Tag: book reviews

Posted in Uncategorized

Katie’s Blog Update for 2026

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies!

So, I’m trying to get back in the groove of things as I don’t want my blog to get forgotten and I’m starting to get back into writing, which has been a challenge these past few years off and on with writers block.

Plus I also had another baby at the beginning of the year which has kept me plenty busy! I haven’t talked about her since I’ve been struggling to find the balance life of both a single working mom of 2 now.

With that being said, there has been a LOT going on in my life that I have kinda put everything on the back burner to make sure I am spending as much time as I can with my girls. I’ve also ran into a lot of ups and downs this year that have made me want to change myself for the better, not just for myself, but for my kids and career.

Lately, I’ve been on autopilot or “zombie mode”, as I like to call it. I haven’t had much time to do the stuff I love, plus balance work and the kids. So, I’ve decided I wanna make a change.

I wanna write more, I want to post more on here, like I did when I was a stay at home mom years ago. I want my blog to not only be my comfort place, but hopefully be an inspiration to others that no matter where you are in your life, you can still follow your dreams to do what you love to do.

You are probably wondering what inspired me to start wanting to make a change? Well, after what has felt like a long time, I’ve found an amazing guy that I’ve been seeing since July and he done nothing but treated me like a goddess! Honestly, he has been the light in my life that I was waiting for.

Anyway, with him in my life, I’ve been happier and more excited to see what the future holds, however, there is something that is putting a damper in my life that I’m currently trying to fix, which is my career.

I’ve been asking this same question about my career for a very long time. Recently, things in my currently employment have made me rethink about if this is what I want to be doing for the next 5-10 years. So, I’m currently pushing myself to figure out what I want and hopefully persuade it in the distance future.

That’s one of my many goals that I want to do/change for this upcoming year. So, with that being said, what is happening to my blog?

Before the end of the year, I want to start going through my blog posts and either trash or fix and keep. Then, I’m hoping to get a schedule started as I do want to take the extra time to make posts for my blog.

So, lets talk about what’s staying and what might be going.

  • Mom Talk – Sundays
    • So, I don’t think I’ll be getting rid of this because as a mom, its nice to have a space where I can talk about the different challenges of raising kids and especially with the struggles of a single mom. Instead of just talking about raising kids or struggles, I wanted to start posting other stuff that can be fun to do with the kids, like crafts or holiday traditions or ideas that you don’t have to break the bank when you do them with the kids.
    • I also might be changing the name of it as well to something else, since I don’t want the title of every blog post to have “Mom Talk”, since now that I’ve realized that it should be either at the end of a blog title versus the beginning.
  • Crafty Sassy – Tuesdays
    • This is getting a name change for sure! Honestly, I’m not sure what drove me to name it that, but I think it does need to be changed.
    • I also want to start doing more than just crochet stuff, but other stuff such as crafts, knitting, needle print, more latch hooks, etc.
  • Gaming – Fridays
    • I really want to focus more on gaming stuff, especially since my oldest daughter has been getting into the same games that I also play as well. I really wanna focus on tips or tricks, possibly some builds as well.
    • I also have gotten a few newer games that I want to spend more time playing and getting into such as Planet Coaster 2, Planet Zoo, Hogwarts Legacy, House Flipper, Supermarket Simulator, etc. A few of them I’ve already checked them out, but the first 3 are new and I haven’t had a chance to check them out.
    • Right now, my oldest is into Minecraft and Animal Crossings, so you might start to see more stuff on those first.
  • Writing Works – Saturdays
    • Now, I know a lot of my short stories on here NEED a review and fix, so with that being said, I’m going to start fixing those and then I’ll start posting maybe an intro and chapter to my books on Wattpad, but those also NEED a lot of review and possible rewrite since a few of them were made when I was younger.
    • I also want to do other stuff with this and not just short stories, but possibly writing prompts or ideas that doesn’t directly involve just short stories.
  • Book Review – Last Sunday of the Month
    • So, I have done the start of some book reviews since my oldest and I have started a tradition where we read a little bit of a book we are working on. Currently, we are working on Harry Potter. We have finished a few other books, which I’m going to try and get those reviews posted, but the books I read with her, I might also include her input as well.
    • I also have a goal for next year that I’m going to see if I can start to read every book that I have sitting on my shelf in my closet. I have a tendency to buy books I’ve wanted to read and then forget all about this, but I’m going to make sure I have some time to read more because I do miss it.
    • I’ve also got a few book series that I would like to do as well, but I kinda want to pack their books all in one review, if possible.
  • Reviews – Wednesdays 
    • There are a few reviews I’ve done before, I believe most of them were crochet products, but I plan on doing more with this. I don’t think it will be every Wednesday, but I’m going to try to get at least one or two for each month next year, if I can.
    • These reviews I’m not going to limit them to just crochet products or products in general. I might do movies or TV series as well, I think I’ve did them before on here, but maybe it might be something I bring back up again.
  • Other Topics – Mondays & Thursdays?
    • I’m going to leave this as a sort of extra thing I would want to start doing, but I don’t want to really push it, but some of the other topics that I’m interested in are:
      • True Crime (Unsolved/Solve Murder Cases and Missing People Cases)
      • Living in Different Decades
      • Meditation
      • Yoga
      • Conspiracy Theories
      • Monthly Challenges
      • And maybe more?

Overall, I’m going to get back in the groove for the beginning of 2026. I’ve already started to make a gameplan for next year. Don’t worry if you see some changes happening on my blog, from now until the end of the year, I’ll be doing a lot of editing so I can start the new year on a better track!

Posted in Books, Reviews

Book Review – The One & Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate)

Posted on by Katie Night

Hey Dearies! Since one of my goals for this year was to read more books for 2025, I’ve started trying to do that. Granted I haven’t been able to finish a book with how crazy the beginning of the year has been for me, but I finally finished a book!

So, The One & Only Ivan, I actually saw the movie first before I knew that there was a book. This is usually what happens to me, I’ll see the movie or series and then find out that it was based off of a book. At that point, I’ll either get the book or have it saved on my Amazon list and then forget its still there. 

I ended up getting The One & Only Ivan at my daughters book fair. I figured, why not. As adults, we don’t really tend to read books our kids are reading and I figured since my daughter has started reading, I figured why not read it. 

The book is actually very interesting because its in the perspective of Ivan, a gorilla. So, it was a very quick read because most of the pages were short and sweet. If you wanted to, you could finish this book in a day.

Basically, the book is about Ivan who is an act at a mall circus with a few other animals, including an elephant Stella. Also, can’t forget about the stray dog named Bob. Anyway, when a new act, a baby elephant named Ruby, comes into the picture, Stella has Ivan promises her that Ruby will not be stuck at the mall as a circus act. 

Ivan uses his creativity to communicate to the humans to get Ruby and him out of the mall. Which is pretty much the just of the story. The best part was that Ivan was based on a true story. Most of the story is fictional, but Ivan was based on a real gorilla.

I really enjoyed both the movie and the book, but there are some differences between the two. After reading the book, I noticed that the tone was different from the movie when it came to a few aspect. 

In the book, for example, Mack, the mall owner, is more aggressive in the book than in the movie, especially when it comes to when he’s training Ruby. In the book, he uses a “claw stick”, to train Ruby and Mack uses it in the book, but in the movie, he doesn’t. 

Other than that, I think Disney did a great job with the movie, they didn’t follow the book completely, but I’m kinda glad, I don’t want to spoil the book, but there was a scene that they described that I’m just glad Disney didn’t add in, it was a minor detail, but it was still heartbreaking to read. 

I will say if you do watch the movie, you might cry like I did at a few parts. They did a good job with the movie and every time I was reading parts where Bob was talking, all I could hear is Danny DeVito’s voice since he voices Bob in the movie. 

Have you read The One and Only Ivan? If so, what did you think of it and did you like the movie afterwards? Let me know down below!

The picture above is Ivan the gorilla, which was what the story was based on.