Eat Fresh?

It's true we've eaten a lot of Subway recently (especially since Big A found out that we could have them delivered), but we usually eat in the rumpus room with some jokey show on.

I didn't expect to come home to this sad tableau, but Nu had lost TV privileges and it was what it was. Delicious!

"I like all cake, silly!"

It's been a tough week (we have no word on our Title IX thing and teaching every weekday is oddly draining although I'm still teaching just three classes). I'd been craving cake (openly--like over dinner and on family chat) and Big A, our resident baker, asked what kind I wanted--to which I responded "I like all cake, silly!"

Today I came home to this beauty--simultaneously hearty and delicate and filled with pistachios and raspberries.

You are my Sunshine

I looked for the sun all day today, because it's Pongal day. And I found some hazy sunshine on my way home, though it vanished before I actually got here.

But there were babies and Big A and things beginning to poke their heads out of the dirt to bloom, and I made pongal and pakora-curry for dinner so it was almost like being back in Tamil Nadu. (Not!)

The week that was

That was a L O N G week.

I can barely remember the beginning, which was a rush of syllabus-prep and back to work meetings and planning meetings. I took on some independent studies for WGS students and will be working with two T.A.s this term so lots of new scheduled student meetings too...

I haven't read anything except for work this week, made just two dinners, went on zero hikes, didn't take any pictures at home...

We'll have to stay indoors all weekend because of our "ice storm" advisory, for which Big A prepped by ordering multiple Blaze pizzas and Subway sandwiches--haha. And I'm mourning the canceled girlfriends' party, and the closure of the library, the community center, and possibly UU on Sunday. Yikes. 

Sunset Strip

Just this yolky mess of gorgeous sunset on my way home,  and I am so, SO happy that the days are getting longer. 

Also, I negotiated for Big A to be in charge of dinner TTR, so I went home to an amazing Brazilian seafood-veggie soup and and a really exquisite pan of pao de quiejo that Nu, Scout, and I were polishing off even before the soup bowls got to the table.

Now I'm going to scrub the news from my head and just enjoy this moment of fullness, blankets, and milk Chocolove. which is really the best chocolate I've ever had. (overwrite what I said before.)

Full

 

At was my hiking companion yesterday and we were surprised to see the Red Cedar was close to flooding--guess all that snow and melt adds up. It's usually an hour to the MSU stadium and back, but it took us an hour and half (because of my back/too many political discussions/icy paths).

We managed to hit most of the new year habit agenda yesterday--the kids exercised (under duress of screen bans), made a healthy family dinner (snuck in some black-eyed peas!), did a post-dinner walk with the puppies (up to Hagadorn), spent lots of quiet time together reading (even if on screens), and got to bed before midnight...

But... I've been meaning to eat an apple a day for the last many years now... and... 

Secret non family

"My secret family wouldn't do this" was a weird sentence I used to say 6-7 years ago. It was mainly meant for laughs, and the kids knew it was a joke, but it used to make them AND BIG A a little bit sad when  said it anyway.  And then Big A told a story about how my secret family was a bunch of raccoons and the joke is very firmly on me these days.

They sent me this picture on the family group text while they were off visiting grandparents in Yellow Springs. Haha. SO funny.

I had planned to take a few days to myself while the rest of the fam was gone, and then our furnace died last week, so I had the perfect excuse not to go (had to keep the taps from freezing). My plans were to veg out with Whole Foods carry out and movies with girlfriends and a spa day. But I slipped in the garden and hurt my back and am sitting here hopped up on Advil and hot tea and and feeling a little bit sorry for myself.

"tender and mild"

The picture the grandmas wanted.

At said the line "holy infant so tender and mild" in "Silent Night" always makes him think of chicken wings. And now I can't stop snickering when I hear my favorite carol.

In any case, our savory Christmas is in the books with breakfast pudding all day long, and biriyani for dinner.

We generated so little actual landfill trash (like a sandwich bag full, and mostly from the packaging on Nu's karaoke mic); I'm so proud of us.

Everyone liked/chuckled about their presents... But!!! Somehow this year, I was the one who got some really serious loot with gift cards, spa cards, planters, plant sticks, books, books, books, and... this is truly uncharacteristic--electronics!    

The Waiting Game

Back when Big A and his sister were tiny and being pesky and their dad was single parenting and busy, they'd play a game that had one rule and one objective: the player who was silent longest won. I know about this game because Big A tried to institute this game with our kids--perhaps a decade ago-- and failed spectacularly.

I'm not surprised--At and Nu were in charge of the raita today as I juggled the various tasks toward egg-paratha rolls (Big A's Boss Day pick) and every step of the way was chatter, and jokes, and negotiation (if I measure the cumin you should get the salt, I washed the cucumbers so you should wash the tomatoes, and on and on and on and on). I read somewhere that families should support kids learning to advocate and negotiate for themselves, but yesterday... I was torn between chuckling and wanting to     shut     it     down. The smoke alarm going off (as it does every time we fry up more than 10 parathas didn't help).

Still waiting to hear about things at work... but now I have a tower of toffee tea cakes, well watered plants, fully wrapped Christmas presents (not pictured), and a dwindling supply of unrefrigerated fruit to keep me company.

Find the five differences...

Doodles in the wild

At is back!

As we were folding dinner napkins from the wash, the puppies wanted to wander back into the kitchen, but the glass door was closed, and while Scout glared balefully, Huck decided to claw the door down.

At started narrating as though it was a nature show ("these are golden doodles native to rural Canada, seen here in a tea garden...").

And for some reason, it made me fall about laughing. (It's possible that just having At back has improved my happiness immensely.)

10,000 Words

It feels like I said everything that needed to be said multiple times with my nearest ones, and I need a break from thinking and talking about the same thing.

Early morning walk with L; Lunch buffet at Saffron today with L&T and EM and Nu and Big A; baklava from Shatila via Sultan's; and the short story volume from N.K.Jemisin for book club tomorrow.

I'm calling the day officially closed for further business.

Give me a "T"

We hitched MIL's McCobb table that Nu now uses as an art table to our regular table to make a T, and I had an eyeful of people and faces I loved to look at.   

"Look at this day, Maya!"

A text from L, so I looked at the day, and lo, the morning rain had disappeared, so we got our walk after all, and then the guests started to arrive, and I made the bean stew and set out the co-op bread, and Big A and I braved the grocery store with two carts, and then we cooked, and hung out, and took turns at the oven, and so to bed...

Here

No weekend walking club, didn't make it to The Overstory bookclub, but--I cleaned the driveway, grocery shopped, planted the indoor hyacinths (I just press them into pots with other things around the house and someday will get a SURPRISE burst of color and fragrance), chatted about all the things with all the people, and ended up with  dinner at The People's Kitchen (Big A's Boss Day pick) just as the sun was setting over the capitol.

Kind of a lovely day, actually.

Say "subaltern"

Of course, I overdid things... and of course, I cooked until I ran out time... of course we'll be eating leftovers for days... but of course these are the greatest students.

I still want to try the pumpkin halva I made up in my head for the G/F kid and the two vegetarians.








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Giving up

All those pictures of golden trees, and I got it just today. Summer is over. We're not climbing out of the 30's for the foreseeable future (two weeks on the weather app) so I brought in the tomatoes that'll never ripen and the couple of At's peppers the deer didn't eat.

L&C who dropped by for tea proceeded to have a long discussion about the movie Fried Green Tomatoes (which I haven't seen), then it turned out one of them was talking about Thelma and Louise all along. Ha. Exciting.

Not according to plan

Big A is still in Denver, so I'd cobbled together some childcare for Nu on my long teaching day. Nu would take the school bus home, walk to L's, help her plant a tree and hang out, and we'd both have dinner at L's before coming home, and collapsing in pajamas for our "sleepover" in the rumpus room with Scout and Huck.

Instead I started receiving texts on family chat from At while I was on my way home telling me that the "sprained" finger I'd asked him to have looked at ten days ago, was actually a dislocated finger, and Dr. H at our family practice couldn't get it to stay in place despite a couple of times of "popping it back" (™) because his muscles and tendons had knitted wrong in the intervening days. Big A told him to go see a colleague of his at the E.R. in Lansing, so that's where we spent the rest of the evening.

It took several tries of Lidocaine and people tugging on his finger (and At making the inevitable fart jokes) before they could get the joint positioned and splinted. It was actually pretty traumatic. There was so much numbing agent that the base of his finger started to bleed, and despite his general good humor and inability to not be a sweet smartassy jokester, it was clear that the pain was getting to be too much. Not to be outdone, I somehow lost my insurance card despite putting it back in my wallet. And Nu having somehow ingested a peanut butter chip in a cupcake earlier, vomited repeatedly--but elegantly--into a plastic bag at the E.R. All in all, we made quite an impression at Big A's work.
_

Divali!

I mean I'd strung up the lights already, and Divali was the perfect time to turn them on. It felt like my own version of Kusama, was our trip just last year?

When Nu and I wished my parents in the morning, they seemed a bit sad for us that it would be just the two of us for the biggest holiday of the year (At is at college; Big A is at a conference). But I reminded them that Scout and Huck would be here too, and that seemed to help some.

As it turned out, there was a teensy Divali celebration at UU and then EM came over for dinner bearing sweets from Dusty's--it was a Michigan Divali!






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A day

 A strange day... I got touched all day long. I was remembering Nu's amazement when they discovered me wearing tights when they were a baby and how they kept running their hands down my shin bone--"so silky, mama, so silky." So Nu enacted the strange thing for old times sake. I also got a a very tender kiss and good wishes when I dropped them off at school.

The ultrasound was, of course, a lot of awkward and uncomfortable contact. Although less awkward and uncomfortable and painful than a mammo. But goopier and with more prodding. I can't win this. I was asked to make a biopsy appointment, so I did, but now I don't want to go to it. It's the week before NWSA, I have an important meeting at school the day after, it will be At's Boss Day that weekend,... etc.

I ended the day with the international potluck that CP was organizing in town, and I had my hair touched a bunch of times all day by the nurse and late dinner guests? I don't know, I give up. As I was walking in to the ultrasound building, I got all these texts--from LB, MZ, and others, and that gave me a little boost. I'm going to think about that now.

_