So, here we go again. Monday. I can’t lie to you guys – I’m not sure I’ve ever started a week this tired. (Well, the newborn days, but laying them aside for a minute.) Not only was this weekend Halloween, and Daylight Savings Time (fall back, yeah, yeah, listen – when you’re parents, any time change is cause for much cringing) but we had a very busy weekend of house projects. We spent all of Saturday and all of Sunday hanging pictures, painting, cleaning and updating fixtures. (And that’s on top of the usual grocery shopping, cleaning and meal prep work, and I had to do some work-work – like, for my job – on Sunday night.) I feel like this has become a theme lately: not much reading, because SO! MUCH! home improvement, and I’m sure some of my friends are noticing that house projects have been taking up a lot of my attention lately. I’m completely transparent and apparently awful at hiding things (some of you even guessed I was pregnant, which I thought I was disguising really well) so I don’t know, you may all know this already, but the story is: we are putting our house on the market, and the flurry of home projects has been for the purpose of updating a number of cosmetic things before we go live. I’m not going to get into the why of all this – at least, not yet – so let’s just leave it at this: over the past few months, we have increasingly come to the realization that our current living situation does not fit with our goals or our family priorities. So we’re taking steps to change that, and this is the first step. As for where we’re moving, the answer is that I can’t give you an answer, because we don’t know. Hopefully to an awesome school district, in the long term. In the short term, we’re going to go back to renting for awhile, so we can regroup and figure things out.
So there you go – the reason why there’s been a lot of hammering and painting and not a lot of reading over the past few weeks. As for what reading there has been: I finished Sorcerer to the Crown (and loved it!), and then read David Mitchell’s new, slim, creeeeeeeepy haunted house story, Slade House. (I preordered it, because I knew if I waited for it at the library I wouldn’t have it in time for Halloween.) Then I finally finished the graphic novel version of The Babysitters Club: Kristy’s Great Idea, which has been sitting on my nightstand for, I think, more than a month. It was cute but I’m not sure I’m going to get any more of them. Now I’m reading a book to which I’ve been looking forward for months and months: the new Sarah Vowell, Lafayette in the Somewhat United States. (!!!!!) It’s full of such gems as a sentence I tweeted: “Lafayette’s concerns about finally taking his first crack at combat basically boiled down to Danger! Yippee!” As I am wont to do with Sarah Vowell books, I am annoying the bejeezes out of my husband by reading silly facts and hilarious sentences out loud while he tries to watch sports.
I’ve finally got my currently-reading list down to where I like it: just the one book. So I’m all Sarah Vowell until I finish (hopefully today). Next on deck will probably be the new Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies, which I hear is outstanding, and which I will be picking up from library holds today. After that, I’ve got my eye on Carry On, the Simon Snow novel that Cath wrote her “fic” about in Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl – can’t wait! Looks like a good reading week, provided I have time in between all the work and house projects and cleaning. Life is crazy right now and not going to settle down for awhile. Good thing I have good books to get me through.
On the blog this week: a Readers Imbibing Peril wrap-up on Wednesday, and October books on Friday. A bookish week around these parts! Check back, and as always…
What are you reading this week?
covered in flour 
I don’t feel bad about interrupting my husband when he watches sports because he never hesitates to interrupt me when I’m engrossed in a book. 🙂
If I haven’t said this already, I wanted to tell you I’m proud of you and S for taking this step with the house. Even if it’s only been a little over a year since you bought it, you’ve realized it’s not where you want to be and you’re taking steps to change your situation. So many people get complacent and just stay where they are indefinitely, even if they’re not happy.
Also, what a great excuse to go through your belongings again and sell/donate/toss what you no longer use or want! I love moving for that very reason.
Thank you! I’m trying hard not to settle for something that is close but not quite right. Of course my mom is convinced that I’m never going to settle down and I’m going to be a free spirit forever. As we talked about, if I haven’t settled down yet it’s not for lack of interest in putting down roots in a home! I just attach so much meaning and importance to my home that it’s hard for me if I’m not happy somewhere. One of these days we will have the home we were meant for…
You sure have a lot on your plate. Do you want to move closer to the city again?
I have some home improvement ahead, too. The kids want their own bedrooms. We are going to divide their huge common room by a wall. For an additional door, I have to empty two bookshelves, and don’t know yet where to put the books – that’s the worst.
We are not sure where we’re going to move. The plan is to go back to renting for a little while, and figure it out. Living in the city had some definite drawbacks – lots of trash flung into our yard, and very noisy, which is not what you want with little kids in the house – but the commute was great. I have no idea where we’ll ultimately end up but I hope it’s somewhere with great public schools.
That’s a big home improvement project you have on your agenda! But I’m sure the kids will love having their own spaces. It’s great that you have enough room to make that an option. I shared with my brother just for a few months, when I was very young, and it was fun while it lasted but I have a feeling it would have gotten old pretty quick!