the weekly workbook no. 2

No update last week since it ended up just being me whining about how my sewing machine broke and I bought a new one but I didn’t want to buy a new one, and also how I’m over summer. We are in the downhill slide back into the school year, and it felt tedious at the beginning of last week (after a week of solo parenting while my husband was out of town) and a little exhilarating this week. Summer camps are done for us so we’ll stay busy this week with regularly scheduled activities and a few one offs (a couple of indoor playgrounds and a micro indoor water park), plus haircuts for everyone (mine is particularly annoying). We will be traveling after that and I am cautiously optimistic it will be a good trip!

I am already rethinking this plan lol

I finished You, With a View by Jessica Joyce for book club and it was just what I needed while my husband was traveling for work. It was a smidge cheesy but overall a solid steamy contemporary romance, if that’s your bag.

I slogged through Constructing a Nervous System by Margo Jefferson. I really wanted to like this one, which is a memoir through the lens of cultural analysis. But Jefferson is closer in age to my mom than to me and I just didn’t connect with her commentary. The memoir aspect felt light to me, although if I had an understanding of her references maybe it would have been more revealing.

And I wrapped up The Dead and the Living by Sharon Olds. Hard to believe this collection of Olds’ is as old as I am; I chose it for “published in the year you were born” for book bingo. The poems were extremely evocative. Many made me uncomfortable. Olds’ poetry is sharp and takes no prisoners.

My kid and I finished The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan. I will be reading Percy Jackson spin-offs until the end of time, it seems; we’ve moved on to book three in the series.

I started Ali Hazelwood’s newest, Not in Love, but I’ve abandoned it for now. I saw Hazelwood speak at an event in March and she warned this book “isn’t very good,” which at the time just seemed funny and self-deprecating, but I’m inclined to agree… it’s just missing something. I might come back to it at some point but I have too many books left on my summer reading list to get bogged down by one that’s not even on my bingo card!

I’m currently reading Wintering by Katherine May, and finding myself nodding along and underlining a lot. Chuckled a bit when May wrote about going to Iceland for her 40th birthday, as I did the same. If One of Us Should Fall by Nicole Terez Dutton is my current poetry book and I’m enjoying that, too.

I’ve also started On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous on my Kindle. I’ve been trying not to have so many books going at one time but sometimes a kid needs to fall asleep in our bed and I don’t want to keep them up with a light on. It’s stunning and I’m hoping to finish it before we leave next week so I can start our next book club book.

*links are bookshop.org affiliate links.

I finished my Squishy Shawlette. I wish I had added a few more inches, especially since I had plenty of yarn.

I’m now committed to finishing up my Spin Raglan before casting on anything new. I’m itching to make my toddler a pengweeno for his fall/winter wardrobe (I have a vision of like cropped baggy pants- maybe these culottes- and then the pengweeno over a fun t-shirt). I am keenly aware that my era of wardrobe influence is likely coming to an end in the next couple of years and I want to enjoy dressing my little doll baby while I can!

See also: I got a bee in my bonnet last week to re-do my toddler’s summer wardrobe ahead of our trip. I cut out 10 or so pairs of shorts for him (love batch sewing; I picked this pattern from Tiny Design). So far I’ve finished the four above. I cut into some fabric I bought back in February with the intention of making clothes for him, although I initially had more ambitious plans than just make the same shorts over and over. But once I started cutting I was on a roll and dug through my stash for anything else that would work. Matching up labels from KATM and Sarah Hearts is my favorite. I’m hoping to finish the remainder this week but I also have something for another kid that *must* be finished before our trip.

a little accountability for the week ahead.