This was a looooooong week.

​Our kiddo was exposed to COVID at daycare and we had to quarantine for 10 days... while working full-time. It was not great. 

Early on in the week, we made the decision that screen time rules would go out the window. Our kiddo was thrilled that she got to watch her two favorite movies on repeat all week. I have now heard The Secret Life of Pets and The Secret Life of Pets 2 nearly a dozen times each.

Part of my mom guilt rages at this but - you know what - it's fine.

We are now two years into this pandemic and weeks like this are just about survival. There's only so much you can do when you have to work and have a kid who can't yet fully entertain themselves. It was much better for everyone's productivity and mental health to just let her happily watch and provide running commentary on the "doggies!"

What rules do you break to make it through rough weeks?

In a bit of revenge bedtime action, I ended up reading until 1am most nights this week. That helped me put a huge dent Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone. I know the series centers around the story of Jamie and Claire, but I am just as invested in the stories of the side characters. In some chapters, the side characters are actually far more interesting. This isn’t so much a novel series as it is a world. I am preemptively sad that I will be finishing this book in the coming weeks.

• When women don't matter. [WaPo - gift link]

• The beauty of fruit cross-sections. [Colossal]

• The weird evolution of crabbiness. [Science Alert - reader submission]

• Librarians answer a lot of questions but, sometimes, it takes a social worker. [NPR]

• The endless task of managing a TBR list. [Book Riot]

• The best tips for using your dishwasher. [The Kitchn]

• You should consider developing a career portfolio. [HBR]

• What we can learn from looking at influential romance novels. [Book Riot]

• How snow storms can help identify opportunities for traffic calming. [Greater Greater Washington]

• I would like to eat all of these dumplings. [Food52]

• The 1619 project wasn't wrong. The project made people rethink history and that's why it's controversial. [Code Switch]

• The amazing manta ray. [Short Wave]

• Where your lost luggage ends up. [Atlas Obscura]

• This handmade candy making is utterly mesmerizing. [Yummyboy]

• Incredible stairwell acoustics and Ave Maria. [Kings Return Music]

• The Husband did the meal planning for this week. One of the dishes he put on our list was something that has been in my files for ages: spicy shrimp egg roll bowl. While it wasn't the most filling thing, it was delicious. The sauce makes this dish. (I even used the leftovers as a dip for fries later in the week.) Since we happened to have some crunchy chow mein noodles in the pantry, we tossed those on top. It was a nice textural addition. [Paleo Running Momma]

• In an attempt for lighter meals, we made vegetarian stuffed peppers. I read the recipe wrong and cut only a quarter off the peppers (instead of cutting them in half). I don't think that was why we had a TON of leftover filling, but it could not have helped. That's okay. The filling was a fantastic leftover lunch for two days. [The Modern Proper]

If you’re on the internet at all, you might have run into Wordle sometime this week. I have fallen deep for this simple word play game. It’s like a mix of scrabble, boggle, and a crossword. I also like that, since it’s only one game a day, you can’t spend too much time on it.

Have a Thing of the Week recommendation? Reply to this email to share it with me and you’ll see it in an upcoming newsletter.

Our kiddo, barring any last minute changes, is going back to daycare.