✅ Sleep 9 hours (!). Apparently sleeping in on Saturday mornings is my new thing. Sunday is typically long run day, and Saturday is currently a strength day which only takes ~30 minutes — today I did day #3 of the Intermediate 3-Day Split from Callie on Peloton. Kids’ gymnastics is at 10 am so there is plenty of time to sleep in and still get my (short) workout in. Love it.
❏ Camp friend playdate. Hosting some camp friends of A&C who live ~30-40 min away. Ordered bagels / lox / cream cheese / egg salad / etc to pick up on the way home from gymnastics.
❏ Generally relax + read this afternoon while the kids have some device time. Also, Annabel is going to help me pick a hotel for our DC trip over spring break 2023, which is her (one-year-deferred) “10 year old kid’s choice trip”. We will actually be away for her actual (11th) birthday on this trip which should be fun, will have to come up with a fun way to celebrate! She is going to help plan itinerary / restaurants / etc. We WILL be visiting some fancy stationery stores on this trip. (Jenni Bick for sure and probably Erin Condren if we can make it to the suburbs!).
ALSO: Add Feb 2020 photos to photobook album. FINALLY have some momentum on this long-overdue project. March will certainly be interesting.
❏ Family dinner out somewhere?
❏ Mayyyybe order groceries for delivery tomorrow? Or not? I’m sort of in a grocery rut . . . maybe I will do Trader Joe’s or Costco tomorrow instead for some inspo, since there is extra time in this long weekend (we are BOTH off!). I love the idea of “fall food” and am starting to see it everywhere, but it’s 35983474 degrees and not even remotely fall-like (nor will it be for months) so blah.
If anyone has any fun/relatively easy meal ideas for this long weekend, please share! Maybe I will do a lasagna or something like that. Or eggplant parm, but 2/3 kids (at least) would probably rebel.
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Oh, my word, I had no idea about that Erin Condren store and now I need to convince my family to take me for my birthday!
On the meal idea front, Monday September 5th is National Cheese Pizza Day… maybe end your long weekend with a pizza party?
Tuesday the 6th is National read a book day… another great one to celebrate!
Photo books. What are your steps for working on this? I have a weekly task to spend 30 minutes on photo books but I’ve been ignoring it for months.. years! Maybe 30 minutes is too long… any tips appreciated.
For 2020 I actually used Shutterfly’s make my book service (free) and I was happy with how it turned out. It saved SO much time. They lay it all out for you after you upload your photos. I don’t add much journaling/writing to mine anyway though. I’ve gotten behind and haven’t done 2021 yet cuz had a baby this year, but as long as the service still exists I was planning to use it again.
1) make album in google photos
2) upload album to Shutterfly and auto arrange
3) mild editing
4) order!
Not that I’m a poster child for getting them done. I had a little block about 2020 for a while !!
This is what I do, although at the end of every month, I make a google photo album of favorites of every month and title it the month and the year, so feb 2020 for example. It has made it easier for me to make pages for each month and to make our wall calendar that I order each year and gift to my MIL. I try to make our annual photo books through the year. I think I am up to April and May for 2022. I set goals on my monthly outlook page of my journal for making pages for certain months. I try to be only a couple of months behind but right now I am about 4 behind. But doing it during the year in little batches is easier for me than doing a whole year at a time! But it takes some discipline…
I wanted to photo books but have failed, maybe one for the first five years?
I have some fish in the freezer and think I’m going to do fish stew, but it’s more autumnal here. We do meal kits for 3 days a week, I think my husband is bored with the food but not having to do a big shop is huge. kid gets school lunches so it’s just lunches for us, fruit, etc.
So jealous you have autumnal weather!!!!
DC will be so fun! I would have loved to do that trip with our family, but our boys’ school does a trip to DC and Philadelphia each year with the whole 8th grade class. So E will go coming up now in October, and then A will go next year when he is in 8th grade. Seems a little silly to do a family trip there if they are both already going! There are plenty of other destinations to try to fit in before they leave home. But I’ve only been to DC once (on a high school orchestra trip, way back in the day) and my husband has never been, so I would definitely like to get there again. Maybe that will be an “empty nesters” trip for us eventually. Or, maybe we’ll just take the boys sometime anyway- who knows how much they will really absorb all the sights if they’ll be with all their friends, etc… ha.
It wouldn’t be a bad Uber/Lyft ride from the metro to the Erin Condren store and there are a few nice restaurants and a decent family-friendly brewery in that shopping area. There’s also a Paper Source nearby. Jenni Bick in DuPont is awesome and was where a good chunk of my salary went when I worked in the building above it. 14th street is better for restaurants than DuPont these days.
What about cold soups – https://www.loveandlemons.com/cold-soup-recipes/ or similar. If your kids like smoothies, and you want fall vibes, seems like good way to hit both. You could add croutons too.
Ooh fun idea!!!
Sounds like a great holiday weekend! I live near the Erin Condren store and use that shopping center often… but have never been. I agree with Courtney on making a visit and eating there too.
For easy, healthy & good meals, I love only a few ingredients and do not require a true recipe. Some ideas & would love to hear others have more ideas to add:
Cooked lentil (or regular) pasta, pesto, microwaved frozen peas; can add baked salmon (350, 20 mins). Top with Parmesan
Cod tacos (skillet for 3-5 mins per side) with packaged seasoning, avocado & bagged slaw for cabbage
Cooked ground beef in skillet, sautéed spinach with garlic, jar of marinara sauce & lentil (or regular pasta)
Literally all of those sound good! Thank you!!
DC is such a fun trip with kids. We went ours were 9 and 11 yo along with my parents and my brother’s (5!!) kids. We stayed in an Airbnb in walking distance from a metro station. They loved experience of riding the metro – standing on the platform and hearing / feeling the wind from the train before they saw it, choosing a seat, reading the map. The zoo was great. We enjoyed several of the Smithsonian museums .. standout memories include a display of former First Lady (inauguration?) gowns and a butterfly room.
Hi Sarah- how heavy are the weights you use for the workout?
For that particular workout – 20 when she says “heavy” and 12-15 when it’s medium!
Once I get over the head cold I am fighting, I plan to do a trial for peloton as I haven’t found a program I am excited about on beach body!
Your weekend sounds great! Sleeping in one day is wonderful. My husband and I take turns taking the morning so the other can sleep in and it’s delightful!
It’s not really fall weather here in Mn yet either but we are making 3 bean turkey chili from the skinny taste website. It’s going to be in the 80s but we eat soups and chilies year round! I love how they yield easy leftovers that taste even better as leftovers (IMO).
For what it’s worth, I reccomend the Omni Shoreham for DC hotel. Beautiful and historic hotel (sort of the DC equivalent of the Biltmore) near great restaurants and next to Rock Creek Park, and a great value.
Hmm maybe if we did adjoining rooms! I really want a setup where there is adult space and kid space 🙂
The Jenni Bick store is amazing. My son lives near it and introduced me to the store on one of my visits. I need to go back soon!