Weekly Rundown- It’s Race Week!

It’s the first Friday of the month, so I’m linking up with Coco and Deborah for the Ultimate Coffee Date!  Sadly, we just received news that my husband’s brother, Charles, died.  I couldn’t just go ahead and write a lighthearted post, but on the other hand I don’t want to make this post too heavy either.  Let me explain… Charles was an eccentric man, and in later years had become reclusive.  My husband visited him occasionally, but the rest of us never saw him.  When she found out he had passed, my daughter said “Oh no- I was hoping to meet him someday!”  All this is to say, the only person greatly affected by his death is my husband. Charles was much older than my husband, and was a father figure to him when they were growing up.  The family dynamics are complicated, but any way you look at it, it’s hard to lose a family member. But life goes on!  While giving my husband all the support he needs, the rest of us are carrying on.  Here’s what I’m looking forward to this weekend: NOT WORKING.  I always work Saturday mornings, but then have the rest of the weekend off.  Two Sundays ago, I went in to work to pick up a few extra hours.  I really didn’t enjoy that, and vowed I wouldn’t do it again.  But then last Sunday someone really wanted me to come to her house and give her and her daughter a massage.  I couldn’t turn down two private massages, so I did it.  But seriously.  This Sunday I am NOT WORKING. FOOTBALL!  So much football!  Starting tonight (Thursday) with KC and Mahomes, then the second Baylor game on Saturday afternoon, and continuing Sunday afternoon with the first Dolphins game of the season.  In honor of the occasion I’m going to get out all my football decorations (why are they not out yet???) and make a fun charcuterie board for the Dolphins game. RUNNING!  I’m continuing with my every third day running schedule, and so far, so good.  Saturday is a running day, woohoo!!! What are you looking forward to this weekend? As you can see, I have not fixed my blog issues yet.  It won’t be this way forever! (OR WILL IT?  Just kidding. I’ll fix it soon.) Top photo by Trishy on Unsplash

Well, I’m nearing the end of Winter of the World.  There’s a quote on the cover that says “This book is truly epic… The reader will probably wish there was a thousand more pages.”  Well, yes I do!!!  Luckily there’s one more book in the trilogy, Edge of Eternity.  I’ll be starting that one next. Last week I went to Barnes and Noble to look for some of the books Allison mentioned in her guest post on Engie’s blog. Guess how many they had?  ZERO.  Darn!  Barnes and Noble doesn’t have a very big horror section. I still had fun though.  I sat in the cafe and read this magazine… And I found a planner I love!  Well, I love the cover. The inside might not be quite what I’m looking for, but I love the cat so much (the top of the cat’s head and eyes are peeping up on top of the pages as well) that I might try to make it work.  I decided to think it over a little before I buy it.  (Should you get a planner just because you love the cover?  Probably not.) Now I’m excited because tomorrow (my day off) I’m going to a used bookstore!  I’ve never been there and didn’t even know it existed until recently, but it’s not far from me.  I hope I walk out with an armful of books. Okay, eating.  Remember the grand plan of prepping ingredients on Sunday for a week’s worth of bowl dinners?  Well, the last two Sundays I worked.  Not a lot, but just enough that I didn’t ALSO feel like doing meal prep.  Somehow we got through last week anyway.  And, since this Sunday was the start of Pumpkin Palooza, I made my favorite Pumpkin Baked Ziti (recipe from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Veganomicon.)  My sister and I were commenting how the orange and brown color combination looks so pretty now- but once Thanksgiving is over, it looks drab.  When I take down the fall decorations and put up all the sparkly, colorful Christmas things, I can’t believe how dreary orange and brown look.  But for now, I’m loving it! Lastly- pumpkin oatmeal for breakfast!  I just make my regular oatmeal, put in a couple dollops of pumpkin, and all the pumpkin spices (don’t forget cloves- very important!) I’m not quite sure what we’ll have for dinner the rest of the week (leftover ziti will be making an appearance) but we’ll get through it. Do you like used bookstores?  What are you reading now? Top photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Wow.  I’ve really been, shall we say, “absent-minded” lately.  Leaving my car keys sitting on the treadmill at the gym, going to work without my lunch… (in the first instance, a good samaritan turned them in at the front desk; in the second, I was hungry all afternoon.)  Let’s look at a couple other recent examples. Several weeks ago, Elisabeth talked about Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks on her blog, and included some quotes from the book.  It sounded really good, so I immediately requested it from my library (a copy had to be transferred from a different branch.) When it was available, I went to pick it up!  As soon as I held it in my hand, I realized… I have already read this book.   Yep!  I read it about a year ago, and had completely forgotten all about it.  SIGH.  I brought it home anyway, thinking that maybe I would re-read it, but never did.  I returned it to the library, unread… or at least, unread this time… or whatever. Moving on.  As we all know by now, Sunday was the first day of Pumpkin Palooza!  I made pumpkin waffles to celebrate.  Here’s the photo: Hmm, you might be thinking.  Nice can of pumpkin there!  The REASON I included that in the photo is… that was the pumpkin that was supposed to go in the waffles. Yep!  I made my “pumpkin waffles,” and when I took my breakfast over to the table, there was the can of pumpkin, unopened.  I FORGOT TO PUT THE PUMPKIN IN MY PUMPKIN WAFFLES.   HOW could this happen?  I’m supposed to be the Crazy Pumpkin Lady!  This was an epic fail.  Although- the waffles were okay.  Not great, but okay.  I still put in all the pumpkin spices so that kind of counts… right? You can see the problem.  Possible solutions include: Pay more attention to what’s actually going on instead of thinking about the book I’m reading all the time, Have myself committed, and/or Start getting more sleep. I’m thinking I should start with a combination of 1 and 3.  These points are actually related, because I keep staying up too late reading.  But my book is so good!  I look forward to reading it all day, and once I start, it’s hard to put it down.  Well, we all know sleep is important, so I’ll try.  It would be nice to get through a few days without doing anything stupid. How is your sleep these days? Have you made any glaring errors lately? Top photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash    

Hey, guess what- it’s pumpkin time!  September 1st is the official start of Pumpkin Palooza, a festival celebrated by… well, very few.  But those of us who celebrate, do it very enthusiastically.  Light your pumpkin-scented candle and let’s get into the Weekly Rundown!  Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting. Monday I started the week with an upper body workout from Sally McRae’s app, and followed that with Caroline Girvan’s deadbug workout. After work I went to my sports chiropractor for the second treatment on my calf.  He did some scraping, and ART.  He suggested waiting a couple days to let the soreness from the treatment subside, then run on Thursday.  Okay! Tuesday 45 minute pool run!  I think this might have been my least favorite pool run ever.  It rained, and also with about 20 minutes to go my flotation belt broke.  I finished the workout awkwardly holding the belt under my arms. Later in the day I did my hip stability exercises. Wednesday Gym day!  I did 20 minutes on the Stairmaster, then did a hard leg day, plus bench press and abs.  I was definitely feeling down before this workout but felt MUCH better afterwards. Thursday Running day, finally!  I walked one mile and ran two.  No pain in my calf, but that doesn’t mean anything.  I usually have no pain the first run back.  But I’ll take a pain-free run any day! Friday Full body strength- hip stability, upper body (Sally McRae app) and core (Caroline Girvan.) After work I had another ART treatment on my calf.  It was painful but productive!  He suggested that, for now, I run every third day- okay, fine.  Any running is better than no running. Saturday Off- except that, at my daughter’s request, I got out our pull up bar and did some dead hangs.  Funny how hard those are now!  Am I going to once again start doing dead hangs and negatives, pretending that I’m working my way up to an actual pull up?  We’ll see. At night, WOO HOO!  The first Baylor game! We have an exciting new quarterback, and won 45-3.  Perfect way to start the season! Sunday On tap for today- well, it’s the third day so I get to RUN!!!  After that, the first pumpkin waffles of the season, and taking out my fall decor.  Don’t try to rain on my parade by telling me it’s too early- school has started, football is in full swing, and it’s September.  Pumpkin time! I’m still working on my blog issue- please scroll waaaay down to leave a comment (I don’t know why this happened, grr!) Do you follow college football? Too early for fall, or are you ready? Top photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash