Beyond the Books ~ Brandee Who?

Welcome to Beyond the Books. This post was inspired by Lexxie @Unconventional Bookviews' Up Close and (Un)conventional, who was inspired by Cuddlebuggery. It's meant to be a way for y'all to get to know me better on a personal level ~ Beyond the Books. ;)

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So, I didn't actually fall off the face of the Earth - or a plane of the blogosphere. It's just been one busy summer. I've taken two trips to Texas - visiting both sides of our family. I took an incredible trip to Grand Lake, Colorado, with Robyn. I've been working on staining our house (there are few months this can be done and it *must* be done). I've made so many batches of apple butter (being sold at our local farmers' market with all proceeds going to the high school instrumental music program) that I may never want to eat it again. Tomorrow, our family is taking a trip to the southeast - Sky's graduation gift - as we're following Sherman's March to the Sea (she's a Civil War history buff). When we return, I'll have 2 weeks until school starts for my younger kids and a trip to Portland to drop off Sky for her first year of college. In that respect, this summer has been emotionally difficult. My baby is leaving and I find myself in a mom-unique position of being excited beyond measure as she embarks on this new journey and yet, I'm also incredibly sad that she's leaving the nest. So I've been spending as much time with her as possible. All this activity has made for little time for reading and honestly, that makes me crabby! *ha*

At this point, I've realized maybe I should have taken the summer off from blogging but I'd already scheduled so much - thanks to mini blog-ahead - so I just let it go. However, I've spent very little time visiting any of your blogs. So it's here I must thank you all for continuing to visit me here. And apologize for my absence at your blogs. But also ask for your patience - I will return to visiting  and commenting and commenting back in a very few short weeks. Meanwhile, know that I appreciate and love y'all and am so grateful for your support. Also know that since I follow y'all via email, I *do* read your posts whether I make it by to comment or not.

As a show of my appreciation for your support, I'm hosting a raffle. This one is for a mystery box of books along with some handmade bookmarks from Braine (@TalkSupe) and myself. This particular raffle is for those of you who've visited and commented all summer. The winner will be chosen via a random number generator and I'll announce the winner when I return from my trip. 

I'll be doing another raffle at the end of August so if you want to be entered in that one, just stop by and comment over the next month. :D

Thanks again, y'all. You have no idea how much your continued support means to me. I'm so thankful to be a part of such a wonderful book/blogging community!