Life: It Goes On - February 23

Happy sunny Sunday from Omaha, where it's finally warming up! What a weird week it's been. Monday we had snow that made getting around a mess, then more snow early Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Top that with temps that didn't get out of single digits for more than a week. We huddled down and hardly left the house (except to go to work - why didn't I just work from home?!). 

Then Friday my dad was sent to the emergency room where he spent about five hours. Sent home only to end up back in the ER when the staff where he lives couldn't waken him. Concerns then led them to transfer him to another hospital where he remains today. Needless to say, we've spent a lot of our past couple of days at hospitals and I'm about to head back to the hospital shortly. The good news is that he's doing much better and may get to go home as soon as this afternoon.  

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished The Hunter by Tana French and started The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields. Unfortunately for The Age of Desire, it's following up on what will probably be one of my favorite audiobooks of 2025 so I'm not sure I'm giving it a fair shake so far. 

Watched: The Voice, some basketball, but otherwise a lot of nonsense. Well, at least nonsense in my opinion but that has pushed me to read more than watch a lot of television, which is a good thing. 

Read: The Wizard of Oz for book club and then I started Liz Moore's The God of the Woods and Allegra Goodman's Isola. Both The God of the Woods and Isola have been getting big buzz, the first being a book Barack Obama is lauding and the second being a book that Reese Witherspoon has chosen for her book club to read. So far I'm enjoying both and hope to finish both by the end of the week. 

Made: Homemade mac and cheese, pizza, pork chops with Thai rice. I'm pretty excited to have received my first order from Rancho Gorda late last week and I'm looking forward to making beans this week. Can't decide which of these to start with. Go safe with pinto or try something we've never had before. Have you ever had Christmas lima beans or cranberry beans?

Enjoyed: In a week where we did very little, I've had to find my enjoyment in the small things. Curling up in "my" chair with a good book, comfort food, burrowing into a toasty warm bed. Miss H was also in town for a convention so we saw a little of her as she came and went, although she kept very late hours so we didn't see a lot of her. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: Having lost a chunk of the weekend, a part of this week will be playing catch up, including hanging the new towel rack in our bathroom that was supposed to get done yesterday so that I can finally put that room back together. 

Thinking About: Dealing with elderly parents is not for the faint of heart and I certainly didn't understand that until I was in it. It's tough to get the call that we got on Friday, thinking that this might be it, even when you understand that your parent is ready. 

Feeling: My mood is so much better today now that we're getting both sunshine and warmth. If I were able to stay home today, I think I'd be motivated to get a lot done. 

Looking forward to: Book club was postponed due to the cold last week, so I'm looking forward to that this week. 

Question of the week: Who else is already planning their gardens? Have you started seeds? And what about all of the buzz to get rid of Daylight Savings Time - are you for or against that idea? You all know how much I love my long sunny evenings so you know where I stand on that issue! 

Life: It Goes On - January 14

Happy Sunday from arctic Nebraska! I know the Rodger's and Hammerstein song says that the wind goes sweeping down the plain in Oklahoma; but let me tell you, it's been sweeping through all of the plains the past couple of days, making already frigid temps that much worse. We'd had almost no winter weather at all until Christmas Day, but it's definitely here now. We've had about 14" of snow this week. Fortunately, it was warm enough last Monday that the snow was melting as fast as it fell so what's left is not 14" deep...except where the wind has created giant snowdrifts, some several feet tall.  I haven't left the house since Thursday; I'm not looking forward to going outside in a couple of hours! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I'm back to Mary Doria Russell's Children of God. I had such high hopes for it, having loved The Sparrow, but this one bounces around all over the place, making it hard for me to settle into it. 

Watched: Football, college football, the first episode of season 6 of The Crown, and the first episode of Northern Exposure (a show, set in Alaska, that we loved when it first aired in the 1990's). Of course it comes out on Amazon Prime now...we just bought the DVD set for our Alaskan kids. 

Read: Caitlin Moran's latest, What About Men (Moran always makes me laugh AND gives me a lot to think about) and I started Melanie Benjamin's latest, California Golden, this month's book club book. I think I've read all of Benjamin's books and I'm always impressed by the variety of stories she finds to tell. Have you seen the trailer for Feud: Capote vs. the Swans? It's based on a different book but I'm looking forward to seeing it, having read Benjamin's The Swans of Fifth Avenue. 

Made: Apparently all it took to get me cooking again was a good cold snap. Friday I made two soups: ham and potato (possibly the best potato soup I've ever made) and turkey and noodle (which we will have today for the first time). Yesterday I used up a couple of sweet potatoes to try a recipe I found on Instagram; it's definitely one we'll do again, although it's a little tedious to make. While that was cooking, we tossed in a couple more sweet potatoes and those will get turned into sweet potato soup today, something we've never tried before. 

Enjoyed: Because of the weather, I opted to work from home on Friday. Except that the internet was hit and miss. So I only ended up working a couple of hours and got most of the day as an unexpected day off. I love days like those. I decided to take full advantage of the time to get a lot of little things done. 

This Week I’m:  

Planning: We have pretty well locked down plans for my dad's move to his new place. Now it'a a matter of sorting through his things to decide what's going to make the move so I'll be going over to his current apartment a couple of times this week to get those decisions made. 

Thinking About: Remember last week, when I hushed my family room? I'll be honest, the emptiness of the room made me a little twitchy. But it was a great chance to really rethink what was in there (although it took me a stupid amount of time to get it put back together again!). Now I'm thinking about what room to do next, which room I'd most like to refresh. 

Feeling: Much more relaxed, now that we have a plan in place for my dad. 

Looking forward to: Book club on Tuesday. And also April, because I'm already over winter. 

Question of the week: If you found yourself with an unexpected day off, how would you choose to use it? Would you take advantage of it to knock off chores you haven't had time for or would you use it as a day to just relax, to read a book, watch a Netflix series, paint a watercolor?