Morning, friends. How were your weekends? Mine wasn’t bad, overall. Steve had to work, which was a bummer for him – I probably should have worked too, but I just… didn’t. On Saturday morning we were out the door bright and early to hike; Nugget had requested a “hike we’ve never done before,” which tested my ingenuity, because we’ve hiked pretty much every park within a 45-minute or so range. (In case you couldn’t tell, we hike a lot.) But I found one spot we’d not yet tried, the unfortunately named Banshee Reeks Nature Preserve, and we headed out to explore. It ended up being a good find – multiple ponds, lots of birds (I regretted leaving my wildlife camera at home; won’t make that mistake next time), a network of intersecting trails to check out, and a visitor center with A PLAYROOM and an INDOOR BEE HIVE. (The kids almost would have preferred to spend the entire time there, rather than on the trails with us.) We headed home and knocked around the house for a bit while Steve worked, then shoved off to play some itty bitty Arizona Diamondbacks in tee-ball. Nugget fielded a grounder and actually tagged a runner out, the first time anyone has done that this season (on his team or any of the other teams we’ve played).

On Sunday, we woke up to rain, so we spent the morning knocking around the house. I logged some solid reading time on the couch while Steve worked and the kids messed around in the family room (Nugget has recently gotten into a video game, send help). The rain stop and the sky cleared up around midday, so we put on our rain boots and headed out for an afternoon hike at our local favorite, Riverbend Regional Park. It was a good one; we spotted both of the resident eagles and their hatchlings in their nest. I got some pictures – stay tuned. That was the high point of Sunday; things tumbled off a cliff shortly thereafter. I had big plans for a home-cooked dinner (chicken cacciatore) and a cozy evening of watching The Crown with Steve after tucking the kids into bed; all were scuttled when I was reducing the homemade sauce for the chicken on my (electric) stove and the entire house went dark. Moments later, I heard everyone shouting – Steve wanting to know what the backup plan was for dinner; Peanut in a panic because her bedroom light turned off; and Nugget having a meltdown because the TV had gone dark in the middle of his video game. Turned out, a tree had fallen across a power line one street over and our entire neighborhood was blacked out. Whoops. We made the best of it – takeaway Thai (I’ll finish the chicken cacciatore tonight instead), reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to the kids under the skylights until their bedtime, and then chatting to my mom over the phone in the dark while Steve read by candlelight. Not quite the Sunday night I had in mind, but nice in its way. And now I have one more week of law firm life; lots to do in the meantime.

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Reading. Pretty good reading week! I finished up A Bite of the Apple midweek – it was interesting, if slow in parts. (Glad I read it, and also glad I got it from the library.) Turned back to poetry and read Devotions, a wide-ranging collection of Mary Oliver poetry that my mom bought for me a few Christmases ago. So good – especially “Humpbacks,” which I’d never read before; I should have known that Mary Oliver would be a whale hugger like me. Saturday afternoon and Sunday – at least until the lights went out and Steve claimed all of the candles for his book – was devoted to Spring Magic, which I am LOVING. It’s one of those conflicting books where I am both dying to find out what happens (feverishly turning pages) but also want to read slowly so it will last longer.

Watching. I’ve been looking forward to Secrets of the Whales on Disney+ NatGeo for over a month, and it finally dropped on Earth Day! We’re watching with the kids, which means each 45-minute episode takes us three nights to finish because we never make it more than 15 minutes before someone sacks out on the couch. So we’ve watched the episode on orcas, and 2/3 of the episode on humpbacks. More whale fun to come this week! (Now that we have power back. It came on in the middle of the night; I checked on Nugget at 4:30 and found him smiling broadly: “Mama, the power’s back! I was afraid I’d never watch Dinosaur King again!”)

Listening. Still on a New Pornographers kick. I decided that I really needed to get a bit more up to date and listened to their 2019 album, The Morse Code of Brake Lights, instead of Electric Version. (Rolling Stone described the album as “anxiety pop” so…) Predictably, I fell hard for “Falling Down the Stairs of your Smile” and ended up listening to it on repeat. And a couple of podcasts – the April episode of Lia Leendertz’s As the Season Turns, and part of a 46 of 46 episode while driving to and from the grocery store on Sunday. The kids came along for the ride and found 46 of 46 especially hilarious.

Making. Well, there was that interrupted chicken cacciatore, does that count? A few other homemade dinners over the course of the week, too – I tried a recipe for cauliflower rice risotto, which was okay but not amazing. And a lot of filed emails; I want my coworkers to be able to find everything they need after I’m gone.

Moving. It was another week of just hiking, cleaning the house, and chasing after the kids – functional fitness. I say this every week. Hopefully I can find some time to get some more formal workouts in this week because I miss them.

Blogging. A Classics Club review of The Iliad and The Odyssey on Wednesday – good timing for National Poetry Month, right? And one final Poetry Friday of 2021. Check in with me then!

Loving. Have we talked about the Furrowed Middlebrow collection from Dean Street Press? I’m starting to compile quite a heap of them. On top of being so pretty (see the cover of Spring Magic, above) they’re a delight to read – they feel good to hold, and the selection of titles is so well curated; I’ve enjoyed every single one I’ve read so far. I love a small publisher or imprint, especially those that focus on forgotten or out-of-print classics.

Asking. What are you reading this week?