Kimberly hosts the Sunday Post each week. I like to take part because it gives me an opportunity to look back at last week and forward to next week in both my personal life and my blog and book life! I also love to see what other people are doing and what books everyone is reading.
Personal life
2020 was a difficult year. I’m hoping for better things during 2021. But maybe that’s going to take some time.
Christmas
I made a Shutterfly calendar for my brother for Christmas and I liked it so much I ordered calendars for myself, my kids and my niece. The calendar had pictures of my parents–mostly from when they were young. The front of the calendar has a photo of the house where my brother and I grew up in Oregon. We all loved the house so much. My dad took a small, old house with no plumbing and rebuilt it adding plumbing and electricity. They moved to the house when I was a baby and I remember when I was a child there was a table saw in our living room since my dad worked on the house after work and on weekends.
We had a quiet, simple Christmas with multiple FaceTime meetings throughout the day with our kids and other family members.
More snow
Between Christmas and New Year’s we had a snowstorm with almost 10 inches of snow. The snow is still around. Our backyard is on the north side of our house so we still have a lot of snow back there.
Preparations for move
During these months my husband and I sold some of our furniture and other items. We’ve continued to find things to throw away, give away and things we want to take with us. My husband’s goal each week is to fill the garbage and recycling bins!
We are doing this move ourselves so we’ve started boxing what we won’t need for a few months.
We’re moving some furniture to one of our daughter’s homes next week. Since we’re renting a truck to do that we’re also taking boxes we’ve packed so far.
Once we finish packing as much as we can we will finish decluttering the house. All the pictures need to come off the walls, all the clutter packed away and massive cleaning plus some painting and any repairs that need to be done. We hope to be done with all that by the end of February so the house can go on the market in March.
Our new house
The builders finally “broke ground” on our house in the last week of December. They poured the foundation this week and hopefully can start the building soon. We’re hoping we can move into our new house by May.
Blog Life
I didn’t post much in November and December. Just too much stress, so I mostly stayed away from the internet. I did do a lot of reading in 2020–120 books…beating my Goodreads goal by 30 books!
The first two books I read in 2021 were both books I read when the books were first published–one in 2001 and the other in 1993. I don’t reread books very often, but I enjoyed rereading these in 2021–mostly because I didn’t remember all the details!
Posts
- Sunday Post: Christmas nearly here
- Can’t Wait Wednesday: The Hiding Place by Paula Munier
- January 2021 books on my list
Posts for next week
- What I read in 2020
- Can’t Wait Wednesday
- My favorite 2020 books
- My five favorite new authors in 202o
- Sunday Post
My books
What I’m reading
- No Past Forgiven by Valerie Keogh
Books I read last week
- The Track of the Cat by Nevada Barr
- Bitten by Kelley Armstrong
A few books I got recently
- Plan for the Worst by Jodi Taylor (ebook, Christmas gift)
- The Marriage Code by Brooke Burroughs (ebook, Christmas gift)
- A Royal Affair by Allison Montclair (ebook, Christmas gift)
- The Left-Handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix (ebook,Christmas gift)
- The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths (ebook, purchased)
- Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet (ebook, purchased)
- The Hive Queen by Robin Kirk (ebook, purchased)
What are you hoping for in 2021? What are you planning for next week?
I need to catch up with the Chronicles of St Mary’s and the Ruth Galloway series – both of which I’ve fallen behind on. And the Left-Handed Booksellers of London is a wonderful title… How exciting that the builders have actually made a start and it must be very cathartic going through the house and decluttering. It has now become imperative that we do the same thing, given there is a possibility of having someone to live with us… Have a great week, Jan:)
LikeLike
It’s certainly been a upsetting and changing world out there. We just stay the same at home. I’m rereading Alpha & Omega to prep for Wild Sign. I’m up to Dead Heat now. It’s been so long I don’t remember so much. As much as it’s a LOT of work, I love the process of moving / sorting / throwing and reorganizing in a new space! I hope it all goes smoothly.
LikeLike
I just love your calendar, I’m going to have to remember that idea for next year😁 Congrats on reading 120 books, wow!
LikeLike
I like to re-read books, too! What were the titles & authors of the two books you re-read to start out 2021?
I also like Garth Nix & Jodi Taylor. I will have to read their new books you mentioned!
LikeLike