Ready for the Weekend

Ahhh Friday. You couldn't come soon enough this week. And it's been a rather great few days, too! But jet lag, lots of baby wake-ups, and trying to finally finish up some last details around the new apartment have tuckered me out. Terry was off today, so we are ready for the weekend!

Marshall checking out a bird while we enjoyed lunch al fresco

This week has brought some lovely, not-too-hot-yet weather to LA. We are gearing up (bracing ourselves) for a heat wave--we'll see how the new place does with no AC!--and I'm trying to spend lots of time outdoors with Marshall before we hole up away from the sun next week. Tuesday we all enjoyed a run after Terry got home from work (update on our June running challenge below!); Wednesday M and I headed to a new park for a picnic and walk to Whole Foods; and yesterday we ended our run at a local park for a family picnic dinner!

Along with lots of outdoor time, we're trying to eat in as much as possible. This week we had:

Sourdough bread, grilled zucchini, goat cheese, and roasted red pepper open-faced sandwiches with broccoli

Southwest lettuce wraps with Romaine lettuce, roasted sweet potato chunks, black beans, corn, salsa verde, cheddar cheese, avocado, and sour cream (Greek yogurt if you're weird like us)--these were SO good!--with cornbread on the side

Greek salad for our picnic dinner last night, plus a baked sweet potato later in the evening

Lunches have been leftovers or whatever's around, and breakfast was the usual oats or eggs

Some photos from our outdoor dining adventures:

Wednesday night I made cookie dough and then baked the cookies in the morning (after years of experiments, I've discovered chilling the dough up to 24 hrs makes ALL the difference in my cookies!), then brought a third of them to Terry's work. I love baking for others, but I actually rarely find chances to do it. Many of my friends live far away, and Jenn is gluten-free (although I do still pawn off some goodies on her husband because he has a sweet tooth like mine). So usually I just bake for Terry and me, which isn't a problem exactly, but it's a little less exciting, because Terry eats everything. Even sauerkraut. So his (unwaveringly positive) opinion doesn't really mean I did a great job; it just means I handed him something fairly edible.

I digress. So anyway, until I'm back at work and able to bring food to my own coworkers I shall share with his. I hope they loved them.

Another aspect of returning from vacation plus finding normalcy after a month-plus of moving and packing is exercise! Ahh how easy it is to go a day--and then two, and then eight?--without intentionally breaking a sweat (I do find myself sweating an embarrassing amount while carrying Marshall and juggling groceries/boxes/other random parcels from the car to our apartment, which is approximately 23 stairs and maybe 15 flat steps). Hence our June challenge. We do really well when we set goals for ourselves, so we chose 30 miles in 30 days and have been progressing nicely. I figure if we can knock out this challenge, we'll have a little routine going--right now it's every other day right after Terry gets home from work--and we'll be more likely to stick to a more varied workout routine after June ends. Here's hoping, anyway!

So we ran once at my parents' house the day before we left for Hawaii (two grueling miles in ridiculous heat at 3 pm) and once along the beach in Hawaii before Terry got sick. Then I ran three miles on my own one day in Maui, and we knocked out two more this past Tuesday. Then last night we ran one mile to get to our picnic spot, and Terry plowed through three miles this morning. So we have 16 miles left.

Not bad, but a lot of miles left in only 12 days!

Today was a bit of recovery--we've had a tough night or two with Marshall (teething, I assume)--and lots of work around the apartment. Terry took Marshall out for a while, and I got more done in those two hours than I have in about a week! I felt like a little tornado spinning through the house. Now, of course, I'm wiped out, but it was worth it to get some art hung on the walls, lots of cleaning done, and some reorganizing finished. Now I feel like our place is actually home!

Hope you had a wonderful week and are planning a delightful weekend. We'll be visiting family tomorrow, getting massages (!!!), and enjoying Father's Day at home on Sunday. It should be lovely!