12 books in 12 weeks: overview

Looking back on my January reading goals they seem so... optimistic. I had no clue a global pandemic would occur. I had no clue a shutdown would happen. I had no clue I would sit at home for months, quarantining, wondering when I would return to work and my children to school. One would think in this perfect storm of events I would read SO MANY books. So many! All of that free time! Sitting around the house! Doing nothing! So many books!

Yeah, I think I read three.

I did paint the entire interior of my house. That was good. We did three rooms last spring/summer so I figured three rooms again this year was a good goal. Instead it was seven - nine, if you want to include the two hallways. One of the rooms was painted twice because after I painted it I decided I hated it and needed to rethink my strategy. Technically the painting isn't done. After months sitting around the house stressing about my job I finally started working from home so I never got to finish. All of the closets and doors need to be done still. I'm thinking that is a couple of weekends in 2021.

There were two funerals. In the middle of a global pandemic, people dying from complications due to covid everywhere, I lost two family members in the spring. My grandmother to a fall. She had Alzheimer's. She forgot to use her cane. She ended up in the hospital on a morphine drip. We got to do one video chat with her where she was really out of it. She only lasted a couple of days. We never got to do a second video chat. Then, my cousin. Also to a fall. We were close growing up but had fallen out over the years. She had been working on straightening her life out. I've been working on picking up the pieces of mine. She fell walking down the street and hit her head so hard she blacked out. A passing EMT happened to find her and call 911. She was taken to the hospital and treated. The following day they realized she was brain dead. So arbitrary. Two people. Both to falls.

Summer was relatively quiet, but October was crazy. My brother's house burned down. He and his pregnant girlfriend and their dogs got out. The house was completely destroyed. They lost pretty much everything. We lost power for 4 days, during a bad wind storm. Mini tornadoes actually damaged so many houses around us. My mother and step father, who just moved around the corner from us, had their roof destroyed. So many neighbors had trees fall on their houses. I was incredibly grateful I happened to have the huge pine tree in my backyard taken down just a couple weeks prior. Our house was lucky enough to escape unscathed. We lost two shingles off of our front steps, which my uncle replaced. One of my twins went to the ER for a body temperature of 95.5. He was diagnosed with diabetes. As upsetting as that entire experience was everyone told me we caught it shockingly quick - that children are normally sick for months and eventually fall into a coma before anyone realizes that something is seriously wrong. 

With all of this going on, on top of a pandemic, a quarantine, and a shutdown... is it really surprising that I only read a couple of books? I think not. I did listen to quite a few audio books while painting, but other than that... nothing. Instead I listened to a lot of TV while working on jigsaw puzzles. When I am stressed out they soothe me.

And we did read quite a lot as a family. Not only did we read The Hobbit, but we have read SEVEN Wheel of Time books!!! The Eye of the World through The Crown of Swords!!! And, we are currently about 3/4 of the way through The Path of Daggers. 

Life has been stressful, but life has been good. And for every tragedy I am reminded of our blessings.

And I think I'm finally ready to read again. I'm not sure I'm ready to blog again - I had intended to blog all about The Wheel of Time but I suppose I will have to save my thoughts for the fourth time I read the book series - but I figure I will take it slow. My current goal is starting tomorrow, for the next 12 weeks (84 days) I want to read 12 books. Since I normally read 2-3 books a week I am hoping to crush this goal. But I'm also setting the bar low. This has been a crazy year and I'm not setting a goal of 24 books just to be disappointed I couldn't focus enough to meet it. I'm hoping the end result will be 13 because I'm hoping we will finish The Path of Daggers, but we shall have to see. We have been struggling with family reading time as we try to adapt to this ever changing craziness of 2020. And, considering I have only read a few books so far this quarantine I might end up with only 8 books. And that is okay.

So, hopefully I will see you again in 12 weeks with a list of 12+ books! Happy reading!