Manic Monday: On the edge of summer

June 23, 2014 | Uncategorized

Summer vacation STILL hasn’t started for us. A few more days of school before the kids are free and we sit down to make our annual Beach Bucket List. Noah is taking a Regents exam as we speak and still has his big final oral presentation and a Latin final to go. Olivia is hoping thunderstorms don’t wash out the eighth-grade trip to the Great Escape tomorrow. Chiara is waiting for her last (half) day on Wednesday and her big end-of-year gymnastics performance that night, which will include a triple back-handspring and an aerial cartwheel, I’m told. From what I’ve seen in the backyard, I know she’s serious. And we’ll cap off the school activities with Olivia’s eighth-grade graduation on Thursday morning. Good week behind us, good week ahead of us, lots of good all around us. Here’s our Manic Monday menu:

Bookshelf: Last minute change-up last week because some writers I know said they loved this book: I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron. Some of it I love; some of it bores me, but a lot of it speaks to me as a writer and as a 50-something woman who can’t remember anything.

Menu: We have pestobeen doing A LOT of eating out these days between special events and our new weekly date night, so this week we’re going to try something different: eating healthy for a while. Boring, I know. But it doesn’t have to be. And we’ve still got Olivia’s graduation dinner at Sam’s to look forward to on Thursday. Around here, even when we’re eating healthy, fresh pesto made from the basil growing on our deck is always high on the list. That bowl of glorious green over there on the right is the first batch we made last week.

GPS: We’ve been hitting the Town Pool lately, trying to make sure we get our money’s worth out of that family membership. It’s been too breezy for me to even consider jumping in the water, but I do love sitting in the warm sun, especially now that all three kids are able to handle themselves in the pool without assistance. (Last year Chiara was still a little too young, at least in my book.) When pool weather first approached, I got that queasy feeling in my stomach at the thought of putting on my bathing suit since I’m ten pounds heavier than I was last summer at this time (see weekly date night and unhealthy eating referenced above.) But for the first time in my life I have to say that I didn’t really care. In fact, Dennis has been telling how prefers me at this weight over my more angular lower weight. So it looks like a win-win for me. I went out and bought two new dresses to celebrate. Being over 50 really is pretty freeing.

Sideshow: It wasn’t really a sideshow, as far as I’m concerned. It was the main event. Lucinda Williams concert at The Egg last week. Amazing. I wrote about my love affair with Lucinda HERE, and that’s a photo from the show up top.

Viewfinder: Here’s the cool photo collage Dennis made of our overnight date night in Albany this week. So fun. (You can click on image to enlarge it.)

date night collage

Soundtrack: When Dennis and I were sipping cocktails at the Capital American Lounge & Eatery on North Pearl at the start of our big overnight date night (which I wrote about HERE), I was captivated by a song playing in the background. So Dennis used Shazam to figure out what it was: Ella Eyre performing “Love Me Like You.” When we got home yesterday, I purchased not only that song but Deeper by the same artist. Both are great. I love discovering new (to me) artists. (And I love her big curly hair.) Here’s “Love Me Like You.” Enjoy.
http://youtu.be/dvMz_6UB1L4

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