Rudi’s got a busy coaching week, so I’ll be on my own starting today. Let’s see how much of this baker’s dozen to-do list I can tackle:

• Play volleyball (My game is at the ridiculously early hour of 10:30, which is painful but doable. I am hopeful I will be ready early enough that I can catch the bus, rather than having to bike to the game.)
• Get rid of the compost
• Reach out to some friends
• Write a post about the books I read in January
• Hit both libraries
• Work on my journal
• Bake (Maybe bread, maybe cookies.)
• Read the book I started this week
• Send some cards
• Watch some of last year’s All Creatures, so Rudi and I can start the latest season this month
• Take 10 books from the bin of books I culled from my shelves to either the Arlington Library or a Little Free Library
• Find yarn for Sergio’s baby’s sweater in my stash
• Change the sheets

How about you? What are you hoping your weekend includes?

Once upon a time, I used to share the things I planned to accomplish, hoped to do, or might be interested in tackling over the weekend. That was, of course, back when I had a job and weekends were vastly different from weekdays and mostly before COVID (and before my warm-weather weekends often just became an opportunity to play volleyball). But I thought I’d bring this back at least for the winter as a way to encourage myself to get out of the apartment during daylight hours and to cross off some necessary chores with a minimal amount of accountability. (Really, there’s no accountability; once I put it down here, I may never get to it and may never feel guilty about that. But still, one must start somewhere. Name the problem…) Plus, who can argue with more blog content? I mean you could, but I’m not sure that anyone besides my mom and my BFF reads this regularly anymore, so why would you?

Right. Back to the potential to-do list for this weekend, assuming that whatever this cough is doesn’t turn into a full-blown cold:

• Go to the two libraries where I have holds waiting for me.
• Finish reading at least one book.
• Hand over this week’s compost at the farmers market.
• Tidy the living room.
• Bake some cookies.
• Set up my 2025 journal for the start of this year. (Yes, I was late in getting it.)
• Write a fave books of 2024 post.
• Watch the UConn-Georgetown game on tv. (It wasn’t on my radar this year and tickets are now $50+ to watch in person.)
• Send the rest of my new year’s cards. (Ahem. They started out as Christmas cards, but I got stuck.)
• Do another load of laundry.
• Get take out or take myself out to eat. (I’ve been so responsible this week while Rudi’s been away!)
• Start either the pair of socks I wound yarn for on Jan. 1 or the baby sweater for my friend’s daughter, who arrives in less than a month (that yarn is in the stash and I have an old swatch for the pattern; I just have to figure out where both are currently).
• Refill the tea tins.
• Replace the batteries on the fairy lights.
• Snuggle the kittens.
• Paint my nails.
• Sort out the veg drawer (hopefully before going to the farmers market with the compost), since it looks like something maybe died in there.
• Find the wall calendar and my new atm card, both of which arrived in the mail in December.

Okay, yes, that’s definitely an ambitious list. And I probably won’t get to all of it. But even a fraction would probably make me fell pretty good about things.

What are you hoping to do this weekend? Curl up and read under your warmest blanket? Watch a movie? (I recommend Flow and Emilia Pérez if you’re considering the theater) Get Christmas put away?

Welcome back for the second day of the Virtual Advent Tour. If you’d like to host a day on your blog, vlog, or Instagram, leave me a comment.

Enjoy today’s highly danceable holiday song, “Ring out the Bells” by Sarah Connor:

See you back here tomorrow, and enjoy your Saturday!

Rudi is spending July doing a bucket-list cycling vacation in Europe, which means I am spending the month on self-care. Here’s a baker’s dozen activities I have on tap for this week:

Play volleyball
Go to the movies with Sarah
Cheer on my teammate Katie in the Congressional Women’s Softball Game
Swim
Send in a job application
Get quarters from the bank
Read outside
Deal with the strawberry patch in the garden (and see if I can find tomatillo plants anywhere)
Catch up with friends on the phone
Make a batch of macarons
Clean the kitchen and bathroom
Learn to replace a bike tube
Attend an outdoor concert or movie

How’s your week shaping up?

It’s a three-day weekend for the federal government, which means D.C. has emptied out quite a bit. But some of us are still here. What do I hope to squeeze into the next three days, you ask? Let me tell you:

• Start my #1000WordsOfSummer project (That’s kind of a misnomer, because it only lasts for two weeks. But the idea is to write 1000 words each day over the next fortnight and to jumpstart or reinvigorate or put a solid dent into a project. I finished it last summer and am going to give it another shot, this time with the actual intent of continuing on through July.)
• Decide if I’m going to do #ChristmasInJuly this year and sign up if I am (I probably will.)
• Bake something with cherries (a cobbler or a pie, most likely)
• Play volleyball
• Swim
• Water the garden and plant beans (and maybe tomatillos)
• Go to supper at a friend of Rudi’s
• Shop at the farmers market (peaches!!!)
• Clear out the refrigerator (honestly!)
• Finish a book or two
• Sit outside at a cafe (maybe with my writing project or maybe with a book or maybe with a knitting project)
• Vacuum
• Send some mail
• Check in with some friends
• Do laundry
• Eat tons of fresh berries because it’s the best couple weeks of the year for that!

How about you? What are you hoping to do this weekend?

I had a nice weekend and I hope you did, too. I didn’t get to everything I’d hoped to, but such is the way of life. I did manage to squeeze in quite a bit:

We picnicked at the Kennedy Center and watched Raiders of the Lost Ark under the stars.

I spent time at the garden, outside in a pool, and on the patio of a cafe.

I bought a flat of strawberries at the farmers market.

I played volleyball, both in the sun and in the (what was quite a bit more than expected) rain and got in some miles on the bike.

We cooked (veggie) hot dogs at home and made daiquiris and went out for ice cream with my friend Chris. And we shopped at our local Japanese market and treated ourselves to some buns and soup.

How was your weekend?