November Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

Thank you all for the love, comments and suggestions last month, when I voiced that I'm not sure where I stand with my blog. For now I'm still here, and the format of doing 2 reviews at the same time seems to work. I also love doing Challenges and Booktags like TTT, Sunday Post and ABC Booktag.

Last two weeks were a bit harder physically for me. I had to visit a dental surgeon which left me in pain for a week and when I didn't need to take painkillers anymore I sprained my ankle. Sometimes I feel like a huge klutz!

I'm glad that I'm feeling good now. My favorite month of the year is around the corner. We actually just bought a huge Christmas tree. We can fit one, now that we have a bigger home. There are tons of fun things waiting for me in this month. Amazing nights and days with friends and family. I'm going on a trip to London this Sunday and I'm of course visiting the Harry Potter Studios. I'm also going on a trip to Dusseldorf in Germany; there is a huge Christmas Fair

Enough fun things. I'm also still loving my two jobs; At the library and babysitting. I'm doing good. Thank you all for the comments and love and for visiting my blog. You are what keeps me here.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of sunshine.

🎅

October Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

The month October has been a lot about working for me. As a (baby)sitter and in the library as well. Last week I had so called performance review, because I had a contract for two months. And now it's been extended to a year! I'm happy because my job in the library makes me happy. Also, FALL is what I love. Nature looks gorgeous and seeing the trees and forests gives me so much joy.

My time with the boy that I (baby)sit is so fun as well. We do all kinds of fun stuff like sleepovers, big playgrounds and we went to the cinema and swimming. He is so happy all the time and that makes me happy too.

On another note, I have something serious to talk about on my blog. And I'm really looking to talk to you all about this and to hear your opinion. I have been thinking about taking a blogging break. I feel like it costs me a lot of time and energy that I want to put in real life right now. (Like right now, this post is costing me 30 mins + that I would love to spend reading...)

Did you feel like this at some point? What did you do? Do you have some good advice for me? My blog is my baby and my audience is what does give me energy; connecting with you all. Talking about books, visiting your blogs, reading about your lives and our common passion: reading and books.

So I do want to continue, but the blogging break has been in my mind for a long time... I've also been thinking about just writing a weekly wrap up (maybe a Sunday Post?) of what I've been reading, watching and stuff like that, and maybe not write long reviews anymore? It might be something I am willing to try before officially taking a break.. So many thoughts... Help me out?! 💗

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of beautiful fall leaves.

🍂

September Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

September was a great month! The most fun and important thing was me starting at my new job. I've had a great first month. I'm working in libraries and schools with teachers and children. The main goal is to improve reading pleasure and reading motivation. I've been spending most of my workdays in between reading shelves, picking out books, promoting books and doing all kinds of fun things in schools!

It's so much fun to read more Children's Books, since I've been reading YA and all ages above the last few years. I feel like I really want to be able to tell the children in the schools more about the books I'm bringing, so I'm also trying to read a lot of those books. I will definitely make a segment about it on my blog! I have tons of inspiration and have already read so many good books.

This was also the month that the season of my favorite sport is starting again. I've been playing handball for 19 years and it feels great to be back on the field!

September is the month of my birthday. Chapter 31, is what they say nowadays? I got loads of books, because I made a Wishlist and I'm very happy about that. I will, of course, show of my new books in this post.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month where the first fall leaves peep out.

🍂

August Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

This was a bit more of a quiet month. I was sick for a whole week, so that did make me not post as much. I also went out to do a lot of fun things so reading was a bit more on the backburner this month.

These were the final weeks of my vacation. I actually found a new job at the library! I'm going to do projects at several schools to make more kids read and also teach about media. So as of tomorrow I will be a Reading and Media Coach for the library. I'm very excited and curious to start working.

I will also keep my babysitting job. That will make for a nice mix of working for the library 3 days and then babysitting one or two days a week. I feel like that will really balance out my working time and my free time.

One of the highlights this month was me and my boyfriend gong to Gent; such a beautiful place in Belgium. We had some lovely food with great Belgian beers. We bought chocolate and visited the castle. Overall it was just really nice to spend the weekend away together!

I also went a night away with a friend on a Bookcation. We both read The Apple Tart of Hope. Which was an amazing book, and my friend Kirsten also made a lovely Apple tart to eat while reading!

I did many, many more fun things like Geocaching with my mom and a day away with friends to Amsterdam to have some lovely hotpot and a night at a ping-pong bar!

The most exciting thing to come up is my birthday on September 13th! I always find it such a joyful day, to have friends and family come over and just enjoy time together!

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of great books.

July Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

This month was a month of saying goodbye to the job I've had for 10 years. I've worked at the same school for so many years and because of my move I'm quitting the job! Luckily for me I've been talking with a project for Libraries at Schools, so hopefully something will come of it. 

Summer holiday has begun for me. I've been just doing what I want, relaxing and working on myself and my physical and mental health.

One of the most fun things this month is me babysitting this cute 10 year old boy who also stays the night every now and then. We have so much fun!

Not much other news, other than me going way overboard with my haul AGAIN. Well, let's just say that money can't buy happiness but it can buy books!

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of relaxing and good books.

😎

June Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

Another month has flown by. Mostly a month with moving for us. We got the key to our new house on June 1st. A lot of cleaning and painting has been done and we've been slowly moving in.

The bedroom, bathroom and kitchen are left to be moved and after that we're finally done with moving. It will probably be next week or the week after and on July 18th I will hand over the key from my old house.

I'm really happy with our new house, it's so big, with a lovely garden and a home library for me. I can imagine already that we will have amazing years there. Hopefully we have the time and money to maybe go a few days on a vacation this summer (we're both so tired), but we will see.

I'm also applying for new jobs at my new hometown and have been having conversations with the libraries that work together with schools. If I get the job, I will have the best of both worlds! Working with kids and with books. I will know a bit more in a month, when I will visit the library and have a conversation about the job.

As of my own health, days have been up and down, weeks have been up and down, but I'm still here.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of sunshine.

🌞

May Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

 

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

What a month May was! Loads of sunshine and trees and plants that start to turn green. I got to do a lot of fun things and May was also a great month reading-wise for me, as well as the books that I got to haul. Overall I had loads of days that I just felt good.

Of course, May was also the month of my Iceland trip. I would recommend it to EVERYONE. What a beautiful country! It's a quiet country with not that many people around. A complete difference from The Netherlands, which is PACKED. We hiked a lot, spotted some whales and seals and just enjoyed this beautiful country with its vulcanic landscape and glaciers. I'll post some pictures below; you can click them to view them bigger.

I also went to some really amazing concerts: The Elvis Concert and I went to 2Cellos. Both were amazing. I just love sitting down with something to drink and to enjoy people who are so passionate about making music.

And then for some big news: Tomorrow me and my boyfriend will be getting the key to our new house! If you're curious where were going to live you can Google "Eerbeek". It's close to some of the most beautiful nature parts in The Netherlands, so we really look forward to walking and cycling there. We also hope to gift ourselves a tandem, we recently took a ride on one and it was a lot of fun!

Finally, let's not talk about my bookhaul this month, okay? Let's say I got to buy some books in a great bargain and others I just wanted to have. I also read quite some books; I have some books that are still in the wait for a review. I'll be writing a lot of them in the upcoming weeks!

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of sunshine, love and amazing books.

💓

April Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

This month actually flew past! I've done so many fun things. Like going to the musical Aladdin, celebrating Kings day, had several dinners in a restaurant, went to a handball match from our Dutch ladies, watched Fantastic Beasts in the cinema, took a day off to go to Keukenhof (a park with million of beautiful flowers) went to the sea and had a lovely day in the sun over there and I actually played my own first handball match for the first time in 6 months! Look at this AMAZING list of fun things?!

While I'm typing this, I'm still sore but I feel so good. My body did not forget how to play handball, and even though my shape is something that can be much better, I'm excited to work on it! I actually scored 2 goals which I was so proud of, because it really proved to me that my body did not forget the moves that I'm supposed to make, like my muscles remembered!

Tonight I'm going to a match from my favorite soccer team called Ajax, so that's something exciting as well, and next week I'm flying to Iceland with my mum, sister, aunt and niece! It's been in the making for two years, but COVID came around and now we're finally able to go.

This is such a positive blogpost so far, but I do keep in mind that I'm healing. I'm only working 2/6 hours a week and still have to follow my training about panic attacks. But the future does look bright.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of sunshine.

🤾

March Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

Last month the weather has been great in The Netherlands and that was something that gave me all the positive vibes. I've been walking and cycling a lot and have spent a lot of time in nature.

Yesterday was a good day for me, I was finally allowed, after a couple of months to play handball again! I'm not allowed yet to play matches, but I've been training for the first time and I can't wait for more nights to play handball again.

I will be visiting my work next week to take small steps at getting back to work slowly. It's going to take at least 7 more weeks of me only working 2 or 3 hours once or twice a week, but I'm ready to start to do something again and we'll see how that goes.

I'm glad to be giving some positive news this time and I'm so grateful for all your sweet messages and comments. I feel very supported by you all.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with many good books.

😊

February Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

Last month I kept it very short and told you about me calling in sick and staying home from work.

It's not about the work, but more about me having loads of panic attacks and not being able to recover from it.

The last month has been all about acceptance and recovery. I'm having a very strict routine every day and I try to walk a lot, since I'm not yet allowed to do intense sports like my handball or squash.

I do feel like I'm getting better. I'm less tired, I have less panic attacks and my brain fog is lifting; I was forgetting a lot of things and I feel like that's going better too! And now it's all about finding the balance and keeping the balance...

I've have been reading, but since I'm reading in and listening to big books, I've not written that much reviews. I did write a Two Short Stories post and other blog posts, so I have been active, and I'm okay with that!

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Happy upcoming Spring!

💮

January Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

I'm having one of those months/moments where it's not going too well. For the one's that have been following me since summer or before know from previous month-posts what is going on.

All I'm wanting to share right now is that I called in sick from work two weeks ago and have been staying at home. Trying to regain my energy, trying to find back myself. 

Have been reading a lot, so that's more on the positive note :). I just wanted to keep it short for now.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading my posts!

Have a great month and hopefully some (not too much) snow.

⛄

December Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

The year is over... The year is REALLY over. I still feel that days, weeks, months and years keep going faster as I'm getting older.

I've been very excited about Christmas and New Year's Eve, and now it's all here and after that it's all over. I always feel a bit sad about that! I will now have to wait for another year. 

I haven't had my best year ever and I feel like I'm not healed and all the way back to myself either. So I'm good with the fact that I didn't reach my Goodreads Goal of 80 books. I brought it back to 55 and that's fine with me. My reading just hasn't been what it was after August. We'll see how it goes next year.

Right now people are already enthusiastically firing fireworks, I always love the sounds and that always gets me excited for the evening.

I hope you all had a great year and will have an even better year, next year.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great January with loads of good books.

🎆

November Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

Last month I did not write a wrap-up. I hadn't finished any books, mainly because I did not read much. And when I was reading, it was in big books, so I had nothing to review. This month I did write some reviews and I've also bought some amazing books that I'm really excited to read!

For the first time since I have my 3 bookcases, I have sorted out all my books and have decided to take 60 books from my shelves and get rid of them. Yes, I did not mistype there, 60 books!! I have been giving away some of them to colleagues, friends and family and I'll bring the left overs to charity.

I do feel like I also haven't been reading much because I'm getting in a bit of a... Hmm, what to call it... Covid depression? I've been following the rules for 2 years, even celebrating my birthday last year with only 3 people. Wearing a face mask, social distancing, getting vaccinated. And now we're in a lockdown AGAIN. I really do feel like we should protect all the health care workers and doctors and nurses, but I also feel like I just want to be living again? I can't play sports anymore, go out, do fun things... It's just work, get home, sleep, repeat and I feel like I don't know what to do anymore? I have been keeping kinda quiet and low profile about this for the last 2 years, so now I just had to rant for a bit, I'm sorry! How's the situation over there?

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with amazing Christmas celebrations.

🤶

September Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

First; I want to thank all of you who supported me so much in my last month-post. I shared something very personal and was a bit scared to do that, but I won't regret it for a second after reading all your sweet comments.

This month has been a bit better. It's been with ups and downs. Sometimes I have to call in sick from work, because I have days that I'm just so, so tired. I've been doing some fun things, and I've been sporting. I do feel that I'm on my way back, but I'm not there yet!

At school things were a bit rough as well, because there was, for the first time since this pandemic started, a positive tested student. Then things went from bad to worse and we had to go into quarantaine with the whole class for 10 days. So I have been home-teaching for a bit. Luckily we've been going back to school for some days now.

Overall, this month has been so-so. I'm just very happy that fall is around the corner! It's getting a bit more chilly and the leaves start to fall. I can't wait for the nature to turn so beautiful with all those lovely colors.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of sunshine.

🍂

July/August Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

The summer break is over. I've done a lot of fun things, and of course went on a trip to Italy. The first week was great, with loads of great camping sites and sunbathing with a book by the sea. We also met up over there with some friends who were also camping close by, so we decided to join them for a few days.

After the first week we wanted to camp for another week, but things didn't go as planned. And due to something that happened, I was traumatized and started having panic attacks and hyperventilation. I've been hospitalized in Italy twice, and things have just been very hard ever since. I've thought long and hard about sharing this, but I don't want to be fake-positive on my own blog. So yeah, it is what it is.

Back in The Netherlands I went to the doctor and psychologist right away. I'm feeling much better than 3 weeks ago and started working, too. 3 weeks ago, all I did was lay on the couch and I was also taking medication. I quit taking those pills after a week.

I'm glad to work and spend time with my students and after work I head home right away to relax, read a bit, maybe play some sports and most of all to SLEEP. Because getting better is taking a lot of my energy.

So yeah, not the most positive post ever. But I try to see things from the positive side, and I feel like I'm heading in the right direction!

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of good books.

😘

June Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

The end of the schoolyear... This year, it's hard for me. In 6th Grade we say goodbye to the kids, that's when they head to High School. But this class is special to me. I was their teacher in 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th Grade. Half of their time in Primary School was with me as their teacher. In a week, we'll have the final evening of the schoolyear, when we get together with the kids from my classroom, their parents and all the teachers. The kids will play a musical and after that we will take the time to say our goodbyes.

That's also the start of my Summer holiday! I'm looking forward to it. I'm tired and ready to re-charge for the next schoolyear to come. The Summer break is 5 weeks for teachers and 6 for the kids in The Netherlands.

I've planned some fun things already, because we're out of lockdown in Europe. So I've planned a trip with a friend and some lovely lunch and dinner meetings with friends.

I'm looking forward to sleeping in and reading books. If all goes according to play, I'm heading to Italy for a camping trip with my boyfriend.

So, yeah! Looking forward to it!

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of good books.

🌴

May Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

This month has been great for me. I've done some super fun things, because slowly things start to open back up here in The Netherlands. We're allowed to sit outside at restaurants, so of course I did that.

We did a tour and eat with some friends and my boyfriend, where you drive a beautiful tour in The Netherlands and get yummy food at 5 different restaurants.

But the best part this month was with my classroom! I took our 5th and 6th Graders on a 3 day camping trip. They behaved so well and were super sweet all the time. It was a beautiful site with sand drifts (see picture below) and trees. At night they slept really well so we, with the attendants, actually got some sleep as well!

It was also the time of the Eurovision Song Contest, which I always love. This year especially since The Netherlands won in 2019 with Duncan Lawrence, so we were the ones to organize it this year! #proud

As you can see, this was a great month. It does mean I didn't read as much as I'm used to, but I was just so happy to do all these fun things.

The weather is starting to get great too, so I'm just happy, happy, happy.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of sunshine and good books.

🏕

April Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

Spring is in the air! Tulip fields are popping up everywhere and there have been days of me just chilling outside, just how I like it! I have 2 weeks of Spring Break now and have been doing all kinds of fun things. I've been celebrating Kings Day with friends, it's usually huge in The Netherlands but with the lockdown and all, we just sat outside with some music, drinks and sushi!

I went to my first ever restaurant in 6 months, just the outside parts are open, but it was lovely to just have a wrap for lunch and chat up with a friend of mine.

I'll also have a little 3 day vacation with a colleague/friend in the South of The Netherlands, I'm really looking forward to it. We'll have a little car-scavenger hunt and we also rented bikes.

I'm just trying to chill, relax, do fun stuff and get the energy back that this lockdown winter cost me. After these 2 weeks of vacation its 3 weeks of more holidays and summer camp with my class. Then 5 more weeks till the end of the schoolyear. I can't believe it went by so fast!!

Hope u all were able to do some fun things these past few weeks.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of sunshine and good books.

🌷

March Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

   

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

YES! The weather over here in The Netherlands is so good. I just enjoy the day a lot more, whereas I enjoy the nights more in winter. I went outside with my class, for extra time in the fresh air and they just played and had fun.

Easter is coming up, that means a long weekend of freedom: 4 days! I did not plan anything and I'm just going to do whatever I like. 

Sadly we're still in lockdown and nothing is open except for supermarkets, hairdressers and stuff like that. The other shops are closed, restaurants are closed and zoo's and theme parks are still closed. I'm sad about that because I just love going anywhere if the weather is good.

I am very happy about nail salons opening back up, because I kept joking that I looked like a vagrant with my raggedy nails. Now they're all beautiful and shiny again! It's the small things during these times that make me happy.

Stay safe.

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of sunshine.

🌞

February Wrap up - Book Haul & What to Expect Next Month

Welcome, welcome my dear readers.

Welcome to the blog.

This month the schools opened back up and that has made me so happy. My days were much more fun when just teaching in a classroom instead of from home. Something special also happend in The Netherlands. We had a HUGE amount of snow for the first time in maybe... 8 years?! Behind our school is a little hill and I took the kids there 3 afternoons during that week.

After that week of snow the weather totally changed and it feels totally like Spring right now. I've also just had a week off from work, a little Spring Break and I had time to do all kinds of fun stuff. I spent a lot of time with friends and family. I had all the time to read. I've also bought a bigger aquarium. Since I have 3 fishes and they grew so big, I went from 57 liters to 110 liters. Have been busy with that too.

I did a nice convertible ride with a friend and a lovely walk in Kampen, the town that I live in. And I also started running, which feels good!

This was just a much better month for me. I hope things are going well for you too, over there!

Thanks for sticking with my blog and for reading!

Have a great month with loads of sunshine and good books.

⛄