Nature Therapy

Nature continues to provide me with plenty of stress relief. But the stress of the past couple of months is taking a toll on my physical health. I've been sick more than usual, picking up the random viruses that I'm seeing in my clinic, even with the usual precautions. I've been losing a lot of hair. I've been feeling really fatigued the past couple of weeks, struggling both with motivation and movement. I'm finding that I have to push myself to get out the door for my runs and workouts. And instead of feeling energized when I'm done, I feel tired. My Oura ring keeps sending me alerts. I've been dialing things back a bit to give my body some grace. 

To try to keep my peace, I've taken a break from talking with my father, instead, leaning more on the care manager to check in with him and make sure things are going well. The caregivers are doing their best to keep her safe. I did speak with him this week, and it went ok. He won't be happy until he gets what he wants, which is a return to life before my mom's fall. That's not going to happen. 

I never thought that my life would be like this; that my parents would act like children, that I would be in charge of keeping them safe, and that they would push back like teenagers. I thought I had gone through all that when my oldest son rebelled in high school. Who knew?

Trail Time!

Greetings from the northwoods of Wisconsin! My youngest son and I are on another hiking adventure on some new-to-us segments on the Ice Age Trail. We're taking advantage of a trail chapter shuttle on 2 of their segments. This enables us to complete the full segment point-to-point instead of doing an out-and-back. I'm sharing all the details below.

Earlier in the week, I started to feel under the weather. On Wednesday, I struggled with my run and called it quits earlier than planned. I felt achy, and by the end of the day, I knew I was coming down with something. Pretty sure I know which little cutie in my clinic gave it to me, lol. No shade at him--I should have worn a mask when I was in the room. I'm glad I was off work on Thursday and Friday to give me time to ride this thing out before the weekend!

On the parents' front, I had some good news this week! I took my mom to see her neurology NP for her semi-annual checkup. Although we had scheduled this appointment 6 months ago, the timing was perfect as it was 6 weeks after her fall. We did see a dip in cognition after the fall, but after her cognitive testing at the appointment, we learned that she had returned to her baseline. We were both so happy!

Mini Book Reviews: April 2026

 Disclaimer: I received ARCs of Mothers and Other Strangers, Yesteryear, For the Love of the Grind, Love By The Book, This Is Not About Running, and Ghost Town from NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for my honest reviews. This post contains affiliate links.

To be honest, I'm surprised that I read as many books as I did this month, as I was bogged down by family drama. But there's nothing better than a good book to take the mind off life! Plus, I had one DNF--a rarity for me. American Fantasy was another cruise ship boy band nostalgia story--similar to the one I read last month. I expected fireworks, but apparently they were all wet. Pun intended.

Yesteryear, IMHO, has been polarizing in the book world. Some love it (I did), and others hate it. Don't want to read it? The movie, starring Anne Hathaway, is currently in production. Did Love By the Book, a second novel from the author of Maame, live up to expectations? Maybe not, but it was still a darn good read. 

I also read 2! running memoirs this month. They could not have been more different. Remember having to compare and contrast novels in high school lit? Think aging runner hitting her prime vs young phenom getting beaten down by big running. They were both compelling reads, and I couldn't have been happier to have prereleases of them in the same month. 

As always, I hope you'll find something you like here. And let me know your thoughts!

Getting My Groove Back

After the turmoil of the past 5 weeks surrounding my mom's fall and my dad's subsequent fall apart, I stepped back to focus on my mental health. With my mom at home and all her care in place, my dad continued to badger me about removing the caregivers from the home. The conversations were a never-ending loop. I continue to provide supervision of my mom's needs, but will now utilize our geriatric care manager to share information with my father. I also reminded myself that the agency will contact me if anything concerning is happening.

I won't lie, stepping back has been difficult, but mentally, I realized how much of a toll this has taken on me. As the week went on, I started to feel more like myself. I reminded myself that I can't be good to anyone if I don't take care of my needs. 

Stormy Weather

Wow, did we get rain this week! Along with the rain, we had severe storms every night. This week alone, we've received almost 4 inches of rain locally — some areas had much more —and there is flooding everywhere. It's been wild. After a final round of storms on Friday night, the summer-like conditions moved on out, and we're back to cool, calm weather again. 

After being off the past 3 weeks to care for my mom (and dad) and prepare for her return home, I resumed work this week. I thought I'd be starting with a full schedule, but we are in a brief seasonal lull and a break in the high demand for appointments. It was the perfect way to return after the recent period of high stress. Was it nice to be back? Yes and no. I found it difficult to focus completely on the job. Despite some really good runs and workouts this week, I still have a lingering unease that I can't shake. Oddly enough, after seeing 3 patients on Saturday morning, the power went out, and we had to cancel clinic for the rest of the morning. 

Taking Care of Myself

My mom is home from rehab, and with 24 hour care, I was able to step back a bit from my duties and resume some of my normal activities, including returning to the gym. I had a lot of things I wanted to do at home, but instead, I spent most of my time resting and reading on the couch, Cocoa by my side. There were still some challenges, especially with my father, but for the most part, being at home helped lessen the impact.

Let it Be

It was another difficult week. Fortunately, my modified fitness plan, while not optimal, was enough to keep me from losing my mind. That, and the support of my youngest sister, friends, and relatives, helped me get through it.