weekly menu – Page 12 – Life Off Headset

Weekly recap + what we ate – back to work!

Between the baby not sleeping and starting a new gig, this week has been quite exhausting.

It’s definitely been challenging working from home with the two little kids. I guess I’ve finally gotten to experience who women (and men, but mostly women) all over the world have had to figure out for the past year – how to keep your career and children alive simultaneously. For me, it’s been a combination of massively flexing my work hours and luck that the baby napped a couple times and the four year old can play by himself. One day I bribed him by saying that he could listen to Hamilton if he stayed in the play room while I was in a meeting. Babysitting by Hamilton. Hah! Then there were days like this:

“Pardon the typos while I work from home with a toddler.”

There was definitely a part of my strategy that recognized that the backyard was probably the most engaging place for the kids to be, and therefore the most productive place to work. Luckily my parents have come to town to help out so there weren’t too many days like that. I do feel fortunate that this prep week has been combined with a quarantine week, so that I had a large degree of flexibility in managing my time.

But it certainly is strange to work again. To remember what it’s like to ask questions and have answers and format paperwork, to think about how a show is put together, and to work with people. That last bit has been especially welcome, though it has all been by Zoom so far. What a strange strange world in which to be making art. I do miss poking my head into the cubicle next to me to ask a question. Working in isolation seems the antithesis of why I love my job, given that the arts are a medium that is supposed to bring people together – those that consume and those that create.

Things achieved:
I made two WOOP goals last week: finish two books with imminent due dates, and get 8 hours of sleep every night. I did finish two really great reads – Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, and Hidden Valley Road. Both books were really thoughtful. Though they were about vastly different subjects, I think both books made me think about how people who are outside of mainstream society face a lot of difficulties when their obstacles are not talked about.

Things from this week:
Summer weather continues. The Husband spent many hours in the garden, often with a child or two alongside.

On Saturday, to get rid of some wood, the Husband made a fire and we roasted marshmallows despite the ninety degree weather. Which felt so wrong and so right all at the same time.

The tadpoles that we had been watching grow at the park are no longer there. We went to check out the puddle they had been swimming in and there were no tadpoles to be seen. Either they all have turned into frogs and hopped away, or the puddle dried up during one of the really hot spells last week. There had been some rain midweek and the puddle was full of water, so it was hard to tell. On the other hand, my friend Kristen had gathered a few tadpoles a couple months ago to bring to her preschool class, and this week she released the fully formed frogs into the wild. Seeing her teeny tiny frog gave me hope that the puddle tadpoles had indeed transformed into frogs and had hopped out of the puddle to find their next adventure.

The four year old makes me laugh all the time. He’s obsessed with Hamilton. When we say grace at dinner, he always adds, “And God bless Hamilton’s son.” And he will randomly sing or quote bits of the show. Like at dinner, “Mom, did you know that Hamilton wants to fight not write?”

The other day, near the end of lunch, he got out of his chair and crouched on the floor:

“Get back up here and finish lunch,” I said.
“I can’t! I’m a cicada waiting underground!”

Speaking of which – some cicada pics from this week. They are really starting to get noisy. Around our house, it’s like a subtle but constant hum. But at the park or places with more trees, it’s more like an incessant loud screeching.

I was particularly fascinated by this white cicada. At first I thought it was an albino cicada, but it turns out this is what they look like when they first emerge from their exoskeleton. It takes about half an hour for the blood to get pumping and their shells to harden and turn black. Fascinating.

The sidewalks are littered with the bodies of cicadas that don’t make it up trees. It makes for some very crunchy evening walks.

Things I savored this week:
-hugs from my kids
-eggplant fries from the local deli/diner
– reading a novel while listening to Murray Perahia play Bach’s French Suites
– that enveloping heat when getting into a 90 degree car.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Ravioli with Red Sauce and Garlic Bread.

Sunday: Tofu and veggie stir fry with Udon Noodles.

Monday: Farro salad with snap peas, cannellini beans, and tomatoes.

Tuesday: Kale Saag Paneer from Meera Sodha’s East. This was really really tasty. Homemade paneer!

Wednesday: The Husband cooked – he made taco salads.

Thursday: Sausage and Pasta in the Instant Pot – loosely based on a recipe from Milk Street Fast and Slow.

Friday: Pizza (take out – it’s been too hot to make our own) and Sonic the Hedgehog, which, surprisingly, was not as terrible as I thought it would be. It was the four year old’s choice, and it was actually kind of a fun and sweet movie.

Weekly recap + what we ate – things are heating up

I feel like summer is finally here. Like 90 degree weather and full sun here. It hasn’t tipped into the unbearable humidity yet, though. The baby pool is getting a lot of use, though the fancy water table is no longer working. However, the Husband has plans to rebuild that, so I’m excited. Also – I realized last week, that none of the kids have full swim suits. They all have tops, but no one has bottoms that fit. I guess we didn’t go to the pool this winter, so I didn’t realize it. Oh well. Swimsuits have been ordered.

Thursday was a very good day. I got my hair cut! The Husband had taken a half day off work to watch the kids so I could go to my appointment. Aside from an ill advised trim that I did on my own, my hair has been uncut for over a year. There was a lot of hair on the floor when all was said and done. The first cut was a six inch pony tail, though I only managed a sad picture of a few strands:

After the cut, I made an impulse stop of get some boba tea. Boba tea is one of my favorite indulgences, and another thing I tried to DIY this past year, but while nice, it just wasn’t the same as getting it in the store. I tried a new place and they allowed customers to customize their drinks. My order: oolong milk tea, no sugar, 50% ice, half boba and half coconut jelly. (My ideal is lychee jelly, but not a lot of places have that.) When I got home, I poured my tea into a glass and took it out to the back patio. With my newly shorn head and my special drink, it was a perfect summer moment. (Side note: apparently there’s a boba shortage! Very concerning.)

And since the Husband has taken the rest of the day off, he wrangled children, taking all of them with him to the 9 year old’s dance class while I met up with my friend Kristen for a hike. We went to Turkey Run, which is on the Potomac, and it being a weekday evening, it was quiet. For two hours, we hiked, talked, laughed, enjoyed being among trees, and occasionally hugged. It was such a good time. Grateful for: vaccines, 8:15pm sunsets, easy access to nature trails, and good friends.

I had a moment where I questioned if I should be having such a great day without my family, without even wanting to be with them, or missing them. But I think I’m okay with it. I think I’m okay with the best day I’ve had in a long time be one where I was by myself.

The cicadas have really been coming out this week. The kids are fascinated by them and on our evening walks, they look for cicadas. The Husband told them that the cicadas are trying to get to the trees to climb upwards, so the four year old has taken to rescuing them from the sidewalk and using a stick to carry them to the nearest tree.

Also – a good reminder of a toddler’s perfect squat.

I’ve been taking many many pictures of them. I’m fascinated by their many stages of being, their slow emergence as they molt, their buggy red eyes, their wings, their slow steady march up tree trunks, the exoskeletons they leave behind that still cling lifelessly as if for their lives.

The variety of cicadas to be found nearby.

Some fun discoveries this week:

I realized that just as our public library has lots of great online programming these day, so do other libraries. This week I signed up for two small sessions through the LA County Library – which was my library system when I was growing up. I logged into a session called “Relaxing with Art” and a toddler story time. The presenter for the Art session talked about the benefits of drawing as a way of decompressing and then led some drawing exercises. I’ve been missing having a weekly drawing assignment since my drawing class ended and it was nice to pick up my pencil and have some short art exercises to do.

The toddler story time was actually really interesting because I found out that LA County has a program where parents of young children can call in and talk to a parenting expert if there is something that they are struggling with. It’s certainly not something to be used in lieu of talking to a pediatrician, but having free parenting support available to the community in a variety of languages is so fantastic.

Took the kids on a hike and we saw herons! That was pretty cool.

The nine year old started going to in person piano lessons this week. I had to to take the two younger kids with me this week, but the Husband has said I can leave them at home in subsequent weeks. This means I’ll have 30 wonderful minutes to myself. I’m thinking of bringing my yoga mat and getting some yoga in while I hang out in the teacher’s back yard. If I were a runner, that would also have been ideal, but I’m not…. Also side note – there’s a lady in our community who will come to your child’s sport practices and lead a yoga class. How brilliant is that?

I’ve picked back up with the Science of Well Being Course. This week’s lecture talked about WOOP technique for setting positive goals. WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan. What I thought was interesting was that Laurie Santos, the professor of the course, suggests that “Outcome” asks you not just to think about best outcomes from achieving what you want (Wish, first step), but to also think of the worst outcomes if you don’t. I think I tend to be motivated by focusing on the positive of achieving my goals, but the negative ramifications of failure are probably just as strong a motivator. In fact, I think the negative thoughts are what inspire me to make the goals in the first place. There are many times in the course where Santos talks about how one’s baseline for satisfaction moves and every so often you need to remind yourself what it was like to be at the bottom in order to counteract dissatisfaction. Of course you can belabour the point and be an insufferable optimist, or, conversely be an interminable pessimist, but I do think there is value in recognizing that your brain often adjusts its standards of happiness – happiness inflation, they call it.

Anyhow, I’ve decided to WOOP some goals this next week. Namely getting more sleep and finishing two books from the library that are due imminently.

The start of the summer shoe tan:

I also got the sandals out this week! Another sign of summer.

Made a key lime pie last weekend. The husband came home with a bag of key limes. I usually just use regular limes when I make key lime pie. But he was so excited, so I gave it a shot. These things are labor intensive! A whole bag of key limes made barely enough juice for one pie. There was a distinct taste from using key limes, but I can’t for the life of me describe it, and regular limes make tasty pies too. So I might stick with regular limes. (See above about baseline level of happiness.)

Because you have to take a taste before you know if it’s worth taking a picture!

This man, seen at the side of the road on our Friday evening commute home. What the what? The Husband says he is here every Friday. It was vastly entertaining, but perhaps the resulting rubbernecking could be dangerous?

I was stopped at a redlight when I snapped this, lest you think I take pictures while driving….

It’s been a rough week for sleep. We’ve moved the baby into the big kids room and she is sleeping on her crib mattress on the floor. She has had a rough time adjusting, perhaps only sleeping through the night one night out of seven. Luckily the other kids are heavy sleepers.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Tortellini with pasta sauce. We had met some families at a local brewery that afternoon and had lots of snack, so we weren’t terribly hungry by the time we got home.

Sunday: Sweet Potato and Poblano Tacos (from Dinner Illustrated), with homemade tortillas. I haven’t made tortillas in a while, and I’d forgotten how easy and tasty they are.

Monday: Eggplant and coconut rice from Meera Sodha’s East.

Tuesday: Mushroom crostada and bagged Caesar Salad.

Wednesday: Dosa and dal from Sdha’s Fresh Indian. I was quite proud of this meal. It was very time consuming to make, but very simple. And, if one makes the filling ahead of time, making the dosas actually comes together quite quickly. Not quite like at our favorite restaurant – these dosas get soggy if not eaten right away and are much smaller – but okay for at home.

Thursday: The Husband got burgers, fries and milkshakes from Five Guys. Normally I make dinner before dance class, and the fact that I didn’t have to make dinner made the day even more awesome. And while it’s not something I should do often, eating a jalapeno mushroom burger and fries at 10:30pm just feels really good sometimes.

Friday: Pizza and Hairspray, the original John Waters movie. I thought that the movie would feel dated, but it doesn’t really.

Weekly recap + what we ate – “tend and befriend”

Last weekend was mother’s day.

I told the husband that I wanted four things:
1) a nice picture with all three kids.
2) to go on a hike with everyone
3) a couple hours to myself where I didn’t have to parent
4) to eat dinner without anyone sitting on my lap.

We achieved 1 and 2.

To be fair, when I pointed out to the Husband that #3 didn’t happen, he promptly made plans to allow me time the following weekend (like now! so I can write).

And #4 is honestly probably a lost cause unless I don’t eat with the family.

I don’t know if it’s because of the excessive amount of togetherness this past year as we’ve all been under pandemic lockdown, but “time alone!” seemed to be the most requested mother’s day gift I’ve seen this year among my mom friends and groups. Perhaps last year, when we were newly in staying at home, and COVID cases were rising, mothers were in a better place mentally to savour and cherish the unrelieved time with their kids. But a year later… I think many of us are just burnt out from being responsible for the care, feeding, schooling, providing, working…. from all of it. From having to be so responsible for everyone else. And this mother’s day, I think many of us caregivers just want time to themselves, to slip the bonds of responsibility.

(This is not to say men haven’t had to be responsible too… the Husband has been a very equal partner. But study after study shows that the additional burdens brought about by pandemic living has disproportionately fallen on the shoulders of women. In fact, a lot of men I know are living their best lives right now while working from home….)

On Mother’s Day proper, we went on a hike at Red Rock Wilderness Overlook. The site features some remains of historic buildings – an ice house, carriage house, etc – which I always love seeing. The hike itself at first seemed quite gentle, a grassy meandering stroll through woods that came to an overlook of the Potomac. Perhaps it is the endless Hamilton listening that we’ve been doing lately, but I couldn’t look at this river without thinking of everything it has seen – the lives, the wars, the comings and goings.

As we hiked along the river overlook, we came to a precipitous drop off, across which a tree had fallen. Always up for an adventure, and having somewhat lost the path, we scrabbled downwards until we came to the shores of the Potomac. Here there was ample opportunity to throw rocks and sticks into the river and the nine year old found a rock face to scale. I was quite impressed by how high she managed to climb.

A scramble back up the banks of the river and we found the trail blazes again and headed back to the parking lot. This was a hike that was in our “Best Hikes for Kids” book that I had gotten, which is probably one of the best things I bought all last year. The baby managed a lot of the hike, though the Husband did carry her a couple times. She is getting to be a sturdy little hiker.

The nine year old had Thursday off, so the Husband took a half day and we went to the Air and Space Museum. I had heard that the Smithsonian had been loaned an X-wing Starfighter recently and before it was sent to the Air and Space Museum downtown, it would be cleaned and checked for damage at the restoration hanger at the Air and Space Museum by the airport. So the Husband got us tickets and we spent an afternoon with all manner of aircrafts and flight history. It was our first visit to a museum in over a year and I feel really grateful that we have such easy access to so many museums here. I can’t wait until the rest of the Smithsonian museums open back up. And the National Gallery of Art too. I’ve missed seeing things in real life.

Some tidbits from this week:

A Great Podcast Episode: I was listening to this episode of On Being where Krista Tippett talks to clinical psychologist Christine Runyon about the physiological effect the isolation and stress of the pandemic has had on us. One point that really struck with me is Runyon’s idea that along with “flight”, “fight”, and “freeze,” we, particularly women, also have another survival instinct which is “Tend and Befriend.” They go on to discuss how difficult it has been during the pandemic to not be able to “befriend” or form alliances or gather as a community, because for a lot of women, that is their reaction to a crisis. There are physiological tolls to being alone. The link above is to the broadcast episode; the “tend and befriend” discussion is in the unedited episode, and it was such a fantastic conversation to hear.

The county has put the basketball hoops back up. During the pandemic, at least one hoop on every county court was removed, to prevent people from gathering to play basketball games. Not sure how effective that was. But this week I’ve noticed that all the hoops are back up. One little sign of things going back to normal.

Speaking of which – I’m thinking about the new guidelines from CDC for masking. Or rather unmasking. Namely that fully vaccinated people can resume activities without masks or social distancing. Of course the children are not vaccinated. So I think I will continue to have them mask up at playgrounds and on playdates. I will probably wear a mask when I’m with my kids as a show of solidarity, and also while indoors at stores or what not – particularly since I feel like a lot of businesses around here will keep mask mandates in place. But maybe not? Our County has been somewhat conservative with mask mandates in the past, but they seem to be in line with our state regulations right now, which is for lifting mask mandates. Indoor dining is probably still outside of my comfort zone.

The kids got new shoes! Just in time for summer. I love our shoe store.

Perfect summer snack- cucmbers with “sprinkle”, either Pico Fruta, or Sesame Seaweed Furikake.

Tadpole update – They have legs!

Frugal food wins – Sad bunch of collards, wilted and neglected –> Collard chips! Seasoned with dill, garlic powder, onion powder and nutritional yeast, giving them a nice ranch flavour.

The cicadas have started to emerge. We took an evening walk on Friday night and had to tread carefully. There has been a lot of attention given to the cicadas, I’m actually quite excited.

Four Year Old Quote of the Week: “You have to rise up, just like Hamilton.”

What We Ate:

Saturday: Grilling! Kielbasa from our favorite Polish Deli, and grilled veggies. I love how easy grilling is with the gas grill. I never thought I would convert from charcoal, but while I miss the chemical aftertaste of charcoal, the ease of the gas grill is hard to beat.

Sunday: Indian/ Nepalese food take out.

Monday: Gochujang Roasted Cabbage and Carrots with Udon Noodles and Pan Fried Tofu.

Tuesday: Pasta Salad with leftover grilled veggies from Saturday, and Mango Salad from Meera Sodha’s Made in India.

Wednesday: Salmon Curry Coconut Rice from Milk Street’s Cook-ish, and pan seared Brussel Sprouts.

Thursday: Take out from a vegetarian Chinese food place near the Air and Space Museum.

Friday: Pizza take out and bagged Caesar Salad and The Booksellers, a documentary about antiquarian booksellers. A nostalgic, wistful account of our love of printed material. Oh the beautiful shelves of books in this film!

Weekly recap + what we ate – May al fresco

One of many many many walks we took this week.

And now we are into May!

We ate outside a couple times this week. Right now is the sweet spot, I think, for dining al fresco in our area. It is warm enough to comfortably eat outside, with just a light sweater thrown on as the sun goes down and temperature cools. At the same time, we haven’t yet entered into mosquito season. Mosquitos are fierce here. I used to go to Colorado for the summer and be blessedly free of mosquitos. Last year, I think I got a little zen about them and embraced the biting and itching. This year, we got at Thermacell – a device that essentially creates a bubble of bug repellant around a certain area. We haven’t tried it out yet, but it gets really great reviews across a variety of publications. I’m excited to try this out and looking forward to being able to sit on our back patio without being eaten alive.

This was a great week to get outside. It did rain one day, but we took a rainy walk anyway, and were rewarded with a geese sighting:

I got my second COVID vaccine shot. It was such a smooth soothing process. I wanted to stay in that white tent waiting room forever. If I ever make myself a she shed, I think it will be white and light filled, like the COVID waiting tent.

Aside from some minor aches, I luckily felt pretty normal the next day. I stayed up too late the night after I got the vaccine, so I still felt kind of not great, but that was entirely my fault, not the vaccine. All in all, it feels great to have two shots down on my vaccine card. I’m still trying to feel out what my comfort levels are with COVID precautions. We were never the stay at home and have groceries delivered people, but we’ve definitely been very diligent about mask wearing and not socializing indoors or eating at restaurants.

I did go to a Mom’s night on Friday. My friend Lizzie had invited me to a child-free hang out with some of her friends where we ate Mexican food and had uncensored conversations. I haven’t been in someone else’s house for over a year – except for going over to walk a friend’s dog one time. It felt so novel. I guess meeting new people is always novel, but after a year of lockdown, it was especially so. And oh so wonderful to connect.

I thought this article in the Atlantic was interesting (The Liberals who Can’t Quit Lockdown.) I read/ hear so much about how the demographics of anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers skew conservative, male, right wing, etc, and I thought this article was particularly thoughtful in how it pointed out that there are extremists on all sides of the spectrum. It seems to me that those who don’t trust vaccines are probably not far removed from those who sanitized their groceries during the early days of the pandemic when there seemed to be no good information out there. I myself am finding emerging from lockdown somewhat daunting, but then again, I’m somewhat of an introvert. I hope it’s not because of some reaction to Trumpian policies. I’m pretty sure it isn’t. But I do think that the politicization of public health issues is in many ways the result of our our unfortunately binary political system.

Some things this week:

Wanting to speak up. On one of our park trips this week, the four year old made quick friends with another child, a five year old. Before I knew it, they had taken their bikes and had gone off down the paved loop around the park. I wasn’t too concerned as I could still see them, and the kid seemed like a really friendly, decent child. “He wanted to show me his hide out tree!” The four year old told me when they came back. I told the little boy’s mother, “Your son is a really great kid.” She seemed really pleased to hear me say that, and I’m glad I told her. And as the morning progressed, I realized something. Part of the reason this kid was so open and friendly was that he had a really great mom. You could just tell by the way she let her kids have a great deal of independence on the playground, and from the way she talked to them when she needed to – in this really calm, casual and non-judgemental tone. And I wish I had told her that. For some reason, I thought it would have been weird to say something. But afterwards, I thought… it shouldn’t be. We shouldn’t be afraid to compliment good parenting when we see it. (I mean good anything, really). Raising kids is so fraught and filled with self doubt (or is it just me?), that we should be supportive, even of strangers.
So… to Ryan’s mom at North Four Corners Park – on the infinitesimal chance that you read this blog: I love the way you talk to your children.

Looking forward to popsicle season. The nine year old made smoothies for breakfast the other day and there was leftovers, so I pulled out the popsicle molds and made the first popsicles of the year! I love making homemade popsicles. There is something so economical and simple about homemade popsicles, though I do admit that the store bought always taste better. Except the chocolate ones. This recipe for homemade fudgsicles is really really decadent.

Popsicles and the astronaut. He wore that space suit almost every day this week.

Speaking of the nine year old in the kitchen, the kids are really into making fresh lemonade. It does take a lot of lemons to make lemonade, so I don’t do it as often as I would like. Maybe I need to be more efficient about juicing? This little plastic juicer was an H-Mart impulse purchase years ago and serves us well, but is perhaps not terribly efficient.

When your child matches the playground equipment (again):

Other wildlife sightings:

Google tells me these are called pileated woodpeckers. We came across them in two different parks. They were quite bold and settled in quite near us.

Pandemic cookbook MVPs (except the Vegetarian Back Packing book – not sure what that is doing in there.) All borrowed from the library and need to be returned. The “Overdue, but fines waived” notices that I’m getting are guilt inducing, but not very motivating. America’s Test Kitchen Vegan for Everyone was also a great resource. I think I may end up buying some of these to have for my own.

On Time Standing Still:

The other day, we were wandering around the park while the nine year old was in dance lessons and I noticed that the posters from the children’s theatre were still up from last year. It was as if time had been frozen, stuck in March 2020. The park was originally developed in the early 1900s as an amusement park, somewhere for the residents of DC to escape to. Many of the buildings are left over from this time, and their original art deco quality has been maintained. Being there these days has a rather timeless quality. Seeing last season’s posters up, I was struck by this weird sensation of different time periods overlapping, and unmoving. I wonder if this was what it was like to stumble upon Roanoke.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Pasta Salad – tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers,

Sunday: Dinner at friend’s house. They grilled. We brought vegetable skewers (zucchini, mushrooms, peppers).

Monday: Tandoori Broccoli and Honey Braised Tofu from East. This was really good. The Broccoli is smothered in yogurt and spices and then roasted at 425. The Tofu is cooked in a sauce made from gochujang, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, garlic and ginger. And we ate it outside, which always makes things taste better, in my mind.

Tuesday: Black Bean Soup from Milk Street Fast and Slow. Tasty, simple and filling.

Wednesday: Grilled Pork Tenderloin and grilled veggies and sweet potatoes. I always forget how simple and good grilled sweet potatoes is.

Thursday: Tomato Zucchini Tart from Milk Street Cook-ish, with bagged salad. Also very easy recipe – basically toss veggies in olive oil, vinegar and za’atar, pile it in a layer on puff pastry and bake until golden. I love recipes like this where the ratio of effort to taste is pretty low.

Friday: Girls night out – Mexican food. Meaning lots of chips and guacamole and salsa.

Weekly recap + what we ate – out like a lamb + goals

The last week of April – lots of sunny weather and outdoor time. The husband impulsively bought the kids one of those plastic bat and ball sets, and we took it out for a spin over the weekend. The four year old alternated plogging and batting. I sometimes forget to get outside on the weekends, but the weather this week has been too nice to ignore.

As I stare down the barrel of a return to work (yay!), I’m feeling like I want a little less meandering in my life in these next few weeks.

Ever since the nine year old went back to school, we haven’t gotten into a good rhythm. Or rather I mean a productive rhythm. This is our days: drop off nine year old at school/ playground until lunch time/ lunch/ putter and clean up/ pick up nine year old from school/ dinner. I would like that post lunch period to be more focussed. Right now it feels like a never ending slog of cleaning up after the kids punctuated by some reading (to kids and for myself) and some (too much) random scrolling. Ideally this is where some of the preschool curriculum would go, but I find after lunch I don’t have the energy for it. The kids mostly wander around and do random playing between lunch and second school pick up. Maybe instead of trying to go back to implementing the whole curriculum, I could do one organized activity. I think part of it is, now that we are commuting again, I’m losing time I used to use to plan and set up activity. But surely one activity would be plenty.

So here we are, heading into May and summer. I don’t usually articulate goals, but I sat down and wrote down some things that I would to get done before heading back to work:
– doctor’s appointments and check ups after I’m fully vaccincated
– hair cut, after fully vaccinated.
– finish the children’s book I’m writing for my friend Kristen.
– Sort out summer camp for the nine year old.
– research a pool membership for the summer (might be late for this, but I think there are still options out there. Or we will just go to the county pool. But the nine year old wants to join a swim team, so…)
– figure out what to do with my car- repair or replace.
– go hiking at least once
– organize book club evening with my mom’s group. I like to load up on social activities before I go back to work, because these things are harder to figure out when I am working.
– figure out a camping trip with my parents for when they are here.
– work on juggling with three balls
– blog every day for a week. Thought it might be a fun exercise to have a “week in the life” down for posterity.
– fun times with kids before I go back to work.
– sleep.

It seems a pretty lengthy list of goals for the month. On top of the daily grinds. Hopefully it will help me focus my time and efforts and scroll less. I seem to average 4-5 hours a day on my phone, which I don’t love.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this article that I read, “Write Better Job Ads” It occurs to me that in many ways, that barriers to inclusion need also to be tackled at the entry level. So in a way, entry level employees should be seen as an investment. When organizations want to hire the “best” or the “most qualified” candidate – often the parameters for that are exclusionary. So perhaps you don’t need to hire the “most qualified” candidate for an entry level position or internship. Because often that candidate gets there through the benefits of systemic privileges. And honestly, the most qualified candidate probably has other options. So maybe the key to inclusive hiring is to cast the net wide and re-define what “best” means. Maybe it’s the person with less experience, but a lot of potential. Maybe it’s the person who brings a different life experience to an organization. This also means that a company needs to be willing to do the work to have these employees. Having someone who fits seamlessly into a company culture – maybe that says more about the company culture than the employee. I’m sure my musings on this matter are somewhat impractical, particularly in competitive fields. But surely in the arts, we can do the work?

Listening: This episode of On Being with writer Katherine May who wrote a book called Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times. It seems like a perfect pandemic book. There were so many thoughtful points in her interview with Krista Tippett. They talked about how we can’t just tell ourselves to “get over” unhappiness and suffering, but rather we need lean into them to really hear what our body and mind are trying to tell us. They talk about the need to slow down and how, as animals hibernate, we too, should have seasons in our life where we pause, reflect, and reassess. The hectic always moving pace of modern life leads us to miss a lot of the things and people around us and what makes us human. It is a gentle and pensive conversation. I have May’s book in my holds at the library and I can’t wait to get to it.

Some wonderful things this week:

My final project from drawing class:

I wanted to explore toys, and the lives they lead. I still struggle with seeing colours for what they truly are, and am surprised when things look better than I think they will. The shading on the baby’s face, for example. I couldn’t get it right, then I remembered that the teacher mentioned using purple for shadows. That did the trick, but it was hard to see that purple was the right choice until it was done. Working in colour is a little scary because it’s hard to fix. I don’t love the background.

I’m a little sad the class is over; it was a wonderfully supportive group of people to share art with.

Grateful for local listservs – We had been driving past this park next to the fire station. It had a play structure shaped like a fire station, and the four year old would always ask if we could go visit it. I couldn’t figure out if it was a public park since there was no parking, and there was no information about it on the County’s parks website. So I asked the listserv. Turns out it is a public park, but one maintained by a different branch of the county. And, in addition to this information, many people sent me other playgrounds with fire engine play structures. The four year old loves fire trucks, so we’ve put these parks on our list to visit this summer.

Fire engine. Not much cover, so best visited n a cloudy day.

Friday there was wind. Lots of wind, so we went to fly a kite. It never flew very high or for very long, but any amount of lift was thrilling. The four year old embraced the “run as fast as you can” method of kite flying.

The baby has discovered pockets. It’s the best things ever.

On our walk a few weeks ago, we came across a puddle full of tadpoles. This week we went back to see if the tadpoles were still there. They were! And fatter than last time. Someone had also put a bucket and a sign by the puddle, urging people to add water to the puddle so that it doesn’t dry up.

What we ate:

Saturday: Sushi take out.

Sunday: Can’t remember….

Monday: Gnocchi and red sauce (Husband cooked!)

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday! Chicken, black beans, rice.

Wednesday: Charred cauliflower pasta from Milk Street’s Tuesday Nights.

Thursday: Lentil Bulgur Salad from Moosewood Cookbook (made with farro because that’s what we had). With the weather warming up, I think pasta/grain salads will be my go to make ahead meal for Thursday nights, rather than soup.

Friday: Pizza (homemade) and Annie, the 2014 version with Jamie Foxx and Quvanzahne Wallis, and some not as good as the original songs.

Weekly recap + what we ate – Spring, summer, winter, spring. All in one week.

We continued to enjoy the spring like weather this week. My mom’s group had a playdate at a little gem of a park. We were going to meet at the big park, but then thoughts of crowds sent me on a search for a smaller park, and I found one not too far away that was surrounded by trees and trails and had a play structure that was very suitable for toddlers.

I feel like I’m still trying to figure out how to interact with people again. Or maybe I’ve always been terrible at small talk.

It was a lovely, low key spring weekend. The Husband got a lot of yard word done, helped somewhat by the kids. There was soccer for the four year old. He is also re-learning socialization skills, I’m sure. The Husband also took that kids out of the house for a chunk of time so I could work on this opera picture book I’d promised my friend I would write for her kindergarteners.

About mid afternoon on Sunday, someone put out a call on the neighborhood listserv subject line: “Free Yarn!”. Apparently, this lady was helping to settle the estate of a friend who was a prolific knitter. Free+yarn was like a siren call to me and we headed over. On a tarp in this lady’s front yard was a rainbow of array of yarn. And not the cheap acrylic stuff. This was wool and cotton and linen. I came home with two bags of yarn. Not quite sure what I’m going to do with it yet, but I’m so excited at the prospect.

This week’s spring weather slipped into summer weather, and then, surprisingly into winter. Maybe we’ve gotten used to the warmer temperatures. Surely 52 degrees is considered balmy in the middle of December, no? In April, on the tail of 60 and 70 degree weather however, 50 was downright frigid. I pulled our winter coats, hats and gloves from storage and the Husband turned the heat on. In April! Luckily, the weather righted itself in time for the weekend.

We are taking advantage of summer-like evening temperatures and sunlight to take some evening walks. I signed up for the county’s “plogging” challenge. Plogging is a fancy Swedish word for picking up trash as you walk, well technically jog. The county sent us some grabbers, trash bags, and gloves, and we are to log with them how much trash we pick up. So one night we went out and pickup trash at the end of our cul-de-sac. It was kind of heartwarming to see the two older kids working the grabber together, with the nine year old coaching the four year old on how they could work together. There was a surprising amount of trash on our street, but I think that at one point someone’s trash can broke and it all got swept to the end of the cul de sac in a storm.

I’m hoping that I can maintain the energy to get out for an post dinner constitutional regularly. It seems like a much better use of time than the usual 7pm chaos that goes down around here. We’ll see. There is usually some degree of whining, but then once we are outside, all is better. Particularly if given a rope.

Things that made me smile this week:

When your kid matches the playground and you have a moment where you can’t find him:

When your toddler is able to help load the dishwasher. (Side note, the nine year old also loaded the dishwasher once this week. Which I’m very proud of her for, but it’s not really as cute.)

She can’t talk, but she can load the dishwasher!

Tulips in spring.

Free play area at the Botanical Gardens that is made up of just sticks. Brilliant!

Baking chocolate chip cookies. Talking about potential jobs for 2022. The kids singing loudly together in the car.

What We Ate:

Saturday: I can’t remember. Very likely we ordered food.

Sunday: Roasted Carrot Udon adapted from Mark Bittman’s Dinner for Everyone.

Monday: Broiled Tomatoes and Garlic Pasta from Dinner Illustrated. This was really really good. Basically top tomatoes with parmesan cheese and walnuts, broil until cheese is golden. Infuse olive oil with garlic and pepper flakes and pour over pasta. The Husband had an appoinment that day so by the time we ate this, it was room temperature, more like pasta salad than a pasta dish. Still very tasty. It is getting to be pasta salad time of year – I might have to start making Thursday’s make ahead meal pasta salad instead of soup.

Tuesday: Potato vindaloo from Vegan for Everyone. Tasty and filling. We had a lot of leftovers.

Wednesday: Jollof rice with shrimp from Milk Street Fast and Slow. We were out of rice, so I made this with farro. So good. I might have to buy a hard copy of this cookbook; it’s been consistently good.

Thursday: Lentil Barley Soup, also from Milk Street Fast and Slow.

Friday: Ordered pizza and watched nature tv.

Weekly Recap + what we ate – long time coming

This week, two things finally happened:

I got my first shot of the COVID vaccine.

I finally listened to Hamilton.

Okay, this last was way overdue. Like I’m seven years late to the party. But my goodness, it is very very good. It feels historic and contemporary all at the same time. And that thing where usually a show has a whiz bang first act and then the second act sort of meanders and is lost… not at all the case here. The second act was heartbreaking.

When I was a pre-teen/ teenager, I would listen to musicals constantly. I could sit and just listen to endless repeats of The Phantom of the Opera and Les Miz. But somehow, I stopped making time to listen to music in that all absorbing, rapt way. Which might be why it’s taken me so long to jump on the Hamilton bandwagon. When I first started hearing about it, it seemed like it was a complex work that would take attention. And I just never bothered to make time.

But one night, I was sewing masks. I had just finished my latest audiobook (Nomadland – also very heartbreaking and hopeful) and wanted something else to really sink into as mask sewing is a somewhat mindless activity. So I pulled Hamilton up and started listening. And at first, I thought, “This is clever, very very clever. And innovative.” But then, once my brain got past what a groundbreaking piece this was technically, I got sucked into the story telling, the personal and political drama of a country being formed. And now, I can say, I get it. I understand all the hype. And yeah, it was probably well deserved.

Other things this week:

The Husband has been spending a lot of time in the garden. This week he had mulch delivered. The kids lost no time in claiming the mulch tower in our driveway for their own:

The weather has been alternating rainy and sunny, as is typical of spring. I love both. We’ve had rainy muddy walks and bright sunshine-y walks and plenty of playground time. I worry that the nine year old may soon lose interest in playgrounds. But I hope not.

The four year old insisted that we take a picture of this tree. “It’s like a claw!” he exclaimed. I love his imagination.

Also – the baby is a climber. This is what happens when she is left unattended:

This bird-shaped sweet potato came in our Hungry Harvest Box. I find it charming and can’t bring myself to eat it. So I guess it will just perch in the kitchen indefinitely.

I listened to this interesting episode of the Ideas podcast from the CBC where they discuss the idea of a pill for treating heartbreak. I’ve been thinking lately – probably in part from working my way through the Yale Happiness Course – about how we pathologize mental health. I don’t know that there is necessarily any one right answer to these questions, but I do find it interesting, the discussion about balancing how we normalize mental health with embracing neurodiversity.

Oh – this week’s art project was to do a self-portrait. Definitely an uncomfortable assignment. The critique sessions felt fraught yet supportive. While I appreciate learning about facial proportions, having to draw myself felt strangely revealing, though not literally.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Rice Paper Spring Rolls – another kitchen sink meal. Not a hit with the kids, though I always like this meal.

Sunday: Cornflake Chicken and bagged Ceasar salad beans. The nine year old made the chicken.

Monday: Beet Yogurt Rice from Meera Sodha’s East and random “chaat” salad (cucumbers, apples, watermelon radishes, shallots, chickpeas, lime juice, salt, and garam masala). I loved this meal for getting my family to eat beets and for being so pretty:

Tuesday: Salmon and Green Beans.

Wednesday: Sweet potato curry from Milk Street Fast and Slow. We ate it with millet. I was expecting this to be a little more saucy and it was actually quite dry. The flavours were good though.

Thursday: Polenta Soup with Cannellini Beans from Milk Street’s Cook-ish.

Friday: Pizza (ordered in) and The Love Punch. 2013 breezy romantic / caper/ heist comedy starring Emma Thompson and Pierce Brosnan. It was my turn to choose and I mostly wanted to watch it because watching Emma Thompson on screen is always immensely satisfying. Also there is something to be said for making fun movies with more… seasoned actors in the leads. I like watching movies full of smooth, pretty youth as much as the next person, but sometimes I want the people in the movies I watch to be something ahead of me, not in my rear view mirror.

A propos of that thought… when we were doing our self portrait critiques for art class, many of my fellow students – who are retirement age or older – were lamenting how they found having to draw their wrinkles somewhat difficult in that it made them have to confront physical aging. And my reaction – which I wanted to say, but didn’t want to come off as gauche – my reaction was, “Why your faces are so much more interesting than my own! I found nothing interesting or complex to draw in my smooth cheeks. My face is so boring. In fact, I would have been glad for some wrinkles to give my face character.”

Weekly recap + what we ate – sunshine and spring

Easter weekend – it gave me pause to think that this has been the second Easter we have spent socially isolated. Usually we go over to a friend’s house and dye eggs and eat a lot of food. For the second year, we stayed home and looked for eggs in the living room. During Easter service, the father talked about how this is the first Easter in two years that they’ve been able to have people celebrate in person. While I do miss church in person and hearing the music live, there is admittedly something easier about streaming church in our living room. At any rate, singing is still prohibited at our church’s in person mass, so at least at home I can sing at the top of my lungs. I do love the music at our church. Lately they’ve been having a small hand bell ensemble and the ringing musical texture seems appropriately joyous.

I like having ham at Easter. And the past couple of years the nine year old and I have been making my mother-in-law’s rainbow jello. Technically it’s a recipe from the box, but the recipe has been carefully hand written onto a recipe card and kept in her recipe box. This year, everyone got to pick a jello colour, so it wasn’t strictly rainbow, but still beautiful.

Monday was still spring break, so I took the kids to a nearby nature center, one we hadn’t been to before. I feel like nature centers are somewhat hidden gems here; everyone knows about the playgrounds, but the nature centers, with their outdoor nature playspaces and kid friendly trails are usually less crowded.

The nine year old was delighted to discover a vine for swinging and the other kids loved playing in a wooden plane. This nature center also has a trail that leads to a pioneer homestead – a collection of buildings that recreate a post-Civil War farm. The buildings are closed, but I always find it fascinating to think about how early Americans lived in such simple structures. I suppose there was no need for many rooms because so much time was spent outside working. Leisure surely was some impetus to have multiple rooms for habitation.

Then it was back to school for the nine year old and back to … not quite sure what for the rest of us. Back to mornings at the park, and afternoons trapped under sleeping babies. And pick ups and drop offs. And seeing friends. All this and the beautiful weather too. The weather this week was warm and sunny – actually this would be my ideal summer, but I know that it’s just spring. At any rate, it has meant lots of time in the garden (for the Husband) and out on walks with friends (for me).

In our continued exploration of the parks in our county, we came across one that was next to an old trolley line. The trolley line has since been converted into a walking/biking trail, and it goes over the major freeway. The day that we visited, there was a fender bender on the freeway just where the trail overpass crosses. We stayed for quite a while on the overpass watching the police cars, fire engines and ambulances with their flashing lights. I watched the state highway worker try to clean up some of the debris with a push broom, sweeping pieces of fallen tree off the road, into the ditch. Something about his actions struck me as so exactingly diligent and slightly out of place. Afterwards, we stood on the overpass and pumped our arms to get the truckers to honk for us. And to our delight, many of them did.

Art class assignment this week was to create a surrealist drawing from reference pictures:

This image is a combination of a drawing of a dog made by the nine year old, the baby’s sonogram image, and an avocado art print. For this assignment, I spent much time on this website of images in the public domain. The site reminds me of the picture collection at the New York Public Library – I remember in college going there one day and spending an afternoon just pulling random categories from the files and looking at images.

COVID moment – So the nine year old is supposed to be learning recorder for music class. Only, now that she is in person, they are not allowed to use their recorders because of the aerosol factor. The students were told that they could use pencils, but the Husband and I decided that we could do better and made her a fake recorder out of a dowel we had lying around the house:

I feel like this will come in handy one day when I’m back at work.

Inspired by the Science of Well Being Course (which I am still slowly working my way through) – I’ve been keeping a list of things I’m grateful for. I feel like it’s a very cliched thing to do these days, but I like the exercise of it, so here are a couple things that made the list so far this month:
– dental insurance – finally got a cleaning after a year and a half and it felt so good.
-the hanging pot rack in our kitchen for allowing us a way to store pots easily and visibly
-vaccine eligibility opening up
-the nine year old’s kindness towards her siblings
-the former owner of this house, who planted hyacinths and tulips bulbs – colourful harbingers of spring. I always forget that they are there and then I’m always surprised when they pop up every year.
-Truckers who honk to make a little boy’s day.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Nachos – the Husband made them. They were tasty. We should have nachos more often.

Sunday: Easter Dinner – ham (basted with Coca Cola), garlic and herb marinated zucchini (one of my favorite ways to eat zucchini, though it requires frying so I don’t do it too often because I don’t like the mess of frying), green salad, Sally’s rainbow jello, chocolate pudding (an easy yet extremely satisfying recipe – I like making it with really dark chocolate and minimal sugar). I also made chocolate walnut scones in the morning and a carrot cake the night before. The Husband and the nine year old had given up chocolate for Lent, so I wanted to make sure there was chocolate dessert for Easter dinner.

Monday:Brussel Sprouts and Rice from East. While I won’t say the family dislikes brussel sprouts, it isn’t their favorite vegetable. This recipe, however, was really good and everyone ate it with zest.

Tuesday: Smashed Squash with Cilantro Pesto from Bittman’s Dinner for Everyone. Eh. The elements of this dish were better than the combination. Or lack of combination – the flavors just didn’t seem to meld.

Wednesday: Butter Garlic Noodles with Mushrooms from Milk Street’s Cook-ish. Noodles and mushrooms are two of the four year old’s favorite things. This was really really good.

Thursday: Cider Braised Lentils from Milk Street’s Cooking Fast and Slow. Made in the InstantPot. The Husband said this dish defied expectations. French lentils cooked with leeks, apples, and apple cider and garnished with pickled apples and radishes. There was an option to eat it with goat cheese or yogurt, but it really didn’t need it. Adding to our rotation.

Friday: Pizza (take out) and The Lion King. The Lion King has never been my favorite Disney movie – mostly because I find Simba a pretty week character and the plot without momentum. But I have to say, I did enjoy this more than I remembered.

Weekly recap + what we ate – Spring break and all the colours!

The children picked some spring nosegays for the kitchen window sill.

It was spring break, and even though we stayed in town, I think we packed a good number of adventures in.

I took the kids on a new to us hike about 45 minutes away. The trail was part of a County park, one of those wilderness areas that you find in the suburbs – felt remote but you could still hear the traffic. A couple months ago, I got a book that listed hiking trails in our area that were child friendly – the book even lists whether or not something is passable with a jogging stroller. I’ve been using that book to plan a lot of our outdoor adventures. On this particular hike, the baby managed to walk for almost two hours before asking to be picked up and then promptly fell asleep in the sling. It was a pretty solitary hike -perhaps because it was a weekday. But we did meet some beautiful dogs and one person on a bike. I’m not sure I stayed on the trails outlined in the book because we did not reach the shores of the lake, but we did see some other pretty neat touches of human existence in the woods:

We also went to a petting farm in our area for their Easter Egg “hunt”. While there we saw a kangaroo, turkeys, pigs, all manner of bovine, alpacas, and guinea pigs. The kids also fed some goats and climbed on play structures refashioned from large tractors. I was fascinated by the eggs that one of the workers there collected from the chicken coop – they were perfectly pastel Easter colours straight out of the chicken.

The Husband also took a day off during Spring Break, and we went up to Longwood Gardens. It was a beautiful mix of bare trees and riotous blooms, and the weather likewise alternated bitingly cold and windy with warm sun. The blue poppy display in the conservatory were apparently a very rare treat and so striking. We’ve decided to go to Longwood at least once a season so that we can truly see the panoply that the gardens offer.

For drawing class:

One day a couple weeks ago, the Husband came home with this mini watermelon.
“What’s that for?” I asked. The Husband is not terribly fond of watermelon, so I was a little perplexed by the purchase.
“I thought you could draw it. See all the cool green stripes?”
And the watermelon sat there for a couple weeks because I was busy drawing toys. And then this week, while looking for some fruit to eat with lunch, I saw the watermelon. The kids love watermelon. So I decided to cut it up for them. But then I remembered. I was supposed to draw this watermelon for my husband. But the kids were waiting for watermelon. What to do?
Now in class, our teacher is quite adamant that we need to draw from life, and not from a picture. It was the middle of lunch, however. I wasn’t going to not feed them the watermelon. So I took a picture. And later that night I drew the Husband his watermelon.
I find seeds make the watermelon eating process very inconvenient. At the same time, a picture of a seedless watermelon still somehow looks… off. Like it’s missing something.

It’s April.

I made some indulgent purchases this week:

I love drinking tea. Piping hot tea. The problem is, however, that it always cools by the time to get around to drinking it and then I have to run the kettle again. Also the baby loves to play in my tea cups if I leave them out. She sticks her hand in the cup, fishes out the tea bag and the proceeds to wipe the table with the tea bag until it breaks. What was once a relaxing ritual has actually become quite vexing and stressful.

So I did something about it. I bought an insulated cup with a sealable lid. It’s been amazing. Definitely an “added value” purchase. Hot tea all day, and no baby tea bag art.

I also went on a planner binge and treated myself to two new weekly planners. I usually do my planning in a Muji notebook, but they seem to have discontinued the ones I usually use, so I thought I would try something new. I bought a twenty four hour planner so that I could track my time and wellness habits, and a small weekly planner to plan my weeks. So one planner is for plotting my weeks and one planner is more for daily reflection. I’ve been feeling a little unproductive lately, and I find that tracking my time and planning on paper helps me focus my time. As much as it can focus while chasing a toddler.

Goals: Read some poetry every day. April is National Poetry Month, and I’ve decided to read at least one poem each day. I already get a poem in my blog feed every day via this website – though I don’t often read them, or when I do I only read them in a cursory fashion. This month, I’ve decided to really take time to read the poems which show up in my feed and I’ve also checked out some poetry books from the library both for the kids and for myself. Sometimes I find poetry challenging and dense, and I’m never quite sure that I “get” it. But I love the way words fit together to form super concentrated thoughts and ideas and images.

Good listen: I was listening to the radio obituary for Dick Hoyt on NPR a couple weeks ago and the story of his life has really stuck with me. Hoyt came to prominence for pushing his wheelchair bound son Rick in hundreds of marathon and races. Together they were known as Team Hoyt, and their perseverance and selflessness is inspiring. Listening to their story made me wish that if one of my children ever ends up in a wheelchair, I hope, like Hoyt, I never get tired of pushing them.

Oh, and the week began with a rainbow. It’s hard to hold a grudge against rainy weather when it produces such things as these:

What we ate:

Saturday: Burrito Bowls – black beans, corn, rice, avocado

Sunday: Panang curry – tofu, green beans, potatoes, cauliflower… It was a “clean out the veggie drawer” meal.

Monday: Leek, mushroom and kale subji from Meera Sodha’s East, eaten with chapatis. Kind of like an Indian stir-fry. Another “clean out” meal, that miraculously we had all the ingredients for.

Tuesday: Eggplant polichatttu from East, and chaat salad from Made in India. The pollichatu is basically eggplant layered with an onion/shallot/garlic mixture and then baked. It involved two of my favorite ingredients – curry leaves and tamarind. Tasty, but a little time intensive so I’m not sure it will be repeated.

Wednesday: Take out. Wednesday was rough and mid afternoon I texted the Husband and suggested that he bring home take out.

Thursday: Leftovers after returning home from Longwood gardens.

Friday: Pizza and Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. To be honest, I didn’t much pay attention to this movie.

Weekly recap + what we ate – vaccine impatience

Trees and Rocks – another of our weekday park adventures.

It feels as if everyone is impatient these days to get the vaccine, and it seems like such a fraught topic. So many of the eligibility requirements are deeply personal so even as I am curious as to how people my age are getting their shots, I feel like it would be intrusive to ask. I’m trying to remind myself that I will get my shot soon – our governor’s goal is to open eligibility for everyone over 16 by the end of April – and that I just need to practice safe habits til then. Having the prospects of getting my shot in sight has given me a little sense of momentum, but I feel like our state has been slower than many other states and that makes me restless. Restless momentum. Seems appropriate.

Whenever I try to look into it, it appears like the pathways to a vaccine appointment are varied and scattered. There are so many options and websites to check. I am amazed and grateful for the people who have the time and know how to help others find the vaccine and who are working so that those without internet or other such resources can get their appointments. This grassroots type of vaccine hunting is really inspiring. I suppose there is no easy way to vaccinate hundreds of billions of people and everyone is doing their best.

More sign of spring:
The birdsongs are incessant these days. It reminds me of the days when I was in college, staying up all night to finish that paper that had been put off too long and was due imminently. I usually got into such a deep sense of flow writing that I wouldn’t realize that I had pulled an all-nighter until I heard the first bird calls of the morning. And the whistle of the Dinky train.

There is something about hearing birds that will always be associated with mornings to me. Although I do love how birdsongs change throughout the day.

The birds have returned to nest in our eaves.

Rainy days. There was one very very rainy day. It was the nine year old’s half day and by mid afternoon, I had had it and forced everyone outside for a little walk. The little walk turned into an hour in the light rain. I hadn’t expected to be out that long, so I didn’t bring the stroller for the baby. Before I knew it, we were at the local park, much farther than I thought she would walk. She did need to be carried the last half block home. In the long run, though, her stamina and determination to go onward on her own two feet does make for the whole process of the daily walk to be a lot more impulsive now that I don’t feel the need to drag the stroller out too.

“If all of the rain drops were lemon drops and gumdrops….”

Sunny days. Seventy degree summer weather on the heels of the rainy day. We continued to explore parks while the nine year old is in school. This one was particularly interesting because the land used to belong to one of the prominent families in the County and the original houses still stood nearby, though they are still privately occupied. In addition to the playground, there were some large boulders which the kids enjoyed climbing.

The baby turned eighteen months this week. We had a little cake to celebrate. She had a check up and a shot, this latter made her cranky and tired all day. There is still some concern about her language development, so I might have to be a little more aggressive about starting services for her than I would prefer.

In drawing class, we continued working with colored pencils:

We were to draw a still life, and I chose to set up some of the kids’ toys. The classic Fisher Price phone was the first object I chose, and then I went through the playroom looking for other toys with faces that I could gather. I feel like finding the right colour match is still difficult for me, but I’m realizing that colour is relative. So even if the blue of the police car doesn’t completely match the real thing, it just needs to be the right color relation to the rooster, say.

The slice of life I want to remember:

The four year old is very good at entertaining himself. He will play with his cars and trucks endlessly on his own. He has also always loved books and spends large chunks of time just looking at books. I love watching him as he flips through books, taking in all the illustrations and repeating the words from memory. In those moments, I envy the life in his man bubble. Also – he’s been obsessively wearing that Doc McStuffins coat.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Can’t remember. I do remember it wasn’t as simple as I usually do.

Sunday: Leftover Pav bhaji, with a mango salad on the side.

Monday: Lentils with Roasted Broccoli and Goat Cheese from Dinner Illustrated. On Saturday, we were running some errands in a certain part of town so we stopped at the fancy grocery store -kind of a local Whole Foods. It had been so long since I had been to a grocery store, that I went a little crazy and stocked up on all manner of grains, beans, and legumes. Also – they seemed to have the entire Bob’s Red Mill catalogue in stock… and I might have gone a little overboard. If I could only shop one brand for the rest of my life, it might just be Bob’s Red Mill. Anyhow, one of the things I picked up were French Lentils (Puy lentils) – I had long heard about these as being a really sturdy lentil, but never had the opportunity to try them. I made a recipe from Dinner Illustrated, and I think they are now my favorite lentils – they don’t get mushy and taste somehow fresher than brown lentils. Definitely going to try to find more ways to use them.

Tuesday: Salmon and ginger green beans.

Wednesday: Asparagus “Risotto” from Milk Street’s Cook-ish. The Risotto is in quotation marks because this recipe actually uses Israeli couscous – another purchase on my exuberant grain shopping spree. Cook-ish is the latest in my obsession with Milk Street cook books. The recipes are supposedly very simple with not a whole lot of ingredients.

Thursday: Ordered Foodhini. Foodhini is a company that delivers food prepared by immigrants. They currently have chefs from Laos, Afghanistan, The Ivory Coast, and Eritrea. It was our first time ordering, so we tried something from every country. It was all really delicious.

Friday: Pizza and Toy Story (the first one). Watching the featurette on Toy Story, I am reminded about how utterly groundbreaking this film was. They showed clips of the animators working, and I think it’s the first time I fully grasped the fact that a lot of the animation was done by manipulating numbers.