One of the things I’ve been trying to get back into is a short morning yoga routine. Even though YouTube abounds with yoga practices, I find I can focus better without the visual element so I usually use yoga podcasts to guide me. I know I could always just turn the volume off of a YouTube video, but I find that the people who lead the practice are less descriptive when there is a visual component. My current ideal yoga routine length is about twenty to twenty five minutes. I can do a longer practice in a class, but for some reason when on my own, I can’t focus as long. (I know the point of yoga is focus, so this is a little ironic).
The kids are now of an age that they can fend for themselves for twenty minutes in the morning while I slip away to the basement and roll out my yoga mat and put my earphones in. I’m not quite sure what they do for those twenty minutes, but I don’t think they are getting into the knives or burning the house down, so I figure they’ll be fine. Sometimes they are getting into my chocolate stash, though, which is almost as dire. On a good day, they are getting dressed.
The other day, as I was doing my yoga, the baby came down. She thinks it’s great fun to crawl all over me while I’m doing yoga. Something about the various poses screams “HUMAN JUNGLE GYM!!! OPEN FOR CLIMBING!!!”. She’ll sit on me while I do bridge pose, and giggle as she goes up and down with my pelvis. Warrior two finds her climbing up on my bent leg to hang on to my arms. Downward dog makes a tunnel for her to crawl under. It does make it a little difficult to move into chaturanga or plank pose to have her lying under me. Sometimes we play “squish” the baby when that happens.
In a way, it reminds me of when the kids were just born and I took a post-natal yoga class at my local hospital. They were held on weekday mornings and the new moms would always come in gingerly with their little squishy babies. The instructor was so amazing and she taught us to be as gentle with ourselves as we were with our little babies. Some classes, I spent the entire 45 minutes nursing, though I did manage to figure out how to nurse a baby while in bridge pose…. I’m listing this as one of my hidden talents.
At a birthday party recently, I talked to someone recently whose son was in the same pre-school class as my five year old. Turns out we had been in the same post natal yoga class with these boys who are now about to start Kindergarten. She commented on how she felt like she spent the whole class nursing and was always a little frustrated by that. “I finally got out of the house to do something,” she said, “And I still ended up attached to the baby. I felt so frustrated because I just wanted to spend some time doing something. It was supposed to be me time!”
I feel that resentment sometimes when the baby interrupts my yoga. This is me time, not mommy baby time. Yet the other day, when she came down and proceeded to insert herself into my routine, I tamped down my annoyance and tried to lean into it. I tried to savour her playfulness and her big smiles as she looked at me from below as I attempted some kind of Warrior. I took on her weight when she jumped on me as I was doing a seated forward fold. And I gave her kisses as I went from cow to cat and back again.
And then I settled into shavasana – aka corpse pose, aka the pose at the end of the practice where you just lie on your back and let go. The moment I was supine, the baby crawled on top of me and put her head on my chest. Well, actually at first she dug her pointy little chin on my chest, which was not relaxing. So I said, “Can you put your cheek on my chest?” and she turned her head to one side and laid her pillowy round cheek over my heart. And as the voice in my ear told me to relax and breathe and empty my mind, I thought, “With a thirty pound toddler on me? You’re kidding right?”
Then something happened as I tried to obey the voice in my ear that told me to breath and let go. I took deep breaths, and the baby breathed with me. And as we lay there, breathing together, I realized, “Okay, this is ‘me time’ too.” And all my resentment went away. Because I realized, right now, in this season of life, these kids are a part of me. I don’t mean that in the scary self-erasing, symbiotic almost parasitic sense that I sometimes feel when my kids are draining the energy from me. Nor was it one of those sentiments where I’m sacrificing myself and my tranquility on the altar of motherhood for these little terrors, you know, all the toxicity of the tired mom trope.
It was just this realization that our lives have been so intertwined and close, particularly these past two years, and that yeah, I do identify a lot as a mom these days, and it’s absolutely okay to allow myself to feel so defined by that. If a lot of the stress and anger and despair I feel within me some days come from parenting, then certainly a lot of the joy and wonder and peace does to. Like this moment, trying to squeeze in some yoga with a toddler interjecting at every turn. Come the following week, the kids will all be in school, and me time may look very different. For now, though, me time can be mom time, savoring the sweet weight of a little person doing Shavasana with me.
The baby started daycare this week, and the two big kids start school on Monday. Three kids all starting new schools! And each kid will be at a different school. So three drop offs. Well, actually two drop offs because the ten year old’s bus picks up down the street.
I was feeling all the feelings when I dropped the baby at her first day of school. She has been home so long and I am going to miss having my little buddy with me. I was worried drop off would be hard, but she waltzed right in with nary a backward glance that first day. My friend said that this was probably a sign that she was ready to be with other kids. I think she was also a little lured by having a second breakfast. The next two days, though, there was more resistance, including one morning where the teacher pried a crying child out of my arms. But the last day of the week she was fine and walked right in. She was really excited because they had had water play the day before and wanted to do it again. Shhhh – don’t tell her that was the last water play day this summer.
We decided to have the five year old enroll in the French Immersion program – a decision influenced slightly by our trip to Montreal. To be honest, I’m still not convinced it’s the right choice, but we’re going to take it one year at a time. The ten year old is starting a new school – switching school for fifth grade is probably not the easiest thing, but I think we agreed that we gave the Mandarin immersion school a good try and it just wasn’t the best fit for us now and into the future. With so many options for school these days, I feel a lot of pressure to make the “right” choice for my kids. And that “right” choice not just for the person they are today, but for the person they will grow into and the world they will live in. And perhaps I’m overthinking this – after all, it is just elementary school.
This last week of summer, we were home. I wanted to take things easy for the kids and also I had several work and union calls sprinkled throughout the day. But the week turned out to be kind of the perfect “last week before school”.
We went school supply shopping! I tied very hard not to fill the shopping basket with things for myself. I did buy one pack of post-its in my favorite, but hard to find colour combination.
We had playdates. We finally met the neighbors across the street this summer – don’t know why it took four years. They actually are members at our pool, and one days at a swim meet, the ten year old said to me, “Those are the girls who live across the street.” And I went over and made friends. I feel like sometimes we get so caught up in living our lives – especially with COVID, that we forget to extend our social bonds. Anyhow, one afternoon this week, I sent the ten year old over to their house to play. And a few hours later they came over to our house to play. And they actually played – screen-free and with low/no parental intervention. It was amazing.
We went to a waterpark with friends. There is a small waterpark near us, but it is only open to County residents during weekdays. Weekend and holidays it is only open to residents of the city it’s in. So one day my friend took the day off work and we packed lunches in coolers, ad we took our kids. After we got used to the many rules, we all ended up having a great time. The ten year old convinced me to go on the really tall slides, and I’m so glad I did. There was one that was super fast and thrilling and one that was slower, where you could see the end coming with time to take a breath and close your eyes. I thought both were really fun, but I actually preferred the slower one – there was something so soothing about meandering down the twists and turns while gazing at the blue sky and clouds.
We went to the pool!
We went to the library and borrowed a bunch of books, including a whole slew of Vox books for the kids. Much as I like reading to them, sometimes it’s great that they can sit with a Vox book and be engrossed so I can get other things done. Definitely one of my favorite things lately for a screen free way to keep the little kids busy.
We had Open Houses for the schools. Both big kids had open houses on the same day, but at different schools. Thankfully the times were slightly staggered. Even still, I didn’t quite time things right and I think we ended up showing up to the last fifteen minutes of each open house. Note for next time: show up earlier if you want PTA ice cream. Even still we got to see the schools and talk to their teachers. Afterwards I took the kids for ice cream at one of my favorite ice cream places, Tropics Ice Cream and Jerk. They have lots of fruit flavors, which is what I like. I got my favorite passion fruit and lychee combination. I also found out that they sell Jamaican patties frozen by the case. Which was very exciting for me – their patties are really tasty and make a perfect lunch option. I think I might think about picking up a case or two in the future for some easy lunches.
Seeing friends – My mom’s group gathered for happy hour one night. Last night we went to hear music at the Golf Course with friends. The band was really fun and our kids went running off in all directions. The five year old found friends from his school and took off with them, kind of a first because he’s always been kind of clingy. We live in a pretty big metropolitan area so I don’t take for granted when we are somewhere and we run into people we know. The golf course concerts are perfect because it’s semi enclosed and very safe and we know our kid will find their way back to where we set up our picnic blankets and lawn chairs. Watching the kids run and dance and laugh and play made me feel like that was summer right here.
Eating summer produce. We don’t always get to the Farmer’s Market – and to be honest the produce is on the pricy side so it’s cheaper to drive twenty minutes to a farm stand – but one of my favorite vendors was having a peach sale, so I put in an order for a 1/2 bushel of peaches and a 1/2 bushel of peach seconds. It always seems like a lot of peaches when I bring them home, but I’ll can some peaches next week, and we’ve already eaten the seconds. We also picked up tomatoes and cucumbers and lots of other vegetables. For lunch that day, I had tomatoes, cucumbers and feta cheese. It was really tasty.
perfect summer salad.
I did not get as much cleaning/purging done as I wanted. But I have big plans to tackle some of that this weekend. Also I really need to tackle my email box for the account I use to make purchases since I’m running out of storage, though that might not be a this weekend thing. Weekend plans/ aspirations:
go through pantry and organize. I want the big kids to pack their own lunches so I need to clear space in the pantry for them to have bins for lunch foods.
tidy toy room and guest room in anticipation of cleaners coming on Monday. The guest room has become a unintended office for me and the paper situation is a little out of control.
organize school supplies and backpacks.
Five year old has a birthday party invite that I’ll take him and the baby to. The Husband and the ten year old got invited to a football game.
Meal plan. We are toying with the idea of doing vegan week nights, so I need to dig a little to figure that out.
hopefully raft night at the pool for a lazy Sunday night before school starts.
Two more things this week:
How is “flowy” not a word!?!?!?! Have they never heard of a flowy skirt? Or flowy hair? Then the next word I tried was “Crony” and that was accepted. And now I have some irate internal monologue about patriarchy and the male-centeredness of Wordle.
And I’ll leave you with this – one day on the way home from school, the five year old suddenly flopped down in the grass next to the sidewalk with a big sigh. “I love shade!” he said with a smile on his face. And he’s right. Is there anything as delicious as a cool spot on the grass underneath a shady tree on a summer’s day? (okay, part of my brain screamed “TICKS!!!!” but I’m telling that part of my brain to shut up and just check for ticks when we get home.)
What We Ate:
Saturday: Home from Montreal. I think the grown ups decided we weren’t hungry because we were unpacking. The baby somehow managed to find a bag of wine gums and ate those. Right before bedtime, she says to me, “But we haven’t had dinner!” And I say, half-jokingly, “But you ate all that candy!” And she says, with a little giggle, “Oh, yeah. I forgot.” As if wine gums were a perfectly acceptable dinner.
Sunday: can’t remember. I think it was low effort frozen tortellini and jarred red sauce.
Monday: I went out for happy hour with my mom’s group. The Husband made breakfast sandwiches for the kids.
Tuesday: Chicken Tinga Tacos. Made simple cabbage slaw and pickled onions to eat with. The Husband has requested Taco Tuesday.
Wednesday: Ratatouille sheet pan gnocchi, based somewhat on this recipe. Baked gnocchi is a wonder! I used canned tomatoes instead of fresh, and I think it gave the dish a more saucy taste. Will make again.
Thursday: I was full from Happy Hour and then I went to the Kindergarten Back to School Night. The Husband, home with the kids, I think he fed them chicken salad and PB& J for dinner.
Friday: Sandwiches from our favorite deli, eaten at an outdoor concert. Along with ketchup chips. I brought back several bags of ketchup chips from Canada and I’m almost afraid to break into them because who know when I will get more. But I guess no one is enjoying them when they sit uneaten in the pantry…
To finish up the recaps from our July camping trip….
The second morning once again started with a 6:30am bathroom call. This morning, after bathroom call, I actually went back to sleep for an hour while the two kids played with their cars and figurines next to me in the tent. It was a kind of hazy shallow sleep, punctuated by their small voices making car noises and creating scenarios on the tent floor. Small figurines and cars always come with us when we go camping and we get a lot of mileage out of them.
Around 7:45- I got up and made breakfast- bacon and egg wraps. Which were tasty, although I think I should have bought thick cut bacon – it would have cooked more evenly and taken up less space in the frying pan.
Bacon frying!
A little after 9:00am, the Husband arrived with the 10 year old. They had left at around 6am to get to us and the ten year old was still a little sleepy. I thought they made good time given that they even stopped for donuts.
“Did you get to use the park pass?” was the first thing I asked them.
So the whole reason I chose to come to the Shenandoah over Western Maryland where we usually go camping was because every fourth grader in America gets a free National Park Pass good from September 1st to August 31st the year they are in fourth grade. Not one to turn down free stuff, I really wanted to use the pass and we planned two vacations around this park pass. However, we didn’t use the pass on our our Smoky Mountain National Park vacation because that park actually doesn’t charge a fee. So I was eager to use it on this trip. Except then the ten year old didn’t want to come with me. I realize that $30 is a small price to pay for entry into our National Parks, but I was super bummed not to be able to use the card. (Though it ended up being moot because when I drove in with the two littles, the entry gate was understaffed and unoccupied so I didn’t end up having to pay anyway.)
Anyhow, the Husband reassured me that they did in fact get to use the fourth grade park pass and I was pretty excited about that.
After everyone got to relax for a little bit and I got breakfast cleaned up, put away, and had hauled the dishwashing water to be dumped and come back, I wanted to go on a hike. So we packed a lunch and snacks and water in our backpacks and got in the car.
I chose the South River Falls Hike. It looked really doable in the hiking book, just 4.4 miles to the base of a waterfall and back. In my mind that was 2.2 miles to the waterfall, time for playing in the water and lunch, then 2.2 miles back. I figured it would take maybe four hours – ninety minutes there, thirty minutes at the waterfall and two hours back.
South Mountain Falls.
It took 6.5 hours and was much harder than I had anticipated.
Most of the difficulty was due to the elevation change throughout, some 1200 feet. The terrain in spots was a little rocky to get down to the waterfall and then back up to the trail so we had to go slow and careful with the kid. Even still, there were lots of things I really liked about the hike.
We saw lots of millipedes – which the kids loved to stop for… every single millipede.
two of the many many millipedes that we saw.
There were lots of moments to sit by the stream for a motivational snack break. (Gummy fruit snacks!)
There were rocky scrambles, one which ran over the stream and you could stand on the rocks and hear the trickle of water far below, even though you couldn’t actually see the stream.
There was running into a park ranger who talked us through the path to the base of the waterfall and answered all our questions of how they rescue people in case of emergency. I thought it was such a cool job to spend your day hiking and talking to park visitors.
There was the cool shade where we sat on rocks at the base of the waterfall and had our lunch of summer sausage, cheese, and fruit. And after lunch there was some refreshing wading.
taking in the water fall.cool soak for my weary feetViews from the base of the falls.
And on the way back, we even saw some owls. It was almost magical! There is something mesmerizing about owls and their haunting call and swift noiseless flight.
Very blurry picture of one of the owls we saw.
Overall, the kids did okay with the hike, difficult as it was. There was a fair bit of protesting that they couldn’t possibly go any further, but the baby actually made it all but the last mile, at which point, I put her in the carrier and she fell asleep. The five year old stoically made it all the way to the waterfall and back with nary a word. He found a good sturdy stick and trudged along, stick in hand. Only afterwards did he say to me, “I like camping, but I don’t like long hikes.”
a boy and his stick.
In the evening there was a fire, dinner cooked over said fire, and ‘smores. Then the Husband put the kids to bed. The ten year old decided that the tent was too crowded and wanted to sleep in the hammock. I hung a few glow sticks in hammock for her so that she wouldn’t be so in the dark. Truth be told, I was a little jealous – sleeping in a hammock seemed like it would have made for a soothing and refreshing night. Since the Husband was on kid duty and then retired soon after, I had the rest of the evening to myself. I sat by the fire, read my book and wrote in my journal as I tried to keep the flames alive as long as possible. The last log managed to burn for quite a long time and it was lovely to have a fire-lit evening to myself.
making smores.
The next day, we woke up to fog and drizzle, which still seemed magical. The Husband and I packed up the campsite while the kids played. The five year old kept setting the camp chairs in a row, playing train:
camp train!
The baby just tried to climb whatever she could:
She can make anything into her jungle gym!
On the way home, we stopped in Culpepper for lunch at a Bar-b-que place. The food did take a while to get to us, so when it became clear that the two little were feeling a little restless, I took them on a walk around the town. I feel like I need to have more tricks up my sleeve for the kids now that we are eating out more. I can’t expect them to sit still all the time in a restaurant if the service is slow and I don’t want them climbing all over things and behaving like indoor monkeys. At any rate, a walk around the block seemed like a good way to wait for the food to come. We even saw this piece of art:
And it seemed like every street we walked down was like taking a time machine back sixty years….
Eventually the husband texted that the food had arrived so we headed back to the restaurant. We ordered the family meal and it. came. in. a. garbage. can. lid. How fun is that?
The food was soooo good! When I go to BBQ, I had to admit, it’s all about the sides for me. Any place that doesn’t have collard greens is a disappointment in my book. This place not only had collard greens, but they also had hush puppies (which the kids tried for the first time and heartily approved of), fried okra and, something new to me, stewed apples. The stewed apples were so tasty, kind of like eating apple pie filling .
After lunch, we drove home, unloaded the camping gear from the car, and all took showers.
All in all, it was a great trip. I wish I could have stayed longer.
Some things that I really enjoyed about this camping trip:
Unplugging. Our campsite actually had pretty good cell service, but I needed my battery to last 3.5 days with minimal charging, so I kept it in airplane mode most of the time. I realized that this was actually a great way to limit my screen time. I would take my phone out of airplane mode three or four times a day, check my email and texts, respond to the ones that needed a response, text teh Husband proof of life pictures of me and the kids, then put the phone back in airplane mode. It made me realize that I don’t get messages of sufficient volume and importance to be checking my messages as much as I do. It was a good thing to realize. The one annoying thing was even though I had downloaded my books via the Libby app, for some reason the app wouldn’t open unless it had signal. So a couple times I had to take the phone off airplane mode just to get the app to open.
Hiking to views and to waterfalls.
Going to bed early.
Reading Roald Dahl’s The Enormous Crocodile out loud with the kids.
The hammock.
Simple meals of crackers, summer sausage, and cheese.
We’ve just come home from our summer road trip to Montreal. It was a wonderful time, and now I’m plunged into a week of unpacking/ school prep/ union negotiations/ baby’s first day (ever!) of daycare. I have trip recaps coming from our road trip…and I have to finish the Shenandoah recaps too. Whew. It feels like there was a lot of travel there, but I think we’ve just packed two trips into the end of the summer because the 10 year old’s swim team schedule took up much of June and July.
The weeks before we went to Montreal felt really packed. I had the two little kids with me for one week and then all three with me the next week. I had all sorts of fun plans for the week with the three kids, but then I got sick. Not COVID sick, thankfully, but aches, pains, sore throat, persistent cough, and low energy. And then at the end of the week, I got pink eye. I felt so sad to have to cancel the fun family plans that we had, but I think the kids were just as happy to hunker on the couch with me and binge watch Ugly Betty. (A show that I never watched when it was on air, because I didn’t have a tv then, but is really delightful.) Also, I discovered that HBO co-produced a Chinese version of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries called Miss S. It is set in 1930s Shanghai, so I also watched that to brush up on my Chinese and scratch the Miss Fisher itch. Miss S, was better at the brushing up than at the scratching of the itch. I think there are some cultural differences that make the Chinese version feel a little more superficial and melodramatic than the original. The costumes and the people, however, are just as gorgeous.
At any rate, before I got sick, we still managed to squeeze in some fun adventures with the kids. I knew we were going on a big trip, so I didn’t feel like I had to get too ambitious, and at the same time, I knew that getting the kids out of the house was going to be important to everyone’s well being. It turns out there are so many little adventures to have near home that require very little prep. Either they fit in a morning and we can be home for a late lunch, or I throw together a simple lunch (PB&J sandwiches, cucumbers, fruit, and some trail mix or cookies) and take it with.
Patapscoe State Park and A Day playing in the Riverthen stop at Spicknall’s Farm Stand – I think this is one of my favorite day trips during the weekday. The river is always shady and quiet, there aren’t a lot of people. There is a fun bridge to cross over to get to the river, and the river is nice and shallow and cool. We were dog sitting the day we went, and I think we all had a very relaxing day. We spent a few hours at the river and then stopped at the playground at the park before heading home. On the way home we picked up some produce from Spicknall’s farm stand – peaches, melons, squash, eggplant, corn, and tomatoes. I’m always so surprised by how inexpensive the summer produce is when you get out of the city/suburbs.
Library for morning story time then books and a park – There is a children’s library near us that has the best story times. The librarian always does some songs and fingerplay activities as well as reads the funniest books in the funniest voices. This library is just for children so inside is all picture books and toys. It makes for an easy outing – 9:30am story time, then inside the library for an hour or so, then we walk to the park ten minutes away to play for a while. Typically there is little bakery nearby that we will walk to to get a treat, but it was closed the day we were at the library. So the kids immediately decided that we would just have to come back for storytime/library/park again. The baby has taken to saying, “I want to go back there tomorrow!” anytime we do something she likes and then have to leave.
Glen Echo Park for Carousel Rides and the Aquarium – We got wristbands to ride the carousel all day, but turns out the five year old was not as enamored of carousels as the baby. The baby would probably be happy to ride it all day. The five year old could only be convinced to ride three times. We also got tickets to to go to the aquarium. It’s a small affair – just one room of tanks, mostly focusing on the sea life of the Chesapeake Bay. Even still, we spent about an hour there. There was also a touch tank with horseshoe crabs and other creatures. And then outside the aquarium, a big sand pit to play in. We only did a half day at Glen Echo, but next time, I might also get tickets for the puppet show and stay longer.
carousel riders
Sea horse at the aquarium
The National Building Museum – With so many free museums in DC, it is easy for this one to fall off my radar because it does charge admission, but it is worth it. It is actually a really great museum for kids, though, and there are some really neat exhibits about architecture and building. Every summer they do a huge installation exhibit in their great hall – one year they converted the space into a huge lawn with fake grass and hammocks, one year it was a beach. This year, in a joint venture with a theatre company, they installed a theatre – Playhouse, they call it. During the evening the theatre company has been performing A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I thought it would be fun to go see the space and this theatre. We missed the tour so couldn’t go backstage, but we could look at the space from the audience and from above. The Building Museum also has a great Play/Work/Build room where kids can build with big and little foam blocks. There was also an interactive/ Virtual reality Notre Dame exhibit where you got a tablet and walked into a room with pictures of Notre Dame, and you could point the tablet at the QR code on the pictures and get at 360 degree view of what it was like when Notre Dame was being built. Pretty cool, and very high tech. There were a couple other exhibits that we didn’t get to see, so I do want to go back. We took the metro down, which always makes things seem like an even bigger adventure.
Play, Work, Build Roomon the steps of the theatreBuilding Museum – Indiana University well represented.
Two Dollar Tuesdays at the Regal Movie Theatre – This was one of the outings I took the kids on when I was still feeling run down, but not so run down that I wanted to stay home since we had been home for two days straight already. Regal Theatres does $2 Tuesday matinees during the summer of older movies, so I took the kids to see the third How to Train Your Dragon movie. (It was either that or Trolls.) After parking, popcorn, and soda it really wasn’t as frugal an adventure as I had thought it would be, to be honest. Yet, the movie was pretty good, and it was the baby’s first time at a movie theatre. The theatre was a little more crowded than I had thought – when I reserved my tickets the theatre only had a handful of seats occupied, but when we got there there were several summer camp groups. Oh well… I feel like it still felt like a classic summer adventure – popcorn and Sprite and a movie in an chilly air conditioned theatre on a hot hot day. I had a good time.
Next time, I’m only getting one popcorn for them all to share!
And of course – parks, playgrounds, and playdates.
Sibling slide races.
Some other thoughts that came into my life in that past little while:
-I love Carolyn Hax’s advice column, and there were two things she wrote recently that really struck me – so much so that I screen shot them and saved them to my phone:
I think I’ve been struggling lately with expectations – of myself, of my kids, of my husband, of my work. Hax also had one column where she said that “All anger and resentment lie in the gap between expectation and reality.” It may sound defeatist to stop expecting change, yet I think there is a fine line between giving up your expectation that someone/something will change and being realistic about the future and acting accordingly. There are so many things, I think “Oh if only it were this way or that way, it would be better!” And perhaps I need to shift to accepting these things and seeing them for what they are and work with that.
– Perhaps in that same vein of expectations and adjusting, this quote via swissmiss, is so very true, I think:
-I thought this Wordle especially ironic as I solved it at the park while getting eaten alive by mosquitoes:
On that note – I’ve been shifting my Wordle strategy lately. When I started, I would try to build off the previous word I played and try to solve in as few steps as possible, but lately I’ve been trying to fully suss out all the letters before guessing the word – so I try to play as many letters as possible in the first three lines. Sometimes this method is more efficient, but it always pains me a little to play a word that I know will be wrong in the hopes of discovering more letters. There’s something a little poignantly sacrificial about that tactic. Well… any other Wordle tactics I should try?
-One day, when I was sick and hunkering on the couch in the basement, the Husband brought home take out for dinner. In anticipation of his arrival, I sent the kids upstairs to set the table. They were soon back, claiming to have accomplished the task. Skeptical, I sent the five year old up with my phone. “Take a picture for me!” I said. And he did:
Table set!
I don’t know why this picture delights me so much, but it does.
-The picture at the top of this post is just a picture of the sky. It’s been such a beautiful shade of blue these first few weeks of August. It’s not quite captured in the picture, but I wanted to remember that such a blue exists.
What We Ate, the pre-vacation, minimal shopping version:
Monday: Happy Hour with my mom’s group so I had nachos at the local brewery.
Tuesday: Tomato and Corn Tart and Salad. The tart is loosely based on this recipe. I had picked up tomatoes and corn from the market and wanted to make the full recipe, but the way the day went, I didn’t have time to make the cornmeal crust, so I used puff pastry. I’ve decided frozen puff pastry is a freezer staple that allows me to instantly pull off a fancy-ish dinner. Throw some sauteed veggies in a pastry crust with some cheese and egg. Bake. An easy elegant dinner in less than 45 mins.
Wednesday: eggplant snow peas stir fry – kitchen sink kind of dinner to use up some veggies in the fridge.
Thursday: Grilled sausage, corn and hotdogs with bagged Caesar Salad and cut up melon. We had a friend over for dinner and grilling is always the perfect easy meal for impromptu casual dinner with friends.
Friday: Pizza and Thor
Saturday: Farro and Snap Pea Salad from Dinner Illustrated. I was trying to use up some veggies and happened to have everything to make this salad.
Sunday: Dumplings and green beans. One of our go-to simple weekend dinners.
Monday: Spaghetti and Meatballs. A request from the kids. I used the InstantPot meatball recipe from Bare Minimum Dinners – so easy.
Tuesday: Take out Burgers and fries.
Wednesday: Chilaquiles, sort of. Another kitchen sink meal (can you tell I was trying to eat down the fridge before we left on vacation?). I wanted to do something to use up the package of corn tortillas in the fridge and the Husband had grown some corn in the garden that he wanted us to eat. There was a recipe from Bare Minimum Dinners for chilaquiles which was pretty much just salsa and tortilla chips and eggs. So I fried up all the corn tortillas – they turned out really really tasty and we almost ate them all on their own. Then I looked in the fridge and turns out we were out of salsa, so I dumped canned tomatoes, onion, and peppers in a skillet, added a can of black beans and the corn and cracked some eggs into the whole concoction to poach. It was kind of a combination of chilaquiles and shakshuka.
Thursday: Tortellini and red sauce and Alfredo sauce. I was trying to use up some cream, hence the Alfredo sauce. But then I realized I could actually just freeze the cream and use it when I got back. The Alfredo sauce was pretty tasty, though.
One thing about camping with two small kid and no other adult is that when one kid wakes up at 6:30am and needs to use the restroom, you have to wake up the other kid as well because you can’t very well leave a sleeping toddler in a tent by themself. I know I should just instruct the five year old in the fine art of peeing in the woods- that would be the simplest solution. Yet, the mechanics of peeing while standing up still baffle me a little and everytime we try, pee goes all over. This instruction might be something I assign to the Husband.
At any rate early morning bathroom call was how the day began. A little earlier than I had wanted since the sleep the night before had been not terribly restful, as is typical for the first night of camping. But bladder and sunlight and a natural early riser meant that at 6:30am there was a bathroom run. And then we were up for the day.
We came back from the bathroom and I made everyone oatmeal from the musli that I had made while looking over trail maps to decide what I thought might be fun to do with the kids.
After breakfast we walked along a trail next to our campground that led to tbe campstore – I guess one could call it hiking, but it seemed more like a relaxes nature stroll. The path we took was part of the Appalachian Trail, which was kind of a cool thought- that we could get on this trail and walk south to Georgia or North to Maine. This stretch was pretty unremarkable, a path through the woods though we did see rocks and sticks and acorn, which the baby demanded that I put in my pocket to take home. And there was a millipede which the kids found fascinating. The first of many we would see.
Trail explorers along the Appalachian Trail.
We got to the campstore just as the misty rain became a downpour. In a bit of unfortunate oversight, I had left our hats, umbrellas and rain gear back at the camp site, so we just waited in the covered alleyway outside the campstore for the storm to pass. I felt ill equipped for this kind of waiting it out, but I did have a sack full of trail mix, water, and, in a bit of luck, a deck of BrainQuest cards. This last kept the kids occupied for a little bit, but then they spent the rest of the time running back and forth.
Eventually, after about an hour, the downpour lightened to a mist and we walked back to the campsite, and had lunch. To keep the kids occupied while I made lunch, I set up the hammock for them, including the rain fly in case it were to rain again. They always have great fun with the hammock- fun for swinging but also fun for lazing around.
After lunch was eaten and cleaned up, I decided to join them in the hammock to see if the baby would take a nap. Well, we all ended up asleep. I think that’s one of the lovely things about camping- the sleepless, restless first night is always offset by a lovely afternoon nap. I woke up about an hour later to the sound of rain tapping against the rain fly. Somewhere in the back of my head I remembered that I had left the windows to the car open in an effort to air the car out. This thought kept wafting into my groggy nap brain, but it was so hard to pull myself out of the gentle lull of a swinging hammock full of warm child snuggles!
nap in hammock on a rainy afternoon.
In a fit of superhuman strength I untangled myself from the kids, went to shut the car windows and returned to the hammock. I spent another half hour reading The Splendid and the Vile among a tangle of children’s limbs until they woke up and reminded me of my promise to buy firewood and make a fire that evening. We got into the car and headed back to the camp store. After getting two bundles of wood, i decided there was still enough time in the day to sneak in a quick hike, so I drove us to the trailhead for Blackrock summit.
My guidebook said this was an easy hike with a rocky scramble to a great view. The baby has never met a rocky scramble that she didn’t like, so it sounded perfect. Plus the hike was only a mile long so it was just the right length for a late afternoon adventure.
The baby complained most of the way up the trail, (“I’m tired,” “My tummy hurts!”) but the moment she saw the rocky scramble at the top, she was happily off like a shot. The summit looks like a pile of construction rubble debris, but the placard at the trail head said that it was actually a rock shelf at the bottom of the ocean, when this area was an ocean. The ocean receded and eventually the rock shelf collapsed.
rocky scramble
I know everyone is always amazed by their children, but I am truly in awe of how well the baby can climb- she looks at the situation, and plots where her toes and fingers can go and how to wedge her foot in just so to get leverage. She lifts with her legs and isn’t afraid to blindly drop to a lower level. It is so much fun to watch.
at the bottomat the top
After our hike we went back to the campsite and had dinner and a little fire. I have become okay at making a fire, but I’m always surprised when it does work. My method mostly consists of making fire starters from newspaper and dryer lint and wood shavings. (the Husband, who does the laundry, saves dryer lint all year in a Ziploc bag so that I can have it for when I go camping). The weather had been so wet and rainy, so I didn’t really have any good twigs and branches to use for kindling. Surprisingly the fire still managed to catch rather quickly. I wanted to save the marshmallows and s’mores for when the ten year old and the Husband arrived the next day, so we just enjoyed the flickering flames
The fire eventually died down, I cleaned up dinner, we brushed our teeth, got into pjs, read the rest of The Enormous Crocodile, and then went to bed. It was only about 9:45p when everyone settled down to sleep, which was late for the kids but early for me. Clearly being in the woods without internet does wonders for my ability to go to bed early. I did stay up another half and hour to read and journal, but even still I was asleep much earlier than usual.
When I was planning this trip, I was a little nervous when I saw the rain in the forecast, but looking back, it didn’t end up being a big deal. Luckily we have good gear so we all stayed dry and the rain was pretty sporadic- two 90 minute showers. The rest of the day was mild and not so hot. I think the nice thing about camping is that I feel like I’m either having leisure time (book and hammock or hike) or doing essential things (feeding kids); there isn’t empty time or puttering time or aimless time. Having my time be black and white like that – relax with purpose or survival – takes away a lot of the restlessness I can feel when there are a billion small tasks to be done. While camping, I don’t have to think about activity registration or paying the bills or making social plans, or fixing that thing that needs to fixed (or thinking about fixing it…)… because I can’t tick those things off my to do list right then. I can think and plan, but the number of things that are actually achievable is actually quite limited.
Even though the time is filled and every tasks has many more steps than at home, somehow, I don’t feel busy. Having to unpack the camp stove for every meal, having to wash all the dishes right away, and then haul the dirty water to the bath house, having to put away all the food completely for fear of bears – that doesn’t feel busy to me. It is just essential. I think busy comes from feeling like there is soooo much to do that I am just going from one task to another, and it will never get done. Yet when camping there is just two things – enjoy being outside and feed everyone (Okay, there is also bathroom call and brush teeth, I suppose) – it doesn’t feel like I won’t get things done. Because of course we will eat. And then of course we will relax or go for a hike.
I once went camping with a friend and in the middle of one afternoon, while I was sitting reading a book, she came over and said to me, “It’s amazing how there is really nothing to do here.” And I thought, “Yes, isn’t that the beauty of it?”
We just got back from a camping trip to Shenandoah National Park. Originally we were all going to go for three nights, but then at the last minute the Husband wanted to work. The ten year old declared that she wasn’t going if daddy wasn’t going… so I said fine. Camping with two young kids is a lot easier than camping with two young kids and one grumpy kid.
Camping is never as simple as I want it to be. In my head, camping is an exercise in acetic living- nature, shelter and food. But the simplicity of nature, shelter, and food is certainly complicated for me to pull off- it requires lists and supplies and plans and gear. Maybe if I were the type of person who camped every weekend, prepping for a camping trip would be down to a very efficient routine. But as it is, I feel like every time I go, I’m figuring things out again.
Take food, for example- Running out of food while camping is one of my worst fears. So I draw up a detailed meal plan and make a list of snacks to bring. I juxtapose the fun of cooking over the campfire with the ease of just making curry ramen on the camp stove. I try to figure out what is simple but highly flavorful. Also what can pack efficiently. I think of snacks that are nutritionally dense and tasty, but hopefully not so tasty that the kids blow through it all in one day. Also fun treats that can be used to bribe the kids when they just can’t anymore while hiking.
Then I spent two and a half hours grocery shopping the night before I was to leave. Much of the time I was having an internal debate with myself as to whether or not something would be good to bring camping. There is a balance I’m still trying to find between camping being an excuse to buy all the fun snack food and also realizing that being out in the woods and being active actually requires healthy, dense food choices. I was at Trader Joe’s and I can’t tell you how many times the dill pickle peanuts went into my cart, then back on the shelf, than into my cart. (spoiler: I did take end up buying them).
Then after I came home, I spent a few hours prepping said food- parboil potatoes, making trail mix and meusli and energy balls. Cutting up apples so that I won’t have to deal with the cores at the camp ground. Filling Ziploc bags full of cut and marinated veggies. Freezing meats and water jugs to help keep things in the cooler cold.
Part of me thinks that camp food should not require so much prep. That there should be a simple equation of fire + food+ eating in the open air = tasty meal. But, no… for me, it seems like it takes a lot of prep for easy camping meals. Unless, of course, one does the freeze dried backpacker meals. I’ve done those before and while I think they’re fine, it wasn’t really my favorite thing. (Although I do find the idea of them so fascinating that I spent thirty minutes in REI perusing the freeze dried meal aisle. Everything promised to be so tasty and filling. If it were really so easy to have such varied meals, we should all just be eating dehydrated meals! Ah those packets of gastronomical mystery in their opaque foil pouches!)
At any rate, my goal had been to leave by noon and we left at 3:30pm. (Well, we pulled out of the driveway at 3pm, but my watch had chosen to die on me at 2:30p that day so we made an emergency Target run.) It took four hours to pull all the camping gear out, pull together everything on my camping checklist and pack all the gear, clothes, and food into the car. I’m writing this here for next time, when I wonder how long it will take me to pack the car for camping… let the record show- 4 hours. <gavel strike> (I did pack the clothes the night before, so if I were starting from scratch, I would say 5 hours).
The 3 hour drive itself was fine save for the two kids in the back who fought constantly, about who knows what. From what I could decipher through the screaming and whining and tears, it involved grapes being thrown, and sunglasses being stolen and possession of the Vox books. (Vox books are these amazing books with an audio book feature built in so the kid can follow along. Kind of like those books when I was growing up that came with a cassette tape and there was a chime when it was time to turn the page.) The only time they were quiet was when I agreed to play two episodes of Laurie Berkner’s Song and Story Kitchen. Steep price to pay, perhaps. Otherwise we listened to the audiobook of Roald Dahl’s The BFG and the perennial favorite, Hamilton.
The kid’s squabbling was starting to really get to me, when I turned onto route… and I could see Shenandoah mountain- silhouetted against the late afternoon sky. Then I started to get so excited that I was going to get to spend the next couple of days in those mountains.
It was six thirty by the time we pulled up to the camp site, and it took another hour and a half to set ip the tent and sleeping arrangements. (Let the record show for future me: it takes 90 minutes for you to set up camp by yourself. <gavel strike>). The two kids were not entirely helpful- at one point the baby got into the toiletries box and I looked up to see half a container of floss unspooled across our camp site. I guess in truth there is very little a 5 year old and a 2.5 year old can do to help in putting up a tent, though they were eager to help by taking things randomly out of the car, and they did fight for the chance to hammer in the stakes for the tent. Some day they maybe can put up the whole tent by themselves
By the time the tent was up and staked, I abandoned my original meal plan to have the leftover ground turkey “chili” heated up and eaten with corn chips. Chili and corn chips had seemed a simple meal when I put it on the meal chart, but at 8:30pm it was not simple enough and I just fed the kids Triscuits, summer sausage, cheese, and apples for dinner- all eaten off the cutting board because I couldn’t even with plates by that point. Of course deviating from my meal plan caused a low level panic in my mind at my carefully crafted and rationed meal plan being blown to bits…
KISS supper.
Then we were got out flashlights and headlamps for one last trip to the bathhouse to brush teeth and go to the bathroom. Back to the tent to change into pjs and then snuggled into our sleeping bags by 9:45p, reading another Dahl book, The Enormous Crocodile, by the light of the camp lantern before falling asleep.
So that was the first day. A little chaotic, a little exasperating, but now we were there.
Summer morning walk in the woods. So hot, but not bad in the shade.
I just spent an hour and a half ordering backpacks for the two bigger kids, which clearly is the start of fall/ end of summer. I also threw in a couple of matching skorts for the ten year old and the baby because I was pretty close to free shipping and the two girls love to wear matching clothes and I think it’s super cute when they do. Of course ordering a couple back packs should not take 90 minutes, but when you have kids hanging out with you giving opinions and generally wrecking havoc and unloading shelves, it always takes more time than one would think.
And so onward to the last month of summer. The five year old had his last day of pre-school last week (sob!), and still he has been asking, “Is today a go to school day?”
“No,” I tell him. “Remember, you don’t have to go to school again until you start kindergarten at the end of the month.” And my heart constricts a little because how is it possible that my little guy is old enough to start school somewhere where I don’t get to walk him to the door and sign him in everyday, where he doesn’t get to nap and where he’ll be expected to go to the bathroom on his own? So many things that I wonder if he is ready for it… but no way better to be ready than to actually do it, I guess. In my head he seems so much smaller than the ten year old was when she started kindergarten, but I think he will always be smaller than her in my mind.
We are still on the fence as to where he should go to kindergarten. Our school district offers several immersion programs, the spots available via a lottery system in K and 1st. The five year old was offered a spot in the French Immersion program, so we are now trying to decide whether to send him there or to send him to our home school, where the ten year old will be come fall. (The ten year old was also in a Mandarin immersion program for several years, but this past year we realized it wasn’t the best fit for her, so she is returning to our home school for one last year before middle school. The five year old was offered a place in the Mandarin immersion but we couldn’t see sending him to a program that we just pulled our oldest child out of.)
It is truly a situation where the choice is hard because there are no bad choices, I don’t think. We have friends in the French Immersion and friends at our home school and both schools are equally beloved. When we first had the choice, I thought we would take our time to decide, thinking that a little bit of time might help us sort through the choices. But… it has been almost two months and, really, giving ourselves more time to choose is just… giving us more time to choose. Neither school has emerged as the clear choice. I think, that perhaps, as in many things, there is never a best choice, there is just a choice, and how we move forward from that.
Anyhow – it’s been a couple weeks of slight shifts and transitions. The five year old had his last days of preschool/daycare and will be home doing “Mommy Camp” until school starts at the end of August. The ten year old finished up county camp. She has one week of basketball camp and then will also be joining “Mommy Camp”.
Swim Team has also finished up – I am so proud of how the ten year old did this season. The last race of the season, Divisionals, she was only slated to swim one race (25m backstroke), but at the last minute someone got sick so she also swam the first leg of the freestyle relay. At the end of season party, the ten year old received one of the Coaches’ Choice Awards. It’s the award for the swimmers who aren’t necessarily the fastest, but who have great team spirit and a positive attitude and show up and work hard. In truth, these qualities are the main reason why I encourage her to do activities and it was so exciting to see her get recognized for being such a great person. I’m a little sad swim team is over for the summer – as much work as it was to get the kids to the pool five days a week, it was really fun to watch the kids swim and work so hard to get better and the every-day-at-the-pool routine was nice to have.
7am swim meetTake your markCoaches’ Choice!
We had a camping trip, and prepping for that occupied much of my brain, if not my time. (More camping recaps to come.)
So that’s what’s been on my mind lately. But some of the fun things we’ve done the past few weeks:
One day the ten year old’s camp was closed because it was Election Day and her camp location was a polling center. So I took the ten year old and the baby to ClimbZone, an indoor climbing center where instead of the typical climbing walls one would find in a climbing gym, the climbing structures are in all sorts of fun shapes and structures – like bookshelves, Mount Rushmore, enormous blocks, the Empire State Building… It was a great way to spend a hot afternoon. The baby is already asking to go back.
Climbing sisters
We had dinner one night with some friends, and as we were sitting chatting at the dinner table, I noticed some of those acrylic press on nails. On a whim, I put one sparkly gold nail on my middle finger, and then found that I couldn’t get it off. So I went through the next couple of days with this whimsical bit of sparkle on my finger, and it made me laugh at how ridiculous it was… everything feels so much more glamourous with a shiny gold nail…. driving carpool, pushing kids on the playground, walking the dog….
Life is so much glamourous with sparkly gold nails. Or a single sparkly gold nail.
We went to another concert on the lawn at our local concert hall. I think one of my favorite things, aside from the music – Charm City Junction, a roots/bluegrass band – is that the location is perfect for soaking up golden sun set rays. The music was a lot of fun, and at one point, one of the musicians pulled out a gourd banjo and I was fascinated. Also particularly fun this time is that we struck up a conversation with the people sitting behind us and turns out they are contra-dancers. Since the Husband and I met while contra-dancing, we fell into a lovely friendly conversation with these strangers about the dance community. Then they pointed to a bunch of people in front of us: “Those folks are contra-dancers too.” And it turns out they were friends of the Husband from the days when he was a hardcore contra-dancer. Talking to the couple, made me realize how much fun we used to have contra-dancing and what a big part of our lives it used to be. I don’t know that we are quite ready to go back dancing with the current state of the COVID world, but hopefully some day.
Golden hour light and good music.
The Husband took a day off work and we went to the National Gallery of Art to see an exhibit by photographer Robert Adams. I was unfamiliar with him and his work, and I really liked seeing a large number of his photographs in one place so I could see the scope of what he did. Some of the things that stood out to me in the exhibit:
This Adams’ quote about silence. One often thinks of silence as an auditory thing, but Adams strove to capture silence in his pictures – both the silence of beauty and promise and the silence of destruction.
East from Flagstaff Mountain, Boulder County, Colorado
This photograph. When I first saw it, I thought it was a picture of a lake or the ocean seen from a mountain top. When I read the placard, I discovered that it was actually the suburban sprawl of Boulder beyond those trees. How strikingly similar they look. I spent ten years working in Colorado and many of Adams’ pictures reminded me of my time there – how bright it was, and how stark. Also, seeing the pictures during a heat wave, many of his photographs seemed to radiate heat, with their bareness and light, even though they were taken in the winter.
Concrete and Ice, Missouri River, Clay County South Dakota
This photo which juxtaposes the concrete blocks with the similarly solid ice. It was in pictures like this where I could really see what he meant by photographing silence.
Then no visit to the National Gallery of Art is complete without visiting the big blue rooster on the roof, and the Calder room next to the roof entrance:
I always feel so lucky that we live a short Metro ride from so many great museums. We can have a half day trip to see an exhibit and not feel like we need to see everything since it is easy enough to come back. I find that with museums, I much prefer this easier, more reflective pace.
I thought this interesting:
It’s a picture of the back of the building where I work. I’ve never actually seen it from this view before because there was another building that buts up pretty close to it, and the front of the building looks rather like the right side seen in the picture – very utilitarian and square. But they are doing some construction and have torn the building behind us down and the other day when I walked by, I was struck by how I’ve worked in this building for almost twenty years and never realized what lovely period architectural details the building had. There is something so delightfully surprising about seeing these details revealed. I’m sure it’s a metaphor for something…. not sure what. I’m going to have to store this moment in my mental “metaphors to be used” file.
And one oops – The two older kids got their COVID booster shots, and I thought I’d save time and drop off the school medical forms for the baby as well. I handed the forms to the receptionist and she looks us up. “We can’t fill out these forms because she’s not up to date on her well visits,” I’m told. Wait what?!? Turns out I completely forgot to schedule the baby for her 2.5 year well child visit. Which should have happened five months ago. I’m not quite sure how that happened, but I really felt foolish. Oops. So the appointment was scheduled for the following week, which would put her 2.5 year visit about a month before her 3 year old well visit. Not catastrophic by any means, but between this and double booking the ten year old for camp, I feel like I’m losing track of threads. In a lot of ways, life is a lot easier when I’m working and someone hands me a schedule everyday with where I need to be and what I’m supposed to be doing.
What We Ate:
Saturday- dumplings and green beans
Sunday- hotdogs and corn on the grill. Bundled up and taken to be eaten at the pool.
Monday- Smashed Zucchini with chickpeas and peanuts, New York Times recipe. I had a bunch of zucchini to use up, and this salad sounded interesting – the zucchini is eaten raw, just salted, almost like cucumber. I think I liked this more than the rest of the family.
Tuesday- BLTs. I over cooked the bacon. I like my bacon still slightly chewy, but the rest of the family likes it crisp.
Wednesday- take out bahn mi sandwiches and lawn concert – Charm City Junction.
Thursday- Chicken tacos from Toco Loco by Jonas Cramby. Love making tacos – if I cook the meat ahead of time, or in the InstantPot, the meal comes together so quickly when I get home – heat tortillas on the grill, make an easy cabbage salad (chop cabbage, two big pinches of salt, juice of one lime or red wine vinegar. Cilantro if I’m feeling fancy.), slice some avocados and put it all on the table. Some pickled onions if I have them. And then a meal that everyone can assemble as they wish. I feel like the ratio of tastiness to work is pretty high.
Friday – sesame noodles from Bad Manners cookbook for swim team potluck. The theme was Pasta dinner, and I was a little self conscious about bringing an Asian style noodle dish, but people still ate it, so I guess it was okay.
Saturday – Dinner at friend’s house – they grilled.
Sunday – Swim Team award’s banquet. Pizza and cake.
Monday – Pizza and Sneakerella, a Cinderella with a twist story. I thought it was a lot of fun, and it was neat to see a Cinderella movie where Cinderella was a boy.
Tuesday – Eggplant noodle salad from the Greens Cookbook.
Wednesday – Zucchini Boats with ground turkey. This recipe from Dad with a Pan is my go to recipe when I have zucchini. It’s so easy to put together and really tasty.
Hope your summer is unfolding with delights and adventures!
