
I’m connecting up once again with Kimberly at Caffeinated Reviewer.
Sunday was starting to get a little bit warmer. No more below zero temps. It was sunny in the morning as well. I was able to get up a bit before 8 am to have breakfast, take the dogs out, and then do some blogging! My mom saw a tv stand on a commercial for Nebraska Furniture Mart that she liked earlier in the week, so she and I drove out there and had lunch out that way. Came home and blogged for a bit, before heading to my brother’s for dinner as well as to watch the Chiefs game. Once again the Chiefs had us all on terrified they were going to lose. But we triumphed again, even if I know there will be people saying they didn’t deserve the win. Argyle again not a fan of me watching the game once I got home for the 2nd half.

Monday back to work. Although I had to slip over the school district’s health clinic around 8 am for my yearly bloodwork they have us do to get a discount on our insurance. Got back and it was a pretty steady day in the library. There was a huge fight during the second to last class of the day. One AP got hit in the head I think. I did a ton of lamination, including cards we will be giving our students who are worried about ICE showing up at their houses, to help them know what to say and do if it happens to hopefully stay safe. Ran by the grocery store on the way home. Came home, blogged, relaxed and finished my latest book.

Tuesday morning I got up and loaded my dogs to drop off at my friend’s house on the way to school. She would do their nails for me, and then after school I’d go with her to have Taco Tuesday, then go back to her house and pick them up and take them home. Got home and had to write a review to post today. School was busy, but I did get my Lunar New Year Display done, and took down the winter bulletin board behind my circulation desk. I also made some new Chiefs stickers with my new sticker maker, to take into my students. Oh, and the $500 worth of books I got to purchase with a gift certificate from First Book were delivered, just didn’t have time to open the boxes yet.



Wednesday it was getting warmer! More snow melting, almost all gone, except for the places where driveways or sidewalks were shoveled and the piles are taking a while to melt on the sides. Another busy day in the library. Had a new TA 6th hour who wanted to shelve books and got them all done with no problems! It was awesome! Got one half of the bulletin board behind my circulation desk done. Going to do the other side with something for Black History Month, but haven’t planned it out yet. I think the HELOC to pay off my bills is going to go through, and so got the info on balances and who they should make the checks to so they can pay them directly instead of giving me money to make sure it gets paid off. Did some blogging, went to dinner with my mom, then came home to finish the book I was reading that I needed to post my review for on Thursday.

Thursday was another busy day in the library. It was warmer, I didn’t even take my coat out of the car when I went into school in the morning. I had a ton of things to laminate again, another big stack of the cards for our students’ families worried about ICE. I got the books out from the boxes from First Book, and slowly started getting some of them into the system. It started sprinkling in the afternoon. I went to my author friend’s house to help put together the book tree I got her as a Christmas present to help display her books at shows. We ordered Chipotle, but I forgot to change the address and so then I had to run home to get it, which was a whole mess. I got back and we ate, and then put it together. I got home later than I wanted, did some more blogging, and then watched a little tv. It was a rainy night.

Friday was another kind of busy day with kids in and out of the library all day for various things. I also found out in the morning that the person doing ISS was quitting, and the person who is supposed to be my clerk was taking over that job. And so my second choice that didn’t even get to interview this last time is going to come take his job. Hopefully they say with my current clerk taking over ISS, a lot of the stuff he had to do that kept him out of the library will get done now, and hopefully the person taking his job can be in the library more. We shall see! Really all I wanted to do after work was go home and just put on my pjs and blog and veg on the couch watching tv. However my mom wanted to do dinner with my niece, nephew, and sister-in-law since my brother was out of town for work. Ended up my sister-in-law wasn’t feeling well, so it was just me and my mom and the kids. Got home after 7, not much time to get more blogging done. I really have to have more than one night a week to just come home and get in my pjs and stay home.

Saturday was cloudy and when I first took the dogs out it looked like there was a tiny bit of snow on the ground. Maybe it was frost. I needed to do laundry, wash all my Bru-Mate mugs since they’re easier to wash by hand and some have to be, and made some ice. Got my January wrap-up post put up. Then I went to look for a AFC Champion t-shirt (didn’t find one I wanted) before meeting my dad, stepmom, and youngest sister for our weekly “coffee” time. Ran by the grocery store to grab some stuff to make a breakfast casserole in the morning. Came home for a bit after that, before having to go chaperone the Sweetheart dance back at my high school in our new gym they built last summer. I was just too tired, but the dance was less than 100 students and pretty tame.


Books Finished






The first two were e-galleys for the authors, reviews posted this past week. Third was an audiobook from the library. The last 3 were audiobooks I had purchased as part of a set on Audible. They won’t be reviewed till my February L-L-L Reviews because I didn’t finish in time for this month’s post.
I also posted my January DNF post and L-L-L-Reviews this week.
New to My Library
ARCs:
none
Audiobooks:
none
Bookish Stuff:
none
E-galleys:


Got both of these from author review teams. The first one comes out in February, the second one at the beginning of March.
Free ebooks:
There were a TON of freebies on Tuesday!





















There were also some free short stories/novellas through Prolific Works that a favorite author of mine emailed about in her newsletter and I grabbed a few of those too.





Physical books:



Finally, I think about 2 years later, the 10th Anniversary Knitting in the City Kickstarter is getting sent out! I only bought one book, Marriage of Inconvenience, but I also got some stickers, vellum insert, and a fun mug.

I also got my new special traditionally published edition of Truth or Beard with some swag. Technically I pre-ordered a copy of this last year from Barnes & Noble, which hasn’t arrived yet. But when I heard ordering from a specific independent bookstore I could get all these extras, I went ahead and ordered that too. Will try to return the B&N one when it gets here.

These two didn’t cost me anything. The first one my author friend ordered from another indie author on TikTok and she wanted me to read it and give her my thoughts to compare. The second one is the next one in her Lucky Charms series that she gave me as “payment” for helping put together her book tree.
What I’m Watching
Had the Chiefs game on Sunday that leads us to our back to back to back Superbowl visit! Ghosts was new again this week. It’s about the only show I watch live until Survivor and The Amazing Race come back. And of course I got sucked back into rewatching Outlander for the however many millionth time. I find myself thinking as I watch that I don’t know how everyone doesn’t watch it and get hooked if they enjoy drama and great characters and emotion, and especially if they like historical fiction!
What’s Coming Up Next Week



First I got both the e-galley and a finished copy from the publisher of the latest Shusterman book. Second is an e-galley I got on Edelweiss but forgot to put in my blog calendar to read! So I’m going to fit it in. Third is an ARC I got from the publisher and can’t wait to read as I’ve enjoyed the author’s books in the SmartyPants Romance world and have wanted to read her others.
I’ve got a Top 10 Tuesday post scheduled for this week as well as a blitz post.
Final Thoughts
My new monthly giveaway started yesterday with my January wrap-up post. I don’t have as many books to give away since I did such a big giveaway last month, so will only have one winner this time.
January is finally over! We are into February. How was your last week of January?
Sounds like a decent week! At least it was busy in the library to help make the day go by faster! Definitely sounded like you needed some time to just veg. Hopefully you’ll have a day or two of that! I felt like it took me all week to catch up on sleep after being in a hotel all of the previous week. I did not sleep well there at all and it was a blessing to be back in my own bed this week! Even if I struggled to sleep this weekend, lol. Hope your new clerk will be a good one! Seems like that keeps taking ages to work out for you. I know my mom was rooting for the Bills last week as we’ve got family in Buffalo and she might be a little tired of the Chiefs this year. Taylor doesn’t help matters for her. Lol. I’m Team Commercials as usual, so I’m just like whatever with the game itself and will likely read at those times. Thankfully Puppy Bowl happens beforehand and I can watch that peacefully. Lol.
Nice new reads too! Lots of new to me ones here but I hope you enjoy them all!
Here’s my StS
Have a GREAT day!
Old Follower 🙂
I get that people are tired of the Chiefs. But we went sooooooooooooo long sucking, that I’m okay with that! I’m enjoying seeing our team do so well, especially with some of the talented players we have now. And I’m a bit of a Swiftie, was before she started dating Kelce, so it’s fun to see her there! I’ll have to get to your blog soon so I can see why you spent a week in a hotel. I was actually looking at my calendar to see when I’m going to get to have some time away from my pups to get some sleep. lol
I really hear you about needing at least one night at home. I am more so with wanting days at home where I don’t have to go to appts or run errands or anything. I want to read the Shusterman book. Robin reviewed it and I hope I can read it as I have a pile of library holds already.
Anne – Books of My Heart This is my Sunday Post
I’m really enjoying the Shusterman book. Just haven’t had any time to sit and read! Hopefully this week I’ll have some more time.
It looks like you had a pretty good week Lisa! I hope next week is a good one.
Looking forward to my niece’s birthday and also the Superbowl!
What a great idea to make the cards for your students but how sad that it has to be a thing at all. I will have to admit that I am happy you have a team to cheer on. I don’t think I’ll be watching the Super Bowl at all. I don’t particularly want to see either team win (no offense, all the ones I could cheer on are out) but I am not interested in the half time show as well. I hope you enjoy the game though and have a happy outcome.
The stickers you made for the Chiefs and Black History month are really cool. What kind of machine do you use if you don’t mind me asking. Glad the weather is getting warmer for both of us and hope you have a wonderful week!
I totally get not caring about the teams or not wanting them to win. If the Chiefs weren’t in it, I probably wouldn’t watch either. There haven’t really been any halftime acts in a while that I’ve cared about either. It’s a Liene Pixcut. I found it on a Kickstarter, and now you can get it on Amazon I think. We’re having a few warm days, but then it will cool back into the 40s later this week I think.
I’m so glad that schools are providing families with info cards in case ICE comes knocking or pulls them over on the street, but it’s so awful that you even have to do that.
I feel your pain about the Chipotle order. I once placed a $50 food order and the address was still set for my office and that was too far to drive to get it so the guys working late got to enjoy some free food. The one smartass goes “The next time you want to give away $50, just let me know!”
I was lucky enough to only live like 10 minutes from my friend’s house. But I can’t believe that since I was immediately going to cancel the order, that was too late! That sucks about $50 worth of food too! I rarely order in these days. And am going to start when I want pizza, going to do the pick up, that way it won’t get to my house and be missing something. Plus I really don’t need to be paying the delivery charges if I’m trying to get out of debt.
I love the displays! Sounds like you had a busy week! Hopefully the ICE stuff doesn’t impact kids too much. The uncertainty and fear must be tough…
Good luck t othe Chiefs! And have a great week Lisa!!
Hoping the ICE doesn’t get as bad as has been predicted. Hoping a lot of it has been talk that can’t actually happen because the rest of the government people stick to what they should know is right. I’m hoping for a Super Bowl win, but really don’t expect it, I mean it’s something that has never been done three times in a row. And the Eagles are really good!
Sounds like a pretty good week. One time, we ordered food online and then realized we ordered it from a restaurant in another state! We were able to call them and cancel it. I’ve been watching the second season of SILO on Apple TV. I only have a few episodes left. I’m trying not to binge it so it lasts longer!
Wow, that’s great they canceled! I thought about calling the restaurant, but didn’t know how that would work through the app unfortunately. I keep thinking I need to go ahead and figure out how to get my new iphone, just so I can get the free 3 or 6 month trial of Apple TV again to watch SILO and also Severance’s second season is supposed to be out soon too, right?
I love that you are giving out cards to help support students with possible ICE interactions. That’s great! I love that Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s team is doing so well. (I love saying it that way to piss grumpy men off-like its cute her boyfriend has a hobby). I feel like football goes in cycles. For a while, it was the patriots winning all the time and everyone hated them. The Chiefs have a good team all around. The snow is melting here too and now everything is muddy.
I hate that people are so ridiculous about her being at the games. I think she and Kelce are perfect for each other because they are both successful in their own fields and can understand and support each other! The whole cycle thing with football is so true. The Chiefs sucked for so long! I don’t think we’ll be able to hold onto this streak for too many more years. I’m guessing Kelce will be retiring soon, maybe going on to do more in Hollywood or just enjoy time with Taylor! It is muddy here too, I’m ready for it to dry out in my backyard.
Oh, that special edition Knitting in the City book is pretty! Happy to hear the school is preparing the children for possible ICE raids. It’s so shocking! I hope you get paid extra to chaperone. That would be tough after a trying day a work. Have a wonderful week, Lisa!
No extra pay for chaperoning certain events. We have to sign up to do two at the beginning of the year, no extra pay for them. It really kind of sucks! I’ve never worked at a district that did that. In the past the high school I was at required everyone to be at graduation, but I guess I’m glad I have the choice not to sign up for that here.
I have the window open today. It’s so nice outside here. Your displays look great, Lisa. Our office was supposed to do something special for the Lunar New Year, but our morale committee who was organizing it is feuding with another group of workers in the office and almost came to blows last month with them, so it was called off. I am not even sure what the feud is about. Office drama I keep my nose out of as much as possible. LOL You got some pretty books! I really need to get back into Juliette Cross’s books. It’s been awhile since I last read one. I hope you have a great week!
It was so nice both yesterday and today! That’s crazy that your morale committee was having a feud! It makes me think of how the “belonging” committee at my school is made up of basically the same people on every other committee, kind of the clique in a way. I haven’t read any of Juliette Cross’s books other than the SmartyPants ones, so I’m excited to read this one!
You’ve been busy. I’m glad to learn that you are supporting the children and families who may be vulnerable to the new government’s awful policies.
You scored big at the Stuff Your Kindle, and with the pretty special editions too
Wishing you a happy reading week
I am so bad with the freebies, but I’m trying to limit myself more to how long they are. I just know it is harder for me to start a 300-400 page ebook of an author I don’t know when I have so many books by authors I do know sitting on shelves waiting to be read.
It looks like you had a great week. I’m looking forward to the Superbowl next weekend. It’s good to be busy, but being retired, I love reading, blogging and relaxing. Wow, you got a lot of those freebies on Tuesday. I wanted to participate in the giveaway, but couldn’t find the email I saved about it. It’s not like I don’t have lots to read. Have a wonderful week, Lisa.
I have to start being better about how many freebies I take. I’m trying to limit it to close to 200 pages or less so I can get a taste of new authors. Yep, very excited, and nervous for the Superbowl!
It sounds like you had a full and productive week! I love seeing your library displays come together. The Chiefs definitely keep things interesting! We’re excited for the big game!
Yep, can’t wait for the game, although a bit nervous!
Sounds like you had a nice week. This is a lovely wrap up. My husband always says that I missed my calling as a librarian – I am so jealous of all the books you get to see come through and the impact it has on the students. Thank you for prepping for ICE for them.
I am rooting for KC this year… just can’t bring myself to root for Philly.
The parts of the job when I get to promote the books to the kids and see them enjoy them is my favorite part, although at the high school level, those moments are pretty few and far between. Go Chiefs! 🙂
Not a bad week, Lisa, and there were tacos! Enjoy all the new arrivals.
Tacos always make things better!