What's Been Going On: Thursday 18 November - Sunday 21 November 2021

A new week begins! A holiday week, if you’re in the US. Thanksgiving has always been my favorite: lots of family coziness and good food (made better as I grew into an adult who learned how to cook. Lots of Thanksgivings as a kid where I was only able to eat potatoes and a roll. Feed your vegetarian friends and family members, folks!). We’ll be celebrating with my mother-in-law and sister-in-law; everyone is vaccinated, most are boosted (my daughter gets #2 the next day and I’ll receive my booster at the same time), and I’m looking forward to all the delicious vegetarian Thanksgiving food, because my mother-in-law is an amazing cook!

My husband, who has been learning both to weld and to do some amateur blacksmithing, made me this bookmark. It says 💙VEGGIE on it, and it fits perfectly into my books. I love it! 

Here's what I’ve been up to the past few days.

 

Thursday, 18 November, 2021

After getting dressed and having coffee, I scooped the litterbox, loaded the dishwasher, and updated this blog. I dropped my daughter off at school, made a fruitless trip to Target *sigh* and then stopped by the grocery store to pick up some zucchini and two discount eggplants ($3 total).

At home, I did an hour’s worth of volunteer work and tidied the living room, then it was off to lunch with my daughter. Another fruitless trip afterwards to Michael’s and Bed Bath & Beyond (more on this later! SO. VERY. FRUSTRATING). At home, I had lunch and wrote out my Friday post and did school pickup (I skipped Read Harder and Pilates today; just not enough time!). I picked my daughter up at school, threw some sweet potatoes in the Instant Pot, and helped my daughter with her spelling words and math homework while the leftovers of the taco-rice casserole from the other night warmed in the oven.

We ate dinner, I did my Duolingo, cleaned up, ran the dishwasher, and showered, and I read my book, and watched two episodes of Forensic Files with my husband before bed.

 

 Friday, 19 November, 2021

 After having coffee and getting ready, I unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, then chopped up some onion, cauliflower, and carrots for a batch of Cauliflower Potato Soup for dinner (one of my daughter’s favorites!).

I then dropped my daughter off at school and drove to a Target 30 minutes away, where I FINALLY found what I’d been looking for ALL. WEEK. LONG:

HANUKKAH CANDLES!!!!!!!

 SERIOUSLY. It only took FIVE STORES to find these things. I figured I would just run over to the Target by me and grab them like I did last year. On my first trip, I just assumed they didn’t have their Hanukkah endcap out yet (yup, you read that right. We get an endcap- SOMETIMES. Think of that the next time you’re looking through Christmas pajamas for your dog and walking by the 324837249832 aisles of Christmas stuff), but it became apparent on my second trip that they didn’t have the Hanukkah endcap at all this year. I’d heard Michaels and Bed Bath & Beyond were selling Hanukkah items, so that’s why I tried there on Thursday, but nothing. Not a single Hanukkah item at either store. Finally, I checked Target’s website and found ONE SINGLE STORE near me selling Hanukkah candles.

ONE.

Talk about depressing.

But I was deeply grateful to find them at all, and I gleefully drove home with my multiple boxes of candles. I started a load of laundry and set out to prepare the soup. I took out the recycling and the compost, then got the bread dough started in the bread machine. I switched out my Shabbat candles, folded and put laundry away, and made my daughter’s bed.

After taking lunch to my daughter, I stopped by the Dollar Tree in hopes of finding some blue and silver garland- Hanukkah colors!- to wrap around my banister.

NOPE.

SIGH. But I did come home with a few extra pairs of gloves for my daughter, so the trip wasn’t a total wash. I ate lunch, did my 20 minutes of Pilates, then switched/hung my laundry and put the bread in pans to rise. I spent 30 minutes on my Read Harder book.

I picked my daughter up from school, blended the soup, and put the bread in to bake. Being the mean mom I am, I made my daughter complete her math homework- she’s off school this upcoming week for Thanksgiving break, but I wanted her to get the math out of the way. Fortunately, she finished it without too much complaining. ;)

Soup for dinner!

After dinner, I did my Duolingo, put dinner away and cleaned up, ran the dishwasher, then showered. I attended my synagogue’s services virtually, then watched two episodes of Forensic Files with my husband before bed.

 

Saturday, 20 November, 2021

After having coffee and getting dressed, I ran a few errands. I’d realized earlier in the week that there was no way I was going to engage in my weekly grocery shopping this upcoming week, not with my grocery shopping day falling on THE DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING. YIKES. So I ran out to a local grocery store and Aldi to pick up some extras to get us through that week. Forty-nine cent sweet potatoes made me pretty happy!

At home, I put the groceries away, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and we decorated the banister with the blue and silver garland my husband had brought home from Walmart (WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!). My daughter and I walked down to the neighbor’s to pick up the baby she offered to give us, one of about fifty she’s given away. Everyone, I’d like you to meet Bernie:

 

 Isn’t he adorable? I’ve never had an aloe plant before, but it sounds like he comes from prolific stock, so I’m curious to see how this will go.

I hung out with my family and had lunch, and after lunch, my daughter had her first playdate since March of 2020. I spent about an hour chatting with the friend’s mom, and while the girls played, I finished reading White Tears/Brown Scars.

My husband made macaroni and cheese for dinner. I cleaned up, did my Duolingo, showered, began reading Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) by LC Rosen, and watched the episode of 20/20 about the Turpin siblings (it’s available on Hulu if you’re in the US; outside, you can view it in parts on YouTube; I believe it’s called ‘Escape from the House of H0rr0rs’ with 0’s for the o’s in the word ‘horror’). It’s disturbing, but absolutely worth the watch.

 

Sunday, 21 November 2021

Coffee and scooping the litterbox. Always a great start to the morning!

I wrote up my review for White Tears/Brown Scars, then loaded and ran the dishwasher. I tidied the living room and began work on this post, and then my mother-in-law called! I hadn’t chatted with her in a while, so we had a nice talk.

After lunch, my husband and daughter and I went for a walk, since it was such a beautiful day out. Back home, I picked up Jack of Hearts (and Other Parts) and read for a bit, then got sleepy and dozed on my chair. Ahh, those weekend naps! I read for a good long while when I woke up, and we all had leftovers for dinner. I did my Duolingo, showered, emptied and refilled the dishwasher. I put my daughter to bed, read more, and watched two episodes of Forensic Files before going to bed.

And that’s it! It’s so nice having my daughter home from school this week. While I’m definitely glad she’s back to full-time in-person school, I really enjoy the days she’s home as well. We have parent teacher conferences this afternoon (she got an amazing report card, so we’re really proud of her!), but other than that, it’ll be a nice slow day around here.

 

What have you been up to lately???

Friday Links, 11 November, 2021

 

It’s Friday once again!

Not a lot of plans for this weekend, really. My daughter has her first playdate since March 2020. The house is in pretty good shape. I do need to sit down and write out my Thanksgiving menu, but otherwise, I plan on spending a lot of time reading, which is really the best kind of weekend.

Here’s what I found interesting online this week:

 

Georgetown Study: “To succeed in America, it’s better to be born rich than smart.”

The headline kind of says it all, but the article is worth a read. Americans who are born rich wind up more successful in life than Americans who are born into poor families but who score better on tests than the rich kids. And yet so many people find it acceptable to sneer at the poor and accuse them of being lazy, not working hard enough, not being smart enough. It’s pretty depressing. We’re not quite the land of opportunity that we like to imagine ourselves being.

 

Politifact: No evidence George Washington said it’s ‘impossible to rightly govern without God and the Bible.’

Beware of what you read online, folks. I saw someone repost a meme that quoted George Washington, and with all that I’ve read of American history, it sounded suspicious, so I dug around a little, and yeah, there’s no evidence in Washington’s writings that he ever stated anything like that. Not everything shared on Facebook is legit. Check your sources.

 

Antivax Racists Are Trying to Repurpose the Yellow Star of David

Hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boy.

I’ve seen SO much of this. People who don’t want the Covid-19 vaccine comparing themselves to Jews in the Holocaust. People at anti-mask and anti-vaccine protests sticking a yellow Magen David on themselves and fake-crying about how persecuted they are.

Do. Not. Do. This.

As a Jewish woman, this infuriates me. You know what persecution looks like these days? It’s attending a service at your synagogue with a weeping family because that family’s relatives were murdered at the Tree of Life Shooting in Pittsburgh. It’s dancing with the Torah with complete and utter joy on Simchat Torah, or having your rabbi wish you a peaceful Shabbat, and then exiting the synagogue and walking by the massive security system and the two police cars that are stationed outside our every service because there are people who want us dead. It’s picking out a new pair of dress shoes to wear to synagogue and having to consider if you can run to safety in them if necessary before you consider if you can afford them or if you like how they look or if they fit well. It’s constantly seeing hateful, antisemitic posts on social media and knowing those people could be waiting in the shadows for you, or plotting to harm your friends or the place you worship. A synagogue in Austin was the site of an arson attack recently; someone also threatened to blow up a St. Louis synagogue. My synagogue has been the site of a vandalism attack; another local one I attended classes at had a pipe bomb threat. This is what Jews today go through every day of our lives.

Persecution is not being asked to participate in public health measures against the virus that has killed almost 750,000 of our fellow Americans in less than two years. It’s insulting to us as Jews that so many people want to cosplay our persecution but have zero idea of what living as a member of a targeted group actually looks and feels like. Don’t do this. Don’t compare yourself to Jews, and for the love of all that is holy, don’t repost memes that compare not wanting to be vaccinated to what we suffered in the Holocaust, unless you want your Jewish friends to never, ever consider you a friend again.

 

For many ICU survivors and their families, life is never the same.

This is yet another tragedy of Covid-19, which is and has been a mass-disabling event from the beginning. Lungs are not forgiving organs, and Covid is also neurological in nature. We’re going to be living with the consequences of this for a very, very long time, and I worry for the people who have survived it and the lifelong damage they’re going to live with- for what I suspect for many will be a shortened life. People who spend 30, 40, 50 or more days on a ventilator don’t bounce back easily; sometimes they never do, and the damage caused by both the virus and the effects of the machinery needed to sustain their lives may leave their bodies susceptible to even minor infections. I worry deeply what this upcoming cold and flu season is going to look like for survivors, especially those who aren’t taking the best precautions to keep themselves safe.

 

Thousands of Military Families Struggle with Food Insecurity

This is not a new problem. My ex-husband was in the military when we were married, and there were many times we went without food because we had no money. We qualified for food baskets most years during the holidays. It does look as though there are members of Congress taking steps to fix this problem, which is good, but it should never, ever have been a problem in the first place. For all the blustering so many people like to do about THANK YOU MILITARY MEMBERS AND VETERANS!!11!1!!, you think they’d put their money where their mouth is, but I suppose it’s just easier to thank someone than work to ensure those people’s actual physical needs are met. Think about that next time you thank a veteran or a military member, and instead of just thanking them, do something- make a donation to a charity, write to your member of congress- to make sure they have things like food and access to adequate mental health care. Thanking them is nice, but it really does little more than make you feel good about yourself. No one should ever go hungry.

And something a little more uplifting…

 

“Seventy Faces to the Torah”- and Grateful for All of Them.

Just a nice little article on how Jews view the Hebrew Bible. We’re not literalists; a good Torah study is more akin to a debate you might see at a book club. People disagree with each other, they argue, and that’s all part of it! There are so many different and beautiful meanings to be found, and we all bring our own diverse lenses to view it, resulting in different points of view and different interpretations. If you weren’t aware there was a difference between how Jews and Christians approach biblical texts, this might shed some light on the subject. Rabbi Elliot Dorff is a wonderful writer; I’ve encountered his writings before, and he’s always insightful.

 

And that’s it for this week! I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing weekend full of all the things you love. Shalom, friends. :)

What's Been Going On: 15-17 November, 2021

 

Hello, hello!

Bit of a quiet start to the week around here, for the most part. We’ve had a mix of warmer-for-this-time-of-year weather and some chilly days, and mostly gray skies and rain, but I never mind that. There’s nothing like curling up with a crocheted blanket in my big reading chair when the weather is dreary.

Here's what I’ve been up to so far this week.

 

Monday, 15 November, 2021

 

My back wasn’t great when I woke up; my left side was really unhappy with me. Not a fun start to the week!

After getting dressed and having breakfast with my daughter, I unloaded the dishwasher and ran it empty to clean it, then tidied the kitchen and the living room. I dropped my daughter off at school, and after I pulled into the driveway, I took a minute to collect all the recycling from inside the car (my family is MESSY!) into a bag that I had brought out for that purpose, and I placed those items in the recycling bin.

I took the compost out, then prepared the vegetables and sauce for Sheet Pan Cashew Tofu (and made another run out to the compost). I then spent 20 minutes straightening the basement, which VERY badly needed it. You could hardly walk down there, and now the floor is clean! I feel really good about that. : )

I wrote and posted my review for The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harness the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live by Danielle Dreilinger. Afterwards, I relaxed in my chair and checked in on some of my favorite homemaking blogs.

I took my daughter her lunch, and after pulling back in the driveway, I cleaned the trash out of the car into a bag I’d brought out specifically for that. All the trash went directly into the outdoor trash can!

After lunch, I took out the recycling, sliced the tofu to marinate, made my daughter’s bed, and spent a few extra minutes straightening some things in the basement. Upstairs, I swept the living room and kitchen, decided against doing Pilates because my back was still feeling cranky, and spent 30 minutes with my Read Harder book (The Joy of Sects: A Spirited Guide to the World’s Religious Traditions by Peter Occhiogrosso).

Upon further contemplation, I remembered that the last time I made Sheet Pan Cashew Tofu, I had wished I’d doubled the sauce, so I made another batch. I put the rice in the rice cooker, finished going through my favorite homemaking blogs, then tidied a few of my daughter’s toys that had been moldering away in the hallway for weeks.

I played around online for a bit to rest, helped my daughter with her homework, put the vegetable/tofu mix in the oven to roast, and refilled my olive oil container (I buy olive oil in 3 liter cans, which is really impractical to pour from, so I pour it into a repurposed coffee creamer bottle. Not the fanciest, but it works just fine!).

 

Read to roast! 

And ready to eat!

Dinner was DELICIOUS- if you’re craving any kind of Asian delivery but don’t want to spend the money, make this (I linked it above). Double the sauce, and if you don’t do tofu, you can substitute chicken or whatever kind of meat you eat. It’s so, so good. I did my Duolingo, put the rest of dinner away, cleaned the kitchen, took out the garbage and recycling again and dragged the cans to the road, and then I went and showered.

I put my daughter to bed and read my book until my husband came upstairs, and we watched two episodes of Forensic Files.

 

Tuesday, 16 November, 2021

After getting dressed and ready, I scooped the litterbox. Such a fun way to start the morning! I love my old man cat, though, so I never mind.

I cooked up some taco-spiced lentils in the Instant Pot, then wiped down the stovetop and unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher before dropping my daughter off at school. At home, I spent twenty minutes organizing the basement bookshelves, then cleaned off my daughter’s toys from the stairs (they’d also been there for weeks!). Finally, I was able to fully sweep the upstairs hallway and stairs, and I swept the living room as well.

It was early, but I picked up The Joy of Sects and read for 30 minutes (started the section on Taoism), and then I cooked up some chopped green pepper and made a taco lentil rice casserole kind of thing that I just kind of invented in order to use up a bunch of leftover rice I didn’t want going bad (I stirred the rice together with four eggs- it was a LOT of rice!- the green pepper, the lentils I’d cooked earlier, and a bunch of salsa). I put that in the fridge, prepared my daughter’s lunch, and took it over to her at the school.

After lunch, I did a new twenty-minute Pilates video, since my back was feeling- not quite okay, but at least up to the task, and since I was up afterwards, I took out the compost. I read White Tears/Brown Scars by Ruby Hamad until my husband got home, and then it was time for a library run. My daughter’s book was overdue, yikes! I grabbed her several new books; I also picked out three books for me.

 

 

What I’ll be reading next.

I continued reading at home until I needed to help my daughter with her math, then threw the casserole in the oven. It turned out fantastic, and I’ll definitely continue making that to use up leftover rice. I did my Duolingo, cleaned the kitchen, and ran the dishwasher. After showering, I read my book, and my husband and I watched two episodes of Forensic Files.

 

Wednesday, 17 November, 2021

Grocery day! After breakfast and getting ready, I made out my grocery list. Nothing really great on sale this week, unfortunately. I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and dropped my daughter off at school.

Two grocery stores to stop at this week; $14 at a local store, and $51 at Aldi, which is about normal for us ($5 of that Aldi total was for a gift for my daughter!). At home, I put the groceries away and settled down to do an hour of volunteer work while listening to JBSTV. Today, I compiled lists of mental health resources for my state (I’m almost done with this list!) while listening to an interview with author Tal Keinan. He was such an intriguing interviewee that when my hour was up, I put his book, God Is in the Crowd: A Model for Post-Diaspora Judaism on hold via interlibrary loan.

I prepared my daughter’s lunch and took it to her at school. At home, I had lunch, did my 20 minutes of Pilates and 30 minutes of my Personal Read Harder challenge, and then, due to a terrible night’s sleep, took a nap for about an hour in my reading chair. Some days, it’s the only thing you can do!

I baked a pizza from Aldi for dinner and helped my daughter with her spelling words afterwards. I visited a few homemaking blogs, showered, and cleaned up the kitchen. I finished checking the blogs, then put my daughter to bed and read until my husband came upstairs. We watched two episodes of Forensic Files before going to bed.

 

And that’s it for now! We’ll see how today goes. My back seems to be okay, but I woke up with a headache that’s just this side of a migraine. NOT FUN. I don’t know how much I’ll get done today; I suppose that all depends on how this headache goes. Wish me luck, and I hope you’re all doing well and having a productive week!

What's Been Going On: Thursday, 11 November - Sunday, 14 November, 2021

Welcome to Monday!

It’s been calm days around here; not much going on, but that’s never a bad thing. Here’s what I’ve been up to.

 

Thursday, 11 November, 2021

After having breakfast and getting ready, I put some beans in the Instant Pot. It was a wet, sloppy school drop-off in the rain, and I was glad to get home, where I did another hour of volunteer work on the computer, listening to a JBSTV program on Holocaust survivors in the background. I spent 20 minutes and then a little extra cleaning out my daughter’s room (which is taking shape nicely!), and afterwards, I was exhausted. I had switched the sheets on her bed- lots of bending, which is hard on my back, so I rested and poked around on the computer until it was time for lunch with my daughter.

At home, I ate lunch, swept the floor, and did my Pilates video. I did my 30 minutes of my Personal Read Harder challenge, then unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher. Since it was a cold and gross rainy day, I prepared a batch of Tortilla Soup (to which I added black beans) and cleaned up afterwards. No recipe link, since this comes from a cookbook, but it’s warm and delicious and comforting when the temperature drops!

I sat down to browse some homemaking blogs, but as soon as I read Torrie’s post on food waste, I leapt up. I had meant to put the remains of the black bean burgers I’d made earlier this week in the garage freezer the day before but had forgotten, so I did that right then. And when I came back in, I spotted the last mushy banana of the bunch on the kitchen island and immediately threw that into a batch of muffins using the recipe from The Complete Tightwad Gazette’s Create-a-Muffin Mix. I put my batter into the fridge, since I didn’t need to bake it right then, and settled back down to browse the homemaking blogs.

I ordered two books from interlibrary loan, read for twenty-five minutes, and then left to pick my son up to drop him off at work across town. After dinner, I wrote Friday’s post, showered, cleaned up the kitchen, put dinner away, ran the dishwasher, and did my Duolingo.

I read my book and watched two episodes of Forensic Files with my husband before bed.

 

Friday, 12 November, 2021

After breakfast and getting ready with my daughter, I scooped the litterbox, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and chopped and steamed some broccoli in the Instant Pot. I put a load of laundry on to wash before dropping my daughter off at school, then came home to prepare an Impossibly Easy Vegetable Pie. I put the uncooked casserole in the fridge, cleaned up, then switched some of the laundry to the dryer and hung the rest. I was extremely dismayed to find one of my dresses had shredded in the wash. This had been a new dress I’d barely worn, which only strengthened my resolve to usually buy used clothes; if they lasted that long, they’ll likely last a little longer.

I folded and put away a load of laundry and tidied the living room. By then, my back wasn’t feeling great- I’m very aware of my danger symptoms and this was one of them, so I sat down to rest it, browsing my homemaking blogs and going through email.

I took an early lunch break with yogurt and an apple before having lunch with my daughter; we started a reread of All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor (we’d read this when she was about four, but she didn’t remember it, so I figured a reread was in order!). And then it was off to take my son on an errand, which is why I had eaten a little something earlier; I wasn’t sure how long this would take. As it was, it didn’t take long, so I dropped him off and came home and ate a vegetarian chik’n patty for the rest of my lunch.

My back felt better enough to do my Pilates; afterwards, I did my 30 minutes of Read Harder, then put yesterday’s muffin batter into a muffin tin and made a trip to the compost with the day’s organic material. I wiped down the stovetop, because I splatter stuff all over it like it’s my job on a daily basis!

School pick-up did not go well; my daughter came home in a mood and I spent the next hour dealing with her behavior while the muffins baked. OY. We had to run and drop my son off at work, then we came home and I put the casserole in the oven to bake while I showered. The Impossibly Easy Vegetable Pie is absolutely delicious (I made mine with broccoli, garlic, and onions, no peppers); next time, I’ll double the recipe. It’s THAT good. After dinner, I watched a few YouTube recipes with my daughter snuggled next to me (in a much better mood, thankfully!), and when my husband put her to bed, it was time to log in for my synagogue’s livestreamed Shabbat services.

I’m really looking forward to being able to attend in person (still masked!) on a regular basis in a few weeks when my daughter is fully vaccinated; we’ve been really isolated the last two years in order to keep exposure to all of us, and then to her, as low as possible. But now that she’s had her first vaccine, I’m feeling like there’s more of a light at the end of the tunnel. I feel incredibly lucky, however, that the technology exists that I can still “attend” services while staying safe, and I’m deeply appreciative of all the hard work my rabbis and synagogue staff put in to ensuring that those of us at home don’t miss out.

After services were over, my husband and I watched two episodes of Forensic Files.

 

13 November

Ahhh, what a relaxed, lazy Shabbat!

I don’t always get to have such a calm Saturday. I’m a Reform Jew; we do our best but understand that life happens and it’s not always possible to turn all of the world off, but this was a pretty good one. I ran the dishwasher after a long, leisurely breakfast (it was already full; I had just forgotten to run it the night before), then read with my daughter in her bedroom for 30 minutes as part of her weekend homework. Then I just hung out with her while she drew and colored; we talked about her cousins, school, bikkur cholim (the mitzvah of visiting the sick and what that might look like in a time like this), and various other things before lunch. I read a little more afterwards, then took a long, leisurely nap. SO nice.

I made cinnamon vanilla waffles and scrambled eggs for dinner, did my Duolingo, showered, and read an article that had lingered in an open tab on my computer all week. After putting my daughter to bed, I read my book and watched two episodes of Forensic Files with my husband.

 

14 November, 2021

After breakfast and getting ready, I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, then tidied the kitchen. I did a little bit of work on this blog post, and when the thrift store opened, I headed over there to check out their dresses (I don’t have a huge wardrobe of dresses, so when I lose one, it hurts!). I found THREE!, plus a pair of pants for my daughter.

 Not the greatest shot, but I have nowhere to display them! The long gray one will be worn with a tanktop; it’s a bit low-cut for my style otherwise. All will be worn with leggings underneath, and a cardigan on top.

At home, I had lunch and then walked around the block with my daughter, who wanted to play in the four flakes of snow that were falling. She regretted her decision about five hundred feet into our walk, since with the windchill it was all of twenty-five degrees, along with being icy and drippy out, but we soldiered on and made it! Once we were indoors and warm again, my daughter and I snuggled under one of my crocheted blankets; she played on her Kindle, and I read, then dozed for a bit. When I woke back up, I finally finished reading The Secret Life of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger. Well-written and information-packed; that’s why it took me a week to read it!

My husband had made sushi for lunch, so we ate more of that for dinner. I did my Duolingo, showered, cleaned up the kitchen, and ran the dishwasher. My back wasn’t feeling great at this point- kind of the same way it felt on Friday (and it’s still not great right now. Le sigh…), so I hopped into bed and began reading White Tears, Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color by Ruby Hamad. My husband and I watched two episodes of Forensic Files before going to bed.

 

And that’s it! I’m going to try to get as much done as I can this week, but that’ll depend on how my back holds up. I hope you’re having a great start to your week!

Friday links, November 11, 2021

 

Just a little something that’s been making me laugh this week!

 

It’s Friday! Shabbat Shalom, if you’re Jewish like me. : )

Here’s what I’ve found interesting online this week.

 

How One of the Biggest Lithium Battery Fires in American History Happened.

I don’t know if you heard about this massive lithium battery fire this summer, but I watched it go down live. While I don’t live there anymore, Morris is my hometown, and my parents are still both there. The police chief interviewed for the article taught my fifth grade DARE class back in 1990. My father was traveling when this happened, so I tuned in to all the press briefings online in order to keep him updated. Fortunately, neither of my parents live in the evacuation zone, but plenty of people I knew do. I actually attended a youth group meeting with an LDS friend in that paper mill in 1995 when the local congregation was renting an office out there before their building was finished. This fire was a tense situation and I’m sure none of the first responders in town slept well for many days. This is an important article to read, because lithium batteries are in a lot of things these days, and there needs to be more regulation as to how large quantities of them are stored and local fire departments being notified of their presence before they catch fire.

 

Against The Dishwasher.

No.

No.

No.

I hate these kinds of articles. They’re ableist and evince the author’s lazy thinking. I have a bad back; standing over a sink of dishes and scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing is difficult for me on good days. On bad days, it’s nearly impossible. And beyond that, I can think of a whole slew of people who would find a dishwasher a necessary tool. Wheelchair users. People with arthritis. People with broken limbs. People who have balance problems, like Menière’s disease. People with sensory processing disorders. People with “morning” sickness. The list goes on and on. Not to mention that most dishwashers these days use LESS water than handwashing. I’ve lived without a dishwasher many times in my life and it makes life a lot more difficult for me, as I'm sure it does for people like me. Don’t be this author.

 

Bal Tashchit: Summoning the Will Not to Waste.

This is something that’s been on my mind lately. Last month’s book from PJ Library (a wonderful program that sends Jewish families a Jewish children’s book every month) was Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback, a wonderful and beautifully illustrated story about a man who remakes his coat into various items as it wears down. Bal tashchit is a beautiful Jewish principle, and reading this story got me thinking about what I use, how I use it, and how I could do better. If you have a small child in your life, see if your local library has this book, because it’s a great story that teaches dedication to using what we have to the fullest, in the most earth-friendly and respectful way.

 

How to Fight Book Bans and Challenges: An Anti-Censorship Kit.

I mentioned that a community issue came up in the week that prompted me to virtually attend my local library’s board meeting and this is why. A local group got a bee in their bonnet about libraries, both school and public, shelving certain books (a local high school where a friend is librarian was mentioned specifically in this conversation on Facebook; I tipped her off). These people were furious that books that feature characters they don’t like and haven’t tried to understand exist; one person recommended stealing the books, and another advocated for a book burning. Yup, book burning. I have the screenshots to prove it.

Censorship isn’t okay with me. I’m at my local library often; there are plenty of books on the shelves that are about things I don’t like or don’t necessarily agree with. Do you know what I do about it?

I don’t check those books out. Because I’m a grown adult who is educated enough to understand that my way isn’t the only way, and it’s perfectly fine for others to live differently.

What I don’t do is whine, cry, or threaten. Because, again, I’m a grown adult, and grown adults with a sense of decency don’t act like that. If you don’t want your child to read a certain kind of book, that’s perfectly fine! But that’s between you and your child and no one else. I love that my daughter can march into the library and pick up books about girls that look just like her. I love that she can find books that feature main characters that look just like her Muslim best friend. I love that we can read books about the people who made it possible for our friends Chris and Rae to become the best possible mommies together for their two beautiful little girls, and I love that we can read books about people who were born in a body that didn’t quite match who they were inside, like my friend’s daughter Jamie. This is a big, beautiful, diverse world and we’ve been blessed to know some of the most amazing people. Those people should be featured on our bookshelves just as much as anyone else. If you’re not interested, that’s fine! I mean, I’ll be honest; I feel sad for the people who limit themselves so much, but there are plenty of other books out there. One of them is bound to interest you. But it’s not up to you what everyone else reads. And I’m prepared to be familiar with my library’s board meetings and what’s going on in town in order to go to bat for them if it’s ever needed. I live in an amazing, diverse town, and my library’s shelves do and should continue to represent that.

 

That’s it for this week! I hope you all have a wonderful, relaxing weekend. We’re supposed to see our first snow flurries of the season later on today. No accumulation yet, but I don’t mind. I like watching the snow fall through my picture window.

Shabbat Shalom, friends. : )

Monday, November 8 - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 recap.

Happy Thursday! We’re almost to the weekend.

I’ve decided that instead of doing one massive weekly update with an unholy wall o’text, I’m going to do a twice weekly post about what’s going on in my life. The first will cover Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; the second will cover Thursday through Sunday. I think that’ll work out better. Let’s get this started!

Monday, November 8, 2021

After getting dressed and having breakfast with my daughter, I changed out the bathroom garbage (it’s garbage night!) and scooped out the litterbox. I put a cup of black beans in the Instant Pot, then sauteed onions, mushrooms, and garlic in preparation for that night’s dinner of black bean burgers. (I add the mushrooms into the burger mixture when they’re on sale; it gives it a heartier flavor.) I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and then it was time for school drop-off.

Back at home, I tidied the living room and read a piece of writing a friend had sent me to look over (it was fabulous! I hope it gets published somewhere), then swept the floors. I did a 20 minute cleaning blitz in my daughter’s room.

So, my daughter is seven and…basically, she’s a hoarder, and the tiniest little tornado you’ve ever met. She can enter a room and turn it into complete chaos within minutes; her age and her tendency to be extremely easily distracted makes it overwhelming and frustrating for her to even know where to begin cleaning up when things get that bad. I expect this will change with time and maturity, but for now, she still needs my help. Unfortunately, spending hours at a time overhauling her room is an act of frustration and pain for me, so I decided to start working on her room twenty minutes at a time. This proved fruitful; I uncovered her floor and got a surprising amount done in such a short period of time. She was extremely grateful when she got home!

I then went downstairs and made the burgers for dinner (and put them in the fridge!), took out the recycling, and cooked up two batches of kale for dinner before running the dishwasher and taking out the compost.

I edited and posted a review of Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words by Annika Sharma on my book blog; then wrote another review. I browsed through some of my favorite homemaking blogs, then mended a torn dress, and prepared lunch for my daughter. I’m still picking her up for lunch every day (it helps to control our anxiety about her being unmasked in the lunchroom; she’ll be fully vaccinated after December 10^th, so when she goes back to school after winter break, we’ll feel okay with her staying at school for lunch), so I packed everything up and met her for lunch at school. She eats lunch with me in the car while I read to her; we’re currently reading Princess in Disguise by E.D. Baker (her choice; I’m not loving this one!).

At home, I ate lunch, then did an 18-minute beginner Pilates workout video. My physiatrist, whom I see for my terrible back, suggested Pilates as a way to strengthen my core at my last appointment; I had to wait a few days after my second set of caudal injections last week before beginning, but this was my first attempt, and phew! I definitely felt it the next day. I think it’ll be good for me and I’m looking forward to continuing.

Afterwards, I settled down on my chair for 30 minutes of my personal Read Harder challenge. This is where I pick a book that I wouldn’t just read casually; it’s something like a classic novel or a more substantial work of non-fiction that I really need to focus on to get through, and that’s easier for me to read when no one is home to make noise and distract me! Currently, I’m reading The Joy of Sects: A Spirited Guide to the World’s Religious Traditions by Peter Occhiogrosso. When my timer sounded, I began going through email I’d been putting off for ages. I took a break to walk with my husband to pick my daughter up from school, but this continued after we got home. Yikes!

I pan-fried the black bean burgers right before we ate, then I did my Duolingo (still going strong with Norwegian!), cleaned up the kitchen, took the garbage and recycling cans to the road, showered, swished out the toilet, and wiped down the bathroom sink. Phew! I had a sore hip after all this, so I relaxed until it was time to put my daughter to bed. I read my current casual reading book, The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live by Danielle Dreilinger, until my husband came upstairs. We watched two episodes of Forensic Files and then went to bed.

What a busy day!

 

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

You would think with as busy as I had been the day before, I would’ve slept better, but nope! Regardless, it was up for breakfast and getting ready with my daughter at 6:30 am. I threw in a load of laundry before doing school drop-off and heading to Target. They didn’t have what I needed, so I came home to discover rumblings of a local issue online (I’ll talk more about that later this week). Because of this, I made plans to virtually attend my library’s board meeting on Wednesday. I also posted a book review for Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America by Eyal Press.

I switched the laundry, then folded and put away another load (I do a combination of hang drying and drying in my dryer, so there’s usually always something to put away!). I did a bit more preparation on that local issue, then did another twenty-minute cleaning blitz in my daughter’s room (once again, she was very grateful when she saw my hard work!). I had to make an extra trip out to the recycling bin by the road after this; my daughter hoards paper like crazy, and the only way to clear it out of her room is to do it when she’s not there! I did a little more computer work, prepared my daughter’s lunch, then put together a bag for local food pantries to drop off at the school office for their Service Week.

After my daughter had her lunch, I returned home to eat mine, then repeated the same Pilates video from the day before. I did my 30 minutes of my Read Harder challenge, and then dozed for twenty minutes, thanks to my poor sleep the night before. My husband and I walked the mile to pick our daughter up, then walked home. It was a beautiful fall day!

At home, I threw together a baked spaghetti and ran the dishwasher, then relaxed and played around online while my husband helped my daughter with her math homework. I finished my Duolingo, showered, and read The Secret History of Home Economics before putting my daughter to bed and watching three episodes of Forensic Files with my husband.

 

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Wednesday is grocery day here! In addition to getting ready and making sure my daughter gets ready (and doing her hair, which I do every morning), I make out my grocery list while eating breakfast every Wednesday morning. I check Aldi and two other local grocery store’s ads and make out my lists based on what’s on sale. Fortunately, one of the local stores had some fresh vegetables on sale, so that made me happy! I scooped the litterbox and unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher before dropping my daughter off at school.

In addition to the items on my list, the local grocery store I went to had their about-to-go-bad produce rack out today, and I grabbed two big bags of broccoli for two dollars! There are about three and a half or four pounds of broccoli in those bags, in totally fresh condition. I was THRILLED! We hadn’t had broccoli here in a while, so I immediately started thinking about all the things I could make with this. Some broccoli cheddar soup might be in our future. ; )

I picked up our usual at Aldi, including a pizza (Wednesday night is always Aldi pizza night!), but not the bedspread they had in their weekly ad. Poor Aldi has been hit hard by the supply chain problems this year. I’m hoping they’ll get this bedspread in at some point, because we’re in desperate need of a new one! It only took me a few minutes to put groceries away when I got home.

After that, I did an hour of volunteer work on my computer. I’m signed up to do two hours a week with a nonprofit dedicated to helping provide resources to people who leave high-control religious groups. It’s important, necessary work, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it! I usually listen to whatever’s playing on the Jewish Broadcasting Service while I do my work compiling resources (I’m finishing up lists of mental health resources); today I listened to a program of speakers commemorating the anniversary of Kristallnacht. Most often, I split my two hours per week up between two days, but occasionally I’ll get it all done in one day. Some weeks I do a little extra.

I threw my daughter’s lunch together and read to her while she ate, then came home and had lunch myself! Afterwards, I did the same 18-minute Pilates video (I’m going to pick one video and repeat it all week long, I think), then read for 30 minutes for my personal Read Harder Challenge (I started learning about Buddhism today! Super fascinating). When the timer went off, I set it again for twenty minutes and cleaned some more of my daughter’s room, then took out the compost, rinsed some dishes, and visited some of the homemaking blogs I enjoy. And then it was time for school pick-up! Just me, because my husband works later on Wednesdays. At home, I prepared the salad and dressing for dinner while supervising my daughter’s math homework. There's spinach under all those chopped vegetables!

When my husband got home, we ate dinner; I cleaned up and ran the dishwasher, did my Duolingo, and showered. The library board meeting began at 7 pm, so I pulled out my grandmother's cross-stitch to work on while I listened (the stitching is all complete; I'm working on the backstitching now). 

The sound quality was terrible, but watching the board meeting was actually really interesting, and I plan on making it a regular thing. I love our local library so much and was heartened to know they're in such good financial shape. They also showed drone videos of the progress at the library's new building (it's slated to open in late fall/early winter of 2022), which was SUPER EXCITING. This is a project years in the making and one desperately needed- the current building is old, out of date (and getting it up to date would cost more than a new building!), not handicap accessibly, and a whole host of other issues. This new library building is going to add so much to our community and I'm really looking forward to it.

When the meeting ended, I read my book for a little bit, and watched two episodes of Forensic Files with my husband before going to bed.

And that's it for the first half of my week! How has your week gone?

Long time, no see!

 

Hello, friends!

So, I'm thinking about starting to blog here again.

It's been a long, hard pandemic. Everyone's been healthy here, thankfully, and we're on the road to my daughter being fully vaccinated, which is a MASSIVE relief. She's back in school full-time after being remote for a year, and after floundering a bit the first few months of having the house to myself for the first time since March of 2020, I'm feeling the pull to be accountable for my time on a wider scale. Sometimes that helps get things done, doesn't it?

There have been a lot of changes here; my son moved out (not sure if that'll be a permanent move or not; he's always welcome to come back, but he's at least trying to spread his wings and we're doing everything we can to support and encourage him!); my husband and daughter took over my nice clean basement (which is no longer nice and clean, sob, but I have plans to at least try to organize it a little better!), and I'm involved in a lot of new activities, which I'm sure I'll bring up in the future.

But I'm looking forward to writing more about my days, doing my best to get it all done, and sharing it all with you.

Nice to see you again. :)