What's Been Going On: Monday, 27 December - Wednesday, 29 December, 2021

 Lazy, lazy week around here!

This is one of my favorite times of year. Not because of the holidays; more because of the coziness of it all. The weather is usually pretty gross, sloppy and cold; my husband is usually off of work because the lab is closed or, at the very least, slowed down quite a bit, so if he’s not off entirely like he is this week, he’s only going in briefly. My daughter is home from school. It’s a time of year to be cozy and lazy and snuggly, and that’s what we’ve been doing this week, for the most part.

Here's what’s been going on so far this week!

 

Monday, 27 December, 2021

After coffee and breakfast, I got dressed. I tidied my daughter’s room a bit and brought up the gifts that remained in the living room. And then it was time to take down the tree! Woohoo!!! (I really like having my living room back.) I got everything down and packed away, and I swept the living room floor.

I then sat down for a bit, because my back was pretty cranky, so I played on the computer a bit. I unloaded the dishwasher, and then it was time for lunch. Afterwards, we bundled up for a very cold and windy three-mile walk (lots of complaining from my daughter. Can’t blame her too much there).

I read and napped a bit under my heated throw, and then warmed the leftover chili for dinner. I did my Duolingo, loaded and ran the dishwasher, put the remains of dinner away, and showered. I read, finishing Knocked Down by Aileen Weintraub, and watched one episode of FBI Files with my husband.

 

Tuesday, 28 December, 2021

While having breakfast and coffee, I wrote two book reviews (which won’t be posted for several months, since they’re ARCs from NetGalley that won’t be commercially released for a while yet), which took a large chunk of the morning. I love getting books from NetGalley, but I definitely find reviewing those books to be a little more challenging, since I want to be as thorough and professional about them as I can.

I got dressed, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and ran it again, took out the compost, and then it was time for lunch. I wasn’t hugely hungry, but I had to eat because I had to drive my son to the doctor. We’d scheduled this appointment a while back, but of course it got scheduled for the ONE DAY where we got measurable snow. The roads were absolutely hideous the entire way there; we only saw one single plow the entire way there. I slid past our turn and had to take the next one, and probably didn’t go over 20 mph the entire time. My view when my son was in the building:

 

While my son was getting his physical and flu shot, I spent 30 minutes doing my Read Harder of The Joy of Sects by Peter Occhiogrosso. Fortunately, the drive home was much better; the plows had been out and the roads were clear. Phew!

At home, I tidied and swept the living room, pulling down the blue-and-silver garland I’d put up for Hanukkah (I stored it with the Christmas tree, since Hanukkah is late next year and will intersect with Christmas). I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, prepared a batch of Oven Roasted Garlic Brussels Sprouts, and I chopped up an onion. I took out the compost, then came in to cook One Pan Pasta. 

After dinner, I biked for 25 minutes, showered, and put my daughter to bed. I began reading Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration by Reuben Jonathan Miller.

When my husband came upstairs, we watched The First Wave on Hulu. It’s about the first wave of COVID-19 and showcases the horrors that took place at Long Island Jewish Hospital Medical Center in New York. I highly recommend it if you have the mental space to watch it. If you’ve lost a loved one to COVID, however, take care; this is absolutely not an easy watch, but it does a tremendous job of illustrating the suffering of the patients and the strain on the doctors and nurses caring for them- both physical and emotional. It’s by National Geographic; if you have cable, they may show it on that channel as well. There’s a LOT of suffering in this documentary, though, so be careful if you’re not quite feeling ready to witness that.

 

Wednesday, 29 December, 2021

Breakfast and coffee, grocery list, dressed, and I was out the door! I hit two grocery stores today; at the local store, in terms of good deals, I bought around four pounds of bananas, three containers of baba ghanoush, and two packages of cheese ends, all marked down, which made me happy!

At home, I put the groceries away and did an hour of volunteer work. I had to email the folks from the foundation with a question, but in the meantime, I began compiling lists of food pantries in Tennessee (and already began to rage about the 2374832749832 requirements some of these places have for people down on their luck, just trying to stay alive. There’s a whole lot of racist, classist, power tripping nonsense that goes on in far too many of these places, and the language they use to speak about or to their clients is often completely disrespectful and othering. I’ve got rage for DAYS about this).

After lunch, I loaded and ran the dishwasher, tidied the living room, scooped the litterbox, and folded and put away two loads of laundry. My daughter joined me for 30 minutes of Read Harder- I’m SO close to finishing this book!!! If we read tomorrow, I’ll likely get through it. I read Halfway Home for a bit, then dozed.

I threw the Aldi pizza (with mushrooms I chopped and added) into the oven, and after dinner, I sat down to write this post. I did my Duolingo and showered (skipped biking because my contacts were bothering me, so I just wanted to take them out, which turned out to be a terrible idea, since my legs were bothering me all night long too. I really needed that exercise!), then read for an hour before my husband came upstairs. We watched two episodes of Killer in Plain Sight (I think that’s what it was called) before going to bed.

 

That’s it for now! We’re supposed to get 3-5 inches of snow on Saturday, so that’ll make things interesting. I’m glad we at least have more time before my daughter goes back to school, because case numbers are so high around here that sending the kids back seems like an absolutely terrible idea. I don’t even know what to think about that right now.

I hope you’re all doing well and staying healthy! Laundry, volunteer work, and cleaning for me today, and we’ll see what else I can fit in. Definitely exercise of some kind! ; )