Whoa – how is October already?  Time sure flies when you’re having fun.  We had a delightfully relaxing weekend.  On Saturday, we enjoyed a beautiful, serene hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains, followed by a long, leisurely candlelit dinner in a romantic bistro.  On Sunday, the weather was a bit gloomy, so I spent the day wrapped up in my coziest oversized sweater, curled in an Adirondack chair watching the rain come down off my front porch, with the world’s biggest chai latte and Pride and

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Sorry, you guys.  I tried, but I couldn’t finish that paragraph with a straight face.  As weekends go, it was more of the same around here – errands, chores, kid-wrangling, birthday parties.  Not bad, not at all.  Saturday morning was spent not rambling the trails in Shenandoah, but instead on a hike of a different kind – through the wilds of IKEA.  We drove down to Woodbridge knowing that we would be leaving empty-handed but, hopefully, with some decisions made.  I wanted new bookshelves, and we really need a new dresser, since our wardrobe never made it upstairs when we moved in (and has since been repurposed into board game storage for at least the next three years).  We picked out the furniture we needed to decide on (and ordered online from home later) and Peanut broke it down with an impromptu dance party in the bedroom section.  So overall, it was good.  We mixed in some Saturday fun in the form of a long walk around our neighborhood, including to… the library!  I had books to return and holds to pick up, so I checked out my neighborhood branch for the first time – it’s beautiful.  I’m so glad that I’m back to living in a neighborhood where I can walk to the library (I missed that during my last two years in Buffalo).  On Sunday, we took another walk around the neighborhood and tortured ourselves by reading all the brunch menus we came across, bemoaning the fact that our kids are too wild for restaurants right now, and the irony of moving to one of the best neighborhoods for restaurants in the DC area when we can’t actually eat at any restaurants because of small insane people.  Sunday afternoon I took Peanut to another birthday party, and while it went much better than last weekend’s parties, we were both wiped out by Sunday night.  I’d meant to do some food prep, but ended up splayed out on the couch in a state of complete exhaustion.  Right now I don’t know what’s more tiring – the workweek or the weekends.

As for reading, it was a busy week.  Last week I mentioned that I had a tough week ahead and that I was planning to keep my reading light and fun to balance it out, and that’s exactly what I did.  I read the first five volumes of Ms. Marvel – the new Kamala Khan version by G. Willow Wilson – and loved every moment.  (When I said I was going to read the first six trades, I was mistaken – apparently volume 6 doesn’t come out until December, and I’m now waiting impatiently for it with the rest of the Kamala Korps.)  Then I picked up Mindy Kaling’s Why Not Me?, which my mom gave me for Christmas last year.  It was, as expected, absolutely hilarious – and by far the best part was the alternate existence Mindy invents for herself as a hard-partying Latin teacher at a posh NYC prep school, complete with twenty pages of emails between alternate reality Mindy and her fictional colleagues (who don’t like her very much).  I finished with Mindy on Saturday – although I’m never finished with Mindy! – and finally picked up George, by Alex Gino, one of my new library holds, which I read in one sitting on Saturday evening.  It was a sweet story, not easy to read, but I think very important, and I’m so glad that it’s in the world.  Then I started Stella by Starlight, another library hold, and another one that I think is not going to be particularly easy to read, but that I’ll be glad to have read when all’s said and done.

After I wrap up with Stella – which will probably take a few days – I have two more library holds waiting for me: Feathers, by Jacqueline Woodson, and The Obelisk Gate, the second book in N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy.  So I’ll most likely grab one of those, although Barchester Towers is currently staring at me from my kitchen counter, and I am really sort of craving a classic right now (it’s the fall season, I’m always looking to dive into the greats around back to school time).  I also have a book of Hallowe’en poems that I’m planning to dip in and out of all month.

On the blog: we’re finally wrapping up summer.  I have my final tally on my summer list coming to you on Wednesday, and the last Virginia Beach recap on Friday.  Feels a bit ridiculous, since there are pumpkins on display at the grocery store, and you know what is back at Starbucks, but I can’t help myself!  After this week, it’ll be fall here just like it is everywhere else – I promise.

What are you reading this week?