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Life
Happy Monday! I am SO very glad to be back home after our whirlwind weekend traveling to San Antonio, Texas, and back for our brother-in-law's funeral. We hadn't been there since 2002, and though we've seen our nephews since then (including a funeral last year), we hadn't seen some of their kids in over 12 years! Some were too young to remember us and some hadn't been born yet, so we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know them all better. And we had a wonderful Celebration of Life for our brother-in-law.
Though the occasion was sad, we had plenty of time together sharing memories and laughing. I'm feeling very grateful for our family, and we are determined not to let so much time pass before we see them again!
My husband and I (r) with our nephews & their families
My husband and I with our brother-in-law, Tim, in 2019
We even had a little sight-seeing time Friday morning, to enjoy a beautiful, quiet morning on the Riverwalk and meet our nephew and his kids for lunch, with a quick peek at the Alamo.
Remember the Alamo! 
San Antonio's lovely Riverwalk
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On the Blog
Not much time for anything but planning the trip and packing last week, but I did manage another 2022 wrap-up post:
Favorite Movies Watched in 2022 - My top picks for the year in each genre. I only review movies I enjoy, so all of the movies listed at the end of the post are worth watching!
Blog News:
I have been struggling to decide what to do with my two blogs because I know I am doing too much. I'm always behind, I don't have enough time for other writing (that actually pays!), and the pressure is affecting my health. I love this book blog, and I love the online community here, so I don't want to give that up. So, I decided last week not to write full book reviews, but to focus on Monday posts, movie and TV reviews, and then that leaves time for some stuff I have missed, like Top Ten lists.
Then, I finished reading Lessons in Chemistry (see below) and immediately wanted to write about it to share how great it was! That's when I had a shocking realization: I don't have to review every book I read! I know, crazy, right? I tend to be an all-or-nothing type of person, so this was news to me. So, for now, I think I will write about what I'm reading here in my Monday posts, talk about books in my videos, and maybe (or maybe not) write a full review once in a while when I read something really outstanding. I'll also need to review books I get from publishers, but that's mostly audios and graphic novels these days.
I'd love to hear your thoughts or any suggestions! I'll be finally working on my 2023 goals this week and giving more thought to how I want to spend my time, which brings me to ...
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On Video
Though I posted this video mainly for my chronic illness audience, it's really broadly relevant to anyone who wants tips on effective goal-setting and strategies for taking small steps toward the life you want.
Setting Goals When Chronically Ill (Or Not!)
Now I need to take my own advice :)
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I finished reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus last week and absolutely loved it! Great way to start the new year. Now I am reading The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections by Eva Jurczyk, a novel my book group chose for this week. Liesl has worked in the rare books department of a large university in Toronto for decades when her boss has a stroke, and she is appointed as interim department head. Almost immediately, though, a very expensive new acquisition goes missing, and a colleague stops showing up for work. Liesl is under great pressure to find the book and uncover the library's secrets. It's also about being a professional woman surrounded mostly by men and about aging. I'm enjoying it so far; it should be a good book for discussion.
On audio, I am still listening to Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, one of my all-time favorite authors. It's a novel about a boy named Damon (nicknamed Demon), based loosely on David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Instead of London, it's set in modern-day Appalachia in the mountains of southern Virginia. Like Dickens, it delves into important issues of poverty in America while also being very entertaining. Kingsolver is a great storyteller, and this is definitely one of her best! I'm loving it so far and having fun recognizing the parallels to David Copperfield (though you don't need to have read that to enjoy this).
My husband, Ken, is still reading one of my Christmas gifts to him, Sand by Hugh Howey. We are both huge fans of his Silo trilogy (Wool, Shift, Dust), which was excellent. Here he explores a different post-apocalyptic world, one buried in sand, with four siblings who get lost after their father dies. Howey is such an incredible writer--I can't wait to read this one, too
Our son, 28, finished The Age of War by Michael J. Sullivan, book 3 in the Legends of the First Empire series. Now, he is reading Enchanter, book 7 in the Spellmonger series by Terry Mancour. If you're a regular reader, you know he's been tearing through this series recently and is loving it!
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What are you and your family reading this week?
