Every year on my previous book blog I would do an annual October/Halloween reading challenge were I pick books that fall into retellings or paranormal that I hope to read through the month of October.

This year is a little different --- life is a little more hectic so I can't read all the titles I hope to. With that being said, I had my boyfriend pick out titles for me to read this year. He picked 4 from my list which you can find here. If I have more time, I'll read more titles.

So this year my list is a little shorter and laid back than the previous years, but that's fine. I can always go nuts and back to my normal crazy goals next year.

I haven't decided if I'll attempt to re-read the Hex Hall or Twilight series this year like I normally do.

Instead of making a huge list of resolutions I'm probably not even going to complete, I decided to do #onelittleword again this year. Last year I did [ rediscover ] and I think I did fairly well with it. This years word took a little bit more time and it was hard to pick from my list of words of things I felt were important to me this time around.

Last year I had trouble focusing on things. I let small things get in the way of my happiness, of my goals, of my day. Things that would had been hard to push passed but things I knew I had to push passed, eventually. Granted it took awhile to build up to it and I know that's part of the recovery process --- as much as it sucks.

So this year, though the burden has been lifted just a little bit, I thought I would try my hand at getting a little bit more focused. I've been spending a lot of time building my following on Twitter and Instagram, trying to learn as much as I can about SEO, I've started playing with water colors and playing with adult coloring books (which I am loving!) which has given me the ability to play with different types of shading with gel pens, coloring pens, pastels and coloring pencils. I'm looking into starting my softies project as well as playing with the idea of teaching myself how to crochet --- again. I tried many years ago and became frustrated with it because I couldn't crochet a straight line lol. Silly reason to quit but it happened. I'm willing to give it another try as well as knitting. I hear they both can be very calming and therapeutic (is it possible to do it in a bubble bath? would that be weird?). Late last year I also wanted to get into candle and bath bomb making and I know Nick wanted to attempt Macarons. 

That's loads enough as it is with things we want to pursue and work on. Not to mention that I'm going back to school full time to complete the BA I had started prior to earning my certif in social media. I've changed a few of my classes in the program though and I think I'll be very happy with the degree when I'm done. I'm just excited to start again already! It's something that is very familiar to me so I have no doubts I will pick it up quickly.

Granted I don't expect to keep my focus at all times. But I am going to try to keep my focus as much as I can this year and try to stay on task with completing the things I need to complete and stop letting the little things get to me so much.

So here's to 2016. To starting over. To hopefully being in a better place at the end of this year than I was in the previous year.