does have its humorous moments but is chalk full of deplorable characters. I gave it 2.5 stars and my review will be posted in a couple weeks.

Currently Reading

Which is obviously much more enjoyable than a 2.5 star read. 🙂

What are you reading this week? Leave me a message in the comments.

Links

Hosted by: Book Date

 

Monthly Wrap-up: December 2017

Here we are at the beginning of another year. 2017 was quite a whirlwind for me. Full of many ups and downs. But more importantly it blessed me with a beautiful son. This Christmas was by far one of the most memorable for me and my family. Charles has brought so much joy to our lives.

The past few weeks have been full of wonderful Christmas festivities and time spent with family. Of course it also included some reading..

Books Completed

• Plum Lovin’ (Stephanie Plum 12.5) by Janet Evanovich
  ♥♥♥ 3/5
  Genre: Novella, Contemporary Fiction, Mystery, Romance
• Comfort and Joy by Kristin Hannah
  ♥♥♥♥ 4/5
  Genre: Contemporary fiction, Christmas Fiction, Holiday Fiction

The Stats

Total Number of Books Read: 2
Total Number of Fiction: 2
Total Number of Non-fiction: 0
Total Books Sent for Review: 0
Total Books Read from my Shelves: 2
Total Library Books Read: 0

Formats Read

Physical Books: 0
eBooks: 2
Audio Books: 0

Total Books Read in 2017: 27

Currently Reading

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and all the best for 2018.

 

Hosted by: Book Date 

Monthly Wrap-up: November 2017

November started off well here, but ended with a cold that hit my whole family. However it didn’t dampen the Christmas spirit that is starting to build. I got a good start on my Christmas shopping, which is surprising. The Christmas lights are up and we’ve been watching some fun movies and festive television shows. Those cheesy Hallmark movies are such a guilty pleasure of mine.

One thing that has always kicked off the festive season (for me) is watching the Toronto Santa Claus Parade on television. This year I was able to share that tradition with my son Charles. Sure he didn’t understand what we were watching, nor did he really pay much attention to what was on, but it was nice all the same. The holidays this year are going to be so special as it will be his first Christmas.

I’m satisfied with my reading progress this month and the quality of the books I read was good. Being sick sucks, but it allowed me to spend some more time reading. I finally finished reading The Measure of Katie Calloway, which I’ve slowly been making progress with on Kindle for PC, for quite a while now.

Books Completed

• Down, Then Up: A Novella by Beth Labonte
  ♥♥♥♥ 4/5
  Genre: Contemporary, Romance, Novella
• The Measure of Katie Calloway (Michigan Northwoods, #1) by Serena B. Miller
  ♥♥♥.5  3.5/5
  Genre: Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction
• The Sound of Rain by Sarah Loudin Thomas 
  ♥♥♥.5  3.5/5
  Genre: Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction
  SENT FOR REVIEW

The Stats 

Total Number of Books Read: 3
Total Number of Fiction: 3
Total Number of Non-fiction: 0
Total Books Sent for Review: 1
Total Books Read from My Shelves: 2
Total Library Books Read: 0

Formats Read:

Physical Books: 0
eBooks: 3
Audio Books: 0

Total Books Read in 2017: 25 

Currently Reading

December TBR

I hope you all had a wonderful November and happy reading!

Links

Hosted by: Book Date

Currently Reading: November 12, 2017

On November 11 Canadians all over the country paused to remember those who fought for our freedom. Lest we forget. 

It has been a while since I’ve done a “Currently Reading” post. Seeing as how my little man decided to settle down for the night at a decent time, I took the opportunity to make this post.

We had our first snowfall of the season last week. Charles was in a state of awe when he looked out the window that first morning to the ground covered. I just love watching him discovering new things.

My Reading Progress

So far this month I have completed one book:

Down, Then Up by Beth Labonte, which I gave 4 stars.

I feel somewhat slumpish though. What I really need is to pick up a book that I can get completely lost in. One that I can’t put down. I will keep my fingers crossed that the next one I pick up will be the right one for me.

Currently Reading

What are you reading this week? Leave me a message in the comments.

Links

Hosted By: Book Date

Monthly Wrap-up: September 2017

I have been dealing with a lot of problems with my internet and laptop this month, so I’m just going to do a quick wrap-up before it boots me offline again.

Books Completed:

♥♥♥ 3/5
The Christmas Blessing by Melody Carlson
Genre: Historical Fiction, Christian Fiction, Holiday Story
SENT FOR REVIEW

The Stats

Total Number of Books Read: 1
Total Number of Fiction: 1
Total Number of Non-fiction: 0
Total Books Sent for Review: 1
Total Books Read From My Shelves: 0
Total Library Books Read: 0

Formats Read
Physical Books: 0
eBooks: 1
Audio Books: 0

Total Books Read in 2017: 20

Currently Reading