Hello, friends!  Happy Easter and Happy Passover to my friends who were celebrating this weekend, and Happy Earth Day to ALL of us here on this lovely planet.  (Remember: there is no Planet B.)  We had sort of an up-and-down weekend.  Up: Steve’s mom was in town visiting!  She still works and has a hard time getting away, so visits are not nearly frequent enough and we try to maximize every moment that we have together.  We did our usual Grandma-visit activities: the zoo (Grandma loves the pandas), Chart House, hanging around Old Town.  The kids also got to show off the library, and they enjoyed that.  I think Grandma had a lot of fun, and she even got to see the kiddos’ Easter baskets before heading off to the airport.  Down: our A/C is on the blink.  It’s not horribly hot yet, but it’s hot enough, and the only way to regulate the temperature in the house is to open the windows, which is murder on my allergies.  Up: the redbuds, dogwoods and crabapples are in bloom all over NoVA and it’s like living in fairyland.  Down: obviously we can’t make it through a major holiday without one of the kids having a tantrum in church.  And round and round we go.  I’m attempting to take today off – we were planning to go out to Haymarket and pick tulips, but now Steve has to stay home and wait for a parade of A/C repairmen to come and give quotes, because our landlords want a second, third, fourth and fifth opinion before they replace the unit.  (And we’ve started to talk about buying again one of these days – lots of things stink about being a homeowner, but at least you’re not sweating and sneezing while you wait for someone else to make a decision.)  I might still take the kids to the tulip farm – we’ll see.

Reading.  It was a busy reading week again.  Over the course of the workweek – even with no metro commuting a couple of days – I went through Women Heroes of World War II, The Glimpses of the Moon, and The Mother-Daughter Book Club (a re-read, and so charming).  Over the weekend I turned to the gigantic doorstopper biography of Edith Wharton, which is due back to the library in two weeks and – well, it’s going to be tight.

Watching.  Last night Steve and I started watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which I’ve heard wonderful (marvelous?) things about.  I liked it – it was fun and snappy – but there was a little more nudity than I usually go for.  (Steve asked me how much nudity is not too much nudity and I said “zero nudity.”  What can I say?  I’m a prude.)

Listening.  All the podcasts, as usual, but the highlight has been a new one I started working my way through – the “46 of 46 Podcast” – about hiking the Adirondack high peaks.  It’s been interesting and informative and it’s really well-done, and I like the host a lot.

Making.  Lots of making this week!  I made: a totally planted garden – update on Wednesday – and progress on my 2017 family yearbook, yes I’m behind, and a bunch of appetizers while my mother-in-law was visiting, including artichoke dip (who doesn’t love artichoke dip?) and a family friend’s recipe for pomodori al forno, which came out almost as good as the original chef’s.

Blogging.  It’s a very gardeny week around here.  I’ll have my April garden update for you on Wednesday, and one last poem for National Poetry Month on Friday.

Wondering.  Do you like this format, or would you rather I go back to just writing a paragraph about what I’m reading after the break?  Let me know, please.  Sometimes I feel like I’m just repeating myself – “listening to podcasts, watching nothing” – week after week.  Are you bored?

Loving.  The biggest thing that was making my life better last week was – I got a new office!  I’m sad that a colleague left our firm, but very happy to have a view and sunlight again.  My old office had a window, but it looked out on a wall and was dark and gloomy all the time – not exactly a fun space to work in.  Now I have light, and a bigger space, and maybe I can even get a PLANT!  The world is my oyster.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?