It's a day for reflection, isn't it? I participated in the 9/11 Heroes Run 5k on Sunday and posted about the day on my other blog, This Chick Will Run. If you'd like to, please head over that way and check out my recap with pictures.

Never forget.

That's right, folks. My very first 5k is DONE, son.

You may recall a couple of months ago that I started running. You may recall I then started a separate running blog called This Chick Will Run in order to hold myself accountable. And yesterday, I did my first 5k and had. a. BLAST.

I didn't expect to do a 5k so soon after starting running, but I felt that, symbolically, I had to do this one. It was the Coast Guard 5k in Yorktown, Virginia and both my father and husband were in the Coast Guard. I had to do this one. So I signed up for it a month ago, and with my heart in my throat, and my body a jangle of nerves, I showed up today.

Nerves and all, I still ran, and ran the entire time even though I was only used to flat roads and there was one hill that made me feel like my legs were sluggishly sloshing through molasses.

But the finish line was one heck of a great feeling.

It's not like I can't immediately see how many "followers" I have when I sign onto my Blogger dashboard, but earlier this week I decided to remove the Google Friend Connect widget from my sidebar. I was hovering at around 350 followers for the longest time and every time I went up or down, it would drive me nuts.

Then I remembered blogging is my hobby not my day job.

My day job already causes enough stress. It's sometimes fun, mostly overwhelming, but all in all, it's my job and I expect a certain amount of pressure. It's what pays the bills and I'm not naive enough to expect that my day job would afford me any type of relaxation. Blogging, though, is for fun. It is to relieve the pressures and stress from the real job and everything else. And to blog about books is the break I take from it every week.

Lately, though, I've been getting frustrated, overwhelmed by review request emails. It's something I know everyone has felt at one time or another, so I know I'm in good company. The overwhelming number of requests never seem to fit your preferences even though the Review Policy clearly outlines it.

Sigh. I'm sure you've all read a post like this one many times before, in a variety of different ways, on a gazillion other blogs. My apologies if you're patiently reading through this. And I don't want to sound ungrateful.

I've been lazily crafting this for a while and it wasn't until Andi over at Estella's Revenge who recently wrote about Book Blogger Liberation that made me sit up and take notice of my feelings. My first thought was, "YES!" She is much more eloquent in her thoughts, so I encourage you to head on over there to read.

I've been declining review requests for months now and it has made me feel so much better. I only have one coming up and it's been the first one in months. My husband pointed out that when I first started blogging, after I got over the initial excitement of receiving ARCs, what I really enjoyed was the community and interaction with everyone. That was what fed me.

So here is my decision, my new change at Coffee and a Book Chick and it's fitting that I would have come to this choice this past Wednesday, July 4th, Independence Day: I am removing my Review Policy. I'm not accepting review requests for a while. I will spend my time at the library and Netgalley, where I can overwhelm myself with selections that I want, with no pressure to review it by a certain date. I adore audiobooks as well, especially as work is very busy for me right now.

So. This was a long way to say that I'm done with the pressures from hobbies.

And since I'm running now, you can definitely expect more audiobook reviews here. And...as some of you may know, I'm trying to get healthier, so I'll also be at my new blog, This Chick Will Run. I hope to stay consistent with it and maybe putting it on paper will help me. Of course, I'll never, ever leave this book corner of the blogosphere, but I have to spend a little more time over there, so I hope you'll visit me!

I'm trying very hard to not give up on running. It is almost the end of my third week. I did start another blog to document it, and you can find it at This Chick Will Run and I really love it. Of course, feel free to visit. I've also got a second Twitter account started for it, but I'm not sure if I want to manage two accounts... so we shall see. I have a couple tweets posted.

For more of this week's Saturday Snapshots, visit Alyce with At Home With Books.