Diane

Weekly recap + what we ate: Snow! finally!

Snow and clouds and blue sky in between.

We finally had snow! After the mildest of winters, snow arrived. Enough snow and ice that the first two days back from winter break were declared snow days by the school district. The third day was a delayed opening, and it ended up being quite a mess; so many school bus drivers were out due to COVID that ninety bus routes were cancelled that day. Given that COVID numbers were going up, we decided that just to be cautious I would drive the nine year old to and from school instead of having her take the bus. I’m not sure if it really is going to make a difference, but isn’t this whole pandemic layer after layer of risk mitigation and risk assessment? So we figured if the bus was a layer of COVID risk, we could remove that since I could drive her. Hopefully by the time I go back to work in February, the COVID numbers will have gone down.

I’ve been reading Katherine May’s Wintering, and she has a passage about snow days that I love:
“I love the inconvenience [of snow] the same way that I sneakingly love a bad cold: the irresistible disruption to mundane life, forcing you to stop for a while and step outside your normal habits.”

In a way, the snow day seemed like merely an extension of our COVID isolation period – a time outside of the everyday rush and bustle where we were forced to just be in the place we were. The Husband went to work – since his test was negative and he was vaxed and boosted and had no symptoms, he was allowed back to work after five days – leaving me home with all three kids. We couldn’t venture very far afield, and instead found our lives wrapped in a cozy cocoon of winter weather. Even our planned grocery delivery had been cancelled. So we ate down the pantry and the freezer, and the shin deep snow in the backyard was our playground.

Bundling the kids is always a process. It takes me about fifteen to twenty minutes to get the four year old and the baby fully into their snow gear and out the door. (The nine year old gets herself dressed, save for me zipping her up since we have these gloves with extended cuffs that have to be put on before the coat.) Mittens, snow suits, hats, scarves, wool socks, boots, Aquaphor to protect their cheeks … it’s a lot. But at least I know they are warm enough to they will stay out there for a good long while. I do need to put a calendar reminder for next fall to review the snow gear since I think the two older kids will need new snow pants next year, and definitely boots. Luckily there will be hand me downs for the baby.

The second snow day, the nine year old wanted to take a walk down to the trail to see what the snow looked like there. Everything was blanketed white and shimmery ice. The kids played a little too close for my comfort at the edge of the creek, my warning that wet feet would be cold feet going unheeded. It was a beautiful walk, though. The trail was quite empty and the stillness made our crunching footsteps seem louder than normal. I love the squeaky brittle sound of walking in snow.

There was a nice lazy rhythm to these snow days… up and outside by 9:30a. Play in the snow until lunchtime. Then lunch with hot chocolate – I had bought a large pack of hot cocoa bombs from Costco before Christmas. I don’t think I ever got the milk hot enough to melt the chocolate shell and release the hot cocoa mix in a swirling explosion like on the YouTube videos. The bombs kind of just floated in milk and then slowly disintegrated to reveal cocoa powder and marshmallows. Oh well, nothing is ever like on YouTube.

Then indolent afternoons of screentime (nine year old), books (four year old) and naps (baby) while I tried to pick up the kitchen. I was once again reminded how much living happens when people are home all day. The clean up felt constant. It was definitely an unrelenting couple of days.

Wednesday, I took the four year old and the baby sledding while the nine year old was in school. (The current guidelines allow her back in school if she is vaccinated and without symptoms, so I guess she didn’t really have to quarantine.) I love sledding even though we don’t own a sled. I had, in fact, put a calendar reminder for myself to buy a sled last fall. But fall came with it’s sixty degree weather and the need for a sled didn’t seem imminent. Never mind that the point of writing myself a calendar reminder was so that I didn’t wait until the need was indeed imminent. I felt a little sad earlier in the week as I watched other kids whizz down hills in their sleds, and kicked myself for not having bought a sled. Then I went looking around the house for other things to use. I ended up grabbing a cardboard box (what else?) that I wrapped in a garbage bag, and the cement mixing tray that we had been using as a water table. This latter worked surprisingly well, though the cardboard and garbage bag did manage to get the baby down the hill, even if not as slickly. It was really adorable because the four year old insisted on keeping one hand on his sister’s “sled” as they went down the hill in tandem. Once in a while they fell over, going heels over head, but they got up and did it again, pushing and pulling their make-shift sled up the hill.

Thursday, was the first day that both kids were back for a full school day. I took the baby to Seneca Creek State Park in hopes of having a little hike, but she just wanted to play on the playground. I did manage to convince her to walk down to the edge of the lake and we threw branches in the water, a favorite pastime. It was definitely cold – probably mid 30s – but there is something I really love about cold weather and bare trees and the quiet of winter.

Friday we had more snow, and another snow day with classes cancelled. I took the kids sledding again. This time, I also brought along a baby bath tub since the cardboard and garbage bag from last time had disintegrated. The baby bathtub didn’t work great, which was just as well since the baby wanted to go to the playground instead. So, after telling the nine year old to keep an eye on her brother, I took the baby to the playground. She wanted to swing, though before I knew it, she had fallen asleep in the swing!

We ended up meeting up with some friends at the hill, which always make things more fun for the nine year old. And then at one point, I looked up and a snowball fight had broken out among all the neighborhood kids who were at the hill, complete with sled barricades. Of course my first instinct was to tell the nine year old that she shouldn’t be throwing snowballs at other kids, but I bit my tongue and let the classic kids rumble play out.

So in the final tally, the first week back at school was actually one short day and one full day. The four year old was technically released from isolating on Thursday, so he had one day of school before the snow day since the day care follows the public school closures.

On the one hand, three snow days in one week is a lot, but on the other hand, I was kind of glad that I had a bit of relief from the anxiety of sending my kids back to the COVID germ pool that is school.

Fun food discovery:
I’ve started making a Dutch Baby for breakfast on those days when the kids want pancakes but I have no patience for all the assembling and mixing and making. The Dutch baby batter comes together quickly in the blender and then cooks up super fast, all in one skillet. Bring the skillet to the table and everyone have at it. So much quicker than pancakes.

What We Ate:

Monday: Green bean and tofu stir fry.

Tuesday: Black Bean tacos. Basically a can of black beans, warmed up with half cup salsa. Eaten on tortillas.

Wednesday: Lentil Quinoa bowls with Roasted Broccoli.

Thursday: Cod cakes (from Dinner Illustrated) with roast asparagus and potatoes.

Friday: pizza (the husband made) and The Muppet Movie. It was the baby’s turn to choose so we each picked a movie from our DVD collection, lined them up in a row and let her pick one. I have to admit, while I find The Muppet Movie hilarious, I have yet to stay awake for the whole thing. Funny story – the Husband used to watch this movie with the nine year old, and everytime the movie got to that bit in the middle where the projector “broke”, he would turn it off and say, “Oh no! I guess that’s the end of the movie.” It took her a while to figure out that there was a whole other rest of the movie that she hadn’t seen yet.

January Challenge # 6 – a tasty bite

Think of a recipe or dish that is important to you and your family or culture. Share the recipe with somebody else, and ask them to share a recipe that is important to them.

Tea eggs are ubiquitous in Taiwan. If you go to 7-11 they will have vats of them, self-serve style, much like American 7-11s have hotdog cases. When I was little, we often had a big batch of tea eggs stewing on the stove. If you look up tea egg recipes, they are often so neat and tidy, delicately made with orange peels, star anise, and bags of tea. The tea eggs my mother made were messy and wild; she made them with loose tea, and as the eggs sat in soy sauce, the tight little dried tea leaves would unfurl, opening into an unkempt tangle that draped over the eggs like seaweed. She also made sure to thoroughly crack the boiled eggs so that they would reveal beautifully marbled spiderweb patterns when unpeeled. There was a kind of brazen imperfection in the pot of cracked eggs, as if they were daring you to judge them by their broke, flawed appearance, when in truths these cracks are what makes a tea egg – the cracks allows the flavor to seep into the egg whites and allow the soy sauce and tea to soak into the beautifully marbled patterns . Most recipes you find online call for letting the eggs sit for an hour or so, but that yields an egg that is beige or light tan. To get the deep brown colour of my childhood, the eggs need to sit… indefinitely. That is also part of the homey quality of tea eggs – they are a constant presence on the stove, always available for when one needs a quick savory protein snack, and filling the kitchen with the warm smell of tea and soy sauce.

When I make tea eggs, I sort of cheat. Primarily because I like my tea eggs slightly more soft boiled than typical. The tea eggs of my childhood always had that faint greenish ring around the yolk, which I always found unappealing. So for my method I make a batch of soft boiled eggs – these day in the instant pot – then I peel them and let them sit in the already cooked soy sauce and tea concoction. This way, it’s more of a marinating process then a stewing process and the eggs don’t continue to cook. You don’t get the beautiful marbled exterior, but it’s a trade off I’m willing to make to have the interior I like. I’ve never been one to value the aesthetics of food over the taste.

I don’t have a specific recipe: Soy sauce, tea, star anise, cinnamon stick if I have it. Toss, stir, steep, smell. It’s a very forgiving recipe. And if it doesn’t taste quite right, I’ve found that leaving the eggs in to steep even longer usually sets things right.

January Challenge #3

Today’s challenge is part of “We Are Connected” and has been inspired by all sorts of ideas that were sent to us, and that came out of creative workshops. So, although this idea is from us at 64 Million Artists – really it’s a little bit of a lot of people’s imagination – just like the challenge.
What does the word ‘Connected’ mean to you? Find a small piece of paper, a post-it or the back of an envelope. This piece of paper is your blank canvas! Use it to capture the images, stories or memories that you associate with the word connected. It might capture your connection to a friend, a family member, nature, a hobby, a memory…anything goes

Weekly recap + what we ate: the last week of the year!

The day after Christmas we went for COVID tests, back to back appointments, with the Husband and the four year old going in first while I waited outside with the COVID positive baby and then me taking the nine year old in when they came out.

The people at the testing center looked exhausted.

“Has it been busy?” I asked, somewhat inanely making conversation with the lady who swabbed our noses.

“Oh yes.”

“Worse than Thanksgiving?”

“Much much worse.”

I remembered to thank her profusely for doing her job. How stressful it must be. Even though a lot of healthy people come to the testing center to get requisite tests for travel and family gatherings, I’m sure there are a good number that actually will test positive.

It was our first trip out of the house in three days, and once we were in the car speeding home, the temptation was great to just keep driving and not go home – that little intoxicating taste of freedom. But, being responsible people, we took ourselves home and continued to quarantine.

The husband, the nine year old and I came back with negative tests rather quickly. The four year old’s test took the full 72 hours and was… positive. wump wump. But in the end, it was kind of a moot point because his daycare center ended up closing for the week anyway due to a COVID related staffing shortage. I feel like so many people I know – people who are super careful and vaccinated and boostered – were testing positive. It has been kind of brutal.

We spent the week rediscovering the joys of our backyard. I googled “classic outdoor games” and came across SPUD, which I had never played as a child, but which the kids loved. The two little kids also discovered the joy of throwing a ball at a pyramid of tin cans and yogurt containers. And of course there were cardboard creations and improvised obstacle courses.

And indoors there was this classic – the set from the Husband’s childhood, with missing pieces supplemented via eBay:

Speaking of childhood nostalgia – we watched 9-Bit Christmas and it was delightful. Full of the hallmarks of a childhood in the late 80s, and the story was kind of great too. It supposed to be a knock off of A Christmas Story, but it’s gentler and more forgiving… perhaps a sign of the times? Anyway, will definitely put that into the Christmas movie rotation.

For New Years Day, I wanted noodles, but we didn’t have the right kind of noodles at home. This is probably laughable, since I have a bin in the cupboard with at least four different kinds of noodles from Asia. Noodles are definitely my favorite food. I love how versatile yet specific they are.

So I decided to try my hand at making udon noodles from scratch. I’ve come to realize that the combination of flour + water + salt is the basis of so many different dishes – noodles, dumpling wrappers, scallion pancakes… All the recipes for Udon noodles that I read called for kneading the dough with your feet. So I mixed up the dough and got the kids involved in the stomping and the rolling. I did have to improvise a bit since we were out off all purpose flour. I don’t know how that happened – probably isolating hot on the heels of bake-heavy holiday season. But I did have whole wheat flour and sprouted flour (a random Hungry Harvest purchase). I also had bread flour, but I didn’t remember until too late, and in retrospect that might have been the best option.

The results were tasty. Granted, toss anything in scallion ginger sauce and it will be tasty, but the noodles tasted simple and doughy. The chew was not as bouncy as ideal, but I think that might have been because of the flour. I’m on the fence as to whether to try again, but it’s good to have demystified the idea of making my own noodles.

We also put together the Swedish climbing wall that we had bought for the kids for Christmas. I thought it was going to be a huge challenge, but it was surprisingly easy and the kids love it. A good indoor energy burner, for sure. And I may once in a while be found hanging from it too…

Throw back food stuffs:
When I was little, growing up in a tiny Canadian town, much of the Taiwanese food that my parents loved wasn’t available in stores. They made their own dumplings. They even made their own tofu – a multi-day process that started with soaking soy beans and involved a rustic metal machine that made grinding noises in our basement, and square molds that sat overnight in our sink. Of course these days, we buy dumplings and tofu at the store. One other thing I remember my mother making were shrimp chips – they came out of this box as hard round translucent discs which my mother fried in oil until they were puffy and pink and crunchy. You popped the fried chip in your mouth and the chip would bite at your tongue before dissolving in a crunch of salty shrimpy goodness. These days you can readily buy ready-made shrimp chips in the snack aisle at the Asian market. Even the local Giant has them in the ethnic food section, though those ones are skinny and shaped almost like French fries.
The other day, I was at HMart looking for fun food stocking stuffers, and I came across a box of uncooked shrimp chips and I had to buy them for my own stocking. Last week, I gave them a go. I don’t love frying things; I find it messy and I never know what to do with the oil afterwards. So I thought I would see if I could fry the shrimp chips using the airfryer function of our new toaster oven. They do lack the umami of being fried in oil, but the crunch shrimp-y goodness is still there. And the novelty and nostalgia.

Other cozy things this week:
In Summer of 2019, pregnant with our third baby, I decided I wanted to learn how to knit. I had learned once, but then found crochet to be easier and more forgiving so knitting fell by the wayside. Both older kids had handmade blankets made for them when they were born, and I wanted to make one for the baby that was coming. So I dug out a book, looked at some online tutorials, and cast on my first row. It was a pretty simple project – knit stich back and forth til the creation felt long enough. I don’t know if it was time or skill or what not, but the whole thing turned out to be pretty slow going. But finally, the week before Christmas, I finished it and was able to wrap it and put it under the tree for the baby to open come Christmas day. She calls it her “Bankie” and I love seeing her cuddled under it. It certainly has flaws, and the colours don’t quite go together, but I think it will still keep her warm and loved.

What we ate:

Sunday: Cauliflower Curry Soup from ATK’s Vegan for Everyone.

Monday: Sweet Potato and Carrot Eggah and Roasted Potatoes. We don’t eat a lot of potates, but a bunch came in our Hungry Harvest box, so I had some to use up. I cooked the for “0” mins in the InstantPot and then tossed them in olive oil and salt and roasted at 400 until the outsides got golden and crispy. They were really good and I’m now looking forward to more potatoes in our box.

Tuesday: Chili. Every year at some point over the holidays the Husband makes chili. He always makes it the night before so it has time to sit and meld. I love eating my chili with pickled jalapenos, onions and sour cream. The Husband likes his with Fritos. So do the kids. I love how chili is meal where everyone wins.

Wednesday: Banh mi bowls. Made with tofu ground beef rather than pork. And eaten with noodles.

Thursday: BBQ Pinto Bean Tacos with mango salsa.

Friday: Pizza (home made pan pizza) and Empire Strikes Back.

Saturday: Dumpling and homemade udon noodles in scallion ginger sauce with stir fried napa cabbage and mushrooms.

Happy 2022! My year that was 2021

I started off 2022 by making some bad choices, staying up until 4am, seduced by a Law & Order marathon and then a 2am Hallmark holiday movie that was expectedly saccharine, but surprisingly engaging.

The Husband, the nine year old and I had stayed up on New Years Eve to watch the ball drop. The baby tried, but fell asleep on the couch. The four year old put himself to bed around 9:30pm, after we watched Empire Strikes Back for movie night. Everyone who was awake went to bed after the ball drop. I, of course, didn’t want to leave the baby asleep in the basement by herself… hence being sucked in by the Law & Order marathon.

When I was single, I used to watch Law & Order all the time. Not any of the spin offs, just the original. I don’t watch enough cable tv these days to watch Law & Order anymore – I feel like with all the streaming services, one has to be pretty intentional about consuming content these days, and Law & Order is one of those shows you can take for granted and never watch because it seems to always be on. But once in a while, I’ll find a marathon on and before I know it, half the day is gone. Actually, I seem to remember doing this last New Year’s Eve.

At any rate – It’s a new year, but I thought I’d look back and pick my highlight reel for 2021:

January: Positve COVID test for the baby and our first isolation experience. Two weeks. Good things: Grocery delivery, Zoom, a birthday cake sent in the mail, a new President, a multi-racial female VP, and Georgia flipping the senate. Hard things: Capitol riots on January 6th, distance learning.

February: Organizing a fun Zoom birthday party for the Husband involving Husband trivia. Taking my last milk donation to the Breast Milk Bank – kind of bittersweet, but glad to be done pumping. Good things: some wonderful snow days. The baby says, “Mama!” Hard things: distance learning.

March: Led a virtual class on stage management for kids via Zoom for a local opera company. Took the kids to stay in a Lockhouse along the C&O Canal – our first overnight since the pandemic started a year ago. Good things: The nine year old goes back to in person school, the Husband got his first dose of COVID vaccine. I finally caved and bought Airpods and it is life-changing. Hard things: Lost the four year old at Best Buy (found him again, but it was scary). Atlanta spa shootings. Favorite news story: The Ever Given stuck in the Suez canal. Riveting drama.

April: Spring trip to Longwood Gardens. Got my first vaccine shot! Good things: kite-flying and Easter eggs. the four year old staying dry at night. Listening for the first time to this little thing called Hamilton and realizing that it’s pretty good. Hard Things: homework battles.

May: Trip to the Air and Space Museum. Got my first haircut in a year and a half. Worked for pay! Work for new to me opera company and many wonderful new to me colleagues. Good things: My parents arrived to help with the kids while I worked. So grateful for them. Hard things: Working from home with a toddler (I was over a year late to this game… big hugs and high fives and all my respect to people who did it since March 2020)

June: Start in person rehearsals. How I’ve missed chorus rehearsals. Camping with the kids and my parents. Good things: joined a pool. First date night with the Husband since can’t remember when. First stop on Maryland’s Ice Cream Trail. Beautiful things: being witness to the joy and love and tears as singers and musicians make music together onstage for the first time in too too long. Hard things: commuting on the beltway after 2pm. Awkward thing: accidentally setting off the fire alarm at work by knocking over a rack of music stands.

July: Second show of my contract and reuniting with a very dear friend in the director’s chair. We’d worked together as baby ASM and baby AD and it’s almost surreal that we’re all grown up. Visit with a good friend from college. Good things: The kids got bunk beds! So many people on my local listserv offered up bed rails when I posted about needing one for the baby. Getting to swim laps in the pool during adult swim. Ted Lasso. Marina InterLibrary Loan system. Summer Olympics. Hard things: Tech. Being a landlord. My parents leaving; I’m always sad to see them go. Mosquitoes. Delta variant and never ending risk-assessment.

August: Took the kids camping by myself for three nights. Did some old fashioned back to school shopping and bought clothes for the kids (which… they have already outgrown!). The four year old went back to daycare/pre-school after 17 months away. “The kids are wild,” he says. Trip to Dutch Wonderland and Longwood Gardens – stayed in a hotel! First Day of School for the nine year old. Good things: Re-watching Pride and Prejudice – the ten hour Jennifer Ehle/ Colin Firth version. My mask making group at church getting an award of recognition from the Hospital. Free toddler play time at the local rec center. Hard Things: Nine year old’s basketball camp moving indoors because of torrential rain, and then being cancelled. Setting up tent by myself in the rain. Trying to get back into the school routine.

September: The Husband had knee surgery. Four year old sick, but thankfully not COVID. I decided to take up running. Good things: outdoor music concerts at the Golf Course on Friday nights. Apple picking. NSO in the neighborhood string quartet concert followed by the movie Soul. Nine year old’s bus stop moving to walking distance from home. Got new glasses! Hard things: Not planning well enough to complete the Maryland Ice Cream Tour. (definitely a third world problem). Fighting house clutter in an unending battle. Texas abortion laws

October: Quit Facebook, after realizing it was a toxic infinity scroll for me. Made a Millenium Falcon out of cardboard for the 4 year old and won Hallowe’en. Good Things: Malaria vaccine approved by WHO. Hammocks in the park. Hard Things: questioning whether I’ve overscheduled the kids’ weekends. Patience while parenting.

November: Longwood Gardens in the Fall. COVID vaccine for the nine year old. Tackled some big house organization projects. Good things: a visit from dear friends. Rented a concertina to try to learn how to play. Hot Pot playdate in friend’s backyard. Lots of great hikes with the baby. Hard Things: Hmmm… nothing specific, just the daily grind. My Thanksgiving apple pie had a soggy bottom… need to figure that out.

December: Gig running super titles, first time back working at and indoor venue. The baby has COVID. Again. Seems an ironic bookend to the year. Hard things: booster shot wiped me out for a little over 24 hours. Hard things: Typical holiday overwhelm. Omnicron.

Well our second year of COVID living and the end seems very much like March 2020, but I think I feel less unsure and more accepting of what risks I’m willing to take. There is work coming up in February, which is exciting and daunting, but I’m looking forward to it. Here’s hoping 2022 is exciting and boring in all the right ways!

January Challenge Day 2 – Why I love…

On a whim, I signed up for 64millionartists’ January Challenge. Every day they send you a creative prompt. Today’s prompt was:
Think of a place or location that is important to you. Now, finish the sentence “Why I love…” with all of the things that you love about that place. Keep going! You could set a timer for five minutes and see how many things you can note down about your love for this place. You could illustrate, or share photographs of some aspect of the natural or built environment. Capture your memories or the people and culture that make it what it is.

Colorado – mountains and history. Timeless and historic.

I love Colorado because:
There mountains are beautiful.
The skies are the bluest blue imaginable.
There are no mosquitoes.
It does not get humid in the summer.
Walking to a waterfall and showering in cold mountain runoff.
The $1 cookie place on the 16th street mall in Denver.
Despite everything, I think the company I worked for did some pretty great opera, and I was so proud of many of the productions we did.
The best places to eat were in the Casinos.
You can rent a pontoon with a grill. And we did.
Boulder. Brunch. Bookstores.
The IASTSE crew I work with there are not there just for the pay check – they care. Not just about the show, but about the people who are trying to create the show.
The pottery place that operates on the honor system. An unlocked room full of pottery, priced shockingly inexpensively, and no one overseeing it – just a box to put money in, a ledger to record what you bought, and some newspaper to wrap your purchases.
So many wonderful memories and moments.

Weekly recap + what we ate: Christmas and COVID

The post-present carnage. Can you find the children?

Welp. The week was a blur of last minute Christmas errands and regular life routines. Then Wednesday night, the baby was super fussy, and just wanted to cuddle. And then she threw up on me.

The next day, Thursday, was the first day of winter break for the two bigger kids. I took the baby to the pediatrician in the afternoon. She was back to her regular sunny self, no fever or other symptoms, but these days you can’t take even minor symptoms for granted. The pediatrician declared the baby to not have anything bacterial and then ordered a rapid and a PCR COVID test. Then pins and needles until about an hour or so later when the pediatrician called to let us know that the rapid test was positive.

Again.

It being two days before Christmas, testing sites were all booked up. I think a lot of people were wanting to get tested in anticipation of holiday gathering and travel. The soonest appointments we could get for the rest of the family was for Sunday afternoon. Fortunately we had not planned on going anywhere. We had to cancel some playdates and the one day of winter break camp for the nine year old – luckily they gave us a credit.

So now ten days of isolating at home. At least, depending on the results from the rest of us.

Despite everything it was still a lovely Christmas. We were all together and the weather was beautiful – sixty degrees and sunny. We opened presents, did lots of baking, video chatted with family… all things that were on the agenda anyway.

Some fun things from this past week, including some pre-COVID test adventures:

-A lovely day downtown. We went downtown to see the trains at the Botanical Gardens and then went to the TubaChristmas concert – both things that were seasonal traditions for us, and which this year were outdoors. The theme for the Botanical Gardens train display this year was agriculture around the world. I always love this particular train display because all the structures and buildings are built from plant materials. It’s always great fun to not only look at the intricate detailed displays, but also to try to figure out what plants they are made from. My favorite this year was the Florida orange grove.

Since we had a bit of extra time, we also walked over to see the Capitol Christmas Tree. It’s always a little humbling to see the Capitol building and think of all the work that happens there. This time, though, there was also something a little sobering to see the protective fencing that has been put up around the building. January 6th was almost a year ago, and it seems like such a strange and horrific day that feels close and distant at the same time.

Sign of the times.

The Husband and I have gone to TubaChristmas almost every year since we started dating. It had been cancelled last year, so we were really excited to see that it would be held outdoors this year. There was an open tent, though we stood outside on the plaza out of an abundance of caution. There were only 200 tubas, sousaphones, and euphoniums this year – usually there are over three hundred. But even still, they made a beautiful noise and I loved hearing them play holiday favorites.

-Awesome shopping experience: We decided that we wanted to add some games to our collection for Christmas. My friend had long sung the praises of a local store, Labyrinth Games & Puzzles, so I checked out their website. Turns out they have a service where they will recommend games for you. I filled out a form giving details about whom I was shopping for – ages, types of games we enjoy, price range, etc. Two days later, they sent me a list of four games they thought would suit us. I read the descriptions, chose two, and went to pick them up less than 24 hours later. As much as I enjoy (a little too much) the process of picking out a perfect present with slow thoughtfulness, there is something so beautifully easy about having someone knowledgeable just send me a bunch of options and then clicking “buy”. The concierge service felt almost decadent. Is this what people who have people do? I will definitely do this again, and seek out shops that have this kind of service. I think our local independent bookshop will do this too.

-Celebrating our anniversary. I didn’t really plan anything special, and what with Mandarin class for the four year old and doing the swim practice run for the nine year old, was gone from the house most of the day. But after I got home from the swim clinic run, I whipped up a batch of Smitten Kitchen’s chocolate pudding. I love this recipe because it is so fast and easy and I almost always have the ingredients on hand. There are definitely other recipes that are a little more lush, but none that beat this recipe for it’s high ratio of ease to deliciousness. I got home at 8pm, had the pudding chilling in the fridge twenty minutes later and by the time we were on our second episode of Succession that night, we were enjoying chocolate pudding. Not a fancy anniversary celebration, but sweet and simple. Which seemed appropriate.

-continued mild weather and beautiful morning sunlight at the creek as the baby throws sticks in the water just to watch them drift downstream:

And Christmas memories from 2021:

-Staying up late the night before to make cinnamon rolls and watch the NORAD Santa Tracker.

-This is the first year that I had the nine year old buy presents for her siblings and for the Husband. Seeing what she picked out and how she thought through the process was really fun.

-The baby raiding everyone’s stocking for chocolate. I had to pull the last four chocolate peanut butter cups and put them on a high high shelf.

-matching pjs for Christmas:

-making cookies. We made gingerbread, shortbread and peppermint candy cane cookies this year. The candy cane ones are fun and the kids had fun helping to roll the different colour stripes.

-Jello-O a traditional holiday side dish for us. The nine year old made it this year from a recipe that we thought was Aunt Sara’s, but turns out it wasn’t. Apparently hers is entirely cream cheese and Jell-O powder, without the just Jell-O layer.

-My first attempt at Cornish Game Hen. Which did not go well. They were not cooked all the way through initially so I had to put them back in the oven for twenty minutes. Which was just enough time to learn how to play one of our new games, one which has already become a family favorite. It is simple enough that the four year old can play it with a little bit of help, but also the nine year old can play without getting bored. And it’s short. So you can play it while waiting for dinner to finish cooking…

-Beautiful, incredible sixty degree weather on Christmas day. I will be always grateful for our backyard, but doubly so when we have to isolate. After we opened presents, we went outside and hung out in the backyard for a few hours – the kids with they new toys and the Husband and I with our new books. And the concertina – I’m still attempting to learn to play, and so far I can play a C major scale and a G major scale.

-Then we watched It’s a Wonderful Life, as per tradition.

There were definitely things we didn’t get done this year – we made cookies, but didn’t decorate them, we didn’t get to church or see friends, I didn’t make rolls for Christmas dinner because the dough didn’t rise in time, we didn’t read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas eve (my favorite tradition). But it was still a lovely day – organic and unrushed – and we were all together, so I guess we did achieve the most important thing, even with a positive COVID test.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Dumplings, quick cucumber salad, and ginger-scallion noodles

Sunday: leftovers

Monday: Tofu Pad Thai from ATK Vegan for Everyone

Tuesday: Brussel Sprout Fried Rice from Meena Sodha’s East

Wednesday: Mushroom and Leek Tart. I meant to make a galette, but didn’t get around to making the pastry crust, so I used some puff pastry I had in the freezer, and it turned out beautifully. Will remember for next time: puff pastry + sauteed veggies = easy tasty dinner.

Thursday: Pizza and Polar Express. Movie night early this week because we had anticipated going to church on Christmas eve. Wump wump.

Friday: Roast teriyaki salmon and napa cabbage salad.

Saturday: (Christmas Dinner!) Cornish Game Hen roasted w/ potatoes and leeks, roasted zucchini, jello. Sticky Toffee Pudding for dessert. and all the cookies.

Weekly recap + what we ate: striving for festive

Drive through lights – picture taken by the nine year old!

Another mild week weather-wise. After working the week before, I really wanted to make sure to spend lots of time outside and managed to get two hikes in with the baby.

The first hike was another naturalist led hike organized by a nature centers. I had bundled the baby up, but the weather got increasingly mild and by 11:30am, she had shed almost all her layers except her turtleneck. We’ve done several of these hikes before, but the naturalist always takes a different path and points out different things. This time, she led the children to build a fairy house next to a hole at the base of a tree. Then there was some walking along fallen trees, and throwing rocks and leaves in the river and tree identification.

My second hike was as the end of the week. Inspired by the selfie stand overlooking the Potomac I came across a couple weeks before, I decided to go find another of the selfie stands that the County Parks had put up. The closest one was on a trail called Burnt Mill Trail. This trail ran next to the shopping plaza with the Trader Joe’s and I’d been on the southern part of the trail, but not the northern part where the selfie stand was. According to the selfie stand website, there are actually four selfie stand locations along this trail, but we only found two. The baby was an awesome hiker. There were some parts of the hike where I lost the trail, and she determinedly scrambled up through bramble and dirt paths, sometimes on her hands and knees. Funny how on the straight and easy path she wanted to be carried, but on the steep and overgrown paths, she forged ahead fearlessly on her own. We were never in danger of truly being lost, as the trail more or less followed the curves of the stream, but there were definitely parts where what I thought was a trail was not really a trail.

Aside from those two hikes, the rest of the week was kind of … bleh. I think something about the kids being in school right up til two days before Christmas makes this year’s holiday season seem kind of… rushed. I’ve checked a lot of the usual holiday boxes. The cards got ordered at the beginning of the week (finally) and surprisingly arrived by the end of the week, so they are ready to be addressed and sent out and hopefully most people will get them before Christmas. We have a ton of Christmas books to read, and even if we aren’t reading Christmas books every night, we manage to do it several times a week. We’re watching Christmas movies. (Last week was While You Were Sleeping. I love this movie so much. There something about Sandra Bullock’s smart and sweet Lucy and Bill Pullman’s rugged pining Jack that checks all my rom com hero/ine boxes. I consider this a Christmas movie, definitely.) The tree is up, the mantel is decorated, the Christmas lights are up outside the house.

We went to a drive through light display this past week. I made a thermos of hot chocolate and picked up treats from one of our favorite Asian bakeries. It was a bit of a slog through rush hour traffic to get there, but the lights were beautiful, we enjoyed our treats and listened to Christmas music as we drove through the display, and we got Indian take-out for dinner on the way back.

But something… not sure what… makes it feel like just going through the motion. I think the stress of continued COVID living (omincron!!), the pace of having to still maintain the everyday schedule right until the last minute, and the stress of trying to decorate the house while having a small destructive toddler running around… There was a snow globe accident that was a real low point in our, “We can never have nice things again.” narrative. I mean that was probably overly dramatic, but the snow globe had been a Christmas present when the Husband was nine, so he felt the loss pretty acutely.

Anyhow.. it all feels like a slog. I don’t know.. perhaps it is just a pre-holiday low and once we actually get to Christmas I’ll feel better. We have tentative plans to go to Christmas even service, and that’s always been a bright point for me.

Two fun things this week:

I always like the serendipity when my kids match the playground equipment!

The baby has gotten really good at putting away the silverware. She managed to put away the whole basket… and for the first time, everything ended up in the right slot!

What We Ate:

Saturday: Dumplings and Dan Dan Mian, made by the Husband. The homemade chili oil was amazing.

Sunday: Spaghetti and vegan meatballs with garlic bread. Easy, jarred sauce and pre-made meatballs. This meal was by request of the four year old.

Monday: Squash Malai Kari from Meera Sodha’s East. I had some butternut squash that needed to be used up so I made this curry. Really tasty.

Tuesday: Korean Tacos with Napa Cabbage Slaw from Dinner Illustrated. The Dinner Illustrated recipe calls for red cabbage slaw, but I had napa and some watermelon radishes, so that’s what I used for the slaw.

Wednesday: Teriyaki Tofu from America’s Test Kitchen’s Vegan for Everyone. Served with Sichuan green beans. This was a baked teriyaki dish, and I added mushrooms because I didn’t have quite enough tofu. It was really tasty and I had leftover sauce! Can’t wait to use it on something.

Thursday: Take Out Indian after seeing Christmas Lights.

Friday: Pizza (made by Husband) and The Little Prince, the opera by Rachel Portman and Nicholas Wright. Such a beautiful beautiful score.

Weekly Recap + what we ate: wiped out then up and at ’em

4pm on a Tuesday in December. The days continue to shorten.

I got my booster on Sunday, and was completely useless on Monday. I wonder if it was because I got a Moderna booster? Originally, I had gotten Pfizer vaccines with no side effects aside from a sore arm. I had read that there were some negligible benefits from mixing and matching boosters. At any rate, I got the booster at 5pm on Sunday. Compared with getting my original vaccine, which seemed like an EVENT with a site run by the National Guard in a huge white tent, the booster was kind of a very banal affair. I got my shot at the county health center and the fifteen minute waiting period was self monitored – no large wall clocks or health attendants.

At any rate, Sunday I felt fine, but Monday was rough. Despite it being 60 degrees and sunny, I felt chilly all day and could barely function. I took the kids to the bus stop and daycare, and then attempted to take the baby to the park. I pulled up to the park parking lot and couldn’t get out of the car, I was so cold and achy. We went to the library instead – the cleaners were at the house so I didn’t want to go home just yet. At least at the library I could sit while the baby did puzzles and read books. After the library, we got home and had lunch and then I gave up on actually doing anything and spent the rest of the afternoon on the couch watching This Is Us. I usually think of the basement/tv room as the Husband’s domain and rarely go down there to watch tv when he isn’t home. But if there was ever at time I wanted to just hunker on a big comfy couch in front of a big screen… well the day after my booster was it.

That evening we had planned to decorate the tree, but I was so out of it that I just moved from the downstairs couch to the upstairs couch, stopping to make two brie en croutes on the way there. (Or is it bries on croute? actually it’s not relevant because the Husband bought camembert by mistake – so I guess it was camemberts en croute.) We had planned to have snack dinner and trim the tree. I guess snack dinner still happened, and the tree got trimmed. My hazy memory of it was lots of squeals of excitement from the baby. Apparently every ornament was a new source of delight for her.

Christmas Tree – step one is the lights.

Tuesday, I felt somewhat better and ready to deal with life. Namely meeting the locksmith because over the weekend, the baby managed to lock the door to the toy room, and we DIDN’T HAVE A KEY!!!! Which isn’t really a big deal, except that we keep the baby’s clothes in the toy room. Anyhow, the grumpy old man of a locksmith opened the door and then chastised us for having keyed locks on our interior doors and re-keyed the toy room lock.

I have to say that I was tempted never to tell the kids that we had unlocked the door to the toy room. Even for the two days that the toy room was locked… no one asked about it. The kids found plenty to play with around the house – a box of blocks, a cardboard box or two, books. I think we actually got to Thursday before the four year old discovered that he could actually get back in the toy room. It really made me realize that we probably don’t really need an entire room just for toys. Or even the toys themselves. I don’t know that I’m ready to embrace such a minimalist mantra, but I think knowing that it’s possible is a good thought to have in the back of my head.

The rest of the week was taken up by… paid work!!!

Oh green sticky tabs! How I’ve missed you!

I got a call the week before asking if I was available to run the supertitles for a new jazz opera. Initially I was reluctant because finding childcare for the baby always feels like a huge hurdle. But the Husband said that he could take one afternoon off work so that I could go to rehearsals, and the company presenting the work said that I only had to come to one afternoon rehearsal. So I agreed.

I haven’t run titles in a while, but it’s pretty straightforward. It’s basically running a 300+ slide PowerPoint presentation set to music. This piece was a little tricky because some of the slides were stage directions or descriptors rather than just the sung text, so I had to watch the stage as well as read the music. And also the piece was more jazz than opera in certain parts. That’s not a genre that my ear is used to, so it was sometimes challenging to follow. But all in all, I had a great time. I described it to my friend as “All the fun parts of calling a show, without a million other people asking you questions about other things.”

The laptop I was given to use, was one the same one the Opera uses for their title needs, and I was a little sad to see the home screen still had the supertitle files for the three shows we were working on in March 2020 when the pandemic shut everything down. Staring at those files made March 2020 seem both like yesterday and of another time altogether.

It was weirdly familiar to walk into the building again.. to check in with the security guard, to talk to the crew, to hear another voice on headset calling cues and giving pages. To wearing my blacks again. Though none of them fit after all these months and I just settled for dresses and leggings. There is something about sitting through a tech that is so familiar yet still sends gives me chills of anticipation.

The other funny thing about this gig, I realized, was that even though it was my first job back in this building, everyone else had clearly been back at work for a while. There was an ease and acceptance about constantly wearing masks and checking vaccine cards that, while it still felt new for me, was clearly the normal for everyone else I saw… the audience, the crew, the performers. I know I had worked this past summer, but even still, I didn’t think we’d be masking indefinitely. Yet here we are.

Fun things this week:

The older kids have been teaching the baby new phrases. Favorite ones – the four year old has been really into making up knock knock jokes, which have been hilarious in their banal lack of knock knock humour. Like:
“Knock, knock!”
“Who’s there?”
“Truck!”
“Truck who?”
“There’s a truck on the road!”
Anyhow, he’s been teaching the baby to go around saying, “Knock knock!” and it’s hilarious because that’s about as far as she gets.
The nine year old has been teaching the baby to say, “Rock, rock, rock!” As if it were some alternative version of “Rock Paper Scissors!”
I mean objectively these things aren’t that amusing, but when you have the older kids egging on the baby to yell these things as loud as she can, it’s kind of adorable. And loud.

The produce situation has gotten out of hand, so this week I spent an afternoon making kale chips and zucchini muffins. So satisfying to use things up rather than just throwing it in the worm bin!

Quote of the week – we were at a birthday party for the boy across the street – one of those affairs where we didn’t know anyone so we hung out in the basement with the kids. There was a high school student there too, the son of a friend – tall, gangly, and so very game for whatever antics the younger kids wanted to put him through. Anyhow, at one point, the nine year old became very fascinated by the idea of his being a high schooler and asked, “Is high school fun?” And he replied with this huge grin, “Yeah. You gotta have the right friends then high school’s a lot of fun. Good friends and playing sports.” Something about the way he said it made me so happy – like he knew high school wasn’t about grades or your future. I mean sure those things are important, but that’s not what you’re going to carry in your heart about those years.

And this photo from the building I work in… how I’ve missed it:

The building is wearing it’s honors garb!

What We Ate:

Saturday: Birthday party at neighbor’s – Peruvian Chicken and birthday cake– a gluten free, dairy free, egg free cake that tasted amazing.

Sunday: Leftover night

Monday: Snack dinner – camembert en croute, sausage, cheese, crackers, fruit – and tree trimming

Tuesday: Curry noodle soup, adapted from Thai Coconut soup in Vegan for Everyone.

Wednesday: I had soup and sandwich from Whole Foods on my dinner break. The Husband made pork and eggplant stir fry for the kids.

Thursday: Butter Chicken from Urvashi Pitre’s Indian InstantPot

Friday: Pizza (take out) and movie for the family while I went to work.

Weekly recap + what we ate: forest meanders

Tuesday the nine year old got her second COVID vaccine shot. Apparently a lot of her classmates got to stay home after their shots, but I figured since she didn’t have any side effects the first time, she could go to school. Because I had to drop her at school anyway, I decided to check out Blockhouse Point trail, which was in that part of the county. The Best Hikes for Kids book mentioned that it was a moderate hike with a great view of the Potomac. Figuring that the 2 mile hike might be a good way to spend the morning, the toddler and I went to check it out.

Our hiking backpack had been in the trunk of my car, and good thing too. When I had parked at the trailhead, I looked in the backseat to see that the baby was asleep. She got quite cranky when I tried to get her to walk, so I put her in the hiking pack, and set off down the trail. I hadn’t used the hiking pack in a while because usually it doesn’t seem worth it for less than a mile and a half, but I’m glad I put her in it this time – the terrain was a little rough and she definitely didn’t want to walk. The trail was a lovely woodsy path that ran alongside a horse farm. We watched some large horses grazing, then continued onward.

By the time I got to the first Potomac overlook, the baby was asleep. Figuring this was a good place for a break, I took the backpack off, sat down on some rocks, had a snack and decided to spend some time reading. The view of the Potomac was beautiful and on the tow path below was mostly empty, maybe a jogger or two passing seen passing by. The weather had warmed up, or maybe I was heated from the hike? (It was really quite remarkable how warm it was because that morning there had even been a sprinkle of snow.) I passed an hour like this, reading in the sunshine. Though I felt slightly guilty for taking such an indolent morning, I couldn’t find it in me to waste the weather, the sunshine, or the baby’s nap by heading back to the car so soon.

After the baby woke up, We had a snack and I managed to get her to hike the rest of the trail loop with me, about a mile and a half. There was one point where I could have taken the fork back to the car or continue the loop. The loop was longer, but I figured that I didn’t know when I would come back to this hike, so I may as well finish the loop with its spur to a second Potomac overlook. The second overlook had a selfie stand, a project of the county parks which I found really helpful and kind of charming. There are sixteen selfie stands throughout the county, and I think I might make it a project of mine to visit all of them. I love a good project to get me to explore different parks.

Thank you selfie stand! I very rarely have pictures with the kids, and this made it easy.

After the second Potomac overlook, we continued on our way, meandering at a toddler’s pace back to the car. We saw mountain laurel and chestnut oaks, examine moss and mushrooms, crunched through leaves and balanced on logs and hopped over a stream. There were a couple of points when I thought the baby would refuse to walk, but a few well timed snack bribes and we actually made it back to the car. When I looked at my watch, it was almost three o’clock! Our intended two hour hike, had turned into a five hour forest wander. It was certainly one of those days where I felt like the real luxury in my life right now is the luxury of time. But even then, I feel this panic about not squandering it.

On Thursday we took a seasonal adventure and went to visit the Seton Shrine for their Candlelight Tour of Christmas Past. The Seton Shrine is a basilica and historic site dedicated to Mother Seton, the first American born saint. They have a program where a tour guide leads a tour of one of the historic buildings then historical interpreters re-enact life at the girls’ school in the 1800s. There were demonstrations of dancing, domestic crafts, and a lesson in French. It was a quiet and lovely evening, though, being over an hour away, it was perhaps a bit of an ambitious outing for a school night.

candlelit campus and a dance demonstration.

Friday the baby and I went on another forest wander with some friends from he mom’s group. One of the local nature centers has trails. The trail we picked indicated that it was a mile loop, but it was certainly longer than that as we ended up on the trail for almost two hours. Even going at a toddler’s pace, I feel like a mile should not take that long! But we had snack and the kids walked on logs and had a good time and for the most part walked. We even saw a buck! He was sitting so quietly in the leaves that we didn’t notice him as we paused to eat our snack. Breathlessly we watched, certain that he would bolt, but he just watched us as we watched him. After we finished our snack, we continued on our path and looked up to see him gather himself up and slowly walk off in the opposite direction. I know deer are plentiful (almost too plentiful) and considered a nuisance in this area, but there is still something magical about seeing them.

One evening this week was the nine year old’s piano recital. Her first in person recital since the very first recital she played in two years ago. That 2019 recital seemed so long ago. I had missed it because the four year old was sick that day. Well… I missed this recital too. A mix up about bringing cookies to the recital reception had me going to two grocery stores (one which didn’t have a bakery department), and then to Trader Joe’s. I hadn’t been to Trader Joe’s since before the pandemic and I’d forgotten what wonderful things they had. Anyhow, I got to the recital just as the nine year old finished playing. I guess even though she was half way down on the program, kids at this age play very short pieces. Well, there is always this spring.

Fun things this week:

People are starting to put their Christmas decorations up. I was walking a friend’s dog, and saw this in their neighborhood. It certainly checks a lot of boxes. The baby really liked this one – it feature two of her favorite things: “Bacca!” which is short for Chewbacca, which is what she calls anything Star Wars related. And “Soopy!”

-At the four year old’s school they have a “question of the day” and I love reading all the answers the kids have. Michael’s answer below struck me as hilarious in its unintentional surrealism:

What We Ate:

Saturday: Chinese takeout with friends.

Sunday: Turkey pot pie made from leftover turkey. I use this one hour vegan pot pie recipe, adapting it however I need.

Monday: Cauliflower Salad from America’s Test Kitchen Vegan for everyone.

Tuesday: Sweet potato and poblano tacos from Dinner Illustrated

Wednesday: Turkey soup made with Thanksgiving carcass.

Thursday: Take out from Dumpling House after our trip to the Seton Shrine.

Friday: Quesadillas and leftover soup before piano recital.