I’ll admit I haven’t been doing a ton of knitting or reading recently. Sock Madness has stalled for me at 17 rows of knitting in a week, which makes finishing a pair in a second wholly unlikely. Tonight’s contribution to the endeavor was finding a cable needle.

I’m having a little more success reading in print. I have a book that I’m making progress through, albeit it slowly. I like the characters and the plot, but I’m loathe to see unhappiness come their way, which is surely has to for a short while in order to advance the plot. That I know the ending will be happy is probably what keeps me plodding along.

What’s had the most resonance lately is the audiobook of Stephen Spotswood’s Fortune Favors the Dead, a gumshoe novel featuring two female PIs in 1945 New York City, one of whom has MS and the other who is a bi former-circus employee. I don’t know if I’d be speeding through it quite so much if I were reading it in print; the reader does a good job honoring the this-side-of-parody approach Spotswood takes, which makes it a fun listen.

One of the things I appreciate most about the coolest months in D.C. is the preponderance of winter-blooming jasmine you see around the city, just waiting to make sure you know that spring is right around the corner.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share books with our favorite tropes. I thought I’d share ten books featuring adopted or found families:

1. Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
4. The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
5. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
6. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
7. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
8. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
9. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
10. The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

Do you have any books you read featuring adopted or found families?

Rudi’s off coaching (March is the month when he’s away most), so I’m on my own this weekend. Here’s how I’m hoping to fill it:

• Knitting on my Sock Madness sock
• Waking up the garden and planting peas
• Watching or listening to the UConn women’s basketball game
• Reading
• Going back to Planet Word with a friend I hyped it to
• Shopping (or, at least, browsing) at my local bookstore’s member sale
• Picking up veggie sausages for red beans and rice at the farmers market
• Doing laundry (Rudi picked up quarters before he left yesterday)
• Spending time outside

How are you hoping to spend your time this weekend?

World news is not good tonight. But that doesn’t mean things aren’t without hope or beauty. Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I pet two puppies on Sunday. One was a tiny beagle nearly the same size as my brother’s favorite stuffed dog growing up and the other an already overgrown Newfoundland.

2. French bread pizza for lunch and leftover cheese fondue for supper.

3. A California teacher launched an art project with her elementary school students — a hotline offering words of encouragement. Calling 707-998-8410 gets you pre-recorded pep talks from kindergarteners, a recording of kids laughing, and more. It is exactly what I needed. (I’ve since heard that the response has been so overwhelming that it keeps crashing, but I understand they’re working on solutions.)

What’s been beautiful or hopeful in your world this week?

My phone ran out of juice, so rather than wait for it to charge a bit and getting a photo, I’m just going to give you a narrative update on the reading and knitting around here.

Sock Madness, the annual sock knitting competition commenced today. I have two weeks to knit a particular pair of socks, which this year includes two colors and cables. I’m not feeling super optimistic about my chances of finishing them, but I plan to give it the old college try. I have two skeins of yarn I’m feeling … okay … about combining, and I’ve knit the first row.

On the reading front, I’m reading Evie Dunmore’s A Rogue of One’s Own in print and listening to Stephen Spotswood’s Fortune Favors the Dead. I’m enjoying both, but because of the mental energy I’m spending on other parts of my life right now, it’s all just going more slowly than I’d like.

Head over to As Kat Knits for this week’s Unraveled roundup.