Morning, friends. Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers – hope you’re planning a delicious feast with your bubble! I’m looking forward to a few days off work, although I have two very busy ones to get through first (and we’ll see if my good intentions to take Wednesday off actually pan out). I’m feeling a bit gloomy, because I had really hoped to celebrate this Thanksgiving in Colorado with my brother and that’s not happening, for obvious reasons.

Anyway – it was a low-key weekend around here. On Saturday, we took the kiddos to their swim lessons and then I spent most of the rest of the day working – nothing too exciting to report. Same with Sunday: quiet, quiet. I had a 2x5K to run for the final challenge of my virtual Another Mother Runner series, so I banged those out. The highlight was the last mile; after running 2.1 of the second 5K of the day I stopped by the house and picked up Nugget for his virtual Marine Corps Marathan “semper fun mile” kids’ race. The little dude ran several races – including a half marathon – when he was just a baking nugget, and a few more as part of the stroller brigade, but this was his first “race” run on two feet! He had the best time and is already talking about getting a medal display rack for all of the kids’ run medals he’s planning to earn. That’s my boy!

Reading. Good reading week! I’ve been putting my phone in the other room and logging my evening reading without the temptation to doomscroll; so far, it seems to be working. I finished Going Solo on Monday night (loved it!) and then was still in the mood for adventure travel reading, so I finally picked up The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery, which has been on my TBR pile for too long. Finished the latter part of the week, and read through the weekend, with President Obama’s memoir (part one, there’s MORE coming!) A Promised Land. I’m a little over 500 pages in as of the publishing of this post, so I’ll probably finish in the next couple of days, and then I’ve promised myself Persuasion over Thanksgiving, before I turn to Christmas reading for December.

Watching. The usuals! The Great British Bake-Off on Friday night; The Mandalorian on Saturday night. For our family viewing, since we’ve finished our latest watch-through of Rock the Park, we’ve moved on to the recent seasons of Rick Steves’ Europe. Steve and I are card-carrying Rick Steves dorks. The kids are mostly tolerating it. Nugget has an adventurous spirit, so he’s enjoying watching and adding to his bucket list, but he tends to get bogged down in the more cultural parts. Peanut thinks we’re all ridiculous and refuses to watch with us. I guess she’s a teenager now?

Listening. I’m on a mission to pare down my podcatcher, so I’ve been working my way through back episodes for a few weeks now. A few episodes of The Mom Hour, a few episodes of Vegetarian Zen, and the highlight was a couple of recent episodes of Shedunnit. (I think Shedunnit might be my favorite podcast? Tough to say.)

Making. Uh, nothing but work product. I’m pretty overwhelmed right now – my workload is piling on and piling on, and we’re short-staffed, which doesn’t help. (We do have a new junior paralegal coming aboard, and we’re all very excited.) Cooking has been extremely limited, and baking non-existent, because we are still without a dishwasher. Our scorched, blown-out model is still sitting in the kitchen, wrapped in garbage bags, and we’re trying to minimize anything that requires us to wash lots of dishes. Thanksgiving will be a prepared foods feast, which makes me sad – because I enjoy cooking, and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite meals to prepare. But, hey, 2020.

Moving. I was a weekend warrior – those two 5Ks on Sunday, plus a walk to the frog pond in the neighborhood park. Hoping for a better week of movement ahead, but I have to get through my apocalyptic pile of work on Monday and Tuesday first.

Blogging. I’ve got a Classics Club review for you on Wednesday, and on Friday, I’ll share a post full of gratitude. Yes, even in 2020! Stay tuned.

Loving. A bit of a bittersweet one for you this week – I am absolutely loving every moment of A Promised Land. President Obama writes with such style, and his thoughtful, deliberative commentary on everything from his primary rivalry with Secretary Clinton to the competing considerations inherent in every policy he made during his time in office is a total joy to read. Except – it also makes me sad. Remember when we had a President who took the job seriously and could string more than three words together without a random capitalization or a new linguistic invention (looking at you, covfefe)? Who never flirted with inciting nuclear war over Twitter and didn’t try to stage a coup? Who staffed the West Wing with serious professionals, none of whom were related to him? Those were the days. Is it January 20, 2021 yet?

Asking. What are you reading this week?

Mondayyyyyyyy. Again! Why do they keep coming around like this? Every seven days, like clockwork. Ugh.

I am so burnt out, you guys. I really need a vacation. Thanksgiving can’t come soon enough – just a few days (more than two) without worrying about work would be welcome. This weekend wasn’t as heavily scheduled as the last few have been, but I’m still exhausted. It started out badly – on Friday (the 13th, of course, and in 2020, so obviously disaster) I was sitting at my computer finishing up some work for the week, when I noticed an acrid, electrical smell in the air. Moments later, the house was full of smoke. Steve and I rushed around unplugging every appliance we could, and eventually isolated the problem to the dishwasher, which had shorted out and come very close to catching fire (and, alarmingly – pun intended – the smoke detectors never went off even though the entire house was full of smoke). It still smells. Anyway – everyone is fine, we’re eating takeout off of paper plates until a new dishwasher arrives (hopefully today), but it wasn’t an auspicious way to begin the weekend, especially after what felt like a hard week.

So, Saturday! We had nothing on the agenda other than the kids’ swim lessons, which we’re doing every weekend from Halloween to almost-Christmas. I spent the rest of the day powering through some cleaning and organizing: folded four baskets of laundry and finished unpacking Steve’s and my bedroom. (It had been neglected for weeks; I finally decided that instead of spending more time trying to clean and organize for my two sloppy ungrateful kids, I would create a serene space for myself. I should do this more often.) On Sunday, I intended to clean up and organize the dining room, but I ended up loafing around for most of the day, other than a couple of hours of hiking in Rock Creek Park with a law school friend and her family. And that’s it – I could really use another day. Just one more full week of work, then Thanksgiving week. Let’s go.

Reading. Good reading week! I finished The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – review coming next week – and then blazed through A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock Holmes novel. (I’ve read The Hound of the Baskervilles but have been wanting to go back and read the great detective’s origin story.) Ended the weekend curled up on the couch, snort-laughing at the descriptions of eccentric British expats headed for Africa in Roald Dahl’s memoir Going Solo.

Watching. Good watching, too! New episodes of The Great British Bake-Off and The Mandalorian, a few episodes of Continent 7 (we’re forcing the kids to re-watch it with us) and a few episodes of The Amazing Race (trying it out). Lots of dabbling in this and that.

Listening. Still working through my podcatcher. I am committed to getting through the old episodes I’ve been hoarding! A few episodes of both Sorta Awesome and The Mom Hour on invisible and emotional labor, self-care and self-comfort, were the highlights of the week.

Making. Basically nothing. I like to do my elaborate cooking – and a good amount of food prep – on the weekends, but without a working dishwasher I don’t have the energy. I did make a totally cleaned and unpacked bedroom, and I’m not sure what I am going to do now with all the mental space I had been devoting to hating my sleep space.

Moving. Not as much as I’d like, as usual – a few runs, a few neighborhood walks, and that Sunday hike. Better than nothing, but I need to prioritize my own need for movement a bit more this coming week. I feel so much better when I am outside, breathing fresh air and moving my feet.

Blogging. Bookish week coming atcha! On Wednesday I have a review of High Wages, which I drafted thinking it was on my Classics Club list and then realized that it’s actually not. Oh, well! Doesn’t mean I can’t spend ten paragraphs telling you how much I enjoyed it. Then on Friday, November’s themed reads. You know what I realized? The first themed reads post was November 2019. I can’t believe I’ve been writing those once a month for a year and haven’t run out of ideas yet! If anything, I think of more themes every day.

Loving. The Mandalorian! You guys. Why is it so good? Every week, when the latest episode drops, Steve and Nugget get all riled up and I get indulgent, and then end up just as enthralled as the boys. (Peanut pretends not to enjoy it, but I think she secretly does.) We jump out of our seats when Mando battles sand dragons or Imperial stormtroopers, and we laugh at Baby Yoda. Although every episode I wonder if Cara Dune will be returning to Team Mando – not yet. The people want more Cara Dune! And by “the people,” I mean me. This fall, every week has seemed harder than the last, and it’s been good to have something to look forward to every Friday.

Asking. What are you reading this week?

It’s Monday… and it’s morning in America! Y’all, the relief around here is palpable. Our house – and D.C. in general – has a festival atmosphere right now, at the news that sanity and reason are heading back to the White House, and that we will soon have our first female Vice President! (Anyone else think of that line from Gilmore Girls, when the incomparable Paris Geller tries to persuade Rory to run for student government: “Every little girl dreams of being Vice President.” – just me?) We were at the rec center pool for the kids’ swim lessons when the news finally hit. It was all I could do not to take a running leap into the deep end for sheer joy. The shock (we actually did it!) wore off and the news started to sink in that afternoon; we had some folks over – my friend Helena and her little guy, Nugget’s best bud from his old school – and we couldn’t stop talking about it. We roasted marshmallows and just let ourselves feel happy. It was glorious.

I didn’t go down to the raucous parties at Black Lives Matter Plaza – although I have several friends who did – but we did continue the celebration in D.C. on Sunday, at the National Zoo. I saw lots of Biden/Harris t-shirts and face masks! The stated purpose of the zoo trip was to reward Nugget for cooperating in cleaning out the playroom. But the real purpose was to use my birthday camera again. I got some epic pictures of the animals. Came home intending to spend the afternoon folding laundry, but instead spent it puttering around, baking focaccia, flipping through cookbooks and trying to convince my new phone to turn on (no joy, will have to take it back to the Verizon store today – maybe they can get it to work). Can’t believe it’s another workweek.

Reading. It was a bit of a slow reading week, because I was either glued to election coverage, or doomscrolling and staring anxiously into space, most evenings. But I finished High Wages early in the week and loved it; review coming next week. And over the weekend, I knocked off Mrs Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names on audio – read by the author – which was a total delight. Finally, a re-read: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, for The Classics Club. Hoping very much that I’ll be able to focus on a book again soon.

Watching. Lots of watching this week – mostly CNN election coverage. (Although, CNN: why Rick Santorum? Does he serve a purpose other than to cause the other commentators to make horrified faces?) Other than that: some Bake-Off, some Mandalorian, some Rock the Park (we’ve wrapped up our second watch-through of the series) and a tiny bit of Continent 7 (yes, again, we are Antarctica junkies around here). Steve got a new TV as an early birthday present – I know, I know, I thought it was ridiculous too, but it’s the only thing he wanted and I’ve been resisting it for over a year, and he promised me he’d make it last a minimum of ten years, and there’s a pandemic going on and he just needed a little joy. I think his suggestion that we re-watch Continent 7 was to convince me that I did the right thing by capitulating. (He claims the picture is much more awesome than our old TV. It looks the same to me, but I am glad he’s happy.)

Listening. Finished Mrs Moreau’s Warbler on audio, as noted above, then went back to podcasts – a couple of episodes of The Mom Hour and one episode of Another Mother Runner. I did a big podcatcher cleanout while sitting on the bleachers at the rec center on Saturday (waiting for Peanut to be done with her swim class) and deleted everything I don’t plan to listen to soon. Podcatcher’s still out of control, but slightly less so?

Moving. Not the best week for movement. I was stressed at work and over the election, and all week I kept promising myself a stress-relieving run and then not delivering. Poor form, self. I finally got out on Saturday morning – before swim lessons and our friend date; it was a busy day – and banged out 6.2 for the virtual Marine Corps 10K. It was not my best run. Legs felt dead and lungs were screaming the entire time – ugh. But I met two nice men on the trail – I think they were about my parents’ age? – when I stopped to stretch. One of them was wearing a Wineglass Marathon t-shirt and I mentioned that was my bucket list marathon; turned out they had both run Wineglass multiple times, were from upstate New York – Binghamton and Corning, respectively – and went to Cornell. Small world!

Making. I had a lot of fun in the kitchen, especially over the weekend. On Saturday, I took my first crack at golumpki, a traditional Polish stuffed cabbage dish that I remember my grandmother making for Sunday dinners (and serving in these very bowls). My vegetarian version wasn’t quite like Grandmother’s, but I think I caught the essence of the thing? On Sunday I made a pot of slow-simmered beans (served over steamed spinach) and rosemary focaccia, and felt a bit like a lady Nigel Slater.

Blogging. Thinking about politics so much lately brought back memories of a summer internship I had, so I’m sharing some of those on Wednesday. And on Friday, another installment in my exurb diaries. Check in with me then!

Loving. There can only be one thing for me this week! I am LOVING the news of our new POTUS-elect and VPOTUS-elect. There’s so much work to do (I had a literal nightmare about Mitch McConnell on Saturday night) but this weekend was for celebrating. I can’t decide the best part… I’ve admired Joe Biden for years now, since back before he was President Obama’s VP. And the idea of sanity, decency, science, reason, being back in the White House – those of us living in the “reality-based community” have been waiting too long. But I think the very best might be Madam Vice President-elect Harris! I’m not ashamed to admit that I cried during her victory speech on Saturday night. The suffragette white pantsuit! The shoutout to her mother! The promise that while she may be the first woman to occupy the office, she will not be the last! This is a moment for women everywhere. My heart was bursting.

Asking. What are you reading this week?

Mornin’, friends – how is it November, already? Did you have a nice Halloween? Do you have a plan to vote tomorrow?

Last week was kind of a doozy. It just felt like if something could go wrong, it did. Lots of computer issues, grouchy people, bad luck all around. I’m hoping I got it all out of the way and this week will bring nothing but GOOD luck – starting with tomorrow’s election! I’ve already voted – Steve and I filled out our ballots together and then he took them to a drop box for us – so now I’m just on tenterhooks like the rest of the country, waiting to see what happens. And trying not to read the news too much, but doing what I can in the meantime – including phone banking yesterday afternoon, which was an experience.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Saturday was a busy day – starting at the pool. Last fall the kids took swim lessons at one of the rec centers in Alexandria; this year, I made a point of finding lessons at a rec center near our new house. Both of the kids were a bit nervous about getting back in the pool – not sure why, after all the swimming they did this summer. I signed Nugget up for a “preschooler and me” class that allowed me to get in the water with him (he just barely squeaked in under the age limit) – that seemed to help. Peanut claimed to be anxious about her swim lessons, but any nerves she had melted away the second she smelled the chlorine. Swim lessons in COVID-times were weird, y’all. The instructor had a face mask and a shield on, and I wore my mask in the pool (Nugget got to take his off, because he was exercising). My mask got drenched and I didn’t have a spare, so I spent Peanut’s lesson shivering on the bleachers, sucking chlorine in through my nose. Yum. Anyway – we got home and dried off, then headed back out for a short hike at Rust Nature Sanctuary; hoping to see some birds. Narrator voice: they did not see birds. Peanut and Nugget were their usual loud selves, and at one point, Steve looked over to me and stage-shouted “I SURE DO LOVE LOOKING FOR BIRDS!” Yeah, no birds to be seen anywhere. Headed home for the hike and got ready for trick-or-treating, COVID-style. Mando and Batgirl headed out hopefully clutching their treat sacks – and I have to hand it to our neighborhood, they definitely came through. Most of the houses (including ours) had a contact-less setup down at the end of their driveways – and many of them were super-creative and festive! The kids ended up having a fabulous time.

Sunday was a much more laid-back day. It rained. We didn’t go anywhere. Steve watched sports pretty much all day, the kids played, and I spent several hours making calls as part of a phone bank through the Virginia Democratic Party. I actually hate talking on the phone, and generally won’t pick up the phone to anyone except my mom, my brother, my favorite aunt, or my best friend. So phone banking… yeah. Stressful. But important. I don’t want to wake up on November 4 thinking I could have done more – so I put my discomfort aside and made my calls. And as Steve pointed out, if I got even one voter to the polls who would otherwise have sat this one out, I’ve doubled my impact. Doing the work, y’all. Do you have a plan to vote?

Reading. Last week might have been a rough one, but at least I had a good reading week! As you can see, it was pretty much entirely devoted to Halloween reading. I started the week with Lolly Willowes, a fairly little-known classic about a “surplus woman” who gets tired of being passed from relative to relative like a piece of furniture… so she becomes a witch. Moved on to some atmospheric autumnal poetry – first The Lost Spells and then Poems Bewitched and Haunted – and finally, to Agatha Christie’s Hallowe’en Party, which I finished up on – when else? – Hallowe’en night. For November, I turned to books that felt like fall but not necessarily Halloween; starting with the current autumn edition of Slightly Foxed and then moving on to High Wages, a Dorothy Whipple classic I’ve been meaning to pick up. I’ve been helped along by Jessica Howard’s #votedearlyreadathon – encouraging those of us who have already cast our ballots to set down the phone, stop doomscrolling the news, and read instead. It’s worked wonders so far; I’m sure I will be leaning on books for comfort into tomorrow evening, even as I watch election night coverage on CNN. Here’s hoping for another good reading week – more books, less news – ahead.

Watching. A few episodes of Rock the Park, as usual, a few episodes of Bake-Off, and – most exciting – I finally got around to watching Hocus Pocus. I’ve been wanting to watch it on Halloween night for years; it ended up being Sunday morning, with the kiddos (they turned it on of their own volition). I was kind of worried that the storyline (three witches who drain the life force from children?) would freak the kids out, but they thought the witches were hilarious. So… that’s a relief? After the movie, Peanut declared that she was a Sanderson sister and was going upstairs to practice spells in her room. I think she sort of missed the point, but if she wasn’t scared, I’ll take it.

Listening. Not much to report here. Making progress on my audiobook – Mrs. Moreau’s Warbler, by Stephen Moss – which is really interesting. Sprinkling in some music, as I am still on a New Pornographers jag.

Making. Lots and lots and lots of phone calls. Whew. I hope you have a plan to vote, or else I may have to call you, too. 😉

Moving. Same old story – stressful week = less movement. I did get a couple of runs in, and a short hike on Saturday. (I will not count Nugget’s swim lesson as exercise, because it wasn’t exactly heart-rate-raising activity.) I’m planning to get in my 10K for the Marine Corps virtual this week, and Nugget is doing the kids’ race – looking forward to that.

Blogging. A bookish week feels like the thing to distract us, right? October reading round-up coming on Wednesday, and on Friday I’m going through the books I have checked off as part of the #votedearlyreadathon… unless I have post-election feelings and need to get them out. We’ll see.

Loving. Guys. Phone banking stressed me out so much, and I just put in a couple of shifts on Sunday. I have so much love and appreciation for people who are putting in even more time and energy this election season. A law school friend of mine took the entire week off work to volunteer – that’s commitment. I just hope that all of our efforts are enough. I try hard to keep politics off this space – which in itself is a privileged position to be able to take – but I feel really strongly about the importance of this election; I hope that my small part in the effort helped someone to go vote, and I am filled with gratitude for those who have devoted much more time and energy to this stressful process than I have.

Asking. What are you reading this week? Do you have a plan to vote?

Good morning, friends – happy Halloween week to you all! And in other business, happy belated birthday to my best friend (it was over the weekend). How were your weekends?

Mine was good – I am continuing to find little snatches of joy, even in the middle of the pandemic. Saturday was the kids’ day – it was all about fun for them. In the morning, we hit our favorite pumpkin patch and brought home our pumpkins for the year and a dozen apple cider donuts (favorite fall treat). After lunch, we drove over to Old Town. Nugget has been begging for a stuffed lion that he spotted in one of the King Street shops, and he’d earned a reward for powering through almost two months of virtual school (not easy for a kindergartener). Peanut wanted to stop by our old favorite children’s bookstore, too, and I was looking forward to walking down some of the side streets and checking out the Halloween decorations, and to stopping in Old Town Books (my favorite indie bookstore).

Sunday was a more low-key day, but nice. In the morning, Steve and I finally finished setting up the treadmill in our sunroom (a.k.a. Mommy’s Jungle Gym), and I immediately hopped on for a 10K. Several spins in a moving truck have left it worse for the wear, but it works. I spent the rest of the day puttering. Two FaceTime dates – one with Steve’s mom, and one with my parents – clearing out the rest of the storage boxes from the sunroom, and a long afternoon in the kitchen baking bread and whipping up a neat loaf for Sunday dinner. It rained all day, but it was actually kind of nice.

Reading. It’s been a great reading week! On Tuesday I finished my project of reading/re-reading the Gilead books in order, finishing up with newly-released Jack. I’m glad I did this read-through, but friends: four Gilead books, one after the other, is a lot of Gilead. While I love those books, it was something of a relief to get to my planned Halloween reading. I started with last year’s favorite – Pumpkinheads – and loved it just as much for 2020. Then I moved on to The Crucible, which I somehow missed in high school (the Regents English classes – standard level for you non-New Yorkers – read it, but in AP we read Death of a Salesman); it was wonderful. Now I am on to Lolly Willowes, which I’ve been looking forward to reading – I am really enjoying it.

Watching. Very exciting viewing news! The latest season of The Great British Bake-Off has dropped on Netflix – wooooooot! Oh, and we finally finished Miracle. It only took three separate sittings to get to the end; Peanut fell asleep every time, but Nugget at least made it.

Listening. I can’t remember if it was last week or the week before, but I finished my audiobook (The Art of Reading from The Great Courses) and started a new one (Mrs. Moreau’s Warbler: How Birds Got their Names, by Stephen Moss). I’m about a third of the way through and enjoying it.

Moving. I fell off the running wagon for the last couple of weeks, but I think I’m definitely back on now. This weekend was the “stack it up” challenge in my Love the Run You’re With virtual race series – 1 mile on Friday; 5K on Saturday; and 10K on Sunday. Whew! My legs are tired today. But all three runs were great – I felt strong and fast and joyful for each.

Making. I was busy in the kitchen, as noted above! Pane bianco, which I’ve been eyeing for a few weeks now (recipe is from King Arthur Baking – I’ve had really good luck with their bread recipes); lentil-walnut “neat” loaf; and a sourdough chocolate cake with coffee-flavored icing that the kids are gobbling up.

Blogging. Themed Reads for October coming atcha on Wednesday, and I don’t actually have a post planned for Friday yet. So we’ll all be surprised together!

Loving. Our Saturday walk through Old Town was cut a little short by a tantrum (the guilty party shall remain anonymous – but it wasn’t me or Steve), but I got to see a few decorated houses! I love how Old Town gets into the Halloween spirit. We had hoped to go back to South Lee Street for trick-or-treating this year, but for obvious reasons that’s not going to happen – it’s a mob scene around there, just way too crowded in these COVID times. So it was nice to walk around a little bit and check out some of the decorations the week before Halloween. We have a December tradition of taking a walk through Old Town to check out Christmas decorations, then getting a drink – I think we might need to make a similar annual tradition out of walking the Halloween decorations!

Asking. What are you reading this week?

We’re now more than seven months into the pandemic, if we’re dating it from the time kids were sent home from school and the entire country shut down. (I’m discounting the creeping sense of impending doom that started in late January.) During that time – as I’ve written about a few times – I’ve been fighting my way through an on-again-off-again reading slump.

When we were first sent home, I was under no illusions that I’d magically find all kinds of reading time. Pre-pandemic, I logged more than an hour a day of reading just during my commute alone (love that public transit). I knew that any time I would gain from not having to commute would be more than offset by the demands of parenting and educating my kids during the height of the pandemic and juggling those responsibilities with work. (Unlike many attorneys, my workload did not really slow down during the pandemic. My litigation cases pretty much ground to a halt as courts closed all over the country, but I have an active counseling practice and easily filled my time with fielding questions from clients about how to manage their workforces during these unprecedented times.)

So – I didn’t expect a lot more time in my schedule, and I didn’t end up seeing an expansion in my available reading hours – if anything, it was the opposite. But I did think that I’d continue to read as enthusiastically as ever, maybe even more so. I joked to my mom, over the phone at the beginning of the pandemic: “I have a fully stocked tea cupboard and hundreds of unread books on my shelves; I’ve been training for this my entire life.” I imagined continuing my long evenings curled up with a book; cozy read-aloud sessions with the kids (time to return to Narnia!); and yawning weekend hours filled with book time instead of aquarium and museum visits. But I didn’t find myself drawn to books during that newfound (if limited) spare time. I dutifully trudged through the last of my library check-outs from Alexandria and read a few old favorites from my own shelves, but decidedly half-heartedly.

Then there was the added stress of a move. We packed up our little townhouse in June and headed one county over, to the land of cheaper rent, bigger yards and better schools. It took a few weeks, but I finally got my books set up and organized on the bookshelves (only needed my kids to go spend a month with my parents in order to free up enough time for that task – ha!). I figured that once I was unpacked, reading would become easier; having my books displayed beautifully would inspire me to resume my old habit of tearing through books.

That’s been true to an extent. Since finally getting unpacked, I’ve read steadily but not spectacularly. A solid month of reading nothing but comics in the lead-up to our move was the break I needed to look at words marching across a page again, with something approaching enthusiasm. And I have enjoyed some cozy nights curled up in my new reading space, with a candle burning and a cup of herbal tea (weeknights) or a glass of wine (weekends), marching through my own (!!!) books. But the good reading nights are sporadic; more often I find myself scrolling through Facebook or my Washington Post app, which I am powerless to resist despite knowing that too much screen time triggers headaches for me.

The other night, the completely obvious conclusion hit me, and I think I finally figured out why I am still on-again-off-again slumping, despite my lovely “reading nook” (as Steve calls the living room) and despite the fact that the pandemic isn’t exactly news anymore.

When I read, I tend to get really immersed in my book – to the extent that I basically black out everything else that is happening around me. I don’t see anything but the page, and I don’t hear my surroundings. It’s a complete out-of-body experience. (I think that’s the case for a lot of long-form readers. We’ve trained our brains to block extraneous information so we can focus on our books. It’s a nice little trick.) The same thing happens to me when I am really in the zone with work, which is why I am able to work side-by-side with Nugget’s kindergarten class and actually be productive.

But in order for my brain to do the blacking out trick thingy, I think it needs to actually feel safe. It needs to have confidence that I am physically secure, basic human needs met, in a safe space, and not about to be attacked. And with the news cycle of the past seven months – and especially the past few weeks – being what it is, I don’t think my brain feels safe enough to turn off its surroundings anymore. It is keeping some attention in reserve for the possibility, however remote, that a lion (real or metaphorical) will come charging through the front door and I will need to bolt or be gobbled up. And if your brain is busy watching for lions, it’s not going to travel to Roman Britain or Gilead, Iowa or Victorian London or any of the other places I’ve asked it to go recently. Because: lions. (Also pandemic, election, deranged lunatic with the nuclear football, SCOTUS vacancy, etc.)

This, apparently, is a relatively common phenomenon, as this article from Book Riot explains. Some readers have seen their reading explode – that’s kind of what I thought my experience would be – and others have struggled. For me, it’s certainly been up-and-down. But I think my immersive way of reading has made it more difficult for me to focus on a book, because in some way, my brain doesn’t trust itself to just turn off to the outside world right now. It’s interesting, for sure – and not surprising when I really think about it, although it was unexpected.

How is your reading life going these days? Are you slumping too? Have you seen any lions recently?

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:

And a little goldfinch from Saturday’s hike:

More to come!

Asking. What are you reading this week?

Goooooood morning, friends.  How goes life?  Two weeks since I checked in with one of these – whoops.  Last Monday I was just too sad about Justice Ginsburg; I couldn’t will myself to this space.  Do you forgive me?  Hope so.

So, anyway, what to report?  Fortunately, I lead a very boring life and two weeks of check-in material is about the same as one week.  I can’t even remember what I did last weekend – probably cried about RBG – so I’ll blow right past it.  This past weekend was kind of a bust.  It was my firm’s annual all-hands retreat, which meant that Saturday was a full day of conference activities and workshops.  But because: pandemic, instead of conference activities and workshops in San Antonio – as planned – I spent all of Friday toggling between zoom sessions, wondering if the partners would judge me for the wine rack right behind my head.  (My local partners in D.C. think it’s hilarious and awesome, but who knows about the rest of the firm…)  The silver lining was that I didn’t have to travel, so at least there was no rushing to the airport after the last meeting on Saturday; I just closed my computer and that was that.

Steve was determined to make the weekend decent for me, and he made sure we got out for hikes on Saturday and Sunday mornings, so that I could get my fresh air quota for each day.  On Saturday we headed to Fraser Preserve for a good shake-out hike before my big day of zoom meetings.  The kids griped the whole time about not getting to ride their bikes.  We were all tired because they’d had one of their nocturnal parties on Friday night, and I was extra grouchy about losing half my weekend to zoom, so I wasn’t all that patient with their complaining. On Sunday we hit our local favorite – Riverbend Park – and hiked downriver about a mile, then turned back.  The kids complained about being tired.  (Are you sensing a pattern here?)  The rest of the day was low-key.  They finally got those bike rides – in the neighborhood, while I fretted about oncoming traffic – and I discovered that my bike has two flats.  Super.  I made a Target run and got out under $100, so great success.  And the rest of the afternoon, I just poked around the house.  The usual.

Reading.  I’ve felt like I was cruising through books, but this doesn’t actually look like much of a total for two weeks.  Hmmm.  When these world-rocking events strike, I’ve noticed that I have a harder time reading (perhaps there’s a blog post in there somewhere) and maybe RBG’s passing affected me even more than I realized.  That’s possible.  Anyway – everything I read was wonderful, even if there wasn’t much of it.  At the beginning of last week I wrapped up Mr Tibbets’s Catholic School, which was a complete delight.  Then reached just a bit to the left on the same shelf and pulled out Brendon Chase, BB’s classic novel of three brother “outlaws” who run away from their aunt’s house on the eve of the school term, and live in the woods.  Yes, please.  I enjoyed every word and then picked up Dancing Fish and Ammonites, a memoir I’ve had on my “TBR” pile for years.  It was nothing like what I was expecting, but wonderful.  Finally – a re-read.  I’m going to read through the entire Gilead series again in preparation for Tuesday’s release of Jack.  Starting with Gilead on Sunday night and very excited.

Watching.  Less to report here: a lot of the same.  An episode or two of Rock the Park every night (whatever will we do when we’re current?) and one episode of Our Planet.  We are utterly predictable and I’m fine with that.

Listening.  I set aside audiobooks last week to try to make my way through Peaceful Parent, Happy Siblings: How to Stop the Fighting and Raise Friends for Life.  There has been an awful lot of bickering, and more fisticuffs than I would like, in my house recently and I was hoping for some strategies to get the kids on a friendlier footing.  (They do love each other, very much – sometimes too much – but they’re heartily sick of one another right now and I don’t blame them.)  This was… okay.  There were some good strategies in there, but the problem is that “peaceful parenting” doesn’t do much good when they’re both so deep into their fight that they’re just totally tuning you out.  I spent a lot of the week standing physically between them, saying things like, “I sense a disagreement here.  Let’s problem solve together!” while they ignored me and tried to rip each other’s heads off.  Also, some of the book was just unrealistic.  (Does your kid feel neglected because you work too much?  Easy fix!  Just tell your boss you’ll be leaving at 4:00 for the foreseeable future!)

Moving.  It was a good week for movement, at least.  Several runs, and the aforementioned hikes.  Plus I’ve got “Mommy’s Jungle Gym” – as Nugget calls it – all set up in the sunroom now, and I’ve enjoyed several sessions in there, doing yoga and strength training in the peaceful morning light.  Steve is setting up my treadmill and I have an indoor bike trainer coming in a month or so, so there will be more dispatches from Mommy’s Jungle Gym to come.

Making.  Meh.  Not a lot of creativity around these parts lately.  A few yummy dinners – last night featured a cornmeal-crusted flounder that I was particularly proud of; it was baked, not fried, and oil-free, and so good.  As for progress on the home front – I’m sorry to report that I did not make my self-imposed Mabon deadline for being totally unpacked.  Some progress was made, but not enough.  I need a weekend of productivity, but the problem is once Saturday rolls around I am so fried from my week of working while simultaneously being tech and emotional support for a five-year-old that I don’t want to do anything.  I just want to hike, run, and laze about with my book.

Blogging.  Last week of the month catch-ups coming atcha this week!  I’ll have a garden post on Wednesday and the month’s reading recap on Friday.  At least, I think I will.  Neither one is drafted yet.  Send beer, friends.

Loving.  One area in which I have made progress in the house is: hanging artwork.  I’ve got art up on the walls in almost every room – Steve’s and my bedroom being the only exception.  And let me tell you, it really does make all the difference in the world.  I’ve been sitting in the living room most nights, and it was already a lovely spot – between the flickering candlelight and my curated bookshelves – but now I can look over my left shoulder and see two pieces that I brought back from the Outer Banks and a painting of a woman reading by Joe Todak (a Pennsylvania artist who was a friend of my grandparents’), and over my right shoulder I have a collection of my own photographs – framed and unframed.  It’s so much nicer to be surrounded by my favorite art, and I don’t even mind the hideous band-aid colored walls as much.  This is what I do in every house: I get all tied into knots about putting holes in the walls and end up waiting for months, then I go around in a tornado of activity and hang everything at once.  Glad to have that over with.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

Are you guys ready to have your minds blown?

It’s been three months since we packed up and moved one county over (to the land of bigger yards, lower rent, and awesome public schools).  In that three months, I’ve enrolled the kids in public school, updated my voter registration, found the nearest Wegmans, and done a bunch of unpacking.  What I have not done: gotten a library card.

I know, right?  Can you believe it?  Who even am I?

Clearly, this is not a forever situation.  I know exactly where the local library is and I’ve driven by its welcoming doors and serene native flower garden many times since we moved.  I have every intention of getting a library card and using the bejeezes out of it, like I did in Alexandria (and Buffalo, and every town I’ve lived in before that…).  But at the moment, I’m actually enjoying not having a library card.  Because I’ve had no choice but to read these:

My own books.  Cue angels singing!  Now that I have the space, I’ve spread my library out over the entire living room and I’ve been spending evenings curled up on my slipcovered couch, with a candle burning and one of my own books in my hands.  I’ve wandered from Roman Britain to Victorian London to Miss Quinzilla Thiskwin Pennyquiquil Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady-Types.  And it’s been awesome.  When I’m “between” books (a matter of seconds only) instead of sighing heavily and looking over at a stack of books that I have to read for a library deadline, I wander over to my shelves, run my fingers over the spines, and choose something that I feel like reading in that moment.  Revolutionary.  Mind-blowing.

I’ll get a library card again, and soon – never fear.  I can’t live without the library for long.  And I have a hefty list of books that I want to check out when I do.  But for once, I’m in no big hurry.  I’m happy to make my way through my own shelves, curated to suit my own very specific taste.  For years, I’ve been saying that I am going to try to read more from my own shelves, and now – I’m doing it!  I’m really doing it!

Are you a library junkie, too?