Yawwwwwwwn. G’morning. How were your weekends? Bit of a blah one over here, although the weather was spectacular. I ended up working for big chunks of both Saturday and Sunday – just one of those things. On Sunday I had to visit a client site, which is unusual but not unheard of for a weekend day, and on Saturday I was busily trying to make headway on a few other things. I don’t mind working on the weekends – especially when, as this weekend, I have things that I really need to get done. (Steve once had a job in which he often had to work weekends just because some unnamed person above him in the food chain would decide “I feel like I want people working this weekend” – and that, I never appreciated. Fortunately, that’s never been my experience.) What frustrated about this working weekend was that, as frantically as I hacked away at my stack of work, it didn’t shrink any and I’m still behind the eight ball this week. But at least I came home from my Sunday work to an adorable welcome home note in the driveway!

All the work I had didn’t leave much time for fun, but we did manage to get to Riverbend Regional Park for a Saturday morning hike, where we got a fabulous view of one of the nesting eagles and saw a wood duck! (Pictures to come as soon as I get them off my camera.) And on Sunday morning, in between bouts of work, I joined Steve and the kids for a ramble through the neighborhood park. No exciting wildlife sightings this time, although we’ve seen herons, bluebirds, hawks, and foxes there in the past. And somehow in the midst of all of this, I even managed to finish the book I was reading. So – not the best weekend, but could certainly have been worse.

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Reading. Last week was a slow one in terms of books – not the fault of the books, but just a pile of work, it happens. Between several working evenings and a couple of long evening phone calls with different people, my reading time was curtailed and The Splendid and the Vile moved more slowly than it would have if I’d had more time and attention available to me. Don’t let that put you off the book, though! The fault was with the reader (or the reader’s schedule), not the book itself – it’s wonderful. I finally finished it up on Sunday evening and turned to another library book: Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read and Reread, by retired NYT book critic Michiko Kakutani. I’m about a third of the way in as of press time on this post and really enjoying Kakutani’s thoughtful commentary on her recommendations, most of which I have not read yet. My TBR is taking a beating.

Watching. All over the place this week. A few episodes of The Crown – we’re going at a pace of one or two a week, trying to savor. A NatGeo miniseries called Kingdom of the White Wolf, which Steve chose and we all enjoyed. The first episode of Waffles and Mochi. I wanted to watch that because two adorable puppets learning to cook with Michelle Obama is what the world needs – the first episode was cute, but Steve wasn’t really into it, so the parents dropped off that one and the kids have continued to binge the series on their own time. And, finally, Nugget discovered The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Disney+ so obviously it had to happen. We’re still an hour from the end (it’s a long movie, fam) but we’ll finish it tonight, probably.

Listening. I started the week with podcasts – Another Mother Runner and The Mom Hour, specifically – but found myself craving an audiobook, so midweek I switched over to my newest Audible acquisition, All Creatures Great and Small. I have never read it before, but am loving it so far (about two hours into a 15-hour book).

Making. Piles of work product – that’s about it.

Moving. Oof. It was another one of those weeks in which work was just too busy, and between trying to keep my head above water in the “office” and parenting, I just didn’t make anything happen beyond those two hikes I mentioned above. All week I craved a long solo walk through the neighborhood, or a good head-clearing run, or some quality time in my little makeshift home gym – but mental gymnastics were the biggest workout I got. I have another busy week ahead of me, but I’m hoping to get at least some time to myself. Hope springs eternal.

Blogging. An update on virtual school for you on Wednesday, and the promised first post in my new “Life Library” series on Friday. Check in with me then!

Loving. This may have been completely obvious to everyone except for me – probably was, but do me a solid and don’t tell me if you already had this down. Recently I was re-reading this post by Miranda Mills, on evening routines to reduce stress. I read it back when she first wrote it, but something jumped out at me afresh this time – Miranda says that rather than waiting until she might be too tired, she does her nighttime skincare routine early in the evening, shortly after getting home from her (then) job. Y’all, this blew my mind. It literally never occurred to me (stupid, I know) to do my evening skincare routine any earlier than immediately before bed, and the result was that I almost never actually did it. I’ve mostly gotten away with this tendency to flake on myself, thanks to a combination of good skin genes and rarely wearing makeup (<–personal laziness). But as I’ve gotten older, I have been wanting to prioritize my skincare but was struggling to get into a routine. Miranda’s suggestion to get it out of the way early was completely earth-shattering and I decided to put it into practice and see what happened. So for the past few weeks, I have been doing my evening skincare routine right after I put the kids to bed, before I settle in for the night with my book. I don’t say this lightly, but – it’s been life-changing. My face looks brighter and healthier, and it’s been such a nice way to transition out of mom-and-employee mode and into self-care mode.

Asking. What are you reading this week?