Eye to Wonder

I love hearing about what media people are engaging with and love seeing the best of the year lists come out. I don’t always go back and review my favorites from the year, but this year I decided to join the fun and list my favorite books and music of the year. Reading is my most established (and favorite) habit, so I had a lot of great books to choose from. I’m trying to get back into listening to more new music, so I had fewer favorites. I hope next year that I have more new music I’ve listened to a lot and love. I also added in the Goodreads graphic of all the books I have read (to date) this year. My favorite books of 2025: 5.) These Heathens by Mia MacKenzie. I really loved this short book set in the south during the 1960s. It follows Doris, a seventeen-year-old from rural Georgia, who travels to Atlanta for an abortion. The story takes place over the course of one weekend, and features several Civil Rights leaders (Martin Luther King, Coretta Scott King, and Malcolm X among ot...

Hoping you and your families have had warm, cozy, and festive holidays! I’ve been a bit quiet in this space as we’ve been immersed in lots of fun and festive family events. I thought I’d share a few of the moments that I want to remember from the holiday season this year. For context, we are an interfaith family that celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas. I want to remember… *Our first Hanukkah party at the synagogue we joined this year. A was shy at first, but by the end was running and playing with all the kids and it was beautiful to see a table filled with lit menorahs. Particularly after the horrific shooting at Bondi Beach, it was good to be together with a larger group of Jews to celebrate. *The 80th year of our family Christmas party. This party has been thrown every year (except 2020) since 1946. My mom’s side of the family gathers the Sunday before Christmas and Santa visits. A was delighted to see Santa, M was full of tears and retreated to another room for snuggles. This...

We are in full-on festive season mode! Hanukkah began on Sunday, it’s the last week of school, and then with Christmas next week everything feels full, but in a mostly fun way. Usually I’m pretty minimalist/simplicity focused; I like going to bed early, having quiet time to myself, and habits and routines. But this year, I’m kind of leaning into a more is more philosophy, particularly when it comes to gatherings and celebrations. 1.)This has been a big week for hosting/gatherings. We had a feast of the seven fishes party (biggest hits were the tuna pasta & whole ocean white fish), and the next night we had another family over to celebrate Hanukkah with brisket, latkes, and dreidel! Then, this weekend, we are also going to a Hanukkah party at the youth rabbi’s house on Saturday, and a family Christmas party on Sunday. This is a lot for one week, but I think it will be a fun and memorable week and after lots of quieter holiday years, I’m kind of loving all the time to connect and ...

In this season of parenting, something I can struggle with is the constant mess and tidying cycle. I’m definitely guilty of letting a nice moment pass me by because I’m focused on all of the clean up that will have to happen later, but lately I’ve been trying to remind myself that it looks like a six and two-year-old live here because they do. I’m trying to see the bigger picture of what kind of life I want our family to have rather than snapping at kids or feeling like I’m the only one who ever cleans up (which isn’t true, but feels like it some days). Instead of reacting to the mess in a passive-aggressive way, I’m trying to focus on decluttering, having a clear place where things go, and resetting as a family regularly. There is a lot of stuff still to declutter, but it helps to focus on our main living area where we spend 80% of our time at home. Do these systems work all of the time? Definitely not. Do I still sometimes get snippy on days when we spend a lot of time at home an...

Happy Friday! I meant to post Wednesday, and then M caught a 24-hour stomach bug on one of her preschool mornings when I had planned to cross off a lot of lingering to-do items. She’s all better, but it helped me to decide to lower the bar and make life easier this month. We got groceries delivered, which we almost never do, but it really wasn’t an option to take her anywhere. I also put some easy meals on the weeks’ rotation, and I decided to scale back blogging a little this month. I want to keep up momentum after NaBloPoMo, but realize I can still be flexible. I realized that posting 3 times a week is an arbitrary and self-imposed goal, so I am shifting to a once or twice a week posting schedule this month. This leaves more room to enjoy the holiday events, cook for the two events we are hosting, relax when possible and just keep up with the normal cooking, cleaning, life admin. Plus this leaves me with more time to enjoy other blogs and books! Here are five things that made me ha...

This year, I’ve been trying to listen to more music. It’s something that makes me feel like myself, but it’s also something I’ve gotten out of the habit of since having kids and getting into podcasts. Even when I listen to music, I often listen to old favorites instead of new releases or new-to-me music. This weekend, I incorporated listening to new music in a different way, and I think I want to try this routine more often. On weekdays this time of year, I don’t go on walks too much because it is often dark when I am getting ready for my day and working out. This Saturday morning I decided to take advantage of a slower-paced schedule and walk around the neighborhood looking at holiday decorations. Generally when I walk, I queue up a podcast, but I didn’t feel like taking in more information or content. I felt like letting my mind wander, and I wanted to check out some more music from artists I am discovering from best of the year playlists. I picked an album (Cameron Winter’s “H...

Happy Friday! It’s been nice to settle back into normal rhythms after traveling last week. It was a great trip, but it’s nice to be back in our own space and our usual routine. Some things on my mind this week: 1. M played her first board game, Monkey Around ! We are definitely a board game family, and it’s exciting to see our youngest start to participate in this family tradition. Joel, A, and I also spent a lot of time playing the game Magical Athletes , which is extremely silly and fun to play with kids and grown-ups.The tagline to the game is "a party game of pure racing chaos," which basically sums up the experience. 2. I finished the book Wreck , which made me laugh out loud a lot. I was reading the book while giving M a bath, and she would laugh really hard with me and then look up like, why are we laughing? I think there was something poignant for me about reading a novel that centered on a woman’s relationships with her adult children. It’s a stage of life that ...

Going into November, I knew I wanted to have a better reading month. Being a reader is a core part of my identity and my absolute favorite hobby, so when my reading life feels meh, it is usually a sign that I’m stressed. I knew that with lots of “weird” weeks out of routine with school schedules being different or traveling, having a good reading month would help me feel more grounded. Focusing attention on this really helped solve the problem--I had a much better reading month after spending a little time listening to book podcasts, browsing all the bookish posts on NaBloPoMo, and putting in a bunch of holds at the library. Here’s hoping this trend continues in December! Favorite Reads This Month: * Homeseeking by Karissa Chen. This was my absolute favorite read this month. The story follows Sushi and Haiwen from Shanghai in the 1930s to the early 2000s in SoCal. When it’s done well, I love historical fiction with multiple timelines and perspectives. The pacing in this was excel...

After dropping my kids back at school after break, I decided to use my couple of hours while M is at preschool to enjoy the quiet house, exercise, catch up on laundry, and then spend some time planning the month next to the tree with Christmas music playing. Were there other things I could have done? Yes. Did we return home to a plumbing problem that will require appointments and reshuffling? Also yes. But while I waited for the plumber to call back, it was nice to take some time to look ahead to a month with all the festive things coming up and wrap my mind around what’s coming up. Big Events this month: *Feast of the 7 Fishes--we got inspired watching this excellent holiday movie and have hosted some friends over to cook way too much seafood after the kids go to bed. This year I think my friend is going to come down from LA to join, which I’m super excited about. *Hanukkah--we are an interfaith family, so we do Hanukkah and Christmas. Hanukkah is actually a relatively minor celebr...