Weekend Fun Recap: September 26–28

How was your weekend? Mine was full of reminders that I’m getting old, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Hopefully I’m still learning and growing as I age.

My husband took over pizza duty Saturday night because I wasn’t feeling great. He knocked it out of the park by turning the oven’s convection function on. I was going to tell our girls that they should marry men who can cook. But then I realized that my husband didn’t really know how to cook when we got married. When he lived on his own without a dining plan for his last semester of college, he would tell me his dinners were things like “chicken,” “beans,” and “salad.” Sounds good, until you realize those were three separate meals.

But he’s really learned a lot about cooking over the years (so have I). He’s still meticulous about following directions (he compares cooking to building LEGO). But he’s also gotten better at improvising and improving over the years. I think he’s a great cook. And it’s because he was willing to learn.

So, while it would be great if my girls married men who can cook, I think it’s even more important that they marry men who are willing to learn. Hopefully, they’ll eventually be married more years than they spent single. (We’re rapidly approaching that tipping point.) And that’s a lot of years in which they can both develop new skills, as long as they’re willing to learn.  

Anyway, speaking of tipping points, I’ve officially been out of high school for more years than I’d been alive when I was in it. And that brings me to…

Homecoming

Yes, it’s time for my 20-year high school reunion. I graduated with a small class (42!), so we’re still trying to pull something together. I’m hopeful that it will happen! But I did attend the Homecoming game with my high school bestie. It was so fun to see a few old friends and continue to be part of the community I loved so much as a teen. Yes, I was referred to as one of the “older alumni” when we were lined up to wave to the crowd after first quarter. But I was glad to see so many “younger alumni” there too to support a school that was so formative for me. I have grown and changed a lot (I hope) in the 20+ years since I graduated, but I’m still thankful for the foundation the school gave me. It’s served me well these past 20 years.  

Visiting GG

We didn’t even make it to halftime at the game, much to my oldest kid’s disappointment. She’s gotten into football, and she REALLY wanted to see the Homecoming Court. But it was past bedtime, and everyone was exhausted, which showed Saturday morning. We all slept in, and we had a slow start getting over to visit GG, my husband’s grandmother. But, as always, we were so glad we went!

The girls had fun making bejeweled bookmarks (similar to these). Then we had GG’s famous brownie sundaes and played a couple games. The toddler is starting to realize that he is being left out of games, so we tried Kerplunk with him. He was surprisingly good at it, much to his chagrin, as he was much more interested in seeing the marbles fall than in winning.

The girls and GG also had a blast playing Waffle Wobble (similar to this but with a waffle theme). The little guy wanted to try this too but didn’t quite have the motor skills to be successful. He did, however, have the verbal skills to tell GG he wanted a toy and came home with a new Bluey guitar. We call GG Mary Poppins for her ability to always have just the right thing hidden away in her little house!       

Family Game Night

After my husband made pizza, we kept the game fun going by getting back on track with our family game night tradition. He chose Splendor, which my middle kid was disappointed about. There were some tears, as she said she’d really been looking forward to playing a game but really doesn’t like this one. My husband offered to let her be on his “team,” to which she agreed. They ended up winning, and that helped her feel a lot better about the whole thing. I also have to give out shout-out to my oldest kid, who came in last but had a really good attitude about it. That’s often been a struggle for her, so it’s nice to see all the practice paying off!  

Watching Football?

Once we got the kids settled in bed, I decided to embrace one of my fall fun list ideas and watch a little football with my husband. UGA was playing Alabama, so this was maybe not the best week to pick. Once UGA got down a couple touchdowns, I gave up and went to bed. My husband texted me that UGA scored right after I left, so I guess hi, I’m the problem, it’s me. It sounds like the game was more exciting than it initially seemed like it was going to be, but since the outcome wasn’t in Georgia’s favor, I’m glad I picked sleep instead!  

Reading Recap

Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel has been on my TBR list for a long time and might fit in the category that Kendra Adachi refers to as “weird little books.” It’s science fiction, told mainly in the form of interviews, about a giant alien robot left scattered in pieces across the Earth and the scientists who reassemble it and try to figure out how to use it. It’s a little bit LOST-esque, and some questions go unanswered (though there is a sequel that might explain more). It wasn’t what I expected, but I still enjoyed the story, which dealt much more with the relationships between the characters and their wrestling with the situation they found themselves in than it did the alien technology driving the plot.  

Little Golden Book

If you need more inspiration about learning to cook as an adult, you can start with the Julia Child Little Golden Book Biography. Julia learned the art of French cooking as an adult—and taught it to many more adults along the way.

I hope you enjoyed your weekend, even though the Dawgs lost. (What, not everyone is sad about that?) What’s a skill that you’ve picked up in adulthood? What’s the best weird little book you’ve read lately? Let me know in the comments—I love hearing from you!

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