Weekly recap + what we ate: Where I Went one week in June. Spoiler I’ve become one with my car….

School is finally over for the kids. We’re moving into summer mode and the weather has followed suit. Summer Solstice has come and gone so now the days are getting shorter, but still will hopefully be a while until they feel super short….

It’s been a while since I’ve done a “Where I went” post, and as I was sitting in my car last week, I thought it might be a fun to take a snapshot of my life from that lens. So this is where I went for one week in June 2026. Maybe it’s boring reading? I know some of my drives were boring….

MONDAY:
9am: Home—> bus stop. (4 mins)

9:15a: Bus stop —> Home (4 mins)

10:30a: Home —> work (20 mins- Amazing!!! Must be because it’s Monday and construction is light.)

5:00pm: Work —> the auditorium where the 14 year old’s promotion ceremony is. (1 hr. Ugh. Glad I left early)

Last moment as a middle schooler!

8:45pm: Promotion ceremony –> Back to work for the rest of the evening rehearsal. (23 mins) No time to cry or be nostalgic about the fact that my oldest is now on to high school!

11:30pm Work –> Home (45 mins. Usually going home after work is a breeze because it’s late a night, but there is a bunch of midnight construction going on on the beltway that’s slowly killing my soul and the commute home took twice as long as it ought.)

Total time in car: 2h 36m

TUESDAY:
9:00am: Home –> Kids to bus stop (4 mins)

9:15am: Bus stop –> Home. (4 mins)

11:15am: Home –> Dentist’s office for a cleaning (8 minutes)

12:00pm: Dentist –> Home (8 mins)

12:45pm: Home –> Work (35 mins. Traffic is slow today – for about a 1/3 of the commute on the beltway I’m creeping at 10-15 mph, but this is in the normal range of slow.)

11:45pm: Work –> Home (45 mins. Another bout of soul sucking midnight construction)

Total time in car = 1 hr 36 mins

WEDNESDAY (Free Day)
7:09am home —> piano lessons (7 mins). Drop the 14 year old for her lesson.

Then piano lessons —> get gas (3 mins). I always get gas on piano lessons day; it saves me the mental energy of having to think about when I’ll get gas during the week if/when my take gets low.

Then Gas —> breakfast sandwich place (5 mins) I bribe the 9 year old with breakfast sandwiches to practice piano. This is a little hole in the wall place near piano lessons that we’ve been going to for 6 years or so – it’s run by this Korean couple and they are super friendly to us.

Breakfast sandwiches —> back to piano lessons (5 mins). Drop the 9 year old for his lesson. Pick up the 14 year old. I usually then drive the 14 year old to school, but since she’s had her promotion ceremony she’s opting out of the last three days of school. So instead of driving her to school, we….

Piano lessons —> park (2 mins). I often take the 6 year old to this park while her siblings are in piano lessons.. We often only stay for 15 minutes (piano lessons are 30 mins), but I always figure 15 minutes of running around is better than sitting in the car and waiting. Plus there’s a pretty decent Little Free Library at this park.

8:13am: Park —> piano lessons, pick up the 9 year old, then —> home (10 mins)

9:00am: home –> parking lot at trail next to school, then walk up the trail to school for drop off. Stop and chat with friends along the way. (15 mins)

9:20am: School –> walk back to car –> drive back home (15 mins)

10:15am: home –> Hair salon for a much needed haircut. The 14 year old tags along – yay for mommy daughter time. (12 mins.)

11:15am: Hair salon –> Uniqlo (15 mins). It’s my day off and I knew it was going to be a big errand day. I need to refresh my show blacks (the black clothes I wear backstage) and wanted to get some of Uniqlo’s shirts with built in bras because my next show is in an outdoor venue and it’s going to be hot and I find the built in bras less constricting to wear. I also bought a pair of black nylon culottes that will be nice and airy backstage.

12:30p: Uniqlo –> Running Store (15 mins). The 14 year old needed new running shoes and this family owned store has been recommended to me as a local gem, so I decided to check them out. The service and fitting was top notch. No fancy machines to measure your gait like at other running stores – just careful attention being paid to how you walk and run in different shoes and lots of questions about habits.

1:30pm: Running Store –> Quest for boba (15 mins) The running store was around the corner from one of my favorite boba places, T-Baar. I like them because they also sell onigiri and I needed a snack. BUT T-Baar turned out to be closed until 3pm. Wump wump. So we ended up at Gong Cha, which is fine, but not as exciting. They did have mochi donuts at Gong Cha and we ended up buying 6 of them to bring home.

Then Gong cha –> Giant for groceries. (5 mins).

2:25pm: Giant –> Home (15 mins)

4:45pm: Home –> pool for Swim Meet (12 mins)

9:00pm Swim Meet over: Pool –> Home. (12 mins) Finally. Today was a lot of time in the car and not a lot of time at home, which is not ideal for a free day.

Total time in car = 2 hr, 43 mins

THURSDAY:
9:00am: Home –> parking lot on trail near school –> walk to school for the last drop off of the school year!! (15 mins)

9:20am: Run along trail. (19 mins + 30 min walk) I guess technically I’m not really going anywhere here, but I thought I’d throw it in anyway.

10:15am: Trail parking lot –> Whole Foods to pick up some groceries. (10 minutes – which is way longer than this needs to be for a 1 mile trip, but I took the route with a massive construction project going on.)

11:00am: Whole Foods –> walk to polling station for the last day of Early Voting.

11:20am: Walk back to car, then –> home. (12 mins)

1:40pm: home –> walk to bus stop to pick up the kids. The last day of school is always a half day. We are slightly late and the bus is waiting for us. I hate it when we make the bus driver wait. Then we walk home.

3:3pm: home –> work. (30 mins. Ugh. I guess 30 minutes isn’t bad, but that really slow stretch is really draining.) It’s opening night!!

12:00 midnight: Work –> Home (20 mins. yay!). There was an opening night party after the show so I stayed for that before driving home. There were tacos and cookies!

Time spent in car: 1 hr, 27 mins

FRIDAY: Another Free Day for Juneteenth.
12:00pm: Home –> walk to the newly opened Royal Farms. Buy fried chicken and slushies for lunch then –> walk home (45 mins). Royal Farms is a gas station/convenience store that apparently has amazing fried chicken. It was pretty tasty. A little soggy, but the flavor was good.

My first time at Royal Farms!

4:00pm: Home –> pool for swim team practice (12 mins)

7:00pm: Pool –> Trader Joe’s to pick up some groceries, then –> pick up pizza for dinner –> then Home (45 mins). The Husband drives all these stop. Whenever we go anywhere as a family, the Husband drives. When I offer to drive, he always says, “No!” with a tone of certain horror. The 14 year old’s practice wasn’t over yet, but our neighbor who is at our same pool gave her a ride home afterwards.

Time in car = 42 mins

SATURDAY:
8:45am: Home –> Pretzel pick up (12 mins). We were having a picnic with friends later on and I offered to bring the carbs because I love any excuse to order pretzels from DC Pretzel Company. The pretzel guy knows me by sight now and he threw in an additional pretzel – “One for the road.” I was delighted.

9:00am: Pretzel pick up –> Aldi’s to pick up some groceries, then — > home. (15)

9:45am: Home –> Voice lesson for the 14 year old. (23 mins)

10:15am: Voice lesson –> quick hike along nearby trail with the two younger kids while the oldest is in her lesson, then went back to the voice lesson to pick her up. (30 mins)

11:00am: Voice Lesson –> Park for picnic with my friends from college. (30 mins). We haven’t had a meet up since before COVID. That was the time when we were all excited because our 20th college reunion was coming up and we were going to go together. That was February 2020. Hah hah. I can’t believe it’s taken us six years to get together again!

2:30pm: Park picnic –> home. (15 mins)

5:00pm: Home –> Dumpling house (20 mins) to pick up dumplings for dinner.

5:25pm: Dumpling House –> Nature Center for Shakespeare in the Park performance, where we ate dumplings while enjoying a play. (15 mins).

Shakespeare in the park! Notice the ginger ale in the shoes…

Every summer, there’s a group that does free Shakespeare performances in local parks and nature centers. This year’s play was As You Like It, which is one of my favorite plays. (I tend to prefer Shakespeare’s comedies.) The set was simple and the costumes modern and the performances full of energy and there was a band providing live music to sometimes hilarious sometimes touching effect. (Like when they played “We are the Champions” during the wrestling scene.) I always love seeing how theatre can be done with a variety of budgets and every day things like camping lanterns can be used to an audience-gasping effect. I was disappointed that they cut Rosalind’s closing monologue, but I did appreciate that the performance was two hours including intermission.

9:00pm: Nature Center –> Home (25 mins)

Time in Car: 3 hr, 5 mins

SUNDAY
8:45am: Home –> Agility Center with the 6 year old for her Agility classes (12 mins)

10:05am: Agility Center –> Home (12 mins)

10:50am: Home –> Work – we had a matinee performance (25 mins – yay for light-ish weekend traffic)

6:15pm done with work: Work –> Home (20 mins)

7:30pm: Home –> walk around the neighborhood with the 14 year old. (1 hr.) I realized when I got home that I hadn’t had any outdoor time yet, and after sitting in the car I needed to get out and move, so I convinced the 14 year old to go on a walk with me. I love getting out on a summer evening when the sun is still up but no longer blazing and the air has shifted a little cooler and the fireflies are out.

Time in car = 1 hr 9 mins.

And that’s a week of where I went. A few observations:
1) Total Time in Car this week: 13 hrs and 9 mins, which is about 13% of my week. That seems like a lot. And I didn’t even do most of the driving to kids’ activities.

2) I didn’t use public transportation or my bike all week. My summer job is not close enough that I can do that. (My job for the rest of the year is reachable both on bike and Metro.)

3) I find that since my summer job is so far away, I spend a lot of time commuting and that really cuts into time I can spend doing other things. I really love my summer opera company, but I’m glad I don’t have to drive to Virginia all year round.

4) I do like the fact that a lot of things in my every day life is not more than 15 minutes away – it makes going to the dentist or taking kids to activities seem like an easier effort.

5) I like to bundle my errands so that I don’t have to leave my house more than I have to. I find coming home and leaving again saps my energy and momentum.

Grateful For:

– That the 14 year old went to a pretty diverse middle school.

-Cool summer days. It can get pretty hot and humid here in DC during the summer, but we’ve actually had really lovely days – 70/80 degrees, dry and sunny with a hint of breeze. I would be happy if this were summer all year round, but I know that we’re just at the beginning of summer and the heat and humidity is coming.

-My Show Opened and everything went smoothly.

-That I got to go on a walk with the 14 year old. Gotta savor those moments when I can.

-Sunlight late into the evening. Makes the days seem longer and more full of possibility.

-That my dental Hyegenist is gentle and no one guilts me about anything to do with my teeth.

Looking Forward To:
–Sail 250! It’s Fleet Week and we’re going to Baltimore to see the Tall Ships and maybe some of the airshow practice! (Spoiler – we did this today and it was a great time – more in next week’s recap!)

-Reading retreat with the Husband coming up. I’m researching bookstores and restaurants in Harrisburg, PA and getting excited about our visit. Let me know if you have any recs for Harrisburg, PA.

-We booked a place to stay in Niagara on the Lake for August! Because I took this additional gig, we had to shift our vacation a little bit; we were originally going to go to Chicago and Niagara Falls, but we’re just going to do three day in Niagara. I haven’t been to Niagara Falls since i was a child growing up in Ontario. Also let me know if you have any recs for Niagara on the Lake!

-Reading more of this book:

This was recommended to me by one of my interns this summer. We were having a conversation about how I noticed that a lot of the candidates I interviewed for our internship this year were very up front about their ADHD or other mental challenges and, to be quite honest, I just didn’t know what to do with that information or how to react. She is writing her Masters thesis on how to be more inclusive as a stage manager and said this book has been really helpful.

What We Ate:

Monday: Pasta Bake. There was leftover pasta in red sauce from Sunday night’s dinner, so I threw it in a pan with some sausage and cheese and made a pasta bake. Frugal dinner for the win.

Tuesday: Chicken Salad Sandwiches for the pool

Wednesday: Baked Chicken Drumsticks from NY Times Cooking, and steamed green beans. This baked chicken recipe was super easy and also easy to eat at the pool during the swim meet. I’m putting this recipe on repeat.

Thursday: Hot dogs and watermelon at the pool

Friday: Pizza (take out) and World Cup.

Saturday: Dumplings and Shakespeare

Sunday: Pasta and red sauce for the family. I had leftovers out of the fridge when I got home from work.

That’s the week! I have a few lighter weeks of work and I’m looking forward to spending time with my family this weekend. Hopefully the weather will hold!

If you have a spouse/partner, do you take turns driving, or is there always a default driver? Do you like to vote early, by mail, or in person on the day? Favorite Shakespeare play? Give me your best advice to pass along to the 14 year old for high school!

Book Read April and May 2026

I got a surprising amount of reading done the past two months despite being slammed at work. I think two things helped – 1) Audiobooks for my commute, and 2) getting a bedside lamp and reading first thing in the morning (non-fiction) and last thing at night (fiction). I didn’t get around to writing an April book recap, so here is April and May recap together….

The Secret Pearl by Mary Balogh – This historical romance, first published in 1991 was a re-read for me – I picked it up to read one day in April when I was under the weather and looking for a comfort read. Mary Balogh was one of the first historical romance authors that I obsessed over – I would stalk ebay for her backlist. Her literary output now is gentler, almost sedate, but she used to write angsty romance novels with genre-busting plots that often seemed bonkers at first, but would (mostly) work. This one is no different – it’s about Fleur Bradshaw (even that name is kind of par for what’s to come) has resorted to prostitution to survive (a common theme for Balogh) and her first customer is the married Duke of Ridgeway. He immediately regrets his treatment of her and secretly engages him as a governess for his daughter. Of course they fall in love. There’s all sorts of red flags here, right??? It all sounds tawdry and sensationalist, and honestly I can’t tell if it still works or not because I loved this book so much when I first read it in my 20s so am coming with strongly nostalgic bias. The book now feel so overwrought and everyone suffers and is miserable for so much of the book, but the writing and craft of the book is still really good. I do love a good suffer and redemption and that’s here – I just don’t know if this book has aged well.

Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews, read by Will Watt and Elizabeth Knowelden: I had read a Mimi Matthews novella and liked it, so I thought I’d try this novel, especially since one of the narrators is my audiobook boyfriend Will Watt. This romance tells the story about Esme who is out to ruin an certain Viscount and Gabriel Royce who owns a betting shop and who has an interest in said Viscount maintaining a sterling reputation. Esme and Gabriel spar and quarrel and support and rescue each other numerous times throughout the book. This book was … fine. Enemies to lovers isn’t my favorite trope. I liked Esme and Gabriel individually – they are both smart, ruthless, competent, and kind – but they didn’t have a whole lot of chemistry as a couple.

So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ, translated by Modupé Bodé-Thomas. I read this book for my 2026 Classics Challenge. The prompt was to read a book set in Africa. Technically this book didn’t count because it was published in 1979, and the cut off for this challenge was 1975, but I really wanted to satisfy this prompt by reading a book by an African author as opposed to a white author in Africa, so I decided this book will count. Bâ was a Muslim Sengelese writer and activist. So Long a Letter is one of two books that she published and is semi-autobiographical. The book is told in the form of a letter from the recently widowed Ramatoulaye to her sister. Ramatoulaye writes about her attempts to reconcile her life as a modern women with the traditions and morals of a traditional society and her struggles with her Husband taking a second wife after they had been married for thirty years and had multiple children. Some of this book read like a soap opera and some of it read like feminist rant against polygamy and patriarchy and some of it read like a woman tired of the every day work of being a wife and mother. What I liked most about this book was seeing how Ramatoulaye decides to move forward independently after her Husband’s death. Near the end she says, “The word ‘happiness’ does indeed have meaning, doesn’t it? I shall go out in search of it.”

Last Night at the Lobster by Stewart O’Nan – This novella follows the final day, from opening to closing, of a Red Lobster. The Red Lobster next to a Connecticut strip mall has been marked for closing and some of the employees re-assigned to the Olive Garden the next town over. Manny, the manager of the Red Lobster manages surly employees, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, demanding customers and an oncoming blizzard. This is one of those “just a slice of life” books where people go to work and try to survive the mundane and the frustrating, the kind of thing where the parking lot has to be ploughed even while your heart is breaking and confused. I really liked this book.

Felicity Cabot Sells her Soul by Aydra Richards – Continuing on my historical romance kick. I was looking for something with a good grovel ending and Reddit told me Richards writes a good grovel. This book was fine – I felt like I was missing some major plot points because it’s the third in a series. The book starts off with the hero and heroine getting married because she needs money to keep her school open, and he has money and they were sweethearts years ago even though they hadn’t talked to each other in ten years or so, like this was literally the first or second chapter. There was some serious set up and back story missing for me. There was a nice arc for the male main character, but the heroine failed to impress me, and I usually like school teacher heroines – she just seemed like she wanted to stay mad at the hero for the sake of being mad, which was annoying because I thought he was doing everything right.

This American Woman by Zarna Garg, read by the author– Garg played the mother in the movie A Nice Indian Boy, which I had loved, so when I saw that she had also written a memoir, I looked it up on Libby and borrowed it. Garg’s book tells about her childhood in India, and how she comes to American to escape an arranged marriage and how she eventually became a stand up comedian – not something that a lot of Indian women do. She faces every challenge with a determination and focus that I found impressive. This memoir was funny but it was also grim in parts. I really liked listening to this one a lot. My favorite chapter was the one where she spent an entire chapter detailing how she decided what to wear for her stand up routines.

10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation—And Making Your Own Life Easier by David S. Yeager: This title is clearly is the book version of “clickbait” – I saw this book on a list of favorite parenting books and I thought, “Hmmm … maybe this will hold the key to getting the kids to pick up around the house….” Spoiler – it does not hold any such key. Despite that, and despite some of the chapters being a bit repetitive, I felt like I got a lot out of this book. Even more than shifting my mindset about how I motivate my kids, it’s really helped me think about how I work with my interns. I’m still making my way through all the passages I marked up (this book is the reason I can’t borrow any other library books right now because it is so massively overdue), but my main takeaways were:
a) it’s important to balance high expectations with encouragement
b) when giving feedback focus on process not results, and make sure the recipient of feedback knows that you’re giving feedback because you want them to grow.
c) Giving young people a sense of belonging and ownership is important to empowering them to take charge of a situation.
All in all, one of the better parenting books I’ve read in a while.

A Thousand Naked Strangers by Kevin Hazzard, narrated by George Newbern: So years ago, I heard an interview on Fresh Air with a paramedic who had written a memoir. What I remember the most is that he said the thing about having a woman in labor in the ambulance is that no one wants her to give birth in the ambulance, but the moment the baby arrives everyone is so happy. Anyhow, I wanted to read this memoir, but lost track of the title and author until Birchie mentioned this book on her blog and I realized this was that book I had heard about on Fresh Air so many years ago. I found this book grisly and fascinating – Hazzard has some really shocking stories from his work. But also, I think Hazzard really shows the importance of connecting with the people that he’s trying to treat; EMTs and Paramedics are often the first person someone deals with in a traumatic situation. Also, it is wild to me that he EMT course was actually quite short, and how minimal the training is to be a paramedic. I’m sure it’s a pretty thorough course, but to think that paramedics often have to treat life threatening injuries, it’s kind of amazing to me that they don’t have medical degrees. I really enjoyed this book.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell – I heard about this book on Modern Mrs. Darcy’s What Should I Read Next podcast. I had read O’Farrell’s Hamnet and loved loved loved that book so much that I was afraid to read any subsequent books by O’Farrell lest I be disappointed. I thought, though, that her back catalogue might be a good way to read more of her writing. This novel is a dual time-line novel where in the past we follow Esme Lennox as her family moves from India back to England, and in present day we have Iris who discovers that she has a heretofore unknown great aunt in an asylum. I found this book very readable – the prose was elegant and spare, the historical elements about how women’s mental health was often trampled on was interesting to me. However I found the plot a bit formulaic. I couldn’t tell if for me the elegant writing elevated the tired tropes or if the over-used tropes brought down the writing. So all in all a good read, but I found myself very annoyed by a lot of it.

Cassandra in Reverse by Holly Smale, read by Kristen Atherton – This novel tells the story of Cassandra who one day, after getting dumped and losing her job, discovers that she has the ability to rewind her life and live it again from whatever specific point she wants. This book was not the novel I thought it would be when I first started reading it. The tone started off quite comic and wry, but the real story of Cassandra turns out to be very complex and sad. I thought the book was maybe two chapters too long and could have used a trim here or there, but Cassandra has many strands in her life to unravel and reset – family, work, friends… The one thing I kept thinking throughout this book, as I listened to Cassandra constantly re-setting her life to cover for mistakes she thinks she has made, was how imperfectly perfect life is. We might want to go back and have a second chance at many moments, but the flaws in these present moments are what make them perfect for the life we are in right now.

The History of Sound by Ben Shattuck – This is a collection of of interconnected short stories, mostly set in New England, the stories spanning three centuries. Often short story collections feel disjointed to me, but Shattuck cleverly wrote these stories in pairs where a question or minor moment or object in one story is resolved or shows up in the following story, often in surprising ways. Each story felt like a little bit of an Easter egg hunt. This book reminds me that what we experience is only one tiny sliver of what someone else might experience and there are whole worlds and truths that we don’t even know exist. Highly recommend – the stories are poignant, thoughtful, and smart. I read this collection once then immediately went back and read it all again.

The No-Show by Beth O’Leary read by Evanna Lynch, Hether Long, Kathryn Drysdale, and Luke Thompson – I’ve generally liked Beth O’Leary on audio – her novels are well paced and I usually find her characters flawed but not annoyingly so. Full disclosure, I might have wanted to listen to this book because Luke Thompson of Bridgerton was one of the narrators. This novel is told from the point of view of three different women, each of whom gets stood up on Valentine’s Day by a man called Joseph Carter. It turns out that they’ve all been stood up by the same man. I found this book really frustrating for the first two thirds; I kept thinking “I don’t know how O’Leary is going to redeem Joseph Carter.” But then the last third I found really beautiful. There is a bit of a twist in the story and once the twist is unraveled, I really liked how the rest of the story unfolded. But oh boy, it was a long time getting there, and Joseph Carter remains a little less than fully formed, even in the end.

Mindset by Carol Dweck – This book was on a lot of lists of influential behavioral psychology books to read. Dweck talks about the importance of a growth mindset over a fixed mindset – the idea that people who believe change and growth are possible will have more success than those who think their personality and skillset is innate. I found this book really repetitive. Maybe the idea was pretty revolutionary when the book was first published, but I feel like the idea of a growth mindset is pretty prevalent these days, so I didn’t gain any new insights.

Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez – I’ve never read a Jimenez book before so when I saw it at a Little Free Library, I brought it home with me. This novel is about Vanessa, a travel vlogger with an incurable genetic disease who is suddenly left in charge of her infant niece, and Adrian, the hot lawyer/landlord next door who befriends her. I thought the first few chapters were pretty funny, and I loved the meet cute, but ultimately I found Vanessa and Adrian had only lukewarm chemistry, the main conflict a little forced, and the resolution implausible – it was oddly melodramatic and tedious at the same time. And the ending made me want to scream. So I guess all in all, entertaining and pleasant enough, but the writing and the plotting never got off the ground for me. Tell me if I should give Jimenez another chance.

On My Proverbial Night Stand:

Murder at Gulls Nest by Jess Kidd- my current audiobook for my commute

The Euatace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope- still plugging away at this serial novel. Lizzie Eustace still won’t give those diamonds back.

Joyful Anyway by Kate Bowler- reading this for my Lenten Reading group.

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward – I’ve been using my iPad a lot for work lately and I haven’t been wanting to use it for reading so I’ve been working through my TBR of books I’ve picked up at various Little Free Libraries. There are a couple of LFL in my area that have really solid literary novel collections. This was one of those books. It’s kind of sad but full of good people.

Any good re-reads lately? Do you have a lot of Little Free Libraries where you are? Recommend me more good behavioral psychology books – I’m looking for my next non-fiction read.

Weekly Recap + What We ate: Summer

Another tech week done! It’s had its challenges, but everyone has been really great to work with, which is really what makes or breaks a tech process for me.

This show was supposed to be my last show until the fall – the contract was supposed to finish the first week of July and I had been looking forward to having the rest of summer free until the kids go back to school. Well, I was offered a last minute gig – this same opera company lost an ASM for their August show and my boss asked if I wanted to step in. A bit of deja vu because this is also what happened last year – a last minute offer of a gig because someone needed to be replaced. The Husband and I discussed, we re-arranged our vacation plans (nothing had been booked yet), I told them I was unavailable for rehearsals during swim meets, and we’ve cobbled together a last minute plan for the kids. This was not the summer that I had envisioned in my head, but the directing team for the show are colleagues I really loved working with in the past, and there are lots of familiar faces I’m eager to collaborate with again, so I feel lucky that I was asked to fill in.

Anyhow, I’ve had to re-frame my summer a little. Instead of long days by the pool and adventures camping, I’ll be driving this same (miserable) commute and working rehearsals. The latter I’m looking forward to. The former, not so much. I think there is still some summer joy to be had in the free days that are in the schedule, six free days in all between now and mid August. After all, a lot of people work all summer and still find time to lean into the season, I should be able to as well. The kids each are doing a week of camp here and there, they also have half a week at a Taiwanese cultural camp, but otherwise are having a very unstructured summer. I did some brainstorming and here are some low key summer things I would love to gently aspire to – with the family and on my own:

-Taste test- I always find this is a fun thing to do during the summer. I’m thinking of taste test of chocolate covered donuts – Hostess, Tastykakes and Entenmann’s. Any other kinds out there?

-Make popsicles and lemonade and chai.

-Swimming laps at the pool.

-Run/bike with the kids. Last summer, the 9 year and I would go on run (me)/bikes (him) in the morning and it was lots of fun, so I’m hoping we also do some this summer. The 14 year old had decided that she wants to work on some conditioning, so we might go on some runs together too.

-Weekday movie matinee. I really want to see the Sheep Detectives – it’s based on Three Bags Full, which I read and found very amusing. Plus Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson!

-eating Dinner outside whenever possible.

-Enjoy summer produce and eat lots of fruits and vegetables.

-make a summer playlist. Or have the kids make me one.

-Find a linen or cotton poplin shirt dress in a bright colour or pattern.

-Enjoy ice cream. Maybe make a list of places near by to try.

-Go hiking somewhere either with a view or a waterfall.

-Paint my toenails. (And also get new sandals)

-declutter my bedroom black hole, the corner where things go to be forgotten.

-Go contra-dancing. (This might not happen – because they are on Thursday and Friday nights, but I’ll check the calendar.)

-Have a family movie marathon/ MarioKart competition/ Game night

-send the younger kids on one one with sibling dates with the 14 year old. I’m realizing there are only 4 more summers with the 14 year old and I want to make sure we make not just family memories, but sibling memories with her. I’ve told her that I will pay for any one on one sibling dates that she wants to have with the younger kids.

-Walk to the newly opened Royal Farms and get fried chicken and slushies.

Hopefully by writing this summer menu out, I won’t get into that Free Day Funk, where my brain is too fried to think of something to do that would help me lean into the summer.

Grateful For this week:
-Excuses to be outside. Headed into tech week, I tend to spend a lot of my time in a dark theatre. I’m so glad at work they have tables out on the back patio because it gives me an excuse to sit outside on my mealbreak.

-Air conditioning. The weather has turned to hot humid DC gross-ness. I’m glad for the AC.

-Getting home safely every night. Traffic is so unpredictable when I leave the theatre at 11:30pm – some nights it’s 20 minutes home, some nights they are doing construction and the beltway is down to a single lane and it takes an hour to get home. Plus it’s dark and I’m tired and my brain is a little fried. I’m always grateful when I pull up to our house safely.

-The Young Artists showing up. The company I’m now working for has a singer training program and for every show there are covers (basically understudies) for all the major parts. At some point, the covers all get to do their own run of the show in the rehearsal hall, with whatever props we can scavenge together – as in, “Here’s a bracelet I made for you out of tape.” The Cover Run is always such a great rehearsal to work because the feeling off goodwill and support in the room is palatable and a lot of singers show up to cheer the Young Artists on. The cover run last week was one of the best I’ve ever been to- the singers from the mainstage showed up and they even jumped in and did some of the chorus parts – everyone laughed and cheered and applauded loudly for the Young Artists. I love it when people show up to support each other.

-The Husband for getting the kids where they need to be while I’m working evenings.

-That it’s watermelon season. Is there a more perfect, easy, refreshing snack during the summer than cold watermelon?

-that the 14 year old survived middle school. The Friday before her Monday promotion ceremony, she asked if we could all drive her to school since it was her second to last day as a middle schooler. We all piled in the van and drove the mile down the road to wave her off. It was bittersweet. I feel so much gratitude that at a phase what are you doing downstairs of life as potential to be , she had a positive middle school experience.

Looking forward to:

-Opening my show and having time to take care of the rest of life. Commuting and 1+ hours a day really drains my time and my energy.

-Long holiday weekend. We were going to go away, but we’re all feeling a little drained, so we will stay home. Plus it’s Father’s day and I need to do something extra nice for the Husband since he’s been on solo parenting duty for a while. Though ironically I have to work on father’s day itself….

-Early voting. Get it done. Yay democracy.

-Peach Truck! We’ll be out of town the first time the Peach Truck comes to our area, so I’ve ordered a 25lb box of Peach Truck peaches for their second visit to the DC area.

-Listening to this book, my current audiobook for my commute. It’s read by Siobhan McSweeney, the actor who played Sister Michael in Derry Girls:

What We Ate:
-Monday: Dumplings and edamame – dinner at the pool between swim practices. I made everything before I went to work.

-Tuesday: Bacon and kale strata – dinner at the pool. I had some bacon and kale to use up. I prepped this casserole before I went to work and the Husband popped it in the oven after he was done work.

-Wednesday: Coconut Chicken Curry – from New York Times Cooking. I made a double batch of this curry a few weeks ago and froze half of it to be a quick meal when life got busy. Life has gotten busy. The Husband and kids ate this with paratha on the side. (I was at work and didn’t get home til after dinner. I think I had snack dinner)

-Thursday: Broccoli Spoon Salad from NY Times Cooking. Basically quinoa, broccoli, apples, cheddar cheese and pecans. It was tasty and sturdy, which made it a good pool dinner.

-Friday: Pizza take out.

– Saturday: The family had fried chicken take out from Fryer’s. I had leftover broccoli salad because I was still at work.

-Sunday: The family had pasta with red sauce and sausages. I worked late. I can’t remember what I had for dinner, though. Probably some kind of leftovers.

That’s the news for now as we go barreling into summer. Hope you have a nice long weekend, if it is such where you are. Or a nice weekend in general.

Where is the blackhole in your house? Favorite toe nail colours? Any gentle every day summer aspirations on your list?

Weekly recap + What We ate: Good-bye May, Hello June!

June got off to a great start. The first day of June was a free day, and I spent the day being productive and social. The day started with the usual morning lead up to the school bus. Then I went to meet a contractor at my parents’ rental house. The issue was resolved quickly so I went home and ran a bunch of internet errands – scheduling appointments, doing some research for things, etc. At 1pm, my friend picked me up and we went to see The Devil Wears Prada 2 – we split a large pop corn, got cold bubbly sodas and settled in for an afternoon movie. Going to a weekday matinee seems so indulgent!

The movie was fun – probably not as strong as the first movie – the plot is a little predictable while also leaving large gaps; the love interest is a little weak, and also why does Andy even need a boyfriend? – but clearly this new effort is meant to be a nostalgia trip and I was nostalgic and very entertained. There was a lot I liked about the movie – The clothes! The spot the celebrity game! Kenneth Branagh playing a supportive Husband – who plays the violin! Anne Hathaway’s doe eyes, big smile, and “every girl” appeal! Stanley Tucci gliding through the movie with deft ease! Meryl Streep, acting up a storm and having the ability to pierce you to your core without even looking up. I don’t go to see movies in the theatre very often, maybe twice a year – but when I do, I think an empty theatre and a big bag of popcorn on a weekday afternoon is my preferred way to do it.

After the movie, I came home, made dinner then took the kids to the pool for swim team practice. The 6 year old really wanted to go into the pool, so I had to go in as well since she’s not old enough or a strong enough swimmer to be in the pool by herself. The pool was very cold, but I got used to it and had a good time. Then after the younger kids went home, I stayed on to wait for the 14 year old who swims in the later practice, and I swam some laps while I waited, my first lap swim of the summer. It was really tough going, and I felt really out of shape, but it felt good to move through the water.

So all in all, a very nice free day, and a great way to start the new month. You know how they say, “Start as you mean to carry on. – well I hope the day of errands, exercising, friend time, family time, and entertainment will prove to be the framework for the month and not just a one time thing.

Looking back on May …

May Highlights:

-Taking the show we were working on to Baltimore and being away from home for three nights. Getting to explore a new city – farmer’s markets, restaurants, bakeries – stay in a quirky hotel – flamingos EVERYWHERE! – and work in a new to me theatre with familiar to me crew.

-The 14 year old’s Confirmation. It’s been a lot of classes and extra work, but she did it. Grateful for our neighbor who was her sponsor and who was so supportive and helpful.

-A Gala concert at work. This one night only concert was wild and definitely out of my comfort zone, but it happened and I learned a lot about how events are planned and executed. And I got to meet the man who wrote Wicked and Pippin and Rags, an underappreciated musical with a great score.

-The 14 year old starring in her middle school musical. I was so happy to see her up on stage doing her thing, a thing that had nothing to do with me.
Side sentimental note: I’m having more and more moments when I see my oldest and I’m realizing what an amazing fully formed human being she is becoming. She starts high school in the fall and I’m ready/ not ready for the next four years to fly by. It’s kind of a weird temporal time for me to be in where one child’s time with us feels so brief and short while the little kids feel as if they will never grow up – it’s as if they are progressing on different timelines simultaneously. I don’t think I’m explaining it very well; I know that they’re all on their own journey; it just feels that the two little kids are moving through molasses and the older kid is on a zipline, all at the same time.

-Two voice recitals that I did doing supertitles for. One of them was the retirement recital of a singer that I first met when he sang Stravinsky with my college choir. It was really great to get to work on his recital, such a familiar colleague. On the other end of the spectrum, was a singer whom I met a few years ago when he was just out of Julliard and it’s been so lovely to see how he’s grown each time we worked together. I really love how in my job I don’t have to work with the same people all the time, but they come in and out of my life, so there are constantly happy reunions.

-Third grade recorder concert, the highlight of which was their rendition of Eye of the Tiger. God Bless elementary school music teachers.

-Finished hiring stage management staff for next season at work.

-My parents here for a visit and to see the 14 year old’s show.

-Happy Hour with my Bus Stop Mom friends where we stumbled into Trivia Night. Our team name was Bus Stop Divas. We didn’t come in last. We came in second last. But at least now I know what an obelus is and where Cesar Salad was invented.

-The Husband – wisely – going against my wishes and signing us up for Netflix. Watching Derry Girls with him and laughing so hard together.

-Memorial Day camping in the drizzle with good friends and sleeping in a hammock.

-Lunch with a friend I met at the 6 year old’s mom group. She lives near my summer gig so it’s nice to catch up when I’m there.

-Seeing the 20 minute opera festival at work. It was amazing how the rehearsal room was transformed into a performance space. Getting to eat the leftover McDonald props afterwards.

-Starting my summer gig. Working with many familiar faces and some great new colleagues. I haven’t worked with the director in maybe 15 years, and it was such a pleasant surprise to see him again. The pizza welcome lunch the company hosted. Working with young singers who are so enthusiastic and eager to do well.

-Trying something new for how I prep my scores for a show. for this show, I’m using an electronic score. Rather than having a paper score, I downloaded the app Newzik, which lets me upload scores and mark them up. It’s been really fun to play with how to mark up my score with all the different features and colours that Newzik has. Also it’s so much easier than carrying a 400 page score around with me when I’m running a show. And I don’t have to worry about 3M discontinuing my favorite colour of Post-Its. I’m kind of loving it.

-Evenings at home. My summer job doesn’t rehearse at night so I’ve been home by 7:30 or 8:00pm every night. Not early enough to go to the pool with the family, but early enough to help put the younger kids to bed and them catch up with the 14 year old and Husband.

May Lowlights
-Being so very busy. I’m happy for the work, but all through May, I felt like all I did was go to work then come home and sleep, get up, get the kids to the bus, then back to work. I think I had one day off the whole month.

-The commute to my summer job is Soul Sucking. Without traffic it takes twenty minutes to get to/from work. With traffic it can take anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes. It is so exhausting to sit in a hot car in bumper to bumper traffic.

-Some issues at the rental properties – not bloggable and thankfully all surmountable, but takes extra time and effort to handle – especially on the Husband’s part.

Quote(s) of the Month:

“Booked and blessed.”
If I had a chapter title for May, this would be it. I had an actor say this too me when he asked if I would with with their show until closing and I said I was leaving the show early because I had another gig. Which is when he said, “Booked and blessed!” I think it’s a common saying in the industry; I like that it reminds me to be grateful for every opportunity that comes my way because freelancing is a tough life.

“Sounds like you don’t have enough surmountable problems.”
from August in the Forest by Ben Shattuck.
This quote is from a short story I read last month, said by one character to her ex-boyfriend who is floundering a little to find his way in life. I really like the reminder that most problems in life are indeed surmountable, and that having surmountable problems is actually a good place to be in life as opposed to having insurmountable ones.

How I did on my various goals… hmmmm not good. Both didn’t spend time on a lot of these goals, but also, I didn’t write any of it down in my journal.
Creativity:
-Painted no pictures. (8/26 pictures for the year, still)
-wrote 2 haikus (15/52 haiku for the year… need to do some catching up on this.)
-0 hikes. (1/12 so far this year – not doing so well on this goal)

Consumption:
– 3 live performances – I saw West Side Story and our twenty minute opera festival at work – as an audience member, not as a person working on the show. And then we say the middle school musical. (I’m not counting the 3rd grad recorder concert here – that seems like not really the spirit of this category.)
-0 Museums. (3/12 for the year so far. Though we got free passes for the Phillips collection at a community event, so maybe that will happen in June.)

Health – okay this wasn’t a great month for tracking my health aspirations…
-? sessions of strength training. (Goal was 8/ month, but I did poorly at tracking things in May.)
-Daily yoga – 21/31 days tracked. This number might actually be higher – see above about not tracking things.
-0? vegan dinners. We ate a lot of chicken in May. I didn’t even track most dinners.
-0 run. (Exercise was not a strong suit of mine in May.)

Looking Forward to in June:
-Tech/Opening/Closing of my current show. Tech starts this week!

-Piano and voice recitals for the kids (This already happened – bravo tutti!)

-Getting my hair cut – I last got it cut when we were in Taiwan, so it’s been long overdue.

-Dentist appointments for the kids. Also long overdue.

-Going to Baltimore and seeing the Tall Ships. To celebrate America’s 250th, a bunch of countries are sending tall ships to join the American fleet that usually makes the rounds this time of year. They are stopping in various cities, with Baltimore being one of theme.

-Visit from my mother, my brother, and my neice.

-Last day of school.

-Time at the pool. Swim meets start up next week.

-Meeting up with some friends from college. The last time we got together it was February 2020. We joked that I never went to college reunions and they said, “Well this is the year that you’re going!” And then COVID. I don’t know why it’s taken six years for us to get together again….

-8th Grade Promotion ceremony for the 14 year old. (I’m missing half a tech rehearsal so attend this. There was a time when it was unthinkable for me to miss a tech rehearsal, but now – perhaps it’s my age or the post-COVID age that we are in – I’m finding that it’s okay to make the ask to miss rehearsals to attend these important things. I don’t want to miss these things if I don’t have to.)

Grateful For Lately:

-Produce box from our friend who was out of town. He gave us his CSA share and we’ve eaten almost all of it except for the kohlrabi and the beets. I was planning on trying my hand at pickled beets. If anyone has any ideas for kohlrabi, I’d love to hear!

-GPS for helping me avoid the worst of the traffic.

-A few mornings where we didn’t start rehearsal until after noon – it’s nice to have the morning off to putter and take care of some life things.

-Our contractor who can fix all sorts of problems in the most straight forward way.

-Chairs. So the journal app on my phone sends me prompts every day and one day, the prompt was “What are you grateful for in this moment.” I had just had a long day at work and rehearsal was over and I was finally able to sit down, and the first thing that popped into my head was – Chairs. I’m so grateful to have a chair to sit in at the end of a long day. What a great invention chairs are.

What We Ate – we’re eating a lot of dinners at the pool because of swim practice these next few weeks, which means meals that I can put together in the mornings that will travel well and that we can eat poolside, so not too messy.

Monday: Teriyaki Tofu and Broccoli from America’s Test Kitchen’s Vegan for everyone. Vegan. I doubled the Teriyaki recipe and also made some teriyaki chicken for later in the week.

Tuesday: Chicken Salad Sandwiches, smoothies, and cut up apples. Eaten at the pool. I made lunch boxes for everyone in advance.

Wednesday: Roasted Salmon and Potatoes and green beans. I prepped this before I went to work and the 14 year old cooked the salmon and potatoes and steamed the green beans when she got home. I used the teriyaki sauce from Monday on the Salmon and it was tasty.

Thursday: Sesame noodles w/ the teriyaki chicken from Monday night. Watermelon. Dinner at the pool, I prepped this in advance.

Friday: Pizza and K-Pop Demon Hunters

Saturday: I think the family had pizza and played Dungeons and Dragons at a friends house. I worked late and then ate out of the fridge when I got home.

Sunday: Sticky Rice Cakes with Sausage and Greens from NY Times Cooking. We cooked this to use up the tatsoi and bok choi and onions from my friend’s CSA box as well as some sausage we had leftover. It was a big hit with the family. The sauce is literally a cup of ketchup + miso + sesame oil. The adults added chili crisp to their servings. Very tasty.

Anyhow, that’s the news from here. It feels like we’re fully into summer now! Just a few more days left of school. Our summer is currently a little unplanned, so I need to put some thought into it. I was originally going to have the summer off, but I was offered a last minute job so I’m not going to be home with the kids as much as I had originally planned. Booked and Blessed, I guess, but I’m mourning my original summer vision of lazy days at the pool. We’ll see what happens.

Hope June has been off to a sunny start for you.

(bi) Weekly recap + what we ate: Top Five/ Bottom Five- driving the van

How was the Memorial Day weekend, for those that are in America? I did choose going into nature with the family over spending the weekend home alone, but I didn’t leave until Sunday morning, so I had Saturday evening to myself – I went to dinner with my colleagues, came home, cleaned, watched some TV (Bridgerton – we finally got on the Netflix bandwagon.), read, and packed for the next day. It was a nice amount of time to have on my own.

It’s funny – I have often suggested the Husband go away on his own to get some alone time, but he always reminds me that wouldn’t be as nice because he wants to be home and have alone time. And I completely see that – there is something nice about a getaway, but there is also something nice about being in ones own house without external demands, a level of comfort and autonomy that I think is unique to having one’s own place to oneself. Also when you’re home you can tackle looming domestic tasks, which I think is also deeply satisfying. We probably don’t give each other enough of that kind of time….

Camping itself was a soggy affair. It’s been a wet Memorial Day weekend. I will say, it was mostly drizzle/dry/drizzle/dry while I was camping with the family. The Husband and kids (who had left the day before) and our friends got the brunt of the wet weather. They actually ended up going to the movies Saturday morning to get out of the rain. But still, the company was good and the air was nice. Our friend is a super camper – he brought tarps and many camp stoves, a camp sink, even a pizza oven. So we were not suffering in anyway. To be honest, most of the kids were on some sort of screen or another for a large chunk of the weekend – by the time I got there there were many fights over power banks because everyone’s device was running out of power (including the parents.) So it wasn’t the most disconnected weekend ever. Not my favorite thing, but I’m resigned to it. The kids did manage to go on a hike between rain showers; I feel like any amount of time in nature is a win, screen or no screen.

I slept in the hammock for the first time on Sunday night. It was a bit of a rough go at first, figuring out how to get into the sleeping bag, but once I figured that out, it was rather cozy. The next morning, it was nice to wake up with the morning air fresh on my face, listening to the rain on the rainfly. I will say the hammock is one of my favorite pieces of camping gear.

Monday morning, we made bacon and pancakes for everyone and the packed up the tent. On the way home, we stopped for lunch at a dumpling place near Hersey, PA, and then for ice cream at a dairy further south in Pennsylvania. We are our cones in the sun then went to see the calves that were just around back of the ice cream store.

Now that we are the other side of Memorial Day, I feel like we are into summer for reals. Our pool has opened. Swim team practice starts this week. The weather is still deciding between rain and sun, making the air a little thick and humid, but temperatures aren’t scorching yet, which is good.

Because of my longer commute for my summer gig, I’ve been driving the van a couple days a week, mostly because I was afraid of burning out the clutch on our Impreza as I sat in stop/slow/go traffic all the way home. I still don’t love driving the van, but I have to admit that there are some nice things about it. So here – in the spirit of Elisabeth – is my Top Five/ Bottom Five of our van.

Top Five:

Apple CarPlay – The Impreza still has a CD player and my phone doesn’t always connect automatically to the Bluetooth. The van has Apple Car Play (and whatever the Android version of that is) – so it is pretty seamless when I get in the car to have my maps, playlists, audiobooks, etc. just pop up nice and big on the screen display. I know this is probably standard technology in vehicles, but it’s new technology to me and it’s magical.

The van reads me my text messages – This might be part of Apple CarPlay, but I love that when a text comes in, I can have the van read it to me. And also I can, with the push of a button, dictate a text message to send.

The van is an electric-hybrid – With gas prices what they are, I’m glad I don’t have to fill up the van with gas every week. There’s actually a charging station at work, which is convenient. I think we maybe fill the van with gas once a month.

It’s not a manual car – The Impreza is a manual car, which is fine and actually can be fun, but you know when driving a manual car isn’t fun? Driving it in rush hour traffic. I do appreciate that the van has no clutch to worry about and won’t stall out on me. Or I guess, I’m the one who does the stalling when I don’t shift quite correctly. I do like driving the manual car, but it is nice not to have to worry about shifting once in a while.

The trunk – First of all, the trunk is huge! We needed to transport some stuff for work, and I had to throw eight music stands, two large tote boxes, a stool, five boxes of stationary, and heaven knows what else into the back of the van. Everything went in easily; it wasn’t even a tight game of Tetris. It sure is handy having a large trunk. ALSO – another of my favorite thing: The van has that feature where you can wave your foot under the trunk and the trunk will pop open. This is especially helpful when I have an armload the groceries (or some boxes of stationary…) and I can’t reach my keys.

Bottom Five:

The van is HUGE – It doesn’t really fit in my parking spot at work. I can’t reach over and open the passenger side door from the driver side. When we first got the van, I complained that riding in it was like riding around in a mobile living room. I do realize that the size of the van could also be a plus – see above point about the trunk. And I do like that the van is big enough that the kids can all sit an arms length away from each other. And the 14 year old likes that she gets the whole back row to herself. But on the whole, it feels like I’m driving a boat and I’ve definitely miscalculated the turning radius a few times.

There are too many buttons – There are four separate buttons I could push to close the back sliding doors. FOUR. That seems excessive. But that’s on par for the rest of the van – there are buttons above, buttons to the right, buttons to the left, all the buttons on the steering wheel, the display. The temperature control can be run by both the digital display and the manual buttons underneath it. Also there are buttons in the back to control the temperature. I still haven’t figured out how to adjust the temperature control in the car. I had to call my husband one time because I couldn’t figure out how to close the moon roof. Also it’s push button start … I never know how many times to push the button to get the van to turn on. I always don’t do enough. There are altogether too many buttons. What do they all do?????

The shift button is next to the volume button and both are round – yes this is a button thing, but it is so egregious it deserves it’s own point. Take a look:

On the left is a knob to shift gears (which in and of itself feels weird to me). On the right is the knob to adjust the volume. I can’t tell you how many times while driving I’ve gone to turn the volume down and accidentally put the van in reverse. That just seems so dangerous, no? This is just a terrible design choice.

It makes a lot of beeps and random noises – There are a lot of safety features on the van – which is a good thing! – BUT some of those safety features involve beeping or chiming when something happens – if someone is in your blindspot, if you go over the speed limit, if you get too close to the car in front of you…. Granted with the size and shape of the van, visibility can be poor, so it is helpful to have all the features, but there are some beeps that I just don’t know what triggers them, and it causes a mild sense of panic whenever I hear them.

The van is keyless – Again, probably not new technology, but just new to me. And really there is a lot that is convenient about keyless entry, but I’m such a fuddy duddy and the keyless thing bugs me. I hate that I don’t have to put a key in the ignition to start it or take the key out of the ignition to stop the car. Why? Because if I don’t have a place to put the key when I get in the car, I lose the key fob. Clearly this is a me issue and not a problem inherent to the van. But gaaaaah! It’s so annoying when I can’t remember where the key fob is. I’ll have it in my hand to get into the van and then somehow chuck it somewhere and when I get to my destination, I’ve forgotten where the fob is. Also, I haven’t quite solved the question of where do I keep the key fob when I’m driving. The Husband says it should just live in my pocket, but have you see the size of women’s pockets??? Anyhow, the keyless thing drives me nuts.

I suppose in the end, the positives of the van outweigh the negatives. The things that make it good for our family at this stage in our lives are pretty fundamental while the things that bother me are probably just pet peeves. I suppose in the long run, I’m grateful we have both a smaller car and a larger car for us to use. I am starting to think about the 14 year old and how she will be learning to drive soon and what that means for our next car purchase in terms of timeline and type. I don’t think she can learn to drive on the Impreza because it is a manual car, but I also don’t know if she should learn to drive on the van. So perhaps we will have to get another car within the next two years.

Grateful For:

-Rain fly over my hammock. The hammock is such a simple thing, but I get such joy out of it. I was very grateful that I could sleep outside in the rain while the rainfly kept me dry.

-Along those lines – camping with friends who have lots of gear so we don’t have to pack as much. While there was much that made camping frustrating – I have a note to buy everyone camp pillows and the Husband needs his own sleeping bag – I feel very grateful that a we didn’t have to bring too much extra stuff because our friends had so much stuff that camping seemed luxurious.

-My Bus Stop Mom friends. I managed to get off work in time to meet my bus stop mom friends for Happy Hour one night and it happened to be Trivia Night. We had a lot of fun. And learned what an obelus is! And came in second to last. I’m also so grateful to these ladies because one day a few weeks ago, I had to be at work at 9am. The school bus doesn’t pick up until 9:10am, so I texted them to ask if one of them could take my kids to the bus and they both said yes. So grateful to have friends who can help me out when I need it.

-The not quite summer weather. It’s been sunny and 70s and not humid lately. If the weather were to be like this until Fall, I would be so happy. But, alas, I’m sure heavy hot humidity is in our future soon, as is typical for the DC area. So I’ll soak in this cool summer weather as much as I can.

-Leftover McDonald’s. I went to see the show my company was putting on, which I wasn’t working. There’s a whole section of the show that takes place in a McDonalds and the Prop person had to bring in 2 quarter pounders with cheese, 2 cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets, fries and apple pies to be used in the show. None of which got eaten. So after the show, I went to say hi to the stage managers and prop head and I said, “What’s going to happen to all that food?”
“Nothing, do you want it?”
“YES!” I exclaimed.
Now I don’t really go to McDonalds very often, but there is something about the cheeseburgers with their soft sweet buns and the slight tang of the pickles that I do love. And of course I have a weakness for fries.

-Also in the vein of free food – I’m grateful for my Canadian director for being such a sweet and thoughtful person. He was popping home to Canada for Memorial Day weekend and asked if anyone wanted anything. I said jokingly, “Ketchup chips and wine gums, please!”
Well… he brought not just me, but each member of the cast and staff, a bag of ketchup chips and a pack of wine gums! Of course I was really excited to get my favorite Canadian snacks, but even more so, I’m so glad I work with someone who is always thinking of other people.

Looking Forward To:

-Reading retreat! Inspired by Stefany, I suggested to the Husband that we go on a reading retreat the weekend the kids are at Taiwan camp. We’ve picked Harrisburg, PA because that is near camp and there are three or four bookstores there. I’m so excited to browse bookstores and hunker down and read.

-Watching more Derry Girls. We finally got Netflix a few weeks ago. We might be the last people on earth to jump on that bandwagon. I was for sure the hold out in the family – I thought we had enough streaming services. But after March Madness, the Husband cancelled YouTube TV and signed up for Netflix. I think we’ll keep Netflix through the summer and then when football season starts we’ll switch back to YouTube TV. I foresee many nights of watching KPop Demon Hunters in our future. But also – I’m super excited to watch Derry Girls – I had watched season 1 on the plane back from South Africa last year and really loved it.

-Pool time! Our pool is now open and swim team practice has begun.

-This week’s Maycember events (even though it is June) – Piano recitals (for the 9 year old and the 14 year old.). Voice recital (for the 14 year old.) Swim Team practice (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday – though not Friday because that is the piano recital), a birthday party to attend for the 6 year old. There are still 3 more weeks of school and I do feel like we are on a slow crawl to summer.

-Listening to more of this book -Once Upon a River – about a four year old that is pulled out of the Thames in 19th century England, and the three people who claim to know who she is. The Book has been a combination of engrossing and soothing, thanks in part to the excellent narration by Juliet Stevenson:

What We Ate (Two weeks’ worth, since I’ve fallen behind on posting this month):
Monday: Coconut Chicken Curry from NY Times cooking. I made a double batch, and froze half of it for later.

Tuesday: Chicken and Broccoli. The 14 year old cooked. (I was working and the Husband had happy hour plans with friends.) This was really tasty – she baked chicken chunks in the oven with a sweet and spicy glaze and steamed some broccoli to eat with it.

Wednesday: Can’t remember. The Husband cooked.

Thursday: Bagels and smoked salmon.

Friday: Pizza and … some movie. I’m not sure what. This was the first weekend of Netflix, I think.

Saturday: The family was camping – I think they had steak. I went out for Tex Mex with work colleagues and had chile rellenos.

Sunday: Camping. Pizza and Caesar Salad. (Which, I learned during Trivia Night that Caesar Salad originated in Mexico.)

Monday: Snack dinner. We got home from camping this night and were tired. If it weren’t for the kids I don’t think we would have had dinner. But the 6 year old said, “Can we do that thing for dinner where you cut up cucumbers and cheese and eat it with crackers?” Yes! So easy and it makes people happy. (I had my leftover Tex Mex from Saturday, with a fried egg on top.)

Tuesday: Shrimp Tacos for Taco Tuesday.

Wednesday: Chicken and Broccoli. The 14 year old cooked again. The kids were actually off school, so the 14 year old took her brother and they walked to the store together and bought ingredients for dinner and then she came home and made dinner for everyone. It must have been tasty because there was nothing left when I got home, though the house smelled so good. I was told the recipe involved lots of butter and lemon, all good things in my book. She also make a chocolate cake (from a box) with buttercream frosting (from scratch). I myself was at Happy Hour, where I had fish and chips and a Greek Salad.

Thursday: Pasta Salad at the pool The first pool dinner of the summer! I made a caprese pasta salad – tomatoes, cucumbers, mozzarella, fresh basil, marinated white beans, and a parmesan balsamic dressing.

Friday: I think the family had some kind of sandwiches.

Saturday: Pizza at a friends’ house while they played Dungeons and Dragons. I wasn’t home in time for this, so I had snack dinner and went to the grocery store.

Sunday: Tortellini with red sauce, bagged salad, and watermelon on the side.

Well, that’s the news in this corner of the world as we turn the corner into June. I’ve been thinking lately about how much time I spend writing here, and it feels both like too much and not enough. May was clearly an overwhelming month – there wasn’t a lot of writing or reading/commenting on blogs, and yet the time I get squeak in felt like I was stealing that time from other things. I don’t know if I will feel like I have more space in summer – the long commute to work certainly eats into my time to tackle both the necessary and leisure things. Part of me wonders if I just need to declare that posting will be light – more for myself than for anyone else. Or should I just see where things fit… thoughts thoughts thoughts….

Anyhow, have a lovely week, as we look towards a new month!

What kind of car did you learn to drive on? What do you love/don’t love about your vehicle? Keyless entry – yay or nay? How do you feel about free food – yay? or yuck? Tell me what I ought to watch on Netflix! I like shows – both comedy or drama – about ordinary people trying their best not to make bad decisions while loving the people around them. Also soapy period dramas.

Weekly recap + what we ate: Good-bye April, Hello May!

When did it become May??? When did it get to be half way through May??? When did it become 3/4 of the way through May????? Can you tell I’ve been plugging away at this post for a very long time?

Well, I guess I started May in tech for a show. Then I worked supertitles for two recitals, started prepping for my summer show and also stage managed a one night gala performance. That’s four contracts in two weeks. (Five if you count my contract for admin work as head of the Stage Management department, which is indeed a separate contract.) And on top of that so many May-cember things. That is where May has gone. But… I like having these monthly reflections, so here is how April was, just as we are turning the corner into June.

April Highlights:
-The show I was working on. It’s a musical, so it’s been a really different experience for me since I primarily work on operas. Musical theatre performers are so very very fit and pretty. The combination of athleticism and grace of what they do onstage astounds me. And they were each of them so very kind and friendly.

-March Madness and basketball fever at our house.

-Cool Blogger’s Walking Club. I did participate and had a whole rainbow collage planned to show folks, but I never made it past yellow. Maybe I’ll still put the collage together.

-Take your child to work day. It was fun having the kids with me to watch rehearsals – they helped me set up tables for the scene we were doing and they helped me announce breaks. The performers were all so kind to the kids, and I’m grateful for that.

-going contra dancing as a family. Always a fun time.

-Farmer’s market trip and stumbling across the Black Health Fair and the collage-making workshop. It was a nice afternoon of art and swag.

-Hiking with kids. Finally went on a hike. First of the year. So far only of the year. I need to do better on this.

-Chorus Benefit concert. Our opera chorus holds a benefit concert every year. I’ve never been, but this year they asked if I would volunteer to stage manage and I said yes. The 14 year old came with me and was my assistant. It was really lovely to see the many chorus members and realize that I knew almost all of them. Some of them I’ve known for over 20 years. It is such a great community.

-Attending our friends’ B’not Mitzvah. So glad we got to celebrate this milestone with them.

-Grilling for the first time this year, one time when we hosted friends for dinner.

-First make-up buying excursion with the 14 year old. Thank goodness for the helpful lady at the counter.

-The AC in our office at work got fixed! It was amazing.

-My mother’s visit.

-Discovering Frixion Markers – erasable markers!!!!

-Happy Hour with my bus stop mom friends.

-Easter and Easter Service at our church, which is a vivid multicultural affair.

-Favorite Dinners this month: Steak Fajitas from NY Times Cooking. Grilled Teriyaki Chicken, using the Teriyaki sauce recipe from America’s Test Kitchen Vegan cookbook. (The recipe is for teriyaki tofu, but the sauce works just as well on Chicken).

-Favorite movie watched: A Nice Indian Boy – a lovely rom com with some lovely people in it.

April Lowlights:
-Some delicate dynamics at work. Not bloggable, but it was tricky to navigate.
-Not being home a lot and feeling out of touch with the family.
-Teenagers. Gotta love them, but man….
But over all not a lot of lowlights in April. Or maybe the things that were tough at the time now seem figure out-able. I feel like it’s the same things all blurring together in my head that make life seem overwhelming, while the things that make me happy or brought me joy all are very specific in my head.

How I did on my various goals:
Creativity:
-Painted two pictures. (8/26 pictures for the year)
-wrote 3 haikus (13/52 haiku for the year… need to do some catching up on this.)
-1 hike. (1/12 so far this year – not doing so well on this goal)

Consumption:
– 1 live performance – Alisdair Fraser and Natalie Haas concert. It turns out this is the farewell tour for this fiddle and cello duo. I’m so glad we got to hear them play live.
-0 Museums. (3/12 for the year so far. Though we got free passes for the Phillips collection at a community event, so maybe that will happen in June.)

Health:
-4 sessions of strength training. (Goal was 8, but something is better than nothing.)
-Daily yoga – 30/30 days.
-5 vegan dinners. (Goals is 5/ month, so yay! This is making up for May where we’ve barely had any vegan dinners so far…)
-1 run. (Exercise was not a strong suit of mine in April.)

Quote(s) of the Month:
“I use he/they pronouns, but use whatever pronouns you want for me as long as you use them with respect.”
One of the performers in my April show said this on the first day of rehearsal as we went around and introduced ourselves.

“Our talent is our floor, but our character will be our ceiling.” Cori Close, UCLA Women’s Basketball coach.

Looking forward to in May (many of which have already come and gone):
-Well, the middle school musical was a big thing in our calendar. I’m kind of sad that it’s done and past. It was for sure a highlight of the month so far. The 14 year old was playing the lead – Marian in The Music Man, Jr. It was so amazing to see her onstage and to hear all the lines we’ve been running in context, and to hear all the songs she’s been practicing. I’m so incredibly proud of her for working so hard on this show. I felt like my heart grew every time I saw her onstage.
-Stage managing a gala concert. I feel like I’m being pushed outside my comfort zone with this one. It’s so very different from anything else I’ve done before – barely any rehearsal, big names, and one shot to get it all right. It actually makes me a little sick to think about it, but I’ve been reading the book Mindset by Carol Dweck and her writing is inspiring me to look for opportunities to learn and grow. (This also just happened and it was a doozy getting there, but ultimately a really good experience.)
-Starting my summer show. And a long commute.
-listening to lots of audiobooks because of above commute. (Looking for suggestions!)
-The pool opens Memorial Day weekend! Swim team starts.
-A potential quiet house over Memorial Day weekend because the Husband is taking the kids camping with friends. (Update! I think we are getting Sunday and Monday off for Memorial Day weekend, so I might drive up and meet the family after work. Time in nature with family vs. time in a quiet house by myself…. it’s a tough decision, I have to admit.)

Grateful For (so far this month.)
-Middle school theatre and music teachers. Actually teachers in general.

-our van. I don’t like driving the van, but it does come in super handy sometimes. Like when I have to take 10 music stands, a stool, and two large bins of office supplies to our Gala location.

-Speaking of Gala – for finding free parking downtown. I had pre-paid for parking via SpotHero (do you know about SpotHero? It helps you find parking spots. We use it to book parking space at an airport hotel when we fly- it’s so much cheaper than airport parking.), but ended up finding free parking a block from our venue both days I had to be downtown. I was then able to give my pre-paid spot to my work BFF.

-All the people at work. What we’ve done at work is… I mean we’re not doing open heart surgery on infants or anything, but we had a massive pivot earlier this year and it’s been an amazing and challenging time. Everyone I work with has put in at least 110% to make opera happen and I’m grateful.

-A visit from my parents. I feel so lucky that my parents (who are 75 and 80) still have the energy and mental sharpness to travel to see us.

What We Ate: I’m afraid I don’t have much to report here because I’ve made it home for dinner only a handful of times so far this month. There was food. The family ate. No one went hungry.

So that’s a wrap on April. Aside from my horrendous commute, the next few weeks look a little calmer, and I hope to get back to writing here more regularly. Hope your May has been lovely and warm.

Delightful things lately

I have a handful of half written posts sitting in my drafts folders – I just never seem to be able to finish a post these days. Thoughts, updates, highs, and lows of life lately. But of course life lately is Maycember in full force. There are performances, lessons, soccer games, recitals, and visits from family to navigate. There are times of change and big emotions to wade through. I have perhaps bitten off a little more than I can chew work-wise. Some projects I really love. Some projects that terrify me and fill me with self doubt. But work is work and I do feel lucky to get to do the work that I do.

So in lieu of a proper chatty post, here are a few things that have delighted me lately (h/t to Daria who has been blogging about delighta all this year.):

-A crisp clear sunny morning after a damp grey day.

-The bee keeping family who sell honey on their driveway. The linden variety tastes like lychee!

-a middle school musical with my kid in the lead. So very very very very proud of her.

-a farmer’s market with the first strawberries of summer.

-Diggers out in front of our house, and the kids who still get excited by heavy machinery.

-The Husband’s garden projects – I don’t garden myself, so I’m so excited to see what he has planned for this year – I hear there will be some vegetables.

-my new tablet pencil that looks like a pencil. Makes me happy every time I use it.

-waking up ten minutes early to read in bed.

-The dogs that I meet on my walk around the neighborhood. I don’t ever want to have a dog myself, but I get such joy from seeing them. Thank you dog owners!

-These flamingo nightstands at the hotel in Baltimore I was staying at:

-this sign, seen at a pizzeria in Baltimore:

in case you can’t read it, it says: “Ate Salad for dinner! Mostly croutons and tomatoes. Really one big round crouton covered with tomato sauce and cheese. Fin. It was pizza. I ate pizza.”

-The pianist who, despite having two kids and a long commute, manages to bake containers and containers of cookies to bring to rehearsal. And then the actor who went halvsies with me so we didn’t each have to choose just one.

On the left- chocolate chip. One the right – pignoli almond.

-My parents, here for a visit, playing chess with the 6 year old even though neither know what they are doing. Then they played Monopoly with the 6 and 9 year old and the two kids played in French.

-inadvertently dressing to match my 9 year old:

-taking the metro to work and finishing my novel on the way back and forth to work.

-The retirement recital of a colleague who has been around forever (he was a guest artist with my college choir many years ago), yet remains so youthful that I can’t believe he is retiring. Being able to create supertitles for his recital that gave him exactly what he wanted.

-Musical theatre triple threats who dance, sing, and act with such intensity and grace. There are moments in rehearsal when I’ve almost wept for the beauty that is seven bodies moving in unison yet each person an individual, reaching reaching and then coming back to earth.

What delightful things have been in your life lately?

Weekly recap + what we ate: A Weekend in the Life

Last week was hot hot hot! It was practically summer here in the DC area with temperatures in the high 80s. Which all makes me wonder, with a little bit of dread, what July and August will be like.

I’ve done “Day in the Life” posts before, but usually for a week day, never for a weekend. I feel like our weekends are just as full of details as our weekdays. Part of that is because when I’m on a show, I usually work at least one day on the weekend, which makes my weekend essentially just one day. Which makes it very un-weekend like. Either way. I guess life is full of details, right? (note – there aren’t a lot of pictures in this post because I never remember to take a picture when I’m in that headspace.) So here is a Weekend in a Life, starting with getting off work on Friday night – because isn’t that when the weekend starts?

Friday 4/17:
6:30pm – Walking out the door after work. Head home for pizza and movie night, our Friday tradition.

7:00pm – Arrive home and settle into the basement. Tonight, the Husband bought pizza from a Detroit style pizza place. It features a very thick crust and the tomato sauce on top of the pizza rather than in the pizza. It’s tasty, but oh so filling. I also eat an entire bag of salad. I might have eaten too many Mini Eggs at work today and felt the need to re-set.
We watched Wicked: For Good. Maybe it’s because I missed the first 45 minutes of the movie since I got home late, but… I found part two not as satisfying as part one. There weren’t as many songs and I found the plot hard to follow. But even still the visuals were gorgeous and the performances stellar.

8:45pm – The 6 and 9 year olds get ready to go to bed. PJs, brush teeth. I floss and brush as well. I cuddle with each of the kids for a little bit.

9:30pm – scroll for a little bit on my phone while lounging in the living room.

9:50pm – Get up to go clean the kitchen. Call my sister-in-law; we’ve been trying to catch up all week, but she’s in California and the time difference makes it hard. I get a hold of her just as she’s sitting down for dinner so I tell her I’ll call her back.

10:00pm – Take a shower while waiting to call my SIL back. Once I’m out of my shower, I write in my journals for a little bit.

10:40pm – Call SIL back. Talk to her while I clean the kitchen, and then zest lemons for lemonade concentrate. (I made a batch for Easter dinner and it was a huge hit, plus with the weather so hot this week, it’s nice to have lemonade concentrate in the fridge.) I also get to talk to my brother.

12:00am – say good night to my SIL. Finish up the lemonade concentrate. The recipe involves steeping the zest for an hour then using the zest water to make simple syrup that ks boiled for thirty minutes. After the simple syrup is cooled, add the lemon juice. The recipe is a bit time consuming, but it makes a lemonade concentrate that is the right combination of mouth-puckering and sugar high. In between steps for the lemonade concentrate, I scroll some more and read a little bit.

1:30am – to bed and sleep.

Saturday:
6:45 am – Awake. I read in bed for ten minutes, then get up and do a 25 minute yoga video.

7:30am – get dressed. I usually don’t get dressed until I’m ready to leave the house for the day, but this day a friend is dropping her kid off at 7:45am for a playdate while she goes to her older kids’ tournament. The Husband and the 9 year old have gone out to run errands.

8:30am – eat breakfast and read another chapter of Trollope’s The Eustace Diamonds. Pour the lemonade concentrate into jars (it was too hot last night) The 14 year old heads out to a volunteer stream clean up service project. She has to complete three service projects for her church confirmation this spring. Our neighbor is her sponsor, and takes her to the clean up.

lemonade!

9:00am – I get out the watercolour paints and the kids and I paint for a little bit.

9:30 am – get ready to go to work. It’s a beautiful sunny day so I ride my bike. I haven’t ridden my bike in maybe a year so and am not as in shape as I was, so I have to walk the bike rather than ride it up the big hill by work. This is one of my fitness markers – whether or not I can bike up the last big hill to work.

10:00a – Arrive at work. Change clothes. Check email, then on to the first rehearsal session of the day.

1:30pm – Lunch and then a walk to the local coffee shop. I buy coffee beans for the husband and an unsweetened matcha latte for myself. (Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Husband takes the 14 year old to her voice lessons and the other kids to the park. And then everyone gets boba afterwards.) We also spend some time working on our office puzzle. This one is kind of a doozy:

2:30pm – Back to rehearsal. This afternoon’s rehearsal is mostly dancing. I am in awe of how dancers operate – how they take words and light instruction and turn it into art with their bodies. It’s beautiful to watch. I also spend some time in another room setting up 60 chairs for the director’s presentation on Monday.

4:30pm – Rehearsal is over an hour early! The Stage Management Team wrap up today’s rehearsal by doing a couple of notes for the rehearsal report.

5:00pm – Since we are done early, I join the team for some drinks at the $1 oyster bar. I proceed to eat a dozen oysters, fried calamari, and French fries.

6:40pm – Time to go home. I take the bus, which drops me three blocks from the house. I love public transportation! (I’ve left my bike at work – I need to figure out how to get it home.)

7:00pm- Arrive home. The family is in the backyard, the Husband grilling brats for dinner while the kids play. I’m not hungry, but I sit with them outside while they eat. It’s lovely to be able to sit and eat outside before the mosquitoes get bad in the summer.

8:00pm- game night! I have the kids do pjs and brush teeth first, though. We play Magical Athlete, a new game that my cousin sent us. The game involves racing your players to an end point but each player has a special power – one gets to move 2 spaces any time someone rolls a 6, for example. Or one can forgo rolling the dice and always move 5 spaces. Or one moves other players back two spaces if they pass them. This game was great for our family because it is pretty straight forward and doesn’t require too much reading or higher level mathematics.

8:30pm- The 9 year old and 6 year old go to bed. I give cuddles.

9:00pm – I spend 30 minutes picking up the living room and dining room while the 14 year old does the dishes.

9:30pm – Journal, then 20 minute dumbbell strength video while watching tv with the Husband. I can’t remember what we watched, but it was probably Brooklyn 99. Put in a load of laundry.

10:30pm – Hang laundry up. I’ve been on an air dry my laundry kick for the past year or so. I’m not sure if it’s really a thing, but I read somewhere that hanging your clothes to dry helps them last longer, so I’ve started doing that. I have a folding rack for hanging laundry, which I set up in the basement. (Usually it’s in the bedroom, but I didn’t feel like taking it upstairs.)

11:00pm – TBH, not sure what happened in this hour – I probably scrolled and read blogs for a little bit.

12:00am – Read in bed.

1:00am – lights out and go to bed, though I’d been nodding off as I read for the past half hour.

Sunday:
7:45 am – slept in a little bit. I wake up and sat in bed and read a little bit. The Husband comes in and we chat about the day and some kid things. Then I do a ten minute yoga flow, scroll some more musical theatre videos.

8:45am – Take the 6 year old to her 9am Agility Class, where I watch her jump and flip and climb while typing my Cool Bloggers’ Walking Club Week 2 post, and start this post.

10:00am- Agility Class over, headed home to change and grab the 9 year old. We then head to our friend’s house for a photo shoot. Our friend is running for a seat on the County Council and he’s taking photos for his campaign materials. He asked a bunch of the people he knew to be in the photos.

10:45am- photo shoot. Really we mostly hang out, eat snacks, and chat with our friends while the video and photo team sets up the various shoots. The kids do one set of photos and the Husband and I do another set.

12:00pm- head home to eat lunch. As I’m making lunch for the 9 year old, I realize that the soccer game I thought was at 1pm was actually at 12:30pm. I put his sandwich, carrots, and apple slices on a plate for him to eat in the car, he grabs his gear and we get in the car. (in the mean time, the Husband takes the 6 year old to a playdate.)

12:45pm- arrive at soccer game only 15 minutes late. The 9 year old plays full back and then goalie.

1:30pm: soccer over. I take advantage of the soccer game being close to a couple major retail areas and run some errands-
-Penzys to pick up vanilla and other things.
-Kid to Kid for shorts/ skirts for the 6 year old. (I find myself very resistant to buying new clothes for the 6 year old because she doesn’t have younger siblings to pass them down to, but summer is coming and she needs shorts.)
-Target- stock up on pads and face cleanser, deodorant – you know all the household things that build up because one thing itself doesn’t merit a trip to the store..

4;00pm- home finally. Running errands was exhausting. I help the 14 year old make cookies ; i find retail draining. The 14 year old is having a moment because while making chocolate chip cookies, she accidentally melted the butter and thinks that she has ruined the cookies. I pull out the chocolate chip cookie recipe from Cooks Illustrated, which uses melted butter and try to salvage the mood.

5:30pm – eat dinner. We eat dinner early on Sunday nights because the 14 year old has swim clinic at 6:55pm. The Husband cooked, so I clean up the kitchen afterwards. I also boil a dozen eggs in the Instant Pot for easy breakfasts the upcoming week.

7:00pm – I take the 9 and 6 year olds for a walk to the park. A perk of the later sunset is we can go outside after dinner. We play at the park for 15 minutes then we walk home. On the way home, I see a puppy running loose, darting in and out of traffic, causing no small amount of fast braking. The dog stops and looks at me, but then runs away when I try to get it to stay on the sidewalk. I know nothing about dogs and I’m really scared he (she?) is going to get hit by a car. A lady pulls over down the street.
“Is that your dog?” she asks.
I tell her he isn’t my dog and the lady notices that the dog doesn’t have a collar. She follows him as he runs into other yards. I’m feeling quite useless, but I try to wave to drivers to slow down whenever the dog runs into the street. Eventually the dog runs up to the porch of the house across the street. The lady goes up and knocks on the door. Eventually someone answers the door. They, thankfully, turn out to be the owners of the dog. The lady waves good night to me, gets in her car, and drives off. We continue our walk home. (This whole time, the kids were waiting patiently on the sidewalk. I’m really proud of them for not waiting instead of trying to cross the road to go home themselves.)

8:00pm – The Husband puts the kids to bed and I go to Trader Joe’s for a grocery run. I don’t usually go to Trader Joe’s, but the Giant never has good produce on Sundays. I stock up on some TJ staples (Everything Seasoning, Pound Plus Dark Chocolate Bars, Frozen Mango, Crumpets…) as well as pick up enough groceries to get us through most of the week.

9:00pm – home. I spend some time chatting with the Husband and 14 year old before she goes to bed. Then I scroll/ read blogs for 30 minutes.

10:00pm – I make soup for the next day’s dinner. Mondays evenings are busy – the 9 year old has fencing at 6pm and the 14 year old has basketball workouts at 7pm; we usually have soup on Monday so that the Husband can heat it up when he gets home from picking up the kids. Since I have to be at work early on Monday, I make the soup Sunday night – Coconut Corn Soup from New York Times Cooking. While the soup simmers, I journal, plan the week, and scroll some more (I can’t even remember what. I don’t love that – I do have a pile of books to read, but I was a little mentally fried by this point.)

12:00am – go to bed. I think. I didn’t write down what time I went to bed, but I’m pretty sure it was not before midnight.

And that’s the weekend! Some reflections – Things that were not typical:
-we didn’t have a family meeting. Those usually happen at 7:40 am on Saturday, but because I was working that morning the Husband wanted to run his errands before I went to work. There were a few things that fell through the cracks that I would have clocked if we had had the family meeting – like getting the time of the soccer game wrong and a couple agenda items and coming up with a game plan for Take Your Child to Work day – so lesson learned – make time for the family meeting!
-We didn’t go skating – usually the two younger kids have skating lessons on Sunday, but we are between sessions. Which is good because skating would have conflicted with the soccer game.
-The photoshoot – definitely a unique and one time event for us. (Though funny story – we were in our friend’s last photo shoot, so if you look at his old campaign material, you’ll see the 14 year old. This time, the 14 year old asked if she could list this on her resume as having done some print modeling. I told her no.)
-The late night Trader Joe’s run. Usually the Husband does the grocery shop on Sunday afternoon, but I think he wanted to spend time in his garden this weekend, so it got pushed off.

Things that were good:
-spending some social time (going to Saturday night happy hour and catching up with friends at the photo shoot.)
-game night as a family.
-family movie night – not just as an activity, but I enjoy having these traditions
-I really enjoyed Saturday’s rehearsals – they were low key on my end, but the material we covered was energizing to watch.
– I got to squeeze in some painting time.
-we got to show up for friends.

Things I would have liked less of on that weekend:
-less time in the car. This is partially why I like to bike to work on weekends, but in general
-less time running errands – i guess I could have done a Target or amazon order for some of the stuff. But I do really like going to Penzy’s and the customer service there is so warm and welcoming.
– less scrolling between tasks. (Perpetual goal.)
-late nights/ more going to bed earlier.

Things I would have like more of:
-more time outside.
-more empty space. Ironically last weekend was supposed to be a pretty open one because there wasn’t skating, but then things came up like needing to take my one friend’s kid for the day and my other friend calling with the photo shoot. I do think there is something nice about not being so scheduled that we can say “yes” to last minute things that come up.
-time for life/ home maintenance or to get ahead of tasks for the week ahead.
-more time to read.

I think that’s the tricky part when I’m working on a show – we work six days a week, so our one free day tends to be full of errands and to dos. I try to squeeze in at least one fun thing, but there were a lot of errands to run this Sunday as it is the one day off. I can see why people turn to grocery delivery or Amazon when they don’t have a lot of time to go to a physical store. I need to remind myself, though, that the six day work week is just until July and then I’ll have endless days off for the rest of the summer. At any rate, the weekend was not relaxing over all.

Grateful for:
-The lady who pulled over to help the lost dog. Seeing such moments of kindness makes me hopeful for the world.

-Our grill! Or rather our tenant who left us this grill. We’ve started using our grill this season – a sure sign that summer is here (or around the corner.) I used to be staunchly charcoal grill, then one of our tenants moved out and gifted us their gas grill since they didn’t want to move it. It was life changing. I miss the slightly woodsy flavor that charcoal grilling imparts, but being able to flick a switch and press a button in order to get the grill going – this has made grilling so much more efficient a process.

-That the kids are old enough to clean the kitchen without supervision. The Husband and I went on an evening walk because the kids were going to clean up after dinner. Incidentally when I was in high school, something similar would happen every night after dinner – my parents would leave for an evening walk, telling my brother and me to take care of the post dinner clean up. They were so trusting. My brother and I worked out a system where one person would do the dishes and one person would do everything else – we hated doing the dishes that much.

-Shady trails to walk along in 85 degree weather.

-The teacher at the elementary school who blasts up beat, happy music every Friday while working the carpool line. It puts such a spring in my step to hear that music as I approach the school with the kids in tow. Seems the perfect way to welcome the weekend.

-Frixion pens and Frixion markers. Discovering these erasable pens a few years ago was life changing. Recently, though I learned that they also make Frixion markers and I love them. I’ve been using them instead of Post Its to mark up my score – they are equally eye catching and don’t create as much clutter

Looking forward to:
-Alisdair Fraser and Natalie Haas – Fraser is a fiddle player and Haas plays the cello and they play together brilliantly . I don’t know when I first heard of them, but I have their first CD and I remember listening to it on repeat constantly when I was in my 20s. They are coming to the performing arts center nearby this weekend, and I’m excited to go. One thing, though, I think it might be a little weird to just sit through a concert of Scottish fiddle music – I wonder if we can get up and dance in the aisles?

– More meals out on the back patio. One of my favorite things about summer is eating outside.

-Take your child to work day! (I took so long to write this post that this already happened – more on this next week.)

-Listening to this audiobook:

I had heard Hazzard on a Fresh Air interview years and years ago when this book about his work as a paramedic first came out. I really wanted to read the book but I didn’t remember the details afterwards. Well a few weeks ago Birchie mentioned a book about a paramedic and I looked it up, and this was that book! Thanks, Birchie! The book is pretty grizzly and graphic so far, but also funny, quirky, and thoughtfully observed.

What we ate:

Monday: Teriyaki Chicken, Cedar plank salmon and trout, bagged salad, roasted broccoli. Apple Cobbler for dessert. We had friends over for dinner – they brought the roasted broccoli; we grilled out. The apple cobbler was made with some apple pie filling that a friend had made and gifted me for Christmas. It was originally supposed to be an apple pie, but my pie crust went bad, so I made cobbler instead. It was still tasty.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday. We had pulled pork tacos.

Wednesday: It was my mother’s last night with us so we went out for Noodles and Dumplings.

Thursday: BLT sandwiches.

Friday: pizza take out and Wicked: for Good. Like I said above – beautiful movie, confusing plot.

Saturday: For me- Oysters, fried calamari, and an order of fries. For the family – grilled brats and sausages and steamed green beans.

Sunday: Tortellini with sausage and marinara.

That’s it. I’ve taken so long to write this post that another weekend is right around the corner. Hopefully we’ll have our family meeting this week.

What about you? Do you prefer gas or charcoal for grilling? What are your “must do” things for a weekend? Do you prefer physical store or buying off the internet?

Cool Blogger’s Walking Club 2026: Week two- Orange

Thanks again to Elisabeth for this community movement activity! Last week’s colour was red. This week, I noticed ORANGE. Orange does not occur as naturally in nature as red, at least not in Spring. Yet, if I took the effort to notice, I found some orange in surprising places.

Monday 4/6: Hike with the kids at Blockhouse Point Trail. These leaves are orange-ish:

I found there was a fine line between brown and orange…

And this Cadbury Mini Egg:

Because sometimes you bribe, um… reward, your kids for hiking with chocolate.

And a view of the Potomac – not orange, but still beautiful:

Tuesday 4/7: Ran around the track at the middle school after dropping the kids in the morning. There were orange pylons:

Do you call them pylons? I find most people in my area call them safety cones.

And the orange chest of a Robin:

Also- Kwanza cherry blossoms are in full bloom:

Wednesday 4/8: 10 minute walk in park while the 14 year old is at her morning piano lessons. Spotted these orange poop bags:

I think that orange bag is actually one of those bags the Washington Post comes in; the neighbors stock this poop bag stand. Funny story – we were at this park one time when the middle child was 3 or so. He was getting pretty close to being toilet trained, so I didn’t bring a diaper bag with me. Well, he ended up having an enormous poop at the playground. I didn’t have anything on me, so i pulled a couple poop bags from this box, took off his pants and underwear, and wrapped a plastic bag around him and put the dirty clothes in another bag. It was probably one of my most AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! moments of young motherhood.

Thursday 4/9: Walk to the Co-op on my lunch break to pick up some groceries for dinner. Saw so many flashes orange on my way.

These cute decorative banner:

This house’s fence is decorated with many fun DC-centric banners.

Safety visibility flags, for people to wave as they cross the street.

Rainbow crosswalk – same crosswalk as last week, just moved down one stripe:

Random sign:

Not at all sure what it means, but it seems pretty on point for the crunchy area of town I work in.

Evening- went contra- dancing with the family and mu skirt was orange:

Friday 4/10: Walked the kids to school and took the long way back to the car, through the woods. Saw various utility company markings, spray painted in orange.

Saturday 4/11: I didn’t get a walk in this day because I went from Service to work to B’not Mitzvah party: But I did do 15 minutes of yoga and 10 minutes with the dumbells.

Sunday 4/12:
Neighborhood walk with the 14 year old. We walked the path she takes to school and she gave us her inner monologue commentary all the way there. It was such a nice walk for the time we got to spend together and also for the insights into her thoughts. She’s walked this path almost every school day for the past three years and I’m kind of sad it’s coming to an end.

Saw this bush with oramge flowers:

These orange plyons:

And this vintage car. I actually have seen this car several times, so I made sure to circle back here to look for it for CBWC orange week.

Then after dinner, I took an evening walk with the 6 and 9 year olds while the Husband took the 14 year old to swimming. It was getting dark so not a lot of orange spotting, but the warm glow of this street lamp was orange to me:

That’s week two! Next week’s post will be all about YELLOW!

Do you have any favorite orange things?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Three Jobs I wish I could do

Last week was a mish-mash sort of week – it started off with the kids off school on Monday, and then mid-week, I started prepping for a new show. We went contra-dancing. My mother came to visit, and good friends of ours had their twins’ B’not Mitzvah (I learned that’s what it’s called when the Bat Mitzvah is for two girls). So busy and full, but also I didn’t have to work in the evenings, so some luxurious swaths of time as well.

Three Jobs that I wish I could do last week:
1) Animal control. There was a bird in our office building this week for a little over 24 hours. A cute little chirping sparrow that had somehow gotten inside. It started out in another office, then flew through the halls a little bit, and then flew into our office, I think, because we have very large windows and it was looking for sunlight. At first, it was kind of cute – the birds twittering almost made it feel like we were working outside.

But of course keeping a bird inside, where there is no food or water isn’t sustainable. Our facilities person was chasing it (him? I think they named him), trying to encourage it into the rehearsal room because there is a door to the outside. What a frightening experience the little bird must have been having. ( Fun Fact – numerous animal control companies were called but none of them would come – either they didn’t do birds, or our ceilings were too high.) Anyhow, we did eventually get the bird into a rehearsal room and out the door, but before that happened, there was much flapping, and chasing, and prodding on our part. I don’t think we were doing anything right. At least we were not effective.

2) Make-up Artist. At about 5pm on a Friday, I was at work, and I got this text from the Husband:

The 14 year old wanted to try some make-up for her school dance. That night. The dance was at 6:30pm. I don’t have a lot of experience with make-up – there was a time when I put on some mascara and lipstick for opening night, but I don’t even bother with that anymore. The Husband knows less than I do. But all the same, we wanted to be supportive.

No limbs were broken, but this sounded like the kind of situation that I should bail on work to help with. I shut down my computer, told my colleagues I had a family situation come up, and packed up my stuff.

“Meet me at Ulta,” I texted the Husband as I walked out the door.

I honestly didn’t know what I was going to do, having no knowledge of current (or any) make-up trends – my only make-up instruction came from a Mary Kay consultant that visited my church group when I was 12. (She was a mother of some in the group.) I just remember her talking about the face’s t-zone. But I figured I could meet the Husband and 14 year old at Ulta where there was a large selection, and then search Reddit for advice.

I arrived at Ulta at 5:35pm, little before the Husband and 14 year old, and was immediately overwhelmed. Rows and rows of displays and shelves and images of brilliant eyes, rosy lips, and perfect dewy skin. And there was the $6 lipstick and the $36 lipstick – what’s the difference? And so many colours and shades and was that even make up or was that hair spray???? The Husband and 14 year old joined me, looking at me for direction. “You’re a 40-something woman. You mush know what to do,” was the subtext. I did not know what to do. This is when I wished I were a make-up artist.

Then I saw a lady with a name tag (which I didn’t read – so sorry), an artfully messy updo, arms blooming with tattoos, and a friendly face. She said, “Do you need help?”

Oh thank goodness!, I thought.

“YES!” I said, pointing at the 14 year old. “She needs make-up for the school dance and we don’t know what we’re doing.”

And the lady helped us with calm, soothing tones. She asked questions, helped pick out colours while telling the 14 year old what different things would do. The concealer didn’t have testers, but she was a former make-up artist, and said that she was pretty good at matching colour for us. We left with lip stain (what even is that??), concealer and mascara – which I felt was a nice basic collection of things for a first time make-up user.

3)Stationary Tester. This is a fun one – My order from JetPens arrived and I spent an evening playing with everything I ordered. I bought monthly tabs for my planners and journals, a few new pens to try:

Look at my journal and my planner all nicely tabbed!

A stamp for my book journal:

and my favorite thing is this book clip:

Now I can read hands free (until I have to turn the page.) There are so many fun things on the JetPens site – how fun would it be if I could spend my days testing pens and papers and stickers and other objects of efficiency and purpose?

Grateful For:
– Sunshine and nice weather and the Potomac River. Monday was a no school day, so I took the 9 year old and the 6 year old and a friend for a hike to Blockhouse Point Trail – at last, my first hike of the year! Blockhouse point is one of my favorite trails because it is never crowded and leads to a stunning view of the Potomac River.

-The 9 year old figured out how to tie his shoes. Now all three kids can tie their own shoes. (yes, the 6 year old figured it out before the 9 year old…). They still need help with their skates, but for every day shoes and cleats, they can tie their own shoes. Seems like a milestone.

-The 14 year old cooked dinner one night, and she and the other two kids cleaned up afterwards.

– Having a contra dance two miles from us. When I was first introduced to contra dancing, it was at a location that was maybe a 20-30 minute drive away from where I lived in DC. (Washington DC has one of the biggest contradancing scenes in the country and there used to be two dances a week. Now there is one weekly dance and two monthly dances – which is still a lot more than many other places.) Similarly, when I’ve gone contradancing in other cities, I’m sometimes driving for up to an hour to get to a dance. But it’s fine – if the music and the people are good, it was always worth the drive to me. However, there is now a monthly contradance very close to us, and it makes going so much easier and lower stakes and also makes it easier to go as a family. We went dancing with the 6 and 9 year old last week and had so much fun. We danced for an hour and a half and were all home and in bed by 10pm.

– A walk with the 14 year old and the fact that she has been able to walk to school the past few years. She was in an off mood over the weekend, so the Husband and I took her on a walk to her school and back. I’m feeling a bit of the feelings that she’ll only do this walk for two more months and then she’ll be off to high school, and there will be other traffic patterns to figure out for her. As we walked together to her school, she gave us the rundown of the inner monologue that she has as she walks – who lives where, when she meets up with friends, all the stories she makes up in her head about the houses and people that she see, where she walks on the wall, when she crosses the street… It was such a delightful peek into her brain.

– Having friends who let us celebrate milestones with them. I’ve never been to a Bat/Bar/B’Not Mitzvah celebration before, and it was such a lovely experience. I will say the morning service was loooong (two hours), but I really loved the ritual of it all and also following along the Hebrew readings (there was a translation provided). I found there was something really cerebral and thoughtful about the Torah readings.

We also helped our friends set up and take down the party afterwards, and they let me run the popcorn machine and the cotton candy machine during the party! I’ve never done this before, but was game to learn new things. Besides the instructions were written right on the machines so it was pretty straightforward. The cotton candy machine was SO messy! I had cotton candy fluff all over me. Unfortunately (fortunately?) the machine stopped working about an hour into the party. But even after the first round, I was covered.

cotton candy selfie!

Which is all to say, there is something really nice about having friends that feel comfortable and trust us enough to ask us to come early and stay late for such a big event. They are there to help us and they let us be there to help them. There is something wonderful about being able to help. Sometimes I feel like I have people in my life that only want to help me and never let me help them in return and things end up feeling very loop-sided. I’m really grateful for this friendship where we get to lean on each other.

And we got to take home the balloon arch:

Looking Forward To:
-Maycember. Really April-to-June-cember. At this weekend’s family meeting, we looked at the calendar for this next quarter and I can’t say I’m looking forward to the pace of the next few months, but everything on the calendar are things I’m genuinely looking forward to – recitals, the middle school musical (with the 14 year old in the lead!), elementary school performances, a new show for me to work on, a vocal recital for me to do titles for, my parents visiting again, the 14 year old’s middle school promotion ceremony, a camping trip for everyone but me (I’ll be working that weekend, so I can’t go, but – yay! – weekend with the house to myself!)… all that on top of the usual lessons and activities.

-Summers at the Pool. And then my reward for getting through April-to-June-cember is that my last contract ends in by July 4th and I can spend the rest of the summer hanging out with the kids – there will be a lot of pool time.

– Starting rehearsals for a new show. It’s one I’ve always wanted to work on, so I’m excited to get started.

-Warm weather. Maybe too warm. It’s going to be like summer here this week. But… it also mean I get to break out all my cute warm weather clothes.

-Sunday night dinner with friends.

-Reading more of this book – I just started it and it is quirky and insightful. I think I like books that look at humans from the outside:

What We Ate:
Monday: Spiced chickpea stew with coconut and tumeric, an Alison Roman recipe from NY Times cooking. Vegan. This was tasty; I had it for lunch all week. I didn’t eat it that night because I went out to happy hour with friends and I had fish and chips.

Taco Tuesday: Black beans, Sauteed shrimp, guacamole, mango slaw. Hard and soft shells. Cheese and sour cream, of course. Taco Tuesday is so tasty. The Husband cooked this time and it was delicious.

Wednesday: Mac and Cheese (from the blue box) and steamed green beans. This is the night the 14 year old cooked.

Thursday: Nasi goreng. Indonesian fried rice w/ fried tofu. No recipe, really, just used up whatever vegetables I had around – broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, leeks. Vegan.

Friday: Pizza and Zootopia 2. It was a cute movie. I think I’ve seen the first Zootopia, but I can’t say for sure.

Saturday: I went straight to the B’not Mitzvah party from work, so I didn’t have dinner, but they had so much snacky/appetizer food. My favorite was the deconstructed pasta salad – it was a plate with cherry tomatoes, tortellini, and marinated mozzarella balls all laid out separately on a bed of arugula so you could pick and choose what you wanted.

Sunday: Tortellini with sausage, onions, and greens. Blanched green beans. I usually steam the green beans, but I had the hot water from the pasta in a pot and I thought, “Why waste a good pot of hot water?” So I threw the green beans in there for four minutes.

I hope you have a great week!

Any jobs you wish you could do lately? Do you tie your shoes the bunny ear method or with a single loop? Favorite party snack/appetizer? Have you ever sat through a service for a religion different than your own?