The start of September

We've spent big blocks of the last few days getting ready for our move later this month—packing, prepping, organizing and cleaning—and feel good about the progress!

Five other notes:

1) I did start the weekend with a run: On Saturday morning I ran with Molly, two of our former cross-country teammates and one of their partners. I haven't run with a group that large since I was part of the running club a few years back, and I loved it. I was only with Molly and the crew for six of the 17 miles she eventually covered, but those miles flew by as we talked both as a large group and in pairs.

2) We took a break in between errands on Sunday for lunch outside at Anchor Fish & Chips in Northeast. The view from my seat:

3) I said before that our home projects were on hold, but we wanted to do one more: recovering four chairs for our new dining room. I read several tutorials online, but the one I recommend most is a Martha Stewart video on the topic. Josh used needle-nose pliers to rip out the staples on each seating pad's previous cover while I cut fabric, fit each piece to the chair and stapled it back on. This project was easier than we thought, especially once I got past the first chair's first corner.

Before:

After:

We liked the final result!

4) I might have also made a mini table runner modeled after the checkerboards in Tennessee's endzones to use up a leftover piece of duckcloth from last fall's table runner projects. And Josh and I were happy about many components of Tennessee's big win on Sunday night! I loved hearing how loud the crowd at Neyland when the team ran through the T and during other key moments. There were some great college football games this weekend.

5) As I sorted out my books, I discovered that I had two copies of Jerry Spinelli's book Stargirl, a pleasing realization. I hope this happened because I just bought duplicate copies of this wonderful book at different stages of my life, not because one copy belongs to someone else.

6) This guy elected to spend a lot of time lounging in his room (his crate) while we were packing and organizing this weekend, but he loved a long walk on Saturday.

Last night, Josh grilled bacon cheeseburgers on pretzel buns, I made Oreo ice cream, and we watched "The Way, Way Back," which I loved. We are ready for the first week of September.