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| Hosted by The Book Date |
Life
Big changes at our house last week! The bushes (Japanese holly) in front of our house were horribly overgrown and 40 years old, planted by the previous owners. We finally had them taken out, and our house looks so different! My neighbor across the street emailed me shortly after the crew left and said, "Your house is naked!" This week, we meet with a landscaper who specializes in native plants. I want to plant colorful native shrubs in front of the house--things like forsythia, rhododendron, azaleas, and maybe another dogwood tree or lilac tree at the corners, where there are no windows. Maybe an American holly (Delaware's state tree) for some green during the winter (though the rhododendron stays green all winter, too). As embarrassing as this is because we let it get so bad, I will share before pictures, so you can see the stark contrast!
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| Before! |
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| This side got especially bad. |
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| Naked house! |
Thursday, we cooked holubtsi, traditonal Ukrainian cabbage rolls, and hren, a beet & horseradish relish, for Easter.
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| Hren and holubtsi |
Friday, we drove to my hometown, Rochester, NY, to spend the weekend with family. We enjoyed, as always, staying with my stepmom. She had Easter baskets for us and our son, and we had fun catching up, playing cards, and getting outside (on a cold morning!) for a short walk.
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| We love staying at Grandma's house |
We celebrated Easter on Saturday with my aunt, uncle, and cousin. It was a small group this year--just the six of us--but we had a wonderful time! We feasted on all that delicious Ukrainian food (something we look forward to every year), talked and caught up, the "kids" (both 28 now!) did their traditional Easter egg hunt, and with the small group, we even had time left (and energy for me) to play a game. Mind the Gap is a hilarious trivia game with questions based on different generations: Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. We were mostly Boomers and Gen Z, so there were gaps in our knowledge, but it was a lot of fun, and we shared a lot of laughs.
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| Mmmm ... Ukrainian Easter feast! |
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Our son picked up an Abbott's frozen custard turtle pie! |
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| Never too old for an Easter egg hunt! |
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| Love our family! |
Yesterday, after breakfast with my stepmom, we drove back home (about seven hours each way). Those are very restful days for me, with nothing to do but flip through magazines, listen to music, and take a nap in the back seat after lunch! I'm grateful to my husband for doing all the driving, even now that he has less energy. We were both glad to get back to Delaware, where all the flowers and trees are in bloom (just a few early daffodils in Rochester with bare trees)!
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| Our forsythia & our neighbor's flowering cherry |
Our weather here has been crazy, alternating between 80-degree days and days where the high is only about 50. We still haven't been able to dewinterize our camper because the forecast shows more below-freezing temperatures this week, but the forecast also shows 90 degrees next week!
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The Train Tag - I had fun doing this tag, where I not only answered the questions but came up with a book for each answer that has trains in it!
March Reading Wrap-Up - An overview of all the wonderful books I read in March, including outstanding historical fiction, lots of middle-grade novels for Middle-Grade March, a sci fi thriller, and more!
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I am reading a Booktopia selection, Whidbey by T. Kira Madden. Wow, what a powerful, moving novel! It's narrated by several different women whose only link is a man named Calvin. In the opening chapter, Birdie, is on a ferry to Whidbey Island, off the coast of Washington, because she's trying to get as far from her home in Brooklyn and her childhood in Florida as she can. Her girlfriend agreed she needed some unplugged time away to rest and recharge. Calvin molested her when she was just nine years old, and now he's out of prison, in a halfway house in Florida. To make matters worse, a young woman named Linzie has just written a tell-all memoir about her abuse by Calvin (with excerpts included here), and she included Birdie's story in her book, without her cooperation or agreement. We also hear from Mary Beth, Calvin's mom in Forida, and witness her intense love and support for her son, in spite of the trouble he's been in. There is more going on below the surface with each woman. The reader gradually learns the backstories of each of these characters, as well as their present-day situations, and there's a mystery at the heart of the book, too. There is so much emotional depth in this novel, and it's incredibly thought-provoking. I'm almost finished with it, and my mom just read it, so we've been talking about it. I can't wait to meet the author at Booktopia!
I've also been reading a nonfiction book, in an effort to better understand my current health issues: The Underactive Thyroid: Do It Yourself Because Your Doctor Won't by Sarah Myhill, MD, and Craig Robinson. Dr, Myhill is a renowned ME/CFS (the immune disorder I have) expert in the UK, and I've been meaning to read this book for years, but my recent basement-level lab results inspired me to download it immediately. The title may seem kind of harsh (and my own doctor is thankfully very supportive), but I can name plenty of women who are hypothyroid and have serious symptoms but whose doctors say "your lab results are "normal," so you're fine." It happens a lot. I've learned a lot so far, and I am already implementing some of her suggestions. However, I got additional lab results back last week and found out that her recommendations for iodine are way too high for me. It's necessary for healthy thyroid function, but she suggested 50 mg daily. The lab said any level in the bloodstream over 74 is high, and my result was 950! So, I stopped taking it for a few days and restarted at a tiny dose today. Too much iodine can actually cause thyroid problems. I can't win! Hoping all that stabilizes this week. I definitely felt a bit better this weekend.
I finished listening to Max in the Land of Lies, the sequel to Max in the House of Spies by Adam Gidwitz, which was the read-along pick for Middle-Grade March. Max is a (now) thirteen-year-old Jewish boy in Nazi Germany. This novel begins with Max's arrival back in Germany, moments after book 1 ended. Max is intent on two missions: the one that British intelligence gave him, to infiltrate Funkhaus, headquarters of the national radio station in Germany, and his own personal mission, to find his parents. He returns to Berlin and his own neighborhood, though it is now filled with different people. He's staying with a Pastor he knew before, who is posing as his uncle. As Max works toward his dual goals, he comes in contact with high-ranking Nazi officials (and even Hitler himself), has to join the Hitler Youth, and encounters danger at every turn, as a Jewish boy pretending to be a good Nazi. It's an action-packed thriller but with fascinating historical detail, as well as plenty of warmth and humor. I always think I have learned everything there is to know about the Holocaust, but I always learn something new with each book. Here, the author (and Max) digs deep into the reasons why ordinary people went along with the Nazis (it wasn't always fear) and how Hitler came to power. I liked the second book even more than the first and definitely recommend them both.
My husband, Ken, is still reading The Big Empty, a Robert Crais book that he picked up at Browseabout Books in Rehoboth Beach on our weekend getaway in February. He loves fast-paced thrillers from this author, one of his favorites.
Ken's daytime "slow read" is Moby Dick by Herman Melville, a classic we've both been meaning to read for years.
Our son, 31, wasn't able to come to Rochester this weekend, but we texted Saturday and talked to him and his fiancee on the phone yesterday. He finished rereading book 2, An Echo of Things to Come in the Licanius Trilogy by James Islington. and also finished reading book 3, The Light of All That Falls, which we gave him for his birthday last year. A friend who also loves this author told him that this book had the best resolution to a fantasy time-travel plot he's ever read. After my son finished it, he agreed. He's working on writing his own fantasy novel with time travel elements, and he said this book pulled everything from the series together perfectly at the end. He decided to read another series by this author, recommended by his friend, The Hierarchy series. He's currently reading book 1, The Will of the Many, and loving it so far.
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What are you and your family reading this week?
