Happy Monday! I’m here with Holly sharing some fun from our weekend. Keep reading after our weekend fun for the Not Just A Mom linkup with the toughest topic of the year – favorite books and series. I hope you’ll link up with us for Hello Monday!

I spent my second weekend in a row on a college campus in Virginia. This weekend I saw this:

That’s it. That was my view for most of the weekend. Jack and Luke were invited to their team’s winter travel meet and it was so fun!

However, when you have a 12 year old and a 14 year old, you are there most of the day cheering them on. For this swim meet, kids 13 and older swim in the morning (7:30 arrival time) and kids 12 and younger swim in the afternoon (11:45 arrival time). The mom very happily drives back and forth to the hotel a few times and camps out in the stands cheering everyone on!

We weren’t sure Luke was going to be able to swim in this meet, so he only swam three events and he did a great job. I didn’t let him swim his best stroke, breaststroke, because of his hip and the fracture. There was still great news from the weekend because he swam in warmups and in the races completely pain free! Woohoo!!

Jack got best times in all six events he swam. He’s been putting in the work and it’s paying off!

We stayed in a hotel and all three of us had a great time hanging out with friends and watching some fast swimming.

This meet has prelims (everyone swims in the morning/afternoon) and finals (the top 8 or 16 come back and race again at night) each day. We came back for finals and the kids had the best time on deck cheering each other on and hanging out.

As a slight swim nerd, I had the best time watching some really fast swims and seeing all the joy this sport brings to my kids.

I finished two books and got some work done for school in the stands. That felt pretty great, too!

We got home Sunday evening and started the get ready for the week sprint. Luckily this week isn’t quite as busy as last week was, but we still need groceries and laundry.

Well, I am not sure how I can respond to this topic fairly. Favorite books or series – yikes! I am going to do my best to list some favorites and go into this realizing I will definitely forget some.

Let’s start with Elin. Oh how I love every single book written by Elin Hilderbrand. I’ve met her numerous times and will always read every single books she writes or co-authors. I love them!

Next up, Dottie! I was so genuinely sad with Dorothea Benton Frank died a few years ago. I have read just about every book she’s written and I love them all! I met her twice, too!

I love Jenny Colgan’s books, too. The first series of Jenny’s that I read was The Beach Street Bakery and I loved it. I’ve since read a bunch of her books and am always excited for her next book.

I have a few other summer book authors that are in my favorites list – Kristy Woodson Harvey, Mary Kay Andrews, Nancy Thayer, and Wendy Wax.

Jamie Brenner’s books are so fun and she is lovely!

I don’t read much suspense but I do like Lisa Jewell’s books and Sally Hepworth’s books. They are a bit suspenseful but aren’t scary and don’t keep me up at night.

I recently finished a YA series, American Royals by Katharine McGee and it was really fun to read.

I am sure I missed a bunch, but these are the first to come to mind. I feel so fortunate to have met many of these wonderful ladies!

I am reading all Christmas books right now. If you are looking for a Christmas book by some of these authors, check out this list or any of my previous Christmas lists.

I’ll be back tomorrow with a reading update, so be sure to come back then. Have a great day full of sunshine and books!