I couldn’t manage a Tuesday Things this week, but I wanted to say hello, so here I am! Hello!!!!

We’ve had one fall day with all the windows open and breeze blowing and I roasted tomatoes. The 400° oven didn’t trigger rivers of sweat and the kids put on sweatshirts and it was glorious. The very next day, the summer temperatures returned.

The renovation continues. Some days are full of progress and ceaseless banging. Other days the project is stalled for one reason or another. I’m trying to be grateful for the peace when it’s here and the progress when it isn’t.

I don’t have a ton of things but let’s talk the ones I do.

Reading: The Good-Enough Life by Avram Alpert and A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson.

Watching: I started watching Pieces of a Woman (Netflix) but had to pause it. I need the house to myself to watch because it’s good, but hard. Head of the Class (HBO). Only about three episodes. I loved it when I was younger. Untold (Netflix) – I’ve watched The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist, Operation Flagrant Foul, and The Rise and Fall of And1. I’m not a sports person really, but I find these stories fascinating.

Knitting: I have a pair of socks due for a birthday that are not going to be done in time. (I have just a little bit of the gusset and foot to go, so it should have been doable but LIFE).

Making: Lots of garden stuff – notes for next year, preserving tomatoes and green beans, putting up onions and wishing I had a root cellar. Potatoes will be dug up in the next couple of weeks and I’ll put in the garlic. We also have some rye ground cover to plant in our larger plot for overwinter. My brother got me this book and I can’t wait to cross stitch my Stardew farm! (I did promise my brother I would do his first though.)

So that’s me. Drop a line and let me know about how you are doing!

I know; it’s Wednesday, but I’m overdue for a post. Most days I’m forced to choose between blogging and something else. Obviously, the something else has won, and on the days when it hasn’t, I’m two paragraphs in before some thing needs my attention right this second. This isn’t a complaint. I’m pleasantly busy and on days when I have more time, I’m reading or knitting or doodling or making lists or working on a project. Or watching basketball. This may be Abram’s last year playing (though I hope it isn’t) and I’m trying to soak up all the bleacher moments I can. I haven’t been as good about capturing little moments with my big (or little) camera and I hope to work on that while also staying off Instagram. (I decided I needed a little break to focus on my own creativity…and never ending to do lists.)

I used my Christmas money and bought those adorable wooden dolls for myself and these leggings. I’m Benjamin Button-ing my soul. Delight and joy in 2022. And omicron, but I can only do what I can do about that. (How are you all? Staying healthy? Mentally? It’s hard work – mental health in a pandemic.)

I had a new friend reach out to me to let me know that the community garden had plots opening up, and I put in and got one. It’s a short walk (an even shorter bike ride) and adds an additional 400 square feet to my garden space. I’m excited to garden with my neighbors and Jesse turned up his nose up at adding more raised beds to our landscaping (at least for the time being) so this was a wonderful compromise. I’ve ordered seeds and a few starts. I’m going to try cucumbers, potatoes, and sweet corn in addition to things that I’ve tried before. As a stretch this year, I’m also going to attempt canning, and I’ve picked up a couple books with that in mind. (This and this if you’re curious.)

Let’s talk things.

Reading: I set a goal of 52 books this year and cancelled my audible subscription. I try and I try but rarely do I get a book to connect on audible. Non-fiction and classics I’ve already read/liked seem to be the best choices, but I just don’t think read-alouds are for me. Here’s what I’ve read since we’ve last chatted: The Good Sister by Sally Hepworth, The Impossible Girl by Lydia Kang, Paper Airplanes by Tabitha Fornay, Writers & Lovers by Lily King, Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty, Everyone in this Room Will Someday be Dead by Emily Austin, and The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. Writers & Lovers was hands down my favorite of all the above books. I love Lily King and this book was especially delightful. I also really enjoyed Austin’s book. The Love Hypothesis was very trope-y and the whole “broody bad guy except to me” story is not my favorite. I wouldn’t recommend that one.

Knitting: Socks. And socks. And socks. I have plans for other projects. I have no idea if I’ll ever get to them.

Watching: I watched the second season of The Morning Show and the third season of Succession. I find myself drawn to watching them, but I don’t like the characters and I don’t really like the shows because of that, but I also know I’d watch any new seasons of either one so…whatever that means. I absolutely loved Don’t Look Up (Netflix). Being the Ricardos (Prime) was not what I expected, but good – even if I did have hard time with jumps in chronological order. Violet and I are watching Arcane (Netflix). It’s beautiful and heartbreaking and dark. (This may be an unfair generalization, but I think it’s easier to like that kind of thing when you’re 14 and not 43.) Abram and I watched Encanto (Disney+) and have plans to see the newest Spiderman in the theater because we keep hearing how great it is.

Making: I’ve been working on Chicago, but I’m taking a break because I spent one whole evening on it and the next evening realized a mistake and ended up removing every single stitch I had done the night before (and then some). I’m a sucker for a notebook/creativity project and am doing this in 2022. Final decisions for the remodel we’ll be starting in the spring. (I’m not nearly as prepared for this as I was for the kitchen remodel which seems like it could be problematic with shortages, but fingers crossed.) In this kitchen, I’m making this salad, this soup, these meatballs, chili, and this salmon. (I haven’t been very adventurous in the kitchen. Any recipes you can recommend?)

So that’s me. Looking forward to hearing how you are doing and what your -ings are in 2022. Are you starting to feel like you’ve found a post holiday groove?