It’s the first Saturday of a new year. How will you spend it? We get just 52 of them in 2026 so it’s best to spend the time wisely.
It’s also the first weekend of my No Spend Challenge so I’ll be home, doing home things and hopefully reading. I’m in the middle of a page turner. In fact, I fell asleep reading last night, waking up to the book hitting my face.
How lovely it is to fight sleep in favor of just one more page!
It’s also lovely to have a furry little friend to check on you and curl up close. Scout will be glad to keep me company while we relax today.
This is how I want to spend this day. It’s a choice and I’m glad for it. Wherever you are, I hope you are choosing to do something that brings you joy and peace as well.
I have been beating myself up over my 2025 reading list. This year’s goal was to read 100 books. Truthfully friends, there is no prize for hitting my goal, nor punishment for a miss. The point is to keep me always reaching for a book rather than a tv remote or worse, for my phone. I spend way too much time scrolling as it is and do enjoy a good book.
I fell behind at some point this summer. A dozen books behind schedule is a pretty big hole to dig yourself out of but I did manage. Yet, all along, I felt like I was doing something wrong. Like what I was reading wasn’t good enough.
Never mind all the articles and professional reading I was doing as well.
My reading tastes range from historical fiction to thrillers to kiddie lit and non-fiction on a variety of topics. It felt like this year I devoted too many slots on my list to kid’s books. Out of the 102, 15 were kiddie lit. Three were from the Hector Fox storybook series gifted to the world by an author named Astrid Sheckels. These books feature exquisite artwork and fabulous stories about this group of animals that go on grand adventures but always come home to Hector’s den where they read a book or eat snacks together.
I want to live in Hector’s home, by the way.
The kiddie lit stack also includes Charlotte’s Web and the first of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House On The Prairie series. I hadn’t read either since I was a child and was taken by how beautifully written these books are. The stories are captivating and thought provoking. These two and Hester Fox are better told stories than many of the adult contemporary fiction books I have read this year.
I also read 20 nonfiction books on a variety of topics including farm life in the Great Depression, living in nature, and true crime.
The rest were fiction and that stack included some truly wonderful books along with some that I would deem junk food for the brain. In particular, there were some thriller writers that required no effort to read.
I have a bookshelf where all the current year’s books live and where they are shelved in the order I read them. I also keep a Goodreads list and a notebook to record the books I read. The shelf, though, allows me to visualize all that I’ve read this year and the space these stories occupy in the world.
Let’s face it – this is kind of a trophy shelf but I’m ok with that.
On January 1, I always remove the books from those shelves and sort them on the kitchen table into the categories of Fiction, Non Fiction, and Children’s. I sort the favorites and which ones to give away. Then I shelve the keepers in their permanent homes. It’s a fun process for a closeted librarian.
As I removed them 2025 books from that shelf, I realized there are trends in my reading year. Winter is reserved for longer books and a lot of nonfiction. By spring I’m reading more fiction, the heat of summer introduces kids books, and by Christmas it’s a steady diet of Richard Paul Evans and others who tell soft, happy Christmas stories.
I read some great books this year. Why on Earth am I beating myself up over some kiddie lit that, in the grand scheme of things, is better done than some of the bubblegum fiction we are told we should be reading?
Don’t worry. I’m done beating myself up now.
Reading is reading, friends. Whether you’re reading storybooks to your kids or diving deep into the world of Jane Austen, or reading bestselling fiction, it is all reading.
And what a miracle it is that 26 little letters can be manipulated into thousands of words that tell a story in a book that is unique of all the other books next to it on a shelf. The creativity and effort that goes into writing books is something to be celebrated! The fact you choose a book over other distractions is amazing.
Let us rejoice that there are books in this world and that we choose to read them!
It’s January 1, 2026. New Year’s Day. That statement means different things to some people and certainly something different to me than most.
It’s a grand celebration for many and a more introspective time for others. Personally, I was in bed with a book before nine last night and asleep before midnight. This has never been a big day for me but I am glad for those of you who celebrate.
The decision to read in bed and get some rest was an intentional head start to how I want my winter to be. As I age, I become more convinced that seasonal change is good for the human body and spirit. Even summer, which I despise, has a purpose in the rhythm of life even if many modern humans think it exists solely for their entertainment.
Spring is a period of rebirth and a revival of beauty. Summer gives us longer days for productivity and growing while fall is a season of harvest and preparation for the harsher days ahead.
And here we are in those harsher days where it’s cold and brown, where pine trees and lingering autumn leaves provide most of the color. The ground here is hard and blanketed in snow. Everywhere you look, trees and flowers are dormant. Animals have disappeared, choosing hibernation over struggle. Those left like the deer, birds, opossums, and squirrels do struggle so I make the trek outside each day to leave them a little something – not enough for them to become dependent but enough to help them out.
As a modern American with a job and responsibilities, I cannot completely hibernate but I do my best to take advantage of the season. Where there’s darkness, I shine soft lights of a Christmas tree and strategically placed lamps. I make things cozy, welcoming and calm. This year I added a string of lights around the inside of my bedroom windows, making that room feel a little like a Scandinavian retreat.
January has long been a No Spend Challenge Month for me, a perfect time to choose the quiet of home rather than adventure in the outside world. I will relive some adventures by telling you about them in stories this winter. I may even plan some trips for later this year. But I’m more likely to pass the month quietly here in my home on the ridge. I will do some home organization and maybe a little redecorating with things I already own. Feathering my nest is one of my favorite things to do.
I recently heard an interior designer say that minimalism and grey are out and that antiques and color are back. Homes that feel curated over time are back in fashion over those that look like they were carried in all at once.
Essentially, I’ve been preparing for this moment my whole life!
I developed a bedtime ritual last year but, as life became busier and more tiring, I notice myself rushing or skipping steps in favor of just getting to sleep. Mealtime is something thrown together. For the last couple of weeks, meals have been comprised of whatever leftover pasta, veggies, potatoes, cheese, and fudge I happened to find available. Bedtime has been later and later. For weeks, running errands and doing things I really didn’t want to do replaced intention and calm.
I don’t exactly have New Year’s Resolutions but I do believe that this month is the right time for me to reset my intentions. To think more about nourishing meals, to choose water over Diet Coke, to choose rest over whatever nonsense the outside world has to offer, to read more, to relax with a puzzle, to try a new recipe, to feather my nest, to soothe my own nervous system – these are the things I resolve to do more.
So, the blog for the next several weeks will be sort of a hodgepodge of adventure stories from last year, reading goals, cat stories, No Spend Challenge notes and other assorted things happening around here. I will also attempt to get back into a regular writing habit. When life gets to be too much, this blog is basically the canary in the coal mine. If I’m not writing here, that means there are bigger problems and distractions elsewhere.
I hope you’ll stay for it.
Happy New Year, friends! I hope you will make 2026 the best year for whatever will make you happy and calm.