Abby > Recent Status Updates

All this talk of cozy quilts makes me want a massive collection of soft quilts.

The scent descriptions in romance novels are wild. They smell like "evening breezes laced with cinnamon and ginger." What does an evening breeze smell like? I have never once noticed a partner's scent unless they were specifically wearing cologne or they were fresh out of the shower, and every time I read these descriptions, I feel a little left out!

"It really is quite disconcerting when a centuries-old being takes up with a nineteen-year-old."

Yes, yes it is.

29?! Woohoo, a protagonist who’s actually a grown-ass woman!

“He was a slight man, more whisks of clouds and wheat stalks than an actual human.”
Love this description.

"And then, we train."

LOL! Of course you do. Of course you do. This IS a fantasy novel, after all. What's a fantasy novel without a training montage? <3

The parent in me is utterly brokenhearted for Clara. I just want to give her a giant hug. I am, admittedly, hugely emotional when it comes to children ever since I had my own, so I absolutely cried over these two pages.

"...power does not solve everything. In fact, it can keep you from learning. Power must be measured with wisdom and humility and care."

"She would succeed because she believed she could. What was magic after all but having the gall to believe you could tell the world around you how it ought to be and then watching as it did as it was told?"

"We've built our lives around sitting and looking at screens.

F that."

Over the last decade, we've seen online information about our health and "wellness" take on a virulent life of its own. I think of it as a different version of MAHA: misinformation, assumption, hype, and alarmism. Together, these forces create a feedback loop where vague claims get amplified and scientific detail gets flattened into clickbait.

Wait…since when can Yue not harm the Maskmaker? Did she make the same oath her sisters did? If so, how was she able to bite off his fingers earlier in the book?

This is starting to feel like a dungeon crawl, in the best way.

Offering affirmations or gratitude while trimming pets’ nails is great, but I’m going to do this when I trim my kids’ nails! What a beautiful way to bond with kids while doing care tasks with/for them.

I was diagnosed with binge eating disorder in 2014 and still struggle with it now. I started reading the tea meditation while eating lunch, and while I won’t go so far as to say it cured me, after years of trying to force myself to “eat mindfully,” this was the thing that finally worked. Valuing magic over entertainment. You can’t do magic while reading or scrolling; you have to be present and intentional.

Loved the laundry meditation, and it’s even better that there’s a recording of it! I actually was smiling when I finished listening to it.

Returning library books… as a librarian and bibliophile, reading this page was like a big hug.

One thing I appreciate about this book is that Molly says at the very beginning that you should use what works for you and leave what doesn't. This meditation is an example of that for me. It's mostly great, but "take it there now" is more effective for me than shifting stuff to the threshold. If I get derailed mid-declutter, I'd rather have just one thing actually gone than a pile of stuff to deal with "later."

I know the remainder of the book is intended to be used almost as a reference book, but I do what I want, and I'm absolutely going to read the whole thing cover to cover. :) Molly's writing style is like her podcasting, somehow both soothingly laid back and also fun, information-packed, and inspiring action? I'm reading for both the magic and the vibes.

I was just about to put some sticky notes in the book to mark where the meditations are to reference again, and I noticed that all the meditations (including this one) have purple borders, so the edges of their pages are purple, which makes them easy to find even when the book is closed. GENIUS! Even the formatting of this book is perfection.

3 Maxims:
Two minutes a day is more effective than 60 once a month.
How you do anything is how you do everything.*
You are the Magic.
*Particularly with this one, I'm thinking about how the ease I'm bringing into my magical practice has translated to more ease and patience in my parenting. Think about ways to teach this to my kids to help them with managing anger...

"Rather than hustling through your day at the expense of creativity and joy, Mundane Magic emphasizes rest, wonder, and--most importantly--doing what works for you." If I were marking up this book, I would have circled the word REST like five times. Somehow, adding low-maintenance magic into my every day has created more time and space for rest.

Enjoying the story, but there is a lot of repetition of the story of her mother abandoning her at a boarding school when she was 14, under the guardianship of Agatha, and making her swear to never use magic. A LOT of repetition.

“But when I pause the TV, the house goes quiet. There’s no idle noise. No other person shuffling around on the couch. No little grumbles. No laughter. No sighs. And suddenly, being alone turns into being lonely.” I’ve had a rough 2025, and this struck me so sharply it had me in tears. This book is an example of a graphic novel with both great art and excellent writing.

This book has so many great interactions with adults openly discussing love and life with teenagers. This one with Gable’s Grandma, the one on pages 93-97 between Christine and Jelly’s dad, the one on pages 63-67 between Jelly and Mr. Nielsen…

"It's not the food, it's the labor. She wants to know that I was thinking about her when I made something. That I tried my best to make it good. That I remember her favorite flavors and thought about what she likes. The Christmas cookies aren't just...it's not about the cookies."

I want to hold the main character and tell him that he doesn't need a stranger to see all of him and accept him as he is; he can just see himself and accept himself as he is.

“‘But you…you were there. How did it feel? To see all of those big, important things happening all around you…to be a part of them?’
‘It felt like any other day…Those big, important stories from your books—you end up missing most of them, even when you’re right in the middle of it. It’s only late that you find out what kind of story you were living in.’”
Feels all too relevant.