We are celebrating Sydney’s defense in our own way, now that advisors are all gone and Katherine’s unstuffed enough to sleep at night. We’re having another family over for dinner tonight, and Sydney’s objective seems to be to stretch the limits of our pots/pans, our fridge, and our guests’ stomachs. The menu looks something like this: pear-and-blue-cheese salad, roasted vegetables with peanut sauce, a fiery corn-and-pesto side, squash casserole with feta and red peppers, sweet-potato crescent rolls, cranberry sauce, and apple crisp with ice cream. It’s dangerous when Sydney’s been denied cooking time and then suddenly has a great excuse to get back in the kitchen!
Part of the objective is to fill up the fridge with leftovers to make things easier for me while Sydney’s away this weekend. As something of a present I offered him the chance for an overnight birding trip somewhere in England, without Katherine and me, but I warned him to make it soon and stay on email. So he’s going down near Cornwall on Saturday and Sunday to stand in mud flats (you see why I wasn’t sure the rest of the family should go?) while Katherine and I get in some mom-and-daughter trips to the parks before the baby arrives: me to walk, she to play. And with things being more low-key I’m hoping to do a bit more baby prep while Katherine and I play (she found assembling the crib hilarious fun), and to enjoy quiet work time while she sleeps (Sydney also gave me some work time this morning; starting the day with a good work session generally puts me in a very good mood).
Work, exercise, play at the duck pond, good food, baby-readying, and a birdwatching trip: we’re all getting something out of this, even if we’re not doing it all together!
Erin