It was a week of re-emerging into the world. We went out to eat at a restaurant, I joined a swim class, I met with my book club in person, I went to a retirement party for a beloved former colleague...life almost felt like it was, if oddly, back to normal.
I finished three books. I'd been reading each of these for over a month. One was a book of meditations. One was a book of poetry. One was a book of folktales. I highly recommend all three. Click on the links for my reviews.
Yes, and...Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr (Daily Meditation Reading) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
100 Poems to Break Your Heart by Edward Hirsch (National Poetry Month) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Favorite Folktales from Around the World collected by Jane Yolen (Classics Club Spin) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman (Nonfiction Challenge)...47%
Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz (Chapter-a-Day Read)...35%
Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants (Naturalist Book Club)...10%
The Book Jumper by Methtilde Gläser...52%
Author/artist Austin Kleon has started a book club:
from the New York Times
Have any of you started a new craft during the pandemic?
Share it in the comments.
from the Atlantic
My friends and I at book club, meeting together in person this week
Good Thing #1
My husband and I ate at a restaurant.
It's our favorite local Mexican food restaurant.
We ate outdoors.
I had enchiladas and a margarita.
Good Thing #2
I joined a swim class.
My Y has not reopened,
but our town offers lots of classes, too.
I went to the first class Thursday.
Lots of my other friends from the Y have joined.
It was fabulous.
Good Thing #3
Our book club met together in person
for the first time in over a year.
We were so happy to see each other
that we didn't even talk about the book.
I'm happy you found your way to the Sunday Salon. Sunday Salon is a place for us to link up and to share what we have been doing during the week. It's a great way to visit other blogs and join in the conversations going on there.
Some of the things we often talk about at the Sunday Salon:
- What was your week like?
- Read any good books? Tell us about them.
- What other bookish things did you do?
- What else is going on in your life?
Other places where you may like to link up over the weekend are below. Click on the picture to visit the site.
My linkup for Sunday Salon is below.
What a great week Deb. I can't wait for things to start getting back to normal here, soon, I hope. I really enjoyed that article from The Atlantic, I am going to add it to my Positivity post today, and link to you. Thanks for sharing that. I love that your bookclub met for the first time in over a year. Is that Rae in the front row with you? Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThat's Rae! It's such a joy that blogging shrinks the world so that we can be friends with people who live so far away as well as close to home.
DeleteSounds like you are making the most of your regained freedom!
ReplyDeleteWishing you a great reading week
I feel like I have been reborn.
DeleteIt's so good to see things returning to some semblance of normal. My husband and I used to go to breakfast at a local restaurant every Monday in the "before times." It's been over a year since we've been there but we plan to go again on Monday.
ReplyDeleteBringing Nature Home looks like a book I need to add to my list.
Our naturalist group will be discussing it in June.
DeleteI've been edging into normal, too, with physical therapy and a visit to the nursery, along with a get together at a friend's house. Still not keen on a restaurant, though!
ReplyDeleteWe were outdoors and there was no one near us.
DeleteLook at all those happy faces in the photo of your book club! Isn't it wonderful?! We've been doing more with friends and it feels a little strange to feel like life is returning to normal after so many months! I'm trying not to be nervous, but our little county has finally moved to the lowest risk level, which is so encouraging. Being a tourist area, we'll still proceed with caution, especially in stores. Thank you for sharing the article from The Atlantic. Enjoy your weekend, Deb!
ReplyDeleteI am filled with happiness to be spending time with friends in person again.
DeleteHi there Debbie! There is nothing like Book Club in person! I know we are very fortunate to have been able to meet for the past couple of months already. And you got to eat at your favorite restaurant! It really was a good week for you! I'm so glad for you.
ReplyDeleteThe Book Jumper has a lovely cover.
I haven't done a proper Sunday Post, was already late with my Friday Post! So I just shared my Friday Post. Our week's been a bit hectic, but not too bad overall.
Hope you will have a good week ahead.
Gosh, it was so good to see everyone.
DeleteThat's great that you were able to meet with your book group in person and go to see your former colleagues. While I'm still not out and about, I'm thinking more about going out so it may take me a while but it's nice to start feeling excited about regaining some of our life! Hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend!
ReplyDeleteMaybe one day we can meet up for the Texas Book Festival in your town, Iliana!
DeleteSounds like a great week for you. It's both great and a little weird getting back to normal, isn't it? I'm still trying to get used to it. Hope you have a great week!
ReplyDeleteI kept my mask on at the retirement party but there were lots of others who were also masked.
DeleteI love your new blog header!
ReplyDeleteYour good things are awesome...I had some of the same ones this weekend: going to a restaurant and enjoying the food and margarita(s), lol; spending mask free time with my "vaccinated" son...since we are both vaccinated now. And hugs!
Enjoy your week. I love your book club photo.
I love to work on graphics.
DeleteThere is nothing I've missed more than the hugs.
I am excited to see that Austin Kleon has started a book club, shame its just in the US but I have requested this months from the library (I won't get it after everybody else but it doesen't matter really). Ohh buy the way, I bought a copy of Syllabus you recommended last week and am loving it, it may change my life, well my habits anyway.
ReplyDeletePS I have added you to my new blogroll.
Charlotte Burt's Books
Austin Kleon always gets me thinking.
DeleteIt makes me so happy that you are enjoying Syllabus. All of her little exercises are marvelous, I think.
I didn't learn a new craft but went back to my old hobbies. I bought a sewing machine, I had not taken mine when we downsized almost yikes 10 years ago. I went back to knitting and embroidery.
ReplyDeleteWe are far from being as open as you are, perhaps by September.
I spent a lot of time drawing over the past year and taking photos of birds and butterflies. I'd say my obsession with birds is new. I was especially taken with the person at the NYT piece who made her own alphabet blocks and the other person who made a puppet theater.
DeleteSo glad you got to your reading. I picked up a book by Kristen Hannah, thinking it would be historical, but it was different than I expected. I hope you read more good books this month. I got a little into knitting a while back.
ReplyDeleteI tried to learn to crochet a couple of years ago. I even had two different people try to teach me. It was a failure! I think I need to buy prettier yarn?
DeleteIsn't it great to meet in person again! Every day is like a new step forward.
ReplyDeleteJust to see those beautiful faces!
DeleteI'm so glad you're getting back to a new normal! I'm not quite ready to give up my mask indoors and I prefer to eat outdoors at restaurants (although we have nervously ventured inside once or twice) but we've definitely increased our activity since restrictions have eased for vaccinated people. I'm even hoping to get my hair cut this week! Fingers crossed!
ReplyDeleteI didn't start a new craft but I did revive my book blog. Now I'm debating about starting a travel blog too. We'll see.
Enjoy your week!
You should start a travel blog. And I'm so glad you revived your book blog.
DeleteYay! Glad you got to do all those things! My daughter and I ate at a restaurant too, our first time since before Covid. It was just fun to be out again, starting a new normal. And The Book Jumper sounds like my kind of book. Hope you're enjoying it!
ReplyDeleteAnyone who likes books would like The Book Jumper.
DeleteI didn't go out before Covid and don't plan to change that no. lol My daughter and her ex went to a restaurant with their son. Most places around here are not requiring masks but a lot of people are still wearing them.
ReplyDeleteI am still wearing a mask most places.
DeleteThat's great that you re-emerged this past week. Congrats. All three Good Things you mention are fabulous. Swimming too! You two deserve margaritas!
ReplyDeleteI am happy to be able to get out again.
DeleteWonderful that things are starting to reach a new normal for you! The Guns of August has long been on my list of books to read. One of these days!
ReplyDeleteThe Guns of August reads like the author knew all of these military leaders personally.
DeleteI'm running really late on this Sunday evening, but it's still Sunday . . . LOL.
ReplyDeleteIt's okay. You can even post on Monday...or Tuesday. I'm not a stickler.
DeleteHow wonderful to go to a restaurant, meet in person with book club, and do a public class all in one week! That all must have felt wonderful.
ReplyDeleteIt does, but part of me feels very insecure about venturing out.
DeleteYay for taking the steps forward! It is so hard! It must have felt so good to do all of that - we can't wait to go to a Mexican restaurant and get margaritas. I should look for one with outdoor seating maybe. And book club with friends! Even better. We are talking about having our first one in June. And I think we are going to call it "book club" but it will just be us hanging out and talking about what we are all individually reading. Lol.
ReplyDeleteThat Once in a Lifetime Chance book sounds interesting. I feel like that is so true right now. We have an opportunity to keep things we learned over the past year, discard the things that weren't working for us. Billy and I have learned to embrace slow days at home, something we weren't really that good at before COVID. We still like our adventures but we don't need them every weekend. Sometimes a day at home or on a picnic at the park is all we need.
I agree completely, Erin. I want to keep the good that I am taking from this experience. Slow days at home are one of those things for me, too.
DeleteSounds like a great week. I went to the grocery store and was startled to see people without masks. I'll have to get used to this slowly. Come see my week here. Happy reading!
ReplyDeleteWe've been seeing people without masks, sadly, for most of the pandemic.
DeleteAll the things you listed really ARE good things, aren't they? Eating in a restaurant is so special now. I hope it always feels special. For our anniversary we hit a steak house that has been closed for nearly a year. I am vegetarian now so a stuffed baked potato and salad occupied my plate but The Hub was in heaven with his Filet Mignon. I missed my first in-person book club meeting of this year because it conflicted with Senior Recognition Night but I look forward to the next one.
ReplyDeleteSo many things that were disallowed during Covid now feel special.
DeleteLove your three good things as always.. I am tempted to read the 100 Poems to break your heart.
ReplyDeleteThe author talks beautifully about the 100 poems. You would like it, I am almost sure.
DeleteWow! That sounds like a really great and fun week! Especially swimming.
ReplyDeleteI'm such a noodge that I probably would have tried to talk about the book at book club! Was this the Naturalist Book Club? I'm so ready to shed the mask. Counting down the days until Saturday when our statewide mask mandate is lifted!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it great to get to start doing those normal things again! I have never been a part of a book club but it sounds like fun. Yay for going out for Mexican. I hope that you have a great week!
ReplyDeleteWednesday was our first "girls night" in over a year! Church has dropped the mask requirement but I'll be wearing one this week because I feel Thursday and brush burned my face and it is easier to cover with a mask than makeup.
ReplyDeleteYou had SOME week! I so enjoyed book club ! Pretty soon, most things will open again.
ReplyDelete