I always feel a little bit ridiculous writing about my weekend for a Tuesday morning post, but — here we are!
I LOVED YOUR WISE AND NUANCED PIANO COMMENTS! As always – so many valuable points + counterpoints. As of now, we are not going to push anyone to continue with their current teacher BUT said kid has agreed to try once more with another teacher in the future. And we have agreed we will not make them do piano forever 🙂
(And now I have to call the studio – gah, I hate making cancellation phone calls! But I guess they are probably used to it.)
Our weekend was pretty full but fun overall. G had her TWO birthday parties (one soccer + one at a ninja gym – so much activity!). C’s game did get canceled due to lightning, which was sad BUT I was able to use that time to work and got ahead on recording + slides for an upcoming talk.
Run Club dinner was a highlight – we had 5 adults + 5 kids over and it was a great size for a gathering. I am really not a very effortful host – but I have found that generally no one cares about decor or a signature drink. I ordered (delicious) pizza + salad and we had wine and it was a lot of fun. We took a group shot but at least one of my running friends is pretty private and not on social media so I will not share. It was funny to see the photo and realize we are all something like ~5’3″ or under. (I promise we didn’t exclude tall people on purpose!).
This is going to be a bit of a challenging week, I think. I am on call. Josh is on call (Tues / Fri / Sat / Sun). Our nanny is going to work extra hours this weekend so that we can both go to the hospital, so it will be doable, but full. We are sadly missing celebrating Rosh Hashanah with family but I guess at least it’s both of us getting call out of the way at once!
(I am also on for Thanksgiving but can still go to our Miami Beach celebration; just have to see patients prior and cover the service by phone/remote EMR).
Things I will do this week to keep things manageable:
- Bring decent food / electrolyte drinks to work every day and DRINK ENOUGH OMG WHY IS THIS SO HARD FOR ME
- Try to sleep a little later at least one weekday (I have some flexibility to start time when on call sometimes so if not driving the kids to school, I could potentially get extra rest 1-2 weekdays)
- Try to to bed by 9 when possible — sometimes I end up staying up later to ‘prevent’ being woken up by a call but that REALLY backfires esp if I don’t get called!
- Track time!!! Especially since Laura’s challenge is on 🙂
NON FICTION: Now that I have my fall fiction all set up – non-fiction recs? Not going to lie, love personal development books especially for early morning reading. If you’ve read something great in that category recently please let me know!
15 Comments
Oh I wish T would be into climbing, although the gym is a faff to get to. He’s been to one climbing birthday but says he prefers to climb real rocks/trees, which is fair enough….
I’m glad hosting was fun. I stress out about it but like to cook for people, and really should do it more. Lately we invite families to join us for our Friday movie/pizza night but my husband is in charge of making the pizza so he gets all the praise 🙂
I’m in the office 3 days this week and really struggling with the hydration and food component. I made some bran muffins to eat on the train. I drink a flask of tea on the bus, and get another before getting on the train (which means I’m dying for the loo by the time I get off the train) but I’m really active whilst on campus – I cycle 3 miles from the station, it’s an enormous campus and my classrooms are all over the place, then 3 miles back, and I’ve done the commute 2x and come home with a splitting headache and parched both times. Need to work on this, but reluctant to add a big waterbottle to my already full/heavy backpack. Tomorrow is the early start, 5:15 am bus, thoughts and prayers.
I finished Ultra Processed People which was really good but has now scarred me for life… industrial by-products in our food, ugh. I also liked The Miracle Pill by Peter Walker, both for the vindication that walking is really, really good exercise but also the public health considerations around space and gendered access to public spaces (ie. why don’t girls ride bikes/use skateparks, etc). I haven’t read the new Jenny Odell and have been meaning to.
For non-fiction book recommendations, I’m currently about halfway through Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker and am riveted. It’s so fascinating and definitely has me thinking a lot about my own sleep habits and the sleep habits of everyone around me. Also, I think he’s going to get into this in more depth later in the book, but so far he’s touched a couple times on ways we’ve structured our society to discourage sleep (to everyone’s detriment), and I find that really interesting too. Like I said, I’m only halfway, but I already just want to tell everyone I talk to about it.
Why we sleep is a great book, agree! Still talk and think about it now a few years later.
My current non-fiction (which I’m almost done with) is a travel memoir, but next up I have the book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink checked out from the library. It’s an older book but one I’ve had on my to-read list for a long time.
I haven’t read this yet, but am hearing great things about the memoir, “The Many Lives of Mama Love.” I can’t remember if you read memoirs, though!
Your run club gathering sounded fun! I think low key hangs like that are great for everyone. I am there for the company, not a signature drink or fancy decor. We are like you guys in that we do not focus on decor/interior decorating. We try to only host people when it’s nice enough to be outside as there is very few places to sit in our house because of our 1925 floor plan when hosting large groups was clearly not a priority. 😉 You can’t go wrong with yummy food, some beverages, and good conversation!
We have a super open floor plan which can be annoying at other times but it is actually great for hosting. And we have a plastic Walmart table and chairs for extra seating. Pure elegance 😛
Our floor plan is open, too. The main floor square footage is just very low. Like we only have room for a couch in our living room. We can seat up to 16 people at our dining room – we have a big table with 2 leaves – but there is no where to really mingle if you want to sit down besides the DR table. Overall it’s fine for our small family. But I have a ginormous family (have hosted as many as 18 people). It does keep people from lingering after dinner, though!! 😉
Some recent and past non-fiction I’ve enjoyed are –
The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen
Things We Haven’t Said edited by Erin Moulton
Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff
His Name is George Floyd by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa
A Guide to Rational Living by Albert Ellis
And probably the best non-fiction I’ve ever read –
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
Ooooh another vote for Hidden Valley Road. Totally fascinating (and sad). The genetics nerd in me loved it.
Non-fiction rec:
The Nature Fix by Florence Williams. One of my favourite non-fiction books, and although it’s not personal development it is inspiring to get more into nature on a regular basis.
Good luck with call! You got this 🙂
The Nature Fix – so good!
I haven’t ready it yet, but a dear friend just recommended, “The Best Yes” by Lysa Terkeurst. It’s definitely on my TBR list.
Currently listening to What Happened To You? By Oprah and Dr. Bruce Perry about trauma, brain development, healing and community, also does a great job tying in how racial bias (implicit and overt) relates.
Loved the Anthropocene Reviewed, The Checklist Manifesto, and Dear Sugar for good non fiction this year
„Untangled: guiding teenage girls through the seven transitions into adulthood“ by Lisa Damour. This was probably the best parenting book, both from a theoretical and practical perspective, that I’ve ever read. I finished it a month ago and it has reframed so much of how I see my interactions with my 11-year-old daughter and how I respond to her. Even if you feel like you are not fully into the puberty or teenage years yet, I think it is useful to see what is coming 🙂