Today still has a lot of activity coming up, but I feel like I’ve made it through the week. Phew! There have been some highlights, like getting a massage, and two dinners out with the kids that were reasonably pleasant. I had thought about ordering in last night, and the 5-year-old really wanted mac and cheese from a place we’d gone a few months ago, but he wanted it in the pan they serve it in at the restaurant. That would not be part of a Grub Hub order so…we decided to go out in the rain and it wound up being good. Now that my youngest is 5, eating out is starting to be relaxing again!
The storms yesterday brought cool temperatures, which felt lovely this morning. I’ve been running on the treadmill this week because it’s been so hot and muggy and I’m hoping to get back outside over the next week.
I don’t think the storm yesterday felled any more trees in my yard. We’ve had a tree crew here this week dealing with the fall out of some previous summer storms. A few weeks ago I had been sitting in my office when I heard a giant crack. I looked out to see a gigantic tree fall over on the yard. Yikes! It is finally gone, as is the remnant that had not fallen over yet, but looked completely dead. Rather than let the tree come down on its own timeline, we decided to take it down on ours. When it hit the ground yesterday, my office shook. Big trees are…big.
I’ve made progress on my current puzzle. This one has been a bit “meta” as it’s called “Puzzle Library,” and the puzzle being done in the library is actually one I have done in the past! So I guess I’ve put it together twice, just this time in a much more miniature version…I’ll likely finish this one this weekend. I have a 1000 piece puzzle and a 500 piece puzzle in the queue, but I’m saving those for the beach.
This week’s content: At Before Breakfast, I interviewed David Burkus on how to build the best team ever. In the short episodes I suggested that people “Get a reading pen pal” — I love this idea. Share notes back and forth while you read the same book! I also suggested one can “Decide when you’ll decide.” When you don’t have all the information, you can choose a date in the future to decide, and then hopefully relax about it until then. If you need to nudge people to think about something (like a family vacation) you might also choose a date when you will make a decision by, so everyone doesn’t need to think about it forever.
Over at Vanderhacks, my Substack newsletter, I wrote that “A short run is still a run.” Even if you can only run for 20 minutes, that’s generally better than not running, and if you’re holding out for “perfect” you might not see anything happen. And that’s definitely not a win! So it goes for much in life. Behind the paywall, I wrote about “13 quintessential summer experiences there’s still time to have.” My kids don’t go back to school until September, so we have all of August off, but even if that’s not the case, there’s still lots of summer left. May as well enjoy it.
Since it is August 1st, I’ve been thinking a bit about July, and then the arc of the upcoming month. July was kind of a long month! My older boys had that tournament when the bus came back at 3 a.m….there was all the July 4th stuff, from the Phillies game (with SHU) to fireworks. My oldest and I went to Boston for his college orientation and I spent several days exploring the Back Bay area. We hosted a party. There were theater camp performances. We went to the Zoo ale fest and the York state fair. One kid went off to sleepaway camp and another is getting ready to go. I turned around my book edits.
So, a lot going on, and August will too — though with a relaxed vacation vibe for at least part of it with our annual beach trip. There may be another baseball game and some peach picking this weekend. We shall see! Then the month will end with bringing my oldest to school and then getting the others ready to start. But that’s still at least a few weeks off…