Monthly Recap--May 2021
They say (the proverbial “they,” I don’t really know who “they” are) but they say May is the new December, especially if you have kids in school. Now that I’m several years into this whole full time school business I have to agree. It’s a busy month! There’s state testing, all kinds of fun dress down/spirit type days, extra donations needed for things like field day and end of the year parties, teacher appreciation week, and then you add in Mother’s Day and any May birthdays and it’s a recipe for a long to do list! It’s about time for those end of year pictures (tip—instead of trying to get them done before school while also collecting all the random necessary items for the last day like a thank you card for the teacher or snack for the class party, snap your last day of school picture after school on the 2nd to last day when they get home, no one is rushed or stressed for time!) Our boys are done with school Thursday June 3 and they are both in that strange state of being completely done with the school schedule and also mourning the end of this year with their teachers (they both have had amazing teachers every year they’ve been at this school and every year there are tears on the last day as they say goodbye). I think I also find myself in that strange limbo spot between being ready for slower paced mornings, and definitely excited for vacation, but also a bit anxious about all the long hot days ahead of us. May has been a great month, and here are the highlights of what made it so.
Family Stuff: May was a month of visitors, delicious food and enjoying the outdoors before it gets too hot! Our dear friend Jodi and her kids were in town for a night and had dinner with us before moving overseas, my folks came for the first week of the month which was wonderful, and we enjoyed several meals out this month including a date at The Local for the best fish tacos I’ve ever had.
The boys got new sleeping bags which they’re obsessed with, we explored a new park, the kids and I did a progressive lunch to three restaurants to celebrate Mother’s Day.
Asher moved up a level in swim lessons and is really starting to make some progress which is awesome! We celebrated Mother’s Day with a picnic dinner on the beach with several families from church, and enjoyed a couple other beach days with dear friends throughout this month. The kids are finally old enough it’s actually relaxing for parents—we sit and chat and drink yummy drinks while they run and play and practice boogie boarding in the shallow waves.
I got my 2nd covid shot and spent a Saturday just feeling tired and achy, so Chuck took the kids to Celestial Farms for the day with our friend Tyler and his kids. Chuck got his the following weekend and felt just fine after a nap the next day. We double dated with one of Chuck’s coworkers and his wife which was fun, and we spent a ton of time with the neighbor kids this month teaching them new board games like Clue and King of Tokyo.
Reading: It’s my favorite week of the year! (Not entirely, but close!) It’s the week Anne Bogel (of the blog Modern Mrs. Darcy and podcast What Should I Read Next?) comes out with her annual summer reading guide! I adore her reading guide, it’s a whole event in my house, and it’s free, anyone who wants to know the best books of this summer season can sign up and receive her beautiful PDF magazine in their inbox. I already have way too many books on hold and am so excited for some delightful novels to enjoy in these next few months. This month I finished 7 books, 5 of them were in the Louise Penny Inspector Gamache mystery series. I mentioned this last month, but I’m astounded it took me so many years to pick up this series because I cannot get enough now. I just finished book 9 and now will take a bit of a break to work on the rest of my library holds that have come in recently. I also read Emily Henry’s new release The People We Meet on Vacation which was really cute, but I think I liked her book from last year Beach Read a little better. I finished the book Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney this month and that wasn’t my favorite either. It was a big new release, being one of the books picked for Jenna Bush Hagar’s book club but I just couldn’t get into it. I didn’t love her earlier book The Nest either so apparently she’s just not the right author for me, but I know other’s who loved it! Next up on my list are The Firekeeper’s Daughter, The Day the World Came to Town, The Ex Talk, and The Boy’s Club. My non-fiction/spiritual growth book for the summer arrived from amazon yesterday and I am SUPER excited about it—I’m going to be reading A Burning In My Bones: The authorized biography of Eugene Peterson. I adore him. His book The Pastor forever changed my view of the role of a pastor and his books on practical theology and discipleship are truly incredible. I’m excited to learn even more from his life of faithfulness.
The boys and I finished Flora and Ulysses and are now reading the final book in the Ramona Quimby series, Ramona’s World. The fun thing about this particular book is that it was published a long time after the rest of the series, not until 1999 when I was a high school senior. So I never read it as a kid, which means we’re all experiencing it together and I don’t know what’s coming next, which is so fun! Aidan and I have started reading aloud the 6th Harry Potter book and that will be a big part of our summer—I’ll read aloud as they build legos or color each day. Asher kind of listens but really is in his own world a lot of the time, but Aidan will hang on every word.
Watching: This is definitely always the hardest category for me to have a recommendation in because I’ve realized I just watch so little TV. My kids have been choosing 30 minutes of Minecraft each day on their kindle fires instead of watching TV, and I’ve been reading each night after they’re in bed instead of watching anything this month. That goes in seasons, sometimes all I want to do is zone out with a show but this month I have just wanted to read nonstop. We did finish Dead to Me early in May, which we both enjoyed but I wouldn’t say is my new favorite show. I definitely want to keep watching whenever season 3 comes out because of course they left us with a cliffhanger ending to season 2, but it’s not something I am raving about to everyone I meet. We both loved the new Nate Bargatze standup special on Netflix “The Greatest Average American,” and I showed it to my folks when they were here and we were all cracking up. He’s so clean and funny that any or all of his netflix specials are a HUGE recommendation from our house to yours if you haven’t watched them yet! The kids and I had been reading the book Flora and Ulysses at bedtime for the past month and we finally finished so we watched the movie together on Disney+. It was cute but both boys said “that was good, but the book was funnier” when it was over. Definitely a great family film though if you are looking for your next movie night! And this was the month my husband discovered the Netflix show The Circle. It reminds me of Big Brother or any other type of reality show where everyone is living together and each week voting someone out of the house. The tricky part with The Circle though is that no one can see one another face to face. Everyone is in their own apartment in one building and the entire show is conducted via a social media type platform. You can see each others profile pictures and chat and message back and forth all you want but do you really know who one another is? Are they who they say they are? You see profile pictures of a beautiful girl, but are they really a beautiful girl or are they a dude pretending to be a girl? And how long can they pretend before being found out? I’ve watched bits and pieces as I’ve been reading on the couch next to him and I will say it’s fascinating and would be a great show to watch with teens (the language is not good, but if you can get past that it would be an amazing example of how anyone can be who they want to be on line and you can’t always trust what they’re putting out there).
Cooking: Simple and fast was the requirement for meals this past month. We did BLT’s, burgers, hot dogs, taco salads and spaghetti but the new recipe I tried that we all enjoyed was Honey Lemon Chicken Bowls from Damn Delicious. They are fast, easy, and the sauce was delicious. I made the chicken and served it over brown rice for Chuck and I and pasta for the kids (who don’t love rice) and steamed broccoli to go on top. They’re a great summer meal since there’s no turning on of the oven required.
Listening: This was the month we bought season tickets to the Broadway series that’s coming through Jacksonville in the 2021-2022 season (we get 6 musicals over 6 months—I have missed live theater maybe more than anything else this past year and am READY for some Broadway action!) and I celebrated by leaning in hard to the soundtracks of Come From Away, Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen (also, the trailer for the film version of Evan Hansen dropped and lets just say I cried watching….I know where I’ll be on September 24th!) I have found myself playing the Ben Rector radio station on Pandora a lot while cooking these days (it’s the perfect blend of Ben Rector, Mat Kearney, Dave Barnes, Drew Holcomb—it’s just a fantastic background station!). My favorite podcast episode of the month was a fabulous episode Knox, Jamie and Erin did on The Bible Binge all about women and authority in the church. What did those original texts in Paul really mean in their historical context? Why is it important to know these things? What happens in churches where masculinity is esteemed? They did an excellent job unpacking this topic and if that’s something you’ve wrestled with or are wondering about I’d highly recommend it.
Your turn! Looking back on May, what was something you did, read, listened to, watched or cooked this month that you enjoyed?? Happy start of June everyone!
