Ugh.  Monday.  Why is it here again?  We haven’t even started the week and I’m already O.VER.IT.  The last two months have been such a slog of getting up early, working my butt off all day, going home to the parenting crush, and then getting back on the computer and working more.  And don’t even get me started on the weekends.  I don’t think there’s been a weekend in 2018 that I haven’t worked at least a little bit.  I hope all of this drudgery now will set me up to take a little time off here and there this summer, but who even knows?  Anyway, we had a pretty low-key weekend.  It was rainy and gross in D.C. basically all weekend, so we mostly hunkered down indoors.  On Saturday, we got out for a pizza lunch to celebrate Peanut’s half-birthday, and Nugget and I snuck off to the library during a break in the afternoon rain.  On Sunday, it was steadily raining and gloomy for most of the day, but we had happy plans, at least – a playdate with Peanut’s BFF.  She and her mom came over for a relaxing morning of baking and playing.  The girls made raspberry crumb bars (a Martha Stewart recipe, which turned out really well, especially when you consider that 90% of the work was done by a couple of five-year-olds) and played with Peanut’s dollhouse while the bars were in the oven, then had lunch and enjoyed their handiwork.  Yum!  The rest of the day – morning and afternoon – I mostly spent working.  What else is new?  I feel like these Monday reading posts have turned into a parade of complaints about weekend work.  Sorry about that, guys.  I promise it won’t last forever.  Busy seasons are very cyclical in my field, so there will come a time when I’ll go a whole weekend without firing up my laptop.  Seems hard to believe, but there will come a time.

Reading.  Very, very, very little to report this week.  It’s been more than a week and I am still reading Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun.  That should really tell you something about how little time I’ve had to myself this week – because I’m a fast reader, and Adichie is an outstanding writer, so there is no reason that it should take me more than a week to read one of her books except for the fact that I barely have a second to breathe, let alone read.  There’ve been several days when the only reading I’ve done was on my morning commute, because I’m so burnt out by the evening commute that I end up zoning out to my earbuds the whole ride home, and the evening is spent hunched over the laptop again.  But I’m fairly close to finishing up with it, and I’ve got a lovely library stack calling my name for when I finish.  I’m torn between This Will Be My Undoing and What Ever Happened to Interracial Love?, both of which I’ve heard great things about.  It’ll be a game-time decision and it doesn’t seem like I can go wrong.

Watching.  All Olympics, all the time.  Steve has had it on while I’ve worked, and when I put my computer away for the evening, nothing sounds quite as good as curling up on the couch and cheering for USA Bobsled, or the snowboard kids, or Adam Rippon… Anyway, last night we watched the Closing Ceremonies, so next week it’ll be back to normal viewing – which is to say, hardly any TV at all – for another two years.

Listening.  I’m on a mission to finish a few things, so I’ve been dedicating a few commutes to listening.  I wrapped up the second season of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, which continues to be a lot of fun and very thought-provoking.  And funny!  (“Dumbledore says it’s our abilities that define us, not our… our things.”  “Our things?!?!”)  And I’m a little more than ninety minutes out from finishing up the first series of Home Front on Audible.  (Still enjoying it, but the obsession has cooled a bit.)  The best listen of the week, though, was the newly revitalized Drunk Austen podcast.  I hope they start posting regularly!  And I also listened – a bit late – to the Valentine’s Day episode of Tea and Tattle, on favorite fictional romantic couples.  Austen couples abounded, but L.M. Montgomery, Maud Hart Lovelace, Elizabeth Goudge, Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie got shout-outs as well.

Moving.  I got a Fitbit!  I’ve been looking for a good activity tracker solution since my Garmin Vivofit bit the dust, and I finally stopped hemming and hawing and bought a Fitbit Charge HR.  I’ve only been wearing it for a few days, but it’s been really nice.  So far, I’m mostly using it to get a baseline on what my daily activity level is.  (Answer: better than I thought.  On a workday I average around 8,000 steps – not the 10,000 I aim for, but better than expected, especially given how much time I have to spend tied to my computer.)  On a weekend, unsurprisingly, it’s a lot more.  Oh, and I learned something – when I push the stroller, Fitbit logs that activity as “outdoor biking.”  Who knew?

Blogging.  It’s a recap-heavy week!  On Wednesday, I’ll share pics from last weekend’s hike at Huntley Meadows Park, and on Friday, I’ll have my February reading round-up for you.  Lots of good books this month – check in with me then!

Loving.  I think I have a new favorite recipe to bake with Peanut!  We started with the “jam crumb bars” recipe from Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook, cut down the butter and sugar, and substituted rolled oats for half of the almond meal – perfect!  Crumb bars are definitely going on the regular baking rotation.  Peanut had such a blast baking raspberry crumb bars with her friend, and they’re really the perfect recipe to do with a budding baker.  Easy – no techniques more advanced than using a pastry cutter, which Peanut is well-versed in after our pie-making extravaganza following our trip to the berry farm last summer.  Fun – who doesn’t love squashing dough into a baking dish?  And endlessly customizable – we used raspberry jam, because Peanut’s friend is allergic to strawberries, but there are so many variations in jam flavors and even in the cookie part.  I’m thinking of apricot next time, or maybe even orange marmalade… and some shredded coconut…

Asking.  What are you reading this week?