birthday

I forgot how overwhelming and busy the month of May can be when life is closer to normal. Last May was nowhere near normal, so I was unprepared for how exhausting (mentally, emotionally, spiritually) the month would be. But here we are, at the end of it, and we made it. Summer is knocking on the door, and I’m hopeful for some rest and rejuvenation. Before we hit summer hard, though, here’s our round-up of May: What We Did, What We Ate, What We Watched and What We Read. Buckle up! It’s a ride.

What We Did

One of the first things the kids and I did was re-organized and cleaned out the pantry. Confession: we had a small ant situation that necessitated this action, but overall the pantry shelves become a catch-all, especially after a significant grocery trip. Stuff gets forgotten and pushed to the back. It was in desperate need of cleaning and re-organizing. I did not take a before picture because that would have been embarrassing. The three of us worked together, and my son’s main contribution was taking each item out one at a time and reading the label. Out loud. “This is fun,” he said. Meanwhile, I was holding in a scream.

Next up was a trip to Longwood Gardens. At the end of April, we purchased a membership for the year. It was a retroactive birthday present for me since last year I was supposed to go see Hamilton in Washington, D.C. We repurposed the Hamilton money and bought a membership, something we’ve been wanting and meaning to do for years. May 2 was the last day of the spring blooms exhibit at Longwood, so we made the day trip. We had never wandered the meadow trails and honestly, these were some of the best moments of the day because fewer people were on those trails. The main garden area was packed with people in various states of COVID compliance. Stay tuned for future visits because we can.

May is a month of celebrations, and first up is MY birthday. I took cupcakes to work to share with some friends and some of those friends treated me the next day to lunch and bought balloons for my desk.

Quarantine. Again! No, that’s not a holdover from last month. Our daughter had a second quarantine just two weeks after her previous quarantine. It’s wild times we’re living in.

All-day lacrosse tournament. (Twice.) I was sort of dreading it, but they turned out to be mostly enjoyable. The first one was cold but fun, even though our team lost all of its games. I enjoyed being around the other lacrosse parents and cheering on our sons. The second one we were at for 10 hours total. So much lacrosse.

One of our firsts in May is that I got tested for COVID. I woke up one morning with cold-like symptoms that had developed overnight. In normal circumstances, I would not have thought twice about the symptoms but it was the worst I’ve felt in a year (even though it wasn’t that bad). After a video call with a health care provider, I got a COVID test. It was negative so it must have been just a body-shutting-down end-of-school-year cold.

We had a FaceTime Uno date with our niece and her parents. One of my favorite things about quarantine is learning how to play games with people via video call. I want to do more of this.

Another first: our daughter got her first dose of COVID vaccine. She will be fully vaccinated by the end of next month, which will bring us great relief.

Phil stopped at a record shop after getting the car inspected and added to his cassette tape collection. Either that or he time-traveled.

I said “yes” to an invitation to drink margaritas at a friend’s house with her neighbors. I usually need a lot of encouragement to leave the house on a Friday night. I have no regrets about this decisions. I met some new people! 

Apparently trying new things with new people is another theme for the month. Since January, we’ve been attending a new church online. This church hosted the first of its summer hikes in May, so the kids and I went. Meeting strangers in the woods? What could go wrong? The answer was nothing. The next day we attended that church in person and have now been there in person twice. It’s not easy being the new people, especially during a pandemic, but this return to community has been encouraging already.

We took a virtual adventure to Myanmar (Burma).

And finished the lacrosse season. As fun as it was, it is so good to be done for the year.

Another celebration: our anniversary. I took the day off, and Phil and I went hiking together at Otter Creek Nature Preserve. We hiked for an hour and a half then stopped for a picnic lunch that we had purchased at Wegman’s. Then it was another couple of hours of hiking. Four hours total on a 90-degree day and we ran out of water while hiking because we packed too little with us on the hike. (There was plenty in the car.)

Then, date night! For the first time since pre-pandemic. We sat on the porch of a local restaurant and ate and drank while it rained. But the rain only added to the experience, and I could eat outside most of the time for the rest of my life and not be sad.

Isabelle and I ran the Race Against Racism virtual 5K. It was after the reporting window for the race, but our spring was a little bit cray-cray so we ran it on Memorial Day just to say we did.

Then we weeded the garden.

And went for ice cream at Lancaster Sweet Shoppe. They were having an anniversary sale. Does BOGO ice cream taste better? Can’t be sure because the ice cream at the sweet shoppe is always good.

What We Ate

While we were visiting Longwood Gardens, we bought food there, another thing we’ve never done, mostly because pre-pandemic you could leave and come back, so we would picnic. Among the four of us, we had a wood-fired pizza, smoked cauliflower bites, parmesan truffle wings, a brisket grilled cheese, Hershey chocolate ice cream, and two ice cream sandwiches from a local place called iSwich. We will now be searching for their ice cream closer to home. It’s pricey but all the food was delicious and we needed the fuel for all of our walking.

So. Many. Cupcakes. I had three from Lancaster Cupcake in less than 24 hours: a London Fog, a Cannoli and a Vanilla Party Cake.

I also ate peanut butter pie and a southwest salad for my takeout lunch at work.

And we ordered from Annie Bailey’s Irish Public House for my birthday dinner. I had the Irish nachos over waffle fries. Two of the family had bangers and mash, and our meatatarian ate a Beyond Burger. He is sold on this plant-based protein initiative and I am all for it.

Pizza and stromboli from Pasquale’s because of lacrosse tournament number one. It normally would have been a pizza night from our son’s menu but we figured none of us would want to cook after being gone all day. (We were right.)

Mother’s Day breakfast: Eggs Benedict, potatoes O’Brien, danishes, donuts, fresh strawberries, chocolate milk.

Frisco’s Chicken with some delicious sides: mac and cheese, chicken fried rice, plantains, yuca fries, empanadas.

Smoked turkey breast. Phil did the smoking. We pulled it and made sandwiches for one of our busy lacrosse nights.

Chicken biryani for our virtual adventure to Myanmar.

Ice cream at Freeze and Frizz with the entire lacrosse program in our school district. It was 50 degrees outside.

Meat, cheese, bread, almonds, nectarines and a ganache cheesecake for our anniversary hiking picnic.

And then we went out to anniversary dinner at Quip’s Pub, a local British pub. We shared crab dip for an appetizer. Phil had fish and chips (wrapped in newspaper!) and I had Miss Lacreevy’s chicken (chicken with ham and brie and asparagus, topped with balsamic and served over mashed potatoes). And beer. Because it’s a celebration.

What We Watched

More WandaVision. If you read last month’s description of the show, it was not inclusive of everything the show is about. I mean, after four episodes, I don’t have a clear idea of what the show is about. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. The opposite in fact. Compelling. Good storytelling. Every episode leaves us with a “WHAAAAT??” feeling. We finished it, and we still have that feeling.

The Nate Bargatze episode of The Stand-ups. More laughter. Some backstory for the jokes he told in the longer special we watched last month, which I now want to go back and watch again.

And his other comedy special The Greatest Average American. Again, lots of laughs.

Footloose in Switzerland with David and Debra Rixon. Do I now want to move to a Swiss village in the mountains? Yes.

Call the Midwife. 

Kim’s Convenience. I laughed out loud within minutes of the first episode. I’m always reluctant to start a new series, even when I’ve heard good things. So far, this one doesn’t disappoint. One thing that’s hard for me is the accents because I think I’ve only ever heard Korean accents in television in a mocking sort of way. So, it’s jarring to hear them used in everyday conversation as part of the show and not be internally offended. We finished season 1 and are already several episodes into season 2. I’m stilling LOLing.

When Calls the Heart. I was so bummed when the show was pulled from Netflix. I had watched up to season 5 (heart-breaking!) so earlier this year I bought the DVD boxed set and shared it with friends. When they were finished watching, it was my turn. I picked up where I left off with the Christmas special at the start of season 6. And continued watching a few episodes in that season.

The Africam at Neledi Dam, South Africa. In keeping with our birdcam obsession, a wildlife cam in Africa came up on our suggested list and we watched for many minutes and now I’m going to be obsessed even more. I’ve since tuned in to other African wildlife cams. I can’t stop. I’ve seen birds sleeping near hippos, giraffes just eating till they can’t eat anymore and warthogs.

For our virtual adventure, a documentary about the Burma Road that is being built by hand through Myanmar to connect China and India. Fascinating.

Another episode of History of Swear Words. The “b-word” this time. My favorite part of this show is how academic and professional people talk about these words and their origins and usage. I’m also learning about all kinds of jobs I think I wish I could have had.

What We Read

The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny. It left me with questions and an immediate need to read the next book, which I requested from the library.

Evicted. Finished it for book club and am still reeling from my second read-through.

Truman. Continued. Slowly chipping away at it. Will I finish it before summer is over? Stay tuned!

When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn. Bridgerton Book 6 and is it repetitive to say that each one is better than the last?

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway. It was like reading Hemingway’s journal. And he made Paris come alive at a time when it was filled with American writers. Enjoyable.

Come Back to Me by Jody Hedlund. This is the first in a new series by one of my favorite authors. It has echoes of Outlander themes in it (modern woman time travels to the past, meets handsome rescuer, struggles with decision to return to her time). Not a substitute for Outlander but a strong story that tugs on your emotions in all the right places.

It’s In His Kiss by Juila Quinn. Bridgerton book 7. Not my favorite of the Bridgerton books, but I’m nearing the end and I won’t stop until I’ve read ’em all.

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny. I’m already about a third of the way through it, and I cannot stop reading about Inspector Gamache.

Bonus book treat: I did not read all of these books yet, but on a particularly stressful day at work, I went shopping at the BOGO (buy one, get one) book fair at our school. I have no regrets.

Thanks for reading along with our May happenings. Next month brings the end of school and the start of summer and what I hope are more adventures. Till next time!