weekly menu – Page 12 – Life Off Headset

Weekly recap + what we ate: routines to lead us back to fall

Trying to get back in the habit of recapping our week and dinner menus.

And here we are in October. September seemed a blur of finding the rhythm of new routines. But actually I feel like it’s October when things finally find their pace. Of the four weeks in September, I think there was only one week where the nine year old went to school for all five days. Each weekend, too, brought a new activity – Soccer and Mandarin for the four year old, dance and swim for the nine year old. Two activities for each older child didn’t seem like a lot when I was doing the sign ups, but since I opted to place them on the weekend rather than spread over the weekdays, they are starting to add up to a chunk of our weekend. We’re still trying to figure out the right balance of “fun” time vs. “free” time.

Lest she feels left out, while her siblings are at school, the baby is doing a music class – meh – and a swim class – actually very fun. And we go on lots of walk and visit the playground frequently. Fall colour is starting to make an appearance, a little at odds with the 80 degree weather some days.

In the “made my life easier” category, the school district added a bus stop for the nine year old’s bus just down the street. In fact, it is in front of the four year old’s school. Even though we have to leave five minutes sooner than before to be able to walk to the bus stop, I think there is something psychologically easier about walking fifteen minutes rather than driving ten minutes as we used to do. After the bus picks up the nine year old, the four year old and the baby go to the nearby playground for twenty or thirty minutes before I drop the four year old at preschool. I’m finding it a really relaxing way to start the morning, particularly after the rush and hustle of morning routines.

And the afternoon drops off in the same location too. There was a little bit of mental calculus to decide if it was worth having her take the longer bus ride so that we could pick her up closer to home. On the one hand, it makes for one pick up location for both kids. On the other hand, she’s now on the bus for about an hour coming home. I figure we’ll try it until it turns out not to be a great solution. But I have to admit being able to walk to drop off and pick up has been kind of ideal.

The baby turned two in September.

She has started to nap somewhat consistently if I lay the day out right. Namely, if I don’t put her in a car between the hours of 11am and 1pm, I have a reasonably good chance of getting her home, putting some lunch in her, and then having her go down for a nap. Of course, often we are out and about in the mornings so putting her in a car during that window is unavoidable. Then I am stuck with the dilemma of letting her sleep and get her nap in and being stuck in the car, or waking her up to get her lunch and hope that the nap train has not left for good. With the former, it does allow me to get some reading done. With the latter… if it works that she does nap, then I can get some things on my to do list accomplished. Of course, most of the time the nap doesn’t manifest itself with the latter.

I’ve become used to doing more mental calculus for the repercussions of waking the sleeping baby. It usually goes something like… “Is the stuff of my to do list doable with a baby around? Is it computer tasks (then, no because she is very good at climbing onto my chair and swiping at my keyboard). Is it pick up or meal prep – in which case it’s okay to let her run rampant through the house…” Tasks are ranked in my head according to ease of execution with a toddler around and level of importance. Of course some days, she falls a sleep on me and then nothing gets done. I’m trying to savor the sweet weight of a sleeping baby in my lap. I’m getting a lot of reading done.

I’m trying to find adventures for us to go one. I found out that the nature center at one of our regional parks has toddler appropriate story times and hikes, so we’ve signed up for many of those. The naturalist who leads them is wonderfully engaging. She approaches every log, leaf, and hole in the ground with and infectious curiosity and enthusiasm. I’ve come to realize that my kids (and I as well, let’s be honest) can more easily distinguish a FedEx truck from a UPS truck than they can distinguish the many variety of trees that surround us. That seems unfortunate to me. The park naturalist gave me some great resources for identifying things in nature and I’m excited to explore that more.

We also managed to go apple picking, one Saturday in September. We came home with a ridiculous amount of apples. In addition to the apples we picked, we brought home an enormous bag of seconds. The Husband reasoned that the apples we picked should be for pies and eating out of hand, shuddering at the idea that we use it for apple sauce. The four year old was quite excited by the prospect of making apple sauce, however. Hence the bag of seconds. Half of the seconds have been made into apple sauce and frozen. Some years I can the apple sauce, but having canned a bushel of peaches in August, I didn’t have any more jars left. So into the freezer for this batch of sauce. If I get my act together, maybe the next batch will be canned. There was also apple pie filling made, and one actual apple pie. There is still filling for a second and third pie.

At the beginning of October, there was an art installation down on the Mall to commemorate the lives lost to COVID. 600,000 flags were planted at the foot of the Washington Monument. Some of the flags were inscribed with messages from people in honour of a lost loved one. When the exhibit was over, the artist asked for volunteers to help take down the flags, so I took the baby and we drove downtown to help. We went the second day of the strike, when about half of the flags had already been removed. Even still, what remained of the installation was still a heart stopping sight. Seeing the sea of flags fluttering in the breeze, all light and movement, quantifies the lives lost in a way that merely looking at number on a dashboard couldn’t.

I have to say, I miss being able to jump on the metro and pop down on a whim to the Mall to see the monuments and museums. The clean white marble lines, the vast expanses of green, and the buildings full of things of note, being able to meander through at my own pace because I know that I can come back easily. This is one of the aspects of pre-pandemic life I miss the most.

What We Ate – So far in October:

Monday: Falafel and Greek Salad – Falafel is from America’s Test Kitchen Vegan for Everyone Cookbook. The door on our toaster oven broke – and we finally decided to replace it. The new toaster oven comes with an air fryer function. I’m learning that this is just a fancy way of saying high heat convection. Anyhow, I tried and experiment with the falafel where I fried half of it in oil and used the air fryer for half. The falafel fried in oil tasted better. No surprise there. But… the air fryer did a great job of reheating the falafel the next day. So I guess that’s a win. The falafel recipe was also delicious. It called for using soaked dried chick peas rather than cooked, and a touch of cinnamon.

Tuesday: Quesadillas from Dinner Illustrated. By which I mean I used their method of cooking them in the oven rather than in the frying pan. The filling was my own inspiration – black beans, peppers (from the garden!), corn, pepper jack cheese.

Wednesday: Eggplant with Coconut Rice from Meera Sodha’s East.

Thursday: Mac and cheese from Dinner Illustrated. The recipe features chard and there was much skepticism going in, but everyone declared it tasty in the end. Yay.

Friday: Pizza and Curious George. We’ve been making homemade pizza again now that the weather has somewhat cooled and turning the oven to 525 degrees is something we can contemplate. It was the 4 year old’s turn to choose the movie. This was a version of Curious George from 2006 and there is some awkward dated bits, particularly the colonial tone of the parts set in Africa.

Saturday: Dumplings and cucumber salad.

Sunday: Leftovers. We are trying out having leftovers for Sunday dinner. The purpose is twofold: 1) clean out the fridge, and 2) getting dinner on the table with minimal effort between the 4 year old coming home from Mandarin classes and the 9 year old’s swim practice. I’m learning that there are leftovers no one is ever going to eat. But at least this way it won’t be because we forgot about them.

Monday: Tofu Scramble on Toast from Meera Sodha’s East. A vegan version of breakfast for dinner.

Tuesday: Take out since we got home late from flag gathering. Chinese. Really spicy, but super delicious.

Wednesday: Harvest bowls – Farro, lentils, roast sweet potatoes, apples, cranberries, feta, and kale. From America’s Test Kitchen’s Bowls cookbook. I’m really liking this cookbook. Everything is so customizable. It’s kind of more like a book of ideas.

Thursday; Carmelized Onion Ramen from East. Tasty. I always like eating noodles. Apple pie for dessert.

Friday: pizza and Baketopia. We recently discovered that our favorite Italian Deli also sells pizza dough. It’s really good. Much better than anything I can make – it bakes up super puffy and crispy. Game changer.

Weekly recap + what we ate – back to work

My camera roll is surprisingly empty this week. Well, empty of pictures that I took myself. It is somehow filled with selfies taken by the nine year old. Sometimes she loops her brother and sister into her shenanigans. As a result, I get surprise photos and videos in my feed when the iPad synchs with the cloud. I find it a cute, even while I am annoyed that she is co-opting my iCloud storage. The other day we had words about something and she recorded an apology on the iPad that popped up in my photo roll on my phone. It was hard to stay mad at that.

Anyhow this week was kind of a fresh start. The nine year old started camp and I started prep for my next show. I had enrolled the nine year old in a county camp – nothing fancy, just arts, crafts, games and plenty of time outdoors. The main virtue of the camp, quite honestly, was that it was incredibly inexpensive – $275 for six weeks, when most camps charge at least that much for a single week – and also that it is about a mile and a half from our house. She did walk to camp one morning with my dad, and I’m thinking I might do the walk with her on mornings when I don’t have to be at work in the morning. The one shortcoming of the camp is that it only runs until 3pm. This isn’t a problem for me since my parents pick her up, but I do realize that this makes this super affordable camp a non-option for many working parents.

For me, it was a combination of working from home and a day or two working on site. I’m learning to be more efficient with my time when I’m working at home. Working from home was definitely much easier this week since my parents were in town and could help watch the kids.

Even though I try not obsessively document my life in photos, I do notice that when my photo roll is empty, it means I’ve been particularly immersed in the “doing” of life, rather than remembering to take time to find the things to be savor or to be grateful for.

Good things this week, then:
– long visit with a friend whose kids are at the camp adjacent to the nine year old’s camp. It was great to catch up and talk about deep and frivolous things. The two younger kids came along and the four year old plays cars by himself for ninety minutes. I love that he can get in such a flow state of play. Also – I showed him a transformer and he was adorably amazed. “It’s a truck that turns into a robot!!!!”
– The nine year old had a couple swim meets this week. I took her to one and the Husband took her to one. I’m still finding it a little awkward to make conversation with other parents at these meets, but I do enjoy seeing the event management and planning that goes on to make the meets happen. The parents are all assigned tasks at the meet; I was a timer. Putting stage management skills to work, I guess. I find it interesting to see other pools as we travel for meets.
– I am really excited for this next opera I’m working on because it reunites me with a colleague whom I absolutely love working with. Actually she was one of the reasons I decided to take this job.

What We Ate:

Saturday: Snack dinner – hummus, crackers, cheese, whatever I could scrounge from the fridge. Still recovering from the camping trip.

Sunday: Burrito bowls from Dinner Illustrated. Pantry meal.

Monday: Hot dog at swim meet and Chipotle afterwards

Tuesday: Cacio e Pepe udon noodles and cucumber salad.

Wednesday: Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and cucumbers. (Another swim meet night – the Husband took the nine year old, and I stayed home with the kids)

Thursday: Rice Pilaf with corn and shrimp from Milk Street Fast and Slow. InstantPot recipe to eat after swim practice

Friday: pizza take-out and In the Heights. Big movie – big dance numbers, big bold colours, big emotions, big voices.

Weekly recap + what we ate – running away to the woods

View from the hammock. Relaxing for five minutes at a time.

I had a week off work so I took the kids camping for three nights, along with my parents. It was also the first full week of summer break, and I thought a little unplugging would be good for everyone. Also – for some reason, I had thought that the nine year old had camp last week, but nope.

My brother, an avid backpacker and hiker, says that three nights is the minimum for camping because it takes at least two nights to adjust to sleeping outdoors. In the end, I kind of wished that we could have stayed for even more nights.

We went to Swallow Falls State Park. A friend had suggested it as a good hike for kids because it is short (less than two miles) and has three water falls for the kids to play in. Luckily we went mid week so I was able to book campsites. The weekends seem to be booked up all summer.

We drove out on a Tuesday, leaving much later than I had planned. We arrived at the campsite around 7pm. But as the camp site was 170 miles west of home, the sun went down about an hour later, so we had plenty of light by which to pitch our tents and set ourselves up. The campsites themselves were on the small side. I don’t know that I could have safely made a fire on our site since our tent took up most of the camping pad. Luckily I had booked my parents the site next to ours, so we spent most of our time on their site. Also, our site was rather close to the road. Next time, too, I would pick a camp site on the inner loop – those seemed a little farther back from the road.

In the morning, we went hiking at Swallow Falls Canyon Trail. We had been here a couple of years ago with my sister-in-law’s family. Back then, though, the kids were younger so we only made it to one waterfall. This time, the kids hiked the whole loop. Well, the baby did about half of it, and then spent the return portion of the loop sleeping in the Ergo.

The trail loops through some woods, and then along streams, rivers and waterfalls. I know some hikers hike the path clockwise, trekking along the stream and then through the woods. I didn’t quite read the map correctly so we hiked through the woods first and then meandered back along the water. I think, though, I kind of preferred this way – the gentler, forest walk first then using the more interesting terrain on the return trip as kind of an incentive for the kids to keep going.

All in all it was a great hike for the kids – there was water to splash in, rocks to climb, and the trail was nice and shady. The hike was quite popular, even on a weekday. I probably would avoid it on a weekend if possible. And at the trailhead, was an ice cream truck!

The rest of the day featured ice cream, lazing in our new hammock – my camping gear splurge for the year, and absolutely worth it! – dinner cooked over the camp fire, and smores. Also a fairly late bedtime what with the late setting sun and all.

Our second day, we went to Herrington Manor State Park. There is a lake beach there and I though it might be a nice way to spend the summer day. Going to the beach on a lake is a little bit of an odd experience – there is sand and water, but for me the absence of wind and waves and sea salt air was conspicuous. It took me a while to realize what was missing from the beach experience, and finally I put my finger on it – it was much too quiet without the constant crash of the surf. Nonetheless, we had a great time. We even rented a canoe and my dad and I took the nine year old and the four year old out for a paddle. It was a little tricky since none of us really knew how to paddle, but we did eventually figure it out. I remember when I was in elementary school, during one swim lesson, our instructors put a canoe in the pool and taught us how to paddle. That was a long time ago, and I’m sorry to say I don’t remember much of what we were taught. Once my father and I figured out how to get the canoe to go (somewhat) the direction we wanted, the nine year old also had a turn at paddling, which I think she really enjoyed.

On the way home, we stopped at Misty Meadow Creamery for lunch and ice cream. Last week, I had put out a call on our local parents’ listserv for favorite frozen treats in the area. A couple parents shared that every summer, our state has an Ice Cream Trail every summer, where they print a map highlighting Maryland dairy farms. The idea is that if you visit all ten dairies, you can be entered in a drawing for prizes.

Misty Meadow Creamery was somewhat between Swallow Falls State Park and home, so of course we stopped. It was actually a really nice pit stop. They had some play structures to climb, farm animals to pet, and some ride-on toys to play with. And of course, ice cream. I had a cone with root beer ice cream on top and black raspberry on top. The root beer is a seasonal flavor, and it was like a root beer float in ice cream form. It was a hot hot day, and our ice cream almost melted faster than we could lick it.

There was also this really neat gazebo with four gliding chairs. I immediately texted the Husband a picture saying that I wanted one. Though, of course, I have no place to put it.

I want this for my new reading nook. Not sure where to put it, but it screams summer to me.

It was a great trip overall. I wish we could have stayed longer, but unfortunately the weekends were all full up. We’ll put it on our list of places to visit again.

What we ate:

Saturday: Can’t remember. Though we got Indian Take Out for lunch.

Sunday: Chinese Take Out for Father’s Day.

Monday: Kale and Tomatoe Saag Paneer from East. Our friend Renee came over for dinner and brought a really delicious blueberry crumble as well.

Tuesday: PB& J Sandwiches, after getting to the camp site kind of late

Wednesday: Breakfast – oatmeal
Lunch – PB & J Sandwiches, hummus wraps, apples, carrots, cucumbers, watermelon
Dinner – Fish foil packets cooked over the campfire. Cod and Salmon over celery, peppers, parboiled potatoes and carrots. S’mores.

Thursday: Breakfast – pancakes (from mix), and bacon (a camping treat!)
Lunch – at the beach, sandwiches,
Dinner – Tried to make hot dogs wrapped in crescent rolls over the campfire, but that didn’t work so well. The pastry didn’t really cook all the way through. Also had baked beans and corn. All cooked on the fire.

Friday: Snack dinner, thrown together with minimal prep the night we arrived home. Tuna fish, carrots, cucumbers, cheese, and crackers.

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.”