Pattern Holding Steady

 Halfway through November, 11 days from Thanksgiving, and now less than 50 days from Christmas ... the days just keep on ticking away ... 

1. Life continues to remain static, which in many ways after so many things that have happened this year, is a good thing. Jackie broke out the Christmas decorations this week and has slowly worked on transforming our house's fall decorations to Christmas. Despite everything, it feels both festive and calming; the act feels normal in an otherwise chaotic and abnormal year. Probably later this week we will put up our family tree, which is a favorite of mine. I hand out the ornaments to Jackie and Maia, they put them on the tree, and then Jackie rearranges everything to make sure its "right" (I know my role in the scheme of decorating).

Over the past couple months we've started doing weekly family chores, typically on Saturday morning. Much of it was an attempt to help Maia develop some ownership and discipline when it comes to her spaces in the house, and sharing the family spaces. Maia is very much a "drop it and leave it" type of kid as she flitters from one activity to another. We all take different jobs, and mine consist chiefly of cleaning the reading room, kitchen, and vacuuming the house. It occurred to me yesterday as I was cleaning the kitchen that the process was weirdly soothing. Again, likely related to the chaotic mess of this year, but engaging in something simple with immediate and clear results is, for lack of a better word, nice.

Thinking about these routines, and the comforts they can bring, I imagine will be vital in the coming months. COVID transmission in our local county and state continues to seemingly spiral out of control right now. Such confirms our decisions to stay home for holidays, making Thanksgiving and Christmas much different, and events that will bring sadness. Holding on to some small traditions involved in those holidays, even though we wont' be with family, may be helpful in managing our mental health throughout the beginning of this winter, which I continue to fear will be long and particularly dark.

2. On the health front, this week was similar to last week, which is to say I am holding steady but feel as if I could be doing better. I walked on the treadmill 4 times again (3 miles once, 2.5 miles twice, and 2.25 miles). I wrote last week I was decreasing my caffeine intake, and it has now been over a week since I have had any caffeine. Considering how much caffeine I have (mainly) drank since law school, this feels in some ways an accomplishment I never thought I would actually do. It gives me some small inspiration to know that with concerted effort and focus, making changes is always possible.

3. Reading was better this week, and I feel like I am starting to hit a groove again where it is easier to focus and make the time for the activity. I finished Jacqueline Woodson's Before the Ever After, a middle grade fiction work told entirely in free verse, on the heavy stuff of being a kid of a football player who develops CTE and resulting dementia. I also made my way through Reaganland: America's Right Turn 1976-1980 by Rick Perlstein. It is a massive book, but I found it very helpful to understanding some of the "pre-history" to our current politics, particularly in conservativism. Those two gets me to 80 books for the year, so reaching my stated goal of 84 books read for the year seems like a foregone conclusion at this point. 

I am currently working my through Andrew Marantz's Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation. The title gives a pretty clear idea of the subject matter of the book, and thus far it has been both fascinating and, well, depressing. Maia and I have also started reading One Time by Sharon Creech together, which has been enjoyable.

And on to coming week; feels weird to think that this time next week we will be just a few days from Thanksgiving and starting an altogether different sort of holiday season.