An update on Life

As I just finished up the three latest reviews, I'm in shock that I've read 25 books already this year.  Tomorrow I'll be going to the library again, so I may get 26 or 27 in before the end of the 2010.  Since my year goes from November 1, 2010 through October 31, 2011, I think I just make that 100 books in a year.  I may even make over it.  Which will make me very, very happy.  There are so many books that I have on my radar that I need to pick up, though.  I just hope I'll have time to get to it.

I've managed to get caught up on my Swap-Bot stuff, finally.  I got my two late swaps sent out, and now I just need to work on some of the ones that are due.  One of them is the book review swap for the 4th quarter of 2010.  That, in part, is why I've been writing the reviews here.  I'm planning on putting all of my reviews into a file, printing them out into a book format and sending them to my partner.  I hope it's an enjoyable read for them.  Other than that, most of my swaps are non-snail mail.  I just haven't had the time to focus on them, so I've been focusing more on online swaps. That may change with the first of the year, though.  I'm trying to get myself organized a bit better so I CAN do things like this.

That's actually one of my plans for tonight - grabbing one of the multitude of notebooks around and getting a game plan down.  I have an account on Cozi, where I'm hoping to get myself better organized.  I've got my 101 in 1001 list at Day Zero and my resolutions on 43 Things.  I need to integrate those in as well.  Plus I want to restart my organization for Swap Bot (new year, new spreadsheet).  What I really need to do is make a schedule for myself, because it's so easy for me to let other things slide.  And I need to stick with it.  Because it's the only way to make things work for me.  I'm hoping to get the plan worked out over the next week.  I'll keep everyone posted how that goes.

Now for a little of the past week.  On Christmas Eve, we went up to my Dad's for our Christmas get together.  The boys got a few gifts from my Brother & his family and we all had a great Christmas dinner of ham and trimmings.  We got together early because we were supposed to get snow starting around 5.  I was really hoping so because I wanted the boys to have a white Christmas.  And I wasn't disappointed.  It was also kind of nice to not have to rush to get up to my dad's for Christmas day.  I don't mind going up, but it was nice to play with the kids' games and toys throughout the day.  The boys, as usual, made out like bandits, getting lots of stuff from us, family and "Santa".  The big gift was bikes for each of them.  Teddy's bike fits perfects.  Pete's big wheel, however, is still too big for him.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.  The other gift that they loved was the pillow pets they got from my mom.  Teddy got a ladybug and Pete a bumblebee.  They haven't let them go since Christmas.  From the boys, I got a set of chopsticks that were more a family gift than a me gift.  From Rich, I got a nice crushed velvet shirt, a box of cherry cordials,. Puzzle Quest for the DS and $10 of Facebook credits.  We're probably going to be doing some more shopping because we got some money from family.  I just don't know quite what we want to get.  I did get myself a scrapbook kit, though, so I can make a scrapbook for the next year.  I'm looking forward to getting it started already.

Rich has been off from Friday through tomorrow and we're enjoying spending the time together as a family.  Tomorrow, we're planning on going to the $1.50 theater to see Legend of the Guardians with the boys and then heading to the library.  More books to check out!  Whoo-hoo!  We haven't been to the theater as a family yet and I'm a little nervous about taking Pete in, but he's been surprisingly good at home watching movies so I figure we'll give it a shot.  We got Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 from my sister-in-law and borrowed Toy Story from my in-laws. We watched the original yesterday and 2 today.  Tomorrow, we're going to watch 3.  I'm really enjoying having this family time.

Rich is only working Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and will probably get out early on Friday.  Then he's off next Monday.  I'm not sure what, if anything, we're planning for New Years Eve yet.  Probably not much, just kicking back and relaxing together watching movies and playing games.  Then it will be 2011 and it will be time to start all over with a new year and a new start.

So, belated though it is, belated Merry Christmas to all.  And an early Happy New Year to all.  I'm hoping, once again, to have more regular posting.  We'll see how it goes.  But it will be on my schedule of things that need to be done.