Hello November | 2025

I was planning to skip this week’s blog post but didn’t want to miss an opportunity to greet November this year. So: hello November! Stick season is sneaking in and we’re enjoying exploring parts of our woods that have been covered in ferns and vines until now. It’s all new to Dawsey because he was just a little puppy last spring before the undergrowth started filling in. So that’s been fun! And still – I was sick for the entire month of October and it only seemed to be worse last week, so my life has looked a little different.

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This was an atypical week for me. I spent very little time reading and a LOT of time knitting and playing mah jongg. I think I’m a little addicted right now and while it’s fun, I also kind of miss moving forward on my reading goals. I have been playing on Real Mah Jongg and I think that’s part of the addiction – the ability to just start another game as soon as the last one ends. I’ve been ignoring everything around me this week for just one more hand! We all know I have a personality that can become obsessive. I finally decided on a set of basic tiles and they arrived yesterday so I’m going to take some time away from the electronic version and try to play solitaire as demonstrated in this video. Wish me luck!

Personal Curriculum
Luckily, I’ve kept up with reading from my personal curriculum for at least 40 minutes every day. This week I finished the fifth chapter of The 1619 Project (titled Dispossession), the fourth chapter of White Trash: The Untold Story of Race in America (titled Thomas Jefferson’s Rubbish), and am picking my way through the very long sixth chapter of These Truths (titled The Soul and the Machine).

This week’s chapters of The 1619 Project and These Truths are heavily set during Andrew Jackson’s presidency and describe the dispossession of the Indigenous people on this continent. They’re pretty dark given this is the time period of America’s Second Great Awakening, the early stages of the evangelical movement in the 1820s and 30s. And I find the juxtaposition of those two events super depressing.

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Knitting:

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Last week I left you with the picture of an almost finished first sock and today I bring you an almost finished second sock. As usual, this sock has been a fantastic project to have on the kitchen counter – easy to pick up and put down and just knit around and around. Once this sock is finished I’m going to try a few hats because my sock drawer is getting kind of full. It’s a good problem to have and it’s comforting to know that socks are always an option, but it might be time to diversify.

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My Lettuce Mint sweater is moving along. I diligently worked on this sleeve this week and it shows — just about 20 more rows until the cuff! I’ve been working on this while rewatching Stranger Things and it’s the perfect combination. This stitch pattern is so easy to memorize and it helps me keep my anxiety for these kids at bay. (Last night we watched the third episode of the third season so I think it might be possible for us to finish the whole thing before the fifth season premiers the night before Thanksgiving!)

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Reading:

Here is where this weirdness of this week will be most evident. I barely picked up a book that wasn’t a part of my personal curriculum. I finished one:

A Monk’s Guide to a Clean House and Mind by Shoukei Matsumoto
(Amazon | Bookshop.org)

Because I’m willing to try anything that will help me keep my house clean.

This book was more about the philosophy behind a clean home and gave some simple instructions on how to clean things. Nothing life changing. The interesting tidbit was that this monk recommended cleaning first thing in the morning as a way of meditation and to enjoy a fresh house the rest of the day. I love that idea in theory, but I’d much rather spend my early morning time in the basement with my notebooks and books. And anything I’d do before the kids get up will be undone by about 6:30am by Colton and I’d much rather wait to clean while he’s in school. But since reading this, I have been making an effort to dry and put away my dishes as soon as they’re washed. It does help with the visual clutter.

Currently Reading:
📖 Dominion by Addie E. Citchens: I am really enjoying my time with this book when I’m motivated to pick something up. Every time I sit down with it I think, why am I not reading this throughout the day??! It’s a family drama set in Mississippi and it’s fantastic. I’m at just over 50% and something really horrible just happened. I’m so curious about how the characters are going to work their way through it.

🎧 Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan: is up next. I can’t believe I still haven’t read this 2024 Women’s Prize Winner? Scrolling backwards through the Women’s Prize winners, this is the only one since 2017 that I haven’t read. (PS: I’m 60% through the entire prize so my efforts from this year’s reading has paid off! This will be my sixth Women’s Prize for Fiction winner this year.)

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Thank you for hanging with me through this weird week. No one else in this house seemed to have gotten the memo about the time change so this is going to be an abrupt ending. I hope November treats you well. Take good care! 🍂 🤎