Contemplating the things that matter when I step out of the dark
Wispy, silky hair.
Kisses on doughy cheeks.
Savor this baby.
Trying to savor
this tiny person spitting
banana on me.
Onesie snaps are like
“Rock, paper, scissors.” Aim for
Best two out of three.
Toast is my refuge –
Crisp, buttery comfort, and
deafeningly loud.
Silence and water
cocoon me in the shower.
Treasured solitude.
Some days getting the kids outside is a challenge. Once they are outside, they generally are okay, but the initial push is always hard. Who can blame them? These days there are screens and cozy couches and a room overflowing with toys and books to keep them indoors. But I know everyone feels so much better when we get outside, so I push as hard as I can. I start with one child – bathroom, coat, hat, gloves, boots, out the door into the back yard – then move on to the next, and then the next, and then myself, hoping against hope that by the time I get the baby bundled and my own coat on, the first child to go outside has not tired of it and is wanting to come inside.
The other day – one of those drizzly wet days that we’ve gotten quite a few of this winter – a glance at the forecast seemed to indicate that the morning drizzle was as dry as it was going to get. Drizzly walk was better than soaking wet walk, I thought. (Though, truth be told, I am discovering that my kids actually find a run in a torrential rain quite fun.) The eight year old was in class, so it was just me and the three year old and the baby. And there was much resistance from the three year old.
He didn’t want to go out.
It was too wet.
He didn’t like his boots.
He wanted to stay inside and read books.
and so on.
“Let’s just go for a short walk,” I say. “We will just go around the block.”
A walk around the block in the drizzle would be doable, I thought. The baby can manage that so I wouldn’t have to get the stroller out. We would keep to our block so probably won’t encounter any people. Regardless it would probably be our only chance for fresh air that day.
“Okay, fine,” the three year old finally agreed.
So boots, coat, and out the door.
We walked down the street. And then stopped to splash in a tiny puddle. Stomp stomp stomp, went the three year old. Stomp stomp stomp, went the baby.
And then there were sticks and leaves to drop into the gutter and watch as the rainwater carried it away.
And then there was the search for the perfect stick to grasp. Each stick on the ground must be examined and compared to the one in hand.
And then we stopped to read license plates of the cars in the driveways we passed. It’s a good way to practice numbers and letters for the three year old. An colours too, as we point out yellow cars and white cars.
And then we stop to watch the UPS truck pull up and deliver packages.
And next was the white postal truck. “A new postal truck, just like mine!” the three year old exclaims. Last year he received a toy postal truck for Christmas and he still gets very excited to see its real life doppelganger.
And then there was the worm- just a regular old earthworm in the middle of the sidewalk. We squatted and watched its pink brown body contract and expand as it moved incrementally across the pavement. Slowly it drew its body together. Slowly it pushed itself forward. Millimeter by millimeter it travelled, until it reached the grass. The slowly slowly it started to burrow, pushing its way into the dirt. I thought of so many things as I watched the little earthworm’s journey. Where did it come from? How did it know where it was going? What wonderful things was it doing for our earth? What persistence it must have!
And finally we walk the last stretch of the block and arrive home.
I look at my watch and we had been gone for almost an hour.
Sometimes the short walk takes just as long as the long walk.
It’s been a quiet Christmas and Boxing Day here. Lots of sugar was consumed, lots of wrapping paper torn off packages. Many squeals of joy.
The Husband was up early on Christmas morning cleaning up after my late night frenzied tornado of baking. We then had cinnamon rolls for breakfast (as was tradition) and “went” to church. Usually we attend Christmas Eve service, but for some reason the live stream wasn’t working that night so we skipped it and instead went to Christmas morning mass.
All told, it was after 10am when we got to presents. A lesson in patience for the children, I suppose.
The Husband had, the day before, brought up his work monitor to the dining room so that we could watch the Met’s opera stream while we decorated cookies and did our general Christmas Eve puttering. It was the Bartlett Sher production of The Barber of Seville starring Isobel Leonard, Lawrence Brownlee and Christopher Maltman. It was delightful and funny and heartfelt. I once heard someone say that Isobel Leonard seems physically incapable of “ugly singing face” – you know that thing when opera singers contort their faces to make the more heavenly/ awesome/ glorious sounds. Anyhow, I mentioned that to the Husband and he spent much of the afternoon watching her to see if it was true. It was. She is as constantly radiant of face as she is of voice.
One of my late night discoveries while baking was BBC Sounds and the wide variety of music mixes they have. I discovered mix named “A Peaceful Christmas” that combined calming new age-y music with a reading of Shackleton’s 1902 Expedition Diary and the Shipping Forecast. It was kind of the Husband’s catnip and I couldn’t wait to introduce him to it. We listened to it twice in one day. The Husband even put up a screen saver of snow falling on a cabin in the woods and on another screen, a fire in a fireplace, just to get us in the appropriate hunkering winter mood.
After presents we had some family Zoom followed by the kids playing with their new presents then I got to work cooking dinner. The Husband and kids played Mario Kart and had a great time.
Christmas Day menu:
-Charred Brussel Sprout Salad from How to Cook Everything Fast (again!). This was yet another recipe that took advantage of the broiler for quick cooking.
-Roasted Carrots (primarily for the baby, but the kids like these too – super simple: salt, pepper, olive oil and roast at 425 for about 15-20 mins)
– cut up raw carrots (some people don’t like cooked carrots)
-Stuffed pork roast. This was from Saveur magazine. It called for stuffing with pork with dried fruit and apples which had been marinated in bourbon and citrus zest. I might have let the fruit sit in the bourbon for a might too long because the filling definitely tasted more boozy than I had anticipated. Oops.
– no specific dessert, but the house is overflowing with cookies and candy – there is not shortage of sugar.
The pork was slightly overcooked, but I was pretty happy with the meal overall. I do want to try the pork roast again. It was my first attempt butterflying and stuffing a roast and I didn’t get it as tightly rolled as I wanted to. But being able to broil in one oven and roast in the other felt pretty awesome.
After dinner we went on a walk to see the lights in our neighborhood. It being dark, we attached some battery operated Halloween lights to the stroller, and it turned out to be both practical and festive.
“You should keep the lights on that stroller even after Christmas!” a fellow neighbor out on an evening constitutional told us.
There were some really fun light displays to see. Since we go out rarely in the evenings these days, I hadn’t realized how many people put lights up this year. I would be happy to make the post Christmas dinner light constitutional a new tradition.
We capped the day off with watching Meet me in St. Louis while drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows. Truth to tell, I may have fallen asleep after “Ding Ding Ding Went the Trolley” and woken up just in time for “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
Christmas often feels like the true end of the year. There is so much leading up to it – excitement, anticipation, planning… it is An EVENT. Kind of like opening night. The message of Advent being a season of active waiting came up frequently in church this year, and I took it to heart more so than in past years. Something about the limbo of pandemic living really made that message resonate. So we have this season where we wait for something. And then it arrives in a flurry of activity and emotion.
Then we get up the next day and still have a week more to get through until we get to turn the fresh page of the new year. That week feels somewhat anticlimactic. Perhaps because I very rarely work that entire week, I like to think of the week between Christmas and New Years as kind of a bonus week – a time to gather and reflect and organize for the next year. Of course New Years as new beginnings is somewhat arbitrary, despite being convenient. New resolutions and re-assessments and soul searching can (and should) happen as needed, I think.
But even as I peer into the murky future, I reflect on the past – a post mortem of the season, say. To do better: start the cinnamon buns Christmas Eve afternoon and go to bed earlier. More cookie drops to friends. More time outside. And there were for sure things this Christmas that I hope we carry to next year. The neighborhood walk to see lights, new matching pjs, lots of hot chocolate. Thank you pictures texted immediately (with accompanying flood of emojis chosen by the kids). Dumplings on Boxing Day. BBC Sounds Music Mixes. Time with family.
It’s the week leading up to Christmas, swinging by Winter Solstice on the way. Someone on a message board I read wrote: “There is more light in the days ahead!” And it feels particularly apt this year.
My brother, a physician in a hospital, received his first vaccine dose this week. I’m so immensely relieved, grateful, excited, and happy. It feels a little unreal that a vaccine could bring us all out of this everything-from-home life that we’ve been leading since March.
“I imagine we are all going to emerge, blinking, as if coming out of a cave,” a friend of mine said the other day. Plato’s allegorical cave come to life.
Life back to normal still seems a long way off, though. Particularly since our state has just reinstated some restrictions such as the ban on indoor dining and stricter regulations on in person gathering. The school district has pushed back in person learning to February at the earliest.
Meanwhile life goes on. This weekend we did a big room shuffle, moving the two older kids to the bigger bedroom where the baby had been sleeping, and moving the baby to the former toy room and the toy room to the room the two older kids had been sleeping in. Eventually the Husband will move his office to share with the baby. It was certainly a lot of work, but I took the opportunity to shuffle and sort some toys, pack away some too-small clothes, and re-assess what room needs really need to be. We are slowing progressing towards the idea of bunk beds for the two older kids. I feel like room sharing is somewhat passe as an idea, particularly among children of opposite genders. But I really like the idea of the kids learning to co-exist before they get their own rooms. Perhaps, though, this will backfire and room sharing will make them crave their solitude rather than value communal living….
Some fun projects from this week:
The sourdough starter is alive and bubbling. I haven’t made break yet, but I did make English muffins the other day. They were a little dense and didn’t have the nooks and crannies that I wanted, but they had an appealing sourdough tang to the flavour. The kids almost ate the whole batch before dinner. Also – I was surprised and pleased how much they ended up looking like commercial English muffins.
Handprint Christmas tree – The Husband has Handprint Christmas trees lovingly preserved from his childhood – construction paper craft projects he and his sister made in elementary school. He brings those out at Christmas time and hangs them on our walls. This year, I did a version using the kids hands, along with my hands and the Husband’s hand I would love to say we all sat down one evening with hot cocoa and crafted. But that would be a lie. It was more like, I grabbed hands as I could over the course of the day and then used painter’s tape to tape the to the wall. The result makes me smile nonetheless.
John McLane Christmas ornament. I saw this online and had to make it for the Husband. Incidentally we watched Die Hard this week too. Also – the Husband says Little Women is not a Christmas movie. I’m a little outraged by this.
There were more Cardboard projects this week thanks to the new oven. When they delivered it, I said, “Can you leave the box?” and they said yes. And they also had a refrigerator box that they left us as well. There are parts of the house that look like a cardboard city. It is getting a little ridiculous. At any rate:
Well, the presents are wrapped, the cookies decorated. For the record this year – I made the Gingerbread recipe from King Arthur’s flower with the spice combination from Tartine. I like the texture of the results, but it is still not spcy enough for me.) The cut out cookies were also from King Arthur Flour. I liked the texture of this last one, but prefer the taste of the one from Cooks Illustrated that we made last year. Frosting from Cooks Illustrated with orange juice instead of milk.
The kids got baths and matching Star Wars Pajamas and we watched It’s a Wonderful Life. We read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and cookies and milk have been put out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. I’m sitting up waiting for the first rise of the dough for cinnamon rolls. I bake them every Christmas- a tender, not to decadent recipe from The Irish Pantry cookbook. It involves boiling and mashing a potato. I always seem to leave it til the last minute and then am up til all hours making them. At least this way, I can stay up for a peek at Santa.
What we ate:
Saturday: Was our 11th anniversary and we got take out from a Malaysian Restaurant that is one of our favorites. They gave us a free dessert. We also watched Elf.
Sunday: Breakfast for dinner – pancakes and veggie egg scramble. I love how we can make six pancakes at a time on our griddle – makes it so much faster to whip up pancakes!
Monday: Hoppin’ John with Collard greens form Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everyhing Fast. There was a mix up with our produce box this week and we were sent an abundance of collard greens and Brussels sprouts, neither of which are family favorites. But the Husband said this was not as bad as he thought it would be.
Tuesday: Broiled Salmon and Asparagus with Zucchini pancakes. This last was from the Moosewood Cookbook; I was hoping they would be like fritters, but they were more like omlettes with egg. The Salmon and Asparagus was from the Bittman Book, though it’s hardly something you need a recipe for: salt pepper, olive oil. Broil for 10-15 mins.
Wednesday: Charred Tomato and Broccoli Tabbouleh. Also from How to Cook Everything Fast. I thought this was really tasty. So I see a trend this week… I borrowed the Bittman cookbook from the library because I wanted to incorporate more efficient yet healthy meals to our dinner rotation. While I love a good project meal, most days I just want nutritious, fast, and edible. Tasty would be a plus, too. So far, I’m finding a lot of really good ideas and reminders in this cookbook. It’s a little heavy on the meat recipes, so it’s not a “cook your way through” type of book, but I’m finding that most of the recipes fulfil the nutritious, fast, and edible requirements and are tasty too.
Thursday: I had planned Toful Banh Mi bowls, but really we had the Husband’s specialty snack sausage balls with cookies. Also some cut up carrots, pepper and cucumbers. And we ate this while watching It’s a Wonderful Life.
It’s been a festive and celebratory week.
There were certainly many things that just made me weary – Distance learning continues to be… challenging. I find Christmas and gift buying kind of overwhelming and mentally taxing. The baby seems to have two modes these days: clinging barnacle or destructive tornado. I’ve been really bad about making sure I get enough sleep, which is making me cranky and short tempered.
But overall, a lot of fun things brought me joy this week.
I keep a list in my journal of things I’ve learned to do. This weekend I added “changing a bike tire” to that list. The eight year old’s bike has had a flat for some time now, and the parts that the Husband ordered for it finally came in. He talked me through one tire and then I did the other tire. I also disconnected and removed the hand brake because it wasn’t really working and the eight year old preferred the pedal brake anyway. I realized as I was working that the bike is just a series of pieces screwed together. I had always been intimidated by the idea of bike repair, even simple stuff like changing a flat. But when I could see it as merely screwing and unscrewing, the whole process was somewhat demystified. The tricky part, of course, is keeping track of what one is tightening or loosening and not losing the bolts. I’m surprised it took me so long to figure this out.
On Sunday, we were invited to a driveway birthday party for a friend of the eight year old. Everyone signed up for a time slot and we drove up and hung out in their front yard. I convinced the Husband to get out his baritone and play Happy Birthday to the birthday girl. Before we set out for the birthday party, he made some booming baritone music to everyone’s delight at home. It was definitely a highlight of the weekend. Making music is such a joyful thing. Even when it is effortful, there is such a sense of accomplishment.
Speaking of music – Every so often I get obsessed by a certain song and want to find all the versions I can and listen to it and then also find the sheet music and learn to play it. This week it was More I Cannot Wish You from Guys and Dolls. I had heard Loudon Wainwright III perform a version of it on Fresh Air, and it kind of wrenched something in me. I had forgotten about the song because it wasn’t in the movie. There is something in the heartfelt simplicity of the song that is so perfect. I’ve been listening to it on repeat this week and evenadded it to the 3 year old’s bedtime playlist.
For the record, this bedtime playlist:
-Put on Your Sunday Clothes (movie version)
-Octopus’s Garden
-Put on Your Sunday Clothes (Broadway Revival)
-Rocketship Run
-More I Cannot Wish You
-Try to Remember
Certainly a sentimental mix of songs….
Tuesday we went to a drive through light display in a local park. Usually we go to the zoo’s light display, but it was closed this year because of COVID. Still wanting something festive and this drive through light display seemed to fit the bill. I picked up some Christmas cookies from our favorite bakery and we cranked up the Christmas music and we set out. It was delightful (pun!). Afterwards we battled rush hour traffic home and picked up Indian food for dinner.
Wednesday, there was snow! Kind of crazy given that it had been 60 degrees the weekend before. The eight year old loves snow. I managed to find snow suits for everyone and outside they went. I had a vague fear that by the time I got the baby into her snow gear, the older two would be ready to come inside, but I was wrong. They were outside for almost two hours. Having no sled, the eight year old got out the kiddie pool and tried to push her siblings around in it. It was the baby’s first real snow and she seemed to have a good time, taking off into the snow without fear. I think I do need to put a reminder in my calendar to look for the snow gear in November; while we had snowsuits and hats, the mittens were kind of… not quite adequate. Also I need to order some better base layers. But no one really complained. I think, for some odd reason, my kids don’t seem to mind the cold. Or maybe they were too enthralled by the snow. They got two great days out of the snow before it melted away.
On Friday our new range arrived! We had been without an oven since the summer. It wasn’t one thing, really, just a rather slow demise. By August, it was taking an hour and a half to preheat and the burners had to be lit manually. I’d been having a hard time pulling the trigger on buying a new one; big ticket items tend to paralyze me and being unemployed kind of compounded that paralysis. But the Husband did the research, took the lead on things and we finally ordered a new one last month. We had been making do with just the toaster oven and anything we baked had to be able to fit in an 8″x 8″ pan. Which meant a lot of bar cookies and only four scones at a time. I especially missed having an oven when I wanted to roast a whole sheet pan full of vegetables. Some of my favorite recipes that involved the stove I learned to adapt to cooking in a frying pan, or I figured out how to roast things in batches and combine them.
The new range has a double oven and six burners. It feels so decadent, but I’m very much looking forward to being able to baking pans and pans of cookies again. There is a little issue with it not sitting flat against the wall, but someone is coming to fix that soon. Until then… I’m so excited to be able to bake again!
In anticipation of the new oven, I dug out my sourdough starter and began the slow process of reviving it. I’m always a little skeptical about the viability of my sourdough starter after it sits for months in the fridge for a while. But somehow nature always surprises me and after about a week things are bubbling again. I did have to pitch a batch once after it turned pink and putrid, but I’ve have more successes than failures, thankfully. I do have a jar of starter in the freezer as a back up.
Cute Baby Things:
When I ask the baby if her diaper is dirty, she will walk to her room and pat the changing table. It makes me really happy. And really, anything that can make diaper changing happy is a plus.
Also: Baby playing Parcheesi. Not as cute as it seems. Actually quite difficult.
Onward to Christmas!
What We ate:
Saturday: Pasta with red sauce (from the Italian Deli next to the Husband’s office), bagged salad, and garlic bread. So simple, yet so good! Also watched A Christmas Story, in our tradition of a Christmas movie on Saturday night.
Sunday: Tostadas w/ BBQ pinto beans, pineapple salsa and coleslaw
Monday: Udon noodles with cabbage, carrots, and tofu.
Tuesday: Indian Take Out
Wednesday: Roasted Salmon with Broccoli, Beans and Rice
Thursday: Butter Chicken from Indian Instant Pot. I also threw in some potatoes that had to be used up.
Friday: Pizza and A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott version)
This week we got our Christmas Tree. We picked it up from our local fire and rescue station which has a Christmas tree fundraiser every year. Last year we bought a tree that was too tall for our living room and had to lop it off a little. This year we were a little more prudent and bought a more modest tree.
(Incidentally, I listened to a fascinating and hilarious episode of Planet Money this week about the Christmas Tree market and why there seemed to be fewer trees this year. It seems to be a combination of more people staying home and the economics of ten years ago, when this year’s crop of trees would have been planted.)
Most of the Christmas tree decorations we have are from the Husband’s childhood, carefully preserved by his mother. The children loved the Garfield ornaments and the Star Trek ornaments. These last ones are pretty cool – they plug into the light string and make noises and say things like “Live Long and Prosper.”
Also on our tree are the ornaments from our wedding. The Husband and I got married the week before Christmas. And instead of a guestbook, we made Christmas ornaments and had people write us a message. The ornaments are simple wooden shapes with tissue paper and magazine images modge podged onto them. Every Christmas we read the messages on the back as we put them on the tree, remembering that snowy day in December when the city was shut down for a snow storm, but we were surrounded by so much love from family and friends.
Some Christmas/ Advent things we’ve been doing:
– lots of hot chocolate. I’ve been making my own mix with semi-sweet chocolate, cocoa, malted milk powder, powdered sugar, cinnamon, cayenne, nutmeg and cornstarch. It took some experimenting, but I think I’ve gotten a good balance of chocolate-y flavour and not too sweet. Not that I can recreate it because I kind of made it up.
– Advent books. I used to borrow 20 or so Christmas and winter books from the library every December, augmented several Christmas books that we own. Then I would wrap them and we would unwrap on every night and read it. It would sometimes get complicated when books had to be returned to the library and couldn’t be renewed, but hadn’t been unwrapped yet. Anyhow, last year, what with the new baby and all – I didn’t have the bandwidth to wrap them all, so I just put them in a shopping bag and we picked one out every night. And it was fine. So this year the Husband got a box and I gift wrapped it and we put twenty odd books in it and we have been reading one or two every few nights. Because of COVID restrictions we couldn’t go to the library to browse books, so I basically did a search for the word “Christmas” or “Winter” in children’s picture books and put a bunch of books on hold at the library for pick up. They’ve been coming in at a trickle, but we have more than enough to get us to Christmas day.
-Advent calendar. One of those chocolate ones with Gospel verses behind each door.
-Bonus Christmas movie night on Saturdays. We did Home Alone this week. I had forgotten that the bulk of the movie is not the slapstick humour that you see in all the previews. There is actually a lot of heart in this movie.
Also on our list for Christmas movies is Elf, Meet Me in St. Louis, and It’s A Wonderful Life.
Other fun food things:
-Another pomegranate from our Hungry Harvest box. I had read about a technique where you cut the pomegranate in half and then hit it really hard to dislodge the seeds. So I tried it and it worked better than expected. These seeds I have been eating with the spaghetti squash. An odd dish of spaghetti squash, pomegranate seeds and roasted sweet potatoe. Surprisingly tasty.
-I found a jar of refrigerator pickles in the back of the fridge. I’m not at all sure how long they’ve been there, but they were still tasty and quite garlic-y. A little slice of summer in December.
-the three year old decided he wanted a bread sandwich the other night. He was not a fan of the black bean burgers. The rest of us liked them, though.
What We Ate:
Saturday: Smoked salmon on bagels.
Sunday: Perch cooked in oil and Green Beans
Monday: Spaghetti Squash with kale and chickpeas. I’m not a huge fan of spaghetti squash, but this came in our Hungry Harvest box, so I wanted to use it up. I feel like I never get the texture quite right. I’ve been cooking it in the InstantPot, but maybe it will be better once our oven comes and I can roast it. This recipe from Love and Lemons was actually quite tasty and even better as leftovers.
Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers from Dinner Illustrated. We had it with bagged salad. Trying to get more beans and legumes in our meals.
Wednesday: Mushroom and Broccoli Stir fry wwith Udon noodles.
Thursday: Chicken Makhani using this sauce. The Husband made this. It was really tasty.
Friday: Pizza and The Twelve Dates of Christmas. It’s Hallmark Christmas movie season!
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig – 6 h 7 mins. Lovely, light read about a man who ages so slowly that he has been alive for centuries. The book explores the ideas of family and history and time and perspective. I enjoyed the speculative history parts, particularly meeting Shakespeare.
Burial at Thebes by Seamus Heaney. Hard copy. Heaney’s adaptation of Euripides’ Antigone. I had wanted to read some of Heaney’s poetry, being unfamiliar with it. This play was the first thing available at the library. It read surprisingly modern, almost jarringly so. Perhaps that is because in my head the story of Antigone is an ancient one. I have vague memories of reading Anouilh’s version in high school French class. Heaney’s version focuses not so much on Antigone’s story, but rather that of Creon and his megalomania.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – 6h 36m. Engrossing story of an aging Hollywood film star and the journalist who is helping her write her memoirs. I’m not sure if I really connected with any of the characters, but this book was really well constructed and deftly plotted. I was mesmerized and stayed up until 3am to finish it.
Poser by Claire Dederer – audiobook read by Christine Williams. I had heard an interview with Dederer on the podcast Everything Is Fine, and I thought she had a lot of very sensible thoughts about being a woman over 40. This book is a memoir told through yoga poses. She took up yoga to help with back pain that developed while breastfeeding and writes about how her yoga journey mirrored her own life’s journey. There were a lot of really thoughtful ideas about identity and how we search for identity even as it changes. I do think, though, I am getting a little fatigued with the genre of new mother personal essays. Whereas personal essays about new motherhood used to make me really feel seen and not so alone, they now feel a little cliched, and the domain of a certain demographic. Maybe I need to read about more diverse motherhood experiences?
Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen – 6h 48m. When I was a high school student in Southern California, people in the Taiwanese community talked about Loveboat all the time. It was a cultural exchange program in Taiwan for teenagers – not officially called Love Boat, but referred to as such for all the matchmaking that resulted in its pressure cooker of newfound independence. I never went – it sounded really intense to me. Wen’s book is a YA novel about Ever Wong, whose parents ship her off to Loveboat. There she does the requisite self discovery and flirting with romance and bonding with girlfriends. I must say this book really did make me a little nervous to have a teenager. s
Also in November, two audiobooks we listened to on our trips to the Shenandoahs, both given high approval ratings from the eight year old:
Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr, narrated by Kate Reading – I loved this adventure story featuring the resourceful Nim.
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, narrated by Kate Atwater – Such a great story about a robot finding her way and herself with the help of a colourful cast of animal friends.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to Longwood Gardens. We didn’t stay late enough to see the gardens ablaze with lights, but we still got plenty of festive holiday experience. There were poinsettias and Christmas trees and toy trains and fire pits. The weather was pretty mild and the skies were blue.
On the way back from Longwood, we listened to the audiobook version of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, narrated by Elaine Stritch. Oh my goodness was it funny! The eight year old cackled with delight all the way home. We agreed that listening to it should be a Christmas tradition.
We finished putting up Christmas lights. I had convinced the Husband to get one of those image projectors for the house. I figured when calculated per square foot, a projector was the most cost efficient way to add some holiday cheer to our house.
“And this one,” I said, “comes with two Halloween slides too! So we get two holidays for the price of one!”
There was also a great debate about white lights or coloured lights. The compromise we came to was coloured lights before Christmas and white lights after.
There was quite a bit of rain the following week. In keeping with my determined plan to have outdoor time, I put on rain boots and my windbreaker and took the three year old and the baby outside. It’s actually no struggle to take the three year old out because he loves rainy walks. We didn’t go to the park, but walked around our block, finding plenty to explore. A good fifteen minutes was spent watching a work crawl across the sidewalk.
The rain tends to collect at the end of our cul de sac and we went down there to find puddles. Not only did we find puddles, we also found mud. Mud pies and dams were made. The mess makes me a little nuts, but the kids really loved it. I have to remind myself that it’s just mud. On the bright side, I managed to get them into the bath when we got back in the house.
Now that drawing class is over, I’ve been back at sewing masks for our church maks ministry. As I sew, I get some good listening in and this week I listened to a beautifully candid interview on Fresh Air with David Chang, the chef behind Momofuku. I always find it fascinating to hear chefs talk about food on a every day level. There is something that can be so rarified about food, but at the basic level, food’s main purpose is pretty simple; we eat to nourish and sustain ourselves physically. When Chang talked about food, I really got the sense that food can be amazing and accessible at the same time.
During the interview he also talked a lot about growing up as the son of immigrants, and about the almost manic culture of hard work that is familiar, I think, to many children of immigrants. He made the point that work is the last socially acceptable addiction, and that has really stuck with me – this idea that work can be so all consuming that it can be detrimental. But at the same time we life in a culture where our jobs define us and how we live. It’s something I’ve been thinking about as these days of unemployment stretch out.
Fun things:
What We Ate:
Saturday: Can’t remember. Probably leftovers after we got back from Longwood Gardens. Or maybe takeout?
Sunday: Pad Thai from Dinner Illustrated.
Monday: Brussel Sprouts and Mushroom Farro Bowls w/ Lemon Tahini Dressing
Tuesday: Paneer Biryani.
Wednesday: Tofu Udon – The Husband cooked.
Thursday: Sushi rolls with Tuna. This was kind of a failure. I made it before taking the eight year old to dance class, and before I took off to for my weekly walking date with my friend. The food was all luke warm and mushy by the time the Husband came home with the kids from the dance class pick up. He called it the “worst meal ever”.
Friday: Pizza and the eight year old’s (virtual) piano recital. I’m sure there was some Stinky and Dirty in there as well since it was the 3 year old’s turn to pick the movie. Oh, and we watched half an hour of the Rockette’s Christmas special.
So much to catch up on! I had a little glitch with the website, so didn’t get to post for a while. But hopefully it’s all good now.
A while ago, we watched with much admiration as our six year old neighbor mowed the lawn while his father looked on. His father was pretty hands off, only stepping in a few times when the terrain was challenging.
Inspired by this, the Husband decided that the eight year old could also learn to mow the lawn. I’m so proud of both of them.
This week it seemed like we turned the corner of the season. After a fall of activities and random days off, we are about to enter December with -gasp- full weeks of school. It kind of feels like we have to rediscover a rhythm and routine for making full time school manageable again. These days, a lot of my schedule does revolve around the eight year old’s schedule because I want to be around for her while she is in class. Also with my drawing class over, the next seem a little blank with potential. It’s not quite a carte blanche because there are still bills to pay and the holidays to prepare for, so I guess it’s just a matter of figuring how these things will fill those currently blank calendar pages.
With three half days of school and pretty mild weather, we did make a point of several extended outdoor sessions. Tuesday we put our masks on and went to one of our favorite county playgrounds. They have giant slides and a sandbox with those digging machines. The three year old spent most of his time on the diggers while the eight year old played Zombie Apocalypse with some other kids she met there. The baby has discovered slides and she can go down them by herself. She determinedly climbs up the steps to the top of the slide, sits downs, then turns around so she is laying on her stomach, feet first. She then zooms to down, a joyful grin lighting up her face as she goes. Then she does it all over again.
Thanksgiving was different this year. We usually stay in town but celebrate with friends, and sometimes family if they are here. Last year my brother and sister-in-law and her parents were here. It was a wonerful combination of touristy adventures and homey family time. I usually make several dishes- usually a pie, a veggie, and a bread something. This year we spent the day by ourselves, and our oven is still broken, so it was a lot more low key than years past.
We did have a Zoom call with family – it was my brother’s birthday!- and it was nice to see my sister-in-law’s parents as well as my parents and my brother’s family.
Things we still did:
-Watched the Macy’s day parade. It definitely wasn’t the same, but kudos to the people working on it, making all the various segments come together so seamlessly. Ultimately it was the stuff that we remember as tv watchers- floats, balloons, musical numbers, friendly banter, Christmas ads.
-watched football while snacking
-baked a pie. I made a pumpkin pie. Every year I choose a recipe and then forget which one I used so then I can’t recreate it and am sent scouring the cookbooks to try to remember. So for the record- this year I made the recipe from Tartine with two egg yolks instead of one and fresh ginger. Also used rum instead of brandy because that was what we had, but I might skip the alcohol next time. But the texture of the custard was perfect. Pie crust from KAF baking book.
-squirts Reddi-Wip in our mouths. Very important tradition. The baby was initiated into this tradition this year. She definitely enjoyed it.
Friday we started putting up Christmas lights around the house. We have never really put up Christmas lights but the eight year old always asks and we thought this year… why not? We didn’t quite get finished, but we did get a good start.
Some other fun and cozy things this week:
– We got a pomegranate in our produce box this week. There is something so fascinatingly beautiful about the pomegranate experience – the deep red exterior, the jeweled interior, the care and work it takes to extract the pips even feels like an art. I feel like I’m still finding the ideal way to extract the seeds where I don’t make a mess or have to pick through tiny membrane fragments. But also – maybe this careful persistence is part of the pomegranate experience?
– Last year, I decided to finally learn how to knit. All the kids have hand made blankets that are much treasured, so I had decided to make one for the (about to be born) baby. I have long been a crocheter, but I wanted to learn to knit too. So I asked my friends for advice, looked at a bunch of online tutorials, bought some circular needles, went through my yarn stash and got started. And I did it! I somehow managed to figure out how to knit. By which I mean I just make rows and rows of plain knit stitch – often while sitting in front of the tv in the evenings, or on road trips (when we used to take those). I started almost a year and half ago, and the blanket just keeps growing. Having chosen a rather open ended pattern, I’m not quite sure when it will feel long enough or finished. But it’s gotten to the point that it’s become quite a cozy project as the blanket is now big enough to cover my legs as I work on it. It is full of imperfections, small gaps and uneven stitches – a first effort if ever there was one, for sure.
-The baby will now reach for my hand when we go for walks. This small, almost unconscious gesture of trust and attachment, the combination of her independent mobility and her need for closeness – it slays me sometimes.
What we ate:
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Shakshuka in the Instant Pot. I love Shakshuka, but haven’t been able to find a great recipe yet. Most recipes I find come out a little too tomatoe-y, and not the complex savory experience I’ve had in restaurants.
Monday: Banh mi Bowls, but with noodles rather than rice, and I did make some quick pickled veggies to go with it (carrots, cucumbers radishes splashed in rice wine vinegar and a sprinkle of salt and sugar). This recipe was shared with me by a friend as a way to use up some coconut aminos that I’ve had in my pantry for years. The bottle was left me by a friend who came into town for a gig as part of her “end of job” pantry pass along. When gigging one often has lots of random kitchen ingredients leftover when it’s time to go home, and it’s kind of a custom to leave a bag of stuff with colleagues who are local. I love this kind of thing – it has introduced me to many new ingredients. At any rate – these bowls were delicious and we are adding it to our rotation.
Tuesday: Farro Bowls w/ green beans and cannellini beans. Adapted from Dinner Illustrated.
Wednesday: Salmon tacos.
Thursday: root vegetable gratin and grilled chicken. Cranberry sauce, which the eight year old helped to make. Pumpkin pie for dessert.
Friday: Pizza and Opera Lafayette’s production of The Blacksmith, streamed online. Opera Lafayette is an opera company that performs baroque opera – I did a gig with them in 2019 and I adore them. It is a company of talented, kind, and resourceful people, and all of these traits were evident in this outdoor production of Philidor’s opera comique. Baroque opera is my catnip, but when you combine it with traditional tunes and a Wild West setting, the whole thing was irresistible. The way that the musicians performed baroque music with a traditional American twang and that they presented American songs with the elegance of Baroque music was brilliant. It really makes one realize how varied yet alike different musical genres are.