Anyway (potential spoiler alerts here if you haven’t read it), Natasha is now in a blissful family-growing state. Humorously, Tolstoy deems her a bit of a supermom because…she is nursing her babies herself. Well, three of the four of them. This cracks me up given modern breastfeeding narratives. Everyone is shocked by the Countess’s decision not to use a wet nurse after baby #1. I guess breast was best, just not your own breasts.

Since my little guy turns 2 before the end of the year, it looks like I will wind up nursing for the full WHO-recommended two years. I have never gone this long before. My other children all lost interest somewhere between 12-18 months. He is not losing interest. As a toddler, and a vocal one, he has lots of dictatorial opinions about when he wants “Mommy milk” vs. “Baba milk.” He will stop and tell me “other side” when he wishes to be switched over. He made his big brother get off a certain chair this morning because he refused to be fed anywhere other than that chair.

His second birthday is just one event occurring over the next six weeks, which are just going to be…full. Christmas is coming. I’ve bought way too much that will need to be wrapped and moved. Speaking of which…we are moving! It’s looking like the first week of January. I’m trying not to think about this too much — all the logistics of moving one house to another. We’re hiring movers but it will take them two days to pack and another day or two to cart everything over. I’m thinking I will just move the family into the new house on day one of that project, and take air mattresses/sleeping bags and suitcases. That way we won’t be frantically trying to protect certain things from getting packed up because we still need them. If anyone has done a local move and has tips I welcome them.

The manuscript of Tranquility by Tuesday is back in my lap. Those edits need to be turned around by the end of January. I’m always looking for a few more stories, so if you followed any of the rules (in the project or not in the project) and have a good story of transformation you’d be willing to share, let me know! As always, lvanderkam at yahoo dot com.

I’ll be running a time-tracking challenge the second week of January (though during the move would be pretty funny — sharing those logs with the world!). If you’ve been looking for a good time to track your time, January 10-16 will have the built-in accountability of other folks doing it too.

Last night I went to my eldest child’s choir concert. I skipped my own choir practice to do this, but it seemed like the right choice — I am happy to cheer on my kid as he develops a love of something I love too. It was really good! He’s in his high school’s main chorus and then he auditioned for (and joined) their select ensemble. I posted a quick clip from their a cappella version of Linus & Lucy over at Instagram (@lvanderkam). The 10-year-old tagged along with my husband and me and she enjoyed seeing the jazz band play a few pieces too. She just picked up the trumpet this fall and has made very quick progress. It is not an easy instrument to start but after two months she can recognizably play the melody of Jingle Bells.

Not too much else to report. I’m going to a Christmas party this weekend (I’m getting to be a pro at taking the rapid at-home Covid tests that some hosts ask for). I’ll watch a livestream of a Christmas concert. I put sending my Christmas cards on my to-do list but we shall see….

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?