Does anyone else feel like this year has absolutely flown by at top speed??

Back in June/July, I followed a trend I saw on TikTok, the “mid-year reading check,” which was a great idea for a blog post (and ended up as two posts). This month and next month, I present to you my end-of-year reading check!
​
So, here’s what (fiction) I’ve read in the second half of this year, in chronological order, with a bit of commentary about each book:

Well . . . guess what! For our tenth wedding anniversary, earlier this month, Oscar and I (finally) went to Hawaii! :D As you'd expect, it was AMAZING and we had a fantastic time!! Below are some of the best pictures from our trip! <3

​Well, I’m copying off Katherine this time...heh. (And her post isn’t even quite up yet!) Plus, I’m doing a similar topic for the next Thinklings newsletter next week—you can sign up here to read it—so I decided to whip up a quick nostalgic post for my blog, too.

Yes, this is a rather eclectic set of topics and somewhat of a rambling post! Heh. But you’ll come to see how those topics are related. It started off as a footnote to my last blog post, but it grew and mushroomed and before I knew it, it was long enough to be its own post—and since I’m always in need of (and struggle with getting) new ideas for content for this blog, I jumped on it!

​This post is a continuation from last month’s, since it got so long. Here are the other six (fiction) books I read in the first half of this year:​

Wow, 2022 is half over already! Can you believe it? This year seems to be flying by!
​
I’ve been seeing a trend on TikTok lately, the “mid-year reading check,” and thought it would make for a good blog post! (I already did a fun video on it.)

Life update: Well, if you haven’t seen in my social media, I’m sick again. My autoimmune disease has once again—after four years—reared its ugly head and decided to chew up my lungs. So I’m back on a medicine (for three weeks, which is mercifully short) that I call “demon pills.” Those filthy demons are the one bit of trauma in my life that I still can’t really talk about, so please don’t ask what medicine it is and what it does. But it’s horrible.

Anyway, I thought I would write, this month, about how to deal with people who are suffering or going through trauma. Any kind of trauma. Because since I have about three decades of experience in that department (15.5 years of being sick, plus daily bullying from K–12), I thought I should put that to some good use and help others understand, if only just a little bit more.

​Hey, guys! Last month, I promised I’d show you what books I’ve been buying/reading, so here we go!

Hi, guys! Just wanted to do a quick update because there's been a lot going on and I've been sick - I'm still getting over a cold (yes, just a cold, not you-know-what again) and I've got work to catch up on!

So, here are the highlights of my month:

February is my least favorite month of the year. It’s cold, dreary, and winter has definitely overstayed its welcome. . . . Not that it’s welcome past New Year’s Day! ;P

But at least this February is not as bad as usual. Why, you ask? Well . . .