All right, Monday, let’s go.  This was sort of a blah weekend.  I’m still really tired from my marathon October and from work stress that continues apace and doesn’t seem likely to die down anytime soon.  I keep thinking things like, next week will be quieter and if I just get myself organized I can tackle it all no problem, and those things might be true but they also seem very out of reach right now.  It was a cold and grey weekend here – every year around this time we move out of the weird weather season (where it’s shorts weather one day and big coat weather the next) and the chill settles in for a few months.  (With some exceptions – we’ve had warm days throughout the fall and winter seasons, and March blizzards.)  I think that happened last week, and now I’m digging out hats and mittens.  Nugget has his first bad cold of the season – he missed school on Thursday with a fever, and compounded the misery by falling face-first off the couch on Friday evening and getting a split lip.  So we’ve been trying to give him a cozy recovery weekend of laying low, but if you know Nugget – you know that’s not a thing he does.  He spent all of Saturday on the couch and was climbing the walls by bedtime, and on Sunday I took him out to run off his energy on the soccer field.  He was still under the weather, though, and drooped on home after about twenty minutes.  As for me – I was just grumpy, with my patience at its lowest ebb for everyone except the little guy (who gets to claim sympathy for being sick and injured).  Months of nonstop high-stakes long-hours workdays have really taken their toll on me.  The sparkly season can’t come soon enough.

Reading.  Despite my dire predictions of last week, it was a productive reading week.  I finished Wives and Daughters on Monday and loved it – full review coming this week.  As expected, I spent most of the week over The Shadow King, which I appreciated for its vivid writing and cultural importance, but which I couldn’t love.  The problem was mostly with me – a gruesome tale of the horrors of World War II in Ethiopia was not the right book of the moment for me; I’m stressed out and overwhelmed and craving comfort reading.  But I was working under a library deadline (others were waiting) and had to either read it or return it unread, which I hate to do.  (I also didn’t like that the author didn’t use quotation marks, which made it hard to follow the dialogue.)  The rest of the week’s reading was also library deadline reading, also not particularly cozy, but went faster – over the course of the weekend, I read through The Stationery Shop and about half of The Testaments.  Both are engaging, but I will confess that my favorite part of The Stationery Shop was the luscious descriptions of Persian food (which made me think of my next-door neighbor, Zoya, who is Iranian and has introduced me to her favorite traditional dishes – yum).

Watching.  Another episode of The Great British Bake-Off – we’re still two seasons behind, but not in a big rush to catch up.  Also, newsworthy – for the kids, anyway – is that Steve was sweet-talked into signing up for Disney Plus, and they’ve become obsessed with Peter Pan.  If you’re wondering whether Peter Pan holds up to contemporary standards of cultural sensitivity: it does not.

Listening.  Working my way through podcast episodes, now that I’ve finished my marathon audiobook.  I’ve given up on the idea that someday I’ll have a clean podcatcher, but I’m still chipping away at it.  Most notable is what I haven’t listened to – the Book Riot Podcast bonus episode on the Handmaid’s Tale phenomenon, which I am saving for after I finish The Testaments – so, sometime this week.

Making.  Lots of cooking this weekend.  I made chickpeas of the sea (my old recipe, which I haven’t made in years, but I had a craving for it); veggie stew (also with chickpeas); roasted broccoli; sautéed green cabbage (my central European is showing!); and taco “meat” with sautéed sliced peppers.  No one is allowed to complain that there’s nothing to eat.  Also making: plans for the holiday theatre season.  For Peanut’s and my holiday tradition of seeing a show – just us girls – I am torn between Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! at the Kennedy Center, and the Washington Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker.  Two very different options.  I’m also considering getting tickets to the kid-friendly performance of the highlights from Handel’s Messiah at the National Cathedral – going to see Messiah performed was one of Steve’s and my traditions before Peanut arrived, and I miss the music.  I’m hemming and hawing over all of these and being really indecisive – the only tickets I’ve actually purchased are for a date night, to see Amadeus at the Folger Theatre.  I loved the movie in high school, and am irrationally excited about seeing the musical, especially at the gorgeous Folger.

Blogging.  Bookish week for you!  A review of Wives and Daughters on Wednesday (not a spoiler, because you already know – I loved it) and a show-and-tell of some recent(ish) additions to the bookshelves on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  I can’t remember if I’ve waxed rhapsodic to you about cocojune yogurt yet, but if I haven’t, buckle up.  I’m obsessssssssed.  I’ve been trying to cut down on dairy (not cut it out completely, but just replace it with non-dairy options where it makes sense to do so) and one of the products I’ve been struggling to replace is my beloved plain Greek yogurt.  None of the vegan options I’ve found have the same thick texture and pleasant tang.  Daiya’s Greek yogurt alternative comes close, and I do like it, but I recently came across cocojune at my local organic market and – YUM.  It’s one of the thicker vegan yogurts I’ve found – still thinner than my beloved Fage – not too sweet, and most importantly, it has the tang.  I’ve tried all four of the flavors – original coconut; strawberry rhubarb; lemon elderflower; and vanilla chamomile – and predictably, the original coconut is my favorite.  But I surprised myself by liking the vanilla chamomile second-best – really, all the flavors are delicious.  I now have about twelve little containers in my fridge, and I am hoarding them.  No one else is allowed to touch them.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?