End of January | 2025
A roundup of mundane magics and writing worth sharing
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Today's post has a quick reflection, followed by the end-of-the-month roundup of mundane magic moments, books I finished, and what I'm looking forward to in February. The sections are clearly marked, so feel free to jump ahead.
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January has felt like an age, hasn't it? Once again, I feel like this month has been both incredibly difficult in some ways, and also really wonderful in others.
My kids got sick one after the other for the first few weeks and needed a lot more of my attention than usual for much of this month, meanwhile my brain was screaming to be left alone just for a while to focus on some of my current interests without constant interruptions. This was really difficult for me to deal with and affected my energy levels, so I’ve spent a lot of time just trying to rest.
Thankfully, we seem to be moving past all of that, and I’ve since managed to find some moments to concentrate and regulate a bit better. I’m also enjoying lots of cat snuggles, and plenty of other great things — which I’ll share below, so let’s get started!
✨️ Mundane Magics ✨️
New Year's Eve: (This technically came after I shared my December post, so bear with me.) My husband Jon made a really delicious homemade stew that I got to smell throughout the day in the crockpot. And my son, Oren, had a fever that day and was feeling pretty crumby after a long afternoon nap, but my daughter, Sybil, was able to make him laugh when he otherwise didn't want to be bothered (we're talking deep belly laughs) and helped him feel a bit better. Lovely.
Oren saying, "Luh you, Ma": Our youngest is a bit of a late talker, and he’s just beginning to start putting more than one or two words together consistently. When he does, he often ends up cutting off part of the later words, so his usual “Mama” becomes “Ma” and it’s adorable. He’ll also say, "sorry, Ma" etc. It’s too precious.
A belated noon-year’s party: Our friends hosted a small noon-year’s party the weekend after the holiday, and it was very low-key, and we had a great time. The kids loved playing together, and we just got to hang out and talk for a while, which is always so nice.
CATS!!!: We had an appointment immediately following the noon-year’s party to meet our sweet little Kit, and then we brought home both her and Tabitha (who I had met two weeks before and already applied to adopt) and it’s been almost four weeks with our new babies now, and I can’t get enough of them. If you missed my earlier update, there’s more details and pictures here.
My new fave sandwich: I just made it up and I’ve been eating it all month. It consists of a piece of sourdough, cut in half, spread with roasted garlic hummus, with a bit of goat cheese on one side and a slice of muenster on the other, and then a mixture of chopped marinated artichoke hearts and kale, sautéed and stuffed in between. You grill it (like grilled cheese) and serve with whatever you like (potato wedges/fries/chips, pickles, etc). It can be hard to find relatively easy things to make that I can consistently eat, and I’ve started to prep and freeze batches of the kale and artichokes so I can throw everything together really quickly on hard days. I should probably take a picture of it, but I always forget because I'm too excited to eat it.
This Whole & Simple brand Edamame Energy Bowl from Aldi: Another convenient food I found this month — I love it mixed with a bag of 90 second rice pilaf, and it goes for two meals for me that way. I'm pretty sure it's only a seasonal item, but I'm really hoping that Aldi will bring it back. 🤞🏻
My new commonplace book, and making collages: This is both a new and old interest — I’ve always loved words and stationary and journaling/art, but both bullet journaling and regular journaling were overwhelming for me. I learned about commonplacing and then followed a rabbit hole through some YouTube videos around the beginning of the year and ended up buying myself this Hobonichi Weeks Mega planner1 to use as a combination memory keeper and commonplace book. I’ve made some little envelopes to keep stickers in and added a couple collages to the front, and I’m loving it.
This cowl I knit for Oren: It’s been quite cold some days when we walk down to pick his sister up from the bus, so I made this to keep his little neck warm. I figured he’d be less likely to rip it off than a scarf, and it’s working great! He picked the yarn colour himself.
Pride and Prejudice Slow-read and annotating: I’m following along with the
P&P read, and I’m having the best time! I’ve read the book multiple times, (it’s one of my favourites) but never like this. I finally have felt brave enough to start annotating, and now I’m completely changing my reading plans for the year to make space for much more of this type of reading. I’m looking forward to revisiting several works this way.
The light coming in my bedroom window in the afternoons:
An unexpected and very exciting collab with : I've only recently been getting to know Hanna here on Substack, but we got talking in a few different posts and chats, and then she messaged me about doing a guest post for February! I had the best experience working with her, and it went so fast! I can't wait for you to read it. I'll be sure to share a link here and in notes as soon as it's up!
(Finally) celebrating my daughter's birthday party: Sybi's birthday is at the end of December, but we scheduled her party for early January and then had to reschedule to the end of the month after Oren got sick. During last year's party, I was really anxious and wasn’t able to be present for a lot of it, but this year I felt calm and was able to enjoy the whole thing with everyone!2 A few of our friends were sick and couldn't make it, and Oren woke up sick again the next day, but I'm still so grateful.
The Wild Robot: Have any of y’all seen this movie?? I laughed and cried. It's so precious. I already had the book on my queue for the year and am looking forward to reading it even more now.
Books I Finished
Lumberjanes, Volumes 3-7 by Grace Ellis, ND Stevenson, and Shannon Watters: This series of graphic novels is seriously so cute. The third one was my least favourite installment of the series so far and still great, and I really loved the character development from the beginning so far. I'm so invested in these characters and their friendship.
Poyums by Len Pennie: (CW: sexual assault, domestic violence, misogyny) This was a deeply moving, heartbreaking, cathartic collection of poetry. I recommend reading with audio as well as physical or e-book unless you're very familiar with Scots language, otherwise it may be a bit hard to follow.
Aquicorn Cove by K. O’Neill: A short and sweet little graphic novel (same artist as the Tea Dragon Society!) about caring for the ocean. I think this would be a great way to introduce the topic of ocean/coral reef health and sustainability to middle-grade reader.
Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness by Pooja Lakshmin, MD: I haven’t had a ton of bandwidth for reading physical or e-books this month, so I picked this up on audio. I think I would have gotten more out of a physical copy, but I appreciated the author’s approach. There was a lot of focus on both personal boundaries and values and systemic change.
And a DNF
Woodsqueer: Crafting a Sustainable Rural Life by Gretchen Legler: I really wanted to love this book based on the title and gorgeous cover alone, but I found myself resisting picking it up again and finally gave up at about 10% in and did a *very* quick skim to the end. It just wasn't for me. It's a very personal, narrative-heavy memoir where I was expecting a bit more of a how-to. There's nothing wrong with it, really, I just wasn't feeling it and decided to put it down for good just before the new year, so as not to carry that stagnant energy with me.
What I’m looking forward to in February
Therapy! I finally got a call back from an office with a provider that takes my insurance, has hours I can work with, and seems to have a decent understanding of autism in adults!! It's been about 2 years of waiting, and I know I need it. I'm feeling hopeful.
Craft club with my friends at the library: Our last meeting feels like forever ago, and I can't wait to get back to it.
Galentine's day: We still need to figure out details, but some friends and I should be getting together to celebrate, and I can't wait!
A[n overdue] hair appt: I'll be going to see my favourite stylist to get my perm refreshed. It will be a long day, but I love our conversations and the end result, so it's always worth it.
I hope you’ve had a gentle transition in the beginning of the year. I’d love to hear about your own mundane magics, recent reads, and anything else you’d like to share in the comments. And as always, feel free to share if this resonated with you!
No, I will not be using it as a planner at all. I’ve learned the hard way that traditional physical planners just don’t work well for my ADHD brain, BUT my autism was very happy to use the structure of this particular book in order to organize and keep my daily sentences and other things I want to be able to look back on, while the notes section in the back serves as my commonplace book. It’s wonderful.
*with the help of a chill (5mg thc/25mg cbd blend) pill from the brand 1906. I have a low tolerance because no one ever offered me drugs when I was younger (😅), so this is plenty strong for me, and I took it early on the morning of the party so the drowsiness and desire to stare into space had time to wear off. YMMV, this is just something that I've found that helped.
I was loving your collage pages and then did a double take at my note. 😂
Here’s to finding a therapist who’s a good fit! It’s so hard!
Love this glimpse into your life with the pictures and stories! Thank you for sharing all of that. I especially love all the things you are creating - including the food!