Well, it’s Monday again! And October. Shut the front door. Y’all, I am drained today. It was a busy weekend – good busy, but I’m wiped out. Last Wednesday, my very best friend Rebecca arrived in town from Florida. She was here to attend a CLE (that’s Continuing Legal Education for you non-lawyers out there) conference in DC, and squeeze in friend time around the margins. I picked her up from the airport and she was able to welcome the kids home from school before I drove her to her friend Shannon’s house to stay closer to the conference for a few days. She rejoined us on Friday and stayed all weekend – YAY! It was nice to have her company because – another reason I am drained – Steve was out of town for a partners’ retreat with his law firm colleagues, and I was solo parenting for four days straight. I was supposed to attend the retreat with him – spouses were invited and he turned out to be the only one without a date, but all of our overnight childcare fell through. I wasn’t super sad about not traveling this weekend, but solo parenting two feral pandemic children wiped me out. Plus something always happens when one parent is alone. This time, it was a playground injury during soccer practice on Friday. We narrowly avoided a trip to urgent care, and were very happy to see Aunt Rebecca’s welcome face walk through the door. The rest of the weekend was lots of good running around – soccer, a haircut for Nugget, garden center (and bouncy castle!), a Sunday morning hike, swim class, neighborhood walks, cooking – the list goes on. We did a lot, and I’m tired now but I regret nothing.

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Reading. Whew! Although I didn’t have much reading time over the weekend, I apparently made up for that during the week. Three print books finished (all total delights) and one audiobook (Richard Armitage reading Agatha Christie is everything, ladies), and I’m now well into O, the Brave Music and loving it. Bodes well for the week ahead!

Watching. I am deep down a Monty Don rabbit hole on Britbox and not even mad about it. I watched an episode and a half while Steve was out of town, and +100 would do it again. Nugget, who loves plants, indulgently watches with me. Everyone else grumbles.

Listening. Most of the week was given over to my audiobook – The Murder on the Links – but I did turn back to podcasts after wrapping that up. And Nugget is more of a tunes guy in the car, so there was a lot of singing along to Decemberists songs on the way to and from his haircut.

Making. Well, Nugget and Aunt Rebecca and I made a masterpiece of driveway chalk. Behold! It got a lot bigger than the above – this was just the beginning. Also made: progress on a rather sloppy scarf I’m knitting; a clean guestroom; a fairy garden with Peanut, and some BIG travel plans. I’ve hinted a few times that Steve and I had a big trip on the horizon in February. I was oddly reluctant to talk about it though, because I had a funny feeling it was going to fall through. It kind of did, and kind of didn’t, but the short story is that over a year ago we had booked – and fully paid for – a trip to Antarctica in February 2022, and we learned a few weeks ago that our trip has officially been pushed to 2023. After spending two weeks trying to find a solution to still travel to Antarctica in 2022, we finally accepted that we’re going to be waiting another year, and we pivoted to thinking about what we could do to make this feel okay. I’m deeply disappointed, but I was not letting myself get too excited about it to begin with, because I did sort of think this might happen. As a consolation we spent last week researching, and this week we booked a different February trip – so we will have something really cool to look forward to in February after all. Our reshuffled travel plans are basically the polar (har, har) opposite of Antarctica: we’re trading in parkas for board shorts and penguins for sloths – we’ll be road tripping around Costa Rica. I think this is going to happen – hotels are booked, and some of the adventures are already arranged, with more to come. I’m taking stock of my camera arsenal and plotting out the best way to see sloths. I love making plans, and the will-we-or-won’t-we aspect of our Antarctica trip (we will, but just a year later than planned) was stressing me out. But I’m feeling good and confident about Costa Rica, which is a strange – but nice – sensation.

Moving. Meh, not much movement this week. No running – lots of neighborhood walks; gotta get those 10,000 steps in – and just one short hike. Must do better next week.

Blogging. September’s reading round-up coming atcha on Wednesday, and back to the ‘dacks on Friday. Check in with me then!

Loving. Can’t say it enough – I love, love, love seeing my cherished friends! Especially during a pandemic, when we don’t see each other nearly enough as it is. It’s been wonderful having Rebecca for a few days. We’ve been cooking, walking, laughing, and wishing we could do this every weekend.

Asking. What are you reading this week?