Life: It Goes On - April 13

Happy Sunday! It's starting to get really beautiful outside of my window, with the little bright green leaves on the lilac bushes and the brilliant pink buds on the crabapple tree. This is the one time of the year that I'm happy the Big Guy went against my wishes and came home with a crabapple tree 25 years ago. 

It follows very closely on the heels of the time I am most annoyed at him for the same reason. Early every spring, those little crabapples (which, to be fair, have provided a nice spot of color throughout the winter), just drop off that tree, fully ready to be squished and leave a streak of juice all over my driveway. Not at all the "they'll dry up before they fall off and blow away" scenario my husband was sold. 

Anyone else been mostly chained to their desk chairs getting their taxes done this week? Please tell me it's not just me who puts it off! It's really put a cloud over my head all week On the plus side, at least I got excused from jury duty so I didn't have to deal with that as well. I was terrified I was going to end up sequestered and not be able to get my taxes done! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: A short book I won't even be reviewing until December and don't know why I listened to now. Other than it was available immediately. Also started Stephanie Wrobel's The Hitchcock Hotel, which the New York Times Book Review convinced me to listen to - so far, the jury is out. I should have expected some magical/fantasy elements (having read Haig's The Midnight Library) but, for some reason, I was taken by surprise and you know how I struggle with fantasy in a book.

Watched: NCAA basketball championships and a couple of episodes of Shrinking (if you have Apple TV and you haven't discovered this one yet, you really need to check it out). Then yesterday, when I was taking breaks from doing taxes, I watched a couple of musicals. One was Sara Bareilles' Waitress - absolutely loved it and hope it comes to Omaha soon so I can see it live. The other was a trip down memory land - Robert Stigwood's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, starring George Burns, The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. It really is quite bad but I remember seeing it in the movie theater in 1978 and haven't seen it since. I had such a crush on Peter Frampton then! 

Read: Matt Haig's The Life Impossible, which is my book club's June selection. I'm a little over half way through it and still not sure how I feel about it. I'm also reading The Fairbanks Four: Murder, Injustice and the Birth of a Movement by Brian Patrick O'Donoghue. 

Made: BLTs (which I always regret when I don't have homegrown tomatoes to use), pizza, BLT salads (because we needed to use up the rest of the bacon we'd cooked), and chicken orzo soup. 

Enjoyed: Thursday four members of our book club drove across the Missouri River to Council Bluffs, Iowa, to see Shelby Van Pelt, author of Remarkably Bright Creatures, which is our July selection. She is really wonder to see in person, if you get the chance - humorous, open, and very comfortable in a very crowded room. My only regret is that we got no pictures. 

Also, we enjoyed our first evening on the patio on Friday night after we had dinner out. We didn't even have all of the furniture uncovered yet or the fire pit ready but it was too nice to be inside. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Y'all, Easter snuck up on me so this week will be about getting food ready and figuring out how I get it to my dad's to celebrate with him. 

Thinking About: Taxes. Even with a tax software, they are so complicated! And why is there always one document that you need but don't recall getting in the mail? 

Feeling: In theory I have one week of 40 Bags in 40 Days left and I haven't even come close to getting through all of the areas I wanted to get through or to reaching 40 bags. I'm frustrated! 

Looking forward to: Book club on Tuesday.  

Question of the week: what are your go-to side dishes for Easter dinner? What do you have for dessert? 

Life: It Goes On - April 6

Happy Sunday! I'm going to type this quickly because I have a lot of eating to get to today - late breakfast with my dad, late lunch with Miss C and then I need to get a welcome home dinner ready for the Big Guy, who's been out of town for four days. 

Not gonna lie, I've kind of enjoyed having the house to myself for the past four days - I've watched what I've wanted on t.v., eaten what I wanted when I wanted, done nothing or gone like a whirling dervish without concern that I was bothering anyone. But the poor cat has been so confused; she has hardly left my side the entire time and hasn't been eating so she'll for sure be happy to have him home! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I tried listening to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is The Night but it just wasn't working for me (I think in print I'll enjoy it) so I switched to Lucy Foley's The Paris Apartment and I'm a little more than half way through that. 

Watched: As much basketball as I could, including the national high school girls championship game. Mini-him's company installed the scoreboards in the gym where the high school championships were being held and he was there to rep the company and be on hand if there were any issues. So proud of him for being the go-to guy who can solve both the physical but also the programming problems AND be a person that a company wants interacting with customers. 

Read: Finished Nina George's The Little Village of Booklovers, which is April's book club selection. 

Made: Really, really very little - tuna salad, grilled cheese, some pasta. When I'm eating alone, I tend to eat like a 15-year-old. 

Enjoyed: I binged the entire series of Shonda Rhimes' The Residence and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was just the thing to watch when I was in the house by myself and didn't want anything too intense. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: This week is going to be all about finishing up taxes. I hate doing them and have to do them for us, my dad, and Miss H, so I tend to put them off. 

Thinking About: As part of 40 Bags, this week I've been working on organizing photos and memorabilia. It certainly has me remembering so many wonderful things that have happened in our lives. 

 Photo by @ItsCassified    

Feeling: Hopeful after being one of 5.2 million people across the country who protested in an effort to save democracy. Omaha had a really great turnout; this picture represents about half of what was on the hill in the park and doesn't include all of the people lining the street the park is on or the walkway over that street. 

Looking forward to: Getting these taxes behind me so that I can focus on getting back to a final push on 40 Bags. Time to get to the basement, where there will certainly still be a lot to get rid of. 

Question of the week: What have you been watching on t.v. or streaming services that might be great for me to watch the next time BG is out of town? We have a lot of things we watch together, but there are things that I just know I'll enjoy more than he will and I prefer to watch those by myself. 

How To Walk Away by Katherine Center

How To Walk Away by Katherine Center

Read by Therese Plummer

11 hours, 28 minutes

Published May 2018 by St. Martin's Press

Publisher's Summary: 

Margaret Jacobsen is just about to step into the bright future she's worked for so hard and so long: a new dream job, a fiancé she adores, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in a brief, tumultuous moment. 

In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Maggie must confront the unthinkable. First there is her fiancé, Chip, who wallows in self-pity while simultaneously expecting to be forgiven. Then, there's her sister Kit, who shows up after pulling a three-year vanishing act. Finally, there's Ian, her physical therapist, the one the nurses said was too tough for her. Ian, who won't let her give in to her pity, and who sees her like no one has seen her before. Sometimes the last thing you want is the one thing you need. Sometimes we all need someone to catch us when we fall. And sometimes love can find us in the least likely place we would ever expect.

My Thoughts: 

Margaret has always been afraid to fly, terrified, in fact. Her boyfriend, Chip, is a pilot-in-training, who convinces her, despite every fiber in her being screaming out against it, to go on a flight with him. Midflight he proposes and Margaret feels like her entire life is falling into place - she's about to start the perfect job, Chip is about ready to start a great job, and they're about to be married. But Chip is not skilled enough to deal with the winds that confront them as they try to land and the plane is sent cartwheeling down the runway. Chip walks away unscathed. Margaret is not so lucky. She will spend weeks in the hospital after skin grafts for burns and trying to regain the use of her legs. 

This is one of those books that is both predictable and unexpected. I knew that any relationship that good, any future that bright, was going to implode. Just as I knew that a relationship will develop between Margaret and Ian and that Margaret and Kit will mend their broken relationship. Readers will want those things to happen; we want Chip (and his not very nice mother) to fade out, we want Margaret to fall in love with someone who deserves her, and we want she and Kit to become close allies. 

But this isn't just a book filled with the lightness of a heroine finding love, with some humor thrown in. There is plenty of heaviness here as well. From the plane crash and  Margaret's burns and paralysis, to the reason that Kit left home and didn't make contact again for three years, Center gives readers some depth. And while there is a predictable happy ending (I'm not spoiling it - you know it's going to happen), there is an expected piece of the ending that made it all seem more believable. 

Was Chip (and Ian's boss, for that matter) a bit too much of a caricature? Yes. Did Ian and Margaret's relationship seem to develop pretty rapidly, considering how much she disliked him at first? Also, yes. Did Margaret seem to mentally heal faster than I would expect it to happen in real life? Yes, again. But all of those things seemed perfectly acceptable to me since I was all about Margaret healing and finding happiness. This is the fifth book by Center that I've read, and I've enjoyed all of them - she's become a go-to author when I'm looking for just a certain kind of book, particularly a book that will end on a high note, something I really need these days. 

Did You Ever Have A Family by Bill Clegg

Did You Ever Have A Family by Bill Clegg

Read by Bill Clegg

6 hours, 54 minutes

Published September 2015 by Gallery/Scout Press

Publisher's Summary: 

On the eve of her daughter's wedding, June Reid's life is upended when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter's fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke-her entire family, all gone in a moment. June is the only survivor.

Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak.

From the couple running a motel on the Pacific Ocean where June eventually settles into a quiet half-life, to the wedding's caterer whose bill has been forgotten, to Luke's mother, the shattered outcast of the town-everyone touched by the tragedy is changed as truths about their near and far histories finally come to light.

My Thoughts: 

Well, first off I need to admit that I thought that Bill Clegg was Bill Bryson. I mean, I didn't think they were the same person; apparently I thought that there was only one author with the first name of "Bill" and I thought he was the guy who wrote At Home: A Short History of Private Life. Which I'm only admitting to so that you can understand that I had absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into with this one. Even after I read the first paragraph of the publisher's summary. Which accounts for, to some extent, why it took me so long to get into this book, to be able to follow along. 

In the early morning hours of the day of June's daughter's wedding, while June is out of her house, there is an explosion and fire at the house, killing everyone in it - June's daughter, Lolly; Lolly's fiancé, William; June's ex-husband, Adam; and June's boyfriend, Luke. Almost immediately, I was convinced I was listening to a mystery, because it wasn't clear to me why June wasn't in the house, why she was fleeing. It wasn't until a couple of hours of listening that it was truly clear to me that June had fled to try to flee her grief, to make some sense out of the senseless, as she travels across the country, using Lolly's journal's as a guide. 

We gradually get the full story of the people involved and what actually happened through a variety of points of view: Lydia Morey, Luke's mother; Dale, William's father; the couple who run the motel June eventually ends up at; the maid at that hotel; and Silas, a young man who worked for Luke. Each of them has their own story to tell, their own sadness and grief to process. So many books that bounce from point of view to point of view leave me confused or wishing to get back to one or another of the characters - I never felt this way about this book, becoming completely absorbed in each storyline. Readers come to know and care about each of characters and I loved how everything came together, very unexpectedly for me, in the end. 

Did You Every Have A Family made the longest for the National Book Award in 2015. I can understand why. Kirkus Reviews says this book is: "An attempt to map how the unbearable is borne, elegantly written and bravely imagined." It truly is an utterly unique way of exploring grief and the consolation we find in the smallest of things. 

Life: It Goes On - March 30

Happy Sunday! You know that saying, "March come in like a lion and goes out like a lamb?" Well, we've had the exact opposite this month. Today is grey and cold and there is snow forecast for our area in the next couple of days. Think I'll be drinking a lot of hot coffee today. Mind you, Friday it was 81 degrees and we had dinner and drinks in short sleeves on the patio of a local brew pub. 

Bit of a strange week ahead for me: the Big Guy is doing a lot of traveling this week so it will largely be the cat and me, plus I'm taking care of Mini-him's and Miss C's cats while they are out of town for the next five days. I'm going to be a real cat lady! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time. Really interesting premise. 

Watched: As much college basketball (men's and women's) as I could. Also a couple of episodes of Shrinking, which is just so very good. 

Read: The Little Village of Book Lovers by Nina George and Twist by Collum McCann. 

Made: This morning I made cheesecake French toast (delicious but very rich for breakfast!), a recipe I found on Facebook from Applesauceandadhd (she of the aggressive tutorials). 

Enjoyed: Last night I really wanted some good mozzarella sticks for supper. Off we went; first place was packed so we left and went to a second place which is NOT a place I wanted to go (and I was kind of a whiny baby about it). But BG was sure they would have mozzarella sticks so we ordered them and a pizza. When I tell you they were terrible, I am not exaggerating. Even BG wouldn't eat them; we left them on the table. About now you're wondering why I enjoyed this, right? Here's why: when I fall into a mood like I was in at that point, I'm typically irretrievable. But last night I was able to enjoy everything else about the dinner and laugh about how horrible the mozzarella sticks were. I was glad I was able to come home in a good mood and enjoy the rest of my evening and I was proud of myself for not wallowing. 

I do still want good mozzarella sticks.

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: I'm still way behind on 40 Bags. Part of the reason is because I've been working hard on clearing out spaces in the past few months so a lot of places have already been gone through. But this week, I'm bound and determined to get to the basement, which always needs more decluttering. The woman who started this considers it part of the sacrifice of Lent; I don't agree. I'm not sacrificing anything; this is for me. But it times up well with Lent and I'm always in the mood to declutter this time of year, so I join up. 

Thinking About: What to watch while I have the t.v. to myself so much of this week. It's definitely time for another viewing of Hamilton. 

Feeling: Pretty blue about the state of our democracy. 

Looking forward to: Once Mini-him and Miss C return from their trip, Mini-him will take off on some work travel. Since Miss C and I will both be without our guys, we're planning on doing a lunch or dinner and some shopping, a first for us. I can't wait. 

Question of the week: If you got to choose what to watch, without having to consult a significant other, what would you choose? 

The Hunter by Tana French

The Hunter by Tana French

Read by Roger Clark

16 hours, 24 minutes

Published March 2024 by Penguin Publishing Group

Publisher's Summary: 

It's a blazing summer when two men arrive in a small village in the West of Ireland. One of them is coming home. Both of them are coming to get rich. One of them is coming to die.

Cal Hooper took early retirement from Chicago PD and moved to rural Ireland looking for peace. He's found it, more or less: he's built a relationship with a local woman, Lena, and he's gradually turning Trey Reddy from a half-feral teenager into a good kid going good places. But then Trey's long-absent father reappears, bringing along an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold in the townland, and suddenly everything the three of them have been building is under threat. Cal and Lena are both ready to do whatever it takes to protect Trey, but Trey doesn't want protecting. What she wants is revenge.

My Thoughts: 

Tana French is one of the author's whose books I will pick up without having the slightest idea what they are about. I read all six of the books in her Dublin Murder Squad series and there wasn't a weak link in the bunch. Five years ago she introduced us to Cal Hooper in The Searcher; I was so excited to find that she was writing a second book about Cal and couldn't wait to get my hands on this one. And now I'm crossing my fingers that this is not just a two book series. I'm looking this series as much as I did the Dublin Murder Squad series; possibly even more. 

I was recently trying to describe this book to someone, to put it into a neat genre. But it's not a book that easily falls into any one genre. Yes, there is a murder...eventually. It's a bit of a Western (and it is set in western Ireland)...there's even a bit of a gold rush.  I suppose it could be characterized as a crime novel, there's plenty of crime to be had in it. But it's far more about its characters and their relationships and an exploration of the grey areas between good and bad. 

It's a slow build of a book, but I was perfectly fine with that as we are reintroduced to the inhabitants of Ardnakelty, with all of their eccentricities, humor and long history. Relationships deepen and change. Hidden agendas are uncovered, motives revealed. Ardnakelty is much like a family - they can tease and hold grudges amongst themselves, but outsiders beware. More than two years after he's arrived, Cal is still something of an outsider, which is fine with him. As a former police officer, he struggles with the law of the land he now calls home. But in protecting Trey, and the others in the community he has grown fond of, he has to learn that sometimes things aren't just black and white. 

This one will still be on my best-of list at the end of the year, both as a novel and as a audiobook. Roger Clark does an incredible job. Clark is an Irish-American actor who easily handles the different accents and the storytelling. 

Life: It Goes On - March 23

Happy Sunday! The sun is out but it's chilly and the wind is gusting - which I suppose is all fairly typical for March in Nebraska. As is the fact that Monday and Tuesday last week we ate dinner on the patio and then Wednesday we had a blizzard with 6" of snow. By this morning, all but the biggest piles of snow have completely melted. It's a strange month. But I can see spring from here so that's a good thing. Later this week, we'll get everything uncovered on the patio and begin moving things to their fair weather homes. Then I'll really be able to start envisioning my flower plan for the year. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: A couple of hours of Jennifer Niven's All The Bring Places, which has been on my TBR for a long time. But I quickly realized something that I've long suspected - I'm just generally not a fan of young adult books. Which is not to say they aren't great books; they just aren't books that appeal to me. So I moved on to Therese Anne Fowler's Z, which I'm loving. Next up is Kaliane Bradley's The Ministry of Time. 

Watched: So much basketball. I LOVE March Madness - both the men's and women's tournaments! We had four teams from Nebraska make it to the NCAA tournament; sadly all four have been knocked out, but we certainly had fun cheering for them and it won't stop our watching the rest of the tournaments. 

Read: I finished Ruth Reichl's The Paris Novel for book club and then got back to Colum McCann's Twist. Tomorrow I'm picking up five books from the library - time to get ready physical books! 

Made: We spent most of the week grazing on leftovers from last weekend's festivities. I did make potato soup from the mashed potato leftovers and yesterday we made a chicken soup from the leftover rotisserie chicken. 

Enjoyed: Book club on Tuesday and last night we went out for Ruebens and basketball with friends. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: The other day I realized that I had missed the kick off of this year's 40 Bags In 40 Days so I'm working to get caught up on that. Lord knows I have plenty of areas that I still want to work on, which is crazy with as much as I work to keep us from living in a hoarder house. 

Thinking About: Ways to use up all of the lettuce I bought for last weekend that didn't get used. 

Feeling: Like my back might finally be starting to get better. Still can't sit for an extended period without having pain but we're getting there. I need to be back up to speed before it's planting season!

Looking forward to: I have nothing on my calendar for this week (not that we usually have a busy schedule!). 

Question of the week: What's your favorite salad? 

Abigail and Alexa Save The Wedding by Lian Dolan

Abigail and Alexa Save The Wedding by Lian Dolan

288 pages

Published May 2025

My copy courtesy of the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary: 

Penelope and Chase make a lovely couple. She’s a bubbly Southern California girl with killer work ethic. Chase is smart and charming and has political aspirations. They’re planning a spectacular California wedding, wrapped in peonies and thousands of little white lights, soaked in custom cocktails and romantic hashtags. Everyone’s excited about Penny and Chase’s wedding­­­­­­—except their mothers.

The Mother of the Bride, suave Greek-born Alexa Diamandis, doesn’t understand why any woman would get married. Ever! Raised in Athens and now perfectly situated in sun-splashed Montecito, California, she raised Penny as single mother by choice, supported by Lord Simon Fox, her old college friend who just happens to be an English aristocrat, and a wealthy circle of lady friends who call themselves the Merry Widows.

The Mother of the Groom, Abigail Blakeman, is a garden club stalwart firmly planted in coastal Connecticut. She thinks the whole enterprise would be so much easier if the wedding was at their golf club. Especially because the Blakeman’s fortunes have taken a turn for the worse—not that you would ever know it by looking at Abigail. Keeping up appearances is exhausting, but it is everything.  

But when a sudden twist of fate calls them into action, these two very different women are forced to take over the wedding planning. Despite their differences, Alexa and Abigail charge in to save the day. How far will two moms go to make their children’s dream wedding a reality?

My Thoughts: 

This is Dolan's sixth novel and I've read them all. Her last, The Marriage Sabbatical, didn't work as well for me as her others, but I never considered that I was done with her writing and I'm glad I didn't. Abigail and Alexa brings Dolan back to what enchanted me with her writing in the first place. Dolan writes with a light touch, even when she's tackling some tougher subjects, her books are focused on her female characters and all of their relationships, and her locations always come alive. 

I love the way Dolan writes relationships between women: mothers and daughters, mothers and other mothers, and especially friend groups. In this book, Alexa, through her work, has earned a place in a friend group called The Widows; these women have formed their own family and will do anything to help family (and have the means to do so!). Abigail doesn't have that kind of friend group. She's spent her life trying to live a very particular kind of life and when finances chased her to the edges of that life, it meant that she had to give up the people she'd always spent time with and now feels friendless. Fortunately, as Abigail becomes more comfortable with who she is now, she also finds she has friends she can depend on when she needs them. And when Chase and Penelope call off the wedding, just as Alexa and Abigail begin to understand each other, they will both need all of their friends and connections to get the couple back together. 

In Abigail and Alexa Save the Wedding, Dolan is back to California and I always feel like I'm getting a tour of the area by a friend who's lived there and loves it. Which is not to say that Connecticut and New York City don't always get their share of attention, but it's the Montecito area that's the star location of this one. 

Perhaps my favorite part of this book were the bridal columns (written by a friend of Abigail's) inserted throughout the book. As a person who is hoping to be a mother of the groom in the coming year, I actually found them to be packed with good information...and also really funny! 

Dolan's books are always the kinds of books that you know will have happy endings and when I pick them up, I pick them up looking forward to that. Characters I can cheer for, some quirkiness, all of the lovely details that make things come alive but never too many, and love (there is always love!) - Dolan never disappoints! 

Three Days In June by Anne Tyler

Three Days In June by Anne Tyler

176 pages

Published February 2025 by Knopf

My copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:

Gail Baines is having a bad day. To start, she loses her job—or quits, depending on whom you ask. Tomorrow her daughter, Debbie, is getting married, and she hasn’t even been invited to the spa day organized by the mother of the groom. Then, Gail’s ex-husband, Max, arrives unannounced on her doorstep, carrying a cat, without a place to stay, and without even a suit.

But the true crisis lands when Debbie shares with her parents a secret she has just learned about her husband to be. It will not only throw the wedding into question but also stir up Gail and Max’s past.

Told with deep sensitivity and a tart sense of humor, full of the joys and heartbreaks of love and marriage and family life, Three Days in June is a triumph, and gives us the perennially bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning writer at the height of her powers.

My Thoughts: 

I've been a fan of Tyler's for more than forty years now. While the past couple of her books that I've read have not had that spark for me that her work once did, they still had more than enough to recommend them and to keep me reading. So I'm always going to be ready to pick up another of her books, which is why I was excited to find this one available. 

Guys, Tyler is back for me! 

This book is only 176 pages long but it has everything in it that I've come to expect and appreciate from Tyler. Not only that, the compactness of it might very well be what makes it work best. We get the full story of Gail's life as we travel through only three days of her life. 

Gail is a bit of a prickly person. She wasn't the greatest mother (which puts her kind of out of the loop when it comes to her own daughter's wedding) and she wasn't the greatest wife. And just on the eve of her daughter's wedding, she finds out that she's also not the greatest people person, which is one of the reasons she's just found herself out of a job. But in just 176 pages, we come to really understand Gail and hope that things will work out for her. Not only that, but Gail comes to really understand Gail, which might seem implausible in such a short time, but with everything that's happening in that period, it's entirely believable. 

 It is lovely to see Gail reminisce about why she fell in love with Max and to forgive herself. Although there's a big event at the center of the story, it's the intimate details and the mundane that give the book its heart, which is where Tyler is at her best.

Life: It Goes On - March 16

Happy Sunday! It was spring like all last week...until this weekend when we dropped back into the 40's. But at least the sun is shining and by this time of year, I know that the colder temps won't last long. I was pretty excited to look out my kitchen window the other day and see that my plants are starting to creep up from the ground! 

Running on fumes today. We've had company in town since Thursday to celebrate my dad's 90th birthday. The Missouri and Kansas contingents have all headed south and the northern contingent is off visiting friends so we have a little respite from having extra people around for a couple of hours. I love having my family around, but I'm so used to a quiet house (and such an introvert) that I need to have some down time by day four! Have taken advantage of the break to get laundry going, run the vacuum, and tidy up so I can head into this week without so much to do. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Katherine Center's How To Walk Away, listened to a couple of hours of Jennifer Niven's All the Bright Places (before deciding to DNF it - just not for me) and started Therese Anne Fowler's Z, which I'm very much enjoying. 

Watched: Some college basketball but mostly my great niece and great nephews running around like crazy people. I'd forgotten how much energy little kids have! 

Read: I finished Lian Dolan's latest, Abigail and Alexa Save The Wedding, which was a lot of fun and gave me everything I've come to expect from Dolan's books. Today I'm starting Ruth Reichl's The Paris Novel, which I'll be racing through because I forgot that I have bookclub on Tuesday and it's this month's selection. 

Made: Marry Me Chicken Soup, lasagna, coffee cake, and yesterday my sister and I tag teamed to make pot roast with carrots and onions and mashed potatoes and gravy for my dad's party (his request). For a change, I took the advice of everyone who told me not to try to make the desserts myself and ordered pies (which my dad also requested, in lieu of birthday cake). 

Enjoyed: Family! My dad's facility had a great room that we could use for our party that held all 18 of us and opened on to a big patio so the kids could get out to run and play. My sister had done a lot to decorate and created a B-I-N-G-O game that all ages could play with a lot of prizes so we had fun with that. Almost everyone came to our house after to hang out and have supper, which was a little more relaxing, especially once I got a glass of wine in my hand!  

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Not a whole lot other than book club. For a bit last week, we thought we were going to end up having the party at our house so we raced to finish up a few small projects and do more cleaning, so I'm tired and may take it pretty easy this week. 

Thinking About: While we have been happy to have him with us for this long, we know that my dad is ready to be done. I used to think it was really great that my grandparents all lived to at least 90; but the older I get, the more I realize that's only a great thing if you're body still allows you to have a good quality of life. 

Feeling: Did I mention that I'm tired? 

Looking forward to: A quiet week. 

Question of the week: My dad prefers pie over cake so we had four different kinds of pie. Which would you have picked: strawberry rhubarb, lemon meringue, blackberry, or chocolate French silk?