What's Good This Week

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Hello friends, and happy Easter! I hope you're having a lovely day that involves a significant amount of chocolate in it, even if this isn't a "normal" Easter this year. Is anyone else at home alone with an obscene amount of the Easter desserts they normally make for a big crowd? Yup, me too.

The Easter Bunny visited our apartment late last night, so when the boys woke up (at a balmy 7:15 this morning, praise be!) they immediately found big cardboard eggs with their names on them, and then proceeded to ransack the apartment following the little trails of goodies stashed about. I wish I had recorded it as Niko's little mind was blown over and over again, each time he found a little cluster of eggs. 

I hated Easter egg hunting growing up. I found it very stressful and I could never find my damn eggs. My parents ran a tight ship, with ten colour-coded eggs assigned to each kid and you were meant to find your colour and only your colour. I could always find all the other colours but never mine, and was always too irritated by the whole thing to just relax and enjoy it. 

Admittedly, I do enjoy watching my kids look for the eggs as a parent. However, due to my own egg hunting trauma, rather than a tightly-rationed colour-coded situation, our egg hunting is a no holds barred free-for-all with an aggressive amount of eggs and bunnies and other goodies strewn about in fairly obvious places. 

We've been enjoying some family dinners, spending time outside in the sunshine, riding our bikes, and mostly just chilling this weekend. The city is busier than usual as people have been asked to not travel to their country homes to avoid putting pressure on small communities during this time, so instead are picnicking in the parks and walking the trails.

Some good news: I got my job back! Yep, my mind is blown too. It's an Easter miracle. 

Tuesday last week was meant to be my last official day of employment, and I'd be on a freelance contract on Wednesday. My boss sent me a contract to review, but there was a problem with the sign-able document and we were trying to figure that out.

On Wednesday afternoon he sent me a message that said, "Hey, do you have five minutes to chat?" and I was like oh for the love of god what now?!  I hadn't signed the contract yet and was picturing the freelance opportunity circling the drain. But it was good news!

He said that they had panicked originally when big clients started pulling out, but since then we'd landed some important projects (two of which I'm involved in) and the forecast isn't as gloomy as it once was. So he was like, let's pretend this never happened, ok? 

LOL, what?? Holy crap the last few weeks have been an emotional rollercoaster, but man is it good to get some good news for a change. And the best part is that since Tuesday would have been the last day of my probationary employment, I'm now on a permanent contract. What. A. Relief. 

Of course things could still change and nothing is truly stable right now, but for now, some room to breathe. 

I finished listening to the audiobook of Do Less by Kate Northrup this week, and I must say I really enjoyed it. I found listening to the book challenging and often had to go back and re-listen to sections a few times if my mind had wandered, but it was nice to be able to pop in my ear buds and go for a walk and get information delivered right into my brain. 

I've decided to listen to it for a second time as there were a few parts I wanted to get a deeper understanding of. One part I found fascinating is about how women operate on a 28-day cycle, parts of which are better suited to different types of activities. So if you, like me, experience days of the month where you just feel like you can't accomplish anything and other days where you're a list-crushing machine, this is likely why.

Apparently men go through all the same stages of that cycle every 24 hours, which is very interesting. I often feel like my husband and I operate on totally different wavelengths and I often struggle to keep pace with him, and this is perhaps why. 

I definitely recommend reading (or listening to) Do Less for any working mom. There were parts of it, with permission to let things go, that I found really profound and I think you might too. 

Odin has suddenly become super attached to this teddy bear, which is a relief because I've been wondering how the heck we're ever going to take away his pacifier(s) (he sleeps with at least three) when he doesn't have another comfort item.

We we're fairly lucky with Niko because he attached to a cheap muslin blankie which I've been able to purchase in 3-packs. So I leave one at his school, have a back-up whenever we travel, and the time he put his Blanks in the microwave and lit it on fire was no big deal because I had four more in the closet. So what do I do about this bear? Track down its origin and buy multiples just in case? 

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Ok, so I've been getting a lot of questions about Sweden's unusual response to the current situation. And if you've been wondering why I keep referring to it as the "situation" rather than one of the several common names people use, it's because advertisers are reverse keyword targeting terms related to the "situation" to help prevent people from selling snake oil and shit like that, and we've been warned by our ad networks that using a selection of related terms *might* impact ad revenue. 

So it's a situation, ok? 

Anyways, I've had a lot of questions, and if you're wondering how I'm feeling about Sweden's relatively relaxed approach to things, I answer it in the comments of last week's post. I thought about writing about it here but it feels out of place, so that's where it's going to live.

ON HEY NUTRITION LADY THIS WEEK

I've done an about face with my editorial calendar lately, and I had the strong sense that we needed some more comfort food on the agenda made from mostly pantry staples. So that's what's going on with these Vegan Sloppy Joes with Lentils. And also? They're damn delicious!

WHAT’S TRENDING ON HNL

Yeah, yeah, we all know that Mung Bean and Coconut Curry is in number one. So let’s look at what else is trending.

1. Peanut Butter Oat Bars. Yasss. Having another good week!

2. Turmeric Latte Mix. Good ol' turmeric latte mix. 

3. Red Lentil Dal. I'm def craving a big bowl of this goodness. 

4. Indonesian Black Rice Pudding. Did you know you can make this in the Instant Pot?

5. Slow Cooker Chickpea Curry. So easy. So good. 

COMMENT OF THE WEEK

Gretchen left the following comment and 5-star review on my Black Bean and Quinoa Freezer Burritos recipe: 

I just made these (but with coconut oil) and they may not make it to the freezer. I almost fell over at how good they are. I just… I am speechless. This will definitely be making it into our normal rotation.

Yasss! I feel you, Gretchen, I really do.

WHAT’S GOOD AROUND THE WEB

1. These DIY lotion bars are saving my hands these days.

2. Can't find yeast in the grocery stores? Turns out, you don't need it. 

3. Wish I was snacking on: this Frozen Yogurt Bark. 

4. This Salt and Pepper Tofu is looking mighty fine.