What I'm Reading This Week #49

Howdy do y'all and happy second Friday of December.  I hope you've had a good week and have your Christmas/holiday shopping done.  I'm basically done but need to wrap the Mr's stuff and his stuff from Mom.  I've got one friend's boxed up and ready to go basically and the other is wrapped but I need to box up and bake up some stuff first.  I've got money that goes to another so I'll have to get another Christmas card for that one and sadly, that's it.  Wednesday night the Mr was kind enough to massage my legs for the second day because my legs felt like they were trying to harden into compartment syndrome again.  My shins went into a pretty wicked cramp but it looked like we avoided anything major.  When I flipped over and went to move my leg in to massage my inner thigh, it went into full, unrelenting cramp hell.  I was half off the bed and couldn't move while I screamed and dug hard into the seizing muscles.  I could feel myself on the verge of passing out from the pain and remembered the worst attack of it I had that one Valentine's Day the doctor said when you get on the verge of fainting people can die from a stroke from the pain.  I took a few deep breaths and tried to relax my muscles as much as I could.  Eventually, it let up.  I slathered with Epsom salt gel, heating pad and continued digging at my thighs for over an hour.  I decided to back off of walking the rest of the week.  Good Lord!!

On the "even more good news" front, mom's sib just had a death on her in-laws side.  They were the nicest person and definitely the most even keel, soft spoken of those kids.  One minute gardening, the next a massive cardiac event.  I have good memories of them from childhood when I found myself being dragged along when I was babysat.  Another one in their early 60's...WTAF??  Add to that my 2nd cousin's stepdad was killed in a car accident on Thanksgiving night and it's like death is just working overtime within, and just on the outskirts of, our family.  Can we be done please??  Not like there's many left at this point.  😔

It's been an exhausting week.  I've pushed myself to clean little areas of the bedroom here and there.  I hate waking up to clutter but a lot of it I didn't really want to touch.  Mom's bedroom pillow has been at the end of the bed since she passed.  It still smells like her thankfully.  I got these canvas storage bags to put her clothes in and I put both that pillow and the pillow I bought her with a teal satin pillowcase a few days before she left.  She looked like her neck was being pushed forward and uncomfortable.  Since she was unable to communicate, I wanted to try to make her as comfortable as possible.  The hospice nurse got it for me when she passed because I didn't want to disturb her.  One day I'll use it but I'm not ready yet.  I just remember she looked like an angel and it gave just the pop of color she would've loved if she was awake to appreciate it.  She was always full of color, wearing these super bright tops with patterns that only she could pull off.  A far cry from my monochromatic ass!   😆

Now let's haul ass into:

If You Only Do 5 Exercises, a Physical Therapist Says These Are the Most Effective for Keeping You Pain-Free  (Definitely adding four and five to my routine even if I just do it making breakfast or something.  My calves are seriously limiting my mobility right now.  I might add make sure you scrape with one of these after any physical activity.  It is so easy to get mobility limiting knots but is so hard to get rid of them once they're there.)

6 Impressive Health Benefits of Black Garlic  (We just started taking this again last week.  Just pop two cloves a day.)

New Study: White Bread and Alcohol Linked to Colorectal Cancer  (Some good info on supplements too.)

4 Major Causes Of Inflammation We Don't Talk About Enough  (Wow, this makes a lot of sense.)

Stuffy Nose at Night? Here's What Your Body's Trying to Tell You  (Just get some Xlear Max.  No rebound.  Also, if you ever have considered the surgery, just look up "empty nose syndrome" and the amount of suicides that happen because of it.)

4 Therapist-Backed Tips To Stop Black and White Thinking—And Learn To Live Your Full Truth  (Interesting.  Yes Mr, that is read in Jack Osbourne's voice.)

News of (Last) Week: Random Notes, Hall is Suing Oates, and You Really Can Make a Good Fruitcake  (Well, let's just say after seeing Hall and Oates on my birthday about 10 years ago, it's clear Oates gives the people what they want whilst Daryl is like "let me change the tempo, lyrics and forget the words to several songs" and proceed to tick me off.  John Oates saved the show with his velvety backing vocals.  Motion denied. (Well, it was temporarily granted but still.) )

Christmas Classic “I Want a Hippopotamus” Turns 70 This Year  (This song makes me throat punchy but I know a lot of people grew up on it so I'm sharing.)

The Golden Bachelor’s Not-So-Golden Past  (If this is true, what a jag.  Oh well, it was a fun distraction.)

50 Years in a Disco Daze  (I friggin' LOVE disco.  There is literally no better music to clean to!  I even have a playlist.)

Well, the house is slowly getting decorated.  It takes everything in me anymore to clean or go through clutter because there is just so much of it for one reason or another but it feels nice to have those familiar things up.  I think maybe it's time to drive around and look at Christmas lights...in the 60 degree weather.  😣  Just as quickly as it came, it's going to be over so we need to enjoy what we can whether we're technically in the mood for it or not.

Any plans for your weekend?  Any Christmas traditions you're looking forward to?

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