My book total for 2025 fell well below my total for 2024, and I'm okay with that. This year I read/listened to (mostly listened) 153 books. Those that are underlined were especially impactful, those in italics were for book club, and the one that's in bold was an actual book, not an audiobook.
January:
Sophie said she wants to be a stop motion animator when she grows up. This looks like a good way to start.
After three years of early morning seminary and one year of evening seminary, Peter graduated from seminary! We drove an hour to the Stake Center on Sunday night and attended his seminary graduation.
Well done, Peter!
My total book count for 2023 is 194. That's...a lot. You'll notice that my count increased dramatically during the last few months of the year, when all my kids were in school. So I guess the answer to "What are you going to do when all of your kids are in school?" is: read. Or rather, I guess the answer is listen since almost all of these were audiobooks. My November count would have been higher except that I listened to one book that was 48 hours long and that took some time.
As usual, my list is broken up by month. The titles in italics were for book club (I'm down to one book club, but it's the best), the underlined titles were especially profound, and the starred title (I think there's only one) was a regular book, not an audiobook. I'm adding a new category this year. The titles in bold stuck with me long after I finished reading them. These may have once gone into the profound category, but they're a little different. These tend to deal with harder subjects and may not leave me uplifted, but I still see great value in having read them.
My goal this year is to read fewer books. Seriously. That was my goal the last two years and I failed, but it'll be hard to beat this many books. Maybe I need an intervention?
January:
The girls and I made a goal at the beginning of the year to learn how to run a mile without stopping. I've only been able to do this once in my life, ten years ago when we lived in the hotel in Wisconsin. That took a summer of walking/running on a treadmill for 45 minutes a day. I figure this will take some time too.
The girls were eager to start right away, but we had to wait for the weather to be accommodating. It's been an exceptionally cold winter. We finally had a few days of warmth two weeks ago, so we started. We're following a program that is supposed to have you running in six weeks. However, that requires four warm days each week for us to be outside and we don't have that quite yet. We've had to modify the plan. That's okay, our goal is to run it by the end of the year, so we've got some wiggle room.
Cooper and Topher have joined us on each outing. Peter has tagged along on a few. We take the stroller with us for two reasons. The first is to carry the water bottles and jackets that are inevitably shed as we run. The second is for Topher. Some days he walks and runs most of the time. Some days he rides. And some days he gets in and out of the stroller as much as we'll let him.
The first day we did ten rounds of running for 30 seconds followed by 90 seconds of walking. After a few days of that we shifted to eight rounds of 60 seconds of running then 90 seconds of walking. Yesterday we moved to ten rounds of 60 seconds of running followed by 60 seconds of walking.
Yesterday was rough for all of us. We really had to push ourselves to keep going, especially as we got closer to the end. Sophie dropped back just over halfway through and was having trouble running. Peter dropped back too and helped her by holding her hand and walking with her as I ran ahead with the others. Sophie and I were both impressed with his choice.
For most of our runs I have my phone (timer) in one hand and either the stroller or Topher's hand in the other. I spend so much time watching for cars and calling out when to jog and when to walk that I failed to take any documenting pictures for several days. I finally remembered last week. If you look at Cooper in the penultimate picture it'll give you a good idea of how tired we all are at the end. That's right, he rolled himself home in the stroller once Topher decided to finish on foot.
About a month and a half ago a friend in my ward texted to ask if we were interested in a free piano. I responded with lots of exclamations points that YES we were indeed interested. Another family in our ward was looking for a new home for their piano, so I reached out to her. I told her that our kids had been practicing piano on a keyboard and had asked if we were ever going to have a real piano. She was happy we wanted it and was willing to hold on to it for a few more weeks until we were in the new house.
Well, it took longer than a few weeks. The continuously damp basement and construction zone second floor delayed our piano acquisition plans, which had included using one of the three U-Haul trucks we rented to transport the piano from their house to ours. On Labor Day a couple from our ward stopped by with a pot of flowers and a sidewalk visit. As they were leaving they asked if they could help in any way and reminded us that they have a trailer. I screwed up my courage and told them about the piano.
Tonight they, plus three more members of our ward, all wearing masks, brought the piano to our house.
The family that gave it to us warned us in advance that it would need to be tuned, and they were definitely correct. It's kind of tinny but manageable until you hit the G below middle C, then it's rather earsplitting. But tuning a piano is something that we can make happen.
A house and an actual piano are two things that I've wanted for a long, long time. I'm so happy to have them both. Neither are in great condition, but that's okay, I'm still thankful.
In honor of National Poetry Month, Phoebe's class wrote poems using a very specific template. She shared hers with me today and now I'm sharing it with you. I was impressed at how true a picture she painted of herself.
I am a bibliophile and aspiring author
I wonder about mysteries and supernatural things
I hear the clicking of keyboards
I see words on the page
I want to finish writing a book someday, to bring the untold stories to the world
I am a bibliophile and aspiring author
I pretend to be in the stories I am reading
I feel frustrated when I don’t know what comes next in my story
I touch the smooth cold surface of my kindle
I worry about my family
I cry when my family members are sad
I am a bibliophile and aspiring author
I understand many different feelings
I say that everyone is unique and special. I dream about acting on a grand stage, and in front of cameras
I try to make my characters relatable and unique
I hope that I will be able to finish writing a story
I am a bibliophile and aspiring author
To close out 2020 I decided to look back at the goals I had set for this year to see how I did.
Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do. -2 Nephi 32:3
