The weekend arrived… plink plink plink. The sound of freezing rain. It covered everything in a sheen of warped glass. The Husband, from the Midwest, is a big believer of scraping ice when you can, not when you have to. (Actually this is his philosophy for many things). So every couple of hours he went and scraped off the cars. Towards the evening I put my earphones on, bundled up and took a turn at ice scraping. It turns out to be a rather soothing and invigorating task. Moreso when I only did it once the whole day. The slow, persistence of ice scraping and the puffer coat cocoon that encased me allowed me to acheive a sense of flow.
Of course I would probably feel differently if I were in a public parking lot at eleven pm after a long rehearsal. It does somewhat inspire me to scrape the ice off my car during a dinner break to make that 11am experience not so prolonged. That whole future self thanking past self thing….
Monday was President’s Day. Originally I had wanted to go hiking, but snow and ice made that not a great idea. So we had a cozy day at home, doing I don’t know what. The husband and 4 year old planted scallion bulbs. We played Parcheesi. We did manage a walk mid afternoon.
Planting projects.
We had a lovely respite from the freezing weather with two days of sunshine and weather in the mid 30s – 40s. I took full advantage of this and took the kids to the playground. I’ve realized that three weeks of quarantine and then weeks of unending snow, freezing rain, and general wet weather has made me a little less precious about letting the kids play on a wet muddy playground. The mud will wash and things will dry. Of course things will probably irreparably dirty, but… oh well.
Enjoying the playground once again!
The two days of sunshine were followed by more snow. Enough to have a snow day in the city, though our school district continued to have virtual schooling. I miss the idea of a snow day. The things that bothers me somewhat is that the school district closed the Equity Hubs and the schools that were hosting care programs. Understandable given the weather, but then why not declare it a snow day for everyone? It is not much of an equity hub if the students who rely on it are pushed further behind. This school year has been so hard on everyone. There is a glimmer of hope in that in person schooling is set to begin again next month but even that is
I had my first art assignment. We were to make an abstract drawing by enlarging something, zooming in on the detail.. I chose a frozen raindrop on a branch, though it didn’t turn out to be as abstract as I wanted. Also – the drawing is on 24″ x 18″ paper, and during our critique session in class, I felt like it’s hard to really understand a picture without knowing the original size. I’m growing to love the fuzzy, forgiving nature of working in charcoal. Having a project to work on feels really great right now.
much much smaller than the original.
Fun food for Valentine’s Day. My mother makes beautiful food creations. She taught me how to make radish roses and bunny rabbit carrots. And one Thanksgiving she made this amazing fruit turkey. In that spirit, I made the kids special Valentine’s Day ramen.
I carrot tell you how much I love you!
Indoor art activity. I find letting the kids do art projects very stressful… the mess!! But they have fun and it’s a good way to pass the time indoors.
This week in the 4 year old’s preschool cirriculum we are talking about the five senses. Later in the week, his older sister was reading Little Red Riding Hood for class (What big eyes you have! What big ears you have! etc.), and the 4 year old says, “Mommy… The wolf is using his four senses!”
Practicing our sense of hearing.
What We Ate:
Sunday: Dumplings (the frozen ones from our favorite dumpling place) and braised bok choy. While not as good as getting them from the restaurant, they were much better than any other frozen dumplings you can get at the supermarket.
Sunday: 1 Hour Vegetable Pot Pie from Minimalist Baker – vegan recipe, but I did use regular milk and butter. I love this recipe because it really does take an hour to make, and always tastes like you slaved for hours making it.
Monday: Vegetable Curry with Lemon Peanut Rice from Fresh India. I might have to buy that cookbook – everything I’ve made from it has been really good. Also I managed to find fresh curry leaves – often one of those “optional” ingredients – and I was excited to use them. They made things taste… I don’t know.. fresher? Hard to describe, but I could definitely tell the difference.
Tuesday: Mushroom Ragout with noodles from Mark Bittman’s Dinner for Everyone. This recipe is in the Mapo section – it’s Bittman’s vegan take on Mapo Tofu. The four year old loves mushrooms and devoured this.
Wednesday: Roasted perch and catfish and roasted veggies. For Ash Wednesday.
Thursday: Vegetable Barley Soup from America’s Test Kitchen’s Vegan for Everyone. I didn’t have turnips, so I subbed radish and it was really tasty. Good food for a cold snowy day.
Friday: Takeout pizza and Brigadoon. Despite being disappointed that so many of my favorite songs were cut (Come to me, My Mother’s Wedding Day, From this Day On… actually I love all the songs in this score), I still really enjoyed this movie. There’s Gene Kelly for one – so elegant and poised. And also – plaid leggings on the men! It was LuLa Roe worthy.
This was the Husband’s Birthday Week. We had take out of his choice. I baked scones – two kinds! I baked a requested cake. The recipe was from his mother’s recipe box and involved pearl clutching things like margarine and a box of icing sugar – no measurements needed. I had to Google that last one. Thank goodness I did. Apparently a box is one pound. I happened to have a two pound bag and had contemplated using the whole thing.
Notice the tiny finger sized divots…..
In these COVID times, an in person birthday gathering was not going to happen, so I organized a surprise birthday Zoom call. I guess one of the advantages of doing a birthday party via Zoom is that you can invite people from anywhere in place and time. In addition to family, we had friends from college and friends from where we are now all on the same call, some of whom were states and even countries away. Having such a cross section of the Husband’s life was one of the nice parts of having a Zoom party.
Scones! Blueberry and Chocolate Walnut.
I wanted to come up with a way to make a Zoom birthday party fun and avoid the awkwardness of a gathering of people who hadn’t met before – the awkwardness potential potentially exacerbated by the Zoom factor. I hit upon the idea of playing Husband Trivia. I came up with trivia questions about Husband and encouraged everyone to bring questions too. I thought the game would go on for maybe 30 minutes, but to my delight almost everyone on the call brought a Husband trivia question and the call lasted an hour. There was much laughter and many fun facts about the Husband gleaned. I was so pleased with how it turned out. I’m not sure that it wasn’t the awkward gathering of random people that I had feared, but the Husband sure had fun seeing everyone and reliving life moments via trivia, so I count it as a success.
And with that, birthday season at our house was over for the year and we took the birthday banner down. From Christmas (Jesus) to the second week of February we celebrate a birthday every two weeks. (And then there is the outlier baby with the fall birthday.) Birthday season does feel a little relentless sometimes, having to plan so many back to back celebrations. But in the end, it does help cheer up the depths of winter to have something to celebrate.
The rest of the week was kind of up and down. I started another drawing class -I have a fair amount of excitement and trepidation going in; I’m looking forward to having weekly art projects, but at the same time, the syllabus seems a little advanced for me. I think I just have to be unafraid of making bad art.
Friday was a day off for the nine year old. I was again caught unawares of this day off. I think in the repetitive days, I sometimes forget to check my calendar. Determined to get outside, I packed some hot chocolate and snack bars and took the kids to a nearby nature center which had a couple miles of wooded walking trails. Babywearing in the winter is always somewhat bulky, so I chose not to bring the carrier or hiking backpack and just let the baby walk. Impressively, she managed to walk over a mile of the hike; I only had to carry her for the final stretch and then mostly to keep her from playing in the mud and water. The kids usually whine a little at the prospect of a hike/walk, but once they accept that this is what we are doing and they get out in nature, they find things to engage their interest. Like playing Three Billy Goats Gruff:
Who’s that walking over my bridge?
And finding vines to swing on:
The joy of discovering nature’s playground.
Friday was also Lunar New Year. I don’t really celebrate, but I did FaceTime with my grandfather in Taiwan. In past years, there’s always been either a Taiwan school event or the nine year old’s school has a performance, but… COVID. I realized that I’ve relied on others to remind me how to mark the occasion – most years I’m caught unawares when Lunar New Year rolls around. I think I want to get better at marking the occasion. Maybe not to the point where I make a Thanksgiving level meal, but noodles and dumplings and some other traditions might be nice. My parents did send me these really neat apples which were grown especially for the New Year with felicitious messages stenciled on. As you can see, the baby got to them before I could get a good picture, but they are really quite neat.
Just another excuse to post a cute baby picture. But the apple is pretty neat too!
This was also the week of the Trump impeachment hearings. That was definitely distracting and disheartening and took up way too much of my time and emotional energy.
I think I’m also still struggling with finding routine post quarantining. When we were stuck at home, a routine was easy and gave me a reassuring sense of structure. But now that we are back out in the world, there are, despite COVID, things that just creep up and need to be slotted in – book pick ups, dance lessons, errands, friends… I feel like I still haven’t found what the current rhythm is and everything feels a little freeform and hard to account for right now. I think I want to get back to tracking my time – that kind of accountability might be what I need to get structure back.
A funny thing happened the during the first day of art class. We were going around introducing ourselves and giving a bit of our story. And for some reason I didn’t introduce myself as an unemployed stage manager – I didn’t mention a career at all, just that I wanted to learn to draw and that I had three kids running around. It didn’t occur to me until afterwards, but it felt like somehow, I’ve started identifying myself with where I am now, and not what I used to be. I’m pondering that one…. because a year after we packed up our post its and 0.9pt pencils, I’m not sure what claim I still have to my occupational identity.
Fun food things:
Simplify: I made muesli for the first time. And a light kind of went off in my head. I used to make granola, but this is much easier. It’s like granola without adding sugar. Or having to bake it. Basically assemble what seeds, nuts, and dried fruit I had in the pantry, dump it in a container, and …. breakfast! I’ve been eating it steeped in boiling water and sprinkled with berries and it’s been a perfect cold weather breakfast.
Simplify II – I went to pick up some dumplings for the Husband’s birthday lunch. It turns out our favorite dumpling place has started selling frozen dumplings in bags of 40. I immediately bought a bag. I had been wanting to make dumplings for a while, but it is such a lot of work – fun work when you can gather people and have a dumpling party, but rather onerous when you have to do it all yourself. Well, for $25, I can have like homemade dumplings, without the homemade effort. Win!
What we ate:
Saturday: Take out from Full On – sandwiches, wings and onion rings.
Sunday: Cauliflower Curry and Lemon Rice with peanuts, recipes from Fresh India.
Monday: Sushi Take Out and birthday cake.
Tuesday: Fried Tofu with Braised Bok Choy, with farro.
Wednesday: Miso Mushroom Pasta from Milk Street Fast and Slow.
Thursday: Beef Noodle Soup from Milk Street Fast and Slow (cookbook of the week!). Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup (Niu rou mian) was a staple of my childhood, but for some reason it took a fancy cookbook from New England to prompt me to make it for myself. It was a pure bowl of comfort and nostalgia.
Friday: pizza (homemade – really tasty whole wheat crust from Mark Bittman’s Dinner for Everyone) and Mary Poppins.
Saturday we went to the park for the first time in weeks. The four year old took his new scooter and the nine year old rode her bike. At the park the kids climbed and ran and swung and hopped. We worked on teaching the four year old how to pump his legs on the swing. There was sun and 40 degree weather (which feels warm these days), and fresh air and a change of scenery and neighborhood dogs playing catch in the tennis courts.
It proved a good thing because it snowed the next day. Beautiful white snow! A thick blanket of it, covering everything.
The snow gave us several days of fun, despite the fact that distance learning has done away with the idea of a “snow day”. I’m a little bit in mourning about that, though one of the teachers had a virtual snow day that consisted of the students throwing wadded up balls of paper at their screen. IRL (as the kids say these days) we bundled up and went outside and built snow forts, shaped snowmen, made snow angels. The kids even helped the grown ups shovel. The four year old found a “snowchair”- a divot in the snow bank left next to our drive way by snow plows. The baby discovered the joy of eating snow… she would find chunks of snow and carry them around in her hand, chomping it like a snow cone. The nine year old delighted in throwing snow balls.
snowy day scenes
As for me- I loved the quiet and the cold. After the kids went inside, I would just stand outside, letting the cold envelop me, the snow muffling the sounds of outside and day. It was like being in an isolation chamber. And I could breathe and for two minutes not be responsible for anything except my own breath.
Afterwards, there is a quiet satisfaction to seeing all our snowy boots lined up next to the door and our snow suits hung in a row to dry in the bathroom.
The listservs exploded with snow gear for sale and free, a lot of it posted as “like new” and “barely worn”. I guess a lot of people had stocked up in snow gear last year. And then it hadn’t snowed.
I’ve been doing some more cardboard building. When we got our new stove in December, we acquired a new appliance sized box for projects. Also- when the stove was delivered, I asked if they had other boxes and they left a refrigerator box as well. Around the end of the year our cardboard box UPS truck finally collapsed and went out for recycling. For weeks the four year old has been requesting a FedEx Truck while the nine year old wanted an ice cream truck. And because he wanted to give me a challenge, the four year old requested a door in the back that went up and down. Well. I guess I was going to get serious about carboard box building so I did some internet research to find better ways of attaching cardboard together and found these screws designed for cardboard box building. Between those, packing tape and brass fasteners, I feel like I have a decent variety of tools for cardboard box construction, and my cardboard box construction game has been upped.
feats of cardboard engineering
The back door on the truck is manually operated, but it does go up and down! It took a bit of making and testing and trouble shooting, but a fun challenge.
Also on another day, I made the four year old and airplane as well. There are many modes of transportation inside our house.
zoooom!
Despite the snow, the hyacinths have started to poke their green heads up. Perhaps the warmer weather has confused them. It is so deceptive to see them push their way through the ground so soon. I hope they survive.
Spring sprung too early.
Hearts found in nature:
We did some kitchen reorganizing and, taking stock of what I was using and not using these days, I packed away our lunch boxes and lunch containers. I realized that we haven’t really used them in a year and they were taking up a lot of accessible space that would probably be better occupied by things we actually did use. I’ve been seeing articles about pandemic fashion and how that has led people to minimize, and I feel like that’s what I did this week with our kitchen too. When I had pulled out all the containers and stacked them, they seemed like a lot, but I guess back when everyone was packing a lunch, I often felt like we didn’t have enough.
Back at the beginning of the pandemic, I really got into making these window clings from an art kit the nine year old had gotten for her birthday. Last spring, it seemed like window art was a huge source of solace and connection. Our neighorhood had various scavenger hunts where people would put things in their window for people to look for on their walks – there was a Bear Hunt and a rainbow hunt. I made all sorts of pictures and designs and one day, I asked my husband what word we should put in our window. And he said, “Resist.” It seemed appropriate at the time: resist implied health and resilience.
Making the word was a lengthy project – each letter took two to three days to make becuase you had to make the outline and wait for it to dry, and then add the colour and wait for that to dry before you could peel it and stick it to the window. But back then I was eager for tedious projects that required patience. It seemed at the begnning of the shutdown all we had was time and ourselves.
RESIST has been on our window for almost a year now. Some days, the late afternoon sun comes through the window and projects the word onto our walls. The colour has faded somewhat, but the word still shows up loud and clear. A message and a reminder. I’m contemplating adding another word to it. Not sure what, though.
Late afternoon reminder.
What we ate:
Saturday: Brisket and Salad. On of our good friends has a smoker and he brought us some of his smoked brisket.
Sunday: can’t remember. ugh. Maybe take out???
Monday: Broccoli tofu panang curry with rice noodles.
Tuesday: Potato curry and a fennel apple salad from Fresh India.
Thursday: Cod soup based off a recipe from from Milk Street: Fast and Slow. This was actually a vegetarian soup leek, carrot and potatoe soup from the Milk Street Instant Pot cookbook. I threw in some cod for protein. And just used onions for the leeks.
Friday: Pizza (home made – dough from Bittman’s Dinner for Everyone cookbook) and Once Upon a Mattress – the 2005 television version of the musical. Charming and sweet. The four year old would get up and dance during the dance numbers. The double dance routines going on was adorable.
Four years ago, the country was trying to find its footing under a new administration. There were protests and shock and anger. And into this, a little boy was born. It’s funny, for the past four years, his life and the Trump administration were somehow intertwined in my head – I counted his years as I counted the years until the next election. And now here we are, the administration he was born into has turned over, though its ghosts still linger; the little boy is still here and growing.
But he is his own person, of course. A imaginative, curious, happy-go-lucky little guy. He loves trains, trucks, dancing to his own music, singing at the top of his lungs, books, and going for rides in the car. He drives his sisters crazy, but then gives them big hugs too. I love watching him puzzle out the world in his quiet perceptive way.
A couple days before his birthday, a box arrived at our door step:
Inside was a cake and a tin of cookies. I mean a cake in the mail!! How decadant is that?
The gift receipt indicated that the cake was to celebrate the two older kids’ January birthdays. And the receipt was unsigned. I did some Holmes worthy thinking – the birthday message used the diminutive form of the nine year old’s name, which very few people still use – but finally wrote to Milkbar customer service and asked them. Turns out it was my cousin in LA.
I remember when my cousin was born – and what a cute round eyed baby she was. I have so many great memories of hanging out with her when she was a baby. And now it’s certainly a little strange to realize that my baby cousin is grown up and does adulting type things like send birthday cakes during a pandemic to cheer up a couple of kids. She is an awesome person. And so are her parents (my uncle and aunt) – I’ve always known that they would raise pretty decent kids and it’s turned out to be true.
In other news this week, the baby was evaluated by the County Infants and Toddlers program for some developmental delays this week – primarily speech. It turns out she is on track in most developmental areas, except expressive language and socio-emotional development. The two areas are closely related, though. All our children were quite late to talk, so I’m not terribly concerned. Still, the baby was evaluated to have the verbal skills of a four month old, which is much more delayed than the other children were. It was a little discouraging to have the results broken down like that. However, she is so bright and capable in all other areas, that we are taking a “wait and see” approach, and declined to pursue an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) with the county.
In normal times, if we refused services we would have to get back in the cue and be re-evaluated down the line if she didn’t show developments progress. But given COVID times, the County Infants and Toddler program has a new system where you can check in with a case worker once a month and they will put together an IFSP when you feel ready for it. I perhaps tend towards the “low to no” intervention end of the scale, but I’m really grateful that the county provides these services for when we are ready.
The whole family went to get COVID tests again this week. It was probably not completely necessary, but we did it anyway. I took the two younger kids and had planned to go to the drive through testing site, tossing the baby into the car sans coat and shoes. Of course it was raining. And of course the drive through site wasn’t open. Change of plans! I took us all to a different testing site and had to carry the baby in without shoes or a coat. I definitely not one of my best moments, but oh well. We went in, got our nasal swabs – without fuss or crying from any of the littles! – and went home. Two days later:
Thank goodness.
We had quarantined the appropriate amount and then some, so we were pretty sure we would be negative. But it was reassuring to have the confirmations – if “not detected” can be counted as reassuring.
It’s been a slow emergence from quarantine. After almost three weeks of having gone no further than the end of the driveway on trash day, getting in the car was a little strange. I was almost reluctant to do even that, but I did have errands to run and the two older kids had their yearly check ups.
I was texting with a friend and saying how there is something nice about quarantining in that it’s been giving me an excuse to delay some bigger life decisions, and instead some days I’m just focussing on getting the family from meal to meal.. And my friend wrote back: “I think what you are doing/ thinking makes total sense… See this thru w/ your family first and worry about anything else later.” It is probably not sustainable – I mean I do have to file the taxes and figure out what I’m doing with my life, and we have some decisions to make about childcare and schooling and potential summer plans. I feel the the vaccine looming, like a pin that holds the dam in place, the deluge of decisions to be made roaring behind those floodgates.
Well… speaking of meal to meal…
What we ate:
Saturday: Tortellini with Sausage and Red Sauce. Cut up carrots and cucumbers on the side. With birthday cake.
Sunday: Oven Fried Chicken – the nine year old cooked, from the America’s Test Kitchen Young Chef’s cookbook. This was really really tasty – breaded with Corn Flakes. I made some garlic green beans to eat on the side.
Monday: Grain Bowl Marinara with Cannellini beans and Spinach from Mark Bittman’s Vegan Before 6 Cookbook.
Tuesday: Cauliflower Korma with burnt raisins from Fresh India. I found some chapatis in the freezer and we had these on the side.
Wednesday: Sausage and Peppers (the Husband cooked)
Thursday: Leftover Soup day. Realizing we had amasses many containers of leftovers in the fridge, I declared that we would have “eat down the fridge” dinner.
Friday: Pizza and The Peanuts Movie. I was going to make pizza, but then we had car issues so we ended up getting take out. The movie was fine, though I kind of missed the hand drawn charm of the original Charlie Brown movies.
Week two of quarantine. (Clearly there is a backlog of blogging here despite not being able to leave the house…)
Technically the state released the baby from isolation, but the rest of us still have another week. I was a little tickled that the State gave her a “return to work” letter for her employer
I have to admit, Quarantining hasn’t been awful or earth shattering. And honestly, as someone who is easily stymied by decision making, getting to stay home, and having many options taken off the table has been a little too comfortable. Sometimes I think that when Margaret Atwood’s Gilead comes to be, I might not fight too hard. Which is terrifying. But I have to admit there is something comforting about not having to make decisions.
It has been a lot of time in the backyard. We kick the soccer ball around- even the baby manages to walk into it and send it a few feet forward. The kids play swords with sticks, so far no one has gotten seriously hurt. We have dance parties in the backyard.
On Inauguration Day, we had CSPAN on all morning. Usually the schools here take that day off, but not this year- something about the way it timed out so close to MLK day. The nine year old did have her regular Wednesday half day so we were able to watch the ceremony on TV.
I can perhaps be a little cynical about politics and its perpetuating of a staid status quo, but I did find much in Wednesday’s inauguration to give me hope that needles are moving. To me, President Biden, Lady Gaga, Garth Brooks- they weren’t the story of the day. The momentousness of the day was Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff, Amanda Gorman, the masks worn, the guy who wiped off the podium between speakers – that is to say the things that were unfamiliar to me. And the Obamas, I will admit. They looked pretty happy and fabulous.
I don’t know if my kids will really understand the significance of Kamala Harris as Vice President, how much her presence can redefine who people picture as the leader of a country. And in turn what that presence allows people, especially children, to think are possible career paths. I know we tell our kids they can be anything they want to be, but representation matters too. Diversity matters. Not being the “other” matters.
Fun things:
We got a new kitchen stool. Which seems like such a pedestrian thing to be excited about, but a) quarantining = slow news, and b) it’s one of those rolling library stools. If I could fill my house with library equipment I would be so happy. I’m trying to convince the Husband that we need a library cart now. The best moment was leaving it in the kitchen for the kids to discover, and the three year old and the baby trying to figure out what it was. They stared and stared at it. Finally, the three year old exclaimed: “You stand on it!” It made me ridiculously delighted.
Is it a robot?
I’ve assigned the nine year old lunch duty on Wednesdays when she has half days. We borrowed the America’s Test Kitchen’s Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs from the library and she’s been picking from that. This week she made tostadas. I turned on the oven and supervised, but she did most of it herself. It is definitely difficult to be hands off- I’m a bit of a control freak in the kitchen. But I keep telling myself that the stress of watching her cook is worth the sense of achievement and confidence she gets from being in the kitchen.
kid approved!
At the back of my five year journal, I keep a list of things I’ve learned to do. 2020’s list: -spatchcock a chicken -sew masks -spin yarn using a drop spindle -make corn tortillas -replace a window screen -change a bike tire -make English muffins.
At the end of last year, I decided that I wanted to learn something that would take a bit more time to master – something that would take practice, rather than just one attempt after watching a YouTube video. (I tried to learn some programming last year, but that didn’t take. I might still try again this year). So I asked my friend Eleanor if she would teach me to juggle.
Eleanor and I were in college together and in addition to be a talented musician and clever wordsmith, she could figure skate and juggle – sometimes at the same time. So she agreed to teach me over Skype. I’ve spent two weeks juggling one ball and now have moved on to two balls. At first, I juggled mandarin oranges, which got a little messy. This week, I dig through my scrap fabric bin and made some juggling balls. I went down an internet rabbit hole trying ot figure out what the best method to make them was. I think this is the over-researcher/ delayed decision maker in me. Eventually I decided to make simple four panel balls and fill them with rice, though some of the more dedicated juggling sites said that was a bad idea for filling. I figure this was a case of done is better than perfect and if the rice doesn’t work out I can always make another set.
more things to keep in the air….
At the recommendation of the pediatrician, we are having the baby evaluated for some developmental delays. Because everything is virtual these days, and the evaluators can’t make home visits, they requested some videos of the baby doing her thing. So I spent a fair bit of time following her around filming the random baby things she does. Turns out she spends a great deal of her time: 1) eating, 2) climbing on furniture, and 3) taking things out of containers and strewing them all over the house. I am trying to be very zen about this and savor this age of discovery, but it’s really hard when I’ve had to put the pump parts back into the box for the umpteenth time in one morning. On the other hand, I think her ability to put small objects (duckbill valves) into jars (milk collection bottles) bodes well for her score in fine motor skills.
What We Ate:
Saturday: Pork tenderloin and green beans with milk shakes for desert. I’ve always managed to overcook pork tenderloin, but this time I made it on the grill and told myself that a little pink was okay and it turned out beautifully.
Sunday: Roast veggies (sweet potato, parsnip, potatoes) with kale quinoa pilaf. Though I used farro instead of kale.
Monday: Pumpkin (squash) black eye pea curry and tamarind rice from Meera Sodha’s Fresh India. This meal was complex and required spinning many plates in the kitchen to prepare, but actually quite simple to execute as long as you kept things moving along.
Thursday: Lentil Soup. I labelled the leftovers “Nurse’s Lentil Soup” because the recipe came from a Washington Post article with the headline: “This lentil soup is so good one nurse has eaten it for lunch every workday for 17 years”. It’s a bit of an overstatement. I think it says more about the nurse than about the soup, to be honest. Though the soup definitely improved when eaten as leftovers – as soup often does.
Friday: Pizza and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Home made sheet pan pizza – crust was a little thick – I think I got distracted and made it with too much flour. Bedknobs and Broomsticks was a fixture of my childhood. The kids thought it was hilarious.
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.
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.
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.
