Category: Recap and Menu

Weekly recap + what we ate: Back to school 2024!

Obligatory first day picture!

Well we’re off to the races with the 2024-2025 school year. And a new month. Whew. It was a pretty uneventful first week. The kids went to school. They came home. Extracurricular activities haven’t yet started, and I’m not yet working on a show, so it does feel like we are easing into the new school year.

First day of school celebratory boba run coupled with an Hmart trip.

Right out of the gate, though, the 7th grader’s middle school had their Back to School Night on Thursday. It felt a little soon to have a Back To School Night the fourth day of school, but oh well. I was glad of a chance to go – aside from the school plays and some early pick ups in the office, I haven’t really seen her middle school yet; last year it seemed as if every school event was on an evening when I had to work. At Back to School Night, the majority of the evening had the parents/guardians going to their student’s classes in order, with six minutes in each class and four minutes to get from one period to the other. Each student has seven classes a day, plus advisory and homeroom- down hallways, up stairs, from one end of school to another. I don’t know how the 12 year old manages this every day. I was exhausted by the end of the evening, but it was nice to put faces to the teachers and get a sense of what school is like for her. Last year I found middle school to be a huge black hole – the kid went to school. There were weekly newsletters that came home – all good things though. Once in a while a message from the Principal about an incident, or a form for me to sign. A few times a year, I saw grades. I suppose middle school is just one more step to independence and not knowing what my kid is up to.

My mother and my aunt were still in town most of last week. They had gone to New York City, but came back mid week. We did some less obvious touristy things. One day we went downtown to the Kennedy Center. We didn’t see a show or anything, but it’s just a beautiful building to walk around, and we had lunch at the Cafe on the roof, where there is a wonderful view of DC. There is an exhibit on JFK and his role in the arts. On that day, since we were already in the city, we went to the Portrait Gallery. I mainly picked the Portrait Gallery because it’s an easy metro ride and also I love sitting in its courtyard. There was an exhibit on Hollywood portraits, what I really liked seeing.

One of the portraits was of Merle Oberon, which I found fascinating because I didn’t realize that she was half South Asian. The blurb next to her portrait talked about how she had to hide her mixed race identity because of discrimination. I think of how I have half Asian kids and how it’s kind of no big deal because being mixed race a) is kind of a meaningless term – what is “race” anyhow? and b) is so common these days. I once read a statistic that the majority of kids will be of mixed race in the next ten years. (Or something like that – don’t quote me – it’s one of those statistics that’s stuck in my head, but I don’t remember where I heard it.) So thinking about being a mixed race person when it wasn’t so common and even considered scandalous is one of those things that I find really interesting to read about.

The day after that, we went to The National Museum of Health and Medicine, which is just a mile from my house. It’s a collection of body parts and medical equipment and photos and artifacts and such things related to the human body and how it can fall apart. The collection was started during the Civil War when doctors were encouraged to keep specimens of body parts and what not for research purposes. The most famous thing about it is that it has the bullet that killed Lincoln, along with some of his hair and the bloody cuffs of the doctor who operated on him. I didn’t realize this, but it also has a piece of President Garfield’s spine as well, from when he was shot. I kind of feel like you need to have a very strong stomach and sense of curiosity to go to this museum. It was especially interesting to go to the museum with my aunt who is a physician. She reminisced about her medical school days and pointed out the body parts and organs that were on display and told me all about what they did. The lady is amazing – she is 77 years old and still sees patients three days a week.

How did they even know to save it???

The last day of my Aunt’s visit, we took a trip to Longwood Gardens. What a beautiful riot of summer colour! I’m always glad for a visit to Longwood Gardens.

Labor Day Monday I took the three kids to the Renaissance Festival. I hadn’t originally planned to go over Labor Day weekend, but on Sunday our friends told us they were planning on going the next day, so it seemed like as good a time as any to go. Plus our other weekends in September were going to be full of kids’ activities. We had a great time. We saw the jousting (twice!), fencing shows, acrobats, Shakespeare parodies. We listened to loud feet-stomping, heart expanding music, ate turkey legs, reveled in people watching. The weather was gorgeous – warm and sunny with a breeze at just the right moments. The kids got sticky with melted ice cream and dirty with playground mulch. We laughed and wandered and had an all around great time.

Dressed up in all the layers. You can’t see it, but she’s also wearing fairy wings.

I think I did really well pacing our day. Once I (like Oliver Burkeman says) get used to the idea that you can’t see everything, then I think I could enjoy the things I did see without the sense that I should be somewhere else. I had each of the kids pick one thing they really wanted to do, and then planned around that. The 12 year old wanted to eat fried food, the 7 year old wanted to see the jousting, the 4 year old wanted to ride the pony, I wanted to see shows and laugh. So I looked at the schedule and map and plotted it out as soon as I got there. I picked four shows to anchor our day – 12 noon jousting, 2:00pm Death Scenes from Shakespeare, 3:30p Vixes En Garde, 5pm Piper Jones show. Then in and around we ate turkey legs (side note – these have gotten really expensive! They are now $12 a pop. I guess I’m okay with it, but it’s a little alarming), went to the pirate playground, shopped, and went on the Pony ride. It also helped that we met up with our friends who had three kids, so the older kids could take off together while I stuck with the little kids.

Turkey legs!

Coordinating with my friends was a little difficult at first because with all the mass of humanity at the Ren Faire – and it was very crowded – my cell phone couldn’t find a way to make calls or send text messages. I think next time I need a better, more concrete plan ahead of time of where to meet people. One we met up with my friends, though, I really enjoyed Ren Fairing with friends.

Food on a stick- the 7 year old has sausage, the four year old has mac n cheese.

Oh, and the one thing I was the MOST excited about – they’ve put in water bottle fillers at our Ren Faire! For years, I’ve carted so four full Nalgenes with me to the Faire, because I’m too cheap to pay for water at the Faire. Well this year, there were three water bottle fillers (labelled “drinking water from the well”) Yay. Ren Faire gets better and better every year!

Inspirational Thought of the week: We are due for a huge decluttering effort at our house, so I’ve been listening to Decluttering and organizational podcasts for inspiration. Last week I was listening to A Slob Comes Clean’s episode called “How to Get Motivated” and she said

“There is no way to fail at better.”

Whoa. Her point is that even throwing away one piece of trash makes things better, and as long as you are moving towards “better” no matter how small the steps, you are not failing. I have to remember that when the prospect of decluttering (or anything large) feels overwhelming.

Kid Quote of the Moment:
The 7 year old can be a bit of a stubborn grumpy bear. But when something goes the way he wants it too, his delight is unparalleled. His latest catch phrase when something goes well – “Perfection wins again!”
I have no idea where he got that phrase from, but it makes me really happy every time he says it.

Grateful For:
-School Buses and school bus drivers. Amazingly, the school bus was on time in both the morning and the afternoon last week. Well except for one day when the bus broke down and they had to get a replacement. Even so, the bus ended up only being thirty minutes late, which seems pretty efficient given that they had to go find a whole other bus and driver. So I’m grateful for the school bus and school bud driver that takes my kid to school safely.

-A nice visit with my mom and my aunt. I don’t get to see my aunt very often, so it was lovely to have her stay with us for five nights.

– The kids’ piano teacher. A few weeks ago, while out for a walk with my 12 year old, she said to me, “You know what? Piano is my favorite extracurricular activity!” This made me really happy to hear because she loves music so much but there were a couple of years where we fought a lot about lessons and practicing. I give a lot of credit for this to her piano teacher who is so patient and positive with her but also challenges her.

Looking Forward To:

-Lunch with a friend. I start working on a show in October, with some hours here and there the next couple of weeks, so I want to schedule some fun social weekday things in September before my schedule makes that difficult.

-Planning our trip to Malaysia. On the way to Longwood Gardens, we listened to some podcasts about travel to Malaysia. (I like listening to destination/ travel podcasts for trip inspiration.) It really got me eager to start researching and planning the activities we will do with our four days there. It seems like all the really beautiful beaches are a bit farther than we want to go with just four days, so we’ll probably just stay in Kuala Lumpur.

-September declutter-palooza! As I mentioned above, we’ve decided that September will be a big month for decluttering since I will have a lighter schedule and am home more. The main areas are the attic and the current toy room, which needs to be cleaned out so we can put the guest bed in there and make the guest bedroom into the 12 year old’s room. The 12 year old currently shares a room with her two younger siblings. It’s partly because I can’t wrap my brain around setting up a room for her (so many logistics! Need to buy new furniture!), also partly because I like having all the kids on the same floor as us and giving the 12 year old her own room would mean putting her downstairs. Anyhow – I know I need to just get over this because a 12 year old should not have to share a room with her 7 year old brother and 5 year old sister if she can help it. (Although part of me thinks – my father shared a room with 7 siblings. But he lived in rural Taiwan. Life was different… Everyone looks at me like I’m a horrible mother when I tell them my 12 year old still shares a room with her siblings.) Anyhow, I’m excited about/dreading declutter-palooza. I know our house will be a lot better once we go through things and purge and shift. But… so much work, and I get attached to things. Hence listening to decluttering podcasts for inspiration. Maybe I should document the efforts here for some accountability.

What We Ate:

Monday: Stir fried eggplant with black bean sauce and tofu.

Tuesday: Tortellini with sausage. Fruit on the side.

Wednesday: Grilled chicken drumsticks and cucumber and cabbage noodle salad with black bean sauce.

Thursday: Pasta Salad. This was a kitchen sink meal. We came home on the late side and I didn’t have anything planned, so I chopped a bunch of tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, and threw them in a bowl with some cooked pasta and canned tuna. Added a red wine vinegar vinegrette. It was much tastier than I thought it would be.

Friday: Pizza (the Husband made) and Young Woman and the Sea, a recent film about Trudy Ederle, who in 1926 was the first woman to swim the English Channel, and she did it faster than any of the men before her. Disney sport movies are always predictably sentimental, and I am a sucker for that. I really liked this movie. I thought the story was inspiring and performances delightful to watch.

Saturday: Dinner out at The Olive Lounge after our trip to Longwood Gardens. I had a really delicious truffle pasta.

Sunday: Burgers and hot dogs and grilled zucchini. We had some friends over to grill- one of those super casual impromptu gatherings that you can have when you know your friends won’t judge you for not cleaning.

Monday: Grilled cheese and fruit. We didn’t get hime from the Ren Faire until almost 8pm so dinner was something quick and easy.

Onward to September! How was your holiday weekend? Have you ever had to share a room with a sibling? Pluses or minuses?

Weekly recap + what we ate: camping and end of summer adventures

Shenandoah views.

The kids have started school! Even the 4 year old starts a new pre-school class, so lots of new beginnings for everyone. Last week was pretty packed. As a last final adventure, I took the two little kids camping for two nights in Shenandoah National Park. The 12 year old declined to come, so she stayed at home. She did, however, have an adventure on her own in that she took public transportation on her own for the first time. She had walked to meet the Husband for lunch and then took the bus home. The ride was probably less than two miles, but it feels like a big milestone.

I had originally planned for a low key week at home this last week before school, but then I was feeling a little wistful that I hadn’t gone camping yet this year. So I looked at the campground and saw that there were still lots of camp sites available. After going back an forth- is it too much to go camping on such short notice? Shouldn’t we just lay low the week before school starts? Can I get everything ready in 24 hours?- I decided to go for it and booked two nights at Big Meadows Campground. I went on a big grocery run, pulled all the camping gear out of the crawl space, packed clothes and toothbrushes, made a road trip play list for the littles (by their request – Disney tunes, Hamilton, and Six), and then we were off.

It was a short camping trip, but it felt unhurried in that way that time expands when one is able to fully disconnect from life and from technology. I think for 36 hours, I was phone free, save for taking pictures and twenty minutes on the free wifi at the Lodge where we had stopped to use the bathroom. We left at 11:30am on Tuesday and were pulling into our camp site at 2:30pm, after having stopped briefly for a picnic lunch. In the past when we camped at Big Meadows, I’ve opted for a walk in site – by walk in, I mean a few hundred feet from the parking lot. I like that they are more secluded and surrounded by trees. However, since this trip was going to be so short, and also since it was just me and the two little kids, I chose a camp site nearer to the bathrooms with parking at the site. My reasoning was two fold – 1) I didn’t want to spend time hauling my gear from the car to the camp site and back since we were only spending two nights, and 2) I wanted to be close to the bathrooms so I wouldn’t have to walk too far if one of the kids needed to go.

Our campsite. I originally wanted to leave the rainfly off the tent, but then at the last minute I was worried it might rain, so I put it back on.

The first evening, we (really, I) set up the campsite. Then I made a fire in the fire pit and cooked dinner while the kids played. They swung in the hammock, and played with their trucks (I brought two toy trucks with us), poked the fire, watched leaves burn, and pretty much amused themselves while I got dinner going. After dinner we had some more time around the campfire and then I made a batch of hot chocolate. Once we were done the hot chocolate and the fire had died, we brushed teeth and went to bed. I slept okay the first night. The first night was was pretty miserable, to be honest, and I couldn’t figure out why. Somehow I couldn’t curl up for warmth or stretch out fully for comfort so I just tossed and turned all night. When I woke up at 6:30am, I finally realized why the sleeping bag I was in was so uncomfortable – I was sleeping in the 7 year old’s sleeping bag and he ended up with mine. After an early morning trip to the bathroom, I switched our sleeping bags back and managed to snag another hour and half of much more comfortable sleep.

The next day was our only full day in Shenandoah. I didn’t want to spend time driving, so I decided on a hike that we could walk to from the campsite, Lewis Falls Trail. Part of the trail to Lewis Falls is along the Appalachian Trail, which I find kind of neat. The Falls themselves were a little disappointing because there wasn’t really a good view of them, and you couldn’t go to the base of the falls, but we still had a nice hike and there were plenty of rocky scrambles and breathtaking views to enjoy. Perhaps not the most interesting hike in Shenandoah, but it’s close to the campsite, and not having to get back in the car at all that day was a huge plus.

We ended up hiking all day – we left at 10:30am and didn’t get home until 4:30pm, hiking about 7 miles total. The hike went surprisingly well with a 4 (almost 5) year old and a 7 year old. Even though it wasn’t the most difficult or unique hike, it was definitely a good ramble in the woods. I even got to play the rainbow game – it’s amazing how, even though the trail looks to be the same greens and browns, we could still find all the colours of the rainbow if we just looked:

Things that I think made this all day hike a success:
1) The weather was beautiful. It wasn’t too hot. In fact, when we started it was a little on the chilly side. Nothing makes my kids crankier than having to trudge somewhere in blazing hot weather.
2) Snacks. I packed lots of snacks, plus lunch. Granola bars, trail mix (mixed nuts, dried cherries, pretzels and m&ms), carrots, apples. Lunch was salami, Triscuits, cucumbers. When the kids started flagging, we would just sit and have a snack.
3) Going at the kids’ pace. I largely let them dictate how fast we went. If they wanted to stop and scramble on a rocky outcrop, I let them. If they wanted to gather armfuls of sticks, I let them. If they just wanted to sit on a log for a bit, cool.
4) While we’re on the subject – sticks. OMG the amount of stick collecting that happened! Small sticks in their backpack to take back to put in the camp fire that night. Large sticks that became walking sticks. Sticks that were swords and pistols. One humungous stick that was so large they carried it together for a good mile.
5) Walkie talkies and binoculars. Sometimes my kids find hiking boring – it doesn’t always last too long, but periodically they will get punchy with each other on a hike. Walkie talkies provided an excellent amusement for them on the hike – they insisted that one person walk in front of me and one person walk behind me so that they could talk to each other on the walkie talkies. The binoculars also got a lot of use, though, I should really get a second pair – there was a fair bit of fighting over sharing the one pair.

All the sticks!

After that hike, we came back to the campground. I got to spend 30 minutes reading in the hammock, which was divine. Eventually, I got up and made a fire and started dinner. Half way through boiling the water for the mac and cheese, though, I ran out of butane. I usually travel with two butane canisters, but for whatever reason I only had one with me on this trip – it was whatever cannister was in the bottom of the camping bin and I foolishly thought it had enough butane in it to get me through 36 hours. It didn’t. And there I was with a pot of half cooked pasta. There was a deflated sense of panic. But then I put the pot of water over the campfire grill and, doing things the old fashioned way, I managed to cook the pasta and make the mac n cheese. I was actually surprised that the water boiled over the fire. After dinner we had smores then went to bed. I slept much better than the night before, though I did rotate my sleeping bag around mid way through the night because I think I was sleeping on an incline with my head lower than my feet, and I can’t sleep comfortably that way.

S’mores – I like my chocolate gooey too, so I put my S’more on the grill for an extra moment.

The next morning, before breakfast we took an impromptu stroll. I wanted to explore the campgrounds and scout out which campsites I might want to book next time. Well, before I knew it, we had wandered onto the Appalachian Trail, the part of the trail that goes around the campground. We weren’t prepared for another hike – I was wearing Crocs! – but we figured why not. We ended up hiking for about 45 minutes, the kid found some rocky scrambles and nice views.

Eventually we found a path from the trail back to the campsite where we had cold breakfast, and I mourned the inability to have a cup of hot tea since I had no more butane. Then I started packing everything up so we could leave. The kids amused themselves by playing in the hammock. In a stroke of brilliance, I rigged up a rope so that they could swing themselves in the hammock by pulling on the rope. I need to remember that for next time because they are always asking me to swing them in the hammock, which I find eventually gets tedious.

It took me about an hour to pack up the campsite, and bundle everything into the car. We headed home, stopping for lunch as a diner in Warrenton, where I had the liver and onions. After I ordered, a lady sat down next to us at the counter and started talking about how much she hated liver and onions, which I thought was funny. We ended up talking as she waited for her to go order, and she explained to me that when she was pregnant with her now grown daughter, she worked in an office above the cafeteria, and when they made liver and onions, the smell wafted up into her office and made her feel sick. Fair enough. Liver an onions is one of those dishes I like to order at diners because it’s something I never would cook myself at home.

Anyhow, there was a lot of traffic around the DC area when I got home, so it took much longer to get home than I thought it would. I ended up having to call into a work meeting from the car – I had originally expected to be home well before the meeting, but I ended up getting home twenty minutes after the meeting started. Thank goodness for Teams and the flexibility it allows me. All in all, a successful camping trip! I can’t wait to go again.

Notes to myself for the next camp trip:
– must get some camp mugs so that the kids can drink the hot chocolate. I ended up giving them my travel mug, but then it meant I couldn’t have tea.
– If I’m going to go on six hour hikes, I need to invest in a trowel. Both kids at some point told me they had to go #2. Peeing in the woods is one thing, but I didn’t really feel comfortable letting them #2 in the woods unless I could properly bury it. So next time, I’ll bring a trowel.
-pack dishwashing gloves. I did a serious number aggravating the eczema on my hands with all the dishwashing I did over the 36 hours. My hands were so cracked that I could barely make a fist. So note for next time – pack dishwashing gloves.
-the kids don’t like Provolone cheese. I had wanted a hard cheese that could stand up to not being kept in the cooler, so I bought a block of Provolone. The kids refused to eat it. Next time, just bring cheddar and parmesan. Camping is not the time to try new flavors.
-The thinner flour sack kitchen towels dry faster, so bring those rather than the terrycloth kitchen towels.
– bring smaller trash bags. I brought 13 gallon trash bags, like I normally do, but I ended up taking the trash to the dumpster twice a day because I didn’t want to store it in the car (my site didn’t have a bear box.). It seemed wasteful to use a 13 gallon trash bag for half a days’ worth of garbage so next time I should bring smaller trash bags.
-Bring more long sleeved outfits. The weather was much colder than I had anticipated – I had even looked at the weather before I left and for some reason, seeing that the weather would be in the low 70s/mid 60s didn’t register as cold. After all, the weather was high 80s in DC. Welp, once we got to the mountains, we were cold. The only long sleeved outfits that I had packed for the kids were their pajamas and a sweatshirt or hoodie. Though of course the 7 year old’s sweatshirt was a size too small. Oh well, we managed. We all did wear the same clothes for the entire 36 hours, since it was the only long sleeved clothes that we had. We were going to get grimy from camping anyway, so I figured this was fine.
-Re-listen to this podcast episode from The Art of Manliness podcast. All about camping and camping gear. You kind of have to get past the bro tone of the podcast (what else could you expect with that title?) but I found some really helpful advice here about how to take care of gear.
-Good move – I unpacked and aired out all the camping equipment as soon as I got to the house and the majority of the camping gear was packed away within a few hours of our arrival home. I don’t always have the energy to air out all the camping gear right away, but I now see that it really pays off to make the effort to get it done right away. We got home at 3:20pm, and everything was aired and packed up by 6:00pm. (The kids’ sleeping bags, I had hung up to air out in the morning before we left for that impromptu hike, so I didn’t have to do that again at home.) If I don’t get the gear aired out and packed away right away, it tends to linger in the basement for days, even weeks. So yay me for getting it done right off the bat. I also started making lists in Notes of what was in each bin , including what items I will need to replenish in the bin next time we go camping. Sometimes these things are a little tedious, but are for sure gifts to future me. (In cast you are wondering, I like using this list from REI as my camping packing list.)

The rest of the week/weekend was pretty full. On Friday, I had lunch with a friend and her 5 year old before going to the open house for the 7 year old’s school. We were supposed to meet his teacher, but she had been in a minor car accident the day before so couldn’t come to the open house. We dropped of school supplies and the 7 year old still got to see his new classroom. Then in the evening we went to the pool, probably one of the last pool visits this summer as our pool closes after labor day. It was a little cool in the evening so we only stayed for an hour before coming home for pizza and Glee.

Saturday, we went out to visit my friend who lives in southeastern Maryland. It was a great visit – we swam in her pool, she made us the tastiest meal (burger and roasted vegetables), we got to visit with her neighbor’s sheep, she showed us her dock, and she taught the kids how to make Brazilian cheese bread. These tender little balls of doughy cheesy goodness were so tasty. She’s shared the recipe and I can’t wait to make them myself.

Saturday evening, my mother and aunt flew in for a visit, and we went from my friend’s house directly to the airport. We got to the airport a little early, so instead of going to the cellphone waiting lot, we went to a nearby park where you can watch the airplanes take off and land. I’ve always wanted to bring the kids to this park, but there is never any parking because it’s a pretty popular park. We were able to find parking and sat and watched planes take off while the kids played on the playground. Planes are so loud! I could feel deep visceral vibrations every time a plane went by.

On Sunday, we took my mom and aunt down to the Mall to see the monuments. It was actually quite hot and there was no small amount of whining from the kids about having to do so much walking. I feel like there is a lot to see in D.C., but unless you are on the Mall, it’s not always a very pleasant city to walk around in. Nonetheless, I think we covered a lot of ground. In four hours we saw:
-The outside of the White House (and the buildings around it)
– The Old Post Office Tower. This is one of those hidden gems of D.C., I think. The Old Post Office Tower is located in the Waldorf Astoria and is operated by the National Park Service. You can go up the Tower and get an amazing view of Washington, D.C. The view is not as spectacular as the Washington Monument, but tickets for the Washington Monument are really hard to come by, and I think the Old Post Office Tower is an easier alternative.
-Washington Monument
-MLK Memorial
-FDR Memorial
-WWII Memorial
And of course in the distance we saw (because on the Mall you can’t avoid seeing) the Capitol building, the Lincoln Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial. We also walked by the WWI Memorial, which I didn’t actually know existed. I’ll have to go back and check that one out. All told, I think we walked about seven miles, and it definitely felt like a typical touristy DC day.

Grateful for (the camping edition)
-The friend who, four or five years ago called us from the REI garage sale and said, “There’s a really nice tent here for sale. I think it will be perfect for you guys. I’m going to buy it and you can pay me back.” Every time I go camping, and set up the tent that is just the right amount of space for us (currently), I am so grateful that our friend M. saw this tent and thought of us.
-The same friend lending me marshmallow sticks and an extra camp chair.
-The kids being old enough to go to the bathroom together on their own. One of the trickiest things about camping with the two little kids is that someone always needs to go pee. Well, this trip, because our campsite was just two sites down from the bathroom, I felt pretty comfortable sending them to the bathroom together. In past years, I’ve brought a potty, or I’ve told them they can’t go to the bathroom until we put out the fire, or they’ve just peed in the woods. I love that now I can stay sitting by the fire and send the kids together to the bathroom.
-Dry weather. Because camping in the rain would have sucked.
-National Parks. I’m glad that there are National Parks, and that they provide so many opportunities to experience awe.

Looking Forward To:
-The kids being back in school. I have not been for a run or done any yoga since being home with the kids. I love my kids, but I also like it when they go to school and I have time to run and do things without having to referee an argument or feed someone or open a package or or or or…
-September house decluttering. September has been declared the month where we finally purge and declutter. I do not look forward to doing this, but I just have to think about how much nicer it will be when there is more open space in the house, and I no longer feel the burden of all the stuff in the attic waiting to be used.
-Reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Earlier this year, when I posted plans of reading down my TBR, so many people said I needed to move Homegoing to the top of the pile. You all were right. I’m only four chapters in, and it’s beautiful. Hard and sad, too.

What We Ate: With detailed camping notes.
Monday: Black Bean Tacos with Mango Slaw. Sort of based on this recipe from Love and Lemons. This was a super easy no-cook meal. (Well, I did warm up the tortillas.) Vegan for me. The kids ate theirs with feta cheese.

My meal planning notes and shopping list for camping.

Tuesday (Camping Day One):
–Lunch Picnic – Chicken Salad Sandwiches, carrots and cucumbers, apple slices.
– Dinner: Curry Ramen. I prepped most of this at home; I tossed sliced onions and carrots in a container with olive oil and curry powder. Chopped up some cabbage in a separate bag (I would have put this with the onions and carrots, but that container was already full.) At the campsite: Sauteed the onion/carrot/curry mixture until barely tender. Add water, ramen, frozen shrimp and cook until the noodles were done. I also impulsively prepped a freeze dried camp meal that had been in my camping box for a few years. It was really salty and pretty terrible. I don’t often throw out food, but I threw that camp meal out.

Wednesday (Camping Day Two)
–Breakfast – Bacon and egg burritos and fruit (strawberries and blueberries). Bacon is a “must have” camping food for me. For the eggs, at home I cracked them into a container and brought the container so I wouldn’t have to worry about breaking the eggs in transport. I always cook the bacon first and then fry the eggs in the bacon fat, that way I don’t have to bring extra oil on the trip. The kids did not really like this. I’m told it’s the Provolone’s fault because they could taste it on the eggs. Oh well. Typically they love this kind of thing.
–Lunch – eaten on the trail – Salami, Triscuits, carrots and cucumbers. (I had planned to bring the Provolone, but that was quickly squashed.) For snacks I brought trail mix, peanut butter crackers, and more carrots and apple slices.
–Dinner – Mac and cheese with hot dogs and corn cooked on the grill. This was the night I ran out of butane. For camping, I bring the mac n cheese where the cheese sauce is include . It’s easier to mix at the campsite if the mac and cheese comes with a cheese sauce already and not the powder. And I don’t have to bring butter that way. We cooked the hot dogs and the corn over the fire. The corn I prepped at home by rubbing it with olive oil, salt, and lots of pepper, then wrapping it tightly in foil. Once we got the fire going at the campsite, i just tossed the corn onto the hot embers and let it cook. For dessert we had s’mores. I’m not a fan of the Hersey chocolate so I always buy a bar of nice chocolate to use in s’mores. The 7 year old had picked out a dark chocolate raspberry bar, and it proved to be delicious in a s’more. Wil try that again.

Thursday: (Day Three Camping and home)
Breakfast – Yogurt, fruit, cereal. Even before we ran out of butane, I wanted breakfast on the departure day to be cold and simple so that we didn’t have to dirty anymore dishes.
Lunch – stopped at Frost Diner on the way home.
Dinner – (and we’re home.) – The family had burritos since they had gone to get haircuts at a salon next to the Taco Restaurant. I ate the leftovers they brought home since I stayed behind to pack up the camping gear.

Friday: Pizza (take out) and Glee.

Saturday: Eat out, after our airport pick up: Japanese (I had the ramen and a spicy scallop roll)

Sunday: Burmese food take-out, picked up on our way home from walking the monuments. It was very tasty.

Hope you have a lovely last week of August. How are you planning on spending it?

Weekly recap + what we ate: July highlights/August Aspirations, 2024

Prop table. I love me a well-labelled prop table. I did something a little different this time and labelled the prop table by character rather than by object.

I’m enjoying the tail end of another weekend alone. The Husband has again taken the kids away on a road trip, this time to Indiana. They are going to visit friends, go to the Indiana State Fair, visit my in-law’s grave sites, and go to the Indianapolis Children’s Museum. Is he an awesome dad or what?

I am at home by myself because I have to work so I couldn’t go along. I’ve had a nice few days, though. Even though the husband is the one who went away, I’m pretty sure I had the more restorative few days. Things I’ve done:

-Dinner with some friends whom I haven’t seen in ages.

– Drove up to Philadelphia to see the Mary Cassatt exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Museum. I had really wanted to see this exhibit, and sort of vaguely thought about going, but never made plans. When I saw the exhibit was closing in September, I was a little sad that I was going to miss it, but then I thought, “Why can’t I go see it?” No reason whatsoever! So I bought tickets and drove up. I think I would have taken the kids if I had had them this weekend, but being able to go by myself felt super indulgent. It was a beautiful exhibit, featuring a variety of Cassatt’s works – paintings, prints, pastels, sketches. I particularly loved seeing the sketches, and getting a sense of Cassatt’s process, how she captures a scene with a certain economy of line, and then whittles the scene down even further to the final painting.

I loved this series of paintings of women reading.

I also took in the Asian art exhibits. How intricate and practical many of the items were. It made me think of how skillfully beautiful every day objects were in centuries past. The amount of craftsmanship that it takes to paint a vase or carve figurines on a column is jaw dropping.

Mythical Guardian Lion
Carved columns from temples in India.

As an added bonus, I met up with a friend in Philadelphia whom I hadn’t seen in seven or eight years. We had both been baby stage managers together, learnin the trade from the same stage manager before going off to our respective careers. It was great to catch up and reflect on where life has taken us and what we’ve learned along the way.

-Watched some feel good rom coms – Finding You (struggling violinist goes to Ireland to find herself, meets cute movie star. Pretty Irish scenery, accents, Irish music, Vanessa Redgrave!) and About Fate (Girl needs a date for her sister’s wedding, coincidences throw a very nice boy in her way). Sweet and predictable and just what I wanted. Though, About Fate really annoyed me because it had the trope of sweet and capable guy meeting failure to launch girl. I get annoyed when protagonists are terrible at adulting. I mean a little bit of struggle is fine, but when they’re just incompetent at being decent humans I just feel uninvested in them getting a happy ending.

-Read. I finished three books and made good progress in two others, including I Capture the Castle for Cool Blogger’s Book Club. I might even get this weeks reading assignment done on time!

-Laundry lots of laundry. I had thought to get some other decluttering projects done, but that didn’t happen. I did purge a bunch of paper, though. The 7 year old insists on keeping every scarp of paper that comes home from school, so I took this opportunity to weed that out a little bit. I’m a little disappointed in myself to not declutter more, but on the other hand, we are at laundry basket zero, which never happens. Just in time for the rest of the family to come back with four days worth of laundry.

-Baked brownies. This recipe. It’s a super fudgy brownie, maybe too fudgy for my tastes. I have to say, my perfect brownie is the Ghirardelli mix from Costco. Maybe I should stop trying to find a perfect “from scratch” brownie recipe and just accept that what I want is the Ghirardelli. I also made peach muffins, since I picked up three boxes of peaches from this weekend’s Peach Truck run, the last of the season.

-Went on a hike with a friend K and her friend W. (I’ve managed to get a hike and a museum in this month after all!). We went on a short hike up to a spectacular view of the Potomac River and sat among rocks and talked about life while birds swooped around us. It’s so nice to talk with people who offer thoughtful conversation. I totally have a girl crush on W now and want to hang out with her again.

View from the top of the hike.
Soaring birds.

Afterwards we went to the nearby cute small town, got refreshing beverages – mine was a Sakura Lychee drink – and had lunch. What a nice ladies’ afternoon.

Fancy drink.

– Had my closing performance on Saturday. How I will miss this show. I like to make a list of the indelible moments of shows that I work on – live performance is so ephemeral and I think it is sometimes easy to let the experience flit away. Yet, I don’t want to take for granted how lucky I am to be part of a creative process, so even while running around backstage and checking props and people, I want to make sure I take time to savor moments, these singular fleeting moments that is live theatre. So here are some from this show:
– The tenor singing to the body of his dead brother, as he cradles it. Breaks my heart every night. Actually everything this singer does.
-The baritone who sings the priest, with his beautiful velvet voice. Wrap me in his voice forever, please.
-The baritone, who always shows me his handkerchief before he goes onstage because he knows I will ask to make sure he has it. (Because it would make for an awkward truce scene if he goes onstage without his white handkerchief)
-The bag pipes. Did I mention there are bagpipes in this show? How awesome is that? Definitely one to savor because how often will I get to hear bagpipes in such close proximity.
-The harp, which is directly behind me for most of the show. The harp part in this show is so delicate yet steady, each pluck of the strings resonates in me.
-The Sleep Chorus, a moment in the first act when the soldiers are singing about how they long for sleep and home. So beautiful it gives me chills every night.
-The percussion, timpani, and brass section, also behind me – those moments where they play so loud that I cover my ears yet still can feel the music through my soles, vibrating the floor.
-The baritone (there are a lot of baritones in this show) who plays the Aide-de-campe – his thoughtful, endearing, funny performance while he juggles a million props, and his ad libs in French. (That section on prop table with the white crate- that’s all him.)
-The insanity of the battle sequence, the backstage traffic of which felt like utter chaos until the third performance, when suddenly, magically, it began to run like clockwork and we could all just pretend that it’s utter chaos.
All in all I loved the past six weeks working on this show – one of the top career highlights, I would say.

Other Fun things this week:
-I make “clean out the produce drawer” muffins. I found this muffin recipe, and it seemed pretty versatile, so I looked in my produce drawer and found lots of languishing produce to put into a muffin. I added – apples, pears (that I had forgotten/didn’t realize we had), two wrinkled beets, a huge pattypan squash that had been given to use by our neighbors, but which confounded me so has been languishing in the produce drawer. I might have also added carrots too, but I can’t keep track. I reduced the sugar and used whole wheat flour. I think they turned out great. They were moist and just the right sweetness. The kids were decidedly lukewarm – no raves, but they did each eat several muffins so they couldn’t have been that bad. It was so satisfying to finally find a use for those two sad wrinkled beets in our produce fridge.

-Going to the park with the 7 year old to read. He didn’t have camp this week since it’s a lighter week for me, and he said he wanted to sit outside and read, so we brought our books to the park and read on a park bench together. He’s reading one of the Wings of Fire graphic novels. I’m reading I Capture the Castle.

-Going shoe shopping and school supply shopping. It was tax-free week in Maryland, so I figured it was a good week to get things done. The 12 year old didn’t have a school supply list, per se. I asked her what school supplies she needed and shed said, “I don’t need school supplies, I just use the Chromebook.” Well that made me a little sad. We bought her a binder and some paper and pencils and folders anyway. And then the two little kids got new shoes. They wanted the exact same shoes as they had last year, so that made for a quick and easy trip to the shoe store!

-Making lemonade. I’ve been craving lemonade lately, so I bought a bag of lemons and the 12 year old and I made mint lemonade base one afternoon. Perfect for drinking mixed with fizzy water. I had so much lemonade base that I stuck some in the blender with some strawberries that were a touch past their prime and poured the result into popsicle molds, making strawberry lemonade popsicles.

-When the kids steal my phone and take group selfies when I’m not looking. I get annoyed that they take my phone, but who can stay irked forever at these faces:

Reflections and Aspirations: I finally had a moment to write down my July reflections and August Aspirations. Why do I always seem to get to this when the month is already half over? Anyhow, here they are:
July 2024 Highlights:
-Writing guest blog posts for Elisabeth and Engie. So flattered to have been asked. Those posts were so fun to write.
-Swim Team Season. Summer Swim Team is exhausting, but I loved watching the 12 year old swim and seeing her have fun being on swim team. Also the 7 year old sort of figuring out how to swim. And taking showers on his own. Those felt like milestones.
– Going skating and duckpin bowling with the family. Small adventures.
-The 12 year old going to NYC with her theatre camp and her end of camp showcase.
– Watching the Olympics.
-Getting a new haircut. Also well woman exam, and mammogram. Still have not scheduled that eye appointment yet.
-Visit from my cousin and her daughter. So good to see them and hang out.

July Lowlights:
-The oppressively hot weather. Ick. So much ick. It made me not want to run or leave the house or do anything.
-The circus that is American politics. I try not to let the news get to me, but July 2024 was a lot and it made me just feel so angry and annoyed.
-Having to manage three drop offs and pick ups since all three kids were at different camps/schools. I felt like our mornings were a constant scramble. The moment we got in the car, someone would always ask, “Are we late?” and the answer was always, “No one is on time until Mom is on time to work.”
-Some hard parenting moments. Makes me want to throw up my hands and give up some days. When does it become less of a struggle to get kids to be responsible humans?

August Aspirations:
LIFE/FAMILY/FUN:
-Start school! Buy school supplies [DONE!], double check if the kids need any new clothes.
-Activity sign ups for the fall. I think I know what these are – pretty much the same as last year, but I just have to spend a few hours at my computer and knock it all out. (I’m really thankful that these things can be done online now. I think when I was a child it all involved postage and physical forms and writing checks. Some activities I still write checks for, though.)
– Planning a trip for the long weekend in September where there is no school. Perhaps. Need to really think about this and book things.
-Plan the Malaysia leg of our Asia trip. This has been on the list for several months now, but I think it really needs to be done this month or next.
-Renaissance Faire!!! Figure out when to go.
-Plan birthday party for 4 year old in September.

HOME:
-Window treatments (Still.) Make an appointment with the company that my friend recommended for them to come out and do a consult.
-Declutter one area. Desk? Sewing corner? Pantry?
-Get rid of my car. (Still.)
-Get the front door painted. Choose a paint colour. Paint colours are hard – I thought I’d make it easy on myself and only give myself two options, but what looks good in the morning always looks meh at night and vice versa. So which do I pick?

On the left – No more Drama. on the right, Morocco Red. Which would you pick for a front door?

ME/SOCIAL/FUN:
– Mom’s group lunch (already planned)
-Seeing my friend K. (Already did this)
-Mom and aunt’s visit. Reminder to myself to not revert to teen bratty-ness with my mom.
– Eye Doctor Appointment.
-Paint more pictures. For the sake of having a concrete goal: paint and send two cards.
-Do the NYTimes 9 minute strength workout at least four times a week.
-recommit to journaling daily.
-buy a new purse. My purse is literally in tatters. I’ve been thinking of this one from Quince, or this Sportsac one? I’ve usually had Sportsac purses, but my last one was a little on the small size, so I could stand to get something a little bigger.

WORK:
-Titles for September vocal recital.
-Update stage management handbook for work. (This can spill over into September)
-Finish/archive paperwork from my summer show.

Some of these will probably rollover to be September Aspirations, though, given that it’s almost the end of August.

Grateful for:
-Cooler weather. The weather has been glorious this week! The muggy humidity has left the air, the heat is not as oppressive as it has been, and there is a breeze in the air.

-Getting to dog sit. Every so often, I think, “Maybe I want a dog.” Then I think, “No, actually I don’t think I can fit that in my life.” So I’m grateful when my friends go out of town and I get to dog sit this cutie for them:

A couple weeks with Max is the perfect amount of time to scratch my dog itch (while I scratch his), and make me realize, that I don’t really want a dog 24/7. But I have been enjoying long walks and doggie snuggles and licks these past few weeks.

-My uterus is fine. Or more specifically my uteri are fine. This week started with an ultrasound that involved squirting water into my uterus to get a better look at things. Fun times. No, not at all – it was deeply uncomfortable. But in the spirit of “let’s all acknowledge how different yet normal everyone’s body is”, I’m reporting it here. So I’d been having really wacked periods – like unending light bleeding for months and then really long (like 3 week long) periods, and then weeks of nothing. At my last well woman visit, my doctor said, let’s check that out. When I was pregnant with my first kid, they thought I had a fibroid that was pushing the fetus and would interfere with a vaginal birth. So I had a c-section with her. (A whole other story – maybe I’ll write it here some day.) Then somewhere along the way they said, you have two uteruses. (I think this was after my second miscarriage after that first kid, it came up when they were trying to figure out why the miscarriages.) Anyhow, we tucked that information somewhere and people seemed generally unconcerned because I got pregnant again. I had two more kids, managed to VBAC them (because the babies seemed like they weren’t going to wait for that scheduled c-section.) Then went on with life and maybe still having a fibroid and two uteri, but not really doing anything about it. So fast forward to a couple weeks ago – odd periods, let’s get that checked out, vaginal ultrasound, squirt with water. Guess what? No fibroid! Yay! Just two perfectly healthy uteri. (And just one cervix. The real term they used bicornuate uterus – it’s pretty normal, though rare.) The inconsistent periods? “Well,” my doctor said, “Your uterus is fine, so it’s just you being in your mid forties. I can put you on hormones or birth control pills if you want to try to regulate your periods more.” I don’t really need another thing to keep track of, so I said, “Thank you, but I’ll just make sure to always travel with a back-up pad in my purse.” So that is the story of my uteri. After years of thinking I had a fibroid that I would have to deal with, it’s a huge relief to know that I don’t. Also grateful for my gynecologist because she is pretty awesome and I hope she never retires.

Looking Forward To:
– More peaches from the peach truck! I got three boxes this time since last time I got two and the kids went through them in four days.

-The last week before school starts. I’m contemplating taking the kids camping this coming week. On the one hand, I haven’t been camping yet this summer and could really use the extended time in nature. On the other hand, it seems a lot to cram into the last week before school starts, and maybe I want a more low-key week. We’ll see.

-Time with friends – I have a visit with a friend planned and also lunch with my mom’s group this coming week. Sometimes I feel like there isn’t a lot of interest from the moms in my mom’s group to get together, but I figure I don’t actually like hanging out in big groups, so even if it’s just one or two people coming to lunch, that feels pretty satisfying and makes it worth asking if anyone wants to gather.

What We Ate – I’m not feeling great about our dinner game these past few weeks. There hasn’t been a lot of meal planning, and I’ve just been eating whatever I can scrounge up or throw together. But at least, I’m eating down the fridge…:
Saturday: Pizza leftovers and Newsies (The proshot of the Broadway musical. Loved the dance numbers, the new musical numbers were pretty meh, though. Not sure if I feel the urge to see this in the theatre.)

Sunday: Pizza leftovers (again.)

Monday: Pork and Eggplant stir fry, eaten with noodles.

Tuesday: Salmon and potatoes, cooked on the grill. On the side we had cut up veggies, and I also made a pico de gallo and a mango salsa to eat with the salmon.

Wednesday: Chicken salad sandwiches

Thursday: The family was gone. I had dinner out with friends. I had a tomato, corn, burrata salad with shrimp and French fries.

Friday: Family still gone. I had congee with kimchi and two fried eggs.

Saturday: I had a late lunch, so I didn’t have dinner. When I got home after my show, I had left over Peruvian chicken with black beans, rice, plantains and the leftover salsa from Tuesday.

How is your August going? Is your summer winding down too?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Tech week and Opening!

We opened our show. Hooray! It’s been a doozy of a tech week. The first day in the theatre, there was a power outage an hour before we were supposed to start rehearsal and we didn’t know until the last minute whether or not we would be able to proceed. As our Production Manager said, “Either the power will come on or it won’t. There is no third option.” Luckily the power came back on about ten minutes after we were supposed to start rehearsal, and we were off to the races. The the second day of tech, we had some last minute staffing adjustments and were severely shorthanded for that rehearsal. It was an exhausting few days. But we got through the show, and

Picture from backstage:

The orchestra is onstage for this show, upstage of the set. That is my music stand on the right, where I stand for much of the show. Behind me is the harp, the brass section, the timpani, and the entire percussion section. (The strings are on the other side of the set up..) The percussion section is three players and takes up a lot of space, and spills into the wings – that’s that white line marked out on the floor. This show is very loud. Last week, I posted about being grateful for a strong downbeat from the conductor. Once we got with the orchestra, I was even more thankful. Most of the time, I can’t hear the singers because the percussion and brass is so loud right next to me. So you bet I’m watching the conductor and counting downbeats. And actually, there is so little space backstage that half the time I can’t have my music stand with me, so I just have to memorize entrance cues and count downbeats and trust that I’m sending people on at the right time.

Also – this alarming moment, when I looked down at my hand and saw:

Job casualty.

You know when you have that moment where you can’t remember hurting yourself, but you obviously did because you’re bleeding? Well, this wasn’t that. It’s fake blood. There’s a battle scene in the show and in the 15 seconds people are off stage the make-up team bloodies them. It’s a super chaotic moment backstage – the orchestra is wailing away (did I mention this show is loud?), there are people running on and offstage with (fake) rifles, there are people getting (fake) stabbed onstage, there’s smoke, there’s very loud bomb sound effects, there are wardrobe people trying to fix costumes that have come apart during the action, there are prop people ready to put (fake) dead bodies onstage, there are make-up people standing by to make everyone bloody, and I’m trying to push people in the right direction – onstage, down one wing, towards the make-up station. All within a very small corner of backstage space. Anyhow, no wonder I looked at my hand and panicked for half a second. Then I realized I must have had a brush with the make-up crew. It made for a nice badge to wear though, evidence of a tough rehearsal.

Things that got me through this tech week:
– Planning out my wardrobe for the week. As always, it’s great when I don’t have to think about what I’m going to wear.

-Making sure I brought food to eat. I barely had time to eat meals what with all that was going on, so I’m glad I brought a lot of food with me. The typical daily food pack this tech:

Ready to go into the lunch box.

From left to right: apple, cut up strawberries and cucumbers, marinated beans with cucumber and cherry tomatoes, beef stick, yogurt with bluberries and walnut (pink lid Thermos), congee (Blue thermos), banana, string cheese, rice crackers with avocado, trail mix (mixed nuts and dried cherries), tamarind balls, Korean spiced almonds. This is all the food I brought to get me through the day. There’s no food option close to work, so this is pretty much what I eat. If I don’t pack enough food, then I go hungry, or I have to get in my car and drive 10-15 minutes to the closest retail/restaurant strip.

-Taking a walk outside, even if it was just ten minutes.

-Watching the Olympics. It has proved a perfect way for me to turn my brain off and relax when I’m not at work. This past week, I’ve been very much into watching the Sport Climbing. It’s so inspirational to watch the climbers – their strength and ability to puzzle out a climb is jaw dropping. It makes me want to go to the climbing gym more often.

The bummer thing – The four year old (really she’ll be five in six weeks), won’t be going to kindergarten this year. Our appeal for her Early Entrance to Kindergarten denial was rejected. The whole thing is so confounding and frustrating. The report listed all the things that she did well and all the glowing comments from her school administer and from me, but just said that she didn’t meet criteria. I go back to the fact that her only insufficient scores were for reading skills, but she would have gone to a French Immersion program where we were specifically told not to teach our kids to read – and I feel like even though she didn’t check all the boxes, there is additional context that was not accounted for. Or maybe there is a bigger picture in terms of school numbers/funds, etc. that we don’t know about. Humph. Oh well. It really stings right now, especially since her preschool tuition is going up this year.
I’m trying to look on the bright side –
-she’ll have the new experience of being the oldest in her class, after spending her whole life being the youngest, so that will be a new dynamic for her.
-We actually do really like her preschool, so it’s not as if we wanted to find a different place for her because of that.
-I guess we will only have to pay for two kids in college for one year rather than two (I mean anything can happen on this though…)
-I won’t have to figure out summer camp for her next summer…
Even still – I don’t know that those points out weigh 1) not having to pay another year of tuition, and 2) having to do only one drop off/pick up.

Highlights of the week:
-The 7 year old’s theatre camp performance. They did a play called Wing It, about baby birds who don’t want to leave the nest. The 7 year old played a bird appropriately named Baby Orville, who is the first bird to leave the nest and fly. It was delightful. And afterwards, we went for a Carousel ride since the carousel is in the same park as the theatre camp. That was fun. It’s still just $2/ ride or $5 to ride all day – one of the best deals for entertainment in the area.

-Broccolini and sun dried tomato sandwich from The Sandwich Shop. My favorite sandwich, but I only get to eat it when I work this summer job. The bitterness of the broccolini and arugula, combined with the meaty sweet sundried tomatoes, make for a really satisfying vegetarian sandwich. I don’t usually buy lunch or dinner, but I decided to indulge one day when I didn’t have time to pack dinner and then the day of the final dress, the 12 year old came to the show and we picked up sandwiches and boba tea for dinner. It was nice to share some of tasty food.

-Playing the Disney playlist in the car at top volume and listening to the kids singing along from the back seat.

-Finding a new snack at Costco:

Chocolate covered quinoa crisps

Nestle Crunch was one of my favorite chocolate bars growing up, but I always felt as if there were too much chocolate and not enough crunch. Also I prefer dark chocolate. This little snack rectifies all that, lovely bite size, crunchy, dark chocolate combination. . Gluten-free, vegan, so you know, I feel virtuous eating them.

-Giant umbrellas to protect us from much needed rain.

-Going on a hike. After dropping the 7 year old at camp one day, I went to a local trail. I was thinking I would go for a run but it was drizzling and the trail was slippery, so I went for a walk/hike instead. It was wet and grey, but it somehow gave the hike a misty, solitary quality that I really needed.

-Dog-sitting. I’m not a pet person. I have no desire ever to have a dog. But I do enjoy dog-sitting for my friend once or twice a year. It’s just enough to scratch my “Maybe I want a dog..?” itch, and then I get to give the dog back. I imagine grandchildren might be the same way. Anyhow we’ve been dog-sitting for a week and and I love the cuddles, the long walks, and the big brown eyes.

-This impulse buy at Target:

I had a hand held Tetris game when I was growing up, and I LOVED that game, would play for hours and hours. It’s the perfect brain break for me. Sure, I can play on my phone, but I love how whimsical this is. And I don’t feel the temptation to scroll when on it. I might have shut myself in the bathroom last night with this game when I should have been doing responsible parenting things. The kids are fascinated too, though I have to constantly explain to the kids that the game is not a building game since they love to pile the bricks high.

Grateful For:
-Wonderful, patient colleagues. With all the roadblocks thrown in front of us during this tech period, I think things could have gotten really stressful and miserable. I mean things were stressful, but it always felt as if we were all in this together and there was no anger or bitterness or demeaning behavior. Everyone just really worked well together with the goal of creating a beautiful show and being kind to each other. Sometimes at the end of a tough rehearsal, I just feel deflated, but I never felt that way with this show.

-Not having to commute during rush hour any more. I really like the opera company I work for during the summer, but I don’t like that I have to go around the beltway to get there and that there is always construction on the way. But now that we have moved on to tech and performances, I no longer have to commute during rush hour anymore since I’m mostly working later now.

-That I had a safe commute so far this summer. There have been some pretty bad accidents on the beltway, causing lots of traffic delays. There was one day where the accident had happened at 3am, and still wasn’t cleared by 9:30am and they had to bring in cranes to clear the big rig that was tilted over on the side of the road. Every time I turn on the traffic report and hear of yet another accident, I would get annoyed at the delay it was causing me. But at some point in the summer, I started to re-frame my thinking – instead of being angry at the traffic and the drivers causing the delay, I told myself that I should be thankful that I’m not the cause of the delay, and that I continue to get back and forth to work safely.

-A nice place outside to eat my lunch. during tech, I spend most of my days in the theatre, so I try to go outside on my meal breaks so I get a change of scenery. The theatre I’m working at backs out a grassy and woodsy area, and there is a patio and tables where I can sit and each my lunch while looking out on the grass and trees. It is so soothing.

Looking Forward To:
– Catching my breath and getting some sleep. Tech week always makes sleeping and adulting hard. I’m looking forwards to going to bed earlier and having time to do all those tasks I’ve been putting off for two weeks. These last few weeks before school starts also feature just ONE child that needs to be dropped off, and no camps. I’m looking forward to the time and margin in the schedule.

-Back to school shopping. Two weeks until the start of school. Eeep! It’s tax-free shopping week this week in Maryland – perfect timing because the kids need new shoes. And I love shopping for school supplies. It’s always kind of a mad house and the kids don’t have the patience for it, but I love wandering through Staples

-Cooking dinner and eating vegetables. We went to the Farmer’s market this past weekend. I bought lots of fruit, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, carrots and potatoes. I’m looking forward to making dinner.

-This audiobook:

The title pretty much says it all. Each chapter is read by a different person – artists, journalists, thinkers, politicians, it’s quite a cast of readers. I’m only on object 12, and it’s so fascinating. The first object is a “Healed Femur c. 30 000 BC” – and it is pointed out that while animals with a broken bone would die, the amazing thing about humans is that when humans get injured someone (usually women) will care for them, and so we can survive. I had never thought about care work in that context before.

What We Ate – another tech week menu:
Saturday: Pizza and The Hunt for Red October for the family. I packed dinner and ate at work.

Sunday: Dumplings and green beans for the family. They saved me two. I had a broccolini and sun dried tomato sandwich from The Sandwich Shop.

Monday: Pasta w/ red sauce and sausage. I ate leftovers when I got home from work.

Tuesday: The family ordered Banh mi sandwiches. I ate my packed leftovers at work.

Wednesday: Sandwiches from The Sandwich Shop for the 12 year old and me before she came to see my dress rehearsal- broccolini and Sun dried tomato sandwich for me, Italian Cold Cut for the 12 year old. And we each got a boba. The Husband took the kids out to eat as a special treat since they weren’t coming to the show.

Thursday: Eggplant and pork stir fry eaten with noodles. The Husband cooked.

Friday: Pizza and Hamilton (the proshot on Disney+)for the kids. I had leftovers at work. I think the Husband also had pizza – he came to see my show after dealing with a water crisis.

Hope you are having a sun-filled week as summer hurtles towards the finish line! Or perhaps you are already there?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Weekend alone and Olympic watching

Dusk approaching at Glenstone.

It’s August! I guess we’re rounding the finish line of summer. Friday was my day off before tech week when we move into the theatre. I’m trying to have a combination of production and relaxing with the free day. So to that end, I:
-dropped one kid off at camp and one off at daycare (along with a blender because it’s smoothie Friday.) (The morning was actually kind of a shit show – the Husband had taken the kids to a live Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me! show the night before – a bucket list item for him – and they didn’t get back until 11pm, so of course they were holy terrors in the morning because they were over-tired. But they all had a lot of fun at the show, so I do feel like a little morning crankiness is worth it.)
– had a mammogram and a thyroid ultrasound (this latter to try to figure out why I’m having very light non-ending periods)
-dropped off a box of poop at the UPS store
-picked up a library hold
-mowed the lawn.

This last one almost defeated me – it was 90+ degrees out there. I put on my rash guard to mow because the sun’s rays were beaming something fierce.

Then, to reward myself, I did this:

Black raspberry chocolate gelato and Men’s trampoline. And a mountain of laundry.

Relaxed on the couch eating ice cream for lunch, while talking to my sister-in-law, watching the Olympics, and folding laundry. We’re dog sitting for the next week and there was a cute dog joining me in a few minutes to watch the Men’s Badminton Quarter Finals. I do need to do some meal planning since the next couple of days will be tech, and there is no tech friendly food in the fridge right now.

In the evening, we went to the pool after pick up. We haven’t been since swim team ended almost two weeks ago. Going to the pool on such a hot day was lovely. Also – our pool tends to be pretty empty on Friday nights because so many families at our pool go home for Shabbat dinner, so it wasn’t as much of a zoo as it usually is. Then it was home for Pizza and Glee.

Okay – things this week. Let’s back up to the poop shipment. As much as I want to be in the Cool Blogger Colonoscopy club, when my doctor offered me the option of “pooping in a box” (literally her words) colon cancer screening, I said, “Sign me up!” A few days later, a box appeared in the mail. Basically you poop into a plastic bucket, swab your poop, pour a preservative over it, close the bucket back up, and then ship everything to a lab where they will screen it. It’s not as accurate as a colonoscopy, but for low risk people, my doctor said it’s a more appealing alternative. It felt really weird to hand a box with my poop in it to the guy at the UPS store, but maybe we just need to be less squeamish as a society about these things. Also – the test is only good for three years, so who knows, maybe in three years I will do the full on colonoscopy?

I hope this box doens’t get lost in the mail…

Last weekend, I enjoyed my family-free time. Well, it was really only one day because Sunday I had to work. But on Saturday, I slept, read, did laundry. I ran errands. I picked up peaches from The Peach Truck:

I used to go peach picking, but then I realized that peach season here always falls on the the hottest month of the year. Plus, the peaches are not any cheaper if I pick them myself. So I started just buying them at the Farmers Market. I had heard about the Peach Truck, a company that brings peaches from the south to our area. My friend was going to go in on buying Peach Truck peaches with me, but then she went away on vacation, and yet I still impulsively ordered 2 boxes of peaches anyway. That’s 24 lbs of peaches (there was a discount if you bought more than one box.) Which at first, I thought was a bonkers amount of peaches and when I brought it home I worried that I had had a terrible idea. t was a great idea. I took about ten to work, but other than, that the kids and I have finished almost all 24 lbs. of peaches in a week. The next Peach Truck delivery is in two weeks. Maybe I’ll order THREE boxes? So much easier to get my peach fix this way than actually going to pick them.

Saturday afternoon, my friend K and I went to Glenstone Museum – We couldn’t get tickets to the exhibits, but we were able to get tickets to the grounds, and they had special Summer hours so were open until 8pm. We took the outdoor sculpture tour:

Then we had lunch on the patio, and wandered the grounds some more. I think it actually turned out fine that we didn’t get to go to the galleries – I’ve been to Glenstone three or four times and I always get sucked into the galleries and then run out of time to walk the grounds.

Afterwards, we went to a Cuban restaurant for dessert. We ended up hanging out for six hours – which was a lovely time.

-I’ve been watching the Olympics, like most people. Of course I’ve been watching swimming and gymnastics, but I’ve also been really into table tennis and badminton. Fun fact, I played varsity doubles badminton in high school and I was texting with my high school friend who played varsity singles on how cool it was to watch Olympic badminton. (Also – side note – I’ve always said bad-MIN-ton, but I’ve also heard people say ba-Mitten. Which do you say?) One evening, I wanted to paint a card for my friend who had to put her cat to sleep, and I found watching table tennis and badminton a nice soothing activity to do while I painted.

Olympic badminton on.

The finished card:

Loosely based on this tutorial.

Random Olympic Thoughts:
-One thing I like about table tennis is that the athletes look so .. average. They are all sorts of ages and varying degrees of body types. They look like they could be IT consultants. Regardless, though, they all have this athletic glow that just makes everyone look so attractive. What is it about athletes that makes them all look so shiny and pretty?
– On a similar note most of these people must have regular lives and jobs and things like that, right? How wild is it to be an Olympic athlete and also an mechanical engineer or something.
-I was watching the sailing and a lot of the competitors are in their early 20s. How does one become an Olympic sailor at such a young age? That’s not a cheap sport. I’m kind of fascinated by the economic pathways of being an Olympic athlete. And just their pathways in general. Some of these sports are so very niche.
-It wasn’t until I watched the replays of entire competitions (as opposed to just the highlights) that I appreciated how much time is spent just … waiting. The sailing race, there is a countdown clock until the start of the race and the first race I watched, the start was delayed 30 minutes. Then it was finally time to get started so everyone started working their way to the start line. There’s a countdown clock, tension is building. And then 30 seconds before the start – another delay because the wind wasn’t blowing the right way. And there was another 30 minute delay. Can you imagine, getting lined up to start and then with 30 seconds until you can take off, a delay is called. Back to waiting. So much waiting. I think you have to be really mentally tough to be able to wait like that and still perform.
-Apparently handball is the one sport without Americans competing. It made me want to watch handball. It looks like a really fun game.
-I loved this article in the NYTimes about how table tennis players get no respect. No, You Can’t Beat an Olympic Table Tennis Player.
-What’s with all those AI commercials? It makes me feel like something is really off with the world when people don’t want to summarize their own to do lists or write fan letters without help. Or maybe I’m just an old fuddy duddy.
-I love how they start each competition with the three knocks of a stick, usually by a former Olympian. The three knocks is a French theatre tradition. I wish we would do that at theatres here in the U.S. Much better than playing the “Welcome to the show. Please turn off your cell phones” announcement that is so prevalent.
-This list in McSweeney’s “Olympic Gymnast or Me, a Middle Age Woman?” Made me laugh so hard. Especially #7 and #15.

Grateful For:
-A strong downbeat. This is one of those in the weeds work things, but … the show I’m currently working on – there are parts of the score where it’s hard to follow the written music. The melody crosses bar lines, and the rhythms are not what one would expect, and the piano reduction of the orchestra is sinewy. I find it easy to get lost if I blink. BUT… our conductor has a really strong downbeat. For those who don’t read music/follow conductors – conductors move their hands in a certain patterns which correspond the to the number of beats in a bar. A downward stroke is the first beat of a meaure. When I get lost – particularly in large orchestral passages, if I watch for the downbeat, I can usually find my place in the music. Not all conductors have good downbeats. Some conduct as if they are stirring a pot of soup. This conductor has a clear and strong downbeat. Thank goodness. There are many many places in this show where if I try to follow the notes, I’ll get lost. So I just count the downbeats. This is an example – you’ll see, I have an entrance cue marked, and I just number the measures until that entrance.

When I cue this entrance, I don’t look at the music, I just look at the conductor and count the number of times he makes that downward stroke. On the 8th downbeat, I send the singer. This conductor’s downbeat has been my saving grace many times in this opera.

-Reciprocal library privileges. I have a D.C. library card, which I also use for the Montgomery County, MD libraries since that is where I now live. Last week, I realized that close to my work is a library in the Fairfax County, VA system. I looked them up, and they have reciprocal library privileges with Montgomery County and D.C. So on my dinner break one day, I went and got a library card for the Fairfax County system. I know that I won’t likely borrow physical books from a Fairfax County library, but now I have an additional library to use on my Libby account. (For the record, I already had four libraries on my Libby account – Washington D.C Public Library, Montgomery County, MD, Maryland/Baltimore, and Los Angles County, where I grew up. Is this excessive????) One thing I found exciting about this new library is that you can borrow jigsaw puzzles. I thought that was pretty cool.

-Shade on hot hot hot hot days. Even though I’ve brought my running clothes to work, it’s been much too hot for me to go running on my dinner break, so I’ve just gone on a few walks instead.

-A new door! Our old door was old and drafty and sometimes wouldn’t open. I had dragged my feet on getting a new door because I loved my old door so much – it was red and had all sorts of lovely details in the hardware, and three elegant windows. So the Husband found a company that said it could just transfer the windows and the hardware from the old door to new door, as well as the lock so we wouldn’t have to re-key the door. The new door looks like this right now, but we are going to paint it. It wasn’t cheap, but I feel like we’re going to be in this house for a long time, so it’s okay to have a door I love.

-That I get to work on the show I’m working on. I love the show so so so much. It’s such a beautiful show. At least once a day, I have to tell myself not to cry in rehearsal. Crying in a good “this scene is so devastatingly beautiful and the music makes me feel like my heart is getting all the feelings squeezed out of it” kind of way.

Looking Forward to:
-Not having a different drop off/ pick up routine every week. I guess it’s my own fault for signing the kids up for five different camps over the course of six weeks. Luckily, this past week, the 12 year old could just walk to and from camp on her own. But it does feel like every week there was a new drop off/ pick up pattern to figure out. After this week of camp, we’ll be done with camp for the rest of the summer. Yay! The kids will be doing “mommy camp”. I read in an article one parent said their philosophy for these wide open summer days is that the kids have to do at least one thing for their mind and one thing for their body every day before they can have screens. I like that framework.

-Sewing classes starting in September for the 7 year old. And… guess what? They are offering Mommy and Me classes, so I signed up the 7 year old to take sewing classes with the Husband. I can’t wait to see what they make. I guess I need to start looking at activity sign ups for the fall soon.

-watching more Olympics. The next week will be pretty busy at work, so I’m glad that I can stream what I want when I get a minute. I don’t have any one sport I’m interested in – I just like to scroll through and find something I’ve never seen before.

-These books, picked up at the Library:

What We Ate: I ate a lot of dinners at work, and then grazed a bunch when I got home afterwards. The Husband did all the at home cooking this week.
Saturday: My Friend and I had dinner at the Glenstone patio cafe – we split a black bean quinoa salad and shrimp.

Sunday: Leftover pizza and Cobb Salad that the Husband brought home from their trip.

Monday: Eggplant pasta. The Husband cooked. This was really tasty – he sauteed eggplants and the cooked it in a tomato sauce and added lots of basil. Vegan.

Tuesday: Zucchini salad, eaten at work. The Husband made Zucchini boats at home for dinner. I had some when I got home and they were really tasty. He sauteed beef with seasonings, used that to fill hollowed out zucchini halves, tops with cheese and then bakes. It’s one of our easy go-to recipes where we can get the kids to eat vegetables.

Wednesday: Popcorn chicken and Taiwanese sausage from the Boba Tea place. I had brought something to eat for dinner since I had an evening rehearsal, but then decided that I wanted to treat myself a little. I think the kids had Mac n’ Cheese from the box at home.

Thursday: I worked through my official dinner break because we were getting ready for the final room run through. I don’t usually skip meal breaks, but I had meetings scheduled in the late afternoon. Anyhow, I managed to eat a yogurt and berries that I had packed. (The Husband and kids ate out before going to see Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me.)

Friday: Pizza (Take out) and Glee.

This weekend will be the start of tech week at work, so I’ll be at the theatre. Exiting, but it will also be exhausting. What are you up to this weekend?

Bi- Weekly recap + what we ate: a week of outfits

Last week and this past week was one of those “so many random thoughts came into my head this week”-kind of week. So here’s a random dump of various goings ons since the last week of recaps…

-We went duckpin bowling last weekend. The bowling alley was like stepping back in time. At one point, the guy who brought us our food asked if we could keep the kids from leaning on the ball returns because, “those are original, from the 1950s.” The bowling alley had a deal for six bowlers plus shoes, a large pizza and a pitcher of soda for $105, which seemed like a steal for an afternoon of fun for our family of five.

step back in time! We have to score by hand and math!

-We’ve started rehearsal. I’m working on an opera set in World War I, so my google searches lately have been things like, “1900s German Telegram” and “gas masks” and “1900s pencils”. And my photo roll is full of snapshots from rehearsal as I communicate with the prop master about our rehearsal needs. Here’s a glimpse:

I was like, “What is that?”
Paper props
“Will this do for the French Lieutenant?”

In case you couldn’t tell, that white blob is a set of rehearsal bagpipes that I fashioned out of a cotton sack and paper and tape because the one we ordered for the show have’t arrived yet. It’s some of my best work. I have to admit I am mad good at making fake props. (I even wrote a post on it…)

-Swim season is finished! Even though I’m so glad that we no longer have to get to the pool every day, I’m a little sad to move on from that part of the summer because for all the complicated logistics, it was fun watching the 12 year old swim and I actually liked having an excuse to get into the pool four nights a week. The 12 year old received one of the Coach’s Choice awards – I’m so proud of her! Every kid also recieves a paper plate award – the 4 year old got “Best Bobber”, the 7 year old got “Best Flutter Kick” and the 12 year old got “Butterflyer at Heart”. How awesome is it that the coaches get together and think of an award for everyone?!

-The schlep every morning to get people places. This is what our foyer looks like in the morning as we get ready to leave:

I have lunchbox, purse, laptop bag, totebag with running clothes in it (in case I have a long dinner break). The kids each have a backpack and lunch. The 7 year old was at skating camp last week, so he also has helmet, winter coat, and his skates. It’s like every day is an expedition. I thought this was funny – him trekking up the hill to the ice arena. For the record, there is a set of stairs just to the right of this picture – he just chose not to use them.

-The 12 year old’s musical theatre showcase was so much fun! I have to admit I might have mouthed the words to her solo in the Shrek scene along with her as she sang it. In addition to musical numbers, they performed some book (spoken) scenes as well. I had kind of dismissed SpongeBob Square Pants the Musical without knowing anything about it, but the kids performed some scenes from it and they were pretty funny. I would be intrigued to see the show. I’m glad we signed the 12 year old up for this camp – I think she’s at an age that she does better at camps where she’s receiving training in something specific rather than general “have fun” camps. Though I still have hopes that she will want to go to a sleepaway camp at some point too.
Also, last week, the theatre camp program took all the kids to New York to see Hamilton. How cool is that? They left on the 8am Vamoose bus and came home at 11pm. Everything – the bus, the show, and dinner – was covered by the camp fees. We sent her with a bagged lunch and some money. It seems like such a milestone for us – we’ve never sent our kid on a trip like this without us. (Well, when she was a baby, my parents would take her to California during the summers, but this feels different because she’s expected to behave and make good choices on her own….) She had an amazing time. But also – it made me think that maybe a day trip to NYC to see a show is a pretty easy thing and I should do that with her at some point this fall.

-My aunt passed away last week. She was my father’s oldest sister. We weren’t exactly close – she lived in Houlong, a small town in Taiwan, and I’ve seen her maybe ten times in my life. But whenever we went to visit she was always so welcoming and generous with her time, making sure that I was enjoying myself, constantly feeding me, taking us around the town on her little scooter. I suppose I am getting to an age where aunts and uncles will soon start to pass – all of my father’s siblings live in Taiwan, and it seems a little unreal to me to hear news of their passings. Since I so rarely go to Taiwan, it is easy to forget, and to think that my aunt will always be there, and that I will see her when I go back this winter.

-On a lighter note – this tweet made me laugh. It is so so so true for us too:

The tweet was linked through this New York Times article on people’s grocery shopping habits. The article was super interesting and indulged a certain voyeur in me. My main takeaway was that Americans buy a lot of cheese. I feel like we buy a lot of cucumbers, apples, berries, and bread. And yes, cheese.
What can’t you wait to stop spending money on?

– Taiwanese Sausage! There are many boba places near work, and one of them also sells food, including Taiwanese sausage. It brings back such memories of being at the Night Markets in Taiwan. I’m trying to limit my boba consumption this summer, but Taiwanese sausage might be a dangerous gateway.

-another food related thing – My favorite salad these days – With the summer glut of zucchini, I’ve been making shaved zucchini salad for lunches. No real recipe, but this is what I do- with a peeler, shave the zucchini into ribbons. Add, salt, pepper, olive oils and red wine vinegar (or whatever acid. I would also use lemons if we had lemons). Mix it up to make sure the ribbons are all dressed. Sprinkle with fresh mint, walnuts, parmesan cheese. Top with an egg for protein. I also threw in some lettuce because we had some to use up. It’s been my go to lunch for the past two weeks. This is my entry in Tobia’s summer salad challenge :).

A Week of Outfits:
The Sunday before the first day of rehearsal, I put together 6 outfits to get me through the week because I knew the mornings would be really busy with three drop offs . It made my part of the morning so much easier not to have to think of what to wear. I’ve been hearing a lot about “Three Words” styling method, where you choose three words to describe your sense of style. There are a variety of the theme floating around, but one version is – one word that is your baseline style, one word that is describes your style aspirations, and one word that describes how you want to feel in your clothes. (I’ve read somewhere that “comfortable” isn’t a style word because we all want to be comfortable.. Because otherwise that would be my word for all three categories.) My words always change, but I think at the moment, I’m going to choose – Colourful, effortless, and playful. I will say, I have a few requirements of my clothes – I have to be able to move easily in it since I move and lift things a lot in rehearsals. Things have to be long enough that I don’t flash the world when I bend down or sit on the ground. Though I do sometime wear bike shorts underneath if it seems dicy. No button or things that I have to zip up the back. I have to get dressed by myself and have never mastered the art of zipping up the back of my own dress. Natural fibers if possible. Elastic waist bands. Pockets. Not black. I wear black a lot when I’m backstage so I try to avoid it when I’m not backstage. Machine washable.

I thought I’d post here the week of outfits. Excuse the bad photos – I’m by no means a fashion blogger. Think of this as “What does a middle aged stage manager mother of three wear?”

Monday: I didn’t take a picture on Monday but it was my blue Wool& Sierra tank dress with a flower patterned Uniqlo shirt over it. Because I’m too lazy top put it back on, here is it on the hanger:

Tuesday – Linen shirt dress. I love this dress because it is so easy breezy. Also – the sleeves are long. I’m trying to cover my arms, or at least my left arm because it gets a lot of sun during my daily commute, so I want a little bit of protection. This is the upper limit of short for me.

Masking because of a COVID precaution. It really took me back…

Wednesday: Poplin stiped skirt, Uniqlo shirt. The skirt is a new purchase – it was on the sale rack at JCPenney’s for $15. I love a nice skirt with pockets and an elastic waistband – there was a whole rack of these skirts, and I thought, “Why aren’t people buying this perfect for summer skirt?!?!?” The label says dirndl skirt, which I thought was funny.

Thursday: Hand me down cardigan from my cousin, yellow and white striped t-shirt from Pact, orange crinkle pants from Old Navy.

Friday: Red Wool& dress with J.Crew poplin men’s button up. The shirt is thrifted and I love everything about it. When I first saw it on the Men’s rack, I thought it had been mishung, but it really is a men’s shirt. Also – I really love my new hair with sunglasses.

Saturday – Was the day off, so no picture. I spent it in running shorts, a sports bra, and a running tank, on the off chance I got out for a run. Which didn’t happen.

Sunday: Olive green shirt dress (Uniqlo) with hat. I love this dress – so easy to wear. It does come with a belt, but I never belt it. I actually bought it when i was pregnant even though it’s not maternity wear. I thought the outfit needed a little something, so I threw on a hat. I used to have many summer hats, but I can only find this one blue one right now. I’ll have to look for the others. At least this hat matches my shoes. (On the note of shoes – I alternate between two pair of shoes in the summer – a pair of aqua Allbirds and a blue slip on Oofos. These are both getting a little worn in the soles, so I’ll need to replace them soon. I’m annoyed that Allbirds now only come in boring grey/black/neutral colours.)

Grateful For (It’s a long list this time because I realized I have two weeks worth here.):
-The Husband. He’s been the primary parent while I’ve been in rehearsals – he’s picked up kids, stayed home with sick ones, arranged play dates, made dinner, made needed purchases, scheduled work on the house, paid contractors… a lot. I feel downright lazy for only having to get the kids to school/camp then go to work every day.

-A box of veggies. Our neighbor was going out of town – you know, just an impulsive trip to the Bahamas like you do when your kids are all older and at camp – so he asked if we would feed his fish and also take this box of veggies from the Farmer’s market. Yes please!

-That I’ve lived to have seen – twice each – a woman run for President and a person of colour run for President. (This might be pre-mature thinking, but probably not.) Look, I don’t care about any one person’s politics. I mean I have my opinions (left leaning, in case it wasn’t clear), but I’m always curious and interested in what people think across the spectrum. I do care, though, that we live in a world where people should see aspects of themselves represented on a national and international stage. Growing up, I wanted to be blond because success was often embodied by beautiful blond people. I’m glad that, hopefully, that is not what achievement has to look like to my kids.

-Google Translate. The current opera is in three different languages since it tells the story of the Scottish, French, and German soldiers. My French is passable enough that I can understand the text, but my German is not (I only took two semesters of German in college.) Enter the miracle of Google Translate – I can just point it at the text, and it translates it for me! Now I know exactly why we need a telegram for that scene and what it should say.

-The Lost and Found. I swear, every day the 7 year old comes home from camp with one less item than when I sent him in the morning. Thank goodness, the camp puts the lost and found out front by the sign in table.

-Other people driving. The past two weeks have been a lot of driving for everyone. Because I work so far away, the Husband had taken over driving to swim practice – so grateful for him for doing that because it is really busy. Then this week, my friend has been driving the 12 year old to her camp because her theatre camp starts at the exact same time as the 7 year old’s ice skating camp. Since my friend’s kids go to a camp not too far from theatre camp, she’s been dropping the 12 year old in the morning. A million thanks to her for doing that.

– The singer M who let me into the building when I had left my swipe card inside after hours. As I was leaving work one day, I went to reach for my car keys, and realized that they were in my purse, which were in the rehearsal hall in the building, the doors of which were swinging shut behind me. Cue PANIC. It was 9pm in the evening and everything was locked and everyone was gone. But then, I saw a singer coming back from dinner to pick up his car, and I have never been so grateful to see a singer in my life. Relief washed over me. He was able to swipe me in and I retrieved my stuff.

-Hand me down bras! I need to re-evaluate my bra game – I’m still wearing nursing bras and my youngest kid will soon be five. But to be fair, those nursing bras are the most comfortable bras I’ve ever worn. When my cousin was visiting, she gave me a whole bag of bras that she had outgrown. Last week, I pulled them out to try on, and they are actually the same Uniqlo bras that I used to buy before I got pregnant with my third kid. Only she bought them in Taiwan so all the labels are in Chinese so it took me a while to realize they were the same bras. What a nice and useful coincidence.

Looking forward to:
-A weekend alone/ hanging out with a friend. The Husband is taking the kids out on an overnight, but I have to work, so I’ll stay behind. I’ll have a glorious day to myself, though. Things on my “want to do” list:
– hang out with my friend, probably hiking
– set the thermostat at 76.
– clean one thing. Either my desk or my craft table or the toy room?
– paint some cards.
– make a batch of hard boiled eggs for next week.
-maybe bake something else.
-read
-write recaps ffor our Maine trip
– run, or maybe even swim?
That’s a lot – I probably won’t get to all that, though.

– We have a friend coming in to town to come see my show in a few weeks. I always love having company. Especially company that is forgiving of the mess and chaos that is life with three kids.

-The Olympics!!! Always fun to watch and hear the stories.

-Started this Audiobook. I’ve never read Emilie Henry, and when I was looking for a new audiobook for my commute I saw this was read by Julia Whelan, so thought, “If nothing else, the narration will be good!” The 12 year old borrowed Book Lovers on audio and has been listening to it, so I figured it wouldn’t be bad to see what all the buzz is about. So far I’ve laughed out loud many times.

What We Ate (two weeks worth – it’s been a very … functional few weeks of eating.)
Monday- Sandwiches at the pool for the Husband and kids. I had veggies and fruit when I got home from work

Tuesday: Chicken salad wraps at the pool. I had tomato furikake sandwiches at home when I got off work. Basically mayo, sliced tomato, furikake seasoning on toasted bread. It was tasty and summer.

Wednesday: Meet the Husband and two little kids for dinner at a hot dog/burger restaurant. I arrived on the late side and ate chili cheese fries and leftover hot dog buns and sausage. I often realize that when we go to restaurants, I don’t really need to order myself food, I can just eat what the kids don’t eat…

Thursday: I ate leftover chicken salad wraps from Tuesday. Not sure what the rest of the family ate.

Friday: Swim Team Pasta Dinner Potluck. I made sesame noodles w/ chicken, cucumber, and peppers. I always feel self conscious about bringing sesame noodles to the Pasta Potluck, but it’s really easy to make and I think it makes a nice break for people who don’t eat tomatoes… (There were leftovers which I was happy to eat all week>)

Saturday: Pizza take out and The Frog Prince. (Which I might have slept through because I was really tired by this point of the week.)

Sunday: Leftover pizza for me. The rest of the family had pizza at the swim team awards banquet.

Monday: Eggplant stir fry with fish. The Husband cooked. This was really tasty as leftovers.

Tuesday: Grilled Chicken drumsticks, steamed broccoli, and leftover eggplant stir fry. I was working this night, so I marinated the chicken ahead of time and the Husband grilled it when he got home. I did a whole Costco size pack of drumsticks so the kids could take them for lunch.

Wednesday: The family went out to eat and I met them at ice cream when I got off work. I had a sandwich for dinner… that is an ice cream sandwich.

Thursday: Green beans and box Mac N Cheese for the Husband and kids. I had leftover sesame noodles at work.

Friday: Chinese Take-out for the Husband and kids and some friends they had over. I had, again, sesame noodles at work.

Okay – I’m off to continue my child-free day!

What’s your favorite summer outfit? Ten points if you can tell me what that stick like prop is.

Weekly recap + what we ate: back to work and July aspirations

Well I started working on my next show. It’s nice to be working out of the house again, but man this whole job thing is a lot. I managed to do three different morning drop offs last week and the 12 year old was only late to musical theatre camp 4 out of 5 times. We’ll do better. The mornings are deceptively languid from 6:55am – 7:30pm and then it’s rush rush rush panic and yell and where are your shoes and get in the car for the next hour. I think I need to re-think the morning structure. Or just accept the freneticism. Or have better systems. Who knows

Some fun things last week:
I did get my haircut. The new stylist worked out pretty well:

The cut isn’t as complicated as the guy I used to go to – it’s a bob rather than a pixie – but I still do like it; it’s a nice change from the pixie, which is what I usually get. I like how short and sharp the bob is, and I like the fringe-y bangs. AND it takes two minutes to shower now that it’s much shorter, which I always LOVE about having short hair. But also – all that grey! I have no interest in colouring my hair – I don’t think I could keep up with it – so I’m trying to go grey gracefully. But it is still a bit of a shock every time I see how much grey hair I have.

-I also had my long overdue well-woman appointment, and got bloodwork done. I don’t have a primary care physician, so my gyn does my bloodwork. She also ordered a thyroid ultrasound because I’ve been having a unending light periods for months now and then she also ordered me a poop in the box kit for colon cancer screening, which I can do instead of a colonoscopy. What a novel thing! Anyhow, I am rubbish about health screenings since I feel pretty healthy most of the time, so it felt like true adulting to go to one doctor’s appointment and have her assign me so many things – kind of like homework. Next up, I need to schedule my eye exam.

-We went skating on Saturday. The lady who does our bi-weekly cleaning is away this month, so on Saturday, we buckled down and had a morning of cleaning. I even cleaned the air registers. But anyhow, as a fun post cleaning activity, we went to the ice rink. At first I thought we could go to the pool. But do you know what is cooler than a swimming pool at 12:30pm in 80+ degree weather? An ice rink.


One of the things I love about going to the ice rink is that one can see so many different levels of ability all at once during free skate. You see the first timers clinging to the sideboards, their skates tied too loosely, ankles akimbo. AND you see the skaters who, while not Olympic caliber, can skate backwards and forwards and jump and spin and also do that hockey stop, you know the kind where you turn your skates sideways and send up a spray of ice. I feel like there aren’t a lot of places you can go to watch people hone their craft the way you can at the ice rink. Part of the fun for me is to watch people try a move again and again and again. There is something so inspiring about seeing all the different levels of skaters, knowing that everyone who I see doing a camel spin at one point was a beginner skater, inching around the ice, clinging to the sideboards.
After the ice rink we made a stop at a playground, at the kids’ request. The playground was nice and shady, but also a little buggy, so we only stayed 30 mins. Then we headed to Dairy Queen. When I go to DQ I always have the same thing – a Heath Bar Blizzard. Is there anything more delicious as a Heath Bar Blizzard on a hot day?

-Another swim meet! I had a different job this time – usually I time, but this time I got to be a runner, running the timing sheets to the people who enter the times into the system. The 12 year old swam her first 100 meter Individual Medley in a meet. That was fun to watch. It was the last meet of the season, except for Divisionals. Strange to think swim team season is wrapping up for the summer already!

Butterfly. It’s such a dramatic looking stroke!

-In other swimming news, I think the two little kids have started to figure out how to swim. So I seem to have misplaced their swim vests. (I say I, but … why do I say “I”? They should be responsible for their own damn swim vests!) So we’ve been going to the pool without swim vests. Which means, that we need to stay in the 3 ft area, or we go to 4 feet with both kids hanging on to me and that’s kind of tedious after a while. Anyhow, maybe this is the case of just taking off the training wheels, but both kids kind of figured out how to swim for two or three meters on their own – the 7 year old by doing his version of streamline, and the 4 year old by doggy paddling. This is kind of exciting to me – the 12 year old was swimming independently by the time she was six, so I was starting to get a little concerned that the 7 year old wasn’t going to figure it out and I would have to be with him in the pool forever. So yay!

-The Hallowe’en costumes are out at Costco!!!! What the what?

June recap and July Aspirations: Mid July seems about right for me to reflect on June and think about what I want to get out of the last 11 days of the month (note, that number was 15 when I started this post, but I’m writing slowly these days, I guess…)

June 2024 Highlights:
-Number 1 highlight definitely is our Family Trip to Maine. I want to write a trip recap, but who knows if it will happen.
-Finishing out the school year for the 12 year old and the 7 year old. Yay!
-Mid day weekday movie date with my friend L to see Babes. We laughed so so so hard, felt all the feels, and going to a movie on a Thursday afternoon just felt decadent.
-Swim team season starting and lots of time at the pool. It’s a bit of an endeavor to get there, but I genuinely enjoy being in the pool.

June 2024 Lowlights:
-The 4 year old not meeting assessment requirement to go to kindergarten early, and then having to start the appeals process.
-Post show malaise. I finished a show Labor Day weekend, and then fell into kind of a slump of not being productive.
-Discovering that our favorite restaurant in the area to get Taiwanese breakfast no longer serves Taiwanese breakfast. And by “our favorite” I mean “the only”. We used to go to this restaurant and be the first ones in the door on a Sunday or Saturday morning. So super bummed about this one. Well, I guess that’s another reason to get excited about our trip to Taiwan later this year
-The start of a heat wave. Can we call it a wave, if it is still hot, three weeks later?

July Aspirations:
– Get through swim team season.
– Start working on a new show. Stay ahead of the paperwork and don’t leave it for the last minute.
-Exercise: 10 mins of yoga/ day. Run. (I’m doing horribly at this. I don’t think I’ve run at all so far in July. But it’s just been so very very very hot.)
-find time to journal daily.
– Have a not miserable commute: good audiobooks/podcasts to listen to, make sure I have ice cold water and snacks at all times.
-Check dates for supertitle gig and poke the organization for a contract
-Plan some details of the Malaysia leg of our trip to Asia.
– The 7 year old wants to make a dress for the 4 year old – help him to this. Though this may be more of a August thing for when my work schedule slows down.
– Make plans to see my friend L who lives near where I’ll be working, and my friend K whom I used to see once or twice a month, but I haven’t seen since April.
-Schedule: Well woman (done), hair cut (done), dentist (scheduled), eye doctor, window treatment company.
– Think about a trip with the 12 year old.
– Declutter: desk, sewing/craft corner, kids’ papers, pantry. (or maybe just pick one.)
– Make more movement towards getting rid of my car. In May (or was it June?) I sent one email to collect information about donating the car to the high school auto repair training program. Then I kind of stalled. (heh heh. But the car hasn’t stalled. Its still runs okay, which is kind of my hang up.) I guess the next step is to fill out the paperwork.
-Eat peaches and summer vegetables. There is something called the Peach Truck that comes through our area and you can get a 12 lb box of peaches for $45. (Or two boxes for $64). My friend and I were going to go in together on a box, but she is going to be on vacation the next time the Peach Truck comes through. Maybe I can eat all 12 lbs myself? I might buy a box and bring it to work.
– Go to bed before midnight 1:00am. (I am not doing well at this one at all so far. It’s mostly prompted by wanting to wake up earlier and not be tired since I have a long commute to my current gig. But the desire to revenge bedtime procrastinate is strong. I’m a little inspired by Lindsay’s Weekly Dare project – maybe I can just go to bed by 11:30pm for one week? )
-Finish my current library books so that I can join Engie in reading I Capture the Castle for Cool Bloggers’ Book Club.

Random Dilemna – What to do with soggy Cheerios? One of my major irritants is that the kids don’t always finish their breakfast in the morning. Sometimes I will just finish it for them, but when the unfinished portion is a bowl of soggy neglected Cheerios… well my desire to not waste food might not extend that far every time. But what do I do with the Cheerios that are too wet to put in the trash and too solid to dump down the drain? I guess we have a garbage disposal so dumping down the sink isn’t the worst idea, but I don’t love dumping things down the sink unless it’s totally necessary. I could drain the milk out… but that seems like a lot of work. There are no good solutions here. (Well, there is, actually – the kids should just eat their Cheerios.) So the bowl of half eaten food just sits on the counter for the whole day until the Cheerios disintegrate into the milk.

Grateful For:
-Shade in the parking lot. It has been sooooooooooooo hot lately. I’m trying to lean into the enveloping feeling of a hot car, but sometimes it is too much. Luckily there are a number of trees in the parking lot at work, so if I’m strategic, I can park in a spot that will be shady when I get off work. I’ve also started putting a towel over the steering wheel during the day so it isn’t as hot when I get in the car.

-Finishing the hiring process for the stage management staff for the upcoming opera season. We’ve staffed the stage management teams for the 2024-2025 season! I never expected when I started the process last December that it would take all the way until July to finish the staffing – we had some people drop out to take other contracts so that kind of prolonged everything. I’m excited for all the returning and new people I’ll get to work with next season. I’m really grateful for my supervisor for leading the process, though. It was my first time working on staffing and she really held my hand and talked through every decision with me. Hiring is hard! Now fingers crossed that no one else withdraws from a contract. Although, sometimes its’ crazy to me to think that in February of 2024, I’m offering work for May of 2025.

-Work from home prep week. Last week, the first week on my contract, was mostly a paperwork week, so I was able to work from home for a lot of it. That was nice because a) I didn’t have to drive around the beltway every day, and b) I could be home and prep things for the afternoon swim practice and c) I could also get done all the life admin things mentioned at the top of this post. I’m thankful for the technology that allows me to work from home. At the same time, I also love being in the rehearsal room. So there are things to be grateful for either way.

– Democracy. It’s a bonkers time in American politics right now, like unbelievably incomprehensible. Or maybe the issue is that it is completely comprehensible if I look at things with empathy. But… I think all things considered, I’m grateful that people still believe in Democracy, despite the spectacle it currently is in America.

Looking Forward To:
-Duckpin bowling! The Husband suggested we go duckpin bowling this weekend as it is an activity that would be cool (as in temperature), family friendly, and screen-free. I’ve never been before, so I’m excited to try out something new.

-Visit from my mother! My mom is coming at the end of August and she’s bringing my aunt with her. It will be right as school starts, so things will be busy for sure, but it will be nice to see her. I haven’t seen her since Spring Break.

-Hearing about the 4 year old’s kindergarten appeal. I had a phone conversation with the person in charge of the 4 year old’s early entrance into kindergarten appeal. She was lovely and I was able to share all the bright and clever things that the 4 year old can do and also explain why I thought her reading scores were low. The appeals lady said she was surprised the reading skills score was so low because the 4 year old scored so high in all the other areas. I’m trying not to get my hopes up, but fingers crossed.

-The 12 year old’s musical theatre camp showcase. They are doing various scenes from musicals and she is playing Fiona in the Shrek excerpt. Can’t wait to see it.

What We Ate:
Monday: Grilled Eggplant Salad – Recipe from the Washington Post. Dinner at the pool. I thought this was really tasty – It had a Southeast Asian flavor profile with mint and coconut and cashews. I added grilled tofu for protein. It was not a hit with the kids, and I will admit that the coconut dressing, which was delicious, looked like a certain bodily fluid. Vegan.

Tuesday: Pasta and meatballs. Dinner at the pool. The 4 year old’s request. I made turkey ricotta meatballs on Sunday, froze them, then popped them into the InstantPot on Tuesday morning with a jar of tomato sauce.

Wednesday: We met up with our friend for dinner. I had a very tasty burger and a salad. And then we had amazing desserts: creme brulee and sticky toffee bread pudding. I will almost always order crème brûlée if I see it on a menu.

Thursday: Chicken Salad Sandwich wraps – dinner at the pool. Chicken salad from the deli counter – really tasty.

Friday: Dumplings (from frozen – these were the Ling Ling brand- eaten at the pool), then pizza and Glee after swim practice.

Saturday: Dumplings (from frozen – these were the ones purchased at our favorite dumpling house), and green beans, eaten while watching King Fun Panda 4. Cute movie.

Sunday: fend for yourself nights – leftovers, noodles and dumplings and we started watching The Acolyte. How did we manage to eat dumplings three nights in a row? Well, 1)the kids LOVE dumplings so will always eat them. 2) they’re frozen and convenient so we almost always have them around, 3) they only take ten minutes to cook up.

Weekly recap + what we ate: July 4th and Swim season routines and favorites

Rainy bike ride on the Fourth of July.

If you’re visiting me via NGS’s website and my guest post there – hello and welcome! It was kind of a freak coincidence that I guest posted on two blogs a week apart, but that’s mostly because I knew that if I didn’t get a guest post written before I went back to work mid-July, it wasn’t going to happen, and I very much wanted to make it happen. At any rate – I suspect most of you read NGS’s blog already, but if you don’t you should – she writes in a bracingly honest manner about books, every day routines, her adorable dog and cat, and life’s conundrums big and small. My guest post there celebrates her twenty (!) years of blogging by naming twenty operas I love. Thanks for having me, Engie!!!

Last week, my cousins came to visit, and it was deeelightful! By cousins, I mean my father’s oldest niece K and her daughter E. So K is technically the one who is my cousin, but in Mandarin, I call her “older sister”. I guess that makes E my second cousin? Anyhow, they came and it was heavenly. They played with the kids, read them book, had mediation sessions with them (!), and taught them how to make all sorts of Taiwanese treats. It was like they ran a three day Taiwanese summer camp for them out of my house. The kitchen was constantly buzzing while they made things like di gua yuan – little balls, made of yams (or taro) and cassava flour -they’re kind of the same texture as boba, but bigger, and you eat them in a sugar syrup or over shaved ice.

These purple ones are made with taro.

Shaved ice. My cousin brought us a shaved ice machine. Taiwanese shaved ice is a lot finer than a regular snow cone and comes with a wide variety of toppings. We had shaved ice with condensed milk and the taro balls, but you can also do it with red beans, fruit, boba… It’s a nice treat.

They did such a good job of taking turns on the shaved ice machine!

Onigiri. My cousin also brought a little mold to make these seaweed wrapped rice triangles. The four year old loved making them, and called them “Sand Castles” because you pack the rice in the mold then push out a perfectly formed little triangle, like you would a sand castle.

Rice Triangle – perfect pool food! The 7 year old did not want seaweed on his, so he just has rice, vegetables, and pork floss.

AND they picked up around our house. At first I was a little embarrassed by how my Cousin was constantly tidying our very messy house, but then E told me that Cousin K LOVES to clean. I realized that she is a tidier and it made her happy to be able to make our house a little nicer, so I leaned into it and just decided to be thankful and happy.

On the last night of their visit, we went to Hot Pot, and then ice cream. It was one of those sticky summer nights, made even more sticky by the heat and drippy ice cream cones, but the kids didn’t care. They played on the fake grass, running around and doing cartwheels. Which – the four year old can do a half decent cartwheel. I hadn’t known she could do that. What a charming surprise the first time I saw her flip her legs in the air and kind of land on her feet.

All in all it was a wonderful visit!

Other things on my mind… Going into this summer, juggling swim team season was one of my biggest worries, but with two weeks left, I think we’ve gotten the hang of things, so I wanted to write future me a note about what is working/what is not working currently with the current swim/evening routine. The current breakdown:

3:30/4:00pm– start prepping dinner for the pool and packing swim bag. Make sure 12 year old eats a snack. This worked well when I wasn’t working, but it’s going to be tricky when I go back to work for the last two weeks of swim team season. It might be a lot of food prep and take out.
4:30pm– kids hopefully home from school/camp, we all put swimsuits on.
4:45pm– drive to pool.
5:00-5:30pm– little kids go to their pre-team session/ 12 year old and I swim. She’s trying to teach me how to do a handstand in the water :).
5:30pm– pool time free play. I make the kids stay in the pool until adult swim or else we lose a bit of momentum.
5:45pm– adult swim – we get out of the pool. The 4 year old and 7 year old eat dinner. The 12 year old eats another snack if she is still hungry.
6:00pm– we are all back in the pool- big pool or baby pool, depending.
6:15pm– 12 year old moves to swim team practice. I continue pool free time with the two littles.
7:15pm– I get the 4 and 7 year old out of the pool- they take showers and get into their pjs. I take my shower while they are getting dressed.
7:30/7:45pm– 12 year old done practice. We head home.
8:00pm – home. This is where it all goes south a little. ideally, the little kids can brush their teeth and go straight to bed. But often they want to stay up or have another snack. The 12 year old eats the rest of her dinner. I hang up swim sits and clean out lunch boxes, scroll a little on my phone. On Fridays, we come home and have pizza and watch Glee, kind of our summer version of Friday pizza and movie night.
9:00pm/9:30pm – The little kids go to bed. Hopefully. Requires some cuddling/book time from us. This is on the later side, but I figure it’s summer so things slide a little bit.
10:00pm – the 12 year old goes to bed. If I haven’t already fallen asleep while cuddling with the little kids, then I do some more pick up/scrolling/sometimes I watch some tv with the Husband.
Eventually, depending – I go to bed.

My current pool bag pack:
-Two towels – one for me and one extra (I’ve been using Turkish towels – I love them because they are thin and pack well.)
-Two hooded towel/ponchos, one for each little kid. I found these in the bargain bin at Bed Bath and Beyond last year. Love them – so easy to just pop on the kids.
– Space Bag with goggles (kids and mine), and pool toys (it varies, but currently water guns and mini beach balls), and a nose plug for the 7 year old that he wears intermittently
-Space Bag with pjs for the kids and change of underwear for me.
-my rash guard
-Sunscreen (Spray and lotion)
-Shampoo/body wash and conditioner
-lotion
-a book
-The two little kids have swim vests, but they are in charge of bringing those themselves.

The pain points I’m finding in the current routine:
-The big one is that we don’t get to eat dinner together as a family. I realize that we don’t eat dinner a whole lot together when I’m working evenings, so this shouldn’t be a big deal, but I do feel like the Husband is missing out a little bit. BUT we still do pizza and Glee on Fridays, and actually there is no swim practice on Wednesday nights, so we do have dinner together on Wednesday nights.

-I wish I had a different pool bag. I have one of those Classic L.L. Bean Tote bags that are ubiquitous. It used to belong to my Mother-In-Law, and it’s certainly a workhorse, but it’s really awkward for me to carry. The handles are a too short to sling on my shoulder, so I have to carry the bag by my side, which is ungainly when the bag is full and knocking against me. (Though I hear that carrying things at your side is ergonomically better.) I feel like this is the kind of thing I will just be vaguely annoyed at for three months a year and just live with. What I really want is for the two little kids to start packing and carrying (and remembering) their own stuff for the pool. Then my bag would be lighter. (The 12 year old has long been in charge of her own stuff.) Maybe next year is the year I get the two little kids their own swim bags.

-I wish I could take some time to just swim laps. I know swimming is great exercise, but I have to always be watching the two little ones because they still are not strong swimmers. In my ideal world, the 12 year old would watch them during adult swim, but she wants to hang out with her friends and I want her to do that as well. At any rate, it’s kind of a non-issue right now because the weather so hot, there are mandatory pool breaks for everyone, so even the grown ups have to get out of the pool during adult swim. One day, though, I aspire to be able to swim laps. Maybe one day if I don’t have to be at work until later, I’ll sneak in a quick trip the pool on my own.

-I don’t think I’m packing a big enough dinner for the kids and certainly not enough vegetables. Pool dinners are all about what is easy to eat, portable, and appealing to the kids. So it is a combination of whatever fits in the thermos and snack food. I’ve been letting the kids pick a “pool snack” each week, which is usually chips or some kind of salty snacks. Which, is there anything more summer than a bag of salt an vinegar chips eaten by the pool with wet fingers? anyhow, I feel like the pool dinners I pack aren’t ideally balanced and the kids are still hungry when they get home. (Or they are trying to delay bedtime?). Still need to figure this one out.

-There is no time for anything else with the kids. So no picking up, no practicing piano, no chores. Which I think is not the worst thing for summer, but the house is getting gradually messier and messier and I end up staying up late to clean and revenge bedtime procrastinate.

BUT I remind myself that there are only two more weeks left of swim team, so this is just a busy season right now. Because we are lucky, especially in the 90+ degree heat we’ve been having, to be able to go to the pool and cool off in the evenings. It actually feels wonderful. So I’ll live with the messy living room and chlorine scented skin and rack of constantly damp swimwear in the sunroom, because there is a lot of joy and fun to be had these days as well.

On the Flip side – the things saving me this pool season:
– Thermos and lunch box. I gave these a shout out last week, but these have been great for packing dinners for the pool.

-Everyone Lotion. My brother introduced me to this brand last summer. I’ve never been brand loyal to any one lotion, but I really like this one. It’s unscented, and not too thick and not too runny, and rubs in cleanly and isn’t too expensive and doesn’t have too many ingredients. This is what we use to keep our skin from drying out from pool water and frequent showering. We have the large bottle and then decant into a smaller bottle for the pool. I’ve also been using their kids’ body wash/ shampoo as well.

-Rash guard and goggles. In an act of adulting, I finally bought myself a rash guard and a pair of goggles. I’ve never been into rash guards because I don’t like pulling a wet bathing suit over my head. But then I realized if I wore a rash guard, I wouldn’t have to put on sunscreen on my arms and back. So when I saw this zip up rash guard hoodie on sale at Lands End, I decided to try it. Friends, what an amazingly sensible thing to wear! It keeps me protected, even my neck when I pull up the hood, and it keeps me a little warmer in the pool. I don’t know why I resisted sensible things. Same with goggles. I have terrible eyesight so I always just wore my sunglasses in the pool. But then I bought a pair of tinted goggles to help with my attempt to learn how to do a handstand, and again, wow! What a practical thing! I learned that I don’t really need to see too precisely in the pool and that I can put my head underwater and that I actually find being submerged kind of relaxing.

-Drying rack – The kids only have two sets of swim clothes, so we have to remember to hang up our swim stuff right away so that it will dry for the next day. I love our drying rack. I used to dry things in the bathroom, but they dry so much more quickly in the sun room. And I pretend that the drying clothes are contributing a nice moist air for all the plants in our sun room.

-Swimsuit cover up – Last summer, I bought this hooded swimsuit cover up from a booth at a festival. The booth primarily sold Turkish towels, and they also had beach cover ups made from the same material as their towels. I love this cover up – it is substantial enough that I can wear it with or without my bathing suit underneath. It’s really soft and comfortable. There’s a hood, for when I want a bit of protection for the back of my neck. And if I put it on over wet clothes, it absorbs most of the water, no glaringly awkward wet patches. It’s one of those things that seem pricey at the time, but I’ve worn it four days a week for the past month, so it’s been worth it.

This is the one I have, but in blue.

-Showers at the pool. Something clicked this year and the 7 year old has decided that he wants to take showers rather than baths. Yay! We’ve never been a “shower every day” family, but in the summer with sweat and sunscreen, we definitely need to up the bathing game. One of the best thing about evenings at the pool is I have the kids shower and get into pjs once we are done, so we arrive home clean and one step closer to bed. I love having that one step taken out of our evening routine. (Though I guess it’s just been moved to a different part of the routine…). Also I’m really glad that the kids can get dressed by themselves so that I can grab a shower too. I’ve never been more bathed in my life.

So that’s the swim life set up for us. Whew. It’s a big chunk if our lives right now.

Grateful For:
-Finding Uh-Oh Bear! We have a little stuffed bear that a friend gave us when the oldest was a baby (or maybe it was the middle child?). We call the bear Uh-Oh Bear because whichever child had the bear loved to throw it on the floor and say, “Uh-Oh!”. Uh-oh Bear came with us to Maine, but then we couldn’t find him when we were checking out of our last hotel. We thought we had maybe left him in Maine and were really sad about it because Uh-Oh Bear is a very beloved stuffy. (I know I probably should just make the kids leave the stuffies at home when we travel, but they love them so much. Last year when we went to Amsterdam we lost another stuffed bear on the plane. We aren’t great with not losing things…) Well, this week, I was getting ready for the morning when the kids came running up to me, super excitedly yelling, “WE FOUND UH-OH BEAR!!!”. The kids found him in the bottom of the 7 year old’s backpack. Hooray! I mean I have all sorts of questions as to why the 7 year old didn’t empty his backpack like I asked him to when we got home two weeks ago, but I’m just going to be grateful for now that Uh-Oh Bear is back with us.

-Beautiful skies. The weather has been so unbearably hot, but there have been some beautiful sunsets:

-A bit of rain and A Capitol Fourth and a nice chill Fourth of July. My Cousins wanted to watch Inside Out (the first one) before they got on the road home, and it was the perfect, cozy early afternoon activity on a hot day. After my cousins left, I realized that I hadn’t been outside all day, so I persuaded the 7 year old to go out with me – he on his bike, and I for a run alongside him. Just as we stepped outside, it started to sprinkle. I asked the 7 year old if he wanted to just stay home, and he said, no it’s not too much rain. So we went for a rainy walk/ bike ride and it was lovely. And then we came home and puttered and ate leftovers for dinner and then watched A Capitol Fourth.
When the 12 year old was little, I worked in Colorado during the summers, and my boss would always have a party on the Fourth of July where we ate food and swapped theatre stories while 1776 played in the background. Her house was on the top of a hill and had a perfect view of the fireworks the next town over. Only the the three year old was scared of fireworks, so we always just stayed in the house. Which is all to say, we’ve never really gone to see fireworks. There are also logistical issues too currently – our County has two firework displays, but they start so late (9pm – I get that it needs to be dark) and the one closest to us, you have to take a shuttle to get to the viewing location and actually isn’t even on the Fourth, it’s the Saturday after. It just has always seemed like a lot of work to go see fireworks. This year, the kids asked to go see fireworks, but I couldn’t wrap my head around going, so we stayed home and, as is our tradition, watched A Capitol Fourth and saw fireworks on TV instead. I actually love our little tradition – we get to see some really great performances, and then see fireworks over the Washington Monument, which is always very patriotic feeling. And then we fall asleep on the couch. Even though we don’t have cable, Capitol Fourth is streamed for free online – another thing to be grateful for. Maybe next year, I’ll think about taking the kids to see fireworks live, but for this year, watching them on TV was kind of nice too.

-Walkie talkies and the hours of play the kids have with them. I had gotten some walkie talkies last year for the kids to take camping, and last week they pulled them out and started talking to each other with them, carrying them with them at all times. There was one day when we went to run errands at Old Navy and the salesperson thought that they had taken the Old Navy staff walkie talkies and told the kids to put them back. It was hilarious and slightly embarrassing. My favorite moment from last week – this moment where I went to the park with the 7 year old – he insisted I take one walkie talkie with me while he held the other. It was a hot hot hot day, and when we got to the park, he sat at the bottom of the slide and just started talking to me on the walkie talkie – just one of those ordinary 7 year old conversations. It made me smile, this moment of him wanting to be far away, but still communicate. There’s a metaphor for something in that.

You can see his little legs hanging over the edge of the slide.

Looking Forward To:
-Figuring out kid drop off/ pick up logistics. This one is actually causing me a little bit of anxiety, so I’m going to re-frame it and say I’m looking forward to things all working out. Each of the three kids will have drop offs at different locations – the 4 year old at her usual day care, the 7 year old at camp at a nearby school, and the 12 year old at theatre camp. The 12 year old’s camp is the farthest away and starts at 9am. I’ve paid for before/after care for the 7 year old so I can drop him at before 9:00 am, probably at 8:40p. The 4 year old will get dropped at school at 8:30am. At least that is the current plan. There is also a lot of things for each kid to bring to school/camp – the 12 year old’s camp requires jazz shoes and a pencil and a 3 ring binder and a recording device (see above). The 7 year old’s camp has water play every day so he needs to bring swim suits and a change of clothes and a towel and sunscreen. And of course all three kids need lunches and water bottles. It all feels like a lot right now, so I’m looking forward to when it doesn’t feel like a lot and just feels like routine. Pick up is also going to be hard… will report back on how that works out. (Okay, two days in, and first day we were 5 minutes late for the 12 year old’s camp, second day we were right on time, but that also felt kind of late. We’ll continue to try to do better….)

-Getting my hair cut! I finally achieved my deal with myself where I wouldn’t get my hair cut until I scheduled my well woman exam. And I did that, and now as a reward I’m getting my hair cut this week. I’m looking forward to having bangs again and getting my hair off my neck, and the quicker showers that come with short hair. I’m trying out a new stylist that my friend recommended. I feel bad for not going back to the stylist that I’ve been seeing for over fifteen years, but it’s gotten so expensive to go to that salon – last year when I was there, it was $120, including the tip. This is just a cut – I don’t do colour or anything like that. I feel conflicted about balking at the cost because I do think people should be paid for their work, but $120 twice a year is a lot. And honestly, I like to keep my hair short, so ideally I would go three or four times a year. But then again, maybe it’s not so bad? Would I pay $120 for a dress? I’m sure I have, and I wear my hair every day so if we are thinking of cost per wear … Anyhow, I’m trying out a new stylist. My friend says if it works out with her stylist, we should schedule back to back hair appointments in have a friend date in the future.

– Starting work on a new show! I start prepping for my next show this week. I’m really excited about this show. I am not excited about the commute though – it’s the kind of commute that can either take 20 minutes or 75 minutes, depending on time of day. I’m going to stock up on podcasts and audiobooks and make sure I have good car snacks and cold water on hand. Currently in my listening queue, Oh Beautiful by Jun Yung – which is not the book I thought it was going to be, and I don’t love it yet – and BBC Radio Drama version of Agatha Christie’s Sad Cypress. I discovered these Agatha Christie radio adaptations last year, and I love them – they are all between one and two hours long, and keep me attentive. It’s interesting to me that the audiobook might be 7 hours long, but the radio play is only 1 – so what is lost/what is kept? I guess there are no descriptions of people or places – everything is done with sound effects and acting. So you might not know that the lady is in a mousy brown suit, but what the mousy brown suit tells you about a character must instead by conveyed through the actor’s portrayal.

-Watching more of this, my current “watch while I late night clean” show. I’m finding it eye-opening, sweet and cringey and so so so human. There is one bit where the main character, gender-fluid Sabi meets trans Olympia and asks her when she knew she wanted to transition, and Olympia says, “Every person is constantly growing into a better version of themselves. We’re all in transition.” I love that thought.

What We Ate:
Monday: Smitten Kitchen’s Coconut Rice with fried tofu and roasted sweet potato and cauliflower. This is the coconut rice from Smitten Kitchen Keeper which I keep making because it is so delicious. I tried making the coconut rice in the InstantPot this time and it worked out really well. Remember that for next time. Vegan.

Tuesday: Ramen – eaten at the pool. Ramen is a ridiculously easy thing to pack for pool dinner. I added chicken, broccoli, and frozen peas to it to bulk it up a little bit.

Wednesday: Hot Pot Dinner out with cousins K and E.

Thursday: Fourth of July, but we didn’t do anything special – we ate bagels adn other leftovers.

Friday: pizza and Glee. The Husband also made a salad.

Saturday: leftover pizza and Sing 2 and salad.

Sunday: Ramen, leftovers, whatever one could find. Sunday was kind of a random grab bag of things because I think we were just done with structured activities like cooking and eating at this point. We had a swim meet in the morning until 1pm, and then I spent the rest of the day prepping for the upcoming week while the kids did Lord knows what. There were forts and books and lots of chattering and screens – for the two littles I had borrowed these tablets from the library that are pre-loaded with educational games. It scratches that itch of being on a screen without me having to 1) actually buy them a screen, and 2) worry about what kind of inappropriate content they’re going to stumble on. And then periodically a kids would say, “I’m hungry!” and I would find them something to eat and they would eat and them move on then come back and eat some more. It’s funny how much our days are anchored around mealtimes – without any set mealtimes on this day, the whole day felt a little unmoored. But I think that’s okay once in a while.

How was your week? Any lost things found?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Back to summer and three small mind-blowing solutions

First of all – Elisabeth so kindly asked me to write a guest post for her! I was thrilled to do it and spill a lot -hopefully not too much. I imagine everyone who reads my blog already reads hers, but if you haven’t read hers yet, go there because not only does she write the most whimsical and heartfelt posts, she also has the best community of commenters there.

Anyhow, on to this past week – We got back from Maine last Sunday night. Sunday morning, as we were gathering to check out of the hotel, my friend texted me:

How awesome was that?!? Because honestly, the last thing I wanted to do after five hours in the car and eight days away from home was try to figure out dinner. So we got home around 6:00pm, unloaded the car and then went over for a dinner of ribs and grilled veggies and salads and good company. It was the perfect way to come home.

The past week has been a combination of relaxing and hard. Relaxing because it is summer and the kids are not yet in camp and I’m not yet working. So we do things at a slower pace. The bed times are later, the mornings stretch out. The afternoons seem infinite.

The hard part is there is currently a general lack of routine. I guess that’s the the flip side of the relaxing pace. The kids take forever to get out the door to anything. The house get messier so much more quickly because we are home all. the. time. It’s easy to to keep a house clean when we’re gone for eight hours a day and then have a routine pick up time. But when we are always home, things get left out or moved around or just generally lived in. And I don’t want to spend all my time picking up or cleaning so things get to be a bit of a pit by 4pm every day. I would rather be doing something other than cleaning. Or doing nothing. We’ve run errands, gone to swim lessons (always running late) and swim team practice (mostly on time), I’ve made dinner every night, I’ve managed to get the 7 year old to practice piano – small things like that. And then also – I’m with kids all. the. time. I haven’t been able to run or write or do any thing that gets me to a flow state, which makes life feel very jagged. And then, there’s the sibling squabbling. The 12 year old and the 7 year old have been home and constantly at each other’s throats.

One day, I asked them, “Why are you guys always fighting?”

To which the 7 year old replies, “Mom, that’s just how we communicate!”

Huh.

I’m having a low level sense of guilt and panic that we haven’t done summer enough. Next week, the 12 year old starts camp this week, and then the week after that I start working on my next show. This past week was essentially our only week to check all the summer fun boxes, and I feel like I didn’t get to a lot. The Smithsonian Folklife Festival was this week, something we usually enjoy doing, but it was so hot and what with our metro station closed, I couldn’t muster the energy to go down to the Mall. There were no trips to amusement parks or water parks or hikes or adventures to find ice cream or camping. This last one makes me wistful the most. There is so. much. pressure. to wring the life out of summer, and realizing that I didn’t do it the past week and will likely not get to it is kind of a bummer. BUT… I remind myself – we did just come back from our trip to Maine, and it has be excruciatingly hot… so maybe laying low and being domestic and chill was the right thing to do this week. And who knows what pockets of time I’ll find between shows in August?

These are all very much first world problems. So some good things, though:
– One day was hideously hot, so I declared we’d abscond to the basement and have a movie afternoon. We watched Night at the Museum, which I’d never seen before. What a fun movie! It felt really indulgent to watch a movie in the middle of the day. But also a perfect way to spend a summer day.
-Boba Tea. I shamelessly bribe the 12 year old to do things with me by promising her boba. Boba tea is my hot weather beverage of choice – oolong tea (sometimes with milk), 25% sugar, boba and lychee jelly. Makes me so happy – to have the 12 year old’s company and a boba tea. Maybe I’m just using her as an excuse to have a boba.
– Watching the kids swim at the swim meet. The two little kids aren’t officially on the swim team, but at the start of every meet, the kids on the pre-team have a kickboard race, where they swim one length with a kickboard and a swim buddy. It’s been fun watching them. And then the 12 year old has been killing it at her meets too, dropping time with each swim. On Sunday, her goggles flipped off when she dove in for her freestyle race, but she still swam like the dickens and came in second. Kind of makes it worth it to stand in the heat for four hours volunteering.


– Reading by the baby pool. The two little kids have been mostly wanting to play in the baby pool these days. We’ll usually go in the big pool for 30 minutes or so, and then they’ll move the the baby pool and spend the rest of their time there. Since I don’t have to go in the baby pool with them, I just sit on the side and read my book. Also – our pool renovated the baby pool this year, so there is a new beach entry at one end, and also bubblers and the kids love it.
-One day we went to the park and I got the 12 year old to go running with me. We only went one mile, and I had to bribe her with listening to an audiobook as we ran – we finished The Comeback – hearts all around. BUT it was still doing a physical activity with the 12 year old. I feel like it’s a win anytime I can get the 12 year old to do something with me..
-Singing showtunes together. One evening, we had a little bit of time before bed, so the kids and I gathered around the piano and sang songs, mostly musicals, also some Bruno Mars (Lest you think I’m hip with pop culture or what not, let me reassure you that up until a week ago, I had no idea who he really was. I heard “You Can Count On Me” while waiting in a store or something and it was catchy so I googled it.) Making music is fun. We should do it more.
-Fruit! There were lychees and Kent Mangos at Hmart this week. I always forget what kind of mangos are my favorite, so I’m writing it here – Kent mangos sweet and firm and not stringy.
-Celebrating a friend’s 90th birthday. He is the father of our former neighbors and the family had a celebration. I’m glad we were invited and went because we don’t see him very much these days.
-Adulting me scheduled (finally) my well woman exam. It had been so long since my last one that I am now considered a new patient. At first, I was told that the next available appointment with my doctor was not until September. SEPTEMBER! but then they found an appointment in two weeks at a mildly inconvenient time for me. But I’m going to make it work. Next stop – need to make appointments for haircut, dentist, and eye exam. Whoa. Okay. One adulting step at a time.

Three mind-blowingly simple solutions: So you know the things that sort of bug you, the pebbles in the shoes that so irk you, but you just kind of live with. Here are three things that were fixed in mind-blowingly simple ways recently:
– Watermelon cutting. One of my favorite things about summer is watermelon season. I grew up with the conventional “cut watermelon into wedges” method. It was simple, and everyone could eat watermelon with their hands. Only, it didn’t made for a neat an easy way to store the cut up watermelon in a container in the fridge – watermelon wedges are very inefficient, space-wise and I could never fit very many slices in the container. So lately, I’ve been just cubing the whole watermelon. I can fit half a watermelon in my largest plastic storage container when they are all cut up. BUT the kids prefer to have it in wedges. They like being able to hold on to a piece and wander around the house eating it and dripping watermelon juice everywhere and leaving watermelon rinds on random surfaces. (This is my least favorite part of watermelon season.) So whenever the kids see me cutting up watermelon, they say, “Don’t cut it all! Can you cut me a triangle piece?” Which is fine, only they also never manage to eat all the way down to the rind on wedges. I think something about the curve makes it hard to get all the pink/red watermelon flesh. Anyhow, irksome casualty of watermelon eating, I guess.
BUT I was at my friends’ house (the friend who made us dinner the night we got home from our Maine trip), and she had cut her watermelon into rectangles with the rind attached:

MIND BLOWN!!!! the rectangles fit neatly in a container, AND they have the rind so kids can eat it with their hands, AND they eat all the way down to the white parts because they can get to it without getting their face dirty. It was amazing. This is my new way of cutting watermelon. Now, I will say, the whole watermelon doesn’t lend itself to being cut into rectangles, so I still cut the flesh away for the rind at those parts and make that fleshy part of the watermelon into cubes and put into a container – which is great because I actually prefer eating watermelon with the rind already disposed of.

– Sleep shorts. I had been sleeping in flannel lounge pants that we had bought in Vermont two summers ago. I love these flannel pants – we actually have matching flannel sleep pants for the family – it’s pretty cute. But it’s now summer and I don’t know if it’s me being mid-40s or what, but it’s been way too hot to sleep in flannel sleep pants. I’ve been hunting around for cotton sleep sets, but it’s so hard to tell online what things are like and most things these days are a cotton blend, which might feel soft, but just makes me feel hotter. Also, so many of the sleep sets have button down tops, and though they look super cute, buttons are a little too much for me to have to deal with late at night when I’m stumbling to bed. So I’ve been just sleeping in flannel pjs and being hot. Also, I do like to sleep with a duvet regardless of temperature – something about burrowing into it is comforting and helps me sleep. So hot me, looking for sleep shorts, feeling overwhelmed and annoyed.
Then I went to Uniqlo to buy some shorts for the 12 year old. (I love that Uniqlo has unisex clothes. Because – pardon the rant – but why are girls’ shorts SO short? My tween certainly does not want to be wearing shorts with a 2″ inseam! Anyhow, I found shorts for her at Uniqlo – the men’s Airism line. They don’t come in cute colours or patterns like they the 2″ ones, but at least this way, she’s comfortable. Plus she doesn’t really care about colours.) Anyhow, I’m at Uniqlo and looking around, and I see a mannequin with these cute striped shorts on, and I take a closer look and they are… men’s boxers! So I go over to the men’s section and look at the boxers – they are 100% cotton (except for the elastic waist) and look exactly like what I want to sleep in. So I buy two pairs – another bonus, they’re men’s clothes so it’s like $15 for two pairs. And BAM! I’ve found the perfect sleep short. They are cool crisp cotton, not clingy jersey cotton, there is a button on the fly, so I don’t have to worry about awkwardly flashing anyone that way. I’m a little surprised that I didn’t think of this before because in my 20s I did wear a boyfriend’s boxers to sleep. But anyhow, another mind-blowingly simple solution for something. And now I’m sleeping much cooler.

I wear a size Men’s large. I’m trying not to let this get to my vanity.

–Speeding Tickets. Third one – this one actually happened a couple of months ago, but it’s kind of stuck in my mind, so here it is. Driving to the theatre, there is one street I have to go down. It’s a residential street and about once a year I get a speeding ticket. ARGH!!! so frustrating. Part of the issue is that the light is out on my dashboard, so I can’t really see the speedometer at night, and I drive a lot at night and the street is pretty dark. So I was trying to do all sorts of awkward things to keep from speeding – driving with the domelight on, counting telephone poles as I drove, etc… Then one day, I was coming down the parkway headed to this speed trap street and for some reason I can’t even remember why now, I just decided to get off the parkway earlier and go home a different way. A way without speed cameras and more light. And after that, I decided to always take that other road home, and you know what… I haven’t gotten anothefr speeding ticket since. I mean how mind-blowingly simple was that? Just go home the way without a speed camera and avoid speeding tickets. It’s embarrassing how long it took me to figure that one out.

Can I tell you a frustrating story from this weekend? I was dropping the 7 year old off at a birthday party, and I was trying to parallel park into one of the only parking spots I could find, but there was a car double parked in front of the free spot. I think they were waiting for a food order. I’m getting better at parallel parking, but doing it next to a double parked car is nigh on impossible for me. At one point, the double parked car saw that I was trying to get into the space and inched forward like a foot, but that was not helpful. (This is where the Husband said I needed to use my horn. I am very horn averse. It just seems loud and aggressive.) So I’m going back and forth and back and forth. I should have given up and moved on, only we were already late to the party and sometimes I get really fixated on things, especially when I think I’m right (this is my spot) and the other person is being an asshole (just freakin’ go around the block while waiting for your food, dumb nuts!). So I’m in a manual car and the parking space is on the slightest of inclines and this is also turning into a noisy attempt as every time I shift into first, I have to give it a lot of gas. It’s been going on a while when I look up and there’s a guy standing next to my car. A very nice looking young man with a helpful expression on his face.
“Ma’am,” he says, “I think your parking brake is on.”
And I just had to laugh. “No, actually,” I told him, “I’m just driving a manual car. But thank you.” While thinking to myself, “Are you even old enough to know how to drive a manual car?”
He immediately looked apologetic and backed off. I tried to give him a friendly wave because I thought it was actually kind of sweet that he wanted to help. Maybe a little mansplain-y, but you could tell he was just trying to do the right thing. It kind of made me hate the world a little less. Except maybe that guy double parked in front of me.

Okay, one more smile from this week – the 4 year old’s class wrote a list of things to know for kids moving up into their classroom. I wonder if our kid wrote the fifth item.

Grateful For:
– The grill. On days when it is too hot to turn on the stove, I can make dinner outside.

-Meeting people from other places. I was a little nervous going to the aforementioned 90th birthday party – we didn’t really know anyone other than the hosts and being a stranger always puts me out of my comfort zone. But the party ended up being really lovely. There were the most fascinating well-travelled guests there – a lot of them expats or people working for the IMF or some such – it seems a very DC kind of thing. And they all had great stories to tell about living in places like Kenya and Ethiopia and Kuala Lumpur. I learned about these Orthodox Christian churches in Ethiopia that were carved out of rocks in the late 12th century, and was given a very brief history of Christianity in Ethiopia. It was fascinating and something I knew nothing about. I heard stories of immigration and about living a first world life in a third world country. It was really inspirational to talk to these people and I’m glad they shared their stories with me. The world has so many adventures to be had.

-Shade at the playground. We’ve been going to the playground in the morning, but it’s been really hot – like 85-90 degrees hot. Thankfully at one playground there is a covered pavilion and at the other playground there are lots of trees, so I can sit in the shade while the kid plays. It’s actually not too bad in the shade -it’s the rays of the hot hot sun that really get to me.

-Thermos and lunchboxes so I can pack healthy dinners for the pool. Also dill pickle chips because those are tasty too.

Looking Forward To:
-Vegetables. We don’t eat enough vegetables when we travel, so I’m really looking forward to some veggie packed meals this week. We went to the farmer’s market this weekend – I had realized that it was silly not to take advantage of summer produce, even though my favorite produce stand is closed, so we found a farmer’s market on Sunday. We came away with greens, zucchini, Japanese (or are they Italian?) eggplants, cucumbers, cauliflower, carrots, and a 1/2 bushel of peaches. I can’t wait to prepare and eat it all.

-My cousins are coming to visit! They will be here for a few days. I think we are just going to do life things. It’s hard to motivate to go downtown to all the museums when our metro stop is closed, but maybe we’ll drive down and I can park at work?

-Devouring this book:

I’m not usually into time travel books or political spy thrillers, and this book is kind of a mash up of those genres. I picked up this book because it promised a love story and was written by a British-Cambodian author, and I’ve been sucked in and reading it every chance I get. I tore through it and then realized that I have only a few more chapters to go, so I slowed down my pace a little so I could draw it out as much as possible as I get to the end.

What We Ate – A lot of dinners at the pool this week. I think I have come up with a formula – a main that is some kind of carb/grain, protein, veggie that can be eaten out of a thermos + crunchy snack food + fruit. It seems to be working pretty well, but it does mean that in order to be at the pool by 5:00pm, I need to start making/prepping dinner at 3:30pm. I don’t know how this is going to work when I go back to work and have a commute…

Sunday: home from Portland, dinner with friends. They made ribs, caprese salad, slaw, grilled veggies, corn, and watermelon (cut into rectangle wedges!)

Monday: Tofu, steamed broccoli, and vermicelli noodles – eaten at the pool. I had some Omsom marinades in the fridge, so I used the Yuzu one for the tofu. I also tried this technique from the Omson website to prepare the tofu. It involves soaking the tofu in hot salted water before pan frying it. The recipe said that it would make for a crispy exterior. I didn’t find that it was that much crispier than my usual method of pressing for hours and the dredging in cornstarch. However, because the moisture isn’t all pressed out of the tofu, it did make for a pillowy soft interior. I’ll definitely try this technique again. Vegan.

Tuesday: Pasta salad – chicken, tomatoes, cucumbers, parmesan cheese, with a dressing made of red wine vinegar, olive oil, dehydrated garlic, oregano. Dinner at the pool. I grilled a big batch of chicken thighs, putting some in the pasta salad and saving some for the next day. I’m super proud I thought to do that.

Wednesday: Chicken, black bean, and corn quesadillas. Dinner at the pool before the swim meet.

Thursday: Gimbap (Korean seaweed and rice rolls, kind of like sushi. Bought from the HMart take out counter), cucumbers with furikake, and blueberries. eaten at the pool.

Thursday: Two part dinner. Part one – dumplings (cooked from frozen) and Berry smoothies (I’ve really gotten into using kefir as the liquid for my smoothies. Also, I caved and have been adding honey to the smoothies – the touch of sweetness does really make them taste better). Eaten at the pool. Part Two: Pizza (Take out) and Glee.

Saturday: Dinner at friend’s 90th birthday party. His daughter, our former neighbor, cooked trays and trays of Ethiopian food. It was so delicious.

Sunday: Grilled cheese sandwiches. Simple Sunday.

Hope you are having a great summer week. Any mind-blowingly simple solutions to share?

Weekly recap + what we ate: decluttering and swimming

Wandering through the meadow

We looked at our calendar and realized that it was going to be one of our only free weekends to take a day trip to Longwood Gardens, so we decided to go on Saturday. The Husband and two littles went to a volunteer garden clean up at the church in the morning and when they came home, we had lunch and then got in the car. We usually go to Longwood Gardens in the morning and spend all day, so this was a bit of an abbreviated trip. I wondered if driving two hours for a couple hours at Longwood would be worth it, and it turns out it was a nice outing. We didn’t go to the conservatory, spending all our time in the outdoor portion of the gardens, and we skipped the treehouses where we usually let the kids play for a bit. But we did walk the meadow path, which is something we don’t always get to do because it is a little on the long side. And we did see the vegetable gardens which is always one of my favorite things. Here is the Rainbow collage from our visit:

One big disappointment was that they have taken out the children’s garden – there used to be a section with a fountain the kids could play in and the gardens were set up with bee themed paths with nooks and crannies to hide in. It was the kind of space that invited a lot of imaginative free play. The Husband talked to a guide and they said that they’re implemented more “interactive” displays for kids – namely little signs with information and prompts for discussion. Which… let’s be honest, I don’t know any kid that is going to say, “Boy, this placard is a lot more fun than these winding maze-paths.” Anyhow, that was kind of a bummer, but even still it was nice to be out in the sunshine and flower and trees and grass. The 12 year old took charge of the two little kids and they wandered down paths together singing show tunes, and when they got tired of that, she would ask for prompts from her siblings and make up songs for them. It’s nice to have moment like that to remember when they are at each other’s throats. We stayed at the gardens for about two and a half hours and then we went home, stopping for BBQ on the way home. It was delicious. All in all, a nice day.

Sunday was Time Trials for the 12 year old’s swim team. I took her to the pool at 7am and then stayed to work as a timer. It was really neat to see her swim and take an interest in her results. She even went up to one of the stroke and turn judges during a quiet moment and asked about the rules and how people most often get disqualified. They weren’t DQing people at time trials, but afterwards, she still went and asked the judge if she would have been DQd so she could learn and work on those things. I think I’m realizing that even though I find parenting a tween really hard, it’s so cool to see her becoming a person and take things on herself. Makes me feel like I just need to trust the process more and talk less.

Butterfly!

To celebrate time trials, I took the 12 year old for a smoothie and we tried a Mangonada – kind of a combination of mango smoothie with mango chunks layered with a swirl of sweet and spicy mixture called chamoy, and topped with a tamarind straw. It was amazing and I’ll have more! The rest of the day was occupied by a long visit from a friend who I hadn’t seen in a while and then simple dinner and bed. All in all a nice weekend.

Post swim meet treat.

The week before was one of my few weeks without kids and without work. One of the big projects was to clean out the guest room. It has become a dumping ground for all the random things without a home or in transition in our lives. I spent a couple hours this week going through the boxes and boxes of kids’ clothes. It’s kind of a chore because they need to be sorted into stuff the little kids can still wear and stuff that no one will ever wear again. Then this latter pile is sorted into age and then girl and boy clothes. And then there are the shoes. So many shoes. I had a phase when I was obsessed with those Keen water shoes and would snatch them up anytime I saw them at consignment sales. It is kind of a problem. I have a pair in practically every size, and then some. Some sizes that are ridiculous because my kid certainly wasn’t walking when her feet were that size. So there are a lot of shoes. Which is kind of funny because we’re kind of shoe minimalists for the kids. They have a pair of running shoes, a pair of Crocs and a pair of rain/snow boots. And also a pair (or two of Keens).

This isn’t the “before” picture- it’s “during” picture, which I think is even more scary. Putting it here for a bit of accountability.

Also – over the years I’ve also amassed a motley assortment of breast pumps. Breast pumps were never covered in my insurance plan (this feature had been grandfathered in after Obamacare passed), so, counter-intuitively, I decided that I would spend lots of my own money on pumps. I had five electric pumps sitting around. Three of them I love, as much as one can love a breast pump – I mean I think there were days when I spent more time with my breast pump than with my family, so there was a kind of begrudgingly familiar relationship there. Two of the pumps were complete pieces of garbage. They weren’t efficient at all and had so many awkward parts. (I mean all pumps have awkward pumps, but these were particularly not streamlined.) Why was I holding on to crappy breast pumps??? What value were they adding to my life?

To backtrack a little, on the day before, my friend and I went to see an afternoon movie. We went to see Babes – a movie about two friends navigating their friendship as they traverse the waters of motherhood. I can’t remember the last time I laughed so much in a movie theatre. The movie was so so so so funny. But also so on point about so many aspects for friendship and parenthood. There is a moment (spoiler alert) where one character encourages the other character to burn her breast pump. Oh my goodness, the triumphant glee with which they destroyed that breast pump brought me so much joy to watch. The next day, thinking back on the movie, I looked at those two crappy pumps sitting in the bottom of a storage bin and I was inspired. Those pumps were annoying as all get out to use – no point in trying to dispose of them in the perfect way. Chunk, toss. Straight into the garbage bag they went. I felt a tiny twinge of regret about throwing out something that was still in working order, but I’ll get over it.

Two of the other pumps, I ended up giving to a friend with a new baby girl. In addition to that friend, I have another friend (the one who came over on Sunday afternoon) expecting a baby in September, so I passed on a bunch of stuff to her too, including cloth diapers, a diaper pail, a baby sling. Why did I have a diaper pail still sitting around? I wasn’t even using it – it was in the attic, collecting dust and nostalgia.

In all honesty I could have just chucked everything into a donation pile and moved it all out of the house, but every time I pulled the clothes out, I got all sentimental, remembering when the outfit was worn. And when I got sentimental, I couldn’t bear to just sweep everything into a trash bag for donation; some of the pieces I wanted to pass along and know that they would get worn again. So I think that this week, between those two friends, I passed along four or five boxes worth of things – also a baby chair that I think I will need to get back because unbeknownst to me, the Husband is actually really attached to it – it cam all the way from Colorado with us when we had our first child. The guest room does not look any better, though, because most of the things I did purge were in bins, so they didn’t leave much visual clutter in the first place. If anything, the guest room looks worse because the things that were in bins are now all over the floor. Oh well, at least I know that progress is being made, even if it doesn’t look like it.

We’ve been swimming a lot this week. My skin smells constantly of chlorine and sunscreen and no amount of scrubbing will get that smell out. I’m really proud of the 4 year old – one day I forgot her swim vest at home, and she still spent an hour and a half in the pool (with time out for adult swim) – she can now touch the bottom in the shallow end. Neither the seven year old nor the 4 year old can swim yet, but they are comfortable paddling around in the 4ft section in their swim vests. We don’t swim much outside of summer, so every year it’s a bit of a surprise to see how the kids fare in the water. (Though there is a new aquatic center opened up near us, so maybe we’ll take advantage of that during the cooler months?). One of my dreams this summer is to get the 7 year old to swim independently. There were definitely 7 year olds swimming at time trials and their flailing perseverance was kind of adorably inspirational to watch.

We’re still trying to find our routine for pool nights. I’ve been trying to pack a big snack/dinner for the two little kids so they can eat at the pool after their swim session. Then I have them shower and change into pjs at the pool so that when we get home they just have to brush teeth and go to bed. The 12 year old either eats at home or eats at the pool. Sometimes both. The “coming home and going straight to bed” hasn’t been exactly working and there have been a lot of late nights. I don’t know if we just muddle through this erratic bedtime for the next five weeks, or if we should try to tweak the routine/schedule. Oh well, there’s only a couple more days of school and then we’re into summer, so maybe the relaxed evenings are what makes summer memories? Although, once camp starts, our mornings will be more hectic because camp starts earlier than school so we will have to be out the door earlier. My takeaway – there is no such thing as routine.

Towards the end of the week the principal called with the results for the four year old’s Early Entrance to Kindergarten assessment and he said that the 4 year old did not meet the criteria for early entrance. Wump wump. When I asked the principal what they thought she needed a little more time on, he said that she was actually above grade level for Math and letter recognition, but some of the reading skills weren’t quite there. Part of me thinks that if my child can already read, then she should be going into 1st grade, not kindergarten. I do wonder if early entrance to Kindergarten is about a child being highly gifted rather than just run of the mill “ready for kindergarten”. Anyhow, the principal said we can appeal the decision to the school district if we want. The first step would be a more in depth meeting with him.

I know I said I wouldn’t push the early entrance issue if the school thought she should wait, but it’s one of those things when faced with the realities, things always shift slightly. I think we will go ahead and meet with the principal and go from there. I think I also am a little concerned that her current pre-K teachers say she will be bored if she has to repeat pre-K so I want to know what can we/the preschool do to challenge her next year and keep her engaged? Or maybe we need to look into private Kindergarten? The whole thing has left me a little deflated because I had been really excited for her to start school next year – she is the most mature of the three kids, she does addition up to 10 on her fingers, she knows all the letter sounds and can write words if you spell them to her – all her teachers say she’s ready. She had even gotten a place in the same French Immersion program as the 7 year old, which meant that I would have two kids in one school. I’ve never had two kids in one school before! The Immersion program is by lottery, so I’m not sure if she’ll get a place the following year. And now it would mean another year of paying for childcare. Gah. All things that are a little bit of a bummer.

Haiku – I’m trying to take up the haiku habit again. It’s watermelon season, one of my favorite reasons for summer. Only watermelons are big, and not everyone in the family likes eating it….

Why did I ever
Buy a whole watermelon
Right before my trip?

Grateful For:
-My friend who came see a weekday matinee with me and the very flexible week at work that allowed her to do so. Is there anything as luxurious as taking in a weekday matinee? The theatre was practically empty and my friend and I ate popcorn for lunch and laughed loudly together. And afterwards we ran errands at Target together. It was kind of the perfect friend day.

-Laughing with my family. Inspired by a mention on Stephany‘s blog, I cued up some Nate Bargatze. Stand up comedy is not something that was ever really on my radar. But I like laughing, so I thought I’d give it a try and pulled up one of his albums the other day while cleaning the kitchen. Oh my did it feel good to laugh. And the 12 year old, who was cleaning alongside me laughed and laughed and laughed the whole time. We’ve had a lot of moody tween lately, so hearing her laugh kind of helped remind me that she can still find delightful things in life. She now wants to listen to stand up all the time – we listened to Jim Gaffigan on the way to Longwood Gardens. I’m discovering a whole new world of entertainment! I don’t always find the content appropriate – I think what was once considered “edgy” is actually kind of sexist/racist/ableist, etc. And body shaming seemed to be a big thing in a lot of the albums. Some of the punching down is uncomfortable, and not in a good way. So yeah, some of it has been a little hit or miss. But when the absurdities of life are brought front and center and I can relate to those absurdities, it’s kind of a hit.

-Music Teachers. We’ve had two music recitals the past few weeks and, let’s be honest, the enthusiasm outweighs the ability in many cases. And yet, it doesn’t matter at all. The teachers are as enthusiastic for the kid who played the 10 second piece as they are for the kid who played the 10 page piece. My kids’ music teachers spend their time day in and day out teaching kids how to make music and never seem to get jaded about what they do.

-Finding my journals. I lamented last week about feeling a little off because I had misplaced my journals. Well I found them! They were under a pile of things next to my desk. Hooray! I haven’t gotten back into the daily habit, but I did make time to jot a few things down every couple of days. It’s a little sad to me how blank May is, but when I look back, I’ll be able to tell that May 2024 was a very busy month, and that’s a kind of record keeping in and of itself.

Looking Forward To:
– Maine! I’ve been listening to podcasts on Acadia National Park to get inspired. Listening to travel podcasts is one of my favorite things to do when I’m getting ready for a trip. I just search my destination and I’ll get a list of podcast episodes that are relevant. I’m excited for hikes and beaches and lobster and seeing friends.

-On that note, there was a list in the New York Times called Read Your Way Through Maine. It’s part of an occasional series where they have an author recommend a reading list tied to a location. (There was one for San Francisco, which inspired some of my reading during spring break.) I love reading books set in places that I’m about to visit, so I’ve borrowed a couple books off the Maine list to read in anticipation of/while in Maine – Landslide is about a women, mother of three teenage boys living in remote Maine, trying to cope when her husband is hospitalized in a fishing accident. Night of the Living Rez is twelve interconnected short stories set in a Native community in Maine.

-Glee! Because swim team practice goes until 7:30pm, we have had to re-think our traditional Friday night pizza and movie. Similar what we do when the 12 year old had Friday night basketball practice, we’ve decided to replace the pizza and movie with pizza and a tv show. During basketball season we watched Galavant, but there was only two seasons of it and we’ve watched it all. We tossed around a couple idea – I had borrowed the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation from the library, and we thought we might introduce the kids to the Star Trek universe, but at the last minute I was in the mood for something a little more light hearted, and we decided to watch Glee. I had watched it off and on when it first came out, but I didn’t really have a television at the time, so I didn’t get to watch all of it. We are only two episodes in and it’s really fun. Some awkward adult content that I’m not quite ready to explain to the 7 and 4 year olds yet – I had forgotten the whole bit about the celibacy club – but they haven’t asked yet. The musical numbers are fun and the performances crackle; I’m enjoying it.

What We ate: We’ve survived our first two weeks of swim team practice. Last week the little kids started practice so it was the first week with us being at the pool from 5:00pm – 8:00pm. Dinner kind of felt all over the place.


Saturday: Leftover pizza and Kate and Leopold. It was my turn to choose the movie and I wanted a nice cozy rom-com. Does anyone else remember this movie? What a charming, sweet, perfect romantic comedy! And oh my gosh Hugh Jackman just glows through the whole movie. I feel like I’ve said it before here, but he’s just so pretty.

Sunday: Grilled chicken and vegetables. My friend’s 11 year old and my 12 year old have the same voice teacher, so Sunday after their recital, we asked if they wanted to come over for dinner. We stopped at the grocery story on the way home to pick up some chicken, my friend made a marinade at home and brought it over, and we had a great little cook out – chicken, vegetables, salad. Also – just as we were firing up the grill, our neighbor, who works at the farmer’s market, brought us four bunches of asparagus, so we tossed two bunches on the fire too. It was the perfect casual summer hang out with friends.

Monday: Vegetarian Tortilla Soup. Mostly this recipe from the NY Times, but I made it in the InstantPot and added black beans because we had some dried black beans that had been in the pantry for way too long and we kind of wanted the space back. I think my favorite part of this soup is that I dumped the last crumbs of a bag of tortilla chips into it to thicken it up (a trick I learned from Dinner Illustrated.) The chips had been sitting in the cupboard for a while and they were pretty stale, but no one ever wants to eat the tiny broken bits – how do you scoop salsa with that? I abhor food waste, so dumping the last dregs of the bag into the suit felt very satisfying. Vegan (we didn’t do the cheese and sour cream topping) . Everyone liked this a lot so I’m bookmarking the recipe.

Tuesday: Curry chickpea wraps. Pool dinner. This is the cool bloggers’ favorite curry chickpea salad, which I wrapped in tortillas along with some lettuce and brought to the pool for dinner. I love a curry anything and I even bought some mango chutney as the recipe called for (and then proceeded to eat a quarter of the chutney straight from the jar with a spoon. Was I hungry? Was it just that tasty?) I added a squeeze of lime juice to the salad to brighten it up a little. The little kids didn’t love this, but they still ate a couple bites. The 12 year old and I found this very tasty. Though she did say, “This would be better if you added chicken.”

Wedesday: Asparagus frittata and salad. Made from the other two bunches of asparagus our neighbor brought us.

Thrusday: PB & J and mac and cheese. I brought PB&J to the pool, along with cucumbers and apple slices. It wasn’t filling enough and the kids had mac n cheese (from the blue box) when they came home. Along with brie and Triscuits. I ate the brie smothered in the mango chutney. It was delicious. This is the kind of dinner pre-kids me would have eaten but also would have thought, “This really isn’t dinner.” But you know what? This is totally dinner. Smashing paradigms here.

Friday: Pizza (take out) and Glee

Saturday: BBQ at Old South Smokehouse on the way home from Longwood Gardens. It was our first time trying this place, even though we drive past it every time we go to Longwood Gardens. It was tasty, but there were no collard greens on the menu. What kind of BBQ place doesn’t have collard greens on the menu? Also – we introduced the children to hush puppies. The 7 year old would not share his.
Also – not for dinner, but in the morning I did make a strawberry rhubarb crisp, based on the Smitten Kitchen recipe. I had tried out a new farm stand in hopes of finding a replacement for the one I used to go to which is not opening this season. This new one was on the pricy side for me, of course it’s in our county, which probably affects the price. At any rate, I bought some rhubarb there and some strawberries, with the plan to make a pie. Well, crisp is so much less effort, so I did that instead. Only the kids ate the strawberries before I could make the crisp, so I ended up making it with supermarket strawberries, which was fine, but caused me a disproportionate amount of consternation. The crisp was yummy.
Also – side note – let’s talk about the price of strawberries. So right now, strawberries are in the $3.99/pound to $4.99/pound range at the supermarket. The strawberries at the farmstand were $7.50/pint. Which in comparison to the supermarket felt really expensive. But then as we were all enjoying the pint that I brought home, I realized I pay $8 for a large boba tea, and this pint of strawberries is more filling and is better for me than my boba. And I can share the strawberries with the family. So really, if I’m thinking of how much I pay for a treat (which, let’s face it, Boba – which is kind of my one indulgence – is definitely a treat.), then $7.50 for a pint of strawberries really isn’t so bad. Sometimes when I’m trying to weigh the cost vs. value of something I need to put it into perspective like that to help me decide if it’s something truly worth my money.

Sunday: Pasta and jarred red sauce, cut up veggies, leftover mushroom rice. Typical Sunday – simple supper and eating down the fridge.