Author: Jaclyn

by

Bad Day to Be a Frog: Great Falls, January 2021

It’s hard to believe we have been hiking at Great Falls for over a decade. Steve and I started coming to the park in January 2008 – thirteen years ago, crazy. One of the big draws in moving to the exurbs was being closer to this and so many other hiking spots – and while we have enjoyed the bounty of local trails, we’ve mostly focused on exploring other, less popular, parks near us. But recently the kids asked to go to Great Falls and we were happy to oblige. It’s always a delight to hike there, but I guess the park wanted to show us what we’ve been missing out on while we explored the county parks, because it delivered every element of the Great Falls experience.

Starting with the falls themselves – roaring!

I love watching the falls from the three successive overlooks and could stay there all day. Often in the summer months, there are whitewater kayakers and paddleboarders testing their skills, which is also such fun to watch. And sometimes, we see them in the winter, too…

Get a load of this guy! Hardcore.

I was very relieved to note that, as you can see here, he is wearing a drysuit. It was cold – about thirty degrees. The water must have been absolutely frigid.

After making a few heroic rushes at the whitewater, he let himself be carried downstream into Mather Gorge.

See him way down there? We were impressed, obviously. (I mused to Steve later that while my baseline is wanting to do ALL of the paddlesports, whitewater kayaking is pretty much the bottom of my list of water activities to try, although I do love watching the paddlers in action. I would like to go rafting, though.)

Eventually we tore ourselves away from the view and set off on our hike upriver. I love the trail that winds downriver from this point, but it’s very cliffy (that’s a word) and we can’t trust our two rambunctious, non-listening children to not go tumbling over the side. So we hike upriver, right along the water’s edge, instead. I do hope that one of these days I can wander downriver again.

As we headed off on our upriver walk, I spotted a bird flying up to perch in a high branch and trained my camera lens on it. Two ladies walking in the opposite direction stopped and asked me what it was. “I’m not sure,” I confessed, “it’s backlit. I’m hoping that when I get home I can adjust the exposure and figure it out.” We traded guesses – they thought by size that it was a pileated woodpecker, but it wasn’t sitting right and lacked the crested head. I theorized that it might be a yellow-billed cuckoo, but I really wasn’t sure. When I got home and adjusted the exposure so that I could finally see its markings I discovered – we were both wrong. Trail ladies, if you read this, it’s a northern flicker.

We parted ways and our family continued on our upriver hike. Steve and I chatted about a big trip we are planning for 2022 (more soon) and the kids lagged behind, dragging their little Sorel boot-clad feet and bickering. I peered through my camera viewfinder at some mallards, snapping away as we walked.

Suddenly I stopped short, gestured toward a little offshoot of the river, and whispered “Great blue heron!”

Steve didn’t see him right away; he had his eyes trained on the opposite bank – but this heron, who did not care at all about the hikers on the path, was on our side of the tributary, no more than fifteen feet away. (Great blue herons are famously indifferent to people; some of their cousins, like the green heron, are much shyer.)

This guy reminded me of Gru from the Despicable Me movies. Anyone else?

despicable me 2 thats GIF

You can totally see it.

(Worth noting: I did not get all up in Gru the Heron’s business to take these pictures. My bonkers wildlife camera has a 125x zoom capacity. Thanks again for the sick birthday present, Steve!)

Eventually he got tired of standing in one spot and stalked off to the opposite bank. At that point, I was ready to continue on with our hike – until Steve grabbed my arm and pointed again.

“He has something in his beak!” he said excitedly. “A fish or a crayfish or something!”

The light caught and we saw: it was a frog, a very unfortunate frog having a really, really awful day.

The heron kept dipping the frog back in the water, then pulling it out and carrying it in its beak as it stalked around the tributary. Washing the frog off? Playing cat-and-mouse with it? No idea. But it was fascinating – and a little alarming – to watch. And since he was clearly a terrifying frog predator, we changed his name from Gru to Baby Yoda.

GIF by moodman

Heh.

The kids were remarkably unfazed by their first predation event. Peanut complained about her boot the whole time and Nugget threw sticks into the water and pointed out “duck butts” every time the mallards dove for a fish.

(All pictures taken with Nikon Coolpix P1000, if you’re curious.)

Quite the epic day at Great Falls! It was a good reminder – while we’ve been enjoying exploring all the parks near our new home, Great Falls is a favorite for a reason; must come back here again soon.

by

Reading Round-Up: January, 2021

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby. I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book. Here are my reads for January, 2021.

Death on the Nile (Hercule Poirot # 17), by Agatha Christie – I so enjoyed this classic installment of Hercule Poirot’s adventures. The great detective, looking for some rest and relaxation, heads off to Egypt for a Nile cruise. Of course, where Poirot goes, murder is sure to follow. When a beautiful heiress on her honeymoon is found with a bullet through her head, Poirot is pulled in to investigate the crime. A new adaptation of Death on the Nile, starring Gal Gadot as Linnet Doyle and the great Kenneth Branagh as Poirot, is scheduled to hit theaters later this year – I can’t wait!

The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters, ed. Charlotte Mosley – Like so many readers and anglophiles, I am fascinated by the Mitford sisters – especially my favorites, Nancy and Deborah. I’ve had this collection of their correspondence on my TBR for ages and finally got to it, via my kindle. The Mitford correspondence is voluminous – hard to believe, but this 850+ page collection represents only 5% of their total written communication. It was so interesting; the letters selected (by Diana Mitford’s daughter-in-law Charlotte) showcased the sisters’ different personalities and voices and provided a window into unfolding history. It could be uncomfortable to read (Unity’s and Diana’s letters gushing about Hitler were particularly disgusting) but it’s also important to see that angle of history so we can prevent it from happening again. Naturally, I enjoyed Deborah’s letters about her friends the Kennedy family much more, though!

The Provincial Lady in London (The Provincial Lady #2), by E.M. Delafield – Looking for something short and sweet after the epic long collection of Mitford letters, I decided to continue on with the Provincial Lady. In this volume, the PL is now a mild literary celebrity and her diaries follow her to a writers’ conference in Brussels, vacation in Brittany, and of course London. I especially enjoyed the family’s relationship with the holiday tutor, “Casabianca.”

Word from Wormingford: A Parish Year, by Ronald Blythe – After two weeks of long hours and stressful projects at work, I really needed something to relax my brain. A slow, seasonal meditation on the natural rhythms of the English countryside and the liturgical calendar in the Church of England was just what the doctor ordered. (Don’t @ me.)

The Truths We Hold: An American Journey, by Vice President Kamala Harris – Saved this one for Inauguration Week and it was the perfect choice. I really enjoyed our new Vice President’s memoir, in which she combines her personal story with her thoughts on policy. VP Harris, a former prosecutor, sees a lot of policy through a criminal justice lens, and that was interesting to read about. I loved every page, but it did suffer a bit in comparison to the last political memoir I read – A Promised Land. An unfair comparison, because no one, no matter how brilliant and talented a politician they are, writes like President Obama.

Bewildering Cares, by Winifred Peck – “It’s a tempest in a teacup, but we happen to live in the teacup.” Bewildering Cares follows one eventful week in the life of a clergyman’s wife in an industrial town outside of Manchester, during the first full year of World War II. Camilla Lacely, the protagonist, is a delight – a little frazzled, constantly being outfoxed by her one maid, worried about finances, and harangued by the grande dames of the parish about the firebrand curate, Mr. Strang. But Mrs. Lacely faces it all with good grace and her “diary” is a lovely, calming read.

A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside, by Susan Branch – Not sure how I stumbled across this, but darn glad I decided to give it a try! My Grandmama was a huge fan of Susan Branch’s books and artwork, but I sort of assumed she was just the littlest bit too twee for me. (I have a high tolerance for twee, as is probably obvious by now, but for some reason I thought Susan Branch would be a bridge too far.) Y’all. I am appropriately chastened, because I loved this – handwritten, hand-painted scrapbook/diary of the author’s grand 25th anniversary trip with her sweet husband. It was one of those maddening books that you both can’t put down and simultaneously don’t want to end.

The School at the Chalet (Chalet School #1), by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer – Okay, speaking of twee. Let’s get one thing out of the way? High-brow literature this is not. Well-written? Well… it’s not awful. But fun, yes, atmospheric, yes, and just what I wanted to read – definitely. Perhaps it’s the times. This beginning of the Chalet School series took place when World War I and the Spanish Flu pandemic were very fresh in people’s memory, and maybe they just wanted a piece of fluff – Alps, Tyrolean lederhosen, and the comforting knowledge that everything is going to come right in the end. And in 2021, with the current pandemic stretching on and on and our democracy reeling from the body blows of the last four years (as much confidence as I do have in our current healer-in-chief) I also want comfort reading, and this is comfort reading. I intend to re-read it, and to continue on with the series in short order.

Well – eight books to start off the year, which in a long month isn’t exactly a high total for me. But January was a doozy, both at work and in life. Starting off the month with two 60+ hour workweeks, coupled with a coup attempt while I was at work just blocks away from the violence (and then driving white-knuckled home to Virginia) is just not a recipe for lots of pages. But things did pick up toward the end of the month, and even if the numbers aren’t especially high, there were still plenty of highlights. First of all, you can never go wrong in starting a year off with Agatha Christie. And then following her with Mitfords – as Debo would say, get on. Vice President Harris’s memoir was another high point (and it never gets old to say “Vice President Harris,” you guys), and falling in love with Susan Branch’s work was long overdue. So, a light month, but a good month!

How was your January in books? And life?

by

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (February 1, 2021)

Hello, friends, happy new week to you all. What’s new with you? What’s new here is that we have SNOW on the ground – snow! As anxious as I am for paddling season to begin, I have to admit I’m giddy about our current brush with winter. While unpacking after our move this summer, I found my snowshoes – never used, tags still on – and have been waiting impatiently to use them. Sunday was the day! But I’m getting ahead of myself. Last week was another doozy at work, but thankfully, this coming week presents a bit of a lull, which I plan to enjoy. Two briefs filed and several other projects advanced, and I needed a brain break. I got one. On Saturday, I ran to the grocery store first thing and when I got home, we headed out for a hike, as we do pretty much every rain-free weekend day. I wanted to check out a potential stand-up paddleboarding spot for once the weather warms up, so we drove out to Beaverdam Reservoir in Loudoun County. I cased the launch spot, and then we wandered the lakeside trail for a bit before turning around and heading home. Everything aligned for a good ramble – the kids behaved, we had the right snacks, everyone was properly attired; good all around. We’ll definitely be back, and I plan to bring my board out there as soon as it’s warm enough to SUP. The rest of Saturday was laid-back; I ran out to the garden center to stock up on birdseed before the “big storm” and set up a new feeder station when I got home, then spent the rest of the day reading.

On Sunday, we woke up to a blanket of white on the ground! Not too much snow – I think all in all we got about two inches; the prediction was four to eight, so it was a bit of a bust. But still snow! We spent the early morning watching the squabbles and dramas at the bird feeder, then went off to hike in the snow at Riverbend Park. Steve laughed at me for bringing my snowshoes, but I didn’t care! I finally got to use them, and it was hilarious and awesome. Rest of the day – so chill I don’t even recall what we did. The kids knocked around the house. I cuddled up under a blanket and read, and made multiple cups of rooibos tea to keep my hands warm. (The heat in our house is weirdly uneven – very comfortable upstairs, in the bedrooms; downright chilly on the main level of the house; frigid on the sub-level where Steve likes to watch TV.) And that’s about it! Some cooking, lots of staring at the birds.

Reading. Don’t get too excited – this was a good reading week, but not as epic as it appears from the gallery. I’ll explain. I started the week off with the January chapters of a couple of books I am reading month-by-month all year long: Orchard and The Almanac 2021. Had intended to begin the year with them, but work and life craziness intervened, but I couldn’t let the first month of the year end and me already behind. Then went back to Bewildering Cares and finished it up – I enjoyed it. Next, on to the highlight of the week – A Fine Romance: Falling in Love with the English Countryside, by Susan Branch. My Grandmama loved Susan Branch; I didn’t think she was necessarily for me, but after A Fine Romance I’m a convert. Saturday evening and most of Sunday was dedicated to The School at the Chalet, which I’ve been meaning to read for some time now. I know it’s not exactly highbrow literature, but whatever – I thought it was good fun, or as the Chalet Girls would say, simply “ripping.” Finally! Ended the weekend curled up with My Family and Other Animals. It’s COLD here; I am expecting a few days in Corfu with the Durrells to warm me right up.

Watching. On the hunt for something to watch for our family “movie nights” (which are really TV show nights) after finishing Big Crazy Family Adventure, Steve suggested The Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We are halfway through the final episode of the show now – going at a rate of about an episode a night – and surprisingly, really enjoying it. I am on record as having no desire to go to Disney, but understanding that I will have to bite the bullet and take the anklebiters at some point in the near (but post-COVID) future – but when that day comes, we’re staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Mom has spoken. Oh, and we’re bringing Grandma.

Listening. More music than podcasts this week, actually. The one time that I really have for extended listening is my weekly trip to the grocery pickup. This week, instead of a podcast The New Pornographers came on, and I decided I wanted to listen to them for awhile, then switch to R.E.M. Steve and I were comparing notes on pandemic listening recently and discovered that we have both fallen down eighties (and nineties) music rabbit holes – namely, wallowing in what we liked in high school. Steve’s Spotify playlist has turned into Depeche Mode central. Meanwhile, I confessed to having Chronic Town on repeat. Steve nodded knowingly and said, “R.E.M. would be the sweet spot for you.” You can say that again.

Making. A new bird feeder setup. Recently we started having trouble with European starlings – rat birds. They’ve been ganging up on the little songbirds and hogging all my nice (read: expensive) Cole’s nutberry suet blend for themselves. BOO, starlings, get off my lawn. I ordered an Audubon “starling-proof” bird feeder and several bags of foods starlings hate (white-striped sunflower seed, peanuts in shell) and shuffled around the setup this weekend. I’ve now got an upside-down suet feeder for the woodpeckers (starlings can feed upside down, but they’d really rather not); safflower in everyone’s favorite tube feeder and the window feeder (blackbirds – like starlings – and squirrels don’t eat it); sunflower and peanuts in shells in the tray feeder (starlings’ flimsy beaks can’t cope); and the good stuff in the starling-proof feeder. They’re still around trying to get into trouble, but my hope is that they’ll get frustrated when the only food they like is out of their reach, and go bother someone else. Meanwhile the songbirds have no trouble hopping in and out of the caged feeder, and even the bluebirds have been able to get in and out, although they’re a little awkward about it. Success! It’s been a hoot watching the birds argue and squabble and re-establish their pecking order (pun intended) around the new feeders. Also, I am that crazy bird lady. Apologies to my neighbors.

Moving. A better week! Even though I had another busy one at work, I made time for myself – one outdoor run, two Peloton workouts, one regular (snow-free) hike, and a grand snowshoeing adventure. I had way too much fun with the snowshoes; hope we get another storm so I can use them again before spring.

Blogging. I have two good posts for you this week! January’s reading recap on Wednesday (it was a slow month, but there’s good stuff in there), and pictures from last weekend’s hike at Great Falls on Friday. That’s one that deserves its own post! Stay tuned.

Loving. You guys, I recently got this mug and I am obsessed. Rainbow Brite, Strawberry Shortcake, Jem, and She-Ra – all my girls – together on one mug. Shut the front door. The only sad thing is, somehow the bottom of the mug got chipped in the sink the first time I used it. But it’s still totally drinkable and totally adorable. If you’re an eighties kid, you need one.

Asking. What are you reading this week?

by

2021 Goals & One Little Word

At the end of last year, I saw a meme on Facebook (or Instagram?) reading something to the effect of: “No one is to declare that 2021 is ‘their year.’ Walk in very quietly. DON’T. TOUCH. ANYTHING.” Sounds about right, doesn’t it? At the beginning of 2020, I was filled with hope. We had plans to move, and I was looking forward to saving both rent and school tuition. And I was chasing a professional goal. (The move happened, the professional goal did not pan out but is still on my life agenda.) I had high expectations for the year. Clearly, we know how that went.

Looking ahead to this year, I am hesitant to make any grand declarations or set big goals. That’s true for most of us, probably. While I am tiptoeing around hopes for a vaccine and hugs from family members and maybe even a summer vacation, I don’t want to say any of that too loudly. Still, I can’t face another year of hunkering down and just getting by. So I am setting some intentions for the year. Not huge ones. Achievable ones. Intentions that I can work on regardless of COVID (I think/hope). But intentions that, if I keep them in my sights, will help me to live a better and fuller and happier 2021 no matter the state of the world.

Well-being goals. One of the things I felt that I did well in 2020 was focusing on my own personal well-being. Mom is always going to take care of the family, but Mom needs to take care of Mom, too. I figured the healthier I was – physically, mentally, etc. – the better chance I would avoid getting sick with COVID. So I scrupulously followed hygiene recommendations, but I also rediscovered my love for running and for cooking fresh, healthy, vegetable-focused meals. Not only have I not gotten COVID (cross fingers, knock all the wood around) but I ended 2020 healthier than I started it. Now I want to build on that.

  • Finish another Whole30 (I’m partway through already!) and then continue cooking and eating mostly whole foods.
  • Keep up my routine of running at least three times per week, and mixing it up with different fun workouts on most other days.
  • Spend 1,000 hours outside – even my own backyard counts.
  • Spend as much time as possible on and around the water.

Family goals. To be perfectly honest, it has been hard these past few months. Juggling a full-time (and very demanding/stressful) job with virtual school and parenting two kids who are constantly knocking around the house – and with no consistent child-care help – has taken a lot out of me. If there’s an end in sight, it’s still months away – I’m just crossing all of my fingers and toes that the kids can return to school in September, but that doesn’t get me relief for another eight months and the whole idea of eight more months of this is disheartening. I don’t know how I’ll get through – taking one day at a time, I suppose – but man is the thought of it exhausting.

  • Revisit my financial goals and plans. Last year we made some big decisions – like moving, and transitioning to public school – to help us reach our goals more quickly. Now I want to check in with my investments and make sure they are still serving the family.
  • Practice patience every day.
  • Cultivate new, simple family traditions and rituals. (Saturday morning pancakes? Family game night?)

Personal goals. Sometimes it can be very easy to get swept up in being a mom and wife and employee, and I lose sight of who I want to be as a person and what I want to do in that limited time I have to just be me. Running helps, but I could do more.

  • Keep building my photography skills. It’s the creative practice that brings me the most joy and personal satisfaction.
  • Wear earrings every day – or at least almost every day. I got out of the habit when I stopped going to the office regularly in the early days of the pandemic, but I need to have earrings in more regularly. I’m tired of re-piercing my own ears every time I want to look nice.
  • Paddle regularly – kayak and SUP – both with my family and blissfully alone.

Word of the Year. I don’t think I settled on a word for 2020, which in retrospect is probably a good thing. If I had, it surely wouldn’t have gone to plan, because what did go to plan last year? But I did want to choose a word to follow this year. 2021 will be our first full year in the exurbs and in the community where we’d like to plant roots and stay at least until our kids graduate from high school. The hope, also, is – of course – for a light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, and I hope that we will be able to get out exploring more. We moved here mostly for the schools, but also partly for the attractions of living in a small town with a rural feel – summer movies on the village green, holiday parades, neighbors you know at the local coffee shop – and we haven’t gotten to experience those joys yet because of the pandemic. I want to embrace everything our new community has to offer, and to venture further afield too.

When I think about what I want the end of 2021 to look like – dangerous thinking, I know – it looks like a more balanced existence than what I have now. Kids back in school; nights and weekends less consumed by work; less clutter in the house and in my mind and heart. As I mused on words that speak to that vision, balance came up a lot; so did be, peace, calm and rooted. Ultimately, though, I settled on breathe.

I would like 2021 to be the year I finally claim breathing space. The story of the last few years has been overwhelm, more and more of it. A to-do list that is constantly growing; piles of kid clutter; energy vampires stealing my peace; and never enough time or energy or rest. In 2021 I plan to chase fresh air – physically; emotionally; professionally; maybe even spiritually (we’ll see, not getting too ambitious here). I’m not entirely sure what that will look like, but at the end of the year I’d like to be breathing easier.

What are your goals for 2021?

by

Themed Reads: Picture Books for the Snowy Season

I spend a lot of time curled up in my “reading nook” with my favorite classic novels, rediscovered memoirs, and mystery novels. But I also spend a lot of time with a kid – or two – on my lap, reading aloud. And while I’ve been reading more novels to the kids (especially Peanut) lately, we still do love our picture books. I especially can’t get enough of the combination of beautiful words and mesmerizing artwork. There are some really stunning offerings in the libraries and bookshops these days; here are a few of my favorites.

Kate Messner writes some gorgeous prose, and the art by Christopher Silas Neal in her “over and under” series (which now includes Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt; Over and Under the Pond; and Over and Under the Rainforest) is absolutely breathtaking. I could fall into these books and just live in the natural rhythms of their world. Over and Under the Snow is absolutely lovely. Recently my cousin Jaime took her baby boy on a story walk through a local (to her) park; the story was Over and Under the Snow and, of course, she fell in love with it too.

Snow Birds, by Kirsten Hall, was one of Nugget’s Christmas gifts this year, but I think I might have been even more excited to read it than he was. It’s just beautiful – lovely, peaceful art and stunning kid-friendly poetry. Even if you’re not a bird nerd (as Nugget and I proudly are) it’s a lovely read. Destined to become a new family favorite for sure!

Can’t have a list of snowy season picture books without Jan Brett’s classic The Mitten, now can we? (Narrowly beating out that other classics, The Snowy Day, which is also beloved in our house.) If you don’t already know the story of a forest full of chilly critters who crawl into a hand-knitted mitten to warm up, get thee to your local bookstore and pick up a copy! I think both of my kids have read this in school, by now, and I have the pile of The Mitten-themed art projects to prove it. But we love it for home, too, especially piled up together under a warm blanket on a cold winter Sunday afternoon. Nothing better.

You certainly don’t have to have ankle-biters around the house to enjoy the peaceful art and inspiring words in these snow-themed picture books. What are your favorite picture books to celebrate chilly days?

by

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? (January 25, 2021)

Brrrrrr. Is it as cold where you are as it is here? It got down to thirty degrees this weekend – chilly. (My mom tells me it is MUCH colder in upstate New York, which I’m sure it is, but we are wimpy Virginians around here.) Notwithstanding the cold, we got outside both days this weekend, so I’m calling that a success. On Saturday, we hiked at Great Falls Park and I got some pretty fantastic pictures of a great blue heron hunting – stay tuned because those deserve their own blog post, coming next week. In the afternoon – this is very exciting – I got out for a run! Not very far and not very fast, but I just needed to break the ice. On Sunday, we hiked at Riverbend Park, one of our local favorites. Saw a bunch of Eastern bluebirds (they’re everywhere!) and I fell in the mud, good times.

Rest of the weekend was – simple, simple. Snuggling on the couch with a book, sipping chamomile tea, breaking up fights, the usual. I could use another day, as usual, but two good days of rest and reading, that’s better than nothing.

Reading. Speaking of reading – it was a good, albeit slow, reading week. I’d expected to finish Word from Wormingford: A Parish Year last weekend; it ended up taking me until Tuesday, oh well. Still a good read! Next, as planned, I pivoted to Vice President (!!!) Kamala Harris’s memoir, The Truths We Hold, to celebrate Inauguration Day. What with all the festivities to watch and a few nights of lengthy texts and phone calls with friends and family members (no regrets) it took me until Saturday to finish, but I enjoyed every page. Finished the weekend off with Bewildering Cares, which has been on my TBR for far too long.

Watching. Lots of watching last week! Starting with the Inauguration and the related festivities. I loved every moment and can’t possibly pick a highlight. Amanda Gorman reading her gorgeous work aloud, three past Presidents sharing their good wishes for the new administration, President Biden’s healing speech, Lady Gaga in her Mockingjay cosplay, Bernie’s mittens, the spectacular fireworks – all great, of course. But I think if I had to pick a favorite moment, it was watching Vice President Harris take the oath of office. I dragged Peanut away from Dinosaur King to watch, and I think some of the weight of that historic moment made an impression on her. In other watching news, we finished Big Crazy Family Adventure and are now bereft. Any suggestions for our next family-friendly educational travel show?

Listening. I’ll bet you can guess what I’m going to say – podcasts, podcasts. I made my way through an entire two-part episode of The Mom Hour on “where to put all the STUFF” while running errands this week, and also got through a recent episode of The Marine Conservation Happy Hour while running on Saturday afternoon. Podcatcher’s still out of control, though.

Making. Lots of yummy stews. I started another Whole30 last week (can’t even remember what round this is) and have been wandering through the recipes on the Whole30 blog, stocking up on inspiration, and also just dreaming up lots of whole food-friendly recipes in my kitchen. On Saturday night I made a vegetable curry with Indian-spiced turkey meatballs nestled in it, and it was a huge hit.

Moving. Two hikes this weekend, plus that ice-breaking run – improvement, but not where I would like to be. (Sucking in all that cold air is just not really fun.) The funniest thing happened on my run, though! As I was huffing up the big hill on my street, a car slowed to a stop next to me and I heard the driver shout “Jaclyn!” Shocked, because I barely know anyone out here, I pulled out my earbuds and saw that the car’s driver was a client. We had just the week before last, chatting over Microsoft Teams, discovered that we live in the same neighborhood and started planning to meet up for walks. I haven’t bumped into anyone I know while out running since we moved here – that used to happen periodically when we lived in Alexandria; I just knew so many people there. Running into someone I actually know (fairly well!) made me feel like I am really part of the community out here now, it was a nice feeling.

Blogging. I have a Themed Reads post for you on Wednesday, and then on Friday I will finally wrap my New Year’s content – only on the last blogging day of January, dusts off shoulders – with my goals and word for 2021. Check in with me then!

Loving. You’re all going to totally eyeroll and say, welcome to April 2020, Jac, but – last week I had a Zoom chat with my friend Allegra. Believe it or not, I have not actually zoomed with anyone since the beginning of the pandemic, except for work calls which obviously don’t count. I’ve had several happy hours with girlfriends over FaceTime, but not Zoom – can you believe? Anyway, Allegra is a friend from childhood who I really cherish but don’t always stay in touch with as much as I’d like. Our moms are close friends, so we basically grew up together and whenever I visit my parents, I try to see her. We’ll have marathon catch-up chats in person but don’t really do a great job of staying in contact virtually. Recently she reached out with a professional question (we’re both attorneys) and the conversation took off in a bunch of different directions and turned into a lengthy ongoing text chain. She suggested getting together over Zoom, so I arranged a call and we chatted last week. Guys. It was so good to see her face. We spent an hour chatting and laughing about motherhood, books, jobs – all that life stuff – and decided to make this a regular monthly thing. It’s funny that it took a pandemic to get us to stay in touch regularly – COVID silver-lining, I guess.

Asking. What are you reading this week?

by

2020 in Books, Part III: Book Superlatives

Are you ready? Here comes what is – without a doubt – the silliest post of the year, in which I give high school yearbook-style awards to the books I read in 2020. It is completely pointless, utterly ridiculous, and I hope you enjoy.

Brainiest. I mean, come on. Clearly this year’s valedictorian is Barack Obama.

Best Looking. Robert Macfarlane’s and Jackie Morris’s collections of “spells” and artwork are stunning to look at. They’re the Elfine Starkadder of the 2020 booklist, you know what I mean.

Best Friends. Friendship to the max! I’m pretty sure that Jo, April, Mal, Molly and Ripley have taken this category before, but I mean, obviously.

Class Clown. Surprised that Shirley Jackson is actually hilarious? Me too. Although, to quote that rando psychiatrist that Phoebe dates in season one of Friends, analyzing Chandler, “I wouldn’t want to be around when the laughter stops.”

Biggest Jock. I feel like Georgie would be really surprised by this, but We Swim to the Shark was the only book I read all year that even touched on any kind of sporty endeavor, so she takes it.

Teacher’s Pet. St. Philip’s School in London boasts illustrious alums such as Julian Fellowes (of Downton Abbey fame) and I feel like quite a few teacher’s pets. Can’t you just see them, neat as pins, lined up in their freshly laundered blazers, ready for Mass?

Biggest Nerd. What is a nerd, after all? If it’s someone who loves something, like a lot, Jane Austen fans fit the bill. As a Janeite myself, I am ready to lean into this.

Most Creative. Perhaps this is a sign that I am really grown up now, but a country mansion and acres of wilding gardens strikes me as the perfect palette, and Beverly Nichols is the ultimate artist.

Most Opinionated. Union Jackshirt Aspect! Report for battle! Eugenia Malmain, Mitford’s sheltered and unworldly send-up of her sister Unity, is clearly the most opinionated character in the 2020 booklist. It’s a shame that Eugenia is absolutely kookoo bananapants, and that her opinions – like Unity’s – were utterly reprehensible.

Most Likely to End Up in Hollywood. I’m on record as not loving this one, but the cinematic potential is undeniable.

Biggest Rebel. Again, I think Jack Boughton has taken this category before. But he’s the dictionary definition of a rebel – if a sad one.

Biggest Loner. Hello, my name is Helen Graham. Please leave this property and never speak to me again.

Cutest Couple. If the measure of devotion is following your beloved to war, then Hermione, Countess Ranfurly, who outwits the entire British war leadership in Africa and the Middle East in order to stay near her husband Dan, is the pinnacle. HERMIONE AND DAN FOREVER. Also, Whitaker is the best non-third-wheel-third-wheel there is.

Prom King. James Leigh-Smith, created as an A in the brand spanking new social order, would be all over this.

Prom Queen. I think Queen Lucia of Tilling, formerly of Riseholme, has taken this one before. Perhaps she was too busy playing a wee bit of darling Mozart on her ickle piano and forgot to show up for finals? Either way, she’s the queen.

Most Likely to Succeed. Give Jane Carter a storefront and a tiny bit of capital and she’ll take the world by storm. She’s definitely this year’s most likely to succeed. You’ll be seeing her at all the Fashion Weeks.

Ha! This was fun.

by

2020 Goals: Recap and Lament

All right. Before I can turn my attention to 2021, I always feel compelled to look back on the previous year’s goals, take stock, and see how it all shook out. See where things went well; see where things went unexpectedly (which is pretty much everything in 2020, right?). What worked; what didn’t. All that jazz.

In looking back over my 2020 goals, it was a bit of a mixed bag. Some goals were upended by the pandemic, of course. Others were not impacted at all. Here’s the final result:

  • Get back on the running trails, and rediscover my love for my old sport. Done! The way 2020 shook out, there was very little that I could do to chase adventure and achievement – other than running. But run I did. Between two virtual race series put on by Another Mother Runner, and a number of other virtual races hosted by local running stores in my area, I kept myself busy on the roads and the trails. I definitely feel more inspired and energized about running than I have in a long while, and I am mulling over some more goals (pandemic permitting, of course) for 2021.
  • Buy nothing new for three months.  This doesn’t include food, toiletries, other consumables, gifts or things for the kiddos – but as for myself, I’d like to be a more conscious member of the circular economy. Done! From January through March, I bought nothing for myself that wasn’t strictly necessary – so other than food and toiletries, nothing at all. It was a really interesting and rewarding experience, and one that I would like to repeat sooner than later. I’m not really a big shopper – other than for books, heh – but I think it’s so helpful to take a step back periodically, and be more mindful about consumption.
  • Go up in a hot air balloon. Done! This was one of the few adventure-type plans I made for 2020 that actually came to fruition. It was such a cool experience and I’d definitely like to do it again.
  • Hydrate, eat the rainbow, move, and generally stop putting everyone else’s well-being before my own. Done – I think. This one has been hard. When I wrote the goal I couldn’t possibly have imagined that by the end of the year I’d be juggling my regular full-time job with being tech and emotional support for a five-year-old doing his kindergarten year on the computer. My resolve to care for myself has definitely been tested this year; I think that’s been a common experience as 2020 has placed demands on working parents (and especially mothers) that we never saw coming, and that we still don’t fully have a handle on. But I have been great about hydrating (I’ve always been a big water person, so that’s not exactly a heavy lift) and I am very vegetable-forward in my eating habits, which helps. And I have made a superhuman effort to claim exercise time for myself no matter what else has been going on. I’m a work in progress, as always.
  • Continue to build my bread-baking skills, and experiment with new bread recipes. Done! Who knew that bread-baking would explode in popularity this year? I’ve mostly worked on perfecting my sourdough sandwich bread – but later in the year I did branch out to trying new recipes, like this pane bianco. I have had great luck with the recipes from King Arthur Baking, and thanks to The Great British Bake-Off I now know what a well-kneaded, well-risen dough should actually look like. All of which compounds success and makes me want to keep at it.
  • Do another twelve months’ hiking project on the blog. Can I call this one partially done? I did start off well, but then fell off the wagon when it came to writing and posting recaps. But we hiked consistently all year; it was one of the few weekend activities left to us during the pandemic.
  • Finally finish that purge of all the junk we have been moving from house to house for the last decade.  I’m over it. Calling this done! Over the summer, Steve hired a dumpster and we filled it to the brim and then some. Look at us go! I still have some items in storage and a few things I need to find homes for in the new house, but we have majorly minimized and it feels wonderful.
  • Related: give away, donate, or discard 2,020 items, and pick up 2,020 pieces of trash in my neighborhood. Half done. Thanks in large part to our moving-related purge, I managed to jettison 2,810 individual items. (And actually, the total was probably higher; Steve and I worked together on the purge project and I know he tossed things like boxes of DVDs or knick-knacks before I was able to get an accurate count – so I just estimated and I think I almost always low-balled.) I did not complete the trash pick-up; I was doing great and on track to exceed my goal, but then COVID hit and I decided I wasn’t comfortable picking up people’s discarded cups and cigarette butts – even with gloves on, which I always wear for trash-picking – and that I was going to lay off my trash-picking until after the pandemic.
  • Read what I want to read, and not feel pressured to keep up with buzzy new releases. Definitely done! I wrote here about making the decision to hold off (for now, not forever) on getting a library card in my new town. Instead, I’ve been enjoying cozy nights reading books from my own shelves. It turns out that I really like my own taste in books! 🙂
  • Finish a big family memory-keeping project I’ve been planning for years, in time for Christmas 2020. Well… I did actually finish a major memory-keeping project, just not the one I had in mind. I have been meaning to create a family cookbook using my grandmother’s recipes – but I’m way behind on that project. What I did do was finally finish creating Shutterfly yearbooks going back to Steve’s and my wedding in 2005. That was a huge and very time-consuming project, and it is so satisfying to see them all stacked neatly on my shelf, and to flip through them and reminisce.
  • Travel, have adventures, push boundaries, and get outside my comfort zone regularly.  (How’s that for specific?) Well. I was really hoping for more… obviously. My thinking behind this totally vague goal was: the kids are getting older, no one naps in my house anymore, and we can start to do more adventurous things – both in our local area and further afield. We did get up to some adventures. I went up in a hot air balloon, as you know. We got in some cool hikes in Shenandoah National Park. And we did a lot of kayaking, including (unintentionally) in some Class 1-2 rapids. That was definitely outside my comfort zone, although kayaking generally occupies pretty much the very center of my comfort zone. But the travel and the farther-flung adventures didn’t happen, obviously. I would like to say that I’m hoping for a better year in 2021, but if 2020 has taught me anything it’s to have zero expectations.

So, there we have it – actually not a bad tally considering how badly off the rails this year went. I’m struggling a bit to come up with goals for 2021; more to come on that, soon.

If you set goals for 2020, how’d they go?

by

It’s MLK Day – and Inauguration Week! What Are You Reading? (January 18, 2021)

Morning, friends! It’s a holiday weekend here in the U.S. (how are you honoring MLK’s legacy today?) and the start of the long-awaited Inauguration Week. I am staying home all week – no desire to repeat my experience of driving white-knuckled over the Key Bridge on January 6, and I couldn’t get to my office if I tried, since it’s in the “red zone” where all traffic other than official vehicles is banned, anyway. I plan to watch Joe Biden and Kamala Harris be sworn in from the comfort of my couch on Wednesday.

So, how were your weekends? Coming off of two weeks of nonstop work and nonstop stress, I was ready to turn my brain off for a while. I finally finished my gauntlet of depositions, filings, discovery and sundry other stressful matters at 9:30 on Friday evening, flopped down on the couch and declared myself burnt out. Two weeks into the year! I think that’s a new record. Steve and I declared Saturday “chores day.” With me being completely unavailable for two weeks, Steve was in survival mode trying to juggle work and the kids’ virtual school by himself. (It’s unmanageable with two parents. With one – yikes.) The result was that he heroically made it to the end of the gauntlet with neither kid expelled from school and the house still standing, a major achievement – but the place was trashed. We spent the day with sleeves rolled up, tackling everything that got back-burnered while I was working 65 hour weeks. Steve did another massive clean-out of the playroom, some light plumbing, a bunch of laundry, a kitchen deep clean, etc. I went from room to room in the common spaces, clearing out debris from a two week long kid tornado. We had help from one kid and active resistance from the other (names withheld to protect the guilty and the brown-nosing). By the end of the day the house was looking fantastic, and it was so satisfying. Sunday, we reserved for hiking and we drove down to Huntley Meadows, one of our favorite parks for spotting wetland birds. Unfortunately, when we got there we found it overrun with people – parking lot completely full and cars spilling into the access road – so we quickly pivoted to Plan B: Mount Vernon. We hadn’t been in months, and it turned out to be just what we all wanted. We walked the grounds, so familiar to us, checked out the animals, gazed at the river, and Peanut chattered on about Felicity Merriman from the American Girl collection. Rest of the day – simple. I ran a couple of errands, Peanut watched Felicity, an American Girl Adventure; Nugget watched Dinosaur King; Steve watched football; I read and cleaned up the woodpile. So yes, a simple weekend, but just what I was craving.

Reading. Amazingly, despite all the work last week, it was a good reading week! I finished up The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters and really enjoyed it. (Hard to believe that this 850+ page volume only represented about 5% of their correspondence!) But man alive, were they catty towards one another – I’m glad I have a brother. My sole criterion for my next read was: it had to be short. The Provincial Lady in London (American title; the original UK title was The Provincial Lady Goes Further – which does make sense, as the PL spends time in Brittany and Devonshire as well and is only in London for half the book, approx.) was a hoot. I didn’t love it quite as much as the first in the series, but I still loved it A. LOT. Finally, ended the week with Word from Wormingford – slow, seasonal, and comforting, just what I wanted. I’m a little less than halfway through as of press time, so I’ll finish tonight or tomorrow and then turn to my Inauguration reading – The Truths We Hold, by our soon-to-be Vice President, Kamala Harris.

Watching. We are still loving Big Crazy Family Adventure. The Kirkby family has just crossed the border into India on the final leg of their trip, and it has been such fun – and so fascinating – to follow along with them. We all love this show, which is really saying something; usually there is at least one family member who is just tolerating it. I’m not sure how many episodes we have left but I think we’re getting near the end; I am going to miss it when we’re done.

Listening. Bunch of podcasts, as usual. Highlights were a few episodes of Shedunnit (of course!) and The Mom Hour on storage solutions for all the STUFF that comes into our houses at the holidays. The Lego struggle is real.

Making. Lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of work product (hopefully some of it was good/competent). More happily, a clean house and a tidy woodpile, and a few rows on a seed stitch cowl I’m knitting, while watching hockey. (Will someone please alert the Sabres to the fact that it’s regular season hockey now, not an exhibition game? The Caps got the memo. Sheesh.)

Moving. Oooooooof. Not. moving. Multiple entire days spent on Zoom are not conducive to movement. The epic day of cleaning on Saturday was kind of a workout, though. And Sunday’s walk, and dragging tree limbs all over the yard – same. Running shoes WILL be back this week, though.

Blogging. More New Year’s content! Recap (and lament) of 2020 goals on Wednesday, and Part III of my annual reading retrospective on Friday. The ever-silly Book Superlatives! Check in with me then.

Loving. Look what I got! A Bonsai tree! One of my errands yesterday was a stop by the garden center, for a decent-looking tray to catch drips from my lemon tree, which I have moved inside for the winter. (It’s already perking up, which is good news – it was looking quite peaky out in the sunroom.) It happened that my local nursery had just gotten in a new stash of Bonsai – well, I couldn’t resist. I remember when I was a kid, my mom took in a Bonsai temporarily while her BFF was on a lengthy family vacation in Europe, and I was fascinated by the perfect little miniature tree. In my recollection, my mom’s friend’s Bonsai was like a very demanding little pet, but when I read the instructions on this one, it seemed surprisingly low maintenance. Here’s hoping I don’t kill it. Peanut has named it “Bonnie” so we’re clearly already getting attached.

Asking. What are you reading this week?

by

2020 in Books, Part II: Top Ten

Yipes! This is always one of the hardest posts of the year for me to write. Even in 2020, I read so many wonderful books – how am I supposed to choose a top ten? (And don’t tell me I don’t have to choose. What am I supposed to do, just not write a top ten post for the year? Unthinkable.)

If you’d asked me back in May if I thought I’d be struggling to come up with ten favorite books of the year, I’d have found that very plausible – but not for the same reason. All spring, I struggled with a reading slump, brought on by pandemic anxiety and the shifting foundations of the world we’ve all suddenly found ourselves living in. I had figured I’d turn to books for comfort, as is my usual practice, but I couldn’t bring myself to focus; it was odd. I didn’t watch television, either. Mostly, I just stared into space. But happily, the reading slump seems to have worked its way out and now I find myself sitting here, in December, pandemic anxiety still a-raging, but at least I’m struggling to name ten favorite books because of an embarrassment of riches.

Enough said. Let’s try. And for something new, a ranking.

10. Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo. Read in the earliest days of the pandemic, and I didn’t think I was going to like it (I’d read that the writing style was experimental, which largely dooms a book for me). I loved it. It was raw, and real, and like poetry.

9. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winifred Watson. One I’d been meaning to get to for years, I finally found time to meet Miss Pettigrew and join her on her adventures, and what I was missing! Miss Pettigrew was indominable, her friends sparkling, and the whole thing was a joy.

8. We Swim to the Shark, by Georgie Codd. Sometimes you read a book that is just what you need in the moment, and that that was We Swim to the Shark for me. I loved every moment, but especially the evocative descriptions of diving.

7. Wigs on the Green, by Nancy Mitford. Nancy always delivers, right? This book was funny and a little uncomfortable – classic Mitford. The author held it back from publication herself, because it poked fun a little too sharply at some of her family members. I’m glad it’s in the world now.

6. The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen, by Elizabeth von Arnim. 2020 was a year of reading Elizabeth von Arnim for me, and The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen very closely beat out Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther for space on this list. Elizabeth goes on a “solo” vacation (of course, as a German baroness, her “solo” vacation includes a maid, a driver, and unfortunately, a tagalong cousin) and it’s equal parts beautiful nature writing and hilarious scrapes.

5. Life Among the Savages, by Shirley Jackson. I’ve only know of Shirley Jackson as the writer of such terrifying horrors as We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House, so I figured she was not for me. Not so! This was laugh-out-loud funny. I read it before the pandemic, and scared people on the Metro by cackling the entire time.

4. The Priory, by Dorothy Whipple. Every Whipple I’ve read has been wonderful, but The Priory is my favorite. My heart goes with sweet Christine as she fights for her marriage and her home.

3. Going Solo, by Roald Dahl. Like most of us, I’ve got extreme cabin fever at this point. Roald Dahl helps alleviate that. From the moment he gets on the boat and encounters the eccentricities of the “typical” British expat, he’s funny and engaging. Slightly Foxed published both his memoirs; I had no desire to read Boy, but snapped up Going Solo and it was balm for the wanderlusting spirit this year.

2. Persuasion, by Jane Austen. In any other year, Jane would have to occupy the top spot (even if it feels like cheating to give that honor to a re-read). Persuasion is arguably her best novel, and it had been too long since I visited with Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth. Perhaps it’s a testament to 2020 that, while the last time I read it I found it a bit of a downer, this time, every page was a delight.

  1. To War with Whitaker, by Hermione, Countess Ranfurly. Some years bring you a new treasure, and whatever else 2020 was, it delivered on that front. I read To War with Whitaker back in April and have been enthusiastically recommending it ever since. It is funny, moving, fascinating, and a total joy. I love it and will re-read it a thousand times.

What were your favorite books of 2020?