Goooooood morning, friends.  How was everyone’s weekend?  Ours was busy – no surprise there, right?  On Saturday, the one thing I really wanted to do was hit the farmers’ market and stock up on fresh food.  Nugget agreed to be my date, but only if he could wear his dinosaur costume.  Some battles are not worth fighting, so off we went to the market, me in shorts and a t-shirt, and Nugget in a plush dino costume with a hood.  Sigh.  He got so much attention on the walk there and at the market itself, that I don’t think he’ll ever wear regular clothes again.  No sooner had we gotten our market haul unpacked than Peanut and I were out the door again for a(nother) Chuck E. Cheese birthday party.  I left Nugget, who was complaining about a tummyache, home on the couch with Dad, but ten minutes after Peanut and I had arrived at the party, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see the boys (and Nugget was still in the dinosaur costume).  It seems Nugget made a miraculous recovery, thanks to the power of Chuck.  We had a pretty nice time at the party; I learned from my past mistakes and brought a book for Rory Peanut to read, and I think knowing she had that option allowed her to play more freely.  All of the kids greeted each other as if it had been years instead of weeks since school ended, and the parents exclaimed over summer haircuts and missing teeth.

The rest of Saturday was spent doing chores around the house and running errands – pretty standard stuff.  We shipped our luggage back from Seattle and were planning to dedicate the weekend to washing our camping clothes and gear repeatedly, but the box hasn’t arrived yet, gulp.  I don’t want to think about what it’s going to smell like when it does show up (hopefully today).

On Sunday morning, Nugget asked to go to the zoo.  He’d just been there the previous week with his grandparents, and we were planning a relaxed, low-key neighborhood day, so we said no – at first.  Then the downward spiral began, and before long I found myself painting Nugget’s face like a triceratops while Steve ran around packing snacks and water for the zoo.  It happens.  (Peanut declined face paint this time, in case you thought I was a meanie who only painted one of my children’s faces.  There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.)  After the zoo, we pounded a quick lunch and then hit the neighborhood pool, while the kids showed off their new tricks from summer swim lessons.  (Note to self: check the deadline for registering them for fall swim class.)  After the pool, we stopped at our next-door neighbors’ house to drip all over their furniture and ruin the kids’ dinner appetites with 4:30 p.m. ice cream.  Parents of the year!  I ended the weekend hunched over my laptop, pounding out the work that I didn’t get to earlier in the weekend.  And so begins another week.  I’m exhausted.

Reading.  I think I’m getting back into the groove a little bit, after not reading much on vacation.  (More to come on summer reading/slumping soon.)  Earlier in the week, upon returning from the Pacific Northwest, I finished up The Library Book – I’d left it home, even knowing it was going to be overdue back to the library, because I didn’t want to tote it along in the kayak or risk it getting lost in the adventure company’s van, and that was a good call, since everything in the kayak got at least a little clammy and salty, if not outright wet.  Anyway, The Library Book was wonderful and definitely lived up to the hype; I was sad to finish it.  Since I’d been on vacation, I didn’t have any other books checked out of the library (at the time – I did squeeze a library run into the weekend errands because y’all know I develop a twitch if I don’t have a stack checked out) so I finished off the one book I did read a bit on vacation – In Morocco, by Edith Wharton, via the kindle.  Finally, on Sunday – library stack notwithstanding – I turned to my own shelf (!!!) and grabbed Mrs. Dalloway, which I’ve been meaning to read for years and which is on my Classics Club list.  Since I had to work on Sunday evening, I didn’t get the long lazy few hours curled up with a book and as a result I’m only about 30 pages in, but so far I love it.

Watching.  No TV or movies this week, but lots of watching.  I watched the kiddos run around with their friends at a birthday party and splash in the pool this weekend.  (My mom thinks they’re so good in the water that I could start bringing a book to the pool again – for the first time since having munchkins – but I’m an anxious type who can’t bring myself to look away from them for even a second.  Every time Nugget surfaced after going underwater, I asked him if he was okay and if he had swallowed anything.  I think by the end of the swim session, he was wishing I’d stayed home.)

Listening.  Back to podcasts!  I’m working my way through my backlog of episodes of The Crunchy Cocktail Hour right now.  Steve wishes I wouldn’t, because I came home with natural deodorant for him after my grocery run on Saturday afternoon.

Making.  Not much making, to be honest.  I’m trying to cook with more veggies – one bonus to my weird summer hours is that I’m home early enough to make family dinners.  So there’s been some vegetable stew-making and crudite-slicing.  Other than that, just puttering.  Refilling the bird feeders, tidying up the garden, chipping away at the basement purge – nothing particularly creative, though.

Moving.  A fair amount of moving, at least!  I squeezed in one weekday run after returning from vacation, and the vacation itself was very active with lots of hiking, walking, and paddling (pictures starting on Friday).  Plus the usual chasing the kids around, and Nugget invented a monster chase game in the pool – so I even squeezed in some actual swimming!  Hoping to find time to get back to the gym and do some strength training today.

Blogging.  Musing about reading in the Summer of No Metro on Wednesday, and – hopefully, if I get my pictures uploaded in time – the first vacation recap on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  This is going to sound weird, but go with it.  On vacation, our kayaking guide was putting protein powder in his coffee every morning.  I thought to myself, that’s either disgusting or it’s brilliant, and I resolve to give it a try when I got home.  On Sunday, I dropped about a 3/4 scoop of Whole Foods’ coconut almond plant-based protein into my travel mug and sipped it while I was walking around the zoo, and verdict: it’s brilliant.  It’s like a delicious creamer, but with actual nutrition!  I usually drink my coffee black, and I don’t think I’d do this every day – in fact, I’m sipping black coffee as I write this post – but what an idea, right?!  I’m always looking for way to squeeze extra protein into my day, since I eat very few animal products.  I can’t believe I never thought of protein coffee.  So simple!

Asking.  What are you reading this week?