What I'm doing this week:

Reading: I want to be rereading Andrew Weil's book about Healthy Aging, but can't seem to find my copy.  So instead I'm reading comics.  :)  Batgirl, Lumberjanes, Rat Queens.

Listening to: Sousa!

Watching: Murdoch Mysteries.  Also, since last time I did this sort of post, I've watched each of the old favorites I mentioned in that post at least once more since then.

Doing: Dexcon!  Yard work!  More yard work!  Yet more, yes, yard work!  Attended my cousin's very lovely Summer Solstice Wedding.  Visited with additional family as part of a belated birthday gathering for Sarah.

Eating/Cooking: This month started with a plumbing emergency, then shifted immediately into our long-planned annual trip to Dexcon, and from there into some overdue yard work and trash removal, with attendant tool buying.  Because of all that, we're on an austerity budget for the rest of the month.  One positive side of that is that we're motivated to make a lot more treats at home, so that we're not tempted to eat out or pick up convenience food or commercial treats.  We had a very nice picnic spread at Dexcon with us (pasta salad, chickpea salad, homemade iced tea, etc.) and have been enjoying our spin on Ree Drummond's Best Breakfast Potatoes Ever instead of going out to our favorite diner for weekend breakfasts.
Something that went particularly well this week: Dexcon.  We've worked hard to triangulate toward a really solid, resilient, pleasant approach to the weekend, and this year we reaped the rewards of all that planning, strategizing, and communicating.  It was a great weekend.

Something that went less well: I was sick the first couple days of Dexcon, and Joe's now dealing with the same bug I had.

Something I'm grateful for: Being pushed to finally take care of the yard work we've been putting off for way too long.  It had gotten to the point at which it was too intimidating to even look at and we couldn't imagine figuring out where to start.  Once we accessed our inner "who cares how we do it, we've just gotta get it done", it's been...  Not easy, but not as tricky as I'd thought it would be, either.  And I love how connected it makes me feel to Grandma and Grandpa, and all the lesson they taught me about yard work and perseverence and knowing when to take a break, over the years.  We drag the tree branches over to the front stoop, and I sit there with my tools, processing them into baggable and bunchable units, and feel as if I'm sitting in Maspeth.

Something I'm thinking about: How to make better friends with my land, so that I keep the yardwork from getting daunting again and so I can enjoy sitting in my backyard regardless of the neighbors' barking dogs.  What I want to be doing for a living a decade from now.  Whether society is really going to experience a total transformation in the next 3 decades (as claimed by an article a friend posted recently).

Something I'm looking forward to: Settling into a really solid summer routine, now that Dexcon is over and our yardwork days are nearly done.