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Friday, October 3 - Monday, October 6

Friday, October 3 Big day in the Littell house, with Taylor Swift's new release dropping at midnight Thursday night. The kids stayed up for it, making friendship bracelets and listening to the new album in the basement (I was asleep). Friday night, the girls and I drove to the Waterfront to see the Life of a Showgirl behind-the-scenes documentary. We had dinner at Bravo then went to the theater, where they traded a couple of friendship bracelets--they were so excited at this tiny nod back to the Eras Tour.  My life was an absolute horror show during that concert, and most of that weekend is a blur that I've pretty much repressed, but I will always be glad we made that concert happen despite it all. Just one of many experiences that I will not let this curse take away from us. Saturday, October 4 Lucia caught a bus at school at 7am to go out to Ohio for the Legends XC meet, and Greta and I hit the road not long after. This was an enormous meet at a big fairgrounds in Cortland, a...
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Thursday, October 2

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This morning, I came across an article in Slate featuring the top 25 picture books over the past 25 years. The article was partly in response to an old article in the NYT about how picture books were no longer a vital part of children's lives, how children's books were dead, etc etc. Articles like that always surprise me, because picture books were such a crucial part of my kids' childhood that I can honestly say the books I selected and read to them made them who they are. We read together for hours each day. We had books for each season and holiday, and a new selection of books every summer that we read only on the porch. A couple of the books from this Slate list are in our own library; but our favorites are generally not the type of book that would make an appearance on a list like this. (For example: the incredibly odd and somewhat disturbing Three Little Horses.) Recently, Greta and I dug through all of our picture books, pulling out our very favorites. This task was ...
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Tuesday, September 29 - Wednesday, October 1

Greta had a XC race on Tuesday in Schenley, a very low-stakes race with just three schools. She came in seventh. Tuesday also involved XC practice for Lucia, piano lessons for both kids, then Lucia's tutoring.  Wednesday was October 1! The start of my favorite month, and it finally was just cool enough to feel like fall. Of course, October inspires, and it's time to reshare my favorite poem, "A Vagabond Song" by Bliss Carman, which I heard for the first time when I was sixteen years old and which, a quarter-century later, offered the gift of a title and epigraph for my first novel: A Vagabond Song There is something in the autumn that is native to my blood— Touch of manner, hint of mood; And my heart is like a rhyme, With the yellow and the purple and the crimson keeping time. The scarlet of the maples can shake me like a cry Of bugles going by. And my lonely spirit thrills To see the frosty asters like a smoke upon the hills. There is something in October sets the gy...
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Monday, September 29

Work, school, XC. After work I went to the Waterfront to pick up a couple of things for Lucia's birthday--it's coming up fast, and our weekends have been too busy for me to get out and shop by myself. Our kitchen designer brought two window guys over this afternoon to do some measurements. Once the windows are ordered, the contractor will tell us our start date for the kitchen project. I can't wait. I wish we could just demo everything today. We continue to see pantry moths here and there and I refuse to even open the pantry doors. I've been storing everything on the counter. I cannot wait for a brand-new kitchen.
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Sunday, September 28

An addendum to the Night Market fun from last night: At 10pm, Lucia texted to see if it was okay to bring some friends home--her group had run into some other groups. Of course we said yes, and soon about ten sophomores and juniors were hanging out on our patio. Andrew set up the fire pit. One boy was in a tree.  Today was even busier than yesterday. Andrew left very early for Peru. I went grocery shopping and got stuck on the wrong side of Forbes for half an hour while the runners in the Great Race streamed through the city. There was an Upper School XC family potluck in Schenley at noon, and then our block party at four. It was a lot of socializing for one day, and one weekend. Now I need an additional weekend of silence. 
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Saturday, September 27

The girls had to be at school this morning at 6:45 to get the bus to their XC meet. Lucia couldn't find her singlet, suspecting she'd left it at school; indeed, her coach had it for her when we arrived. Mom and Dad drove in around 8, and they and Andrew and I drove out to Youthtown for the meet. Both girls were running; this was a gigantic meet with lots of levels and groups. Both ran well. Lucia came in 13th out of 104 girls. She broke 23:00 but didn't quite beat her PR.  At home, we had lunch with Mom and Dad, and when the kids got back to school I picked them up. Meanwhile, Andrew had a quick lunch then took Farrah to the emergency vet, because yesterday we became pretty certain she has an ear infection.  I got a much-anticipated delivery in the mail today: my first shipment from Ffern, a perfume maker in England that creates seasonal fragrances available only to people on their "ledger." Each shipment has an elaborate back story for the fragrance and comes wit...
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Monday, September 22 - Friday, September 26

This week is a blur. It was rainy and Greta was supposed to have an XC race but it was cancelled. Lucia went to XC practice all week and Greta had several rehearsals for the musical.  Wednesday was Greta's Back to School Night, and, for the first time ever, I didn't go. Andrew wen't alone. I had a good reason: Wednesday was prep day for my colonoscopy on Thursday (all clear!). I had to start fasting Tuesday night, and I was already starving by 10 a.m. on Wednesday. I worked from home, finding myself reflexively planning to go to the kitchen for a snack, and then realizing there could be no snack. I was absolutely starving. Drinking 32 ounces of Gatorade mixed with Miralax was no solace.  I had to get up at 2 a.m. to drink another 32 ounces of this terrible mixture, so I went downstairs to watch Gilmore Girls and power through. It took me a long time to drink that much. Farrah came downstairs too and snuggled up with me on the couch the entire time, the perfect support doodl...
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