It’s been a week, hasn’t it? My mind is spinning. When I think about this week, the word “bitter” comes to mind.
For one, bitter bitter cold. We had two days of delayed start to school because the cold caused morning freezes. Coming off the holiday weekend, it wasn’t the worse way to ease ourselves into the week, but I can say that since I have the luxury of being able to take my morning meetings from home. I’m sure the two hour delays were very disruptive to a lot of people. After two years of mild winters, I actually kind of love this bitterly cold January that we’ve been having. (Winter made my gratitude list last week…). It makes me more eager for spring in a way that I haven’t felt for a while. Who know if I will feel like this in another few weeks, but for now, I’m embracing the bitter cold.
The other bitter thing about the week was the days following inauguration. Well, even inauguration day too, I guess. A bitter pill to swallow. All of it. And getting more terrifying as the days go on. There are so many people who work for the federal government around here – the air is decidedly grim. I have no new words to say about this all. I try not to read the news, and then worry that I’m uninformed. I have learned that ostriches don’t really bury their heads in the sand – they look like they are when really they are looking after their eggs which they lay in holes in the ground. (Since, you know, ostriches don’t nest in trees.) I feel like there is a metaphor here – I’m not burying my head in the sand, I’m tending to my young…
MLK day, we had a cozy day as planned. I baked scones, we read books, we went on a snowy walk, we watched Modern Family, we had dumplings. We even spent an hour cleaning the toy room, while listening to the inauguration. I tried not to swear out loud too much in front of the kids as I listened to the address, but really, maybe I didn’t need to restrain myself. I debated whether or not to stream the ceremony, but ultimately, politics aside, I thought it was important to witness that process and for the kids to understand how power passed in this country. I don’t think the younger kids completely understood it. But they all know for sure, that I am very disappointed in the results of the election.
I worked from home all week, save for one day when I went in for a 90 minute meeting. I got to ride in and back with my friend so I was actually happy to go in even for a brief time. This is how my friend and I hang out during opera season – carpools and schedule meetings. It’s kind of our version of running Target errands together, I guess. Anyhow, the rest of the week I worked form home. Sometimes when I work from home I forget to eat lunch, so I was really pleased with myself that I threw together this salad. Isn’t it pretty?
It’s chopped up cucumbers, candy cane beets, olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon juice, and fresh dill. I liked this so much I ate it again the next day, adding half a can of chickpeas for some protein. All the fresh vegetables were wonderful on a winter’s day. Highly recommend!
We’ve also been on an oatmeal kick in our house lately. Something about chilly mornings makes oatmeal seem like the perfect breakfast. The kids eat their oatmeal with milk, frozen blueberries, and copious amounts of brown sugar. I like to have my oatmeal savory, so I’ve been having my oatmeal with sweet potato, a boiled egg, and scallions, all of it toped with a sprinkle of sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, and soy sauce. It’s kind of like congee, but made with oatmeal instead of rice.
Thinking about:
I recently read two articles that had me thinking about how underrated the every day pedestrian life was. First there was this article in the Guardian, “I’ve Had the Same Supper for 10 Years.” It’s a profile of Wilf Davies, a sheep farmer in Wales who, as the title says, eats the same thing every day for supper. He’s only left his farm in Whales once, thirty years ago. At one point he says:
“People might think I’m not experiencing new things, but I think the secret to a good life is to enjoy your work. I could never stay indoors and watch TV. I hear London is a place best avoided. I think living in a city would be terrible – people living on top of one another in great tower blocks. I could never do it. Walking around the farm fills me with wonder. What makes my life is working outside, only going in if the weather is very bad.”
Then there was this article in the New York Times, “How a Driving Instructor Spends Her Sundays.” The NYTimes’ series “How ____ Spends their Sundays” usually features people who seem to me impossibly cool – local celebrities, entrepreneurs, athletes swanning around to brunch and coffee and workouts and dinner parties and Pilates class. This feature, though, this one was different. Shanti Gooljar, gets up at 5 am, and spends the day teaching people how to drive, goes home, has cream of wheat for dinner, watches Yellowstone, and goes to bed by 8:30pm. It’s not glamourous or hip, but it feels oh so real. After her husband died, she says, “my family wanted me to go to Florida — my mom is there, and my brothers and sisters. But I’m at the age where I like the same routine.”
I’m sure there are people who might read about Davies and Gooljar and dismiss their lives as boring and dull, but I was struck in these two articles by how content Davies and Gooljar were. And I know you can’t always get the full story in a newspaper article, but they did seem like they found great satisfaction in the unexceptional rhythms of their days. How different their lives and expectations were from the pressure I feel to fill my days with adventures and excitement. It got me thinking – what I do on an average, say, Thursday – the getting up, packing lunches, carpool, meetings, pick ups, dinners, cleaning up – is that just the tedious parts of existence, what I do to fill and enable the more exciting and exotic parts? Is that the boring part of life?
And then I think of Wilf Davies who sees the world of beauty in a cuckoo’s call or the view from the top of his valley, who sees all of humanity in his sheep. Or how Shanti Gooljar finds so much satisfaction in running her driving school and hiring the right people. And I envy how at peace they seem to be with their lives. Don’t get me wrong – I think there is so much to see and do in this world – and I for one would be sad if I never got to eat roti ever again. Yet at the same time, I wonder if the people who are the most content are the ones who are able to find as much joy and satisfaction in the every day routines and rhythms of life as they are to find it in new and novel experiences. I think there’s great satisfaction to be had in the consistency of pedestrian life – perhaps routine can kind of free your mind to see beauty in the things around you. And perhaps you can’t chase contentment abroad if you cannot find it at home?
Grateful for:
-Fleece Lined pants. I ordered these fleece lined pants form Duluth Trading Company when they were on sale at the beginning of the month, and they have been amazing! I wear them for walks in the cold, for standing outside waiting for the bus, even for hanging out at home because for some reason our thermostat is set at 66 degrees. (It’s a setting leftover from when I was working and there was no one at home during the day… I should shift it, but I always forget until I’m already cold.) These pants are so cozy and warm. What they say about “No bad weather, just bad clothing”, well I feel like these pants perfectly summed that up for me this week.
-The middle kid who turned eight. He is such a cerebral, goofy kid, bringing equal parts joy and frustration to my life. We celebrated with a special birthday dinner on the actual day and then he had a birthday party with a six friends at the duckpin bowling alley. It was a perfect size party, in my opinion. Also – he’s now old enough to stay home by himself legally in Maryland, but when I broached the subject with him, his eyes got really wide and he said, “I think I would be scared.” So I guess that’s not something that will happen soon. But it’s good to know that if I did storm out of the house in anger and left him by himself I would not have CPS knocking at my door.
-Trails for snowy walks. On Saturday, we had to run some errands in the morning before the bowling alley birthday party. We were so efficient that we got our errands done 30 minutes before we were due at the bowling alley. So we decided to stop at a trail on the way for a brief snowy ramble. (“This feels like a hike,” the five year old said. I can’t pull one over her, that’s for sure.) This particular trail is tucked next to the shopping Plaza with a Trader Joe’s, and you wouldn’t guess that it was there. But apparently this little creek gorge was a favorite place of Teddy Roosevelt’s – funny to think this little patch of nature about ten miles from the White House was once considered “getting out of town”. These days, it’s proximity to a major road makes it pretty popular and it’s far from pristine – I imagine it’s where kids go to make out, and there’s often discarded alcohol bottles around. But even still, I think it’s a beautiful little rocky corner of nature and I feel so lucky that it’s just right there.
-For fresh baked cookies. On MLK Day, we wanted to make cookies, and since I had made chocolate/walnut scones, I wanted to make a non-chocolate cookie. I settled on Molasses cookies from the King Artur’s Baking Companion. The dough needed to be chilled overnight, so I didn’t actually make the cookies on MLK Day. The next day, I pulled the dough from the fridge, and instead of whipping up the whole batch of cookies, I just made six cookies and put the batter back in the fridge. And the next day, I just made a few more cookies, as many as we could eat in one go. And so on – the batter lasted all week. Indeed, I am inhaling the aroma right now as I sit typing next to the kitchen. I rather like this bake-as-you-go method of cookie baking – we always have fresh cookies and the house will always smell divine.
-That I live somewhere equipped for snow. Granted our schools had a two hour delay twice last week for the icy conditions, but I’m glad that the streets were clear so the the ice could be treated. I have a colleague who is currently in Houston and his rehearsals were cancelled because it snowed there and the city was not equipped to deal with the snow, shutting many things down.
-That I still get to work from home. So many people are getting summoned back to in person work, some with merely a weekend’s notice. How do the people who make these decisions think that people can accommodate this on such short notice?
Looking forward to:
-Our trip to NYC this week! The hardest thing will be getting the kids up early to get on the 5am metro to Union Station, but after that, I hope things will be pretty simple. (I realized that it probably would have been easier if I had gotten tickets out of the second stop on the train since that’s about a twenty minute drive from home and we could have left the house closer to 6am. Oh well. Next time.) I’ve bookmarked Kinokuniya, a Japanese Manga/Stationary store for us to visit, and it’s also next to the New York Public Library, which might be a fun place to duck into for a few minutes. I know I wrote up above about the joy of a boring life – clearly I don’t want my life to be too boring.
-Dumplings with my friend K, who I haven’t seen since the beginning of December. Looking forward to catching up. (This happened today. Dumplings were delicious and we’ve agreed to be better about scheduling time together – we have our date on the calendar already for March 1st since she’ll be travelling in February.)
– A family adventure day coming up next week. At our weekly family planning meeting, I realized that we had next Saturday completely open – no kids’ activities, I didn’t have to work, there were no plans of any kind. A free Saturday is very rare for us, so we’ve decided to have an adventure. It might be as simple as going on a hike. We might make it as far as going up to Longwood Gardens. Not sure what we’ll do yet, but a free day on the calendar is such a delicious thing.
What we ate:
Monday: Noodles and dumplings – we went out to eat.
Tuesday: Chicken sweet potato Thai inspired curry, recipe from Dinner Illustrated. This was hugely tasty and the kids loved it.
Wednesday: Cabbage Soup. Loosely based on this recipe from the New York Time. I used dill instead of parsley and Italian herbs because there was a comment that made me laugh: “Italian seasoning has no room in Eastern European cabbage soup. Use fresh dill instead.” So I did. Vegan.
Thursday: The 8 year old’s requested birthday dinner: soy sauce/honey chicken wings (my mother’s recipe), steamed broccoli and green beans, sesame brown butter udon noodles.
Friday: Pizzas (the Husband made these himself) and Bad Batch.
Saturday: pasta with yellow squash, mushrooms with tuna and steamed broccoli on the side. This was a kitchen sink kind of meal – basically sautéing whatever sad veggies we had to use up and then tossing it with tomato sauce. I served canned tuna on the side for protein.
Speaking of sad veggies – we have a bunch of sunchokes given to us by a friend and no clue what to do with them. – does anyone have ideas for how to eat sunchokes? (They aren’t actually sad quite yet – they seem to last a long time in the fridge.)
What other cookie batters should we make to keep in the fridge? What is it about your boring life that gives you the most satisfaction? I hope everyone has a heartfelt week, and wishing you warmth however you can find it.
My husband and I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day and basically rotate the same five meals for dinner. My husband likes to quote David Lynch that having routines/not having to make decisions about things like what to wear every day allows for greater freedom in creative outlets. I sort of think that’s true.
I keep chocolate chip cookie dough in the freezer and when people stop by, I can just throw it in the oven and have fresh cookies in fifteen minutes (okay, more like twenty-five because the oven takes a zillion years to preheat). Also, if I’m home for lunch on a weekday, I can just make myself a fresh cookie or two. What’s not to like about that?
Chocolate chip cookies on a whim is a great idea!
I’ve also heard that David Lynch idea in reference to clothes too- like people wear the same thing every day so it’s one less decision to make. I kind of like clothes, so I don’t know if I would want to do that, though.
I think of how sad it would be to hate the routine and minutia of life, because that’s most of it. Yes, there are trips to New York and perhaps Longwood Gardens, but those are the exception, not the rule. We only get one life, and yet, we have to work and cook and clean, so it’s better if we can get some satisfaction out of it. I like the articles that you mention, they remind me of something Anthony Bourdain said once about the quiet dignity of workers, getting up and going to work every day. I agree, dignity, and hopefully some joy, and if not joy, some satisfaction.
I get bored pretty easily about food, I like to mix it up. Lately I’ve been enjoying a rotation of Cream of Barley (with berries, banana, walnuts, and a swirl of raspberry jam); Eggs and toast with fruit on the side (usually berries) – sometimes if I have them I will put veggies in there; Toast with peanut butter and berries, or maybe bananas. All delicious and very satisfying. I like oatmeal, but I like the cream of barley a bit more.
I really like that idea of quiet dignity. There is indeed a lot of satisfaction to be had in getting up and doing the things that keep us alive. I think about Malthus’ hierarchy of needs a lot and how the things a the bottom (food, water, warmth, rest) are so important yet unglamorous.
I’ve never had cream of barley; I’ll have to look that up because I do like barley a lot.
Colourful food for the win! You have such diverse meals and I feel like I make the same 5-10 things on REPEAT and that’s it.
I loved, loved, loved your observation about the ostrich. In fact, I appreciated it so much here’s what I wrote on Jenny’s blog today:
I really loved Diane’s post about life lately:
“I try not to read the news, and then worry that I’m uninformed. I have learned that ostriches don’t really bury their heads in the sand – they look like they are when really they are looking after their eggs which they lay in holes in the ground. (Since, you know, ostriches don’t nest in trees.) I feel like there is a metaphor here – I’m not burying my head in the sand, I’m tending to my young…”
I think it can be hard to shake the guilt of not staying on top of everything, but I think it takes courage to realize what IS and IS NOT within our control. Hate doesn’t drive out hate, so focusing on our sphere of influence and being a positive light where we can be is about the best we can hope for/do.
For some reason I thought ostriches were looking for food, but when I started googling/ reading about it- the egg thing kept coming up, and it really hit home for me.
I sometimes think of having a simpler/ smaller menu rotation, but I love to cook, so it’s a fun outlet for me. Most of the time.
I HAVE QUESTIONS! First of all, happy birthday, eight is great! Love that age. But my question is with regards to the candy cane beets. You’re the second person I’ve seen eat those recently (I think the first was on IG). They are so pretty! How do you prepare them? Are they steamed/ roasted/ something else and then chilled? Because it looks like a cold salad. I’m assuming you don’t eat them raw…or DO YOU? Do they taste like regular beets? I prefer beets roasted, but then again I’ve never had those kind.
Lol on the fellow eating the same supper for ten years. I mean, I could 100% see myself going that way should I ever find myself single/ widowed/ god forbid but you know, these things happen. Anyway, I already eat the same breakfast/ lunch basically every day, so it wouldn’t be a huge stretch. I probably would have some small variations but I love Greek salad with hummus and pita and could see myself eating that indefinitely.
I actually just eat the beets raw. This was my first time with candy cane beets- someone had passed them on to us from their CSA. I think they are a little sweeter than regular beets. I find golden beets are tasty raw too. They taste leas “earthy” than red beets too me. Regular red beets also, I find too messy to eat raw.
I really appreciated your thoughts on finding satisfaction in the routine parts of life. I consider myself a contented person, but I do love novelty. Most of life is routine, though, and if I can’t find satisfaction there, I’d be pretty miserable. I probably get a ridiculous amount of satisfaction from making the bed and opening the curtains so the sun streams in, although I don’t do that everyday, I do it most days.
Those beets look ridiculously cool. I have grown some that have the white and pink concentric colouring but they never looked quite so bright as yours.
Making the bed! So satisfying, I agree.
This was my first time having candy cane beets and it was quite a surprise how pretty they were.
Those candy cane beets are gorgeous! I want to know about them. They look quite cruciferous and more like they have the texture of jicama. Is that accurate? Or are they like a traditional beet but colored differently? Please do tell!
I like the metaphor of the ostrich tending to her kids rather than burying her head in the sand. I vacillate between keeping up with the news and avoiding it.
I found candy cane beets a little harder than jicama, but they do have that same crunchy texture. I found they tasted less like dirt than red beets. Or maybe that was because I peeled them?
I’ve been avoiding the news, but so many people around me work for the federal government that certain news in unavoidable and I feel bad that I’m not keeping up for their sake.
I do enjoy the routine of life, although I can easily get annoyed with the structure. That’s when I know I need to take a day off from my routine and just let myself be the lazy person I was always meant to be, ha. But I don’t think it’s possible to NOT have a routine in today’s society. We need the structure! I think my favorite boring routine is eating breakfast while playing my NYT games. 🙂
I could never eat the same meal over and over again. I get so bored so easily! I have to keep switching things up. I even eat a different breakfast every day because otherwise I would get bored.
I’m with you about liking to switch up my food too. I just think there’s so much food out there that it would be sad to just keep to one thing all the time. Maybe it’s a little FOMO. At the same time, I want to remember that it’s okay to not LOVE what I’m eating all the time because food is also a source of fuel for my body, so sometimes I just need to eat to keep going.
Eating breakfast while playing NYT games sounds like a such a great, simple part of the day!
OMG those beets are so gorgeous. I’ve never seen them in the store- ever. I use beets in borsht (soup) and love them.
I had to look up what sunchokes were- interesting. No idea how to prepare or eat those… Maybe into a salad?..
Also really appreciate the discussion about boring lives. I think we as humans decide what is boring and what is not.
What is it about your boring life that gives you the most satisfaction? I have never thought about it… Often boring means routine, routine means stability and privilege, privilege equates gratitude for me, therefore, boring=gratitude. far fetched, but still.
The Husband ended up slicing the sunchokes really thin and baking them like chips – there were really tasty!
Boring–> gratitude is a great thought. It reminds me of how I had an OB that at the end of each visit would say, “Let’s keep things boring!”