Mundie Moms

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Goals/Resolutions For 2015

This weekly meme is hosted by The Broke & the Bookish

Hello & welcome to this week's topic - 10 Goals / Resolutions for 2015. 

As 2014 comes to a close, I've found myself reflecting back on this year, and thinking about all the things I wish I had done or feeling bad about the things I still haven't finished. It's been one that has been full of highs and lows, both in my personal life and on the blog. Though it's been a crazy, insane year, I feel very blessed for all I've been able to experience, and do this year. There have been numerous authors I've had the chance to interview (and yep, I'm still behind on posting all my authors interviews), book signings I was able to moderate, I met new bloggers, attend a variety of awesome Bookish events, went to BEA for the second year in a row, and sat in wonderment at how fast 5 years of blogging has flown by. 

Thank you to all of you, my readers, authors, publicists, and book sellers who fuel my love of reading, and have supported what I do for almost 6 years. Without you, well, I don't know what I would be doing. THANK YOU!! I sincerely appreciate each of you, and your support in what I do. In thinking about all that's gone on, and happened in the last almost six years of blogging, I've realized this year there is something I missed. 

I've missed the basics of blogging. 
I've missed the simpleness of just blogging, promoting books, and connecting with bloggers. Sure I've blogged this year, but it's not been how it's been previous years, because I've been incredibly busy. I feel I've complicated things with my blogging. I've gotten wrapped up with trying to make sure I post each day, when really it doesn't matter if I post each day. I've stressed far too much over blogging this year, than I should have. The heart of blogging, at least for me, is promoting books. 

 I love being able to do what I do. Promoting books. 
I love reading. I love talking about books, recommending books, reading books, and promoting them. 
Often times it feels like there is so much to do when it comes to blogging, that I feel it's very easy to get side track on things. I feel that this year I lost my enthusiasm behind promoting books. That is not to say I don't love books, nor have I stopped loving promoting them. I haven't. But I feel like my enthusiasm got lost in the shuffle of everything else going on, and that showed on the blog. 

So, I'm simplifying this year. 
I'm going to take more time to be me on my blog, and promote the heck out of books. I'm also going to take the time to connect with other bloggers. I've missed connecting with fellow readers. I've missed visiting your blogs, and commenting on your posts. I love all the comments y'all leave for me. Even though blogger keeps deleting my comment replies back to you, I still reply and read each comment.

This year I'm going back to the basics. It's all about the books and simplifying. 

Here are 10 My Goals/ Resolutions for this 2015:
  1. Get Back To The Basics - The reason I started blogging was to promote books. This year I'm not losing sight of why I enjoy book blogging. I'm going to keep it basic.
  2. Simplify - There's a lot of background noise when it comes to blogging. This year I"m cutting it out. I'm keeping things simple this year. If it doesn't fit into my schedule, than I'm not stressing out over doing it. If I can't do it, then I'm saying no. 
  3. Saying No - Sophie and I always laugh about how we just can't say no when it comes to books or helping out with things. This year, I'm saying NO, and I'm not going to feel bad about it. 
  4. Have Fun - I've missed all the fun that Mundie Moms used to be. I'm challenging myself to bring that fun back to the blog.
  5. Stay on Track and Don't Fall Behind - this was a huge down fall for me this year. From reviews, to announcing giveaways, to post interviews and everything else. I hate being behind, and this year I felt like I was behind on everything. 
  6. Make The Time - Blogging is extremely time consuming. With how crazy busy life is, this will always come second to my family, and now my Substitute Teaching job. I am challenging myself to make the time each day to blog. If don't, than I'll fail at my #5 goal.
  7. Re-Connect - I have missed chatting with blog friends. I know we're all busy, but I'm challenging myself to do a better job at staying in touch.
  8. Review more Middle Grade - I love MG books as much as YA, and this year I reviewed hardly any MG. I don't know what happened. Well I do, I didn't have time to feature what I've read with the my kids, nor did I make the time to keep track of that on the blog. This year I'll be featuring more MG books. Most of them will be featured on Mundie Kids.
  9. Read More Books - It's really sad to say this, but I read under 200 books this year. I know I can do better than that this year. This year I'm mixing it up and reading both new releases, and making a dent in the piles of books I have that have been waiting to be read, but are collecting dust on my shelves.
  10. Add more Reviewers- I've needed to do this for awhile now, but I haven't. I need to add more reviewers to my blogs. I've got awesome helpers, Em and Shandra who look after the Mundie Moms forum, and Sophie who keeps me sane on the blog, and helps me out when needed. I don't know what i'd do without them. But, all of us are so incredibly busy now. I can't keep up with everything on the blogs, and I think adding 1-2 additional reviewers would seriously help out, a lot.
Here's to an awesome 2015 and accomplishing these goal! I'm excited to see what the New Year holds. I'm even more excited to start fresh, and tackle the year head on. 

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