Yawwwwwwn.  Monday.  Again.  Where did the weekend go?  I don’t even feel like it happened.  It was kind of an all-work, no-play weekend.  Or at least, mostly-work, very-little-play.  I was up before the sun on Saturday and started working at 5:00 a.m. to finish a work assignment that I really needed to churn out (yes, my streak of working every weekend in 2018 continues).  Delusional me thought that if I got that knocked out before the kids woke up, I’d have the rest of the weekend to play.  Well, do you think it went to plan?  Does anyone think it went to plan?  Of course it didn’t go to plan.  Nugget was up before I was done with my work, so I sat him in front of a cartoon while I tried to finish up what I was doing.  Then down came Peanut – same thing.  The next hour saw me running frantically between the kitchen and the computer, but I finally got the assignment finished and turned in – whew.  To celebrate, we all bundled up for a hike at Lake Burke – one of my favorite local parks.  (Peanut brought her map so we wouldn’t get lost.  What a relief!)  Of course, because my life is kind of terrible at the moment, midway through the hike I got a response on my assignment, to the effect of “Thanks, looks good – can you also look into this other issue?”  Oof.  Yes, I can.  Pretty much the rest of Saturday – lunch, naps, post-bedtime – was devoted to work.  Sunday was even busier.  I didn’t have as much work to do – only an hour or so – but I spent the entire morning and into the afternoon helping my BFF, Rebecca, move into her new apartment.  It’s a short-term thing; she has the place for six months and then she’ll be off to parts unknown (sniff) but in the meantime, she’s moved much closer to me, so I’m pumped.  We spent an active morning loading her car with essentials and then renting a truck and hauling her furniture.  Then we figured we’d earned a big lunch, so we treated ourselves to Sunflower Café – a vegetarian restaurant in Falls Church.  So delicious, and we gobbled it up.  The rest of the day was more of the same – work, kiddo playtime, and I finally crashed with my book at the end.  I was productive, sure, but I could really use a break.

Reading.  Only one book this week.  Between five very long days of work last week, plus an insanely crazy running around weekend, I haven’t been able to make nearly the progress I wanted to make on my stack.  I’m still reading Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, which is still fascinating and heart-wrenching as it was last week.  I’m nearly done, though.  Next up, I think, will be African Short Stories, a collection edited by Chinua Achebe.  I’m looking forward to it, and a nice slim volume will be just the thing, I think, after a hefty non-fiction tome.

Watching.  Very little, as well.  (This is turning into one of those depressing posts, isn’t it?  I don’t mean for it to be – that’s just the week I had.)  Mostly, all I’ve watched is Miles from Tomorrowland over the kids’ shoulders as they eat their breakfast in the morning.  Because – sigh – there’s been a major backsliding on my constant attempts to banish TV from the table.  It’s a war that I’m fighting and I just don’t have the energy these days.

Listening.  I finished up the first episode of Those Park Guys Podcast this week – at an hour and a half long, that episode was no mean feat – and it was so much fun.  I’m saving the second episode for after I watch the next episode of the show, because the guys have a segment during which they chat about the most recently aired episode, and I don’t want to spoil anything.

Moving.  Sunday was a real workout!  Let me tell you, hauling a mattress, desk, and a chair the size of a couch is no joke.  I felt pretty hardcore, climbing in and out of the pickup bed and hefting an insanely heavy mattress up a steep flight of stairs.  (I was also mimicking Ross Geller, shouting “PIVOT! PIVOT! PIVOTTTTTT!” and my joke totally went over Rebecca’s head.  Apparently she’s not a F*R*I*E*N*D*S fan?)

Blogging.  Some fun literary mish-mash coming up on Wednesday, and dialing the way-back machine to two weeks ago to share Nugget’s birthday hike on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  I tipped a friend off to one of my favorite book blogs, The Captive Reader, this week, and her delight inspired me to go back through the archives and re-read some posts.  I love Claire’s writing, and her taste in books is so similar to mine – plus her photography is just gorgeous.  If you’re not already reading, you should.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?