Mornin’ friends.  How were your weekends?  Same old, same old?  Here too.  I had kind of a frustrating workweek last week – nothing too bad, but just frustrating, and despite a few glasses of wine and about two hours of ranting on the phone to colleagues, it bled over into my attitude this weekend.  I just felt cooped up and a little raw.  Probably a combination of this annoying work situation and the whole pandemic thing getting me down.  I don’t have the worst of it, by far – we’re all healthy here, and if the worst we’re impacted is having to deal with a few months of quarantine and some plans getting cancelled, that’s okay.  It’s just hard in the trenches.

Anyway, the weather was at least decent, so we got out a couple of times.  I did not go to the supermarket – we ran out of milk towards the end of the week, so I’d run out to the local organic market on Thursday, and picked up a few of the essentials – milk, eggs, yogurt, mac and cheese and cereal for the kiddos, that sort of thing.  Kept the impulse purchasing to just one head of purple cabbage and a pint of blueberries!  (I guess blue/purple foods were looking good to me?)  So we are pretty well set and I didn’t have to brave Wegmans, which I appreciated.  We did walk down to the waterfront and let the kids run out their wiggles at Founders Park on Saturday.  And on Sunday we wanted to get out for a longer stretch of the legs, but were spooked off the Mount Vernon Trail by the mobs of people out walking, running and biking.  So we drove back to Old Town, parked, and walked a stretch along the river (where I found an amazing inspirational rock on the ground), then found a green space for the kids to run around; Nugget invented a new game called “gobble tag” which is pretty fun.  (It’s like regular tag, but when you’re tagged you freeze, and then the tagger gobbles you up.  He’s pretty fast, but I caught him and used it as an opportunity to cover him with kisses.  I’m doing that every chance I get until he’s old enough to be embarrassed by the whole thing.)

Reading.  The longer this quarantine drags on (it’s been over a month now) the more distracted I am and the harder I find it to focus on a book, even a really good book.  Everything I read last week was wonderful.  I started the week off by finishing The Man in the Queue, the first Josephine Tey I’ve checked off my TBR.  And then the rest of the week was devoted to a wonderful surprise – I’d ordered To War with Whitaker, the latest Slightly Foxed Edition, but thought I’d have to wait until the U.K. quarantine ended before getting my package.  It must have been one of the last shipments the Foxes sent off before they departed for their various dens, and I was pleasantly surprised to receive a parcel from Hoxton Square containing not only Whitaker, but The House in Flanders and the 2019 edition of Wonders and Absurdities (the rest of the order I wasn’t expecting for months).  I immediately dove into Whitaker, and it’s absolutely wonderful and a total joy to read.  It’s just that… I can’t concentrate, and I find myself scrolling my phone despite loving every word, which is unfair to Lady Ranfurly.  Well – it just means more time in her company, and I won’t complain about that.

Watching.  It’s been a hodgepodge kind of watching week.  The kids watched Monsters, Inc. twice over the weekend (Saturday night and Sunday afternoon) and I watched with them.  (Steve and I saw it in the movie theater together when it first came out – I was in college! – and we still laugh at all the same jokes.)  And the kids and I watched an episode of the “America’s National Parks” series from the National Geographic Collection on Disney+.  (The episode on Olympic National Park, which featured lots of sea life, including close-ups of orcas and incredible ochre sea stars and pink anemones; Nugget enjoyed the show while eating an incredibly sticky open-faced PB&J prepared for him by his sister.)  I’ll tell you, I really resisted Disney+, but that National Geographic collection makes it all worthwhile.  I am loving the nature documentaries.

Listening.  Not really much of anything, actually.  Part (not all) of an episode of The Crunchy Cocktail Hour while running.  Part (not all) of an episode of The 46 of 46 Podcast: Summit Sessions while kneading bread dough.  And that’s it.

Moving.  Not the best week.  I got a few runs in as part of my “Love the Run You’re With” training plan from Another Mother Runner, but got into a funk later in the week and let a few planned workouts slide.  Shouldn’t have done that, I know.  My funk would have been much less if I’d gotten out and run.  I’ll do better this week.

Making.  A few things!  Sourdough sandwich bread (Steve’s request) on Saturday night.  I did a bunch of things wrong and it still came out well.  Either I’m getting better at this whole bread thing, or the recipe (“basic sourdough” from King Arthur Flour) is just that much of a winner, or both.  And then on Sunday I slow-cooked a big pot of lentil-vegetable stew; true to form, I’m sure I will be the only one who eats it this week.  And a batch of pumpkin spice dinner rolls, just because.  I made 24 knot-style rolls and gave half to the neighbors, as usual.  Not my best, but definitely worth another try.  I overproofed them, which I am learning is a problem.  They also got a little darker than I wanted on the bottom; I’m starting to think that our new sheet pans get too hot.  And I didn’t love the knot style.  The recipe gives an option for doing them as pull-apart rolls and I think I’ll try that next time.  There will definitely be a next time, because I personally don’t think you can have too many dinner roll recipes in your arsenal.

Blogging.  Spring list coming atcha on Wednesday.  We’ll see if I get to do any of it or if I’m stuck in the house until Independence Day (looking increasingly likely).  I was scrolling through some old travel posts recently and remembered that we’ve spent either Memorial Day or the following weekend on Virginia Beach, visiting my BFF Rebecca, for the past few years now.  That wasn’t going to happen this year anyway, since she moved to Florida a few months ago (SOB).  But I was hoping to find something fun to do around water, and it’s not looking good; we have a stay-home order extending into June.  And then on Friday, the last Poetry Friday of 2020 (and I promise it’s not another isolation-themed poem or about the depressing state of the world this time – it’s about BOOKS!).

Loving.  I’ve been drinking down the contents of my tea cupboard as part of an effort to use up as many consumables as I can before we move this summer.  And last week I was working my way through the Jasmine Pearls tea from The Spice and Tea Exchange.  Yum.  I forgot how good it is!  I still have three cups’ worth left in my bag, and I’m going to enjoy them.  And speaking of enjoying consumables, on Saturday I ordered delivery from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Old Town.  (All about supporting our local business folks!)  They were out of my favorite flavor (rainbow buttermilk frozen yogurt – so delicious) on Uber Eats, but I did well.  The pints of salty caramel and milkiest chocolate are already gone, and now I’m just hoping the kids don’t notice the wildberry lavender still in the freezer.  Also, I need to try “frose.”  Sangria sorbet made with rose wine?  Sign.  Me.  Up.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?