I don’t know what it is but I go through these moments where I am super motivated and fired-up to do something BIG and then poof, that motivation leaves me. What a wild roller coaster of a ride that is. Write a book? YES!!! Three days later, nope. Some of  it has to do with my health. I feel pretty darn good these days. That’s a good thing. All that good energy just pours out of me and then I am a depleted little slug on the couch.

Right Now:

Student ministry this morning. We start a new message series today . Should be good.

This Week:

I have book club this Wednesday. We will be discussing The Catcher in the Rye. It was a re-read for me. As I mentioned in a previous post, my first time reading it was when I was sixteen. That was a long time ago! I know many readers do not care for it. Holden Caulfield is rather self-centered and whiny at times but I absolutely love him and that book will always hold a special place in my heart. I unfortunately had to miss book club last month due to a previously scheduled engagement so I am looking forward to going this week.

This Saturday we may hit this restaurant I’ve been wanting to try in Pasadena, Pie ‘N Burger. A good burger and a slice of pie sounds like the perfect meal to me.

Reading:

I am deep into The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami, which comes out in November. It was taking me awhile to get into the two main characters but I am there now, and fully in. That is the effect Murakami has on me. His writing sort of seeps into my brain, slowly. I read, then I ponder. The other fun thing is during my hospital recovery, I bought (among many things) a very cool book light so I’ve been reading a few chapters in bed too. This light is cool because it has three brightness settings and three different tone settings and the charge lasts a really long time. Not sponsored at all but I highly recommend it.

My next read will be All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. I am really eager to start it but I am still working through a marathon audio book. I gotta finish that one up.

Watching:

Sadly, I’ve been watching Cops a lot. It’s entertaining and can be watched while I read a book. Unfortunately, my daughter’s college town of Springfield, Missouri is featured regularly!

Grateful for:

Mornings on the patio with my coffee. Yes! Coffee! I can drink it again without it making me hurl! After surgery it tasted like copper pennies. Oh, and it’s sweet that the pup joins me on the patio as well. She is a lot older and struggling in some ways but she is always up for mornings on the patio.

Enjoy the last bit of your weekend. Get outside, drink some lemonade.

My weekends have been busy these past two weeks so I took a break from my Sunday posts but I am back today! My daughter’s visit went pretty well. It was all together too short but we managed to get a few days with her which included a lovely museum visit for the two of us.

Right Now:

Student ministry this morning includes Slip N Slide Kickball. It’s always wild. The students love it.

This Week:

I really don’t have much planned for the upcoming week but I do have lunch scheduled with one of my favorite retired colleagues! Every time she is in the area she schedules a lunch and it’s always fun to catch up with her and her husband.

Other than that, I am tempted, very tempted to sell everything in my garage but it definitely won’t happen until it’s cooler out. I have to go through all the bins left behind by my two adult kids. There is a lot but it’s way too hot in there to do it during the summer. I need my garage back. I might be able to get rid of some of the furniture pieces now though.

Reading:

My reading slowed down a touch because of my daughter’s visit but also because this audio book I am working on is very long. I did finish and posted the reviews for:

• Devils Island
• The Catcher in the Rye (re-read)

I started The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami, which comes out in November. I am only about ten chapters in and I can say this, it’s taking me a little bit of time to get into the characters. But there’s already been a cat mention so if you know Murakami you know that cats always seem to make it in.

My next read will be All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker. So many of you have said wonderful things about it. I am intrigued. I loved his last book.

Watching:

Not much. Trying hard not to fall down a rabbit hole with all this election news. I like to know what’s going on but man, it’s so easy to spend too much time on it. I’ve watched a little bit of the olympics. I did enjoy all of the gymnastic events and some of the track and field events. The other day I became very interested in the Table Tennis and Archery events. They are really fun to watch.

Grateful for:

Lately I’ve been noticing all my progress since my brain surgery. It’s a good thing and I appreciate all of it. I can now jump off a curb and not wobble! This is huge. After surgery and during the pulmonary embolism event, I could not take a step off of any curb, even a low one. Of course that made stairs out of the question. If I tried, I ended up on the floor with absolutely NO strength to get back up again. Now I can step up, step down and hop off! Huge.

Hope you are all well and enjoying the weekend.