Category Archives: Personal Life

December 31, 2025 · 1:00 am

What I Read in 2025

A pair of glasses, possibly reading glasses, lying on a page of an opened book that has a map drawn on it. Happy (almost) New Year, readers!

In January of 2013, I began blogging about everything I’d read that previous year.  This tradition began when my dad asked me how many books I’ve read in my entire lifetime.

I couldn’t begin to give him an answer to that question, but it did make me decide to start keeping track from that moment forward. The previous posts in this series are as follows: 2024, 2023, 2022,  2021, 2020, 2019, 2018,  2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

In 2025 I had a lot of DNFs of full-length novels due to some very difficult times my family and I have gone through these past couple of years, so I did not read as much nonfiction as I normally would. Short stories and similar types of writing were much more my speed in 2024 and 2025, especially if they were closer to the cheerful end of the scale.

Thirty full-length books read is honestly impressive given everything I was dealing with behind the scenes, and I have hope that 2026 will be easier for all of us. Some of them were comforting rereads, too, to be honest.

Books I never finished are only occasionally included in my lists of what I read. For example,  if there was something memorable about that tale and I want to remember that, yes, I have already tried to read it, I’ll add it in. The other 99% of the time, I do not.

 

Autobiographies, Biographies, and Memoirs

“Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America, a True Story of Abduction, Adoption, and Separated Twins” by Barbara Demick 

“No One Taught Me How to Be a Man” by Shannon T.L. Kearns

“Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World” by Jessica Slice 

“Little House in the Big Woods” by Laura Ingalls Wilder 

“Farmer Boy” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Little House on the Prairie” by Laura Ingalls Wilder 

“On the Banks of Plum Creek” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

“By the Shores of Silver Lake” by Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

Fiction

“A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman

“Isaac’s Song” by Daniel Black 

“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens 

“Reindeer Moon” by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

“The Blue Castle” by L.M. Montgomery 

History

“Born: The Untold History of Childbirth” by Lucy Inglis

 

Horror

“The Hunger We Pass Down” by Jen Sookfong Lee (My review) 

“Horsefly” by Mireille Gagné (My review) 

“I Found the Boogeyman Under My Brother’s Crib” by Ben Farthing (My review)

“I Found a Lost Hallway in a Dying Mall” by Ben Farthing (My review)

 

Psychology and Sociology

 

“The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution” by Dixon Chibanda MD 

 

Science Fiction and Fantasy

“Apis” by Liz Boysha  (My review)

“The Testaments” by Margaret Atwood (My review)

“The Golden Key” by George MacDonald

“Mob Lodge” by Krrish Anand (My review)

“The Last of What I Am” by Abigail Cutter (My review)

“Ghosts, Trolls and the Hidden People” Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir 

 

Science, Health, and Medicine

“Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection” by John Green 

“Beyond Limits: Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care” by Shelley Sella, MD

 

Young Adult

“Where the Water Takes Us” by Alan Barillaro 

“For the Rest of Us: 13 Festive Holiday Stories to Celebrate All Seasons” by Dahlia Adler (My review) 

“The Lost Girls” by Sonia Hartl 

 

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December 3, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Earliest Memory

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Black and white photo of a baby sleeping in a crib.

This is not my brother, but it is what I was hoping to find in that crib!

As this is the third time this has been a prompt for the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge, I’ll provide links to my previous two answers: eating apples and tire swings.

This memory happened in the same old farmhouse as my first two posts. To be honest, any one of my three answers could be my genuine first memory. When you’re little things can be a little fuzzy as far as which moment happened first.

In this snapshot from my past  I am walking around the house looking for my baby brother which means I was probably about three years old when this occurred.  I liked knowing where my brother was and what he was doing.

There was a wooden crib in one of the rooms of the house, and I thought it was a good place to check.

I walked quietly into the room and past the crib in case he was asleep. He was not in there, so I decided to check the kitchen.

That is where this snippet of memory ends. I can only assume he was with mom in the kitchen, and I wish I could remember what happened next.

 

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December 2, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books About Seasonal Affective Disorder


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A person’s hand holding up a very bright lightbulb that does not appear to be attached to any power source! Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that happens during the same season of the year every year. The winter blues are a milder condition similar to this one that has some of the same symptoms and many of the same treatment options, although some people also use that term colloquially to refer to SAD.

As someone who has SAD and struggles with winter because of it, I thought I’d use this week’s freebie post to share some books about it. Both fiction and nonfiction titles are included. I haven’t read most of them yet, but I’d like to!

1. The Girl and the Grove by Eric Smith

2. Super Chill: A Year of Living Anxiously by Adam Ellis

3. Light Boxes by Shane Jones

4. Stay and Fight by Madeline Ffitch

5. Winter Blues: Everything You Need to Know to Beat Seasonal Affective Disorder by Norman E. Rosenthal

6. Defeating SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder): A Guide to Health and Happiness Through All Seasons by Norman E. Rosenthal

 

If you have a medical condition or conditions, which books about it or them are you aware of? Would you recommend reading those books to people who want to learn more?

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September 24, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: How I Handle Bad Days

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

These past several years have included some pretty tough times for my family, including death and multiple other relatives who have had health problems ranging from minor day surgeries to very serious diagnoses that needed emergency or urgent surgery and rehabilitation, radiation therapy, or other treatments afterwards.

Needless to say, my coping mechanism toolbox is well-stocked and has been heavily used since 2020.

This is what I’ve done to take care of myself when I was part of the support system for others:

Ignoring the news

I do what I can to help, but sometimes I simply haven’t had a single speck of leftover energy for paying attention to the terrible things that happen in our world. This isn’t something I’m proud of, it’s just the reality of life sometimes. You have to take care of your own basic needs before taking care of others.

 

A white woman walking her black dog in a forest. They look content and relaxed.

Not me. I just love this stock photo.

Exercising

Specifically, I have found weightlifting, kickboxing, dancing, and long, brisk walks to be distracting and helpful. It’s harder to keep worrying and ruminating when you’re doing a burpee, or trying to get an entire workout done with excellent form,  or just saw the cutest dog ever walk by you on the trail. (Although I say that about multiple dogs per walk because they’re all delightful).

 

Ice Cream Sundaes

Yes, I mean the vegan or dairy-free kind. I’m so lucky to have lots of flavours to choose from these days as that wasn’t the case when I was a kid. Sometimes a sweet treat really hits the spot when you’re anxiously waiting for a text or call to see how the patient is doing. (I do not recommend sneaking a sundae into the hospital waiting room, though. Ha!)

 

Naps

The world can feel like a much more hopeful place if you can close your eyes for twenty minutes and get some rest.

 

Funny Shows 

My spouse loves to watch dramatic, tense shows as a distraction. I need funny, silly things to watch instead where the worst thing that can possibly happen is that the family dog gets a second dinner one night due to a miscommunication.

 

Haircuts 

There’s something refreshing about brief but important moments of self care like this. I like the sensation of having my head gently rubbed and my hair brushed in preparation for the haircut. It’s soothing.

 

Visiting the Library 

It’s nice to be surrounded by people who are (hopefully) having good days when I’m having a bad one because it reminds me that this, too, shall pass. Also, books are a fantastic distraction from the painful stuff in life.

 

Body Scan Meditation

This is the best type of meditation if you ask me! There’s something so satisfying about focusing on relaxing one part of your body at a time.

 

I look forward to reading everyone else’s responses. There’s still room in my toolbox for other self-care options, although I hope I won’t have to use them anytime soon now that things seem to have calmed down for everyone.

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September 10, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: What Is My Superpower?

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

I believe that the last time we had this topic I talked about my uncanny ability to look away from the screen just as something exciting happens in a show. It’s not something I ever do on purpose, I simply get a little bored sometimes depending on which show my spouse picked.

Let’s pick another answer this time.

A white woman wearing a grey sweatshirt is listening to a conch shell at the beach on an overcast and what appears to be somewhat chilly day. Listening is another superpower of mine. I’m good at making people feel heard – so far as I’ve been told – and helping them to figure out what to do without actually ever giving advice.

Here’s the thing: most people don’t need advice in most cases in my experience, especially if they’re not directly asking for you to tell them what to do.

There are often factors outsiders aren’t aware of, or they’ve already tried X, Y, and Z without success and truly do not need yet another well-meaning but ultimately unhelpful person suggesting those options for the tenth time this week.

What they need is a sympathetic ear and someone to validate how difficult and frustrating life can be at times. If they feel heard, seen, and maybe even loved depending on how close I am to them, it can become much easier to try something new, pick themselves up and try again after disappointment, work on one of their flaws, or tackle whatever else it is they’re struggling with that can rarely if ever be fixed by an outsider.

It’s sort of like dancing in that I try to match their energy and glide into the rhythm of the conversation without pushing it into any particular direction.

They’re smart. They’ll figure it out on their own. 🙂

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August 26, 2025 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Things I Love About Museums


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

As we have the option to discuss non-bookish stuff for this week’s freebie, today I’m going to gush about one of my favourite hobbies: visiting museums.

Closeup of the head of a t-Rex skeleton that’s displayed in Belgium. Its mouth is opened and you can see teeth sticking out of it. I was homeschooled for several years growing up, and we sometimes visited local museums as part of our education. Those early experiences taught me not only to love museums as well as learning in general. It’s exciting to be so close to paintings, pottery, or other items that are hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions of years old. For a brief moment, it almost feels like stepping into a Time Machine and actually going to visit those places!

Here are ten things I love about museums:

1) Reading the plaques

You can learn so many interesting details about an item this way.They can include funny stories about the creator or unusual facts about the piece. For example, sometimes artists have reused old canvases to create new paintings, but modern scanning techniques can still kind of tell what was originally painted there.

2) Windows into the past

Did you know that watermelons used to have much thicker rinds and whiter flesh? This painting by Giovanni Stanchi shows a cut watermelon that doesn’t look much like our modern fruit at all. It’s a little detail about the past that I never would have known had I not seen that painting.

3) Likeminded people

Not everyone is interested in science, art, or history, so I relish the opportunity to be surrounded by people who share these interests regardless of if or how much I talk to them.

4) Peace and quiet

So many public places are noisy and overstimulating that it makes me smile to enjoy a quiet place that doesn’t have any flashing lights or heavy scents.

5) Truth

Yes, sometimes our understanding of certain things changes as new evidence is uncovered, of course, but that’s not what I’m talking about. One of the downsides of social media is how easy it is for half truths and sometimes completely made up stories to circulate there. When I’m at a museum, I can generally be reassured that what I’m looking at or reading about actually happened. It’s not photoshopped or a LLM hallucination. That painter really did exist. This fossil really does represent a living creature that lived X number of years ago.

6) A bonding opportunity 

There’s nothing like visiting a museum with a loved one and talking about what you find there. I have so many happy memories of doing this over the years from everyone from my preschool-aged nephews to my grandparents and everyone in-between.

7) Beauty

Museums are filled with so many beautiful old paintings, ceramics, outfits, swords, fossils, displays, and other things to enjoy. I don’t know about all of you, but I need more beautiful things to think about in life!

8) Repentance

On the other hand, not everything in museums is pleasant to look at or think about, but I do see the benefit in acknowledging the ugly parts of them and taking note of how future generations can avoid making the same mistakes. It takes courage to admit what one’s country or culture got wrong in the past. I think there’s something to be said for talking about these things, now more than ever.

9) Music and dance

I love music and dancing, so any display or special event that includes them will have my attention immediately.

10) The gift shop

I rarely buy anything in them, but it sure is fun to window shop!

How many other TTT bloggers also love museums?

 

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July 2, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Board and Card Games I Like

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

As an adjacent hobby, I also love jigsaw puzzles and similar sorts of things that don’t quite fit into today’s theme.

I don’t get to play board and card games very often, but I  love them! My preference is for games that don’t require you to memorize a long list of rules because this is a hobby I pursue for relaxation and socialization purposes. (Sorry, chess!) Whether I win or lose is pretty far down on the list of things I worry about, so games of chance are perfectly fine by me.

Here are some of my favourites:

  • Dutch Blitz (which is the only time my otherwise stoic German-Mennonite extended family is noisy on game nights!)
  • The Game of Life
  • Clue
  • Risk
  • Sorry!
  • Scrabble
  • Battleship
  • Boggle
  • Concentration

Closeup of scrabble tiles. Some are turned upside down, but you can see an a, q, t, and r tiles lying face up. As well as any sort of cooperative board games where all of the players band together to, say, defeat a bad guy or find the materials they need to fix their spaceship and leave a dry desert planet before everyone runs out of water.

Yes, I know that most of these games have been around for a very long time. It’s largely due to the fact that my grandparents taught us to play most of them from old card and game sets they’ve had since, I don’t know, maybe the 1960s or 1970s?

I look forward to seeing what you all suggest and hope to discover some fun games that are a bit more modern.

 

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June 25, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Do You Follow Celebrity Gossip? Why or Why Not?

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

A pineapple sitting in front of a bright yellow wall. It has a pair of sunglasses hanging on the fruit as if the pineapple has eyes. The green leaves of the pineapple are still attached to it and look like a spiky hairdo. Eh, occasionally?

I have to admit to paying more attention to it for a while when the Covid-19 pandemic first began because I needed a distraction from the traumatic ways it was affecting humanity in general as well as the lives of so many people I know (or knew) and love. Those were years I hope to never see repeated in any way.

There was one star who shall remain nameless here who kept having children with different women he wasn’t married or otherwise committed to (so far as I could tell, of course). As in, he was fathering multiple children per year for a while there. It was something I found so unusual that I did let my morbid curiosity get the best of me as yet another birth announcement was released every few months or so.

This was not a hobby I’m proud of, and I have gone back to avoiding celebrity news as much as humanly possible now.

Some of it always seems to leak through, though, even if I do something as simple as look up what new projects my favourite entertainers have coming out.

Those generally positive tidbits of information are something I may save for small talk when nothing else is working and I’m trying to guide the conversation away from topics I don’t want to discuss with a particular person or anyone at all. Most people like babies, weddings, and/or pets, for example, so talking about a celebrity who recently had a kid, got married, or adopted a pet from an animal shelter is something the average person will find neutral if not endearing.

(I generally ignore negative stories unless there’s a rare pressing need to do otherwise. Celebrities are fellow human beings, so I try to give them as much privacy as possible unless they’re, say, harming others with their bad choices or something. Everything else is none of my concern…but I still want to know when their next film, tv series, book, or album is coming out. Ha!)

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June 11, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Things to Do in the Summer

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

I know we’ve had this theme for WWBC in the past at least once, but I’m purposefully not looking up my old post or posts about it. Let’s see what my brain comes up with this time.

What do I like to do during the summer?

A black Labrador retriever who is wearing a rainbow-themed fuzzy faux feather wrap around his neck. Is this from a Pride Parade, perhaps? He looks interested in whatever he’s peering at. Eating fresh, local produce. There are a limited number of options for Canadian produce between about November and April or May, and most of those involve apples, cabbage, or other root vegetables. Due to this, I relish all of the seasonal and often more delicate foods that are abundant the rest of the year. Yay for berries, stone fruit, tomatoes, and more!

Going swimming. Yes, some Canadians enjoy a nice Polar Plunge (briefly swimming or wading in the Great Lakes in the dead of winter), but I am so not one of them. Give me sunlight on my skin and enough time for the summer heat to actually warm up the water to non-freezing temperatures before I’ll even think about dipping my toes in at a beach or pool.

Taking morning walks. Even on hot days, the weather can still be decent if you go outside before the sun has warmed up everything too much.  Evening walks can be nice, too, depending on the high temperature of the day.

Attending festivals and parades. I love being surrounded by happy people while celebrating books, cultural events, various minority groups, food, music, or other uplifting topics. You’ll often see dogs walking around with their people at these events, too! I like to pretend that everyone’s dogs know exactly who or what is being celebrated and wholeheartedly endorse it.

Travelling lightly. That is to say, in the summer there’s no need for a winter jacket, mittens,  hat,  scarf, long underwear, or any other extra stuff to remember to put on when I’m out and about. I love walking around in shorts, sneakers, and a t-shirt with nothing to carry in my hands other than maybe a bottle of water.

Visiting nature. I think you all could probably guess I’d pick this. Summer can be tricky for park visits depending on the heat and humidity levels and what the air quality index looks like, but on the cooler and less smoky days* I’m definitely up for a picnic, a few rounds of nature or other types of photography, some sightseeing, or a stroll through a forest or flower garden.

*Canada, and I believe many parts of the U.S. as well, have had massive forest fires in recent years during the summer. This can make the air quality too poor for exercising or non-essential outdoor time depending on how bad things get.

So this is my list. What can I say other than I’m easy to please and can amuse myself on a budget. 🙂

 

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May 7, 2025 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite TV Shows and Why

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Black and white photo of a pair of black-rimmed glasses and a tv remote sitting on leather couch. I have cut way back on watching TV these past several years.

When I do sit down to watch a tv show these days, I have a strong preference for lighthearted programs that do not remind me of any of the difficult stuff going on in the world or in life in general at the moment.

So what do I like to watch?

Young Sheldon. This was a prequel to The Big Bang Theory that I’m slowly catching up on. It shows what Sheldon was like as a preteen and teenager and why he behaved the way he did as an adult. I appreciate the kindness Sheldon often experiences in this show as well as all of the references to life in a small town in the 1990s.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It feels like classic, episodic Star Trek to me with the characters visiting a new planet or meeting a different species of alien every week. It’s nice to see problems resolved in this universe so cleanly in most cases.

The Orville. This was originally written as a friendly parody of Star Trek, but it’s become something that honestly feels a lot more like a Star Trek show than, say, Discovery. (Which was not a bad show or anything! It simply didn’t have the time for the lightheartedness or unbridled hope for the future that I prefer in this universe). I love the optimism and humour in The Orville and am thrilled it will have another season coming out at some point.

The Simpsons. Yes, I know this show is an older one, but I’ve started slowly watching beginning from season 1 which came out many years before I  was old enough for such programs. I think I’m on season 2 or 3 now, but I enjoy the silliness of it all and how, no matter what happens in an episode, just about everything will go back to the way it was by the time the next episode rolls around.  The writers have “predicted “ some things in their plots that actually came true, too!

The Last of Us. This is one of the few exceptions to my preference for lighthearted, fluffy shows because it’s so far removed from any of the scary stuff happening in our world right now that I can generally watch it without being reminded of what I watch tv to try to forget. I liked the explanation of how cordyceps takes over the human body in the first season, and I’m hoping the characters will find a cure for it by the time the last episode airs. That would be such a refreshing ending for the zombie genre.

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