Week 43 In My Notebook | 2024

Although I wasn’t ready for the weekend to end, I’m in a much better mental place this Monday than I was last week. The weather this weekend was chilly and windy, which made playing in the backyard extra fun for the kiddos. The warmth from our time at the firepit on Saturday evening was especially appreciated! All in all, it was a well-balanced week and a lovely weekend. So let’s look a little closer:

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My current notebooking tools:

• The notebook: Hobonichi Hon A5, which is the same as the 2025 A5 Cousin but in hardcover.
• Pen: Zebra Sarasa 0.4
• Highlighter: Mild Grey Mildliner 
• Dots: Washi Paper dot stickers

It was a gorgeous fall week! Our homeschooling rhythm was perfection and we’re slowly adding more afternoon tea + (mythology, poetry, philosophy, fables) each week. This week’s afternoon tea companion will be the Gilgamesh Trilogy to enrich our learning about Ancient Babylonia. History is always the foundation of our homeschooling plans and this year’s focus on ancient history is especially fun.

I knit quite a bit on my Cloudesley sweater early on but put it aside for reading mid-week. I became enthralled by The Ministry of Time and gave it all of my free moments. Maybe because it was clear how much this author loves history, maybe it was the love blossoming between our main characters, maybe it was how obvious it was that some real crazy stuff was going to happen… I don’t know. But I really enjoyed my time with this book!

Kamala had a rally in Texas on Friday night and I stayed up way too late to watch it. Did any of you see it? It was amazing and gave me so much hope for my home state. The election is in 8 days. Have you voted? Do you have plans to vote? There’s so much at stake with this election – including our very democracy. It’s frightening and I am so ready to vote next Tuesday. There’s no early voting in New Hampshire so I have to wait. That’s the hardest part!

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And that was basically my week. I am still working on my book nook and trying to clean up my old sewing space. Making decisions about what to keep has been especially hard but I know I really want to pare down my sewing things and focus on creating a more bookish space for myself. I’ve been listing things on ebay and am hoping to sell as much as I can because I’m planning to use that money on a few special items for this corner. My goal is to list a couple of items a week but of course — there’s so much left to get to! I keep reminding myself that slow and steady is ideal because I will completely run out of steam if I try to do too much at once and then I’ll never be able to finish. Trying to remember the lessons from The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating.

I hope that your weekend was lovely and that the beginning of the week treats you well. Take good care!