Oof.  Is it really Monday?  Say it ain’t so.  We had another one of our hectic weekends, running around from sunup on Saturday to sundown on Sunday.  I am wiped.  Friday was my birthday, so this weekend was “Mommy weekend” – woohoo!  Of course, weeks ago, I had unthinkingly agreed to a playdate on Saturday, so I only ended up choosing the agenda on Sunday.  Saturday was fun, though – we went to a bounce house gym with one of Peanut’s friends from school.  I am lucky in that Peanut seems to gravitate toward the kids with the most down-to-earth moms, so playdates for the kids are turning into friend time for me, too – no complaints here!  The friend we met up with on Saturday just recently returned from being flower girl in a wedding, too, so her mom and I debriefed on all things wedding while the kids ran around and bounced.  The rest of Saturday, we palled around closer to home – visiting Nugget’s favorite playground and stopping by the fire station open house to play cornhole, honk the horn in the truck, and collect some coloring books.  On Sunday, I got to choose the activity and I was craving one thing – a hike.  Since the kids aren’t great at napping at home on the weekends anymore (it’s fine that Peanut is dropping naps, but Nugget shouldn’t be) we decided to venture further afield.  It doesn’t make sense to cut off the fun and rush home for lunch and naps, only to listen to Nugget bouncing in his crib for two hours – we might as well be out and about enjoying our beautiful area.  So we drove an hour to Sky Meadows State Park, a beautiful spot Steve and I remembered from the long-ago days before children.  It happened to be “fall farm festival” day, so we got our hike in (recap coming next week) and then let the kids explore and enjoy a little bit, had a picnic lunch, and drove home to the blessed silence of car naps.  All in all – a perfect birthday activity.

Reading.  Interesting week.  After finishing See America (which was good, but there were a few editing mistakes that bugged me), I picked up Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng.  I had been avoiding it, because people seemed to love it so much that I figured it would be a huge disappointment.  Totally wrong.  I blew through it in a day, cried through the ending, and generally loved every second of the book.  After that, I needed something a bit sillier, so I finally got around to Nimona, the stand-alone graphic novel from Lumberjanes creator Noelle Stevenson.  As expected, I adored it.  Finally, for the past several days I’ve been reading Beartown, by Frederik Backman.  I’ve been wanting to read something by Backman, and Beartown seemed to be right up my alley – it’s about a hockey-obsessed town, after all – but I’m finding it a bit of a slog.  I know what is going to happen and am just not as captivated as I’d expected to be.  But it’ll qualify for a Book Riot Challenge task (book about sports) and I’ve passed my point of no return, where I have read far enough into a book that I refuse to abandon it, so I’m plugging away.

Watching.  Steve and I have been re-watching Parks and Recreation, one of our favorite dear departed sitcoms.  (I like it better than The Office, and that is saying something.)  We also enjoyed the first episode of Rock the Park season four, and are now mulling over a visit to the New River Gorge (which is in West Virginia, so not too far from us).

Listening.  Still on a podcast kick.  The best episode I listened to this week was the Annotated episode “The Seventeen-Year-Old Who Invented Science Fiction.”  I’d been saving the episode – all about Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, if you hadn’t guessed – for Halloween season and it was perfect October listening material, complete with howling winds and creaking gate sound effects.

Moving.  This was an up and down week on the fitness front.  I made it to power yoga on Tuesday morning, and my very first barre3 class on Wednesday.  (Loved, and will certainly be back for more.)  But then on Friday – my birthday – I was two minutes late to power yoga and the instructor had already locked the door, so I missed class, which was a total bummer.  And I didn’t feel like doing anything on Saturday after chasing the kids around a play gym for an hour, so my only weekend fitness was Sunday’s hike.  (Which was an “easy” trail but still felt strenuous.  I swear Nugget gains a few ounces every time I hike with him.)

Blogging.  Still playing catch-up on all the family fun.  I’m talking about our apple picking excursion on Wednesday, and sharing some pictures and stories from our flying trip to Florida on Friday.  Check back with me!

Loving.  As fall is settling in around here – the weather is still pretty warm, and we’re having the occasional HOT day, but leaves are dropping and so are the temperatures, little by little – I am loving my L.L. Bean flannel shirts.  They’re pretty much my weekend uniform all through the cold months, whether with jeans or with hiking pants.  I wore my favorite orange, green and blue one this past weekend and spent some time marveling over the fact that it is still so soft, and doesn’t seem at all pilled despite multiple trips through the washing machine.  (I do air-dry them.)  I am eyeing another pattern to add to the arsenal, and might have to jump on it.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?