Mid-June | 2026

Friends, we are nearly halfway through the year. Colton’s last day of school is tomorrow and we will be taking some time off from homeschooling with Bryce and Bronwyn. Summer school starts July 15th – for all of us! So I am looking forward to a much more relaxed 30 days or so. I’m still hoping to find time to sneak off to the basement to work on some of my own projects and to do some school planning for 2026-2027. This is the time of year when everything seems possible!

Today’s post is a quick update about life around here, a bit about the books I finished last week, and a snapshot of the Substack posts I shared last week.

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Home:

There’s no longer any doubt, summer is officially here! The turtles are crawling everywhere, looking for a place to lay their eggs; toads are hopping across our paths everywhere we go; we watched a snake eating a toad last weekend. The big excitement was on Saturday morning. I was doing my early backyard rounds with Dawsey and a bear walked up the bluff and along the side of the woods. My bear training kicked in: we froze and I started shouting Hey Bear. It paused, looked at me, and then slowly ambled back down the bluff. So Dawsey and I quickly booked it into the house after that! I was under the impression that a bear wouldn’t walk up that hill if it could hear humans (I was definitely chattering to Dawsey the whole time), but was wrong. This knowledge adds a whole new dimension to things.

The baby birds in the honeysuckle outside my window are getting fluffier! That’s them in the opening picture. I’m pretty sure there are three of them and I have no idea how they’re all fitting into that tiny nest. They are definitely cuter than they were just a week ago.

We have all the air conditioners in now. The big news is that we were able to put an air conditioner in Colton’s room this year. It was too dangerous to do in the past because he used to chew on electrical cords and I was terrified he would get electrocuted in the middle of the night. But he’s 11 now and I couldn’t bear the thought of him enduring another summer in a hot bedroom. It took a little redirection the first night and some vigilance on my part, but he’s doing great with it. And he’s sleeping so well! This time last summer, he was waking up at 2 or 3AM for the day, ready to go. He’s been quietly resting until 6:45 or 7 so far this year. Such a relief.

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Reading:

The Poppy War by RF Kuang
(Amazon | Bookshop)

“Power dictates acceptability,”

I ended up liking The Poppy War despite struggling in the beginning. According to Kuang, it’s heavily based on the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War – two historical events I’m not really familiar with. It describes the terrible fighting that involved China, Japan, and the island of Taiwan in the mid-20th century. It also deals with Opium Wars and the drug’s effects on the people of China, especially. It’s one of those books that makes me wish I had a better understanding of world history and was about a billion times smarter than I am!

I’m hoping to listen to the second book in the series in July or August.

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Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
(Amazon | Bookshop)

“It’s funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality.”

Bryce is nearly finished with this series and I wanted to give it a try. I’m trying to read more mythology this summer and Percy Jackson was a really fun way to do that. The imagery was fun and I felt like it gave a pretty good overview of LOTS of mythological characters. I’m on the waitlist for the second in the series.

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The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
(Amazon | Bookshop)

“He had said something like, ‘why don’t people ever say anything real?’ And now he knew why. Because to say anything real was to say things that nobody wanted to know. Or if they wanted to know, they would not care in the right way. Or even understand. It was a private thing to be alive. He understood this now.”

I just love Elizabeth Strout. I was hesitant to read anything that wasn’t centered on Lucy or Olive, but Artie won me over. He’s a high school history teacher with a very privileged life and still — our lives are all so complicated, aren’t they? This book, again and again, reminded me how important our small, everyday kindnesses are. We never know when something we say or do is going to change someone else’s life. What a world we live in.

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The Ghost Road by Pat Barker
(Amazon | Bookshop)

“What you’re saying is, OK the war isn’t being fought for the reasons we’re told but it is being fought for a reason. It’s not benefiting the people it’s supposed to be benefiting but it is benefiting somebody. And I don’t believe that, you see. I think things are actually much worse than you think because there isn’t any kind of rational justification left. It’s become a self-perpetuating system. Nobody benefits. Nobody’s in control. Nobody knows how to stop.”

I’m not sure what to say about this one. I read it because it’s part of my challenge to read all of the female Booker Prize winners. I knew ahead of time that this was the third book in a trilogy, but I assumed it would be fine to read on its own. It most certainly is not. I was able to gather that this was set in the trenches of WWI and as soon as I felt like I had my bearings, it would switch characters and locations. Typically, I enjoy books that do that, but I think Barker expected me to know the characters and where they were (as she should!) and I just… didn’t. It’s totally my fault.

So I’m planning to build the first two into my TBR over the next several months and then try this one again at some point. I feel like a dolt.

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Land by Maggie O’Farrell
(Amazon | Bookshop)

“My point is, my point is, my point is… that there needs to be a map of how this land really is, of how it has always been, of what lies beneath whatever order or disorder others might impose upon it. There must be a way to create such a document. And to do so would be an act of honour. Honour and resistance. The whole matter rests in our hands, do you see?”

Maggie O’Farrell is a genius. I loved this book set in late 19th Century Ireland just after the potato blight and the Great Hunger. Tomás barely remembers his childhood before becoming an orphan and being sent to a workhouse where he meets sweet Seraphina, his future wife. As an adult, Tomás grudgingly works for the British government mapping out Ireland as Britain tries to control the island and its inhabitants. While working with his son Liam on a secluded peninsula, they find a mysterious copse and a beautiful well. After drinking from the well, Tomás changes forever. He moves his wife, three children (+ one in utero) to a derelict cottage on the peninsula and they do their best to make their way.

O’Farrell covered a lot of ground in this novel and the last 50 pages are just gut-wrenching. I read those last 50 pages slowly and deliberately, not wanting the book the end but also needing to know how things work out for this family, with tears streaming down my cheeks. Their four children all spoke to different parts of me and as cheesy as it sounds, I grew to love them dearly. And Ireland has such a painful history and I’m reminded again and again how Britain’s terrible past. Wow, wow, wow: this will be in my top 5 for 2026, for sure.

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Last week I published two essays on Substack: an update on my progress with The Oxford Project and a few note taking and motivation strategies I’ve been using. I am still plugging along but have been looking up ways to add a little more excitement to my reading routine, so I’m hoping to put that into words for this week’s update. And I’m hoping to write more about note-taking for a post on Friday – it’s such an interesting and complex topic. I’d love it if you joined me over there!

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In this moment, I’m feeling energized and optimistic about everything happening around here. Let’s hope that feeling lingers through the summer!

I hope your week gets off to a great start and you find time for the things that energize you. Take good care!