Happy first-full-week-of-school to us!  (To those of you who have been back at school for several weeks now – I’m jealous.)  Last week my two went back, and not a minute too soon; the end of summer had become a stressed-out whirlwind of cobbled-together childcare.  It seriously felt like angels were singing on Wednesday, when we pulled out the shiny new uniforms and sneakers and shuffled them off to junior kindergarten and first grade, respectively.  So this is the first five-day week of the school year, and the Metro reopens today!  Hallelujah!  The return to regularly scheduled life couldn’t come at a better time, because I have a super-busy week at the office.  Not worrying about where the kids are going to be or how to keep them out of Steve’s hair and somehow also manage to work – it’s such a relief.  Anyway – the weekend!  We had a pretty low-key couple of days.  After the first week of school (well, three days, anyway) the kids were wiped out and mostly wanted to hang around the house and relax, so that’s basically what we did.  Peanut had a birthday party to attend on Saturday at a local rec center (the boys stayed home and played some baseball), and on Sunday we spent an hour hanging out and drinking coffee on the neighbors’ patio, then went for a short walk and longer playground stint at Jones Point.  But that’s about all.  Spent the rest of the weekend chilling, reading, baking, and stressing about the week ahead.  The usual.

Reading.  Pretty productive reading week.  I finally finished Garden Poems on Monday, after picking at it all summer, then spent most of the workweek over Leia, Princess of Alderaan – which was a lot of fun.  Finished that up on Friday evening and – beckoning library stack notwithstanding – the most enticing thing on my shelves was Anne of the Island – a perennial favorite for back-to-school season.  Read through in less than twenty-four hours, then laid Anne aside with a sigh and picked up How to be a Woman, which my book club is reading this month for our first meeting after being on hiatus since May.  I probably wouldn’t have picked this one up on my own, but it’s pretty good.

Watching.  Figured I should be plugged into the candidates’ actual policy positions, not just their polling numbers (hello, my name is Jaclyn and I’m addicted to FiveThirtyEight) so on Tuesday I watched a chunk of the CNN town hall on the climate crisis.  I haven’t decided who I’m supporting in the primary, so I wanted to get a good sense of the different viewpoints on climate policy, which is my top issue.  I really wanted to hear what Biden had to say, but I ended up missing most of his session because my brother called just as Uncle Joe was walking onto the stage.  But I tuned in for Bernie Sanders (please note that by “tuned in for Bernie” I mean “ate popcorn and shouted SIT DOWN! at the screen while texting Minions memes to my BFF”), Elizabeth Warren, and half of Mayor Pete before falling asleep.

Listening.  Lots of podcasts this week.  Highlights were the fall book preview on Book Riot, and the Mom Hour ladies on procrastination.

Making.  What I should have made this weekend: progress on a few work projects that I have due this week.  What I made instead: this spiced tea bread with fresh plums.  YUM.  Light, airy, and not too sweet – with a kick from the ginger, cardamom and allspice and a lovely crunch from the almonds.  10/10 would make again.

Blogging.  Travel-heavy week coming atcha: on Wednesday, I’m recapping our late-summer getaway to the Outer Banks (OMG, take me back right now!) and then the Pacific Northwest kayaking recaps continue on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  Really loved this article – Please Stop Buying Plastic Crap for Kids – when it popped up in my Facebook feed.  I try to either donate the kids’ toys or to gift them to neighbors through BuyNothing, so that they don’t end up in landfills – but it’s a good reminder that if the stuff doesn’t come into the house in the first place, there’s no need to worry about what to do with it when the kids inevitably get bored.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?