This weekend, I told Steve that all week long, I look forward to weekends (not because my job is unpleasant – it isn’t – but because I crave that time of my own, to let my brain breathe and be with my family) and by Sunday night, all I want is the workweek.  The kids were just grinding. me. down. this weekend.  Nothing major, just lots of little things – not listening, refusing to cooperate, backtalk, bickering.  I’m ready for my quiet office and a to-do list that I can understand.  That’s not to say we had a bad weekend, because we didn’t, really.  Steve had to work again, so I ran interference for him.  On Saturday, I took Nugget for a haircut and then we walked out to the library – and straight into the staging area for the town St. Patrick’s Day parade.  I know what you’re thinking: isn’t St. Patrick’s Day like two weeks away?  Yes.  Yes, it is.  But that’s just how we roll in NoVA, and if you don’t know, now you know.  On Sunday, Steve was craving some fresh air, so we walked out to the playgrounds as a family.  My mini bookworm plunked herself down with her reading material and ignored the rest of the family – even during the family soccer game.  She was my co-goalie and she was beyond useless; didn’t make a single save, just sat inside the goal and read – I was so proud.  The rest of Sunday was low-key.  Peanut played in her room, Nugget kept me company while I folded laundry and organized the kids’ Christmas presents, and I don’t actually know what Steve did.  And now another week is upon us, and I’m sort of glad to get back into the swing of things.  My clients don’t always listen to me, either, but at least they don’t call me a “dummypants.”

Reading.  It was kind of a slow reading week, because it was a hectic work week.  I have a few weeks in a row of grinding from sunrise to sunset, and those are never good for page totals.  But when I did manage to read, I enjoyed myself immensely.  Early in the week, I finished The Shepherd’s Life, and it was wonderful.  I also squeezed in The Girl Who Ruled Fairyland – For a Little While, which is really a long-form short story, and it was also wonderful.  The latter half of the week, and all of the weekend, was given over to Last Hope Island: Britain, Occupied Europe, and the Brotherhood that Turned the Tide of War.  It’s fascinating and I am learning a ton.

Watching.  I know you will all find this hard to believe, but I watched a movie this week!  Or most of a movie.  Steve downloaded Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and we had a little family movie night on Sunday.  I missed the very beginning, so was kind of lost for a lot of it, but… I really enjoyed it.  Spider-Man is not my superhero of choice (I’m more of a Ms. Marvel girl if we’re talking Marvel Universe, but my heart really belongs to Wonder Woman) but Spider-Verse was a lot of fun, and made me want to check out the Spider-Gwen comics.

Listening.  ALL the podcasts!  Lots and lots of ’em, because I had a drive out to a client site an hour away on Tuesday, and an epic laundry-folding session on Sunday, in addition to the usual dipping in and out during commutes.  The highlight belonged to Sorta Awesome this week, as it often does – read on.

Making.  I intended to bake bread and make beefless barley soup, but neither happened.  What I did make was progress in cleaning out the bedroom and the ongoing clutter purge, and a new set of return address labels (it’s the little things in life, right?).

Blogging.  It’s going to be another crazy week, so again no promises, but my hope is to have a post about screen time (for Mom) on Wednesday and something bookish on Friday – either a book review or some other readerly rambling.  Check in with me then, and don’t hold me to it – as soon as things settle down at work, I’m going to get my content calendar back under control.

Loving.  I have a podcast episode for you this week!  If you haven’t already listened to it, go check out the Sorta Awesome episode on “freeing yourself from screens,” in which Meg and Kelly discuss their personal screen habits, their goals, and striving toward “digital minimalism.”  I listened in the car on the way back from my client visit on Tuesday.  I LOVED it and shouted “PREACH!” at my blutooth player every two minutes.  I’ve been trying to cut way down on my own screen time, and I just felt like it was exactly what I needed to hear at exactly the right time.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

It seems like Marie Kondo is everywhere right now, doesn’t it?  I read her books – The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Spark Joy – back in 2015 and 2016(?) and was kind of bemused.  (I have a very specific memory of reading Life-Changing Magic on vacation in the Outer Banks, sitting in a cane-backed chair looking out over Pamlico Sound while Nugget snoozed in my lap.)  Like most, I thought she had some good/interesting ideas, but most of the book was just never going to happen – at least not for me.  And now she has a Netflix show, which by all reports most people are finding delightful; I haven’t watched and probably won’t, since Steve has no interest in it and I’m such a sporadic TV viewer.

There’s a lot I find appealing about Marie Kondo’s methods.  The idea of carefully examining the things that we allow into our homes, and keeping only those things that add to our well-being, resonates with me.  For a long time, I have tried to live by the old adage, “keep nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”  That’s not quite Konmari, but it’s not far off.

Have you seen those Marie-Kondo-and-books memes that are floating around the internet?  I posted one on Facebook – a picture of Marie Kondo, looking adorable and saying “Ideally, keep less than thirty books” followed by an image of stacked shelves with the caption “Ravenclaws everywhere: YOU MEAN PER SUBJECT, RIGHT?”  I just thought that was funny, because I identify as a Ravenclaw, but when I shared the meme, my dear friend and fellow book clubber Bridget commented: “But your books are so pretty and well organized, they definitely spark joy!  Marie Kondo would look around and say I can tell this is a happy, well-read home!”  To which I blushed.  Because I am proud of my bookshelves.  I think that my collection is well-curated and reflects my interests and the things that give me joy.  So I do think Marie Kondo would approve.

Whether measuring by the Konmari “does this spark joy?” method or asking “is this either useful, beautiful, or both?” I think my book collection meets the standard.  For several years now, I have been making an effort to pare it down.  I have limited shelf space in my urban townhouse – I think I can squeeze in one more bookshelf without things looking awkward, and I am actively lobbying for that – and I do want my books to be worthy of the space they take up.  Some time ago, a bookstagrammer that I follow mentioned that she had a rule: she would only keep books to which she had given three or more stars on Goodreads.  If she rated a book as being only okay, out it went.  She’d never re-read it, so why bother keeping it?

I loved that.  Inspired, I tornadoed through my book collection and culled a decent-sized stack of books that I knew I’d never read again.  Off they went to the library, the used bookstore, or other homes in the neighborhood via my Buy Nothing community.  What’s left:

• Books I have collected because I want to read them and/or expect to re-read them, and because they are beautiful (Slightly Foxed Editions, Persephone books, Folio Society books, and vintage novels with beautiful covers fall into this category).
• Books that are not conventionally beautiful, but that I keep because I cherish them for other reasons – mostly, this pertains to my childhood copies of L. M. Montgomery and Madeleine L’Engle, which are tattered and which I will never, ever throw out.
• Books that I don’t find beautiful and haven’t read or expect to re-read, but which I would like to read once.  These will probably get carted off to the used bookstore once I’ve finished them.  This category is mostly made up of women’s fiction that originated on my grandmama’s shelves, was read by my mom, and is now gathering dust waiting for me.  Once upon a time, I would have felt guilty for selling those, but – my mom and my grandmama have both given me other, more meaningful gifts.  I don’t need to keep The Friday Night Knitting Club to know that they love(d) me.

Clearly, I’m not going to Konmari my books – because I pretty much already have.  And I’m not going to stop adding to my book collection either.  But these days I am exclusively buying books that I think are both beautiful and useful – and that’s how I’ve adjusted my book collecting for the age of Konmari.  I do not bring a book into my home, these days, unless I both want to read it and like to look at it.  I spend more money to have a beautiful edition of a book, and I am fine with that because I am buying fewer books.  I’d rather spend my money on a Slightly Foxed Edition that I am going to enjoy reading and also feel giddy about holding in my hands and seeing on my shelf, than spend the same amount on blah paperbacks that take up space and don’t make me happy.  (I do buy paperbacks, but I still want them to be pretty.  British Library Crime Classics, with their vintage train journey inspired covers: yes.  Movie tie-in editions of anything: barf, no.)

The thing is, I’ve shifted my thinking on book collecting.  I never bought indiscriminately – even when I was stocking my first home library with babysitting money.  (Even then, I still bought classics.  But they were usually fake leather omnibus editions because ALL OF JANE AUSTEN FOR TEN DOLLARS, GIMME.)  Now, I am playing a long game: I am slowly and carefully curating a library that I expect to keep for my whole life and, someday, to pass along to my daughter.  I want books that are sturdy enough to withstand multiple readings and that give me pleasure just by existing.  Can I say it?  I am curating a home library that sparks joy.

Do you Konmari your books?

Happy Monday – I think? – you guys.  I’m going into this week pretty stressed out.  We had a snow day and some other (not bloggable) school drama last week, and it kind of threw off my work schedule.  I really needed to work this weekend to get back on track, but that didn’t work out either; Steve had to work full days on Saturday and Sunday, so I was on kid duty all weekend.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the little boogers, but two days of constant, unadulterated “Mommy and me” time is exhausting.  On Saturday, we occupied ourselves with lots of errands – Target for laundry supplies, a big grocery run, and an afternoon at the library.  (Our favorite children’s librarian was working, so the kiddos got some Vanessa time and Mom got a breather while Vanessa built lego towers with them for a little while.)  Vanessa also helped Peanut find some books about space exploration for a class project and loaded her up with a bag full to bursting of supplies from the library’s craft closet, which we used to build a model space station at home.  (Librarians really are good people to know.)  We got right to work on the space station as soon as we were back from the library and while we built, we kept Uncle Dan company by phone as he drove to California (no big deal, right?!) to help our Uncle Peter do some work on his boat.

On Saturday night, I decided that the next day I would reward the kids for being only moderately insane while we ran errands and take them to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum out by Dulles Airport.  Minutes after I told Steve about my plan, my phone chirped: another mom in Peanut’s class had texted our “K team moms” group text to see if anyone wanted to go to Udvar-Hazy.  I replied immediately, and a planned solo outing turned into a friend date.  Yay!  We made a day of it on Sunday: drove out in the morning, the kids spent several hours running around with Peanut’s friend, and then we all had lunch at McDonald’s together (livin’ the dream, livin’ the dream).  I gave myself a well-deserved couch night on Sunday night.  I was wiped.

Reading.  Despite the upheavals of last week (including a snow day when I didn’t have a commute in which to read) I was fairly productive on the reading front.  Finished Time’s Convert and The Western Wind.  Time’s Convert was fine, and The Western Wind was okay, I guess.  Neither one really spoke to me.  I’m now midway through The Shepherd’s Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape, which I’m enjoying much more.  It’s part memoir, part nature book, part history of farming in the Lake District, and it’s really lovely.

Watching.  Steve and I finished the Doctor Thorne adaptation this weekend!  I loved it.  There were a few plot points that were changed from the book, but that’s to be expected.  Altogether, it was wonderful.  TV Frank was a rather stronger character than book Frank, which was a welcome modification.  The acting was fantastic and the settings and costumes were lovely – it was just so much fun.

Listening.  More of the same – podcasts upon podcasts upon podcasts!  I listened to a few back episodes of From the Front Porch, including the one on “PG lit,” and it was so refreshing to hear Annie proudly own her prudishness.  I, too, am a prude and prefer my books PG, or PG-13 at most.  Prude and proud!

Making.  Lots of making this week.  My first ever loaf of focaccia (it came out great!) on Wednesday, while we were stuck home with a snow day.  A huge pot of Asian vegetable soup for Sunday dinner and lunches all week – delicious.  And a shoebox-sized space station, constructed of foam spheres, popsicle sticks, and tinfoil.  (And this coming week I will be making a position statement and a reply brief.  Please send chocolate.)

Blogging.  This week is such a hectic work week that I am hesitant to make any promises, but my goal is to have some bookish content for you – thoughts on book collecting in the Age of Kondo on Wednesday, and a February reading round-up on Friday.  But either or both might be late, because I am slammed at work, so please bear with me.

Wondering.  I write this blog for myself, but I do want to write things that are interesting to others.  When I first started writing about books, I mixed book reviews in with other content – longer reviews than just my monthly round-ups, that is – and I’ve been thinking about bringing those back.  Not too much – no overkill – but a little more in the way of organized thoughts on specific titles.  Is this something folks would be interested in reading?

Loving.  This focaccia recipe was easy and delicious.  Slowly but surely, I’m getting over my fear of baking yeast breads, but something about focaccia still seemed a little intimidating.  But it couldn’t have been simpler.  I think this is going to be one of the recipes I’m going to need to copy down onto a card for my recipe box – that’s how you can tell it’s a good one.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

Yawwwwwwn.  Morning.  I’m sleepy – I was up in the middle of the night last night.  And I’m not ready for the workweek; last week was crazy and stressful and I need one more day.  Unfortunately, I don’t get the day off (although I wish much enjoyment to those friends who do, and with only a little bit of envy).  I thought about taking the day off, since I worked on MLK day when my firm was closed, but we were able to get childcare and I decided that in the end it’s better to bank the hours now when the weather is gross (it’s yucky and rainy here) and have a cushion for the summer when I really want to be off.  Guys, it’s hard to be a grown-up sometimes.  Anyway – last week really was a doozy.  I had several deadlines, one of which became a stressful scramble when the mission changed at the last minute.  Compounding the stress was the fact that Nugget had two sick days home from school, poor fella.  And I think we had one two-hour delay?  I’m not sure, though: I’ve lost count of how many of those we’ve had this winter, and it was such a crazy work week that I don’t really remember what else happened.

The weekend was lovely, if busy.  I’d have liked more downtime and reading time, but I can’t complain about our activities.  On Saturday, we drove up to the Adventure Theater in Glen Echo to see Huckleberry Finn’s Big River.  I’d bought four tickets to the show as a Christmas gift to Steve, who loves Mark Twain.  (Twain isn’t my cup of tea, but the show was great.)  Steve and Peanut were delighted with the show, but little Nugget had a hard time sitting still for an hour and I had to take him out of the theatre.  It happens.  On Sunday, Steve and Peanut went out for a daddy-daughter date while Nugget and I hosted friends for a play date.  Nugget and his buddy ran around, watched Jurassic World, played Ghostbusters, fought over toys, smooshed all of our play-doh colors together, and kneaded a loaf of bread for me, while the other mom and I sipped coffee and chatted for hours.  (We have a lot in common – they are also a two-lawyer family, Cornell alums, who did time in the NICU.)  I ended the weekend in my customary way – a late afternoon library run, a homemade dinner, and an evening with my book.  Good times.

Reading.  What with the work week being so busy and stressful – several late nights, including Friday – it took me six days to finish The World As It Is, which is unusually slow for me.  It was a good one to take my time over, though – smart and complex and fascinating.  It made me sad and nostalgic for the days when we had a White House full of smart, honorable, thoughtful and responsible people (from the top guy on down).  Anyway – after I finished The World As It Is, I moved on to what might be the exact opposite: Time’s Convert.  I never know what to think about the All Souls books (which I have always described as “Twilight for the grad student set”), but I did think this would be fun because a good deal of the action takes place during the American Revolution, which will tell you, if you are familiar with the series, that the main character of this entry is the vampire Marcus Whitmore.  Marcus was one of my favorite characters in the original trilogy, so it’s been fun to get a little more of his backstory.  And with Matthew and Diana taking a backseat (although they have a story arc) their more annoying tendencies are a bit muted.  (I realize I’m not selling this book very well…)  Anyway!  Here’s hoping for a more productive reading week this week.

Watching.  Most notably, I watched (most of) a performance of Huckleberry Finn’s Big River at the Adventure Theater.  The actors were great and the songs were catchy; I’m humming the opening number, still, two days later.  It was also a heavier TV week for me than usual, by which I mean that I watched about two hours of television (not counting the kids’ shows – Nugget did want me on the couch with him during several episodes of Dinosaur King, but I don’t count that as TV watched because I daydreamed through it).  On Monday, Steve had plans with friends and I watched the third episode of The Great American Read, which I have recorded and am slowly working my way through.  And then on Saturday, we had another TV night and watched the second episode of Doctor Thorne, which I am LOVING almost as much as the book.  Steve is mostly just humoring me, but I do think he’s starting to get interested in the story.

Listening.  The usual – lots and lots of podcasts.  I got shouts on The Book Riot Podcast for my “nonlawyersplaining” explanation of the elements of defamation – heh.  That was the highlight of the week’s listening.  I was craving some show tunes one evening, as well, and I walked home from the Metro to the opening numbers of Book of Mormon.

Making.  I’m back on a bread-baking train, apparently – two good sandwich loaves in two weeks!  I wasn’t sure how my bread would come out in the drier winter weather, having learned in summer’s humidity, but cross fingers, it doesn’t seem to be messing me up too badly.  After Sunday’s loaf came out of the oven fluffy and golden, I started looking for new recipes to try.  I think I’ve got a handle on the basics, and now I’m itching to pick up some new skills.  Focaccia looks like a lot of fun – maybe that’s next?

Blogging.  I have a book review coming up on Wednesday, but I haven’t planned out as far as Friday, so we’ll see what comes out of my fingertips.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  This isn’t a new story, but this week I have been loving read-aloud time with Peanut.  We are working our way through Ramona the Pest, which was a book I loved when I was her age.  She’s already heard it read aloud in school, which was news to me – I knew that she had met Ramona, but I thought her teachers had read Ramona the Brave.  (Turns out they have read both books to the class.)  But the fact that it’s a re-read isn’t bothering Peanut at all and she’s relishing her knowledge of what’s to come and her power to spoil the story for her dad.  (Pssst, Daddy.  There’s no present.)  And I’m relishing getting reacquainted with Ramona; I’d nearly forgotten what a fantastic character she is.  But the best part is cuddling up with my girl and connecting with her over a book we both love.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

Does it have to be Monday?  I mean, does it absolutely have to?  I’m not ready.  Last week was a doozy – I worked until midnight on Monday (in the office, so I got home at about 12:30 a.m.) and what I learned is: when I work until midnight one night, I’m basically good for nothing for the next two days.  I know I did work on Tuesday and Wednesday, I just can’t remember what I did.  I started to get some energy back toward the end of the week, but I have another busy week ahead – although hopefully not with a late night like last week – and I really needed to get ahead on some things this weekend, but I didn’t.  It was a more productive weekend than last weekend, at least, when I didn’t do anything.  At least this weekend I got some organizing done.  I woke up on Saturday and immediately started working on a clean-out of our games and crafts cupboard – much needed.  I threw out a bunch of stuff and put a bunch more in our neighborhood craft supplies round robin bag, then sent the round robin off to its next stop at my friend Julie’s house.  Everyone was pleased with the newly organized cupboard; the kids spent the rest of the morning painting with their newly unearthed supplies.  Saturday afternoon was jam-packed with social engagements.  The kids and I hit up a(nother) birthday party, this one at a local indoor playground, then headed straight to the library.  We usually go on Sundays, but we’ve been trying to make a point of stopping by on the Saturdays when the children’s librarian, Vanessa – who moonlights as one of our favorite babysitters – is scheduled to work.  The kids were excited to see her.  Then from the library we drove into D.C. to attend a fondue party at our friends Stephen and Nancy’s house.  Stephen was one of Steve’s coworkers back in the day, and the gang has kept up through regular fondue nights at his house.  On Sunday, I woke up with a headache and both of the kids were running slight temperatures, so we spent the day chilling inside.  I ordered supplies for the Valentine’s Day party in Peanut’s classroom and packed up some gifts for my Buy Nothing community, but didn’t get anything else done – including the work I kind of really needed to do.  Instead I spent the day cuddling the kiddos, reading, and baking bread.  A good way to spend a Sunday; I hope it sets me up for the week.

Reading.  It was a busy reading week.  I spent the weekdays over two books: Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult, and The Lost Vintage.  Both were fine, but left me feeling a bit lukewarm.  I enjoyed most of the literary criticism in Wild Things, but there were a few things that bugged me and ended up kind of ruining the book – more on that when I do my monthly reading roundup.  As for The Lost Vintage, I enjoyed the story – and I recommended it to my mom – but the writing style didn’t really resonate with me and I had a hard time buying into the central relationship.  I liked the wine parts, though, and it made me want to go back to France, so – a win overall, I think.  I finished The Lost Vintage on Friday evening and didn’t want to start anything new, because I knew I’d be picking up a pile of holds from the library on Saturday, and some of them would be time-sensitive, so I pulled out two books that I’m going to be reading slowly over the course of the year to tide me over until we made our library run.  First, The Almanac 2019 – I read the February chapter and it was a delight, as expected – and A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year.  I’m getting started a bit late, so I spent an hour or so getting up-to-date, and a very nice hour it was.  On Saturday evening I thumbed through my holds pile and decided to begin with The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House.  I’m about 150-ish pages in as of press time, and it’s fascinating.  (I also have Thanks, Obama: My Hopey Changey White House Years in my library stack, and I might read them back-to-back to compare; we’ll see.)

Watching.  I know you’re thinking I’m going to say “nothing” but not this week!  (I know, I know, I’m full of surprises.)  I talked Steve into watching the adaptation of Doctor Thorne on Amazon Prime.  He’s enjoying it, but not as much as he enjoyed Victoria (true story).  I, on the other hand, am giddy.  The cast is perfect and it is just SO! MUCH! FUN!  We watched one episode on Sunday night and I look forward to making Steve watch the rest this coming week, if I get home at a reasonable hour.

Listening.  The same as usual: lots of podcasts.  I did an unprecedented thing and emailed the hosts of The Book Riot Podcast last week, because they were discussing a defamation lawsuit that’s been in the news and were wondering about some of the details of a defamation case.  Since defamation defense is part of my practice and has been, on and off, for about ten years now, I sent them an email with a 30,000 foot overview of the tort.  I felt a little silly writing it, but they sent me back a very gracious email thanking me for the “excellent nonlawyersplaining explanation,” so that was quite fun.

Making.  Not what I should have made: progress on a couple of work projects.  It will be a busy week; Sunday Scaries hit hard last night.  But I did make some good things this weekend, including a clean and organized games and crafts cupboard and a golden loaf of sourdough sandwich bread.  Yum.

Blogging.  I have more Lit Bits for you on Wednesday, and on Friday, some disorganized musings about not making resolutions for 2019.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  I don’t know if this is really “loving” or just “recalibrating” – but I’ve taken a couple of steps to cut down on my consumption of news.  Our statewide woes in Virginia are national news at the moment; the phrase “dumpster fire” doesn’t even begin to describe it.  (What’s the phrase for when the dumpster fire is on fire?)  It’s been painful to watch, because I voted for and supported the politicians involved, and I’m just so disappointed and disheartened in so many ways.  Twitter is continuing to drive me a bit bonkers, and it doesn’t help that staring at my phone gives me debilitating headaches.  So I’ve done two things: first, I’ve moved Twitter off my home screen and onto the third screen of my phone, where I keep absolutely nothing of importance: so if I really want to scroll my Twitter feed, I now have to go out of my way to access it.  And second, I’ve started keeping my phone in my bag during the workday and avoiding most of the news coverage I was reading on the computer.  (I can’t go completely cold turkey – I’m still reading FiveThirtyEight and skimming the CNN Politics page every morning.  But it’s a lot less than what I was reading.)  I feel less informed, which is probably not a good thing in the long run, but I feel a lot more peaceful right now, and it’s nice.  If I’m tempted to check the news I consciously steer myself to a book blog or gardening website instead.  I’ve just started doing this in the last two or so weeks, so I’ll let you know how my news diet holds up.  But for now, I am really enjoying being less plugged in.

One constant in my life after graduating law school, but especially after becoming a mom, is the question: how do you find time to read so much?  In my adult reading life, I’ve found that my sweet spot is around 100 books in a year; nothing I do really changes that.  Some years it’s 98, some years 102, but it seems that my reading spreadsheets and Goodreads lists are attracted to that number as if it’s a magnet.  I land around 100 books every year without much effort, but if I tried to read more, I don’t think I could.  (There are outlier years.  One year I read 70 books – quite low for me.  And in 2018, I tried to read 52 and ended up reading 113.)

Also, at the risk of sounding smug, I don’t think 100-odd books in a year is all that much.  I have friends who read many more than that, and next to them, I feel like a total slouch.  Maybe someday I’ll read more – but I don’t think so.  I’ve always landed around 100, no matter what else was going on in my life.  No kids, one kid, toddler-and-a-baby – no matter what the life stage; it’s as if the number 100-ish is magic for me.

People always ask me how I manage to read so much, and I usually shrug off the question.  I enjoy reading, so I make time for it – pretty simple.  I prioritize it over other things that I enjoy less – like watching television – and some things that I like doing, but just not quite as much as I like reading – such as knitting.  But nothing’s ever quite as simple as we’d like to make it, is it?  So if I were to drill down and really consider how I fit books into my schedule as a working mom with a kindergartner and a preschooler, here’s what I come up with:

• Personal to me: I’m a fast reader.  I don’t know that reading speed is something that one can really change, so maybe I’m just lucky – but I’ve always been a fast reader.  My being able to fit 100+ books per year around an otherwise crammed schedule has a lot to do with my naturally quick pace of reading.  (If only I was a fast runner in addition to being a fast reader.)
• I don’t watch TV.  Or much of it, anyway.  I probably average less than two hours of TV a week, and that might be a stretch.  There are some weeks when Steve and I will be binging a show on Netflix (which, for us, means watching one episode a night) but then there will be weeks on end when I won’t watch anything at all.  I think TV is just fine, and a perfectly pleasant way to entertain oneself, and there are some shows – like Parks and Recreation, The Crown, or The Great British Bake-Off – that never get old.  But I’m conscious of the fact that I have limited free time, and I usually choose to spend it reading.
• I read in front of the kids.  This is actually challenging for me.  My natural inclination, when the kids are awake, is to put down my book and play with them, take pictures of them, or read to them.  And I do a lot of those things.  But I also know that it’s important and beneficial for them to see me reading to myself for pleasure and enjoyment.  I remind myself that I am setting an example for them and laying the groundwork for them to become lifetime readers, too – and that helps with the guilt and FOMO when I pick up a book while they’re awake.  (What I do try not to do while they’re awake is to scroll through my phone.)
• I read while commuting.  Again, this is a bit personal to me, but I’m blessed with a commute on public transportation and the ability to read without getting motion sick (most of the time, unless I’ve let myself get too hungry).  My commute is about 30 minutes each way, so that’s an hour of reading every weekday, right there – provided I get a seat, which isn’t a given, at least on the homeward leg of my commute.  (I hate holding a book in one hand.)  This will change when the Metro closes my station for a few months this summer, but I’ve got a big backlog of audiobooks to get me through.
• I always have a book with me.  I’m actually not one for pulling out my book in the grocery line, unless it’s really long.  I’ll usually make use of that time to scroll through Instagram, text with my BFF, or catch up on blog reading.  But I’ve always got the book as a backup – for waiting rooms (I know you’ll all agree with me that the DMV is much nicer when you have reading material), the occasional coffee shop break, or pockets of found time.  It adds up.
• I know what I like, and I read it.  Finally – I think reading is much like anything else, in that when you have momentum, it’s easier to keep going.  I’ve been an avid reader as long as I can remember and at this point, I’m pretty good about knowing what I’m going to like and what I’m less likely to enjoy, and I pick up the books I think I’ll like.  I’m not actually a big book abandoner, although I will DNF something if I really hate it.  (I think the last time I DNFed a book, it was because of excessive gratuitous F-bombs.)  I’m good enough at choosing books for myself that I’m usually enjoying whatever I happen to have going at the moment, so curling up with a book is a treat to enjoy and not a chore to avoid.

These aren’t really tips, I know.  Most of them are very personal to me and to my particular concoction of fast reading speed, public transit commute and iron stomach.  Without those factors, who knows?

What factors influence your reading pace?  Are you trying to read more, or are you happy with your numbers?

Okay – first things first.  Who’s awake?  Anybody?  Bueller?  Actually, I got a decent night’s sleep last night, because I don’t care about football (fight me) and don’t feel any need to stay up until the game ends.  I do enjoy the commercials, but for the past few years – and this one was no exception – I don’t actually get to see many of them because I am parenting up until halftime and then I putter off to bed not long after that.  Anyway!  I was kind of half hoping for a productive weekend, but it didn’t happen.  I needed to put in a few hours of work, didn’t do that.  Needed to get some organizing done around the house, didn’t do that either.  It happens.

This was one of those weekends that was heavily dictated by the kids’ social plans.  On Saturday, Nugget had a birthday party to attend.  It was at a local gymnastics gym and he had a fun time running around, swinging on the rings and flinging his body at the piles of mats.  I enjoyed catching up with the other moms.  It’s a big decision-making time in our school community, because re-enrollment contracts for the next school year are due today, and summer camp registration floodgates open next week.  So while the kids ran around and burned off all the energy they’ve built up over a bitterly cold week, the parents talked fast and furious about who is coming back next year and who’s going across the street to St. Whatsit’s and where are you going for summer camp.  We have our plans sorted (both for this summer and for next year) but there were several families that were still deciding one, or the other, or both.

On Sunday, Peanut had a playdate with her BFF, who moved to the next town over (for the public schools – smart parents) and I went along with her and had a lovely day sipping tea and discussing the British royal family with BFF’s mom – we’re both Windsor fangirls and not even sorry about it.  After four-and-a-half hours, I finally tore Peanut away from her bestie so I could take Nugget to the library before it closed.  We had the children’s room almost to ourselves – I guess everyone else was getting ready for their Superbowl parties.  (This was actually the second library playtime we had this weekend; Nugget requested a visit to the city central library on the way back from his party on Saturday – they have an honest to goodness playroom, and he hardly ever gets to enjoy it because the central library is so out of the way.)  Ended the weekend on the couch, as usual – sort of but not really watching commercials, and not watching the Big Game at all.  It wasn’t a productive weekend, but the sun was out and the kids had a nice time, so there you have it.

Reading.  If the weekend wasn’t productive, the week in books sure was.  I finished Swimming with Giants in time to return it to the library on deadline, then spent five glorious days in Barsetshire with Doctor Thorne – my first five-star book of 2019 and probably destined to be one of my highlights of the year.  I loved it.  Anytime I read Trollope, I wonder what took me so long to find him in the first place, and why I always let so much time go by between his books.  Doctor Thorne was especially delightful – from the central romance, so refreshingly constant and sweet, to the wonderful side characters – so fully realized, even the so-called “minor” ones.  (I have two new favorite secondary characters in literature – Lady Scatcherd and Miss Dunstable.  I adored them both.)  Now I’m on to Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult, which has been on my to-tackle list for awhile.  Other than being a bit sniffy about Madeleine L’Engle, I think it’s spot-on.

Watching.  Well, a bit of Superbowl commercials, but not much.  My main viewing this week was on YouTube, because I discovered Roman’s Cooking Corner, and it might be the most delightful thing on the internet.  Cheese, please!  Thank you!  (Steve: “Are you watching that little boy cooking AGAIN?!”)  Do yourself a favor and go take a look right away.  Start with lasagna and work your way through to gingerbread man.  Leg, please!  Thank you!  You won’t regret it.

Listening.  All the podcasts this week, as usual.  I have fallen totally in love with The Librarian is In, the podcast from the New York Public Library.  It’s utterly delightful, and the source of my new favorite quote: “You’re a scrappy little stickball player and you read cool books!”

Making.  Black and white bean chili with quinoa and veggies for our Superbowl dinner.  Chili is a given on important football days.  I don’t know much about sportsball but I do know that.

Laughing.  Peanut doesn’t think much of my employability, apparently.  This week, we had this conversation:

P: “I wish you were a classroom parent at school.”
Me: “I am.  I’m a room mom in your class with Mrs. K and Mrs. G.”
P: “But I wish you were one of the parents who work at the school all day.  You could have an office by the bathroom.”
Me: “Oh, yes, I wish that too.  I would love to be in the same place with you all day.  Maybe on Monday, you can ask Mrs. C [the principal] if she needs a General Counsel.  Tell her your mom has education law experience.”
P: “Well… I don’t think so.”

Blogging.  I don’t actually know.  We got a new computer, and the spreadsheet I use to plan my blog posts is on the old one.  So we’ll all be surprised on Wednesday and Friday.

Loving.  Please see “watching,” above.  The highlight of my week was Roman’s Cooking Corner.  It has completely restored my faith in humanity.  Heart sprinkles, please!  Thank youuuuuu!

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

Last weekend of January, 2019 – egads!  Where did the time go?  We packed this weekend with fun, from the moment we finished work on Friday evening until Sunday night.  On Friday, I headed home from work a little early – my reward to myself for several late nights last week, writing a 35 page long brief.  (50 pages if you count the statement of facts.)  Steve and I had big plans: a tour and tasting at Port City Brewing Company, our local craft brewery.  It’s just a few minutes from our house, but we’d never been there (blame the kids).  The tour was really interesting, and the tasting was fun – I’m not a beer person, but I liked everything I tried, and loved one.  On Saturday, Peanut and I slipped away for a girls’ date – lunch out in Germantown, Maryland, followed by a performance of Angelina Ballerina: The Musical at Black Rock Center for the Arts.  I love planning these mother-daughter excursions and I think Peanut felt very special.  (Nugget is such a mama’s boy that he is basically glued to my side when I’m with him, and so taking Peanut off on her own is a nice way for us to connect.)  On Sunday, we had fun hiking plans – Great Falls (our favorite) with Zan and Paul (our favorites).  We checked out the falls, hiked upriver to look at an eagle’s aerie, and got generally covered in mud.  It was lovely.  When we got home, we spent the afternoon hanging out at home.  Steve did laundry (necessary after the Great Falls mud bath) while I batch cooked the week’s meals.  The house is trashed, but at least the fridge is stocked.  And now another week dawns.  Let’s go get it!

Reading.  It was a productive reading week!  I finished up The House of Special Purpose, which had to go back to the library – I was out of renewals.  Liked it.  It was fun and engaging, as long as you suspended disbelief about the history.  Next I blew through two short, restful reads – The Almanac: A Seasonal Guide to 2018 (yes, 2018 – there were recipes and nature writing in it, okay?) and Lagom (the next hygge?).  Ended the weekend cuddled up in bed with Swimming With Giants – there’s nothing like some cetacean love to chase away the Sunday scaries.

Watching.  Well, this weekend I watched – from the front row, no less! – as Angelina Mouseling and her friends at the Camembert Academy sang and danced their way to a performance for the legendary prima ballerina Serena Silvertail.  Angelina Ballerina: The Musical was adorable, and Peanut loved every second.  (Literally.  After the show, I asked her what her favorite part was, and she breathlessly replied: “ALL OF IT.”)

Listening.  Lots and lots and lots of podcasts.  Peanut is interested in the southern resident orcas (I adopted one for her class) so she and I got caught up on all the news via A-Pod…cast for Killer Whales on our way to Germantown and back.  As for the other highlights of the week, that had to be Frank rapping “A puppy is a puppy is a puppy” on The Librarian Is In podcast’s tribute to Mary Oliver (sob).

Making.  Another batch cooking extravaganza!  Sliced cucumbers; a double batch of quinoa; goddess broccoli; cabbage soup with chickpeas; stewed cinnamon apples; cucumber-cilantro juice (don’t knock it ’til you try it); and a stir-fry of tofu, mushrooms and mixed greens.  Plus unpictured pomodori al forno (yes, again).  We will be eating well this week.

Anticipating.  I have another busy week coming up at work, with four deadlines hanging over me.  I’m really looking forward to having them all in the rearview, so I can relax a bit and get organized again – both at home and at work.

Blogging.  I’ll have my January in books for you on Wednesday, and on Friday I’ll be linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy to share what’s saving my life this winter.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  Hiking with friends is always a treat!  Zan and I were trying to remember when was the last time our families got out for a hike together – we know it was when we all lived in Buffalo, so it’s been years.  How can that be?  Clearly we can’t let that much time go by without hitting the trails together again.  But the long hiatus notwithstanding, I’m smiling over sweet memories of rambling through the woods on this surprisingly seasonable Sunday with friends that I cherish.  It’s the simple things in life, right?  Nothing better.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

You know how there are some weekends where everyone just seems to be firing on all cylinders?  The weather’s perfect, the kids are happy, and you check everything off your to-do list?  This weekend… was not like that.  Okay, actually, it was a total dud.  It started out with a bad-behavior report about one of the kids at the school pick-up.  And by bad-behavior report, I mean two teachers giving me the play-by-play, in excruciating detail, to the point that I felt compelled to confirm that yes, I understand that hitting is wrong.  (They were both staring at me and obviously wanted me to say something.)  After my public shaming (the perpetrator was gleefully playing in the corner of the classroom and couldn’t have cared less) I finally got everyone halfway out the door and then the other kid melted into a puddle of emotionally overwrought temper tantrum right there in the middle of the school hallway.  Awesome.  And it got worse from there!  I ate something that disagreed with me for dinner and spent most of the night in intense discomfort (#notpregnant #justfoodpoisoning), so I was exhausted all day Saturday.  The kids were at each other’s throats all weekend – Mars must be in retrograde, or something.  And we started a gauntlet of five birthday parties in less than a month.  There were some bright spots; there always are.  We had a nice walk on Saturday – a loop through the farmers’ market and past our two neighborhood fire stations.  My brother and sister-in-law called on Saturday night and we had a lovely long chat while they drove home from skiing at Vail (don’t you just hate them?).  And Nugget and I spent a cozy afternoon at the library on Sunday and managed to only check out one book apiece – look at us and our personal growth.  And today I’m working from home; my office is technically closed today, but I have a huge brief due on Wednesday.  I hope you have the day off, though, and I hope it’s blissful!

Reading.  I was very busy over my books this week, as you can see.  Busier than usual – the reason being library deadlines, as always.  The Nine Tailors wasn’t due back urgently, so it might have been a little irresponsible of me, but I really wanted to read that one right away – so I did.  But after that, I had to buckle down in a big way.  The Go-Between, Fables Volume 10 and Fables Volume 11 were due back on Sunday the 20th, and I was out of renewals, so it was either read now or return unread (which I hate to do).  I tore through all three this week (liked The Go-Between but didn’t love it, but really enjoyed the two installments of Fables – possibly my favorites of the series thus far).  I thought I had some breathing room coming to me, because I had two more books out that I knew couldn’t be renewed before they’d be due on January 26th – one because it had holds, and one because I was out of renewals – but then I discovered that Spying on Whales had a fresh hold, too.  BLAST.  Tore through that in time to return it (early!) to the library yesterday, and now I’m a few stories into How Long ’til Black Future Month?, which I am liking, or at least recognizing its merits.  Short fiction isn’t usually my jam, nor is speculative fiction, and put them together – well, that’s something I’ve really got to be in the mood for.  I’m not in the mood for it, but I’m reading it anyway (I know, I know) because I like N.K. Jemisin and I don’t like returning books without having read them (again, I know, I know).

Watching.  Well, Nugget and I watched Jurassic World for the eleventy-seventh time earlier this week.  Or, to be more precise, Nugget watched and I kind of drifted in and out of the movie but mostly looked at him (he’s so beautiful, guys).  And that’s it.  After the antics at pickup on Friday, the kids got a screen detox enforced all weekend – and it’s been nice to not have a constant backdrop of Puffin Rock as I go about my day.

Listening.  More podcasts, as usual.  As of press time, I’m halfway through the episode of The Book Riot Podcast in which Jeff and Rebecca discuss their favorite non-bookish things of 2018, and Jeff waxing rhapsodic about his new electric scooter might be one of the best things on the Internet right now.

Making.  Tea.  And not much else.  I had big plans for an afternoon of batch cooking and bread-baking on Sunday, but it didn’t happen.  (Oh!  I made a mountain of kale sautéed in vegetarian oyster sauce, and it was pretty delicious, and I have a little bit left over.  Does that count?)

Anticipating.  On Friday, Steve and I have a date night – a brewery tour and beer-tasting (probably just for him, but I might sample some wheat beers or sours if they’re on offer) at Port City, our local brewery.  The tickets were one of his Christmas gifts.  There’s no way I’m as excited about this as he is, but I’m pretty excited.

Blogging.  Part III of my 2018 reading retrospective – book superlatives, always a fun post – on Wednesday, and a big photobomb post full of pretty sunrise pictures from recent whirlwind business trip to Miami on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  Y’all have heard about the new southern resident orca calf, right?  Baby L-124 Lucky, born to L-77 Matia, was spotted swimming with his/her family – including big sis L-119 Joy, who happens to be the whale I adopted on behalf of Peanut’s kindergarten class, less than two weeks ago.  Lucky is still very young and SRKW calves have a 50/50 survival rate in their first year (and to be honest, it’s not much better after that) but I’m cautiously excited, and more so after Ken Balcomb of the Center for Whale Research confirmed that Lucky appears healthy and energetic.  Lucky’s fortunate enough to have been born into a particularly strong family group within L-pod, so that should help.  I barely got any work done after the first encounter with little Lucky went live on the Center for Whale Research site.  I mean, can you even STAND the cuteness?!

Gooooooood Monday to you, bookworms!  What’s the weather like where you are?  We’re having a SNOW DAY here – the first of the school year.  It started snowing on Saturday around dinner time, came down all through the night and all day on Sunday, and I don’t know how many inches we ended up with, but suffice to say: it’s a LOT.  Especially for our area, which never handles snow particularly well (even though we usually get one decent-sized snowfall a year, sometimes more).  The kids had a ball playing in it yesterday – we made our rounds of the playgrounds in the morning, where we discovered that Nugget’s new ski jacket is extremely slippery.  He was FLYING off the slides and catching air before landing in the snow piles.  It was pretty hilarious, and as you can imagine, he thought it was awesome.  In the afternoon, Nugget and I went back outside to play with a border collie that our next-door neighbor had borrowed from a friend; we spent a good hour running around our alley, throwing a tennis ball, and chasing after the doggo.  The rest of the weekend was a lot calmer – Nugget and I rode bikes to the library on Saturday afternoon (where we hung out with the children’s librarian, who babysits for us from time to time) and I squeezed in a few hours of work.  Pretty standard stuff – but THEN CAME SNOW.

Reading.  A good reading week!  I finished The Time In Between on Tuesday and enjoyed it, although it was quite long and I did wish the author would’ve gotten to the spy parts a bit more promptly.  Then – library deadlines beckoning – I quickly turned to I’ll Be There For You, the new cultural history of Friends.  It’d been forever since I’d seen the show, but now I’m craving a re-watch.  Back to the library that went, and I returned to The Nine Tailors, which I’d started last weekend – finally finishing it, and turning to another book on a deadline: The Go-Between, a classic I’ve been meaning to check off my list for ages.  Just started it, so we’ll see if it lives up to the hype in my head.

Watching.  Nothing at all, unless you count bits of The Incredibles ii while cuddling Nugget to sleep on the couch on Sunday evening.  I did watch the scene in which Jack-Jack wrestles with a racoon, which is my favorite scene in the entire Incredibles franchise (or possibly my favorite scene of any Disney movie, ever – I always laugh until I cry, especially at the racoon’s face when Jack-Jack bursts into flames).

Listening.  I’ve been on a book podcast bender this week, so mostly catching up on the New Year’s episodes of my favorites – The Book Riot Podcast, From the Front Porch, The Read-Aloud Revival and more.  Tossed in a little Decemberists here and there, too – just skipping around from album to album and listening to the songs I fancy in the moment.  I got the new Decemberists vinyl, Traveling On, for Christmas and I need to listen to that one of these days.

Making.  What with spending several hours in the snow on Sunday, there was only one thing that sounded good for dinner – chili.  I made a vegan version which was light on calories but heavy on warmth, comfort and vegetables – two kinds of beans, wheat berries, gardein “taco meat” I’d made and frozen a few weeks ago, peppers, tomatoes, and a whole bunch of kale and cilantro.  Served with plain vegan yogurt and a few crumbled tortilla chips – perfect.  I have a big tub full of leftovers and I’ll be packing some good lunches this week.

Moving.  Nothing formal, but Sunday was an active day!  Between walking to multiple playgrounds, running around in the snow, toddler-wrangling and dog-chasing, I was beat by the end of the night.  I also did some sprints on the soccer field, because how often are you all alone on a snow covered soccer field?

Blogging.  It’s a bookish week!  I’m sharing Parts I and II of my three-part reading retrospective on Wednesday and Friday.  I had a great year in books, so do check in with me then.

Loving.  I forgot how much I like Leinenkugel’s grapefruit shandy!  I usually only buy it in the winter, and I grabbed a twelve pack last week at the grocery store.  I’m the only one who drinks it, so it will take me a few weeks to get through it, but I sure am enjoying the journey.  So citrusy and refreshing!

Asking.  What are you reading this week?