Today Was a Good Day

If you visited this spot yesterday, you saw that I was driving the struggle bus in a major way.  I am happy to report that today was 100% better than Tuesday!

I'm not sure what made the difference... I still had to drop Abby off at school before I headed to Greenbriar.  Maybe it was the sun shining that helped start my day in a positive mood.

Or maybe it was just me, decided that I control the weather in my head.  I could choose to be annoyed and grumpy and out of sorts, or I could decide to find the positive in the world around me.

Here are some things that made me happy today:

• I felt rested when I woke up this morning.  I made myself turn out my light before 11:00 last night, and I slept straight through to my alarm.  This doesn't always happen.
• Dan made coffee before I came down for breakfast.  He's been doing this for several months now, and I really appreciate that there's one less thing to do before I head out the door.
• I enjoyed lunch with my colleagues - lots of great conversations happen around that lunch table!
• I heard that Abby did a super job during the first performance of Guys & Dolls, Jr. this afternoon.  The first performance is always during the school day for the district's fifth graders, so I didn't get to go.
• I'm going to have a house full of people this weekend, all here because they are coming to see Abby perform.  I love having my extended family around.

And since I am going to have a house full of people, I'd better make that grocery list! 

Annoyed

I am annoyed with the world right now.  It seems like this whole day, one thing after another just got under my skin and irritated me.  The only time I wasn't feeling like I was about to bite someone's head off was while I was in my classroom with my students.

From the annoyance of the people in the junior high car line who are too important to wait their turn and almost hit kids as they blow past the other waiting parents to the lady who felt it was really, really critical to be talking on her phone as she drove hell-bent through said parking lot, to the crazy snow that blanketed my car this afternoon, the annoyances just kept adding up.

I'm even annoyed by that really good book I'm reading.

Usually, dinner with my family can make this kind of mood go away, but Molly and Abby were both out of sorts tonight as well.  Only Dan seemed remotely jovial, which did help.

At least tomorrow is a new day.

Lost in a Book

Yesterday I started reading The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.  I am fairly certain I have read all of Hannah's books, usually within weeks of them coming out.  I love the way she writes, how she weaves her stories and develops her characters.  Each time a new title drops, I worry that it can't possibly be as good as the one that came before.  I needn't worry.

I'm not going to talk about the plot of The Great Alone, because 1) I haven't finished it and 2) I don't want to spoil the thrill of reading this book for anyone.  But I really, really want to talk about it.  SO let me know if you've read it!

I noticed something as I moved through my school day and then cooked dinner.  I find myself going back into the story, thinking about Leni, the main character, and her troubled, damaged parents.  I know something bad is going to happen to one of the central characters soon - the tension is building and it's about to burst - but I don't know which character is going to be hurt.  I THINK I have some idea of what's going to set the character who I'm fairly certain will be the bad guy off, but I may be wrong. 

I love this about really good books.  The story takes me over, and I keep thinking about the plot and characters.  I question, predict, and question some more.  I worry about the characters as if they are real people and I want to know they will be ok, even though I know not all of them will be.  I picture myself there among them, a watcher in their stories, the fly on the wall.

Not every book does this to me.  But when it happens, I love it.

Gearing Up for the Week Ahead

Oh, Sunday night.  The weekend draws to a close and I begin preparing for the week ahead.  In a house with two teenage girls, our weeks are rarely quiet.  This week promises to be incredibly busy.

• Tomorrow I have to remember to buy tickets to the Glenbrook High Schools spring production of The Little Mermaid.  This year, since the show is at North this year, Molly will work on set construction and will be on the crew for the performances.  We'll go at least one night.  I also have to remember to buy tickets to the Northbrook Junior High performances of Guys & Dolls, Jr.  Abby is one of the leads, so Dan and I will see all three shows.  Molly and other family will join us on Saturday.  That's a lot of Guys and their Dolls.
• Tuesday I have to remember to register molly for summer school.  She still has to get her consumer ed credit, and she'd rather take it in summer school than give up an elective for it during her senior year.  Molly and I will also go to yoga class on Tuesday night.
• Wednesday I am taking the evening for myself.  I plan to do absolutely nothing after I cook dinner, and I will not feel guilty about it!
• Thursday I will go to Costco after school to get stocked up for my sister Lindsey and her husband's visit for the weekend.  She has specifically requested crepes for breakfast, so I have to make sure I have plenty of eggs and fruit!  We will also go to the opening night of Guys & Dolls.
• Friday Lindsey and Thomas will arrive.  Hopefully Molly's room will be clean and I'll be able to change the sheets on her bed after school.  Dan and I will see Guys & Dolls.  Again.  :-)
• Saturday Family will convene for the closing show and afterward we'll gather at the house for drinks and dinner and laughs and fun.

Holy cow!  That makes me tired just writing it all out.  But it will be worth every minute of busy-ness.

Saturday Date Night

Happy Saturday!
Tonight, Daniel and I finally made use of his Valentine's Day gift to me.  He got me the gift of a Sur La Table cooking class for two, and we decided to use it to take a class on Asian dumplings.  As you know if you read my blog, I cook and bake quite a bit, so I love to learn new techniques and recipes.

When we got to the store for our class, we realized that we were the only ones signed up.  It was awesome to have Chef Tom (who was a load of fun by the way) and the kitchen all to ourselves for the two hour class.  Some of the things Chef Tom went over were things I already knew how to do (basic knife skills, making a yeast dough for the steamed bun dumplings) but were things Dan were not as comfortable with.  It gave him a chance to practice chopping, mincing, and kneading while I stepped to the side to watch.

The best part of the class (besides tasting the dumplings of course!) was talking as we cooked.  It was a low-key class that we truly enjoyed, and I learned that the two types of dumplings we made were actually really easy; things I could easily do on my own in my own kitchen.

Here's what we cooked:

Vietnamese Mushroom and Chestnut Buns
These were my favorite of the three dishes.  I really liked the texture of the steamed dough and the flavor of the filling.

Korean Pork and Cabbage Butter Dumplings
These were good, but we forgot to season the filling before we filled the dumplings.  We should have added a bit of salt.  Also, there was WAY too much butter in the recipe.

Chinese Long Beans with Chile and Garlic
The supplier for my local Sur La Table couldn't get the long beans, so we used regular green beans.  Honestly, I would probably only get regular green beans at my local grocery anyway, so I was fine with that.  This was a really tasty dish.









So will I make these recipes again?  I'm pretty sure I will.  I will probably look for a different filling for steamed buns, since my kids aren't into mushrooms.  But now that I know the technique, I can really do anything.

Next I'd like to learn to make macaron!

Friday Night Reading

My Friday nights are generally unexciting.  After dinner, I pull my currently-being-used cookbooks from my dining room bookshelf and settle in to do some meal planning.  I choose five or six meals for the following week and then make my grocery list.  I've never been one of those people who figures out in advance what day we'll eat which meal.  Instead, I find that if I have a list of possibilities  and all of the ingredients to make those dishes, I can stay organized and resist the urge to order out.

Most of the meals I make are healthy... high in protein and veg, lower in carbs and fats.  I've been on a health kick for a little over a year now, and I love the way it makes me feel.  But as you can tell from the cookbook on the top of the stack, I do indulge in dessert on weekends.  I love a good cake, especially if it has chocolate in it somewhere.  

I actually like these low-key Friday evenings reading cookbooks, looking for new recipes to prepare for my family.  We enjoy our old favorites, but I get tired of cooking these things all the time. 

I also just really love reading cookbooks.  I especially like ones with lots of photos of the finished dishes; even really complicated ones that I would never actually cook out of!  It's kind of nutty, really.  Who else does this?  Is this a thing?

Happy weekend, everyone.

Thursday Night

Thursday is not my favorite day of the week.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's because on Thursday I am thisclose to the weekend, but not there yet.  Maybe it's because my kids and I go the whole afternoon with no specials or other breaks.  Maybe it's just because by the time Thursday afternoon rolls around I'm just tired.

This Thursday, though, I managed to work up the energy to join several colleagues along with a few from a neighboring elementary school to spend time together socializing and playing Whirlyball.  For those of you who don't know, Whirlyball kind of like lacrosse played in bumper cars.  I spent an enjoyable two hours chatting with colleagues I don't always get to see during the school day because our classrooms are nowhere near each other or we miss each other at lunch.

When I first got home from school, I was regretting signing up for this social outing.  I just wasn't feeling it, and all I wanted to do was put on my jammies and cozy up with a book for the evening.  It didn't take long, however, for me to be glad I went.

Laughter. Drinks. Good conversation.  What else could I want on a Thursday afternoon?