Happy Memorial Day to my American friends – wherever you are, I hope you’re getting some fresh air, some time to connect with family (even virtually) and the chance to let off a little steam.  And of course, a huge THANK YOU to our military families for all of their sacrifices.  This is the home of the free, because of the brave, as we all know so well.  We appreciate you!

Memorial Day weekend is also the unofficial start to summer, of course.  Every year, I waffle between summer and fall as my favorite season.  I love them both, and this is the kickoff to the best half of the year for me.  Allergies are winding down, the heat is cranking up – bring it all on, I say.  I usually like to do something fun to ring in the season, but this year we’re sticking close to home for obvious reasons.  (Although my neighbors heard that I-95 was basically a parking lot, choked with people driving to the beach for the long weekend.)  It was a pretty low-key start to the season for us, and we’re mostly treating today as just another workday (although I think I’m going to take the day mostly off and take the kids off of Steve’s hands – he ran interference for me a lot last week, because I was busy with a court submission, so I’d like to make it up to him).  Anyway!  Saturday was HOT, at least in comparison to the few weeks prior – in the 80s.  We walked down to the waterfront and Steve and the kids played tag in Founders Park for a little while, and then the kids and I spent the afternoon on the patio.  I hate going indoors when it’s nice out!  Sunday was our hiking day.  We stopped off at our new house first, to drop off another trunkload of stuff (seems silly to go empty-handed!) and then explored some of the trails at Lake Fairfax Park.  I spent the rest of the day puttering around the house and got basically nothing done, so I guess that’s a winning Sunday?

Reading.  Another slow reading week, although the three books above make it look like it was a normal-paced stretch.  I finished Merry Hall midweek, then spent the latter half of the week and most of the weekend with The Boy Who Lost Fairyland.  Just one more book to go in the Fairyland series, although I’m reading it so slowly that I’ve mostly forgotten what’s happened so far.  Whoops.  Anyway, finished the weekend with Austentatious: The Evolving World of Jane Austen Fans, a loaner from my friend Susan.

Watching.  Same family watching streak – we’ve finished all of the available episodes of Be Our Chef, and are now waiting for the final two episodes of the season to drop, and we’ve also made our way through all of season six of Rock the Park.  The highlight this week was definitely watching Jack and Colton snorkel with manatees – and now I have a new bucket list item.  (Steve said: “You realize there would be other fish there too, right?”  I told him to shush his face.)

Listening.  A lot of this, for obvious reasons, on repeat:

Moving.  Not much moving this week, either.  (Not much of anything, huh?)  It was a superbusy week on the work front – I had a court submission to file on Friday, and that’s always a bit of a circus.  Most of the planned runs on my training schedule didn’t happen for that reason, which makes me sad.  I am always happier and more energetic and just have more to give when I take that time for myself and get some fresh air via my running shoes.  So I’m going to try to remember that for next week.

Making.  Well, there was a lot of work product!  That’s definitely making something.  And I was proud of what I did at work this week, so that is something.  I also FINISHED the last incomplete family yearbook – 2019.  Look at me go!  Something about dragging pictures around on Shutterfly is very soothing.  And I have big plans for reading through the whole series of my creations as soon as the last two arrive on my doorstep.  So the making was more keyboard-oriented this week, and less kitchen-oriented, although Nugget and I did whip up a strawberry yogurt cake on Saturday morning.  It came out tasting good, but the texture was way off – super dense and unappealing, in my opinion.  The kids disagreed, and they ate it ALL.  So at least it didn’t go to waste!

Blogging.  Got to make sure I get all my May content in, so I’m loading you up this week.  Themed reads on Wednesday – all about gardening life – and then a hiking recap on Friday.  Stop by!

Loving.  On Friday night, I called up my BFF, Rebecca, to chat and catch up since it had been a minute.  I asked her what she was up to, and her response, in a nutshell, was: “Drinking mashed up mango with rum, reading declassified military documents from 1948, and trying to get to the end of TikTok.”  I’m not saying that my bestie is cooler than your bestie, but, well, do the math.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?