swim season – Life Off Headset

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Butterfly. It’s such a dramatic looking stroke!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Huh.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Devouring this book:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday: Grilled cheese sandwiches. Simple Sunday.

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

Weekly recap + what we ate: decluttering and swimming

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday: Pizza (take out) and Glee

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

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