I guess this post is about energy intake + energy expenditure…A few months ago, Sarah and I did a Best of Both Worlds episode about dining out. I noted that now that my kids were all older than 6, eating out as a family was starting to become a lot more pleasant and relaxing and, frankly, fun. Which is what eating at a restaurant is supposed to be! I’m still dealing with some highly selective eating, but I’ve found some restaurants where the folks who eat food can find stuff they like and others have workable options.
All 7 of us are home, at least briefly, right now. On Friday, the 7 of us went to North Italia at the King of Prussia mall before some of the crew went to see Toy Story 5. (This restaurant has a chicken fingers + fries meal on the kid’s menu, and also, of course, plain pasta). And on Sunday morning we went to Talula’s Garden downtown for brunch.
This is one of my favorite restaurants in Philadelphia, and I knew they had a brunch, but it’s only on Sundays, which means that during the school year it doesn’t really work (since I’m at church). But my choir is on hiatus for the summer, so I made a reservation for all 7 of us for 11:00. It was absolutely lovely. Philadelphia put on the best weather show this weekend — sunny, breezy, not too hot. We ate outside and were at a table that seemed to perfectly fit 7 (I learned it was because it was a table for 6 that they let me have another seat for because I told them some of the people were small!). Sometimes with tables for 8 we feel like someone is hanging off the end and it’s hard to have a conversation. But we were all close enough in and not on top of each other. We ordered various starters like croissants and French Toast sticks and a cheese board. I had a veggie frittata (pictured). I had checked the menu ahead of time, and it was possible to order bacon as a side, and a single Belgian waffle as a side, so that is what worked for the people who were not into things like veggie frittatas. For the most part people were well-behaved. We did laugh about the guy who came over to us to wish my husband a happy Father’s Day and started with “are they all yours?” Ha.
Other weekend highlights: I went in the hot tub solo for almost an hour Friday night while the little guys were all at Toy Story 5. (Mixed reviews; I don’t think anyone loved it, but hey, movie theaters mean popcorn and such). I also went for a solo bike ride on Saturday (more of this in my week of workouts, below). I worked on my puzzle. My daughter and I did a hot tub visit together on Saturday night.
Just to keep it real, there were some definite low moments too. The 6-year-old was invited to a swim birthday party on Saturday and I knew he was going to have a great time but he is still marginal on swimming, and he definitely did not want to wear swimmies in front of his friends, so then he started screaming at me that he didn’t want to go. I finally said we would just go drop off the present and then he could leave, but I’d bring his swimsuit with me. Well, we got there and he saw that the pool was small and shallow (he could touch in basically the whole length of it) and all his friends were there, so then he did want me to go get him changed in the bathroom and he spent two hours there having an excellent time. It is a frustrating part of parenthood to be screamed at for planning to take your kid to something that you are doing for their benefit and you know they are going to love.
My 11-year-old had a playdate and while my older kids (19, 14) were there with him (my husband and 16-year-old went to go fly in this World War 2 era bomber up in Wilkes-Barre — they had tried to at Reading two weeks prior but there was a problem with the plane) I had said they couldn’t go in the pool until I got home. Well, I got home and both my older kids decided to leave, meaning after the whole pool party I had to bring the 6-year-old out with me to watch the 11-year-olds in the pool. He got in for a while but they wouldn’t really play with him, which he didn’t like, and then they played with him which involved shooting water guns at him, which he also didn’t like. So then he got out and sat next to me saying he wanted to go inside for the next 30 minutes. Good times! (The pool is not right by the house which is why it didn’t work to, say, send him to sit in the room right next to a porch so I could keep an eye on all of them.) I had hoped my husband and 16-year-old would be home to deal with some of this but they decided to stop for a spontaneous multi-hour hike on the way home…I was not thrilled with that either.
Anyway! The playdate ended and my daughter came back and watched the 6-year-old so I could go for a bike ride and that put me in a much better mood. In the interest of holding myself accountable, here is my week of workouts:
Monday. I had rescheduled my strength training (normally on Mondays) due to the 8th grade graduation. I went running outside for 2.5 miles at night (7:30 to 8 p.m.).
Tuesday. This was my virtual strength training session (9-9:30 a.m.)
Wednesday. We were down to only 2 children going to school this day, so the morning routine was a bit truncated. I ran on the treadmill (2 miles) from 7:30-7:50 a.m. or so, then got the 6-year-old ready for school. I also walked outside for 15 minutes later in the day.
Thursday. Ran outside (2.5 miles) from roughly 7:15-7:45 p.m. Not having choir on Thursday nights does open up some time!
Friday. My husband and I went to the Y in the afternoon together. We had limited time before we had to leave for the North Italia reservation and I wanted to clean up a tiny bit after. So I just ran for 1.5 miles on the treadmill and then did 15 minutes of strength training on the machines there.
Saturday. AM “long run” — 3.5 miles. As my husband and 16-year-old had already left for the flight, I didn’t want to be gone too long. Then in the afternoon I biked around 9 miles on the Schuylkill River Trail in Conshohocken. This was truly lovely. Sunny but not too hot, beautiful puffy clouds, and the trail wasn’t crowded.
Sunday. My husband and I went to the Y in the afternoon together again. We stayed a little longer this time. I did about 20 minutes of strength training at the beginning, then did 2 miles on the elliptical (switching things up a bit!).
