How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

This was for one of my two remaining book groups.

I enjoyed it, everyone did.

Room clean out

In April or May, expecting all the kids home for a week in June, youngest and I talked about her old bedroom. It was still quite full. 

She went through it, packing what she wanted to take. The week she was here, we took a very full load to the resale shop. 

My husband has a second full load packed in the SUV as we speak, I am dropping that off to the resale shop this morning. 

And then we are mostly left with paper. So much paper. I plan to take that to a shredding service tomorrow. 

The room will then be clear of everything but furniture for the first time in several decades. 

The upstairs beds will be made and then covered with dust covers. All that linen is already washed.

When everyone is headed home, the next time, we will have very little prep. And that makes a huge difference. 

Their June visit we had an enormous amount of prep including cleaning out the three car garage. When there is that much prep, honestly, one questions whether or not the company is worth it. 

Having the upstairs cleaned out, greatly decluttered, makes a big difference in how it looks and how easy it is to clean. 

20th anniversary

July 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of this blog. 

My husband and I have now been married for 40 years. 

The kids are 36, 32, 28 this year. 

How time flies. 

The story of the washer

As it turns out, the new washer, which died a month ago, was purchased in December of 2024. So it is 1.5 years old. And the full warrantee expired December 2025, 6 months ago.

The local repair main arrived, Friday, after a three week wait, and said it was the electronic/computer board. He did not have one in stock. He sent me to his sales/service store. 

At the store, Friday afternoon, they printed off all the detailed info on my washer and had me call GE customer service. 

Customer service was very nice and had someone at my house, with the correct parts, Monday morning, no charge.

Meanwhile, middle has washed all the linen and other odds and ends from her siblings and niece’s week long visit. Big help.

It was a little tough

For the first time in ages, all our kids were home at the same time, plus granddaughter’s first visit here, for a full week. 

Of course my washing machine died just before they arrived and there was a three week wait for a repairman. 

This is tradition, other years we have had air conditioner, stove, and one year the dishwasher die as various company was set to arrive. It is a thing.

Three weeks without a washer is a long time. My personal solution was to have middle wash a couple loads and then I simply bought more clothes to tide me over.

Prepping for this visit sent me down a much needed decluttering rabbit hole of resurgence. 

The room granddaughter (age 2) slept in had become a depository of cast off furniture. We got rid of 75% of it only keeping a chair, bed, nightstand, and the metal cabinet where we store photos.

Youngest had a long list of preplanned work. She did it all - cleaned out her old room, replaced our PC monitor, sorted all the extra cords, formatted an excel list of quilt groups. She also put in a grocery order for herself and did most of her own cooking which simplified the vegetarian issue.

I had just settled into the routine when the week was up and they all vanished again. 

But the decluttering continues. In the last two weeks I have taken about 6 SUV loads to the resale shop, and sold a ton off my front porch via Facebook Marketplace.

I bailed - Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard

Once upon a time I could have listened to this book, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine, and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard  looking up interesting facts as I went. Now, not so much. Not even the car, captive, helped. 

I bailed after an hour, tried to listen to the review on SuperSummary and bailed again. 

As it worked out, I could not attend the book group  anyway, so it did not really matter. 

Side note - 

AUTHOR	Candice Millard
NARRATOR	Paul Michael

This is the second time this has happened recently. The authors voice did not match the narrator. The last time it was a male author and a female reader. It bugged everyone in my book group who read in audio format. This book it was a female author and a male narrator. This creates a mental discord that my book group members just never get over, it prevents one from settling into the book. 

Island of the Sea Women by Lisa See

Island of the Sea Women by Lisa See (2019).

Yes, two books based on Korea in a row. I listed to both these books on our Audible account.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee in May, Island of the Sea Women in June.

Both of these were book group assignments, two different groups.

I liked both these books a lot. Extremely well written. They were both unusual books, the story lines and characters were not every day.

As I mentioned previously, I had no idea what a tough time Korea had with Japan. With this book, I realized Korea had a tough time with itself and everybody. 

I am still only listening in the car, so my pace is slower. But I am reading consistently.

Lisa See has a long list of books, both series and standalone:

https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/lisa-see/

My husband mentioned another Korean based book he read a year or so ago, I found a summary -

“In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park is a truly empowering memoir. Park's courageous story will leave you on the edge of your seat, deeply invested in her journey, and cheering her on as she triumphs over unimaginable challenges. Let's talk about those challenges: starvation, rape, human trafficking, freezing temperatures, betrayals, beatings. She fled North Korea with her mother when her father was imprisoned, hoping to find a place ofvrefuge and saftey. She was only thirteen. Their goal was to reach freedom and reunite with their loved ones. One of the most compelling memoirs I've ever read.“

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

 I am a bit out of my reading slump, but still only able to listen to audio books while driving. So my pace on each book is very slow. 

One of my groups assigned Pachinko in May. I listened, but did not attend the meeting, because I had not yet finished, and knew there would be spoilers.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (2017)

Sandra Oh (Narrator), 

Min Jin Lee (Narrator)

I enjoyed this book. I realized part way thru that I understood very little about Japan and Korea, prior to WWII. I did not stop to research, I just enjoyed the novel. 

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Free Food  for Millionaires	(2007)
Pachinko	(2017)
American Hagwon	(2026)

Publication Order of Disorder Collection Books

The Best Girls (2019)

Curving spines the other way

 I am on my phone each morning doing NYT puzzles in bed. I realized this morning that it is a great opportunity to bend my spine the other direction. 

We spend so much time hunching forward, there is not much backward bending in our daily routines. 

So starting today, my phone time, in the wee hours of the morning, is on my belly, up on my elbows like a toddler. 

I started PT yesterday, proactive, for my posture. Some of the positions are passive stretching, others are active movements. 

My spine is still flexible, it moves full range. At some point people hunching forward loose their strength and flexibility and are stuck forward. It is important to take action early.

Pass it on, where they bring a shovel and a lot of buckets, continues

I had 30-40 short purple irises in one of the backyard beds, where most do not bloom. I think not enough sun. (I have the same plants in a front bed that bloom just fine).

I also had 25 or so, white bee balm, that had crossed the line of their half of the bed. 

And I had two clematis starts in the wrong place. 

I messaged one of the woman who was here for Grape Hyacinths a few weeks ago. She has been here previously, she is a good digger. 

She and her husband came Sunday night and dug.  

I pointed and chatted. 

This is a lovely solution. They get free plants. I get free weeding. 

Oh, happy day

Friday morning I had just decided I was staying home for the day, with just a tinge of a sore throat, when I found Season 25 of Law and Order. 

That is 18 episodes neatly stacked on my Peacock streaming service, a very happy find. 

I had just finished two seasons of The Traitors, which I love:

- The Traitors UK with Claudia Winkleman, Season 4.

- The Traitors with Alan Cumming, Season 4. 

And then discovered Claudia has a UK celebrity version too. I actually was familiar with one of the people! I just started in this season. 

The Voice season has finished and is ready to watch next. 

And Top Chef (and Last Chance Kitchen) is running now. I will wait, until the season finishes, to watch it. 

I haven’t even really looked to see if there is anything new/undiscovered. 

Rotating thru the streaming services

It took me just a minute to think of the term - streaming services - I think that’s right to describe HULU, Peacock, BritBox, etc. 

I pick those up, one at a time, for just a month, and catch up on some of my favorite shows. I subscribe to them about 6 mos apart. I love to let whole seasons build up, so I make the most of my $. 

Right now it is HULU, loving the latest seasons of Traitors (UK and US). And I think Top Chef is running now. I will wait to start it until the season is at the very end. 

I am also watching Padma’s Culinary Cup on CBS, not really a fan. 

Double bay of the garage

I think the last time we did a garage clean out was 2023. The last time we did a BIG garage clean out was several years before that. 

Saturday and Sunday, we cleaned out the double bay of the garage. This was sorting and scrubbing. 

Everything came off the shoe rack, it was pulled away from the wall. The rack was scrubbed, the floor and wall were scrubbed. We took everything out of the cupboards, scrubbed, sorted what went back in them. We worked our way around the parameter, sorting and scrubbing. We did a lot of rearranging. 

Both vehicles always fit in the garage, so the middle was empty, it is just the parameter that collects.

We had a big recycling bin, two large garbage cans, two big boxes for donations, a table set up for sorting. 

The dogs were with us Sunday, we kept the big garage door closed, propped the door to the house open, so they had options. 

The back of my SUV is now filled to the brim with donations headed to the local charity shop when it opens at 10am. 

And next weekend, the single bay of the garage calls. 

Pass it on

I give away hundreds of plants each year. Hundreds. 

The alternative is throwing them away. 

If you have established flower beds with plants that spread, excess plants become an issue. 

I have a lot of plants that spread to fill their area, but do not jump the boundaries. A good example is native Black Eyed Susan’s. I have a very large bed of them, they stay in their place. 

My biggest jumpers are Red Huskers, Clematis and Goose Neck Loose Strife. Oh my goodness do those plant starts travel. 

I am the only person I know with self sowing clematis. It travels far and wide, it self starts on three sides of our yard (front yard, back yard, west yard). I sometimes put in a trellis and leave it. Other times I move it. Sunday I started giving it away. 

The gardeners who answer my notes on Facebook Marketplace and come dig, are truly thankful. They take away buckets and buckets of plant starts. Some days it is all free. Sometimes it is a total of $1. Every once in a while it is $1 each for big stuff. 

Once in a while someone will be here for one thing and ask for a start from something else. They are often astounded with what I have. 

This past Sunday one of the husbands wanted one daffodil. I sent him home with three bulbs. I also sent them home with five jonquils bulbs. And they had their buckets of Grape Hyacinth bulbs. 

This is a year I will be giving away lots of Jonquil bulbs. I think my last big front yard jonquil divide was about ten years ago. They need thinned again. 

Last year we did a back yard jonquil divide and planted two full beds with them, I gave none away. 

From the looks of the front yard, I will be giving away hundreds as soon as they die back and loose their green. 

My Grape Hyacinth project was a success

I had one neighbor and three couples from Facebook Marketplace dig Grape Hyacinths on Sunday. 

They cleared the whole area that was bugging me. 

They also dug Jonquils and Red Huskers and one clematis that were in the wrong spots. 

My husband helped all of them. 

So that was the manpower of eight people focusing on clearing out one area that was too cluttered. 

Monday morning another lady is coming to clear out another area that is too cluttered with Grape Hyacinths. 

This is a win-win. I charged them a total of $1 each and they all took many buckets of healthy plants home. I get massive gardening help. 

My gardening summer is off to a great start. 

And so the summer begins

I have 7 people coming today for plant starts. 

I have Red Huskers that have come up in the wrong place, as usual. 

And I have decided to eliminate a line of Grape Hyacinths to make weeding easier. 

So, I posted them on Facebook and my phone started blowing up immediately. 

Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel, another book I did not read -

Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel was another book assigned by another one of my book groups. Again, I got about two hours in and stopped. The writing was just too immature/unskilled/dumb for me. It wasn’t the plot, it was the writing. I like a good YA book, if it is well written. This, to my knowledge, was not intended to be YA and in my opinion, it was not well written. 

My reading slump continues.

The second odd quilt story

Still no photos, just the story.

Second story - I ran into an old pattern of mine, in person, at one of my long armers a few weeks ago.

I now know it is a quilt I designed in the 1990’s. 

I used to teach at a local shop who carried my patterns. The shop owner often made kits with my patterns.

So someone who bought the 1990’s kit, with my pattern, at the local quilt shop, finally finished it and sent it to the quilters in 2026. And I just happened to be there to see it. 

But when I saw it, I did not realize it was one of my patterns, made from the kit fabric, identical to mine. It just looked vaguely familiar, but I did not realize why.

It took my daughter for me to realize how I knew the quilt. 

I told her I saw a quilt at the long-armer’s shop, described it, and she knew it.  The original quilt, same fabrics as the kit, happened to be hanging in my daughter’s hall that same day. 

This quilt was well labeled with the date. And it also still had the second paper label from when my pattern was released and that quilt traveled to many shops for a couple years with the distributor. 

I have many well traveled quilts. 

The first odd quilt story

No photos, sorry, for some reason I can’t seem to post photos on my blog. 

I am having multiple out of body experiences with quilts this month. It is a bit crazy how things come full circle.

Here is the first story - 

A quilt I made in 1997 with Japanese fabrics recently found its way back to me. 

A friend found and returned it. It was the second of a pair. I still have the first. One of my daughters (middle) is now thrilled to have the second. 

Normally all my older quilts are well labeled, but this pair was not. In the process of trying to date and get labels made for both quilts, I found the original pattern (purchased, not my design) which luckily was dated. 

And that led me to the seller of the original pattern, who does not have copies of any of her old patterns. I mailed the original back to her. I had two more of her patterns and mailed those originals too. She was thrilled. In fact, I think she is republishing the quilt pattern. 

I also did not keep any of my old quilt patterns. They pop up from time to time on eBay and Etsy and we buy them back.

A book I did not read - Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan was assigned by one of my book groups. I got two hours in on audio and stopped. I attempted to listen to a recap of the book on SuperSummary, so I could attend the meeting and participate, but could not do that either. I did not go to the meeting.

My reading slump continues.