I’ve been thinking of adding a new blog series to serve as sort of a bookish brain dump, where I can share readerly thoughts that don’t quite merit their own blog posts (or that I’m still working out, in advance of their becoming longer blog posts).  Just bits, here and there.  And so: meet Lit Bits.  I won’t be posting these regularly – just whenever I have enough thoughts bumping around the brain to warrant gathering them all up.  Which, at the moment, I do.

You know you’re a bookworm when you start typing “goo…” into your browser and instead of “google,” it prompts you with “goodreads.”

I’m starting to get a little bit territorial about my library card.  My kids have fallen in love with the library and they always want to check out a pile of books whenever we stop by – which we do on a weekly basis, even if it’s just to quickly return a book that’s due back.  I love that they love books and the library, but I kind of wish they had their own card.  Seeing all of their books mixed in with mine when I check my account online kind of sets my teeth on edge.  Plus, their books tend to migrate all over the house and they’re hard to keep track of.  I’m constantly fretting that one of their books will get lost and my account will get suspended.

At what point, if one is committed to a life of honesty, does one admit that one needs another bookshelf?  (I said this to Steve, paraphrased from The Crown.)  I think I might be getting to that point.  The novelty of unrestricted book-acquisition, post-Project 24, has not worn off and I’m starting to amass piles of books all over the house.  Plus, I’ve recently started branching into pre-loved (and sometimes rather rare) books.  I am getting to critical mass and starting to think another trip to IKEA might be necessary.  I have just the corner picked out.  (It’s also the last place that makes any sense in my small row house, so I either have to slow down on the book-buying or… move.)

Do you ever have major non-buyer’s remorse?  I thought about buying Christabel Bielenberg’s The Past is Myself when Slightly Foxed published it, but I couldn’t get past the confusing title.  Now it’s out of print (they publish in limited editions of 2,000 and once the run is gone, with a few exceptions, it’s gone) and I am wishing I had bought it.  Not just because the gorgeous eggplant purple cover would have looked so nice on my Slightly Foxed shelf, but also because I am having this huge urge to read nonfiction about ordinary people living under totalitarian regimes lately.  (I’ll leave it to you to figure out why.  #RESIST)

I think there’s a longer post here, but I’m getting a bit sick of having reading goals.  Aiming for a percentage of my reading to fit a particular criteria is starting to make reading (a little) less fun.  I like tracking my books and I feel good about my commitment to read diverse voices, but at the same time – my life has so little fun in it right now, that I wish I felt a bit freer to choose whatever I wanted to read, whenever I wanted to read it.  Something to think about.

How about you?  Any bookish bits on your mind?

Yawwwwwwn.  Monday.  Again.  Where did the weekend go?  I don’t even feel like it happened.  It was kind of an all-work, no-play weekend.  Or at least, mostly-work, very-little-play.  I was up before the sun on Saturday and started working at 5:00 a.m. to finish a work assignment that I really needed to churn out (yes, my streak of working every weekend in 2018 continues).  Delusional me thought that if I got that knocked out before the kids woke up, I’d have the rest of the weekend to play.  Well, do you think it went to plan?  Does anyone think it went to plan?  Of course it didn’t go to plan.  Nugget was up before I was done with my work, so I sat him in front of a cartoon while I tried to finish up what I was doing.  Then down came Peanut – same thing.  The next hour saw me running frantically between the kitchen and the computer, but I finally got the assignment finished and turned in – whew.  To celebrate, we all bundled up for a hike at Lake Burke – one of my favorite local parks.  (Peanut brought her map so we wouldn’t get lost.  What a relief!)  Of course, because my life is kind of terrible at the moment, midway through the hike I got a response on my assignment, to the effect of “Thanks, looks good – can you also look into this other issue?”  Oof.  Yes, I can.  Pretty much the rest of Saturday – lunch, naps, post-bedtime – was devoted to work.  Sunday was even busier.  I didn’t have as much work to do – only an hour or so – but I spent the entire morning and into the afternoon helping my BFF, Rebecca, move into her new apartment.  It’s a short-term thing; she has the place for six months and then she’ll be off to parts unknown (sniff) but in the meantime, she’s moved much closer to me, so I’m pumped.  We spent an active morning loading her car with essentials and then renting a truck and hauling her furniture.  Then we figured we’d earned a big lunch, so we treated ourselves to Sunflower Café – a vegetarian restaurant in Falls Church.  So delicious, and we gobbled it up.  The rest of the day was more of the same – work, kiddo playtime, and I finally crashed with my book at the end.  I was productive, sure, but I could really use a break.

Reading.  Only one book this week.  Between five very long days of work last week, plus an insanely crazy running around weekend, I haven’t been able to make nearly the progress I wanted to make on my stack.  I’m still reading Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, which is still fascinating and heart-wrenching as it was last week.  I’m nearly done, though.  Next up, I think, will be African Short Stories, a collection edited by Chinua Achebe.  I’m looking forward to it, and a nice slim volume will be just the thing, I think, after a hefty non-fiction tome.

Watching.  Very little, as well.  (This is turning into one of those depressing posts, isn’t it?  I don’t mean for it to be – that’s just the week I had.)  Mostly, all I’ve watched is Miles from Tomorrowland over the kids’ shoulders as they eat their breakfast in the morning.  Because – sigh – there’s been a major backsliding on my constant attempts to banish TV from the table.  It’s a war that I’m fighting and I just don’t have the energy these days.

Listening.  I finished up the first episode of Those Park Guys Podcast this week – at an hour and a half long, that episode was no mean feat – and it was so much fun.  I’m saving the second episode for after I watch the next episode of the show, because the guys have a segment during which they chat about the most recently aired episode, and I don’t want to spoil anything.

Moving.  Sunday was a real workout!  Let me tell you, hauling a mattress, desk, and a chair the size of a couch is no joke.  I felt pretty hardcore, climbing in and out of the pickup bed and hefting an insanely heavy mattress up a steep flight of stairs.  (I was also mimicking Ross Geller, shouting “PIVOT! PIVOT! PIVOTTTTTT!” and my joke totally went over Rebecca’s head.  Apparently she’s not a F*R*I*E*N*D*S fan?)

Blogging.  Some fun literary mish-mash coming up on Wednesday, and dialing the way-back machine to two weeks ago to share Nugget’s birthday hike on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  I tipped a friend off to one of my favorite book blogs, The Captive Reader, this week, and her delight inspired me to go back through the archives and re-read some posts.  I love Claire’s writing, and her taste in books is so similar to mine – plus her photography is just gorgeous.  If you’re not already reading, you should.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

Hello, Monday!  It was a crazy weekend after a crazy week – as usual.  We planned to host Nugget’s third birthday party this weekend because it was the only weekend that worked for my parents to come.  He had two requests: (1) Star Wars theme; and (2) his friend S – actually his sister’s bestie, but Nugget loves her too – would come.  We were able to make both happen, so he had a fabulous time.  Most of Saturday was spent running around and doing party-related tasks – pulling out decorations; starting the marshmallow storm troopers and the tiny TIE fighter cookies, etc. – and working, of course.  Sunday was all about our little Dark Lord of the Sith.  He wore his Darth Vader “costume” (it’s actually pajamas, but it has a cape) and ran around whacking people with an inflatable lightsaber.  We all laughed the entire time, and it was a perfect party (thanks, as well, to Zan, who came over early to distract the birthday boy while I finished stuffing the Darth Vader piñata and making “Obi-Wan Kebabis”).  After the party, we walked to the local elementary school playground with Nana and Grandad, and Peanut serenaded the entire block while Nugget stroked random kids’ faces.  We scared several children away from the playground.  What else is new?

Reading.  Despite another hectic week (and hectic weekend) I got some reading done.  Finished up Fire and Fury earlier in the week.  I was a little burnt out on politics after that, as you can probably imagine, but library deadlines dictated that my next read had to be Young Jane Young, a novel about a woman who was involved in a sex scandal as a Congressional intern, changes her identity, but finds her past returns when she runs for office herself.  It was a fun, light read and I blazed through it in less than twenty-four hours.  The current read (again decided by library deadlines) is Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, which I have been wanting to read for more than a year now.  The science is fascinating and – somewhat unusual for this type of book – the writing is gorgeous.

Watching.  Over the course of Friday and Saturday, Steve and I finished up the first season of Victoria, which ended on a real high note.  Now we’re anxiously awaiting the second season dropping on Netflix – soon, Netflix, please!

Listening.  More podcasts this week.  Two stand out in particular – an episode of The Mom Hour on kindergarten readiness (having a rising kindergartener, I was more interested in the second half, which talked about how to help them prepare; the first half, on how to tell if they’re ready, was not interesting to me – mine has already done Junior Kindergarten twice, and there’s no question she’s headed to the full K in the fall, or I will go Red Ross on the principal).  And the other that stands out was the VERY FIRST EPISODE EVER of Those Park Guys Podcast!  I love Rock the Park, and I follow Jack and Colton on all social media channels, so I am so excited to have them in my earbuds.  I only got to listen to part of the episode, because I turned it on in the car, while running errands over the weekend, and Nugget immediately protested.  But they’ll be in my ears as I walk to the Metro today.

Making.  I made a Force-tastic Star Wars party for my Nugget this weekend, complete with marshmallow stormtroopers, Dagobah swamp water (mostly lemonade, with a little green juice to give it that delicious swamp color), a Death Star beach ball, a Darth Vader piñata – in short, everything you need for a bumping party.  Amirite?  He loved it.

Blogging.  All the random musings this week.  On Wednesday, I will rant about a totally overused book review phrase that guarantees I will not read the book, and on Friday, I have a pretty all-over-the-place collection of colorful pictures.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  I saw a tweet this morning from @TheTweetOfGod: “How come nobody talks about Jesus’s miracle of having 12 good friends in his thirties?” and I had to LOL.  I am so blessed in my friends.  This weekend, my house was full of some of my favorite people, who all came to celebrate little Nugget.  Including Zan, who as I mentioned above came over early to help (she’s always doing stuff like that – she’s the kindest, best person) and Rachel, a newer friend – we met less than two years ago and hit it off immediately – with whom I have shared lots of chatting and laughter, and a few rants, since moving back to D.C.  Having good friends is indeed a miracle, especially in this busy season of life when everyone is running in ten different directions all the time.  I love my friends.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

Happy, happy, happiest of birthdays to my big three-year-old guy!  I still can’t believe that Nugget has been with us for three whole years.  I know I’m a broken record on this point, but it really does seem like just yesterday that he was born.  This weekend was, of course, all about celebrating him.  We let him choose the activities all weekend long.  On Saturday, he wanted to hike, and Steve suggested Piscataway Park, since it’s fairly small, has nice views of the Potomac, and there are farm animals.  He had a ball, of course.  There was a brief lightsaber duel using sticks, but aside from that it was a very peaceful morning.  (I worked during naptime, but you have all probably guessed that already.)  His request for the evening was pizza delivery and a movie on the couch.  Somehow – I wasn’t present when the movie was selected – I walked into the room just in time to hear Robert Muldoon shouting “SHOOOOOOT HER!”  Jurassic Park, really?!  Peanut, who is surprisingly bloodthirsty, loved it, but Nugget was over it by the time the T-Rex started terrorizing Lex and Tim in the Jeep.  Ummmm.  Yeah.  Saw that coming.  We switched to Winnie-the-Pooh and he was happier.  On Sunday, his actual birthday, he asked to go to the zoo, so we all piled into the car and headed off for more animal fun.  As Steve said, the kids’ zoo-meters were on “full” after our morning – it seemed like we saw absolutely everything there was to see.  Lions, tiger, cheetahs, zebra, bison, gorillas, orangutans, pandas, elephants, sea lions, sloth bears, plus visits to Amazonia and the Reptile House (which always makes me think of Harry Potter).  We ended the weekend with a walk to the playground, a birthday dinner out in one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants, and takeaway gelato – all Nugget’s requests.  All in all, a pretty awesome weekend.  Nugget, in case you didn’t already know, is a really fun guy.

Reading.  Pretty busy reading week, I had.  I finished up Winter in Thrush Green early in the week – such a lovely, peaceful book.  I can’t get enough of Miss Read.  And I’m going to need her again soon because my next two reads were not at all peaceful.  In the latter half of the week, I read This Will Be My Undoing, which was a fascinating and illuminating essay collection about “living at the intersection of black, female, and feminist in (white) America” – as part of my ongoing mission to learn to be a good ally.  Finished that up on Friday and turned to – apparently I’m feeling extra political this week – Fire and Fury.  I know, I know, but everyone in D.C. is talking about it and I wanted to be part of the conversation.  I reserved it from the library and have been waiting more or less patiently for months.  And I know parts of it have been questioned or discredited, but if even a third of it is true – dayum.

Watching.  Well, there was the aforementioned Jurassic Park.  And on Friday night, Steve and I blazed through the final three episodes of the first season of The Good Place – such fun.  But the best thing I watched this week had to have been the delight and joy on Nugget’s face as he ripped open his birthday presents, explored the trail on his birthday hike, and rocketed around the zoo.  I think he had a great weekend, and I loved seeing him enjoy himself.  I’m so, so very glad that I have him.

Listening.  Honestly, y’all, I can’t remember what I listened to last week.  I know I listened to a few podcasts, but nothing is really jumping out as a highlight.  I’m thinking of switching back to Audible.  I have an audiobook of my favorite of the Anne series – Anne of the Island – and it’s calling my name.

Moving.  The most moving this week, like last week, was by air travel.  On Tuesday morning (6:30, bright and early!) I was taking off from D.C. on my way up to Boston for two days of meetings and hearings.  It was an exhausting trip, but there was one very bright spot – see below.  Other than that, I’ve already told you about my movement over the weekend – lots of kiddo-chasing on a hike and around the zoo.  (The National Zoo is built into a hill, so it’s actually a decent workout, walking around there.)

Blogging.  Spring list coming to you on Wednesday, and then on Friday I’m going to get controversial about Jane Austen.  You’re intrigued, aren’t you?  (It’s not that controversial.  Well, maybe.)

Loving.  Although my trip to Boston was short and hectic, and I was a bit grumpy about going at all, there was a highlight – I got to visit with Katie!  I haven’t seen her in more than five years, and it felt so good to get hugs and a cup of tea from both Katie and Jeremiah.  For awhile, it didn’t look like it was going to work out, because work had me running around until after 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, and I had an early morning meeting on Wednesday and other assignments to squeeze in.  But I was determined, and fortunately Katie is a night owl, so at 9:30 p.m. I found myself curled up on her sofa with a cup of peppermint tea.  She gave me the tour of her lovely new(ish) apartment, and we chatted as fast as we could about everything under the sun – books, family, Boston, D.C., politics, tea, work, you name it – for two hours.  I feel so lucky whenever I get to visit with a faraway blog friend (like when I had dinner with A.M.B. last May in Philadelphia) and I left Katie’s house drooping with exhaustion but beaming with the gladness that comes of two hours with a dear friend.  Thanks again for the tea and sympathy, dear Katie!

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

Monday, Monday, Monday.  Again.  Honestly, the days of the week don’t really mean anything to me anymore.  Saturday and Sunday are just the days I work at home in my pajamas instead of putting on my black pants and going to the office.  Do I even need to tell you I had weekend work?  Y’all probably just assume it at this point and it would be a fair assumption.  Next weekend, I’m determined to take both days off.  This weekend, I worked a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday – par for the course.  I was catching up from a particularly hectic week that saw me rushing off to Massachusetts on a last-minute, one-day business trip on Thursday – I was happy to go and it was a good trip, but it threw the week into a tailspin.  On Saturday I had to run into the office for about an hour, so Steve and the kids accompanied me downtown and went to the Natural History Museum while I quickly did the tasks I had to be in the office for.  I walked over to meet them, but by the time I got through the massive line into the museum, they were ready to leave.  I got to see the T-Rex skeleton and… that was it.  Total bust.  We had a better afternoon.  Once I wrapped up naptime work and the kids were up, we all went out for a bike ride and to the playground.  On the way, we stopped by the fire station (naturally) and Nugget got to ride his bike directly into the firehouse.  Mind blown!  Sunday morning, we headed down to Mount Vernon to hike the nature trail at the estate.  There were a few intrepid flowers poking up through the soil, and one flowering vine – spring is coming.  I worked during naptime, of course, and we finished the weekend with a walk/bike to the playground in the afternoon, then crashed on the couch in the evening.  I’m really, really burnt out and I need a few days of solid relaxation.  It doesn’t seem to be in the cards, though, so I’m taking what I can get.

Reading.  It was a better reading week, at least.  I finally finished Half of a Yellow Sun, which was gorgeous and heart-wrenching, as Adichie’s books always are.  (I’m almost through her bibliography, but I need to take breaks as I go, because the books are intense.)  After that, I wanted to pull something else from the library stack, so I grabbed Kathleen Collins’ slim volume of short stories, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love?, and plowed through it over a couple of days.  Short stories aren’t usually my jam, but I enjoyed these – just got lost in the writing and didn’t concern myself too much with plot or characters.  Finally, after a long and stressful week at work, I really needed some mental cocoa (trademarking that phrase, what do you think?) and I was behind on the #MissReadalong on Instagram, so I picked up Winter in Thrush Green.  Three months into the readalong, I am just falling in love with this town and these characters.

Watching.  Back to the usual this week – not much.  I’ve been taking a bit of a screen detox since the Olympics ended.  Steve talked me into an episode of Victoria on Saturday, though, and it was a good one.  We hollered with laughter at Victoria jumping up and down on the couch, and at her attempt to watch Albert give a speech to a London abolitionists’ meeting (“I’m here… incognito.” — “Pardon me, ma’am, but… your disguise is not impenetrable.”) – ha!  And Steve almost banished me from the living room when the Duke of Sussex appeared onscreen and I jumped up from the couch and shouted, “OMG, MR. COLLINS!  IT’S MR. COLLINS!”

Listening.  Sort of all over the place again.  Podcasts, the Forlorn Strangers, show tunes – the usual suspects.  Nothing jumps out as especially memorable.  The Book Riot Podcast‘s discussion on #MeToo hitting children’s publishing, I guess – an important conversation, but sad and tiring.

Moving.  Well, the biggest movement was on Thursday when I flew from Washington, D.C. to Providence, Rhode Island, drove into Massachusetts for all-day meetings, drove back to Providence and flew home – all in one day.  That was a long day.  Otherwise – nothing much to report.  The aforementioned hike on Sunday morning – that was nice.  I’m wearing my Fitbit and pretty consistently hitting 10,000 steps per day, which is not surprising given how many times I walk either to the kitchen to get juice for people, or to the copier to scan documents.

Blogging.  I failed you last week – I am sorry.  I promised my February reading list on Friday and I didn’t deliver.  It’s coming this Wednesday instead.  Will that work?  And then on Friday, I am celebrating my little puppy who is about to turn three.  How is that possible?  Hold me.

Loving.  I promise this weekly post isn’t going to become a litany of kid quotes, but I have to share with you something that Peanut said recently, because it has been putting a smile on my face more consistently than pretty much anything else.  Earlier this week, she was sitting at the breakfast table while I was making her toast and griping about something (probably about how overwhelmed I am at the moment) and she, sparkly little sage that she is, said calmly, “Don’t worry, Mommy.  No matter how bad things get, it’s nothing a little glitter can’t solve.”  Ain’t that the truth?

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

Ugh.  Monday.  Why is it here again?  We haven’t even started the week and I’m already O.VER.IT.  The last two months have been such a slog of getting up early, working my butt off all day, going home to the parenting crush, and then getting back on the computer and working more.  And don’t even get me started on the weekends.  I don’t think there’s been a weekend in 2018 that I haven’t worked at least a little bit.  I hope all of this drudgery now will set me up to take a little time off here and there this summer, but who even knows?  Anyway, we had a pretty low-key weekend.  It was rainy and gross in D.C. basically all weekend, so we mostly hunkered down indoors.  On Saturday, we got out for a pizza lunch to celebrate Peanut’s half-birthday, and Nugget and I snuck off to the library during a break in the afternoon rain.  On Sunday, it was steadily raining and gloomy for most of the day, but we had happy plans, at least – a playdate with Peanut’s BFF.  She and her mom came over for a relaxing morning of baking and playing.  The girls made raspberry crumb bars (a Martha Stewart recipe, which turned out really well, especially when you consider that 90% of the work was done by a couple of five-year-olds) and played with Peanut’s dollhouse while the bars were in the oven, then had lunch and enjoyed their handiwork.  Yum!  The rest of the day – morning and afternoon – I mostly spent working.  What else is new?  I feel like these Monday reading posts have turned into a parade of complaints about weekend work.  Sorry about that, guys.  I promise it won’t last forever.  Busy seasons are very cyclical in my field, so there will come a time when I’ll go a whole weekend without firing up my laptop.  Seems hard to believe, but there will come a time.

Reading.  Very, very, very little to report this week.  It’s been more than a week and I am still reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun.  That should really tell you something about how little time I’ve had to myself this week – because I’m a fast reader, and Adichie is an outstanding writer, so there is no reason that it should take me more than a week to read one of her books except for the fact that I barely have a second to breathe, let alone read.  There’ve been several days when the only reading I’ve done was on my morning commute, because I’m so burnt out by the evening commute that I end up zoning out to my earbuds the whole ride home, and the evening is spent hunched over the laptop again.  But I’m fairly close to finishing up with it, and I’ve got a lovely library stack calling my name for when I finish.  I’m torn between This Will Be My Undoing and What Ever Happened to Interracial Love?, both of which I’ve heard great things about.  It’ll be a game-time decision and it doesn’t seem like I can go wrong.

Watching.  All Olympics, all the time.  Steve has had it on while I’ve worked, and when I put my computer away for the evening, nothing sounds quite as good as curling up on the couch and cheering for USA Bobsled, or the snowboard kids, or Adam Rippon… Anyway, last night we watched the Closing Ceremonies, so next week it’ll be back to normal viewing – which is to say, hardly any TV at all – for another two years.

Listening.  I’m on a mission to finish a few things, so I’ve been dedicating a few commutes to listening.  I wrapped up the second season of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, which continues to be a lot of fun and very thought-provoking.  And funny!  (“Dumbledore says it’s our abilities that define us, not our… our things.”  “Our things?!?!”)  And I’m a little more than ninety minutes out from finishing up the first series of Home Front on Audible.  (Still enjoying it, but the obsession has cooled a bit.)  The best listen of the week, though, was the newly revitalized Drunk Austen podcast.  I hope they start posting regularly!  And I also listened – a bit late – to the Valentine’s Day episode of Tea and Tattle, on favorite fictional romantic couples.  Austen couples abounded, but L.M. Montgomery, Maud Hart Lovelace, Elizabeth Goudge, Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie got shout-outs as well.

Moving.  I got a Fitbit!  I’ve been looking for a good activity tracker solution since my Garmin Vivofit bit the dust, and I finally stopped hemming and hawing and bought a Fitbit Charge HR.  I’ve only been wearing it for a few days, but it’s been really nice.  So far, I’m mostly using it to get a baseline on what my daily activity level is.  (Answer: better than I thought.  On a workday I average around 8,000 steps – not the 10,000 I aim for, but better than expected, especially given how much time I have to spend tied to my computer.)  On a weekend, unsurprisingly, it’s a lot more.  Oh, and I learned something – when I push the stroller, Fitbit logs that activity as “outdoor biking.”  Who knew?

Blogging.  It’s a recap-heavy week!  On Wednesday, I’ll share pics from last weekend’s hike at Huntley Meadows Park, and on Friday, I’ll have my February reading round-up for you.  Lots of good books this month – check in with me then!

Loving.  I think I have a new favorite recipe to bake with Peanut!  We started with the “jam crumb bars” recipe from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook, cut down the butter and sugar, and substituted rolled oats for half of the almond meal – perfect!  Crumb bars are definitely going on the regular baking rotation.  Peanut had such a blast baking raspberry crumb bars with her friend, and they’re really the perfect recipe to do with a budding baker.  Easy – no techniques more advanced than using a pastry cutter, which Peanut is well-versed in after our pie-making extravaganza following our trip to the berry farm last summer.  Fun – who doesn’t love squashing dough into a baking dish?  And endlessly customizable – we used raspberry jam, because Peanut’s friend is allergic to strawberries, but there are so many variations in jam flavors and even in the cookie part.  I’m thinking of apricot next time, or maybe even orange marmalade… and some shredded coconut…

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

Happy Presidents’ Day to my American friends!  I hope you’re getting a day off from work.  I’m not, although it’s self-inflicted.  My office is closed, so technically I don’t have to work, but I’m going in anyway to get ahead on billing for the week.  I’ll probably leave early, though.  Even though I knew I wasn’t (allowing myself to) enjoying a three-day weekend, I made the most of Saturday and Sunday – especially Saturday.  In the morning, we hit a local park for a long-overdue return to the trails.  More to come – with some crummy pictures, which all turned out blurry for some reason – next week.  Then in the afternoon, my BFF Rebecca came over and we headed out for a girls’ afternoon outing to “50 Shades of Rosé” at the French Embassy.  Ooh la la!  Fun to add another Embassy to my list – I’ve also attended parties, events or open houses at the British, Swedish, Canadian, Polish, Lithuanian and Greek Embassies over the years.  (And a big merci to Steve for pulling solo dad duty and facilitating some girl time.)  Anyway, if you haven’t guessed from the name, it was a wine-tasting event, hosted by Drink the District, focusing on rosé wines from all over the world.  French rosé is my absolute favorite wine, so I was especially excited about those, but the rosé vinho verde from Portugal was also a lovely surprise.  We swished, swirled, tasted, and got thoroughly soused, then came home and cooked pumpkin ravioli with sautéed kale in a creamy mascarpone sauce.  Hit the spot!  Sunday was more low-key and featured the usual neighborhood circuit – the library, fire station and playground – plus a trip to the bookstore for behavior rewards.  I squeezed in a few hours of work during afternoon naps, and we finished the weekend with a family stroll to the local soccer field for some running and kicking – ahhhh, perfect.

Reading.  Bit of a slow week – I can’t really explain why.  I took my time over Portrait of Elmbury, which I really enjoyed.  There were a few little moments here and there which were jarring to the modern reader, and knocked it down from five stars to four in my Goodreads ratings, but overall I found it a delight.  Then I turned to Half of a Yellow Sun, which I have out from the library.  I’m about 100 pages in – give or take; I can’t be bothered to check right now – and liking it, but I am lacking the attention span for reading much at the moment (blame the Olympics and work stress?).  Adichie is always a win for me, though, and Half of a Yellow Sun is as gorgeous as Americanah was.

Watching.  Olympics, Olympics, The Crown (Rebecca had never seen it – she accidentally watched The Royals instead, and that is NOT the same thing!), Olympics.  We’re actually starting to get a bit of Olympics fatigue, but as long as our heroic American athletes are competing and going for the gold, we will be cheering for them – we consider it no less than a patriotic duty.

Listening.  I am bouncing back and forth between series one of Home Front (WHEN are Ralph and Isabelle going to get together???) and the second season of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.  I’m getting pretty close to finishing the Chamber of Secrets discussion, so I will probably focus on that during my commutes this week, and then go back to Home Front.

Moving.  I was starting to get really frustrated with the lack of movement in my life, and while I still haven’t found a way to get back to yoga and barre or out for a run, I have decided that at least I deserve to work some more motion into my everyday life.  So I’ve been getting off the elevator two floors below my regular floor and walking up (I’d do more, but three floors below is not occupied by my firm, and I don’t know if my keycard would work – I have no interest in being locked in the stairwell on someone else’s floor) and also using my DeskCycle at least three times per day, for ten minutes each time – so that adds up to thirty minutes of stationary cycling per day.  I’ll take it.  When the weather gets warmer, I plan to start getting off the subway one stop early and walking a few extra blocks to the office.  Anything to get the steps in!  And of course, I finally made it out for a hike this weekend.  Not the best week for movement, but not the worst.

Laughing.  This weekend, apropos of nothing, Peanut informed me: “Mommy, Parents’ Night at school is when your mom and dad go to your classroom and stick their noses in your business.”

Loving.  This is the unhealthiest thing ever, but I don’t care!  It’s GIRL SCOUT COOKIE SEASON!  We currently have two boxes of Samoas on our counter (I bought them from a work colleague) and are waiting for a delivery from a neighborhood girl as well.  It’s the mooooooooost wonderful time of the yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeear!  What are your favorite flavors of Girl Scout cookies?  I love Thin Mints and Samoas, which were always my mom’s order when I was a Girl Scout, but as an adult I’ve acquired a passion for Trefoils.  I keep them for special teatime treats and refuse to share them with my family.  They can eat their weight in Thin Mints and Samoas for all I care, but the Trefoils are MINE ALL MIIIIIIIIIIIIINE.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?

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From the moment I found out that I was expecting Peanut, one of the things that I was most looking forward to doing with her – and any future sibling that came along, as Nugget later did – was sharing books.  I couldn’t wait to introduce her to the classic children’s books that I remembered listening to and thumbing through with my mom – books like Blueberries for Sal, Make Way for Ducklings, Go Dog Go, Angelina Ballerina and so many more.  But more than that, even, I was looking forward to sharing my favorite books for older readers.  Especially, of course, my beloved L.M. Montgomery.  As it turned out, I read Montgomery to her sooner than I expected – when she was only a few weeks old.  Perched on a chair next to her isolette, as lights flashed and alarms beeped all around us in the NICU at Fairfax Children’s Hospital, I read Emily of New Moon to her.  Together we journeyed to Blair Water and New Moon Farm, sitting in the garden with Emily, Ilse and Teddy and listening to Cousin Jimmy recite his poetry over a crackling campfire while the Wind Woman darted through the trees.

After she finally came home from the hospital, I read to her from my own books – Miss Read, mostly, but sometimes whatever I had checked out from the Fairfax County Library – and from Winnie-the-Pooh.  I knew that hearing my voice was good for her, and reading aloud was less awkward for me than pretending to make conversation with a baby.

It comes as no surprise, I’m sure, that as she got older she was rarely far from a book.  My mission to make a reader has been going very well indeed.

Now we find ourselves poised at two crossroads.  Peanut is on the cusp of a major breakthrough in her own reading abilities – she can sound out simple words, recognize sight words, and read very easy beginning readers on her own (when she wants to).  Getting to this point has been something of a battle, because while she loves books and would like nothing more than to be able to read on her own, she also is hard-wired to resist anything an adult appears to want her to do (don’t get me started on potty training; you don’t want to know how long it took) and she has stagnated a bit over her final year of pre-kindergarten, since she’s pretty much mastered the skills but the curriculum doesn’t have her moving to the next level yet.  I’m trying to work with her at home, but I have to pick my moments – if she’s hungry, tired, or interested in doing something else I just won’t be able to sell an easy reader to her.  (And who could blame her?  Reading A blue car.  A yellow car.  A red car.  A green car. and so forth… well, it’s not the most absorbing text.)

The second crossroads is – in our read-aloud time, we’re moving on to chapter books, more and more.  Peanut still asks for favorite picture books, and I’m glad to read them.  But she’s always had a long attention span for listening to stories (for instance, she has more tolerance for some of the epically long Robert McCloskey books – like One Morning in Maine and Time of Wonder – than her dad, who groans when she requests them, which happens quite often as both are favorites).  So little by little, we have been adding chapter books to the reading diet.

We started with Freckle Juice, by Judy Blume.  I had fond memories of it, and it was so short – it seemed like a good place to begin.  Most of the story went over Peanut’s head; she doesn’t have any freckles and the classroom storyline was a bit out of her experience.  But she felt like such a proud big kid with her book that was mostly words (and just a few pictures) and she started carrying it with her to school, coming home pleased as punch one day when a few of the older kids told her it was one of their favorite books, too.  It was easy to sell her on more chapter books after that, and I made a conscious effort to choose short ones with lots of pictures, to keep it fun and on her level.  The Princess in Black books have been a big hit, and so have some of the American Girl chapter books.  I took a leap of faith and pulled out Mr. Popper’s Penguins to read before we saw the show at the Kennedy Center in December, and we worked our way through it, a chapter at a time, as our bedtime reading for weeks.

Her most recent request – well, recurring request really, she begged for months – was for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.  I was a little unsure about that one.  The chapters are longer than what she’s been used to, and the end of the story (even the first book) is a little intense.  But I have the gorgeous illustrated edition, and she asked and asked and asked, so we jumped in.  Reactions have been a bit of a mixed bag.  Some of the chapters – especially at the beginning – have tested even Peanut’s superhuman patience for long stories.  And she waited, and waited, and waited, AND WAITED for Hermione to finally become friends with Harry and Ron.  (We’re there at last.)  I’m still not entirely sure if we will be able to actually get through the whole book – snuffing out her budding love for Harry Potter is the last thing I want to do.

But she’s taken to carrying her chapter books around and flipping through them, intently studying even the pages with no pictures.  (She says she likes looking at the words.)  And I told her that when she learned to read, she could read anything from the bookshelves at home – nothing will be off limits – and she threw her arms around my neck and screamed with joy.  And I think that’s half the battle.  The skills will come with time and patience.  The desire to read and the love of books – that’s already there, so I feel like 99% of the battle is already won.

Now is the part where I hit you up for recommendations.  What are your best tips for making the leap to chapter books?  And what are your favorite chapter books for budding readers and pre-readers with a long attention span?

Last December, I thought it would be a good idea to sign on to Simon‘s Project 24 – a commitment to buy only twenty-four books for myself all year.  (Books gifted to someone else are exempt, and books that I receive as gifts are also exempt.)  Since I try to only buy two books per month anyway, I thought this shouldn’t be too terribly difficult.  I just wouldn’t utilize any of my exceptions.  And it seemed like a good idea, since my shelves were already looking… well, there was space, but not a ton, and my little urban townhouse is a pretty good size for my neighborhood but still not exactly what you’d call spacious.  At some point, I’ll run out of room for books – especially when you consider that the kids have a considerable library of their own now, and it competes with mine for shelf space.  (This both delights and horrifies me.  I love that they’re into books.  But I’m territorial about my shelves.)

So – long story short – I went for it.  And I did it!  I only bought, for myself, twenty-four books this year.  They were:

1. The Red House Mystery, by A.A. Milne
2. The Little White Horse, by Elizabeth Goudge
3. Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery
4. Anne of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery
5. Envelope Poems, by Emily Dickinson
6. Mary Barton, by Elizabeth Gaskell
7. Wives and Daughters, by Elizabeth Gaskell
8. North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell
9. Anderby Wold, by Winifred Holtby
10. The Land of Green Ginger, by Winifred Holtby
11. Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome
12. Before Lunch, by Angela Thirkell
13. A Memoir of Jane Austen, by Edward Austen-Leigh
14. The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
15. Father Brown Stories: Volume 1, by G.K. Chesterton
16. Father Brown Stories: Volume 2, by G.K. Chesterton
17. After Many Years, by L.M. Montgomery
18. Sylvia’s Lovers, by Elizabeth Gaskell
19. Ruth, by Elizabeth Gaskell
20. 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Washington, D.C., by Renee Sklarew & Rachel Cooper
21. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Illustrated Edition, by J.K. Rowling
22. The Blue Castle, by L.M. Montgomery
23. Portrait of Elmbury, by John Moore
24. Brensham Village, by John Moore

And that’s it!  Kind of – read on.

Reflections on the experience, and a confession or two:

• I didn’t cheat!  I didn’t use any of my exceptions, and I was scrupulously honest about… well… some things.  For instance?  Father Brown Stories came as a two-volume box set.  The volumes are packaged together and have an illustration that spans both spines.  I could maybe have gotten away with calling it one book purchase.  But I didn’t.  And the hiking book – well, that is a book for the whole family.  I could have argued it wasn’t “for myself” and exempted it from Project 24.  But – again! – I didn’t.
• I cheated a little.  While I abided by the letter of the rules, if I’m being completely honest I’ll have to admit that I didn’t always abide by the spirit.  I bought kindle books that were featured on the Modern Mrs. Darcy daily ebook deals emails.  (Never more than $2.99!)  I used my feminine wiles to get Steve to buy a copy of A Gentleman in Moscow for me when it became clear I wasn’t going to be able to finish my library copy by the deadline.  And in the run-up to Christmas, I ordered several out of print books, including a boxed set of five Jeeves books (as my friend Susan said in support of this bending of the rules: “Baby, this is Jeeves.  You do what you have to do.”) and handed them to Steve with instructions to wrap them up and put them under the tree.  This is probably against Simon’s rules.  But the thing is – when you come across a rare and out-of-print book, what are you supposed to do?  Clearly, there’s only one right answer.

• Goddess bless the library.  I wouldn’t have gotten through this year without the library.  (That’s true of every year, of course.)  It’s a lot easier to keep to a strict book-buying budget/diet when you have more books than you could ever read just a few short blocks away, all neatly shelved in the neighborhood library.  Also, who are these people who claim libraries are irrelevant and no adult uses them?  I’d go broke without the library.
• It’s a good thing the kids’ books were exempt.  Since buying gifts for other people doesn’t count toward Project 24, I made liberal use of the allowance to buy even more books for the kids.  I buy them tons of books – all the time – anyway, but I’d be less than honest if I told you that I didn’t enjoy their books, too.  I love a beautifully-worded, sumptuously illustrated picture book just as much as the next preschooler.  Quite a few of my “ooooooh! pretty!” book purchases this year ended up being children’s books.  After all, as C.S. Lewis said: “A children’s book that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s book at all.”
• I don’t think I saved money.  Here’s the problem with a strict book-buying diet.  When you’re only buying a very limited, very small number of books for yourself over an entire year, it’s way too easy to justify those books being big, expensive Folio Society books.  If I only shopped at used bookstores and thrift shops, maybe I could have massively trimmed my book-buying budget.  But I fell into the deep, deep trap of rationalization: “I haven’t bought any books in almost two months!  I DESERVE this $70 out-of-print Folio edition of Wives and Daughters!”  If I hadn’t been restricting myself, I probably would have bought more $8.00 BL Crime Classics paperbacks and fewer hefty Folio editions of Gaskell.  Just saying.  And on that rationale, I’m off to eat some chocolate and cruise Amazon.

Have you ever put yourself on a book-buying diet?  Did you cheat?

Sigh.  Does it have to be Monday?  Can we have another weekend first?  Ours was easygoing and low-key, matching the rainy weather outside.  I really want a do-over of Saturday – we had a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, which is never my first choice of activities.  (Being honest.)  I think the birthday honoree had a fabulous time, which is of course all that matters, but is there an adult on the planet who doesn’t leave that place with a headache?  On Sunday we mostly bummed around the house, but Peanut and I escaped during a break in the rain and headed to a friend’s house for a Wellie Wishers playdate.  The other mom and I had a lovely time chatting while the girls ignored their Wellie Wishers (which were just a convenient excuse, really) and spent their time emptying the dress-up drawers, filling the sink with bubbles and emptying a tube of toothpaste over Peanut’s head.  Good times.

Reading.  Such a good reading week, you guys.  I finished Thrush Green midweek and it was so delightful.  The last time I read it, I think I was too fresh from finishing Fairacre, and nothing else was going to live up to it.  On this read, I was able to approach Thrush Green anew and take it on its own merits and it was a joy.  Then I checked one off the longstanding TBR – I am Malala.  It was really powerful and just such a breathtaking reading experience.  Now I’m approaching midway through Portrait of Elmbury, my first Slightly Foxed Edition, and loving it.  There are a couple of sentences that are very jarring to the modern reader (isn’t that always the case? so frustrating) but overall, it’s lovely.

Watching.  The Olympics, of course!  I was ready – even had bibimbap for lunch on Friday.  We loved the opening ceremonies; we always do.  (Although, I have to ask, Ralph Lauren – WHY?  WHY with the work gloves, and the fringe, and just… oh, Hecate.  So, so bad.)  We were really excited to see an ADK boy take home a silver medal in luge.  Go ‘dacks!

Listening.  For about the first half of the week, I was flipping back and forth between Harry Potter and the Sacred Text and other podcasts, but midweek I switched to Audible and started listening to the first season of Home Front from BBC Radio.  So good!  I’d like to listen to it with a cup of tea in my hand while gathered around an old-timey radio in my living room.  But – well – it’s mostly Metro listening.  I suppose I could have a cup of tea if I listened to Audible at home, which I don’t.

Reminiscing.  Watching the winter Olympics always takes me back to 1998.  When the Nagano games were airing, I was an exchange student in Germany, and I watched most of the coverage with my host family auf Deutsch.  I always get a particular laugh out of my memories of watching some of the Games in a sports bar on top of the local hockey rink (after banging drums, stamping my feet and shouting my support for Adendorfer Eishockey) and giggling helplessly as my host sister’s friend Per-Ole climbed on top of the bar, raised his bier and shouted indignantly “Curling ist ein Frauensport!  Frauensport!”  Heh.

Blogging.  Bookish week coming up for you!  On Wednesday, I have some final thoughts on Project 24 (spoiler: it neither saved me any money nor taught me better habits) and on Friday, I’m chatting about starting to read chapter books with my budding bookworm.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  I mentioned it above, but just about ninety minutes into the first season I’m kind of obsessed with Home Front.  It’s a radio drama – full cast, of course – featuring several characters holding down the fort on the home front in a Kentish village during World War I.  Just a few episodes in and there’s a secret engagement, an even more secret pregnancy, an adulterous vicar, and two missing kids.  Gulp!  And the soldiers haven’t even left for the front yet.  Obsessed, I tell you.  The production is fabulous and I’m already hooked on the story.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?