Abby > Recent Status Updates

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.

I too have actually never finished Mrs. Dalloway, in spite of starting it multiple times.

On romance novels vs porn: "I've always been weirdly impressed by people who read four hundred pages just to have a single orgasm. That's a lot of work. Watching a video would have been astronomically easier." Ha! As an occasional romance reader, this made me giggle.

"Anyone who had truly looked at Tuesday could not have possibly seen a coyote. But the woman had not truly looked, and the injustice of this hit him. Why was it acceptable for apparently well-meaning people to see the world in such a general way?"

"Friendship is kind of like having a Tamagotchi."

"Life is very long, unless it is not."

If we were going to ____, we ought to have ____, but we didn't, in the same way you know perfectly well you ought to stop reading and go to bed and you'll feel hideously groggy in the morning if you don't, and yet you keep going.

Even in the moment, whatever we'd been about to do had seemed like a bad idea, and thankfully I wasn't in the moment anymore. I'd never been in a moment with anyone before and I didn't like it at all.

I was never in love with Orion as a character, but I find him even less appealing the better we get to know him. However, I still love El. "I'm not some sort of pallid romantic who insists on being loved for my shining inner being. My inner being is exceptionally cranky and I often don't want her company myself..."

"It's all inconvenience...And then, suddenly it's over. And you find yourself thinking that you wouldn't mind a little inconvenience."

A bit less than halfway, and this book is more mood than plot, all quiet and melancholy. I'm not sure if I like it yet, but I'm also still reading it, so...

Only humans and a few species of whales experience menopause and live past their reproductive years

Japanese word for menopause: kounenki, which translates to renewal years or energy

To cope with what British journalist Caitlin Moran calls the “ass-hattery of small children,” women are kept “tipsy and philosophical on shots of warm oestrogen” and are thus better able to cope with the “ass-hattery” of everyone else. Until menopause arrives, writes Moran, and suddenly, there’s no more “‘lady forgiveness’ left in the tank.”