Good morning/evening/late night everyone. It’s currently 1 AM where I live and I had posted on Twitter and Instagram earlier that I would definitely be getting a post up. Well, I laid down with my son and decided I most certainly was not getting a post up. That was approximately 3 hours ago.
I was struggling with falling asleep and feeling tired really at all, so here I am, keeping my promise.
Today I will be talking about 5 things that I would like to do before this year is done. These are going to be things that I would like to accomplish, but I wouldn’t really say is a bucket list. This isn’t going to be things like “go on vacation” or stuff like that because, well, the world is falling apart.
So, let’s just get right into this and just know that I am eating some ice cream right now and have no shame.
Good morning everyone. I hope you’re all doing well. Today I’m going to be giving you all some tips when it comes to handling your self care.
Completely off topic, but my husband got me a new keyboard since I’ve been having issues with my laptop one and currently I’m really happy with this one! I know that doesn’t really mean anything to anyone other than me, but it was something I wanted to share.
Good evening everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. Time for a fun little quick Q&A for my first Coffee Over Books post!! I’m also including Have I Read Your Favorite Books in here because this is going up later than planned. I’ll be having my review for the Kdrama Chocolate going up soon and you’ll be able to choose what I watch next. You’ll have a few choices over Kdramas, American TV shows, or anime.
You all asked me questions on Instagram and I’m here to answer them!
I didn’t get a lot, so let’s talk about some coffee really quick.
Don’t forget that I’m an ambassador for Coffee Over Cardio. Click the photo below to be brought straight to the page for this coffee, or you can go to the website and use my code 10COURTOFLOVE to save 10% and help provide me with some coffee!
Make sure you check out this coffee. It’s so good! Now, let’s get on with the Q&A! I only got a couple questions so this will be quick.
Favorite Coffee Flavor?
Currently it’s the birthday cake from CoffeeOverCardio. Is that a bit bias? Kinda. But I love it!
What’sa book you personally didn’tlike but can still acknowledge that it’s pretty well written?
This happens to me all the time. But the one that stands out the most to me right now Animal Farm by George Orwell. I hated this book. With a passion. But I still gave it three stars because it was written well. It did what it was supposed to be doing. But I just didn’t like it.
Now, let’s talk about the books that are some of my Instagram follower’s favorites and see if I’ve read them. If you didn’t give me a response, then comment below and I’ll let you know!
Summer of Yesterday
I have not read this one. I’m not sure of the author, but I do know that I have yet to read it.
A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J Maas
Yup! I read and loved this. Still trying to get through ACOFAS.
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black
While this one wasn’t one that I loved, I did love the series. So yes, I did read this.
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
If you know me at all, you know my love for this series. Yup!
Broken Beautiful Hearts by Kami Garcia
I had this as a Readathin book, I believe. I really enjoyed it.
Sadie by Courtney Summers
Absolutely loved this book.
The Deal
Another I’m unsure of the author for. So I haven’t read it! I don’t think 🤔
Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Yessss! Love this book with my entire being.
Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
Ha. Yes. This was the first book I read that got me back into reading again.
Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood
I haven’t read this, but I think I’ve seen it around. Maybe I’ll give it a shot!
The Lady Rogue
I don’t know the author off the top of my head, but I do know this one. I haven’t read it though.
Dangerous Alliance
I have no idea. I’ve never heard of this one. I love learning about new books, though!
Alright! That’s it for this one. Remember to keep an eye out for my Chocolate review so you can vote on my next watch. Thanks so much for joining me and I’ll see you all soon!
Good morning everyone. I’m trying to get back on track here. I just have been behind on everything lately and I am beating myself up over it because there’s no reason. So here’s to me doing better.
But I decided to do a tarot reading for February. I drew 3 cards. One for mind, one for body, and one for spirit. When drawing for body, a second card felt the need to come out so I drew that one as well.
Let’s take a look at what I got.
Mind – The Hanged Man
So, not initially a good one. But I’m also very new to tarot, so let’s see what it means.
So, according to the app that I use to find out the meanings of the cards, The Hanged Man is about self-sacrifice to move forward.
I think this is interesting because I’ve been dealing with a lot of stress with school and applying for internships. I haven’t turned any in because I am honestly scared of taking this next step. I think this is a sign that good things will come when I take the plunge and deal with the “consequences.” There’s also a lot going on at my current job that’s been on my mind so it could have to do with that.
Body – The Tower; The Wheel of Fortune
So, The Tower isn’t a good card inherently, but it can lead to good things. It talks about complete destruction, but that can also lead to new beginnings.
The Wheel of Fortune is about things that are out of human control and full circles in life. So I’m interested because of everything going on with my body and what this could mean for February.
Spirit – Page of Pentacles
This card is all about new journeys and such. I think this is interesting because I’m really connecting with myself lately and I’m looking more into Wicca/Wiccan stuff and it just really connects with me. So I think this is a sign I’m heading down the right path to better understand myself.
Judging by this reading, February is going to be a month of sacrifices and growth. Change and new beginnings. I’m interested to see how this all plays out, but I think February, while it’s going to be a tough month, is going to end up being a beneficial one to me.
Let me know if you do tarot and can help me better understand this reading. I know I’m probably doing it “wrong,” but I feel the whole point is that I connect with the cards and do readings the way I feel comfortable and feel right. But if I’m misinterpreting any of the meanings, I’d like to know.
Let me know if you’re Wiccan and some resources you have used in becoming and understanding the person you are.
Thanks everyone for joining me and remember that it’s not too late to grow. Just because you thought you understood yourself before, doesn’t mean that there’s not more to learn. Explore and discover.
Good evening everyone! As I’ve mentioned before, I’m graduating in June. While I plan on starting internships, I also don’t want to stop learning.
I feel like I’ve been in school for so long that I just can’t stop myself now. I need to keep learning. So I’m going to share with you all a few classes I’d like to take through the website, Alison. This isn’t sponsored (though I wish it was). It’s just a website I’ve been meaning to check out for a while.
The first thing I’d like to learn is French. I took French in high school but I had a bad teacher so I don’t remember much of it. I’d love to be able to speak French.
Honestly if they had ASL, I’d learn that too. I’d love to learn ASL.
I’d also really like to learn some graphic design. I make a lot of graphics for this blog and I’d like to improve those for you all. So taking a free course on graphic design would help me there.
There are a few journalism classes I’d like to take. As a blogger I know that they will only improve the posts that I’m putting out for you all.
If you didn’t know, I’m vegan. So food is something I take into account OFTEN. I would really like to learn more about nutrition, especially since my husband wants to go to school for it when he decides to go back.
Mental health is something that is so freaking important to me. Between me being in touch with my mental health and me wanting people to know they aren’t alone in how they are feeling, I’d really like to dive deeper into mental health and how it affects people.
So, not through Alison, but I’d really like to learn more about different crystals and their uses. Along with that, the moon and how it affects people. I’ve been feeling really connected to the moon lately and I don’t know what it is. I definitely would like to look more into pretty much anything Wiccan and see if I connect with it the same way I do now.
There’s a ton more that I would like to learn, but these are just a few that I would like to prioritize in the coming year. It will all depend on how internships and working goes, though. I’m hoping to send out some resumes today and I’m freaking out about it.
Thanks so much for joining me and I hope you all have a wonderful day and week.
Mondays are hard on all of us. Take the time to sit down and relax after getting back into the work week. Don’t stress out over getting everything done that needs to be done. It will get done.
Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful beginning of the week and continue to for the last half of the work week. If you didn’t have a great start to the week like me, then I hope the second half looks up.
What do you do when you’re feeling overwhelmed?
One of the things I do is sit down and come up with a plan. So that leads us into today’s post. We’re going to do a check-in with how I’m doing with my decluttering.
We’re into the fourth week of the year. The third full week, but the fourth week.
And I haven’t decluttered anything. Some of my son’s toys but I also had those packed up and ready before this year hit. He found the box and started digging through it so we got rid of it.
The question of the day comes into play with the lack of decluttering that I’ve done. I’m feeling overwhelmed. January is almost over and I feel like I haven’t been working toward my life goals. Reading, yes. Life, no.
So I’m going to make up a plan for the rest of this month and one for next month. We plan on moving out of our apartment in July so the less stuff we have to move, the better.
Plan of Action
There are 5 months that I would use for decluttering. February through June. And I have broken my apartment and life into 6 categories. One will be done this month.
January will be focused one general cleaning rather than organizing and decluttering, but I’m not going to let myself not declutter something so I’ll be focusing on my electronics.
My phone, iPad, and laptop. I’ll be moving documents off those and moving them to my external hard drive. I’ll be going through. The hard drive and try to organize it in a way that makes things easier to find when they are needed.
February will be focusing on the kitchen, March the living room, April the bedroom, May the playroom/library, and June will finally be the bathroom and closets (in my hallway and living room/entrance.
So that’s my general idea. For now, I’m going to share with you all the checklist that I’m going to use to track my progress with decluttering my electronics.
If you all want more graphics like that one, let me know and I can make them over my journey. I’m more of a visual person and I love making lists, so this will definitely help me out a lot.
Thanks so much for joining me and I hope you all enjoyed this post. Let me know how you are trying to minimize in your life.
Have a wonderful second half of the week. Always remember that you’ve been through worse and you’re only dealt cards you can handle, no matter how impossible it may seem right now.
Good morning everyone. I hope you had a great weekend and kick off this week right. I felt what better day to share my goals for 2020 than on a Monday
Monday’s are one of my most motivating days. I work Sunday nights into Monday and that’s the start of my work week. I’m determined to make this week a good one and productive. So to start that out, here are my goals for 2020.
I’m not going to go too in depth with why I’m doing them here. This will be my ultimate list where I will link to if anyone wants to see the cohesive list of my goals.
If you want me to go in depth with them, I can do separate posts for my Reading Goals and my lifestyle goals. Let me know if you want that.
Reading GoAls
This may seem like a lot, but I really like to push myself and honestly these are a lot of background challenges.
I also have a kind of TBR Jar but with a twist. TBR Jars never work for me. For the past 2 years I’ve wrapped books in wrapping paper and unwrapped them each month.
Well, instead of being wasteful, I decided to reuse something I have many of: empty subscription boxes. I grabbed 4 Owlcrate boxes and 2 Book of the Month boxes and filled them to the brim with books (One of the BotM boxes is currently bursting at the seams, so to speak). Every other month I will “unbox” one of these boxes and give myself the two months to read them. So in January, I’ll be doing the first and I’ll have between Jan and Feb to read them.
The max amount of books in one of the boxes is 4, the least I think is 2. So it all depends. I’ll probably start with BotM since it’s the beginning of the year. I’m really excited to start this and I hope that it helps me to read some books I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise.
Life goals
Declutter my Home and Life
Be More Active in the Community
Be More Positive (Toward Myself and Others)
Seek Help With Infertility
Start Internship
Graduate
Find a New Job/Get Promoted
Eat Better
Yoga More
Meditate
Study Crystals More
Start Learning ASL and Korean Again
Do Memory Exercises
Like I said, it seems like a lot. I have plans for certain things to tackle these and others I’m not 100% sure where to start.
If you want to join me in doing any of these goals, please let me know! I would love to motivate one another with these things. I plan on making spreads in my BuJo to track how I’m doing with all of them. The reading ones are simple. It’s the life ones I’m not sure where to start with or track.
Thank you all so much for joining me. Please let me know what goals you are going to be working toward in 2020.
Task of the Post
Here’s today’s task. My next blog post will be going up tomorrow. So take today to come up with some 6 month goals. Where do you want to be in 6 months? I will share mine tomorrow, but think about yours. If you want to share with me, go ahead. If not, then don’t feel obligated to. But I want you to at least start thinking about it.
Good evening everyone. So I was going to do a post about books that I would like to see as wall art, but I wanted to sit down and have a bit of a discussion with you all.
If you’re following my Instagram (and if not, you should!), then you probably know that I’ve been going through a bit of a lot recently. Last week I hit an all time low in my depression and even now I’m still stuck there, but I’m doing a lot better.
I’m sure you all have seen, but I discussed a couple months ago about my struggles with infertility and a miscarriage I had in June.
Briefly, I have been struggling to get pregnant for my second child since Jan 2016. In May 2019, I found out I was pregnant for the first time since coming off the depo shot (after only getting it twice and I was due for my third shot in Jan 2016). So, May comes, I’m pregnant! Yes! We couldn’t have been more happy. End of May, we tell my mom because we needed her to take time off work for the first ultrasound to watch my munchkin man.
The week before we were due for our first ultrasound (June 6th, to be exact). I woke up and was bleeding. We went in, got an ultrasound at 6 weeks, heartbeat was found but was low. We were told there was a high probability that we would lose the baby.
Went back the next week (the day of our original ultrasound) and discovered we lost the baby. No heartbeat. I made the choice to let everything pass naturally instead of getting a D&C. So, come beginning of July, everything finally passed. We were (and still are) heartbroken.
I bring this up again because it’s the basis for why I’ve been feeling the way that I have. I was due in January. It’s November. I would be two months away from having my second child. Two months.
But that wasn’t the case. We have been trying again. Tracking ovulation with ovulation strips (I know temping is better for all of you who know about tracking), doing to dirty as often as we wanted (and especially around ovulation). But haven’t had any luck.
This month it just hit me a lot harder when I started my period and discovered that once again, I wasn’t pregnant. Then add in the fact that I have a coworker who announced her pregnancy shortly (and I mean by days) after we were told we lost ours.
So I’ve been watching her grow and gush and complain. It’s been hard. She deserves this. I’m happy for her. I truly am. But it’s hard. Especially since I have been working more directly with her recently over normal.
Seasonal depression on top of all of that has been rough. Add in the fact my job has been making me miserable and you just have the whole shebang.
But I’m doing better. Let me just make sure I say that again. We’re back to trying, but not tracking anything. My period tracking app that usually shows ovulation and such, I’ve stopped using besides going into the discussion section to connect with other ladies that are struggling.
We’re just enjoying the process and hoping for the best.
I’m also internship searching! Which means I’m working on my resume which is a whole load of stress itself. I wanted to have it done today but I decided to take a step back to work on school work and posting something here.
I’m behind again. I know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry this wasn’t book related. I just needed to get it off my chest again. Thank you all for sticking around and supporting me. Thank you.
I’ll see you all in the next one! And it will be a lot happier, I promise! Remember to drink your water and smile any chance you can. If you every need to chat, especially if you’re feeling you have no one to talk to, please message me. If you’re going through infertility, you’re not alone and I support and love you.
I’ve been spending the last 6 or so weeks working on a website for my “authorial image,” if that’s even a thing. It’s a website where I’ll share the books I’m writing and (if I ever finish one) have written. I will keep people updated there on how my writing is going and any progress that I’ve made. As of right now, none.
I am telling you all this because that’s why changes are coming. I’m going to changing things up A LOT. As most of you know, this. blog has been switched over to lifestyle posts. I’ve barely been posting, but that’s going to change. And where they are posted is going to change.
I didn’t like the fact that I had my lifestyle posts under my bookish name. So with the creation of my website, I started a new blog to go along with it that is under my real name.
Over the past weeks, I’ve been thinking about how this is going to be used outside of this course. I think I’ve figured that out.
So I’m going to try to break it down simply, but overall just know that changes are coming and I won’t be posting again until November.
I will have a main website. You will go there for any author related information, like books I’ve written, books I’m currently working on, or where I am in those books I’m currently working on.
At the top of the main website, which is under my real name as I do hope to become a published author one of these days, there will be a few tabs to lead you around the website. But the two main focuses for this post are going to be the book blog tab and the lifestyle blog tab.
The book blog tab will lead to back to this blog. Clicking that main tab will bring you to the home page of this blog, under the A Court of Books and Love name. Or hover over it and you can choose a specific location like reviews, cover reveals release blitz, lists, TBRs, wrap ups, etc.
The lifestyle blog tab will be the same way, but under my real name. And, obviously, instead of book related locations, it will be life stuff like being a mom, veganism, infertility, etc.
That is the main breakdown of how this is going to go. but it’ll be much easier to figure out once I get it all setup and ready to go.
But all of this being said, I do hope you all stick around and join me on both blogs. I won’t be posting videos on YouTube anymore, because, well, YouTube is screwing small creators over. It’s not worth the time and effort right now. But that doesn’t mean I won’t post videos. I will just post them on IGTV on Instagram instead.
Thank you all for joining me and please let me know any lifestyle or bookish posts you would like to see come November!
What would you like me to talk about? It can be literally anything, just comment down below.
