Morning, friends. How were your weekends? Ours was pretty decent, if I do say so myself. After working basically all of last weekend, followed by a stressful week, I felt like I was due a good couple of days off. And I got them – it was a good mix of family fun, book time, and productivity. On Saturday, we woke up to bluebird skies and 70 degrees, so an outdoor day was clearly called for. Started with a neighborhood walk, and then after lunch, a hiking double-header – first Rust Nature Preserve in Leesburg, followed by Beaverdam Reservoir in Ashburn. Y’all. I thought it would be too early in the season for paddling envy, but it seemed like everyone in NoVA had their kayaks and SUPs out on the reservoir. I was green, and itching to get my new SUP out on the water for a test paddle. Steve and I spent most of the hike debating when we can get our first kayak outing of the season in, too.

Sunday was basically opposite to Saturday in terms of weather – grey, rainy, and mucky. Perfect for getting things done around the house, which was needed since several weeks of long workdays had left the place looking worse for wear. I ran to the grocery store pickup and to Target (for wine and Easter basket materials, the essentials), then came home and tornadoed around the house. I cleaned out the fridge; organized the coffee cupboard; went through Nugget’s school materials and tossed a bunch of outdated handouts; did laundry; cleaned the living room and foyer areas; packed up winter clothes and accessories; and worked on a side project. Tiring, but satisfying.

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Reading. Despite a busy and stressful workweek, I managed to get some quality reading time in. The days between Monday and Saturday were pretty much evenly divided between Ex Libris (Michiko Kakutani’s wonderful book of recommendations) and A Morbid Taste for Bones (first in a new-to-me murder mystery series starring a sleuthing medieval monk, Brother Cadfael). I loved both, and will definitely be continuing with Brother Cadfael. On Saturday night, I switched gears and went back to my own shelves – taking a break on the library stack for the moment – to pick up Mango and Mimosa, a wonderful memoir of an adventurously eccentric interwar childhood. Duchess St. Albans was my company on Sunday night, and excellent company she was.

Watching. It was a whole week of Narnia! We finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, worked our way through Prince Caspian over several nights, and are (as of press time on this post) half an hour from the end of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We’re all loving it – some of us too much. Peanut has started leaving notes “from Her Majesty’s Secret Police” taped to the walls, and whenever a door is closed she bangs on it and shouts “Open up in the name of the Queen!” Someone needs to explain to her that the White Witch is not the hero.

Listening. Several hours of All Creatures Great and Small over the course of the week, and still loving it. My favorite parts are the sections featuring the tumultuous household of Jim, Siegfried and Tristan.

Making. Lots of work product, as usual. And progress toward a clean house! I have a few items left on my checklist, but overall it’s looking pretty good around here. Oh, and Nugget and I planted sunflower seeds this weekend, so hopefully I’ll soon be able to say I’ve made some seedlings.

Moving. Sigh. Just the hiking and walking, again. I can feel the lack of strength training – I always have more energy when I’m mixing up the workouts. Maybe next week? I know, that’s what I say every week. Blame pandemic working from home while supervising virtual kindergarten.

Blogging. Themed reads this week, and it’s another one for those of you with cabin fever. And then Friday will be April, which is National Poetry Month, so you know what that means – it’s e.e. cummings day!

Loving. A couple of weeks ago, our little miniature backyard frog pond was a symphony of ribbits and croaks. Well – now we know why. Behold, a floppity jillion tadpoles! (Take my word for it: there were more than I could count, all clustered around the edges of the pond. I noticed them on Saturday when I tried to clean up some of the detritus that the kids have been dropping into the pond all winter – when I couldn’t get one of the sticks in the pond to shift (don’t worry, I was using another stick, not my hands) I realized why; it was surrounded by hundreds of green jelly frog eggs, and swimming all around the eggs – tadpoles! The kids and I spent a good hour sitting by the pond, staring mesmerized at the tadpoles. I can’t wait to watch this gang turn into frogs this summer.

Asking. What are you reading this week?