It’s funny to think that it’s already the third day of February; this was the first January in a long time that I didn’t feel so put out or like the month lasted a lifetime. I get the impression others did though because the number of memes I saw about it was disproportionate to years past.

Anywho, the weekend. I got all my work work done Friday morning; actually, ended a little before actual lunchtime, if we are being honest. But Ash went to get his haircut so it was quiet for a bit. Around 11, we went to Carrabba’s and then did various errands before heading home to drink a couple beers and watch movies. I love a lazy Friday afternoon. I believe it was that day that we also worked on the tree roots a bit. I probably mentioned that in other posts: as we’ve uncovered the surrounding areas of our newish firepit, we unearthed roots from a tree we cut down years ago. And they are beasts. Slowly but surely we are whittling it away though.

The evening was long because we had made reservations for a 9:15 pm movie. I tried to keep busy by cleaning and I also made my mead for our October competition.

Tried a different recipe this time: used 3 pounds of crystallized honey, one sumo orange (small one), ten raisins, and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg. We’ll see how it goes! It’s fermenting now.

We saw Companion that evening, but got bored at home an hour before so we went to the theater. Our AMC is an anchor of a now-defunct mall and it’s so weird to go over there, remembering the once-vibrant mall and then seeing it all chopped up. They put a wall up just past the theater, which is new. For a long time, they kind of chopped the mall in half so you could still go down and shop some stores like an old entertainment type place, bath and body works, a crystal store, etc. But then it really shut down for good. They even tried to revive it with some new bougie shops in a semi-outdoor area and they added a music venue, which I went to twice. But it all went downhill so those big ol’ area is half empty, half Department of Health work spaces. Of course, at night it looks creepy. Anyway, we walked around Barnes and Noble a bit then the dead mall exterior until it was time for the movie. It was ok; not what I was expecting and had some plot holes, but it was short and to the point, which I can’t fault it for.

Saturday, Isaac worked at 9 and Dakota also had her game then.

They did not win but they played better than they had been.

We left there and went home to make lunch, which no one could decide what to have so I just made us sandwiches and the kids, some chicken quesadillas with canned chicken. Always good to keep those on hand for these instances of ‘what should we have?’ I feel like the day was pretty good; we got things done around here and took about a four mile walk. Around 4, I picked up Isaac from work and the neighbors came over to hang until around 8 or so. We had a fire.

Sunday I got up and worked on laundry and went to the store; I had assembled a lasagna the day before so that was all ready to go, just needed fresh bread. Dakota went with the neighbors on their boat and Elliot was working so we tasked Isaac with starting said lasagna and we walked 6 miles! It’s a route in the neighborhood I usually run if I am looking for hills. It was a good workout, that’s for sure. Sadly, Isaac messed up something with the oven and when we got home and it should have been baking for 30 mins, the oven was somehow off. I don’t know where the error was but I was able to get it back up to temp and cooked. Whew. We basically just watched movies in the afternoon then heated up food as various children returned.

All in all, I’d say it was a nice weekend. Ash is trying to get us back on some kind of intermittent fasting schedule but we want to switch it up and have breakfast so he and I are about to go to our favorite little spot up the road in about 5 minutes. I haven’t eaten breakfast in the morning for a looong time so this feels weird! But I do know that most people I watch who give advice on this stuff do say you have to switch up your routine to push your body into change. So here we go!