Brrrrrr. Is it as cold where you are as it is here? It got down to thirty degrees this weekend – chilly. (My mom tells me it is MUCH colder in upstate New York, which I’m sure it is, but we are wimpy Virginians around here.) Notwithstanding the cold, we got outside both days this weekend, so I’m calling that a success. On Saturday, we hiked at Great Falls Park and I got some pretty fantastic pictures of a great blue heron hunting – stay tuned because those deserve their own blog post, coming next week. In the afternoon – this is very exciting – I got out for a run! Not very far and not very fast, but I just needed to break the ice. On Sunday, we hiked at Riverbend Park, one of our local favorites. Saw a bunch of Eastern bluebirds (they’re everywhere!) and I fell in the mud, good times.

Rest of the weekend was – simple, simple. Snuggling on the couch with a book, sipping chamomile tea, breaking up fights, the usual. I could use another day, as usual, but two good days of rest and reading, that’s better than nothing.

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Reading. Speaking of reading – it was a good, albeit slow, reading week. I’d expected to finish Word from Wormingford: A Parish Year last weekend; it ended up taking me until Tuesday, oh well. Still a good read! Next, as planned, I pivoted to Vice President (!!!) Kamala Harris’s memoir, The Truths We Hold, to celebrate Inauguration Day. What with all the festivities to watch and a few nights of lengthy texts and phone calls with friends and family members (no regrets) it took me until Saturday to finish, but I enjoyed every page. Finished the weekend off with Bewildering Cares, which has been on my TBR for far too long.

Watching. Lots of watching last week! Starting with the Inauguration and the related festivities. I loved every moment and can’t possibly pick a highlight. Amanda Gorman reading her gorgeous work aloud, three past Presidents sharing their good wishes for the new administration, President Biden’s healing speech, Lady Gaga in her Mockingjay cosplay, Bernie’s mittens, the spectacular fireworks – all great, of course. But I think if I had to pick a favorite moment, it was watching Vice President Harris take the oath of office. I dragged Peanut away from Dinosaur King to watch, and I think some of the weight of that historic moment made an impression on her. In other watching news, we finished Big Crazy Family Adventure and are now bereft. Any suggestions for our next family-friendly educational travel show?

Listening. I’ll bet you can guess what I’m going to say – podcasts, podcasts. I made my way through an entire two-part episode of The Mom Hour on “where to put all the STUFF” while running errands this week, and also got through a recent episode of The Marine Conservation Happy Hour while running on Saturday afternoon. Podcatcher’s still out of control, though.

Making. Lots of yummy stews. I started another Whole30 last week (can’t even remember what round this is) and have been wandering through the recipes on the Whole30 blog, stocking up on inspiration, and also just dreaming up lots of whole food-friendly recipes in my kitchen. On Saturday night I made a vegetable curry with Indian-spiced turkey meatballs nestled in it, and it was a huge hit.

Moving. Two hikes this weekend, plus that ice-breaking run – improvement, but not where I would like to be. (Sucking in all that cold air is just not really fun.) The funniest thing happened on my run, though! As I was huffing up the big hill on my street, a car slowed to a stop next to me and I heard the driver shout “Jaclyn!” Shocked, because I barely know anyone out here, I pulled out my earbuds and saw that the car’s driver was a client. We had just the week before last, chatting over Microsoft Teams, discovered that we live in the same neighborhood and started planning to meet up for walks. I haven’t bumped into anyone I know while out running since we moved here – that used to happen periodically when we lived in Alexandria; I just knew so many people there. Running into someone I actually know (fairly well!) made me feel like I am really part of the community out here now, it was a nice feeling.

Blogging. I have a Themed Reads post for you on Wednesday, and then on Friday I will finally wrap my New Year’s content – only on the last blogging day of January, dusts off shoulders – with my goals and word for 2021. Check in with me then!

Loving. You’re all going to totally eyeroll and say, welcome to April 2020, Jac, but – last week I had a Zoom chat with my friend Allegra. Believe it or not, I have not actually zoomed with anyone since the beginning of the pandemic, except for work calls which obviously don’t count. I’ve had several happy hours with girlfriends over FaceTime, but not Zoom – can you believe? Anyway, Allegra is a friend from childhood who I really cherish but don’t always stay in touch with as much as I’d like. Our moms are close friends, so we basically grew up together and whenever I visit my parents, I try to see her. We’ll have marathon catch-up chats in person but don’t really do a great job of staying in contact virtually. Recently she reached out with a professional question (we’re both attorneys) and the conversation took off in a bunch of different directions and turned into a lengthy ongoing text chain. She suggested getting together over Zoom, so I arranged a call and we chatted last week. Guys. It was so good to see her face. We spent an hour chatting and laughing about motherhood, books, jobs – all that life stuff – and decided to make this a regular monthly thing. It’s funny that it took a pandemic to get us to stay in touch regularly – COVID silver-lining, I guess.

Asking. What are you reading this week?