Morning, friends!  How were your weekends?  Happy Mother’s Day, to my American friends who were celebrating – if you are a mom, I hope that you felt cherished, and if you were celebrating the other moms in your life, I hope that you had some good connection.  And for those of you who find Mother’s Day hard for any reason – I’ve been there – I see you, and I celebrate you, too.

I had a nice weekend.  My Mother’s Day wish was to spend as much time outside as possible.  I’m getting very stir-crazy, cooped up in my townhouse day in and day out, and all I wanted for Mother’s Day was fresh air.  Well, fresh air and as little bickering and back-talk as possible, getting greedy now.  Saturday was a little grey and cool, so we stayed in the neighborhood and took a walk down to the waterfront – pretty standard stuff these days.  Nugget has gotten very into birds in the last few months – for Christmas, all he asked Santa for was “a book about birds,” and also, isn’t he the sweetest?  So he was stoked to see the waterfowl down at the river; he climbed down over the rocks and stood in the sand at the water’s edge and pointed excitedly.  At one point, I saw him struggling with his pocket, then realized that he had quietly stuffed his little blue camera in there before we left, without saying anything to anyone.  He got the camera out, turned it on, and studiously pointed it at a duck while I died of the cuteness.  (Also, it was a good reminder for me: I find geese obnoxious and I tend to overlook ducks; seeing him get so excited about these birds that I usually overlook was a lesson.  Stop, take it all in, and enjoy.)

On Sunday, Steve made my wish for a Mother’s Day hike come true!  As I wrote last week, hiking has been challenging lately because either the parks are closed or the trails are too crowded.  But I wanted a hike, and I got a hike.  We drove out to our new place to check on the work that we are having done before we move in, then headed over to a lesser-known local park in the area.  The trailhead was only five minutes from our new house, and I could barely contain my excitement at the idea of living close to so many great hiking trails once we move!  I’m going to miss my current neighborhood a lot, for many reasons, but there are definite trade-offs and the proximity to hiking is a huge notch in the plus column for the new house.  When we got home, we continued the fresh air fun with my other wish – a family bike ride.  Or, kind of.  Nugget and I rode ahead on our bikes, and Steve walked alongside Peanut on hers.  This is the closest we’re getting to a family bike ride right now, and I’ll take it.  It was a day of bluebird skies, muddy hiking boots, and a SeaQuench at the end – not bad at all.

Reading.  One thing I did not do much of this week: read.  The slow reading pace continues – I am just finding it hard to sit down and concentrate on a book.  Most evenings, I end up mindlessly scrolling my phone, which is very unusual for me.  At the beginning of last week I had just started Jane Austen at Home, and at the beginning of this week I’m only about 2/3 of the way through.  Like I said, very unusual for me.  I’m not too worried about it, because I know this situation is temporary, I’ll get my reading mojo back, and the books will still be there when I do.  And in a way, it’s not the worst time to have a reading slump – pretty soon I’ll be starting to pack up my house, and at least I won’t be tempted to hide away with a book when I should be packing things up into boxes.  That said, I would really like to finish up my stack of books borrowed from my friend Susan before we move.  My plan was to bring them to my office and keep them on my bookshelf there so they didn’t get lost in the shuffle during the move, but I don’t know if I’m going to be in my office between now and moving day, so I may have to come up with a backup plan.  I know one thing, though: I cannot lose any of Susan’s books.

Watching.  Some good watching this week!  We finished up The Mandalorian, and loved it.  (“Hey!  Baby!  Do the magic hands!”)  I can’t wait for Season 2.  Other than The Mandalorian, there were several episodes of Rock the Park, which are getting me excited for summer adventures – not that we’re going anywhere in particular, at least we have nothing currently in the works.

Listening.  The usual – more podcast episodes while running.  I’ve been enjoying checking in with The Mom Hour ladies, and they’re becoming my pandemic gurus.  The Sorta Awesome episode “How Are You Doing, Really?” was also really good and validating and so, so needed.  Currently in the earbuds: a bit of escape, with Simon and Rachel of Tea or Books? – also so, so, needed.

Moving.  It was a good week!  I got in all of my planned runs – including swapping my Saturday run with my cross-training day to take part in #IRunWithMaud on Friday.  2.23 miles for Maud, because running while black should not be a death sentence.  As for the rest of exercise, I didn’t end up doing my planned cross-training (I had my eye on a Barre3 online studio workout) but did get in several long neighborhood walks and two bike rides with little Nugget, plus that hike on Sunday.  I’m pleasantly tired and have definitely gotten my fill of fresh air, which feels good.

Making.  So, there’s the usual stuff – a couple of loaves of sourdough sandwich bread and other dinners for the family.  And quarantine edition making: progress on this awesome 1,000 piece puzzle, which I picked up from the Cornell Store at Reunion in 2018 and have been apparently saving for a global pandemic?  Well, I’m getting to it now.  (Also, I do like that it is suddenly cool to do puzzles and I no longer have to hide.)  I said to Steve that I feel like there are stages to a big puzzle like this.  First, you get the outline put together and you feel pretty good.  Then you realize how much you have left to do and it starts to be daunting and overwhelming and you think you’re never going to be able to do it.  Then there comes a point, after days of puttering, when it suddenly clicks and you can see how it all fits together, and then it goes fast.  I’ll probably be done by this time next week and on to the next puzzle.  Finally, making: I don’t know how this is going to go yet, but I brought my film camera (my dad’s old Minolta from the 1970s, which I had cleaned up and refurbished last fall) out on our hike on Sunday and snapped about a third of a roll.  I’ll have to wait until I finish the roll and get it developed to see how it went, but I’m excited to play around with film photography.

Blogging.  I have a fun week coming up for you!  First, on Wednesday, a Classics Club review of the third book in the Mapp and Lucia series, because we could all use some interwar British humor in our lives!  And then on Friday, a fun post (at least, I had fun writing it) about an unexpected way the kids are connecting to our family culture these days.

Loving.  Thanks go to this guy, for pulling out all the stops to give me an “only slightly sucky” – his words, not mine – Mother’s Day.  It was definitely a weird one, with the whole quarantine thing and all.  But everything I said I wanted – hike, fresh air, sushi, bike ride, wine and adult conversation on the couch – he made happen for me.  Yes, there’s a pandemic and the kids ripped the couch apart and fought with each other all weekend, but those things are not his fault, and everything that was in his power to give me, he gave me.  He’s the best hiking buddy.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?