The Weekly Wrap: September 5, 2021

It was back to school for our city this week. Our kiddo's daycare is next to a high school and we walked through crowds of (thankfully, masked) teenagers on their way to class. 

Confession: My school supply envy was real.

I was the kid who relished going shopping at Office Depot for new binders, paper, notebooks, folders, pens, pencil cases, erasers, colored pencils, paper clips, and planners. School supply aisles are one of my happy places. I could spend hours just looking at the offerings to select the perfect item to add to my backpack.

I remember that one office supply store used to have a deal where you could load up a paper grocery bag and get the entire contents for a ridiculously low cost. You better believe I tetrised everything I could in there (with my mom's help, of course). I probably fit things in that I didn't even need. Did anyone ever finish one of those pink erasers? 

While my mom tried to have us "shop our closet" before we bought new, I always tried to find a way to get new school supplies. There was something about starting fresh each year that delighted me. To this day, I bounce when I walk down an office supply aisle. While I don't mindless buy like I used to (*don't look at my notecard bin*), I love it when I get the chance to pick up post-its or a pack of preferred pens.

Now that I have a kid of my own, I can't wait to enjoy this experience from the parent side of things. Bring me those back to school lists! 

What's your favorite back to school activity?

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• The best ways to store (and reheat!) cookies. [Real Simple]
• 70 productive things - big and small - that you can do at work when you're bored... or procrastinating other projects. [Career Contessa]
• The upper limit problem is when you reach the end of your comfort zone. Here are ways to break through if you want to try. [Life Goals Mag]
• Designing a better and more useful COVID-19 vaccine card. [TIME]
• Make a plan now for what you would take with you if you had to evacuate. [WaPo]
• We need culturally relevant textbooks. [EdSurge]

• An explainer on humidity. [Short Wave]
• What are the impacts of increasing human longevity? [The Daily]
• Naming streets is not an easy task. [Every Little Thing]
• The weirdness and power of ritual. [The Happiness Lab]

• In our continuing quest to watch all the movies in the Liam Neeson Punches Things genre, we put on The Ice Road. It was... not good. We generally enjoy these movies, but this was the exception. Liam Neeson is still great, but the writing and plotting in this lead much to be desired. And we used to watch Ice Road Truckers. [Netflix]
• I don't normally do horror films, but I make an exception for things that are more thriller than gore. That meant, I was fine with my husband putting on The Reef. This is a semi-true story of a group Australians forced to swim through shark "infested" waters. I use the scare quotes cause there was really only one shark. It was a simple plot and a small cast, but it worked. [Amazon Prime]
• Our binge of Doctor Who is nearing it's end. We started season 11 this week. I can't believe it took this long to get a James Bond themed episode! Same with a Nikola Tesla episode! [HBO Max]

• Summer squash season is nearly over. We made gnocchi with summer vegetables to enjoy the bounty while it's still here. [Martha Stewart]
• The weather turned cool so we broke out an old favorite: oven roasted autumn medley. We use chicken apple sausage in lieu of turkey sausage. This dish tends to appear on our table every two weeks or so through the fall and winter. [Budget Bytes]