Rejuvenate & Renew Challenge Update: 6/29 to 7/5

I can't say that I've made marked progress in the Rejuvenate & Renew Challenge that I can record, but can say that I'm part way through reading Elie Krieger's Small Changes, Big Results (as I've mentioned before), and have been using her cookbook like crazy. It's a great cookbook, and have loved every recipe we've tried thus far.

If you're participating in this challenge, how are you doing? Post a reply and let me know, or leave us a link to your post!

On another note, I was awarded a couple of awards this month and wanted to say THANK YOU so much! It means a lot to me to be recognized by fellow bloggers, as we have such a great community.

The first was The Lemonade Award, which Andrea, a great librarian over at The Little Bookworm gave to me.

I also received the Humane Award, by Cathy over at One Eyed Stuffed Bunny and..., who has the cutest blog. I actually hadn't seen this award before, so here are the details:

The Humane Award is in order to honor certain bloggers that I feel are kindhearted individuals. They regularly take part in my blog and always leave the sweetest comments. If it wasn’t for them, my site would just be an ordinary book review blog. Their blogs are also amazing and are tastefully done on a daily basis. I thank them and look forward to our growing friendships through the blog world.

Thank you so much to both of you for this great award! I've been so inundated by my new teaching schedule (I teach for a great online school, along with my full-time teaching), that I've had little time to join my favorite community. To top it off, I have joined many other bloggers and fallen victim to the heinous migraines over the past two days. Honestly, we need to post a poll to find out just how many of us have this issue! Maybe it's a reading thing??? I sure hope not!

Anyway, thank you to the two of you for nominating me. I hardly know who to pass these along to, so I'd like to offer them to all my great blogging friends. Thank you for all you do!

A Few Book Awards

I've been a bit slow about getting these posted, but I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to each of you for rewarding me these lovely awards. I really struggle to know who to pass them along to, so I'll post the rules, but think I'll only pass them on to one person each. I hope that doesn't offend anyone, but I feel like there are SO many well-deserving blogs out there.

The first:


The award was given to me by Gaby317, over at Starting Fresh. The award originated at J.Kaye's Book Blog and is described as:

Highlighting new book blogs has always been important to me. It’s the reason I pass along blog awards to new bloggers or at the very least, new to me book blogs. Without an audience, especially at the beginning, the life of a blogger can be sort of dreary. It feels good when another book blogger promotes your blog. Besides, I like blabbing about other book blogs. If you’d like to join in, please feel free. This event will take place every Friday and I’ll be listing the new book blogs or websites I’ve discovered during the week. Some might even be a rediscovery.

I would like to pass this nice little award on to:

• Rose, at Another Great Read. Her blog is new to me, and the thing that I liked about her reviews is that she includes lots of options for how to pick up the book, along with a list of other books in the series. I don't know why I hadn't ever thought about including the others in the series, but that really is quite helpful. Thanks Rose! Go check her blog out!

The Second:


This award was given to me by Desert Rose over at DeSeRt RoSe BoOkLoGuE, and is the "One Lovely Blog" Award. Thank you so much for this recognition!

I would like to pass this award on to:

• Drea, at Book Blather. I think her blog is well put together, and just as the award states...lovely! I'm pretty bad at blog design, and am too scared to touch it to change the look, so when I see pretty new designs, they stand out. Drop on by this great bloggers book blog to see her reviews!

The Final Award:


This final award is "The Literary Blogger" award. I was given this great award by Missy over at Missy's Book Nook, and is described as:

...an award which acknowledges bloggers who energize and inspire reading by going the extra mile! These amazing bloggers make reading fun, and enhance the delight of reading!

The Rules:
1) Put the logo on your blog/post.
2) Nominate up to 9 blogs.
3) Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let them know that they have been nominated by commenting on their blog.
5) Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

As I stated earlier, I'm actually only passing this along to one blogger, and I chose:

• JoAnn, at Lakeside Musing. She has won a lot of awards, and I can see why. The books she chooses, and her reviews, are all really smartly joined together in great reviews and posts. If you haven't dropped by, please go now!

Bethenny Frankel: Simple Lunch Salad Recipes & Blog Award

In my never-ending endeavor to eat natural and healthy, I thought these recipes by Bethenny Frankel (one of my favorites on Real Housewives of NYC) were really great. Bethenny has also recently put out a book called Naturally Thin, which I have a sample of waiting on my Kindle. I hope to read it this summer.

Well, off to the gym...and maybe the Pesto Chicken Salad after?!? :) Also taking a great book with me to the gym. How can you go wrong, I ask?

Also, Desert Rose was so kind and awarded me the #1 Blogger Award! It was so nice of her, and the picture is too cute. (Head over to her blog to say hi!) Since I'm up to my eyebrows in finals for my online classes, I thought I'd pass this on to just one new blogger I stumbled onto. She is Gaby317, over at Starting Fresh. I was excited to see someone new, and wanted to give her this cute award! Congrats.

Sunday Salon #2 & a Couple of Book Awards!

Today I got an early wake up call by unexpected noise...you know the kind I'm talking about...a world that doesn't understand that you get up before 6 am EVERY morning throughout the week, a world that doesn't know that you stayed up late Friday night to cram for a test that you should have been studying for months ago, and a world that doesn't know that a little extraneous light and a bird chirp could wake you up (my dad used to tell my mom that she could hear a mouse fart, and it would wake her up, so maybe it's genetic???). WHY can't I be one of those deep sleeper types? Anyway, due to my early wake-up call, I climbed in the tub with a couple of good books and read for an hour. I'm still in the process of finishing Meg Cabot's new release coming out in like nine days, Being Nikki. I'm also staring at my TBR pile (not counting the ones sitting over on the bookshelves, nor those in my nightstand/bookshelf) and having a mild anxiety attack. I leave in one month for Hawaii, so I think I'm going to be returning a lot of things to the library, unread (gasp). Hopefully, I'll be finishing up Being Nikki, and then be able to post my review! I'm also hoping to read Going Home by Harriet Evans, since I fell in love with her book, A Hopeless Romantic (which I've blogged about). Love her stuff!

Also, this last week I was given three blogger awards! It was so sweet of a couple of my blogging friends to nominate me, so THANK YOU so much. :) I love the new people I've been able to meet in the book blogging world, and I love their book suggestions and reviews. So nice!

First off, thanks to Jessica Marie over at Books Love Jessica Marie for awarding me the Friendly Blogger Award. Jessica was one of a handful of people I started following as a part of the "community." She reads a lot and has become very active in the blogging community, so thanks for your award Jessica!

You are normally supposed to pass these awards on to 10-15 other bloggers, but I really don't know that many bloggers that haven't already received this award! (Sigh...I'm still circulating to get to know you all!) However, I do have a good friend who has been blogging about books, teaching, and more recently...preparing for baby #1! She is a good friend of mine (who should be having a baby as we speak), a great teacher, and a great creative writer.

• I'm going to pass it along to Sarah, over at My Husband Calls Me Cutie. Congrats Sarah, and good luck on the baby!

The second award came from wonderful Teddyree over in Australia at The Eclectic Reader. LOVE Australia and hope to go back soon! I actually met Teddyree during the 24 Hour Dewey Read-A-Thon, when I dropped in to cheer her on. Thanks Teddyree! :) Anyway, she was so nice and awarded me the Let's Be Friends Award:

Blogs that receive the Let’s Be Friends Award are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers

• I'm going to pass this award on to J. C. Montgomery, over at The Biblio Brat, who I actually discovered more through Twitter. She has great taste in books, and I love to see what she has to say! I look forward to hearing more from her!

The last award I've been given is the Lemonade Award, for blogs with great attitude or gratitude, by Alaine, over at Queen of Happy Endings (how can you not like a title like that). I also met Alaine during the Read-A-Thon, and I not only loved her choice of reading material, but loved that she was reading with other people and commented on their "chatty" sides. :) It was really fun to read her posts! Thanks Alaine!

• I'm going to pass this award on to Deborah, over at Books, Movies, and Chinese Food. I also met Deborah during the Read-A-Thon and really enjoyed her bright, cheery blog and different types of reviews.

Thanks again!