This Is Not Becoming a Book Blog

Even though the last three posts were book reviews, I'm still writing here about everything. Well almost everything. I am trying to catch up on recording books I've read, though. I have a tendency to forget details or even that I've read a book, so it's feeling important to me to make my list more complete. There are so many books that have never made it into this blog and while I'm not going to try and catch up fully, I am going to try and fill in some of the blanks.


So what's going on? Right now I'm in Tennessee. My sister lives here. She's girl number 3 in the family, and child number 5. I'm girl number 1; child number 2, in case you were wondering.  She's 8 years younger than me, is married and has three boys aged 13, 9 and 9 (twins, not a typo).

She ambulates via wheelchair and generally makes people forget that fact. I love that about her. I think if I used a wheelchair I might have a neon sign installed on my forehead insisting on bonus points and gold stars. Not so much with this one. The sign on her forehead says, "Let's make Nutella cookies and do some fun crafts!" Yes, you do want to be her friend.

Recently she broke her leg for the second time this year. Wheelchairs cause brittle bones. Just sayin. It was a nasty break above the knee. So yes, that's the femur. The biggest bone in the body. Snap. Crackle. Ow. They didn't do surgery because she won't ever be bearing weight on it, but that ginormous cast and the challenges she already has with limb function have pretty much grounded her. The rather mysterious illness (seriously, we don't know exactly what happened) that put her in the chair makes her whole body weak, so she's not one of those amazing folks with giant muscles in her upper body. She struggles for nearly every move, and remarked tonight that she finds sweeping the floor with a broom to be a serious workout. I know it sounds sappy, but I really do think about that when I blithely sweep and wish I didn't have to instead of being grateful I can. Anyway, she hasn't been able to drive, do much cooking (her "thing") or be in her chair all the time. Her husband works from home, so he's been a good partner all these weeks and handled the school runs and errands, but he is out of town this week.

So I got in my snazzy red car and drove down here. The trip went well because I like to drive and it was extremely beautiful country all the way. I listened to Shakespeare's Star Wars Trilogy and The Happiness Project and laughed, cried and solved all my problems in one trip.

The foliage in Southern VA and Eastern TN
was dramatic, especially with a dusting of snow. 

Chilly at a gorgeous rest stop. 

Quintessential

Now I'm just trying to be useful by doing the school runs and errands, catching up on the garden chores and helping her keep house. Nothing major, just the simplest of tasks, but for a creative woman like her, who works really hard to make a home, it matters that things not feel totally out of control. I'm puttering around, helping her with the clutter that's accumulated over a month of recuperation, helping her ease back into independence, and enjoying plenty of minutes of just companionable hanging out. And Nutella cookies.

I made her laugh with a secret, silly question right as my
nephew took the photo. I kinda love this one of us.