Happy day-after-Superbowl-Sunday, friends!  (Or, as I like to think of it, No More Football For Months Day!)  We hosted a very small Superbowl party – just us, Zan and Paul, and Rebecca.  We all had a fabulous time eating yummy snacks (Zan brought veggies and hummus; Rebecca brought vegan queso, chips and guac, and a healthy chocolate chip cookie cake – made from chickpea flour and sweetened with dates; and I contributed tempeh chili, seitan Buffalo wings, jalapeno-cheddar cornbread, and a raw corn, tomato and avocado salad) and not really watching the game.  Well, the boys watched the game.  The girls watched the commercials and chased the kids around.  Nugget was excited to throw his (stuffed) football with Uncle Paul, and we all ended up tossing it around the living room and screaming with laughter.  It was just what the doctor ordered.  Well, until Nugget got overtired and started screaming with not-laughter.  The rest of the weekend was pretty low key.  On Saturday, Nugget and I went to Falls Church to check out Rebecca’s farmers market while Steve took Peanut to a friend’s birthday party.  I squeezed in an hour of work on Saturday morning, which felt like nothing at all, and Nugget and I did a big grocery run and a diaper bank drop on Sunday morning.  It was a good combination of errands and friend time, and I’m not ready for it to be Monday.  But at least we have the Olympics to look forward to!

Reading.  It was another fairly slow week on the book front.  Between working another 50+ hour week (which is becoming the norm) and then spending most of the weekend either socializing or running errands, book time was limited.  I finished Salt Houses mid-week, on the very last day of January.  As I mentioned in my reading round-up, it didn’t really do it for me.  It was a lovely book, but neither multigenerational family sagas nor linked short stories are my cup of tea, and this was both.  Next I turned my attention to Salvage the Bones, since it was due back to the library on Saturday and not returnable.  It was very hard to read.  The chapters on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath were breathlessly enthralling and well-done, but the rest of the book was tough.  Part of it focuses on dog-fighting, and I had to skip those sections.  It was one I felt like I should read, so I did, but I didn’t enjoy the reading experience.  So it was good to turn, after that, to something warm and comforting – Thrush Green, which is actually a re-read for me.  I am trying to participate in the year-long #MissReadalong on Instagram, but am behind – Thrush Green was January’s book.  I enjoyed it last time I read it, but am loving it even more now that I’m a couple of years removed from finishing the Fairacre books and am not constantly comparing it and missing the characters from that series.

Watching.  The Superbowl!  Haha, just kidding.  I barely even looked at the commercials – I watched a few of them, but I was mostly engaged in getting the food ready or parenting during the party, so it wasn’t a big night in front of the TV.  Earlier in the week, when I was feeling fried, Steve and I watched the Bears Ears National Monument episode of Rock the Park, which was sad – it looks like such a special place, and it’s heartbreaking that our government has stripped it of federal protection.  Then on Saturday, looking for some comedy, we checked out the first two episodes of The Good Place, which was as funny and delightful as my friend Susan promised it would be, and we will definitely be watching more.

Listening.  I hopped around all over the place on my earbuds last week.  A couple of podcasts – The Book Riot Podcast, to stay current; the final episode of the first season of Annotated, which I had been saving; and several chapters of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.  Some Forlorn Strangers, some Decemberists, and a few movements of Holst’s The Planets performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.  See?  I told you I was all over the place.

Moving.  Should I take this category out?  Other than some walking on the weekend, nothing.  Working these crazy hours is hard.  My beloved yoga and barre3 classes have fallen by the wayside, and forget about running.  I have some events I want to do this spring and summer, so I need to get back in the habit lest I find myself completely out of it when it comes time to start training.

Blogging.  Some bookish musing coming to you on Wednesday, and a quick (mostly pictures) recap of all the hikes from my monthly hiking project from 2017 on Friday.  Check back!

Loving.  Dates with Steve!  We have been wanting to add to our roster of babysitters, and we tried a new one out last week.  She fed the kids dinner, played with them and put them to bed, while we enjoyed a five-course Japanese dinner and then wandered over to a wine bar we’d not yet tried and split two flights of wine.  She did a great job, the kids had a wonderful time, and it was so refreshing to get a mid-week night out as just grownups.  Related: I love living in a walkable neighborhood!  Dinner was two blocks from my house and the wine bar was one block, and it really helped curb my new-babysitter anxiety to know that we were a two minute sprint from home if anything happened.  I don’t know if we’ll stay in our current neighborhood forever, but it sure does have some major points in the plus column.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?