November Favorites

Well, it's Monday, and also the return of me blogging, apparently. I was going to say that my most recent break is due to the fact that life has been so crazy, but honestly, life is almost always crazy, sin't it? The real reason I didn't blog much in November was because I was writing so much for Nanowrimo (which is another story I'll address later in this post). Any time spent working on a blog post could have been spent working on my novel instead, so... the novel won out, clearly.

Anyway, here's some of what I was up to last month.

Watched...

Gilmore Girls, A Year in the Life. I met up with a friend the day after Thanksgiving to watch the first few episodes of the revival, which of course meant we needed Gilmore Girls approved snacks on hand:

I finished the revival a few days later, and there are just so many things I could say about it! But I won’t, because I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone and also because, well, there just wouldn’t be enough room for all my opinions in a single paragraph. So I’ll just keep it short and say I have mixed feelings. There were some scenes I absolutely loved, while others confused me, and others I thought we could have done without. But anyway. Someday soon maybe I’ll rewatch the whole thing and see what I think then.

Reading…

Uninvited by Lysa Tekeurst. I’ve seen this book all over Instagram lately (probably also because the cover is so pretty, right?) and I finally decided to buy it a few weeks ago. It’s a nonfiction Christian book of course but honestly, lately it’s been hard for me to get through some nonfiction Christian books. I just like for them to flow well and have good writing (and just being honest, I wish a lot of great Christian books were better written!), but this one seems to be doing well so far. So hopefully I will actually finish it. :)

Followed…

Lots of Bookstagrams. If you don’t know what Bookstagrams are, they’re basically Instagram accounts that feature pretty book photos, newest releases, book reviews, etc. I think I’m really into them because 1) they’re about books and who doesn’t love books but also 2) I love having book buying ideas right on my feed (probably doesn’t help my wallet, but oh well) and 3) some of the accounts also inspire me to take better photos for Instagram. Anyway, Bookstagrams are awesome if you’re into reading, especially YA. These are a few I’ve been following lately: TaylorReads, deckledpages, Alice.in.Wonderbookland.

Loved...

Celebrating Thanksgiving! It's still my favorite holiday, even over Christmas. This year, I went to the Houston parade with my mom and got to see Simone Biles (from far away) and a bunch of other balloons and floats (you can see a few in the gallery below). I hadn't been to our city parade in years, so it was fun to get to see it again!

When we got home, my mom and I cooked the entire Thanksgiving meal for our family, which resulted in over 5 hours of hard work for only one hour of eating! Still totally worth it though. The day also included watching the National Dog Show (so much better than football in our house), and Christmas movies to finish it off. I love how cozy and delicious Thanksgiving is, and I already can't wait till next year's.

Worked on…

My novel. I’m including it in this category (again), mainly to give you an update on how Nanowrimo went for me. I wrote over 30,000 words before the Thanksgiving break hit and suddenly all my writing plans went out the window (the Gilmore Girls revival is in part to blame). But you know what? It’s okay. Technically, i already have over 50k words since I started in October (which is cheating, so I'm not considering it a Nano win). I got so much writing done thanks to Nano though, so I’m glad I at least attempted it! 30k words is really not bad at all. Here's hoping I keep writing for the rest of the year and have a real draft in my hands soon!

How was your November?