Monthly Wrap-up for February 2018

What a whirlwind month February was. We don't usually travel much this time of year, but this year proved different.

Things about my life in February:

It started with a long-awaited, overnight visit from some dear friends. They had been attempting to visit us since June, but twice, their plans fell through. Then a few days after their visit, hubby and I drove to Sacramento for a Bible Student convention, where he had the honor of being asked to speak. We got home on a Wednesday, and then on Saturday, we boarded a plane for Chicago, where he repeated the honor of being invited to speak. Both trips were like love feasts, visiting with Christian friends who, in some cases, we hadn't seen in three years. Between the visit from our friends and our travels, that took up fully two weeks of February.

Online presence:

# of blog posts: 20
# of comments on the blog: 90 (Close to half would've been my replies to others.)
Most popular post: from Book Blogger Hop: Have you met any authors? If so, who?
Books acquired: 9. This was an extremely low book-buying month, and I am proud of myself.
Books reviewed: 8

Christian Nonfiction:

Lost World of the Flood; Mirror for the Soul; Recapturing the Wonder; All things New; 52 Ways to Grow your Faith; 52 Weeks through the Bible

Fiction:

Dare you To; The Ambassador's Daughter

Favorite book reviewed:

Recapturing the Wonder

Features or discussions:

New Routines (Celebrate the Small things); Book Blogger Hop: Have you met any authors and if so, who?; IWSG: What I love about the Romance genre; A Remodeled Scrapbooking Room (Celebrate the Small things)

Links you shouldn't miss (especially if you're a writer):

1. From Edie Melson, yet one more informative article about Facebook changes: Facebook Changes, Terminology, and Best Practices Screencast.
2. Again from Edie Melson, a guest post by Cathy Fyock: What no one told you about becoming an author. Great tips!
3. From Marketing for Romance Writers: Advice for Authors Doing Blog Tours. 
4. From Vanetta Chapman what to do: When a Book Releases. She includes tips I hadn't considered before. 
5. From Seekerville, a guest post by DiAnn Mills: Proactive Marketing and Promotion. DiAnn is an uber-promoter with so many tricks up her sleeves.
6. From the Ruby-Slippered Sisterhood, Building Worlds. A lot more goes into world-building than date and location. 

Other:

On Sundays, I've been posting an image matched with an inspiring quote, which I call Sunday Inspiration. I've collected 365 images and nearly as many inspiring quotes. Someday, I hope to match up all images with quotes and to roll them out, one each day, on Instagram.

For now, I'm rolling them out at a rate of one each week, here on the blog and on Instagram. If you missed them, here are the posts for February:

So Fair the Sky was ...
Lord Teach me ...
May you know love ...
How do you measure yourself? 

Reading Challenge Updates:

Operation Deepen Faith:

I read and wrote reviews for 6 Christian nonfiction books (see above).

NetGalley Reading Challenge: All of the books I reviewed this month were NetGalley books. I am happy to say that my review rate is now at 80%, which is the sweet spot that everyone likes. NetGalley gave me a badge, which disappears from my blog once the rate drops below 80%. I've placed the badge in the upper left corner of my left sidebar.

Writing update:

I did absolutely no writing in February!

Some things I'm looking forward to next month:

1. In a week, we're taking a third trip, this time to New Orleans, where hubby will speak at another Bible Student convention. We plan to take a couple of extra days to do some sight-seeing. We visited New Orleans only once before, and that was back in the 1990's. 
2. I'm also looking forward to ordering some perennials for my perennial flower garden. 
3. And I'm looking forward to warmer weather, longer days. 

Favorite quote from a book I read this month:

This is from The Case for Miracles by Lee Strobel: "Before praying with someone to receive Christ, many leaders in the Middle East will ask two questions. First, are you willing to suffer for Jesus? And, second, are you willing to die for Jesus?"

I will be reviewing this soon, with information about how Jesus is bringing Muslims to Christ via dreams ...

A post I wish had gotten more love:

I wish all of my Sunday Inspiration posts had gotten more love. I love collecting the images and the quotes and matching image to quote and making them on Canva!

How was your February? Is there anything you'd like to share? I'd love to hear about it.