Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing, and listening to.

What’s Been Occurring

We enjoyed some warmer weather last week, which was followed by rain that led to some cold symptoms for Little Miss and me. That lasted three days and was not fun but at this point, we are used to it. The weather changes have been doing this to us every time and we’ve had these drastic weather changes about four times in the last couple of months.

It is very frustrating as we end up trying to figure out if we are actually sick or if our bodies are just trying to adjust to the temperature drop. Then, once we figure out it is the temp drop, the temperature rises and then we feel better — then the next week it drops again and we are back to feeling miserable. We just need some weather stability.

The kids were able to get outside at least one day during the week to have some fun in the yard before the cold and rain came back.

Honestly, I’m completely over the winter weather and my body is as well. The up and down in the temps and barometric pressure are affecting me both mentally and physically and I’m really looking forward to actual spring coming this year.

At the end of the week, we traveled an hour north to where we used to live to get our dog groomed at a new groomer and I stopped by to visit our former neighbor.

My husband and the kids also went to a local playground that has been torn down and remodeled from when we used to live there.

Last week wasn’t much to write home about, to be honest, so not sure why I am writing about it here. *wink*

What I’m Reading

I’ve been reading Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle by Ann Ross in the evening and it’s finally picking up a bit.

I got distracted by Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain one night this week when I saw it in my Kindle and have been enjoying reading that before I fall asleep at night.

Alas, I do have a book to finish for a book tour next week, but luckily I only have a couple of chapters of Anything But Simple by Lucinda Miller left to read.

After that I am reading through a book for an indie author to catch any typos and then I have an advanced reader’s copy of her upcoming book to read.

I will probably finish the Miss Julia book before I start the novella so I’m not reading a bunch of books at the same time yet again.

Little Miss and I are reading On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder again, which is fine with me because this is the book where they meet Nellie Olson. I love the stories about Laura and Nellie.

The Boy is reading a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman called Smoke and Mirrors.

I’m not sure which book my husband is reading right now. He reads much faster than me and it’s hard to keep up with which book he is on sometimes. Plus, I couldn’t ask him because he had taken our daughter to an Easter egg hunt while I was writing this.

What We’re Watching

I’ve been watching a lot of The Mary Tyler Moore Show this past week  (again) and that is pretty much all I’ve been watching, except for sermons. I’ve been putting sermons on and listening to them throughout the day to try to keep myself focused on things other than the craziness of life and health concerns.

We also watched a couple Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes. One of them was a premiere of a new episode thanks to a Christmas gift from my brother and sister-in-law. We receive new episodes ever two weeks on the Gizmoplex, a app on our Roku, or a site online.

If you don’t know what MST3K is about, it is essentially where the characters from the show watch a horrible movie and mock it while the viewer watches them mock it and then usually mocks the movie along with them.

Last weekend my husband, son, and I watched one that was truly horrible and had a blast making fun of it along with the MST3K group.

What I’m Writing

I have not been writing a ton, fiction or otherwise, but I hope to rectify that this week. I have been planning the next book by jotting down an actual — gasp! — outline but felt something was off as I started to write it. I hit on the reason for the off feeling and have changed the start of the book to reflect the plot and main characters better so hopefully, I can get going on it this week. I had my main characters becoming involved way too late and was also still struggling with getting to know my main character.

I’m not stressing about the delay in my fiction writing, but I do notice that when I get into a book, I feel less stressed because I am having fun focusing on something other than my health or whatever else is making me anxious.

I did share a fiction update on Friday and a Faithfully Thinking about depression earlier in the week. Earlier today I also shared a book review of Every Star in the Sky as part of a book tour.

• Faithfully Thinking: Dear Fellow Depression Sufferers, extend grace to those who simply don’t understand
• Fiction Friday: Some writing updates.

• Book Recommendation/Review: Every Star in the Sky by Sara Davison

What I’m Listening To

The Husband introduced me to a new band this week called The Shires:

He also introduced me to Aaron Watson, a singer who sings more classic country than the pop stuff that is on Country radio today.

Then I fell into some worship music including this one:

https://youtu.be/AwgWbIOt0ko

And this one:

And this awesome relaxation video for when I take my bp.

Now It’s Your Turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.