Weekend Reads v. 12.4.2025
It’s all highlighter green.
The view from my window changes daily this time of year. Delicate white or pink flowers dot the dogwoods. Tulips stand at attention. The new shoots of grass and leaves are a blinding shade of green that feels youthful. Highlighter green, as a teacher once described to a class of cynical middle schoolers.
I can’t help but think that that teacher every Spring. I’ve long since forgotten her name, but I remember vividly the way she described the emotion she felt while looking out of the window over her kitchen sink to a backyard waking up from a long winter’s sleep. The youthful energy springing up from the ground was a reminder of the hope of what was to come and also the sad realization of what was no more.
She described the leaves as “highlighter green,” and then choked up with emotion. Now I recognize that emotion in myself – fueled mostly by hormones, probably, but also by the reflection gained from seeing dozens of Springs come and go.
It’s hopeful and heartbreaking in the same breath.
Everything in the world seems colored with a shocking shade of highlighter green right now. It’s a shade that stings the eyes. But this shade will deepen and give way to that beautifully dark hue of summer leaves rustling in the winds of an afternoon storm.
This week, especially, is a reminder of the pure goodness that always exists – a light that can never be extinguished no matter how dark the night may be.
Easter is coming!
Joanna Gaines is still striking nerves – good and bad.
You know you are a boring grown-up when you are oohing and aahing over a … clothing drying rack. But, really, this rack from the always amazing Schoolhouse is a thing of beauty. (And am I crazy for really wanting these bed sheets?)
Wholeheartedly disagree with several items on this list of 25 Classic Novels You Can Skip! Specifically, I’m so glad I didn’t skip Handmaid’s Tale, Mansfield Park, and North and South.
A letter written in 1961 by an unimpressed magazine reader caught my attention this week. It reads in part,
“Dear Editor,
Yesterday was the closing date for your Mrs. Chatelaine contest, but I didn’t enter.
I wish someone, sometime, would have a competition for “Mrs. Nothing”! A person who isn’t a perfect housekeeper, a faultless mother, a charming hostess, a loving wife, or a servant of the community. Besides being glamorous as a model, talented as a Broadway star and virtuous as a Saint.
I have studied your questionnaire carefully but my replies are hopelessly inadequate. To start with my appearance is absolutely fatal. I am overweight, pear-shaped and bow legged. Consequently, not having much to work on I don’t bother and cover it up with comfortable, warm old slacks.
As for housework, failure there too as I am a lousy housekeeper. If I feel like sewing, or sleeping, or writing a letter, like this morning, the house has to wait.” Amen and amen to that, Mrs. Nothing! (Source)
When I feel overwhelmed by the news (and, let’s face it, the constant stream of everyone else’s response to it), I reach for historical perspective. This essay was very thought provoking.
“England in the 1600s was full of radical progress—and also extreme disorder. Those qualities typify our own strange, unpredictable era…At the end of all this trouble, England was a fundamentally transformed nation. You would rather have been born there in 1800 than in 1550, but it wasn’t easy along the way. Excess thrills and excess chaos would be one simple way of describing the English 17th century.
What today is parallel to these developments? So much. But most of all: the sense of both radical progress and also pending disorder.” (Source)
How do we feel about these cute (maybe not cute?) chains for phone cases? Been seriously considering jumping on this bandwagon.
Another brilliant essay from Paul Kingsnorth. This time he tackles what it means to fit being a novelist and a Christian together.
Eyeing these kids swim goggles that promise not to tangle in hair for my niece.
I broke up with nail salons recently, but I am tiptoeing back into the world of nail polish with this fun color.
This is super random, but I needed a simple bed frame and this wooden platform not only looks good, is incredibly well priced at $115, but was a breeze to assemble. It even came with a tool and pads for the legs of the frame.
Was reminded this week of how magical this cleaning product is. If only I could use it in work situations. lol
Jeepers, these days I feel like I brought my roller-skates to the ice skating rink. I’m behind in emails and phone calls, and the chair in my bedroom that should not collect clothes is, in fact, piled high with shirts that need to be put away. Alas, I am doing the best I can. Since there’s no one but me actually keeping score, I’m just gonna count take the win at getting this out even if it’s later than I’d hoped!
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Now, go do something fun!