“It’s Monday! What are you reading?” is a weekly event hosted by Sheila at Bookjourney to share with others what we’ve read the past week and planning to read next.

Friday was a day off preschool for a staff learning day. F’s school, which he started at in April, is a year-round preschool which relieves me tremendously as I would not know what to do with him for a long summer break.
  

We did regular things around town like hit the park, library and ate lunch out.

Among the things we ate last week:

I had thought of chicken legs marinated in a honey-sesame oil-soy sauce then baked. And since the oven would be on, roasting some cauliflower. Yea I realize it is summer and it was a pretty warm week last week. But oven-roasted cauliflower is really the best thing ever.

Then I realized I didn’t have a carb. And with two little kids carbs are a must. So a glance in my fridge told me I had the fixings for a meatless carbonara. I had fresh eggs and Parmesan and even linguini. So that’s what we did. It was good.

My mother-in-law made an orange chiffon cake. Yummy!

 

  

 We had Korean food and among the yummy dishes (mushroom tofu, fried mackerel, bulgogi) was this spam and kimchi pancake!

   

We obviously didn’t have enough spam. So it was spam California rolls and sashimi for dinner.

 

 

Also, on Sunday afternoon we said ‘see you again soon!’ to my mother-in-law, who returned to Singapore after some two months plus with us. The four-year-old cried a little on the way home, saying he misses her. Poor thing. And it was a bit sad to return to a quiet house. Of course it wasn’t quiet for long with these two. But it’s never easy living so far from family, especially with two young kids who are starting to understand these things more.

 

Currently…

It’s Sunday afternoon, the two-year-old just fell asleep after I read 7 books to him. The 4-year-old is playing Legos downstairs with his dad. And I am getting the kids’ stuff ready for school. Because my 2 year 4 month old has his first day of school tomorrow!

My older son started preschool at about 2.5 years old, but at a different preschool. One of the reasons I want to have the younger boy in preschool is because the current preschool is a bilingual Mandarin-English one. We unfortunately don’t speak much Mandarin at home and I want them both to learn it, even if it’s just singing Chinese songs and learning some simple phrases.

Of course having some time to myself (3 whole precious hours! Whatever will I do?) is a huge benefit.

So I am hoping that tomorrow goes well. He’s never been in any daycare before so this will be his first time without me or family members. But it’s his big brother’s school and he’s been ‘dropping off’ his gege every day so I’m sure he will do great! And hopefully make some new friends too.

Reading:

 

The Shining Girls – Lauren Beukes

Innocence – Penelope Fitzgerald

Sharaz-De
Watching:

The Carrie Diaries!

It’s more fun than I was expecting.

Eating:

  
A slice of this lovely mango coconut cake. It’s lovely and light.

Drinking:

Barley tea

Cooking:

Beef stew in the slow cooker

Rice vermicelli with tofu, green beans and carrots

I keep saying it but I’ve yet to make my scallop risotto. This week I hope to get to it!

Browsing:

My university classmate went to Mongolia and posted such lovely photos on her blog. Ten days of no electricity, no toilets, no showers! I did something similar when I was in Nepal for two weeks but I was in my 20s then and camping was fun. These days, it’s… camping? No way!

Over at the Guardian, picture books where girls kick butt

Buried in Print has a great summer reading list for every mood

The Seattle Review of Books talks with Nicola Griffith about the importance of counting women’s stories:

Right at the beginning, as writers, what do we choose to write about? As I say, I think a lot of our influences are male writers and male protagonists. It’s easier to fall into that. So there’s that level.

Then you submit to an agent, you submit to a publisher, you’re accepted for publication. Are you going to be supported leading up to publication? At what level are you going to be supported after publication? Then there’s the buyers at the bookstores. And at every level, everyone falls back on what they know, or what they believe to be true. The way we’re brought up is that stories about men are important and stories about women are fluffy and domestic and kind of boring.

And here is Nicola Griffith’s post about women and literary awards:

It’s hard to escape the conclusion that, when it comes to literary prizes, the more prestigious, influential and financially remunerative the award, the less likely the winner is to write about grown women.

Last week:

I read:

A Companion to Wolves (Iskryne World #1) Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
Uprooted – Naomi Novik
Supermarket – Brian Wood and Kristian Donaldson
Swimming to Antarctica: Tales of a Long-Distance Swimmer – Lynne Cox, Martha Kaplan
I posted:

Weekend Cooking: Begedil. Sort of

Some books for me this Library Loot!

Mini reviews: The Last Chinese Chef; Hood