Weekend Recap

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend. This past weekend felt like the first truly 'normalish' weekend since COVID struck in March. We are still being super cautious so I don't want it sound like we are back to life as usual. We wear masks when in indoor public spaces and we don't take Paul to any public indoor spaces since we can't get him to wear a mask. We are mostly seeing daycare friend and if I see other girlfriends, we meet for outdoor walks or coffee dates. But this weekend we went to a park and to the beach so it felt normalish, which was really nice. Here's how our weekend shaped up!

On Friday night, Paul played with chalk in the backyard when we got home from school. We had leftovers for dinner so it was a low key night!

On Saturday morning I headed out for a long walk with Paul while Phil did our weekly grocery shopping.

My favorite walking buddy!

 We saw a beautiful blue heron (I think that's what it is?) taking a leisurely stroll along the creek!

I had done some research and found out that our parks aren't closed anymore. As this sign says, it's 'play at your own risk'. There was only one other family there (a father and daughter) and they were not remotely close to what Paul was interested in so it felt pretty safe. I just wiped his hands before, during, and after and made sure he didn't put them in his mouth.

He was in heaven! His favorite thing to do was the tornado slide. He went down it over and over and over again. Of course there were tears when we left. He never wants to leave the park.

When we got home, I threw together this egg bake for lunch. We make a couple of modification such as using ground sausage instead of sausage patties and getting tator tots with onions instead of chopping green onions. I also find it needs to bake for an hour instead of 45 minutes. It is not a 'light meal' by any stretch of the imagination as it has a pound of sausage AND a pound of bacon and 3 cups of cheese!! But we figure we are very active in the summer and can handle the heavier meal. Plus the leftovers are so good. I forgot to take a picture because we were both starving so we dug right in!

I laid down for a nap when Paul went down for his nap as I had slept really poorly the night before. Phil got Paul up for his nap so I headed out to our (newly-finished) deck to do some reading. I think part of the reason I did not sleep well on Friday night is due to this book - "The Island of Sea Women." A read a really horrible, heart-breaking section right because I stopped reading for the night and could not shake it from my mind. But I think that's a sign of a talented author - she really made me feel things when I read this book (I finished it on Saturday night).

On Saturday night, we grilled a pork tenderloin and had that with asparagus and a baked potato. In case you were wondering, Paul ate none of this. His eating is getting better, but he only likes ground or shredded meat with the exception of turkey. He also does not like asparagus, nor does he seem to like potatoes? I don't get it. But we just keep offering him things and hope he will come around soon. In his defense, there are things he loves that I don't think many toddlers would - like lentil enchiladas that are made with a jalapeno!

We woke up to a super windy day on Sunday. Phil is part of a local swim club that sets up a course so you can swim across a lake on certain times during the week, one of which is Sunday morning. Phil was planning to swim that morning, despite the wind, but we could not find his swim goggles! We both looked in so many places and just could not find them. We had already told Paul we were going to the beach and he was all dressed to go so we still went. In March, our parks and rec dept said beaches were closed for the summer but they provided clarification that by closed they mean no lifeguards. We obviously don't need a lifeguard so it's nice to have this as another activity to entertain Paul. It was not the nicest morning given the wind but Paul still enjoyed playing in the sand. Hopefully next week it's warmer/less windy so we can play close to the water. The beach is pretty large and it was not at all crowded. So again, this seemed like a very safe activity for us to do.

We also stopped at the park on the way home so it was a very full morning for Paul!

Paul went down for his nap and I read my latest read - "The City Baker's Guide to Country Living." It's such a cozy, delightful read and just what I need in my life right now!

After Paul's nap, we went over to our friend's house for some play time. We ordered takeout Indian for dinner.

We were mostly outdoors but we did go inside to eat dinner. The boys all go to the same daycare so are exposed to the same stuff so it seemed low risk to eat indoors. Plus, in Minnesota we are allowed to gather indoors in groups of 10 or less so we were following the rules!

Paul was definitely exhausted when we got home after all the play time and time outdoors!

I closed out my night by logging into the Brandi Carlile Live Stream event. This is her 2nd live stream event this month. She's been playing one album in it's entirely. She started with her most recent album a couple of weeks ago and will be moving back through the years over the course of the summer/fall. It's only $10 to access the live stream. She's putting on these concerts so they can continue to play their band/staff despite not being on tour. The events are around 1.5 hours so more than worth my $10 (you can pay more or less. I paid $30 for the first one as I felt like it was a worthy contribution since Brandi is my all-time favorite artist).

And that's a wrap! So all in all a really good weekend full of time outdoors and some time with friends!

How was your weekend? Is your life starting to feel a bit more normal?