Tag: weekly recap

Weekly recap + what we ate: Play going

Another pretty life as usual week – people went to work, kids went to school, teeth were lost (!), we went to parks, shot hoops, ran errands, had tv time and movie nights. Last week was my last week without having to work evenings until mid May. This week I start having to cover evening and weekend rehearsals at work and there will probably be a rough patch of re-adjustment of all of our schedules and rhythms. I’ve had my evenings and weekends work-free for the past six weeks and I’ve enjoyed that time. Oh well, I’ll have lots of time off this summer.

Some things this week:
-It’s been a rough week on the “WTF is going on in the White House” front. I mean it’s been a rough two months, let’s be honest, but this week there were actions, words, declarations that were particularly hard for some friends and industries I am close to.

-On the good news side- My new glasses came in. Life looks much more shiny and clear now.

Also – they came in this super cute case:

-The 8 year old’s French concert. Every other year, all the French Immersion classes put on a concert. Every immersion class gets to present one song, even the kindergarteners. This year the concert was held at a high school auditorium. it was kind of a madhouse when we first arrived because it was raining, so everyone squished into the lobby and all the kids were running around wild and excited to see each other. Seating started 15 minutes late and there was for sure at least one kid crying because they couldn’t find their class. When it came time for the 8 year old’s class to sing, there was confusion with the sound operator and the 8 year old’s class just stood onstage while they got it sorted. Predictably the class got restless just standing there, but not our 8 year old. He just stood there quietly without fidgeting, almost as if he were a statue. It was kind of hilarious. Anyhow, in the end they figured things out and the concert was a lot of fun and there was a great sense of community. I know the point of an immersion program is for the kids to speak French, and I’m always so surprised at how clear all their accents are.

– I finally registered the 5 year old for kindergarten. Yay! Checked that off the list. I still have to put her in the language immersion lottery, but at least I’m one step closer to having the full Kindergarten registration check off my list.

The highlight of last week was taking a trip to the theatre with the 13 year old. It was kind of an impulsive decision. I had noticed that the Shakespeare Theatre Center was doing a play called Kunene and the King which was written by a South African actor/playwright and it was set in South Africa. Since the 13 year old and I are going to South Africa later this year, I thought it might be a good play to go see.

I had decided that one of my goals for this year was to go see a play. Like with talking and no singing. I texted a friend who sees a lot of plays about this goal of mine and she said, “Yes! See a talkie!” I think my instinct is always to go see a musical or opera because it’s the world I work in. I haven’t seen a play in yeeears. (not counting the 13 year old’s middle school play, staged last year in the school cafeteria.) Maybe I saw a Shakespeare something pre-pandemic? I can’t remember. But it’s such a different, more intimate medium. And I feel like it is a medium that demands a different kind of attention and would be a bit of a challenge for me because the drama isn’t flashy and singing and always demanding attention.

Anyhow, when I saw this play set in South Africa was being performed and that this was the last weekend, I decided to take the 13 year old. The cool thing is that people under 35 can get a ticket for $35 so her ticket was pretty affordable, a downright steal. We decided to make an evening of it. We took the metro downtown and had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Chinatown, Chinatown Express. They have very delicious hand pulled noodles. We ordered dumpling, soup dumpling and roast duck noodle soup. Truthfully, the soup dumplings weren’t at all soupy, so that was disappointing, but everything else was really tasty.

Afterwards, we had about an hour before our show, so we got some boba tea – oolong sweetened with honey with lychee jelly and boba for me, regular boba milk tea for the 13 year old. No mommy-daughter date is complete without boba. We got our teas and walked around the area. We found a square with tables and swings and a magnolia tree in full bloom, so we sat there for a fifteen minutes and swung and finished our boba before heading to the theatre.

I really enjoyed Kunene and the King. The play tells the story of a white actor who is preparing the role of King Lear in the wake of finding out that he has cancer, and Lunga Kunene, the Black nurse who is sent to look after him. The two men slowly form a friendship despite being on opposite sides of Apartheid. Funny and touching and surprising, and with Shakespeare woven throughout. The Shakespeare was especially lovely since I had just finished Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea’s book about Shakespeare. And at the end… well.

There is something very humbling about watching a play, and thinking about how great the performances are, and being taken by the craft of the play, the scene shifts, and the costume changes, and the music and all that and then realizing that your 13 year old, sitting next to you, has her head on your shoulder and is starting to sobs because she has been so absorbed in the humanity and story unfolding onstage. Oh, it was such a good reminder to watch plays with open hearts and let ourselves be touched by the stories that people tell, onstage and otherwise, to recognize that even though the people onstage don’t look like us, don’t live where we live, don’t have the same history as us – that they still feel the same emotions as us, still have struggles like we do, are still humans like us. I think when art is criticized for being “woke” or for pushing ideologies… well, it kind of misses the point. We create to connect, not to divide. I am so frustrated that certain people in the administration don’t understand that fundamental aspect of what artists do.

Afterwards we hung out in the lobby (where I ran into a singer friend – how fun it is to serendipitously run into people you know at the theatre!), and the 13 year old got her program signed by the cast. I was in awe of John Kani, the man who wrote and starred in the play. He was such a trailblazer for theatre in South Africa – he collaborated with White playwright Athol Fugard (who just passed away) at a time when that kind of collaboration was something you could get arrested for doing. He created anti-Apartheid theatre works and was beaten and arrested for doing so. He was the first Black man to play Othello in South Africa, which was considered quite controversial since he had to play opposite a white woman. And despite all that, what the 13 year old was most excited about was that Kani played the King in the Black Panther movies. I mean admittedly that’s pretty cool too. He was very nice and signed the 13 year old’s program and when I told him we were going to South Africa this summer, he said that it’s a beautiful country now, even though it hadn’t been for many many years.

Grateful For:
-Finding the Eagle Shirt. The 8 year old has a favorite shirt – he calls it his Robot Eagle shirt. He would wear this shirt every day if he could. I found the shirt at a consignment sale when he was four and then I bought a bigger size off Poshmark for him when he outgrew the first one. Well, the shirt had gone missing for a couple of months now. But last week, I was going through some bags in the sunroom and I found his Robot Eagle shirt in a tote bag. Yay! He was so happy to be reunited with it.

-Our mechanic for getting our car back to us so quickly.

-The lawyers who are persisting. I have a good friend who works for U.S. Institute of Peace and from reading the papers, it’s take over by DOGE was a wild ride. I’m thankful there are lawyers trying to change/slow the churning machinery. I’m not hopeful that it will do anything, quickly, but in these times many are certainly carrying on with courage.

-Dishwasher. Washing up after dinner always seems so tedious. But then I remind myself I just have to load the dishwasher and wash the pots and pans and it all of a sudden seems more manageable. When I was growing up, we never used the dishwasher. We didn’t have one until we moved to California in 1992 when I was 13. And when we moved into a house with a dishwasher, my parents used it to store extra dishes, not to wash them. All to say, I did not understand the use of dishwashers until many years later when I had a kid. They are amazing! I was thinking of how lovely it is to have a dishwasher this week when I looked at the pile of dishes after dinner. I set a timer for 15 minutes and when it went off, that pile of dishes was in the dishwasher and I had washed the pots and pans.

-Bookstores. There is a new independent bookstore next the the 8 year old’s sewing class. I’m not a huge book buyer – I prefer to borrow from the library so that I can then return books to the library and not have them in my house forever. Having said that, I think I might buy a book occasionally from this bookstore because I do feel like bookstores can be such a wonderful part of our landscape.

-My friend who walked into my office with a bag of dill pickle chips, saying “I have a problem. I can’t walk by a bag of dill pickle chips without buying them for you.”

-NCAA Basketball brackets. It is indeed the madness of March in our household. The Husband declared that we are not allowed to watch scripted television until the end of college basketball season. (Exceptions given for Brooklyn 99.) The 13 year old has a bracket as part of an extra credit gym assignment. She and the Husband spent an evening poring over the choices and creating her bracket. In the midst of so much teen angst, it was so wonderful to see them bonding over something. (Oh my goodness, the Maryland Colorado State game – triumph and heartbreak back and forth for the last 30 seconds. I’m so conflicted because of course everyone here was so excited that Maryland won, but Colorado State really showed up too. I hate it when teams lose and everyone’s sad. Wait, I guess that’s almost every game. Two sides to every coin and all th.)

-Rec center fitness rooms. My tax dollars are work in such a great way. I finally made it the fitness rooms at our rec center. Rec Center Fitness passes have been free to county residents for the past two years, but I’ve always been too intimidated to go because I’m not a gym person. But there is a fitness room in the rec center where the 5 year old is taking swim lessons, so I’ve been popping up to do 15 minutes of strength training while she is swimming. So grateful to have this available.

-A cold fizzy Coke and a slice of cheese pizza. Sometimes it’s the perfect combination.

-That people still make plays. Even when they are 81 years old and have been beaten just for being Black, and have been in Marvel movies, they still believe in the medium of theatre.

Looking Forward To:
-Peak bloom! Peak Bloom! I know I said this last week, but it’s sooooo close! We’re in stage 5 of 6 right now. The Magnolias are blooming already, and there are some pear and apple blossoms to be seen. I hope peak bloom is this coming week because I have the flexibility to go down on a weekday for a bloomy wander.

-Having the summer figured out. This isn’t a “yay, fun!” looking forward to kind of thing, but rather a “Oh thank goodness we’re done!” kind of looking forward to thing. We’re so close to having summer plotted out. The 13 year old is signed up for all her camps and activities. I need to register the 8 year old for his camps. The 5 year old will continue at her pre-school until mid-July, I think. We have tentative dates for when we will take trips too, though nothing is quite set.

-Being one step closer to window treatments in the living room. You may or may not recall that we’ve been living without proper window treatments in the living room for two years, and it’s a perpetual To Do item on my list. Right now we have a combination of mismatched sheers and too short black curtain panels that I just happened to have lying around, but which don’t go all the way across the windows. Well, we’ve finally booked an appointment for the window treatment guy to come to our house. What I know that I want: Top down/bottom up . Cordless. Light filtering. What I might want: bamboo shades. But this might be tricky because our foyer, which leads into the living room has wood paneling and I worry about the shades clashing with the foyer. Oh well, this window treatment guy is highly recommended, so hopefully he can help steer us in the right direction.

-Started watching this show with the 13 year old and looking forward to watching more. I’m late to the game, I know:

-Listening to this book:

I’m not a big horror fan – I don’t like being tense all the time – but Bahni Turpin is one of my favorite audiobook narrators and for some reason I’m finding horror more entertaining than grisly in the audiobook format. This book has even made me laugh out loud a few times.

What We Ate:
Monday – Lamb Stew and Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day. Other than making sure the kids are wearing green, we don’t do much for St. Patrick’s Day, but I do try to make an appropriate meal. This was all really tasty. The Irish Soda Bread is from our cookbook “The Irish Pantry” it’s a little more dense and not sweet like what often passes for Irish soda bread, and it’s made in a cast iron skillet, so it’s very simple to throw together. The effort to taste ration is very high.

Tuesday: Shrimp Tacos. This meal took less than twenty minutes to get on the table. Tacos may seem like a lot of work, but this is actually one of the fastest meals I make. The first fifteen minutes are: season the shrimp, put taco shells in oven, make pico, chop cabbage and squeeze lime over it, heat black beans (first toast cumin, oregano, and smoked paprika in a pot then add two cans of black beans. Heat through then mash with a potato masher.). Last five minutes – cook shrimp, and while shrimp cooks, slice an avocado, open the sour cream, and put everything on table.

Wednesday: Joy’s Creamy Green Pasta – a recipe from Meera Sodha’s vegan column in the Guardian. This was really good – everyone ate it- kind of like pesto, but creamy and more filling. The sauce is made of blanched spinach, silken tofu, nutritional yeast, miso, basil, parsley, lemon, olive oil. Served on rigatoni, which is a pasta new to me. I really loved how the sauce got into the rigatoni tubes. It was topped with an lemon olive mixture that made the whole things just taste so sunny. Vegan.

Thursday: Mac and cheese (from the blue box) and green beans. Quick dinner before the 8 year old’s concert.

Friday: Pizza and the Secret Lives of Pets. We’ve seen Secret Lives of Pets before and it is a much smarter movie than it sounds.

Saturday: Chinatown Express (for me and the 13 year old before going to the theatre) / Dumplings and green beans (at home for the Husband and the two younger kids.)

Sunday: Leftovers and snack dinner for simple Sunday dinner. I made the two little kids plates of cheese, crackers, pepperoni, cucumbers and apple slices. One of them said, “It’s like we’re having lunch for dinner!” I made myself flautas from the leftover beans from Taco Tuesday.

Hope this week features some sunshine for you!

Have you ever seen a “talkie” play? Any signs of Spring where you are? Did you make a March Madness bracket?

Weekly Recap + what we ate: When things go awry

The Daylights Savings Time change has kicked my butt this year. I’ve been going to bed too late, getting up too late. Luckily the kids were all early risers to start, so even though they’re getting up later than usual, they still have plenty of time to get ready in the morning. I think we are almost back on track now, though that 7:15am piano lesson on Wednesday of last week was brutal. This week I’m having the kids sleep in their “tomorrow” clothes on Tuesday night so it’s one less step in the morning before piano lessons.

Last week was my last week off contract before I start prepping the stage management department for another show. It ended up being very full. Monday I met up with a friend at the Duck Decoy Museum. It was kind of fun to revisit this museum, which we chose because it was roughly half way between my friend and me. It was nice to catch up, go for a stroll along the Chesapeake Bay and grab a bite to eat. My friend used to work in opera too; we started out in the business together – me as an intern and her as an Assistant Stage Manager. I’ve known her for over twenty years. We talked a lot about opera stuff and life stuff. It’s funny to see how some of the people we worked with when we were both just starting out are now pretty important in the opera world, some even running opera companies. My friend was a pretty big deal too, but is taking a step back to re-evaluate things. Sometimes I think back and feel so lucky that the colleagues I worked with twenty years ago are, twenty years later, still good friends.

That was the big adventure for the week. I spent most of the week going to appointments and prepping supertitles for a voice recital. I can be pretty efficient about prepping titles because it is a lot of steps and I like to have them done well in advance of the recital, but for some reason this time I just couldn’t focus and ended up doing it pretty last minute, which I don’t like. The was such an interesting recital program. There were songs in English, German, French, Chinese, Uhygur, Farsi, and Quechua (an indigenous language of Peru). Making those titles were certainly challenging. Even though the singer gives me the translations, I still have to match the translations to the music/text, which is hard to do without having even a basic understanding of the language. google Translate can help some, though the Quechua song was definitely tough. On a whole, though, the titles for this recital was a really fun challenge. This is the super nerdy part of doing supertitles that I like.

Funny story – twenty minutes before the recital, the pianist’s iPad wouldn’t turn on. All his music was on that iPad. I gather there was a lot of panic backstage and mad photo copying of music. You wouldn’t have guessed anything was off during the recital. Until we came to the last piece in the first half. They singer and pianist started the song. They got about half a page in, and then stopped. And the pianist looked at the audience and started speaking. He explained about the iPad not turning on and all the help they got to get a hold of the music for the program. But then, they didn’t realize until just this moment that the music he had been given for this last piece was in a different key than what they had rehearsed.

“If it was just a half step, or a whole step or even a third different, I would have just transposed it as we went,” he said, which made my head explode just a little bit. But I guess that’s why he’s a professional pianist. “But,” he went on, “the music is a a whole fourth higher and that’s beyond me. So I don’t know what to do.”

And the singer said, “Let’s just try it a fourth higher. I’ll sing it a fourth higher. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll come back with a different solution after intermission.”

For folks who aren’t musicians – a fourth higher is a HUGE difference. Vocally it just sits in a completely different place in the voice. It’s like the difference between Elphaba and Glinda. Or, I don’t know between a turkey and a hummingbird.

But they did it. The song still sounded great, just a different feel than if she had sung it in the lower key. At intermission, the pianist’s iPad started working again, so the second half proceeded without incident, but what a memorable recital it was. This was my last recital with this group for the season, and I’m a little sad that I won’t get to work on another recital until the fall.

Weekend – We are in a little lull with kids activities now that the 13 year old is done with basketball season and the 8 year old finished his goalkeeping clinic. There are still plenty of other activities but for the first time in ages, our afternoons were pretty open. I did things like fold laundry. We played board games on Saturday night – Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza while the Husband made dinner, and after dinner, we opened a game that Santa brought for Christmas. It’s called Flamecraft and the jury’s still out on this game. It has a billion pieces and takes a while to set up and each turn is a million steps. I kept pointedly asking the Husband, “Why did Santa think this game was a good idea?” Despite my grumbling, the family took to it. The premise is easy enough that the 8 and 5 year old could play, as long as we weren’t keeping score or trying to be strategic or anything. And the game is beautifully illustrated. The kids seemed to like it, so maybe it will stay in our rotation.

Sunday was more exciting than I wanted. After the 5 year old’s agility class, we went to a bakery to pick up some treats and then to the grocery store. As I was pulling into the Giant parking lot, I started to smell something funny and I thought maybe it was just that corner of the parking lot, but then I noticed all this smoke. I thought it was coming from my exhaust, but an elderly gentleman in the parking lot waved at me and yelled, “YOUR CAR IS OVER-HEATING!”

I pulled into a spot and called the Husband because I figured he would know what to do. But then the nice elderly gentleman knocked on my window and said, “Do you want me to take a look?” Now I very much believe in the grace of good Samaratian and said, “yes please!”

So we popped the hood of the car and there was all this smoke and water, which I guess means it really was steam that was coming out of my car. The elderly gentleman (who had the name Phil embroidered on his shirt – he was clearly coming from work) starts looking around. Then he makes a comment about what a cute little kid I have in my car. And I agree that she’s very cute and ask him if he has kids.

“Well,” he says to me, “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I’ve lived with four women in my life and I have grand kids ranging in age from 18 to 24. But I love kids.”

Then he noticed that the radiator hose had become disconnected. He asked me a bunch of questions and said, “You should get that check out. Did you call your husband?”

Now modern woman that I am, I had a moment of pause when he asked that. But then, I realized, Phil wasn’t wrong – the first call I made was to the Husband. Is it sexist if it’s true?

Phil went back to his car to get a pair of pliers so he could re-check the hose, but first he asked, “Can I give your daughter a toy?” I said yes, because I figured why not, and he comes back with a park of piers and a stuffed animal -a cat that squeaked when you squeezed it. Of course the 5 year old was delighted. (Side note- when the 13 year old found out that a random stranger had given the 5 year old a stuffed animal, she asked, “Is he trying to use her as a drug mule?” That made me laugh so hard.) Phil reattached the hose and told me to fill the coolant and take it to my mechanic immediately. And then my guardian angel was on his way.

Sunday afternoon, I had two friends over for lunch. These were the friends whom I went pottery painting with two weeks ago. Our pottery pieces were done, so one friend picked them up and they came over for lunch and pottery hand off. I thought my flower pot turned out very cute:

Before
After!

For lunch, I made a batch of the blogger favorite curry chick pea salad, which we ate with olive bread and cucumbers. One of my friends brought some pastries from a new Asian American bakery, Rose Ave., and the pastries were divine. My favorite was the Ube cream Queen Aman. Queen Aman is one of my favorite pastries, and to add ube cream… so delicious.

After the friends left, the Husband and I tried to go out to look at blinds and mattresses, two things we are in dire need of. But the blind place closed early on Sundays and the Macy’s near us didn’t have mattresses. Bummer. Feeling a little defeated, we didn’t know what to do and were going to head straight home. But then we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens instead. So we had a nice walk through the park to the gardens and back. The gardens are still very brown and grey, but there are bits of colour starting to pop up and it made for a nice pick me up. Also, exciting was that we left the kids at home to do this. Now that the oldest is legally old enough to stay home with the two little kids, the Husband and I have on occasion gone out to run errands or what not, just the two of us. It’s been so amazing to be able to walk out the door without a kid in tow. Milestones!

Speaking of things gone awry (because things always happen in 3) – After my fall while running last week, I noticed something interesting. I didn’t cut my chin, but it did start to scab over. I’m not sure what is up with that? Also after a couple days, my chin started to bruise really really badly. Like it looked like I rubbed my chin in graphite in an ill attempt to draw a goatee on myself. It was pretty distinct. I was a little self conscious about it and thought, maybe I should cover it up with make-up. But that would require buying make-up and figuring out how to use it. I had no interest in any of that. So I just let the chin get blacker and bluer and went on with life. I did have a thought that I should just head people off at the pass and reference it first – “How are you doing?” “Oh, you know – ” vague hand wave ” – just a little accident. Ugh. How are you?” But I just let it be.

What fascinated me was there were people who would ask my about my black and blue chin and the people who didn’t say anything. And I’m not talking about strangers in the street. These were people who I see every day and are friendly with. I’m sure there’s no correlation here for those who asked “WHAT HAPPENED???” and those who didn’t say anything. But it did get me thinking about whether or not I would say something if I saw someone with a huge wound? I mean when I see a friend or colleague come in with a boot or crutches, I usually will ask what happened. But would it make a difference it’s on the face? Do people have the same internal monologue as I do? “Ooh that looks bad. i hope they’re okay. Will I make them self-conscious if I say something? Should I let them reference it first? I don’t want to pretend nothing is going on – I might seem unobservant or uncaring…” Or maybe it’s just me and most people if they don’t say anything just didn’t notice? There’s no right or wrong answer here, of course; just something that was rattling around in my brain this week.

Grateful For:

-Seeing the first spring flowers coming up. Hyacinths along our front walk.

-Basketball courts at the park and a body that still can shoot a basket. A couple days last week, I met the 13 year old at the basketball courts after school and we shot baskets for 30-45 minutes. Is there anything as satisfying as making a basket? I’m bad enough at basketball that it still gives me a little rush every time the ball sails though the hoop.

-Clean sheets on my bed.

-My father’s help with the Chinese songs in the recital program that I worked on. There was one song in Chinese and the English text I got was matched to Chinese characters, but the music had pin yin (the romanization of the characters), so I couldn’t match the English to the music. I sent the Mandarin text to my dad, and he talked me through the characters so that I could match the English translation to the pin yin in the score. I’m so glad I had him for help.

-For that matter – I’m really grateful that my parents spoke Mandarin to me when I was a a child. My Mandarin isn’t great, but I can get by, and I did notice when we were in Taiwan it got easier with each day. When I was prepping for the recital last week, once I heard the Chinese songs being sung, I understood enough of the words that I knew I was on the right track. I can only read a handful of characters and would loved to read/write more, but it’s a really hard language to learn. But I’m really grateful that I have a little bit of the language in me. Also grateful for the little French that I have. It’s enough that I can help the 8 year old with his homework. Every time I heard people speaking Mandarin or French out and about and maybe understand some of it, I think about how cool languages are and how neat it is that people communicate. Also I found this super interesting about what animals sound like in different languages.

-Friends that invite the 13 year old out to shows and to shoot hoops. I know it’s hard for her to always be tied to activities that her younger siblings can take part in, so I’m grateful when she has friends (and their parents) that invite her out and come pick her up and bring her home. This week, she had invites to go play basketball t the Rec Center and to see a concert at a local high school. These things would have been hard for us to take the little kids to so I’m grateful that she has friends that include her in plans. Also I think it’s nice to switch up the dynamic between the kids once in a while by having it be just one or two kids at home.

-This green messenger bag:

We bought this bag 13 years ago to use as a diaper bag when the oldest child was born. At the time the options for diaper bags were kind of frilly and pretty and the Husband wanted something gender neutral and utilitarian. So we went to REI and this bag had all the features we wanted. This bag has gone on so many trips with us, on flights, over oceans. And it’s still in great shape. Anyhow, ironically, I had been using an old diaper bag to carry my laptop around. The diaper bag had been an impulse purchase – it had been on super sale and looked really cute, but when it arrived it wasn’t super functional as a diaper bag so I put it in a closet for years until I realized that it actually fit my laptop perfectly. So I’ve been using that yellow diaper bag for my laptop. Anyhow after many years, the faux leather on the yellow diaper bag is starting to flake so I decided it was time to retire it, and I just started carrying my laptop around in a tote bag, which isn’t great. Then last week, I was cleaning out a closet and I unearthed the green messenger bag that had been living in the closet for a couple year what with COVID and the kids being out of diapers and all that. Well the green messenger/former diaper bag was perfect for fitting my lap top and it has now been put back into service. I’m just a little tickled that for years I used a diaper bag for my laptop and a messenger bag for a diaper bag. And now it feels like life has come full circle. (Also – I do NOT miss the days when leaving the house required packing as if for an Arctic expedition – food, toys, diapers, wipes, change of clothes…. So much simpler to leave the house now, though the Husband will say that I still pack too much to leave the house. But he’s a guy and perhaps doesn’t believe in having emergencies outside the house.)

-Phil who helped me with my car in the Giant parking lot and gave the 5 year old a stuffed animal.

Looking Forward To:

-The 8 year old’s French concert this week. Every year, all the French Immersion classes at his school put on a concert where each class sings a song. It’s pretty cute. I do have to find the kid a pair of black pants. But he has first communion later this year and I’m told he needs black pants for that too, so hoepfully I can find somethign he can wear more than once.

-Peak Bloom! There is an updated prediction for peak bloom – it is now predicted for March 28th – 31st. I’m not yet in rehearsal, so I think I should be able to go see the cherry blossoms at some point.

-New glasses! I finally made an appointment with the eye doctor, updated my prescription. I am VERY near sighted, the optometrist said. I knew that, but I think I’ve gotten even worse since my last appointment…. three years ago. Luckily my far sightedness has remained about the same, so I didn’t bother to get new sunglasses since I use those just for driving. I chose new every day glasses, that I’m kind of excited about – they have red rims. They aren’t as bold as I wanted, but I need nose pads on my glasses, and that limits the options. At any rate, the new glasses will arrive in two weeks and I’m really excited because I currently can’t distinguish betwen 6 and 8 on my crossword puzzle squares and THIS IS IMPORTANT.

-Listening to this audiobook:

Hearing Dame Judi Dench’s words (she doesn’t actually read her own part, Barbara Flynn does, doing a remarkable job), as she talks about the plays of Shakespeare is both hilarious and revelatory. Highly recommend for any Shakespeare or theatre enthusiasts.

What We Ate:
Monday: Mac and Cheese and hot dogs.

Tuesday: Chicken mole tacos. I made this mole sauce from Rick Bayless. It made so much mole sauce, that I froze three jars and I can’t wait to eat more. It makes for a super easy meal – poach chicken thighs for 15 minutes, shredded and tossed it with the mole sauce. Tortillas, home made pico de gallo, sour cream, and avocado.

Wednesday: Fried catfish sandwiches. The Husband cooked.

Thursday: Pork and eggplant stir fry with noodles. The husband Cooked. This was very tasty.

Friday: I was working so I had a salad at the work cafeteria. And a chocolste chip cookie. They have the best chocolate chip cookies at work. The family at home had take out pizza, wings, and watched Sleeping Beauty.

Saturday: Breakfast sandwiches, cucumbers, and fruit.

Sunday: Tortellini and gnocchi. Some with red sauce some plain.

Hope you have a lovely week. Has anything gone awry for you lately?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Good-bye February, Hello, March!!

I’m posting this later in the week than usual, and we’re firmly into March. February seemed really short to me this year. It’s only two/three days shorter than other months, but for some reason the month felt as if it was gone in a flash. I think this probably had a lot to do with the three days I was sick – that’s practically a whole week there.

This last week of February had some fun things:

Last minute gig: On Friday, I got a call to stage manage an event on the next Monday. It was a strange call because I knew the theatre and the stage managers are usually booked at least a month in advance. Turns out it was the producer that was hiring me, not the theatre. Oh well, sure, I’ll take your money! The event was a concert put on by the Kuwaiti embassy, and as these things tend to be, it was a little chaotic but full of heart. Stage managing events isn’t my favorite thing – I like a rehearsal process and getting to know people and creating the product together. But the money for events is generally good and people are often really glad you’re there. And you know – it’s partly feels like the stakes are high because you only have one chance to get things right. At the same time, the stakes feel pretty low because you only have to do it once, often with minimal/no rehearsal. So there’s a lot of “by the seat of your pants”ing and it is exciting in a way.

I work in this theatre and with this crew a lot, and it’s one of my favorite places to work, so that was definitely a fun part of the gig. Also, I learned so much about flag protocol on this assignment – the US Flag must be to the right of the flag of a foreign nation, and the foreign nation’s flag can’t be larger than the U.S. Flag – this caused a flurry of activity backstage when the Kuwaiti embassy folks showed up with a flag and asked if we could provide an American flag. It turned out fine in the end, but I’m sure glad the crew knew all the rules. Also if you are playing more than one national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner is played last. All the rules and what not are so fascinating to me. And now I know – whenever I work and embassy event, on of the first things to ask is, “Will you be bringing a flag for onstage? And how big is it?”

The concert was lovely, and featured a mix of American and Kuwaiti music. There was a local orchestra who played alongside several musicians from Kuwait playing instruments that I had never seen before but which I found so interesting to hear. All in all, not a bad day’s work.

Drumline Showcase! Friday night we went to the High School Drumline Showcase. It was at our local high school and featured the drumlines of eight (I think) high schools in our district. It was amazing. Also very loud. So much showmanship and musicianship. Drumline was not something I was aware of when I was in high school, so this was a fascinating glimpse for me. The Husband did marching band when he was in high school, and afterwards he was telling me all about the drumline hierarchy.

…. and then the lights went out. This part was a lot of fun.

The concert felt like a glimpse into my future as a high school parent. I went to a magnet high school that was twenty miles away from home, so I wasn’t really involved in any high school activities or groups. There was such a sense of community at the drumline showcase – it seemed everyone had friends there – we even ran into our former neighbors – it made me realize that a huge part of high school is the community you build for your family and for your kids. Where we are, there are several options for high schools kids can go to – there is the one you are districted for, but then there students can also apply for programs at different high schools as well. I can’t believe that next fall we’ll be having our first go around of high school choice with the 13 year old – I believe applications are due end of October. Right now she wants to go to our districted high school because it has a strong theatre program and also a lot of her friends might end up there as well. I am anticipating a lot of stress this October as we figure out this high school stuff. Choice is good, but also choice means choosing which can be stressful.

Painting Pottery with Friends – My good friend K and I had a date last weekend at one of those paint your own pottery places. I had never been to one before and it had actually never crossed my mind as an activity for a girls’ afternoon. K invited her friend W, whom I had hung out with a couple times in the past, and we had such a good time. Pottery painting was a good combination of creative and relaxing. I tend to resist activities that leave me with a tangible item to take home because I always think, Oh what am I going to do with this? But the pottery place had some very functional pieces and I chose to paint a flower pot for the Husband. I can’t wait to see how it all turns out when it is fired. Afterwards we went out for an early dinner and it was just such a lovely afternoon all in all.

February highlights: So now we’re into March. Two months down in 2025. Ten more to go! Some of the good things that happened in February:

-Visiting the Duck Decoy Museum.

-Celebrating the Husband’s Birthday at one of his favorite restaurants.

-On the work front – finishing hiring stage management staff for next season. (Well mostly. There is a hiring freeze right now so we technically can’t hire some people, but we have asked them to hold the dates for us.); doing supertitles for a lovely voice recital; the last minute concert for the Kuwaiti embassy.

-The 13 year old finally having her birthday party. Six girls at our house for a sleepover and waffles and the newest Marvel movie the next morning.

-The kids’ continuing to thrive in their activities. The 8 year old is taking a goaltending clinic. I was surprised because I didn’t think it would be his thing, but he says playing goalie is “chill. Until it’s not.” The 5 year old did a session of gymnastics. Previously I signed her up for the tumbling and trampoline class because quite frankly, the gymnastics equipment scares me – so much opportunity for injury. This time I signed her up for the class where they rotate equipment and she’s really taken to the balance beam. They both are continuing with skating, which has been fun to watch. The 13 year old is all basketball all the time, but she also is in the ensemble for the middle school musical – I’m really proud of how she’s pursuing both interests.

-Super Bowl Party with good friends and good food.

-Daily Yoga. Except for the day that I was sick, I managed to do at least 10 minutes, often 20 minutes of yoga every morning. I didn’t start the year intending to have a yoga streak, but it’s been a nice part of my morning to know that I’ll do some yoga in the morning.

-Blogg-y community fun: 1) Elisabeth’s FJIG Collective, such a heartwarming and encouraging effort from around the internet for finding good things in life, and 2) Engie’s Cool Blogger’s Book Club reading The Blue Castle together – a wild and quaint book that sparked some really fun discussions on her blog.

-Watching the kids get along. Mostly. I feel like the two little kids are at a magical age (5 and 8) where they really enjoy playing with each other. Most mornings I can just do my thing and they’ll play nerf guns or some other pretend game or read to one another. It’s really sweet. I do worry that the 13 year old feels left out of that dynamic sometimes, but you know what, if she would bother to emerge from her room and take her headphones off, I’m sure her siblings would welcome her into their games. The kids do collectively call themselves the “Kids Club”, which I love.

February lowlights:

-Sick Days. For me, for the 13 year old. Ugh, just ugh. We’re both better now, but the gunk and cough is still lingering, and we can’t seem to shake it.

-The 13 year old didn’t get the part she wanted in the school musical. She was really upset to be “just ensemble”, and that’s tricky to navigate with her. It’s all fine and I think she is now having a good time, but it was kind of a sad day when the cast list went up.

-Scrolling. I had one day when I went on Facebook to try to get some information and then went down a kind of sad rabbit hole. I’m not active on social media; I had quit Facebook about two years ago – that day in October when the site went down, and I took it as a sign. I’ll still check it once in a while for information – like seeing if a store I like is open, or if there’s some activity going on that I want to go to. But even then, I’m just checking individual FB pages and not looking at my own feed. Welp, I made the mistake one day of clicking on my feed while checking something, and I got sucked into scrolling and reading other people’s news. One of the reasons I got off FB in the first place was because I never felt happy or uplifted or connected by it. I always just felt anxious or jealous. Anxious because it seemed like my groups – which, granted, were mostly parenting groups – were full of people’s anxieties. Anxieties about screen time, about how to keep their kids warm, about feeling judged… I know these groups are often for people to find sounding boards for issues, and I see the value in that, but I often found I was taking on other people’s anxieties and I didn’t like that. Then the other part is that I would often feel jealous because a lot of the people I’m FB friends with are work colleagues and it’s just hard for me to see what other amazing work/shows/projects people are working on because it always seems amazing (Yes, I know that’s the point of posting it on social media). I have a degree of insecurity about how good I am at my job and when i see people working on amazing projects it kind of affects my self confidence and makes me feel small. So anyhow… that FB black hole I went down that one day in February- it didn’t land me in a happy place. I just felt kind of listless afterwards. So now I know for sure that I should not be on FB or any kind of social media because it messes with my head.

-The new political administration. I find myself avoiding writing publicly about the new administration because it feels… odd, maybe even rash. It might be fine. It might not. But my work happens to be connected somewhat with a federal institution and I like my job and want to keep it, so I’m being cautious on what I write about the whole situation.
I can’t pretend that nothing is happening, but I also recognize that some things would be imprudent for me to say on the internet. But here is a super superficial thing. I am selfishly angry that all my friends at the bus stop have been ordered back to in person work and are scrambling to find childcare and I don’t get to have my bus stop chit chat. Talking to my friends at the bus stop is one of the high points of my day. Of course there are the friends that no longer have jobs, so I guess I’ll be having more chit chats with them.
Okay in the scheme of things, my bus stop social is the least consequential thing that the upheaval in Washington is disrupting right now. There is so much uncertainty and confusion in the air. And fear and sadness. And anger. I want everything to be okay in the end. So I guess we’re not yet at the end. Oh well. I keep telling myself that at least I’m not stuck in a war torn foreign country with no idea how I’m going to get back home. In the big picture, my work upheaval probably isn’t that big of a deal. Malthus’s hierarchy of needs and all that. But it has been a stressful anxious time for sure.

February 29th – Things I wonder – So here’s a fun thing from my five year journal. Since I don’t use the February 29th page every year, I’ve taken to using that page to write down some of the things I’m pondering at the time. I call it the “Things I wonder” page. Last week, being the last week of February, I was re-reading the February 29th entries and it made for an interesting time capsule – here’s some of it:
2021: How will I know to get the [COVID] vaccine? Will [the oldest] do okay in school? When should I send the two little kids back to daycare? When will I go back to work? Do I even want to go back to work?

2022: What is going on in the Ukraine? How can I connect more with [oldest child]? When will it feel like the pandemic is over? Am I going to get better at the “stepping up” part of my job? Is there a way to do this [opera] without exhausting the Husband ?

2023: Will [the two little kids] be as hard as [the oldest]? Do I want to stop stage managing? Am I just better suited to being an Assistant Stage Manager? Can we afford life? When will the war in Ukraine end? How can I be a better roommate?

2024 was a leap year, so I don’t have an “Things I wonder” page. It’s interesting what questions get answered and what questions don’t, what questions I am still asking myself and what questions I don’t ask anymore.

Grateful For: It is technically the end of Elisabeth’s month of FIG collecting, but I’ve always listed my gratitudes every week in my posts, and I’ll continue to do so.

-The 8 year old, who has never really taken to school saying one morning as we walked up the path to school, “You know, I’m starting to like school.” Who knows if it will last, but there’s a glimmer.

-The road crew that fixes the potholes. There have been so many potholes popping up in the main street by us. I try to avoid them, but am not always successful. Hooray for the road crew that is filling them – rather quickly too, I’m surprised by the speed at which the County has been dispatching road crews.

-On that note of municipal services – public trash cans. How amazing to be walking down the street eating an orange and not have to think about where I’m going to put the orange peel until I get home. I can just throw it away in this trash can on the street!

-Clean crisp sheets and sliding between them after a long day.

-The smell of dinner cooking as I walk in the front door.

-Our backyard. It’s not a big backyard, but it’s our own space outside. On Sunday, after we came home from the 8 year old’s goaltending clinic, he wanted to play more soccer, so we kicked the ball around in the backyard. I remember during COVID how grateful I was to have a backyard to get out of the house and enjoy sunshine and air. I’m still grateful for this space – not just for me, but also to have a space where I can safely send the kids out of the house to run off some energy.

-Our friend W, who picked up the 8 year old from school and watched the kids when I had that last minute gig.

-The County Rec Centers. The rec center near us has an indoor walking track and a fitness room, all of which county residents can use for free. I haven’t used the exercise room yet, but I met up with a friend to walk around the track one rainy morning and I was really grateful that the County was making membership free to residents again this year. Last year I kept telling myself I’d take advantage of the free membership, but I never did. I’m going to do better this year.

-Mangos. Specifically Kent mangos, ripened to just the right softness and sweetness. Eating in the middle of winter, they are like a tropical island in my hand.

-Taking the Metro to and from work and not waiting more than three minutes for a train. Also – I put my metro card on my phone and every time I tap my phone to enter the turnstile, I’m amazed how seamless it is. No more fumbling for my wallet or my card.

-The warmer weather and bikes and park time after daycare pick up. Serendipitously running into friends at the playground.

-Middle school sports and the teachers who coach them. The 13 year old’s middle school basketball season came to a close. I managed to make it to half of the final game. Her games are at the same time as when I have to pick up the 8 year old from the bus stop, so usually the Husband has gone to the games. But he couldn’t go to that last game so I managed to go to the first half of her game and see her play for the first time. I’m so glad that the 13 year old had an opportunity to play on her school team.

-Middle school teachers and administrators in general. Not going to lie – walking through the halls of the the middle school to go to the 13 year old’s game was intimidating. All those pre-teens – loud, mysterious, moody, full of opinions – it was scary. And I didn’t have to interact with them. God Bless those who have made it their life’s work to help guide kids at this oh so tricky stage.

Looking Forward To:
-The Secret Garden at the high school. Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon’s The Secret Garden is one of my favorite musicals ever. I’m so excited to see it. Will the kids love it? Will they be bored? Who knows? Who cares?

-A relatively open March. My last month without rehearsals.

-Day Trip to meet up with a friend. We’re going to meet up at the Duck Decoy Museum because it’s half way between us. I’m actually pretty excited about this because I didn’t get to see the whole thing thoroughly when the family was there in February.

-Just started this book – it’s been on my radar for a while, so when I found a copy at our Library used bookstore I snatched it up immediately – Engie and Julie gave it high praise, so I moved it up my TBR, and am liking it so far:

-Also – It’s March! A new month! A new stack of Magazines to read on Libby. I LOVE magazines and when I discovered I could read the via Libby it was like angels singing. Reading magazines on Libby isn’t as nice as reading them in paper, but on Libby I can get magazines from all over the world, so it’s a trade off:

My current magazine cue…

What We Ate:

Monday: I had a salad from the canteen at work. Our friend W who came to watch the kids brought them chickens sausage and potatoe soup.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday! Korean Pork Tacos from Dinner Illustrated. Still working on eating that 6lb cabbage.

Wednesday: Italian Wedding Soup with Turkey Meatballs from NY Times Cooking. This was a pretty simple soup and came together pretty quickly because I made the meatballs ahead of time over the weekend.

Thursday: Tikil Gomen, Misir Wot, and injera. This was the same cabbage, carrot and potato dish that I made last week. This time I also made misir wot (red lentils) to go with it. For the misir wot, I used mostly this recipe from the Washington Post, but I made it in the Instant Pot so that I could make it in the morning and then leave it. Surprisingly the kids really liked the lentils and didn’t care for the tikil gomen. (Even though it was the exact same cabbage dish that they had loved eating LAST WEEK!!!)

Friday: Pizza (take out). No movie this week because we were going to see the drumline showcase.

Saturday: My friends and I went out to eat after pottery paining. We went to a really tasty Mexican restaurant. I had Enchiladas (served with cactus!) and we split a delicious flan for dessert.

Sunday: Dumplings from the freezer, and whatever other leftovers we could scrounge up.

How was your February? What extracurriculars did you do in high school? What have you been wondering about lately?

Weekly recap + what we ate: President’s Day, and mundane bathroom things

Last week started with a day off for President’s Day and it was such a lovely day… Nothing terribly special or unique. Not big adventures. Just a really nice day at home. The best thing, though, is I had the two little kids make to do lists for the day, a combination of things that I wanted them to do and things that they wanted to do with their day at home. I’m a firm believer that a good day is a combination of fun and productive activities. The kids seemed to really get into having little Post It lists of tasks and getting to check things off:

The one on the left is the 8 year old’s list and the one on the right is the 5 year old’s list.

We started the day in a leisurely fashion – I did some yoga. The Husband fed the kids breakfast. The after breakfast we cleaned the living room and did some general puttering around the house. We’re still struggling to find a good routine for keeping the house tidy. The tidy habits just aren’t there with me or the kids, but if we leave things to tidy at the end of the day it gets quite out of control.

Then we had lunch – reheated pizza, I’m sure. Because that’s what we always eat for lunch at home. After lunch we went on a walk/bike ride to the park. I love that we live walking distance to a playground and a trail. And since it was a holiday weekend, the parkway parrallel to the trail was closed to car traffic, so the kids had a nice long uninterrupted stretch of road to ride on. We walked from the closest playground to the next one down on the trail and played there for about half an hour before coming home.

After we got home, we watched Wonka- how luxurious does it feel to have an afternoon family movie “night”? After the movie – cute, entertaining, but not particularly memorable, I felt – I made dinner. After dinner, the 13 year old went to basketball and the 5 year old took a shower while the 8 year old worked on his Black History Month project – a poster about Barak Obama. (This is the “Barack Obama” that is on his to do Post It above. I have to say, helping the 8 year old research Barack Obama made me kind of wistful. And really really really sad about the current state of affairs in Washington D.C.) Then we had some family reading time before bed for the two younger kids. We haven’t been reading out loud together as much as we used to – we’ve been going to be so late that it’s usually just pjs, brush teeth, then lights out and cuddles. Sometimes I’ll put on a story podcast for them while we cuddle, but I’m really missing reading outloud from a chapter book. I should try to find a way to put that back into our schedule.

All in all, though, it felt like a really good day – a nice balance of relaxing fun, outdoor fun, and house/life admin. Sometimes I think when we have these family days off, we should try to do something special, but you know what, just a regular leisurely day at home is pretty special too. I don’t think we got in the car until it was time to take the oldest kid to basketball clinic. I do like having a car-free day.

The rest of the week was business as usual – school, activities, etc. I had a super title gig for a recital that featured a lot of beautiful German music and two arias by Handel. I love Handel, so that was a particular treat. One interesting thing about this recital is that the singer did his own translations. Usually when I’m given translations to made into supertitle slides, the singer has pulled them from somewhere else and sometimes they need to be massaged a little bit in order to make good title slides. But this singer, impressively translated everything himself and it was quite well done – no massaging needed.

Mundane Bathroom Things…This next bit was inspired by Elisabeth’s post last month asking for shampoo recommendations. Her post got me thinking how I’m probably the worst person to give recs for personal care products. I started listing in my head all the personal care products I use and it all seemed rather… haphazard…. Through a combination of good genes and apathy, I find myself with a pretty minimal body/face/skin care routine, mostly relying on whatever is around the house. Anyhow, I started going through the list of all the personal care products and items I use regularly and thought it might be the kind of mundane snapshot of life that I’ll be super interested in reading about twenty years from now. Also it might be stupefyingly boring. (If this seems the latter to you, feel free to scroll down to this week’s FIGS.)

Glimpse inside our medicine cabinet. What’s with the ridiculous number of deodorants??? There aren’t that many stinky armpits in the house. Also I seem to be stockpiling eyeglass cleaner. I’m glad I took this picture- it’s inspiring me to do a little clean out. Note the old fashioned ice pack on the top shelf. I love the thing but can never get to it in time when someone needs ice.

Let’s talk about showering – I don’t shower every day. I don’t even shower every other day. I usually shower three times a week. Less if I’m not going into work regularly. Showering is just kind of a lot of work to me. So my preference, though, is to shower at night. Things I use in the shower:

-Soap: Dial bar soap. This is what the Husband uses, so it’s what we have in the house and therefore what I use.

-Shampoo: I used to use Soap and Salve bar shampoo and an apple cidar vinegar rinse. I thought it might be better for the environment because there was no plastic involved, except for the old peri bottle I used for the vinegar. But the shampoo is not that easy to get and I realized that ordering it online hardly makes it good for the environment. So I just started using whatever kids’ shampoo was in the shower. I used to use the 13 year old’s Pantene (which is the shampoo of choice because we can buy it at Costco), but then she started showering in the downstairs bathroom and took her shampoo with her. So… now I just use whatever the little kids use because it’s there. Currently we use Everyone 3-in-1 soap (Body wash, bubble bath, and shampoo.)

-Conditioner: Pantene – but only if I’m showering downstairs in the 13 year old’s shower and it’s there. Otherwise no conditioner.

-Washcloth. Sometimes. Only if there’s already one in the shower. But even then, I never know who used it last so usually I don’t bother.

-Tubshroom. Not personal care per se, this is a little silicone insert that you put in the drain and it catches hair. I do lose a lot of hair in the shower and this thing is invaluable in keeping the hair from clogging the drains. Or at least keeping it from quickly clogging the drains. We still do have to have our drain snaked about once a year.

After Shower Things I use:
-Towel – I have a favorite towel that I’ve been using for probably twenty years. I took it from my parent’s house when I moved out. I love it because it is large, bath sheet sized, but it isn’t thick, so it’s easy to manipulate it to dry off and then I can wrap my hair in it. I get very grumpy if it is in the wash when I want to shower. (Thank you to my Husband to washing my towel, even when he doesn’t tell me he’s doing it ahead of time…)

-Q-tips. i know! they say don’t use q-tips in your ears, but I hate having wet ears.

-Cetaphil body cream – must moisturize after shower. I’m pretty brand loyal about this. I usually get it at Costco because I can buy two giant containers at a time and not have to think about it again for a year.

-Turbie twist, to dry my hair after I towel dry it. I hate walking around with wet hair. When I shower at night, I’ll usually sleep with my hair in the Turbie Twist because it gives my hair a bit of volume in the morning when it is dried.

-Deodorant – not shower specific as usually I only use deoderant if I’m going out in public. I don’t tend to bother with deodorant for hanging out at home. I’ve been using Native lilac and white tea lately, because it smells nice and supposedly is free of aluminum and parabens. Is it really better? Who knows. Everyone’s body chemistry is different so I feel like there’s no magic solution.

-Hair dryer – I prefer to let my hair air dry, but if I happen to shower in the morning and then have to go to work, I’ll blow dry it before I leave the house. I’ve had the Revlon 1875 Ionic hair dryer for over ten years. It was whatever Consumers Report recommended at the time.

Before bed:
-tooth brush – I’m currently using a Dr. Suess kid’s toothbrush. What can I say? It was what was in the toothbrush bin when I had to replace my last toothbrush. Shockingly – I always brush at night, but don’t always manage a morning brush. If I brush in the morning, I prefer to do it first thing because a dentist friend told me that the morning is when there is the most amount of bacteria in one’s mouth.

-Toothpaste – Aquafresh Extreme Clean – I’m actually pretty picky about this. This is the only toothpaste I’ll use if given a choice. Everything else tastes like cotton candy to me.

-Floss – Oral B Glide – this was recommended by the dentist because my teeth are pretty tightly packed together and other floss just shreds when I try to use it.

(I know I should wash my face at night, but I don’t wear make-up, so I don’t feel particular urgency about face washing. If I feel the need to wash my face, I’ll just do a wet washcloth and water.)

Other stuff in my bathroom that gets regular use:
-to clean my glasses, whatever glasses spray came with my glasses from the place I got my glasses. I’m pretty sure it’s just Windex in a branded spray bottle.
-Aquaphor – for every thing that feels dry. Usually my lips, often times my hands if I have an eczema breakout. Also slathered on our faces before we go out when the air is super cold and biting.
-Steroid ointment for my eczema. okay, truth, this tube of prescription ointment is at least eight years old, but it is huge and it still works to calm my eczema when it gets bad. Perhaps I should go back to my dermatologist and get a new prescription, but I am terrible about doctors.
-Lip balm – Aquaphor Lip Repair Stick. Love that this stuff keeps my lips from feeling dry without being too thick or sticky.
-Sunscreen – I use whatever I have for the kids. I had a fancy sun screen last summer, but it made my skin sting and burned whenever I got it in my eyes, so I went back to just using whatever I get for the kids – usually Think Baby or Aveeno, or Coppertone. Last year at some point, I also discovered the amazingness that is spray on sunscreen. That was life changing. I only use sunscreen in the summer, though. I should probably use it all the time.
-period pads – These days it’s the Cora brand, but I’ll usually just pick up whatever cotton topsheet pads I can find at Target.
-period underwear – technically in my bedroom, not bathroom, but it spends a lot of time in my bathroom.
-diaper sprayer. We installed this when we were using cloth diapers, and it actually continues to be quite useful even though we have been diaper free for three years now. I use it to rinse my period underwear, spraying it right in the toilet. Also I will on occasion use the diaper sprayer to rinse by nether regions, kind of like a bidet, but not.
-Kleenex. Always Kleenex brand. NEVER the lotion kind. That just smears when I try to clean my glasses.
-Toilet Paper – Charmin. We are pretty brand loyal to toilet paper. I got us the Kirkland brand one time and there was a meltdown when the TP fell apart as a butt was being wiped. I had to give away the rest of the 24 roll pack. And now we just get the Charmin.
-Advil.
-Hand Soap. Soft Soap because we buy that in bulk at Costco, and I love our soap dispenser that I got a year and a half ago at a sale by a local pottery group:

What I don’t have is any make up because I don’t wear any. I might have some that I keep on hand in case I want to do my face for opening night, but I never really want to make the effort, and I figure I’m just standing around in the dark all night – no one cares what I look like. I guess if I do have any make-up lying around it’s got to be at least five years old. I should probably find that and throw it out.

Whew – I guess it is a long list after all. I didn’t even list most of the stuff in the medicine/linen closet in the bathroom. Like the first aid/medicines that we keep in the bathroom, but I figure that’s not stuff I use regularly. Also didn’t list out the contents of the hair accessories drawer, but that’s because my hair is in a short phase so I don’t usually use the hair ties or clips right now. So there’s a snapshot of one corner of my life in February 2025.

Grateful For: my weekly collection of things I’m grateful for. This month, I’m recording extra gratitudes to add to Elisabeth’s FIG Collective I’ve loved reading everyone one’s FIGs this month.

-Paths and parks.

-School Bus Drivers. One day the 8 year old’s bus was 30 minutes late. Turns out there were some additions to the bus driver’s earlier route that caused trickle down delays. As annoyed as I was to be standing in the cold for 30 minutes waiting for the bus, I’m really grateful to school bus drivers for getting kids to and from school safely. That can’t be an easy job.

-Kids reading to each other:

-That my thyroid is fine. Last year I had a thyroid ultrasound to rule out any issues related to my abnormal period. There was a “not-concerning, but maybe you should have it checked out” nodule. At the time, the ENT said my thyroid is fine, but to schedule a six month follow up. (I guess my abnormal period is just called “being in my mid-forties”.) I had my follow up this week and everything looks fine. There continue to be nodules on my thyroid, but they seems to come and go and are small, so I have another follow up in a year, but no one is concerned.

-Sunshine.

-All the things that make a good morning – healthy breakfast (sweet potato, black beans, cilantro, and scallions), hot tea, a good book, and the crossword puzzle. And fifteen minutes to enjoy it all in peace:

My morning happy place. When it happens.

-Fleece-lined pants. I know I keep mentioning this one, but they are truly life changing.

-It’s Cadbury mini egg season!!!! How much do I love Cadbury mini eggs? The crisp crunchy shell. The smooth sweet chocolate inside. The perfect little size to pop into my mouth. The fact that they are only available once a year. Rejoice! It is Cadbury mini egg season. Oh a discovery! The other day I had some Cadbury mini eggs while sipping my tea and it made my tea taste like a chocolate chai. In light of my M&M conundrum, I am hiding these from the kids.

-That the 8 year old did his homework without either of us having a meltdown.

-A quiet theatre before a performance. The promise of a beautiful evening of music. I think one of my favorite moments of my job is that half hour before a show starts, when everything is in place to begin, and the air back stage is one of quiet anticipation and preparation. I love that energy.

-Laundry freshly washed and hung up to dry, scenting the air with the smell of detergent.

-The five year old’s sassy sense of style:

-Music, played loudly in the car with everyone singing along and bopping to the beat.

-The six pound cabbage. We have a friend who gives us his CSA when he is out of town. Last week, he brought over a HUGE cabbage. Like bigger-than-my- head huge. I put it on the scale to see how much it weigh. Friends, this cabbage weighed more than any of my children at birth. We’ve been slowly eating away at it. Good thing cabbages last a long time.

Yes, that’s a 6lb, 13.9 oz cabbage. I guess that makes it almost 7lbs!

-A brisk and invigorating walk.

-Hot tea in a mug.

-A cake on the counter. One day, I was working from home and, in my procrastination, I decided that I had to do something with the sad looking oranges in our fruit bowl. When I say sad, I mean really really sad. Like the outside skins were dyhydrated to the point that the oranges could be used as baseballs. I found this recipe for whole orange bundt cake (Sunset Magazine’s Whole Orange Cake)- you puree the whole orange and put it in the cake. It was the perfect use for the sad oranges. Having the whole orange in the cake gave the cake a marmalade-like tang, making it not too sweet. This lovely cake sat on the counter all week, and how lovely it was to be able to walk over and cut of a slice to nibble whenever I felt like it – morning snack, afternoon tea, dessert… Doesn’t having a cake on the counter just make a kitchen seem like home?

I did not sift the powdered sugar when I made the frosting, so it clumped a little bit.

Looking Forward To:

-Swimming lessons. I managed to snag a hard to get swim lesson slot at one of the county pools. I’ve been feeling a little anxious that the two younger kids still don’t know how to swim, and I’m really hopeful this is the year they learn. I know once a week swim lessons for six weeks probably won’t do it, but it’s a start. I think I’ll also try to find time to take them to the pool as well for rec swim time. We have a new-ish county rec/swim center that opened last year and I hear it’s great. Apparently there are two hydrotherapy pools – one near the kids’ area and one far away from the kids’ area. That sounds like a great design.

-Spring – there have been some positively spring-like days lately. I’m so excited that the weather is beginning to turn.

-Cherry Blossom season! The predictions for Cherry blossom season have started to trickle in. The Washington Post is predicting mid March.

-Knitting. I’m determined to do something with the yarn sitting in my room. I’ve borrowed some books from the library and my friend loaned me some needles and I’ve decided to make a hat. I’ve knitted and pulled apart the first five rows three or four times already, but I guess that’s par for the course. I get a little excited for the possibilities every time I see the yarn and needles.

-Plans with friends. I have three separate dates on the calendar with friends whom I haven’t seen in at least six months, one of them for a year. Looking forward to catching up.

What We Ate:

Monday: Tikil goman Meera Sodha’s recipe for Ethiopian cabbage, carrots, and potatoes. We ate this with the injera that we bought from the Ethiopian grocery store that I mentioned last week. It was really simple and tasty. Vegan.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday. We had a friend join us for Taco Tuesday last week. The Husband made slow cooker chicken, and I also made black beans and shrimp for the tacos. On the side – mano slaw, guacamole,

Wednesday: Baked Feta and Tomato Pasta – recipe shared by Julie on her blog. This was so easy and tasty. I thought we would have leftovers, but the kids kept asking for more. It was a touch acidic for the Husband, but I think he feels that way about any tomato-heavy dish.

Thursday: I worked this evening so had a work canteen salad. The Husband made this 15 minute Tomato Egg Noodle from Omnivore’s Cookbook. Scrambled eggs cooked in a ginger-y tomato sauce and eaten over noodles. I had leftovers days later and it was SO GOOD.

Friday: Pizza (carry out) and Lego Batman. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen Lego Bathman before, but the Husband said I should just be thankful that he talked the 8 year old out of choosing the latest Paw Patrol movie.

Saturday: The two little kids and I were at a birthday party. There was the usual pizza, but also the family ordered falafel as the main food as well. The falafel was really tasty, the pita pillowy, there were lots of veggies and pickle toppings and there was this amazing spicy green Schug sauce to top it all off. Gold star to the birthday parents for this spread.

Sunday: Dinner out at a really tasty sandwich place, Full On. We were out for the 13 year old’s basketball game, which happened to be close to this bar/restaurant that we really like but don’t go to a lot because it’s not really close to our house. The 13 year old and I shared a Buffalo Chicken Sandwich and a Crab Cake Sandwich with onion rings.

Here’s a thought to leave you with: One of my favorite things to read is the weekly chat of advice columnist Carolyn Hax in the Washington Post. I find that she answers readers questions with such a great blend of empathy and pragmatism and without sugar-coating things. Her readers often contribute similarly thoughtful advice. These past few weeks there has been much angst in reader questions about the state of the world and our place in it. I loved this comment a reader submitted to the chat last Friday:

from the chat on Friday 2/21/2025

Hope you have a week of beautiful points.
Tell me about your mundane body care things. How many bottles are in your shower? Blow dry or not to blow dry? What’s your favorite baked good to have on the counter? What else should I do with my 6 lb cabbage. (I think there’s still 4 lbs left.)

Weekly recap + what we ate: Snack conundrum, February aspirations, and listening to

This week – work, family, federal chaos. I don’t know if I have the bandwidth to unpack all of that. Or even if I should/want to/etc.

So here are some less consequential things on my mind lately….

The snack situation at our house is pissing me off. It seems like the kids are constantly snacking. Okay, I’m going to be honest – what pisses me off the most is that they are taking my snacks. Specifically my peanut M&Ms. One of my snacks of choice to pack for work is a trail mix of pretzels, peanut M&Ms, and dried cherries. I bought a big bag of M&Ms to do this. (Rather, the Husband bought me a bag when he was at the grocery store.) The kids found it and the bag was nearly gone within the week. Ooooh the rage I felt. Anyhow – my options as I see it are:
1)stop buying Peanut M&Ms. This would make me sad.
2) Hide the peanut M&Ms better. But where? The kids are very persistent.
3) Give them better alternatives. Would this work? Would they eat the bowl of carrots I put out for them? Really they just want M&Ms.
4) have a no snacking rule. HAHAHAHAHA. Nope.
5) get over myself and let them eat the peanut M&Ms.

I realize this is completely irrational. Peanut M&Ms aren’t like beer – it’s not something I can pass off as a “Mommy snack.” I’m trying to think of why my kids can’t have Peanut M&Ms whenever they want in a way that doesn’t make me feel petty. (ie. they can’t have peanut M&Ms because the M&M are MINE!!!!!) Sigh. It’s really hard to be the bigger person in this parenting thing.

So anyhow I’m trying to think of better snacks.

Listening to lately – Despite my musing in my 2024 media diet post about my lack of music listening, I’ve been trying to rectify it somewhat. Some things I’m listening to:
–All Songs Considered. I am so not hip, but I like this podcast because they play music I’ve never heard of (honestly that’s not that difficult. My musical rolodex is quite limited) by artists I’ve never heard of (but probably should know about), and they tell you why they like the pieces.

-Our Tainan playlist. On the bus in Taiwan, I made a playlist by asking everyone in the family (my parents, my brother’s family’ the Husband and kids) to choose one song to add to the list. It’s a little all over the place, but I love listening it because it reminds me of my family:

-Okay you know what is unassumingly charming music? The soundtrack to Bluey. There is even a poppy version of Pachelbel’s Canon that doesn’t drive me batty. I’ve been playing this album when I want something cheerful in the background. The music embodies the happiness I want my kids to remember when they are grown,.


(Note – Pachelbel’s Canon is one of those pieces of music that makes me roll my eyes. Funny story – It was the one piece of music that I was adament would not be played at my wedding. The organist suggested it and was shut down rather quickly. But then, my parents arranged a wedding banquet in Taiwan for all their relatives. And what did the DJ play when the Husband and I entered? Pachelbel’s Canon. What could the Husband and I do but laugh?)

Some light aspirations for February:

-Register the 5 year old for kindergarten. This is one of two big “To Do” of February. She is for sure going to Kindergarten this fall. No one is stopping her.

– Start organizing forms for our tax person. This is the other big “To Do” for us. I start back at rehearsal at the end of March, so I need this done before then. Also our tax guy wants tax documents submitted two weeks before

-Schedule an appointment for window treatments. Now that I’ve donated the 20 year old car, this is the looming-perpetually-put-off item at the top of my to do list.

-Schedule an eye appointment. The situation is sad, friends. I haven’t had my eyes checked in four or five years and things just don’t look crisp anymore. I really need to fix this before I have to spend more time standing in the dark backstage trying to read music by the light of a tiny book light.

-Paint and send some cards.

-Work – clean out the office, organize the laptop situation, order spike tape. I have two supertitle gigs, so I want to make sure I get ahead of that work and not leave it to the last minute.

-home – 30 day declutter challenge. I found a Thirty Day Declutter Challenge online. I like that it’s in ten minute increments.

-write Taiwan/Kuala Lumpur trip recaps.

-Schedule time to see friends.

-Family game night.

-Make it to one of the 13 year old’s middle school basketball games.

-Valentine’s Day. Help the kids write their cards.

-Routine and Habit goals:
* yoga daily
* journal/ track habits daily
*1 vegan dinner a week. Trying to eat more vegetables.
*Go to bed before midnight.
*Read every day.

Grateful For – It’s been so uplifting to read read everyone’s FIGs via Elisabeth’s gratitude challenge. Here are some of my FIGS for the past week:
– The Husband showing me a beautiful sunset. He was on his way out the door to pick up one of the kids and he came back, saying, “Look at this sunset!” It was stunning, all orange-y pink incandescence.

-Hoodies with zippered pockets. Good for when I just stuff my keys in my pocket.

-Our gas grill and the tenant who left it for us. I was a charcoal grill person for the longest time, but then our tenant left behind a gas grill when she moved out. It’s not the same flavor, but it sure as hell is faster.

-Wifi at kids’ activities. Lets me get work done. Or blogging. Like right now at the Agility Center.

-Fresh baked muffins. And a batter that is sturdy enough to sit in the fridge for a few days so that I can make more on a whim.

-A commute home when I hit all the green lights. Makes me feel unstoppable.

-Parks and playgrounds nearby. I feel so lucky that we live somewhere that there’s usually a park or playground within a 10-15 minute radius of wherever we are, so if we have some awkward time to kill between activities, we can find a playground.

-Movie night and cuddles from the kids on the couch.

-The cherry tree in the living room isn’t dead after all. The Husband on a whim bought a cherry tree last year. It’s been living in our living room and for a while it was just sad and bare. But slowly, so slowly that I hadn’t even noticed, there has been green emerging from the brown branches. And this week, there was even a blossom.

Looking Forward To:
– Contra Dancing! There is a Thursday night contra dance this week near us. Looking forward to going with the family.

-Vanilla. So we ran out of vanilla this week. Or rather we ran out of vanilla at some point before this week and no one clocked it to put it on the grocery list before I wanted to make a big batch of muffins. I had some vanilla beans that my mother in law had bought me for Christmas one year. (Note, my mother in law passed away in 2016, so these have been in the pantry for a looooong time.) I’d been too intimidated to use the vanilla bean, but desparate times….

I scraped a vanilla pod into the muffins. then I read that you could make your own vanilla extract by sticking a vanilla pod in vodka and leaving it for six months. Well…. Last show, a singer had given me a tiny bottle of vodka for opening night. Alcohol is a common opening night present, but I don’t drink, so it’s often a conundrum of what to do with it. Well, this was perfect. I stuck a vanilla bean in that tiny bottle of vodka. And now I wait. For six months. I’m so excited. I also hope I remember it’s there in August.

Open in six months. I guess I have to remember where I put it in six months.

-Another snow day. Looking forward to hunkering, maybe baking. I have some meetings that I’ll take from home. Shhhhh… don’t tell the kids, but there might be movie marathon at some point so I can read. See next point.

-Reading this book:

This book was all the rage last year. It finally came off my holds as a seven day loan, so I’m madly trying to read it this week because if I don’t finish it, the waitlist for this book is like 2000 people long. It’s proving funny and sharp. Also makes me wonder if my wardrobe is boring and normal.

What We Ate:
Monday: Greek Salad and Zucchini Fritters. Vegan. (I used a flax egg for the fitters.)

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday. We had a friend over this time. I made grilled chicken, black beans, shrimp, mango-cabbage slaw. We had also pickled onions, guac, sour cream, avocados. Corn tortillas and wheat tortillas.

Wednesday: Random dinner – I used up the rest of the sunchokes by making another batch of sunchoke chips, and also steamed green beans. The Husband was out running and errand and came home with kung pao chicken and garlic pork.

Thursday: Waffles and tofu scramble (The Husband Cooked). This was our attempt at breakfast for dinner in an age of $10 eggs.

Friday: Pizza (The Husband made it) and Avengers: Civil War. A very unsatisfying movie.

Saturday: DogFish Head Brewery for the Husband’s birthday

Super Bowl Sunday: We had several friends over and there was so. much. food: we made cheeseteaks, dumplings, and snickerdoodles. Our friends brought: smoked turkey, chicken wings, white bean buffalo dip, brownies. There was also a lot of chips, Doritos (Cool Ranch and Regular), and cucumbers and carrots. Also, these Pringles:

I am pretty notorious in my circles for eating anything, but these were… not good. They were meaty with a green pepper aftertaste that tasted both surprisingly accurate and completely artificial.

Hope you have a lovely week!

What are you currently snacking on? What’s one song you would add to my playlist? Any big to do list items for February?

Weekly recap + what we ate: Some adventures and January Highlights

Chesapeake Bay seen from Havre de Grace

I think this week was the first time I noticed that there is more and more sunlight in the evenings. I was driving home at 4:30pmd, after pick up one day, and I noticed that the sky was still light. It’s February! Spring is coming.

It was an eventful week at home. We started off kind of rough with our second visit to the emergency room with a child ever. I guess in 13 years of parenting, having to go to the emergency room twice is a pretty good go. (The first time was last year while we were in Berkeley with my brother.) What happened was the oldest child had fallen and hit her head during her Sunday basketball game and still wasn’t feeling great on Monday morning, so the Husband took her to the ER. (So I guess technically I didn’t go to the ER, just the Husband and the 13 year old.)

After five hours, they were seen with the diagonosis being “mild concussion.” She was told to take it easy and no basketball games for a week. Practice was okay, but no games because they didn’t want to risk another head injury. I’ve never had to deal with a concussion before, so this was new and worrisome to me. (Well I did have an incident once onstage where a singer ran into another singer too hard during a fight scene and got a concussion, but I didn’t have to deal with that other than to fill out the accident form and send the singer to management.)

The thing about a mild concussion is that there’s not a lot we could do except limit activity and stay vigilant. So it felt like we were hovering between being on high alert and not having to do anything about it. We did go back to the doctor on Friday when there was some vomiting and general sluggishness, but we were told that it can take up to two weeks to feel normal again. So wait and see, I guess.

Wednesday the kids were off school because it was a grading day, and I took the two older kids on our New York City adventure. The day deserves its own post, but here are some picture highlights:

Bagels!
Iconic buildings!
Theatre!

Wednesday night was when that awful plane and helicopter collision happened over the Potomac. I didn’t know about it until after we got home from New York. DCA is such an important airport in this area- we fly out of it all the time. At work, I often see planes headed that way or coming from DCA, and helicopters are constantly flying overhead. Some of the footage of the collision was taken from the rooftop camera on our building. It all feels very close. There is something really cruel to me about the Potomac these days. Just last month, a pick up truck went off the Memorial Bridge, plunging into the river and now this. I can’t help but to think that Potomac is angry about something. Which I know sounds crazy, but I think that’s just the way things feel in D.C. right now.

The rest of the week, I worked from home, and it was a week full of meetings, so I felt like I spent a lot of time on Zoom. I like the flexibility of working from home, but I feel like I sometimes get distracted. After getting off a call, I would need a brain break and I’d go do laundry or read a chapter of my book, or what not, and then it would be hard to sit back down at my computer. I might go into the office next week so that I can focus better.

Saturday we had a little adventure to Havre de Grace, MD. It’s a little town on the bay, at the mouth of the Susquehanna River, about 90 minutes drive from us. We picked Havre de Grace because we wanted to explore a new to us museum that was on the list of “Reciprocal Museums” that we could see with our Walker Art Museum membership. On that list was the Duck Decoy Museum in Havre de Grave. YES! A WHOLE museum devoted to duck decoys.

I thought it would be a quaint little one room affair. Friends, this museums was two stories – three huge rooms of duck decoys and duck decoy adjacent exhibits. The information was fascinatingly niche. There were certain craftsmen who got a whole exhibit case to themselves, complete with life sized mannequins. The museum reminded me a lot of the handicraft wing in the American Art Museum, and made me realize how readily accessible creative pursuits are to everyone. These were not men (and they were all men, mostly White) who went to school to learn how to carve duck decoys. Most of them did this as a hobby while holding down jobs – grocers, post masters, military me. It was inspiring in a lot of ways, reminding me that I should also take time to do creative things.

Did you know that Cecil County duck decoys are characterized by a flatter tail and rounder body?
Just one of the many walls of duck decoys.
The tools and process of making duck decoys.

We continued our day in Havre de Grace with a walk to a playground so the kids could run off energy:

Then we went to Mass at a beautiful little church there. I’m not Catholic, but it’s always interesting to me to go to Mass at different churches and see how even when the people are different, the rituals are all the same. Afterwards we went out to dinner at a tasty seafood restaurant. It was a lovely little half day trip, all in all.

Well, it’s already February. Hard to believe at the beginning of this month we were on another continent. Some January highlights:
-Making it home from our Asia trip.
-Yoga (almost) every day. I’ve been doing 10-20 minutes of yoga a day, and there were two days when it didn’t happen, both days that I was travelling. Though when I think of it, I could have probably fit in something on those days. I even did 15 minutes of standing yoga the day we were stuck in the Seattle Airport for nine hours.
-Snow Days, snow delays, and sledding.
-Celebrating birthdays for the 13 and 8 year olds.
-Candy cane beets and crunchy winter salads
-The start of basketball season for the 13 year old.
-our NYC trip to see Hadestown.
-Dumpling date with my friend K.
– A very smooth and enjoyable rehearsal process for the new works that I stage managed.
-A January that felt like a real winter, and just long enough to not feel endless.
-Ice skating. The two little kids are taking skating lessons. They are now in the same class, so I go skating while they are in lessons. I listen to an audiobook while I glide around the rink. I have a vague goal of learning how to do a backward crossover.
-A cozy MLK day at home with scones and cookies and reading and games.
-playing Skyjo.
-That Duck Decoy Museum.

Some January lowlights:
-the 13 year old’s minor concussion.
– not getting out and running – the weather has been so cold. I know last year I ran in 20 degree weather, but I couldn’t rally to do it this winter.
– WTF is going on with the new administration? I mean it’s very clear that there is a strategy of strewing confusion and panic wide in hopes that no one will know how to fight back. The stress and worry and confusion is palatable in the air everywhere here. I try to limit my intake of news, but it affects so many people here that I feel like I should have some idea a what is going on.

Grateful For – Elisabeth has a series going on this month (just this month?) Called FIG (Finding joy In Gratitude). I usually include at least three things I’m grateful for in these posts, but for February, I thought I’d aim for seven things:

– Glimmers of sunlight still lingering at 4:30pm.

-Reciprocal museum memberships. How else would we have discovered the Duck Decoy museum?

-The old Subaru. Welp I did it. I took my old car in and donated it to the technical program at the high school. It wasn’t as emotional as I thought I was, which I guess means that it was time, but I still felt sad about it. That car served its previous owner for nine years and then served us for almost another thirteen years. It drove me to Colorado and back four times and ferried all of our children around when they were babies. I’m really grateful for that car. And for the friend who sold it to us.

– Smiles and laughter and hugs from the 5 year old at pick up time.

– Pianos and music making and my parents for signing me up for piano and voice lessons when I was a child. I spent an hour noodling around on the piano one evening. I don’t do that enough.

-Medical insurance and living four blocks from the hospital.

-That we are no longer in a pandemic. We watched a documentary this week – “Cirque du Soleil: without a Net” about what happened the the Cirque show O when the pandemic hit and then how the show came back. It was a little surreal to think back on March of 2020. When we asked the two little kids (8 and 5) if they remembered the COVID pandemic, they said “no”, and the 13 year old tried to explain it to them. That was interesting to hear her account. But also she talked about parts of being stuck at home and not having to go to school that she enjoyed, and that is something that I don’t think about very often. But all in all, I am glad that we aren’t living in a pandemic any more. Not necessarily because we were forced to stay home, but rather because that time of uncertainty was so so so so stressful.

Looking Forward To:
–February! We had our family meeting on Saturday and in addition to looking at the week, we flipped our calendar pages and looked at the whole month. There’s a lot to look forward to in February – birthdays, Super Bowl, some interesting gigs for me. It’s going to be a full month, but I’m not in rehearsal, so it will be a good month for quite evenings at home too.
– Every day things. I was inspired by all the comments on last week’s post on routines and a “boring” life. I loved this comment from Melissa:
“I probably get a ridiculous amount of satisfaction from making the bead and opening the curtains so the sun streams in.”
The comments made me think about how I take these boring routines for granted sometimes. So this week, I’m going to make it a goal to look forward to doing these every day things the best I can. This week, I’m looking forward to:
-Making the bed every day, nice and neat.
-Wiping down the counters at the end of the night so that they are clean in the morning.
-Lining my shoes up in the boot tray when I come home.
-putting the window shades up to see the sun.

What We Ate:
Monday: Butternut Squash and Fennel Risotto. I always think risotto is a good idea, and then I make it and I remember that I don’t actually like eating rice as a main.

Tuesday: Taco Tuesday – We had a taco bar: Chipotle Chicken and Black Beans, Shrimp, mango cabbage slaw, pickled onions, guac, avocado, sour cream. The 8 year old wanted to try hard tacos, so that’s what we did, and they were tasty.

Wednesday: New York City – the kids and I had burgers after the show.

Thursday: Sunchokes and chicken. The Husband sliced the sunchokes thin and then baked them, so they were like chips.

Friday: Pizza (homemade by the Husband. He even make an Indian one with tikka masala sauce rather than tomato sauce. I think I liked that one more than other people.) for the movie, originally I had picked The Mummy, but the kids declared it was too scary after about 10 minutes, so we switched to we watched Cirque du Soleil: Without a Net.

Saturday: Dinner in Havre de Grace. I hade the Bouillabase. It was tasty

Sunday: Scrounge for yourself. The Husband made the kids egg sandwiches. I had an amazing loaded sweet potato – roasted chick peas, sour cream, cilantro, avocado, and green onions. I’ve never thought to load a sweet potato the way I load a baked potato and I have to say, I was missing out. This was so delicious. Or maybe that’s just the sour cream talking?

I don’t take pictures of everything I eat, but this was really tasty.

Hope everyone is having a lovely first week of February!

Weekly recap + what we ate: thwarted plans

The Frozen Potomac

Last week’s pristine snow has turned soft and slushy, grey with dirt and continued living. Life going on. That’s okay. I hear there is more snow coming this weekend and next week.

I was down at the Mall on Friday (more on that below) and I saw rows and rows and rows and rows and rows of chairs set up for inauguration. I texted my friend/coworker and said “It makes setting up a room for a 65 person chorus rehearsal seem paltry.” The whole Mall was surrounded by temporary gates and to get from the Smithsonian metro stop to the National Gallery of Art was an exercise in finding the doorways. I walked down one football fields’ length of chairs to find worker scrambling at the other end to put the chairs away. I did not envy those workers, having to set up, then take down a mile’s worth of chairs. The whole experience was very much one of those, “Yep, you live in D.C.” type things. Every Inauguration is unique, I’m sure, but this one seems more unique than others. Here comes another era….

So many chairs….

It has been a frustrating few days. Plans just… not working. Why do I make plans? Case in point:

1)First scuttled plans: I really really wanted to catch Paris 1974 Impressionist exhibit at the National Gallery of Art before it closed this weekend. (Okay, never mind that in typical fashion, I’ve left it to the last minute. I should have just gone in September when it opened). I had a morning off from work this week, so I thought, “I’ll just pop down to the museum and take and hour or so to see the exhibit.” One of the wonderful things about living in the suburbs of D.C. is that there are so many free museums and so going to see art doesn’t require a special trip; I can just stop in and see something and then be on my way.

Well, it didn’t exactly work out like that – the entire city is getting ready for a National Special Security Event – this is literally what it is called in the email about road closures they sent at work . All the blocks and blocks and blocks around the National Mall were EMERGENCY PARKING only, and have been since the beginning of the week. Typically if you go in the morning it’s actually not difficult to find street parking near the mall, but on Thursday there was no place to park. I probably should have known and just metro-ed to the NGA. I circled for ten minutes then gave up and went to work. On the bright side, I instead called my sister in law and took a walk outside and saw the beautifully frozen Potomac River.

I thought maybe I’d go on Saturday before my show, but when I checked the NGA website it turns out that the museum was closed on Saturday for security reasons. So that left Friday. After a frustrating Friday morning (frustration #2 this week, see below), I finally made it to the museum. (See above’s adventure of walking the Mall three days before Inauguration.) Only when I got to the museum, the line for the Impressionist exhibit was TWO HOURS long. At that point, I thought that maybe I wasn’t meant to this exhibit. So I took a little wander around the permanent collection instead, which is really lovely and I don’t go see it enough. I had forgotten that there were three Vermeers in the permanent collection. What a lovely surprise to be wandering the galleries and then suddenly see these delicate works of beauty and light. So the trip wasn’t a complete wash after all.

Vermeer… As beautiful as they say..

2) Second scuttled plan. I had earmarked Friday as the day to finally take my car in for donation. You might recall, I have a 20 year old Subaru Legacy Wagon that was clearly in need of more work than we were going to invest in it anymore. I think it has 190,000 miles on it. I had bought it off my boss eleven years ago when the oldest was born and I had resigned myself to needing a car to do daycare pick ups and drop offs and other emergency errands. (When the oldest was born, the Husband said to me, “We have a kid now. For everyone’s safety and security you need to get a car and a smartphone.”) I am unreasonably attched to theis car – it came from someone really iportant in my ife and has eeen me through so much. But it was time for the car to move on from us. Probably beyond time. I was going to take it to an Automotive Training program at a nearby high school, where they would either fix it up, or use it for parts. Friday morning, cleaned out the car – discovering many hidden things, and throwing out a lot of masks, and boy didn’t that take me back to a time – remember when we just kept packs and packs of masks in the car? The car had been sitting for at least a few months undriven in our driveway, so I turned it on to make sure it would start and then – and this was my big mistake – I turned it off to finish cleaning it out. I really should have driven it around to charge the battery a little bit. When I finished cleaning the car, I tried to start it again and IT WOULDN”T START! And then, I couldn’t shift it out of park or take my key out of the ignition. I spent half an hour trying to get the key out of the ignition and get the car to start. I googled, watched YouTube videos, searched Reddit. My friend even came over to help me jump the car. NOTHING WORKED. ARGH!!!! I finally get the courage up to donate my beloved car and… wump wump. I just felt so. very. defeated.

Anyhow, bright side – the Husband managed to get the car started while I was at the Museum. And we will re-schedule the car donation. Typical of me, I left this til the very last minute so there is now a sense of urgency about getting the car off our hands before it becomes inconvenient in terms of insurance and car registration. The whole thing made me feel so incompetent at adulting.

In other life things –
-I’m done working on shows for a few months. I had my last show for a while this past weekend, and I’m grateful to be on the other side of Fall/Winter opera season. I feel like things have been non-stop since September. The show went well and people were pleased. We performed a series of 20 minute newly commissioned operas. It’s always fun to do new pieces. These ones weren’t particularly tuneful, but there were snippets that lodged in my head anyway. I said to my ASM, “When these new works get stuck in my head, it’s clearly a sign that I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to them!

-Adult Lunchables! I bought these linch containers for our trip to Asia, filing them with snacks for the plane. This past week, there was one day when the contents of our fridge looked dire – not quite enought to pack a full lunch. And I had the idea to pack a snack lunch with these containers. I packed: carrots, candy cane beets, hummus, blueberries, and a soy marinated egg. It was a surprisingly satisfying lunch.

-A good morning – I feel like I’m constantly trying to find the ideal morning routine. I think one of my biggest hurdles is that a good morning routine starts the night before with a consistent bedtime and my bedtime routine is crap. Partly this is working in the evenings so not being home consistently, but also a lot of it is Revenge Bedtime Procrastination. I’m trying to nail down a better evening routine for the nights that I am home. And for the nights that I work, I’m trying to stick to just going straight to bed when I get home. If I’m in bed before midnight then I can be up earlier. A couple times this past week, I was up by 6:15a, had a really great morning rhythm. I wanted to write it down so I can come back to remember how it’s done:
6:10am – wake up.
6:15am – 6:40 – 20 minute yoga (I’ve been loosely following Charlie Follow’s thirty day yoga challenge – I like it because it is gentle – maybe a little too gentle, but I add in an extra down dog if I need to – and also there is no music. On days when I can’t do the whole 20 minutes, I just choose another, or do a few sun salutations.) Yes, this 20 minute yoga takes 25 minutes because… kids. If I have time, I also do 10 minutes of strength.
6:40-7:10 – Read. (Current morning book is The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois)
7:10 – 8:10 – Breakfast/pack lunch. (Sometimes the Husband gets the kids breakfast when they get up at 6:15a. Often times they are hungry again by 7a. Or just bored and want more food.)
8:10-8:30 – putter/pick up/ get the 5 year old out the door (The neighbor takes her to daycare and I take their 2nd grader to the bus)
8:30-8:45 – journal.
8:45 – school bus alarm goes off and we head out the door.
Things to think about:
-I didn’t prep dinner these days, which I sometimes do and that usually takes 20 minutes of the morning.
– When I don’t go to bed before midnight, I usually sleep til 7am and then the morning is just about packing lunches and getting kids out the door. Of course, when I’m up by 6:15am, I am so so so so tired by 9:45pm. It’s a trade off. I can’t be tired at 9;45pm when I’m working an evening rehearsal.
-My two younger kids are early risers. They usually are downstairs the minute they realize the Husband is up (He gets up at 5:30am). I’d would like to figure out how to give him more quiet/ child-free time in the morning because he likes to read in the morning. But the kids also like to cuddle and want breakfast. Maybe I need the kids to be more in charge of their own breakfast?
-I’m really glad we’re at a point in our lives when the kids can all get ready by themselves. I barely see the 13 year old in the morning. She wakes up just in time to shower, grab random food out of the fridge, and then head out the door for school. The two little will get dressed and pack their school bags by themselves. Mostly.
-I wouldn’t mind more time to journal/plan the day. Or doing it earlier. Maybe I should journal/plan earlier in the day and read in the slot right before the school bus alarm goes off?
We’ll see how this morning routine goes. As always, it’s easier to have a routine/rhythm when I’m not working inconsistent hours. It always goes out the window once I’m back in rehearsal. I’m trying to tell myself these next few months are the time to establish a routine until I’m back in rehearsal. But I think I also have to remind myself that having a sporadic routine does not make it any less of a routine – there are cycles to life, you know?

-My mother sent me a box of oranges and lemons from her trees in Southern California. The oranges are sweet and juicy, perfect taste of sunshine on a grey January day.

Grateful for:
– Free Museums: It felt almost guiltily indulgent, to be able to go through the National Gallery of Art slowly, spending five minutes on a single painting, looking a brush strokes, and colours and thinking about the people in the painting and the artist who created them. But such is the wonderful things about living in a city with free museums – you can afford to spend five minutes, or ten, or sixty, on one painting because you can always come back to see the others. Tax dollars at work here (and donors and philanthropists), and for that I’m grateful.
–Winter. I was thinking this week, as I moved through snow and cold and bracingly brisk air – How wonderful it is to live somewhere with four seasons! Yes snow and cold can be tedious and hard to navigate, but there is something extraordinary about nature telling us when it is time for a slower pace and to rest. (Or maybe this is something very ordinary?) There is something about feeling the wind on your face when you step out the door, to remind you that you are lucky to be alive to feel this bitter cold on your skin. I think about how, if you live somewhere where there aren’t four seasons, how you miss out on being forced to adapt and cycle your life routines and patterns.
–My Friend L – I know she makes this list a lot, but I feel so grateful to have a friend who will pick up nuts for me at Costco, or “Kosher Takis” at Trader Joe’s, who will come help me jump my car, and drive me home after work.
–The Husband who actually did manage to jump the car. And who was home with the kids all week while I was in tech.
–Romance novels – I’ve been tearing through Julie Anne Long’s Palace of Rogues series and I love the books so much (well, maybe not the third one…). I’m glad there are people out there writing these cozy, angsty, escapist reads, perfect for curling up with a cup of tea in chilly weather. They make me so happy.

Looking Forward To:
–Monday off with the kids. Sometimes when we have these days off, I think about taking the kids on an adventure to a museum or something. But going to the Mall on Monday will be… ill advised. We had thought about going up to Baltimore, but with the forecasted snow, we thought it best of we stayed home. So the family brainstormed a list of cozy things to do at home. MLK Day will involve:
-baking (scones AND cookies)
-reading. (the Husband is on Do NOT disturb reading time until 7am)
-sledding
-hot chocolate
-movie
-Soup or dumplings
-board/card games
-30 minutes of cleaning out the toy room (okay, I admit, I put this on the list)
-piano
-laundry. Maybe. Hopefully.
This all seems really aspirational, but if we even do a couple things on the list and don’t yell at each other (too much), I will count the day as a win.

–The middle child’s birthday party. It will be at the duck pin bowling place. Should be lots of fun and low key. I can’t believe the little guy will be eight!

–Hadestown! The kids have a random Wednesday off in a few weeks, and I on an impulse I checked train tickets to New York, and they were surprisingly not too expensive – $120 round trip, half that for the 7 year old. And then I thought, “What can we do there?” and it turns out the last week of January is Broadway Week and certain shows have 2-for-1 tickets. I managed to snag tickets for Hadestown for $80 each. I never do anything so impulsive (I think it says something that booking a day trip two weeks out is impulsive for me….), but I wanted to do something fun, so I did it. I’m not actually familiar with Hadestown, but everyone seems to love it, so we are listening to it in the car and brushing up on our Greek Mythology. I feel like “the fun mom” for once in my life.

–Cool Blogger’s Book Club! L.M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle is the pick for the latest go round of Engie’s bookclub. I’m so excited. Now I just have to located a copy of the book – there are none available in my library system!

–Just started this audiobook. Grisly, but fascinating. I don’t know that I’ll finish it because I have a bit of a weak stomach, but I can’t stop listening to it.

What We Ate: The Husband was in charge of dinners this week, as I worked most nights.
Monday: Tortellini and red sauce.

Tuesday: The family had dinner out. I had rehearsal in the afternoon then a supertitle job in the evening. I had yogurt for dinner.

Wednesday: Pork chops. I think I had yogurt for dinner again.

Thursday: I had leftover chicken soup from last week. The Husband made tofu zucchini boats at home.

Friday: Pizza and Skeleton Crew. The 13 year old has basketball practice again on Fridays so we are back to having pizza and tv rather than pizza and movie. Skeleton Crew is the latest Star Wars series on Disney plus.

Saturday: I’m not quite sure what the rest of the family ate, to be honest. I worked this evening and ordered from a new to me place called Seoul Spice since folks at work were putting in a group order. Everyone at work raves about this place and it was indeed very tasty. It’s kind of like Korean Chipotle – a bowl with lots of things and then sauce. There was kimchi! Which is always a winner in my book.

Sunday: Our friend came over to watch football and brought chili.

What would you put in your adult lunchable/snack box? I’m obsessed with this idea now! What are your top cozy day activities? Are you bracing for more winter?
Hope you have a restful week!

Weekly recap + what we ate: hello 2025! Snow! Jet lag!

I feel like this past week was truly the first week of 2025 for me since we were still in Asia until the 4th. Coming back was rough – our connection in Seattle was delayed by 2.5 hours, so we were at SEA for seven hours total. Here’s the math – we left our hotel in Kuala Lumpur at 9am local time on Friday January 3rd, which is 8pm on Thursday January 2nd in Maryland. We pulled into the driveway at home at 8:3oam on Saturday January 4th. That’s a freakin’ long time to travel. 36 hours – hotel to taxi to plane to plane to plane to car to home. The world is big, friends. (Although, Earth is the third smallest planet – I can’t imagine what travel would be like on Jupiter…)

When we got home, we unpacked and zombied our way through the rest of the day. I was determined to battle jetlag and keep the kids awake until 8pm, which would be close to their regular bedtime. I lost that battle badly. We did an okay job of staying up on Saturday – there was a brief nap Saturday afternoon and we went to bed around 10pm – I was hoping the late bedtimes would help the kids stay in bed later. Nope. Sunday morning the kids were up at 4am. Sunday afternoon, I tried to keep everyone awake and we were all passed out in the living room by 4pm. I was seriously worried about whether or not the kids would survive school the next day.

But guess what? I didn’t have to worry about that. Because … SNOW DAY!

There was one point the week before, when we were in Kuala Lumpur and it was 90 degrees outside and I said to my Husband, “Let’s remember this feeling because next week we will be COLD.” Sure enough late Sunday night it started to snow and before we went to bed, the schools had declared a snow day. Both the Husband and I were supposed to work on Monday. His work ended up being closed. I worked from home. (Thanks to the Husband who wisely told me to go get my laptop from my office on Sunday night.). Even though I was very much looking forward to sending the kids to school, – after all we were at Day 16 s of togetherness – I saw the snow day as a blessing in that the kids had one more day to get back on schedule.

It was a cozy day of puttering. Is there anything more cozy than a blanket of snow outside and warm tea and wool slippers inside? We shoveled some snow. The neighbors invited the kids over to play in their yard. I did some work, had a few meetings. In mid afternoon, I logged off work and we all went sledding with our neighbors. Sledding was super fun. I was at first a little nervous about the hill they chose because there are several trees on this hill and – well have you ever read Ethan Frome? I read it in high school and (spoiler alert) there is a gruesome accident that involves a sled a tree and the loss of hope and happiness. As one does in an Edith Wharton book. So I wasn’t terribly eager to go sledding on this hill.

But turns out, a hill full of trees is a great opportunity for kids to learn how to steer a sled. We did manage to put a hole in our sled, but I think it still works great. And there were several face plants into the snow and tears. Afterwards, the seven year old notes that “Stumps are worse than trees. If you hit stumps you’ll fly off. If you hit a tree, you’ll just fall over.” But all in all, nothing that couldn’t be solved by hot chocolate afterwards.

Tuesday – another snow day. Crisp and clear. Both the Husband and I worked from home. Around three, I took the kids out for a snowy walk. The house was starting to become a bit of a pit. Kids fell asleep around 4:30pm. We woke them up for dinner, which was kind of a sad lethargic affair.

Wednesday – yet ANOTHER snow day. It was no longer snowing, but I guess there were schools up county that were still treacherously icy, so all the schools remained closed. The kids had piano lessons – fortunately moved to 9:45am rather than the normal 7:15am. Though honestly the kids were already up at 5:30am, so we could have made a 7:15 lesson with bells on. I took the metro into work in the afternoon, since that seemed more relaxed an option than driving. Home in time for dinner. Kids and I passed out at the dinner table at 6:00pm.

The kids finally went to school on Thursday and Friday. THANK GOODNESS.

This weekend we’ve been back into the swing of kids’ activities. Basketball season has started for the oldest kid – she’s playing in the rec league as well as on her middle school team. The little kids have skating lessons, and then there’s agility class for the 5 year old and the 8 year old will be doing a goal tending clinic with his soccer league. It’s also football playoff season and college basketball season, so I think we’ll have a combination of out and about and home on the couch this winter.

Other news: We have a teenager! The oldest turned 13. Every year we get through the new year and I realize that I haven’t done anything to prepare for the oldest child’s birthday. Every year, I vow to do better. I did not do better this year. I did exactly nothing for her birthday. We sang happy birthday, we had a very long family scheduling meeting and then I went to work. The two little kids made her a card and the Husband bought her a cake which we ate later in the evening. On the one hand, I don’t love celebrating my own birthday, so other people’s birthdays don’t always register for me. On the other hand, I need to recognize that birthdays are special to some people and honour that. (Okay, typing that out, I’m realizing that maybe the day that I gave birth and we became parents for the first time should hold more significance for everyone. I know!)

The oldest actually got invited to another kids’ birthday party on her birthday. Our former neighbor’s kid was having a party and they invited our kid along, so she spent the day running errands with the Husband and then our former neighbors picked her up and took her to their kid’s party. When the other family found out it was her birthday too, they bought her a special dessert and then took her to Dave and Busters. How awesome is that?

I can’t believe that we have entered into teenage years! Okay, one thing now, though, I can legally leave all the kids at home. In Maryland, kids have to be 13 in order to stay home with other kids. (They have to 8 to stay home alone). I don’t want to take advantage of the now-13 year old, so I want to think through whether or not she should get paid if we ever do leave her at home with the other two kids.

Grateful For:

-Neighbors to spend snow days and birthdays. It was nice to hang out with our neighbors while sledding this week. They let us take a run down the hill on their toboggan and it was a wild ride. And I’m also grateful for our former neighbors who made sure the 13 year old had a good birthday even though they weren’t originally celebrating her.


-Base layers. I took the metro to work a couple of days last week so that I wouldn’t have to deal with driving in snow and slush. It’s about a ten minute walk on either end. I’m really grateful for wool/silk base layers to keep me warm.

-Hand me down winter coats and snow pants. While we’re on the topic of winter gear – I don’t think I’ve purchased a winter coat or pair of snow pants for the two little kids in four years because I have a friend with twins who passes down her winter coats and snow pants to us once her kids outgrow them.

-That my mom is okay still. My mother lives about 10 miles south of the Eaton fire in the LA Area. She is not concerned about having to evacuate because she isn’t in the mountains, but even still I’m worried. I also have an aunt and two uncles in the same area. I texted my mom to ask her how the air was and she said, “Bad.” The mass of humanity that the fires are affecting is heartbreaking.

Looking forward to:

-Filling out reflection workbooks. I was looking for a more concrete way to reflect on my 2024, and look forward to 2025, and I found two (free!) reflection work books online that looked interesting, so I’ve printed them up and want to work through them. One is Year Compass and one is by Susanna Conway called “Unravel Your Year“.

-A busy week at work – I have a recital that I’m doing titles for, and then a little semi-staged evening of newly commissioned 20 minute operas. It’s going to be a busy week, but I’m working with some great people, so I’m looking forward to being at the theatre.

-And then work downtime for a while – after this week, I don’t have another show to work on until the end of March. I do have to do some work for next opera season and there’s some paperwork I want to update, but it won’t be evenings and weekends. I’m looking forward to two months of working at a quieter pace.

-Library book stack – on the Sunday we got back, in an attempt to get out of the house and keep kids awake, we went to the library where I checked out this stack of books to start my 2025 reading. (Actually The Riddle of the Sphinx and This is So Awkward were renewals that I haven’t finished yet.) I love browsing books and just picking up what looks good:

What We Ate:
Saturday: Pizza and This Means War. We’re moving away from animated features for movie night. This 2012 movie stars Reese Witherspoon as a market researcher caught between two rival CIA partners/rivals, played by Chris Pine, and Tom Hardy. It was a lot of fun, perhaps a little risque for the littles – good popcorn entertainment.

Sunday: Sandwiches. I think we were all still really jetlagged and this was what the Husband fed the kids when we realized that even though everyone was falling asleep standing up, we should probably still make an effort to feed them. Thank goodness ehs’ here.

Monday: InstantPot Coq au Vin. Disappointingly more soup than stew, but still tasty. Though I think only 1 of the 3 kids stayed awake long enough to eat this.

Tuesday: Brussel Sprout Nasi Goreng, pan fried tofu on the side. We had a bunch of Brussel sprouts in the fridge from before we left on vacation so I made this -it’s my go to recipe for Brussel sprouts. I love this recipe from Meera Sodha. It’s really tasty and also a great way to get everyone to eat Brussel Sprouts. Vegan.

Wednesday; Coq au vin from Monday, reheated. Not what I originally planned, but quick easy meal on a busy snowy day. I think I’m going to lean into the cook once, eat twice meal this year. Although, we don’t have a microwave, so I need to figure out best methods of reheating food.

Thursday: Breakfast sandwiches. The Husband made dinner since I didn’t get home from work til 8pm.

Friday: Pizza take out. I worked, came home, and fell asleep before the Husband got back with the pizza.

Saturday: Pizza take out (take two) and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the 2005 movie with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie as assassins unknowingly married to each other. I got home when the family was half way through this movie and made the family watch it again from the beginning after we got to the end. I was hoping there would be some kind of plot if I watched it from the beginning. There is not plot. Just a premise. And lots of action sequences. The kids really loved this movie.

Closing another show, and panic buying for the next adventure.

It’s been a really long week of tech and performances. Eight days straight without a day off. But even though it’s been a little bit of a grind and there’s been some really special and amazing things going on. Things I want to remember:

-The make-up artist – One of our singers got sick and when I went to tell the make-up crew, the make-up artist A, who does that singer’s make up said jokingly, “Well I guess I’ll just be bored.”
And I said, also jokingly, “You could put me into the Tiger make-up.”
And she said, “I’ll totally do that. Come back in five minutes.” Which is kind of hilarious because I don’t think I’ve worn make-up since before the pandemic, maybe even longer. So I came back in five minutes, and A gave me Tiger eyes:

I’ll never look this cool ever again. Also notice how those eyes make my unwashed hair look great?

-The stage crew – We had something come up, and I went to the crew and said, “Can you do X so that Y can happen?” And they said, “Why don’t we do W instead so that Y can happen?” And W was a much better solution for Y than I would have ever thought. I mean X was a petty crappy solution for Y in the first place, but it was the simplest option. And just the fact that the crew thought of this more complicated, but better solution to the problem, and went to another theatre to get the parts to make it happen, and they did it without being grumpy about it… The whole things just made me really grateful to be working with them.

Also- when one of the performers forgot to go onstage with their prop thorn, and then told the director that they didn’t know where to find it, the crew helpfully did some labelling to help the singer:

-The crew member who showed up for a show in a full on bear costume. I have no words to describe the delight I felt when I saw him. I have to say the stage crew at this theater is my absolutely favorite crew to work with.

-The visit from Secret Service. There was a VIP at one of our shows, and the number of secret service people everywhere was surreal. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. It blows my mind that being surrounded by this many security people is just life for some people. Also – the very ordinary-ness of the security detail. I guess that’s kind of the point. This was also the night that the singer called in sick, and we had to call in someone to sing the role. This isn’t the kind of role where there are lots of people who knew it – the guy we brought in literally looked at the music for the first time at 11am that morning. That whole day was just bonkers all around.

-Having the 12 year old in my show. Riding home in the evenings with her, blasting show tunes in the car and singing along.

-The after party on the last night. A parent had reserved a local pizza restaurant after hours so we could go there. It was everything you’d think an after party with 30 kids would be – loud, raucous, lots of singing, and love flowing like the wine.

-Just the energy and positivity of everyone who worked on this show. There is something in the air, I think, when you do a show with kids for kids because the experience is just as much for the kids onstage as for the kids in the audience. And everyone realizes what a special and potentially life-changing week this could be. Making opera is my job. It’s what I (incredibly) get paid to do. And when it’s your job, sometimes you forget to savor the joy of it – it’s just another night at work. But when you do it with kids, many of whom had never done anything on this level, you realize that you can’t phone it in. The performers and the audience don’t deserve that.

Now that I’m done opera-ing for a few weeks, I can catch my breath, have some time to relax and prep for our winter break trip.

There was an article in the Washington Post last week about panic buying before a vacation or trip. THIS IS ME! Even though we are going to a country where I could literally show up with my passport and a credit card and be fine, I feel like there are THINGS I need for my trip. To be honest, though, most of my panic buying has been as a result of my two big travel fears – that the kids will be bored or hungry on the plane ride. Okay, so far, I’ve panic bought:
– A new purse. Or rather three new purses to try. Is this a panic buy or rather a procrastination buy? My purse is literally in tatters, so I needed a new one anyway.

-New shoes. Or rather four new pairs to try on.

-Crocs for the 5 year old because the strap fell off hers this summer, so she needed a new pair anyway.

-Princess sticker book. Also a few other activity books for the flight. I don’t know why because let’s be honest, the kids are just going to watch 20 hours of tv on the plane.

-Mad libs. The kids seem to really take a liking to these this year.

-Card games. I bought a mini Uno to carry in my purse, and Skyjo, a new to me card game. We’ve already opened the latter and it seems like it will be a good game for us because it’s numbers based. The seven year old picked up on it rather quickly. I’m always on the lookout for good games that aren’t language based because we’re not always playing with English speakers.

-This activity book. Which the kids have already started on, so I’m not sure that it will come on our trip:

-Small four compartment snack containers, because snacks need to be organized.

-Some books to read on the way. I like to read books written by authors from the place I’m visiting.

-plug adaptors, which I think the Husband has ordered.

Still to panic buy:
-Snacks. All the snacks.

-Trader Joe’s tote bags. Because we’ll be seeing lots of relatives and it’s such a gift-giving culture, I want to bring some small, simple gifts with me just in case. I read somewhere that Trader Joe’s tote bags are much coveted in Asia, so I’m going to pick up a few and some TJ’s snacks to gift.

-Soft pants for the 7 year old. I think I’m going with the philosophy that comfy clothes = pjs for the flight, so I need to get some more soft pants for the kid.

-water colour postcard pad. I like being able to do some water colour paintings when I travel, and I’m out of the small size paper. Of course I could just cut up the larger size paper that I have….

-Travel keyboard so I can write and do some work on my iPad while gone.

-eSim card. Does anyone have experience with these? Particularly in Asia? Is it a better option than just getting the day to day international coverage from my carrier?

Grateful for:
-all the above things about the show and the people who made it happen.

-The Husband for holding down the fort at home.

-The myriad of boba shops near the theatre. The 12 year old and I had a lot of boba last weekend; it was fun having the choice of places to go to.

-A new traffic light on the way home. There is one way to get home that requires making an unprotected left hand turn onto a very busy street. It’s actually marginally shorter than the other way I go home. I used to avoid going home this way, because I didn’t want to have to make that left hand turn. They have recently put a stop light there and it is now not so scary and I drive that way all the time now.

-Our friend for giving us his CSA share from this week while he was away on vacation. Free vegetables!!! Although, there was a kholrabi the size of a baby’s head. I’m at a loss what to do with it, but the 12 year old figured it out:

Looking forward to:
-weeknights at home this week. So far in December I’ve had one evening at home with the family. There were a couple free days, but we spent those out and about. This week, I have three nights at home to cook dinner, eat dinner, squabble, and referee sibling disputes. (or to ignore them.)

-Our anniversary. Last year our sitter cancelled and we ended up staying home for our anniversary, but the oldest kid rallied her siblings to make a sign and then she told the Husband and I that she would watch the kids while we had a movie date night in the basement. It worked so well that we decided to put the kids in charge of our anniversary again. We’ll see what happens!

-Our trip and seeing family and new places and eating good food. The 5 year old woke me up at 6am this morning, asking, “Mom, when are we going to pack our suitcases?”

-Sleeping and exercising. There’s been precious little of that these past six weeks.

-Reading in a chair with a cup of tea. Or on a plane. Regardless – uninterrupted reading time. I’ve been an a romance novel kick lately – Julie Anne Long’s Palace of Rogues series and Courtney Milan’s Wedgeford Trials series.

-This audiobook – I love a good Jane Austen inspired book, and this one is quirky and creative. I almost wish I were still commuting to the theatre so that I can listen to it more. Almost.


One more week until Christmas! How is your week going? Do you ever panic buy anything?

Weekly recap and other gratitudes- NaBloPoMo #18

It’s been a wild weekend in my opera world. I’m still processing, so perhaps I’ll give the run down next week. I’ve fallen off the NaBloPoMo routine this weekend because it’s been busy, so here’s kind of a catch all post. I haven’t had a proper weekly recap post in a while, so I thought I’d write some of the random things that have gone on this week:

– I did the supertitles for a voice recital last week. It was a really fun program, though the second song set was not performed in the order I was given, so that caused a bit of panic, but I was able to catch up and get the right translation slides in place. Also – fun story – the artists added a song the day before the recital and the pianist sent me the music and text so I could make slides.
“Sure, no problem. I’ll do it tonight.” I wrote in response.
“Thank you!” he replied. “Do you drink wine? :)”
“I don’t actually,” I wrote, “But I do eat chocolate.” Which, normally, I don’t make gratuitous grabs for chocolate, but I figured, why not?
Well the pianist brought me three bags of those Lindt chocolate balls. I thought that was super kind.
The coda to that story. A few days later, I noticed the five year old had chocolate peppermint breath. I didn’t think anything about it until I saw an empty bag of Lindt peppermint truffles on the kitchen floor. The sneaky kid had eaten an entire bag by herself. There were tears and sad faces. I can’t tell if I was more upset that she snuck chocolate, or that I didn’t get to eat my peppermint chocolates.
Oh, also during the recital, the singer sang a John Denver song, Perhaps Love, which was a little unusual, but this line made my heart contract every time he got to it:

-Friday I had the day off, and it coincided with the Thankgiving party at the 7 year old’s class. I was on the fence about going – there seems to be many demands on a parent’s time from the school, and it was my one day off. I will admit I am not the most involved parent – I don’t PTA, I don’t Room Parent, I didn’t make it to Parent-Teacher conferences this fall. But I figured it makes the 7 year old happy when I show up, so I can do it a couple times a year. I signed up to bring an activity. After some late night googling, I decided to bring in decorative gourd bowling. I bought several decorative gourds and 12 bottles of water. I put food colouring in the water bottles – red, orange, and yellow, for some fall flavor. And that was it. I think the whole thing cost $15. At the school, I set up the water bottle like bowling pins and let the kids bowl with the decorative gourds. It was surprisingly popular for the amount of effort I put into it. Maybe not so surprising, though. I mean what kid wouldn’t want to throw produce at things? The fun thing, then, was when the bowling started getting a little out of hand, I took the 7 year old and sprung him out of school early and we went home. It just feels fun to be able to leave school early on a Friday afternoon.

=And then that night we went to a middle school production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was a lot of fun. The weekend before we had gone to see A Year with Frog and Toad at the high school. Between those two productions, I’m realizing what an awesome thing school drama productions are. First of all, it’s a low key way to take my own kids to the theatre and that form of story-telling. And also, I love the sense of community- we had friends who were involved in both productions and it’s great to be able to support them.

-I haven’t written a dinner post lately, and that’s because I haven’t been home for dinner very much these past few weeks. One morning, I was packing all the snacks and food for everyone for the day and I think I packed more food to be eaten on the go than at home. I packed:

  • Three lunches (me, the seven year old, the four year old)
  • Two dinners (me and the seven year old since we both ahd a show that night)
  • Four snacks – two for the seven year old (one for school and one for the evening at the theatre), one for me, one for the 12 year old who had rehearsal that evening.

It seemed like a lot of portable food to pack for one day. Anyhow, the Husband has been making the majority of dinners this month. A few good dinners that I made, which I want to remember for the future:

  • Cornmeal waffles from the King Arthur Baking cookbook. These were savory and slightly spicy. The recipe suggested we top it with queso, which I might try next time. I actually mixed the dry ingredients ahead of time and the Husband did the rest when he got home.
  • Instant pot shrimp biryani from NYTimes Cooking. This was a pantry meal that I managed to make in thirty minutes one day when I had no plans for dinner.
  • Honey glazed mushrooms and udon noodles also from NYTimes Cooking – I had a head of cabbage to use up.
  • Happy hour dinner- crackers and charcuterie and I made a batch of Brazilian cheesy bread. Cut up veggies and fruit as well. The kids really love this kind of meal.
  • Not dinner, but my go-to lunch has been massaged kale salad. I prepped and washed a large container of kale ahead of time, and then in the morning, I massage a few handfuls with olive oil, sesame oil, and salt. Then I throw together with whatever I have on hand – roasted sweet potato, walnuts, daikon radish, avocado, apples… It’s sturdy so will keep in my lunchbox all day, and packed with vegetables so that it feels energizing to eat during long days at the theatre.

-I’ve been thinking lately about being nice. We have feedback sessions at the end of the each show with the stage management team. There was a comment at one point about someone not being very nice, having a very direct edge to their tone when they spoke to other people. I struggle with whether or not to pass this feedback along to that person. On the one hand, not someone being nice can have an effect on morale if you aren’t used to working with them. At the same time, I don’t believe that we all need to homogenous in our way of speaking or acting, and I do think we all need to learn to interact with people who have different styles of communication. And maybe it’s because I’ve worked with this person for many many years, that I have blinders as to whether the reports about them not being “nice” is a problem. Because they are one of the kindest people that I know. And to me, being kind is much more important than being nice. So I’ve been turning these ideas over in my head – about what place does personality have in work place culture and how to value different personalities as part of the whole package that someone is.

Things I’m grateful for this week: We’re going into Thanksgiving week – there are so many things to be grateful for and I was going to write a whole week of gratitude posts. Here are some small ones to start off:

Handles – this feels kind of silly, but my laptop sleeve has a handle and it makes it super easy to carry when I also have four other bags to bring to work. Every time I pick up the laptop, I think, “Boy am I glad there’s a handle!” I mean think about all the handles in your life! Doors, boxes, coffee cups… Handles make life better.

My apple box, and the prop guy who gets it for me – The stage management console at the theatre was clearly designed for someone taller than me. When I stand at it, my score is chest height, which makes it uncomfortable to turn pages and turn my cue lights on and off. (The cue lights are the colored lights that I use to tell the crew when to execute a cue. They are at the back of my console.) So I stand on an apple box. It’s not literally an apple box – it’s a wooden box about the size of an apple crate, which is why it’s called an apple box. Every time I call in this theatre, I ask the prop head for my apple box and he finds it, only giving me a little bit of grief for being short.

The seven year old and me backstage – he’s standing on my apple box.

Rock Creek Parkway – This is the road I take to the theatre. The thing is, though, the traffic goes into the city in the morning and out of the city in the evening. I, however, go into the city in the evening, so I can’t use it. So I end up having to drive through D.C. during rush hour to get to an evening performance call. Driving through the city is tedious in normal times; during rush hours it is soul sucking. I’m grateful for whenever I can take the parkway and not have to drive through Dupont Circle.

Ten extra minutes in the morning – Because of the late nights, I’ve been sleeping in a little later than normal and the mornings have seemed a little more breathless than usual. One day we left the house a few minutes late and I realized that we were going to miss the bus, so I drove the kids straight to school, parking on the trail and walking up to the school. Turns out, if we choose to drive them walk to school, I can leave a little later, buying me an extra ten minutes in the morning and I also get a little walk in up to the school and back to the parking lot on the trail. Those ten extra minutes give me the space to breathe and think through everything that I need for the day.

How was your weekend? Who is the kindest person you know? What quotidian thing are you grateful for this week?

I’m writing this post as part of NaBloPoMo – click on the icon below to see who else if participating. You can also leave me questions for an upcoming “Ask me Anything” post via this link. Happy reading and writing everyone!