Because it was January 1st!
1- Help Genevieve go through a shelf of books! We reviewed the concept of “spark joy” and she helped me decide which books to keep, and which books to let go. She did reasonably well! I think she let go of ~30% of her books, some aimed at younger kids and some chapter books from A that she just has no interest in.
I am not in a rush to get rid of all of the picture books that have been read over a solid decade between the 3 kids, but I did not shed any tears when she felt done with Make Way for Ducklings.
(I DID possibly cry a little when she decided that Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go still sparked joy, but I am going to respect her choices. ALSO it’s actually fine because no longer needs me to read it to her.)
2- Played piano. I help G practice piano most nights (for 5-10 minutes, she has finally graduated out of the Red Alfred series and into the Green) and figured it would be the most natural if I just played myself after she was done (plus, a good example for her!). I pulled out my trusty Taylor Swift and banged out “Cancelled” a couple of times. It was satisfying!! That is probably my favorite song to play so far from the songbook.
3- Took a walk even though it was getting dark. I do take walks regularly, but often if it gets too late I just scrap it. BUT there was no real reason to do so yesterday especially because it was delightfully crisp outside! I headed out and enjoyed listening to the Happier Ladies discuss how they want to feel in 2026, plus Dana K. White for some cleaning inspo.
4- Balanced YNAB. I audit YNAB every month anyway. But I decided that it was time to actually check the totals in YNAB against reality (something I had not done in probably 5 years) and was pleasantly surprised to find out that we had a bit more cash on hand than I had captured in the system. (This is separate from investments and long term savings which we track in a spreadsheet. YNAB’s totals just (should) reflect the combo of the two accounts we use for checking.)
This is likely because I hadn’t been accounting for any of the interest that had accrued for years (in Ally) and also because my system tends to err in the direction of over-recording (I audit the credit card statements and ensure every item is in YNAB, but I don’t do the other way around, and there is a chance I could re-enter something if I don’t have the amounts exactly right).
((If you are a die-hard YNAB user and all of this sounds blasphemous, I understand. I probably use YNAB “wrong” in many ways but it works for us!))
What will we use the discovered funds for? Nothing, I entered it straight into the ’emergency’ category. But it was nice to find anyway! (Way better than the other way around . . .)
5- Duolingo. I had been in a bit of a Duo rut but C wanted to get the “family” version and I decided that after 5 years of using the free version that it was time to upgrade and try the paid. I went all out (Max Family plan) and Josh immediately signed up and added German and some other language that it escaping me right now (he already speaks Spanish). I’m thinking that some of the AI powered “video calls” and such might actually help me move from just understanding to speaking. I know it’s not the same as speaking with real humans but it’s more than I was doing before!
(After 5 years of Duolingo I can understand 50-60% of the Spanish in patient rooms when using an interpreter. Maybe even a little more when the medical words are familiar. It’s a TON more than I could understand before! But the app has not trained me to speak, which makes sense. You have to actually SPEAK to learn to speak . . . )
Something I probably would have done anyway: read more of the above book because it’s very compelling and I see the appeal.
6 Comments
I’m glad you are liking Heart the Lover! Now I want to go back and reread Writers and Lovers!
We need to purge some of our picture books and get rid of some board books. I could use the extra space for Paul’s growing chapter book collection. There are some board books I won’t part with, like the Pookie Boynton books and All The World, which is my go to baby gift because it’s a hidden gem so unlikely they will get multiple copies. I wish I knew who gave it to me. It’s soooo good and such a soothing read.
I am looking forward tO knowing what day it is. When I saw the title of your post my first thought was ‘huh, it’s Friday?’ LOL.
I read Writers & Lovers in 2020, and didn’t love it (didn’t earn a ‘heart’ in my records and honestly I don’t remember it well!). But I know some people DID love it! Interesting that I’m finding this one much more compelling.
I will share that Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go still sparks joy to me and I’m 53:).
Your Duolingo experience is interesting to me because I have found the opposite. We were in France over the summer and I felt confident putting sentences together (and the people I was speaking to understood me), but the listening comprehension part was so hard.
I believe pretty firmly that the listening vs speaking thing is very dependent on an individual’s brain! I speak Spanish and have always been way stronger in speaking/ reading vs listening comprehension. I am a very visual person, too, so I think this makes sense. I still find my listening comprehension to be my weakest link even after 20+ years of speaking Spanish now. My husband is Mexican and I understand 100% of what he says in Spanish, but can STILL sometimes struggle to understand some bits and pieces when the speaker has a very different accent from what I’m used to (i.e. not a Mexico City accent which is what we speak- so like someone from say Puerto Rico or Argentina or Honduras might cause more pause for me, depending on the subject). I also can have difficulty with TV/ radio sometimes! Honestly I sometimes can struggle to catch all the ENGLISH in movies and if my family will let me, I like to put the subtitles on! hahaha.
From what I know, Sarah is not much of a visual person, I know she plays music primarily by ear, not sight (I’m the opposite there, too!), and she struggles with certain spatial/navigation skills, so I’d bet she is just a lot stronger in auditory things -> listening comprehension!
That is super interesting!!! And yes – not a very visual person!! I do think I have a pretty strong “ear”.