Diane

Weekly recap + what we ate: routines to lead us back to fall

Trying to get back in the habit of recapping our week and dinner menus.

And here we are in October. September seemed a blur of finding the rhythm of new routines. But actually I feel like it’s October when things finally find their pace. Of the four weeks in September, I think there was only one week where the nine year old went to school for all five days. Each weekend, too, brought a new activity – Soccer and Mandarin for the four year old, dance and swim for the nine year old. Two activities for each older child didn’t seem like a lot when I was doing the sign ups, but since I opted to place them on the weekend rather than spread over the weekdays, they are starting to add up to a chunk of our weekend. We’re still trying to figure out the right balance of “fun” time vs. “free” time.

Lest she feels left out, while her siblings are at school, the baby is doing a music class – meh – and a swim class – actually very fun. And we go on lots of walk and visit the playground frequently. Fall colour is starting to make an appearance, a little at odds with the 80 degree weather some days.

In the “made my life easier” category, the school district added a bus stop for the nine year old’s bus just down the street. In fact, it is in front of the four year old’s school. Even though we have to leave five minutes sooner than before to be able to walk to the bus stop, I think there is something psychologically easier about walking fifteen minutes rather than driving ten minutes as we used to do. After the bus picks up the nine year old, the four year old and the baby go to the nearby playground for twenty or thirty minutes before I drop the four year old at preschool. I’m finding it a really relaxing way to start the morning, particularly after the rush and hustle of morning routines.

And the afternoon drops off in the same location too. There was a little bit of mental calculus to decide if it was worth having her take the longer bus ride so that we could pick her up closer to home. On the one hand, it makes for one pick up location for both kids. On the other hand, she’s now on the bus for about an hour coming home. I figure we’ll try it until it turns out not to be a great solution. But I have to admit being able to walk to drop off and pick up has been kind of ideal.

The baby turned two in September.

She has started to nap somewhat consistently if I lay the day out right. Namely, if I don’t put her in a car between the hours of 11am and 1pm, I have a reasonably good chance of getting her home, putting some lunch in her, and then having her go down for a nap. Of course, often we are out and about in the mornings so putting her in a car during that window is unavoidable. Then I am stuck with the dilemma of letting her sleep and get her nap in and being stuck in the car, or waking her up to get her lunch and hope that the nap train has not left for good. With the former, it does allow me to get some reading done. With the latter… if it works that she does nap, then I can get some things on my to do list accomplished. Of course, most of the time the nap doesn’t manifest itself with the latter.

I’ve become used to doing more mental calculus for the repercussions of waking the sleeping baby. It usually goes something like… “Is the stuff of my to do list doable with a baby around? Is it computer tasks (then, no because she is very good at climbing onto my chair and swiping at my keyboard). Is it pick up or meal prep – in which case it’s okay to let her run rampant through the house…” Tasks are ranked in my head according to ease of execution with a toddler around and level of importance. Of course some days, she falls a sleep on me and then nothing gets done. I’m trying to savor the sweet weight of a sleeping baby in my lap. I’m getting a lot of reading done.

I’m trying to find adventures for us to go one. I found out that the nature center at one of our regional parks has toddler appropriate story times and hikes, so we’ve signed up for many of those. The naturalist who leads them is wonderfully engaging. She approaches every log, leaf, and hole in the ground with and infectious curiosity and enthusiasm. I’ve come to realize that my kids (and I as well, let’s be honest) can more easily distinguish a FedEx truck from a UPS truck than they can distinguish the many variety of trees that surround us. That seems unfortunate to me. The park naturalist gave me some great resources for identifying things in nature and I’m excited to explore that more.

We also managed to go apple picking, one Saturday in September. We came home with a ridiculous amount of apples. In addition to the apples we picked, we brought home an enormous bag of seconds. The Husband reasoned that the apples we picked should be for pies and eating out of hand, shuddering at the idea that we use it for apple sauce. The four year old was quite excited by the prospect of making apple sauce, however. Hence the bag of seconds. Half of the seconds have been made into apple sauce and frozen. Some years I can the apple sauce, but having canned a bushel of peaches in August, I didn’t have any more jars left. So into the freezer for this batch of sauce. If I get my act together, maybe the next batch will be canned. There was also apple pie filling made, and one actual apple pie. There is still filling for a second and third pie.

At the beginning of October, there was an art installation down on the Mall to commemorate the lives lost to COVID. 600,000 flags were planted at the foot of the Washington Monument. Some of the flags were inscribed with messages from people in honour of a lost loved one. When the exhibit was over, the artist asked for volunteers to help take down the flags, so I took the baby and we drove downtown to help. We went the second day of the strike, when about half of the flags had already been removed. Even still, what remained of the installation was still a heart stopping sight. Seeing the sea of flags fluttering in the breeze, all light and movement, quantifies the lives lost in a way that merely looking at number on a dashboard couldn’t.

I have to say, I miss being able to jump on the metro and pop down on a whim to the Mall to see the monuments and museums. The clean white marble lines, the vast expanses of green, and the buildings full of things of note, being able to meander through at my own pace because I know that I can come back easily. This is one of the aspects of pre-pandemic life I miss the most.

What We Ate – So far in October:

Monday: Falafel and Greek Salad – Falafel is from America’s Test Kitchen Vegan for Everyone Cookbook. The door on our toaster oven broke – and we finally decided to replace it. The new toaster oven comes with an air fryer function. I’m learning that this is just a fancy way of saying high heat convection. Anyhow, I tried and experiment with the falafel where I fried half of it in oil and used the air fryer for half. The falafel fried in oil tasted better. No surprise there. But… the air fryer did a great job of reheating the falafel the next day. So I guess that’s a win. The falafel recipe was also delicious. It called for using soaked dried chick peas rather than cooked, and a touch of cinnamon.

Tuesday: Quesadillas from Dinner Illustrated. By which I mean I used their method of cooking them in the oven rather than in the frying pan. The filling was my own inspiration – black beans, peppers (from the garden!), corn, pepper jack cheese.

Wednesday: Eggplant with Coconut Rice from Meera Sodha’s East.

Thursday: Mac and cheese from Dinner Illustrated. The recipe features chard and there was much skepticism going in, but everyone declared it tasty in the end. Yay.

Friday: Pizza and Curious George. We’ve been making homemade pizza again now that the weather has somewhat cooled and turning the oven to 525 degrees is something we can contemplate. It was the 4 year old’s turn to choose the movie. This was a version of Curious George from 2006 and there is some awkward dated bits, particularly the colonial tone of the parts set in Africa.

Saturday: Dumplings and cucumber salad.

Sunday: Leftovers. We are trying out having leftovers for Sunday dinner. The purpose is twofold: 1) clean out the fridge, and 2) getting dinner on the table with minimal effort between the 4 year old coming home from Mandarin classes and the 9 year old’s swim practice. I’m learning that there are leftovers no one is ever going to eat. But at least this way it won’t be because we forgot about them.

Monday: Tofu Scramble on Toast from Meera Sodha’s East. A vegan version of breakfast for dinner.

Tuesday: Take out since we got home late from flag gathering. Chinese. Really spicy, but super delicious.

Wednesday: Harvest bowls – Farro, lentils, roast sweet potatoes, apples, cranberries, feta, and kale. From America’s Test Kitchen’s Bowls cookbook. I’m really liking this cookbook. Everything is so customizable. It’s kind of more like a book of ideas.

Thursday; Carmelized Onion Ramen from East. Tasty. I always like eating noodles. Apple pie for dessert.

Friday: pizza and Baketopia. We recently discovered that our favorite Italian Deli also sells pizza dough. It’s really good. Much better than anything I can make – it bakes up super puffy and crispy. Game changer.

On not saying good-bye

Last week I heard of the passing of yet another opera colleague. Not one that knew personally, but one who I know touched the lives of so many people and of whom many glowing things were spoken. The composer Carlisle Floyd also passed away in the last days of September. His opera Susannah was the first show I called as an AGMA stage manager. I loved that piece – beautiful and darkly dramatic. Kind of like a Tosca for our age. A “shabby little shocker” and a great evening at the theatre.

A few weeks prior, I heard of the passing of a beloved director with whom I had worked with many times. A wonderful gentleman who loved life and drama and met it with kindness, generosity and a twinkle in his eye. From him I learned that the relationship between the artist and the audience is one of humility and gratitude and never to take for granted the privilege we have of being able to tell stories for a living.

I’ve always hated opening night parties and closing night parties. After opening nights, the director and design team leaves and you have to say good-bye. And then again on closing night you say good-bye to the cast and crew. I am wretched at saying good-bye. It always feels uncomfortable and makes me self-conscious. I work at a job where saying good-bye and moving on is a certainty – so why is there so much sentimentality for something that is just part of the job? On the other hand I think creating something forms bonds and properly saying good-bye honors that in a way. At any rate, I’ve taken to trying not to say good-bye. I say, “Until next time.”

This morning I went on a bright autumn walk with a friend. She is a former opera colleague, and we got to talk about the recent deaths of beloved industry colleagues. “The thing I think that is the hardest,” I said, “is that one of the joys of our profession is the idea of ‘until we meet again’. You never know when you will work together, but you have faith that paths will cross and art will be made. And now, there are so many people that we know we will never work with them again. It’s even more hard particularly right now when we’ve waited so long for even the possibility of working with them again.”

The pandemic – and life during the pandemic – has taken so many lives since March of 2020. There is something so very raw and personal, though, about the passings of these last few weeks. Maybe it’s because they were people whom I had a connection with, that I still held out hope of working with. Maybe it’s because after a year and a half of colleagues and collaborators being so distant, we are finally emerging to come together again in rehearsal rooms, familiarly and with new precautions. And that emergence had brought the glimmer of possibility that those relationships that had been banked will now be able to be stoked and rekindled.

Many of my colleagues in the arts have managed to work through the pandemic. They’ve brilliantly embraced technology and health and safety protocols to create on their own and with other people. I’ve enjoyed seeing many of their efforts and held their tenacity to our art with awe and a little bit of jealousy. But aside from seven weeks this summer, I have felt too overwhelmed with the fires on the domestic front to contemplate looking for work in this new pandemic cautious world.

As I’ve watched these projects scroll across my social media feeds, I’ve been happy for those that manage to still create and support creators. And I’ve known that yes, someday, I would be able to get back out there too, and thought, wouldn’t it be cool to work with those people too? And that possibility brought a hopeful buoyancy to that part of me that loved my job and what we do. While I am struck with the loss of future collaborations, I know that there will be many more to come. Yet still, I grieve those who will no longer be with us when the curtain goes up again.

Summer Reading

I haven’t kept up with my reading journal, so here is the quick and dirty of my summer reading:

The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.W. Schwab – Time bending novel about a woman who makes a deal with the devil to live forever. Or, rather, she asks for more time in life and is then given the dubious gift of eternal life, only she also does not remain in people’s memories. Absorbing, but the story didn’t quite go where I wanted it to go.

You’ll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey Amber Ruffin and Lacey Lamar. Audio book read by the authors – Ruffin and Lamar, who are both Black, recount stories of some of the racist incidents they’ve had to live through. Their experiences run the gamut from ignorantly well meaning to malicious and unkind. It’s a mix of funny, sad, and infuriating. It really made me wonder if it was possible to live more colour consciously in a way that is sensitive to everyone.

Hamilton the Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter – These are the annotated lyrics for Hamilton interspersed with essays on the creative process of the musical. Hamilton fever continues in our house – except for the Husband who calls it “insidious” – and the theater geek in me loved reading about the journey of getting Hamilton to stage.

Midlife: A Philosophical Guide by Kieran Setiya – This book was recommended to me after I lamented the dearth of books about being middle aged. As I progress firmly into my 40s, I find I’m having a somewhat existential crisis about aging and life, and it’s just not something that the media likes to talk about. Setiya doesn’t really say anything new, but he does present his thoughts on fulfilment in life through the prism of philosophical thought. The takeaway – savour the journey, not the destination.

Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker – Kolker’s book tells about a family where six of the twelve children were diagnosed with schizophrenia. It’s an absolutely engrossing history. Sad, but ultimately hopeful.

Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD. – Classic book about race in America. I really appreciated that Tatum has, since the original publication, added an entire section in the book devoted to other underrepresented groups and the struggles that are unique to each of them. For as false a construct as race is, it certainly is a powerful one. The other mind blowing idea for me was Tatum’s discussion about hiring practices – she writes that when hiring employers need to re-examine what they mean by a “best” or “most qualified” candidate. Often the things that tip the scale are the result of privilege and opportunity. She challenges the idea that there can be a “most qualified” candidate. Because any candidate that meets your job requirements are qualified. Having additional experience does not make someone moreso.

The Glass Kingdom by Lawrence Osborne – novel about a woman who is stuck in Bangkok after swindling a large amount of money. There was something meandering in the post-apocalyptic tone and style that really lacked momentum for me.

Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas – the next in Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series. I always enjoy her writing, even if I find the plotting a little obtuse.

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo read by Adjoa Andoh – Novel set in Nigeria about a couple, Yejide and Akin, whose marriage is challenged by traditional expectations, pride, and their inability to have a child.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee – Novel about a poor Korean family in the early 1900s who emigrates to Japan and the story about their lives and the lives of their children. I had often heard this book touted as a “epic saga” yet the book didn’t have that kind sweep that I would have expected. It has a much quieter power to it, in it’s story of humble hard work and perseverance. But then again, who says that “epic” stories are reserved for people who die in glory on battlefields? I’m realizing that the story of the every day struggle it takes to put food on one’s table, to resist when rich men come calling, to just do the right thing… these stories are as much the backbone of history as any battle.

The Duke That Didn’t by Courtney Milan – Romance novel set in a small English town where a half Chinese duke tries to win the hand of the woman he loves. I love how Milan can write a totally absorbing romance set in England where the characters are Chinese, and this bit of diversity is a casual and important detail, but not a THING.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson – In this autobiographical novel in verse, Woodson recounts her childhood bouncing from Ohio to South Carolina to New York. I was really drawn in by her story and the story of her family, and how even the smallest things from childhood can be indelible.

The House on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune – I loved this book so much. This novel tells about Linus, a case worker who inspects government run orphanages for magical children. He is sent on a mysterious assignment to an orphanage on the shore and there meets the predictable assortment of “more than meets the eye” children. Yes, the story is a little familiar, but Klune has written it with so much wit and heart.

She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, read by Rebecca Lowman – The New York Times journalists who broke the Harvey Weinstein story recount the story behind the story. So utterly fascinating and repulsive. The drama behind getting the story was nail-biting. Between this book and Bad Blood (about the Theranos scandal), I am beginning to feel like the lawyers behind the scenes in many of these cases are just as abhorrent.

Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan – Charming romance about two elderly ladies who work together to exact revenge on a very disreputable young man and fall in love along the way. One very rarely sees romance novels featuring older couples, and I loved that aspect of this book.

Parenting Outside the Lines by Meaghan Leahy – I’m a big fan of Meg Leahy’s parenting column in the Washington Post. In this book, she encapsulates many of the principles that form the backbone of the advice that she gives. My big takeaway from this book is that parenting is hard, but I, as the grown up, have to be the bigger person. “Never ever, ever wait for your child to be more mature than you,” she writes. So the best way to parent, she says, is to lead by example, be flexible, be open, and be kind.

Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey– Trethewey’s memoir tells the heartbreaking account of how her mother came to be murdered by an ex-husband.

White Tears/ Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad – Hamad argues that white women perpetuate the oppression and dehumanization of underrepresented people while asserting themselves in a male dominated world often by playing the “damsel in distress”. Hamad’s point is that white feminists don’t necessarily want a more equal society for everyone, just one where they have the same amount of power as men. Her ideas are certainly incendiary and rather unforgiving, but the idea of one oppressed group rising in society at the expense of another does resonate with me. I’m not sure that I buy everything she says, to be honest.

Big Cotton: How a humble fiber created fortunes, wrecked civilizations, and put American on the Map by Stephen Yafa – a survey of the history of cotton, primarily focused on America and Europe. A little meandering and lacking in first hand research, but nonetheless fascinating. The environmental and social toll of producing cotton has made me rethink denim.

And With The Kids:

Eye by Eye: Comparing how Animals See by Sarah Levine – picture book that explained how eyes worked and how different animals’ eyes are adapted to best serve them. This was a great informative and engaging picture book – I felt like I really learned a lot from it. There are several books in the series, and they are all excellent.

Baker’s Magic by Diane Zahler- This was our read aloud Chapter book this summer. Charming and full of fun details. About an orphan who bakes magical creations and a quest to save a Princess and bring back the trees.

One Crazy Summer (audiobook) by Rita Williams Garcia, read by Sisi Aisha Johnson – read with a lot of wit and character. Book about three Black sisters who are sent to Oakland to spend the summer with their mother. The spend the summer navigating the Bay Area, their mother’s lack of affection and the Black Panthers.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (audiobook) by Joan Aiken, read by Lizza Aiken – adventure story of an orphan and her cousin as they flee an evil guardian and try to restore order and good to their lives.

On curry powder and concoctions

The baby’s head smells like curry powder. So does the kitchen.

She has figured out how to open doors. She comes out of her bedroom in the morning (or in the middle of the night), and finds her way to our room, opening door after door until she can hoist herself into our bed. Lately she has really liked opening the door to the pantry and getting into the spices. She shakes them, and then if she can manage she opens the tiny jars. And if she manages to open more than one jar, she pours the contents form one jar to the other, mixing spices and herbs like a little apothecarist.

The other day, I found an empty jar of whole cloves sitting on its side in the kitchen. Puzzled, I searched all over for where she could have dumped them, sniffing here and there for any telltale traces, unearthing not one clove. Shrugging, I told myself, “Well, maybe the jar was empty to begin with….”

A couple days later, I opened up the jar of mustard seed only to find it full of ginger powder. And there nestled in the ground ginger and mustard seeds were little brown clove bulbs, their spiky bulbs poking up through the pale yellow powder and little yellow spheres. A strange little concoction. Mystery solved.

The curry powder incident was another of her unmonitored sessions. I was in my room doing some work on the computer when I heard loud crying. Rushing downstairs, I found that not only had she dumped a whole packed of chana masala powder on the floor, she had then rubbed her eyes, stinging them with the spices.

When I was about nine or ten or twelve, my parents owned a restaurant. One of my jobs was to fill the salt and pepper shakers. One day, I rubbed my eyes in the middle of this task and the burning pain was instantaneous and horrible. My mother (or maybe my brother, I can’t remember) took me to the bathroom and helped me rinse out my eyes, but the sting lasted a good while. For a lifetime, one could say.

I am reminded of this as the four year old, runs up to the baby. His arms are spread wide. “Wee-oo, wee-oo, wee-oo!” he trills, imitating an ambulance as her gives his crying sister a hug.

Lots of hugs and a wet washcloth to the eyes later, the baby and I are cuddled in a chair as she recovers from the pain, and the shocking surprise of the pain. I hold her close and smell her curry scented hair. It’s not a bad perfume.

The house smells like curry for days afterwards. I don’t mind – I love the warm homey smell.

These days, I feel like I’m ten steps behind discovering what my children are up to. While I’m making dinner or puttering around the house, they play and meddle and poke around and explore and discover. Later, I will find measuring cups in the toy school bus, plastic storage containers in the with the bakeware, books flung in all corners of the house. I’m sure there is a metaphor there for children and what they are capable of when you aren’t watching. Or perhaps it is a cautionary tale to savor and watch them while you can. I’m not sure, though I’m sure both are lessons I should be embracing.

But in the meantime, I’ve put a childproof cover on the doorknob of the pantry.

A-camping we go… again – Recap and Menu

I took the children camping again earlier this month. Every time I told someone that I was going camping by myself with the three kids, their eyes would widen with a little horror and disbelief. I’m not quite sure what it is about camping with kids that makes it seem like a feat of bravery. I’m no hero, or a sadist or anything – we weren’t even backpacking (though I admit that sounds like it would be a good time too). We were definitely car camping and there were bathhouses and drinking water and a camp store. I guess I just like being outside and in nature and as far as getaways go, camping is on the inexpensive side, although the Husband makes fun of me every time I buy a piece of camping gear.

The way I see it, the hardest part about car camping with amenities (and good weather) is setting up, taking it down, and making sure no one falls in the fire in between. Once the camp is set up, I just laze in the hammock with a book and watch the kids dig in the dirt and wonder what we’re going to eat for the next meal.

Setting up took a bit longer than I expected because it started to sprinkle when we got to the camp site. I had been constantly checking the weather forecast, which called for sunny weather, so I was rather unprepared for the rain. Luckily the downpour was brief. We hunkered in the car for about thirty minutes and then, when it had slowed to a drizzle, I set up the tent. During all this, the baby figured out how to climb into the car via the trunk and work her way to the front seat and honk the horn repeatedly, much to my mortification. I would pull her our of the driver’s seat, go back to setting up the tent, and she would climb back in the car when I wasn’t looking. Rinse repeat. The couple in the campsite across the way were seated around their fire, facing our site, and I could tell they were quite amused by the baby’s antics.

The next day we walked over to an aviary on the campgrounds. They had several rescued birds there, primarily owls, but also two bald eagles and several hawks. It was so cool to watch the birds, with their haughty unblinking gazes.

Next to the aviary was a newly built nature playspace – logs and tunnels and stumps for kids to play on, each one devoted to a certain aspect of bird behavior.

I believe the prompt for this one was to pretend they were hopping birds.

In the afternoon, we went to the beach on the lake. The water was a nice temperature and the nine year old went swimming while the younger two kids and I waded in the shallower waters and played in the sand. Next to the beach was a playground and we spent time there too.

The second day we went on a hike. There is a trail around the lake. It is about five miles long. I think we made it two. But I think this is the nature of hiking with kids. Pack lots of snacks, take lots of breaks. And spend lots of time with the small moments of nature. It’s not really about the miles you walk, or the destination, or completing the loop. We took our time, ate our picnic snack by the water and tried to skip rocks. I’d say that was a pretty successful hike.

That afternoon was spent lazing in the hammock, followed by ice cream, a visit to a sunflower field and then another trip to visit the birds at the aviary. It felt like a perfect summer day.

The four year old had the “kiddie” size. Wow.

The Husband surprised us on the morning we were to leave by taking the day off work and showing up at 7am. At my request, he took the kids for a walk while I packed up the camp site. Then we got on the road. We stopped on the way home to visit one of the creameries on the Maryland Ice Cream Trail. I am determined to visit all ten creameries on the list this summer. We shall see. This creamery was nice because in addition to ice cream and a playspace, you could also see cows and calves. There was a storm coming, so we didn’t stay as long as I would have liked, though I suppose it was nice to get home.

Some things to remember:
1) The nine year old convinced me to get walkie talkies. Last trip she was always afraid of going to the bathroom by herself, so when we were at REI stocking up for this trip she asked if we could have walkie talkies. Given that she was somewhat reluctant to go camping in the first place, I said yes. We ended up having a lot of fun with them. The nine year old liked to give me detailed descriptions of her surroundings, which I thought was actually a good exercise. And we had code names – Washington, Hamilton, Phillip and Eliza. We also had great fun with the walkie talkies on the way home since we were in two cars.

2) This beautiful piece of floral oil cloth that was in the 50% off remnants bin at Joann Fabrics. It made a great tablecloth – thick, and easy to wipe down. And the cheery pattern made me smile every day.

3) Bringing a chapter book to read out loud. One afternoon, all four of us piled into the hammock and I read from The Midwife’s Apprentice. That was probably the coziest, calmest 30 mins of the entire trip.

4) These construction vehicles from our toy bin got tons of use. They’re really small – each about 4″ long – but the four year old and the baby spent so much time playing in the campsite gravel. We also brought them to the lake beach and had lots of fun digging and building in the sand.

5) This blue jay flew into a tree next to our camp site as I was packing up. It sat on a low branch and chirped as I worked, enchanting me with it’s proximity.

6) I think one of the most memorable moment came our second night. That evening, after dinner, we made a fire, with plans to make smores. There was a little misunderstanding and I accidentally threw the four year old’s marshmallow twig into the fire, thinking it was kindling. Much crying ensued. Much loud yelling as well. I was sitting with a sobbing, heartbroken child in my lap when I looked up and the man from the campsite across the way was coming over with a container of lighter fluid in one hand and some wood in the other.

“I came over to see if I could help,” he said. “Brought some stuff for your fire.”

Then he looked at our tiny little fire that had finally managed to catch.

“But looks like you got it going,” he added. “Everything okay?”

“Well, I accidentally threw his marshmallow stick into the fire,” I admitted sheepishly.

“Do you want a marshmallow stick?” he asked the four year old. “I got one you can borrow. I’ll be right back.”

And in a few minutes he came back with a set of marshmallow forks. “You can keep those,” he said. “They’re extra.”

And then we introduced ourselves. His name was Bill. He looked at the baby and said, “Ah. You’re the car climber.”

We chatted a little more, and then he went back to join his wife at their campsite. When people say that camping by yourself with kids can be hard, I will always remember Mr. Bill and how he made it a little less hard for me.

What we ate:

Dinner #1 – Curry veggie ramen soup. This was probably the favorite meal all trip. And so easy and fast too. Recipe: Sauteed cabbage, carrots, onions and garlic (precut at home). Add curry powder, grated ginger, veggie soup base (prepped at home) and water and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and add noodles and tofu. Cook until noodles are done.

Breakfast: pancakes (Kodiak pancake mix made with eggs and milk though you can make it with just water), fried eggs, fruit.

Lunch: mini bagels with cream cheese. Cucumbers, hummus, carrot sticks.

Dinner #2: Shrimp foil packets. Leeks, yellow squash, peppers, 1/4 corn on the cob, par boiled potato cubes and shrimp. Cajun seasoning. Butter and olive oil. Tasty, but took longer to cook than I thought. Smores made with fancy chocolate.

Breakfast: pancakes and bacon. Fruit.

Lunch: salami, crackers, cheese, cucumbers, hummus, carrots, apple slices.

Dinner #3: freeze dried camping meal – Mushroom stroganoff – and Hungry Jack instant mashed potatoes. I sort of guessed the amount of water to add to these so while the flavour was tasty, the texture was off. Freeze dried mango and sticky rice for dessert. This was odd.

Snacks: Teddy Grahams, Doritos, trail mix, beef sticks, frozen GoGurt. Basically all the junk food that I try to limit at home. But I’m realizing that bribing my children with pre-packaged scientifically calibrated to taste good food is key to getting my kids to come camping.

31 days of July

When I look at my time tracking journal, sometimes I feel like life is an unending slog of pick up/ drop off/ what am I going to make for dinner. But even though there are certain things in life that are “wash, rinse, repeat” every day is different and contains its own joys, no? At any rate, having missed doing weekly recaps for pretty much a month, I thought I’d recap the joys I found in July – one for each day. So here they are:

7.1 – Prepping from home. Love having the flexibility to do this.

7.2 – Got to visit with a good friend after camp drop off. Just a couple hours sitting and chatting while the 4 year old played quietly by himself and the baby napped.

7.3 – Met up with college friends for an afternoon walk around a near by quaint small historic town.

7.4 – Fourth of July! Chores: sorting baby clothes, making me feel nostalgic. Such itty bitty clothes.

7.5 – First day of rehearsals!

7.6 – A tam tam showed up in rehearsal. I find it delightful.

7.7 – After the baby fell out of bed again, I asked on the local listserv if anyone had a bedrail they were looking to unload and I was offered several. Gave me the warm fuzzies.

7.8 – Forgot my phone at home today, and while I was initially worried that I would miss something, by the end of the day, I came to appreciate being more intentional in my availability. What I did miss: being able to read a book on the Libby app, Google Maps.

7.9 – First time dining inside since March. I was invited to dinner to help celebrate a colleague’s birthday. A lovely evening of comradery and theatre stories.

7.10 – Final Room Run! It’s been a fast yet gentle process.

7.11 – Date night with The Husband. My parents watched the kids and we went out for ceviche. First time in… actually probably since the baby was born.

7.12 – Walked the nine year old to camp. Which was probably a mistake as it felt like it was 80 degrees by 8:45am. Also foolishly thought the baby could make the walk – it’s less than a mile and she has been known to walk 2 miles. Hah. Had to carry her back home. Uphill. Grateful that the four year old walks with little complaints, though.

7.13 – I found some castanets for our show at a music shop near our house. Castanets are very fun. Our one and only tech rehearsal in the evening.

7.14 – Final Dress!

7.15 – Day off. Visited the zoo with my parents and the two little kids. Saw lions and tigers.

7.16 – Opening/ Closing performance and party afterwards where I got to catch up with some friends who had come to see the show.

7.17 – Cover Run and final clean up. My parent’s last night in town. Sad to see them go, but so grateful that they were here.

7.18 – Friends came over for dinner, along with their three kids. Nice to be hanging out again.

7.19 – Dressed the baby in this pink flowery dress that had been the nine year old’s at that age. It was one of our favorite things to put her in, and I had forgotten about it until this week. Good thing too, because it is almost too small. The baby is so much bigger than her older sister was that this age.

7.20 – Exit interview at work. (Though I don’t much care for the term “exit interview” seems so final….) Even though it gave us a lot to think about in terms of organizational structure and objectives and how to serve them, I am so excited and happy that I got to be part of this company this summer.

7.21 – Took the kids for gelato in the afternoon. I’m on a quest this summer to consume as wide a variety of frozen treats as I can. I had the honey-fig-mascarpone gelato and it was very good.

7.22 – A friend of the Husband’s was in town so we all had lunch together. I know this is a luxury for the gainfully unemployed, but I love lunch dates with the husband.

7.23 – The County Parks Department had an event where arborists “taught” kids how to climb trees. They hooked them up in harnesses and hoisted them to the leafy treetops. I think I was even more excited about it than the four year old. The baby declined to try, even though the arborists were certainly game to put her in a harness and send her up there.

7.24 – Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. I love watching the Olympics. For all the criticism that the Olympics gets about being overblown and terrible for a city’s economy, I think there is something so inspiring about each individual athlete.

7.25 – 8 am swim meet. Last one of the season. Swim team is certainly very time consuming, but I’ve loved seeing how much it’s inspired the nine year old to push herself.

7.26 – Am trying out a new mask pattern. I know that cloth masks are not as effective as N95 masks, but I like how when I make one, I can make sure that it fits tightly and comfortably for the kids.

7.27 – Took the two littles to story time and a park afterwards. I love that the libraries are doing outdoor story time.

7.28 – While visiting the library today, saw that the rec center (which is located in the same building) has toddler play times three times a week. And it’s free! I signed the kids up for rec center passes on the spot. The center also have pool tables and ping pong tables and open gym for basketball – all things I think the nine year old will like.

7.29 – My friend Kristen met us at the pool for pizza and pool time, but then it started to rain really hard, so we abandoned the pool and went home to have pizza and Olympics time.

7.30 – Took the kids on a hike up near Harper’s Ferry. I kind of didn’t follow the trails correctly so we never made it to the stream, but it was a lovely shaded wood walk with lots of butterflies. Good to get our July hike in!

7.31 – Our friends dropped their dog off for a week. He is small and cuddly and adorable and while I don’t want a dog for myself, I think dog sitting for a week is a great way to scratch that “I want something small and cute” itch.

We are almost half way through August now. Back in June, the summer seemed endless, but now we are in the last month of it and there seems to not be enough time to do everything I want… including doing nothing.

Haikus for May, June and July

Get back on the bike
Show up and write anything
Back in the habit.

May:

Verdantly dancing,
Winter limbs don leafy coats
All the shades of green.

Exoskeletons
Sunshine trough cicada shells
Jewels left behind.

He slurps his noodles
A bowl of surprise and wonder
Discov’ring mushrooms.

Good Morning Spring Sun!
Slanting through kitchen windows
Stabs me in the eye.

June:

Cicadas flutter
on buzzing wings to treetops
alarmingly loud.

Ghost lights in water
Splash strokes, propelling shadows
Summer dusk swim meet.

June heat blankets me
in a thick layer of air,
prompts my lethargy.

The taste of summer skin
baking in the poolside heat
Sunscreen and chlorine.

The baby dances
unobserved in the kitchen.
It’s true what they say.

July:

Brood X now silent,
Bodies dissolved into earth
Leaving brown-tipped trees.

Skies open, rain storms.
Skies open, sunshine. Briefly.
Enough for a swim.

Weekly recap + what we ate – back to work

My camera roll is surprisingly empty this week. Well, empty of pictures that I took myself. It is somehow filled with selfies taken by the nine year old. Sometimes she loops her brother and sister into her shenanigans. As a result, I get surprise photos and videos in my feed when the iPad synchs with the cloud. I find it a cute, even while I am annoyed that she is co-opting my iCloud storage. The other day we had words about something and she recorded an apology on the iPad that popped up in my photo roll on my phone. It was hard to stay mad at that.

Anyhow this week was kind of a fresh start. The nine year old started camp and I started prep for my next show. I had enrolled the nine year old in a county camp – nothing fancy, just arts, crafts, games and plenty of time outdoors. The main virtue of the camp, quite honestly, was that it was incredibly inexpensive – $275 for six weeks, when most camps charge at least that much for a single week – and also that it is about a mile and a half from our house. She did walk to camp one morning with my dad, and I’m thinking I might do the walk with her on mornings when I don’t have to be at work in the morning. The one shortcoming of the camp is that it only runs until 3pm. This isn’t a problem for me since my parents pick her up, but I do realize that this makes this super affordable camp a non-option for many working parents.

For me, it was a combination of working from home and a day or two working on site. I’m learning to be more efficient with my time when I’m working at home. Working from home was definitely much easier this week since my parents were in town and could help watch the kids.

Even though I try not obsessively document my life in photos, I do notice that when my photo roll is empty, it means I’ve been particularly immersed in the “doing” of life, rather than remembering to take time to find the things to be savor or to be grateful for.

Good things this week, then:
– long visit with a friend whose kids are at the camp adjacent to the nine year old’s camp. It was great to catch up and talk about deep and frivolous things. The two younger kids came along and the four year old plays cars by himself for ninety minutes. I love that he can get in such a flow state of play. Also – I showed him a transformer and he was adorably amazed. “It’s a truck that turns into a robot!!!!”
– The nine year old had a couple swim meets this week. I took her to one and the Husband took her to one. I’m still finding it a little awkward to make conversation with other parents at these meets, but I do enjoy seeing the event management and planning that goes on to make the meets happen. The parents are all assigned tasks at the meet; I was a timer. Putting stage management skills to work, I guess. I find it interesting to see other pools as we travel for meets.
– I am really excited for this next opera I’m working on because it reunites me with a colleague whom I absolutely love working with. Actually she was one of the reasons I decided to take this job.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Snack dinner – hummus, crackers, cheese, whatever I could scrounge from the fridge. Still recovering from the camping trip.

Sunday: Burrito bowls from Dinner Illustrated. Pantry meal.

Monday: Hot dog at swim meet and Chipotle afterwards

Tuesday: Cacio e Pepe udon noodles and cucumber salad.

Wednesday: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and cucumbers. (Another swim meet night – the Husband took the nine year old, and I stayed home with the kids)

Thursday: Rice Pilaf with corn and shrimp from Milk Street Fast and Slow. InstantPot recipe to eat after swim practice

Friday: pizza take-out and In the Heights. Big movie – big dance numbers, big bold colours, big emotions, big voices.

Stage Management Skills in Real Life: resetting for the top

The other day I turned my back and the baby dumped a box of Cheerios on the floor. I snapped a picture and sent it to my friend. “Cheerios are my version of Nutcracker snow, ” I wrote.

For those who don’t work backstage, let me explain. At the end of the first act of the perennial Christmas favorite The Nutcracker, there is a huge snow scene. Vast amounts of snow is dropped from above the stage, blanketing the stage, drifting into the wings, coating the dancers. So much snow also means intermission clean up. I am forever finding little white bits of Nutcracker snow somewhere backstage, even deep into spring. But it is huge part of the show. So every performance snow gets showered on the floor. And every intermission the crew sweeps it up so they can set for the next act.

(I guess the opera version of Nutcracker snow would be Madama Butterfly flower petals. And there was a recent production of Eugene Onegin that featured a leaf drop with similar pervasiveness.)

And so it is with that box of Cheerios. It starts on the table. The baby dumps it on the floor. I clean it up. It gets dumped on the floor again. The cycle begins again. And for the rest of the day, I will be finding Cheerios in all obscure corners of the dining room.

Putting up a show is often an exercise in creating and then dismantling then restoring in order to create again. A scene moves forward, props get used then discarded. Costume pieces get worn then removed. Scenery shifts. Then you get to the end of the show and then everything gets returned to it’s starting place so you can do it all over again. And the same things happen again. The same props move, the same costume pieces are put on and off, the same scenery changes position. Then the crew scrambles to put it all back together again.

We call it “Re-setting for the Top”, this act of putting everything back to where we started so that we can do it all over again.

But in reality, it’s not always the same. Particularly in rehearsal. Things change, singers find new nuances in their portrayal. Directors change traffic patterns to clarify the story they are trying to tell. Dancers, adjust a position or a movement. Even stage managers, who are supposed to be the soul of consistency, even we find subtle ways to make things better or more efficient – perhaps that prop should be preset facing the other way for ease of pick up. Or maybe this entrance order needs to be adjusted to get those who sing first onstage at the front of the line. Or maybe I need to move that post-it in my book so that I see it sooner and throw the cue on time. There are always big tweaks and little tweaks that can be made.

The second act of La Boheme, despite being one of the busiest scenes in all of opera-dome is actually quite short – usually kissing twenty minutes. In a three hour rehearsal, even with thirty minutes of chorus breaks, you can run Act Two at least five times, maybe six or seven if you’re fast at re-setting. That’s a lot of re-setting. But at the same time, it’s a lot of chances to figure out how to make things better.

There is a saying that life isn’t a dress rehearsal, the implication being that the curtain is up and we are living our one shot in front of an audience. But I think, the people who say this don’t truly understand rehearsal. Or life. I think, perhaps life is indeed like a rehearsal. Despite this being our one precious life, I don’t think that we are here to get it right on the first take; it’s a process. It’s a process of learning and trying and failing and clarifying and then trying again. Perhaps we need to be more forgiving of ourselves and of others and realize that everyone should get an opportunity to reset for the top, another chance to try things again until one arrives where one wants to be.

This includes that baby and the box of Cheerios. I’ll keep resetting that box, and perhaps one day, instead of dumping the Cheerios on the floor, she will finally figure out how to pour it into her bowl and get herself breakfast.

Weekly recap + what we ate – running away to the woods

View from the hammock. Relaxing for five minutes at a time.

I had a week off work so I took the kids camping for three nights, along with my parents. It was also the first full week of summer break, and I thought a little unplugging would be good for everyone. Also – for some reason, I had thought that the nine year old had camp last week, but nope.

My brother, an avid backpacker and hiker, says that three nights is the minimum for camping because it takes at least two nights to adjust to sleeping outdoors. In the end, I kind of wished that we could have stayed for even more nights.

We went to Swallow Falls State Park. A friend had suggested it as a good hike for kids because it is short (less than two miles) and has three water falls for the kids to play in. Luckily we went mid week so I was able to book campsites. The weekends seem to be booked up all summer.

We drove out on a Tuesday, leaving much later than I had planned. We arrived at the campsite around 7pm. But as the camp site was 170 miles west of home, the sun went down about an hour later, so we had plenty of light by which to pitch our tents and set ourselves up. The campsites themselves were on the small side. I don’t know that I could have safely made a fire on our site since our tent took up most of the camping pad. Luckily I had booked my parents the site next to ours, so we spent most of our time on their site. Also, our site was rather close to the road. Next time, too, I would pick a camp site on the inner loop – those seemed a little farther back from the road.

In the morning, we went hiking at Swallow Falls Canyon Trail. We had been here a couple of years ago with my sister-in-law’s family. Back then, though, the kids were younger so we only made it to one waterfall. This time, the kids hiked the whole loop. Well, the baby did about half of it, and then spent the return portion of the loop sleeping in the Ergo.

The trail loops through some woods, and then along streams, rivers and waterfalls. I know some hikers hike the path clockwise, trekking along the stream and then through the woods. I didn’t quite read the map correctly so we hiked through the woods first and then meandered back along the water. I think, though, I kind of preferred this way – the gentler, forest walk first then using the more interesting terrain on the return trip as kind of an incentive for the kids to keep going.

All in all it was a great hike for the kids – there was water to splash in, rocks to climb, and the trail was nice and shady. The hike was quite popular, even on a weekday. I probably would avoid it on a weekend if possible. And at the trailhead, was an ice cream truck!

The rest of the day featured ice cream, lazing in our new hammock – my camping gear splurge for the year, and absolutely worth it! – dinner cooked over the camp fire, and smores. Also a fairly late bedtime what with the late setting sun and all.

Our second day, we went to Herrington Manor State Park. There is a lake beach there and I though it might be a nice way to spend the summer day. Going to the beach on a lake is a little bit of an odd experience – there is sand and water, but for me the absence of wind and waves and sea salt air was conspicuous. It took me a while to realize what was missing from the beach experience, and finally I put my finger on it – it was much too quiet without the constant crash of the surf. Nonetheless, we had a great time. We even rented a canoe and my dad and I took the nine year old and the four year old out for a paddle. It was a little tricky since none of us really knew how to paddle, but we did eventually figure it out. I remember when I was in elementary school, during one swim lesson, our instructors put a canoe in the pool and taught us how to paddle. That was a long time ago, and I’m sorry to say I don’t remember much of what we were taught. Once my father and I figured out how to get the canoe to go (somewhat) the direction we wanted, the nine year old also had a turn at paddling, which I think she really enjoyed.

On the way home, we stopped at Misty Meadow Creamery for lunch and ice cream. Last week, I had put out a call on our local parents’ listserv for favorite frozen treats in the area. A couple parents shared that every summer, our state has an Ice Cream Trail every summer, where they print a map highlighting Maryland dairy farms. The idea is that if you visit all ten dairies, you can be entered in a drawing for prizes.

Misty Meadow Creamery was somewhat between Swallow Falls State Park and home, so of course we stopped. It was actually a really nice pit stop. They had some play structures to climb, farm animals to pet, and some ride-on toys to play with. And of course, ice cream. I had a cone with root beer ice cream on top and black raspberry on top. The root beer is a seasonal flavor, and it was like a root beer float in ice cream form. It was a hot hot day, and our ice cream almost melted faster than we could lick it.

There was also this really neat gazebo with four gliding chairs. I immediately texted the Husband a picture saying that I wanted one. Though, of course, I have no place to put it.

I want this for my new reading nook. Not sure where to put it, but it screams summer to me.

It was a great trip overall. I wish we could have stayed longer, but unfortunately the weekends were all full up. We’ll put it on our list of places to visit again.

What we ate:

Saturday: Can’t remember. Though we got Indian Take Out for lunch.

Sunday: Chinese Take Out for Father’s Day.

Monday: Kale and Tomatoe Saag Paneer from East. Our friend Renee came over for dinner and brought a really delicious blueberry crumble as well.

Tuesday: PB& J Sandwiches, after getting to the camp site kind of late

Wednesday: Breakfast – oatmeal
Lunch – PB & J Sandwiches, hummus wraps, apples, carrots, cucumbers, watermelon
Dinner – Fish foil packets cooked over the campfire. Cod and Salmon over celery, peppers, parboiled potatoes and carrots. S’mores.

Thursday: Breakfast – pancakes (from mix), and bacon (a camping treat!)
Lunch – at the beach, sandwiches,
Dinner – Tried to make hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls over the campfire, but that didn’t work so well. The pastry didn’t really cook all the way through. Also had baked beans and corn. All cooked on the fire.

Friday: Snack dinner, thrown together with minimal prep the night we arrived home. Tuna fish, carrots, cucumbers, cheese, and crackers.