The Daily Dime : June 2019

Time for another Daily Dime post where I share 10 pictures from a day in my life! I haven’t done one of these since March 2018(!), so Charlotte looks just a little different than she did then!

These pictures are from Saturday, June 15.

One//Around 10:00 AM

Charlotte has an ABC mat on the floor of our screen room, so we go out there at least once a week so she can play with them. She’s started putting some of the empty parts on her head, which always makes me laugh!

Two//Around 10:00 AM

Poor Koopa always thinks that he gets to go in the back yard every time we go in the screen room, but until he gets his new flea/tick collar, he can’t. The ticks are so bad this year!

Three//Around 11:00 AM

Time for a late breakfast with Ariel and her inside ABCs. She is obsessed with ABCs and spelling right now!!

Four//Around 1:45 PM

My mom, Charlotte, and I have been taking daily walks around the neighborhood. We usually do it after I get home from work, so it’s not too hot, but today we had to go earlier, so it was blazing outside! Please note Charlotte’s snacks in the cup holder!

Five//Around 2:30 PM

After our walk, Charlotte and I played in the back yard for a few minutes. Unfortunately, our play time ended when Charlotte got super mad at me for not letting her go near the neighbor’s fence because I didn’t want her to get too close to their dogs. I’m such a mean mom!

Six//Around 6:00 PM

My brother bought two tickets to the My Brother, My Brother, and Me podcast’s live show, and he invited me to come along. This is the face I make when I get to go out and do something adultish!

Seven//Around 7:00 PM

My brother made fun of me and called me a tourist because I kept taking pictures downtown, but I don’t care! I just like taking pictures in Nashville, and I thought this one was a cool one!

Eight//Around 7:00 PM

Me and Little Jimmy Dickens. Enough said…

Nine//Around 9:00 PM

It’s the brothers McElroy! Let’s get this show started!

Ten//Around 10:15 PM

Okay, this is a mean picture, but it highly entertained me. These scooters are all over Nashville, but this is the first time I’ve seen two people trying to ride the same one! Right before I took this, the girl was standing there yelling at the boy. I imagine it was about their technique because when they got back on, they were booking it up the hill! Don’t ever change, Nashville.

So this doesn’t seem to be a linkup anymore, but I want to start doing these again more regularly because I think they’re a cool way to get a glimpse into people’s lives! My next one will be on July 17, so if you’re interested in joining in, leave me a comment, and maybe we can start a new linkup (maybe with a new name too because I don’t know if Daily Dime belongs to someone…).

Changes all around

Hello friends!

I’m popping in with a quick note today about a couple of changes that are happening on here and in my real life.

As of June 28, the name of this website will change back to amberiam.wordpress.com. Update whatever you need to accordingly. 😉 I will also be deleting my Facebook blog page at that point.

When I bought a “business plan” for the blog, I intended to start writing more, doing things on social media, and making money from this little Internet space. I justified my annual cost by saying that I would make it back, plus more, as I grew my following, posted consistently, etc. Two years later, this has not happened, and honestly, it’s not a financial expense that we can continue to justify. I’ve got access to approximately 17,000 “grow your blog” courses and eBooks, so until I go through those, I’m scaling back to a free plan here.

I’m dropping the Facebook page because I hardly do anything on it beyond automatically publishing blog posts, and that’s just something else to keep up with! I’ll make the posts publish to my personal Facebook feed since most of my Facebook readers are people I know in real life anyway!

Besides the financial aspect, there is another reason that I’m scaling back here – I got a new job!! Starting on July 24, I will be a librarian at a local elementary school! It’s a huge change for me since I’ve only been in public and academic libraries, and I’m pretty nervous! I will also have to go back to school to take a few classes so I can get a job-embedded teaching license and state certification. It’s exciting and overwhelming! With those changes, I might be even less active around here for a while, so it didn’t make sense for me to try to keep growing here (I mean, not that I’ve tried a lot lately, but A for effort, right?).

I hope that in the future, I’ll be able to get back on track here, but until then, I’ll let the $1.74 in ad revenue that I’ve made keep sitting in the WordPress account. Never hurts to have some money for a rainy day!

Amber Can Read : June 2019

It’s time to talk books again!

I’m trying something a little bit different this month. If you click on the title of the book, it will take you to the book’s Goodreads page, and if you click on the picture, it will take you to the book’s Amazon listing. Amazon links are affiliate links (click the link at the top of the post to find out more about affiliate links).

1. What Do You Do With A Problem? by Kobi Yamada

I read this one while I was at the bookstore and Charlotte was playing with the toy displays. It started out cute, but I didn’t love how it ended. I know there are some other related titles, so I want to read those and see if I like them better than I did this one.

2. What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night by Refe Tuma

I read this one while we were at Target and Charlotte was playing in a little playhouse they had set up. Sensing a theme here? This is from the people who started Dinovember, so it was pretty cute and creative!

3. Simply Clean by Becky Rapinchuk

I’m not going to talk about how long I’ve owned this book before finally reading it! I enjoy the Clean Mama blog, so I knew this would be a helpful book for getting me started in creating housecleaning routines. She has a lot of good, practical advice from setting up routines to making your own household cleaners. Although i haven’t fully implemented her routines and methods, I’ve seen a difference just from what I have done so far!

4. The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman

My lone audiobook for the month, but this one was definitely the one to listen to on audio! It was read by the authors, which made it more enjoyable, especially in the sections where they talked about how they met and started dating. She is a little more crass than he is, and he is more of a softie than I expected!

5. How Hard Can It Be? by Allison Pearson

I absolutely hated this one. I don’t know what it was about it, but I just slogged through it hoping that something, anything, would happen to catch my attention and make the main character more likable. Spoiler alert – nothing did.

6. My Oxford Year by Julia Whalen

This one started out a little slow for me, but I got into it more after the “big twist” was revealed. I even found myself crying during one part (I say “even” like I’m not over-emotional and set off by the slightest little thing on a regular basis…). I wanted to revisit my dreams from my teen years after reading this one!

7. Daisy Jones and The Six

I enjoyed this one, but I wanted to love it like I did The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I thought the format of this one was interesting, and I liked how it wrapped up, but it was one of those that may have been a little too hyped for me to fully enjoy it.

8. Class Mom by Laurie Gelman

I found this one when I was browsing through my public library’s eBook app, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it! I still have a couple of years until Charlotte is in kindergarten, but I hope I have a class mom like this one when she is in school!

9. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

I somehow made it through high school and an undergraduate English degree without reading this one. It was okay. I didn’t realize that it was a few unrelated short stories, so I felt like the title story was a little unresolved. I want to watch the movie eventually and compare and contrast. Wow, what a nerd thing to say. Ha!I st

10. One Day in December by Josie Silver

I started listening to this a couple of months ago and couldn’t get into it. I put the eBook on hold back then and just got it recently. This was a little bit different than a traditional romance, but I enjoyed it and how it wrapped up.

Total for the month : 10

Total for 2019 : 59 (I’ve now surpassed my 2018 reading total, and I still have 6 months to go!!)

Have you read anything good lately? What’s something that you made it through high school and/or college without reading? Leave a comment and let me know!

Linking up with Steph and Jana!

Currently : June 2019

It’s the (day after the…sigh) first Wednesday of the month, so it’s time to see what I’m currently up to!

Picking : Books to read for a couple of different upcoming book challenges. Book Challenge by Erin 11.0 released its categories on June 1, and my list for that one is slowly starting to take shape! I’m also going to participate in a challenge by abitaboutbooks on Instagram. It’s her #weread challenge and details can be found here!

Going : To work, home, Target, Walmart. That’s about as exciting as life is right now! 😉

Wishing : For a beach vacation! Fully funded, of course. Heck, since it’s wishing, let’s throw in a new wardrobe for the summer too!

I would not be sad to have this view again…

Wearing : Shorts and sandals! I’m not usually into either of those things because I’m self-conscious about my legs/feet/etc, but this year, I just decided to do what I wanted to, and if people don’t like it, meh on them!

Celebrating : Some fun activities coming up – going to see a live podcast show with my brother, Father’s Day, a luau with Charlotte’s former early intervention group, and WE’RE GOING TO SEE THE WIGGLES IN AUGUST!! Okay, that’s not June, and I have no reason to be so excited, but I totally am! Now watch Charlotte not enjoy it at all!

What are you currently up to? Leave a comment or link up with Anne to share what’s happening!

Spring Bucket List Update : May 2019

I’m a week behind on this one, but as with most things in my life, my motto here is “better late than never”! 😉

Let’s see my bucket list for a quick refresher of my goals :

Spring 2019 Bucket List (1)

Now that we’ve revisited my list, I can confidently say that I will not finish this list! Here’s where I am on everything…

1. Celebrate our family’s spring birthdays – Done! See you next year, spring birthdays!

2. Create a playroom for Charlotte – No change since last month. In fact, the room may look even worse than it has thanks to some decluttering in other parts of the house. Blah.

3. Finish a course – Big fat nope here. There’s still time to work on this one, though!

4. Go on an Easter egg hunt – Didn’t happen this year. Better luck (and better weather) next year!

5. Participate in Rachel Cruze’s contentment challenge – I didn’t participate along with the official Instagram challenge, but I finally started writing in the journal! I’m going to count this one as a win since I’m actually using it and not just letting it gather dust anymore!

6. Practice brush lettering – I haven’t started this, but I found a couple of fun June challenges to practice my fancy handwriting, so this would be a perfect time to bust out the brush markers and start trying to use them!

7. Spring cleaning – A little bit! I have been doing some decluttering and cleaning up around the house, so things are starting to look neater than they have! I still have a lot to do, but there is progress in this area!

8. Take Charlotte to the Children’s Museum – Nope! Now that the weather is nice, we probably won’t do this one since there are a lot of outdoor activities that we can do. I think I’ll move this one to my fall or winter bucket list.

9. Take Koopa to the dog bakery – This one is a no. We got him a treat from there, but he wasn’t with us. I don’t have any plans to take him there in the next few weeks, so maybe this one will be a spring item next year.

10. Walk a 5K – This one doesn’t look good for me! I’ve been walking a little bit after work, but I’m not ready to take on a 5K yet. I think I’ll move this one to my fall bucket list that way I can spend the summer building up my mileage and getting my body used to moving that much again.

Well, that’s disappointing! Even though I still have around a month left to complete this list, I don’t think that I am going to make much more progress beyond spring cleaning, brush lettering, Charlotte’s playroom, and maybe a course. Surprisingly, I’m not disappointed though! I know that I have done my best this spring, and there have been a lot of life things that have popped up (nothing bad! Just things that happen!). I’ll see how far I get and post my final update, plus my summer bucket list in June!

Have you made a Spring Bucket List? How’s your progress going? Let me know in the comments, or link up with your own post by clicking the button below!

Linking up with Leslie!