the weekly workbook no. 4

whew, it’s almost October.

I keep thinking I’m going to catch up and I’m just never going to. But I’m here, and that’s okay too.

I had a truly busy summer, with more travel in a season than I’ve done in a decade, at least, or possibly ever. In May, we went to the coast (which doesn’t really feel like travel, but still disruptive to routines). In June, I went to Iceland. In August, we went to Disney World. And earlier this month I went to Squam. They were all good in different ways but I am looking forward to laying low for a bit.

Squam was so lovely that I pre-registered for the next fall retreat immediately upon returning home. If you’ve never been to Squam, it’s a 5-day art retreat at an old fashioned summer camp (think Dirty Dancing) on Squam Lake in New Hampshire. It’s just so freaking peaceful there, and everyone in attendance is nice and probably wearing a hand knit sweater. You take two classes (I had a hand stitched nine patch quilt block class and knitting stranded color work) and otherwise have a lot of time to rest and relax and how could you not, do you see that dock?!

It’s also now officially ~planner season~. Sterling Ink had their first launch on September 1st and after much debate, I grabbed the B5 Common Planner I had been thinking about. Although there were some other compelling options, this seemed like the best one. The larger size means I’ll have room for everything I need to plan (which is a lot) and I should have enough daily pages in the back as well. (I’m not going to delude myself into thinking that I’ll use more than a whole B5 page every day for an entire year.) I’ll be moving homeschool lesson planning into my main planner/ journal. We’re trying out some enrichment classes and online, synchronous classes this semester and I was getting confused on where that info should go… it needs to go in my planner where I can see it, otherwise I’m going to forget to remind him to log on or whatever.

Finally, I joined a yoga studio at the end of August. While I’ve practiced yoga off and on over the years, I’ve never had a membership at a yoga studio. This is a little surprising when I thought about it, since yoga is all about grounding and introspection and that’s my MO. I wish the class schedule lined up a little better with my own but it’s a cute little studio where everyone is very chill and friendly and there’s a little coffee shop in the lobby. As luck would have it, they are doing an attendance challenge for the month of September and I was very determined to finish the challenge, even with traveling at the beginning of the month. It looks like I’m going to make it!

Not much to say about books this week since I’m also working on a wrap-up post about my summer reading. This week I’m focused on finishing up the audio for First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston for book club. I’m meh on it and don’t have strong feelings either way.

Today was pub day for A Little Less Broken by Marian Schembari and Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo, both of which were much anticipated by me, so I’m looking forward to getting into those soon. (I’m really worried I’m going to feel like Intermezzo is more akin to Beautiful World, Where are You vs. Normal People…)

*links are bookshop.org affiliate links.

I completed my first ever pair of socks. These are the DRK Everyday Socks in size 2, and theoretically fit my toddler, although I have to try them on him. I’ve tried to knit socks a couple of times before and it was always a mess. This time I got smart, chose an Andrea Mowry pattern (which I’ve found to be consistently written in a way that makes sense to me) and started the project at Squam, where I was pretty much guaranteed to be within spitting distance of someone who could tell me what I was doing wrong when I got hung up. The second sock is definitely a lot cleaner than the first but I’m not stressed. There’s a good chance that these will end up sucked into the blackhole that is my toddler’s hippie little preschool (he, like most of the kids there, is frequently shoeless and sockless). But now I know how to knit socks : )

Coming Soon… challenges, creative and otherwise; time machines; a wrap-up of my summer reading.