The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week, and showcase books and things we have received.
Stacking The Shelves is also a weekly meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Marlene from Reading Reality. It’s all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!
Don’t forget to look at my giveaways on the right sidebar.
Sunday, the wind finally changed to come from the north and we had a few pleasant days of 70s (20C) before it went into the 90s (30C), but the week was dry. I mowed the lawn right away. My neighbor’s lawn guy gave me a really good price to trim all my bushes and put down pine straw. I went and got more dirt for the new flower beds. In the first photo, you can see my little herb, rose and tomato bed. Back along the fence is the bigger garden, with another tomato, lettuce and chard.
I didn’t sleep well so I wasn’t as keen to get out in the yard as I had planned. However, by late afternoon I did it anyway because the wind was changing to be from the south. I pulled all the weeds to get ready for the new pine straw. The weather was perfect. I updated my COYER and Library love challenges.
I didn’t get to sleep until late. Tuesday, suspecting the downstairs AC is not working, I called the home warranty. Someone came out just an hour later and we need a new unit. Wednesday, we celebrated my daughter’s birthday. I got her favorite Chinese takeout and GF cupcakes. She had a quiz for her class and did well. That night the guys came to do the trimming and pine straw and they did an excellent job.
Thursday, I worked to finish reading and listening to my last 2 ARCs for this week. My first order of SDB Iris came and I got those planted. I did call to see if there was any more information on my HVAC situation. My brother called me back at 10:30 about HVAC units. He lives in FL and I knew he had experience. I called him back and we talked until after 1am, and then of course, I couldn’t go to sleep right away, so I was up until 3am.
Friday, the HOA sent me a nastigram about pulling weeds (which I already did on Monday and Tuesday). It was a bit cloudy with some rain, so I did finally manage to vacuum the main floor, which has been needed for a couple weeks. I seem to be staying up too late and I need to get back to my regular sleeping hours. I started Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs for the Read-along, also as a buddy read for COYER. I also started a new audio. While listening, I set up the post shells for the new ARCs I got this week.
Saturday, I’m out of sorts. Sometime after I went to bed, Lulu peed on the couch which she has never done, so I have that to clean up. I’m tired, so tired. It’s humid. I have a headache. I hate the way I see people treating other people. Black Lives Matter. All week I have read way too much Twitter and Facebook. I’m still worried about COVID, maybe more so for the protesters. I am SO proud and encouraged by the protesters, though and thankful for all those in other countries also protesting.
Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Tynga’s Reviews and Reading Reality. These are the exciting ARCs I received this week (If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Goodreads entry):
Thanks to the Goodreads giveaway, and Harper Audio.
(If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Goodreads entry)
The Agatha Christie audio is a Chirp deal and Lost Hills was an Audible daily deal.
Now the really scary one. This is all the Kindle and Audible freebies I grabbed this past week. You can see why I need to do Thrifty Thursday to be sure I read a few at least one each month.
I really meant to cut back on freebies BUT they are free so I guess that won’t be happening.
I’m not including things like reviews posted or upcoming as they are always in the right sidebar. And, my challenge status is also there.
If you like this and want to see me do the Sunday post, as often as I can manage, leave me a comment and let me know.
Anne
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
Friend or follow me at Goodreads.
- 🎧 Her Deadly Game by Robert Dugoni @robertdugoni @SaskiaAudio #Thomas&Mercer #BrillianceAudio #LoveAudiobooks #KindleUnlimited🎧 - March 28, 2023
- 🎧 The Kind Worth Saving by Peter Swanson @PeterSwanson3 #KeithSzarabaijka #KathleenEarly #HelenLaser @MickyShiloah @HarperAudio #LoveAudiobooks - March 26, 2023
- Sunday Post –26 March 2023 @kimbacaffeinate @readingreality - March 26, 2023
I was planning to do a garden this year and never got around to it. I feel like if I start now it’s too late but I would love to grab a few tomato plants and see if I can grow a couple. I miss homegrown tomatoes.
Sorry you are not sleeping, I feel like even when I do sleep I am just forever tired.
Stay Safe Anne! Happy Reading! xx
Thank you. I am enjoying the garden. The season is long here in NC, 2 seasons. I can still plant and have tomatoes or green beans. I already planted the tomatoes but once the lettuce and chard are done I’m planting green beans. Then in the fall broccoli and spinach and lettuce again. There is always the farmer’s market. Sometimes I feel the garden is more $$$ than just going there.
I hope you get back into a regular sleeping pattern. I need my 8 hours every night and definitely feel the effects when I don’t get it. What a bad time for the AC unit to go out.. when it’s 90 degrees. (Not that there’s ever a good time for it to go out.) I hope that gets sorted out quickly. Have a great week, Anne!
Thank you. I think the heat is contributing to the not sleeping actually. I hope we get the HVAC sorted this week. I don’t want to cook anything in the house.
I know how you feel, Anne. This is an exhausting time. It’s hard to concentrate on anything these days, but we just have to keep going, right? Your garden looks lovely?
Thanks. yes, today is better. I got to sleep on time and got up earlier and it is cooler in the am. It’s also a better time to give the plants a shot of water, since it’s not raining.
Lots of gardening this week! Your garden looks so nice too. Wow, nastigrams about weeds?! Someone has too much time! Have they not seen the state of the world? ??
Happy birthday to your daughter! And glad she did well on her quiz. Sounds like a nice day overall, for a COVID season birthday.
I hope you’re able to get back to a regular sleep schedule this week – so rough when your sleep is off. And good luck with the AC! Now is not a time to have a busted AC!
Have a great week and stay safe! Hugs!
Thank you! IKR They said they weren’t going to pick at any yard violations during COVID. Then Wednesday the HOA sent an email saying they were going to start again. Friday, I get the email about things I already did M-W. I was on it, but it takes time to find people and for them to get in the schedule plus it rained the last 2 weeks so I didn’t go out in the rain to weed, but they grew well. Sorry for the rant; it’s just stupid. The bushes were what looked really bad and they didn’t even mention those.
I think the heat is affecting my sleep. It’s just a little cooler and I slept better last night.
Nice garden! everyone seems to be doing a little gardening. I love seeing community gardens as well. If you have any ideas of what the easiest plant is to maintain in your home, send a note my way:)
Inside your home or in a yard garden? Food or flowers? For outdoor flowers it is daylilies for certain. I have found all the food to be easy if you know the care and I suppose that is sort of true for flowers as well. You have to fit the plant to the environment climate/ soil / sun. I have a bunch of MN gardening books and now I’m learning NC. We don’t grow much inside the house. I have done Christmas cactus which lasted over 20 years. My daughter does orchids well but I’m no good with them.
Lulu looks cute and your garden look great. Hopefully you get back to sleeping well. These are extra crazy times we are living in. Stay well!
Thank you. I think the heat is affecting my sleep some but also the weird schedule and anxiety over the world.
Hassling you about the weeds – really??? Oh… frankly there are no words! If you were the sort that left your garden to grow out of control, it would be one thing – but you are clearly on it. The garden looks fantastic – and I hope you get the veggies going. Glad your daughter’s birthday celebration goes well and that you soon get your air conditioning fixed – being too hot to sleep is exhausting… Have a good week, Anne:)
Thank you. IKR? I was already on it and they just said Wednesday they were going to start emailing violations. They had cut stopped because of COVID. Well COVID isn’t over but I had already done all the work M-W and they emailed me Friday. Grrr! My neighbor complimented me on my yard yesterday. I told him I will be working towards more grass and less weeds but he said it looked great. The HOA wasn’t talking about the weeds in the lawn which I keep mowed short, they meant the ones around the bushes I had trimmed.
I love my little gardens. I have more areas I will do but some flowers only get planted in the fall. I am watering when I take Lulu out at night because of new plants and it’s hot with little rain now.
ooh I love the picture of your garden….looks like great work you are doing there. So fulfilling to work outside, planting. And some great additions to your shelf you received.
Thanks! I love finally getting going on some flowers. The lawn needs a lot of work too, so I’m keeping it short for now.
I got those audios Friday afternoon and I was so excited!
Lulu – what’s up with that? Poor girl and you guys. Hope she’s okay. The weather has been nice here and I’ve been able to walk, but then this weekend it was humid and raining. We put in our air-conditioning units. I tried to read more yesterday, but it’s still really slow going. I ended up reloading and playing Candy Crush – it’s been years. Why do I do this to myself?!
Luckily, I have a cover on the sofa and I was able to wash that and the cushion cover but it didn’t get into the actual cushion. It may be the weird hours we have been keeping? It’s hot and uncomfortable so we are upstairs all the time which does have AC. And I am not cooking anything in the kitchen. We are all having a weird time right now. I have all these great projects I could work on and not much motivation.
I hope you have a great week and stay safe and well!
Wow your HOA would have a conniption if they saw my yard! Hopefully you are able to get back on a sleep schedule. I know how difficult it is once your off your routine!
The HOA is rabid at times. Thank you! I’m sleeping better now with slightly less heat.
It seems we all have some sleeping troubles lately. I am awake all night but could sleep during the first half of the day without problems. It is crazy! Your garden picture is beautiful. Thank you for sharing it. And belated Happy birthday to your daughter. Poor Lulu. Hope she gets better soon. Stay safe and well.
Thank you! Things went better today. I think we all are off with the upset in the world, the changes and anxiety about them and the pandemic.
I am so sorry that you had bad nights and now a headache Anne! My dog does not pee on the couch either so I guess if she did it it could be a sign of distress. I hope you’ll have better nights next week!
Thank you! I think the heat may be affecting us unless it is all the upset and anxiety with the pandemic and protests.
I’ve been working my outdoor chores around the heat, too. Looks like you’re getting things sorted out with your yard and garden. The beds look great. Glad your daughter had a good birthday with her favorite meal. Hopefully, your HVAC will be fixed soon.
Nice haul of books.
Have a good week, Anne!
Thank you Sophia. I think we are getting things sorted. But it helps having friends like you who have my back!
I hope you have a lovely week and stay safe!
Your garden is looking really nice. We spent the last few days doing a lot of our outside chores too. I think we all just needed a little break from the news and from social media. It has been emotionally draining, although like you, those protests are giving me hope that things can change for the better.
Thank you! I’m enjoying my little garden projects. And the lettuce is the best. With the heat, I don’t want to cook and I’m enjoying more salads.
We are still working on our garden over here. It is taking me a while because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to make space in the yard or use containers. In the end, I’m going with containers, so I’m hoping to be able to make use of it well.
Hope you get some good rest today. I slept late last night so I am super tired as well.
Thank you! I slept better last night, maybe because it cooled down a bit. I’m enjoying my little garden and now working with flowers. I’m getting some reblooming daylilies. They are like the hardiest and most reliable perennial ever.
Your vegetable garden looks wonderful! I hate it when pets pee in random spots. It’s tough to get the smell out.
Hope you get some rest. Functioning on limited sleep is no fun.
I have a copy of Always the Last to Know and I hope we both love it!
Thanks. It was really weird she has never done that. I have a cover on my sofa and the cushion covers remove so I washed them and it turned out fine. But I hope it doesn’t happen again. I think we are all a bit out of sorts with world events so anxiety and then the heat. It was a bit cooler so I slept better last night.
I am enjoying my gardening in my new yard. I’m working on flowers now and today I research weed killer for the lawn itself.
Your back yard looks great! I bought flower pots to decorate both my front and back porches. I like the look of Veins of Gold. Enjoy your new books!
Thank you! The veggies and flowers are fun for me. But the next project is the weeds in the grass.
Exciting to see your garden coming along. Oh, the goodies. Enjoy.
Thanks. I’m still really enjoying the lettuce and I’ll do a batch of chard this week. Then I’ll have room to plant some green beans. Since we have multiple seasons here I can layer plantings.
Your garden looks wonderful!! What a joy working outside can be – when it is not 90. Lol. I love to get out there on those 70 degree days too. 🙂
This week… what can I say? Such a hard week for our country and fellow Americans.
Thank you! The mornings would be cooler but we tend to be night owls. It’s nice enough to sit out some nights after supper.
Yay, gardening! I did some gardening yesterday, too. It always feels good.
Nature is the peace in a crazy world. I used to do all these complex diagrams with layered tracing paper so I had the bloom colors for different months. This will be much simpler with just the food and herb beds and then mostly reblooming daylilies on the south and west side of the house.
I’ve been working on cleaning up my back yard but now I need to start on the front. We have a tropical storm passing through right now and I’ll have a lot of clean up to do all over again. Nice to hear you had wonderful birthday with your daughter.
Thanks Laura! I hope the storm isn’t too bad there. We get some heavy winds and rain from hurricanes sometimes. My yard is a big branch magnet. I have the backyard planned and the sides of the house. I don’t know what to do with the front. I’d love to have flowers but right now it’s a mass of bushes. At least they are recently trimmed.
Seriously, freeby books are the worst (and best). Stay well!
Thank you! I enjoy getting all my freebies but I do find I get more and more selective about what I get.
Sorry you had some tough moments. I’ve had to cut back on how much news I read because I was just doom scrolling on Twitter and cringing at the videos of police that people are posting. I hope you have a good week.
Thank you! I’m trying to cut back on my Twitter scrolling too.
It is very hard to sleep during troubled times…our anxieties come out in very vivid dreams sometimes, and the tossing and turning doesn’t help! Hang in there.
I am feeling grateful that I am now living in a place where meals (sometimes not so good!) are provided, along with laundry and cleaning services.
When I grumble, I need to look at the positives.
Enjoy your reading and your week. Those books look so good, and some are already on my list.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
Thank you! I really have few reasons to complain. But I am whining a bit about the lack of AC. We are managing. I do get the best books.
I liked Lost Hills – hope you enjoy it as well 🙂 And the weeds? OMG. It’s a never ending battle. Our landscaping guy said to spray between the plants with weed killer, but I’m afraid of getting it on the plants I’m trying to nurture, right? Oh well. Take care and hope your week gets better!
yes it is a long-term effort with weeds. I pulled the ones they were worried about. But there is more work to do for sure.
Sorry the stress has been getting to you. I know what you mean about just being plain tired lately. The world is … a lot. (My puppy has helped brighten my mood trememdously, though he hasn’t made me any less tired, that’s for sure. 🙂 )
Yes for the first month with us Lulu wanted us to get upin the middle of the night either because she was lonely or had to go pee. I was finally doing better over the weekend and then I burned the candle at both ends and had to nap today. I think the heat wasn’t helping either.
I love your garden and hope you are getting your HVAC issues sorted. Keep an eye on Lulu because maybe she’s getting a UTI. I had a boxer that was prone to them before we got him fixed and one telltale sign was urinating inside when he ALWAYS went out.
I am reading The Stranger in the Lake right now and although I’m only about 25% in, it’s pretty good. Hope you have a great week!
Thank Barb. I love my little garden space. Lulu seems fine but it is rainy this week which she doesn’t like to go out in rain or snow either.
I’m about 35% into The Stranger in the Lake and it’s rather creepy.
i had a couple of weeks where i didn’t want to do anything but read. i am trying to get motivated. i think once i get going again it will be easier to stay in motion. it’s hard to feel good in these turbulent times, but i limit my time getting informed and spend a lot of time lost in books. as they say, this too will pass, but it can’t do it fast enough for me. stay safe and keep a stiff upper lip. 🙂
I’m with you Sherry. It’s a strange and tough time. I go through phases of productive energy and then I feel exhausted and defeated. It’s easier to keep busy. I’m finally catching up on my ARCs and getting a tiny bit ahead for a change.
What pretty garden! Mine is so neglected and bare. At least the grass is mowed. I still haven’t gotten out to trim my roses. I need to find my clippers . . . . HOA’s can be such a pain, can’t they? I swear if we have one dandelion in the grass, we get a nastigram. As it is, the front sprinkler seems to be broken because half of our lawn is turning brown. My husband tried to fix it to no avail. We may have to call someone out to check it out. My daughter is enjoying watering by hand with the hose though. She thinks it is fun. 🙂
I am sorry to hear about your air conditioner. Yesterday was so warm. My husband realized at the end of the day our air conditioner was just running the fan and not actual cold air. He was able to get it restarted again, but I have a feeling we’ll need to have somone come out and look at it before long. Not the time to be without air conditioner if one can help it!
How is Lulu? I hope it was just a one time accident and not a UTI or anything.
So much in this world is in flux right now and it can be so disheartening, can’t it? I feel exhausted all the time–and am not sleeping well either. Like you, I am proud of the protesters and it gives me some hope, but I do worry. I hope this will bring real change finally, but I worry it won’t. And I worry about the coronavirus. I’m seeing the numbers rise as our city, county and state re-open. I see so many people not being cautious, assuming it’s not that serious or that it’s over.
I hope you are having a good week, Anne. Stay safe and well.
Thank you! I love my little garden space. It’s been so hot, I was watering a bit to keep the plants from wilting too much. It’s finally cooling off a bit since still no word on the HVAC replacement. The heating worked fine but it was out of Freon and the guy thought the compressor probably had a leak plus it’s very old unit. Lulu’s fine. We are just continuing to stay home all the time. We have no interest in going out since others aren’t taking things seriously
My hat is off to you with all the gardening! Your beds look great. I am hopeless at gardening. I hate being hot and sweaty, and I don’t have a green thumb. At this point, the weeds are beyond pulling; we just mow them. We should really start over, but I don’t want to use chemical weedkillers, especially since we are in the Chesapeake watershed.
Looks like you got some really fun books this week! Enjoy!
Thank you! I love my little garden beds. They are small enough to not be too much work. Really the mowing and the lawn are more trouble.