Weekend recap

Finally! No more plain white wall.

Written on a Wednesday...

It was a somewhat busy, but also chill weekend after a few days of solo parenting. My mother-in-law was staying with us, so we had almost constant care and entertainment for M.

On Saturday morning, I went swimming, which felt nice, but I think it worsened my sinus infection (so I'm still sick - yay!) Then I tried on some pieces from my Trunk Club, which arrived on Friday, and kept one item - nude heels. Another staple checked off my list! Though I wonder how much longer until TC fires me as a client. I'm pretty sure I'm a revenue sink for them.

I napped during M's nap, and in the afternoon I decorated M's room with golden wall dots while listening to a couple of episodes of "Best of Both Worlds" (the rest of the family went to San Francisco to meet up with O's cousin). After M's bedtime, we watched the first episode of "Schitt's Creek", which was pretty funny, and did laundry. I'm trying to find a show that O and I can both watch now that we're through the "Better Call Saul" episodes that were available on Netflix.

On Sunday, I didn't work out to see if that would help me recover better (and no, I don't think it did). I also caught up on some work from the previous week, chopped lots of veggies for the Ribollita that we cooked for the week (it's become a favorite here). Took a nap in the afternoon, cuddled and read books with M after her nap, and took some family photos for potential holiday cards with my mother-in-law as the photographer. I've never done holiday cards before, maybe because it's never been a thing in my family, but I'm thinking of trying it out this year.

Prepping Ribollita. Bananas not part of the recipe.

Reading

I also finished Celeste Ng's "Little Fires Everywhere". I was able to borrow both the Kindle and the Audiobook versions through the Libby app, which was great because I could switch between reading and listening. Overall I had fun with the book. The plot was engrossing, I was interested in the characters, and I loved the late 90's references, since that's when the narrative took place. It was also interesting to read about the lives of wealthy American teenagers living at a time when I was a very-not-wealthy recent immigrant growing up in a wealthy community (Palo Alto, California).

What I most appreciated about the book, however, were the many discussions of motherhood, mothers' relationships with their daughters, some heart-wrenching narratives of mothers who were unable to have children, as well as a mother who was separated from her child (which brings tears to my eyes even as I am typing this). After finishing the book, I read a review in the Guardian by an author who states that he doesn't have children and wonders if that's why he doesn't care about the stories about children and babies. Yes!!! As a mother, I found those stories deeply engrossing and emotionally triggering. Which also made the reading satisfying.

However, I also did feel like something was missing from the book. Some of the characters seemed a little too one-dimensional to me: Mrs. Richardson the Perfection-seeker, Mia the Rebel, Lexie the Smart-but-shallow popular girl. The male characters, other that Moody, perhaps, were even more shallow and glossed-over in the narrative. I also felt like some things were over-explained - the author would have been better off leaving the reader to interpret the metaphors on their own or to use their intuition a little more.

Overall, I'd recommend this book as an easy, engaging read - but I didn't find myself changed by it.