Crazy to me to think that nine years ago, I was 33 weeks pregnant and went in for a routine OB check whereupon they determined that my fluids were low and sent me to the hospital. And three hours later, the OB sliced me open, pulled out a baby, and we were suddenly parents.
And now that 4lb 8 oz baby is a creative, expressive, energetic, empathetic nine year old.
Since we couldn’t have a birthday party, we asked her what she wanted to do, and she said she wanted to watch Star Wars movies all weekend. So that’s what we did. Interspersed with a couple chores and some time running around outside. We didn’t watch every Star Wars movie ever, but we did get through quite a few – Rogue One, Solo, Empire Strikes Back, The Phantom Menace, and The Force Awakens.
At the beginning of the week, there was a call on our landline. Usually we let those go to voicemail, but the caller ID said “MD COVID” so I was pretty sure it wasn’t spam.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hello. This is ___ from the Maryland Health Department. Is this the parent of [Baby’s Name]?”
“Yes, this is.”
“We’re calling to follow up on [baby]’s positive COVID test result….”
**** mental record scratch in my head ****
So that happened.
The lady on the phone was quite nice and very understanding of the fact that one really cannot isolate a 15 month old on their own, so the whole family would be quarantining. I am also somewhat fascinated that they give you a letter for your school or employer that outlines the dates of your quarantine and dates when you can re-test.
Things I’ve googled since talking to the health department: “difference between quarantine and isolating” “quarantine protocol” “CDC COVID quarantine guidelines” “how to sew juggling balls” “building with cardboard techniques”
We are completely mystified since the rest of the family had negative test results. Apparently false positives are very rare, so I’m just assuming that the baby did indeed have COVID. The rest of us have been completely asymptomatic, so there is always a possibility that she did get it from one of us, and then the virus passed out of our system before we got tested. We’ll never know. It is frustratingly mysterious.
In essence, life continues somewhat the same as before, only we don’t go to the playground or on hikes, and we’ve finally had to figure out grocery delivery. Thankfully we also have some friends who went on a grocery run for us to our favorite small grocery store. I’ve had to miss winter walks with my college friend, but we’ve had lengthy phone dates.
I have never been so grateful to have a backyard.
Also very grateful for the new oven.
Other Fun Things this week:
Since life is very much focussed at home, I’ve been doing a lot of baking. After three weeks of uncertainty, my sourdough starter started to bubble and rise again. It had been three weeks of dutifully discarding and feeding with an anemic bubble or two of life to show for it. I was starting to wonder if I had killed my starter. I tried to make some bread with the inert starter around the new year, but the dough did not rise despite 24 hours in the “proof” setting of the oven (another feature of the oven which made me really excited). I had killed my starte once before, and in that case the pink scum on top of the starter left no doubt that the science experiment was done. But this time the scant bubbles I saw every morning of this starter kept hope alive. This week, though, some corner turned, and the starter came to bubbly, frothy life. I baked two batches of bread and fresh baked bread brought us much joy.
Sourdough – before and after!
I’ve been slowly working my way through the Busy Toddler preschool curriculum. It is pretty low key – just 30- 45 minutes of activities a day. Some of the activities are pretty hit or miss in terms of keeping the 3 year old interested. This week, though, tongs and pom poms were surprisingly engaging for both the littles.
Our kitchen window faces east, and it’s getting to the time of year when the morning sky is gorgeous as I make my first cup of tea. Definitely something that falls into the “savor” list:
What We Ate:
Saturday: Pasta and meatballs with Garlic Bread. A dinner request from the (now) nine year old’s birthday weekend. I made turkey meatballs which I then threw into the InstantPot with noodles and tomato sauce. (Love this method for making pasta and meatballs because everything can be made in one pot.)
Sunday: Chipotle. Second dinner request for birthday weekend.
Monday: Tombstone Pizza and Brownies. With cut up carrots. The (now) nine year old’s birthday dinner request. She also made most of it herself.
Tuesday: Roast Salmon and Green Beans with coconut rice. This was really tasty. The salmon was just salt, pepper, olive oil roasted at 400 for 15 mins. The coconut rice was from Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow. Basically you make brown rice and when it’s done you stir in coconut oil and torn up nori pieces. The green beans were from Meera Sodha’s Fresh India cookbook and featured sauteeing the beans in sesame seeds, ginger, garlic and tomatoe paste. It was really good and easy – a high taste to ease of cooking ratio!
Wednesday: Tofu Ground “beef” with noodles and pickled cucumber, radishes and carrots. A riff on the ground pork and rice noodle dish from Dinner Illustrated.
Thursday: Leftover Chili (The last of it)
Friday: Homemade pizza and Bears, the Disney Documentary – beautiful. Also I was really fascinated by the footage during the end credits that showed how the film crews were able to get close to the animals.
For Christmas in 2015, my husband bought me this five year journal. In it, he wrote:
Happy Christmas! I’m giving you this journal on December 25, 2015. I can’t wait to hear abut all the wonderful adventures you’ve had in 2020!
When I started this journal in 2016, we were in Taiwan, our first (and so far only) trip there with the 8 year old, who was then three. As we were were waiting for our flight out of SFO we received news that my grandmother had passed away. The trip became quite a larger family reunion than we could have imagined as all my aunts, uncles and cousins came back to Taiwan for the funeral. It was quite possibly the last time I was together with all my uncles, aunts and cousins on my mother’s side.
I think about where we were then. We were about to experience our third miscarriage in two years, and the idea of a second child, let alone a third, was seeming quite remote. That was the year I got to work on a Ring Cycle, that pinnacle of opera-dom. It was my last year working summer opera.
And here we are, 2020 just having ridden off into the sunset, taking with it times that I couldn’t have imagined, even if I were the type to speculate about the future.
Sitting down with this journal and a cup of hot tea has become a morning ritual whenever I can manage it. Over the years, my writing and pen tips have gotten smaller as I try to cram more and more thoughts onto the lines assigned for that date in that year. (I now use a 0.38 Pentel Energel Pen. Also periodically the Muji 0.3 coloured gel pens, but those tend to bleed, as I found out after an unfortunate incident with the baby and the aforementioned cup of tea.) As I write I like to glance at where we were in life the year before, then two, three, four years before. Often there are striking parallels – like coincidentally meeting up with friends on the same date two years in a row.
I tend to write about the day past, reflecting on what happened. I try to think of the whole day because so often what sticks in one’s mind is how the day ended. There have been many a day that have ended miserably that started wonderfully and I know I can’t let how a day ends define the whole day.
All in all, there are more entries that I thought there would be, even if, some days there is just a hastily scrawled “Tech.” or “Two chorus day”. No further explanation needed.
Even though sometimes there feels like there is a same-ness to life, that life has a certain repetitive rhythm, no two entries over five years are identical. Sometimes I do record an event that is recurring (case in point… “Still no sleep for baby”), but that event is nestled in a whole day that is different from the one before it. Similarly, the usual rehearsal/ tech / performance routine is only repetitive on paper; each show has its own challenges and moments of triumph. And when I look more broadly, at the weeks rather than the days, I realize that even when I feel stuck in an interminable grind, things do change and life does eventually move on to the next thing.
There are also empty entries. My second trimester pregnant with the baby is largely blank, for example. But this in itself is telling- I was horribly tired and working two operas back to back. I don’t need to have written it down to remember how I would steal away to take a nap in my car on breaks between rehearsals. Or how I didn’t tell anyone at work that I was pregnant again, even as I worked a gala in a slinky sequined dress and heels while six months pregnant. This I remember acutely without having written it down (and now, ironically, I’ve recorded here for posterity).
Such big things I do remember – glamourous once in a lifetime galas, births, deaths, family reunions. Also, surprisingly, the ranting venting entries of many frustrations all read surprisingly familiar. At some point in the past five years of looking back on journal entries, I’ve come to realize that I tend to remember how I felt about things more than what I did; the little things that annoy me still tend to annoy me. The rage and anger I felt about certain things have perhaps not been let go as much as I had hoped.
On the other hand, it is the mundane details of my day to day that that I have difficutly recalling and thus am most grateful for having a recorded. For some reason my memory of the daily grind is ephemeral. Looking back at the 183o (+/-) entries documented over five years really brings back for me the smaller moments of life- the long walks, the chilly days, what we ate, friends we saw. Sunshine. Playdates. Paperwork. Library visits. Naps. Snuggles. The banal. It is these things that Emily Webb speaks about in Our Town when she says:
“Do human beings ever realize life while they live it – every, every minute?”
Emily Webb is right. The anger and negativity, while definitely therapeutic to write down, is not what I want to remember. Realizing life I think is in those little moments of joy and security. I recently read a definition of bliss as “a second-by-second joy and gratitude at the gift of being alive and conscious.” (David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King, quoted in Kieran Setiya’s Midlife). I don’t want to be inauthentic about what I write in my journal, but I do think that I need to remember to record the bliss as well as the blech – to balance writing for the moment and writing for my future self.
A couple of months ago, Levenger was having a sale on their five year journals. I scooped up three of them. At the time it seemed quite indulgent. These journals are beautifully made- the paper is smooth, the linen covers are durable, the binding is sturdy- and they are not cheap – though I suppose if you look at cost per entry, they are actually quite affordable. The Levenger sale definitely prompted me to stock up, hoarding them like toilet paper. When they arrived I looked at them – decadently packaged in an elegant silver box and wrapped in a soft cloth. And it struck me that I just purchased something that I intend to use in the year 2035. There is something comforting in that. I can’t predict whether or not my child will sleep tonight, or what the three year old will next have a meltdown about. But, if all goes according to plan, in 2035 I will write something in the last of these three journals that I bought in 2020. Suddenly I feel like I didn’t buy enough. There is a whole other lifetime beyond 2035.
One of my resolutions this year is to go hiking once a month, and once a quarter to go on a new hike. We kicked it off this year by going to Cunningham Falls. While the hike we chose was short in length, it ended up having some challenging rocks to scramble over. The falls themselves were a little more crowded than we were comfortable with, so we just glanced at them and continued on. Definitely looking forward to re-visiting them in more precedented times. As our usual, we brought hot chocolate for the hike. The baby even walked the last half mile while clinging onto the Husband’s hand.
Rocky Climb
Most of the week was pretty low key. The baby had a fever. Normally this is something we would just roll with, but given.. the times… we called the pediatrician and scheduled a telehealth appointment. It was a pretty inconclusive appointment – basically chances were pretty slim that it was COVID related, but there wasn’t a zero chance. But on the other hand, it wasn’t anything that seemed to warrant going to the ER. The pediatrician said if we were quarantining at home, a COVID test was probably not necessary, but if we wanted that information, there was no harm in having one. We decided to get tested. The Husband and the eight year old went to rapid testing and had their results back – negative – by the end of the day. The two little kids were too young for rapid testing so we went to County testing site, which had a five day turn around, though it has taken longer than that for our results.
I have to say, the nasal swab was briefly, yet intensely uncomfortable. There might have been some eye watering on my part. The two littles, on the other hand, nary made a peep. “She is so quiet!” said the man who gave the baby her nasal swab.
So a quiet week.
Until….
On Wednesday, I turned on C-SPAN, and for a moment, I thought I was watching the next season of The Handmaid’s Tale. Then I realized, that the destruction and violence I was seeing was really happening. I feel like I am still, days later, trying to wrap my brain around what is going on. I wonder what people are so afraid of that they would literally destroy the center of American democracy. There are, of course, the lies they are being fed by the megalomaniac who is our President. One can’t discount the power of his words, but at the same time, I wonder what the new administration represents for some people, and why it makes them so fearful and angry. The whole thing makes me incredibly sad and I cannot believe this is what is happening.
Other things this week: – I’m taking this online course called the Science of Well Being (also colloquially known as the Yale Course on Happiness). In it, the professor talks about what research has discovered about what makes us happy. Part of the course are “rewirements” or rather concrete and mindful exercises to help you put the research into practice. So far they include things like: Savoring, Gratitude, Connecting with people, Acts of Kindness, Exercise and Sleep. I realized at the beginning of the year that I need to be a little more purposeful in tracking my attempts at rewirements. So I’ve started a page in my notebook to track and be purposeful. I’ve realized that Acts of Kindness is really hard in these pandemic times… that column has been regrettably pretty empty.
-Speaking of Gratitude: I am really grateful for the people who organize and work at the County COVID Testing Sites. It is free, easy, and outside. The day we went to get tested it was drizzling lightly, and the people working the testing center were out there in their rain gear, doing this work that I think is really important.
-My sourdough starter is not as robust as I expected, but I did get a batch of pancakes out of them. I’ll keep feeding it and hoping for the best. It isn’t skunked or anything, just…. anemic. I did try a recipe for apple and cashew stir fry as a topping for the pancakes and thought it was a great idea. The recipe is from Mark Bittman’s VB6 cookbook, continuing my Bittman kick lately.
Breakfast.
-I’m trying to be more purposeful with my time, especially where the three year old is concerned. He is great at entertaining himself, but he runs feral a little too often. So I’m trying to plan one or two activities for him throughout the day. This week, we made sourdough crackers and did some painting.
-I also attempted to make some Barbie clothes for the eight year old this week. I was hoping that she would be interested in learning how to sew, but she turned out to be more interested in having me do it. Oh well. I managed to make a wrap blouse and a peasant skirt. I’m always surprised when things I sew resemble something – like it’s some weird alchemy that thread and needle and cloth can transform into clothing. I don’t have an affinity for ironing, and I suspect that my projects suffer for that.
Not bad… I mean the sleeve ripped out after a day, but I think I could make another one.
What We Ate – another week without our produce box and eating up/ eating down what we had.
Saturday: Indian Take Out
Sunday: Kabocha Apple soup and 1000 hole crepes. Soup recipe based on this one, but I threw in a russet potato that I had laying around as well. The crepes were something I saw while leafing through old copies of Saveur magazine. Making them involves semolina flour and letting the batter rest for two hours, but all in all they were quite simple to make. The end result was stunning and delicious.
Monday: Mujadara and Morrocan carrots. The carrots were from the cookbook Cooking at the Kasbah, a cookbook featuring Moroccan recipes. We’ve had this cookbook for a while, and while I’ve enjoyed looking at it I’ve been a little intimidated by the recipes. This year, though, I’ve resolved to cook more from the many magazines and cookbooks that are on my shelves, and these carrots were a simple foray into this book. It just involves boiling the carrots in herbs and a touch of sugar (I used honey) until the carrots are glazed and just barely tender. It was a good preparation for some older, slightly bitter carrots that we had sitting around.
Tuesday: Leftover Chili w/ scallion corn muffins
Wednesday: Tofu and collard green with Soba noodles. Eat down the pantry/ fridge meal.
Thursday: Black and Pinto Bean Soup. Simple – saute onion, celery, carrots and then add broth/water, bay leaves and oregano, and about a cup of dried pinto beans. One pintos are soft, add two cans black beans, tablespoon chili powder, and about a teaspoon of chipotle pepper in adobo sauce. (I used a mix of canned and dried beans because that’s what we had in the house). Eat, topped with cilantro, avocado, and sour cream (or in our case yogurt cut with a bit of buttermilk – see above: “what we had in the house”)
Friday: Pizza (take out. I was going to make pizza, but we were out of yeast), and Star Wars. It is the eight year old’s birthday weekend and she has requested to have a Star Wars marathon so this was the first night of what will be a weekend of viewing.
It’s been a pretty low key week. There was no school, but the Husband worked Monday and Tuesday, and then took the rest of the week off. There was lots of Zooming with friends and family, and lots of family tussles as our energy periodically outgrew the confines of the house. I wanted to make sure to spend lots of time outside, too, and we did manage to go outside for a little bit every day, with some more extended outings. Aside from that, we slowly put our lives back together from the explosion of wrapping paper and toys that was Christmas.
One highlight was the book exchange I had organized with my mom’s group for the holidays. Over the weekend we had our book reveal. I’m actually quite proud of myself for putting the whole thing together. I created a survey online for participants to talk about their tastes in books, and then used a website to draw names Secret Santa style and everyone got someone to whom to send a book. There was also an option to have a book sent to your baby if you didn’t want a book for yourself. The online survey was really fun to put together – I based it on the format the Modern Mrs. Darcy uses for her podcast What Should I Read Next: participants list three books they love, one book they hate, what they are reading now and what they want more of in their reading life. (For the record – my responses were: Jane Eyre, The Great Believers, Between the Desert and the Sea// Gone Girl // Disability Visibility and Bless Me, Ultima// I don’t think I filled out the last question…). A couple days after Christmas we had a Zoom call where we revealed what books we received and talked about reading and books and life. I really liked having the time to talk about something not just our kids and hopefully we can make book discussion a regular thing. I’m thinking not a book club per se, because I think having to read a specific book can seem burdensome – but rather a time to gather to talk about what we are reading and swap book suggestions.
Monday I threw some frisbees in the car and took the children to a disc golf course in the next county. I know nothing about disc golf, but it sounded like a fun activity and as the weather was quite warm, it was a good excuse to explore a new place. I didn’t realize that there are actually special sized frisbees for disc golf, and rules and what not. At any rate, the field was so muddy from rain the previous day that after a few muddy tosses – including having to climb inside a tree to retrieve our frisbee – we quickly abandoned our attempts to play, opting instead for the playground across the parking lot. We ended up being at the playground for almost three hours. I had brought hot chocolate – my usual bribe when the kids are reluctant for an outing. There is something that feels so special about sipping piping hot hot chocolate outside on a (mildly) cold day.
This week I also took the baby to her 15 month check up. She growing and thriving. The pediatrician had some concerns about her lack of words and called in a referral for her to be assessed by the County’s Infants and Toddlers program. Honestly I am not too concerned as the other kids were also late talkers. Our second child received services from Infants and Toddlers when he was two years old, after we had declined services at 18 months. The baby understands us, follows directions and seems very capable. We will probably go ahead with the assessment, but I’m on the fence as to whether or not to actually commit to services. It is a bit of a time commitment for something that I’m not terribly worried about.
One day we went for a walk at the Arboretum. I had, surprisingly, only been once before and it was when the azaleas were in bloom. Winter seems hardly peak arboretum season, but there was actually a fascinating array of things to see. We explored the conifer collection – comparing and contrasting the wide variety of evergreens. Much of the collection had been donated from a private collection in New Jersey. It’s funny – when I think of collecting, I think of stamps and knick knacks. I never thought conifers were something a person would collect. But here was a wide swath of land that proved otherwise. Particularly interesting was reading all the tree tags on which it was documented where the tree was from and when it came into the collection. I was particularly struck by the wide variety of cypress trees.
There was also sweeping river vistas to take in, winter camellias lending a shock of color to the surroundings, bare trees reaching their finger like branches to the blue blue skies. These dormant trees, with their buds coiled tightly waiting for warmer weather, deceptively quiet, when really they are busy getting ready for spring. As I wandered among these sleepers, I wondered how they will bloom and unfurl come spring and resolved to come back in a few months to see.
Winter Trees.
An aptly named flower. “Winter’s Rose”
On New Years Eve, we played Ticket to Ride, ate some cake and then watched some tv as we waited for the ball to drop in Times Square. It was the eight year old’s first time playing Ticket to Ride and I hope we get to play some more as I quite enjoy that game. It’s the kind of game where you can be as competitive as you like, but there is also great satisfaction in just building really elegant train routes.
The Husband went to bed before the actual stroke of midnight. Just in time for the baby to wake up. I had been dozing on and off on the couch as the kids watched various tv shows and cartoon. Once the baby was up, though, I roused myself and watched the ball drop with all the kids cuddled on the couch. I know that there wasn’t a large crowd in Times Square as there usually was, but it was actually quite hard to tell how small the gathering was from the twenty minutes that I saw.
Anyhow, the baby rang in the new year by not sleeping, and so did I.
I know a lot of people are happy to see 2020 in their rear view mirrors, but I don’t know if I can dismiss it with similar vehemence. So many people suffered enormous losses this year – of loved ones, of incomes, of homes, of peace of mind- that all the dumpster fires analogies seem inadequate. In comparison, I definitely am so very fortunate that we came through the year with many reminders of how lucky we are. I mean distance learning has been difficult and being unemployed has been tough. I really miss my work and my colleagues. There are days when I just want to scream and scream and scream from the frustration of parenting. I miss having an identity beyond harried suburban mother. I miss libraries and museums. I miss playdates and grown up dinner parties.
But…. -my mom got to stay with us for four months (plus the two months she was with us at the end of 2019). And having that kind of support with the children and getting to hang out with her was such a gift. – the Husband got to work from home. – after an initial snafu, I was able to successfully file for unemployment. I know that a lot of my colleagues had a much harder time getting their government assistance sorted out so I’m glad I had good records and was able to submit the needed paperwork with little difficulty. Then, even after my initial benefits ran out, there was additional emergency assistance that has helped us. Unemployment benefits is in many ways an imperfect system, but I am so grateful for its existence this year. – we saved a ton of money on child care. – we discovered so many great outdoor places. I took the kids hiking by myself and no one fell off a cliff or got eaten by bears. – I read a ton of books. – I started figuring out my sewing machine. It is a rickety ancient machine, but it has been a workhorse, helping me crank out over 200 masks so far. And a pair of lounge pants for the three year old. – Before the world shut down, I was working on a really beautiful opera that I hope we will get to bring to audiences when this is all over. – My mom’s group is managing to stay connected and supportive of each other. – I got to see my friend Kristen every single week almost. And we agree that our 40s are so much better than our 20s or 30s. – I took a drawing class and learned so much about how to see the world and put it on paper. -I started this blog.
Fun things this week:
Fruit from California!
My parents had sent us some oranges from their tree in California. It was supposed to have arrived the week before Christmas, but it finally showed up on New Year’s Eve. I keep reading about how the mail has been quite delayed this holiday season what with an increase volume due to COVID. My hat is off to postal workers everywhere; it can’t have been an easy year let alone to say nothing of December. I had been concerned that the oranges would be a soggy moldy mess, but they were actually in great condition! I’m sure that despite whatever delays there was with the postal service, the mail was being kept in a cool dry place.
It was my birthday this week. Something that I try to forget about, but which those around me like to remind me of. Which probably makes me sound ungrateful, I realize. Maybe it’s the reminder of the inevitability of time marching forward? Anyhow, I used the day as an excuse to bake a cake. I made a Tres Leches cake from a recipe in our parish cookbook. I was initially drawn to the recipe because it called for evaporated milk. We had an incident a while back where instead of buying the sweetened condensed milk that I needed for Key Lime Pie, the Husband kept buying evaporated milk. Like three or four separate times. So we had several cans of it in the basement. Tres Leches cake calls for milk in many forms – and it was quite delicious.
Baking a cake.
We’ve started using the whiteboard function on Zoom to play Pictionary while on video calls. It’s been quite a hit. Sometimes I find it hard to make conversation on video chat – I guess I find it easier to talk to people in person. Pictionary has been fun because it’s an activity that we can all participate in and helps lessen the burden of having to make conversations. Also I like that it allows the kids to draw and play on the screen, but is so much more interactive than them just playing with the filters (which, quite frankly, annoys me).
I had made these door hangers last spring to use while pumping at work. Well we all know how much use I got out of them. So this week, when the Husband relocated his work from home set up to a room with a door, I repurposed on my door hangers for him:
I finally got around to playing Mario Kart, which the Husband purchased as a family present this Christmas. I am somewhat abashed to say that the three year old beat me the first two times I played. Perhaps I have some resolutions to make for 2021 afterall.
Mario Kart and matching pjs- How we spent the Winter Break.
What We Ate: I didn’t really meal plan this week. Plus a snafu with our Hungry Harvest Box led to no box this week. I hadn’t realized how much of my meal plannings was based on what came in our box. So it was a rather scrounge about week.
Saturday: Homemade pizza + The Happiest Season. This was our first attempt at pizza in our new oven. I used both our pizza stone and our baking steel – a luxury of having two ovens. Homemade pizza is so much better than regular store bought! I found some pineapple and anchovies in the fridge and also a can of olives so I threw those on one of the pizzas and was in umami heaven. One of the pizzas I tried to make on the pizza peel and the dough stuck, so I rolled the dough with the toppings into a log and we had a pizza roll instead. It was actually a fortuitous discovery as it made a version of pizza that was very portable and less messy than an open faced version.
Sunday: Smoked Salmon and English Muffins. I used this recipe from the Washington Post for the English muffins. I liked this recipe a little better than the one with sourdough that I had tried last week – these muffins came out with beautiful nooks and crannies, and the whole wheat flour made for a hardy taste.
nooks and crannies.
Monday: Dumplings and brussel sprouts with noodles.
Tuesday: Tofu Banh Mi Bowls. From this recipe, but with baked crumbled tofu instead of ground pork. And soy sauce instead of coconut aminos. Part of my resolve to plane one vegan grain bowl for dinner a week.
Wednesday: Pasta with jarred marinara and garlic bread.
Thursday: Vegetarian Chili and jalapeno cornbread. The Husband cooked. We are trying to eat less red meat and the thought of turkey chili seemed…. not quite what we wanted. So I suggested we ditch the meat altogether and just make a vegetarian chili. The Husband found a recipe that called for black beans, cannellini beans, sweet potatoes and corn. We also had some chili base in the freezer from a previous chili making effort, when we had made too much of the tomato-y part. All in all a good meal to use things up. Though we have a lot left over so maybe there was ultimately zero gain in freezer space.
Friday: Homemade pizza and Cars II (It was the three year old’s turn to pick). I didn’t see much of the movie because I had misread the pizza dough directions and didn’t realize that it needed two rises. So I was still making pizza when the movie started. But on the other hand the pizza turned out well.
Christmas Cinnamon Rolls. Strangely the only picture I took all day.
It’s been a quiet Christmas and Boxing Day here. Lots of sugar was consumed, lots of wrapping paper torn off packages. Many squeals of joy.
The Husband was up early on Christmas morning cleaning up after my late night frenzied tornado of baking. We then had cinnamon rolls for breakfast (as was tradition) and “went” to church. Usually we attend Christmas Eve service, but for some reason the live stream wasn’t working that night so we skipped it and instead went to Christmas morning mass.
All told, it was after 10am when we got to presents. A lesson in patience for the children, I suppose.
The Husband had, the day before, brought up his work monitor to the dining room so that we could watch the Met’s opera stream while we decorated cookies and did our general Christmas Eve puttering. It was the Bartlett Sher production of The Barber of Seville starring Isobel Leonard, Lawrence Brownlee and Christopher Maltman. It was delightful and funny and heartfelt. I once heard someone say that Isobel Leonard seems physically incapable of “ugly singing face” – you know that thing when opera singers contort their faces to make the more heavenly/ awesome/ glorious sounds. Anyhow, I mentioned that to the Husband and he spent much of the afternoon watching her to see if it was true. It was. She is as constantly radiant of face as she is of voice.
One of my late night discoveries while baking was BBC Sounds and the wide variety of music mixes they have. I discovered mix named “A Peaceful Christmas” that combined calming new age-y music with a reading of Shackleton’s 1902 Expedition Diary and the Shipping Forecast. It was kind of the Husband’s catnip and I couldn’t wait to introduce him to it. We listened to it twice in one day. The Husband even put up a screen saver of snow falling on a cabin in the woods and on another screen, a fire in a fireplace, just to get us in the appropriate hunkering winter mood.
After presents we had some family Zoom followed by the kids playing with their new presents then I got to work cooking dinner. The Husband and kids played Mario Kart and had a great time.
Christmas Day menu: -Charred Brussel Sprout Salad from How to Cook Everything Fast (again!). This was yet another recipe that took advantage of the broiler for quick cooking. -Roasted Carrots (primarily for the baby, but the kids like these too – super simple: salt, pepper, olive oil and roast at 425 for about 15-20 mins) – cut up raw carrots (some people don’t like cooked carrots) -Stuffed pork roast. This was from Saveur magazine. It called for stuffing with pork with dried fruit and apples which had been marinated in bourbon and citrus zest. I might have let the fruit sit in the bourbon for a might too long because the filling definitely tasted more boozy than I had anticipated. Oops. – no specific dessert, but the house is overflowing with cookies and candy – there is not shortage of sugar.
The pork was slightly overcooked, but I was pretty happy with the meal overall. I do want to try the pork roast again. It was my first attempt butterflying and stuffing a roast and I didn’t get it as tightly rolled as I wanted to. But being able to broil in one oven and roast in the other felt pretty awesome.
After dinner we went on a walk to see the lights in our neighborhood. It being dark, we attached some battery operated Halloween lights to the stroller, and it turned out to be both practical and festive.
“You should keep the lights on that stroller even after Christmas!” a fellow neighbor out on an evening constitutional told us.
There were some really fun light displays to see. Since we go out rarely in the evenings these days, I hadn’t realized how many people put lights up this year. I would be happy to make the post Christmas dinner light constitutional a new tradition.
We capped the day off with watching Meet me in St. Louis while drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows. Truth to tell, I may have fallen asleep after “Ding Ding Ding Went the Trolley” and woken up just in time for “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”
Christmas often feels like the true end of the year. There is so much leading up to it – excitement, anticipation, planning… it is An EVENT. Kind of like opening night. The message of Advent being a season of active waiting came up frequently in church this year, and I took it to heart more so than in past years. Something about the limbo of pandemic living really made that message resonate. So we have this season where we wait for something. And then it arrives in a flurry of activity and emotion.
Then we get up the next day and still have a week more to get through until we get to turn the fresh page of the new year. That week feels somewhat anticlimactic. Perhaps because I very rarely work that entire week, I like to think of the week between Christmas and New Years as kind of a bonus week – a time to gather and reflect and organize for the next year. Of course New Years as new beginnings is somewhat arbitrary, despite being convenient. New resolutions and re-assessments and soul searching can (and should) happen as needed, I think.
But even as I peer into the murky future, I reflect on the past – a post mortem of the season, say. To do better: start the cinnamon buns Christmas Eve afternoon and go to bed earlier. More cookie drops to friends. More time outside. And there were for sure things this Christmas that I hope we carry to next year. The neighborhood walk to see lights, new matching pjs, lots of hot chocolate. Thank you pictures texted immediately (with accompanying flood of emojis chosen by the kids). Dumplings on Boxing Day. BBC Sounds Music Mixes. Time with family.
The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to Longwood Gardens. We didn’t stay late enough to see the gardens ablaze with lights, but we still got plenty of festive holiday experience. There were poinsettias and Christmas trees and toy trains and fire pits. The weather was pretty mild and the skies were blue.
Aisles of Christmas.
On the way back from Longwood, we listened to the audiobook version of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, narrated by Elaine Stritch. Oh my goodness was it funny! The eight year old cackled with delight all the way home. We agreed that listening to it should be a Christmas tradition.
We finished putting up Christmas lights. I had convinced the Husband to get one of those image projectors for the house. I figured when calculated per square foot, a projector was the most cost efficient way to add some holiday cheer to our house.
“And this one,” I said, “comes with two Halloween slides too! So we get two holidays for the price of one!”
There was also a great debate about white lights or coloured lights. The compromise we came to was coloured lights before Christmas and white lights after.
Coloured lights at dusk.
There was quite a bit of rain the following week. In keeping with my determined plan to have outdoor time, I put on rain boots and my windbreaker and took the three year old and the baby outside. It’s actually no struggle to take the three year old out because he loves rainy walks. We didn’t go to the park, but walked around our block, finding plenty to explore. A good fifteen minutes was spent watching a work crawl across the sidewalk.
Rainy day reflection
The rain tends to collect at the end of our cul de sac and we went down there to find puddles. Not only did we find puddles, we also found mud. Mud pies and dams were made. The mess makes me a little nuts, but the kids really loved it. I have to remind myself that it’s just mud. On the bright side, I managed to get them into the bath when we got back in the house.
Muddy play.
Now that drawing class is over, I’ve been back at sewing masks for our church maks ministry. As I sew, I get some good listening in and this week I listened to a beautifully candid interview on Fresh Air with David Chang, the chef behind Momofuku. I always find it fascinating to hear chefs talk about food on a every day level. There is something that can be so rarified about food, but at the basic level, food’s main purpose is pretty simple; we eat to nourish and sustain ourselves physically. When Chang talked about food, I really got the sense that food can be amazing and accessible at the same time.
During the interview he also talked a lot about growing up as the son of immigrants, and about the almost manic culture of hard work that is familiar, I think, to many children of immigrants. He made the point that work is the last socially acceptable addiction, and that has really stuck with me – this idea that work can be so all consuming that it can be detrimental. But at the same time we life in a culture where our jobs define us and how we live. It’s something I’ve been thinking about as these days of unemployment stretch out.
Fun things:
My parents sent some mandarin oranges from their garden. They were a tasty as they were pretty:
Still life.
The baby started signing “milk” and “more”. I had considered weaning, but now that she’s actually signing to nurse, my resolve is softening.
Sometimes I forget what an architecturally beautiful city I live in. (Or rather adjacent to):
What We Ate:
Saturday: Can’t remember. Probably leftovers after we got back from Longwood Gardens. Or maybe takeout?
Thursday: Sushi rolls with Tuna. This was kind of a failure. I made it before taking the eight year old to dance class, and before I took off to for my weekly walking date with my friend. The food was all luke warm and mushy by the time the Husband came home with the kids from the dance class pick up. He called it the “worst meal ever”.
Friday: Pizza and the eight year old’s (virtual) piano recital. I’m sure there was some Stinky and Dirty in there as well since it was the 3 year old’s turn to pick the movie. Oh, and we watched half an hour of the Rockette’s Christmas special.
Pie research! That’s Cook’s Illustrated, Tartine, How To Cook Everything, Better Homes and Gardens, and King Arthur Flour Baking Companion
So much to catch up on! I had a little glitch with the website, so didn’t get to post for a while. But hopefully it’s all good now.
A while ago, we watched with much admiration as our six year old neighbor mowed the lawn while his father looked on. His father was pretty hands off, only stepping in a few times when the terrain was challenging.
Inspired by this, the Husband decided that the eight year old could also learn to mow the lawn. I’m so proud of both of them.
Daddy teaching daughter life skills.
This week it seemed like we turned the corner of the season. After a fall of activities and random days off, we are about to enter December with -gasp- full weeks of school. It kind of feels like we have to rediscover a rhythm and routine for making full time school manageable again. These days, a lot of my schedule does revolve around the eight year old’s schedule because I want to be around for her while she is in class. Also with my drawing class over, the next seem a little blank with potential. It’s not quite a carte blanche because there are still bills to pay and the holidays to prepare for, so I guess it’s just a matter of figuring how these things will fill those currently blank calendar pages.
With three half days of school and pretty mild weather, we did make a point of several extended outdoor sessions. Tuesday we put our masks on and went to one of our favorite county playgrounds. They have giant slides and a sandbox with those digging machines. The three year old spent most of his time on the diggers while the eight year old played Zombie Apocalypse with some other kids she met there. The baby has discovered slides and she can go down them by herself. She determinedly climbs up the steps to the top of the slide, sits downs, then turns around so she is laying on her stomach, feet first. She then zooms to down, a joyful grin lighting up her face as she goes. Then she does it all over again.
Thanksgiving was different this year. We usually stay in town but celebrate with friends, and sometimes family if they are here. Last year my brother and sister-in-law and her parents were here. It was a wonerful combination of touristy adventures and homey family time. I usually make several dishes- usually a pie, a veggie, and a bread something. This year we spent the day by ourselves, and our oven is still broken, so it was a lot more low key than years past.
We did have a Zoom call with family – it was my brother’s birthday!- and it was nice to see my sister-in-law’s parents as well as my parents and my brother’s family.
Things we still did:
-Watched the Macy’s day parade. It definitely wasn’t the same, but kudos to the people working on it, making all the various segments come together so seamlessly. Ultimately it was the stuff that we remember as tv watchers- floats, balloons, musical numbers, friendly banter, Christmas ads.
-watched football while snacking
-baked a pie. I made a pumpkin pie. Every year I choose a recipe and then forget which one I used so then I can’t recreate it and am sent scouring the cookbooks to try to remember. So for the record- this year I made the recipe from Tartine with two egg yolks instead of one and fresh ginger. Also used rum instead of brandy because that was what we had, but I might skip the alcohol next time. But the texture of the custard was perfect. Pie crust from KAF baking book.
-squirts Reddi-Wip in our mouths. Very important tradition. The baby was initiated into this tradition this year. She definitely enjoyed it.
Tradition!
Friday we started putting up Christmas lights around the house. We have never really put up Christmas lights but the eight year old always asks and we thought this year… why not? We didn’t quite get finished, but we did get a good start.
Some other fun and cozy things this week:
pomegranate seeds in my yogurt.
– We got a pomegranate in our produce box this week. There is something so fascinatingly beautiful about the pomegranate experience – the deep red exterior, the jeweled interior, the care and work it takes to extract the pips even feels like an art. I feel like I’m still finding the ideal way to extract the seeds where I don’t make a mess or have to pick through tiny membrane fragments. But also – maybe this careful persistence is part of the pomegranate experience?
Baby and Blanket keeps me warm.
– Last year, I decided to finally learn how to knit. All the kids have hand made blankets that are much treasured, so I had decided to make one for the (about to be born) baby. I have long been a crocheter, but I wanted to learn to knit too. So I asked my friends for advice, looked at a bunch of online tutorials, bought some circular needles, went through my yarn stash and got started. And I did it! I somehow managed to figure out how to knit. By which I mean I just make rows and rows of plain knit stitch – often while sitting in front of the tv in the evenings, or on road trips (when we used to take those). I started almost a year and half ago, and the blanket just keeps growing. Having chosen a rather open ended pattern, I’m not quite sure when it will feel long enough or finished. But it’s gotten to the point that it’s become quite a cozy project as the blanket is now big enough to cover my legs as I work on it. It is full of imperfections, small gaps and uneven stitches – a first effort if ever there was one, for sure.
-The baby will now reach for my hand when we go for walks. This small, almost unconscious gesture of trust and attachment, the combination of her independent mobility and her need for closeness – it slays me sometimes.
What we ate:
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Shakshuka in the Instant Pot. I love Shakshuka, but haven’t been able to find a great recipe yet. Most recipes I find come out a little too tomatoe-y, and not the complex savory experience I’ve had in restaurants.
Monday: Banh mi Bowls, but with noodles rather than rice, and I did make some quick pickled veggies to go with it (carrots, cucumbers radishes splashed in rice wine vinegar and a sprinkle of salt and sugar). This recipe was shared with me by a friend as a way to use up some coconut aminos that I’ve had in my pantry for years. The bottle was left me by a friend who came into town for a gig as part of her “end of job” pantry pass along. When gigging one often has lots of random kitchen ingredients leftover when it’s time to go home, and it’s kind of a custom to leave a bag of stuff with colleagues who are local. I love this kind of thing – it has introduced me to many new ingredients. At any rate – these bowls were delicious and we are adding it to our rotation.
Tuesday: Farro Bowls w/ green beans and cannellini beans. Adapted from Dinner Illustrated.
Wednesday: Salmon tacos.
Thursday: root vegetable gratin and grilled chicken. Cranberry sauce, which the eight year old helped to make. Pumpkin pie for dessert.
Cranberry sauce chef.
Friday: Pizza and Opera Lafayette’s production of The Blacksmith, streamed online. Opera Lafayette is an opera company that performs baroque opera – I did a gig with them in 2019 and I adore them. It is a company of talented, kind, and resourceful people, and all of these traits were evident in this outdoor production of Philidor’s opera comique. Baroque opera is my catnip, but when you combine it with traditional tunes and a Wild West setting, the whole thing was irresistible. The way that the musicians performed baroque music with a traditional American twang and that they presented American songs with the elegance of Baroque music was brilliant. It really makes one realize how varied yet alike different musical genres are.
I’m really glad we got a picture of the tree at our old house last week. This week when we went over, the tree had dropped its leaves and the branches were sparse. We spent Saturday afternoon washing windows and raking leaves. The eight year old got to use the leaf blower – which was hilarious to see, but also really made me feel proud of her.
This week was the first week all month that the eight year old had a full week of school. So no big adventures this week, but rather five days of slog and small moments. Small moments such as:
– Lunch breaks at the playground in 60 degree weather. – The baby figuring out so many things: waving, taking her dirty dish to the sink, putting dirty napkins into the laundry bin, putting her shoes away. getting her shoes out of the bin when she wants to go outside. – Zoom chat with moms from my mom’s group. Almost all our babies are now one, and I’m really glad for such a supportive group of women. -Standing date with my friend/roommate from college. Realizing that we’re so much better at life than we were in our 20s and 30s. Being able to laugh over things like period products.
Conversation I had with the Husband at 2pm on a Sunday: me: Why does it feel like it’s 4:00 in the afternoon? Husband: Because it’s dark outside. That’s what happens in the fall. You’re usually in a theatre this time of year so you don’t know that this happens. me: !
Which speaking of which – I found out this year that the shows I had scheduled for late spring have now been cancelled. So I haven’t any glimmer of stage management work for at least the next year or so. It’s a tough blow, but I also feel so lucky that it isn’t as devastating for me as it is for so many of my colleagues. Staying home with the kids full time is not really what I’m suited for, but it is also somewhat of a luxury.
Final drawing project.
This was the last week of drawing class. We were given carte blanche for our final project. I chose to draw the Husband’s childhood home. Three years ago, when his parents passed away, he sold the house. I took a picture of it, thinking that one day I would find an artist on Etsy to make a drawing of it as a present for the Husband. Instead, last week I decided to tackle a picture of the house myself. I was inspired by another student’s hatch and cross hatch project. She was the only one do do that assignment in ink and I loved how detailed and crisp her picture was. I wanted to do something in the same vein.
There is always a point in every project that I did for this class when I realized that I’ve perhaps chosen a subject that is a tad ambitious and I feel in over my head. But then I just keep plugging away and somehow, magically, the lines coalesce into something recognizable.
With this picture, it was the roof. I knew that drawing every tile was probably the best way to go, but doing something that detailed seemed so daunting at first. But I just turned up the show tunes and kept plugging away, one row at a time, and it somehow turned out okay. I’m going to miss the weekly drawing assignment, even though it definitely took up a large chunk of my evenings. I’ll be looking for new evening projects – I do have some mask making to catch up on, and I did promise the Husband to make him a pair of lounge pants. And more writing. And reading. And finishing the blanket that I started for the baby last year. And that programming course I signed up for. And also the Science of Well being course. I guess there is no shortage of projects.
Surprise discovery of the week: One day, in a fit of cleaning, I decided to clean out behind the fish tank cabinet. It was a mess of small pieces of toys and puzzles. I fished around blindly behind the cabinet, clearing stuff out, then my hand came across something hard and dry and stuck to the floor. I picked it free and it turned out to be… a dead fish. There was no small amount of screaming. The Husband’s theory is that the fish managed to jump out of the fish tank at some point while the lid was open. Poor, sad fish.
A more pleasant surprise discovery, however:
surprise pumpkin.
We discovered this pumpkin, growing in the garden. The Husband stays that it is a volunteer – maybe planted by an animal who ate last year’s jack 0’lantern off our porch and then naturally deposited the seed in our garden.
This week’s simple pleasure: Toast with butter. Something about the crispy exterior and chewy interior of perfectly toasted bread, slathered with creamy, salty butter – perfect for autumn mornings. Or afternoons. Or really any time.
What We Ate:
Saturday: Hmmmm…. I can’t seem to remember. I think it was something out of the pantry because we didn’t get to the grocery store that day.
Sunday: Poblano and sweet potato tacos from Dinner Illustrated. Our oven is still broken, so I made these partly in the toaster oven and partly in a skillet. The eight year old made the guacamole.
Monday: Stuffed pepper skillet. Basically everything I would put into a stuffed pepper (ground turkey, rice, tomatoes, cheese) but in a skillet with peppers cut up rather than than used as a vessel for the filling. I also threw in mushrooms and turnips.
Tuesday: The Husband cooked. He made mac n cheese from scratch and coleslaw. The kids loved the coleslaw.
Wednesday: Wings, Fries and leftovers. Not what I had planned, but we had a last minute change in plans which involved picking up wings and fries from one of our favorite pubs.
Thursday: Chicken farro soup in the InstantPot. Sort of made this one up. Carrots, celery, onions, garlic sauteed in the InstantPot, then add chicken broth, a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and bone-in chicken thighs.
Friday: Pizza and The Gardener. The Husband was in the mood for something gentle at the end of the week, and this documentary fit the bill. It tells about the creation of Les Jardins de Quatre Vents in Quebec. The children were (surprisingly) fascinated by the lush vistas and garden scenes. There was a part of me that kept wondering about the wealth and privilege that brought about such a landscaping feat.
The ups and downs of kite flying. A metaphor for the week?
It’s been a week. I feel a little cynical whenever people call say, “This is an historic election.” or “This is an important election.” or something similarly dramatic. Because isn’t every election historic? And important? But there was definitely a confluence of things that made this election season feel not the same old same old.
Saturday was Halloween. We started the day by going on a hike with my friend Kristen. I bribed the kids with hot chocolate, which I put in a vintage Thermopot that the Husband’s parents had had in their basement, and we drank after the hike.
Given the COVID situations, we did not go out trick or treating that evening, but I felt like the day still needed some commemoration. So we strung up the candy corn lights and put out the jack o lantern. The eight year old had this game changing idea to put battery operated string lights inside the Jack o lantern. Brilliant! I didn’t have to try to light the tea candles or worry about things catching on fire. And the lights were purple, which gave a really cool glow.
Despite having made costumes for the kids, they did not put them on. Instead, we tried out our fire pit (smoky, not as warm as I thought it would be.) We put a bowl of candy out on the porch, but I think the only person who took a piece was the mail carrier, who was strangely delivering mail at 7:30pm. Mail slow down indeed.
Day after Halloween costumes.
The weather was beautiful all week. Monday was warm yet windy. We took advantage of the 8 year old’s 90 minute lunch break to fly a kite at the nearby park. This is that park that was under construction these past few months and when we went to check out the diggers on Monday morning, it was complete! The orange fencing was taken down and it was ready for play. The lunch break trip to the park might become a more regular part of our routine.
The double swing in action! I think you are actually supposed to stand on the swing on the right.
The eight year old had Tuesday and Wednesday off school. Election Day is typically a day off for them, and Wednesday was an added planning day for the teachers. I had joked that I should have taken them to a cabin in the woods and gone into a media blackout until things shook out. Instead, I took them hiking in the Shenandoahs.
If I thought too much about it, taking three young children hiking my myself was probably ambitious.
“Just don’t let anyone fall off a cliff,” The Husband said.
I packed sandwiches (peanut butter and jam and peanut butter and bananas) and lots of snacks and water. A couple diapers, a change of clothes for the two younger kids. And oh, yes, a thermos of hot chocolate. Which seems to be the bribe of the moment. I found the eight year old’s camera that morning, quickly charged the battery, and gave it to her to capture what she wanted.
It took about two hours to get to the Shenandoahs. We stopped at a picnic area for lunch and then headed to Stony Man Trail. With the baby in the hiking carrier, and the three year old carrying the backpack of snacks, we headed up the mountain.
It was a relatively moderate hike, and the view at the top was spectacular, though a little scary. I definitely had visions of the Husband saying to me, “I told you not to let anyone fall of a cliff.” At the top, we had our hot chocolate, still steaming as we poured it from the thermos. It was a very good bribe.
View from the top.
I was really fascinated during our hike of all the scrappy and resourceful ways things manage to grow. These trees, for example – they thrive in, what to my eyes, is an unusual way. But perhaps it isn’t that unusual, when things are left to their own devices.
Upon our return Tuesday night we stayed up to watch the election returns. I remember doing the same thing four years ago, and going to bed feeling so defeated after Pennsylvania was called for Trump. We let the kids stay up until about 10:00p. There is a fine line between watching election results as civic education and watching election results as entertainment. With the flashy maps and graphics and fast talking commentators, the kids were certainly riveted.
As much of a nail biter as the election was four years ago, it was even more so this year. There was a certain nerve-wracking tedium to the slow trickle of election returns. At a certain point in the evening we started watching the Law and Order marathon on WE. I went to bed around 1am, with several states still counting.
The counting went on all week. It definitely dominated the news cycle. To think that the answer to “Who will be the President?” was out there in these millions of slips of paper that people were counting. I feel kind of inspired to look into being a poll worker for the next election.
This week in art class, we work on stipple technique. When she was explaining the technique to us, the instructor said that it was a somewhat time-consuming technique and to make sure to plan our time well to finish the assignment. It was indeed time-consuming, and truth to tell, somewhat tedious. But at the same time you couldn’t let your mind wander or you would over stipple and, since this was a project in pen, mistakes were irrevocable. You can see evidence of that in the toe of the boot on the left.
Stippled boots.
The assignment was to draw a pair of shoes. I loved seeing the variety of shoes that people drew. I ended up quite liking this assignment. It was mentally challenging and visually interesting. I definitely wanted to try it again.
Baby milestones this week: She started waving. So adorable. She also started wearing shoes this week. They are the same shoes her brother wore when he started walking!
Baby steps!
Other pretty things: This week in the preschool curriculum that I’m loosely doing with the three year old, we are learning about mixing colours. One of the activities combines mixing colours with practicing pouring skills. The three year old loved this activity and it kept him busy for at least half an hour. LUckily the weather was gorgeous enough to do this activity outside. And I thought it was rather pretty too!
What We Ate: The Husband offered to cook this week! I still did Sunday, but he did all the rest.
Saturday: Sausage sandwiches
Sunday: Salmon burgers from Dinner Illustrated. I think we ate these with cut up veggies.
Monday: I can’t for the life of me remember….
Tuesday: Breakfast Sandwiches.
Wednesday: Carnitas and Nachos.
Thursday: Butternut squash soup, salad and chicken sausages.
Friday: Pizza and Oliver and Company. Cute movie. Innocuous and short. It was the three year old’s turn to choose. Usually he chooses to watch The Stinky and Dirty show unless we intervene suggestively. Which we did this time. I’ve been borrowing movies from the library and it’s been working pretty well.
I feel like this picture of my hand pretty much sums up a lot of my week.
First, there is the burn mark from where I splattered hot roux on my hand while making gumbo. That hurt like a motherf-cker. I now understand why boiling oil was used as a lethal weapon during medieval times. It could absolutely be a lethal weapon in current times. Despite the fact that every single gumbo recipe I read had some variation of the phrase, “Be careful not to let the roux splatter….” I still managed to do it.
Then there is the streak of pink nail polish from the late night when, as I was reaching for my toothbrush, I knocked a jar of nail polish on the floor, shattering it and splattering pink nail polish across our white bathroom tile. You know that horrific feeling you have when you look at a mess and realize how un-clean-up-able it is? Yeah that. I managed to find a jar of nail polish remover and got most of it off the tile. It is still imbedded in the grout, however. And I’m sure inhaling nail polish remover at 2am did wonders for me.
Then there is the general ugliness of an eczema flare up. I’ve had eczema on my hand since just after my oldest was born. When I went to the dermatologist about it he said, “Well, my suggestions would be to get a platinum wedding band and also to stop doing the dishes.” While I could totally get behind those two suggestions, I thought they were a little impractical. I stopped wearing my wedding ring and started wearing gloves to wash the dishes instead. Anyhow, the eczema tends to rear it’s head with the slightest provocation; stress, hormones, diet… Who know why, but it’s been particularly bad lately.
Which is all to say my right hand is kind of a mess right now.
Other things this week… We took family photos. Lessons learned this time around: 1) It’s all about the accessories. I think I tried on everything in my closet, but couldn’t decide what to wear. I finally settled on a very uninteresting grey dress and was decidedly lukewarm about it. This was about half an hour before I had to leave. But I decided that blah was better than nothing. But as I was getting my shoes on, I remembered – I love hats. So I put one on and then added a scarf and suddenly I loved my outfit. Hooray! 2) No one will wear what you want them to wear. And it doesn’t matter. I spent so much time trying to pick the perfectly coordinated a but not too matchy outfits for a cool fall afternoon. And then it was 78 degrees. And the eight year old decided that she didn’t want to wear the original dress because she wanted to save it for Halloween. And the three year old wanted to wear his pink panda crocs. The baby didn’t fit the original dress I picked and did fit in a cute outfit that didn’t go with my carefully curated colour scheme. Agh! Next time I’ll save my mental energy and it can be a free for all. 3) Take the picture of the kids first. We left the group picture of the kids for last, and by then the baby was losing her shit. I’m pretty sure in all the pictures she is either eating a goldfish cracker or bawling her eyes out. Next time, I think we’ll make sure to do the kids pictures first. Maybe even start earlier in the afternoon and have the Husband come later.
An excercise in value
This week in drawing class we worked on value. That is to say lightness, darkenss, and shadows. I feel like charcoal makes every drawing look better. This assignment really challenged me to to look at light and dark as not stark opposites, but rather as gentle gradations leading to each other. I’m used to thinking shadows are dark, but really they often aren’t the darkest things in an image.
I call this one “Still life with child” – note the three year old’s contribution over on the right.
Lately while working on my drawing assignments, I’ve been listening to Elaine Paige On Sunday. It’s a radio show about musical theatre hosted by one of the super stars of musical theatre. There is something beautifully unironic about musical theatre – the bold wearing of one’s heart on one’s shoulder is probably considered unfashionable these days. Having big feeling is no longer cool, it seems. Any how, I’ve been loving listening to this radio show, even periodically singing along. I’d forgotten how many wonderful, clever, powerful, heartfelt songs are out there. I’m also enjoying hearing what is current in the musical theatre world. I’m (shockingly!) unfamiliar with Hamilton, but I think perhaps I will put it on my “to listen” list.
Another fun thing – One day the Husband and I went to the appliance store to look at ranges. The trip was shorter than anticipated because the store we went to had only one double oven on display and it wasn’t one that we were interested in. So here we were with some unexpected free time. “Let’s go get milkshakes,” one of us suggested. “And fries?” “And fries.”
So we got milkshakes and fries from Five Guys and went to sit at the park. Salty hot fries dipped in sweet, thick milkshakes is one of my favorite food indulgences.
After we finished our shakes and fries, the kids went to play on the playground. I put the baby in a swing, which she loved with all her baby joy. Then the three year old came over and wanted on the swing. But there was not bucket swing available. So I put him on the regular swing and gave him a push. Then, I said to him, “I’m going to teach you something. When you go forward put your legs out. When you go backwards, bring your legs in.”
And he got it! He started pumping his strong sturdy little three year old legs! I nothing else, I have given him this one little life skill.
swinging on his own.
This week’s to do list: -pay the bills -vote.
What We Ate:
Saturday: Gumbo. The cause of the hand mishap. I actually made this on Friday so that the gumbo would have a chance to sit and improve overnight. This was my first attempt – I was trying to find recipes to use up some peppers and celery and I’ve always enjoyed gumbo at restaurants, so I thought I’d give it a try. Aside from the scalding roux, it was very straight forward to make, and ended up being quite tasty. Not sure if it was authentic at all, but I feel like one shouldn’t let what food should be get in the way of what it is.
Sunday: Cauliflower tacos with homemade tortillas! From Dinner Illustrated. I didn’t have mango, so I made the slaw with apples instead. I think cabbage slaw is one of my pandemic discoveries.
Monday: The Husband cooked. He made Greek green beans, pork, and udon noodles.
Tuesday: Eggplant noodle salad. From the Greens cookbook.
Wednesday: Dumplings and leftovers. We had tried to get wings, thinking that would be a quick simple meal for post photo shoot, but then the wings placed turned out to be closed. So we punted, went home and had dumplings from the freezer and left over noodle salad.
Thursday: Take out banh mi sandwiches. Second attempt at wings, but they were closed again. Bummer.
Friday: Pizza and move – Troop Zero. Movie about a group of scrappy kids who form a girl scout like troop. Full of great performances of quirky, heartfelt characters.
