I am exhausted. In that emotionally, social kind of way that happens when life is good, and full, and busy but a day lying on the couch reading a good book or bingeing on a show sounds a little bit like heaven. Since I’ve seen you last: we celebrated my birthday, another birthday over Memorial Day weekend, hosted a wedding shower for my future sister-in-law, attended a birthday party on the other side of the state. This weekend we’ll be celebrating two family birthdays AND Father’s Day. School has been let out (we celebrated with a night at the pool with friends) and kids have started their activities (yoga and tennis for Violet, golf and tennis for Abram). I’ve broken a finger cleaning the washing machine (because you never break your finger doing something brag-worthy like helping build houses with Habitat for Humanity or rock climbing some mountain. Granted, I’d have to DO those things, to break a finger doing them, so it’s washing machine injuries for me.) And we’ve pretty much filled our schedule until mid-July at which point, I’m going to pony up to the pool and not leave until school starts. So…here’s my breakdown:
Knitting: Socks. I have a few other projects on the needles and I’ll get to them just as soon as I finish the pair of socks. Knitting with a broken finger is kind of a pain. I tried switching my yarn holding hand. Didn’t help.
Reading: Warriors. Blame Violet. She loves that I’m hooked. I love that they’re quick. Not a huge fan of the reading them poolside though. Need suggestions for good summer (light) reads that weren’t written for elementary aged kiddos.
Watching: 30 Rock and Star Trek TNG. Jesse and I used to order pizza and watch Next Generation marathons when we were first married. It’s the only Star Trek series I’ve ever watched so I don’t claim trekkie status, but I do enjoy them. 30 Rock is new to me but I’m enjoying it.
Making: We’ve gotten so much lettuce from our CSA so far this year. There are nights were I literally just rip off pieces of head lettuce, dip them in dressing and talk about how hip we are with our hand salads. And yes, I took a picture of one of the heads of lettuce because I got four heads that week and every single one of them was beautiful. And I don’t care how silly it makes me sound. It was.
In other news I was conned into baking banana bread by children. They asked for bananas at the grocery store and when they started to get overripe, I asked why they weren’t eating them. Violet said, “Oh, we were just waiting for you to make banana bread.” So we made banana bread.
So that’s me. How about you? What’s new? Making, cooking, doing, reading, watching, thinking about anything you’d like to share? Catch me up!
It’s so nice to be able to catch up with you, Kate 🙂 .
Your photos are amazing — I love all the colour in the first (and the loom – loved doing that craft as a child!), and my goodness that lettuce IS gorgeous! Were the small “love grows” pots favours for the wedding shower? If so, what a beautiful idea. (And I’m curious as to the type of plant…)
You broke your finger?! Oh, Kate, that’s terrible! My first thought was, “Well there goes knitting for a while…” but I’m glad to hear you are kinda sorta still managing. (Your take on HOW you broke it, and how you would RATHER have broken it, made me laugh, as did your kiddos’ subterfuge with the bananas! Too funny 🙂 .)
The only (possibly) light suggestion I have for summer reading is The Girl on the Train. My daughter read it and said it was an easy and interesting read but that it was definitely not “literature”. (Her words…) I’m still on Thomas Hardy, which is not light by any means, but I seem to like bleak books no matter the season!
My husband and I are big fans of Star Trek. Our first date was the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and we spent many happy evenings in our early married life watching our weekly dose of TNG and Voyager (and the others too (Deep Space Nine and Enterprise) although TNG and Voyager were our favourites). I’ve given up on Outlander — it’s just too violent for me, and after having to skip over SO MUCH disturbing stuff it finally hit me (“What the hell are you doing, Marian?! Read a book!”), which is actually too bad, because I was enjoying the costuming (loved all those shawls, and found their laced set-in sleeves fascinating!). I definitely do want to read more (your goal to read 30 books this year hit me like a hammer; my very sad average is probably no more than eight per year) and as I can’t read and watch Netflix, I am very purposefully keeping the tv off.
My youngest isn’t done school until June 29th, and my older two are living and working in their university city for the summer, so we’re still quiet around here. We had a crazy spring with a trip back “home” for an 80th birthday and then upon return had to immediately set up both the older two in their rental houses. I find the coming and going of all that household stuff to be both mentally and physically exhausting, so I’m glad they are finally (mostly) now set up. Am currently doing a major spring clean. My 18-year-old son will be bringing his girlfriend home in a couple weeks and I am feeling very nervous about this! I know girls of that age could not care less about dust bunnies, but I will feel calmer if the house is clean.
Have a good week, Kate!
I loved those potholders as a child too! Violet found one at school after there were a few really rainy days and they had to stay inside for recess, so as a little end of the year surprise, I picked one up for her. So far I’ve let her work on them without interruption, but I kind of want to steal it. 🙂
And those plants are the favours, but my sister is the one who picked up the plants so I can’t tell you what kind. All I know is that they’re a succulent of some sort.
Do NOT take my 30 book goal as a statement on your average. I include all the little fun reads (like Violet’s Warriors) and I very rarely tackle something as in-depth as Hardy. I WANT to be more on the ball when it comes to reading classics and literary fiction (and even non-fiction) but the older I get the lazier I get when it comes to reading. I like fluff.
Your days sound very full and very busy!!! I can imagine I’d be cleaning too because it just FEELS better to have things clean and tidy.
Also, completely understand skipping the remainder of Outlander. I too loved all the eye candy – scenery, knitwear, costuming but I was uncomfortable with a lot of it and I doubt I’ll watch Season 3.
Take care! Hope to hear from you soon. 🙂 Again, that sweater is GORGEOUS. Can’t wait to see it with the buttons!
Oh, Kate. I am so late to reply–I’ve been non-stop for 3 weeks. I hope you have had that day to lie around and read or binge-watch. Sometimes I think parts of our bodies break to force us to rest. Wondering if that’s what happened with your finger? The first weekend of last summer I sprained my ankle horribly. (In fact, I think I probably broke it. I never got an X-ray because the cure was the same, but it’s still not right, more than a year later.) It made me slow down. Didn’t appreciate it, but there was no choice.
Anyway, like Miriam, I love catching up with what you’re doing and I love your photos. They make me want to stop and notice the beauty in my own life. Maybe I will set that as a challenge for myself this week. I have a whole week of nothing much ahead of me, and it feels glorious. I am so excited to clean my house and have time to clean it. I can’t believe I just wrote those words, but there you are. Or I am. Whatever.
I will admit that I’ve never dipped into the Warriors oeuvre. My children were just too old for those when they came out. Cane’s daughter devoured them for a few years, and the kids in my school district love them, too. They are getting to be a bit on the old side, but they are still going strong. If you want a light read that still gives you some things to think about, you might try Liane Moriarty. I’ve made a few long car trips in the past two months, and I’ve listened to two of her audiobooks. I started with Big Little Lies (or is it Little Big Lies? I can never remember…) and then listened to The Husband’s Secret. I’m now on What Alice Forgot, which might be my favorite. These are definitely poolside reads. Myself, I am determined to get back to my reading dangerously project. I’ll have to write more about why I haven’t done that there.
I have actually been knitting! Not the way you and Marian do, but on a recent trip to visit my parents I took my needles and a skein of cotton yarn so that I could knit a dishcloth. I like to knit while watching TV, and there’s a lot of TV watching there. I can do dishcloths. Learning how to knit properly is still on my list of things to do.
The TV I’ve been watching is still Nashville. I’m on the last season, which is boring me to tears, but it’s like I have to finish it now. But Next Generation! My first (brief and very young) husband and I used to watch that before we were married! So, not binge, because there was no such thing back then. 🙂 I was never a Trekkie in any way either, but I loved that show. I’ve wondered how it would seem now. I find that shows from the 80s and 90s that seemed quite compelling at the time just aren’t now. The other night I was too tired to get up and go to bed, and I found myself watching the very first episode of Friends. I never watched it much when it was on. It felt so strange to see how old it feels. Not just the hair and clothes, but the style of TV, too. Gilmore Girls is the same way for me now. That was 17 years ago, though, I remind myself.
OK, I’ve nattered on long enough. Time to get to housecleaning! I can’t wait. 🙂
I finally get to sit down and write a response! It’s been a lovely few weeks, but I’m really ready for some lazy days. I don’t know that I’ll have a good string of them until August, but it’s amazing how different it is to be busy with happy things. I’m tired, but my heart is full and happy, so it’s a pleasant kind of exhausted.
I’ve really enjoyed reading Liane Moriarty. Big Little Lies was probably my favorite (I enjoyed the HBO miniseries too) and I liked What Alice Forgot as well. The Husband’s Secret wasn’t a favorite, but I think it was overhyped by the recommender. I’m still enjoying TNG. I think because it’s futuristic a lot of things are still holding value, but understand what you mean about Gilmore Girls and Friends. Dishcloths are perfect TV knitting (I’ve even been doing a few for some friends/family) and I love them. They’re so practical and useful! I’ll never go back to store bought again! I’m feeling blah with the needles though, so I might have to work on some embroidery projects to mix it up a bit.
It was so good to hear from you, Rita! Hope you got to enjoy your week of cleaning. I know what you mean about enjoying cleaning and having the time. It’s a different kind of “chore” when there’s time to actually do it and enjoy the finished project. Off to go tackle our mountain of laundry. I did 7 loads yesterday (bedding and things from houseguests and the cabin) and now I need to tackle clothing. I’m pretty sure I’m wearing my last clean pair of practical underwear. HA!
I know just what you mean about the tired that comes from a full and happy heart. It’s wonderful, isn’t it? Glad we’ve both been getting some of that this summer.