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Today's post has a bit of a reflection, followed by the end-of-the-month roundup of mundane magic moments, links I loved, and books I finished. The sections are clearly marked, so feel free to jump ahead.
This has been… a month.
Despite all of my careful plans to take things gently and slowly, I did not expect to be knocked off my feet so hard by illness and unable to do much of anything for over a week right before the holidays.
When everyone else in the house was mostly back to normal, I was still spending as much of the day in bed as possible, yet thoroughly exhausted from constantly interrupted sleep. I opted to stay home while my husband brought the kids to visit with my parents and then his for the holiday.
Because of a prior burst of inspiration, I will also be back one last time before the new year (on Friday), with a reflection after my daughter's birthday.
Onto the magic!
✨️ Mundane Magics ✨️
Oren, my two year old, giving me ALL of the kisses. Up until last month, he had happily received kisses but rarely gave any, and now he spontaneously bestows bunches of them on me at a time. It's my favourite thing.
Watching knitting podcasts on YouTube while knitting and weaving in ends. This is something I've been doing on and off for a while, and I find it motivating when I'm at a point that feels a bit sloggy (like weaving in allllll the ends on my Bistripe Beanie) as well as being an enjoyable way to connect with knitting as my special interest. A few of my favourites are Tazhi of Stitches and Starlight, Taylor of WoolNeedlesHands, and Kaci of Youngfolk Knits.
Braiding a rag rug for Sybi's room. I really loved this low-stakes project. I learned the importance of keeping it flat as you go because it got a little wonky in the middle, but Sybil loves it the way it is and I'm definitely going to be keeping an eye out for fabric scraps so that I can plan one for myself at some point.
- ' slow advent calendar this month (link below with other slow recs) has been a great reminder and reinforcement of my desire to slow down and inhabit this season gently.
My kids being cared for by someone else. Even with Sybil in half day pre-k this year, I've really needed some way to be able to spend time with just my husband, even for just a few hours at a time, so we've been leaving the kids with my friend, who runs a small daycare out of her home, one or twice a month. I expected to feel relief at having the time with Jon, but I didn't anticipate how wonderful it would be to hear stories about how much fun they've had there, or to walk in and see Oren sleeping peacefully in her arms.
- ’s We Are Winter Poets daily poem prompts have been wonderful, and the community shared in the comments is so full of kindness and encouragement, as always.
I've been listening to The Dark is Rising on BBC World Service on Spotify. I'd never heard of this book until this year, but it begins on December 20th and has a chapter (or episode, if you're listening) for each day until the new year. It's fascinating and I think this might become an annual tradition for me to read/listen to.
Links I Loved
For beautiful pieces about motherhood and family: this beautiful letter from
about being a mother and a daughter, and weaving our own stories, this one about story keeping from , this piece by about parenting and autonomy (spurred by my word of the year post), a second gorgeous and relatable piece from Julia about motherhood, and letting go and holding on, and this stunning piece from last month by about maternal desire.For slow December/holiday/advent/new year content, I enjoyed:
's slow living posts, ’ 24 Days of making, Doing, and Being advent, ’s Don't Buy List, ’s absorption vacation, ’s How to Have a Slow(er) Holiday Season and Slow Living Activities for Winter, 's When ’home for the holidays' isn't good for your mental health, and ’s Idle as Marmots.For posts on writing/creating I loved: this piece by
about half-baked writing, Storytelling in the Fog and Create Imperfectly and Share it Anyway by , Rekindling a Note Taking Practice by , My Slightly Scary Substack Plan for 2024 by , and 3 End-of-Year Journal Prompts by .For a very loosely-defined category of “life is hard/things that might make it easier" we have: The big ‘ol list of how I regulated my nervous system in 2023 by
, Ten things, Undoing Aloneness, and What I want to say most by , and Why I'm becoming a digital minimalist in 2024 by .With thoughtful observations about difficult topics: a pocket observatory abortion primer and an impossible horizon by
(who is basically her own category) and The Great Schism by .And for a laugh: Do interior designers know what homes are for? by
(seriously, trust me).
Books I Finished
A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone: I finished this at the tail end of November for my book club (after last month's roundup was shared). This smutty Christmas romance has a lot of things I love, like positive fat, queer, and sex work representation, realistic sex scenes, well-rounded characters, and healthy communication, along with cheesy holiday shenanigans. Because it's holiday-themed, I probably wouldn't read it again, but I would recommend it if you're a person who generally enjoys smut and an occasional hallmark movie.
The Electricity of Every Living Thing by Katherine May: I've been planning to read this memoir since I read Katherine May's Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat During Difficult Times. As a fellow late-diagnosed autistic mother, I really identified with her experiences and also was reminded how much I miss taking regular walks and how much I really need more time alone. I'm already planning to purchase a copy to reread and annotate.
Momfluencing: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influence Culture by
: I think I had a good idea of what I was in for here, based on Petersen's writing here on Substack, but this was still illuminating in ways I didn't expect. I think the biggest critique I saw about the book was that the author was simultaneously critiquing momfluencing culture while admittedly subscribing to some of it herself, to which I would say: that was... kind of the point?? It was a personal examination as much as a cultural one, and I think that's a strength, not a weakness.Meet Me in the Margins by Melissa Ferguson: I really enjoyed this contemporary romance. The main character is an editor who is secretly writing a romance novel and starts to fall for a mystery editor who leaves notes in the margins of her hidden manuscript. It's fairly lighthearted and was a quick listen on audio.
The Hazel Wood, The Night Country, and The Boy Who Didn't Come Home(this was included at the end of the Night Country when I listened to the audiobook), by Melissa Albert: The first book in this series is the first physical book I've picked up in a while, and it felt deserving of the time it took to read it. I have always loved fairy tales and twists on fairy tales, and this dark and twisty novel is its own kind of beast that immediately pulled me in. I have qualms about the treatment of Ellery Finch, a Black character - the only one? - who was interesting and central to the story but seemed to be disrespected a lot with no real apology. There's a particularly uncomfortable scene later in the book that felt very unresolved after, so I felt a bit wary moving forward, but was pleasantly surprised by the sequel and the short in-between story about Ellery Finch (a novella?). I'll be making time for Tales from the Hinterland soon.
The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays on Desire and Consumption by Katy Kelleher: In some ways, this book turned out to be different than I expected. I wouldn't call it disappointing, because it was still fascinating, it just wasn't my favourite. Given the amount of books I've read this year, having at least a couple I just wasn't completely enamoured by seems inevitable, and I'd still say it was worthwhile.
Cruel Seduction by Katee Robert: Some of you may recall that I finished books 1-4 of the Dark Olympus series (a very modern, very spicy twist on Greek mythology, starting with Hades and Persephone in the first book) earlier this year, and I enjoyed this one just as much as the rest. The author has two more coming out next year that I'm very much looking forward to.
Weyward by Emilia Hart: I've been meaning to read this for a while and finally prioritized it when it was chosen for my online book club this month. It's a beautifully woven story of three women across different generations of the same family. It's a little witchy but it's more so about the women themselves overcoming their circumstances, and their relationship to nature and each other. This one comes with trigger warnings for domestic violence, r*pe, and pregnancy loss.
A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining by Rachel E. Cargle: This was such a beautiful memoir. A meaningful and personal look at reimagining antiracism and life in general. It was also a relatively quick listen on audio, about 6 hours. I'm glad to have fit it in before the end of the year.
I hope December has been kind to you. If you have any mundane magics, links, or books, you'd like to share, please leave them in the comments. And as always, feel free to share if this resonated with you!
How sweet to be bestowed bunches of kisses! Love that! And so support you in taking time away from you kids to be with your hubby. I did that too, was probably the best advice I received.
Thank you so much for including me in this beautiful round-up. (I’ve added the Ugly History Of Beautiful Things to my list - I’m intrigued!) x