Thanks to some cool upcoming podcast guests (and Sarah’s posts), I’ve been thinking about personal finance this week. I realized that some of my current financial intentions are fairly unorthodox. Among them:

Be OK with earning less this year. Don’t get me wrong. I would love to match or exceed my 2018 and 2019 income (both good years; pretty similar). There is some chance I could as my podcast income (particularly from Before Breakfast) will be higher. However, speaking was a major chunk of my income in both years, and I’m not sure it’s possible to take several months off from this and make the numbers work. Oh well. At least I’m enjoying not trying to time flights around January snow storms.

Buy more lattes. Wait, isn’t this the thing we’re supposed to give up?? Because I work from home, it’s always tempting to, well, stay at home. But I need to make the effort to meet friends or professional colleagues for coffee as part of maintaining and building my professional and personal network. In the same vein, I want to buy lunch more too!

Stop studying price tags so much. I have realized that I am overly influenced by sales. But if I wasn’t going to buy something, I shouldn’t buy it just because it’s 40 percent cheaper than it would be. And if I do plan to buy something, I shouldn’t buy it in, say, a different color than I want because it’s cheaper. That is the recipe for having unused items that just sit around, taking up space.

Find the right kitchen table. Maybe not a financial goal, per se, but I and many others have written about how spending money on experiences generates more happiness than spending money on things. One of the prime examples of “things” is furniture. It pretty much just sits there; you get used to it. Whereas dinner out with friends, or travel, is different every time. True! However…we have outgrown our kitchen table, and with 8 of us (or more) there for meals sometimes, I’d like to have something inviting and sturdy that makes us want to sit there and talk. I welcome suggestions if anyone loves their big family table.

In other news…

I realized this week that, with the baby arriving on December 29, I never wrote a “books read in December” post. I didn’t read that much, but in case you’re curious:

To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf

This is one of my favorite novels, and I try to re-read it every few years. The prose is lyrical and hints at so much more than is there on the surface. The Ramsay family vacations on the Isle of Skye; a trip to the nearby lighthouse gets postponed, but is then re-enacted a decade later. Simple enough, but somehow Woolf manages to write about the entirety of the human condition through this story. The book is pretty short (about 200 pages) and far more accessible than some of Woolf’s other stuff (I’m looking at you, The Waves, which I once waded through).

How Not to Diet, by Michael Greger

My friend Chris Bailey recommended this new book on his podcast. Greger covers the existing science on weight loss, with the goal of showing what the literature says works and doesn’t. One finding: very little works long term. In general, people in both the control and experimental arms of trials lose some weight, and then gain it back. However, eating more vegetables and whole grains, incorporating soups into meals, and being creative with certain spices does appear helpful. The 5000 footnotes are a little crazy, but Greger is an accessible science writer, so I mostly enjoyed reading this book during my 2 a.m. pregnancy-induced insomnia reading sessions.

Anti-Diet, by Christy Harrison

Lots of new books on eating seem to come out right before January 1st! It was interesting to read this right after Greger’s book. Anyway, I had high hopes for this one, which was advertised as being about intuitive eating. I’m quite drawn to this idea, but Harrison’s book turned out to be less about this practice, and was more a manifesto against diet culture (the “Life Thief” as she calls it). As with most manifestos, there was little room for nuance. In Harrison’s telling, if you think an apple is a better snack choice than a fast food hamburger, or you worry about the larger food environment, you have succumbed to the Life Thief. To me, this came across as more alienating than necessary, but if you do feel like you’ve lost a lot of time worrying about weight, this might be an appealing message.

And finally…

This should be a good weekend. My husband and I will attempt a short date (albeit with the baby in tow). The 10-year-old has a fun Cub Scout trip. I’m going to try a slightly longer run in preparation for my 5-miler in a few weeks. Maybe we’ll make a housing decision (renovate?) Or maybe the 5 kids will put us into survival mode. We shall see.

The three older kids have pretty much moved on from that. But there’s still some good reading going on. The 10-year-old has been working his way through the Ranger’s Apprentice series, and quite enjoying it. I welcome suggestions of other series I might get him hooked on. The 12-year-old has been reading the Harry Potter series to the 8-year-old! They are almost through book 2 at this point. Their goal is to finish the series before a potential trip to Universal’s Harry Potter World late this summer.

The 4-year-old and I are enjoying pulling out our favorite Christmas books for night-time reading. Here are a few we keep re-reading:

Who’s That Knocking on Christmas Eve? by Jan Brett. A naughty pack of trolls breaks into a far northern Scandinavian Christmas feast before getting their comeuppance at the hands of an “ice bear.” (Polar bear; the Norwegian word is in fact “isbjorn” or “ice bear.”) I suspect my 4-year-old identifies with the trolls, but hey.

How Santa Got His Job, by Stephen Krensky, illustrated by S. D. Schindler. A young Santa experiments to find his professional calling, working as a chimney sweep, a delivery man, a zoo keeper, and so forth, before finally finding the right fit. This is a fun book for kids, but also has a useful lesson for adults on gaining insight into your skills, even from jobs that don’t work out.

Bear Stays Up for Christmas, by Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman. We like Bear books in general, but the premise of this one — that Bear’s friends are trying to keep their buddy from hibernating over Christmas — is fun and festive.

The Crayons’ Christmas, by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Olver Jeffers. Just published this year, this interactive book — which contains paper dolls and a board game, among other things — is fun to open the first time, and can then stand up to a second reading.

The Christmas Farm, by Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Barry Root. Wilma and her 5-year-old neighbor, Parker, undertake to plant 62 dozen balsam seedlings. Over the next several years the trees (and Parker) grow, until they’re ready to be harvested. A good reminder of the labor (and loss to frost) that goes into growing living things.

Cranberry Christmas, by Wende Devlin and Harry Devlin. Mr. Whiskers is in a fix, with a sister who thinks he can’t live alone, and a cantankerous neighbor who keeps children from skating on the frozen pond. Then he and some neighbors bring small miracles to Cranberryport. I like this one for descriptions of winter life by the sea.

The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, by Dr. Seuss. A classic for a reason. The Grinch tries to steal Christmas from Who-ville by snatching the presents, only to discover that Christmas doesn’t come from a store.

The Night Before the Night Before Christmas, by Richard Scarry. Mr. Frumble causes all sorts of trouble, inadvertently sending Santa off on the wrong night, before rescuing the situation.

Pick a Pine Tree, by Patricia Toht, illustrated by Jarvis. This is a new one to us this year, but we’ve read the sweet rhymes and oohed over the final Christmas tree more than once. Nice and gentle for lulling children to sleep.

The Elf on the Shelf, by Bell Chanda and Carol V. Aebersold, illustrated by Coe Steinwart. Yes, this tradition began for our family in 2013, when we welcomed our elf, Sassy. I am not a huge fan, but the kids love the concept, and hunt for him (or her?) each morning. G (nanny) got some video footage of the two younger kids purposefully saying their prayers in a place where Sassy could hear them. I’m just trying not to think too hard about the theology of all this.

What Christmas/holiday books have stood the test of time in your house?

The boxes are arriving fast and furious as we order Christmas presents. I’m trying to be a bit more mindful this year about lists and opening the boxes to know for sure what we have and what we don’t. This weekend features a few festivities: my husband’s office Christmas party (I have a little black maternity dress which will hopefully work with my not-so-little self), and my church choir Christmas concert. I hope to make progress on the Christmas card list too.

In the meantime, a quick round-up of what I read in November. I’m feeling like I’m in a bit of a reading slump, though I did start December by re-reading To the Lighthouse, which is always one of my favorites. My November reads:

Design Mom, by Gabrielle Stanley Blair

As I think about renovating our house, and packing another kid in here, I’ve been interested in books about home design. Blair’s description of how she lives with her six kids (and the photos!) are interesting; my favorite take-away for big families is that it’s fine for bedrooms to be mostly about sleeping, with more effort put into making common spaces workable.

100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write, by Sarah Ruhl

Playwright Sarah Ruhl tackles 100 different topics from theater to parenthood in this book of micro-essays and micro-memoirs. I don’t know that the subject matter was particularly intriguing to me but I do like the format of micro-essays and I have been pondering how to use that in various ways. It seems to work well with current literary attention spans…

Running with Sherman: The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero, by Christopher McDougall

I’ve read McDougall’s book Born to Run multiple times, so after reading an excerpt of this book in Runner’s World, I decided to pick it up. McDougall and his family moved from Philadelphia to Amish country, and while there, he helped rescue a donkey from an animal hoarder. He soon became obsessed with training for a donkey race out in Colorado. There are always hiccups in writing narrative non-fiction; for instance, he trains with a teenage boy suffering from depression and in a perfect narrative arc they’d run the race together. In real life the kid gets injured. Whoops. McDougall also occasionally overplays the drama to make a more compelling read, but in general this is a fun story for anyone who likes books about running.

Packing for Mars, by Mary Roach

Science writer Mary Roach tackles the logistics of humanity in space. Putting human beings who need to breathe, eat, and (yes) go to the bathroom into weightlessness is no small matter. Roach is funny as usual, and is willing to try much in the pursuit of her story.

Having re-read To the Lighthouse, I think I’ll re-read a few other shorter classics and see if this gets me in more of a reading mood… What are you reading these days? Which “book assigned in school” (like To the Lighthouse) do you think makes the most compelling re-reading as an adult?