“I’m going to take a quick shower and then we’re going to do your science,” I told my 9-year-old daughter yesterday afternoon.

She looked at me with wide “innocent” eyes. “Why don’t you take a bath instead?”

“Excuse me? Are you trying to push off your science longer?”

“I’m just saying you should take some time to relax,” she responded with a serious face and a hint of a smile. “Soak your sore knee in some Epsom salts.”

I did as she suggested and she gained another half an hour of freedom, but, alas, she did not distract me to the point I did not remember that we still had her Science and History to do for her homeschool lessons.

Sometime in the week, I injured my knee by sleeping, as people in their mid-40s so often do. It was actually an issue I’d been having off and on with the knee but I guess it all finally came to a head and the pain was so severe I woke up twice in tears Wednesday and Thursday night but didn’t get ibuprofen or an ice pack like I should have since straightening the leg and relaxing the muscle helped.

During the day yesterday it felt fine, thankfully, and last night it didn’t hurt so hopefully it will heal on its own.

On Tuesday the weather was beautiful so Little Miss and I went to my parents’ house to see my brother who was visiting my parents. He wrote about the visit on his blog Unfinished Person. (https://stillanunfinishedperson.blog/2024/03/14/day-off-time-with-my-dad-and-with-family/)

He had driven over about 90 minutes from where he lives to travel with my dad to his physical therapy.

The weather was so nice that Little Miss and I sat out on my parents’ deck and I read a book while she pretended to read a book but actually searched for ladybugs to keep captive in a small dish with some grass. I’m not sure what that was about but before we left both bugs died. She has since made another terrarium to capture more ladybugs.

On Thursday the weather was nice again so Little Miss and I traveled 20 minutes to meet our friends at a playground. The kids had a lot of fun creating games on the equipment and chasing each other all over.

Later that night the little girl Little Miss played with the most developed symptoms of a stomach bug so I spent all day and night Friday waiting for one of us to throw up. So far that has not happened so I think we might be in the clear since stomach bugs are usually very contagious and hit very quickly. I’ll keep you updated *wink*. Luckily the little girl she was playing with was feeling much better the next morning too, so hopefully, it was a very quick-moving illness.

Today I am taking it easy after a stressful few days because Zooma the Wonder Dog is sick again. She has chronic colitis and other stomach issues and that has flared up again. It might have been all less stressful except I had a disagreement with our vet’s office because the vet didn’t want to give us medicine for her unless we set up an annual exam, but they said they couldn’t set up the exam right away because they were booked a couple of months out.

The problem was that our dog was sick now and needed the medicine and they weren’t offering an emergency appointment. Even if they had, we can’t really afford an office visit. If they hadn’t treated her for this same condition in the fall, I wouldn’t have asked for the medicine. They finally agreed to send the medicine by mail (since it is a 45-minute drive and she wasn’t in dire straights yet) but told us in a rather passive-aggressive and annoyed way that we had to have that annual exam before they would help again.

Today she is still not feeling well – lethargic and obviously in some sort of discomfort in her stomach, but she is acting better than she was when we thought we were going to lose her in the fall. We set up the annual exam but I probably will look for another vet in between.

I joked with my mom that I have enough issues trying to manage my own chronic illness and now I have to worry about the dog’s too. Such is life I suppose.

Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing is on a blog tour this week and earlier today I was tagged in the most beautiful review I have ever received for any of my books.

I plan to share a separate post about the review later on, but today I just wanted to mention how much the review meant to me. It was a bright spot in a week where I felt like I was slipping into depression. I’m overwhelmed with a lot in life and I’ve had some very good days but I’m starting to crack under the worry a bit. My mom gave me some Bible verses earlier today and they are helping as well but reading the nice review – something kind in a world that doesn’t seem very kind at times – also helped and made things feel less gloomy.

I’m not naïve enough to think that everyone who reads my book will enjoy it. I wouldn’t expect that. Not everyone enjoys the same books. On this tour I had a couple of people share about the book but not leave a review. It’s possible they forgot or it’s possible they didn’t want to leave a review because it wasn’t their cup of tea. I don’t care either way but what stands out to me is that they still shared about the book to let others know about it in case it is their cup of tea. That means a lot to me.

Cooler weather will be coming again this week so I am sure I will find myself in front of a fire at some point reading a book. I’ve been reading a lot this week but am still on the same books I’ve been reading for the last couple of weeks. It has been nice to just read for fun, which I do anyhow, but sometimes I have books I agreed to read for tours, too.

I will be starting a book for a book tour soon but I have plenty of time to read it luckily. Of course, I will ramble about what I am reading more tomorrow in my Sunday Bookends post.

As part of my relaxing today I am watching Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and in the episode I am on, a man keeps “dying” at various places in town. Little Miss and I love to watch Newhart together with The Husband and I said that the “dead” guy looks like Tom Poston who plays George on the show. Little Miss agreed and after a few more looks we decided it was him. A quick search on Google showed that it was him. He didn’t even speak the entire episode.

Thanks to me, I think Little Miss is hooked on Dr. Quinn, and soon I’ll have her addicted to Little House. *insert evil laugh here* She’s already hooked on Newhart and when we turn on an episode she claps her hands and says, “Yeah! Newhart!” It’s so funny to see a 9-year old doing that.

I’m off for now to make some dinner and then settle in for an evening of reading books and watching either more Dr. Quinn or Little House or Lark Rise to Candleford.

What are you up to today and how was your week last week? I’d love to hear/read about it in the comments.