Sunday Post – 8 January 2023 @kimbacaffeinate @readingreality

Posted January 8, 2023 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Sunday Post / 55 Comments

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.


Don’t forget to look at my giveaways on the right sidebar.

Last Sunday, the temperature was down to 10F / -12C and today we will be about 70F / 20C.  So it’s been warming up all week.  The freezing temperatures ended any chance for the snow peas this fall but the broccoli and herbs are hanging in there.  Lulu woke me up once in the night and then this morning. She didn’t even go potty during the night when I let her outside.  I’ve done my Sunday visiting.  I set up a bunch of review shells, and wrote some reviews.  Lulu and I walked the longer route today.  I looked but didn’t see the swans anywhere.  My daughter has a bad cold so I’m hoping she can get more sleep.

Monday, I did my usual morning stuff. Then I called Joanns to confirm they are pet friendly so I could take Lulu with me.  Lulu was well behaved and adored.  She seemed a bit worried about the shopping cart but liked being up high where she could see everything. I got the yarn of the right dye lot and a few other sale items.  My daughter was up when we got back and feeling somewhat better.  I did a few things, then Lulu and I went out to walk.  Our neighbor across the street waved and asked if she could talk to me.  So she told me that her husband had died.  Since he used to be home with the dogs, she wondered if my daughter would be willing to take them out to walk the 3 days she goes to the office.  I think it’s a good thing for my daughter as it’s right across the street even though she doesn’t like to get up that early.  But it will give her some spending money of her own.  It will help her to follow a schedule a bit more.

Tuesday, I didn’t get to my tasks quickly because I finished my book as soon as I got up.   The weather is still really nice and Lulu and I walked a medium route where I did see the swans. Whew.  I was afraid the freezing weather sent them away. I notice my Lenten Rose getting ready to bloom.  After dinner I did my menu plan and finally did some blog visiting.

Wednesday, it’s rainy.  I wrote a review and did some blog updating research.  Then we went over to the college to pick up my daughter’s books since classes start tomorrow. Next were the chiropractor appointments. Then a stop at Aldi for a few things. They didn’t have eggs or milk at all, so I stopped at Food Lion for those.

Thursday, Lulu barked during the night.  I finally let her out about 8am and went back to sleep again.  I got to work on the usual tasks.  I wrote a review and worked on a Series on Saturday post. I also did some additional research to figure out some things in WordPress.  I was using Jetpack to add tags to my blog posts for Twitter.  They decided if you share more than 30 posts a month you have to go to the paid version. I found other options to share to Twitter and facebook based on RSS feed.  One option used an SEO plugin but not one I have.  But I did look at bit at SEO and will be trying out one of those plugins. So then I looked at how to modify the RSS feed to include a field like I did with Jetpack (which apparently only is looking at one month (December) to decide if you pay). I found the code I think will work but I don’t understand WordPress code or syntax really.  I sent the question to Ashley at NoseGraze.  Lulu and I walked the longer route. The swans were across the pond, so they are tiny in the photo.  My daughter was busy looking over her new courses, and putting old books up for sale on a college page.  I was so anxious about sleeping I couldn’t sleep or read.

Friday,  well I ended up with a good night’s sleep and Lulu didn’t wake me up with barking. I got things accomplished from writing reviews to more email cleanup. I spent some time knitting while finishing up my audiobook. My daughter walked with Lulu and me before dinner.  I went to bed “early” and finally made progress on my read, although I was still horrified by the House Speaker election antics.

Saturday, Lulu gave me another good night. Ashley created a tiny plugin for me with the code I sent but correcting the name of the variable and syntax.  Now I will see if it works.  I got to thinking that maybe when the apps create Twitter posts they only take the title and since it is a separate field, it will ignore it.  Maybe it could be added to the title but length constraints could affect it as well.   The weather is cooler than earlier in the week. Lulu and I took our walk mid-afternoon once it warmed up.  I set up some post shells. As has become our tradition, I’m making soup for Saturday night dinner.

 


Stacking the Shelves is hosted by  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):

           

My grateful thanks to Dreamscape Media,   Simon & Schuster Audio.                          

 

(If you click on the cover, it will take you to the Goodreads entry)

         

I picked my Prime First reads.  I’m excited about Meru because I was thinking about picking it to review before I knew it was a First read.  It’s weird I picked the second one as it is historical fiction but it had some great reviews.

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.

 

Anne

 

 

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Posted January 8, 2023 by Anne - Books of My Heart in Sunday Post / 55 Comments


55 responses to “Sunday Post – 8 January 2023

  1. I love that pic of lulu. We had a cockapoo growing up and she was so fun, often hiding under my mom’s bed and coming out to bark at us when we entered.

  2. Nocturnal barking is never fun. Our 3 dogs can definitely have a big impact on our sleep if they are restless at night. I hope that your daughter’s classes are starting off well. My daughter started her student teaching this week and doesn’t seem too happy to be getting up so early. I hope that you have a fantastic week!

    • Thanks Carole. Why would anyone want to get up early? My daughter is really excited about her classes this semester so that’s a good start. She was doing homework last night when the Internet went out again though. UGH. It just came back this am when I was trying to get connected to my phone.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Shades of Wicked by Jeaniene Frost
  3. Oh Lulu must be much better behaved than Buffy, I could never take her to store. She’d be barking at everyone lol. Where does Lulu sleep at night? We have Buffy in a crate and she doesn’t make a peep from bedtime around 11:30 until wakeup around 8am. We were hesitant to switch her to sleeping in a crate but as she’s gotten older she started making messes overnight (even though she has a doggy door) so we tried the crate and it’s worked so well.

    So sad about the neighbor, but I’m glad your daughter can help her out by walking the dog, while also making some money and getting some schedule consistency. Win-Win!

    Yes this speaker of the house business is ridiculous. As if we needed further evidence of how broken the Republican Party is.

    Have a great week! So looking forward to the next Ian / Veritas book!

    • Lulu is usually well behaved. She has always slept in a crate and the barking is a very new thing. I’m not sure what started it but she seems to need more attention. She does better on days where we walk. Today is going to be very rainy so we will see. Maybe just more attention before bedtime. I’m excited about the neighbor dog walking for my daughter. And to start the next Ian book!

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Drama King by Penny Reid
  4. Ah, I just want to rub little Lulu’s belly! I think that will be a nice easy job for your daughter that I’m sure she’ll enjoy! Ashley at Nose Graze is so helpful! I need to figure out how to have my blog posts automatically go to my Facebook page. I quit using it early last year when I started having issues trying to just copy and paste links to post on to the page. So it doesn’t get much use anymore. Do you have a page or a group on Facebook? Hope you have a good week!

    Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted: Weekly Wrap-Up #101 – January 8th, 2023
  5. Looks like you had a busy week with a little of everything going on. What a pain to have to figure out the changes in WordPress and your plug-ins. Glad you got some better sleep after struggling. Nice that you got your posts set up and reviews written.

    Have a good week, Anne!

    Sophia recently posted: Shades of Wicked by Jeaniene Frost
    • Thank you Sophia! Well really I don’t actually figure things out too well with WordPress. It’s more like I figure out what I want and try to explain to Ashley what I mean. I’m sure for her it’s like playing telephone with someone who doesn’t speak the language.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Shades of Wicked by Jeaniene Frost
  6. I work at a grocery store and people will bring their dogs in. One lady was pushing a stroller with her dog in it. People just love their pets.
    Have a great week.

  7. Wow you got cold! Although 70 sounds pretty good. 🙂 And aww Lulu riding in a cart sounds fun.

    I hope you’re having a nice start to your new year!

    Greg recently posted: Sunday Post #486
    • Thank you Greg. It was very cold. And then it was back to the usual winter temps 50s-60s with an occasional 70 or 40. It’s the same this week with none of that cold. Lulu was so funny. It was great for her to be able to see everything though.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Lie to Her by Melinda Leigh
  8. The Jetpack thing is so annoying. For some reason, I thought the shares meant per post and didn’t realize it meant per social media site you use Publicize for until I noticed that one post cost me 2 shares since I share to both FB and twitter. I guess I’ll just be manually sharing my posts once I run out of free shares because I’m not upgrading to a paid version.

  9. I think a lot of places around here are more pet friendly than they used to be. I see people with their little dogs in quite a few stores these days. That would be great if your daughter can help walk your neighbor’s dogs. I don’t remember getting an e-mail about the Prime First choices this month. I wonder if I deleted it without realizing it. Both Meru and Night Angels look good. I hope you have a great week, Anne.

    • Thank you Wendy. I don’t think I’d ever seen another dog at Joanns but then while we were there I saw a very large one. Luckily with Lulu up high in the cart it wasn’t a problem. Well if you have amazon you can type first reads in the search bar and see your choices for it. I’m very happy with my choices although they aren’t the usual genres I choose.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Shades of Wicked by Jeaniene Frost
  10. Yay for seeing the swans again! The weather has been up and down for you. We’ve had a bunch of rain but steady (cold) temps. I try and get out when it’s dry. I got the audio of The Devil You Know as well. I’m happy because I have the eARC but it’ll be nice to go back and forth. It’s hard to have the time to just straight traditional read books. I’ve never heard of a Lenten Rose. You should post some pics when it’s fully blooming. Nice that it blooms in winter!

    Rachel recently posted: Sunday Post #190
    • Thank you Rachel. I always love to see the swans on our walks, but they are not on every route in the neighborhood. Thankfully, the weather has now been in its usual lane 50s-60s with rain about 1 day a week. The scientific name of Lenten Rose is Helleborus orientalis. They are good in zones 4-9 and bloom Feb-Apr. I love the early and long bloom time plus they will grow in full shade. The varieties are gorgeous I got a second one for my backyard corner that is more shady than the front planter where the first one was a star all last winter. I will post pics as they bloom

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Drama King by Penny Reid
  11. I’m sorry to hear about your neighbour’s husband. I noticed too this week that Jetpack was no longer sending my posts to FB and Twitter. No bother – I can do it manually. I hope you have a great week ahead.

    Jodie recently posted: The Sunday Post #38
  12. Jetpack changed strategy recently and even when you want to be featured on the reader you can’t post more than 30 posts a month or you have to pay.

  13. Lulu is always so cute. And that photo — I just want to give her belly rubs!

    Sounds like you have been very busy with blog admin. I need to figure out how to set things up so my posts are automatically mirrored on Tumblr and posted to Twitter (not that I’m using Twitter that much tbh.) I don’t generally post more than 30 times per month, so maybe the free Jetpack version will work for me, at least for the Twitter part of it.

    My heart goes out to your neighbor, losing her husband right around the holidays. Having your daughter walk the dogs sounds like it will benefit everyone involved — including the dogs.

    Lark @ The Bookwyrm's Hoard recently posted: 23 In 2023: A Reading Challenge (of sorts)
    • yes Lulu is a star. Jet pack is a little tricky to set up but works well once it is. Since you have 2 channels Tumblr and Twitter I recommend dlvr.it (which allows 2 social accounts) or IFTTT which allows 5 applets for free. I use both but just today found out dlvr.it not will support Mastodon so I may move the other stuff to IFTTT since I’m only using 2 apps but it doesn’t have a Mastodon post from RSS feed.

      My daughter did the first walk with the dogs today. The weather was nice and things went well.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Shades of Wicked by Jeaniene Frost
  14. Ha. I picked Meru as well from the First Reads. They so rarely have sci-fi that I snapped it up right away. Sorry to hear that Lulu has been giving you problems in the night. My Lulu was also a pain last week because she was on steroids for an allergic reaction. They made her thirsty and then she peed in the house several times during the night INSTEAD of waking me up! Dogs. I love them but (sigh). Lol.

    S. J. Pajonas recently posted: Sunday Update – January 8, 2023
  15. That’s fantastic that Joann’s is dog friendly! I try and take Rover as many places as I can though he still needs some maturity before I take him into too many stores. He’s pretty sure everyone is his best friend. I hope your daughter is feeling better. Have a wonderful week!

  16. Love your Lenten roses. Such a pretty colour. Mine don´t like the spot they are in (all five of them), so I guess a replanting in the summer is in order *sigh* Happy reading and have a wonderful new week.

  17. Your temps have really run the gamut in the last week. I hope your daughter is feeling better… and that the dog walking job works out. The Speaker election was an unholy mess. The way McCarthy tried to spin afterwards, as if it were a positive thing, was downright embarrassing. Fingers crossed the new plug-in works for you.

    • Thank you Tanya. My daughter is better. The first day of dog walking went well and the weather was so nice. The plugin did what it was supposed to do except it didn’t work for what I wanted. So I have to try something else. Sigh. I am not looking forward to the shitshow of the GOP in the House.

      Anne - Books of My Heart recently posted: Shades of Wicked by Jeaniene Frost
  18. I still haven’t messed with the auto posts, but I have the information you emailed me. What I don’t get is we are supposed to have a certain number free per month from JetPack, but it’s been a new month and they turned back on for one post and then off again. I don’t understand coding and blogs, plug ins, etc like you do, so it’s so over my head and I just don’t have the drive to teach myself. I’ll sit down and try somethings eventually. I’m just so worried I’ll mess up my blog.

    We are getting back in a routine. My daughter started back to school part time each day. My son was gone most of the week visiting his girlfriend at her school in Montreal. I did get my airline ticket for Coastal Magic and to visit my folks in FL. Yea!