“I was born into the McCarthy era,” Donna Lieberman said. But she certainly didn’t stay there.

As the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Ms. Lieberman is dedicated to protecting individual freedoms, especially free speech. “My job allows me to elevate the voice of justice over this cacophony of disinformation and fear mongering that we’re dealing with,” she said.

Where she has stayed — for almost five decades — is the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Since 1974, Ms. Lieberman, 74, has lived there with her husband, Bill Stampur, 76, a criminal defense lawyer.

RISE, READ I’m up before Billy at 6 or 7 a.m. with the Kindle under my pillow. For the next few hours, I hang out reading. I binge on authors. Right now, it’s Francisco Goldman. I just read “The Long Night of White Chickens” and “Monkey Boy.”

CUP DU JOUR I also drink three or four cappuccinos, which I make with milk, from a 1970s Cremina. It’s a simple but elegant machine. Every year I bring it to Zabar’s to get serviced. I’m also a potter. Every cappuccino I drink comes in one of my cups. I probably have 30 different ones. The cup I pick out reflects my mood that day. It’s a cup du jour.

FAMILY BREAKFAST At 9 a.m. my son, Gui, and his son, Nico, who is 6 — and sometimes his wife, Tara, and their 1-year-old, Willa — come over for breakfast to watch the Leeds United soccer game. They’re in the Premier League. My son coached someone on the team and my grandson is obsessed with the game. They bring bagels from Absolute near 108th Street. I’ll make bacon and eggs. Nico has eaten the bacon before it gets to the table. Sometimes my daughter, Liana, comes in from Inwood with her daughter Corina. We try to eat together around the table but end up going back and forth to watch the game.

GAME ON Sometimes Nico has a soccer clinic at Riverside Park. Afterward we kick the ball around, parents against kids. I’m on the kids’ side. I broke my foot a few months ago, so I don’t have a mean left kick. I never did. But I’m good at cheering.

MEET AT THE MARKET By 11 a.m., we are on to other things. Billy and I head to the 79th Street Greenmarket, which wraps around the American Museum of Natural History. Billy walks. I ride my bike. The lock weighs as much as the bike. I’m a cautious and conservative rider. I do the bike path at Riverside Park and the bike lanes on Columbus Avenue. We get there at the same time because he’s a fast walker and I’m a slow rider.

THE GOODS We meet at She Wolf Bakery, which sells amazing breads and things. They don’t have a retail outlet; they just sell at farmers’ markets. We buy a loaf or two, then we’re on to the fish guy. Sometimes it’s clams for pasta or cod with sorrel sauce. Billy loves the granola guy.

LIFELINE During Covid, my friend Mary Hedahl and I started a standing lunch date each week at Tarallucci e Vino. We ate outside for over two years. It was a silver lining in the pandemic. We are a lifeline for each other. Mary is one of the most upbeat people I know. We count on having this time to laugh, reflect and revel.

POOL THEATRICS I usually bike to Manhattan Plaza Health Club to swim. It’s a subsidized housing complex for the arts. They have the best pool in the city. It’s totally inconvenient, but I love it. It’s filled with theater people. It’s not all buff and muscles. They look like me.

GAMES I’m back home by 5 p.m. and for the next hour, I usually do puzzles, which are both mindless and mindful. If I didn’t do Wordle with Nico — whose first guess is always “train,” then “daddy,” or “poops” — I do that, then Quordle and whatever puzzles are in the paper or on the computer. Recently, when I finished the acrostic, I was happy to see the quote was from my college friend Katha Pollitt.

ITALIAN DINNER Every few months I go to Borgatti’s near Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. They make great fresh spinach pasta. I buy a few pounds and freeze it. We might add that to whatever we bought at the market. Or we go out. It depends on how much energy I have or what the kids are doing. I’ll take any opportunity to hang out with them. The eight of us go to Gennaro. We’ve been eating and ordering from them since my son was in high school. It feels like family. We talk over each other and bring crayons for the kids and try to get them their food first. Then we nibble on what they’re eating as we wait for our meals. When I’m with them, it gives me space to step back from how troubled the world is and the tensions of my work life, and to just take pleasure in them and their innocence.

PROGRESS IS POSSIBLE We’re out by 7 p.m. because Willa turns into a pumpkin. At home we veg out and watch something on PBS. We’ve been watching “Miss Scarlet and the Duke,” “All Creatures Great and Small” and “Call the Midwife.” They’re optimistic. You see issues on the screen and people having to fight for their place in life as a thread. Seeing women fighting for their place in society in 1950 is powerful. It reaffirms that every generation has its quiet heroes and progress is possible.

DROOPY LIDS TV eventually becomes the backdrop. Sometimes I close my eyes and I’m out. I wake up around midnight. Bill is out, too. I wake him and we go to bed. If I don’t fall asleep, I’ll go to bed first, and he shows up whenever he shows up.

Sunday Routine readers can follow Donna Lieberman on Twitter @justaskdonna.

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