Reverb 11

Last year I participated in a blogging event where a bunch of bloggers responded to prompts during each day of December called Reverb 10.  I'll admit that I didn't make it through all of the prompts, but I loved the idea of taking time "to reflect on the past year and to decide how to approach the next year."

I was sad to hear that the creator of Reverb 10 would not be doing it again this year, but she is encouraging people to create their own prompts and participate in Reverb 11.  I found some good guidelines over at Kaileen Elise's blog.  I will be borrowing some of her prompts and rewriting some of the prompts from last year because I liked them so much.  Feel free to join me in this journey!

Kindle

I have a new love in my life.  It's a Kindle.  (It's actually my mom's Kindle, but since she hadn't even taken it out of the box since she got it she decided she'd let me borrow it for a while.)

I have this cover for the Kindle, which makes it
feel more like a book.  A definite plus for me!

I had some reservations about embracing the e-reader trend since I absolutely love reading books and want to make sure that they are here to stay.  There's something about the feel of actually holding a book and turning the pages that the Kindle will never be able to replace, but there are some definite advantages to the Kindle.

1) There are SO MANY free books out there.  I have ninety-five books on my Kindle and I've gotten them all for free!  That's definitely amazing.

2) The version of the Kindle that I have can read aloud to you.  That's right.  It can basically act as an audio book, and it manages to take care of my biggest problem with audio books, which is that when I get to an exciting part I want to be able to actually read the book because I can read faster than the audio book can read.  The Kindle lets me switch back and forth between audio and actually reading.  The downside to this, as Andrew would tell you, is that the Kindle reads aloud in a somewhat annoying computerized voice, but it does give you the choice of a male or female voice.  The benefits of being able to listen to books read aloud definitely outweighs any annoyance I have with the voices.

Slowing down

I've been stressed lately and this weekend it finally caught up with me.  I'm sick.

I have a tendency to do this.  I go and go and go until I end up sick and forced to slow down.  So that's what I'm doing.  Slowing down and catching up on the things I've been wanting to do.  With that in mind, here are my goals for November:

1. Put up Christmas lights outside.
2. Put up the Christmas tree and other decorations before we leave for Thanksgiving.
3. Finish Christmas shopping, but don't stress myself out over it.
4. Figure out what we're doing for Christmas cards this year.
5. Have a fire in the fireplace.
6. Keep working out.
7. Finish reading the books I'm in the middle of, which is starting to be quite a stack.
8. Run a successful fundraiser at school.
9. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving feast at school.  (See if Dad is going to deep fry the turkey for us!!!)
10. Cook Thanksgivingy food since it is that season!