It’s Martin Luther King Jr Day in the US today so the kids don’t have school. But the fourth grader has his California missions presentation on Wednesday so he’s going to have to spend some time preparing for that.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
And I’m not talking about this past week being the first time an opossum visited my backyard.
Well, at any rate, we did some fun things like making dumplings for dinner. I forgot to buy cabbage when I bought the ground pork! So I made do with green onions and spinach instead. It worked out well!
We also picked up fresh noodles from the Asian supermarket. Boil it and mix your own sauce (I like soy sauce, sesame oil, white pepper, ketchup. Yes ketchup!).
We also picked up Singapore-style Hainanese chicken rice.
Currently…
Reading:
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Watching:
I finished Bridgerton and am finishing up Away. I’m disappointed to learn that they canceled Away! There were definitely some flaws with the show, but I really appreciated how they had a diverse cast and also were not afraid to have their actors speak different languages! There was Russian, Hindi, Mandarin, and Fante.
I didn’t know about the Fante language before this show. It’s mainly spoken in Ghana and I think it’s really awesome that the actor Ato Essandoh, who plays Kwesi, said Fante is the language his family speaks. They had previously created Kwesi’s character as Nigerian but changed it to Ghanaian after they learnt of Essandoh’s background. I mean, how often does that happen?
Listening:
I’m hoping to finish with this today!
Eating and drinking:
I had toast and tea for breakfast.
Cooking:
I have plans to cook bak kut teh (肉骨茶) – literally “meat bone tea”. A very comforting soup made of spices and pork ribs. And we even bought some frozen dough fritters (油条 youtiao) to go with it.
I didn’t buy enough dumpling wrappers for the amount of ground pork I had, so um, I will use the rest of the marinated pork to put into rice porridge I think.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
The boys are back at school this week. Virtual school that is. And it’s never easy to go back to routine after a two-week break! But we managed to get them back up early enough and ready for distance learning.
Currently…
Reading:
Good Morning, Midnight – Lily Brooks-Dalton
Watching:
Bridgerton. I love Eloise and Penelope!
Listening:
Eating and drinking:
Steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast. I made it yesterday and this was leftovers. I like mine sweetened with honey and full of raisins and cranberries.
Cooking:
Maybe some japchae this week (Korean sweet potato noodles cooked with lots of vegetables). I’ll maybe add some sliced beef too.
Last week:
I read:
I squeezed in a couple of last reads for 2020.
A Long Petal of the Sea – Isabel Allende
Pemmican Wars – Katherena Vermette
The Missing Marquess – Nancy Springer
Invisible Kingdom Vol 1 – G Willow Wilson
Lumberjanes Vol 14 – Shannon Watters, Kat Leyh
I posted:
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
We took a mini field trip to the Mission Santa Clara. If you’re in California, you may know that fourth graders do a project on the California Missions. Luckily this one is only about 20 minutes away. It’s located at Santa Clara University.
And since we were already in Santa Clara, we had to get takeout from Orenchi Ramen. They’re known for the tonkatsu broth. And their noodles are really nice and springy.
We also had Korean food last week. It was kinda to celebrate the last day of school for 2020. We have been distance learning since March! It’s been quite a feat. The whining, the constant distraction from other websites like the Epic ebooks, the forgetting to press the “Turn in” button on the google classroom document although the assignment has already been completed, the online PE lessons, the artwork and science projects, the online presentations and tests. How this will all continue when we go into 2021 with no end date in sight!
Currently…
Reading:
Watching:
Westworld
Eating:
One of these amazing treats that friends from Seattle sent to us! There’s peanut brittle, homemade walnut fudge, peppermint bark, pistachio biscotti, and English toffee
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
We spent the past few weekdays after school dropping by a few friends’ houses to have a socially-distanced visit (outdoors and with masks on) and passing out presents and homemade cookies. I wrote about the Christmas cookies I made here.
It was nice to see some friends we hadn’t seen for a while and the kids had fun playing with their classmates, even if it meant grabbing broomsticks to use as hockey sticks or just running around and playing tag.
Christmas came early! Heh, sort of.
The Staub cocotte I ordered around Black Friday finally came. It was a great price at just $99! I haven’t owned an enamelled cast iron pot before. I really like the look of this one, with its black interior.
They were all giggly about new jingle jammies.
Our usual pizza order
My kids aren’t fans of mushrooms but they did enjoy this mushroom mushroom spaghetti (baby Bella and bunashimeji).
Currently…
Reading:
I’ve been mostly reading this book, as I knew there’s no chance to renew this library ebook. Also, it’s long! But rather interesting.
The Look of the Book – Peter Mendelsund, David J. Alworth
Who am I?? I am reading two nonfiction books? That never happens. But this one is really quite interesting, all about the design of book covers. Be warned though that this book has more than one title. It’s also known as The Book Cover: Art at the Edges of Literature.
Also Harrow the Ninth!! Finally…
Watching:
I started Westworld on HBO Max.
I’m looking forward to watching the episode(s?) that they filmed in Singapore (more about that here).
Listening:
As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner
Eating:
I had homemade sourdough toast for breakfast, with butter and a slice of brie. Also black tea with milk.
Cooking:
I promised the boys I would make bolognese. And oh boy I just realised that I haven’t taken ground beef out of the freezer yet. Oops. Off to do that now…
Last week:
I read:
I don’t think I finished any books this past week, as I have been wrapped up in reading the two nonfiction books, which are taking a while to get through….! This must be a record for me…
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
A trip to the dentist. Which for me (and probably for you), feels like an adventure these days, as is every venture outside the house. But we’ve been to this dentist for many years, and they are very cautious and very clean (plus have a brand new place they just moved into earlier this year). But still, I make the kids change all their clothes when we get back…
The kids’ music school had their winter recital, via Zoom of course.
I don’t usually post photos of myself because I don’t usually take photos of myself but when we were out in the park, I happened to have a hat on, one I had made, and hadn’t taken a photo of. So here it is.
Also in not so good news, the Bay Area is back under stay home rules this week. We haven’t reached ICU capacity that Governor Newsom talked about yet but the counties here decided to just go ahead and start limiting things. It doesn’t really affect us that much as we are home all the time. It does mean queues will probably be back at Costco as they will have to limit the numbers. Also the county health officials seem to now frown upon social bubbles of any sort. Even outdoors. We did have intentions of meeting up with some of the kids’ friends (as we have been doing, masks on and outdoors) but now it looks like we can’t do that.
Good thing we didn’t have any plans for Christmas.
Currently…
Reading:
A Promised Land – Barack Obama
Watching:
Westworld on HBO Max. I’m very behind the rest of the world but since we recently got HBO Max (thanks to switching to AT&T Fiber!), I finally get to catch up.
Listening:
As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner
(Yes really. I’ve decided that audiobooks are the way to go with these classics. Because there’s no way I will read the, but if the production is good, like this one with multiple narrators, I am happy to listen to it.)
Eating and drinking:
For breakfast, baguette slices and baked beans. Also, tea with milk.
Cooking:
Some kind of baked pasta – I always make a double batch so we have enough for a few days.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
It’s the last day of November! The last couple of months of the year always just fly by, don’t they?
If you’re in the US, hope you had a lovely thanksgiving weekend.
My kids will only grudgingly eat the enoki (the long thin mushrooms at the back of the photo). But I love the Bunashimeji the best.
We had our usual hot pot. One side is spicy kimchi broth (from a package) and the other is a homemade vegetable miso broth.
And I made a chocolate pie. We had purchased all our hotpot ingredients a few days before, and it doesn’t require much prep work. But I kept feeling like something was missing, and really, the answer was to make some pie.
It was also time to put up the Christmas tree!
As we buy our hotpot meats from the Japanese supermarket in San Jose (a little bit of a drive), we make the most of it by picking up some fresh sashimi (not the pre-cut kind). This salmon and the otoro were really delicious. The husband made the California rolls (he does all the rolling, I do the prep).
Currently…
Reading:
Efren Divided – Ernesto Cisneros
Watching:
The Great British Bake-Off. I’m a bit behind! So don’t spoil it for me!
Listening:
Lots of BTS. The kids have decided they love BTS so we listen to them a lot. I’m kinda liking some of their songs too, like Spring Day and Life Goes On.
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
The kids are on break this week. We don’t have any plans but to hang out at home, maybe hit the park, lots of reading and video game time.
If you’re in the US, what are your Thanksgiving plans?
Here’s some of what we did last week…
Some crafts done in second grade distance learning. The top one is corn. The fourth grader made a basket out of a paper plate and yarn (which I forgot to take a photo of)
The 7yo and I started working on a 500 piece puzzle that’s all about books.
Currently…
Reading:
The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe – Kij Johnson
Watching:
Listening:
Still listening to Dear Girls by Ali Wong. A delight!
Eating and drinking:
I had oatmeal with raisins for breakfast. Cold mornings always make me want oatmeal.
Cooking:
Our usual Thanksgiving meal is hot pot. We didn’t grow up here and none of us (except my youngest) likes turkey anyway, plus hot pot is always a great idea for cold weather!
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
Oh boy, it’s Monday. The kids are on minimum schedule this week (until 120pm), as the teachers are doing parent-teacher conferences (via zoom that is). And it’s the week before Thanksgiving break. For which we have…no plans!
Here’s some of what we did last week…
I made some red bean soup and red bean paste. Hopefully I’ll be able to get it together and make some red bean buns (an pan)
We had our favourite Indian-Pakistani food. Tandoori chicken legs, tandoori fish, four types of vegetable curry, garlic naan and plain naan.
The last Meyer lemons (my tiny tree had tiny lemons). And some last San Marzano tomatoes, although there are still a few left on the vine.
Also, I decided to break out the Christmas mugs…
Currently…
Reading:
The Golden Thread by Kassia St Clair
Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Watching:
As a family, we’ve been watching Long Way Up. And we’re down to the last episode! The kids really love it and I think it’s an interesting look into places that we’ve never been to (South and Central America). Especially since the guys occasionally stop by Unicef centres. This season is all about electric vehicles – electric motorbikes and two electric trucks. So it’s quite unlike the first two seasons. Also, the first two seasons aren’t all that little kid-friendly as the two guys sometimes use the F-word, and are seen smoking on screen. The husband was guessing that since Long Way Up is for Apple TV, maybe they had to make sure all the cursing was edited out.
Listening:
Dear Girls by Ali Wong (listening with headphones is important if you have little kids!)
Eating:
I had a slice of walnut bread and a mug of milky tea for breakfast
Cooking:
Oh boy I have no idea.
Last week:
I read:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Legacy Edition book one and book two
It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. This meme started with J Kaye’s Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date.
Let’s see, what were we up to last week?
