Weekly Wrap-Up #208 – January 26th, 2025

Posted January 26, 2025 by Lisa Mandina in Weekly Wrap Up / 28 Comments

I’m connecting up once again with Kimberly at Caffeinated Reviewer.

Sunday was frigidly cold! I got up and did some laundry and some blogging. Ate lunch then ran out to Target and grocery store. Had to get my HyVee fuel saver points for the Chiefs score from Saturday. It was a relaxing day at home knowing that there would be no school on Monday because of MLK’s birthday observance. My mom had dinner at her house. It was more relaxing and not as rushed since no one had school the next day. There was a kind of exciting moment when we heard noises out on my mom’s back deck and realized a squirrel was trying to make a nest in the gutter in the corner of the house by where she has one of those gazebo things to make part of the deck covered. That’s something my stepdad would have taken care of, now my mom has to call a critter service. Anyone else see the TikTok message of being shut down early in the day, and then by the end of the day, it was back!

I always have to get these dachshund stuffies at Walmart when I see them! They then go on my bookshelves, lol.

Monday was cold, nice day to sleep in. I got up around 7 am to make the crockpot breakfast casserole recipe. It said 2-3 hours on high, but when I checked it at about 9:30 it still wasn’t done. I got it out around 10:15 and some of the eggs still weren’t quite cooked. I figure they’ll finish up when I reheat it for breakfast another day. The doctor’s office called and said that there was one test they couldn’t get on the blood draw last week, so I had to go in and do another one. I headed out kind of early, so ran by The Dollar Tree store and found a couple of the little Valentine’s Day dachshund stuffies that I also seem to collect when I see them. Had a quick lunch before heading home. Got a call from my school district saying Tuesday would be an AMI (alternative methods of instruction) day because of the extreme cold, so not having to go in. I also made a ChatGPT recipe I created for some Italian sausages my friend gave me. Ended up restarting Outlander because for some reason whenever I tried to watch anything on Peacock the captions came up and I couldn’t get rid of them.

Tuesday was really cold, although honestly when I went outside to take the dogs out it didn’t seem as cold as it had been a few weeks ago, but maybe it seemed colder then because more wind and snow? Went to breakfast with my mom at her usual Tuesday morning at Waffle House. I’m glad she has that place to go with my stepdad gone now, people she talks to and they know her order, etc. Came home to do some blogging and hanging out and just relaxing at home. My mom got an appointment to go see a retina doctor about her eye on Wednesday, but would need me to drive her for afterwards. So I emailed my principal and also took off the next day so I could do that.

At 10 pm, right after I’d turned off the tv and the light to go to bed, my sister-in-law called me upset because my brother was really sick and she’d called an ambulance, but couldn’t get ahold of my mom. I told her I’d call my mom, and that I’d head right up there to stay with my niece and nephew so she could go to the hospital with my brother. I passed the ambulance when I got outside their neighborhood, it takes me about 15-20 minutes to get there. The lights weren’t on, and it wasn’t speeding, so I figured that was a good sign. When I got there she had been able to talk to my mom who said she would meet her up at the hospital. My niece had been sick the day before and stayed home from school Tuesday. My nephew was wide awake and talking about the game he’d been playing, and even brought up some things that he knew his dad wasn’t dying because of certain things. I let him talk and discussed it with him, knowing everyone deals differently. We waited in the living room for a while, him going on a mile a minute about Minecraft. Finally I think my sister-in-law texted my sister, and we were able to convince him to go back up to bed because my brother was doing better. I laid down on the couch when they went back up to bed, and slept a little until she texted she was coming home, because she’d been sick and was tired, and my mom stayed with my brother.

Wednesday morning came quickly, as I didn’t get home till about 1:30 am. But then I didn’t have to get up till later since I wasn’t going to work and was taking my mom to the doctor. She’d gotten home about 3 am, and slept till about 7 or so. I picked her up and took her around 9 am. While waiting on her, I finished one book, finished a really short e-book after that, and started another one, lol. They had to give her some shots in her eyes (shudder!) and some drops. We went and had lunch on the way home. I dropped her off, but went in and took her dog outside to potty so she could just rest on the couch with the dog for the rest of the day. I stopped by the post office to finally mail the prizes to my November wrap-up giveaway. Then came home to do some blogging before going to dinner with my author friend.

Thursday back to school, another cold morning. My library wasn’t a mess, but came in to find out my “clerk” hadn’t been able to find the loaner laptops supposedly, saying the cabinet was locked. Um, no it wasn’t. It was a busy day, I got some new books ready, and started working on a new display, the same one I did last year about my favorite books from the year before that we had in the library. My niece was supposed to have her last game to cheer at, but I just wanted to come home and spend the night at home in my comfy pjs and not leave the dogs longer in their cage.

Friday was another cold morning, and another busy for the most part day. I forgot to take a picture of my favorite book display I got up on Thursday. I started finding stuff to put up a Lunar New Year display next week and got it mostly all laminated. Stopped and got some cookies at a local bakery close to my house. They are a little expensive, so don’t know that I’d buy again, but they were good! Went to dinner with my mom after paying bills. I also ordered just a sticker from the Sioux Falls hockey team annual Wiener Dog name change. My mom called and wanted to go do dinner, I had a coupon for a new Mexican restaurant close to us that we both like, so we went there. Then we went back to her house and watched a movie.

Saturday was nice for sleeping in, although I kept waking up every couple of hours during the night. It was a little warmer. Nice and sunny so I could leave the back door open to let the sun shine through the storm door, which Argyle loves to lay in the sun. Did a little blogging before I went to “coffee” with my dad’s side at a crepe restaurant at noon. Spent about 3 hours sitting and talking. I borrowed money from my dad to go ahead and register for the AASL conference in October, so that I could get the $100 discount that was only good till the end of January. Then I drove to Barnes & Noble to get my niece part of her birthday present, because I always get her and my nephew a book with every gift. Came home and finished up this post and relaxed at home. Also went ahead and got registered for the convention as well as reserving my hotel room.

Some of these were e-galleys, some audiobooks, and one freebie e-book. Second one was an audiobook from the library, it was a possible nominee for the Gateway Award too. The first and fourth were reviews posted this past week. The rest will be in my L-L-L reviews at the end of the month, except the last one is for a blog tour tomorrow..

ARCs:

None

Audiobooks:

My hold for this one came up on the Libby app from the library, so I started listening on Wednesday.

Bookish Stuff:

January’s Picklegram from author J.J. Knight’s Patreon came on Thursday. Got the newest charm, and a replacement ornament since the cute ones she sent in December got broken.

E-galleys:

First is an e-galley for a blog tour review with Rachel’s Random Resources in March. Second is an e-galley I requested on Edelweiss, but it doesn’t come out till October, so it will be a while before I get to it. Third is an e-galley I requested on Edelweiss, but didn’t get, so I emailed the person at Berkley who had sent me e-galleys before and she got me access. It doesn’t come out till July.

Free Ebooks:

On the Top Ten Tuesday someone had their list of ebooks, freebies I think, that they’d just added, and I saw the first one was still free so I grabbed it on Amazon! The rest were also free on Amazon.

Physical books:

First, on Tuesday, I stopped by a place called Cargo Largo, a store my family always lovingly referred to as a “junk store”. I’ve enjoyed going as they seem to have more books these days. The first one is one I really have wanted to read. The second one is also on my TBR, but the last/first book I tried by this author last year I had trouble with, so I may end up just putting it at my school library for my students. They were only $5 each. The second was an unsolicited finished copy from the publisher. I won’t read it, but will put it in my library for my students.

My copy finally came on Friday. I mean, not that I’ll get around to reading it right away, still need to read the second one, but I wanted the edition with the sprayed edges.

When I stopped by Barnes & Noble to get my niece’s gift, I remembered I’d wanted to get this fun sprayed edges edition of Betting On You which I just finished listening to a week or so ago. When I went to pay, the cashier told me I got a free bag, so this is the one I chose.

Another week of no new tv, but at least Ghosts will be back on this coming week! I’m trying not to go back and start another rewatch of Outlander, but it’s sooooooooo hard not to, and I ended up doing it when I had issues with watching things on Peacock. While I don’t normally watch cooking shows, I did watch the Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares on Tuesday because my friend/hair dresser’s husband’s cousin worked at the restaurant. Wednesday night I watched Celebrity Jeopardy because I have always been a fan of Seth Green. I’m also kind of enjoying the new Hollywood Squares!

My mom and I watched this one on Friday night. It was good, but I’m telling you I’d have done so many things different! It also went in a little different direction than my mom and I were predicting at the end.

All of these are e-galleys, the first from Rachel’s Random Resources, the second two from the authors.

My DNF post for January, and L-L-L posts will be out this week too. I think Saturday I will probably post my January Wrap-Up too.

My new monthly giveaway I am making it a big one with 6 winners, to get rid of a TON of the books on my pile. Although it might also keep me from having the monthly giveaways for a while. You can enter HERE. It ends this Friday.

And please go check out my promo post on my author friend, if you like to support indie authors, I’d love to have you go follow her on her socials even if you don’t want to enter the giveaway for any of her books you’d like to try! Check that post out HERE please!

I also decided to do an ABC Challenge after seeing so many people doing it. I’ll probably look for one on StoryGraph to keep track, but I also created a little sheet in Canva for myself as well. I can update it in Canva too!

January is almost over! How has it been for you? How was this past week for you?

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28 responses to “Weekly Wrap-Up #208 – January 26th, 2025

  1. It sounds like a very busy, slightly stressful week. You’ve got an awful lot on your plate right now – I hope the coming week is warmer and easier. Take care.x

    • Lisa Mandina

      Yeah, I shudder every time I think about that! My brother seems to be better. Must have been food poisoning.

    • Lisa Mandina

      Thanks, my brother is fine. The doctors think he just got too dehydrated from a very severe case of food poisoning. I just finished typing up my review of If the Ring Fits and it goes live tomorrow!

    • Lisa Mandina

      Yes, so glad it was just a bad case of dehydration from a bad case of food poisoning. I’m just very glad I can be close enough to most of my family for instances like this.

  2. I’m glad your brother is better and mom was able to keep her appointment. I took my daughter back to school last week and my son drove himself to his school. So now it’s so quiet. I watched some TV, but did a lot of reading. It’s nice to have that desire to read again. I wasn’t in a slump, but I haven’t been reading as much as I used to, either.

  3. That’s nice you had Monday off and a more relaxing Sunday because of it. That dish you made looks good, that’s interesting you can use ChatGPT to make recipes, I didn’t know that was possible. Sorry to hear about that scare with your brother being sick, that sounds scary, I hope he’s doing better now. That display with your favorite books sounds like a fun one to work on. Nice book haul you got, those sprayed edges of Onyx Storm do look nice. That ABC challenge sounds fun, good luck with that one!

    • Lisa Mandina

      Yeah, my brother seems to be back to normal. Sounds like it was just food poisoning and dehydration. So far doing well on the ABC challenge, but of course it would start off that way. Will probably have to start picking specific titles later on!

  4. It sounds like you had a busy week. I hope your brother is feeling better now, and it’s great that you were able to step in and support your family when needed! Looks like you’ve found a few good books to add to your stack. Have a wonderful week!

  5. Those stuffies are adorable and I know what you mean, I can’t pass up a boxer one when I see it either. I hope you brother continues to do well. We had a really cold snap too and I think I’m officially over winter. I still need to find Onyx and Storm. I usually grab them at Walmart but they were sold out when I went Friday. Hope you and the puppies have a warmer week!

    Barb @ Booker T's Farm recently posted: Buried by Books #6
  6. I am glad your brother is okay, Lisa, and that you were able to be there for your niece and nephew so your sister-in-law could be with your brother. That must have been scary! I am glad you enjoyed Accidentally Amy! I hope to read that one too. I can’t believe your clerk couldn’t even try to open the cabinet. What a headache. I hope you are having a good week this week!

    • Lisa Mandina

      I hope you enjoy Accidentally Amy when you get to it! The week has been okay so far, and my brother seems to be doing just fine now!

  7. I hope your brother is okay! Shots in the eye?!! Omg! Your poor mother. I got a copy of Onyx Storm, because of the sprayed edges, too, but won’t be reading it until more books come out. I hear there’s another cliffhanger and little plot movement. Middle book syndrome. No thanks. Have a wonderful week, Lisa!

    Rachel @Waves of Fiction recently posted: Review: Head Cases by John McMahon
    • Lisa Mandina

      Yeah, I can’t imagine getting shots in the eye, although she said it wasn’t that bad. Well, I won’t stress too much if I can’t get to Iron Flame right away then!

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