Honestly, I thought September would never get here. August felt like a really long month. Here’s our monthly round-up of What We Did, What We Ate, What We Watched and What We Read. (Spoilers: it was A LOT about food this month.)
What We Did
Band camp. One night I helped with uniform fittings, so it was fun to meet some of our daughter’s fellow band members.
Backyard book club get-together. We brought our own dinner and just hung out in person. (Book club takes a break for the summer.)
I gave blood again, this time without any embarrassment.
My son and I took a day trip to Cupboard Maker Books in Enola, PA. They have cats! And books. But cats! We enjoyed our adventure.
Lititz Craft show. A nearby town has a huge craft show. We wandered through a small portion of it and were there to visit a friend who had a booth. It was a fun outing.
Our daughter wanted to see her friend perform in a musical put on by Servant Stage, a local theater company that offers pay-what-you-will shows. This one was Rock Around the Clock, a musical medley from the 50s and 60s mostly. It was a toe-tapping good time.
A couple more Long’s Park Music concerts: Terrance Simien and The Zydeco Experience is basically a party in the park. So upbeat and fun.
And the last concert of the season was Devon Gilfillian, a Philly native whose renown is on the rise.
He put on a great show, and his merch offered a cat T-shirt that our son just had to have. So, we stuck around for autographs and a CD purchase and it turns out Devon and his band are beautiful human beings as well. Such a great unofficial end of summer.
After finishing my freelance project, I broke out the Jane Austen puzzle, which put me in the mood for reading historical fiction.
We had a Friday night hangout in Lititz with some of our small group friends. We browsed the record store (Lititz Record Co.), went to the bookstore (Aaron’s) then grabbed ice cream at Greco’s. We love our small group so much and miss them when we’re on a break so hanging out is fun.
Phil’s birthday! He decided he wanted to do something fun and a little bit out of the ordinary for us, so we went to a go-cart track.
Because Phil wore the family birthday sash, he got the fastest car and we all got a little bit of extra time. It was surprisingly more fun than I thought it would be. It was a hot day so we followed up with slushies from Sheetz.
After almost 3 years, we finally made it back to Washington, D.C. and it was for a very good reason: Hamilton!! At the Kennedy Center!
Two years ago, Phil bought me tickets for my birthday, and then Covid canceled the show and this year was our first opportunity for take two. Our daughter paid her way to see the show with me since in the last two years, she’s become a Hamilton junkie, too. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. Even though we’ve seen the recorded performance on Disney Plus, there’s something magical about being in the room for live theater.
I laughed. I cried. I had goosebumps every time a song started. A dream come true.
While we were at the show, the boys went to the United States Botanical Garden near the Capitol. Highlights for them included: “Big Mike,” the banana variety from which all artificial banana flavors are derived; a Venus flytrap; and the tropical section. I’m not jealous we didn’t get to go this time, but I do want to go sometime.
First Day of School. The girl went to high school. The boy started middle school virtually. It’s a long story, and it’s a weird way to start the year.
Nintendo Switch Sports and other video games. The boy had half days of virtual school which left us some afternoons to hone our gaming skills.
First high school football game of the year. Our daughter is in marching band, so we’re supporting her (and entertaining our son, who loves watching football) by going to games.
A four-mile hike with our church at Kellys Run Nature Preserve. It was beautiful and challenging. I fell in the creek, but no regrets.
What We Ate
A bing wrap (scallion pancake burrito thing) and sweet potato fries from Silantra Asian Kitchen for our bring-your-own takeout backyard hangout with book club. I was so hungry, I forgot to take a picture.
Sandwiches from Route 66 diner. Phil took our son out to lunch while running errands one day so I could have some time to work at home and because he wanted to.
Non-alcoholic beer from Athletic Brewing Co. Yes, this is technically a drink, but it’s an important addition to our month.
Phil and I both are taking medications that prevent us from drinking alcohol right now, and we both miss beer a little bit, so we tried out some offerings from this company and for near-beer, they’re quite good. I’m one of those weird people who actually likes the taste of alcohol so to drink it without the effects is okay by me.
Jambalaya. We took it to the park for the Zydeco music night and then ate it all week because apparently you can’t make just a little bit of jambalaya.
Ice cream. I took no pictures but we had some unique flavors.
Cake! A Costco cake to share with our fellow family ministries’ volunteers at church on Phil’s birthday.
Mexican food from El Paisano, a food truck on the west side of Lancaster.
Phil chose this for his birthday. It was filling and affordable.
College Park Diner. Our stop after our DC day where we all had something delicious. Diner food rarely disappoints.
Our back-to-school week meals included some new favorites: jalapeño tuna noodle casserole; ultimate 7-layer dip; noodle bowls (it’s a soup).
I got a jump on meal planning using the cookbooks in our house and these were some of the highlights.
Philly Cheesesteak pizza.
I love our son’s creativity and this was delicious. It came together better than I thought it would.
What We Watched
Because the kids are older, we’ve started introducing them to more of the movies Phil and I watched in our younger years. This month, those included Happy Gilmore, Men in Black, and Talladega Nights, all for the subtle and not-so-subtle comedy. We also watched the new movie Uncharted, which is based on a video game and was not the best movie ever made.
Together on the streams, we’ve watched episodes of Is It Cake? (still funny and the tension is increasing); Phineas and Ferb (now I know where “doofenshmirtz” comes from); Richard Osman’s House of Games (British game show); Press Your Luck (the reboot; it’s so stressful watching people gamble away money they’ve earned but didn’t have when they walked onto the set); Generation Gap (boomers and their grandkids or grand-nieces and nephews see what they know about each other’s generations. As a Gen X’er, I know a lot about both); and The Simpsons (Our son was curious. He likes it.).
We also viewed The Barkley Marathons, a documentary about this redonkulous ultramarathon trail run held annually in Tennessee. I read about it in The Empathy Exams (see below) then we talked about it while hiking and Phil had watched it, so we watched it the same night.
On my own, I watched Grace and Frankie.
Phil and I are still logging episodes of Arrested Development. It was kind of a busy month with some later nights for the kids, so we didn’t do a lot of adults-only viewing. Plus, there’s always sports for Phil and books for me.
What We Read
Speaking of books … I wrapped up my freelance reading project which meant I devoured library books and books in my house.
The ones I finished were:
The Unhiding of Eljah Campbell by Kelly Flanagan. Kelly and I went to school together. He’s written some life-altering non-fiction and this is his first novel, releasing in October. You can see what I said about it here (link to Instagram).
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien. I did it! I finished the second volume. It was a slog in parts. I’m taking a break before I finish the series.
Second First Impressions by Sally Thorne. Literally pulled this one off the library shelf based on the cover. Stayed because of the premise. Thought it was funny and heart-warming.
The Jasmine Project by Meredith Ireland. I follow this writer on Twitter because she’s so candid and funny about the writing life. This is her debut YA and it’s like what would happen if a multi-racial family decided to host a “Bachelorette” type competition for their recently dumped family member (Jasmine) without her knowing. I think I’m in a women-realizing-their-worth phase right now. Both this one and Second First Impressions had that going for them.
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald. While shopping at a used bookstore, I pulled this one off the shelf because of the title. (I’m susceptible to books about books, bookstores, reading and writing.) And I ended up really liking it. Here’s what I said about it after I finished. (link to Instagram)
The Greatest Beer Run Ever by John “Chick” Donohue and J.T. Molloy. An ad for this movie came on during something we were watching, and at first I thought it was for a ridiculous buddy comedy, but it turns out, it’s based on a true story and there’s a book! Chick Donohue, at the urging of a bar owner in his NYC neighborhood, used his merchant marine credentials to hitch a ride to Vietnam during the war to bring beer and good tidings to guys from the neighborhood. It’s a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction kind of story and so intriguing. I’m interested in the movie now.
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison. I don’t know where I heard about this book but I’m doing some research on empathy and kindness. This is a book of essays and some were more interesting to me than others. (Like the one about The Barkley Marathons, this ultra race in Tennessee that’s Wild (capital W intended).
Books in progress:
The Queen’s Fortune by Alison Pataki.
With the kids:
Spy School Revolution by Stuart Gibbs. We finished this one and have only two more in the series before we’re caught up! What?!?
We rolled right into book 9 in the series, Spy School At Sea.
