What's Saving My Life Right Now
only three books are mentioned
1. Stephen Fry’s narration of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Re-reading is my favorite kind of reading, children’s books are comfort food, and Harry Potter is mac-and-cheese level comfort for me. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone has been my nighttime “reading” lately. Reading on a kindle wakes me up too much (my ten-month-old still wakes to nurse multiple times a night), so I pop in headphones and listen, eyes closed, until the baby is ready to go back down. I was never a huge fan of Jim Dale’s audio version (his Hermione is so annoying, the way she says, “Harryyyyy”), so I’m glad that Stephen Fry’s rendition came to Audible.
2. Ramona Quimby
My older daughter and I are reading the Ramona books, and I am so grateful to Ramona for reminding me how it feels to be a kid, especially a kid who is acutely aware of adults’ opinions and expectations. In more than one of the books, Ramona has to spend time at a neighbor’s house while her mother works. If Ramona misbehaves, Mrs. Kemp might refuse to watch her, which would set off a domino effect: her mother can’t work, her father will have to drop out of school, and everyone will be unhappy. “And so it all depended on Ramona.”
3. Admitting that things are hard.
Ramona’s trials are relatable for everyone. How do I acknowledge a difficult situation without inadvertently signaling that it’s too much for me? A spouse traveling for work is hard. Buying a new house is hard. Re-certifying my loan repayment plan and re-enrolling in health insurance (so. many. bureaucracies, you guys) while homeschooling and taking care of small kids is hard.
But all of these things are good. I don’t want to change anything. I don’t want to wave the white flag, so I’m tempted to pretend they’re not hard. But I need to acknowledge what’s challenging right now, if only to remind myself to bring the right level of energy and attention to every day. There’s a kind of arrogance in pretending that everything is easy. Just reminding myself, “This feels hard because it is hard,” makes it much easier to handle it.
4. Bringing my own book or notebook to the library.
This is a gamechanger for parents. We have a great public library, and my kids behave so well whenever we go. They don’t fight or yell or whine for attention. When we arrive, I spend five minutes playing with them. Then they give me ten minutes to write. Then I read aloud for ten minutes, and I get another ten minutes to read to myself before we look for books and check out. My book right now is The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse. Hilarious! I want to cherish this time of the library being my magic bullet for now. Once the baby is walking, he might not stay in the children’s section as well.
5. Homemade bone broth and fruit juice gummies.
I recently had a procedure that trequired a liquid-only diet for a day. I thought I’d be miserably weak with headaches all day, but instead, drinking homemade bone broth and eating homemade fruit juice jello left me feeling light and energized. I’m back to eating real food (thank goodness!), but now I start out each day with a cup of bone broth and snack on fruit juice gummies throughout the day. The protein boosts my energy while being gentle on my temperamental gut.
6. Playing Cinderella with my kids.
Give a little kid a barely damp cloth, and she’ll scrub the floor for you while singing “Sing, Sweet Nightingale.” Just snap, “Go wake my daughters, Cinderella!” or, “Where’s my tea, Cinderella?” a few times, and I can almost finish writing a Substack before it’s time to go to the ball. Almost. But then I get to play fairy godmother and watch her dance, which is even more fun than writing.
7. Rembering that postponing is not the same as procrastinating.
I hate unfinished tasks. I pay bills in full the moment the invoice arrives, finish projects before anyone has to ask me, and reply to emails within hours of receiving them. I love to have a couple of creative projects queued up, devoting spare hours to getting them done.
Except right now. Our financial rhythm is different with a new job and a pending house purchase. Bills that offer no-penalty installments can be paid that way. No one but me and my spreadsheet will notice. I can sit on an email until I have the space to give the right information or ask the right questions. I can wait to complete an application until it’s due, even though my personal timeline would have me finish it two weeks early.
It’s tough to wait on creative projects. I was asked to record an audiobook for a friend, but I’ve had to put that on hold for a few months. I’ve wanted to write a longer essay or two on here for a long time, but that will have to wait, too.
And that’s okay. Postponing isn’t the same as procrastinating. It just means that these more urgent things need their moment, and these other, important things will have their time, too.
