What Did You Do This Weekend?

Our daughter is in hospital and we found out we could bring our dog to the ward garden. So our youngest teen was carrying yellow balloons an d flowers and my husband brought our pooch to the garnet gate and she was sooooooo excited to greet us. It was gorgeous and sweet . It just made my heart swell x

I agree that a snow day ( in a place that doesn’t often get snow!) does bring the best out in people! I was in a training most of the weekend for an education cadre I’m on…good to be with like minded peeps! I brought some of my beading stuff with me, and it felt very therapuetic, given the state of thew world, to practice creativity and make something pretty! My husband is from Minnesota, and the term Minnesota Nice it not a joke…people are kind, warm, helpful…which makes the ICE evil all the more worse. And though I am not a big football fan, it is exciting that my local Seahawks are going to the Superbowl!

We had ton of snow this weekend and I started baking bread for the first time. For four days straight, I kept trying to perfect my loaves. I made about 6 loaves of sourdough and artisan white bread. There is something so calming and therapeutic about making bread especially sourdough bread. It takes time and effort and for those days I was totally living in the present focused on creating a good loaf! It was the best way to spend snowy days with the fam.

I hadn’t known about Lady Tremaine and am so excited to read it, thank you for telling us about it! Getting advance copies of books is SUCH a cool feature of your work and I am very jealous. Matrix was incredible, one of my all time favorites… So was Circe, which is mentioned in the link! I love a creative female lead and an innovative plotline. (Other suggestions welcome!)

A foot + a half of snow delayed our daughter’s return to college on her first winter break = omg thank you,nature! Sobbed freezing tears while shoveling thinking of Alex Pretti’s parents, and all those who adored him, and his dog, and just the enormity of suffering due to the cruelty of this administration. Purchased a cool “RESIST” t-shirt from Alt National Parks. The local protest that I often attend in our tiny ocean town was canceled due to the storm. Played Clue & Hearts as a family,and baked blueberry – lemon muffins. The lemon zest really came thruuuuuuu.

Friday evening was bread making, Netflix and an early bedtime complete w/hot tea and a heating pad. Saturday was prepping for the winter storm and heading to the pharmacy for a long day of work. Sunday – shoveling, walk to work (so much snow!), phone calls with my family, warm dinner by the fireplace watching His and Hers on Netflix. Not terribly exciting, but satisfying nonetheless.

Love the idea sharing weekend happenings. Might I also suggest a regular post of A Day in the Life of a Single Female? I’m newly single after a long term relationship and would love to know how other single women are spending their time. I have friends and work, but what else is everyone doing? I’m desperate for connection.

On Saturday I caught up with a really old friend. We were uni besties but kids, relationships, life… we fell out of touch. Both of us had sick kids, I was sick… she’d had a bad drinking problem so I actually met her with a good deal of trepidation. But what unfolded was beautiful – it was like a peeling away of everything that was sour. We sat on a bench for hours until finally she said “If we sit here any longer we will have sunstroke. Want to go away overnight soon?” “Yes I do”. Then on Sunday I swam in the ocean morning and afternoon – the waves were like giants but it was really fun…. until we were all evacuated due to a shark. My friend and I sat on the headland and talked about the ways humans destroy everything – we CAN share the ocean, instead of owning it, decimating it… In deed all of it, nature. On K’igari Island a family of dingos have been culled because one tourist died – a tourist who swam alone in the early morning on an island where everyone is told to never walk alone. This land is not just ours… That makes me sad. There is so little left that is wild.

I live in the mountains of Tennessee, and one of my genius friends rented a wood-powered sauna for the weekend…so on Saturday and Sunday as the weather was deteriorating, I spent a few very relaxing hours with a handful of girlfriends getting sweaty, drinking a lot of water, and talking about life big and small. Out the sauna windows we could see the beautiful tree branches moving with the wind around us. We would step outside into the cold to cool off, steam rising off our bodies, then go right back in to our 150 degree haven. It was magical.

I had my book club over Saturday afternoon and spent the morning making a quiche and an apricot cheesecake. After book club, a handful of gals stayed into the evening to work on crafts and chat. My partner puttered around the house attending to his hobbies while we booked and crafted. Sunday we had all that New England snow. I went out in snowshoes with my dog, who was chest-deep in the snow but so excited. I baked a cassoulet, knitted a bunch, and read. It was a nice weekend to take things slow. The events in Minnesota are sobering. I am grateful ordinary citizens are out there filming and documenting the unimaginable acts that have become an everyday occurrence.

Sidenote in regards to Lady Tremaine – I am currently reading another reimagining of a well known story, called “Beth Is Dead”. It’s a modern-day take on Little Women, made into a murder mystery! Halfway through and it is not the fine literature of the original, but a fun read!

Jo, I need to know more about that beautiful blanket!

What a fun idea this weekend post. We had the snow/sleet/ice storm this weekend. On Saturday our adult son came for the weekend to help us shovel snow. He is still here. Smile. He is also going through a break up and wanted us around so he could be himself, talk, cry. We still had friends over early Saturday before the storm started. The brought pizza, we made salad and dessert. My favorite pizza these days. It’s the frozen Margarita Pizza from Lidl. It’s imported from Italy, and so delicious, I can barely eat any other pizza anymore. We shoveled Sunday and Monday. Monday was a 4 inch ice crust so that was a sweet treat. Thankfully our son helped so much that it was much easier thanks to his youth and muscles. Haha. We had salmon on Sunday and a Greek Tatziki chicken bowl Monday. And we watched 007 movies, Casino Royal and Skyfall. And Cool Runnings since Jamaica qualified for the upcoming Winter Olympics. I will be cheering for them! Of course it wasn’t all fun and giggles. We listened and consoled a lot and watching my son cry still makes me tear up as well. And I did a fair share of doom scrolling and becoming disillusioned with our government and the injustice. They show no shame, no humanity, when they assassinate civilians on the street. And I wonder not for the first time….when will it end? Will we have mid-term elections? Will he make himself emperor for life? And those thought run through my head all the time. Thanks for the opportunity to share our thoughts and weekend experiences. Be safe everyone.

As a Bloomington MN resident, thank you so much for linking to VEAP. They are an excellent organization and they do so much good in our community. Fellow readers – if you feel compelled to donate and if your employer offers a charitable match, VEAP will fill out the necessary paperwork and you can double your impact! I don’t actually have the words to describe the heartache we’ve been experiencing here during ICE’s occupation of our state. What a ray of hope though, to see so many people throughout the country standing with us. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Waking up to another American citizen being gunned down while exercising his Constitutional rights put a damper on the weekend for all of us. And the comment from one of the ICE officers “that was like Call of Duty” somehow made it a gazillion times worse. How can we, how COULD WE, enjoy anything when our country is falling down around us?

This! https://mastodon.social/@sheislaurence/115952243061961558 Greetings from Switzerland a

I’m in North Texas, so if one bit of precipitation happens in freezing weather, everything shuts down for days. Thankfully our power has stayed on (shoutout to the Snowpocalypse of 2021), so our family has watched a bunch of movies, made quiche for the first time, worked on sticker-by-number books, and knitted. We have two big dogs and our kids are 2 and 7, so one morning, we exercised them all by having them run up and down the stairs for treats (kibble and Nerds, respectively).

“I love when a collective event happens in New York because everyone immediately becomes best friends for the day.” What a sweet sentiment! I loved the picture that conjured up in my head of everyone being best friends with the people they came in contact with.

Just made “Mom’s Bulgogi” from the Magnolia Table cookbook, delicious and easy enough to put together.

Thank you for sharing a pre-release book, one of my greatest joys is finding unreleased books that have already been added to my local library’s catalog and placing a hold so I can get it right when it comes out. This doesn’t happen with every book before it’s release, but in this case- yahtzee! I’ve got Lady Tremaine on hold!

I’m a big fan of this Alison Roman frizzled chickpea situation: https://www.alisoneroman.com/recipes/frizzled-chickpea-salad/

Honestly, this weekend was emotionally challenging. I ´m from Slovakia, our neighbouring country Ukraine has been in war with Putin ´s Russia for four years. I am watching everything that is happening around the world and feeling scared and anxious. Now, when USA no longer functions as a warranty of international agreements and safety, here in Europe more and more people are talking about possible Putin ´s attack on other european countries, which might happen very soon. I have never been so scared for the future. I feel like the whole world is dalling apart. I ´m sorry for being so pessimistic and also for my bad english, I just don lt really have a place to vent these emotions. Also I am incredibly grateful for my family, health and try to cherish every peaceful day that we have. Sending warm greetings to all of you <3

Since it was first developed, I’ve wanted to see Broadway’s The Lion King, but it’s not an inexpensive show to see and I’ve had a lot of other priorities. It’s on tour in my city this month and on Saturday, I got to take my eight-year-old daughter to see it with me — both of us dressed to the nines. I rarely wear eye makeup, but I did for this! And then I found myself quietly dripping tears from the first moment of the actors singing down the aisles to my standing alone wildly clapping until the rest of the auditorium stood with me. All two and a half hours. What a deeply resonant and emotionally cathartic gift it is to bear witness to artists and craftspeople giving their all, making magic feel real. I found out about Alex Pretti later that day, watched his final salute to a veteran on the small screen of my phone after putting my kids to sleep, and cried again for the simple goodness of devoted people. We are capable of so much beauty and grace, and living in such a time of fear-mongering and villainy. And yet, and yet, this seems like part of us too. My six-year-old son is having to make sense of the playground distilled misogyny that invites him into dynamics of power and hierarchy. Some of us will teach our sons to wonder about these seductions; some of us will believe it’s their (and by proxy, our) rightful inheritance to dominate others. I can only have gentle conversations with my son, model tolerance and empathy, and show up for my community as fiercely as those of you in Minneapolis are.

For the most part, I was very lucky and had a lovely weekend. Friday Evening, I had to do some housework when I got home and then my daughter and I walked down to a friends house for a couple of drinks and a catch up. My husband picked us up on his way home from Scouts about 1030 so that was nice. Saturday I got up and did my first 5K run of 2026, as accepted it was slow and it was awful weather but I did it. Then we got ready to go to my Mums birthday dinner which was lovely. Sunday morning up early and my daughter away to rehearsals for her show. I decided to have a lazy day and then got increasingly angry at the state of the world (and at Reform Voters!) so decided to rewatch The Handmaid’s Tale as it seemed slightly less depressing than the real world. My daughter came home from Rehearsal and we got Indian Food for dinner. My husband was back out at Scouts at night so my daughter and I watched some of our favourite vloggers whilst I also “discussed” things on the internet. On a side note we had our snow storm, the first week of January and by the 7th/8th day I was absolutely sick of it. However for the first few days, it was lovely and like Alison said, “everyone became best friends for the day”. That feeling was really special!! Stay safe everyone and I am praying for you all from across the pond (and praying that our Government does not go the same way). xx

Cosy weekend solo with my kids. Lots of driving them back and forth to riding lessons and cooking and laundry and walks with the dog since my husband is away and it’s all on me. But also good chats with my teens and pre-teen. We all picked up my eldest after work and went out for burgers on Saturday evening. And then came home and watched Hitch and had our Saturday candy. Finally a movie that I like that they like! I remember when they were little how tense I got when my husband was away and I had to do it all for a week, but now I really look forward to those weeks when it’s just me and the kids.

Invited my mother who is terminally ill with cancer to the ballet. The look on her face was like a 12-month-old testing vanilla ice cream for the first time. There was champagne and lots of tears of happiness after 1,5 yrs of only tears of sadness and anger and frustration.

I do communications work for a rapid response team, so the weekend was heavy. I didn’t think I’d spend the day drafting another message about another murder to our big list of members and quickly pulling together mental health resources and realizing we need more translated and figuring out how to make that happen. I’m not in MN but I’m in another city that has had to fight hard, and I’m so proud of our work and our city. The thing keeping me going is seeing the people of Minneapolis absolutely flood the streets—I have worked in immigration for a long time and I have never seen anything like it, and honestly never thought I’d see this many white people mobilizing for immigrants and calling to abolish ICE. Seeing people in these comments say they’re involved with local rapid response is incredible. Thank you to everyone who is doing anything at all (and I understand if you’re not able to!). If you haven’t been trained yet—even just to be prepared if you come upon ICE on the street—check out the trainings by the organization States at the Core. They’ve trained thousands of people this year (and counting).

My boyfriend and I stayed home, made dumplings, slept in, and watched our hometown Seahawks win! We both had a very tough week and it was soul food to be with him and just relax.

It’s summer in my part of the world, the last week of BIG school holidays and also a long weekend – we have swam everyday at our local pool or the beach, indulged in icecreams, gone out for pancakes, watched MasterChef re-runs, held family drawing competitions, spent our evenings running under our backyard sprinklers and just relaxed, before the back to school crazy sets in. I love an Aussie summer.

Can we also discuss what’s going on in Iran? Thousands are being killed, just for trying to be free of tyranny. This is absolutely heartbreaking and terrible, and I’m not really hearing too much outrage. Perhaps a link to assist in some way (not sure if there is because the govt there has shut down so much contact with the free world- but if there is…)

I called my senators, and then husband and I went to our first protest on Friday and ended up with our picture in the paper, which made our 23 year old kid so proud of us! Saturday we had the best breakfast sandwich at the beach and then drove on the sand up to the wreck of the Peter Iredale, which is always so fun. Sunday I took an aerial yoga class because this year I’m leaning into trying new things (pottery next week and I am going to try a roller skating fitness class soon), took myself out to lunch, and got a pedicure. The kid came over for Chinese food and Antiques Roadshow and I went to bed early because all that tired this old lady out!

Protest Drinks with a friend Swim lesson Devastation Last minute gift of tickets to a show Doom scrolling Babysit for a friend Play date Muffins soup roast chicken comfort food Family together to eat, kinder and more gentle with each other than usual. Laughter that heals So much work to be done to heal

This weekend I had a belated birthday celebration, rescheduled bc I was sick with the flu. It was a favorite things party and I got to fill my house with beautiful women, and we all went home with one really cool gift and enjoyed chilaquiles that my mom made + lots of other delish brunch food. Saturday night my husband and I went to an ICE protest/march in Phoenix that ended up in front of ICE headquarters and MAN it felt good to march with all these brave youths (+ many of us semi-olds and some amazing older folks).

I hung out with some new friends! I’m 40 with two little kids so this is a majorly fun win :)

Nested hard this weekend, amidst the Big Snow. Saturday was errand day, but Sunday and Monday? Home. Made lasagna, baked cookies, knit away on a sweater, read a murder mystery, practiced yoga, and shoveled snow.

You GUYS. I love you all so much. In the summer of 2024, I was camped out early at the Alanis Morrisette set on the Sunday of the Pitchfork music festival, and the demographic of the crowd slowly shifted to all these beautiful 40-something women, plus or minus five (or ten!) years, most everyone wearing the appropriate amount of sun protection and definitely hydrating on a hot summer day, several wearing political t-shirts and everyone being respectful and lovely and kind, even among the dancing and cocktail sipping or whatever the party vibe was. It was so powerful and memorable to see so many women as far as the eye could see. Maybe this is silly, but when I read everyday life updates like this, I just imagine all of us hanging out, waiting for a concert to start, where we can all collectively bawl our eyes out and remember how great it is to rage and love in solidarity together.

My husband and I are both clergy and we answered the call to join thousands of clergy in Minneapolis this weekend. It was devastating, inspiring, heartbreaking and hopeful. The people of MSP are loving their neighbors in radical, subversive and beautiful ways. We have all got to be in the fight together.

Hello dear cup of jo’ers! So heartening to see these comments about feeling trapped, but then DOING something: protesting, donating to food banks and local aid orgs (and hopefully legal aid, and rent aid, etc etc), calling state reps, talking to family, and continuing to not give into despair. This may be a tiny wail on a small (but wonderful!) corner of the internet, but if you are scrolling right now and are worried and paralyzed, I want to reassure you that you can make a difference–that taking any small form of action will help you fight that pit in your stomach–and that this is how we’ll survive this. I believe in us. Fight the doomscroll and power to the people!

I love hearing about people’s weekends. It was a weird one for me – I was overly tired and felt outraged by ICE and sad about a lot of things. I didn’t do a lot – watched the snowfall, laughed at all the transplant New Yorkers panic buying everything from trader joes, worked out, made hummus, and wrote.

Here in MN I can tell we all are weary, but determined and every little bit counts, despite the guilt I feel for not feeling like Im doing enough. This weekend I occilated between trying to be present for my 7 year old playing Legos, sword fighting, watching The Princess Bride and bringing him to a few play dates because school on Friday was closed due to extreme cold. My pipe froze and water backed up from the washing machine twice and my husband went to the store twice to find a solution. I can tell he needed to do something tangible to take his mind off the news. I felt the same and tried to busy myself with baking a new recipe from a cookbook I bought myself over Christmas. It turned out great, cherry cardamom pound cake. Yum. Even our picky teenagers liked it. I also dropped off bags of donations for families trapped at home because of ICE. For moments I almost forgot that the world feels on the brink of something big and terrible, but then im reminded of my privilege because I can stop thinking of what’s happening to people in our city. I was busy parenting all day Saturday when I finally picked up my phone and saw what had happened to Alex Pretti and my heart sunk. I found myself having to explain why I was crying and looking at my phone to my child. To explain what ICE was and a simplified kid version of what was happening. Until this point I hadn’t figured out how to talk about it with them. Later that night a few of my neighbors and our kids went outside with candles and our MN flag and stood on the corner. We got a lot of honks from cars driving by. It felt good to be doing something together even in the bittercold. It made me feel proud to be from this state knowing how many people are coming together to fight against injustice. We are weary, but I know we have a lot of fight still in us and we aren’t alone we are in this together.

Thank you for mentioning Maine as others have mentioned–also wanted to shout out the Maine Solidarity Fund–https://www.mainesolidarity.org/. Proud of this state and of the response in Minnesota and hoping there’s a break in violence soon.

I am in MN and did home food delivery for Veap this weekend- thanks for calling them out! best organization and doing amazing things in the community for years. It’s a strange time of feeling like you’re in a living hell here, intermixed with bursts of hope, and normal day to day stuff. Fear, hope, heaviness. Proud and inspired by so many people standing up for what is right and for everyone’s humanity.

We got cozy as the snow fell and I watched woodpeckers on the trees. AND, I couldn’t pull myself away from updates about Minnesota on my phone. The horror of it felt so big. At the same time, local police confirmed ICE activity in our MD town on Saturday. What a weird jumble life is.

Fun times with my little one. We went to the splash pad, playgrounds, and he got a big boy haircut.

It’s really soothing to read about everyones weekend- to think we all were experiencing highs and lows and in-betweens. My weekend consisted of enjoying the lovely snowstorm (another 10″ for us, on top of all the snow Ontario got in the last few weeks), going for constitutionals with my husband (a more jaunty word that walks, don’t you think), eating dumplings, shortbread, and making homemade french onion soup on Sunday, reading part three of Anna Karenina, and hopping back into bed Sunday afternoon to watch two episodes of The West Wing and then take a nap. All in all, it was one of the coziest winter weekends we’ve had this year. It also involved feeling a lot of rage at the American government for their inhumane and unconstitutional tactics and contacting my senators/representative once again this Sunday (It takes 10 minutes tops, everyone ought to do it).

I must say I really love this! I love hearing how everyone spent their weekend. I had dinner with a friend from high school who lives in Germany on Friday and it was so lovely to reconnect. Went to my kids games and had dinner with other friends on Saturday night. Sunday I watched football with our neighbors. I also donated to some organizations on the ground in Minny (where I lived for six years) and was equally heartbroken and in awe of the people there who I know first hand are some of the smartest and most decent people.

My weekend recap. My girlfriend and I tried a yummy new vegetarian Chinese spot in Oakland (yay to kiddos being with their coparents). Just walked up, no reservations needed and ordered a decadent array of things I can’t remember or pronounce but yummy tofu! We went to her friend’s baby shower (a guy!) after and that felt really sweet. We pulled up to my house with plans to have sec, but got into an argument about marriage :/. That almost soured the night. We woke up and had sex. She went to do mom stuff and I went and got a blowout, ran errands, and then we met up for a friend’s 40th. Lots of fun! Sunday I nursed my hangover and took myself out for pho and read 3 whole chapters of a parenting book.

I made a GoFundMe for the families at my school in Saint Paul, Minnesota. I’m the teacher who posted last week or a few weeks ago about getting a beautiful hug from one of my students with autism. I’m doing my part to help the Hmong and Karen families that I teach and work with, by raising money to help families caught in the crossfire right now to pay rent, electricity, and get groceries. With the amount I’ve raised so far, we’ve been able to cover 4 families rents for February. I’m attaching the link here, if any COJ readers are wanting a concrete way to help Minnesotans who are suffering so much right now. XOXO, thank you ❤️ https://gofund.me/aaa79ee75

I happen to be reading Lady Tremaine right now, too! How funny. I’m definitely enjoying it, also. :)

This weekend the news were particularly tough. I live in Canada and my heart is breaking for the violence happening in the world by the hand of governments that should instead be helping and supporting the population: Minnesota, Iran, Palestine. I am terrified by what is happening in the US and the way it is handled by the current leadership, I am also worried about other countries replicating the same.. There is a great training resource that I would like to share: https://righttobe.org/upcoming-free-trainings/ Their training offer practical examples on what we can do if we happen to be bystanders of violence/harassment. They had a post explaining the actions that surrounded Renee Good’s murder, whether by filming, or by offering medical help etc. Thank you for sharing your links Jo and readers, I appreciate this community and I would like to keep learning about way to help here.

Got my walk in at the local mall before the stores opened. It was already snowing so only a few other walkers were there. Spent the day puttering around, trying to stay away from the news, drinking lots of tea and watched the Knicks win Sat night. Clam spaghetti for dinner, one of our fave comfort meals. Today watched husband shovel, more puttering, put food out for the birds who cannot forage through 2 feet of snow. Tonight more pasta with tomato sauce simmered with ground lamb,roasted peppers and zucchini, onions and garlic. So in awe of all the people in Minnesota and Maine how they are protecting the vulnerable. Writing our postcards tonight to Congress which we have been doing for the last week. Our messages changing with the news.

Thank you for mentioning Maine and thank you to your readers who responded to my comment on Friday! This weekend I…shoveled snow, called my representatives, and placed orders of diapers, wipes, books, and toys to be delivered to Maine Needs and distributed to families who are sheltering in place. I watched endless episodes of Bluey with my son and talked with my husband to try and prepare us for the week ahead. Minnesota- we love you! Maine- we can do this!

Mixed bag–I live in Houston and we were anticipating some ice storms, but that didn’t happen, it’s just colder than it usually gets around here. Saturday I got a haircut, went to a used bookstore, went to my local kinda-fancy grocery store to get groceries but also a sandwich (Texans: Central Market has some of the *best* sandwiches), then went to work out. Came home, took a shower, puttered around for a bit, walked to my corner store to get a soda. Sunday: The roads weren’t icy so i went to church, then went to get tacos for lunch with some friends. Came home, slacked off, went to have dinner with friends at their house. Came home again and watched a streamer on Twitch play a new game called Dispatch which is a lot of fun, and washed dishes. Nice winter weekend! I’m working from home today and might go take a walk once I clock out.

A week ago a single Mom with 2 children, in a city close to us (SoCal) asked on NextDoor (which i normally disregard, it can be a hot stupid mess) for any food banks that deliver…my daughter and I decided to be that “food bank”. We gathered all our extra stuff, and the things we normally give to our local church, and took over 4 boxes of food to her tiny apartment. Hearing her story, (car not running, no job and now no child care, as her Mother was forced to delf deport), broke our hearts. I have in the past been homeless. jobless, broke, hungry, and searched the couch for pennies for gas money. We decided to make sure that we would not let them go hungry no matter what (she relies on SNAP, and we now know that can be very precarious). THIS weekend we went through our closets, our linens, our toys, books, art and craft supplies, clothes, and took over (almost new) comforters, pillows, blankets, coats, a lot of kid fun stuff, a giant teddy bear, which was our “book bear” when my girl was little, barbies…a carful of stuff, all useful, in good condition. Her kids are adorable, she is a lovely person, and they are precisely the kind of family that would be targeted by ice. We will stay in touch with them regularly, to make sure they are alright, and well fed, and anythign we can pass on finds a home with them or their own friends, family, neighbors. My 12 year old turned to me in the car, after we dropped it all off, and said “Mommy, that felt so good”. I weep, for the way these kids are having to learn about humanity, and lack thereof right now. I’ve given to http://www.veap.org, and left it as a comment on many many sights and posts, thank you for that, as well as the stand with Minnesota link as well. I’m now working on our taxes, determined to retrieve *(legally) every single dime I can as a refund (i’m a freelancer, and my tax guy sends me a worksheet to use for every single thing I can deduct). It’s a week long project every year…the more I get back, the more I can give out, to where I know it will actually be used for the good of real humans. Thank you COJers everywhere. You keep the lights on in my heart.

I saw this great play called The Shark is Broken. https://thesharkisbroken.com/

I love that line “We were all best friends for a day”. It just makes you feel good on what could be a hard day. Thank you for that!

Eeeesh, the construction workers tore out our bedroom floor because it slopes two inches, and then one of our cats disappeared. I was panicked she either got out of the house (she’s an indoor cat) or got into the innards of the house due to the construction work. In cat-like fashion, she reappeared hours later, entirely nonplussed to find me weeping in relief. Hugs to everyone in Minnesota — we are all Minnesotans.

Watched the Australian Open!

ugh, I skied, watched a lot of tennis, napped, raged about ICE, went to a hot springs with my husband and daughter, attended a group trying to keep a community theater going in town, watched the Seahawks win, put my daughter down, and watched Sinners with my husband. really a mixed bag.

This post made my day! More “day-in-the-life” weekend recaps, please! I also appreciate your keeping it real with the note at the bottom about sibling bickering and all the rest. This book sounds amazing. Reminds me of “Wicked” – reframing a classic tale we thought we all knew! Can’t wait til it comes out!

I’ve made Lulu and Milly’s carrot soup twice; we love it! I also found a chocolate banana bread recipe recently that is wonderful. If you google Two peas and their pod chocolate bay bread, you should be able to find it. Addicted to both the carrot soup and banana bread!

We got a sitter to have dinner with friends but ended up having more time than we thought on the front end, so we walked the ~hour to dinner instead of driving/public transporting. We haven’t had an hour to walk together in probably 8 years. We’d been in an argument the night before so a full hour to really hash out the particulars of how it arose, how we felt about it, what surprised ourselves and one another about our reaction was actually heaven. For me at least! it was this opportunity to talk about what we need from one another, what scares us, (this was all about sex/desire/vulnerability). I always think about what Esther Perel says about kind of verbally processing emotions being a thing that not everyone loves, and certainly something I’ve practiced a whole lot more than my husband has. And so his willingness to just kind of buckle up and talk through the nitty gritty as we walked across our beloved city was a real treat. And we committed to one night a month to repeat, which felt great too. Other than that, a pedicure escape while the kids watched football, an extremely excellent and perfectly hard beetle puzzle (300 pieces) with my daughter, the first few chapters of how to commit a postcolonial murder, and load after load after load of laundry.

To be proud of people is such an intimate thing, in a way. Even if my friends or coworkers do something impressive and I feel proud of them, I’m not always sure if I can say that out loud. They might think I’m too invested in them? But I’m going to say it now: I’m proud of all of you CoJ-people standing up against fascism, organising resistance, donating, speaking up. I’m in Europe, also doing what I can, and it’s different, but man, am I invested. It moves me and it fuels me to see so many brave hearts in this community.

If you are also fully distracting yourself from world current events with baking, please let me share this with you, especially since banana bread was mentioned above. Here is what you’re gonna do – you’re gonna melt the butter for the recipe in the bread pan plus a few extra tbsp. Once melted, pour recipe amount of butter in mixing bowl but leave the extra melted butter in the bread pan, sprinkle it with some brown sugar, THEN…cover the bottom of the pan with pineapple. Pineapple!! Crushed, sliced, fresh…it don’t matter. (If canned, drain it well.) Then take a bunch more pineapple and add it to the banana bread mixture. It’s so freakin’ good. I am way more excited about this than I should be and I think it says something about grief and that when things feel very sad, the smallest glimmers of hope and juiciness (pineapple) feel huge and revelatory.

I got my roots dyed and my hairs cut; read bunches of “Buckeye” by Patrick Ryan (super good!); watched the new season of “Traitors” (is it wrong I want the snake charmer to win?); went to a super hot vinyasa class and ran into a friend I haven’t seen in probably five years; got my tiny dogs out for a tiny walk in the frigid, snowy weather; and checked in from time to time on the disappointing Broncos loss.

A weekend of deep sorrow and not-insignificant hope. That’s what this weekend in MN brought for our family. We ache for Alex Pretti, his family, the injustice of another life taken by our own federal government. And yet, our city, our beautiful state, will not cease to pour out its love for our neighbors. Walking into our local Target on Sunday morning with temps well-below zero and everyone bundled that you can nearly only see their eyes – my three young daughters and I filled our cart with groceries for the Latino Church that meets in our building later that afternoon. As my daughters and I fill our cart, I glance at the two women nearest me in the produce section and see them also filling their carts with staples – potatoes, carrots, onions, breads, rice, oils, meat – a quiet, solitary stand in the produce section of Target on a Sunday morning. Hope. Later that day, I drive past the local Latino Market that has been taking orders from families afraid to leave their homes and to my joy I see every parking spot filled with neighbors filling their vehicles, preparing to deliver boxes full of food into our community. Hope. And at last, I walk into Aldi, prepared to shop for our family and feel brought to tears witnessing the shelves emptied – no beef, no chicken, no oils – so much emptied by the army of neighbors coming to meet the needs of our present moment that the employees are hurriedly trying to restock the shelves to no avail. Hope. Holding HOPE in MN.

I live in Minneapolis so it was a very sad, heavy weekend for us. I feel like we are living split lives. In one life, we are doing what we can to support the vulnerable people in our state, and then in the other life, we are trying to make life as normal as possible for our kids, ages 5 and almost 8. They both had birthday parties on Saturday. The 5 year old’s was at a nature preserve. A husband’s friend who works there did a demonstration with the kids. My son sat right next to him and at one point, he started to pet the guy’s leg (in a very cute “I like you so much” manner). It made everyone laugh which is really important in the midst of all the sadness. And it was the first story the guy told my friend, his wife, when he came home from work as he was quite chuffed to be so adored by my son.

I live in snowy, cold Canada and of course my heart was so heavy this weekend as awful news seems to roll out non-stop from all directions. To take a break from the doomscrolling, my husband, 4yr old son and I visited a big local greenhouse and it was a lovely break. This particular greenhouse is filled with sunlight, they offer free coffee, and they have a fun little scavenger hunt for kids with a prize of a free tropical plant upon completion! It was the perfect thing to keep the little guy busy while I shopped for seeds, sipped my coffee and enjoyed the sunshine. Now to try and keep this new little plant alive in my son’s room…

I think these are my favourite kind of any post; I love looking into other people’s lives. The normal stuff. Not the influencer created stuff… Thank you for a glimpse, Jo, it’s lovely. Also, you have truly the whitest, healthiest looking teeth and smile! XOXO Laura from Nova Scotia. Any other Canadian maritimers around? XO

Lots of ups and downs this weekend. On Saturday, woke up to more hear of more devastating news coming out of Minnesota and one of my oldest friends lost her mother. I was at a loss for words when I called her and we just sobbed on the phone together. On Sunday, I made sourdough cinnamon rolls and attended an ICE OUT protest. I live in a fairly conservative town but over 250 people showed up and the response from the community was electric.