Hello Fellow Reader!

I decided in January to try a 100-day challenge. I had heard about 100 day challenges a few years ago. The idea is that you use 100 days to master something. It could be something that you want to learn how to do or use the time to start a habit. You are supposed to commit and then do a SHORT video of you doing your activity every day for the 100 days. This way you could see the changes that you have made from the first day to the 100^th day. I decided that my challenge would be to NOT SHOP.  I felt I needed to call a halt to mindless shopping. I have plenty of clothes. (I have spent the last year cleaning out and clothing took several rounds to get it down to where it is today.) My other not surprising mindless purchasing is – can you guess? – books. Yes, I get the emails everyday with sale books and I will usually buy a couple a week. Okay, they are generally $1.99 or $0.99 but still I didn’t need to do it. I did make two exceptions. I can get personal items like toothpaste and I can buy gifts. The main idea is not to buy much.

So far, it is going well. I had been looking at a lamp for months waiting for it to go on sale. It still has not gone on sale but I needed a lamp and so I did finally order it. I don’t consider that a mindless purchase. I still catch myself doing some mindless looking from time to time. My hope is that by April 14, I won’t be doing that any longer.

Last month I talked about reading challenges. While I think that Warren Buffett’s idea of reading 500 pages a day is interesting, I don’t think it is feasible for me. I just need to do other things sometimes. (Pinterest and knitting come to mind.)  I did make progress on my Goodreads goal this month. I read 5 books in January. If I keep this up, I should have no trouble making the goal of 55 books this year. We are going on vacation for a week soon and I am hoping that I will read more books in February.

One of the January books I read is MWF Seeking BFF by Rachel Bertsche. Rachel moves to Chicago to finally be in the same zip code with her boyfriend who shortly afterwards becomes her husband. She finds that she sorely misses having a best friend in Chicago. She had friends in New York that she had been friends with forever and could call anytime to get together or to re-hash the day’s events. She decides that she will spend a year finding a new best friend. Her nature is to be quiet and not overly friendly with strangers. She sets a goal of going on one “girl date” per week or 52 for the year. At first, she connects with friends of friends who live in the Chicago area. As she gets more comfortable going out to find a friend, she feels more comfortable suggesting to women she meets that they get together. She joins some groups to find friends. Her husband is supportive of this because he doesn’t want to listen to her complain about not having a BFF in Chicago.

Admittedly this book appealed to me on the surface because I feel that I am in the same place as Rachel. I had head of this book a few years ago when it came out and I was happy to run across it again. The book was interesting and without telling too much, she was successful in finding friends. She did find out a lot about herself over the year and she made some personal changes. She did research about friendship and shares that information throughout the book. I personally could use about half the information that she gave. I got a little tired of hearing about the theories. Also, it took me what seemed like forever to read this book. I thought the plot moved along well but it was a slow read. You might not want this at the top of your TBR pile but if you feel you need to expand your friendship circle, you might learn a few things from Rachel.

This was also the third “commit for a year to something” book I have read lately. The first was My Year with Eleanor, followed by The Year of Yes, and then this book. I might be feeling that that “year of” theme is running a bit thin with me. I did really like the first two books. If you missed my review of Shonda Rhimes book, you can use this link to The Year of Yes. I also really enjoyed My Year with Eleanor. In My Year with Eleanor, Noelle Hancock takes the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt “Do one thing every day that scares you” and applies it to her life for a year. I thought the author’s choices were interesting and in some cases brave. The book moved at a good pace. She also included facts about Eleanor Roosevelt’s life throughout the book. I found both Eleanor and Noelle interesting!

Have a great weekend!

Thanks for reading.

The following are links if you are interested in purchasing the books listed above.  As usual, it is possible that I could make a few pennies if you buy the books using these links. Seriously, I have still not made one penny.  Yes, I must be doing something wrong.  Oh well as long as you read I am happy.  

//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=httpcecoocom-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B004MMEIKK&asins=B004MMEIKK&linkId=bf7a1577bd48307aafd34558a5b9312c&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true

//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=as_ss_li_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=httpcecoocom-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B004W3IDM8&asins=B004W3IDM8&linkId=daea04e6a761e886f7a751626a7b94f5&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true