Morning, friends.  How were your weekends?  I guess I did end up taking Friday “off” from posting – whoops.  It was just one of those days, I didn’t have any time to spare for thinking up topics and I had nothing already prepared.  Anyway – this weekend was nice.  My parents arrived on Friday for a quick visit – the first time we’d seen them in seven months.  (They were supposed to come down for Nugget’s birthday party in March, but that ended up being cancelled, like everything else.)  The kids were, obviously, in heaven from the moment the grandparents arrived.  My mom dove right into organizing their playroom (and here I thought I’d gotten it pretty well unpacked!) and the bedrooms.  On Saturday, we took my folks to Riverbend Park for a hike – no owls sighted this time, but I heard a few, so they were definitely around.  They really enjoyed getting to see a new park and a few glimpses of our new area.  On Sunday, they asked for a visit to Old Town, and we are always up for a ramble around our old neighborhood, so we headed down there.  It wasn’t as crowded as I was expecting, although there were more people there than I would have liked.  But we were able to mostly stay away from others – and we got ice cream from The Creamery, my old favorite spot for frozen treats.

My parents left this morning and – this is the really big news – they took the kids with them for an extended visit.  We all kind of needed a break from each other, so I think this will be good for everyone.  The kids will have lots of grandparent time after not seeing them since New Year’s – fun at the lake, swimming at my aunt’s pool, meeting their new baby second cousin, and getting a little summer homeschool in with Nana.  And Steve and I can work in peace during the week, finish unpacking, and do some grown-up stuff – hiking more technical trails, kayaking without duffers complaining the whole time, and cooking together – in our free time.  I’m going to miss the rugrats while they’re on their grandparent vacation – Nugget and I had a good long cry together last night – but we all will be better for it.

Reading.  Well, I promised you a non-Lumberjanes thumbnail this week, and you got one.  It was another light week of reading.  I was slammed with work and the kids were all I could handle last week, and all I could get through during the week was two volumes of bonus Lumberjanes stories.  They were fun, though!  As with any “short stories” I read, there were hits and misses – but overall, really enjoyable.  I think I scratched my Lumberjanes itch, finally, and felt ready to get back to plain words on a page – ha!  Picked up Anthony Rhodes’ forgotten Dunkirk memoir, Sword of Bone, in a lovely Slightly Foxed Edition, toward the end of the week and I’m about a third of the way into it as of today (maybe a little less).  It’s exactly as good as you would expect from Slightly Foxed!  I told my mom all about my favorite small publisher while she was here this weekend, and she took my copy of To War with Whitaker home with her, making me very nervous indeed.  (I hope she likes it, and more importantly, I hope she doesn’t crack the spine.)  Not sure what I will pick up when I finish Sword of Bone, but organizing the bookshelves is on my agenda for this week, so I’m sure inspiration will strike.

Watching.  Hamilton, again!  The parents don’t have Disney+ so they hadn’t been able to watch the film yet (they’ve seen the show on stage, when the Philip Tour stopped in Albany).  We all loved it, of course.  Other than Hamilton – let me think.  Steve and I finished up Continent 7 earlier in the week, so we’re on the hunt for another science/nature docuseries.  (I’m thinking Wild Hawaii is next.)  With the kids gone, we might also be able to get through Season Three of The Crown.  Oh, and on Monday morning before they left, the kids rented How to Train Your Dragon 2 – how?  I don’t even know how to rent a movie on our system.  Nice going, kids.

Listening.  Sort of the usual.  No podcasts this week, but I belted out some R.E.M. in the car on the way to the grocery store on Monday night, and then en route to our hiking destination over the weekend.  I’m sure everyone else in the car enjoyed my rendition of “Harborcoat.”

Moving.  Other than the hike and general kid-chasing, nothing.  This week will be different!  With a normal work schedule back and no 3:00 a.m. fistfights to break up, I am imagining that I am going to get all the running in.  I might even throw on my Merrell x Dogfish Head trail-running shoes and hit the dirt.

Making.  Again, not much.  It was just a really busy week.  I made work product – lots of it – and a pile of life jackets, water shoes, and baseball caps to go up to the lake.  But that’s not really what you’re interested in.  I do have my eye on some grownup cooking this week, so that should be fun.

Blogging.  Errrrrr – I don’t have anything planned, actually.  But I do have lots of spare time right now, so I should be able to pull it together and get you a book review on Wednesday (I have a Classics Club read I have yet to write up) and I’ll come up with something fun for Friday.  I’m planning a post about all the birds we have been spotting lately, but I want to see if I can snag a picture of the downy woodpecker that has been hanging out near our woodpile (!!!) before I share it.  We’ll see.

Loving.  It’s officially summer fruit season!  I brought a watermelon (which was only okay) and a box of peaches (which were delicious) home from Wegmans last week.  I’m working my way through the watermelon, but the peaches were gobbled up immediately.  There’s nothing like summer produce, and especially the stone fruits – I can’t get enough.  I’m thinking of stopping by one of the roadside produce stands near my new place (this is true exurbs, guys) and picking up some more peaches this week.  With the kids on their grandparent vacation, I will get them all.  That, my friends, is true luxury.

Asking.  What are you reading this week?