It's the last day of 2021 and, honestly, this year cannot end fast enough.

I had such hope when the vaccines came out for a return to normalcy, but that hope was quickly dashed. The news that the Pfizer trial for kids under 5 didn't work was a gut punch. Our kiddo is curious by nature, but we've had to keep her away from things and people in order to maintain our access to daycare. This is a kid who wants to explore and adventure, but she's stuck at home. We're stuck at home. I'm a homebody but even I've been yearning to go out to see people and do things again. 

2020 was the year I was just tired and cranky. I started this weekly post as a way to help me cope and find the good that still exists.

Here's what was good in the past few weeks:

• Getting to see our families for the holidays. We hosted and everyone was vaccinated, boosted, and tested negative before they stepped foot inside.
• Watching the methodical way our kiddo decorated sugar cookies AND the adorable picture I grabbed of her watching them bake in the oven.
• Living really close to the National Zoo.
• Enjoying piles of my mom's baked goods.
• Playing with my kid's new Duplo Legos. (I may have had more fun than she did.)
• Having the week between Christmas and New Year's off from work.
• Getting the husband into playing Cookie Clicker.
• Enjoying a doorstopper of a novel.
• My mom took morning kid duty several times giving us a chance to sleep in. 
• Weeding our belongings and adding a HUGE pile to the donation pick-up.
• Taking a few minutes to color.
• Citrus flavored fizzy water.
• Catching up on all my podcast subscriptions.
• DC handing out free rapid tests at libraries (one of which happens to be just down the street from our home).
• Enjoying a trip to CostCo before the holidays that was not chaotic.
• Watching our kid trying to twirl noodles onto her little fork.
• Spending a few relaxing minutes coloring.

Why hello there. I took an unexpected break from blogging over the holidays. The last of our family left town today, so now I'm back at it. 

Here's where my attention has been lately:

WORK​

• Nothing! The upside of academia is getting a long break over the holidays. I don't go back until January 3. Aside from keeping an eye on my email, all of my projects are on the back burner until the new year.

PERSONAL

• Finding room for all the things we got for Christmas. And by we, I mean the kiddo. She got to play with two of her new toys immediately. The rest, we have hidden away in a closet and will slowly role out in the next few months.
• I conducted my annual weeding of all the things. I now have a MASSIVE pile of donations to go out during our building's next pick up. So long diaper changing pad!
• Right after I weeded everything, I took pictures of everything we own for our home inventory. I try to do this once a year. Next, I will go through the pictures and update the database I made to keep track of everything.
• This morning, I gave our home a deep clean. This is a dust the baseboards, wash the stove grates, scrub of the fridge out kind of deep clean.
• On top of the deep clean, I did about a dozen loads of laundry. If it could be machine washed, it was machine washed. Nothing like heading in to the new year with a clean slate.
• I set my goals for 2022 and will start setting up my bullet journal tomorrow.

No Wrap this week. I'm enjoying the holidays.

If you want, I recommend heading over to my newsletter to see the most popular links for the email edition of TWW.

TWW will be back next Sunday.

See you in 2022!

I, somehow, got out of the habit of sharing what I am reading. So, here's my current read and a list of what I missed posting.

Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone
Diana Gabaldon

This is the ninth book in the Outlander series and it's a doorstopper. At 928 pages, I am sure that it could keep an airplane hanger door open. The size is intimidating, but I know from past reading experience that it never feels long. Gabaldon does do extensive backstory, character development, and scene setting but none of it feels like fluff to me. I'm already 100 pages in and, just like her other novels, it feels like being welcomed by family I have not seen in a very long time.  It's been seven years since the last novel in this series came out, so my memory of plot points is a bit fuzzy. I'm fairly able to keep up, but I do think I should have reread book eight.

Since I last posted, I also read:

• Accidentally Wes Anderson - Wally Koval
• Journal with Purpose: Over 1000 Motifs, Alphabets and Icons to Personalize Your Bullet or Dot Journal - Helen Colebrook
• Beautifully Organized at Work - Nikki Boyd
• The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal - Clint McElroy et al.
• PostSecret: Extraordinary Confessions from Ordinary Lives - Frank Warren
• The Jane Austen Society - Natalie Jenner
• Montessori for Every Family - Tim Seldin and Lorna McGrath
• The Rose Code - Kate Quinn
• Resistance - Val McDermid and Kathryn Briggs
• Together: Our Community Cookbook - The Hubb Community Kitchen

Our kiddo's daycare is holding a mini spirit week the next few days. On Monday, the kids will wear a festive outfit. Tuesday is red or green. Wednesday is pajama day. Not gonna lie, I am envious of the fun.

This reminds me of my high school. The week before homecoming, we always had these crazy dress days. (I also dominated at our annual food twister event, but that is a story for another day.) I loved how everyone could chose to participate by doing crazy hair, dressing in PJs, or wearing their outfit backward. It was something simple but it was fun. It also created a sense of camaraderie.

I want this in the workplace. Why can't we have spirit weeks? Why can't we get everyone to wear a crazy patterned onesie or capes or their fanciest outfit or zaniest hat? While we're at it, let's have some office/cubicle/door decorating contests - let them be funded by companies and done on work time. Call it team building if you need to.

I know this stuff is not a replacement for, ya know, higher wages, reasonable hours, work/life balance and general respect and kindness in the workplace, but it would help. Work should be a little bit fun.

What thing from childhood do you wish you could bring to the office?

This was my last full week of work for the year. Finals are over. The personal stuff from my office was moved to the cubicle I will inhabit during our renovation. I am ready for a break and, happily, a long one is just a few more days away.

Here's what was good this week.

• A student I helped via chat was super excited with what she learned and said I was very helpful.
• I got to eat some exceptionally tasty naan.
• We celebrated our wedding anniversary at home by ordering delicious food and watching Hallmark Channel movies.
• I started reading Diana Gabaldon's latest book and it's like being enveloped by family I have not seen in a long time.
• Our kiddo, out of nowhere, adorably set the table with paper plates one night. So we let her actually set the silverware up the following night.
• We got a visit from our kiddo's former nanny and finally got to say a proper thank you that was long delayed by COVID.
• Beginning the final countdown to seeing our families for the holidays.
• Fuzzy slippers.

I need to do a better job of capturing writing ideas when they come to me. I had a great idea for what to write here today... and then it just fluttered away into the ether - disappearing forever.

Oh well.

Here's what I'm working on.

WORK

• We're moving! Temporarily... to allow for a remodel. I packed up my office and claimed my cubicle for the new space. The cubicles are souless, but at least mine is near a big window. I started making a list of things to improve my space once we're over there permanently.
• Over the past weeks, colleagues and I conducted a series of test interviews to see how the protocol and methods of our research project are working out. So far, so good! Today, I transcribed one interview to start testing out that part of the project. It takes triple the time to transcribe an interview as it does to conduct one. Luckily, we used the built in captioning system of Zoom to help jump start transcription. It's not perfect, but it's definitely better than doing it from scratch. 
• Wrapped up the last of the finals week social media posts. Now I get to tease all the fun things we have coming in the new year - new location! new website! new newsletter!
• Put together a plan to create a faculty research index. It's something we need; and it's a natural fit for the Faculty Senate committee I am on and the library.
• Powering through the last of the recorded Internet Librarian sessions.

PERSONAL

• Still doing strategic planning for end of year/new year things. I have a lot of lists. 
• Planned out our Christmas menu/events for when our families are in town. It helps to get an idea of how much energy I'm going to need each day. Plus, it helps me wrangle shopping lists and what food needs to get prepped when.

One of these is not like the others.

At the start of the pandemic, I had to learn how to work from home. I've always worked in an office, so losing the commute and coworkers was a big change for me. It only took a few weeks for me to learn that I needed to establish a routine if I was going to get into a rhythm of working from home. 

​One of the routines I added was to make Friday my "admin day."

After a week full of Zoom meetings and far too many e-mails, I realized that admin work was all my brain could tolerate by Friday. I use Fridays to clean out my inbox and follow-up folder, update my required monthly report, empty out my voicemail, clean up my Trello and Toggl, work on random "I've been meaning to organize this" projects, and set plans for the following week. If there's time, I also tackle my massive professional reading pile and watch webinar recordings.

My organization is back to work in hybrid mode now, but I am keeping my admin Fridays. I found it to be a productive use of my time that was not too taxing on my mental capacities. 

What pandemic induced change are you going to keep?

I am always cold. In the winter, my feet are just blocks of ice. I am typing this while wearing an extra sweater and shearling slippers with a blanket tossed over my lap. I'm still cold, but at least I feel cozy.

Here's what was good this week.
​

• Happening upon an e-cycle event at our local library branch, thus saving me an errand which would require driving.
• Baking muffins and watching my kid devour them.
• Enjoying lots of cheesy and overacted Hallmark Channel movies.
• I won a random raffle during an online work event.
• Making a lot of progress in all the books I'm reading right now.
• Our kiddo's delighted laugh when she got attacked with puppy kisses.
• Enjoying our Christmas decorations every evening.
• Writing out and sharing motivational post-its to our students.
• Clean bill of dental health after two years of not going to the dentist.