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Life
Life sort of returned to normal last week, though it will be a long time until things are really normal around here. But my husband is doing really well with his recovery from surgery and is driving again, helping with dishes and cooking, and even getting groceries (he just can't lift more than 15 pounds).
We went to my husband's follow-up appointment with his surgeon at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. The good news is, as I said, he's recovering very well, and the surgeon was really pleased to see him looking so good and being so active. The bad news is that they are still not sure what type of cancer he has. Pathology is still running genetic and molecular tests on the large tumor that was removed, but even the most experienced pathologist is a bit mystified. So, more waiting. We meet with the medical oncologist next week (if this next set of storms will allow us to travel!) and will hopefully find out more by then about what it is and what kinds of treatments are ahead.
I did manage to get outside for a short walk before a dentist appointment last week. In spite of the bitter cold, being surrounded by nature in the sunshine felt wonderful. And we enjoyed some beautiful sunsets from our back deck.
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| Lovely sunsets in the evenings before the storm |
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| Sunshine, blue skies, and clear walkways! |
Our older son came to visit this weekend, though he was only here for 24 hours because of the impending storm. It was so good to see him and spend time together, and our younger son and his fiance came over Saturday to help us take down the Christmas tree and enjoy a nice dinner together. I didn't take a single photo, but here's one of the five of us last fall (our older son's fiance was celebrating her brother's birthday this weekend):
And, of course, we were clobbered by this massive storm on Sunday. It looks like we got about 6 inches of snow (far less than predicted), followed by about 8 hours of sleet and freezing rain! Because my husband can't lift much, and I can't shovel because of my illness, our driveway is still covered in snow with a layer of ice on top. The roads are still mostly closed around here, but our son will come over when he can to dig us out. He's been such a help this past month! And our bird feeder was very popular yesterday - the cardinals look especially beautiful in the snow.
I struggled with low energy and mild immune symptoms all week, possibly from all the stress and extra exertion, though I might have been exposed to some virus last weekend. It's always a guessing game! I spent Sunday lying on the couch ... and as I finish this post, I am back there, still quite achy and worn out again today.
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2025 Reading Wrap-Up and Best Books - I finally posted my end-of-year wrap-up, including fun facts & stats, my reading challenges, my #1 books in different categories, and my Top 10 lists.
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Music To Live By ... Or Not? - Do you like to listen to music while you read? There were some fun questions here, but it was a very short video for me!
Weekly Reading Update: Time Travel, Outdoor Thrillers, Historical Fiction, and More! - a quick recap of what my family and I have been reading
Microdosing GLP-1 Medications for Immune Disorders - Not book-related, but for those of you also dealing with any kind of immune disorder, I share my experiences after 3 months on this experimental treatment (spoiler: it's definitely helping me!)
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We are almost finished with the second (and last) season of 1923, a prequel to the hit show Yellowstone (my review & a trailer at the link). The final episode is really long, and I had to go to bed last night, so we have about 20 minutes left! We also enjoyed the prequel 1883, about how the Dutton family first migrated to Montana. 1923 features some all-stars in its cast, with Harrison Ford playing 80-year-old Jacob Dutton and Helen Mirren playing his wife, Cara. They are both, of course, absolutely outstanding in these roles. We've enjoyed the show, but wow, it's really dark at times and includes a lot of really horrific violence. We might have given up on it (or at least I would have) if not for the engrossing storyline, stunning cinematography, and excellent acting by the entire cast.
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I have almost finished reading A Ghost of Caribou by Alice Henderson, book 3 in her Alex Carter series. Alex is a wildlife biologist who studies endangered animals, and for some reason, there are always murderous bad guys in the peaceful, isolated natural places she visits! Her first two books (A Solitude of Wolverines and A Blizzard of Polar Bears) were set in cold, snowy places, so I thought this would be a good January book, but this one is set in Washington state in the summer! Alex has been hired to find out if mountain caribou have returned to the lower 48. I love these novels not just for the fast-paced suspense but also for the beautiful nature writing and interesting information about wildlife. (I didn't even know mountain caribou existed; I only knew about the kind that live in the Arctic tundra.) As always, I have zipped through the book, enjoying the compelling narrative and grabbing my iPad to look up photos of the places, flora, and fauna described.
On audio, I am listening to a middle-grade book, Finding Orion by John David Anderson, that I had downloaded onto my iPod last year and never got to. The narrator is 12-year-old Rion Kwirk (short for Orion; his mom is an astronomer). He has two sisters, Cassie (yup, short for Cassiopeia) and Lyra, one older and one younger, and their dad is a scientist who works for a candy company, inventing flavors for their confections. Get the idea? They're quirky! Their usual family routine is shaken up when a singing clown comes to their door to inform them that Papa Kwirk (the kids' grandfather and dad's father) has died. The family takes a road trip to go to his funeral, which seems like it is going to be similarly unusual and unexpected! I'm really enjoying it so far; it has a great mix of warmth and humor.
My husband, Ken, is reading Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run by Paul McCartney, edited by Ted Widmer, a Christmas gift from me. Like me, he usually reads just one book at a time, but he decided to try reading nonfiction during the day and fiction at bedtime.
At night, he's reading a novel, Beartooth by Callan Wink, another gift from me. It's an outdoor thriller that was recommended at Booktopia last year and that many of my Booktopia friends have enjoyed.
And our son, 31, hasn't had much time for reading, with a heavy work schedule, but the storm has given him a chance to get back to Sorcerer's Edge by David Hair, book 3 in the Tethered Citadel trilogy. He loved the first two books in the series, and we got him this one for Christmas.
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What are you and your family reading this week?
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