Well hello there, happy Saturday!

Thanks to everyone for being patient with link issues! Turns out some internet providers are blocking the links from my newsletter so I made a settings change, and some delightful readers have put in unblock requests with Spectrum, etc. If links didn’t work for you before, can you try again and let me know? THANK YOU! Patience is a virtue, they say, but it’s hard with tech issues.

This return-to-reality week was full of typical life stuff, and also some work on my scrappy improv log cabin quilt and quite a bit of reading. I am definitely at that stage of the season when I would give ANYTHING to have daylight at 7 am and 5 pm again (our wet and foggy weather here isn’t helping!), so I’m digging in deep to all of my distractions to keep my mind off the darkness.

Speaking of distractions, today is a sewing class day! This time we are working on the Donny Shirt from Friday Pattern Co, and while I’m not sure I would have chosen this style on my own, it’s definitely a skill builder for me (my first collar!) and I’m excited to have my instructor help with some of the tricky bits. I thrifted a funky Betsey Johnson sheet to use for this pattern (skulls & flowers!) since I always prefer a low cost and low stakes first attempt at any pattern. We’ll see how it goes!

OH, and I forgot to tell you about my slow read to start the year! By slow read, I mean a chapter a day with note-taking, and reading the accompanying SparkNotes chapter summaries and analysis after each chapter. Last year I read Emma by Jane Austen (disliked it intensely - ha) and this year, I’m reading… WUTHERING HEIGHTS. You knew I would, right?

Technically this is a read along with my daughters (and SIL!) but I’m not sure my girls will actually follow through with the full book. But, we are so very dedicated to whatever Margot Robbie and Charlie xcx have planned for us that the anticipation over the movie is pulling me through the entire book no. matter.what. The internet has been very excitedly debating whether this movie is a good idea … because it’s much better to focus on that than (waves arms around at AMERICA). DISTRACT US PLEASE.

Related: Remember how very much I LOVED the audiobook of The Favorites by Layne Fargo last January? I also adored reading and listening to the author talking about her inspiration and Wuthering Heights!!

Recent Reading

January is when I dive back into nonfiction after a usually-softer reading period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. My first title of 2026 was stellar, and is one I started back in the fall but couldn’t focus on at the time. I actually wanted to read this so badly that I accidentally preordered two copies from different places in the fall!

Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care by Claudia Rowe was shortlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction, which is how I learned of it. I’m happy to say that I read and LOVED three of the five finalists this year. I couldn’t bring myself to finish One Day, and was too intimidated to start Motherland when I got it from the library.

As an educator, parent, and citizen deeply interested in the human side of our world, I read widely about housing, the justice system and education. Wards of the State ties it all together, and while none of the claims of the book are brand new to me, the realities and numbers are presented so starkly that it’s truly hard to argue with the straight, HARD lines between foster care and incarceration and homelessness. Heartbreaking and infuriating.

I also listened to a novel that I was extremely disappointed with, but I’m still chalking it up as a win since I could check it off my “highly anticipated” list.

I am now working on wading through the gazillions of 2026 releases and figuring out which ones I want to prioritize … the list keeps shifting!

That’s all for today, readers ~ I hope you have a weekend filled with at least one thing you were looking forward to …