It’s only Tuesday and I’m spent. I was supposed to meet a friend for a walk and coffee this morning and ended up spending most of my day troubleshooting technology issues that still haven’t quite been solved. Every day I go to bed thinking “Now that I’ve got that all figured, tomorrow we’ll be able to really start getting into our groove.” but when tomorrow arrives there is always some new problem to be solved. (As I typed that all out, I realized that sounds a lot like…life.)
The garden produced one small zucchini, so many tomatoes, delicious green beans and peas, some peppers, and small but tasty carrots. We also had one under-ripe and one really delicious melon (Abram and I sat at the counter and ate the whole thing in about ten minutes), some lovely lettuces and a few radishes and a couple of broccoli that weren’t anything special. My fava beans and onions were a complete bust. I learned that I liked gardening, that squash vine borer is a disaster of a pest, that I’m going to try trellising tomatoes instead of using cages, that I should wear long sleeves and gloves when weeding, and that if I’m going to make dilly beans I really need to plant more because they really don’t even make it into the kitchen before I eat them. I have lots of ideas for next year and I’m still sending Jesse zillow listings for land.
Abram had his first cross country meet this weekend. It was a doozy of a course and after it was all over he said he’s looking forward to track, but he’ll be signing up for soccer next fall.
Watching: I watched The Founder this last week and to say that there was a lot I didn’t know about how McDonald’s became McDonald’s is an understatement. It makes me wonder how different the world would be if Ray Kroc had never met the McDonald brothers. Last night I continued my 90’s-00’s movie-a-thon with Turner and Hooch (it’s ’89, but close enough). On my list to watch: America The Story of Us. My friend is doing “documentary Wednesday” with her son and I’m thinking of adopting it as well.
Reading: Atomic Habits, Why I’m Not Talking to White People About Race, Anxious People, Caste are all in rotation right now. It’s ridiculous. I am not good with reading multiple books at the same time.
Making: Progress. I didn’t get my children’s books sorted. I did get a box for the books to be donated which is miserable progress but progress all the same. This week I’ll make some more.
So that’s me. I’m hanging in there and hope you are as well. Please let me know what you are reading, watching, listening, making, or whatever -ing you feel like sharing!
My goal for this week is to cull the children’s bookcase. Elmer and Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse haven’t been in demand for years and despite priding myself on my non-attachment to things, I’ve been postponing this job for over a year. We need the space. I’m sharing it here to help hold me accountable.
Schools in our area started this week. Violet’s middle school held three days of in person classes (she’s enrolled in their virtual option) and by the end of Friday we’d already received a notice that there had been a case resulting in a 14 day quarantine of close contacts. Abram’s school is still planning on playing football this fall (he’s also enrolled in a virtual option). I still sometimes catch myself thinking “maybe it’ll all just go away and things will be back to normal by October.”
The garden is a tangled mess. I still have a few things ripening and waiting to be harvested but most everything is winding down. I ordered some seed catalogs for this winter and we have plans for putting it in additional beds. I find myself daydreaming about buying some land south of town and having some egg chickens and meat chickens and a root cellar and a giant garden. If you had told 18 year old me (heck, 28 year old me) that at 42 my biggest dream would be 40 acres with a creek running through it, I would never have believed you. I’m amazed at all the ways I’ve changed, and all the ways I’ve stayed the same, as I’ve grown older.
Knitting: I’m still working on this scarf. After which I will be working on this scarf. I also need to cast on some socks to mix it up.
Reading: I’ve been in this horrible loop with the Jennifer Weiner book where I didn’t want to read it because I didn’t like it, but I didn’t want to move on because I worried that it might get better, but I couldn’t make myself actually pick it up to find out if would get better. I decided that I would re-read Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge and when I’ve finished that I can pick up a different “puff” book.
Watching: The Big Bang Theory and cheesy 90-00’s rom coms.
Making: an effort to get me out of this angry, bitter funk I’m in. I set screen limits and had Jesse set the passcode so I couldn’t just override it, started writing weekly intention lists in my bullet journal again (and checking them off). And with temperatures moving decisively into fall this week, I’m making a big pot of chili and this soup (with the kale I preserved earlier this summer).
I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy (and wearing your masks)! Let me know what you are -ing this week and any other news you care to share.
Last week we went north. We swam, and kayaked, and paddle boarded, and caught frogs, and had adventures, and played legos, and colored pictures, and…argued. It was a really fun time, but not all the time. We’ve been on top of each other for close to six months without an end to look forward to yet, and my kids are in their adolescence. It’s just the reality of the situation. At one point, after listening to them bicker while swimming, I went up to the fire pit…with their towels. When asked if I could please leave the towels, I told them towels were for kids who knew how to get along. I feel no remorse.
Knitting: I didn’t do as much as I had planned but I did manage to finally finish the evergreen socks. I love how they turned out. I’m also working on the scarf I started a few weeks back.
Watching: I didn’t watch much while up at the cabin, but I did rewatch Hamilton on Disney+. I haven’t finished watching Weeds, but I think I’m finished watching Weeds. I’m trying to go to bed earlier so I can get up earlier meaning most of my television watching has to be children appropriate.
Reading: I finished Euphoria (★★★★☆) by Lily King and The Night Swim ★★☆☆☆) by Megan Goldin. I loved Euphoria but The Night Swim was a slog. The story was okay. Could have been great. But I kept getting caught up on the editing. There were a couple of times where I felt there were story inconsistencies and another time a paragraph began with the same sentence that ended the previous paragraph. It’s fiddly but it was enough that I almost one starred it. I’m currently reading Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner. I’m not feeling it.
Making: We did tie-dye. These popsicles are going to be cooling us down on this horridly hot and humid week. I’m going to have a whole slew of green beans from the garden in a couple of days and I’m tempted to try and make dilly beans. The final adjustments to the school room before the kids start next week. (I am not ready). Phone calls – on behalf of Jacob Blake, Breonna Taylor, the USPS. I don’t know if it makes a difference to anyone but me, but doing something keeps me from feeling despair. So I do it.
What are you -ing this week?
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