At the risk of saying this for probably the eleventh month in a row, I genuinely can’t believe how quickly time is moving. September feels like a fever dream that I’m not certain even happened which makes for some unique challenges when it comes to reflection.

September was the month that my husband wrapped up the end of our parental leave and we transitioned baby girl (now toddler?!) to daycare fulltime. We’re also now fully back to work, which somehow makes the days feel even faster. It’s been an adjustment, getting used to what feels like spending so little time with her, but she’s thriving in her new environment which makes it a little easier to bear.

While life seems to be moving at a breakneck speed, my reading pace was anything but. September is actually an easy month to wrap up from that perspective because I only managed to read one book. Part of this was because I dedicated the month to reading A Day Of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon, which is an absolute beast of a book both in density and length, but the other reason was just that things were simply too busy. We even took an entire week off in September in an attempt to knock out some home projects, and promptly spent the majority of it extraordinarily sick. 

We’re now all feeling better though and I’m back into a more consistent reading routine, so here’s hoping October is a touch more productive!

September 2025 Reading Wrap Up

No need for a list this month since I only read one book: Tales of the Celestial Kingdom by Sue Lynn Tan. I originally read the Celestial Kingdom Duology a couple of years ago and have been meaning to pick this one up since it released but never managed to get around to it. I’m glad I finally found the time because I loved it! It was such a lovely experience getting to revisit this universe and the characters that I loved. I rated this one 4 stars with a full review to come.

TBR List

Given how little time I had for reading, it’s no surprise that I also didn’t have a lot of time for adding books to my TBR. Here are the few that I jotted down quickly as September flew by:

• The Summer War by Naomi Novik: a novella that follows a young witch who inadvertently cursed her brother to live a life without love and must now find a way to undo it. Novik authored The Scholomance Trilogy, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so this one is definitely intriguing to me.
• The Waiting Game by Nicola Clark: this one takes you through the lives of Henry VIII’s wives ladies in waiting and sounds so interesting. I haven’t picked up anything historical in a while and this one might be a good opportunity to do so.

What I’m Loving Right Now

This season of life is so much busier than any I’ve ever encountered before that most of what I’m loving right now involves a bit of slowing down. In the moments where I get to be truly present on my own or with my family, that’s where I’m currently finding the most significant joy. Some highlights include:

Entering the Toddler Years

I blinked and my baby became a toddler! I say this all the time, but wow is this stage ever fun. She’s so curious and smart and is always exploring, always adventuring. With her in daycare, I do see her less, but I’ve been focusing on using the time that I do see her to be as present as possible. I feel like every day she learns something new and it’s such a joy to witness and to be her guide.

Cooking our way through our cookbook collection

My husband is a chef by trade and as a result, we have an exceptionally large collection of cookbooks and chef-driven food manuals. We decided at the end of the summer that it would be fun to cook one recipe a week from a different cookbook and it’s been such a good time! I say “we”, but I’m really just there as chief taster, I have contributed very little to this project beyond eating. The photo pictured above for this wrap-up is his foray into zepoles, which I really benefitted from.

Getting back into a fitness routine

The last few months it’s been a challenge to find the time to consistently work out. On maternity leave, I originally began doing this during baby girl’s naps. After maternity leave, I was doing them after she went down at night, sometimes as late as 8pm. Now that we have childcare, I’ve been able to shift my workouts to the lunch hour, and it’s probably my favourite time yet. It does take some significant coordination, and I can’t get to it every day as it’s heavily reliant on me having some flexibility in my schedule, but any workout is better than nothing at this point. On the days I squeeze it in, I always feel better.

Prioritizing reading again

I typically save these updates for things outside of reading, but this month, finding the time to read was something that I wasn’t able to regularly do. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone days on end without making time for reading, and that’s okay because sometimes life just necessitates that, but wow do I ever feel better now that I’ve been able to fit it into my routine once again. It’s such a delight to get lost in a really good story, and even on days where I feel beyond anxious about the way everything in life is piling up, reading is always something that gives me immense relief. I’m feeling supremely grateful to have been able to build it back into my routine and am hoping to keep this momentum up through October.