Weeks of July 28-Sept 1, 2025

I went into this blogging breaking thinking I’d just skip a week while my parents were visiting, then it turned into over a month.

The first week we were focused on getting ready for Charlie’s birthday party, which turned out great. We put up a 20×20 tent since it rained unexpectedly the last couple years, but we didn’t really need it. The weather was cooler than previous years, too. Kids played on the swingset non-stop and the bbq we ordered from the Little Cabin was great. Charlie requested a piñata and picked out a yellow baby chick as big as he is, which was popular.

Next weekend we went to an outdoor concert in Ossining on Friday with Kate, Ben, and their kids, then Sunday we had Jay and Marie over for dinner.

The next weekend we got Charlie a haircut, we went to a birthday party for Hayden in Lake Peekskill, then we met the Jones family at the Natural History Museum in NYC. It was Charlie’s first time on the subway and he loved it.

The next weekend we were off to Cape Cod for a week of vacation with Grandma and Grandpa.

When we got back from vacation, we went to a birthday party for Lorenzo at Fishkill Farms and an end of summer party at Jay and Marie’s, then it was straight into Charlie’s first week of pre-K at a new school and Amanda running a work conference in Miami. It was a tough week, but Grandma stayed with us for the week to help out. Friday night we celebrated getting through the week by going to King Kone for dinner and ice cream.

This weekend we took Grandma to the airport, went shopping for some new shoes for Charlie, and hosted an impromptu play date at our house with some of Charlie’s friends from daycare that he was missing. Amanda got home later that night and we are all trying to catch our breath on this rainy Sunday before we get back in to our (new) regular schedules tomorrow.

In between the above, there was lots of outside time, bicycle riding, and ice cream. Soaking up the end of summer.

In this busy month, I didn’t do any of my hobbies. When things are busy, you’ve got to focus on being a parent. By bedtime each day I was zapped, so all I had energy for was reading a bit before bed. Though perhaps I should be kinder to myself and reframe that reading is a hobby, too. I finished eight books:

Orbital by Samantha Harvey (2023)

Armageddon (Expeditionary Force Book 8) by Craig Alanson (2019)

How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson (2015)

All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries 1) by Martha Wells (2017)

Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries 2) by Martha Wells (2018)

Common Ground: A Naturalist’s Cape Cod by Robert Finch (1981)

The Cape Cod Mystery by Phoebe Atwood Taylor (1931)

Rogue Protocol (Murderbot Diaries 3) by Martha Wells (2018)

I’m currently reading:

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

Midnight Assassin by Skip Hollandsworth (though I think I’m not going to finish it right now… details about gruesome murders aren’t my vibe at the moment)

Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

I’m on the lookout for good audiobooks for morning and afternoon drives. Send me some recommendations, please!

Bluesky is the only social media I’ve been on in a serious way this month. Removing Instagram from my phone has been good. Might need to remove Bluesky, too, and just read RSS feeds. My Bluesky feeds are full of our country’s slide into authoritarianism and, while true, that isn’t what I need to see when I’m taking a break. Instead, I probably should just go outside for a bit or tidy up around the house.

I don’t like to comment on politics much now. I got that out of my system in high school, college, and the first couple years after that. But I do still think about it (how can one not right now!) and one thing is clear to me now: I used to have faith in the checks and balances of the three branches of government, but their fatal weakness is that they rely on good people to stand up for those checks and hold their ground. We can’t rely on the spineless people we’ve voted in and let be appointed.

This was a problem in previous administrations, too. In my time being politically conscious, I noticed the slide toward authoritarianism under Bush, Obama, and Biden as well, but there was also more checking and balancing being done during those times. Not only do we have the Trump administration stepping on the authoritarianism gas pedal and reaching unprecedented speeds, we also have a spineless congress and inept judiciary letting it happen. Disgraceful.

Work has been challenging, and the state of US politics highly concerning and disheartening, but I’m proud of the sweet, smart little boy Charlie is growing up to be. I am grateful for our family and thankful we live in a relatively peaceful place during a relatively peaceful time.