As it Stands…
Hey. It snowed. [via SS stock images.]
On Fridays, I generally hope to post about Family Happenings and my experiences as a parent and she-who-volunteers-maybe-too-much, but since we’re rebuilding, I thought I’d give a general lay of the land, so you know what to expect in each of the categories. Sort of, anyway.
Around the House. It’s January - that means, like everyone else, I’m “new-year-new-me”-ing myself and decluttering as much as I can this month to recover from the influx of stuff and the craziness of the family calendar, with mixed success, as you might imagine if you know me from the old blog (RIP) or in real life. My husband, who goes by Bo around here, signed up to assistant coach a second sport for Buddy, our son, and his work has been busy, so he’s questioning everything. Buddy is still playing a first sport, but at least there’s only games and no practice in November-December-January, so there’s a little time for the second sport. But all of the kids do Cub Scouts and we try to do Sunday School, so, as you might imagine, the calendar is plenty full. Except that the girls, Boo and Bean, got tired of Buddy being the only one to be able to sport around here, so they are now signed up for their own activities, in addition to Bean doing Girl Scouts. Also, I’m a leader in both organizations (Pack and Den for Cubs and assistant leader for the GS Troop). And I do some advanced training and District stuff for Cub Scouts, too. So.
Kids playing soccer, or football, depending on where you are as you read this.
Stuff I gave away at some point and took a picture of, so I’m sharing it here.
Titles, titles, and more titles. Good morning! It’s Saturday, now. (I started writing on Friday evening, after spending the day setting up the site.) I recently finished my 2024 Reading Challenge (Goodreads) at 27 books (my goal was 24). I’m going for 25 in 2025. I find I’m happiest when I set a goal that feels attainable and am able to surpass it, as opposed to feeling like I’m falling short at the end of the year.
My TOP 3 books in 2024 were:
Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doerr (Historical Fiction/Sci Fi/Fantasy)
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer (Portal Fiction, Fantasy)
Pax (and Pax: Journey Home) by Sara Pennypacker (Middle Grades Fiction)
I am currently reading a bunch of stuff (always), including The Adventures of Amina al Sirafi by Shannon Chakriborty (audiobook), Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (Kindle), Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury (physical book). I am excited about Tom Lake by Ann Patchett, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, and Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver this year.
Movies I currently recommend: “Brick by Brick” - the Pharrell Williams LEGO biopic was really great - we sang along through the movie and everyone enjoyed it - from the oldest (me) to the youngest!
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer, coffee, and a blanket. 10/10 - would recommend.
Wardrobing. I have spent much of the last year really digging in to reevaluate my style and palette. I’m still working away at it! I am currently working with a 75-item wardrobe and doing the “75 Hard: Style” challenge, which includes dressing with a 75-item capsule for 75 days (1/1 to 3/16) without buying anything new (retail or thrift). It’s about wearing what you have and learning about what works. So far it’s working really well for me. 75 is INFINITELY more functional for me than 33 items, even to the point that I’m not sure I’ll wear it all (a lot of it will depend on how warm it gets between now and “almost-Spring”). I’ll use the two weeks between March 16 and 31 to do any purchasing and reset my outfit for April 1 to June 15, shopping and resetting, then 75 Hard: Style from July to September 14, and rinse/later/repeat for October 1 to December 15, 2025, with the option to shop again before I start over in 2026…if I want to. Stay tuned.
I feel like I’m pieces of different categories in may of the style systems, which can get really frustrating. Too warm to be Summer, too cool to be Autumn, a little too high-contrast to be Soft Summer/Autumn/True Soft. Soft Summer Deep appeals, but I do also like many of the lighter colors. I recently read a book by Irenee Reiter called The Science of Personal Dress that was really interesting. In particular, the idea that you don’t go darker than your hair, and use colors in your eyes and skin to pick colors, etc. Very Zyla-like. She uses shapes for the body, and shows examples for oval, circle, square/rectangle (two versions) and triangle (pointed up or down - two versions). I find myself closest to rectangle/oval, but favor rectangle shapes in my clothing. Stay tuned - I’ll share more as I figure it out.
The Science of Personal Dress for Women and Girls, by Irenee Rider (2013).
Thoughts. Hold tight on that. No reason to make this longer than it already is. Consider, as my thoughts offering, the lovely exposition on how we got to this point in my About/Home page.
And with that, we’re mostly caught up! I will try to resume something approaching semi-regular posting. Thank you for sticking with me and reading along!
