Monthly Wrap Up: May 2019

What. A. Month. May was so ridiculous. It seemed to drag on for forever but also passed really fast? I don’t even know. I’m so glad it’s over and June is here and I’m really crossing my fingers it will be a better month.

Reading

I read twelve books in May and the majority of them were really good! Most of the books ended up being read during the week long readathon I participated in. I know why I didn’t read much at the end of the month (I’ll talk about it down below in the life section), but I don’t really know what happened at the beginning. Here are my four and five star books from the month:

• Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley
• Fireworks by Katie Cotugno
• Birthday by Meredith Russo
• Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
• The Boy Next Story by Tiffany Schmidt
• Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke
• Confess by Colleen Hoover

Blogging

To be honest with you, I feel like I failed at blogging this month. I try so hard to make sure that a post goes up every single day, but there were four days without posts. My stats also weren’t as good as they were in April and while I know that stats aren’t everything, it’s my passion for books that should be most important, it still got me down. This was the first month since starting my blog that there was a decrease instead of a growth and with everything else going on in life it just really got to me.

My three most popular posts from May were Ten Books I’d Love to See on My Netflix Screen, Review: Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (this one cracks me up because I tore the book apart and I bet most of the people who visited that post weren’t expecting it), and Shelf Awareness: KonMarie My Bookshelves (Major Book Unhaul!). These were a few of my favorites from the month so I’m glad to see y’all enjoyed them too! If you missed any of my other posts I’ve listed them below in their respective categories for easy browsing!

Reviews

• Review and Official Playlist: Deposing Nathan by Zack Smedley
• Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca
• When We Were Lost by Kevin Wignall
• Birthday by Meredith Russo
• The Boy Next Story by Tiffany Schmidt
• Happy Messy Scary Love by Leah Konen
• Hotel Dare by Terry Blas and Claudia Aguirre
• Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
• Check, Please! #Hockey, Vol. 1

Top Ten Tuesdays

• Six Characters That Remind Me of Myself
• Ten Books I’d Love to See on My Netflix Screen
• Favorite Books Released in the Last Ten Years

Waiting on Wednesdays

• The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams
• The Art of Breaking Things by Laura Sibson
• Orpheus Girl by Brynne Rebele-Henry
• Day Zero by Kelly deVos

Miscellaneous

• Monthly Wrap Up: April 2019
• Shelf Awareness: How to Decide What Books to Get Rid Of
• Shelf Awareness: KonMarie My Bookshelves (Major Book Unhaul!)
• Currently… On My iPhone
• Spotlight: Happy Messy Scary Love by Leah Konen
• Tag: Currently Reading
• The Jonas Brothers Book Tag
• Sunday Stacks Week Five
• Sunday Stacks Week Six
• Want to Read That Roundup: The Sequel
• Author Interview: Erin Dionne

Life

This is where things were absolutely ridiculous in May. The beginning of the month was normal, like any other month, but the second half just threw everything it could at me. There was about a week straight where we had severe weather every single day. Elliott and I practically moved in with my mom since her house is safer than our second floor apartment in the event of a tornado and it’s a good thing we did because we had to take cover about five times in the span of two days thanks to tornado warnings. One day we were at our apartment and had to hurry to climb into the bathtub. Our area received very minimal damage, but where my dad lives got hit pretty hard.

Then, as if all the stress and anxiety from the storms weren’t enough, Elliott got sick. He ran a low grade fever for about a day and a half and I honestly thought he was just teething, but then the next morning his fever jumped to 103. We rushed to the pediatrician (because any kind of sickness can be really scary and bad thanks to his heart issues) and they said it was just a virus that needed to run it’s course. He wouldn’t eat or drink anything the entire day, but we weren’t too terribly concerned about that because we can give him nutrition through his g-tube (a feeding tube in his stomach).

That night though his fever got up to 104 and he started vomiting. We consulted his cardiologist and ended up taking him to our local hospital. They admitted him, and the next day we were transferred to the hospital his heart team is at two hours away. They did some testing and x-rays and he ended up having adenovirus (which is a really nasty and hard hitting virus), pneumonia, and an ear infection. He felt so crummy and needed oxygen for a few days. Thankfully he only needed to be in the hospital for four days and he’s back to feeling like his normal rambunctious self already! I was really scared though because we have to be so so careful about him getting sick. Even something that would be simple for you and I, like a common cold, could be incredibly dangerous for him.

Tell me something good that happened to you in May! Or, if things kind of sucked and you want to talk, let me know about something crappy. I’m all ears and would love to chat! I’d also love to know what some of your favorite blog posts are. What do you like to read about when you visit somebody’s corner of the internet?