Gooooooooood morning, friends.  How are you holding up in week one million of global pandemic?  I’m basically done with all of it.  Last week was busy and stressful at work, and this week promises more of the same.  I needed a relaxing, stress-free weekend, but that wasn’t to be either – the kids were in rare form and driving me crazy most of the time.  They’re usually extremely sweet, but they have their moments when they can also be total jerks, and that was most of this weekend.  (I know they’re stressed out by this whole situation – believe me, I get it – but so am I, and I just need them to get in line and on board.)  Anyway, we mostly hung around the house on Saturday.  Steve took a carload of stuff over to the new house, and the kids and I knocked around our current place and got under each other’s skin.  On Sunday, we needed a nature release badly; I wanted to stay in Alexandria – we’re moving close to some of the best hiking in NoVA, but we’ll have plenty of time to explore every inch of those trails in the coming years and I’m trying to soak up my current area before the move.  So we stuck with a trail nearby and had a pretty nice walk.  The kids were generally cooperative; there was only one incident of “let’s pretend our trekking poles are giant tweezers!” and I only had to carry Nugget’s poles for about a quarter of the hike, so, success.  The rest of the day, we just knocked around the house.  Steve went back to the new place with another carload, and I made flatbread with sourdough discard starter (came out okay).  Nugget and I spent the afternoon building a village out of Magna-Tiles while Peanut napped.  So – quiet, but pretty peaceful.  At least until I had the nerve to ask Nugget to clean up a bunch of art supplies he’d dumped on the stairs.  All good things must come to an end.

Reading.  So, last week I warned you that this was going to be a Lumberjanes-heavy space for awhile.  I’ve been struggling with a reading slump, pandemic-induced and exacerbated by all the worries of the world in 2020, and Lumberjanes was the first thing in weeks that I was actually excited to pick up and read.  I’m sticking with it as long as it’s working for me (or until I run out of Lumberjanes to read, which could take some time, since I have fourteen trade paperback collections of the comics, two graphic novels, two bonus trade paperbacks, and four YA novels).  Expect to see more Lumberjanes in this spot for the foreseeable future, or at least until I lose interest.

Watching.  Lots of watching again, last week, which is as to be expected mid-reading slump.  We’re still really enjoying TV time as a family – this past week, we finished up our unwatched episodes of Rock the Park and the season finale of Be Our Chef.  Since we were going to need something new to watch, Steve took the initiative and downloaded Blue Planet II, and we watched the first episode together as a family on Sunday night.  SO good!  The best part, of course, was the orcas and humpback whales eating herring.  Naturally!  Without the kids, I had another couple of evenings of zoning out to the Pure Adirondacks YouTube channel and I’m astonished to report I’ve reached the end.  Anyone else have an outdoor adventurey YouTube channel they like?  Hit me with your recommendations, please.

Listening.  Since I didn’t do much running last week – it was a big work week, whoops – I didn’t do much listening, either.  Just a couple of episodes, or maybe even less than that, of Another Mother Runner.  And weighted towards the beginning of the week, so now I can’t even tell you the highlights.

Making.  Work product aside, there was just a bit of puttering in the kitchen.  A loaf of sourdough sandwich bread, earlier in the week.  And on Sunday, a batch of homemade applesauce (the kids love it; the parents do too) and a first attempt at flatbreads made with discard sourdough starter.  They came out pretty well and were gobbled up, but I think I can do better.  Outside the kitchen, some plans were (tentatively) made.  Wanderlust is hitting hard the longer we’re in quarantine (or quarantine-lite) and Steve and I had a long discussion about making one of our ultimate dream trips happen in the not-too-distant (about 18 months from now) future.  Since we decided to go for it, it’s been on my mind constantly and I’ve spent hours this week adding to my (already considerable) pile of research.  Details to come when (!) we finally book the trip, but I’m excited.  It’s a destination I’ve been dreaming about since I was a little girl.

Moving.  Oof, not much this week.  A couple of runs, or maybe even just one?  And that hike on Sunday – that’s it.  I seem to be in a pattern: one great week, one blah week, repeat ad nauseum.  I’m always happier, more patient, more peaceful and more content when I get that movement time in, so I really need to learn to insist upon it and guard my workout time against threats foreign (work) and domestic (kids).

Blogging.  So, I promised you quarantine silver lines last week, but I felt compelled to write something else instead, and gave you my anti-racist reading list.  That was my way of processing some of the awfulness that is in this country right now, so I’m glad I wrote it.  But I’ll give you those silver lines this week instead – how about on Wednesday?  And then on Friday, a post about moving (soon) and all the mixed feelings.

Loving.  My cousin got married on Saturday!  Sweet Jocelyn and her extremely lucky new husband Jason (I’m sure he knows he scored) have been planning their June wedding for a year and a half.  It definitely wasn’t what they had in mind when they first got engaged, thanks for nothing COVID-19.  But they decided that instead of postponing their wedding and risking it getting postponed again and again, they would tie the knot on their original date, with just a handful of family, and throw their reception in September.  They livestreamed the ceremony for those of us who couldn’t make it to upstate New York, and our family gathered on the couch to watch the bride and groom say their vows.  I was a little sad – I wanted to be there in person; Peanut and Nugget were supposed to be in the wedding along with Jocelyn’s new niece and nephew.  But I was thankful that through the miracle of technology, we were able to watch over Facebook Live.  And I’m still hoping for that big reception in September.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?