Please pardon the above wishful thinking.  I am writing this post as snow drives down outside the window – looks like we’re getting our first big lake effect storm of the year.  I suppose it was only a matter of time.  For some reason, I keep getting surprised by snow up here.  I think it’s the Virginian in me – back home, we were always getting these dire snow predictions (massive blizzard headed to the DC area! shield your children and your elderly!) and we’d all run out to the store and buy all the toilet paper we could find, and then nothing would happen.  But up here, when they predict snow they’re invariably right – yet I still find myself thinking “well, maybe it won’t materialize” – and then I’m wrong.  So you’ll all forgive me, I’m sure, for the Pamlico Sound pic.  I’m just trying to remember what it was like to be warm.

You’d think I would be warm, because I’ve been busy-busy-busy all weekend.  On Saturday we saw a potential rental house, hit Wegmans, and then I spent the afternoon juggling cleaning and baby care.  I was exhausted, because Nugget decided that 5:30 was a good time to get up for the day – and that’s after two night wakeups.  (Ten month sleep regression!  Yay!)  Sunday was a little less exhausting, because Nugget slept until 9:00 – what?! – and took a cuddly nap around noon.  I guess he was catching up on his rest.  I spent the day, again, juggling cleaning (trying to dig through the mountain of Christmas toys and take down the tree – it’s a process) and baby care.  We’re moving in less than three weeks, we still don’t know where to, and I haven’t packed a thing.  I can’t believe I’m not more stressed out about this, but for some reason I’m just not that worried.  It’ll all work out.

As for reading, I finished my first book of 2016 – The Hundred-Year House, by Rebecca Makkai – this week.  I’m not sure why it took me as long to read as it did.  I enjoyed it, although not quite as much as I’d expected to, and one plot line was annoyingly unfinished at the end.  But the format – sort of a reverse ghost story, where mysteries from the past were unraveled as the reader traveled deeper into the house’s history, leaving the “future” characters still in the dark – was intriguing, and the writing was good.  After The Hundred-Year House I turned to something a little more intellectual: another collection of Marilynne Robinson’s essays.  When I Was a Child I Read Books is outstanding!  I think I actually like it better than I liked The Givenness of Things, which I read last month; either the essays in here are a bit clearer, or I’m just getting accustomed to Robinson.  I actually hope it’s the latter, because if it is, then these books are making me smarter!  Hurray for getting smarter!  And – a bonus – When I Was a Child I Read Books will count as my first book towards the Book Riot 2016 Read Harder Challenge – more on that in a couple of weeks.  It’s due back to the library today, so hopefully I’ll be able to polish it off (I’m almost done) and get it in on time.

Next up, I’m not sure what I’ll read.  I have the first Discworld novel (I’ve been wanting to read some Terry Pratchett) checked out from the library, as well as We That Are Left, a new historical fiction release, and a stack of comics, and I have another book on the library holds shelf, too.  So likely one of those options – whatever looks good when I close the Robinson essays for the last time.

What are you reading this week?