Mag 2.0

Hey, y’all! As you may have noticed, I’ve taken a nice little break from blogging – and reading, for that matter! But, I’m ready to get back to it, especially with the new year looming upon us. The only serious resolutions I’m setting this year are to let go – to stop letting my perfectionism get in the way and of course to read and write my heart out.

I’m currently 19 books behind on my Goodreads reading challenge – my goal is to have read 50 books in 2019. Normally, I’d be a weirdo and give up on completing the challenge. However, I have decided to go with reading short books in order to meet my goal – I hate it when I’m behind! In the past, I would’ve put so much pressure on myself to read ‘real’ books to finish the challenge – or to read no more at all until starting fresh in January.

Since I’d love to reread a bunch of books from childhood, such as the original American Girl books and the various Baby-sitters’ Club series, I decided to start now – as in today – and meet my 50-book goal! It’s really a big deal for me to stray from my OCD reading tendencies, so I repeat – THIS IS A BIG DEAL! LOL!

Also, as usual, save for 2019, I’m planning to participate in all kinds of reading and blogging challenges in 2020 and I’m not going to let myself give a damn if I don’t complete or do them absolutely perfectly. Typically, when I start something and feel that I could’ve done better or not missed a post or reading a book, I get down on myself and give up – I have a rotten tendency to do this in a variety of aspects of my life.

Therefore, I guess my ultimate resolution is to stop trying to live up to my often too lofty expectations and just go with the flow!

Just a bit ago, immediately before I got the serious urge to write again and reconnect with my fellow bloggers, I began rereading Valerie Tripp’s Meet Felicity. I still have the book I read as a child, when the American Girls debuted – it was published in 1991! I adore having gone through boxes of my old books and still have other totes to explore.

I’m toying with the idea of starting a feature in which I highlight the books I read to my boys – ages almost-five and three. We read nearly constantly and love every minute of it. My oldest son’s pre-K teacher has set a goal for each of her students to read a minimum of 100 books with their parents throughout the entire school year. We’ve read 170 thus far, so we’re kicking ass! Some days, we read up to five plus books together.

The competitor in me wants my J to have read more books than his classmates by May 2020. At the pace we’re going, I’ll be surprised if we don’t ‘win’! When I was in grade school, I won the first place trophy for having the most accelerated reading points in my class from second to eighth grade! While I loved reading anyway, the ACR program totally ignited my desire to win and prompted me to read A LOT, especially books worth 20+ points.

Anyhow, count on this newest feature soon – it will most likely begin in January – I need time to come up with a cute and catchy title for the category! LOL! In case you’ve never noticed, I put a decent amount of time into my bloggish entry and feature titles!

In conclusion, I’m back – for now! – and I’m anxious to see what all of my blogger friends have been up to! So, I’m welcoming myself back and saying ‘hi’ to all – once again! Hopefully, my writer’s/reader’s block will lift and I’ll be here to stay – at least for a while this time!

Making a comeback, Maggie