Good Monday morning, friends.  Happy (belated) Juneteenth and (belated) Midsummer.  We’re heading into my favorite part of the year – summer and fall.  Last week was a doozy, as moving week always is.  I was slammed at work, trying to finish drafting a brief for a client while our packing crew ran around the house packing up on Wednesday, and then our moving truck rolled out of Alexandria on Thursday.  (Worth saying: the goddess is clearly looking out for me, because this move would have been impossible if the kids were also underfoot, but last weekend our beloved babysitter, “Telly” – Nugget’s former nanny – texted me to say that the family she currently works for was going to be on vacation, and would I like her to watch the kids?  So while Steve and I were running around all week, the kids were over in Fairfax enjoying some Telly time.  It was one less thing on our plates and it made such a difference.)  Anywoot!  The rest of the weekend was devoted to unpacking on the back end.  We had Friday off for Juneteenth, of which I was vaguely aware as an important date for the Black community, and I spent the day reading up on the origins of the holiday while unpacking.  The rest of the weekend we were unpacking machines.  Steve made a few trips over to the old place to clean up, move the rest of our food, and do some touch-ups.  Father’s Day was pretty blah this year – sorry, Steve.  We did get takeout sushi, so that was a fun treat to celebrate an all-star dad who sacrificed the rest of his day to unpacking and yardwork.

Reading.  Very slow reading week, and still all Lumberjanes, all the time.  Between a full week of work, and moving, I didn’t have the energy for a book – or this week, it turns out, even a comic.  Just one of those weeks.  Hopefully when I get my books unpacked and my shelves all filled, I’ll feel more inspired to get back to my book devouring habits.

Watching.  It was an interrupted week of watching, because we didn’t have internet for a few days.  But once we got Netflix back, the kids discovered a new-to-them Netflix game show, the absolutely ridiculous Floor Is Lava.  If you haven’t watched it, it’s an obstacle course show in which teams of three have to try to make their way through a series of elements without falling into a field of “lava” (actually what appears to be water with reddish food coloring).  They’re obsessed, and all day they’re either playing “Floor is Lava” – jumping like squirrels around the furniture – watching the show, or chanting “FIL! FIL!” until we turn it on.  They also watch the same episodes over and over even though they know who wins, which drives Steve crazy.  So I’ve seen a lot of Floor Is Lava over the past few days, as you can imagine.  Other than that, the only watching this crazy week was one episode of Blue Planet II and an old Rock the Park.  Pretty standard stuff.

Listening.  Just a little bit of listening time – I could really use a pair of wireless earbuds for unpacking – a few episodes of the Another Mother Runner podcast while driving back and forth between our old place and the new house on Thursday.  The episode on “Race and Running” was really thoughtfully and sensitively prepared and presented, and I was so impressed by the conversation, so that was the highlight.

Making.  Lots and lots and lots of empty boxes.  And some work product.  But mostly, the empty boxes.  I decided to try out rental reusable boxes for this move – to save money, create a little less waste, and motivate myself to unpack (because the box rental company is coming at 10:00 this morning to pick them up, so they HAD to be empty).  I tornadoed through 65 reusable boxes over the weekend and am pleased to report that they are all empty and waiting for pickup.  (We do have some cardboard, but much less than we would have otherwise.)

Moving.   No formal exercise last week, sadly.  It was just one of those weeks, for obvious reasons.  Any time I wasn’t working, I was running around doing moving tasks – either hauling things or unpacking and organizing.  The good news is, I was super active.  The bad news is, I was supposed to run a virtual 10K on this coming weekend and there’s no way I’m ready – I’ll have to do the 5K option instead.

Blogging.  I have a post celebrating the change of seasons on Wednesday, and then I’m talking about running during quarantine on Friday.  Check in with me then!

Loving.  I wrote about this up above, so I won’t spend too many words, but I am so stoked about the reusable boxes I rented for this move.  I used Bungo Box, but I expect there are different companies offering the same service in pretty much any location.  The “green” aspect of reusable boxes was what initially attracted me, but when I started looking into it I realized we’d also save a good chunk of cash, too.  And knowing that I had a deadline to unpack them meant there was no chance the boxes would sit in my house for months without me finding the time to unpack them.  It just wasn’t an option to avoid them.  On the flip side, I can tell you that it’s been a great experience.  They were dropped off – fully sanitized, which is key these days – on our doorstep a couple of days before the move, and will be picked up from our new house this morning.  Super convenient, planet- and wallet-friendly – what’s not to love?  This is not our last move (hopefully it’s our second to last, and the next move will be into our dream house) and I will definitely, definitely rent reusable boxes again.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?