It’s December! Where on earth did November go? Time stopped having any meaning whatsoever during this pandemic, but really, this is getting bizarre. We were just trick-or-treating like two seconds ago!
(And why is it every time I sit down, the cat basically
sits right on my eyeballs???)
Here’s what I’ve been up to so far this week!
Monday, 29 November, 2021
After having coffee and getting dressed, I scooped the
litterbox, then scrubbed off my stovetop. I published my Monday post here, then
posted my review for Love
Is a Revolution by Renée Watson
at my book blog.
After school drop off, I threw in my first load of
laundry, then cleaned and arranged my daughter’s room a bit. My husband had
switched out her dollhouse for her play kitchen over the weekend, and I wanted
to rearrange a few of the things for better use of the space she has. (Result:
she exclaimed, “Thank you, Mama!” when she saw it after school.) This included
vacuuming her room (thanks to her paper doll habit, there were a lot of little
bits of paper all over), and sweeping both the upstairs and downstairs.
I switched and hung the laundry and started another,
and since my husband was home that day for a doctor’s appointment, we watched
the last segment of the Wild, Wild Country documentary while I folded laundry
and mended a pair of my daughter’s pants.
We took lunch to our daughter, then I had lunch at
home and ran the dishwasher. I did 23 minutes of Pilates, and switched and hung the
second load of laundry. I did my 30 minutes of my Read Harder project, then
relaxed on the computer for a bit (Pilates wears me out!). I unloaded and reloaded
the dishwasher, collected the trash and recycling and took it out, then rolled
the cans to the curb. And then it was time to light the menorah! (I took a
picture, but it didn’t turn out. HMPH. A lot of my pictures didn't turn out this week. My phone is new and I'm still working out the quirks of its camera.)
My husband had been making a pot of turkey soup out of
the turkey he had cooked over the weekend (using my cooking help; he’s not much
of a chef), so I added some noodles to his pot while he was out in the garage
and messed around on the computer while waiting for them to boil.
After dinner- leftovers, still!- I did my Duolingo,
loaded and ran the dishwasher, showered, then played more computer dreidel with
my daughter. I put her to bed, read my book, and watched two episodes of Forensic
Files with my husband.
Tuesday, 30 November, 2021
Eek! My alarm didn’t go off! Turns out you need to set
it for every school day of the week and not just one single day. Fortunately,
we only lost twenty minutes, so it was no big deal. Still plenty of time and no
rushing. Coffee and getting ready as usual, and I still had time to post my
review of The
Simplicity of Cider by Amy E. Reichert.
After school drop off, I unloaded the dishwasher, put
away a load of laundry, and then folded and put away a second load of laundry.
And then I sat down for twenty minutes of piano practice.
This is something I’m going to try to keep up in the
new year. I’d fallen away from it during the pandemic- hard to play piano when
your daughter is attending all of first grade right there in the living room!-
and I may or may not pause when my daughter is home over winter break, but I’d
like to improve my playing again, one song at a time. As it is, I made good progress
on the song I chose to start, I Want It That Way by the Backstreet Boys
(don’t laugh! It’s a pretty song and it’s not complicated, which is exactly
what I need right now).
When the alarm sounded, I settled down with my Read
Harder book. My son called afterwards, so I chatted with him until it was time
to take my daughter her lunch. After having lunch at home, I played the piano for
another 25 minutes. By the end of this practice period, I was able to play the
first two pages of the song without stopping! Not bad for not having played
much at all the past two years!
I read until my husband got home, and then he did my
23 minute Pilates video with me. We’re going to try to make this a more regular
thing. It’s fun to have someone to whine with when you work out! I relaxed on
the computer after we finished, until it was time for school pick up. And then
we came home, changed our clothes…
…and went to an outdoor Hanukkah event! Where else do
you wear Hanukkah and donut leggings, right?
Super cute event put on by PJ Library and the Jewish
United Fund. We had hot cocoa and donuts, sang Hanukkah songs, and there was,
of course, a menorah lighting. The park had lights set up on a track, so we
walked around to view them and occasionally chatted with a friend who was also
there. My daughter and I had such a wonderful time, and I’m so grateful we had
the opportunity to attend this!
My daughter roped my husband into playing dreidel with
her after dinner (she had been given a small dreidel at the Hanukkah event, so
they played on the living room floor. Super cute to hear her explain the Hebrew
letters and what they mean in terms of the game to my husband. “Shin, shin, put
one in!”). I ate dinner, did my Duolingo, showered, and cleaned up the kitchen.
I had a difficult time focusing on my reading this
evening. My son called with some unfortunate news (nothing truly bad, just a
bummer), and I learned that a friend’s son attended the high school in Michigan
where a tragic school shooting had happened earlier this day, and that one of
his best friends had been killed. I felt, and still feel, so angry and sad and
powerless, not only that this keeps happening, but that we keep letting this happen.
That we’re all vulnerable to this- some more than others, but none of us is
safe from random gun violence in this country. It was nearly impossible to
focus on reading, and honestly, I’m still really upset about this. It put quite
the damper on the earlier joy of the evening.
My husband and I watched two episodes of Forensic
Files before bed.
Wednesday, 1 December, 2021
As I had my coffee, I made up my grocery list (no good
sales this week) and posted my
book blog’s monthly recap post. I’m planning on doing something like that here
in the new year, with a list of goals I have for the year. Stay tuned for that!
I also signed up for the library’s winter reading bingo. We’ll see how far I
get! I thought to check my NetGalley account on a whim and found that I’d been
approved for another book, so after I finish my current stack of library books,
I have two ARCs waiting for me on my kindle. Hurray!
After school drop off, I stopped by Walmart, which
didn’t have the item I went in for (story of my life these days!), but I was
able to get cat litter and toothpaste anyway. Since they have an Aldi right
next door, I did my grocery shopping there.
At home, I put the groceries away and settled down for
an hour’s worth of volunteer work. I took lunch to my daughter, then came home
and had lunch myself. I waited to do Pilates with my husband, messing around on
the computer until he got home, but he had other things to do, so I did 23 minutes
of Pilates alone (*sniff*). 30 minutes of Read Harder, and then it was just
about time to pick my daughter up from school. My son had stopped by to learn
how to change the oil in his car, so I chatted with him for a few before leaving.
At home, I talked with my son a bit more, then got
started working on this post. I chopped up some mushrooms and tossed them on
the pizza, pulled the trash cans in from the road, and took the compost out. Dinner,
Duolingo, shower, and reading with my daughter before putting her to bed. I was
able to focus better on my own reading tonight, and my husband and I watched
two episodes of Forensic Files before bed.
And that’s it. There’s an awful lot going on in the
world right now, so be kind to yourself and stay safe. I hope you’re having a productive
start to the beginning of your December!
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