Day Eighty-Two, Eighty-Three, Eighty-Four: New Grill, Pool Time, and a Smellosaur
These three days have been similar: tolerable mornings, very hot afternoons. It's been in the low 90s but with such high humidity that the heat index has been at or over 100. Switchel season.
Friday (Day Eighty-Two): Work in the morning. Pool after lunch. After pool time, Jeremy went to town and came back with a small propane grill, in addition to the dog food and grocery pick-up order he went for. I made grilled tofu, broccoli, and summer squash with a homemade teriyaki sauce (thanks to Andrea Chesman's book The New Vegetarian Grill), served with rice.
Taiya has been binge-watching She-Ra and William has been hitting Wild Kratts hard. I've been trying not to over-indulge in social media and news, watching the world's protests from afar. I'm in turns hopeful that change will be forced upon the reluctant and comfortable and scared, and sickened by the violence of the police and the rhetoric of the president. There is so much good that is happening, and still so much that is plain wrong -- police pushing down a 75-year-old man and walking past him while he bled on the ground. Human hearts and systems must progress from this moment or we're in for scary times.
Saturday (Day Eighty-Three): I have turned again to creative cooking as something positive and tangible to focus on. Made an interesting new dish from New York Times Cooking: farro with balsamic cherries and thyme, and it was delicious. Helped Taiya organize her room. More pool time after lunch. For dinner I made hamburgers on the grill, all by myself, for the first time. Jeremy and I usually fall into the gender-norms of him "manning" the grill, but he was doing chores so I "womaned" the grill and frankly I don't see what all the fuss is about. The skills required to cook inside are easily transferable to cooking outside. It is nice to have an easy way to cook on the porch so we don't heat the house up any more than necessary on hot summer evenings. I have been keeping up with my daily walks, though I may have to switch from walking after dinner to walking in the mornings with this heat.
Sunday (Day Eighty-Four): Taiya declared we would be eating lunch at the pool today. I made a tomato and cucumber salad with red onion and herbs from the garden, salmon salad (like tuna salad, i.e., fish plus mayo and mustard), and packed it up in a basket with bread, the farro from yesterday, juice, water, and brownies. Oh yeah, I also made brownies in the morning. It was William's idea and who am I to argue with inspiration like that. It's been great going to the pool every day. I'm getting some exercise swimming laps while the kids play. William invented a "kangaroo fish" game, and Taiya loves playing mermaid.
Sunday was also Poppie's birthday (one of the kids' grandfathers- they are lucky enough to have four). We sent him a Happy Birthday video, all four of us singing to him. I was laughing the whole time because Jeremy was holding the phone and it cut off his face at the nose and looked hilarious.
For dinner, I made moong dal khichdi, and with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers sprinkled on top it was a delicious bowl of healthy comfort.
William has been really into dinosaurs for a while now, and he has taken to talking endlessly about different made-up dinosaurs and their characteristics. Sunday night, instead of falling asleep, he happily spouted a stream of chatter that sounded something like this: "The smellosaur is really big, bigger than a tree! And its head is as big as... my pillow! And its teeth are as big as... your arm! But it eats plants. It's an herbivore. And has a really good sense of smell. And it is as fast as a race car!" On and on and on.
Friday (Day Eighty-Two): Work in the morning. Pool after lunch. After pool time, Jeremy went to town and came back with a small propane grill, in addition to the dog food and grocery pick-up order he went for. I made grilled tofu, broccoli, and summer squash with a homemade teriyaki sauce (thanks to Andrea Chesman's book The New Vegetarian Grill), served with rice.
Taiya has been binge-watching She-Ra and William has been hitting Wild Kratts hard. I've been trying not to over-indulge in social media and news, watching the world's protests from afar. I'm in turns hopeful that change will be forced upon the reluctant and comfortable and scared, and sickened by the violence of the police and the rhetoric of the president. There is so much good that is happening, and still so much that is plain wrong -- police pushing down a 75-year-old man and walking past him while he bled on the ground. Human hearts and systems must progress from this moment or we're in for scary times.
Saturday (Day Eighty-Three): I have turned again to creative cooking as something positive and tangible to focus on. Made an interesting new dish from New York Times Cooking: farro with balsamic cherries and thyme, and it was delicious. Helped Taiya organize her room. More pool time after lunch. For dinner I made hamburgers on the grill, all by myself, for the first time. Jeremy and I usually fall into the gender-norms of him "manning" the grill, but he was doing chores so I "womaned" the grill and frankly I don't see what all the fuss is about. The skills required to cook inside are easily transferable to cooking outside. It is nice to have an easy way to cook on the porch so we don't heat the house up any more than necessary on hot summer evenings. I have been keeping up with my daily walks, though I may have to switch from walking after dinner to walking in the mornings with this heat.
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| The tree I greet at the top of the hill on my walks. A big old, wide oak. |
Sunday was also Poppie's birthday (one of the kids' grandfathers- they are lucky enough to have four). We sent him a Happy Birthday video, all four of us singing to him. I was laughing the whole time because Jeremy was holding the phone and it cut off his face at the nose and looked hilarious.
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| The happy birthday chorus getting ready to make the video. Jeremy accidentally took this still photo before starting to record. |
William has been really into dinosaurs for a while now, and he has taken to talking endlessly about different made-up dinosaurs and their characteristics. Sunday night, instead of falling asleep, he happily spouted a stream of chatter that sounded something like this: "The smellosaur is really big, bigger than a tree! And its head is as big as... my pillow! And its teeth are as big as... your arm! But it eats plants. It's an herbivore. And has a really good sense of smell. And it is as fast as a race car!" On and on and on.
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