i live in michigan with my teenage daughter, my partner, and our three cats. i am a paralegal, legal manager and corporate governance specialist, and when i'm not reading contracts or maintaining the dusty archives of our arcane corporate history like some weirdly specific librarian, i enjoy knitting, books, running slowly, making candles, and bird-watching. i started blogging way back when I was an expat living in australia and in recent years have tried to be more diligent about keeping this space up to date and as a creative outlet for the things in my life that inspire me and balance my 9-5.
The kiddo had a minor ear surgery this week and although everything went well, she has still been my focus. Hence my lack of posting.
I took a long walk on the solstice and admired the low, hazy sun. I thought about the year that has passed and the year to come. I missed my dad and saw wild turkeys and several Eastern Bluebirds.
We finished a Harry Potter movie marathon (Brandon had never seen them) and I’m also very, very into the Witcher and Travel Man with Richard Ayoade. Before the kiddo’s surgery, we saw Kings Man in the theater (it was pretty empty because everyone was next door watching Spider Man) and tried a new-to-us local seafood restaurant. There have also been LOTS of Vlogmasses and although I am really enjoying them I’m heartily sick of the YouTube Christmas songs they all use.
I’ve been running just about every other day, and I finished two books (I started the Josie Quinn series at Steph’s recommendation via her blog) and hope to finish two more before the New Year to pad out my Goodreads total.
Also been knitting. Mostly small fiddly ornaments and although that always starts out fun, I’m about ready to call that quits for another year.
Although I’m feeling a bit disconnected and not very Christmassy, today is Christmas Eve and I’ll spend it with my little family in our cozy home. We’ll make something yummy and fun for dinner and play a board game and then eat cake. And I’ll wake up tomorrow to a bounty of gifts and food and Brandon’s birthday. I am so truly and thoroughly blessed. My love and best wishes for a peaceful and contented holiday go out to each of you and your families. xo
The blog has been a bit dark of late so let’s take a day to look at the brighter things.
I am not entirely in the Christmas spirit yet – life has been pretty busy and I’m in ‘double down and push through’ mode. But the house is decorated and we are opening Advents every night. This year, Brandon got me a mini-wine Advent and I have a yarn Advent from A Homespun House. I also just ordered some fingering weight so I can knit the Cozy Comfort blanket with all my new minis. The kid has a crystals calendar from Etsy, the Stickii Advent (we also subscribe to one of their monthly sticker packs) and the obligatory chocolate Lindt from her Neena. And Brandon has his usual mini liquor calendar in the tree stand I ordered from Etsy last year.
I finally finished my first cross-stitch, which was Halloween themed. I’m not super speedy with stitching- I need ideal light and a good eye day – and I’m sure I’ll be finishing up the next project, which is winter themed, in July. But although I’m not really good at it, I do find it very relaxing and meditative especially when paired with a good podcast.
This weekend the kiddo’s Scout troop will be packing grab and go lunch bags for Food Gatherers of Detroit to distribute, and she also has a Christmas band concert. Brandon is leaving for a few days to visit his family, and got boosted on Monday to prepare. I will be ferrying the kid and trying to finish up a few knitting ornaments and stay on top of the tide of Vlogmas that threatens to overwhelm me in an avalanche of tinsel, Christmas carols and frothy coffee displays every time I turn to YouTube. There will also – I’m sure – be some Scandinavian detective novels (I’m in that mood again).
Happy Friday. After today I have five more workdays in 2021…not that I am counting. Be well, enjoy your weekend, shop local and small business and wear some nice warm socks while you’re at it. xo
As is often the case, my gloomy mood this week was a precursor to getting sick. I don’t know if I get sick because I am experiencing a depression, or if being depressed is a harbinger of something brewing in my system that has yet to be felt. But anyway, I was exceptionally ill with some sort of stomach issue and although I will spare you the grody details, it was the sickest I’ve been in a long time. I am thankfully a bit better now, but still dehydrated and fatigued, with lingering abdominal pain. I’m trying to ease my system back into some semblance of normalcy via the BRAT diet and a lot of hydration.
The big news around here is still the tragic Oxford High shooting and the subsequent drama with the shooter’s parents. They immediately went on the lam and during the haze of my illness Brandon was giving me updates about the situation. This is all occurring in our county and our area schools have been closed due to copycat threats so it hits very close to home.
My opinions of this are as follows:
– the parents are entirely culpable and have blood on their hands; I have nothing but rage for these fucked up Trumper parents who fostered his mental illness, put a weapon and ammunition in his hands, laughed at it and encouraged it and then, when he reaped what they sowed, ran – tried to hide in East Detroit leaving him in prison.
– the gun lobby is a murderous greedy cult and gun laws need to be changed; guns and people kill people and NO ONE NEEDS A SEMI AUTOMATIC WEAPON. Now, I know there are responsible gun owners. I have gun owners in my family and I trust them implicitly because they are absolutely committed to doing what they need to do to be safe and well trained. But now is the time for those responsible gun owners to join the fight and get loud about gun laws and about the fact that this is not okay. They need to not just toe the line quietly because they buy the whole NRA “they’re comin to take our guns” bullshit and they’d rather have people die needlessly than worry that their guns are going to be taken. I don’t want your hunting rifle but I definitely do not want AR-15s in the hands of minors! As Brandon said, these gun nuts think if a kid is killed in Biology class, it’s the 2nd Amendment that is under attack and needs to be protected. There have been 28 school shootings in 2021 and they are not going to stop until gun laws are changed. But I am glad to see that the parents have been charged – this is a positive development. Guns used in school shootings frequently come from the homes of the perpetrators. Clearly many of these people don’t care about the moral and ethical ramifications, so maybe they’ll care about what they expose their children to if they’re held legally responsible for it.
– the school district grievously failed those children; there were so many signs that this kid was a time bomb and they mishandled it to the point of negligence. He never should have been allowed back to class, knowing what they knew about his behavior this week. In addition, I would certainly hope that our superintendent would make a better showing than the Oxford superintendent who seemed to only be interested in defending the bungling rather than being open that something went terribly wrong and it is his obligation (and everyone’s) to understand what that was, take accountability, and do everything possible to keep it from happening again.
We continue to follow this situation closely and hope that our kids can get back to school as normal this week; but “normal” is now a strange and amorphous thing, and maybe does not exist at all anymore.
December is here and Michigan is bouncing between snow and spring, in typically indecisive fashion.
We’ve gotten the Advent calendars going – they’re a favorite in our house. And the Christmas tree is up but in typical fashion, it was a battle. I despise putting up the tree (and taking it down) and we had one or two nice days with it before an entire string of lights went out, smack dab in the center. I had to go buy new lights and they didn’t match the other strings so the whole tree had to be redone. I told Brandon I’d be content to just take the whole thing down and put it away. He hugged me, put on some music, and took care of it while I sat on the couch with a glass of wine and kept him company.
I got a good fella.
In other news, between the new variant and the school shooting – which occurred less than an hour away from us, in the same county – I don’t have much to say about the state of the world right now.
This is a difficult time for many and this year seems to be no different. All of my social media feeds are reflecting internal and external struggles. Yesterday I made a list of the things I need to do this month to stay healthy. They seem common sensible – stay active, track my food via WW and stay hydrated. Meditate and use my SAD lamp, limit sugar and alcohol. And one additional item is that I have to turn down some social commitments. Some are for my kid, which are non-negotiable, but the ones that aren’t are coming off the schedule.
Hopefully you are all staying well and safe, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Hope to be back soon, more brightly.
So we’re hosting my brother and his family for Thanksgiving- which is a win-win for us. My SIL usually hosts but Brandon and I are slated to run the downtown Detroit Turkey Trot that morning. It’s a festive, cold 10k that runs along the Detroit parade route and as we missed it last year due to the pandemic, we are excited to get back this holiday. It makes it a bit rushed to travel afterwards, though, so we were thinking it may just be a quiet day at home for us. Brandon was just a little sad about that because he loves holidays, he loves hosting big family gatherings, putting on a nice shirt and making it a special day. He has a family stuffing and sweet potato casserole recipe, he pours liberal drinks for everyone, and just basks in the togetherness. When my brother and his family unexpectedly said they’d take us up on our offer to host, we got the best of all worlds.
This weekend has been a shopping whirlwind, for food, new drinking glasses and silverware (so all of our guests get an adult-sized fork and don’t have to drink out of mismatched Mason or old jam jars), and I’ve decided on a farmhouse table theme (hint: buffalo plaid). And of course the turkey.
got a little knitting in – Christmas socks 2021!
I’m working two days this week in the home office and taking Wednesday off for some last minute housework and a shakeout run before the Trot.
It’s good for me that we are hosting. I think I need the family togetherness. I’ve noticed a bit of pre-holiday melancholy lately, which seems to catch me off-guard in the middle of my busyness. It’s moments when I’m alone and a small sadness comes into my thoughts, or lingers on the edge. It reminds me of being a child in the backseat of my parent’s car, driving somewhere at night, maybe to a holiday dinner at my grandparents’. The car is warm and safe, we are drowsy small children in the back, a cocoon of warmth and the rise and fall of my parents’ voices from the front. Yet outside the car is cold darkness, frozen fields under hard icy stars. And away on the horizon are lights, strange houses, unfamiliar neighborhoods, the blinking red eye of a watchful radio tower. And we are so small, just specks, really, bound together by what and for how long? Everything is strange all of a sudden, utterly indifferent to me and the people I love, safe in a car for that short moment in time that nonetheless stays with me for a lifetime, and can never be replicated, stretching away in ceaseless anonymity, under that endless black sky.
I accomplished two of my goals this weekend – our Saturday morning 5-mile run and casting off on the Purl Soho Simple Pleasures hat.
It also snowed this weekend, so it was the perfect time to model it. It’s actually for the kiddo, but I like it so much I might make one for myself too (although I may try to swap out stash yarn instead of the pricey Line Weight merino and silk mohair Tussock that I used for this version). I just bought the kit, in the RIver Rock and Grey Quartz colorways, from the website and it was a quick, satisfying, dreamy knit and as an extra benefit, my daughter seems to like it and I think she’ll actually wear it (it can be a bit touch and go with teenagers and hand-knits).
The week ahead includes a band concert and many home office hours, and planning for Thanksgiving (I bought the turkey on Saturday and it is safely chilling in the freezer waiting for its big day). I hope everyone had a cozy and relaxing weekend and is geared up for another week! xo
1. I got my Covid booster on Monday so, like Big Bird, I am fully armed to protect myself and my community. My first two were Pfizer, this one Moderna. My initial side effects were all similar- sore arm, fatigue, headache, all of which were resolved within 24 hours. I took the next day off from work, slept, drank lots of water, and was good to go the following day. However, now, a few days out, I’m developing an itch and mild rash at the injection site. After some Internet research I’ve found that this an uncommon but benign side effect – mostly in women – of the Moderna shot but not seen with Pfizer. Nothing to worry about but who knew.
(And while we are on the topic of Big Bird’s vaccination, can we remember that Big Bird has been endorsing vaccines since 1972? And let’s also remember that Ted Cruz is a repellent individual who – while vaccinated himself (!) – feels he has nothing better to do to serve his constituents than attack a PUPPET for making little kids feel good about vaccinations in general. Whenever I think the GOP can’t get shittier or dirtier they manage to outdo themselves.)
(Also – fuck psycho Kyle Rittenhouse and fuck his psycho mom and fuck the biased judge while I’m at it. You don’t go out walking around with an AR-15 and then CLAIM SELF DEFENSE WHEN YOU KILL PEOPLE. It was what you INTENDED TO DO ALL ALONG. And then certainly don’t (badly) pretend to CRY ABOUT IT. You’re a racist scumbag murderer – at least own it now, stand by your shoddy upbringing and flawed belief system and complete absence of morals and ethics and take your punishment.)
2. The other big thing for me this week is the rollout of the new Weight Watchers program. I’ve been on WW for over a year now, after gaining some Covid weight. I gained about 10 on top of being about 10 over where I should be, lost almost 20, stopped working the program and gained back 10 to put myself right where I was pre-pandemic. I’ve been half-heartedly and listlessly tracking since then without much motivation. Peri-menopause is real and it is here. The new program has jump-started me because I can actually earn points back for drinking water, hitting my step goals, and eating non-starchy vegetables! I’m very much in favor of it and am back to tracking constantly. For the first time in months I’ve had over 60 oz of water several days in a row and hit step goals and food targets as well! I love that the program is holistic, there are no “bad” foods, and encourages general health, activity and well-being.
3. Yesterday at lunch Brandon and I walked our annual Thanksgiving donations down to the mailbox. We each donate a specific amount for Thanksgiving (and then again at Christmas) to our selected charities. This year he went with Salvation Army and I chose Gleaners Community Food Bank in Detroit. Then we got Starbucks in the new holiday cups (basic bitch level enjoyment unlocked) and walked around the historic district of our village admiring the Veterans Day flags and banners. A belated but heartfelt THANK YOU for your service to all my readers who are vets!
4. I’ve never been one for expensive shampoo but my stylist convinced me to try samples of Aveda NutriPlenish and dammit after a week my hair looks and feels much improved. I find it difficult to spend that much on shampoo and conditioner but what am I to do? Luckily my salon is having a holiday 25% off sale next week so I can pick up my first bottles at a bit of a discount. I’d be better off if I could go days between washes but I’ve never been able to do that.
5. For several weeks the kiddo and I have been working together on a top secret crafting project for holiday gifts, which I hope to share more about next week. This year, we’re trying to do more handmade gifts for loved ones and I’ll give you a hint – we use a lot of these at this time of year.
That’s it for Friday. What are you doing this weekend? Brandon and I will do a 4-5 mile run, and I have to get the kiddo sorted out with a pair of black dress pants for her band concert on Monday night. I also hope to finish up her Purl Soho Simple Pleasures hat. The weather should be cooler and wet with possible S-N-O-W! Be well and enjoy. xo
I’m still working from home 100% but expect that my workplace will open back up a bit after the holidays, maybe? I have mixed emotions about that. After a year and a half, I can’t imagine going back to the way things were, being in the office 5 days a week. I am an introvert so working from home has been no issue for me; also, my job in the legal profession supports that. My primary responsibilities are reading and reviewing documents, and those are very well-suited to a quiet home office with a cat asleep on my desk and WRCJ classical radio playing in the background.
I’ve also been able to have time with my kid that I have never had since she was born. I’ve always been a working mother and so being around to see her off to the bus, to be home when she gets home in the afternoons, have a snack together, have her do her homework in the armchair in my home office while I’m doing my job – well, it’s been a blessing. It’s been an absolute gift of time and presence. But I do have to admit that from a mental health and productivity standpoint I also benefit from being in an office, too. I can relationship-build, have meetings, and resolve issues more quickly face to face than with a technological hookup like Zoom or Skype or Teams. And being isolated in a home office can be anxiety-producing for me. Issues that are just ‘one more task’ to complete in an office of bustling, busy colleagues with their own agendas, complaints and victories can become looming and dreadful in a home office. Problems can be magnified, worries fester. It’s easy to miss the forest for the trees and remember that I’m a part of a larger assembly, and we’re all going through similar things.
I know a lot of folks who are eager to get back; I know just as many who want to stay home full-time, which I do not think is an option in my company over the long term. So we will just have to see what happens.
It was a beautiful, golden fall weekend, but it looks like the switch is going to be flipped next weekend, so we spent it making hay while the sun shines (a favorite quote from Pa Ingalls). I am one of the weirdos who never minds the end of daylight savings time. The darkness doesn’t bother me, at least not to start, although I’m usually equally pleased when the earth tips again and the days get longer. Seasons are seasons and I love the change, the constant ebb and flow. But the long bright days of summer can be exhausting in their own way, and in November, I am usually happy to begin to curl back in on myself, to slow down and prepare for the coming winter.
We bought firewood, stacked it inside and outside, brought in patio cushions, filled birdfeeders and took down the garden and the porch and patio containers.
We turned the clocks back, made Thanksgiving entertaining plans, added lots of hygge candles and light strings inside to beat back the darkness, and drank lots of hot tea and October beer.
We cleaned out the freezer so we can stockpile a bit of meat and we ran miles to prep for our Thanksgiving morning 10k Turkey Trot in downtown Detroit.
I did some reading and knitting and napping and Brandon made a Sunday roast and watched football.
If all goes well, I’ll be getting my Covid booster this afternoon, and hopefully having a quiet week in the home office. I hope wherever you are your days are full of light (even if it’s light you have to create yourself) as we enter November. xo
Halloween was a bit of a disappointment – the forecast was clear, but the weatherpeople were not correct. By 7:30 PM or so, the winds had picked up and the rain was pelting. We were expecting a flood of kids, pent-up demand from the past year, but we had a small turnout and the weather put a damper on festivities. We have LOTS of candy leftover which is terrible for my discipline and self-esteem.
the kiddo and brandon making the most out of her costume
I took Monday off and put away the Halloween decorations, smashed the pumpkins under our birdfeeder and filled them with sunflower seeds. The birds, deer, and other yard wildlife (we have possums and a raccoon) enjoy the smorgasbord. It’s turned colder so the flannel sheets are on the bed and the woodbox is filled. The kiddo and I had dentist appointments this week, on Tuesday Brandon & I went to vote the short local ballot (city council), and work has been a bit stressful. I had a call with Japan one evening that I spent a lot of time preparing for and feeling anxious about and now, here on Friday, I am drained and bloated and sugar-hungover and ready for a weekend of lots of water and fresh, clean food. I haven’t been able to muster the energy to run in the newly cold mornings, which seem increasingly dark, even though I do really like cold-weather running and I have all the appropriate gear, so I have to conclude that I’ve just been silly and have not done the best job at self-care this week.
Vlogtober is OVER and I am bummed out. I so enjoyed following two of my favorite vloggers with their daily updates. Gayna from Tales from Cuckoo Land and Ali from This Little Wonderful Life are just a joy and being able to climb under a blanket with my iPad and watch them every day was a balm for my busy October. Ali is pretty regular so I expect to see her again soon – and I think she’s already committed to Vlogmas – but Gayna has intimated that she maybe won’t be able to film again until the New Year and as I really enjoyed her Vlogmas last year, this is a crushing disappointment. I really need Christina and Red Bank Mike from Chelsea Knits to commit to a Vlogmas so I can fill in my Gayna loss. (Their house and chickens are so fun, and I love her planner vlogs too.)
On the knitting front, now that the Halloween socks are finished, I have turned my attention to a couple of other projects. I cast on a hat for the kiddo – the SImple Pleasures hat by Purl Soho. It is fantastic. She picked the grey tones and the yarn is absolutely luscious to work with. For the ribbing, you hold two strands of the wool, and once you get into the body of the hat, you cut one strand and replace it with a strand of the kid mohair. I’m considering doing another one for myself, maybe in one of the plum tones. I also got myself a little gift for Thanksgiving knitting – this tiny stitch marker from Sucre Sucre Miniatures. It’s the most perfect, detailed, immaculate slice of pumpkin pie and the artistry is amazing.
gah!!!
I’m also winding yarn for the Snuggle Down Cowl by Jooles Hill. This has been on my short list for awhile, and I’m finally winding up some of my mini-skeins from last year’s Legacy FIber Artz Advent calendar. I’m pairing them with a silk mohair in a pink shade from one of my new favorite indie dyers, Casual Fashion Queen, who is up in Ironwood, MI, where it’s already snowing.
So there’s my Friday update for you all. I hope you are well and safe, warm if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, and cool if you’re under the Southern Cross. We change our clocks back this weekend so the long days of dark are upon us. Be well, be kind, and enjoy. xo
Six Ten 