Morning, all. How were your New Year’s celebrations? Anyone else stay up until midnight? I did – couldn’t believe it. We actually snuck out of town for a New Year’s visit to my parents in upstate New York; we had been turning the idea of making the trip over and over in our minds for weeks, balancing the general recommendation to stay put against the considerations that we wouldn’t have to fly, the kids missed their grandparents, and my parents have been cautious throughout the pandemic. It was a low-key visit; both Steve and I had a lot of work to do to wrap up the year so we mostly sat at the dining room table, plugging away, while the kids raced cars and did art projects with my parents. We did escape for a socially distanced driveway hang with one family member, and a couple of short hikes – including the above ramble through the Pine Bush. Neither of the kids felt like coming along, so my parents ended up babysitting and Steve and I made it a day date – fun! We discussed needing to do more of those in 2021.

We drove back to Virginia on Saturday after breakfast and gained ourselves a day to regroup and get organized before the new week. I have a gauntlet of two extremely busy workweeks ahead – I’m dreading them – and it was good to have some time to grocery shop, meal prep, and get ahead on some work. I honestly don’t know how I am going to find enough hours in the day to get it all done, but the advance prep will help.

• 

• 

Reading. With all of the work and family time last week, I didn’t get all that much reading done – at least, not all that much novel-reading. I spent most of the week working my way through a stack of back issues of Adirondack Life, which I wanted to leave for my parents. But I did make a little time for reading one of my Christmas books – Death on the Nile, thanks Mom! – and finished it in the car on the way home on Saturday. After that I turned to The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, which I had downloaded to my kindle before the trip. An 850-ish page non-fiction book seems like a strange choice for what will probably be a 65-hour workweek, but I swear there’s a method to my madness. I figure I’ll dip in and out, reading a letter here and a letter there whenever I have time to escape into the Mitfords’ madcap world. The collection starts in the 1920s; so far, I’m around the late 1930s and reaffirming what I already knew: Debo is definitely my favorite.

Watching. Whenever we’re at my parents’ house, we always watch Jeopardy – my dad and I competing for most answers shouted out before the contestants on the screen ring their buzzer. It was bittersweet this time, as the show approaches Alex Trebek’s final episodes. (Seriously, 2020. You were the worst.) On Saturday and Sunday nights, once we were home, we squeezed in a few episodes of Rick Steves’ Europe and grumbled about not being able to travel.

Listening. Not much – a couple of podcasts here and there while packing my clothes and the kids’ clothes and trundling to the garden center and the grocery store curbside pickup line on Sunday. The highlight: Lia Leendertz (author of The Almanac series) has a new podcast about the seasons; the first episode (“January”) is live and to say that I’m excited would be an understatement.

Moving. Erp. Busy week last week, busy two weeks ahead – movement fell by the wayside and I can feel it in my sore back and neck. A couple of hikes, that’s it. I’d say that I will make a point of doing better this week ahead, but to be honest, I’m going to be in survival mode until January 15. Any movement I manage to get in will be gravy.

Making. A lot of work product, a partially-unpacked suitcase, and a big pot of stew and bags of sliced veggies and romaine lettuce for the week ahead (because failing to plan is planning to fail, right?).

Blogging. I might be dreading the work week ahead, but I do have a good week of blogging – and by good, I mean bookish. December reading recap coming atcha on Wednesday, and Part I of my traditional three-part reading retrospective on the year just ended, on deck for Friday. Check in with me then!

Loving. Would it be a cop-out to say my leggings again? Yes? Then let me think. Well – I really loved the new Lia Leendertz podcast I mentioned up above. I already said it was a highlight, so won’t say too much. I listened to it while driving to the grocery store to pick up my curbside order, and it was like sixteen minutes of The Almanac, read by Leendertz in her gentle voice. Although I was driving on a heavily traveled road outside of D.C., I felt like I was wandering the fields and hedgerows of rural England. It was bliss.

Asking. What are you reading this week?