Even though Sophia calls my mother Baba, we’re moving toward Babushka which is a very lovely and endearing term for a grandmother. She can alternatively go with Bubbie.
Anyway, Friday was our Babushka’s birthday and even though we didn’t get to spend her birthday day with her, we did get the weekend. We all know that birthdays are monumental excuses for cake and indulgence. I took this as an opportunity to indulge and bake a cake. This cake, a new one for me, was a caramel banana cake layered with caramel buttercream.
I know, you’re probably coming here today looking for a Weekending post, a de-brief of what delicious goodies were being cooked over the weekend. I am still working on that post and you can admire our culinary morsels shortly. I think it is important to highlight that this blog is about the art of living and life sometimes demands deeper thoughts.
So here goes — Life is a journey — it is not a race. We only get one and, unless someone shows me undeniable proof otherwise, we should make the best of it. The way we live our life is a reflection of our ideas, beliefs, priorities and generally, the choices we make. Our successes and failures are the outcomes of the choices we made. I believe the following to be true especially here in the US — Our success and quality of life are highly correlated to the amount of hard work and dedication you are willing to devote to your craft.
The happiest people are those that are successful at something — anything. They are the ones that are passionate, hardworking, willing to take risks, make tough choices, make mistakes, learn from them and try again. These happy people are the ones that aren’t looking around at anyone else, they aren’t comparing themselves to anyone else. These happy people are marching to their own beat. This doesn’t mean their life is not without challenges, but they have a different attitude — they embrace the challenges and have the willpower to start over.
Funny I mention this — this is the attitude I learned from my parents. Here are a few other pieces of advice that I hear, I agree with, will share with Sophia as she gets older.
* Don’t lie, the truth will always come out.
* Don’t make others feel bad, even if they hurt your feelings.
* Everyone is different and has different abilities.
* You’re not better than anyone else.
* Earn, not expect your success.
* Marry for love, not money. Marry someone who is educated — beauty is fleeting, a brilliant mind is forever.
* Always find something positive in every negative situation.
* Don’t expect anything from anyone except when you’ve earned it.
I’ve updated our Recipes page by organizing the recipes by type of dish and adding new ones including those we cooked last weekend. Feel free to make any of the above and leave comments letting me know which dishes you liked, didn’t like and what other dishes you would like me share recipes for.
If 5 years ago, you asked me what a typical day in my life would be like, I would tell you something like this:
The ROSY picture
I get up in the morning while the baby sleeps and make a dash to the gym. I come home to find the baby just recently woke up and we cuddle. We go downstairs and I make breakfast while she plays on her own. We eat, go for a walk to the park where she runs around with her park friends. Then, after so much fresh air, we’re ready to come home, play, make lunch and nap. During her 2-2.5 hour nap, I catch up on chores, crafting, TV and reading. After the baby is up, we watch a few cartoons, have a snack. I would then make dinner while the baby happily played on her own. Everyone eats and Evan and I can converse about our days. Once tucked safely into bed at 8:00 PM, we can rest up and catch up before doing it all again.
The REAL picture
You see, we never really know what to expect from such major changes in life as parenthood. In reality, I don’t have time to go to the gym and Sophia doesn’t nap for 2 hrs, and she certainly doesn’t go to bed at 9. Without much further adieu…
Here’s a day in our life (Weekday Edition)
6:00 AM: I wake up, creep out of bed and shower
6:30 AM: I am showered, dressed and downstairs. I take my breakfast & cup of coffee to go and head out
7:00 AM: I am at work.
4:00 PM: I head out of work, rushing to get home at or before 5:00 PM. This is sometimes tricky as I have to stop and pick up necessities like raisins (Sophia’s favorite snack) or milk.
5:00 PM: I am home. Sophia has attached herself to me and I cannot do anything but play with her.
5:30 PM: Dinner-time. Sophia eats dinner and then watches cartoons while we eat dinner.
6:15 PM: One of us cleans up the kitchen and the other plays with her.
7:45 PM: Bottle
7:55 PM: Bath
8:20 PM: Books
8:30 PM: Cuddle/sooth to sleep
9:10 PM: Sophia finally asleep
9:10 PM: <begin parental rest time>
10:00 PM: I am beat, and head upstairs to bed.
Here’s a day in our life (Weekend Edition)
8:15 AM: We are all awake (we sleep until Sophia wakes us).
9:00 AM: Breakfast
10:00 AM: Play-time with Sophia | walk | activity like the zoo, going into town
— the parent who is not occupying Sophia is on cooking/cleaning/laundry duty —
11:30 AM: We are back home and are starting to prep lunch. Evan preps while I entertain/feed Sophia.
1:00 PM: I put Sophia down for a nap and quietly creep downstairs to craft, watch tv, read, … relax.
1:45 PM: Sophia is awake and I quickly decide that 45 minutes is not enough for her OR me. I pick her up and hold her for another half hour or so.
3:00 PM: Sophia is awake. Snack-time, cartoons, active play. We play hide and seek and we dance. Sophia loves to build with legos with papa and play with dolls with me. She asks papa to sing and asks him to draw Mickey Mouse. I am asked to draw butterflies. We read books and she likes to follow along with her finger as I read to her.
4:00 PM: We start to get dinner ready. Encourage Sophia to self-occupy while monitoring to make sure our walls aren’t her canvases for toddler art.
5:30 PM: Dinner-time. Sophia eats dinner and then watches cartoons while we eat dinner.
6:15 PM: One of us cleans up the kitchen and the other plays with her.
7:45 PM: Bottle
7:55 PM: Bath
8:20 PM: Books
8:30 PM: Cuddle/sooth to sleep
9:10 PM: Sophia finally asleep
9:10 PM: <begin parental rest time>
10:30 PM: I am beat, and head upstairs to bed. [I spare an extra half hour on a weekend … I would stay up longer but at 23 months, she still does not sleep the night].
All in all, there is no such thing as coming home and collapsing on the couch or piling up with a blanket, a pillow and General Hospital or any other tv show. Evan and I are very mucho on all the time. Things that I thought I could manage to get done, I cannot. That said,
We didn’t spend the entire weekend just cooking and eating. We finally made it out to the grocery store as a family. This excursion on Saturday was only the second time she has ever been to a grocery store in her LIFE. Every pumpkin and mum plant was Sophia’s to touch. She loved it.
… but I digress …
Besides shopping for groceries, cooking them and eating them, I also got quite crafty with my new yarn and knitting needles. I’ve been in a rush to knit some vests for Sophia to wear at home because it gets very cold in our family room and then, I decided to knit a hat, too. No, not to wear indoors, though I am sure those who know me would wonder if I now want her to start wearing hats inside, too. I am a bundler-mom. I bundle my poor child to no end.
Those who know me also know that I am the world’s most impatient person. And just in case you were thinking that I was kidding about being impatient, here are the fruits of my labor sans buttons and with extra yarn still attached. You’ll have to forgive me.
I know, I know, the hat is a bit big. It can actually fit me. But… it will last more than one season and keep her ears warm. The color of the yarn is actually grey (Iceland gray), so the pictures aren’t hiding anything.
The hat took me just a few hours and the vest maybe two days split over two weekends. I now going to start on a more ambitious project. Wish me luck!
Shhh… read this very quietly, will you?! I am stealing a minute or two for myself this evening to capture the things that went on here this weekend. We’ve been away for the last two weekends, so having this weekend to ourselves was quite a treat. Fall is officially here, it is cooler outside and so we spent time crafting, cooking and cuddling.
I no longer have any time to cook a just-in-time dinner in the evenings, so I am forced to have mega-cooking sessions on the weekends just to stay afloat. The pre-planned, pre-cooked gig isn’t bad, it is lovely, actually. I sit down, plan a menu, think about what is seasonal, nutritious and most of all — delicious.
…Here’s a snapshot of what we cooked this weekend…
Rustic Italian bread with fresh mozzarella, iberico-style jamon and our own, garden-grown basil…
… Saturday night, date-night dinner. Quick chicken fricassee with avgolemono (egg and lemon/yogurt) [Greek] sauce.
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My new year’s resolution (since it is Jewish New Year… ) is to try and cook more Russian dishes. I have started on that here. As Sophia would say: “Tada”… I present you with stuffed cabbage. Don’t be mistaken — this is not your grandmother’s stuffed, soggy, one-note stuffed cabbage. This stuffed cabbage starts with chicken sausage, a panade (mixture of bread and milk), rosemary and sage. The filling is wrapped pretty and stewed in tomatoes and garlic. It is simple, but elegant and definitely not one note.
All these savory dishes made me miss something sweet, tangy, aromatic and crunchy — home-made granola. I made ours with pecans, oats, orange zest, cinnamon and vanilla. Evan, who was is an avid camper (he’s an eagle scout), definitely approved. The best part? home-made, organic, without extra fat, sugar or preservatives. Yum!
I did mention seasonal, right? So… pears are in season now and there is no better way to celebrate pears than in a savory salad with Roquefort and pan-sauteed pears. Let me know if you know of a better way to ring in the fall.
Oh, well, and of course, we had to have banana bread!
Transitions, transitions… the fall is creeping up on me. Sophia’s birthday is creeping up on me. I started a new project at work that has me working out of a new office. My new office is a pretty sleek research center where I get to collaborate with researchers from many different companies and it is exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. I park at my old office and then walk half a mile to my new digs which I have lovingly termed “the salt mines” … :-). Everyone there is young, energized; it is rather invigorating as is the chilly walk at 7 in the morning.
I leave the house at 6:30 (AM) to beat the morning rush-hour. There is something peaceful about roads that are not filled with cars and drivers not possessed by road-rage. There are downsides to such an early departure — seeing my baby slumber peacefully and knowing that it will be 5 pm before I see her and she sees me for the first time today. I was thinking about that today and as exhausting as the last few weeks have been, and as difficult as it is to leave the house knowing I don’t get to say good morning to her as soon as she wakes up, I am so happy to get out.
I find it to be exhilarating to be around people, stop by a coffee shop playing mellow techno music and be inspired by everyone there who is talking, working, reading. Seems that I have escaped this fate.
My reunion with Sophia is that much sweeter when she finally sees me. Now-a-days, she has stories to [kind of] tell me — like what she did at the park and who she saw.
That is my view on the way to work…
For now, we forge ahead knowing that transitions can be good.
