Life | Book Chatter

Sunday Matters, a latte on a wooden tray against greenery.

Hello friends! How are you? I am doing pretty well. I am officially on vacation now. Nothing huge planned, a short visit with both kids from 12/23-12/26, and a goal for me, to clear out the garage.

If The Girl comes home after graduation for a bit, we are going to need that garage for storage and right now, it’s pretty full of her stuff AND The Boy’s stuff. They are adults now so let’s call them Emma and Evan. 🙂

Right Now:

I am hosting for the online service and then student ministry. My favorite time of the morning. Gosh, I love those students.

This Week:

I’m all partied out. My book club party, two work parties and a christmas light tour are all behind me. This week will be spent lounging, reading and preparing for Evan and Emma’s visit. Did I tell you that Evan is bringing Root Beer, his cat! The last time I saw her was right out of Kansas and she was itty bitty. Looks like she loves Seattle.

Root Beer the cat wearing her sunnies.

Reading:

I’m trying to read all the books before the end of the year. I just finished 1984 for the read-along. Part 1’s discussion is posted. Part 2 and 3 will post before the end of the month followed by my formal review of the book. It was a re-read but man, there is so much to say.

Also reading:

Burn by Peter Heller (love Heller but this one is a little harder to bite into. Kind of episodic at the moment).
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams (picked this one up off of Hoopla when I was too lazy to go downstairs to get my Kindle. It’s delightful!)
All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall (releases Jan 7th, dystopian, post-apocalyptic goodness).

This might be it before the end of the year as I want to have them reviewed too.

First book of the year?

I have no idea! I’d like it to be a memorable one. Infinite Jest has been on my shelf forever. It’s 1100 pages long. Maybe it will be my first book of the year. It’s a beast.

Watching:

My husband rediscovered his Adam 12 DVD collection so we’ve been watching that, back to back. It’s so nostalgic. The LA streets of that time were so uncluttered and some of those businesses still exist today.

I’m about to breakout my Bob Newhart Christmas collection. Now that’s a really fun time.

Grateful for:

Vacation time. I worked retail when I was younger and never had holidays off. I am so lucky and blessed to be able to enjoy that time off now.
Martha Stewart’s Giant Ginger Cookies that make a handful of people very happy. I make them every year and they are the PERFECT holiday cookie and massive!
I started to write a book a long time ago, right before COVID and lost the file. I knew it was in the Cloud somewhere but not in Google, not in Box, not anywhere which made no sense. But I was testing something for work this week and found it in OneDrive! It’s all rubbish now that I’ve put some distance between it and myself but it has me thinking about writing again.

What’s going on in your world? Any exciting plans? Books that you are looking forward to?

Sunday Matters

As the year flies by, I am over here in my happy little corner reading like a crazy person. Often four books at a time. This seems to be working well for me. Usually at the end of the year I start to taper off but I don’t see that happening this year. I have just been reading so much good stuff.

Add to that the re-read/read-along for 1984. Whew! I’ve read the book at least three times before but this time. Wow. It’s a little alarming and mirroring what I’ve seen of that “project” that everyone talks about since the election. It is definitely a book for our times but it was written in 1948!

Right Now:

My Sundays are pretty static. Student ministry. Fueled by coffee. Post church nap.

This Week:

This is a short week for me. We have a work party on Wednesday, and then I am out from Friday well into January. End of the year vacation is always so nice. I do try to take time off during the year but I don’t want to take time just to take it. You know?

On Saturday 12/14 we do the annual Christmas Light tour with friends. I need to make molasses cookies for that. Add it to my list.

My adult kids will be down 12/23-12/25. Super short visit.

Reading:

Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger
1984 by George Orwell (read along)
Burn by Peter Heller
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (book club)

Watching:

Christmas movies here and there. So far, Christmas with the Kranks, and Christmas Vacation. Both seen a million times but always funny.

Grateful for:

My Spotify wrapped, year of listening was ALL Chappell Roan. Her music is like a Girl Anthem for all girls.
Time – part of my vacation will be purging the garage. I joined a site on FB where I can post stuff and people will come right away to pick it up. Let’s get rid of stuff!!
Tamales. Especially the green chile and cheese ones. We have friends that sometimes bless us with tamales at Christmas. They are delightful.

Recently reviewed books in case you missed them:

Something new! I started a Bookshop on Bookshop.org! It’s fun to add books and I’ve been a supporter of Indie stores for a long time but this is too cool.