What I'm Digging
A round up of this and that catching my eye this week
Happy Friday, friends! You’re here. You made it.
Three weeks have passed since my last round up, and what an intense 3 weeks it has been! We had back-to-back weekends of winter storms blast through our area, beginning with an ice storm, followed by 8 inches of snow the following weekend.
Thankfully, we never lost power. We were fully prepared for that to happen, though.
I have to admit, in a way, it actually felt rather redemptive and healing to be so prepared for what those two winter storms might bring, given how fully unprepared we were for what occurred when Hurricane Helene ravaged the area September 2024. No one was ready for what that storm wrought, given how unprecedented it was.
With these recent winter storms, all of Western North Carolina took the warnings profoundly seriously. Odd way to find reassurances, but I think we all learned to hope for the best while planning and preparing for the worst.
We were trapped in, though. At least after the first storm. We’re situated a 1/2-mile down a gravel road, with our home up on a knob/knoll. The ice turned our driveway temporarily into luge. Which is far from a fun thing when you heat your home with a wood stove (and the risk of fire is literally ever present all winter long), and know a firetruck couldn’t access you if it tried.
It’s also wildly unsettling to feel unreachable by emergency services when your oldest child drinks a beverage he’s never had before and experiences a severe allergic reaction. We’re talking vomiting, full body hives, gastric distress—all the things. Fortunately, Benadryl took care of the reaction in time (and we called the on-call doctor at the family practice we go to), but knowing we were inaccessible without resorting to a good deal of walking to get anywhere was jarring, suffice to say. Lessons were learned, all around.
Then, after 4 days of remote/no school owing to the heavy snow fall our area experienced, our younger son developed a gnarly cold, which morphed into, as described by our doctor, a “massive” ear infection. Fortunately, we caught it and it’s now being treated.
And because the universe seems to think we four Englishes can handle unrelenting challenges, Glenn ended up in the ER two nights ago. After days of increasing abdominal pain that mimicked what turned out to be a bowel obstruction requiring immediate surgery a year ago, he went in out of an abundance of caution. Thankfully, a CT scan revealed no obstruction and sent him home. He’s still in pain, though, so it might be a kidney stone, we’re not sure at this point.
As you can imagine, weather and illness have conspired against any hopes at productivity here in the cove as of late. BUT, we’re back to somewhat functioning now, if not at 100, perhaps around 60/65 percent (3 out of 4 of us are firing on all cylinders at the moment). Small victories that I’ll gladly accept.
On to the round up!
*I can’t stop thinking about the book Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao since I came across it online. As described on the publisher’s website:
A woman inherits a pawnshop where you can sell your regrets, and then embarks on a magical quest when a charming young physicist wanders into the shop, in this dreamlike fantasy novel.
I will gladly take all the magical literature I can find at present, please and thank you. Have any of you read it? What’s your takeaway?
*I heard about Mattering by Jennifer Breheny Wallace during an interview with Oprah I stumbled across on Instagram. Immediately I knew this was a book I wanted to read. Perhaps you’ll agree:
In this groundbreaking work, Wallace makes an urgent case: mattering—the feeling that we are valued and have an opportunity to add value—is a core human need, as essential to our well-being as food and water. And yet, in today’s world, that fundamental need is going unmet, with perilous consequences. As mental and social health crises surge, we often blame social media, the pace of modern life, and polarizing politics. But beneath these issues lies a deeper crisis, what Wallace calls “an erosion of mattering.”
*I am beyond intrigued by this Chinese Beauty Soup. It kept showing up on my social media feeds, and then my friend Lucky texted me last week that she was in the process of making it. I’ve been researching foods naturally rich in collagen (instead of purchasing it as a powder or as an isolate) to incorporate into my diet, and I think my algorithm picked up on that and sent me to this recipe, multiple times over. I’m ready to give it a try!
*For years, dance was a big part of my life. I took in-school dance classes during my early high school years, sought out community spaces to dance as a teen, and regularly went out dancing at raves, night clubs, and dance schools all throughout my 20’s. I adore watching other people dance, as well as dancing myself, but have found my last two decades to have nowhere near as many opportunities for it as I’d like. Until now. I’ve shared here about my recent foray into the world of K-pop. While I love the music, costumes, and overall theatrics of the genre, I really, truly love all of the dances associated with it perhaps the most. Which has led me to seek out dance classes here in western North Carolina! Some friends and I are actively working towards taking adult hiphop dance classes. To say I’m enthused is to say that water is wet. I can. not. wait! Before you know it, this’ll be me (okay, okay, maybe in a few years, but, I’ll get there!).
*While I’m on the subject of dancing, allow me to encourage you to explore it for yourself! I’m activating it as a form of resistance. Not only does it build up strength and endurance within our physical bodies, but in combining “coordination, memory, rhythm, learning, and social connection, it aids in neuroplasticity, builds cognitive reserve, and supports long term brain health,” according to Dr Bing, a neurologist and biostatistician.
Okay, that’s it for this week. Tomorrow is Valentines Day, and Glenn and I love this holiday. We’re both rather hopeless romantics, and adore love stories and overall interactions and gestures of care, compassion, and heartfelt behaviors. If he feels up to it (as mentioned earlier), we’re thinking of going downtown for tea at High Climate. They offer tea flights and nibbles, which we’ve yet to do, although we have purchased some lovely oolong there in the past.
Wherever you go, whatever you do, and whoever you do it with, know that you are loved, and that the world needs what you have to offer!