What I read in 2022

My goal for 2022, as usual, was to read at least 52 books (one per week). Instead, I read over twice as many, for a grand total of 116. Not my highest total ever, but my fourth year in a row of reading more than 100 books in a year. What's more, I'm thoroughly enjoying all this reading, in part because some of it is directed/themed, such as the books I choose to read for the Classics Challenge. I'm always going to love reading randomly, but it's great fun to follow a syllabus, too.

In 2023 I'm going to set the same goal, 52 books, with the expectation that I will read many more. But if something happens and I can only read 52, that's good too. I don't know if there will be another Classics Challenge, but if there is, I'll participate in that again. In addition, I'm going to challenge myself to read books on my shelves that I've never read. I'll pick 5 books each month and either read them or (if I don't like them) send them on their way (to Goodwill, the Bookworm, or a Little Free Library). Finally, I will also try to read biographies of four more Presidents.

Here is a review of what I read in 2022, by category.

Children's Books. Except as noted, everything on this list I read aloud to the kids. I think my favorites were the two Japanese-related books we read: Temple Alley Summer, which is Japanese, and Miss Happiness and Miss Flower, which is about two Japanese dolls that end up being cared for by a little English girl who grew up in India. I couldn't believe the boys let me read it to them, but they ended up liking it, despite the fact that it's mostly about how to build a Japanese dollhouse. 

The Whispers was notable for having an 11-year-old gay narrator, but was otherwise so sad. I hated The Westing Game, although I know that many people love that book, and the kids couldn't keep the characters straight. Woods Runner was a very disturbing Gary Paulson book, and The Witches was a very disturbing Roald Dahl book.

• 
  Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson
• There's an Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George (read w/Teen B for school)
• The Whispers by Greg Howard
• Henry and the Paper Route by Beverly Cleary
  
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• Temple Alley Summer by Sachiko Kashiwaba, translated by Avery Fischer Udagawa
  
• I Survived True Stories: Five Epic Disasters by Lauren Tarshis
• Chasing Redbird by Sharon Creech
• Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
• On the Far Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
• Miss Happiness and Miss Flower by Rumer Godden
• Woods Runner by Gary Paulson
• The Witches by Roald Dahl
• Journey Home by Yoshiko Uchida (read to myself)

 

Young Adult (YA)/Teen Books. The kids and I are starting to read these, though we still read a lot of "middle grade" books too. I read three or four of these by myself, in theory to do research about what to read to them (but I didn't end up reading any of those to them). I must admit that I don't so far have a very favorable opinion of the genre. The books all seem to be about falling in love while the world ends. My favorite was probably Things Not Seen, about a teenage boy who accidentally becomes invisible. The twins liked that one too, and we also read the first sequel (Things Hoped For) and have just started the second (Things That Are).

• How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (read to myself)
  
• The Road to Winter by Mark Smith (read to myself)
• Jean and Johnny by Beverly Cleary
• Dark Life by Kat Falls
• A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti (read to myself)
• Things Not Seen by Andrew Clements
• Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake (read to myself)
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding (read w/Teen B for school)
• Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
• Things Hoped For by Andrew Clements

 

Books for the Book Group. My beloved book group continues, even though we are down to four members and one joins via Zoom. As usual we read a completely random assortment of books, some of which I liked and some of which I hated. My favorite might have been the first one we read, The Soul of an Octopus, but I also liked My Tender Matador and Jar City. Those last two we read because members of the group took trips to Chile and Iceland. I hated A Summer Reunion, The Lost Apothecary and The Rabbit Hutch. All the others I had mixed feelings about, for various reasons.

• January: The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery (nonfiction)
  
• February: My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel (fiction, translated from the Spanish)
  
• March: Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason (mystery, translated from the Icelandic)
  
• April: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (fiction)
  
• May/June: A Summer Reunion by Fanny Blake (fiction)
  
• July/August: The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner (fiction)
  
• September: Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara (fiction/mystery)
  
• October: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (ghost story)
  
• November: The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (fiction, won the National Book Award)
  
• December: Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World by Rob Sheffield (nonfiction)
  

 

Books for the Classics Challenge. I liked several of these -- it's hard to choose a favorite. But I'll go with The Makioka Sisters, the book that inspired my theme this year. It's a great book and I wished it would never end. My wrap-up post, where I discuss them all, is here.

• (#8) Pre-1800 Classic: The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, ca. 1008, tr. by Arthur Waley.
• (#4) Classic in Translation: The Tale of the Heike, ca 1300?, tr. by Royall Tyler.
• (#11) Classic Set in a Place You'd Like to Visit: Narrow Road to the Interior by Matsuo Basho, 1702, tr. by Sam Hamill.
• (#1) 19th-century Classic: "Child's Play," by Higuchi Ichiyo, 1895-96, in In the Shade of Spring Leaves: The Life of Higuchi Ichiyo with Nine of Her Best Short Stories by Robert Lyons Danly.
• (#12) Wild Card Classic: I Am a Cat by Soseki Natsume, 1905-06, tr. by Aiko Ito and Graeme Wilson.
• (#6) Mystery/Detective/Crime Classic: The Honjin Murders by Yokomizo Seishi, 1946, tr. by Louise Heal Kawai.
• (#10) Classic on My TBR List the Longest: The Makioka Sisters by Tanizaki Junichiro, 1948, tr. Edward G. Seidensticker.
• (#7) Classic Short Story Collection: Yokohama, California by Toshio Mori, 1949.
• (#5) Classic by a BIPOC Author: Citizen 13660 by Miné Okubo, 1946.
• (#9) Nonfiction Classic: Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone, 1953.
• (#2) 20th-century Classic: No-No Boy by John Okada, 1957.
• (#3) Classic by a Woman Author: Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida, 1971.
  

Mystery/Thriller. Usually a long list, but maybe not so long this year. My favorite was, hmm, maybe What Beckoning Ghost, which I read because I thought it was a ghost story! I thought I might like to read something else by Douglas G. Browne, but after doing a little research I see that I will only be able to dig up a few of his books through Prospector (CU has a few in deep storage). I'll see.

• Whispers in the Dark by Eleanor Taylor Bland
• Devils in Daylight by Junichiro Tanizaki, tr. by J. Keith Vincent
• Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edogawa Rampo (Taro Hirai), tr. by James B. Harris
• The 29 Steps by John Buchan
• As a Favor by Susan Dunlap
• The Widows of Broome by Arthur W. Upfield
• A Change of Circumstance by Susan Hill
• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith (read to the kids)
• The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo
• What Beckoning Ghost by Douglas G. Browne
• The Sacred Bridge by Anne Hillerman

Supernatural Mystery/Ghost Story. I have almost finished the Merrily Watkins series by Phil Rickman (unless he writes more, which I hope he does). He has some standalones too, I read one this year (December), but the Merrily Watkins series is the best. My favorite was, mm, maybe Friends of the Dusk? That one had some very spooky bits. The scariest book I read this year wasn't a Rickman, though, it was I Remember You, by an Icelandic author that I may neglect to read more of. There's scary, and then there's TOO scary.

• To Dream of the Dead by Phil Rickman
• The Secrets of Pain by Phil Rickman
• The Magus of Hay by Phil Rickman
• The House of Susan Lulham by Phil Rickman
• Friends of the Dusk by Phil Rickman
• I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir
• Ghosts by Edith Wharton (short stories)
• December by Phil Rickman

Science Fiction/Fantasy. I decided to combine these two categories because (1) I don't read much of either, and (2) N. K. Jemisin's work is considered kind of a cross between the two. I enjoyed them both, of the two my favorite was The Fifth Season, but I have heard that the third book in the trilogy (The Stone Sky, which I plan to read in January) is the best. I'm looking forward to it.

• The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin
• The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin
  
  

Poetry. I always think I should read more poetry, but for some reason I don't. Maybe I'll make a resolution to read more. My favorite of these was probably The Narrow Road to the Interior, even though I was irritated that Prospector sent it to me instead of the Basho version, and even though it annoyed me while I was reading it. When I think back on these three books, it's the Hahn volume that has gotten itself stuck in my mind.

• The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday
• The Narrow Road to the Interior by Kimiko Hahn
• After Nature by W. G. Sebald

 

General Fiction. I didn't read a lot of fiction for its own sake this year, mostly just accompaniments to other reading projects, like the Classics Challenge and my month of reading scary stuff. The exception, and my best discovery, was W. G. Sebald. I read two of his novels, enjoyed them both, but I think I would pick The Emigrants as my favorite. And I definitely plan to read more of him.

• Her Daughter's Mother by Daniela Petrova
• A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym
• Civil to Strangers by Barbara Pym
• Monsieur Monde Vanishes by Georges Simenon
• The Dark Dark (short stories) by Samantha Hunt
• The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald
• Vertigo by W. G. Sebald
• Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
• The American Diary of a Japanese Girl by Yone Noguchi
• The Chauvinist & Other Stories (short stories) by Toshio Mori
• The Diving Pool: 3 Novellas by Yoko Ogawa
• Unseen City by Amy Shearn (yes, there's a ghost, but it's more fiction than ghost story)
  
• Picture Bride by Yoshiko Uchida

Christmas Books. This was not really a Christmas reading year. I just wasn't in the mood. The first book on the list is something I requested from the library last Christmas, but it didn't show up until January, so I read it then. I didn't love it -- I liked Volume II (which I read in 2020) better. The second book on the list I did actually read in December, and it was better. I didn't like all the stories in it, but there were some very good ones.

• A Treasury of African-American Christmas Stories ed. by Bettye Collier-Thomas
• A Literary Christmas: Great Contemporary Christmas Stories ed. by Lilly Golden
  

Graphic Novels/Memoirs/Whatever. Only two in this category this year -- it's because I don't go to the Main Library that often anymore, so I don't browse in that section. (And of course now it's closed, due to meth contamination, due to homeless people smoking meth in the bathrooms, grrr, grrr.) Of these two, although I love Alison Bechdel, I loved Himawari House more than her latest offering. About a group house in Japan, with a mix of Japanese and non-Japanese residents.

• The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel
• Himawari House by Harmony Becker
  
  

Memoir/Biography. Not as many this year as in recent years. No special reason for that. I kept thinking, "I should read some more biographies," but somehow they didn't pop up on my radar screen. 

I liked several of these, but I think my favorite was The Hare with Amber Eyes. It's the one I thought of the most after I read it. Also, I learned a new word from it: vitrine, a glassed-in cabinet. Now, when I think, "where is that vase?" I answer myself, "in the vitrine."

• I'm Just a Person by Tig Notaro
• Limbo by A. Manette Ansay
• Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table by Ruth Reichl
• Winter Stars: An Elderly Mother, an Aging Son, and Life's Final Journey by Dave Iverson
  
• The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes by Janet Malcolm
• The Red Parts: Autobiography of a Trial by Maggie Nelson
• The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss by Edmund de Waal
  
• Bee Reaved by Dodie Bellamy
• Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese American Family by Yoshiko Uchida
• Yone Noguchi: The Stream of Fate, Vol. 1. The Western Sea by Edward Marx
  

Presidential Biography. I crossed four more presidents off my list this year. My favorite was, hands down, Destiny of the Republic, which is an excellent book. The book about Chester Arthur was fairly interesting, but the other two were so boring it makes me feel ill to remember them.

• Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard (James Garfield)
• Gentleman Boss: The Life and Times of Chester Alan Arthur by Thomas C. Reeves
• Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character by Alyn Brodsky
• The Presidency of Benjamin Harrison by Homer E. Socolofsky and Allan B. Spetter
  

 

General Nonfiction. As in recent years, I read a lot of nonfiction. I liked several of these, but one in particular was The Believer, which I got from the library but might buy for my collection eventually. Another I liked was Howards End is on the Landing. Susan Hill and I don't have exactly the same taste in books, but close enough that I really enjoyed her thoughts on reading.

• Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
• A Cure for Darkness: The Story of Depression and How We Treat It by Alex Riley
• Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid
• The Pleasures of Japanese Literature by Donald Keene
• The Weather Detective: Rediscovering Nature's Secret Signs by Peter Wohlleben (translated from the German)
• Hunting Season: Immigration and Murder in an All-American Town by Mirta Ojito (read w/Teen A for school)
• The Tale of Genji: A Visual Companion by Melissa McCormick
• No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative by Jane Alison
• The Believer: Encounters with the Beginning, the End, and Our Place in the Middle by Sarah Krasnostein
• The Mind and the Moon: My Brother's Story, the Science of Our Brains, and the Search for Our Psyches by Daniel Bergner
• The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America by Bill Bryson
• Index, a History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age by Dennis Duncan
• Howards End is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home by Susan Hill
• Sherlock Homes was Wrong: Re-opening the Case of The Hound of the Baskervilles by Pierre Bayard

New Year -- and a few resolutions

It's January 1st, welcome 2023! Such a not-very-interesting sounding year. I'm sure it will be better than it sounds. On the other hand, a not-interesting year might be a really good thing. The last few years have been way too interesting.

I'm in a decent mood because (1) we survived Christmas, (2) we had a very fun New Year's Eve with the boys, (3) the plumbers FINALLY showed up on Friday morning and cleaned out our sewer, and (4) after buying a replacement part, Rocket Boy tested the dishwasher one more time and what do you know? it worked. I think it just needed some time to rest after being moved back and forth because of the new floor.

Rocket Boy is not happy about the dishwasher, but I am. We couldn't have used it this whole time because of the clogged pipes, and now he doesn't have to replace the part and deal with all that. It's too bad he had to spend $55 on a new solenoid and go to Longmont to get it, but he needed to go to Longmont anyway to see his brother, and $55 isn't much compared to what a new dishwasher would have cost. I feel as though it was money paid to propitiate the dishwasher gods.

Also, we're suspicious that the dishwasher isn't REALLY fixed. It's made a few odd noises. We're watching it carefully. But for now, all is good.

It's been a snowy week. We had just worked through the last dumping (6.9 inches) and then whoops, here comes another storm. They predicted 3-5 inches, but we ended up with 9.8. Not Buffalo snow, but it was heavy, wet snow, like a spring storm. I've spent hours working on the walks, even though our wonderful neighbor snowblowed them. The snowplows dumped a lot more snow on us, and then it melted and ice formed, and...

More snow was predicted for tonight into Monday, but now they're saying it's going to be an ice storm, my favorite. It's winter, I know I should just accept that snow and ice happen, but I have to admit I don't love it. Even though it's pretty.

We had a really nice New Year's Eve yesterday. Rocket Boy took the boys to the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum in Denver, while I stayed home and worked on laundry and snow/ice removal. After they got home, around 8 pm, we went out to eat at the Gondolier, an Italian restaurant that I didn't use to like that much, but it's become a favorite. It's expensive, but we decided it was OK for a special occasion. Then we went home and played Blokus, interspersed with episodes of Odd Squad, and finally we watched the ball drop in New York City and fireworks in various cities around the world. Everyone was in a good mood. It was nice.

Then today some friends of ours who are beekeepers stopped by to give us some honey and they stayed maybe half an hour to chat. I love the way Christmas kind of stretches out, with little visits and communications from people not just around the 25th, but for weeks before and after. 

***

I spent a lot of today setting up my calendars, so that means it's time for resolutions and plans and goals and all that. I've been thinking about these for a while already, which is why I'm writing them down earlier than usual.

First, a review of my "achievements" in 2022.

2022 Achievements

• I read 116 books, including all 12 books for the Classics Challenge and four Presidential biographies. I saw only 18 movies (the goal was 26), and watched very little TV. 
• Medical/dental stuff: the kids and I all saw our doctors (I started seeing a new one, who I like a lot) and the dentist, got eye exams for all of us and new glasses for the two of them, got braces (sigh), got us all vaxxed and boosted, and survived a cardiac catheterization. We helped Rocket Boy through his surgery and recovery. I got my blood pressure under control, and lost exactly 1.4 pounds. Ha! I've been weighing myself with great interest this past week, curious to see whether I'd be up or down on January 1st. I've been eating Christmas cookies for lunch every day, so it could easily have gone the other way. Possibly if I can get back into exercising regularly I'll lose a little more. 
• I saw both cats through medical emergencies and got them both back on track to good health (those multiple daily laxatives for Sillers and keeping Baby Kitty away from dry food).
  
• I didn't work but I stayed out of debt (somehow). Inflation prevented me from giving away as much money as I would have liked, but I did give away some.
• I helped the twins transition from middle to high school.
  
• We took a great vacation to Nebraska and a less great trip to St. Louis for Rocket Boy's surgery.
  
• We did two major home repairs: got the shower retiled and the kitchen floor replaced.
• We set up wills and a family trust, something I'd been meaning to do for, oh, 15 years.
• I started following the FlyLady and FINALLY got the housework under control.
  
• I wrote this blog faithfully and spent some time on my middle grade novel.
• I baked TWELVE batches of Christmas cookies and pledged never to do that again, because OMG, we have so many cookies.
  

 

2023 Goals

I have a few ideas for how to approach 2023. 

First (of course) is reading. I don't know whether there will be another Classics Challenge -- it seems unlikely (though if there is one, I'll do that too). I could look for another online challenge, but I think I've decided on a way to challenge myself. I plan to read books off my own shelves. Shelf space is at such a premium in our house, I feel as though I can't have all these books sitting around that have never been read. So this year I am going to try to read at least five books each month from my own shelves -- or, if I can't get through them, donate them. 

I'm going to start with the books piled on my nightstand and on the floor near my nightstand. These are not exactly "to be read" books, except for a few. They're mostly things I picked up at Goodwill or a Little Free Library with the idea that I might read them someday -- or maybe not. I took this photo of those books, and then found three more (one under the bed and two under another pile). So that makes 26, which would take me 5+ months to get through, but I also want to work on the unread books in the various bookcases around the house. I thought I'd spend 3 months on this pile (with the hope that some will end up being donated instead of read), then 3 months on the bookcases in my room, and then the final 6 months on other bookcases around the house. We'll see how it goes.

Second, I need to think about money. With inflation, we are no longer doing very well trying to live on Rocket Boy's salary alone. Obviously, it would make sense for me to go back to work, but I'm so uncomfortable with that idea that I'm not ready to do it yet. I'm also not ready to start collecting Social Security, because it would reduce my benefits so drastically if I start at age 62. I think one thing I can do this year is try to figure out how to waste less money, and then save whatever I don't spend, or put it toward things we really want to do, like vacations. My plan to read what I've already got is part of that plan. Taking better care of the house so that things are less likely to break/fall apart is also part of it. Spending less at the grocery store might be another part. I don't know what else I can do, but I plan to study the problem. And perhaps if I study it and study it and can't come up with a solution, I'll go back to work. (Next year.)

Third, rather than write down a whole lot of little goals that I then don't do (like get the piano tuned, which has been on my list of resolutions at least since 2014), I decided to create a master list of possible projects and then set a goal of doing one little project per month and one house-related project per quarter. I won't post the master list here, but it currently has about 65 things on it (including getting the piano tuned), so there are lots of things to choose from. I'm going to try to focus on things that don't cost money, naturally (sorry, piano).

OK, so here are some specifics.

Daily goals:

• Go for a walk or get some other type of exercise, at least 15 minutes. I want to branch out and try some different kinds, not just walking, which is hard when it's icy out. Swimming, lifting weights, pilates, dancing around the living room -- these would all be good.
  
• Help/encourage the kids with their schoolwork. Try not to let things get away from us.
  
• Stick with the FlyLady. Focus on decluttering for 15 minutes a day.
  
• Make dinner or otherwise arrange for it to happen every night.
  
• Write every weekday (and blog on Sundays).
  
• Get at least 7-1/2 hours of sleep at night

Weekly goals:

• Bake some sort of snack/treat, possibly with a twin's help. The goal is to have this replace some of the junk food I waste money on at the grocery store.
  
• Watch a movie with one or both kids OR play a board game, OR do a special thing, per my monthly goal below.
  
• Pay bills and put money into savings. Think about how to save more money.
  
• Work on the current projects (see Monthly and Quarterly goals below).
  

Monthly goals:

• Decide on a theme for the month, a way to get through it and enjoy it.
• Choose a small project from the master list and do it.
  
• Do one special thing with one or both kids (a museum, a movie in a theater, a hike, etc.).
  
• Make contact with a friend or family member: coffee, letter, or phone call are all fine.
• Read at least five unread books from our collection (and/or donate them).
  
• Read the book for the book group
• Read a book for the Classics Challenge (if there is one)
  

My Quarterly/Yearly goals:

• Read a presidential biography
• Work on a home improvement project
  

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Quarter 1: January through March

• My next President is #25, William McKinley, and I am planning to read: William McKinley and His America by H. Wayne Morgan. The library doesn't have it, so I'll have to request it from Prospector. I'm thinking I'll read it in February.
  
• Home improvement project: For the third year in a row, I plan to work on the desk room, specifically the files, with the ultimate goal of making a space for Teen B to have a desk away from Teen A. I also need to do our taxes, hopefully by the end of February.
  

Month of January:

• January's theme is snow and cold and bleak midwinter. Also, warming things: blankets and throws, soup, baking, candles, jigsaw puzzles, etc.
  
• My goal off my master list is to clean up my email, which as of yesterday had 10,212 messages in my inbox and is very unstable. I'm planning to do a letter a day -- today I sorted through messages from those whose names start with A (this included Amazon and Apple) and got rid of a lot. I'm down to 9946 messages in the inbox, sigh. Tomorrow, on to B.
  
• What can I do with a twin? Maybe a movie? Or, since Rocket Boy is here until Jan. 20th, maybe we can do something as a family.
  
• No physical socializing is required in January (though we did see our beekeeping friends in person today). What I think I'd like to do is get back to all the people who emailed me in response to our Xmas letter, or wrote a note in their letter that I'd like to respond to. Maybe I'll work on that this week.
  
• I'm going to read (or donate) five books that I've chosen from the piles next to my bed (see photo). I might actually read all of these (they're not all from Goodwill, some I paid real money for). I'll see.
  
• The next book group book is Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, because it's set in Costa Rica (sort of) and one member is going to Costa Rica at the end of the month. We meet on the 24th, so I've requested it from the library.

More thoughts... We did a huge terrible puzzle this week (see photo), but I decided not to start another one right away so that we would have space on the table to play board games from our large collection. Teen B, Rocket Boy, and I played Sorry on Friday night -- the first board game I'd played in a long time. And then of course Blokus last night.

They go back to school on Wednesday, and I'm not looking forward to it. Can you believe that? We've been having a good time together and I will miss them when they go back to school and start to retreat into their private lives again.

Well, it's for the best. They have their own lives and I have mine (and Rocket Boy has his). I'm glad I have all these plans and goals -- something to help me stay organized and motivated as we dive deep into the bleak midwinter of 2023.

Happy Christmas

It's Christmas Day, late in the day, so it's almost all over. The presents have been opened, the cat has climbed the Christmas tree and gotten tangled in the lights (but not knocked it over, because it's tied to the wall). Christmas dinner for us is leftovers from Christmas Eve, so there's nothing I need to prepare. Teen B just asked me to make him a cucumber sandwich, but I said no. I don't think I should have to make cucumber sandwiches on Christmas. Maybe that is the wrong attitude.

It has been quite a week. Last Sunday, Rocket Boy had just come home and we were getting ready to have our kitchen floor replaced on Monday. We pulled out the fridge and the stove, but we didn't take the dishwasher out until the men arrived, around 10 am. The first thing they did was rip out the old floor. 

RB isn't sure when the old floor was put in, maybe the 1970s. It had that vibe, mustard yellow. Underneath it was the old vinyl from 1955, an attractive (not) gray and black pattern. They didn't pull that up because it probably has asbestos under it. You can also see a bit of the old wall color behind where the dishwasher was, dark pink, next to the pale yellow that I chose. They had some crazy color combos back in the 1950s.

Then they put the new floor in. It's Marmoleum Click, the Caribbean pattern. This photo doesn't do it justice. It's absolutely lovely. Such a soft, pretty color. I like the feel of it under my feet, too. It has a cork backing and the whole thing is just so different from the old vinyl. Especially because the new floor doesn't have a big HOLE in the middle of it.

But then we had to put the kitchen back together. The guys put the fridge and dishwasher back, both incorrectly, but left the stove out. Rocket Boy was unfortunately at an appointment when this was happening, so he couldn't prevent it. Later he pulled the dishwasher out again so that he could put it in right. It turned out that he needed to get a new toe kick for under the sink, so that required a Home Depot run. Etc.

Somewhere in there I started feeling sick. Maybe Tuesday? I had a scratchy throat, a bit of a cough, some congestion. That went on for at least three days and then vanished, thank goodness. But for a while there I was worried.

I think it was Wednesday night when we finally ran the dishwasher for the first time since Saturday. Rocket Boy turned it on and went to take a shower. I lay in bed listening to the dishwasher and it didn't sound right.

When RB got out of the shower I told him that something was wrong. He disagreed. I said, "It sounds like there's no water in it." He poo-pooed that idea. Then he opened the dishwasher and looked in. "Oh, you're right," he said.

I should back up a minute. Wednesday was also the day that the "bomb cyclone" hit Boulder. All day long you could see the bank of clouds approaching from the north, but they moved very slowly. Finally around 5 pm the temperature started dropping. It went from about 38 down to, I think, 12, in maybe 15 minutes (I'm forgetting, but it was fast). Then it was down to zero. Then it kept going.

The next morning, Thursday, it was -18 on our front porch and 6-7 inches of snow had fallen. I had cancelled my haircut appointment and planned not to go anywhere for a few days. 

But there was the dishwasher problem. Rocket Boy figured out it was probably the water-sensing solenoid that had gone out (perhaps it didn't like being moved?), so he started calling plumbing supply places. The only store he could find that carried the part was in Parker, 50 miles south of here. Driving 50 miles in snowy, below-zero weather was unappealing, so instead he ordered the part and we'll pick it up at a store in Longmont on Tuesday.

So that meant we had to go on washing dishes by hand, but it wasn't the end of the world. The stove was back in place, so I could cook, and the fridge was back in place, so all was right with the world, more or less.

On Friday afternoon, we did venture out to do an errand (related to Christmas) and that was fairly exciting due to the snow and ice and cold. It was warmer by then -- it had been -18 on our front porch again that morning, but by afternoon it had gotten up to about 6. That's warmer than -18 but it's not WARM. I was very glad to get home.

We've been lighting the Hanukkah candles all week, and in the box with our hanukkiah we also keep three dreidls and a book about Hanukkah that explains (among other things) how to play dreidl. I had stashed some chocolate coins, so on Friday night when the kids started spinning the dreidls, I gave them a hint as to where to find the coins. This led to a major dreidl competition. Instead of reading the book, they made up names for the four symbols on the dreidls: penis (gimmel), W (shin), pi (hey), and cell phone (nun). Even after I picked up the book and showed them the right names, they kept using the made-up ones. It was fine. They're 14 -- everything is about penises and cell phones. 

As they played, I sat in my chair and watched them, almost nodding off. And then, weirdly, I began to be overcome by a great sadness. Not depression, sadness. I almost felt like I might start crying. It seemed so strange to me because nothing was wrong -- they were actually playing a game together, not fighting, having a good time. Very unusual. It might have been because I thought we might not have too many more times like this -- they're growing up, only a few more Christmases before they (perhaps) go out on their own. Maybe it had to do with my sister who died by suicide instead of going to a Hanukkah party, 17 years ago. Maybe it was something about the pain of the world, that's so hard to keep out of our snug little house. I don't know.

***

Saturday was Christmas Eve and I decided to do a load of laundry. I stuffed the washer with Rocket Boy's and my clothes. Toward the end of the cycle, the toilet started gurgling and splashing. Uh-oh. We went in to look at it a few times, and the second time Rocket Boy went in and said, "Did you see the bathtub?" I went in again and looked. It was full of dirty brown water. "Oh no."

We had an inkling that the tree roots were invading our pipes again around Thanksgiving, when the toilet started gurgling one day. I wanted to call a plumber then, but the problem seemed to go away and Rocket Boy suggested we wait. Of course, Christmas Eve would be when it happened again. 

I swore off laundry for the duration. I acknowledged that not having a functioning dishwasher might be a blessing in disguise. Rocket Boy went to Home Depot during the day to get a board to make puzzles on (we had a board, but it wasn't big enough for big puzzles), and Teen B and I went along to explore Home Depot's bathrooms (verdict: very nice, several stalls, clean, spacious). Later, after dinner, Teen A needed to go, but because it was Christmas Eve, nothing was open. Rocket Boy drove the boys around town, finally finding an open Walgreens with, blessedly, bathrooms. I was the only one who took a shower that night, and it was a very very quick shower.

Today we've been extremely careful. We've discovered that, for now, the toilet will flush if we're gentle with it. The current rules are: (1) only flush if you poop, and (2) flush no more than once every 30 minutes. We've been timing it. And of course, no doing laundry, no showers, be very careful when brushing teeth, washing hands, or washing dishes, dump the dishwater on the lawn, not down the drain, etc. 

We've been through this before, we know what to do. We left voicemails for two plumbers. Hopefully we'll hear from one or the other tomorrow. I know a lot of people had frozen pipes from the bomb cyclone, so the plumbers are very busy. I don't think that's our problem, I think it's tree roots. We'll see.

A few other things are wrong too: the dryer is having problems, requiring me to run every load twice (and it's a gas dryer, so that gets expensive). Rocket Boy tried to clean the vent the last time he was home, and now when I start it up, the dryer blows lint all over the garage. Oh, and the overhead light in the garage is being fussy, only sometimes coming on. 

But you know, I feel so lucky to have a snug little house, WITH POWER, unlike millions of other people right now. By a stroke of luck, Rocket Boy missed the storm entirely on his trip out here, and we didn't try to travel anywhere else, so we didn't get stuck in an airport like millions of other people. I feel very lucky that Rocket Boy is here with us during this mess, and that he exists at all -- and that I'm married to him. 

***

This brings us to Christmas, which has been roaring along while we go through all this nonsense. We've been reading Christmas books at night for the last several nights -- not three per night, like last year, just one. First we read The Spider Who Saved Christmas, which was my new Christmas book this year, then Rocket Boy chose The Tomten, then I chose Thomas' Christmas Delivery, then Teen B chose The Christmas Tree That Grew, and then I chose Tosca's Christmas. Teen A has so far refused to participate. That's OK. He still listens to the books, and comments on how stupid they are. Thomas' Christmas Delivery and The Christmas Tree That Grew are particularly stupid, and yet they're perennial favorites of ours.

Last night we were burning the Advent candles and the baby kitty (who you can see in this photo, lurking) jumped up onto the little stereo cabinet, right next to the five burning candles. We shooed him down twice and then decided it was time to snuff them out for the night.

I was the first one awake this morning, at about 8:30, but soon I heard Teen B get up and come out to the kitchen to get his phone (having the phones charge in the kitchen is a great way to get your kids out of bed in the morning). He and I sat out in the living room and "waited" for the rest of the family (he actually started pulling things out of his stocking instead of "waiting," but I didn't stop him). Eventually Rocket Boy got up, and then finally Teen A, and we could get on with the present opening.

I didn't have any good ideas for the kids this year, mostly just got some goofy stuff to have fun with, but it was OK. Both boys criticized almost everything they unwrapped, to the point where it got quite funny. "Oh, a book that I'm not going to read," said Teen A, opening a book that I later saw him reading. "Mom, why did you get me this?" demanded Teen B, opening a robot kit that he later started playing with. It's as though at this age they just need to criticize, even though the criticism has no meaning.

Nothing could get me down today. I was so pleased that we were together, that it was not only above zero but above freezing, that all my cookies were baked, that I managed to put together enough gifts under the tree to make people reasonably happy (if a bit critical), that I wrote a check for the rest of the kitchen floor on Wednesday and paid my credit card (not due until January 9th) off on Friday, so we're ready for the next financial challenges (plumbing costs, dishwasher repair, the possible need to buy a new dishwasher and/or dryer). 

I was particularly pleased with my own gifts, some of which I bought myself and some of which Rocket Boy purchased. I had chosen the calendar and the perpetual calendar for myself and wrapped them up ("To Mom, from Santa"). I ordered the doll from eBay and wrapped up the box without opening it, so that was a fun surprise. I had asked for a napkin holder that wouldn't fall over and I thought RB did a great job of choosing one. He also got me the Truman bio (stopped at Truman's Presidential library on his way out here to buy it). I won't read that, probably, until 2025, but I'll be all ready for it then.

I got him a Film Noir encyclopedia, which he seems very happy with, a selection of chocolate and marzipan, a calendar, and a new shirt, so that all worked out well too.

Being a mom at Christmas is kind of a thankless task, but I've got to say this was probably the easiest Christmas I've had since I became a mom. With the FlyLady's help, I made most of my preparations ahead of time, so I had the energy and good mood to deal with the inevitable Christmas disasters. I'm hoping that keeps me going through whatever the week ahead has in store for us.

***

Now what comes next? Boxing Day, but I don't know how to celebrate that. Kwanzaa starts tomorrow, we'll think about that. I like to celebrate it, but have trouble deciding exactly how. Here are the days:

1. unity (umoja) Monday, Dec. 26
   
2. self-determination (kujichagulia) Tuesday, Dec. 27
   
3. collective responsibility (ujima) Wednesday, Dec. 28
   
4. cooperative economics (ujamaa) Thursday, Dec. 29
   
5. purpose (nia) Friday, Dec. 30
   
6. creativity (kuumba) Saturday, Dec. 31. Feast day.
   
7. faith (imani) Sunday, Jan. 1
   

In the past, I've celebrated by giving money to Black-related organizations. So that's probably what I'll do this year too. Mission St. Louis has become one of my regular donees, and I like to buy something from a Black-owned business or two, a book by a Black author, that kind of thing. I've been reading about Kwanzaa and they say that anyone can celebrate it, and it can be about you, your "self-determination" and "purpose" and whatnot, even if you're not Black. But I still feel as though it's a good opportunity to donate to Black causes. The only issue might be that we need to be careful with our money right now! I gave away about $500 on Colorado Gives Day, which was only a few weeks ago. I'll see. 

My book group meets Tuesday -- NOT here, as I had thought, but at another member's house. I'm extremely grateful for that, given our lack of plumbing and dishwashers. I don't know what else we'll do this week. Teen B wants to see a movie, but we can't come up with anything that appeals to us. Maybe we'll go to a museum.

And I must work on planning, planning, planning for 2023. What to read, what to do, how to improve myself and the house. All that stuff. I really enjoy it. A new year! So much fun to think about.

Reading post: Classics Challenge wrap-up

I've finished all 12 of my chosen books for the 2022 Back to the Classics Challenge, so this is my wrap-up post with links to my reviews. Although I read these books in mostly chronological order, I list them here in category order, to make things easier for the person who runs the challenge. I don't think I should win, having won last year!

My theme this year was Japanese and Japanese-American fiction. One of the categories this year was "classic that's been on your TBR list the longest" and that happened to be a work of Japanese literature, The Makioka Sisters by Tanizaki Junichiro. So the theme was handed to me, and eventually I came to appreciate it, though at first I wasn't pleased. 

I spent a week in Japan about, oh, 35 years ago? 36? almost 37? A long time ago. Around that time (before and after the trip) I read several books by Japanese authors, but I hadn't read anything in a long time. I'd sort of forgotten about Japan.

Of the books I read this year, my favorite work of Japanese literature was in fact The Makioka Sisters, which surprised me by being excellent, and my favorite work of Japanese-American literature was No-No Boy by John Okada, which is also excellent. It was good to spend the first part of this year becoming better acquainted with classic Japanese literature, and then the last few months learning about the Japanese-American experience through literature.

 

Here are the books I read, in the official category order.

1. A 19th century classic. Child's Play by Higuchi Ichiyo, 1895. (Also translated as Growing Up and Comparing Heights.)

2. A 20th century classic. No-No Boy by John Okada, 1957.

3. A classic by a woman author. Journey to Topaz by Yoshiko Uchida, 1971.

4. A classic in translation. The Tale of the Heike, author unknown, prior to 1330.

5. A classic by a BIPOC author. Citizen 13660 by Mine Okubo, 1946. 

6. Mystery/detective/crime classic. The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo, 1946.

7. A classic short-story collection. Yokohama, California by Toshio Mori, 1942-49.

8. A pre-1800 classic. The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, 11th century.

9. A nonfiction classic. Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone, 1953.

10. Classic that's been on your TBR list the longest. The Makioka Sisters by Tanizaki Junichiro, 1948.

11. Classic set in a place you'd like to visit. The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Basho, 1702.

12. Wild card classic. I am a Cat by Natsume Soseki, 1906. 

When I started this project, I was curious about whether the works of Japanese literature and the works of Japanese American literature would have anything to say to each other. I expected that there would be some connection, but in the end I didn't really see one. This might be because almost all early Japanese American literature began in response to the internment camps. 

The story of the internment camps is the story of how a group of people, many of them American citizens, were punished by the American government, which is supposed to be above such things, for their origins, even their parents' or grandparents' origins. Although two of my authors (Monica Sone and Yoshiko Uchida) included characters who knew Japanese literature and wrote poetry in traditional Japanese forms, those characters had to get rid of all their Japanese books and writing before they went into the camps. They were forced to get rid of their heritage. Later, in 1982, Uchida published a memoir of the camps in which she included some of her mother's poetry, quite effectively.

All the Japanese-American authors I read (Mori, Okubo, Sone, Okada, and Uchida) were Nisei, that is, they were born in America to Japanese-born parents (Issei). So their knowledge of Japanese literature would have come mainly through their parents, or possibly through the Japanese-language schools that most of them attended, as children, in the afternoons after regular school. Uchida did not attend one of those schools, but she did have the opportunity to study pottery in Japan for two years, in the 1950s.

What would Japanese American literature have looked like without the camps? Would there even have been any? Yes, there would have been at least one book. Toshio Mori wrote the first version of his book of short stories and it was scheduled to be published before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed everything. Perhaps if there had been no camps, other Japanese Americans would have been inspired, like Mori -- or by Mori -- to write their own stories. But the terrible experience of the camps forced them to think about their identity and their country in new ways, thus spawning this particular body of literature.

It's possible also that the literature would have come eventually, but a little later. The civil rights movement in the 1960s led many people to think more analytically about their race/ethnicity/heritage. One or two of the authors I read mentioned (in prefaces or afterwords written years after the original publication) that they had been inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., but when they originally wrote they didn't yet completely understand the issues.

I should also mention the classic Japanese literature I read, which completely blew my mind. I thought I knew something about Japanese literature before I started, but I'd never read anything really old. The Tale of Genji, The Tale of the Heike, and The Narrow Road to the Deep North, all written prior to 1800, were amazing works I never would have read without a Challenge like this one. I also loved Child's Play and of course The Makioka Sisters. In addition, I learned a lot about Japanese history from reading these books (and reading about them).

In any case, this was a very interesting year of reading, much more so than I thought it would be when I started. Thanks again to Karen, who organizes the fantastic Classics Challenge!

Cruising through the holidays

So here it is December 18th and I'm not stressed out. Well, I'm a little bit stressed, because the floor guys come tomorrow to put in our new kitchen floor and we won't be able to use our kitchen for a couple of days and something will probably go wrong and it's going to be expensive (though we've already paid, I think, 2/3 of the cost, something like that, more than half anyway). 

But aside from that. Christmas is in one week and I'm actually ready. This is what I've done:

• I wrote all the cards and mailed them. Rocket Boy still has to write the German cards (with my help), but that's only three cards. We'll probably do them today. Oh, and I still want to send an apology to my Nebraska cousins for saying that they live in Grand Island (in my holiday newsletter). But this is all very manageable.
• I have baked 12 batches of cookies. I can't believe I did this, but I did. We still have to decide what we're having for Christmas dinner and all that, but it's not stressful. Either we'll get a ham or we'll have some sort of fish. It's not anything to worry about.
• The tree is up, lights are on, and I finally put the ornaments on yesterday. I keep thinking I want to get a wreath or spray for the front door, but it doesn't matter if I don't. I need to get Rocket Boy to turn on the lights on the house.
  
• We're 3 Sundays through Advent, this is the 4th, and Hanukkah starts tonight. I have all the candles and everything. We'll do some Hanukkah meals later on, but not until after the kitchen is done. There are latkes in the freezer.
• I've done all my shopping (except for maybe one more small present, which Rocket Boy can help with), and all the presents are wrapped. This is unheard of, but true.
• I made our personalized calendar, ordered 2 copies, they've arrived, and I've wrapped one up for Rocket Boy.
• Oh, and I coaxed the twins through their first set of high school finals. And made dinner every night. And did the laundry regularly. And kept the house reasonably clean.
   

The only thing I didn't get done wasn't actually a Christmas thing: cleaning up the desk room so that Teen B could have his own desk away from Teen A. That's a really big project and it was too hard to combine it with Christmas. I'll just have to work on it in the new year.

So now I'm thinking, what the heck do I do for the next week? No, not really. I'm basking in the joy of being "done" so early. It really is a nice feeling. And I owe it all to the FlyLady. She's been sending out "Christmas Cruise Missions" every weekday since the middle of October. (My email program started blocking her around the middle of November, so now I have to read her messages on her website.) I haven't done them all, but I've done a lot of them. Also, because I've been organizing my life around her routines since June, it was easy to come up with schedules for the last couple of weeks that enabled me to get all my baking and shopping done.

I still won't watch her YouTube channel. The last one I watched, she was all excited about Elon Musk "bringing free speech back to Twitter." I've been tempted to watch a few times since, to see whether she's eating her words on that, but I haven't done it. MAGA Republicans always have a way of twisting things around to suit themselves.

With the FlyLady, I take what I need and let the political and religious stuff rest.

I still can't believe I baked 12 batches of cookies. I almost didn't make it. 

This week I started with date crunch (top left), then Norwegian holiday cookies (bottom middle), and then the peppermint meltaways (top middle). And then I felt like I was done. I could have stopped there. But Teen B REALLY wanted me to make sugar cookies, so that he could help decorate. So on Thursday morning, while the twins were taking their last final, I made the dough. That night, on the spur of the moment, I whipped up the meringue cookies and put them in the oven to bake/dry overnight. Then on Friday morning, the kids (mostly Teen B) and I cut out and decorated and baked the sugar cookies (bottom left). Then I rebaked the meringues, because they were still soft from the day before. Probably overbaked them, but anyway, they're edible (bottom right). And then I went ahead and made the fudge (top left), because I wanted to have all day Saturday to get ready for Rocket Boy's arrival that night. So there you are, 12 batches.

Next year I am not going to make 12 batches! Skip the meringues, skip the gingerbread cookie bars, skip the spritz which were impossible. So no more than 9. Preferably 6. We'll see.

The aspect of Christmas that gave me the most trouble this year was the stupid tree. It's the only thing that made me truly angry. I am so done with this old tree!

I told Rocket Boy, if he's not around to put up the tree next December, I am going to go out and buy a new one. No ifs, ands, or buts. We'll see if I remember this next December.

Anyway, I struggled and struggled and managed to put up half the tree. More or less. (By myself. The twins would not help.) If you look at it closely you can see that I did something wrong, or a couple of somethings wrong. There are gaps in the trunk that shouldn't be there. I got the branches stuck in, but in retrospect I didn't arrange them properly, which also has to do with the way I put the trunk together. And then the branches started falling out, and I couldn't remember how to fix them with hose clamps. Or it may be that I didn't WANT to remember how to fix them with hose clamps. I found some hose clamps and the tool that you use, but I stopped there. Rocket Boy can fix them if he wants to, thought I, crossly.

I read somewhere that the best way to put lights on a tree is to go from top to bottom, moving all around the tree. Maybe for some trees that is best, but not this tree. I ended up with very strange bunches of lights in weird places. Also, I ran out of lights, so the back of the tree (and one strange section of the front) is not lit. Also, clumps of lights keep suddenly falling down.

I hate this tree. Merry Christmas to you too.

After I put the lights on, I didn't do anything else for a day or two. Too angry. Finally, yesterday, with Rocket Boy known to be driving across Kansas, I made a schedule for the hours of the day. The first hour looked something like this:

• Kitchen (15 mins)
• Living room (15 mins)
• Tree (15 mins)
• 15 min break
  

I made enough little schedules like that to fill seven hours of the day, and I started following them at 9 am, so I got a lot done. For almost every hour, the third 15-minute segment was "Tree." So the tree got done. 

I was careful to leave off ornaments that I know Baby Kitty likes to eat, such as anything made of a teasle or a pinecone, and anything that looks like a little stuffed animal. No straw stars either. I still have the remains of a couple of teasle ornaments he destroyed last year. That fat red Santa ornament on the upper half of the tree is possibly in danger, but I decided to risk it. So far this year Baby Kitty has not climbed the tree to take down higher-level ornaments, but they've only been up there one day so far, so I must be watchful.

I still don't have a real creche (my old one was destroyed in the 2013 flood). We have that circular one with levels, but I don't like it much. I look in stores every year, but I've never seen another that I like the way I liked my old one. So instead I set up my little Playmobil Christmas scene. That made me happy.

I still haven't gotten my Barbies into their Christmas outfits, so that remains on my (very short) to-do list. But come on, that's just fun.

I don't know what we're going to do this week, other than get our floor replaced and do some last-minute Christmas prep (like figuring out dinner). We'll go for walks, maybe go swimming. Maybe we'll go to a museum. There are a few people we want to get together with.

My book group is actually scheduled to come here on December 27th, so I have to plan for that. We're reading Dreaming the Beatles by Rob Sheffield, kind of an unusual choice. (I read it with my phone in one hand, constantly searching up and playing the songs he writes about.) I suppose I should serve English food, but I don't know. Maybe Indian food, because of George Harrison's interests? Something with apples, because of Apple Records. Or, let's see, oh, I could reference food mentioned in songs, such as "Savoy Truffle," but those are all desserts. I don't think anyone's going to be in the mood for an all-dessert menu, two days after Christmas. Mustard potato salad for "Mean Mr. Mustard." Strawberries for "Strawberry Fields Forever." Submarine sandwiches for "Yellow Submarine."

Hmm. I think Indian food sounds like the best option, actually. Or I could get submarine sandwiches from the grocery store. For either of those, I could do them at the last minute, next Tuesday. So I'm not going to worry about this anymore. It will be fine.

That will also be the 2nd day of Kwanzaa, which I also like to celebrate. The 2nd day is Self-Determination Day. OK, I'm not going to worry about that for the book group. Don't make things more complicated than necessary.

It feels strange not to have anything to worry about, a week before Christmas. Strange, and somehow empty. But in a good way.

OK, I'm going to finish this up and go get some things done. I want to take a quick walk and then I have to wash all the breakfast and lunch dishes by hand because we don't want to use the dishwasher again until after the new floor is installed, and then we're going to start moving things. Rocket Boy thinks we can take the dining table apart and put it against the wall and then move the stove, dishwasher, and fridge into the dining area. 

I'm sure it will be no problem at all.

Enjoying December

Yes, I really am. It's been fun so far. I still have moments (every day, perhaps every hour) when I panic and think I'm "behind." But then I catch myself: you're not behind, you're right on schedule. And weirdly enough, this is true.

So what did I do this week? I baked SIX batches of cookies, so I'm halfway to my goal of 12. That goal was kind of a joke when I set it, so I'm very surprised that it is suddenly within reach. (The photo shows seven tins because there are two tins of Lebkuchen. Clockwise from bottom left we have (1) eggnog cookies, (2a) Lebkuchen with lemon glaze, (2b) Lebkuchen with chocolate glaze, (3) spritz, (4) candy cane cookies, (5) gingerbread cookie bars, and in the middle (6) panocha squares.

I keep thinking -- I could stop now! Or I could stop soon, that's more realistic. Tomorrow (Monday) I plan to make date crunch, which is many people's favorite cookie, so I don't want to skip that. And next Saturday I plan to make fudge, which two young people would kill me if I didn't make. But in between those two I'm planning to make Norwegian holiday cookies, peppermint meltaways, sugar cookies, and meringues. And you know, the world might not end if I didn't. So we'll just see how it goes. Six (maybe) batches to go, but I'm kind of in the rhythm now. The only serious problem is that I'm running out of empty tins! I will have to store some cookies in plastic.

When I got up each morning this week I would pull out the butter and eggs that I'd need from the fridge and put them in a bowl in the microwave to come to room temperature (because Mr. Merlino thinks jumping up on the counter and licking the butter is a good idea). Then I'd go about the business of getting the kids off to school and the cats fed and myself fed, and the clean dishes put away and the laundry started, and then starting at 9 am I made a batch of cookies. While the cookies baked I did some FlyLady things, and then by 11 am I was almost always done, and I would sit down at my computer to work on my novel for a little while. 

Later, after lunch and (some days) a short walk, I went shopping. Grocery shopping on Monday and Christmas shopping the other days. Well, actually I only shopped on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On Friday I thought I would go to Pearl Street and look in stores, but eventually I realized that I didn't really have any specific ideas for what to buy -- plus, I was tired of shopping. So I stayed home and decided my shopping was done.

Actually, there will probably be a little more shopping after Rocket Boy comes and we talk about what I've gotten and what he'd like to get. But I'm basically done. Not only that, but almost everything is wrapped. That's unheard of, for me.

So, what are the plans for the week ahead? The mornings should be the same. The kids have final exams, two each day, so school starts half an hour later than normal. But I'll just go about my business the same way, doing my routines and starting to bake (they'll leave the house around 8:30 and I start to bake at 9, so no problem). The afternoons, though, will be different, because I have no more shopping to do.

Instead, I need to start decorating. It's interesting the way you do the things you want to do right away, and dillydally over what you don't. I love doing the cards, so that comes first. Then cookies. I did the shopping not because I love it, but because I knew I needed to get it done. But now comes the decorating, my least favorite task. This picture shows where the tree goes (we're only doing half a tree this year, so it will probably sit on the card table and I'll drape a cloth over the table to hide some of the unattractiveness of it.

But first I have to do something about all those (mostly empty) boxes. And the broken lamp. 

I need a plan for the decorating. Can I work on it for an hour each afternoon, or would that take me down? I don't know. I'll tentatively say an hour. If it seems too much, I can dial it back.

So, what do I need to do?

1. Clear off the card table (put the boxes in the garage or recycle them) and put a cloth down
   
2. Set up the half tree.
3. Put on the lights.
4. Put on the ornaments (focusing on non-breakable, non-chewable ones, as the folks in Breaking Cat News are doing this year).
5. Clear off the two pieces of furniture next to the card table and make them more Christmassy: put down seasonal cloths, set up a Christmas scene for my dolls or Teen B's Christmas Lego set from a couple of years ago (he still has it assembled in his room), set up a sort of Nativity scene, etc.
6. In my room, get my Barbie dolls dressed in seasonal outfits. Maybe some of them could come in the living room too, I'll see.
   

That might be it. We need to put a timer on the outside lights, but I don't know how to do that, so I'll leave it for Rocket Boy when he arrives next weekend. As cards arrive, I'll display them. As finals end, I'll remove the study materials from the coffee table (right now it seems better to leave them there). Hanukkah starts next Sunday, so we'll set up the menorah then.

This all sounds totally doable. Maybe #1 & #2 tomorrow, #3 on Tuesday, #4 on Wednesday, #5 on Thursday, #6 on Friday. Something like that.

And, in fact, I just pulled myself together and did #1. Look at that -- the boxes have been removed from the card table (except for one, because the cats like to sit in it -- it'll come off when the tree goes up). And a lovely seasonal cloth has been placed over the card table. I'm so excited.

Well, not really. This was the easy part. It's #2 that I'm dreading -- assembling the tree. Every year I say we're not putting up that tree one more time, we're getting rid of it, we're getting a new fake tree. And every year I put it up again. Hmm. And then there's putting on the lights, which I'd much rather Rocket Boy did, but he's not here. And then the ornaments -- that part's OK, except for having to try to guess which ornaments look too much like cat toys to be put on the tree. No straw stars for another year, gotta wait until Mr. Merlino grows up. He's three now. Maybe when he's eight or so?

Of course, I also need to work on clearing clutter from the desk room to allow room for another desk. I have made absolutely no progress on that. Talk about not doing things you don't want to do. 

***

I ended this rather abruptly last night because twins were calling me to come help study for finals and I knew I'd never get back to it. But now it's the next morning and I've already discovered that I need to change my plans for the week. So here is my new schedule:

7:30-8:30     Get up, get kids off to school

8:30-9:30     Feed cats, eat breakfast, start routines

9:30-11:30     Make a batch of cookies, interspersed with FlyLady tasks

11:30-12:30    Write

12:30-1:30    Take a short walk, have lunch

1:30-2:30    Work on cleaning up the desk room (I have to do this before the kids come home from school, because after that they'll be in here and they won't want me in here messing with things)

2:30-3:30    Decorate. The kids will be home by 2:45, since finals end at 2:30, so they can help me decorate. Ha. Well, it could happen.

And now I see that I am already 5 minutes late for baking cookies, so I'd better get going. I can already tell I don't have as much enthusiasm for it this week. No problem -- we already have six batches. I can stop at any time. Sure...

OK, December

So it's December and I feel so behind! This is silly. I'm not behind. I have written and mailed all the Christmas cards (nearly all -- just the German cards are still to be done, and a few to neighbors that will get delivered with cookies, not mailed). I've also done some of my shopping (more than usual for this time of year), wrapped some of the presents I've bought, planned my cookie baking, planned the decorating, and kept the house fairly clean. So I should be feeling great, smug even.

But I'm not, I'm feeling overwhelmed.

I think I need to take a step back and think about this. It's December 4th. Christmas is in exactly three weeks. During that time I need to do various things:

• Make the personalized calendar that I do every year (and order 2 copies, one for me and one for Rocket Boy)
• Finish shopping
• Bake all these cookies I'm planning to bake
• Put up the tree, decorate it, and do whatever other decorating I'm going to do
• Get ready for Rocket Boy's next visit (he's planning to arrive in exactly two weeks)
• Complete the desk room project: get rid of the piles of papers by my desk so that I can move some furniture around and get Teen B set up with his own desk before Rocket Boy arrives
  
• Prepare for the kitchen floor being replaced on Dec. 19th or 20th (and how we'll live without a kitchen for two days)
• Help the kids survive their first experience of real final exams (already working on this)
• Plan, shop for, and cook healthy meals for the family while also constantly baking
• Keep track of money and don't accidentally spend $$ we don't have (pay down the credit card once a week so that it doesn't get away from me)
  
• Take care of myself so that I don't get rundown and sick: get enough sleep, eat right, get some exercise every day, don't get all stressed out
  

Realistically, I don't have three weeks. The kitchen floor replacement is going to mess things up that last week, big time. Plus, the kids will be out of school by then. Their last day of school is Friday, December 16th, but that day is just a finals make-up day. Assuming they don't have any finals to make up, their last day will be Thursday, December 15th. So, really I only have 11 days left, not three weeks. And two of those days are next weekend, so I only have 9 days left on my own, and I think one of those days they have the afternoon off and other days they might get home early... so really I just have this week to get my shopping done. This week plus maybe a day or two.

That's scary.

Deep breath. Several deep breaths, to the point of hyperventilating. It is going to be OK. It is all going to be just fine.

The schedule I planned last week worked out quite well -- not perfectly, but well. The morning part of the schedule worked really well: FlyLady stuff, followed by writing time, followed by a holiday task (Christmas cards), followed by a short walk and lunch. The afternoon part -- not so much. I discovered immediately that shopping takes more than one hour, even if you only go to one or two stores, because there's driving and parking to consider. Even if you're shopping online, which I did on Tuesday and Wednesday, due to the weather, it takes a long time to sort through the masses of options to choose something. Plus, after shopping (even electronic shopping) I'm tired. So I changed the schedule to 1-2:30 for shopping and 2:30-3 for a rest and 3-4 for working on the desk room. And even so, the shopping ended up more like 1-3 pm and the desk room project didn't happen at all. That's right, I got nothing done on it. 

I'm thinking that maybe I need to rethink that, only work on the desk room the days I don't shop.

I also learned that I normally spend more than an hour on FlyLady things, which is why it seems like I spend all my time cleaning. I'm slow and inefficient, and giving myself an hour to do FlyLady things means that maybe two small things will get done. However, I happily spent an hour or so writing and close to an hour on cards every day. I exercised some of the days, not all, but some is better than none.

Now that the cards are done, this week my "holiday task" each day will mainly be baking, and it occurred to me that I should probably do that first thing in the morning, not wait until 11 am, because some recipes need time to chill or bake or whatever. Also, I need to be around when they're cooling so that the cats don't get them. So my slightly altered plan for this week is as follows:

• 7-8 am: get kids off to school. Pull out ingredients that need to come to room temperature, such as butter and eggs (hide them from the cats).
  
• 8-9 am: feed cats, eat breakfast, do basic routines (dishes, laundry)
  
• 9-11 am: bake a batch of cookies, interspersed with FlyLady stuff (such as when cookies are in the oven, etc.)
  
• 11-12 pm: write
• 12-1 pm: lunch, a short walk
• 1-3 pm: errands, shopping (on good-weather days)
  
• 3-4 pm: free time before the kids come home
  

My "free time" could be spent working on my calendar or decorating. But if I need a nap instead, those things can be done on the weekend, or the following week or two, when the twins (or even Rocket Boy) are home to help.

I am planning to make six batches of cookies this week:

• Monday: panocha squares. They're easy, and I need something easy because Monday is also Home Blessing Day and Grocery Shopping Day.
• Tuesday: gingerbread cookie bars. I couldn't find my recipe for these, so I googled them and found six million recipes that aren't the right one. I finally found one that looked like it might be close enough, so I'm going to make it and hope for the best.
  
• Wednesday: eggnog cookies. The kids don't like these, so that means they'll last for a while.
  
• Thursday: spritz. Haven't made these in AGES. I hope I remember how to use a cookie press. Also hope my cookie press hasn't rusted to bits. I know where it is (I think), and we have Rocket Boy's mom's old press too. Should be fine.
  
• Friday: lebkuchen. I am very nervous about this. I found a new recipe online that sounds really good, and I ordered the little wafer backing things from Amazon. But the recipe wants me to make my own spice mix and my own candied lemon and orange peel, and when am I going to do all that? We'll see about this one.
  
• Saturday (with the kids): candy cane cookies. An old favorite. Should be just fine.
  

I had the feeling I needed to review my cupboards, see if I actually have all the ingredients to make all these cookies. So I got out the recipes (googled them, printed them out, etc.) and I typed up how many of each thing I needed (flour, sugar, vanilla) and then combined them into one big list. The list is a little overwhelming. There are 35 different ingredients on it. Yes, many of them are spices, but still. Salted butter, unsalted butter, oil. Brown sugar, white sugar, powdered sugar, molasses, honey. Eleven eggs. The spices are ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, coriander, cardamom, star anise, and mace. I have all the spices except the star anise, which I cannot find anywhere. I thought I'd look at Whole Foods tomorrow.

I have the energy to do things like make a list like that -- and then I look at the list and collapse (mentally). And then I have to go back to taking deep breaths. Just relax. No need to get upset. It will all work out.

A few things happened this week to make me rethink my priorities a little. The first was just the experience of doing the cards. I love sending Christmas cards, despite all the bother. I enjoy going through the list, deciding who to send a card to. I like looking at the holiday stamps and deciding which ones to buy (I mostly went with otters and flowers in snow this year). I like choosing the cards themselves (at McGuckin's again this year). I like writing our holiday letter, tinkering with it, getting Rocket Boy's approval (or not, and then rewriting it). And then I start addressing and actually writing the cards, and it's such a trip down memory lane. There are no neutral cards. Each one makes me sit and think about the person/people it's addressed to. When did I last see them, what is my history with them, when am I likely to see them again (if ever). I don't write very much on most of the cards, but I do a great deal of thinking about them. I managed to do about 10 each day (in an hour), so I guess I didn't spend more than 6 minutes thinking about each person, but it felt like more. And the things I ended up writing on the cards seemed so incredibly inadequate compared with those thoughts.

I think that's why I keep sending cards, even though it seems more and more anachronistic (though they do say some young people still send them, so I'm not a total dinosaur). I don't do Facebook or whatever, so I don't have that connection with people. But once a year I sit down and think about everyone I know well enough to send a card to, and it's very moving. 

It's moving to receive cards from people too. Now that I've sent ours out, I sit back and wait to see what comes in (we've gotten one already). I love the holiday newsletters and the individual notes people write, even if it's just a quick "Happy holidays!" Some of the cards will have sad news -- it's more common as people get older, of course. But even when there's nothing but people's names, as on the card that came this week, you still know they took the time to write their names. Also, that particular card had a new address on it, which spoke volumes -- they've retired and moved closer to their daughter. And I think about when we visited them in their old house -- maybe 18 years ago or so? -- and how now we'll never go there again, if indeed we ever see them again. We're all getting older.

Another thing that happened this week I hardly want to think about. On Thursday afternoon I was out doing errands and shopping, and my phone rang. I was in a parking lot, so I answered, and it was the Boulder Valley School District (a recording) telling me that my kids' school was on "Secure Lockout." No other information. I also got an email about it. Maybe half an hour later, another call, same message except to add that police are acting on a "Safe 2 Tell" tip. Half an hour later, another call telling me the Secure Lockout is over and things are back to normal. And sometime after that there was an email from the principal explaining that they had gotten a tip that a student outside the school had a gun. They located the student, learned that it was just a BB gun, and cancelled the Secure Lockout. No information about what happens next with the student.

Just four days before this, the principal sent out a message saying that another student had died. No information as to how, but I'm assuming another suicide. If so, that's three so far this year. Unthinkable.

Another thing this week: we had another snowstorm, maybe 4 inches or so, and then we had WIND. Two nights of high winds, mostly gusts in the 60-70 mph range, but one gust was 89.9 mph. We were fine, no big deal, just minor branches down, but it's so scary. We're coming up on the one-year anniversary of the Marshall Fire. What's Christmas going to be like for all the people who lost everything last year? I think very little rebuilding has actually taken place yet, but I've read that people are now having to make hard decisions about what sort of rebuilding they CAN do, given that nobody had enough insurance coverage.

So, OK. We didn't have a school shooting -- but there was the threat of one. Our high winds didn't do much damage -- but they reminded me of last year's disaster. And doing the cards reminded me that connecting with other people is perhaps my favorite thing about Christmas (with Christmas cookies a close second?). 

It doesn't reduce the number of things I have to get done this week, next week, the week after. But it helps put them in perspective. I'll do what I can, and do my best not to sweat any of it, just have fun.

We did a few fun things this week: Teen B and I went to a play put on at the library yesterday, and in the evening we went to the Lights of December Parade downtown -- that was a lot of fun. And today both boys got flu shots (they've both had their Covid boosters already). This coming week there's nothing like that planned, but maybe something will come up at the last minute. If not, at least I'll bake a lot of cookies. Probably.