So it was up and at it, but the slower start was nice. I went for a walk in the snowy woods, and then the 5-year-old and I made a snowman in order to make use of the snowman kit he got for his birthday. It will all be in a puddle later but it was a tiny little adventure, squeezed in around shoveling and getting people out the door.

I have been pondering weekly rhythms lately. No week is ever quite the same around here. There are a lot of moving parts, so I find it helps to have some things be the same week to week. For instance, on Mondays I do a virtual session with my trainer at 12:30, so I don’t have to think about scheduling exercise that day. Monday dinner is always pasta night. This is especially helpful now that I’m usually headed downtown for a rehearsal on Monday nights. It’s quick, and I don’t have to think about it.

Tuesday tends to be a run-on-the-treadmill + resistance training day. Tuesday’s dinner has lately been some iteration of chicken and rice. This week it was with a jar of curry sauce. (People ate in shifts last night with activities.) Tuesday is always Best of Both Worlds podcast release day — I tend to listen to the week’s episode at some point on this day, often on the treadmill (yes, even though I recorded it…I like to listen to it as other people do).

Wednesdays I drive the little boys to school in the mornings. It’s our lighter activity day (no one has anything after 6:30 p.m.) so we aim to do a sit-down-together family dinner. That’s also trash night so everything goes out to the curb. This has become bath night for the little guys too (they do bathe at other points, but I for sure do it this night). We pick up whatever part of the house the cleaning service is doing the next morning. I now think of Wednesdays as Before Breakfast interview days — this is the day those longer episodes come out.

I tend to do my planning on Thursday mornings these days. I know I’ve touted “Plan on Fridays” as a rule…and this is Friday planning, just moved a day up so I can do the upcoming weekend’s plan at the same time. I send around a schedule for the weekend, and I plan what I have coming up the next week professionally and personally (I tend not to send the next week’s family activity schedule until Sunday because changes keep coming in). We generally do breakfast for dinner. Thursday is another choir night for me, this time with my 17-year-old. At some point during the day I practice my music for that.

Friday is another day I take the little boys to school. If we’re home Friday night it’s make-your-own-pizza night, which is generally a hit around here. Well, for most people. Two kids strongly prefer a frozen pizza, so sometimes I throw one of those in the oven too.

There’s a weekly rhythm of activities too…ninja warrior class Mondays, parkour Tuesdays, after school yoga (!) for the 5-year-old on Wednesdays…Anyway, I’m sure all of this will change soon enough, but 6 months into the school year it’s finally starting to feel fairly routine. There are always some changes (see: 2-hour delay) but when the scaffolding is in place I worry slightly less about forgetting things.

Anyway, a few weekend highlights:

Going out with the big boys for dinner Friday night. The younger three children were all occupied with other things, so my husband and I took the older two boys out to our favorite Mexican place. Eating out with big kids is generally pleasant! And no one needed to be distracted with an iPad! Plus the guacamole was good.

The 10-year-old finished the pool part for his scuba license. He finished the online classroom part a few weeks ago, and spent the weekend doing the pool dives. This was pretty intense (Friday night, Saturday day, Sunday day) but he did a great job. He’ll do his check-out dives on a trip we have coming up, and then he’ll have his license.

We played outside in the ice. There had been some predictions that it might snow overnight Saturday to Sunday, but we woke to no snow but a lot of ice. In the afternoon, I took the little boys outside to go pull icicles off the leaves. We were competing to see if we could pull whole leaf-shaped icicles off without breaking them. It was not quite the same as building snowmen or sledding but it was winter outdoor entertainment nonetheless.

I registered the little guy for kindergarten. I put this on my weekend to-do list and then shut myself in my office early Sunday afternoon to get it done. I will do a shout out to the Apple Notes “scan document” function that makes it very easy to create PDFs of documents such as a birth certificate, our real estate tax bill, an immunization record, etc. The gathering of documents took some time, but once I logged into the system I got everything done in about 30 minutes. Nice.

On Friday I dropped my 15-year-old off at the high school and drove on to the airport to fly to Boston. There I headed over to Symphony Hall to meet a friend and listen to the Boston Symphony Orchestra perform Beethoven’s 8th and 9th symphonies. This was an afternoon performance (1:30) but was a full house. I was less familiar with the 8th symphony – it’s short and light. Then the 9th is, of course, the 9th. The choir was fantastic and it’s hard to keep from smiling when the full ecstatic chorus (the Ode to Joy part) is going. It is quite the juxtaposition to hear that masterwork with some of my daily Beethoven — we’re working through his teen years right now and among other things, there was a lieder that was an elegy on the death of a poodle. Apparently he had some breadth in his work.

After, we met up with other friends for drinks and then did dinner at a place where I ordered a cocktail that involved carrots and wasabi. I believe I slept for 9 hours straight in my hotel room. Always a treat of traveling! The next day I flew back to PHL and, because there are no actual business travelers on a 1 p.m. Saturday flight, I got a surprise upgrade. That is also an occasional treat of traveling (though it’s a really short flight…).

The second adventure: on Sunday, my husband and 15-year-old and I went to the Eagles game. We went to the Eagles/Packers game two weeks ago and enjoyed being part of the crowd and that energy. I did not feel sad about watching the blizzard game last week on TV, but when the Eagles won that game, and the weather forecast looked decent for this past Sunday (in the mid-30s and partly cloudy during game time), I decided to look for tickets. I was stalking Stubhub and when some seats came open in a section I like that were priced far below a lot of the others, I grabbed them.

I know the game was a blowout, but it didn’t actually feel that way until the last quarter. So it was exciting to watch, and then as it became clear that the Eagles were going to win, the buzz in that stadium just rose and rose. We stayed until the end, but then because a lot of people stayed for the ceremony afterwards, we were able to get out of the parking lot with very little traffic. So a win all the way around! We were home by 7:30 pm, which meant our Sunday evening proceeded as it normally would to get everyone in bed and ready for the week.

In the meantime, here’s another wintry sonnet, currently called “Wind chill.”

Here winter has a scent — a hint of smoke,
as somewhere, fire warms a drafty room.
My footprints mar the snow, a deer’s hooves broke
the sweeping white already, and a plume

of flakes lofts with the wind. I huddle close
into my coat, exhale a great grey puff.
The cold demands you think of it. My nose,
exposed, feels like I cannot get enough

of this tight air, it freezes down the throat.
But one can’t while the days away inside,
and so I burrow deep into this coat,
and face a sun whose warmth is just implied.

How strange to be so chilled, and yet the light
makes dazzling diamonds, blinking cold and bright.

We celebrated the 10-year-old’s birthday with friends on Monday at Oasis, which is this indoor play place. A number of parents expressed gratitude for having somewhere to take the kids to burn off energy at the end of a long weekend. I know my son had a really good time. I think of his birthday as the end of the cycle of kid celebrations. In May, the oldest took some friends to a restaurant for tea. The 15-year-old had a group of friends over for pizza/playing ping pong and pool and running around outside in September, the 13-year-old took a group of girls out for brunch and to Build-a-Bear in October, the 5-year-old did Chuck E. Cheese, and now we had this celebration on Monday. I think everyone was pleased, and now there is at least a few months’ gap before any more celebrating.

The 10-year-old is working his way through the PADI online course so he can get his scuba diving license! This is an exciting development of being 10. He loved snorkeling and then this “snuba” diving we did a few years ago, so I’m glad he’ll get to join his dad and older brother (the 15-year-old) on these trips.

Just a little content round-up, as I probably won’t be able to post tomorrow. On Before Breakfast, the interview this week was with Gillian Goddard, a long time friend of this blog (and a repeat guest on BOBW too!).  There were short episodes on how “The devil doesn’t need another advocate” and “Don’t remember, plan.” Relying on memory tends not to work; best to give anything you want to do a time on your calendar.

At Vanderhacks, my every-weekday-morning Substack newsletter, I suggested people “Start the wait.” If you know you’re going to be waiting for someone or something to do their part, best to start the clock as soon as you can. I suggested people “Get curious when things don’t go as planned.” Maybe some smart questions can uncover a new approach. Behind the paywall, I talked about “How to make interruptions less frustrating.”

I’ve also really enjoyed hearing from people about how the Time Tracking Challenge went! I am slowly responding to all those emails — so if you reached out, know that I will get back to you within the next week!

While it can be easy to feel gloomy in winter, especially post-holidays, this isn’t inevitable. In this week’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Sarah and I talk about winter fun lists, and different activities that can make it enjoyable. Maybe some day I’ll go on a sleigh ride!

Then we pivot to discussing my annual time tracking challenges. Next week (Jan 13-20) a great many of us will be tracking our time together. I’ll post my logs here, and if you’d like to get daily motivational emails from me, you can sign up here. You can download one of my time tracking spreadsheets here (though as you can see, you could easily make your own!)

In the Q&A we tackle a question that’s definitely on my mind: Do I really need to be figuring out summer camp now? Seriously? In January? Didn’t I just make it through the holiday gauntlet???

Please give the episode a listen! As always, we welcome ratings and reviews. And please consider joining our Patreon community. This week we’re discussing snow day kid coverage and work triaging, among other things. Our next virtual meet-up, on January 15th, will cover travel. Membership is $9/month.

*Getting together with friends for breakfast and coffee and hearing from more far-flung people.

*Going out for Mexican food (a margarita! guacamole!) with my family. They gave me miniature accessories for my miniature kitchen, and some puzzles.

*Hearing my church choir sing Happy Birthday at rehearsal — pitched very very high as part of the warm-up. I will never hear it sung that high at a birthday party!

* The birthday thread on our Patreon page! SHU asked people to post something they’d learned from me and it is making me feel many warm fuzzies to know my catchphrases are going through people’s heads!

* I’m headed to Longwood Gardens with my husband this weekend to see the lights and Christmas displays.

So, lots of good stuff. As for content, the Before Breakfast podcast suggested people “Plan a Monday adventure” and “Go in search of lost time.” As the longer episode, I did a time makeover of a Before Breakfast listener named Haley, talking about some various things she tried in her life and how they worked.

Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I discussed how to make time for speculative projects in a post called “Put big dreams first.” Behind the paywall I had tips on “How to make virtual events more engaging,” and ideas on “How to enjoy your birthday as an adult.”

Finally, here’s a sonnet, called “Bus stop.”

Four weeks before the solstice, and the sky
is full of shadows, lengthened on the street.
The school bus stops, the children shout and try
to stop the boy from racing off. His feet

are pushing out his shoes, his elbows taut,
his eyelashes are tangled and his hair
is rumpled. See, he reaches — soon he’s caught
a single yellow leaf. The autumn air

is chilled with wind, then warm in setting sun,
this moment in between when all is light.
So why should we be sad? The boy will run,
and any thoughts of darkness take to flight

like squawking birds, against the golden gleam
of afternoon, of joy that’s like a dream.

The past few days, though, I’ve been experimenting with a treadmill workout that is slightly less boring — and gets me to do some strength training too. What I do is run for 3 minute stretches on the treadmill, then pop off and go do some sort of resistance exercises or weights (we have a dumbbell set, bands, and an old weight machine near the treadmill). I run about 2 miles, total, spread out over these three minute stretches. I set the pace a little higher than I might because, hey, it’s only 3 minutes at a time. And since I’m doing something different every few minutes it doesn’t feel quite so tedious.

If you hit the treadmill in winter, how do you make it less boring?

Back in September, I posted my 2024 Fall Fun List — a list of things I wanted to do to enjoy this fleeting season. Here’s an update on how I did.

Visit New England twice. I did! I went to a work-related gathering in Portland, Maine in early fall, and had a lovely run along the water and saw the northern lights. Then in mid/late October my husband and I went to Mount Desert Island in Maine. We stayed in Bar Harbor, hiked through Acadia, ate lobster, and ran the Run MDI half marathon. Lots of beautiful fall scenery there too.

Run long. I finished the half marathon, though it was fairly painful. I have not been motivated to run long since then! But I did do several longer runs during my training on a local nature trail, and those were quite nice.

Bike. I did bike solo a few times on a trail near here. We did not go as a family, despite buying another big kid bike (it has yet to be used). However I have been biking around the driveway with my 4-year-old! BOBW listeners have heard my ad about the Guardian Bike, and he has definitely figured it out. He asked if he could ride his own bike during a family bike ride — we shall see, as the trails are a little scary sometimes, but he could absolutely go on the Tag-along behind me. Of course, now it’s going to be cold for the next four months but…eventually.

Hike. My husband and I did the Gorham Mountain trail in Acadia, so I think this counts. My friend Joy and I have walked on local trails several times too.

Visit a botanical garden. I did do a lunch time picnic at Stoneleigh, and I went to Chanticleer several times, usually on Friday mid-day. When I created my “realistic ideal week” at BLP Live, I tentatively put in that Friday around lunch could be my “little adventure” time for doing things like this. There should be upsides to self employment!

Go apple picking. Wow, this seems like ages ago, though it was just mid/late September. We bought 3 pecks of honeycrisp apples at a local place. There was a lot of whining as it was a hot day, but we did it. And we ate through all our apples. I think we’ll go somewhere less crowded next year.

Watch a football game. Just snippets here and there on TV. I have family members going to a real one over Thanksgiving, but not me. Oh well.

Take family photos. We did, in a studio in late September. I now have the proofs and they are lovely (well, mostly – I don’t like viewing myself from some angles!). I’m not allowed to show random family photos anymore with older kids, but I’m happy to have these.

Enjoy BLP Live. I did! I love the beach and it was a great gathering. This will probably become a late fall tradition.

Listen to Vivaldi’s “Autumn.” Yep, and wrote several autumn-themed sonnets. I am thinking I might actually continue my 2-lines-a-day sonnet writing habit for another year. It’s pretty easy to do, and the discipline of writing sonnets weekly means occasionally I write one I like.

I’m now working on my holiday fun list, so stay tuned for that! If you made a fall fun list, how did you do?

Of course, in years of being cold, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. One of my favorite is to wash my face (and hands) with hot water. At one point I identified that the reason I never wanted to wash my face at night in the winter is that I didn’t like splashing cold water on my face. But the sink gets hot water too! Same with washing my hands. No need to just tap the cold faucet (the default) if the hot one is available.

It was 38 degrees outside this morning. Sadly, this means I probably won’t be able to wear my summer flats and jeans much longer. My daughter and I were discussing this when I drove her to the bus stop the other morning. She had been eager for fall weather, but she clarified that she liked just a little coolness, not being cold. But I guess it was inevitable!

I’m not sure if I’ll get to a content round-up post later this week or not, so a few highlights: Over at Before Breakfast, I interviewed Cal Newport! I’ve been running a longer episode every Wednesday where I interview someone about their time management strategies. He really embraces October and has quite the display going on his lawn…Please give that episode a listen.

Over at Vanderhacks, the post behind the paywall this week is about “Planning fatigue is real” — but here are 7 ways to take a beat and get back on track. I also reminded people that “If others can, you can.” Other, normal people tend not to have access to some secret font of knowledge that isn’t accessible to everyone else. You can probably figure it out!

My husband took the big kids skiing later Saturday. They only made it through three runs because it was cold — guess that wind chill factor is on to something — but we have a season pass to a local mountain so it was OK. I am trying not to think too hard about the fact that it took longer for me to corral everyone’s ski things and make sure they were in them than they probably spent skiing.

I took some of the children ice skating at an outdoor rink on Sunday in near perfect sunny 25 degree weather, and went sledding with the 7-year-old, thus crossing another item off the Winter Fun List. This was fun for me, but he was sitting in front of me on the sled, meaning he was the shield for flying powder and took some in the face on our fourth run. This ended the fun for him, but he cheered me on as I did two more runs.

I do not love winter. I have found myself thinking, lately, that in 2 months the flowers will be budding. Winter cannot last forever. But I also do not like the idea of wishing time away, and so I am trying to enjoy those things that are only possible in winter. A snowy weekend provides an opportunity to experience several of those things — and some stunning snowy sunsets and fires in the fireplace too.