Downtime

I usually continue to read and post reviews during the holidays, but this year I’m taking a little time to enjoy my family. Instead of working on the blog or reading, I’m wrapping gifts, getting things ready for guests, shopping…well, you know everything the holidays include. Last night, we went to look at Christmas lights for a second time with our three-year-old grandson. He gets so excited! And for the first time in many years, we should have a white Christmas in southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri.

I wish you all joyous holidays.

Our Favorites for the Year

My top 5 favorite books of the year:

I was planning on putting only one book per author but the Scavenger Girl books are so good and each one is so different, I had to list both of them. 

I have read most of Deborah Brown’s Paradise series and I’ve liked them all but this one was a bit different and really tore at my emotions.

Angela Kay and J.D. Barker are both up and coming authors. I’ve read all of Angela Kay’s books and I Can Kill is her best and my favorite so far. I haven’t read all of J.D. Barker’s books yet but The Fourth Monkey was one of my all-time favorites. Fifth to Die was the sequel and almost as good, still good enough to be in my top 5.

 

 

The most popular post in 2018 was Don’t Judge a Book by its Cover which was posted in 2014. 

The most popular post that was actually posted in 2018 was Goodnight Moon – 15 Years Later. 

Life Changes

BcaEaB4Ri

I haven’t been posting as much this past week as I usually do, and that will probably continue until the end of August. I own a store called Sleepygirl’s Furniture & Books and we have decided to close it. I sell books online and we’re currently in the process of pulling those and taking them home so I can work from there. I have another 10,000 books in the store that aren’t online and I’m going to try to sell as many of those as possible before the store is closed. Then, of course, there is the usual task of moving everything else, including thousands of egg cartons that we sell on Ebay.

I have committed to posting reviews and will definitely post them when they are due. As for the other, what I call “fun stuff,” there will be less of that for a while.

My husband has a store in Baxter Springs, Kansas, which is about 15 miles from my store in Joplin, Missouri. We’re going to keep it and, hopefully, have more time to do things other than work. Two stores are just too time consuming for 2 people to run. I am so excited that we’ve decided to make this move!

FYI: when they say the most important thing for a business is location, location, location..believe them! We moved here after the tornado in May 2011 and did very well for the first couple of years because people were desperate for furniture. The past couple of years, though, we are often forgotten because we’re off the beaten path. I’ve had so many people say, “I love your store but I forget you’re here!”

I’m looking forward to when things settle down and I can focus more energy on my blogs and other online ventures.

 

Dawn (aka Sleepygirl2)

Our Reliable Post Office

I have been selling books online at Sleepygirl’s Used Books as well as on some of the big sites, like Amazon, since 1999. In all those years, there have been less than 10 lost packages lost. I think that’s amazing since there are times I have a lot of packages going out. For example, I had hundreds of hard copies of the last Harry Potter book and, at that time, I was shipping at least 20-30 of them daily. 

On February 9, I shipped the package below from Joplin, Missouri. Note that it’s priority. I heard from the customer the first week of March wondering what happened to his book. He was very understanding, and a little amused, when I told him it had been to Warsaw twice. We decided to wait to see what happened. As you can see, that priority package finally made it to his home in Australia on March 16. He said the package was battered and taped but the book was in good condition.PhotoShare(1)

Wonderful Wedding Weekend

I should have posted this last week but things got a little busy. You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t posted much the past few days. That’s because my son, Josh,  got married on Saturday! He and his beautiful bride are in the photo below. We are so happy to officially welcome Tina into our family. It feels like she’s always been a part of our family and I can’t wait to see all of their dreams come true.10492555_677819812312432_4060170393515768573_n