Sunday Salon/Sunday Post - July 21, 2024 Work? What's that? edition

Welcome to my daughter's birthday week! It's apparently always a madhouse over here, but I'm checking in with Caffeinated Reviewer and Readerbuzz. Getting up early (9am - LMAO) gives me a bit of the 'calm before the storm.' The kids were still sleeping, so I settled in to pay bills and spend a few minutes in internet land before a birthday party later today.

What I'm reading this week:

The blog I write the most for is BooksIThinkYouShouldRead. My most recent posted reviews are for Jackie (4 out of 5 stars, giveaway through 7/22/24) and The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club (3 out of 5 stars, giveaway through 7/24/24).

I finally finished my review for Holliday by Matthew DiPaoli (probably posting this week, not sure if it has a giveaway...). I wish I had more time and could have read this one with the accompanying play list by the author, but it was informative and fun in my snatches of time to read a chapter or so at a time too.

I'm currently trying to dive in on our Adult Battle of the Books books - the battle is August 15 and there are four books. I've started reading Wow, No Thank You:Essays by Samantha Irby, and Lore Olympus, Vo. 1 by Rachel Smythe. Still on the list to know about before August 15 are Miss Spitfire by Sarah Miller and Recursion by Blake Crouch. I'm still most excited to read Recursion. The graphic novel is so far better than I expected, and it turns out no one in our book club has really liked Wow, No Thank you. I'll keep plugging away til the end of the month, but then I'm absolutely switching to the other two books.

I'm also continuing to read two books on my kindle - Not What She Seems by Yasmin Angoe, and Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell. I started out with a bit from each whenever I went to bed each night, but now Not What She Seems has me sort of sucked in.
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Three Good Things:

1. Yay for a four-day-weekend! I took Friday off to run around and be available for the first night of my son's performance with Mean Girls Jr! It was such a fun show, with shows on Friday night and Saturday mid-day. While he doesn't think he'll do the camp next year (two weeks straight felt like kind of a long time), he really liked it and is glad he was in it this year. Tomorrow I've got off because my daughter and I are scheduled to visit Michigan State University (I don't think it's a likely college pick for her, but we're visiting a variety), and then we pick up our Young Americans college students for a camp this week. We've hosted the college kids from this camp for a few years and always enjoy it :)
2. My baby girl is turning 17-years-old this week! Today she's having some friends over for a painting party, but Tuesday is her actual birthday. The actual day may be a bit overshadowed by the chaos of two extra peeps in our household and the first day of camp (which she is not officially doing this year since she's directing the high school's summer Shakespeare show), but she still gets to pick dinner for the group, and hopefully we can start the day out fun with presents to open.
3. I am no longer the treasurer for the theatre boosters!! This is fantastic, as we now have any actual accountant volunteering for the job, and I was honestly pretty terrible at it. I kept the money safe, but my actual maintained records were crap. Apologies to the new treasurer. I am now the vp of fundraising, which feels like a better fit. I'll mostly organize dine to donate events and any other fundraising ideas the board comes up with, so we have plenty of money to support our high school theatre troupe and theater in the community.

Three Goals for this week/month/whatever:

Okay, so this is my own addition. But I'm feeling motivated, aight?

1. Take charity clothes (etc.) to the charity bin. There's a big ole dumpster at the middle school just across the next main road. There has been a pile of castoffs at the end of my dresser for actual months. I want to compile that stuff, and sort out my front closet (the pile in there is up to my hip) and get rid of the things we don't want but feel bad throwing away.
2. Super simple-ish and doable one for ASAP - get the kids to make a menu plan list for this week, so I can shop for the items today. My work schedule is still shite, and I'll only be there 3 1/2 days this week, so I'm pretty sure I'll be working long days on the days I work. If my kids and the extra college kids can have a plan and make dinner before I arrive at home, it will be a huge win.
3. Work on my office :) It has become a general catch-all, with piles (yes, literal piles) of things I dumped there to get them out of the way in other areas of the house. So I want to turn it back into a usable space for me. Wish me luck!