It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (October 19, 2020)

Good Monday morning, friends. How was your week last week? More importantly, how was your weekend?

I had a long, stressful week – a two-day hearing, which required multiple days of preparation and ignoring everything that came up during the hearing, and resulted in me being totally behind on everything else by Friday. Not ideal! I definitely needed the weekend – and it was a good one. Bright and sunny all weekend, perfect weather for hiking, playing with my birthday present from Steve (a Nikon Coolpix P1000 superzoom camera, come to mama) and my Saturday afternoon adventure – that long-awaited hot air balloon expedition! It was totally epic, and I will share all the pictures with you later this week. Sunday was more low-key than Saturday. I took Big Bertha (working name for the new camera, you like it?) out for a hike but the kids’ arguing scared all the birds off so I didn’t get any good wildlife shots. In the afternoon, I made homemade cinnamon applesauce and took Peanut for a socially distanced playdate with one of her new classmates. The usual stuff, but good stuff.

Reading. So, another slow reading week, which I blame mostly on the hectic workweek, a little on pandemic slumping, and a little on the fact that it’s just not possible to fly through a Marilynne Robinson novel. I’m nearly done with my project of re-reading all of the Gilead series in order, as I’m now well into Jack, the fourth and final book that just came out this month. I think it’s definitely helpful to have the context of Home, because I have more sympathy for Jack Boughton than I otherwise would have. I’ll make it through Jack this week and then it will be time to give my reading brain a little rest, so I’m planning to turn to my Halloween books for the rest of the month, starting with a re-read of Pumpkinheads, which I love. Then – finally – a re-read of Betsy-Tacy, this time aloud to Peanut. She is now obsessed! I didn’t meet Betsy, Tacy, Tib and their friends until I was an adult, so I’m glad she will grow up knowing the Deep Valley girls.

Watching. This and that, like usual. A few episodes of Rock the Park, as always. The first 50 minutes or so of the live-action Aladdin, with the kids. Notably, not either of the election town halls (I considered tuning into Biden’s, but I’m already informed about his policy positions) and not The Way I See It – really hoping to watch that one this week. I don’t think the kids would be interested, but Steve and I both really want to see it. My parents watched, and said it was fabulous.

Listening. Mostly to my current audiobook – The Great Courses on The Art of Reading. It’s good, but I’m getting to be ready to be done. About 90 minutes to go – I made a lot of progress driving to my office three days last week (look at me go). Also dug out one of my New Pornographers CDs last week when my phone was too low on batteries to connect to the car’s Bluetooth, and remembered how much I love them, so added two albums to my digital library. I’ve been listening to my favorite songs from The Electric Version – “From Blown Speakers” and “Miss Teen Wordpower” on repeat and it’s taking me right back to law school.

Making. Ugh, not much at all. Nothing crafty or domestic – no progress on finishing unpacking (new deadline: Halloween) and not much in the way of eatables, either. Just some cinnamon applesauce – that’s it. It was just one of those weeks. Too much work, not enough margin. But I have a couple of new bread recipes bookmarked to try in the next couple of weeks.

Moving. Let’s just not talk about this.

Blogging. Musing on pandemic-induced reading slumps on Wednesday, and then sharing those hot air ballooning pictures on Friday. Check in with me then!

Loving. I am not usually one for show-offy gift ogling posts (other than the annual Christmas book haul, naturally) but the thing that is making me happiest right now is my new camera, obvi! I am abundantly blessed in a partner that indulges my hobby instead of rolling his eyes and saying “Another camera?” For months now I’ve been eyeballing the Nikon Coolpix P1000, with its crazy 3,000mm zoom lens (125x zoom power) and birdwatching mode. Best birthday present ever! It’s not going to replace my everyday workhorse dSLR, but that’s not what it’s for. I definitely have a learning curve to figure out how to use it to best advantage – especially zoomed all the way out, it’s not exactly easy to hold. But I’ve already gotten some great shots and I’m excited to learn more about the camera and improve my skills. Here are a few samples from just prowling around my yard: