A Joyful Grump

So my word for the year in 2016 was Joy. I don't think I have to even say anything before most people will laugh out loud. This year has pretty much been a disaster for everyone it seems! A crazy year at the very least. But the question is, as the year comes to a close, was I able, despite the craziness that was 2016 - to focus on Joy?

I think a lot of people who read my blog posts, or even who keep up with me via facebook probably doubt it. In fact I know there are those of you who worry about my mental well-being, and I appreciate the care for sure. The truth is, though, I tend to talk so much more (or type so much more) when I am down than when I am happy and the result is that I seem very depressed and/or very upset more often than I really am. I hope the reality is a little more balanced.

2016 has been...quite a year!

 The year began with me back in my home - and happy to be there! Also Michael began attending his home school campus twice a week rather than doing a total at-home home school curriculum. For me this was awesome news, it meant he was staying with me a few days each week! It was awesome having that consistent time with him again. He started out in my guest (aka empty) room on an air mattress but over the semester we were able to get it together and purchase a bed as well as decorate it for him with Doctor Who, Marvel and various other 'characters' he loves. It was a lot of fun.

When he went home for the summer I had another guest come and use my now functional guest space - my grad school roomie Katrina got a job at Trevecca (yay!) and needed to come to Nashville before the rest of her family was ready to make the move so we got to be roommates again for a short time. That was a lot of fun. (and apparently we took NO pictures during that month...)

Shortly after that, and much less fun, my Mom's cancer returned and she had a second brain surgery. The plan had been for her to only stay at my house for a few days but she had some complications this time and surgery was much harder on her. We ended up back in the hospital for an extra weeks stay and then she and my Dad lived with me for quite some time after that. Of course I am always okay with having them around but would have preferred much different reasons.

When Mom's strength returned they went back to Manchester, and then late this Fall my Best Friend Sylvia and her kids came to stay with me and are currently living with me in what is becoming known as a my "hotel". Haha. 

I love it actually. When I was growing up my parents ALWAYS had people staying with us. We kept foster children, we had an exchange student, my parents constantly opened our home to people from church and/or from their work...it is a natural thing for me to offer the space I have to anyone who has need of space.

So those are the biggest things that have gone on this year. Obviously some  of them were good things, some bad. But there has been joy found in each visit with each person. And there have been many other smaller things as well. Some highlights (not in any order at all):

Hosting book clubs at work (and Game Night...not pictured)

Having the Carters nearby again/getting to know Isaiah/Mira better

I finished the first draft of my book!! (No picture)

YALLFEST 

15 years at Trevecca

Michael learned to drive

Memphis trip with Karissa

Selling Premier Again

Visits from Grandma & Grandpa, and Jami & Kendall

Meeting Austin 

Karissa did an author talk at my library

Meeting authors Scott Westerfield (!!!) and Rachelle Dekker

             Meeting Baby Oliver

       

Elizabeth visits/Serious Selfies

Braylee's Birthday

Thanksgiving with Family

Hosting Baby Shower for Haven

My 2 Besties

Michael School Dance

Catching up with Jacinda and Kim

My Birthday

Okay....so I am going to stop now because I doubt very many people are even still looking. Obviously I love pictures...and I love the people in my life! I have a lot of JOY!! And it has been very good for me this year to focus on that joy and look for it in the midst of some very dark and hard times. Did I always succeed? Oh no. I was a downright grump sometimes, some of you might be thinking that was true more often than not...I don't know. What I do know is that even when I was grumpy I was aware of the joys in my life. I could find them, I could point to them and as often as possible I tried to document them. MANY are not even mentioned here simply b/c I know I don't have the space to do so. It was a hard year. I know not what next year will bring. I am still contemplating what, if anything, I will choose as my focus for next year. There MIGHT be another forthcoming blog about it. There might not too. We shall see. But in the meantime...be joyful!
Despite 2016, even because of 2016...be joyful!

2016 in Books

So there was  a lot of bad in 2016 but this post is going to focus on the good...specifically the good things I have been READING this year! My friend Karissa posted her top 5 reads from this year HERE and I loved the idea so I am stealing it and doing my own...only I have a horrible memory so I had to consult with GoodReads to find out what those favorites were. Before I tell you I must first say...my rankings on GoodReads are not very consistent. Sometimes I think I am just in a good mood and I love books and I rate everything high....other times I am more critical and rate things low. Later the ratings don't really mean much. Haha. I really just keep it to remember WHAT I read. So....take the ratings with a grain of salt remembering how moody I am! but here are the top 5:

Love is the Higher Law - David Levithan (5 stars from me)

This is a tiny book about the events of 911 and how they effected several young people in New York and the areas surrounding it. I have to admit that I normally shy away from books like this as I assume they go for the emotional "get" and are just trying to make you cry for the sake of crying. This book DID make me cry but I felt it was truly genuine and helped me to understand and see this event in a way I never have before. It was very personal and very hard to read at times, but very significant and important. I am better for having read it.



Between Shades of Gray - Ruta Sepetys (5 stars from me)

So this is another book I just normally would never even pick up...apparently 2016 was the year for new things bookwise for me. Historical fiction has never been a favorite of mine but I saw this author at a literature festival and was so impressed with her that I immediately sought out the book and was so glad I did. One of the things I most appreciated about this book was that it taught another side to a story we all know, a side so often ignored. Hitler was not the only one committing atrocities during World War II and yet we never hear about what is happening in the Eastern European Countries, which is where this story takes us. One of many quotes that stood out to me was this, "There were only two possible outcomes in Siberia. Success meant survival. Failure meant death. I wanted life. I wanted to survive." This is the journey of one girls survival in the face of unimaginable - and yet very real horror.

*****So these were the only two books that I awarded 5 stars to - they were obviously the 2 that impressed me beyond any others. I then had 34 of my total 89 books marked as 4 stars...like I said, sometimes I am pretty easy with my ratings. So I went through the list and choose the next 3 that I remember really standing out to me*****

When We Collided - Emory Lord 

This book, at first, I thought was just a YA love story about a girl and a boy meeting after the girl moves to a new town. Kind of the same old, same old you know? But it is so much more. The girl is actually suffering from a mental illness, which is unknown to everyone in her new town - and the boy has recently lost his father and is dealing with his own grief and the subsequent breakdown of his mother in the wake of that event. The book beautifully and realistically shows the raw feelings of both characters and how they both help and hurt one another as they find love and deal with their individual issues.







George - Alex Gino

This book, I am sure, has made a lot of lists. Not all of them good ones. I can see it being on a lot of banned book lists in the future and causing a lot of waves. It is the story of a very young boy named George who believes in his heart he is not a boy at all but a girl. It follows his struggles to tell his best friend and his parents and his triumph of trying out for the "girl" part of Charlotte in the school play. It was startling to me to see these issues played out in such a young character. It was important for me to realize that is a reality. This book is very simple and very easy to read and I think an important starting place for those who wish to gain an understanding of transgender people and the realities they face every day. It changed me and I am grateful for it.




Red Queen - Victoria Aveyard

All of the other books I have chosen are fairly heavy and important - this one is so much fun! It impressed me most because it seems to defy any real lines of genre and fits several of my favorites - fairy tale elements, sci fi elements, magical or supernatural elements, dystopian elements...I am sure there are more! I love that it does not fit any one of those but plays in each. And I should not have implied it was NOT important, we read this book in my student book club and it led to awesome discussions on class divisions, race, gender and much more. This was a definite favorite of the year for me.





My goal for the year on GoodReads was only 50 and I WAY over reached that hitting 89 with 3 books currently almost read (will probably only finish 1 of them by the end of the  year though). I also had a goal this year to read at least one book by every author who spoke at the literature festival YALLFEST that I attended in November and I am very proud to say that I achieved that goal! I love being introduced to new authors and kinds of literature - that festival has become one of my favorite things to do every year! If you want to see the other books I read this year you can check out my GoodReads 2016 list HERE. I am excited to read & write more in 2017!!