Happy new week, and happy birthday (belated – it was yesterday) to my dad!  We had a nice weekend, even if I did get a case of the Sunday Scaries after a few work emails started to trickle in around lunchtime on Sunday.  Backing up a bit, I got an early-ish start to the weekend by working from home on Friday – it was “Grandparents and Special Friends Day” at Peanut’s school.  Aunt Rebecca served as Peanut’s guest this year and Peanut felt so special having her there.  Steve and I crashed the party – actually, there were a lot of parents there, since part of the festivities included the spring concert, which was adorable.  We took Peanut home for the afternoon and I squeezed in a few hours of work and a run to Whole Foods to pick up ingredients for raspberry scones to take to our ROYAL WEDDING VIEWING PARTY on Saturday.  (All caps totally required!)  My plan had been to just roll out of bed and watch at home, but late last week the plans changed when Peanut’s BFF’s mom (got all that?) texted to ask if we wanted to have a mother-daughter viewing party.  UM, YES, we are here for that!  The girls actually didn’t watch much, but the moms had the.best.time.ever eating scones and chocolate croissants on the couch, googling wedding guests, and gossiping about the royal family.  There is really nothing like girlfriend time.  The rest of Saturday was fairly quiet – it was rainy and gross for most of the day, and when I took Nugget out to work off his energy after the deluge finally stopped, I immediately regretted my decision because he leapt into a mud puddle and started rolling around like a piglet.  Whoops.  Sunday dawned bright and sunny, and we spent it as we so often do – hiking around Mount Vernon in the morning, and then making the firehouse-library-playground circuit after naps.  I had a million things to do (laundry, work on a personal project I’m trying to wrap up, find a CSA, vacation plan…) but instead I snuggled in Nugget’s rocking chair, read my book and caught up on royal wedding fashion blog posts.  (Best line of the coverage was the Fug Girls’ observation: “Fergie’s gotta Ferg.”)  I’m not even sorry.

Reading.  It was a good reading week.  I finally got to Sing, Unburied, Sing, and I can definitely see what the hype was about.  It was not a comfortable reading experience, but good to push the envelope now and then and I’m very glad I read it.  I was back in my comfort zone with the new Maisie Dobbs, and this was definitely a good installment.  I was reading until late Friday night in order to make the return deadline for the new Maisie, but I made it.  Now with a tiny bit of breathing room, I’ve turned back to my own shelf and am reading Brensham Village, the second book in the Brensham Trilogy – in preparation for my copy of the third and final book’s arrival on my doorstep in the next few weeks.  Can’t wait!  I’m about halfway through Brensham Village and am liking it even more than I liked the first installment, Portrait of Elmbury.

Watching.  The royal wedding, of course!  What else?  It was so much fun to watch with a girlfriend who was just as excited and into it as I was – and we both loved every moment.  Meghan’s dress, Harry’s gazing, the gospel choir, the cellist, the flowers, all the romantic moments, the KISSING!  Poor Kate looked like she was going to fall asleep (by my calculations, she’s now in the stage where newborn adrenaline has worn off and exhaustion is hitting hard…) but William kept his eyes open better than he did on Anzac Day, probably because he got to stand up the whole time.  And oh, my word, little Charlotte and her royal waving!  Eeeeeks, I just loved it all.

Listening.  It seems we are all required to take a stand on this, so: Team Yanny.  (Steve is the lone member of Team Laurel in the house, and he’s taking it really hard.)

Laughing.  So, we have a pretty hotly contested mayoral election coming up in a few weeks, and Washingtonian did a big article on it.  The election itself isn’t particularly funny, but some of the quips in the article were spot-on, particularly: “There’s a part of Fairfax that calls itself Alexandria, and nobody can do anything about it.  The only towns we would plausibly beat in a war are Falls Church and Takoma Park.”  I think I spat coffee across the office when I read that, because it is hilariously true.  Well – actually, I don’t know how much I like ALX’s chances in a war with Falls Church.  I do think we’d beat Takoma, though.  (In all seriousness, for the first time in my voting life I am truly undecided.  I do plan to vote but I have no idea who to vote for.  And it’s not ignorance of the issues – I’m decently informed about local politics and the two candidates have such different, but equally valid, visions for our town; I just can’t decide who should get my vote.)

Moving.  The usual – some hiking, some kid-wrangling, some stairs at work.  Nothing special or fun.  I miss running – life has been so busy and I haven’t been able to squeeze it in.  I know that sounds like an excuse, but it’s not.  I swear it’s not.

Blogging.  I flaked on the promised post about my controversial opinions, so how about this Wednesday instead?  And on Friday, for those of you who don’t become furious and quit my blog forever after reading about how I feel about pie and Independence Day, I will have some Mount Vernon flower pictures to share with you and soothe any ruffled feathers.

Loving.  I have been starry-eyed all weekend over the obvious love and joy that the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex have in one another.  From the “You look amazing.  I’m so lucky.” to all the hand-holding and kissing – oh, my word.  In these dark days of one horrific news story after another, it was such a relief to check out of that and just be happy and truly enjoy something for a few hours.  I am still coming down from the royal wedding euphoria and am so excited to see where life takes Harry and Meghan.  (And I hope the royal family is nice to her.)

Asking.  What are you reading this week?