What's Good This Week

Earlier this week I got in my first swims of the season at our outdoor pool. There's something so special about swimming outdoors. Funnily enough, I don't like open water swimming. It freaks me out not being able to see the bottom and know what's beneath me, and although I'm an experienced and confident swimmer, I can never quite catch my breath and relax into swimming in open water.

A good outdoor pool swim, though, on a slightly chilly spring day, always feels like a rebirth. It's so fresh and so pure and so exciting. By the end of the summer the pool bottom will be losing its battle with algae, the water will be too warm, too recirculated, and the pool too crowded. The familiar promise of an outdoor pool in May, though, will always feel like coming home.

After a tough winter, and one in which self care has more often than not fallen by the wayside, the simple, methodical pleasure of pulling myself through the water one, two, three strokes at a time and then going home to a hot shower, I can't even tell you how good it feels.

This morning I took a long shower all by myself. It was quiet; no workout music was being blasted through the speakers, and there were no kids about. It was continuous; I didn't have to push a button to re-start the water every 20 seconds.

The image of our demolished, eerie, bombed out pit of a bathroom will forever be in my mind as a symbol of this winter past. A literal pit of despair in our home. Today I was showering in my own home, surrounded by pristine, bright white tile. I don't think I'll ever take for granted having a bathroom in my own home again.

Anyone else majorly disappointed by how Game of Thrones turned out? I'm not mad about the story, I genuinely feel that everyone ended up where they should be. But where was the drama? For a series that caused me to have legitimate chest pain in many an episode, that was a ridiculously mundane and implausibly tidy way to tie things up.

I have to wonder how things would have turned out had Martin actually finished writing the books, or if the final season had had more than six episodes in it.

Anyways, The Handmaid's Tale season 3 starts in a week or so, so I'm confident my chest pains will be back in short order.

What else are you guys watching / reading / listening to these days??? I've got two books on the go right now, this one and this one, and I hope that with the summer coming up I'll get my book reading goal back on track. I had better, because at least three of my favourite authors have books coming out in the next month that I'm stoked to read.

My child, my darling tiny boy who loves to smile and hates to sleep, is driving me crazy. Last week one night he woke up in the middle of the night having a complete freak out over nothing, and eventually, after having tried all the things, I jammed a pacifier into his mouth out of desperation, and put him to bed fully expecting to be right back in there a few minutes later.

Instead, he slept past 7am. I couldn't believe it! Could it be, I wondered, that he wants to be one of those babies who goes to bed literally encircled in pacifiers so he can always find one? Let's find out.

So the next night I put him to bed, and after he was asleep I littered his cot with pacifiers. When I crept into the boys' room to check on the before I went to bed, he'd already found one and was peacefully sucking on it as he snoozed. He did wake up, but only once, at around 3am, and then quickly settled and again slept past 7am.

Huzzuh! I thought. I've cracked the code!

No. You know who has cracked the code? My g-damn baby, that's who. He tricked me into thinking that this pacifier thing was the answer, and then stealthily backslid into shitty sleep in 4-ish days, like he always does. He's like a freaking virus, this child, who just keeps adapting.

I discussed things with his older brother and brought up the question of whether we should just try and sell him for a good enough price, but Niko was, somewhat surprisingly, very against the idea. Turns out he has come around to liking his baby brother quite a bit, crappy sleep and all.

ON HEY NUTRITION LADY THIS WEEK

KAAAAALE CAESAR!!! We're finally putting things together with this Vegetarian Caesar Dressing and these Crispy Roasted Garbanzo Beans to make an incredibly delicious Vegetarian Caesar Salad Recipe. Plus if you make it with kale instead of romaine you can walk around shouting KALE CAESAR as much as you want. It's the law.

Strawberry season is here and I'm not mad about it! Making a big batch of these Strawberry Yogurt Popsicles to get things started off just right Made with roasted strawberries and creamy Greek yogurt, these are a healthy treat you'll keep coming back to.

And lastly, another Simple 4-Part Meal Prep Plan to get your weekly meal prep mojo flowing. Some super tasty recipes from around the web in this week's plan, so be sure you don't miss out.

WHAT’S TRENDING ON HNL

A friend of mine asked if my Mung Bean Curry had crashed out of first place since I don't mention it anymore. Nope. It's still far and away the most popular recipe on this site. It's just that the top 5 is consistently the same, so I've been pulling from the top 10-15 instead so you don't hear me talking about Chia Fresca and Black Bean and Quinoa Freezer Burritos again and again and again.

Here’s what’s trending this week, according to Google Analytics:

1. No Sugar Banana Bran Muffins. Good to see an old favourite up at the top.

2. Is Popcorn Healthy? Well? Is it?!

3. 37 Vegetarian Freezer Meals for New Moms.

4. Chocolate Black Bean Smoothie. I had this for breakfast today and it was ????

5. Carrot Apple Smoothie with Ginger. Zing!