Weekend Review #4 {The End of Summer}

This week really felt like the end of the summer. The weather's been getting slowly cooler and we've had some rain. Today is the last day of the Summer Reading Program, which really means that summer is over for me. Plus, Mom was back at work all this week (except for Friday), and all of that adds up to mean that Fall is pretty much here. The only thing left to make it official is for school to start again, which won't happen until next week.

Monday, I took the bus to the library from my house, and volunteered there. This was the first week after the girl who volunteered with me for two years left for college, so it felt very quiet. I also taped stakes onto the last of the yard signs, which is a sure sign that summer is coming to an end.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all included Dracula rehearsal, plus Park Day, and visiting with friends. 

Friday morning, we left for Leavenworth, WA, a cute little Bavarian themed town just on the east side of the mountains. We used to go every year, usually for just the day, but we haven't in a few years. Leavenworth is fun, but there isn't much to do other than wander around the shops in town, which we did a lot of. We stayed in a little hotel that night.

Saturday, we did some shopping, played miniature golf, ate (one of the best reasons to go to Leavenworth is the food), and headed home in the evening.

This week, I finished Daemon by Daniel Suarez (which I really liked, and promise to review when I can), and started Freedom, the sequel. I also watched the movie Men In Black for the first time. I've also been listening to a lot of Welcome to Nightvale. I've been kind of slow about it, but now I'm finally catching up to the current episodes.

Summer Plans

*This post may contain affiliate links, and if you make a purchase after clicking them, I will receive compensation.*

It's getting to the time of year where it's hard not to start thinking about summer. There is still plenty of the school year to go (and even more work than I have time for), but with the weather getting nicer, summer feels almost within reach.

For the most part, I don't like to make to many plans for the summer, and instead just let things happen as they will, but there are a few things I intend to do this year. First of all, I'm most likely going to be taking Driver's Ed with a friend, assuming the scheduling works out. I definitely plan on doing the library's Teen Summer Reading Program, like I did last summer.

If my dance studio offers summer classes for Irish (they did last year), I plan on doing those. I'm sure I'll keep going with the editing jobs I've been working on for the past year, and there is a possibility that I might be doing a little Latin tutoring to a middle school student in our homeschool group. I'm also planning on taking a camping trip to Oregon in July with several families we know.

My main goal for the summer is to avoid doing school, but whether or not that comes to pass really is going to be decided by how hard I work now. My goal is to finish as much as possible by the end of June, though I may end up with some things to finish up in July.

So, overall, I don't have a lot of summer plans, but if this summer is like every other, it will end up being plenty busy. I just don't know yet with what. :)

What are your summer plans?

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Reading Goals

With a little less then half of 2013 left, I have decided to make some goals for the remainder of the year. The first of those is to read every book that I own that I have never read (there are far too many of those). The next is to read all the books that I own that I have not read in many years, or that I have never read my copy of (I have lots of books that I saw at a library sale and bought because I already liked it, and have never read it since). This post is mainly going to be a list of the books I hope to read in those two categories.I'm going to make another tab on the top of the page for this book list, though it will be arranged in the order in which I intend to read them. I'll cross them off the list as I finish them. I'll try to review as many as I have time for.

I'm sure I'll read lots of books not on this list, and I likely won't get to all the ones here, but I'm going to try to read as many as I can.

Check out that page for links to the Amazon.com pages for each book, and to check on my progress. I'll also put the date by each book I finish.

Books I Own But Have Never Read
1. Rosemount by Mary E. Trimble
2. McClellan's Bluff by Mary E. Trimble
3. The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
4. Ruth Fielding At Silver Ranch by Alice B. Emerson
5. Jason's Gold by Will Hobbs
6. Fablehaven by Brandon Mull
7. The Earth is My Mother by Bev Doolittle
8. Dorothy Dale: A Girl of Today by Margaret Penrose
9. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester
10. Dreamdark: Blackbringer by Laini Taylor
11. Barnes and Noble's Great American Short Stories
12. Tales From the Arabian Nights translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton
13. The Greatest Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Aruthur Canan Doyle

Books I Own I Want To Reread
1. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
2. Down the Rabit Hole by Peter Abrahams
3. The Arm of the Starfish by Madeline L'Engle
4. The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
5. Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen
6. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
7. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
8. Dewey by Vicki Myron
9. Troubling a Star by Madeline L'Engle
10. Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff
11. No Promises in the Wind by Irene Hunt
12. Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars
13. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

While making these lists, I also found that I need to make a third list, a list of books that I have not read in a long time, and that I do not own, that I want to read. Many of them are in some way related to books that I own. Some of the books I do own, but I put on this list to keep them with the rest of it's series. This list may grow as time goes on.

Books to Read that I Don't Own
1. The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart
2. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart
3. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma

Summer Update #1

It's been a bit quite here lately, but I have been busy. I have been updating the Summer Reading 2013 page regularly, so if you want to know what I've been up to, check that out. :)

I'm finishing up the school year right now, and getting ready to spend a week on the Oregon coast. This week will be busy with school and of course the 4th, and then we will be in Oregon from the 6th to the 11th. Hopefully I'll have some time to blog while on vacation, but if not, this will be it for a while. I know I have been getting behind on posting book reviews, but I hope to get caught up on those over the next week or two.

If you check out my Summer Reading 2013 page, you'll see that some reviews have a note that says: (review coming soon!). These mean exactly what they look like. Hopefully reviews of all those books will be up quite soon.

If I have time when I'm done with school, I'll start back up with Homeschool Fridays, which will be talking about this past school year, though I'm not promising anything yet about when that will happen. September at the very latest.

I've got to go now and hide from the heat wave we're having right now. I'm not sure exactly how hot it is right now, but it got close to 90 yesterday!

What are you doing this summer?

Write On! Teen Writing Conference, Summer Reading, and School

I'm sorry for the long break on here. It's been a long time since I had the chance to write! Here is an update about what's been going on lately.

First of all, my origional plan to write a full length review of every book I read this summer is very unlikely to happen. While I will try to post as many of them as I can, I won't be able to post everything. The main reason for this is that I have a job editing a book that a friend of my father's is writing, and that will be taking up some time this summer.

I will still be doing as much reading as possible, but writing out the reviews here can't be my priority at the moment. I will still try to post on here two or three times a week, with book reviews, movie reviews, and updates about what I've been doing.

I will have a new tab at the top of my blog where I will list each book that I read this summer, and then I will link either to it's book review (if I have one written), or to it's Amazon page.

I will be pretty busy for the next few weeks, but I'll try to keep up with the blog as much as possible. I am going to a writing conference in my area which is geared for teens on Sunday. For local readers here is the website: http://www.writeonconference.com/. I am really looking forward to this event, since I haven't really gotten into the writing scene around here, though I know it is pretty substantial. We will also have some relatives from out of town staying with us for a few days later in the week.

In July, we will be taking a few trips to southern Washington, and to Oregon, one for a vacation in Seaside, and one for a John Mayer concert. I'll definitely write a post about that. I also have dance classes starting back up again once we get back. I am hoping to write a little more about dance soon.

And, of course, there is school. I am still not done with school, but I am hoping to do be done in a few weeks. That is the main reason I may be a bit scarce on here in the coming weeks. I am hoping to do as much school as possible so that I can be done for the year!

So, there you go. Expect some book reviews, and make sure to check the Summer Reading 2013 page to see what I've been up to and how many books I've written. My goal is to have the most in the county, in our library's teen summer reading program!

Summer, and Some Blog Changes

Summer is coming, and that means that some things are going to change a little around here. First of all, there should be more posts going up, since technically I will have less school to do, and so more time to do other things. Whether or not this will actually translate into more blog posts still remains to be seen.

Our local library has a terrific summer reading program for teens that I enjoy participating in every year. It is an online program where you submit short (3+ sentence) reviews of books and magazines. Each of your reviews is another entry for various prizes, with a grand prize for the person who reads the most books, as well as something for the runner up. Last year, two homeschool friends of mine came in first and second spots, which is totally awesome. Homeschoolers rule! This year, they have both said they are not going for the number one spot again, which should leave some room for me, I hope. I don't have as much time usually as they must have (they both came in at close to 170 books), but with them out of the way, I certainty have a fighting chance. :)

Anyway, that is one thing that might get in the way of me doing a lot of blogging, since I should be busy reading and writing short reviews. I do hope to write a full length review of EVERY book I read this summer for summer reading (which, by the way, goes from June 15 to August 31). What this means is that there will hopefully be a LOT of book reviews up here, but possibly not a whole lot else.

I think that I will be suspending Homeschool Fridays for the summer, and they will be coming back in September, when the new school year begins. I still plan to write about homeschooling, but just not as regularly.

Here is what you can expect this summer: A review of every book I read, published the day I finish the book (or possibly the next day). This means that posting may not be as regular, but there should still be lots of posts. Also, posts might be a little shorter then usual. Each one will also include what number book it is. I will also try to post little "reviews" every few weeks, just to talk about where I am in school, my plans for next year, and what kinds of activates my family has been doing.

There will also be a new page in the top banner going up in a few days, in which I will list every book I read this summer, and link to it's amazon page. This brings me nicely into the next thing I need to talk about, amazon.

I recently became an amazon affiliate, which means that if you click through to amazon from a blog post of mine, and then you buy something within the next 24 hours, I earn 4% of the sale. That number will go up the more sales are made. I don't expect to get rich of this site, and this is more of an experiment then anything. I am curious to see if I have enough readers to actually make any money.

These summer plans are going to go into affect as of today. Even though summer reading does not start for 10 days, and so the books I am currently reading do not count toward my total, I am going to stop all other regular posts and just post book reviews, as soon as I finish the book.

If you have any questions about anything I wrote here, please let me know in the comments!