Diane

Weekly Recap + what we ate: We got a tree!

This week we got our Christmas Tree. We picked it up from our local fire and rescue station which has a Christmas tree fundraiser every year. Last year we bought a tree that was too tall for our living room and had to lop it off a little. This year we were a little more prudent and bought a more modest tree.

(Incidentally, I listened to a fascinating and hilarious episode of Planet Money this week about the Christmas Tree market and why there seemed to be fewer trees this year. It seems to be a combination of more people staying home and the economics of ten years ago, when this year’s crop of trees would have been planted.)

Most of the Christmas tree decorations we have are from the Husband’s childhood, carefully preserved by his mother. The children loved the Garfield ornaments and the Star Trek ornaments. These last ones are pretty cool – they plug into the light string and make noises and say things like “Live Long and Prosper.”

Also on our tree are the ornaments from our wedding. The Husband and I got married the week before Christmas. And instead of a guestbook, we made Christmas ornaments and had people write us a message. The ornaments are simple wooden shapes with tissue paper and magazine images modge podged onto them. Every Christmas we read the messages on the back as we put them on the tree, remembering that snowy day in December when the city was shut down for a snow storm, but we were surrounded by so much love from family and friends.

Our wedding guest ornaments adorning our tree. This one says “May your marriage and live be filled with this… and don’t forget to say goodnight.”

Some Christmas/ Advent things we’ve been doing:

– lots of hot chocolate. I’ve been making my own mix with semi-sweet chocolate, cocoa, malted milk powder, powdered sugar, cinnamon, cayenne, nutmeg and cornstarch. It took some experimenting, but I think I’ve gotten a good balance of chocolate-y flavour and not too sweet. Not that I can recreate it because I kind of made it up.

– Advent books. I used to borrow 20 or so Christmas and winter books from the library every December, augmented several Christmas books that we own. Then I would wrap them and we would unwrap on every night and read it. It would sometimes get complicated when books had to be returned to the library and couldn’t be renewed, but hadn’t been unwrapped yet. Anyhow, last year, what with the new baby and all – I didn’t have the bandwidth to wrap them all, so I just put them in a shopping bag and we picked one out every night. And it was fine. So this year the Husband got a box and I gift wrapped it and we put twenty odd books in it and we have been reading one or two every few nights. Because of COVID restrictions we couldn’t go to the library to browse books, so I basically did a search for the word “Christmas” or “Winter” in children’s picture books and put a bunch of books on hold at the library for pick up. They’ve been coming in at a trickle, but we have more than enough to get us to Christmas day.

-Advent calendar. One of those chocolate ones with Gospel verses behind each door.

-Bonus Christmas movie night on Saturdays. We did Home Alone this week. I had forgotten that the bulk of the movie is not the slapstick humour that you see in all the previews. There is actually a lot of heart in this movie.
Also on our list for Christmas movies is Elf, Meet Me in St. Louis, and It’s A Wonderful Life.

Other fun food things:

-Another pomegranate from our Hungry Harvest box. I had read about a technique where you cut the pomegranate in half and then hit it really hard to dislodge the seeds. So I tried it and it worked better than expected. These seeds I have been eating with the spaghetti squash. An odd dish of spaghetti squash, pomegranate seeds and roasted sweet potatoe. Surprisingly tasty.

-I found a jar of refrigerator pickles in the back of the fridge. I’m not at all sure how long they’ve been there, but they were still tasty and quite garlic-y. A little slice of summer in December.

-the three year old decided he wanted a bread sandwich the other night. He was not a fan of the black bean burgers. The rest of us liked them, though.

Love the shadows of the Christmas tree needles on the floor.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Smoked salmon on bagels.

Sunday: Perch cooked in oil and Green Beans

Monday: Spaghetti Squash with kale and chickpeas. I’m not a huge fan of spaghetti squash, but this came in our Hungry Harvest box, so I wanted to use it up. I feel like I never get the texture quite right. I’ve been cooking it in the InstantPot, but maybe it will be better once our oven comes and I can roast it. This recipe from Love and Lemons was actually quite tasty and even better as leftovers.

Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers from Dinner Illustrated. We had it with bagged salad. Trying to get more beans and legumes in our meals.

Wednesday: Mushroom and Broccoli Stir fry wwith Udon noodles.

Thursday: Chicken Makhani using this sauce. The Husband made this. It was really tasty.

Friday: Pizza and The Twelve Dates of Christmas. It’s Hallmark Christmas movie season!

Books read in November 2020

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig – 6 h 7 mins. Lovely, light read about a man who ages so slowly that he has been alive for centuries. The book explores the ideas of family and history and time and perspective. I enjoyed the speculative history parts, particularly meeting Shakespeare.

Burial at Thebes by Seamus Heaney. Hard copy. Heaney’s adaptation of Euripides’ Antigone. I had wanted to read some of Heaney’s poetry, being unfamiliar with it. This play was the first thing available at the library. It read surprisingly modern, almost jarringly so. Perhaps that is because in my head the story of Antigone is an ancient one. I have vague memories of reading Anouilh’s version in high school French class. Heaney’s version focuses not so much on Antigone’s story, but rather that of Creon and his megalomania.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid – 6h 36m. Engrossing story of an aging Hollywood film star and the journalist who is helping her write her memoirs. I’m not sure if I really connected with any of the characters, but this book was really well constructed and deftly plotted. I was mesmerized and stayed up until 3am to finish it.

Poser by Claire Dederer – audiobook read by Christine Williams. I had heard an interview with Dederer on the podcast Everything Is Fine, and I thought she had a lot of very sensible thoughts about being a woman over 40. This book is a memoir told through yoga poses. She took up yoga to help with back pain that developed while breastfeeding and writes about how her yoga journey mirrored her own life’s journey. There were a lot of really thoughtful ideas about identity and how we search for identity even as it changes. I do think, though, I am getting a little fatigued with the genre of new mother personal essays. Whereas personal essays about new motherhood used to make me really feel seen and not so alone, they now feel a little cliched, and the domain of a certain demographic. Maybe I need to read about more diverse motherhood experiences?

Loveboat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen – 6h 48m. When I was a high school student in Southern California, people in the Taiwanese community talked about Loveboat all the time. It was a cultural exchange program in Taiwan for teenagers – not officially called Love Boat, but referred to as such for all the matchmaking that resulted in its pressure cooker of newfound independence. I never went – it sounded really intense to me. Wen’s book is a YA novel about Ever Wong, whose parents ship her off to Loveboat. There she does the requisite self discovery and flirting with romance and bonding with girlfriends. I must say this book really did make me a little nervous to have a teenager. s

Also in November, two audiobooks we listened to on our trips to the Shenandoahs, both given high approval ratings from the eight year old:
Nim’s Island by Wendy Orr, narrated by Kate Reading – I loved this adventure story featuring the resourceful Nim.
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, narrated by Kate Atwater – Such a great story about a robot finding her way and herself with the help of a colourful cast of animal friends.

Weekly Recap + what we ate

View of the late fall colours at Longwood Gardend

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to Longwood Gardens. We didn’t stay late enough to see the gardens ablaze with lights, but we still got plenty of festive holiday experience. There were poinsettias and Christmas trees and toy trains and fire pits. The weather was pretty mild and the skies were blue.

On the way back from Longwood, we listened to the audiobook version of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, narrated by Elaine Stritch. Oh my goodness was it funny! The eight year old cackled with delight all the way home. We agreed that listening to it should be a Christmas tradition.

We finished putting up Christmas lights. I had convinced the Husband to get one of those image projectors for the house. I figured when calculated per square foot, a projector was the most cost efficient way to add some holiday cheer to our house.

“And this one,” I said, “comes with two Halloween slides too! So we get two holidays for the price of one!”

There was also a great debate about white lights or coloured lights. The compromise we came to was coloured lights before Christmas and white lights after.

There was quite a bit of rain the following week. In keeping with my determined plan to have outdoor time, I put on rain boots and my windbreaker and took the three year old and the baby outside. It’s actually no struggle to take the three year old out because he loves rainy walks. We didn’t go to the park, but walked around our block, finding plenty to explore. A good fifteen minutes was spent watching a work crawl across the sidewalk.

The rain tends to collect at the end of our cul de sac and we went down there to find puddles. Not only did we find puddles, we also found mud. Mud pies and dams were made. The mess makes me a little nuts, but the kids really loved it. I have to remind myself that it’s just mud. On the bright side, I managed to get them into the bath when we got back in the house.

Now that drawing class is over, I’ve been back at sewing masks for our church maks ministry. As I sew, I get some good listening in and this week I listened to a beautifully candid interview on Fresh Air with David Chang, the chef behind Momofuku. I always find it fascinating to hear chefs talk about food on a every day level. There is something that can be so rarified about food, but at the basic level, food’s main purpose is pretty simple; we eat to nourish and sustain ourselves physically. When Chang talked about food, I really got the sense that food can be amazing and accessible at the same time.

During the interview he also talked a lot about growing up as the son of immigrants, and about the almost manic culture of hard work that is familiar, I think, to many children of immigrants. He made the point that work is the last socially acceptable addiction, and that has really stuck with me – this idea that work can be so all consuming that it can be detrimental. But at the same time we life in a culture where our jobs define us and how we live. It’s something I’ve been thinking about as these days of unemployment stretch out.

Fun things:

My parents sent some mandarin oranges from their garden. They were a tasty as they were pretty:

The baby started signing “milk” and “more”. I had considered weaning, but now that she’s actually signing to nurse, my resolve is softening.

Sometimes I forget what an architecturally beautiful city I live in. (Or rather adjacent to):

What We Ate:

Saturday: Can’t remember. Probably leftovers after we got back from Longwood Gardens. Or maybe takeout?

Sunday: Pad Thai from Dinner Illustrated.

Monday: Brussel Sprouts and Mushroom Farro Bowls w/ Lemon Tahini Dressing

Tuesday: Paneer Biryani.

Wednesday: Tofu Udon – The Husband cooked.

Thursday: Sushi rolls with Tuna. This was kind of a failure. I made it before taking the eight year old to dance class, and before I took off to for my weekly walking date with my friend. The food was all luke warm and mushy by the time the Husband came home with the kids from the dance class pick up. He called it the “worst meal ever”.

Friday: Pizza and the eight year old’s (virtual) piano recital. I’m sure there was some Stinky and Dirty in there as well since it was the 3 year old’s turn to pick the movie. Oh, and we watched half an hour of the Rockette’s Christmas special.

Weekly Recap + what we ate: Thanksgiving week!

Pie research! That’s Cook’s Illustrated, Tartine, How To Cook Everything, Better Homes and Gardens, and King Arthur Flour Baking Companion

So much to catch up on! I had a little glitch with the website, so didn’t get to post for a while. But hopefully it’s all good now.

A while ago, we watched with much admiration as our six year old neighbor mowed the lawn while his father looked on. His father was pretty hands off, only stepping in a few times when the terrain was challenging.

Inspired by this, the Husband decided that the eight year old could also learn to mow the lawn. I’m so proud of both of them.

This week it seemed like we turned the corner of the season. After a fall of activities and random days off, we are about to enter December with -gasp- full weeks of school. It kind of feels like we have to rediscover a rhythm and routine for making full time school manageable again. These days, a lot of my schedule does revolve around the eight year old’s schedule because I want to be around for her while she is in class. Also with my drawing class over, the next seem a little blank with potential. It’s not quite a carte blanche because there are still bills to pay and the holidays to prepare for, so I guess it’s just a matter of figuring how these things will fill those currently blank calendar pages.

With three half days of school and pretty mild weather, we did make a point of several extended outdoor sessions. Tuesday we put our masks on and went to one of our favorite county playgrounds. They have giant slides and a sandbox with those digging machines. The three year old spent most of his time on the diggers while the eight year old played Zombie Apocalypse with some other kids she met there. The baby has discovered slides and she can go down them by herself. She determinedly climbs up the steps to the top of the slide, sits downs, then turns around so she is laying on her stomach, feet first. She then zooms to down, a joyful grin lighting up her face as she goes. Then she does it all over again.

Thanksgiving was different this year. We usually stay in town but celebrate with friends, and sometimes family if they are here. Last year my brother and sister-in-law and her parents were here. It was a wonerful combination of touristy adventures and homey family time. I usually make several dishes- usually a pie, a veggie, and a bread something. This year we spent the day by ourselves, and our oven is still broken, so it was a lot more low key than years past.

We did have a Zoom call with family – it was my brother’s birthday!- and it was nice to see my sister-in-law’s parents as well as my parents and my brother’s family.

Things we still did:

-Watched the Macy’s day parade. It definitely wasn’t the same, but kudos to the people working on it, making all the various segments come together so seamlessly. Ultimately it was the stuff that we remember as tv watchers- floats, balloons, musical numbers, friendly banter, Christmas ads.

-watched football while snacking

-baked a pie. I made a pumpkin pie. Every year I choose a recipe and then forget which one I used so then I can’t recreate it and am sent scouring the cookbooks to try to remember. So for the record- this year I made the recipe from Tartine with two egg yolks instead of one and fresh ginger. Also used rum instead of brandy because that was what we had, but I might skip the alcohol next time. But the texture of the custard was perfect. Pie crust from KAF baking book.

-squirts Reddi-Wip in our mouths. Very important tradition. The baby was initiated into this tradition this year. She definitely enjoyed it.

Friday we started putting up Christmas lights around the house. We have never really put up Christmas lights but the eight year old always asks and we thought this year… why not? We didn’t quite get finished, but we did get a good start.

Some other fun and cozy things this week:

– We got a pomegranate in our produce box this week. There is something so fascinatingly beautiful about the pomegranate experience – the deep red exterior, the jeweled interior, the care and work it takes to extract the pips even feels like an art. I feel like I’m still finding the ideal way to extract the seeds where I don’t make a mess or have to pick through tiny membrane fragments. But also – maybe this careful persistence is part of the pomegranate experience?

– Last year, I decided to finally learn how to knit. All the kids have hand made blankets that are much treasured, so I had decided to make one for the (about to be born) baby. I have long been a crocheter, but I wanted to learn to knit too. So I asked my friends for advice, looked at a bunch of online tutorials, bought some circular needles, went through my yarn stash and got started. And I did it! I somehow managed to figure out how to knit. By which I mean I just make rows and rows of plain knit stitch – often while sitting in front of the tv in the evenings, or on road trips (when we used to take those). I started almost a year and half ago, and the blanket just keeps growing. Having chosen a rather open ended pattern, I’m not quite sure when it will feel long enough or finished. But it’s gotten to the point that it’s become quite a cozy project as the blanket is now big enough to cover my legs as I work on it. It is full of imperfections, small gaps and uneven stitches – a first effort if ever there was one, for sure.

-The baby will now reach for my hand when we go for walks. This small, almost unconscious gesture of trust and attachment, the combination of her independent mobility and her need for closeness – it slays me sometimes.

What we ate:

Saturday: leftovers

Sunday: Shakshuka in the Instant Pot. I love Shakshuka, but haven’t been able to find a great recipe yet. Most recipes I find come out a little too tomatoe-y, and not the complex savory experience I’ve had in restaurants.

Monday: Banh mi Bowls, but with noodles rather than rice, and I did make some quick pickled veggies to go with it (carrots, cucumbers radishes splashed in rice wine vinegar and a sprinkle of salt and sugar). This recipe was shared with me by a friend as a way to use up some coconut aminos that I’ve had in my pantry for years. The bottle was left me by a friend who came into town for a gig as part of her “end of job” pantry pass along. When gigging one often has lots of random kitchen ingredients leftover when it’s time to go home, and it’s kind of a custom to leave a bag of stuff with colleagues who are local. I love this kind of thing – it has introduced me to many new ingredients. At any rate – these bowls were delicious and we are adding it to our rotation.

Tuesday: Farro Bowls w/ green beans and cannellini beans. Adapted from Dinner Illustrated.

Wednesday: Salmon tacos.

Thursday: root vegetable gratin and grilled chicken. Cranberry sauce, which the eight year old helped to make. Pumpkin pie for dessert.

Friday: Pizza and Opera Lafayette’s production of The Blacksmith, streamed online. Opera Lafayette is an opera company that performs baroque opera – I did a gig with them in 2019 and I adore them. It is a company of talented, kind, and resourceful people, and all of these traits were evident in this outdoor production of Philidor’s opera comique. Baroque opera is my catnip, but when you combine it with traditional tunes and a Wild West setting, the whole thing was irresistible. The way that the musicians performed baroque music with a traditional American twang and that they presented American songs with the elegance of Baroque music was brilliant. It really makes one realize how varied yet alike different musical genres are.

Haikus for November

Last week’s blazing tree
has dropped its red robes, leaving
skeleton branches.

Autumn sun warms me
even as gusty winds chill me.
Fall is ironic.

The cacophony
as she unloads kitchen drawers
creating chaos.

Weekly Recap + what we ate

I’m really glad we got a picture of the tree at our old house last week. This week when we went over, the tree had dropped its leaves and the branches were sparse. We spent Saturday afternoon washing windows and raking leaves. The eight year old got to use the leaf blower – which was hilarious to see, but also really made me feel proud of her.

This week was the first week all month that the eight year old had a full week of school. So no big adventures this week, but rather five days of slog and small moments. Small moments such as:

– Lunch breaks at the playground in 60 degree weather.
– The baby figuring out so many things: waving, taking her dirty dish to the sink, putting dirty napkins into the laundry bin, putting her shoes away. getting her shoes out of the bin when she wants to go outside.
– Zoom chat with moms from my mom’s group. Almost all our babies are now one, and I’m really glad for such a supportive group of women.
-Standing date with my friend/roommate from college. Realizing that we’re so much better at life than we were in our 20s and 30s. Being able to laugh over things like period products.

Conversation I had with the Husband at 2pm on a Sunday:
me: Why does it feel like it’s 4:00 in the afternoon?
Husband: Because it’s dark outside. That’s what happens in the fall. You’re usually in a theatre this time of year so you don’t know that this happens.
me: !

Which speaking of which – I found out this year that the shows I had scheduled for late spring have now been cancelled. So I haven’t any glimmer of stage management work for at least the next year or so. It’s a tough blow, but I also feel so lucky that it isn’t as devastating for me as it is for so many of my colleagues. Staying home with the kids full time is not really what I’m suited for, but it is also somewhat of a luxury.

This was the last week of drawing class. We were given carte blanche for our final project. I chose to draw the Husband’s childhood home. Three years ago, when his parents passed away, he sold the house. I took a picture of it, thinking that one day I would find an artist on Etsy to make a drawing of it as a present for the Husband. Instead, last week I decided to tackle a picture of the house myself. I was inspired by another student’s hatch and cross hatch project. She was the only one do do that assignment in ink and I loved how detailed and crisp her picture was. I wanted to do something in the same vein.

There is always a point in every project that I did for this class when I realized that I’ve perhaps chosen a subject that is a tad ambitious and I feel in over my head. But then I just keep plugging away and somehow, magically, the lines coalesce into something recognizable.

With this picture, it was the roof. I knew that drawing every tile was probably the best way to go, but doing something that detailed seemed so daunting at first. But I just turned up the show tunes and kept plugging away, one row at a time, and it somehow turned out okay. I’m going to miss the weekly drawing assignment, even though it definitely took up a large chunk of my evenings. I’ll be looking for new evening projects – I do have some mask making to catch up on, and I did promise the Husband to make him a pair of lounge pants. And more writing. And reading. And finishing the blanket that I started for the baby last year. And that programming course I signed up for. And also the Science of Well being course. I guess there is no shortage of projects.

Surprise discovery of the week:
One day, in a fit of cleaning, I decided to clean out behind the fish tank cabinet. It was a mess of small pieces of toys and puzzles. I fished around blindly behind the cabinet, clearing stuff out, then my hand came across something hard and dry and stuck to the floor. I picked it free and it turned out to be… a dead fish. There was no small amount of screaming. The Husband’s theory is that the fish managed to jump out of the fish tank at some point while the lid was open. Poor, sad fish.

A more pleasant surprise discovery, however:

We discovered this pumpkin, growing in the garden. The Husband stays that it is a volunteer – maybe planted by an animal who ate last year’s jack 0’lantern off our porch and then naturally deposited the seed in our garden.

This week’s simple pleasure: Toast with butter. Something about the crispy exterior and chewy interior of perfectly toasted bread, slathered with creamy, salty butter – perfect for autumn mornings. Or afternoons. Or really any time.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Hmmmm…. I can’t seem to remember. I think it was something out of the pantry because we didn’t get to the grocery store that day.

Sunday: Poblano and sweet potato tacos from Dinner Illustrated. Our oven is still broken, so I made these partly in the toaster oven and partly in a skillet. The eight year old made the guacamole.

Monday: Stuffed pepper skillet. Basically everything I would put into a stuffed pepper (ground turkey, rice, tomatoes, cheese) but in a skillet with peppers cut up rather than than used as a vessel for the filling. I also threw in mushrooms and turnips.

Tuesday: The Husband cooked. He made mac n cheese from scratch and coleslaw. The kids loved the coleslaw.

Wednesday: Wings, Fries and leftovers. Not what I had planned, but we had a last minute change in plans which involved picking up wings and fries from one of our favorite pubs.

Thursday: Chicken farro soup in the InstantPot. Sort of made this one up. Carrots, celery, onions, garlic sauteed in the InstantPot, then add chicken broth, a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and bone-in chicken thighs.

Friday: Pizza and The Gardener. The Husband was in the mood for something gentle at the end of the week, and this documentary fit the bill. It tells about the creation of Les Jardins de Quatre Vents in Quebec. The children were (surprisingly) fascinated by the lush vistas and garden scenes. There was a part of me that kept wondering about the wealth and privilege that brought about such a landscaping feat.

Weekly recap + what we ate

Well, the weekend started off with the news that the AP had called PA, and in turn the election for Biden. Despite my being glued to the radio for the past week, it almost happened without my realizing it. I was getting the children ready to go out the door, “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” on in the background. And in the space of time it took to leave the house, get three kids buckled into car seats, and turn the car radio on… it was a new America. You could almost hear a massive sigh of relief. Around here, anyway. I’m sure there are other areas of the country where the news was met with less enthusiasm. I find little comfort in the close election results. The two party system which our political system is built upon makes working together quite difficult. The binary often leaves no room for moderation.

I am excited about Kamala Harris, though. It seems silly to be excited about something as superficial as race and gender, but representation does matter.

Sunday the weather was beautiful and we had a family outing to the beach. Who would’ve thought we’d be going to the beach in mid November? As the priest who gave the homily in church that morning said, “Go outside today. The weather is beautiful. If you don’t believe in global warming, I don’t know what you believe in.”

We went to Flag Ponds Nature Park, as I had read it was a good beach to go hunting for shark teeth and fossils. We arrived at 3pm, pretty late given that the beach closed at 4pm, but we still managed to get in an invigorating hour of digging and splashing. There were all sorts of shells, fragments, and fossils to be found. The eight year old might have found a shark’s tooth, but we’re not sure. I had told the kids not to wear their swim suits because no one would be swimming, but I kind of regret that because they went into the water anyway. Note to self for next time: when going to a beach, always wear your bathing suit.

Every since the early days of our courtship the Husband and I have had this thing were we take pictures of our feet at certain landmarks. We hadn’t yet taken one of our family of five – I guess since we hadn’t really been anywhere since the baby started standing. So we took the time to take one at the beach.

The early fall sunset made for some beautiful light over the cliffs and sand banks. I loved the varied topography of this area – you could really see all the different geographical elements at play. This year I’m discovering all sorts of places to be outdoors in Maryland, and I think it’s one of those silver linings.

Monday was yet another day with no school. I somehow had missed that on my calendar, or I might have maybe planned a getaway to a cabin in the woods. As it was, I furiously searched for potential cabins with availability to no avail. Then I realized, that our admission to Shenandoah from last week was good for seven days, so I bundled the kids into the car, packed a lunch in the toddler hiking pack, and back we went. This time we hiked the Miller’s Outlook Trail. Even the baby walked a little bit! She set off determinedly down the trial for about a quarter mile, before agreeing to ride in the pack. The hike was definitely longer than I had thought it would be, and we almost turned around before getting to the outlook.

“Let’s sit and have lunch here,” I said to the kids as their energy and spirits were flagging. We sat in a pile of leaves next to some boulders and ate our sandwiches. While we were eating, group of hikers came by. We exchanged hellos. Then the eight year old piped up:

“Is the end far?”

“Not at all!” one of them replied. “Only about ten minutes.”

“Well, I suppose if it is that close, we should keep going,” the eight year old said.

And so we did. And were rewarded with sunshine pouring over a magnificent view.

After I got back and looked at the map, I discovered that I had started us at the wrong point, and that there was indeed a shorter path to the outlook.

Wednesday was the start of several days of rain. It was also Veteran’s Day. In Canada, we call it Remembrance Day, which I kind of prefer the more active name. The Husband had the day off. He had really wanted to sit in a coffee shop and read, but… COVID. So I made chocolate walnut scones in the morning for him. The recipe is from a book we picked up when we were in England years ago. It’s called Irish Pantry, and I feel like most of its recipes are perfect for cold, hunkering weather. Because our oven is still broken, I used our toaster oven and only made half a batch, freezing the rest for later. Later being that evening. Scones are easy enough, though, that I think I should make and freeze them more often so that we can have effortlessly have a fresh scone whenever we want. One of those “future me” thanks “present me” kind of things.

This week’s drawing technique was hatch and cross hatch – using lines to create shading and value. Knowing that I wanted to draw something furry, and as we have no pets, I composed a still life featuring my grandmother’s coat. I also drew some inspiration from the cover of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, and added the hat and shoes. I had done a rough version of this in pen, but the final version I did in pencil. I think I ultimately prefer the version in pen; the pencil version seems a little soft to me. While I think I’m still struggling with the actual line drawing of things, I’m finding that I really love creating value – patches of light and dark. I’m fascinated by how often you can make things darker, but it is more difficult to make things lighter. So you have to be careful about how dark you let things get. Lessons for life, perhaps?

Some things this week:

There is a tree at our first house, that is brilliantly red for about one week every fall. When we lived there, we always took a picture in front of it. This past weekend, the Husband was over at the house prepping it for our next tenants and he texted me: “If you want to come over with the kids the tree is ready.”

A country divided:

Quotes of the week:

The three year old: “I am not available to go for a walk.”

What We Ate:

Saturday: Meatball sandwiches. Frozen meatballs cooked in the InstantPot with tomatoe sauce. Mozzarella. Hoagie roll. Really tasty. There might have also been a salad involved. Can’t remember.

Sunday: Breakfast Tostadas. Tostadas were an exciting new discovery this week. Versatile like tacos, but with the satisfying crunch of nachos. We topped ours with sunny side up egg, black beans, and avocado.

Monday: Tostadas again. Like I said, exciting discovery. This time fish and purple cabbage slaw. The Husband cooked.

Tuesday: Stir fry – tofu, greens, bok choy, shitake mushrooms – with noodles.

Wednesday: Chicken Divan from Cook’s Illustrated Skillet Dinner book. Tasty, a little heavy.

Thursday: Sausage Kale Soup.

Friday: Pizza, salad, and Hello Dolly! Last year I took the eight year old (along with my mom, my brother and my niece) to see Hello, Dolly! onstage starring Betty Buckley. It was an old fashioned, big hearted song and dance musical. A little outdated in style and subject, perhaps, but it delivered an evening of unbridled joy. Joy, I think, is underrated these days. The eight year old loved it, and last week I borrowed the Barbara Streisand movie from the library for her movie night. The sheer enthusiasm for life in the dance numbers doesn’t get old – I love the casual precision of good dancing. We have been singing “Put on your Sunday clothes” ever since. The three year old requests to listen to it before bed. If there is a number that expresses unbridled optimism, it’s that one.

Weekly Recap + what we ate

The ups and downs of kite flying. A metaphor for the week?

It’s been a week. I feel a little cynical whenever people call say, “This is an historic election.” or “This is an important election.” or something similarly dramatic. Because isn’t every election historic? And important? But there was definitely a confluence of things that made this election season feel not the same old same old.

Saturday was Halloween. We started the day by going on a hike with my friend Kristen. I bribed the kids with hot chocolate, which I put in a vintage Thermopot that the Husband’s parents had had in their basement, and we drank after the hike.

Given the COVID situations, we did not go out trick or treating that evening, but I felt like the day still needed some commemoration. So we strung up the candy corn lights and put out the jack o lantern. The eight year old had this game changing idea to put battery operated string lights inside the Jack o lantern. Brilliant! I didn’t have to try to light the tea candles or worry about things catching on fire. And the lights were purple, which gave a really cool glow.

Despite having made costumes for the kids, they did not put them on. Instead, we tried out our fire pit (smoky, not as warm as I thought it would be.) We put a bowl of candy out on the porch, but I think the only person who took a piece was the mail carrier, who was strangely delivering mail at 7:30pm. Mail slow down indeed.

The weather was beautiful all week. Monday was warm yet windy. We took advantage of the 8 year old’s 90 minute lunch break to fly a kite at the nearby park. This is that park that was under construction these past few months and when we went to check out the diggers on Monday morning, it was complete! The orange fencing was taken down and it was ready for play. The lunch break trip to the park might become a more regular part of our routine.

The double swing in action! I think you are actually supposed to stand on the swing on the right.

The eight year old had Tuesday and Wednesday off school. Election Day is typically a day off for them, and Wednesday was an added planning day for the teachers. I had joked that I should have taken them to a cabin in the woods and gone into a media blackout until things shook out. Instead, I took them hiking in the Shenandoahs.

If I thought too much about it, taking three young children hiking my myself was probably ambitious.

“Just don’t let anyone fall off a cliff,” The Husband said.

I packed sandwiches (peanut butter and jam and peanut butter and bananas) and lots of snacks and water. A couple diapers, a change of clothes for the two younger kids. And oh, yes, a thermos of hot chocolate. Which seems to be the bribe of the moment. I found the eight year old’s camera that morning, quickly charged the battery, and gave it to her to capture what she wanted.

It took about two hours to get to the Shenandoahs. We stopped at a picnic area for lunch and then headed to Stony Man Trail. With the baby in the hiking carrier, and the three year old carrying the backpack of snacks, we headed up the mountain.

It was a relatively moderate hike, and the view at the top was spectacular, though a little scary. I definitely had visions of the Husband saying to me, “I told you not to let anyone fall of a cliff.” At the top, we had our hot chocolate, still steaming as we poured it from the thermos. It was a very good bribe.

I was really fascinated during our hike of all the scrappy and resourceful ways things manage to grow. These trees, for example – they thrive in, what to my eyes, is an unusual way. But perhaps it isn’t that unusual, when things are left to their own devices.

Upon our return Tuesday night we stayed up to watch the election returns. I remember doing the same thing four years ago, and going to bed feeling so defeated after Pennsylvania was called for Trump. We let the kids stay up until about 10:00p. There is a fine line between watching election results as civic education and watching election results as entertainment. With the flashy maps and graphics and fast talking commentators, the kids were certainly riveted.

As much of a nail biter as the election was four years ago, it was even more so this year. There was a certain nerve-wracking tedium to the slow trickle of election returns. At a certain point in the evening we started watching the Law and Order marathon on WE. I went to bed around 1am, with several states still counting.

The counting went on all week. It definitely dominated the news cycle. To think that the answer to “Who will be the President?” was out there in these millions of slips of paper that people were counting. I feel kind of inspired to look into being a poll worker for the next election.

This week in art class, we work on stipple technique. When she was explaining the technique to us, the instructor said that it was a somewhat time-consuming technique and to make sure to plan our time well to finish the assignment. It was indeed time-consuming, and truth to tell, somewhat tedious. But at the same time you couldn’t let your mind wander or you would over stipple and, since this was a project in pen, mistakes were irrevocable. You can see evidence of that in the toe of the boot on the left.

The assignment was to draw a pair of shoes. I loved seeing the variety of shoes that people drew. I ended up quite liking this assignment. It was mentally challenging and visually interesting. I definitely wanted to try it again.

Baby milestones this week: She started waving. So adorable. She also started wearing shoes this week. They are the same shoes her brother wore when he started walking!

Other pretty things: This week in the preschool curriculum that I’m loosely doing with the three year old, we are learning about mixing colours. One of the activities combines mixing colours with practicing pouring skills. The three year old loved this activity and it kept him busy for at least half an hour. LUckily the weather was gorgeous enough to do this activity outside. And I thought it was rather pretty too!

What We Ate:
The Husband offered to cook this week! I still did Sunday, but he did all the rest.

Saturday: Sausage sandwiches

Sunday: Salmon burgers from Dinner Illustrated. I think we ate these with cut up veggies.

Monday: I can’t for the life of me remember….

Tuesday: Breakfast Sandwiches.

Wednesday: Carnitas and Nachos.

Thursday: Butternut squash soup, salad and chicken sausages.

Friday: Pizza and Oliver and Company. Cute movie. Innocuous and short. It was the three year old’s turn to choose. Usually he chooses to watch The Stinky and Dirty show unless we intervene suggestively. Which we did this time. I’ve been borrowing movies from the library and it’s been working pretty well.

Books Read October 2020

River of Fire: On Becoming an Activist by Sister Helen Prejean – Audio book read by the author.
I had read Dead Man Walking the year the company I was working for presented the opera based on the book. What struck me about the book Dead Man Walking was how Sister Helen’s arguments against the death penalty were in large part very logical assertions grounded in the socio-economic injustices of the criminal justice system. River of Fire, however, is a more personal book; it details her childhood and how she came to enter the novitiate and the events that led up to the start of her work with death row inmates. Indeed the last line of the book is the first line of Dead Man Walking. Sister Helen is so smart, articulate, and charismatic, but also self-aware, humble and hilarious. I really enjoyed reading about how her work and life played out against the backdrop of Vatican II.

A Life’s Work by Rachel Cusk – 4h 20m. A very raw and honest account of new motherhood and how can tear you apart and then force you to rebuild yourself. I read these essays feeling as if Cusk really understood a lot of what I struggle with when I consider being a mother, particularly the sense of panic that there will never again be enough time in life. Her writing is dry to the point of being somber, but then when I read it outloud to my husband, it was actually quite funny because she captures so many of the ridiculous moments of being a parent – her account of a weekend with kids is priceless.

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom – 10h 22m.
“I did not yet understand the psychic cost of defining oneself by the place where you are from.”
Broom’s memoir about growing up in New Orleans East and how where you are from informs who you are. It is somewhat a misnomer to call this a memoir because it is also the story about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – who is able to recover and who isn’t, recovery vs. abandonment. I read this while the California wildfires were raging. I was struck by how the two incidents are so much the same in terms of devastation, but so different in terms of response and recovery. It seems like we are at a point when hurricane season is barely a blip in the news cycle, even though the road to recovery for the affected areas is so much more difficult economically, socially, and politically.

A Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds – Audiobook read by the author.
This YA book is written in verse, which was one of the reasons Reynolds wanted to read the audio book himself. It is lyrical, breathless, tragic, and angry. The book takes place within the seconds that the elevator takes to travel to the ground floor as the teenage main character is on his way to avenge his brother’s death. At each floor, someone gets on, that makes him question the narrative of his life as a young black man.

The Art of Theft by Sherry Thomas – 6h 46m.
The latest installment of Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series that reimagines Sherlock Holmes as a woman. I really enjoy Thomas’ writing. Her characters are never easy to get to know or to like, which often turns me off when I’m reading fiction. Somehow, however, these characters fascinate me, and I wante to read on. This book was not as twisty as the previous ones in the series – it was actually pretty straight forward for a Sherry Thomas book.

Yes Please by Amy Poehler – Audiobook ready by the author and friends.
I like audiobooks that have a twist, and this one, with guest narrators, certainly did. I’ve never watched Parks and Rec, but this book often shows up on lists next to Tina Fey’s Bossypants. Bossypants was one of the first audiobooks that I loved – it made me laugh and laugh, and I was hoping Yes Please would be in the same vein. I didn’t love it as much as Bossypants, but I did enjoy the backstage stories and Poehler’s insights into how entertainment is made.

The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani (translated from the French by Sam Taylor) – 3h 50m. Unsettling novel about the relationship between two women – a nanny and the lady who hires her. I kept seeing this book pop up on “best ” lists, but I don’t think it was entirely to my taste. All the characters were really self absorbed and unpleasant, and ultimately the plot left one with more questions than answers. Perhaps that the feeling of instability is the point of the novel.

Weekly Recap + what we ate

Voting was at the top of my list this week, and I did that. There is a drop box at the library and I dropped my ballot there on my weekly library book run. I’m a big fan of early voting and voting by drop off ballot. I hope this continues to be an options. It is so much more convenient. Also, I feel like actually having the ballot made me more interested in researching the ballot measures.

I finished up the Halloween costumes this week. The three year old was a cloud. I had had plans to draw some raindrops on a pair of grey pants, but I didn’t get that far. The three year old was definitely unenthusiastic about wearing his costume, but then I told him he could ram people while wearing it, and he put it right on and proceeded to run at me over and over again. The baby still has to be bribed with food to wear her costume. The eight year old and I made a rainbow headband to go with her rainbow dress. I do wonder if at some point the younger kids will realize that they get to choose their own costume and they don’t have to go with whatever group costume their sister picks. I do like a good family costume, though.

I felt like I had a lot of errands to run this week. The car had to go in for an emissions test, library books to pick up, Halloween candy to buy, packages to return. I went into Target for the first time in a while and it was actually kind of overwhelming. I had forgotten that there was so much stuff in the world to be purchased and put in our homes. I am by no means a minimalist, but I do feel like the past six months without casual Target runs has helped me focus on what I do have in the house rather than what I don’t.

This week in drawing class, we worked on reverse value drawings. Using white conte crayon on black paper, we drew the areas of light on a page, rather than the areas of dark that we had done with the last assignment.

I felt like this assignment was quite difficult because you couldn’t erase like you could with the charcoal. At the same time, it was also a very dramatic and high impact method of drawing. I’m actually really happy with how my drawing turned out.

random collection of light capturing objects.

Friday night we carved the pumpkin. Well, actually, I carved the pumpkin. The kids usually come up with the design, but I am the one who actually wields the sharp objects. The eight year old did help pull out the guts. But all in all, it is one of those activities which the kids are really enthusiastic about and then half way through, I’m in my artistic Zen moment and look up to realize that the kids are nowhere to be found.

Every Halloween I’ve carved the pumpkin with a combination of a drill and my leatherman. And as much fun as that is, every year I say, “I should get a pumpkin carving kit.”

This year the Husband got me a pumpkin carving kit. I’m still on the fence as to whether it makes carving pumpkins easier, but it definitely gives you more tricks to pull out. I was able to carve “Boo” on the back of my pumpkin by whittling away the skin until there was a thin membrane of flesh that glowed when the light was put in the pumpkin.

Random food tidbit- The weather has cooled this past week, with many rainy days. Cooler weather is oatmeal for breakfast weather. One of my favorite ways to eat oatmeal is to treat it almost like a congee: sprinkled with scallions and ginger, drizzled with sesame oil and ume vinegar and topped with a boiled egg with a little bit of soy sauce. It is one of my favorite savory breakfasts.

What I’m listening to right now:
-Podcasts, some conservative ones. I was feeling like my left wing/ liberal/ NPR bubble was getting predictable, and I wanted to hear some different viewpoints. One of the podcasts I’ve been listening to is The National Review’s The Editors podcast. I don’t always agree with what they say, but I do see the logic of their viewpoints.
– CDs. When I was in college, I spent a lot of money on CDs at the Princeton Record Exchange. Lately I’ve been pulling out some of those CDs and revisiting my college days. I could probably do a deep dive into the contents of my CD library – it is mostly opera, musicals, movie soundtracks, early music, and obscure vocal music. One of the albums I’ve been listening to lately is music by the 17th Century Roman Composer Giovanni Felice Sances. I was in a record store one time – maybe it was Tower Records? – and back then the stores would have music stations with headphones set up among the CD racks, and one could listen to new release CDs. (Definitely a pre-COVID thing. Actually I guess it’s a pre iTunes/Spotify/Pandora, etc. thing) I was browsing the CD racks and this guy is listening at the station next to me. He suddenly turns to me and says, “You should listen to this one. It’s really good.” So I put the headphones on and pressed play. And it was like listening to Italian sunshine dancing with joy. So I bought that CD. 17th Century Music for sopranos, harp and guitar by Sances, performed by Musica Fabula, for the record (pun! Also – Classical albums are not the best at naming themselves, it would seem.) Google yields no trace of that CD, but if you can find it, it’s fabulous.

What We Ate:

Saturday: We finally got wings this night. We ordered the family pack which was sooo much food, but really tasty.

Sunday: Mushroom, spinach, ham crepes. Another kitchen sink meal.

Monday: Lamb meatballs and Greek salad

Tuesday: Broccoli and tofu stir fry with noodles. Used up the rest of the egg noodles from last week’s eggplant salad.

Wednesday: Braised chicken with squash and greens. The sauce for this was really tasty and the baby devoured the squash in the recipe.

Thursday: Indian Instant Pot Black Eyed Peas and Spinach, and Cumin Potatoes and Cauliflower

Friday: Pizza, Arni’s Jr Salads, and The Greatest Showman. The Husband and I saw this in the theatre when it first came out – it was one of our first dates after the three year old was born. It is still the glitzy, shiny, fun and heartfelt movie that I remember. And Hugh Jackman is insanely beautiful and talented.