Hello and welcome to September! We’re finally entering the last month in the summer and I thought it would be time to share a bit of a personal update as a few things that have been happening with me lately and some of this affects both my blog, its schedule and my tbr (to-be-read) reading pile which is currently (I hate to admit) a little bit big and out of control!😳
Mindfulness
So, the last year has been a pretty difficult one for me to cope with. Almost a year ago my grandmother was suffering from health problems and another family member was then diagnosed with cancer. Soon after my grandmother had to go into a care home and despite an improvement to her health after a while she suffered badly from some problems and died in January. 😥 This completely rocked my world, more than I thought it would. My grandmother lived most of her life in Poland though she regularly visited for long periods here. And even though I wasn’t able to be as close and see her as often as I wanted to, her death really did afect me more than I wanted to admit, especially as it wasn’t the most pleasant of passings and was directly affected by the lack of treatment in the hospital due to the virus response (having to wait between patients to disinfect, change PPE, etc).
Losing my grandmother messed me up and made my reading and health spiral downhill worse than I liked to admit, and my mental health suffered greatly. I thought I was doing alright but it’s only in the last few weeks of August that I now feel like I’ve turned a corner in my mental state and am now managing to cope with daily life, and it’s the first time I’ve felt like smiling. In fact I feel more positive than I have done for ages and I feel a renewed energy I didn’t feel before which has made reading so much easier in the last few weeks. I’m starting to tackle a reading pile that I couldn’t face before. I’m also eager to start doing more on my blog including tackling the Inktober challenge again which is coming up in October! 🙂
The out of control tbr pile
I’ve always had a set of books that need reading for publishers and I’ve always managed to keep on top of this pile but ever since things happened to people in my family, I felt unable to cope with the books I had. I’m never a fast reader and like to mood read my tbr pile when I can but I found it ever harder to keep up with all the books I have gotten and have fallen behind with quite a few I had promised to review. You my have noticed a lot of book haul posts appearing on my blog with the books never being reviewed yet. In some cases I just haven’t been able to finish off the reviews but in most cases I just haven’t been able to get to reading the books yet.
During the year I tried to keep up with my regular momentum of getting books and reviewing them and I thought I could keep up with this schedule which is why I kept accepting more and more books and blog tour invites. But it’s now become clear that I have just too many books on my pile/list and I needed to start tackling this as the stress of not keeping up would just create a more depressive state of mind. I stopped requesting all books but the bare minimum recently and thankfully, a fog has finally lifted this last month of August, and I felt my ability to tackle the things I haven’t been able to do has now come back!
Suddenly I’m reading so many books like there’s no tomorrow and enjoying the thrill of getting so many reviews done. I have so many reviews right now lined up for the coming weeks that I literally have weeks worth of review posts ready to go (and not enough spaces on my blog to keep up!)! It’s an amazing feeling to really be back on track and to finally be tackling that tbr pile. I haven’t been taking more books than a minimum (publishers I regularly work with) and although it will take some time to really get through all the books, I’m feeling positive about my reading future now!
Blog schedule
Things on the blog have been a bit wonky for a while. My schedule was all over the place and I wasn’t able to even post regularly at some point too. Apart from difficulties in being able to write anything other than reviews I also suffered bouts of problems with my internet connection or my laptop itself, which needed to be repaired and took a long time to be fixed, which is why for a couple of weeks I ran out of posts and just seemed to disappear! 😮
I’ve had some problems in knowing how often I want to post and what to post but I’ve finally settled back into blogging and am ready to get back to my 5 days a week schedule (from Monday to Friday). I don’t want the blog to be entirely book based, although it often seems that way recently, so I want to be able to regularly use either Monday or Wednesday to post a non-book post. However on some days this may change (and even occur on a weekend) if there’s a special day coming up (like Halloween for example). I want to get back to posting more poetry as well as some discussion posts and articles I’ve had ideas about all the way back in December ;ast year! I’ll hopefully be able to get started on these more often in the future and I hope you’ll be interested in all the content I have in future as I want my blog to be a lifestyle and book blog and not just books, lol.
Blog menus and social media
For those of you who have ventured onto my blog and the menus will have realised that I haven’t updated any of the menus for months. No new books have appeared listed under the book reviews section as well as other parts of the menus which isn’t good for the professionalism of this blog. For now if you want to look something up on the blog stick with the search and scroll options but the menus are the next big thing I want to fix after getting back into my regular posting schedule and writing piecies.
My social media has suffered a bit in the last yeat too. I am still regularly visiting twitter although I do disappear for several days at a time. I don’t seem to be gaining many followers on there like I used to (I’ve beens stuck on around 1,900 followers, give or take 20 or so, for months, lol!) I also used to frequent instagram but haven’t done it for a long time due to getting lost in the new interface, still not knowing how to create stories and general confidence issues about my photo quality and content there. I want to share pics of the books I’ve received but I’m not huge on writing big reviews there so don’t know if anyone likes that sort of thing but I definitely want to stick with instagram for the Inktober event that’s coming up next month!
Health
While my mental health is improving my physical health hasn’t improved as much as I’d like. I’ve suffered all sorts of issues lately, the most recent being tearing a muscle in my thigh making it impossible to walk up stairs and walk in general without extreme pain. 😦 I’m also regularly suffering bouts of fatique and falling asleep at all hours of the day sometimes with other nights being filled with insomnia.🙄 GPs are certainly not helping by refusing to see patients physically (and sometimes just not calling back for phone appointments either) where I live and having some physical issues it’s making it hard for me to get to see anyone and even get a referal to a specialist clinic which I’m still bugging them about for diabetes.🤦♀️
While I wish I could say that I’m back to full health, the last year has taken a toll on me and plenty of other people too. But with my mental state doing better than it has for months, I’m hoping that it might act as a catalyst in helping my body to return to a more normal state and hopefully after this muscle heals (I hope it heals soon!) I can start doing some proper exercise which always helps improve health in me.
Last words…
So that’s it really a lot is happening in my life but I’m finally feeling better than I have done for ages and that’s something I’m going to hold on to and feel good about. As we head into the Autumn I hope things won’t be too bad for the world and that we can all remember to be kind to each other no matter what our differences are, both physical and mental (inclluding our differing opinions). I’ve seen such negativity on twitter and I don’t like how divisive out world can be and hope that regardless of what you think of others you’ll agree that it’s better to be kind and understanding and to listen to each other than to just hate, ignore and barate those who may hold different opinions to you.
I do hope my blog will be somewhere you’ll enjoy visiting, I want to keep it a mainly positivle place (I say ‘mainly’ because it might have some depressive poetry on it, lol) and I have a lot of things planned which I hope you’ll want ot stick around and see. Thank you for reading this espically long update and I hope you’re all well and coping with life, as best you can. Have a lovely day and month everyone! ❤ 🙂
How are you coping? How has you year been so far? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 
I’m very glad to hear you’re doing better mentally. Sorry that’s not the case physically, but improvements in your mental health are a step in the right direction.
I know what you mean about to-read piles. I currently don’t have anything I’ve promised to read and review for anyone, but do have a ridiculously long list of books waiting to be read, and even more on my to-read list that I haven’t got copies of. Thankfully I’m under no pressure to read them within a certain timeframe.
I look forward to seeing what these post ideas you have coming up will involve. 🙂
As for me: I’m finally seeing some improvement from a mental health point of view too. This week, for the first time since before my Nan died a little over a year ago, I finally felt ready to start working on writing some stories. I’m nowhere near my previous productivity level with writing right now, but managing to do at least a little writing every day for a few days in a row, and actually being eager to do so again, feels good. Physically, however, I’m still suffering from the issues my reaction to the Covid jab gave me, which are worsened versions of previous issues, so the doctors see no reason to act on them, but which mean I’m getting frequent headaches (I used to get headaches from time to time, but now they’re worse and more frequent) and muscle cramps, plus my asthma has been worse since the end of March, and – despite my anemia currently being under control – I get tired quickly like I did when it was bad.
On the bright side though, the landlords at the house we’re living in (the one we moved in to at the end of last year) are working out much better than the previous one, and we had an inspection yesterday where they thanked us very much for taking such great care of their property, which made me feel great, since I’d been worried the fact we had some stuff we hadn’t dealt with yet that was in a bit of a mess would be an issue to them (hubby says I’m over sensative about it after how the previous landlord was).
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I’m so glad you’re feeling a bit better mentally and that’s so great that you’ve managed to write something and enjoying it. 🙂 Don’t worry about not being back at full productivity level, I’m not sure a lot of people are fully productive since the pandemic started with so much stress around the situation.
I’m so sorry you’re still suffering the effects of the jab. I was hoping that you’d be feeling fully better by now. 😦 I hope that the doctors still look into making you better and that it’ll wear off with more time. Are you able to get hold of any pain relief for the headaches? I remember you saying you couldn’t handle normal tablets. I haven’t suffered from asthma attacks in the same way I used to (only allergic kind of attacks to smoke these days) but could there be anything that you might be around your envirnment that could be triggering it?
It’s great that you have good landlords now. 🙂 What a relief to be away from that horrible one in Hastings. I’m sure they’re not all bad (though I’ve encountered a dodgy one up north once) but you should feel safe and secure in your home and so good that your new landlords are happy and even complimented you. 🙂
I hope you keep up the writing and sending you healing vibes and a big hug, hope you’re physical health improves ❤ 🙂
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Since the issues are aggrivated versions of existing issues, there’s no way of knowing if they’ll settle back down, and if so when that might happen. Plus, the problem is, anything that might help would aggrivate allergies. My list of allergies is mostly not an issue, until it comes to attempting to medicate me. It would help if they didn’t coat so many tablets in milk, since it would reduce the list of medications I’m allergic to.
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I didn’t even know they coat tablets in milk. It’s so annoying they can’t just have basic things made without all the extras. I’m allergic to the colours they use for the capsules in antibiotics so have to take the liquid version which doesn’t taste nice. 😦 Hugs, I hope things still improve though. Just look after yourself and try to focus on the positives. I hope you feel better ❤
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Not all tablets are coated in milk, but some are, and of course the painkillers where that’s a problem are the only ones not containing anything else I’m allergic to, or that won’t cause issues with my asthma. I really don’t know why they put some stuff in things. With both medicines and food it’s done a lot, and there’s really no need for it, since all it does is cause potential issues for those of us with allergies. And it’s not like allergies are uncommon these days.
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Glad your feeling better and more able to tackle the TBR pile!
I’m glad you mentioned Inktober, I’m going to get my daughter involved this year as she’s been needing a focus for her art and is eager to connect with other artists. This sounds perfect for her. I hope you enjoy it too.
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Thank you! 🙂 Yes it’s good to feel better and be on a more productive path. Inktober will be great and is a great way for anyone to get involved and connect with others, no matter what the skill level in art. 🙂 I hope your daughter enjoys it, and I haven’t managed to say yet but congratulations on getting to the final of the BBNYA! I’m not even allowed to vote on your book as I’ve already read it but obviously a lot of people love it and good luck for the final round ( am secretly hoping you win! 😀 )
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Thank you. I’ve never have entered BBNYA this year if you hadn’t suggested it, so I’m very grateful to you.
And I’m sure my daughter will enjoy Inktober. We’ll look out for your posts.
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Thank you for sharing this update 🙂 I did wonder at how many books the publishers were sending you, I don’t see how anyone could keep up with those and it puts stress on you. Hope you have a good month.
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Thank you. 🙂 Yes to many books and not enough sense to say no earlier, lol. Thankfully I’m now managing to tackle that tbr pile and am keeping on top of my reads for the rest of the year. I will be reading your book very soon 😀 You must be getting excited/nervous about next month’s release?
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I’m very excited to hear you’ll be reading my book soon! Looking forward to your honest thoughts 😀 I’m a little nervous about the release I suppose as I have never done it before and I need to be prepared for possibility of negative reviews (hopefully there will be a lot more positive ones LOL) – but it will be fun to be a published author!
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So sorry to hear that you’ve gone through such a rough time this year and glad to read that you are feeling so much better mentally. Your are so right about the need to be kind and positive, which is why I love the children’s books corner of the blogging and Twitter world so much. I’m looking forward to reading more of your excellent reviews in the coming weeks 😊
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Thank you ❤ 🙂 Yes it's been a tough time but it's good to be getting out of the slump. and yes I agree, children's book bloggers and tweeters are the best 😀
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I am sorry you have had such a bad year, Cat but pleased you are beginning to feel a little better. It was a very sensible thing to do to ask the publishers to send you fewer books for a while. At least now you can catch-up with your reviews and see your pile of books reduce!
My younger daughter gets very anxious and unless she deals with it quickly she finds she gets so panicky that she stops working altogether. We have found that stating out-loud everything that is worrying her, no matter how small, has helped her a lot. Once she looks these problems in the eye she can then sort out the ones she can’t do anything about and must try to put to one side, ones she can deal with quickly and easily and the ones that will need time and thought. She has started to make lists of jobs to do and this has been a real step forward.
I apologise for this late comment. My year hasn’t been that easy and I have had much less time for blogging and being on-line in general. Ah well! I continue to hope that things will improve eventually! 😀
Take care,
Clare xx
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Thank you, I should try that tecnique that your daughter does, I think it could help metoo as i do understand that sort of getting ‘stuck’ in not doing anything when panicking. Yes, too many books and not enough time, lol. It’s definitely felt like a weight off my shoulders and I’m enjoying reading more now that I don’t have so many books coming. Your comment isn’t late at all ❤ I'm sorry you're year hasn't been an easy one. 😦 I hope everything's alright and that things improve for you and you have a better autmn and winter ❤ 🙂 You can always stay in touch via email if you want to too, though I understnad if you don't have time for that either, I'm still behind in so many correspondence, 😮 Take care ❤ 🙂
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Thank you, Cat ❤ ❤ 🙂
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You are always allowed to take time for yourself to feel better. We shouldn’t have to be a priority to you. If you feel like posting we would love to see it, but if not, we will always respect your time.
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Aw, thank you! Really needed to hear this ❤ 🙂
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