Time to End My Spring To-Do List

It is definitely summer now where I live.  It's been in the 90s for days, we've taken the kids to the pool repeatedly, and we've even had some lovely thunderstorms.  And, of course, Memorial Day has come and gone.  So it's high time I wrap up my spring to-do list and get busy on a summer one!

(All photos are my own.)

~ Finish re-reading The Lord of the Rings  Fail.  I did finish The Two Towers, though, and now I'm into Return of the King, so I'm confident I'll finish it soon.

~ Finish the first draft of my Beauty and the Beast retelling  Fail.  Oh my goodness, friends!  This first draft is 60,000 words and still growing.  That's half again as long as the final draft of Cloaked.  Whaaaaat?  I did not realize this was going to be so much bigger.  But I am absolutely loving the ride.  It has been a genuine pleasure to get to know these characters.  I can't wait to share them with you!  

Meanwhile, I do have this little teaser graphic I whipped up recently, if you'd like a little peek into the terrain where it takes place and the actors I would cast if I was making this as a movie instead of writing it as a book:

~ Finish leading the Sense and Sensibility read-along on my book blog  Check!  I had the loveliest time, and I hope participants did too :-)

~ Read 3 books about/by someone who is not white  Check!  I read six:

• Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev
• Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
• Hard-Boiled by Peggy Thompson and Saeko Usukawa
• Tall in the Saddle by Peggy Thompson and Saeko Usukawa
• The Poker Bride by Christopher Corbett
• Asian Americans in the Old West by Gail Sakurai

~ Read 3 books for my latest Classics Club list  Check!  I read five:

• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
• Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
• Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
• Kilmeny of the Orchard by L. M. Montgomery (review to come)

~ Read 9 books off my TBR shelves Check!  I read (are you ready for this?) SIXTEEN!  They were:

• Laura Ingalls Wilder Country by William Anderson
• Dearest Josephine by Caroline George
• The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy
• The Winter King by Christine Cohen
• Hard-Boiled by Peggy Thompson and Saeko Usukawa
• The Canary Trainer by Nicholas Meyer
• Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome
• Tall in the Saddle by Peggy Thompson and Saeko Usukawa
• A Girl from Yamhill by Beverly Cleary
• Yesterday or Long Ago by Jenni Sauer
• Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim
• The Last Fire-Eater by Charity Bishop
• The Lady and the Lionheart by Joanne Bischoff
• The Poker Bride by Christopher Corbett
• Land of Hills and Valleys by Elisabeth Grace Foley
• Kilmeny of the Orchard by L. M. Montgomery

~ Watch 6 movies off my TBW shelves  Check!  I watched:

• The Buccaneer (1958)
• The Moonstone (1996)
• Little Women (1949)
• Rhapsody in Blue (1945)
• Man in the Middle (1964)
• The West (1996)

~ Watch WandaVision  Fail.  I will probably watch this with my best friend in the future.  Right now, I'm more excited about Loki's show, though.

~ Go see Black Widow (I HOPE!!!)  FAIL.  But this is not my fault -- they shoved the release date back again.  Sigh.

~ Take an afternoon river cruise on a tall ship Fail.  Again, not my fault -- they didn't start up their cruises as soon as they said they would.  We're hoping to try this over the summer, though.

~ Visit Colonial Williamsburg  Check!  We went there for my birthday :-)  My mom was visiting at the time, so she got to go along too!  It was the perfect time to visit, as allll the flowers were in full bloom.

~ Finish the baby blanket I'm crocheting for a relative who's expecting  Check!  I don't think I ever got a picture of it, but I sent it to them a couple weeks before the baby arrived, so yay!

~ Bake a pie for Pi Day (3/14)  Check!  I made this Keto Snickers pie and it was magnificent :-9

~ Hang a hammock in the backyard  Check!  I'm not a big fan of hammocks (they mess with my back), but my kids love it :-D  They've been asking for a hammock for a couple years now, so we gave them one for Easter and rigged it up when it got warm enough.  They use it pretty much daily.

Well, there you have it.  Five fails this spring, but nine checks, so all in all, I'm satisfied :-)  How about you?  Did you accomplish this spring that you were hoping to do?

New Spring 2021 To-Do List

Let's see what I can come up with to do between now and the end of May, shall we?

(All pictures mine from my Instagram account)

~ Finish re-reading The Lord of the Rings 

~ Finish the first draft of my Beauty and the Beast retelling

~ Finish leading the Sense and Sensibility read-along on my book blog

~ Read 3 books about/by someone who is not white

~ Read 3 books for my latest Classics Club list

~ Read 9 books off my TBR shelves 

~ Watch 6 movies off my TBW shelves 

~ Watch WandaVision

~ Go see Black Widow (I HOPE!!!)

~ Take an afternoon river cruise on a tall ship

~ Visit Colonial Williamsburg

~ Finish the baby blanket I'm crocheting for a relative who's expecting

~ Hang a hammock in the backyard

~ Bake a pie for Pi Day (3/14) -- I'm thinking this one 

Here's to an enjoyable, productive, and story-filled spring!

All Finished with My Winter To-Do List for 2020/21

February is over at last.  Whew.

Although spring has not yet sprung, I've finished everything on my winter to-do list that I'm reasonably going to finish, so I'm going to wrap it up and begin afresh.  Let's see how I did...

~ Finish writing a short story  Check! I released my new short story "Run, Run" in January as an e-book here for Kindle and here for Nook.  It's free!  (In the US, anyway -- it should be free for Nook everywhere, but the Kindle version may cost you a small amount in other countries.)  "Run, Run" retells the story of The Gingerbread Man, and is a sequel to my book One Bad Apple.  I've included a recipe for 1800s-style gingerbread in the e-book as well, in case you get as hungry reading it as I got while writing it.

~ Finish the first draft of my Beauty and the Beast retelling  Fail.  I'm not quite half done with this first draft, I think.  It's already at 30K, so this is going to be another longer book, which is fun!  But I have a lot to write yet.  I absolutely love these characters, though, so I'm not complaining about having lots of time to spend with them!

I still don't have at title for it, though.  It'll come.

~ Finish re-reading The Lord of the Rings  Fail.  That's okay, too.  This is my ninth time reading it, and I'm really in no hurry.  I've been enjoying Heidi's read-along of it a lot!

(This and the following book pictures are from my Instagram account.)

~ Read 3 Christmas books  Check!  In fact, I read six!!!  I think that's the most Christmas books I've ever read in one season as an adult.  I read:

• Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories by L. M. Montgomery 
• A House to Let by Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, Wilkie Collins, and Adelaide Anne Proctor
• Yuletide: A Jane Austen-Inspired Collection of Stories edited by Christina Boyd
• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (reviewed previously here)
• Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie
• Holiday by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews

~ Read 6 other books off my TBR shelves  Check!  I read ten.  It was a great winter for reading!  I read:

• Code Red at the Super Mall by Eric Wilson
• The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
• Jewel of Persia by Roseanna M. White
• For the Sake of the Game edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger
• The Lone Ranger by Elizabeth Rudnick
• Further Chronicles of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
• Faces to the Sun edited by S. J. Lasko
• In League with Sherlock Holmes edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger
• Black Orchids by Rex Stout

~ Read 3 books from the library  Check!  I read:

• We are the Ship by Kadir Nelson
• Black Heroes of the Wild West by James Otis Smith
• The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby

~ Read at least 1 book each month about/by someone who is not white Check!  I read four:

• We are the Ship by Kadir Nelson
• Black Heroes of the Wild West by James Otis Smith
• The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass

~ Host a pirate-themed blog party in February  Aye, aye!  We had so much fun.  Go here for the wrap-up post with links to all the different posts people contributed.

~ Watch 3 Christmas movies  Check!  I watched:

• Holiday Affair (1949)
• The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017)
• A Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)
• White Christmas (1954)

~ Watch 4 movies off my TBW shelves  Check!  I watched seven*:

• Call of the Wild (2020)
• The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976)
• Calcutta (1946)
• Much Ado About Nothing (2012)
• Virginia City (1940)
• Sleeping Beauty (1959)
• Against All Flags (1952)

*I had watched two of those before (The Seven-Per-Cent Solution and Sleeping Beauty), but so long ago that I didn't really remember them, so I kept them on my TBW shelves until I had a chance to watch them again and decide if I liked them enough to keep them or not.

~ Go see Wonder Woman: 1984 (2020)  Check!  It was okay -- you can read my thoughts here.

~ Try making cookies with my new patterned rolling pin  Check!  As you can see, it has a very ME design:

~ Help my daughter make a playground for her hamster  Check!  You can see him playing in it here:

~ Repaint the main floor bathroom  Check!  Very happy with the results.  Especially this border I put up:

~ Get back to regularly reading the blogs I love Check!  I've been keeping up reasonably well, I think, and I love spending a couple afternoons every week just reading and reading and reading them.  I'd rather be reading them every day like I used to, but right now, this is what works for my life, so I'll try to keep it up :-) 

I'll figure out a new set of goals in a day or two, for the spring!  Meanwhile, happy Friday to you.

12 Delights of Christmas Tag

Heidi started this tag on her blog Along the Brandywine last week, and I'm happy to say, she tagged me with it!  Thank you, Heidi :-)  

So here we go with my answers to her questions!  As usual, all pictures are mine from my Instagram account, except ones that are movie screencaps I took myself.

1) A favorite Christmas tradition? 

Every year, we take "Christmas walks" around our neighborhood to look at the Christmas decorations outside their homes.  One of the kids gets to carry a little lantern with a battery-operated candle in it, and sometimes we sing Christmas carols as we walk.

2) Say it snowed at your domicile, would you prefer to go out or stay curled up inside? 

I do both!  First, I go out and help my kids build a snowman, maybe have a snowball fight, maybe do a bit of sledding down the hill in our backyard.  It tends to work best if I go down the hill first, to carve out a deeper track than they can make.  Then they can just sled down in that track all they want.  When I come inside, I make hot chocolate for everyone.  After that, I curl up and watch the snow.

3) Tea or hot chocolate? 

Hot chocolate, all the way.

4) Favorite Christmas colors (i.e. white, blue, silver, red and green etc)? 

Red and silver and gold are my favorites.

5) Favorite kind of Christmas cookie? 

I have a recipe we call "Mandi Cookies," named after a college roommate of mine who gave us the recipe.  They are fantastic for cut-out cookies, and I could eat half a dozen in one sitting.  I have the recipe here on my recipe blog.

6) How soon before Christmas do you decorate (more specifically, when does your tree go up)?

I like to put it up the day after Thanksgiving.  I would put it up the day after Halloween, but Cowboy would object strenuously, so I don't.  Some years, it's gone up later, though, like the years when we spend Thanksgiving somewhere else with family.

It usually takes us one day to set up the tree and decorate it, and I spend another day doing lights and decorations outside and in the foyer, and another one decorating the living room.  So it's a job for a long weekend.

7) Three favorite traditional Christmas carols? 

1. "What Child is This"
2. "Go Tell it on the Mountain"
3. "Silent Night"

8) A favorite Christmas song (i.e. something you might hear on the radio)? 

I have a great fondness for Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You" because one of my first college roommates really loved it and we would grab pencils for microphones and belt it out along with the radio.

9) A favorite Christmas movie? 

White Christmas (1954) is my top favorite, and you can read my thoughts on it right here.

10) Have you ever gone caroling? 

Yes!  Though not for a long time.  When I was a kid, my parents and the rest of the church choir (which my mom led) would go caroling to the homes of shut-in members of our church.  When I was a teen, our Sunday school went caroling to some nursing homes a few years.

11) Ice skating, sledding, skiing, or snow boarding? 

Sledding!  I didn't learn to ski or ice skate until I was in my teens, and I never really have enjoyed either of them.  But I love sledding.

12) Favorite Christmas feast dish?

Every year, for the last 10 years or so, I've made coconut cream pie for Christmas.  We love it!  Especially Cowboy, who loves basically all pies.

Time to TAG people!

I would love it if these bloggers took a turn with this:

Coffee, Classics, and Craziness

Flowers of Quiet Happiness

I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read)

Movies Meet Their Match

Caftan Woman

And if YOU want to do this tag yourself, even though you haven't been tagged, you are 100% allowed to do so!  Here are the questions, for copying ease:

1) A favorite Christmas tradition? 

2) Say it snowed at your domicile, would you prefer to go out or stay curled up inside? 

3) Tea or hot chocolate? 

4) Favorite Christmas colors (i.e. white, blue, silver, red and green etc)? 

5) Favorite kind of Christmas cookie? 

6) How soon before Christmas do you decorate (more specifically, when does your tree go up)? 

7) Three favorite traditional Christmas carols? 

8) A favorite Christmas song (i.e. something you might hear on the radio)? 

9) A favorite Christmas movie? 

10) Have you ever gone caroling? 

11) Ice skating, sledding, skiing, or snow boarding? 

12) Favorite Christmas feast dish?

Autumn 2018 To-Do List Wrap-Up

Tomorrow is December 1st.  Time to pull the plug on my autumnal to-do list :-)  Let's see how I did!

~ Read Jane of Austin by Hillary Manton Lodge Check!  My review is here.

~ Read 5 other books from my TBR shelves Check!  I read SEVEN others off my TBR shelves:

• Soldier On by Vanessa Rasanen
• A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War by Joseph Laconte
• The Case of the Very Bad Cat by Perry Elisabeth Kirkpatrick
• Return to Gone-Away by Elizabeth Enright
• An Hour Unspent by Roseanna M. White
• Death by the Book by Julianna Deering (review to come)
• Exodusters by Nell Irvin Painter (review to come)

~ Read 3 books for my Classics Club list Check!  I read four:

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
• Twenty and Ten by Claire Huchet Bishop (review to come)

~ Read 3 books from the library Check!  I read five:

A Song Unheard by Roseanna M. White
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
The Bronte Sisters by Catherine Reef
Night School by Lee Child
Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy

~ Watch 5 movies from my TBW shelves Check!  I watched Rough Magic (1995), Spaceballs (1987), The Huntsman: Winter's War (2016), Red Mountain (1951), and I finished season 2 of Leverage (2009-2010).  Yes, the last is not a movie, but it takes up space on my TBW shelves, so it counts.  Of those, I liked Winter's War, Red Mountain, and Leverage enough to keep.

~ Go see the 2011 Jane Eyre with a bunch of friends Check!  It was super fun :-)  We have a new theater not too far away that holds these "afternoon tea" events once a month -- basically, they show a period drama and feed you tea and treats that are themed around the movie.  I've been to three of them now, and I am firmly addicted.

~ Go see Crazy Rich Asians Check!  It was amusing, but I didn't love it.

~ Go see First Man Fail :-(

~ Go see Bad Times at the El Royale Fail :-(  I went to visit my parents right when both this and First Man came out, and I flew over two different weekends, which meant I couldn't see movies on those weekends, and I totally missed them.  I'm so bummed.

~ Go see Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Check!  You can read my initial thoughts on it here.

~ Get together with some blogging friends again, somewhere, somehow Fail.  Maybe after Christmas.

~ Make copycat Frankenmouth hot buttered noodles Check!  We made them for an Oktoberfest gathering we hosted back at the end of September (yeah, I know -- but it's totally a thing.  You celebrate Oktoberfest in September if you're good Germans, and I'm half a good German, so hey), and they were FABULOUS.

~ Make apple crisp muffins Fail :-(  I did print the recipe out, but that's it.

~ Take our kids camping in the Shenandoah Valley Check!  And we all survived.  No one got eaten by a bear.  I did mess my knee up again, though.  Grr.

~ Order photos Fail :-(

~ Start writing the first draft of my next book Check!  I'm more than a chapter in, and I love it.  I don't have a good title for it yet, but it's a retelling of Snow White set in the 1870s during a wagon train.

~ Run down to Colonial Williamsburg at least once  CHECK!  I went THREE TIMES!  It was basically the perfect autumn.

All in all, it was a charming autumn.  I'm particularly pleased that I got so much reading done, because it was also a busy season.  But I did NOT let my reading fall by the wayside! 

I'll post my winter goals soon.  How was your autumn?

(All pictures taken by me.  Many got posted on my Instagram account.)

Summertime Liebster Award

Katherine and Grace of The Maidens of Green Gables have nominated me for a Liebster Award!  Thank you, ladies!  It's been a while since I've done one of these, and I always enjoy them.

The Rules:

Acknowledge the blog that gave it to you and display the award. (Check!)
Answer the 11 questions that the blogger gives you.  (See below.)
Give 11 random facts about yourself.  (See farther below.)
Nominate 11 blogs.  (Keep scrolling.)
Give them 11 questions to answer.  (At the bottom.)

Katherine and Grace's questions for me:

1. What is your favorite quote?  

I don't know that I have just one, single, solitary favorite quotation.  But I do love this one:

2. Share your most-used recipe?

Spread peanut butter on two slices of bread.  Spread jelly or jam or apple butter or raw honey on top of the peanut butter on one of the slices of bread.  Put them together, un-slathered sides out.  Devour.

Aside from that one, I use my recipe for Stir-Crazy Cake a lot, and I just shared it on my recipe blog the other day.

3. Are you a writer, and do you have any published works?

I am, and I do!  I have a Sleeping Beauty retelling called "The Man on the Buckskin Horse" included in the Five Magic Spindles anthology, and I released a Little Red Riding Hood retelling called Cloaked last year.  Click on their titles to see them on Amazon ;-)  And my Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling, Dancing and Doughnuts, will be available on August 31!

4. What are some of your hobbies?

Reading, watching movies, baking, crocheting, sewing, procrastinating, gardening...

5. Are you a fan of musicals?

Absolutely love them!  My favorite is An American in Paris (1951)

6. What fond family traditions would you like to continue when you get married and start a family? Or if these joyous series of events have already arrived, what have you implemented already? 

Reading out loud to my kids like my mom read out loud to me is a big one.  Listening to Elvis's Christmas music while decorating the Christmas tree is another.  Telling my kids, "I love you, and so does Jesus" when I put them to bed, like my dad always did for us. 

7. What is one particular character trait that you would like to train your future/present children in?

Honesty.  Trust and honesty are sooooo important throughout all of life.

8. What is a boy's and girl's name that you like?

I like the names James and Anne particularly well.  Randomly, I have a nephew and a niece named each of those.

9. Tell us a favorite joke?

Two guys walked into a bar and the third guy ducked.

10. Recommend three books?

A Flame in the Dark by Sarah Baughman
Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart
Snow White by Matt Phelan

Each one of those is unique and enjoyable.  And clean.  Titles are linked to my reviews of them on my book blog.

11. What is a period drama you love?

The Man from Snowy River (1982) is my absolute favorite movie of all time.

Now for 11 facts about me! 

1. I love black nailpolish.
2. I can bake bread from scratch.
3. I joined Instagram in February and love it.
4. I have ideas for 6 more Old West fairy tale retellings in my head.
5. I don't like bright orange.
6. I have achilles tendonitis.
7. I like to play in the dirt.
8. I write a column on wild west history for the Prairie Times.
9. I love to whistle.
10. My MBTI personality type is ISFJ.
11. I've ridden a horse in the ocean.

Okay, I need to nominate 11 blogs I love for the Liebster now.  Here are my nominees:

Any Merry Little Thought
Holds Upon Happiness
I'm Charles Baker Harris (and I Can Read)
Ink Castles
Lady of the Manor
Lavender Spring
Liv K. Fisher
Modestly Styled
Musings of an Introvert
Ramblings of a Redhead Girl
You, Me, and a Cup of Tea

And here are my 11 questions for my nominees to answer!!!

1.  Why did you start blogging?

2.  How long have you been blogging?

3.  What are three of your favorite blog posts you've written?

4.  What are three blogs you love to read?

5.  How has blogging impacted your life?

6.  Do you have multiple blogs?  If so, how many?

7.  What's some blogging advice you've found to be really helpful?

8.  What's some blogging advice you've heard and ignored?

9.  What do you really enjoy about blogging?

10.  What do you not enjoy about blogging?

11.  How did you choose your blog's name?


That's all!  And that's enough.

#MiddleEarthMarch 2018 Results

I didn't participate in every single prompt for #MiddleEarthMarch on Instagram, but I did the vast majority of them.  It was really fun!  I've loved photography since I was about seven, and got my first point-and-shoot camera when I was eight.  So I am totally loving Instagram and the ways it lets me get creative with my photography.

I made this collage of my #MiddleEarthMarch photos, and I hope you like it!

Do you like any of these shots particularly well?  I've got several favorites.  You can see them all much better individually on my Instagram feed, @RachelKovaciny :-)

The End of My Autumn To-Do List 2017

My Christmas tree is up and decorated, and I'm working on sending out with this year's batch of cards, so I'm declaring autumn basically over.  Time to see what I did and did not check off my Autumn To-Do List for this year!

~ Publish Cloaked  Check!  You can now buy it from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

~ Read House of Living Stones by Katie Schuermann  Check!  You can read my review here.

~ Read 5 other books from my TBR shelves  Check!  I read Luther: Biography of a Reformer by Frederick Nohl, Flashes of Splashes by Elizabeth McCleary, Film Noir: Light and Shadow edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini, The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, and A Sidekick's Tale by Elisabeth Grace Foley (review to come).

~ Read 3 books from the library  Check!  I read The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, Frames by Loren D. Estleman, and As You Wish by Cary Elwes.

~ Watch 5 movies from my TBW shelves  Check!  I watched Ivanhoe (1997), Jackie Robinson (2016), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939), Daddy Long Legs (1955), and Hell on Frisco Bay (1955).

~ Go see Thor: Ragnarok  Check!  In fact, I've seen it three times now.  I reviewed it here last week.

~ Make "Baked Oatmeal Bars" from this recipe.  Check!  My kids and I quite loved them, and I'm sure I'll be making them again.

~ Finish the skirts and cape I'm sewing for my kids  Semi-fail.  I did sew one skirt, but the rest are still languishing on my to-do pile.

~ Finish my Newt Scamander scarf  Check!  I finally finished my scarf! It is super-duper long, down past my knees on both sides.  It goes perfectly with my long black coat, and I've already worn it a couple of times.  It may have taken me almost a year to knit, but it's done!  (By contrast, I crocheted a scarf for my daughter in three days last week.  I crochet soooooooooo much faster than I knit.)

~ Repair/update the "mouse house," which is this playhouse I made for the kids out of an old sheet that I cut and sewed to fit over a card table.  Fail.  Total fail.  Never touched it.  Sigh.

Well, I have WAY more checks than fails on this list, so yay!  I'm pretty happy with how much I accomplished over the past three months!  I'll be posting my winter list of projects and goals soon.

How about you?  Did you have any goals for this fall?

The Results of My Winter To-do List

I don't know how things are where you live, but spring seems to have sprung here in Virginia over the past week!!!  My daffodils are blooming, my cherry-plum tree is about to burst into flower, and I went ahead and planted peas yesterday.  I'm sure we'll get some chillier weather yet before the end of March, but it's looking like winter is for real over already.  I can remember one year when I lived in NC as a teen where we planted our garden in February too -- just happens this way sometimes.

Anyway, it's time to look at how I did on my to-do list for the winter.  I have to say that this is probably the best I have ever done at checking stuff off one of my season lists of stuff to accomplish!  And sharing them here with all of you really helps me stay accountable, in a way, and makes me really want to achieve these goals.  So let's go!

~ Finish reading Song of the Ean by Emily Nordberg  Check!  My review is here.

~ Read Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien  Check!  My review is here.

~ Reread A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens  Check!  My review is here.

~ Read three more books from my TBR shelves  Check!  In fact, I have read six!  Four from my physical shelves and two from my Kindle shelf:  Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, The Jane Austen Guide to Life by Lori Smith, A Flame Shall Spring from the Embers by Heidi Pekarek, Montana Rides! by Evan Evans (review coming soon), Once by six different authors, and Where Treetops Glisten by Tricia Goyer, Cara Putman, and Sarah Sundin.

~ Read three books from the library  Check!  I read six from the library as well:  A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs, Becoming Holmes by Shane Peacock, Nimona by Noelle Stevenson, Dani Noir by Nova Ren Suma, That Part was True by Deborah McKinlay, and The Bachelor Girl's Guide to Murder by Rachel McMillan.   It's been a great winter for reading!

~ Start blogging about my favorite adult coloring books  Check!  I've written about two so far, Whimsical Gardens and Color Me Jane.  I want to write about one each month for the rest of the year.

~ Figure out what book challenge I'm setting myself for 2017  Check!  I am participating in a very relaxed and leisurely read-through of The Lord of the Rings hosted by Risa at The Next Chapter, and I'm planning to read some other Tolkien-related books as well.  Calling it My Year with Tolkien.

~ Start blogging about how 2017 is the 500th anniversary of the start of the Protestant Reformation  Fail.  But I intend to start in on that in March.

~ Finish sewing my black-and-white skirt in time to wear it for Christmas  Check!  I've worn it several times since then, too.  It goes so well with almost everything!

~ Knit myself a scarf like Newt Scamander's  Fail.  I've started one, but I'm only about twenty rows in.  I will just have to finish it over the spring and summer so I can wear it next fall.

~ Finish the baby blanket I'm making for my best friend from college  Check!  It took longer than I'd expected, which is part of why I haven't done much of my scarf yet.  But the blanket needed to be done before the baby arrived (it's due in about six weeks), whereas the scarf is just for me for fun, so has no time limit.

~ Finish a rough draft of my western Little Red Riding Hood retelling, "Cloaked"  CHECK!!!  I'm really getting excited about trying out the whole self-publishing thing with it, too.  I'm working with a professional editor on it right now, and in the planning stages with an artist to design the cover.  Right now, I'm hoping for a June release -- definitely this summer, anyway!

~ Watch two Christmas movies  Check!  In fact, I watched three, and two of them were new to me!  I watched The Holiday (2006), Donavan's Reef (1963), and Holiday Affair (1949).

~ Watch 3 movies from my TBW shelves  Check!  There's some overlap with the above category here, but I watched five movies from my TBW shelves:  The Princess and the Pirate (1944), Donovan's Reef (1963), Holiday Affair (1949), Sense & Sensibility (2008), and China (1943).

~ Print, frame, and hang family photos in our foyer finally  Fail.  Well, sort-of.  I did print and frame the photos, but they're sitting in my bathroom upstairs, waiting for me to hang them. Check!  After I posted this, I was like, "You know... hanging them should take like ten minutes.  I'm going to do that right now."  So I did!

~ Make "Porter Cake" from An Unexpected Cookbook by Chris-Rachael Oseland  Check!  And it was magically delicious -- like you've always imagined fruit cake ought to be, but isn't.  This is a recipe I will make over and over, and not just at Christmas time.

Well, that's the end of my list.  Only three two fails!!!  I'm pretty pleased.  Time to work up my list of stuff to do this spring, huh?  I hope to post that in a few days.