I could really have used another day this weekend.  It just went way too fast, and Sunday Scaries hit way too hard.  I’m slammed with work for the next couple of months, with some stressful projects and no break in sight, and the weekends just aren’t long enough to compensate.  We did have a nice one.  On Saturday, we were out the door early for a “Fall for Sunflowers” event at Burnside Farms, which is becoming one of our favorite spots.  We missed the summer sunflowers, but this year – for the first time – the farm did a fall sunflower maze, and it was so much fun.  We let Peanut lead us through the maze and – I’m glad to report – we made it out and do not live in a sunflower field now.  We filled up the rest of the morning with fall fun – I picked sunflowers from what was left of the summer crop, and got a good armful of gladiolas too.  (The gladiolas were especially gorgeous.)  The kids enjoyed the play area – they bumped between the playhouse, the miniature tractors, and the jumping pad and inflatable slides.  Nugget and I went down the slides together a few times and it’s quite a rush.  I can see why they like it.  On Sunday, we mostly bummed around the house in the morning, then welcomed our good friends Zandria and Paul for an afternoon of catching up (for the ladies) and watching football (for the men).  Zan and I took the kids over to the fall family social and blessing of the new turf field at the kids’ school, and I am glad to report that the turf has been appropriately imbued with the Holy Spirit and Jesus is smiling upon the soccer.  Ended the weekend with a family movie night – the first half of the first Harry Potter movie.  The kids were duly impressed.  And now I have to perk myself up for a week of fighting for the cause of justice.  Here we go.

Reading.  Had a busy reading week, mostly because I filled my time with short-n-sweet books.  After I finished How to be a Woman – quick read – I breezed through A Poetry Handbook and English Country Houses in one day each, before digging into the doorstopper Katherine of Aragon: the True Queen (first in a series of six enormous novels about the wives of Henry VIII).  I’m about 450 pages in and enjoying it, but also sort of over it at the same time?

Watching.  Family movie nights on Friday and Sunday brought two episodes of the new Netflix Carmen Sandiego series, plus Potter as mentioned above.  Now I finally know Carmen Sandiego’s backstory, you guys!  I know you were concerned.

Listening.  Just the usual – podcasts.  I had one drive last week – up to Annapolis to interview a witness – and I made my way through a few.  I’m in a bookish podcasting mood at the moment, so I’m mostly digging through my back catalog of reading-related podcasts.  (It goes in waves – I’ll be on book podcasts for awhile, then switch to parenting, then back again – and at the moment, it’s all books, all the time.  Not a bad stretch of listening at all.)

Making.  I didn’t set out to do lots of food prep, but I ended up that way.  Made a big batch of veggie pho on Saturday for dinner, and now have plenty of leftovers – yum.  I did a bean soup for Zan and Paul on Sunday and have lots of leftovers of that, too.  And in my spare time (ha!) I simmered a pot of homemade vegetable broth, slapped together some cornbread (from a mix, and Nugget mostly made it, so don’t get too excited) and prepped cut veggies for this week’s lunches.  Not a bad hour or so of kitchen work.

Blogging.  I have to admit that summer’s on its way out (Mabon this coming weekend!), and that means tallying up my summer list.  Spoiler: I didn’t check every item off, but I actually got to most of them.  It was a good summer.  And then on Friday, I’m sharing day four of our kayaking adventure.  Check back then!

Loving.  I have to share two things with you this week, because they are both delighting me.  First, did you see that Reese Witherspoon and Ellen DeGeneres are having a hilarious (fake) feud over which one of them is better friends with Jennifer Aniston?  It seems to be mostly playing out on Reese’s Instagram feed and honestly has given me so much joy over the past several days. Also:

This beer.  Why is it so good?  It tastes like a beer margarita and I love everything about it.  Steve thinks it’s disgusting.  More for me!

Asking.   What are you reading this week?