One Child Productivity

I'm back after a long hiatus and a new domain. It's been an interesting second half of 2019 to say the least. More on this later, maybe, if I ever feel like backtracking.

Anyway.

It's amazing what you can get done as a stay-at-home-working-mom of one.

After getting my daughter up in the morning, getting us both fed (mostly her, not me), and getting us both dressed, we made it to Costco for gas and a quick grocery run.

Then after she went down for her nap, I was able to pay some bills online, prepare my students' Christmas gifts, clean up her toys, make my daughter's overnight oats breakfast for the next 3 days, deposit some checks, and start preparing dinner.

It's now just before 1:00 pm. If I'm lucky I'll be able to finish my lunch in peace and quiet and still have some extra down time before she decides to wake up.

One child productivity...it's pretty amazing how efficient you can be if you want to. Well, I better enjoy it. It's going to change in a few months.

:)

DIY Play Dough

Often times, the only two classifications given are “working mother” and “stay-at-home mom” but what about those of us who watch our own kids for part of the time (or a whole 8-hour day) and then proceed to work in the afternoons or evenings or whenever we get a chance to for a few hours to another 4-8 hours? What if you do both?

As a working mother I feel pressure to do my job well and prepare. This involves knowing my lesson schedule, having books on hand for when students need new ones, and knowing what piece they’re working on so I know what to teach or have an idea of what to teach for the day. As a stay-at-home mom, I feel pressure to take my daughter out on play dates to socialize her as well as let her see the world and explore.

Because of this conundrum, I often find myself at a catch-22. If I choose to practice piano for 1-2 hours during her nap, I don’t get much else done during the day before I switch gears and teach for a few hours.  If I don’t practice during her nap, I can prep dinner, clean the house, do laundry, or even take a nap myself, but sometimes I’m left winging it and thinking fast during my lessons. If I take her out on a play date, which I both should and want to, she won’t get a good nap in unless our play date, including the drive, is not more than 2.5 hours and she can return home to nap at the proper time. 

So instead, much of my life looks like fast thinking, crying toddler fighting naps, being overtired and stressed out, and eating frozen corn dogs (or frozen something) for dinner more than occasionally. 

But sometimes, I feel like I actually have my life together and can do a multitude of things. Hence why we made play dough today. 

While cleaning out her toy bin, I found an unopened package of model magic from our trip to Crayola a few months ago. I hadn’t opened it yet because I wasn’t sure if she was ready to play with something moldable and not put it in her mouth. The model magic reminded me of play dough, so during her breakfast, I looked up a quick recipe for homemade play dough. It involved some ingredients I didn’t have on hand at home, but nothing a quick trip to the neighborhood store wouldn’t solve. 

So after breakfast, I loaded her up, and we went to the store to pick up the remaining ingredients I didn’t have. Being that I was only going to pick up two things, I decided to simply use my stroller instead of putting her in a shopping cart and just hold what I needed. Well, I ended up with seven items in my arms totaling just over 13 pounds. Actually, I take that back. I ended up with five of the items in my arms, and I gave my daughter two to be entertained. Don’t worry, I still held over 13 pounds with five items. Ask me if you’re curious. 

We left the store and returned home where I commenced to make play dough while she played in the living room. She was doing fine and I was at the final steps when she started crawling away. I wasn’t in the mood to shut the door and have her start a tantrum on me so I picked her up and put her in her high chair to watch me finish making play dough. (yes, she does that now. If you hinder her idea even before she gets to proceed with the idea, ie: shutting a door she wants to go through even though, she’s three feet away, she will start to cry and it does get annoying). 

I finished making the play dough and it actually turned out pretty well. I gave her a little ball to play with and practiced my dough kneading skills on the remaining ball. She wasn’t very interested to be honest. She touched it a few times and tried eating a small piece stuck to her finger, but that was about it. After a short lived time with the play dough that clearly wasn’t entertaining her like it was entertaining me, I put it away.

Compared to store bought play dough, I like the homemade version because:

• It’s soft and has the texture of real play dough
• I know what’s in it so if my daughter does try eating it or gets it in her mouth, I know she’s not eating chemicals. 

But, at the same time, I also don’t like the homemade version because:

• It’s greasier than the store bought ones. Not in a gross, runny way, but we played on a glass table and I had to wipe it after. To be fair I haven’t played with real play dough in many many years so maybe it has the same issue. 
• It’s got a starch/dough smell. I realize that the kind you buy also has a strong smell and I remember disliking it as a child, but I think having played with it for many years, I got used to it. 

When I get some more time or feel like it again, I’ll probably make another batch and maybe add some tweaks to experiment myself. If you’re interested, this is the recipe I used. It makes about 2 cups worth of play dough.

Airtight storage for my play dough. Next challenge: see how long it stays soft.

In short, it’s simply flour, water, salt, oil, cream of tartar, and food coloring.

Maybe my husband will be just as entertained with this as I was, even for a little bit. And now my daughter is awake, and I practiced piano for an hour before writing this blog, so I will now get ready to feed her, feed myself some leftovers or something frozen, and then teach for 2.5 hours nonstop this evening.

That's a normal day for us. :) 

Mamalogues: The Magic of Mundane

Wednesdays are usually grocery run days. The baby wakes up, I feed her a bottle, I get dressed and ready, and then we both have breakfast together before finally leaving the house and going out. What used to be a mentality of "Where can I find the best value for each item I purchase?" has turned into "How can I get everything I need in the most effective way possible?" Every now and then I'll get lucky and my daughter will cooperate and we can still run to 2 different grocery stores in one trip. But most of the time, I don't chance it and pick my battles.

After my daughter was born last year, I became acquainted with one of the cashiers, Judy, who worked at my most frequented grocery store. My daughter was still in the carrier car seat in the base of the cart at the time and I'd pile my groceries around her and in the top section where the child/baby usually sits. She was five weeks old the very first time I ventured to the grocery store with a baby. As she grew up, I slowly transitioned her into the seat portion of the cart and regained the rest of my cart for groceries. Week after week, I'd make an effort to look for Ms. Judy and wait in her lane, even if it wasn't the shortest line.

When my daughter was old enough to sit in the seat and hold herself upright, she also became more aware of Ms. Judy. Ms. Judy gave her balloons on multiple occasions after realizing my daughter loved balloons and was noticing the bright foil ones that marked each cashier lane. Here's a picture from a few months ago with one of our coveted pink balloons.

We didn't get a balloon today, but that's ok. She's slowly moving past the balloon stage.

Like a Good Neighbor

In the first house I ever lived in, we knew one neighbor: the lady next door. And the only reason we knew her was because she used to babysit my brother when my mom worked. In the second house I ever lived in, we knew two neighbors: the family next door to us and a kid from school a few doors down. But we didn’t interact with them much.

In our house now, we know the names of at least six of our neighbors and are quite close with three in particular. I would love to know more, but this is already many more than I knew growing up. Although social media has come a long way in the last 30 years, that is not the reason for how we know our neighbors. We’ve actually seen and interacted with them at least once in person.

Our neighbors have been a key part to the success of our house remodeling and home maintenance. They’ve loaned us tools, come over in the evening hours to help us unclog drains, come over (almost) first thing in the morning to help stop leaky toilets, and give us encouragement and advice. We’ve messaged each other regarding unclosed garage scares (or realities) and been invited to each other’s birthday parties and social gatherings. I wish I could say we've done more to help our neighbors, but we're the amateurs around here compared to our much older and wiser neighbors.

That’s one thing I appreciate and am thankful for in this day and age, being able to say I know my neighbors by name and consider them friends. Also, my daughter is a fan of all of their dogs, and her first true word she could say clearly, with the exception of mama and dada, was gou gou, which is dog in Chinese. She’s so good at saying it that she can identify and say it even before we spot where the dog actually is (picture or real life).

On this particular afternoon, I was pushing her outside in her baby swing and saw a neighbor out in his yard whom we haven’t seen in a few years. Just the other day we had gone out for a walk and my husband and I said to each other, “You know, we haven’t seen H in a while.” So I made a point to walk over, say hi and introduce him to my daughter.

We talked for probably close to 20 minutes, long enough for me to wonder what time it was and begin slightly panicking that my first student was about to show up any minute. He told me about his flowers, which nursery he went to to purchase plants, and the Japanese maple that he was going to have to have removed because it was nearing its lifespan of 30 years and not doing well. I told him about working from home teaching piano and he shared with me about his hobby making pens. Gorgeous pens with abalone, wood, clock parts, basically anything you could think of. I then asked him if he made pens out of bullet shells. He acted surprised at first that one could make a pen out of a bullet shell and then proceeded to pull one out of his pocket saying, “This one is yours.”

I couldn’t believe he just pulled one out of his pocket just like that and then proceeded to give it to me so freely. Of course my daughter grabbed at it and had a good look.

We had quite the struggle buying our first house. We lost many we thought were “the one”. And when we finally got this one, I really thought we’d made a huge mistake for a long time. But our neighbors have made all the difference.

Costco vs. Sam's

I've clicked on many a sponsored article or blogpost supposedly explaining which one has the better warehouse deals. Most are disappointing clickbait at best, so I've decided to sit down and write my own.

There's no clear answer as to which is better as each shopper has his or her own personal preference when it comes to goods and spending. So here's a list of my personal pros and cons of each, and hopefully, you can make your own decision at the end.

1. Costco's membership fees are higher than Sam's.

This one is a no brainer. Sam's is $45 a year for basic membership. Costco is $60. You can also consistently find deals for Sam's club where you can get gift cards with purchase, which lowers your "overall membership fee" or vouchers for free items. In the last five years we've owned at least one membership per year to one or the other. We've never paid full price for either, but we've gotten much cheaper membership fees from Sam's overall.

2. Costco's return/exchange/price match policy is better than Sam's

Sam's has a 7-day price match policy and that's it. You can still return things almost whenever (with the exception of certain items such as electronics/special orders, etc). Costco's return policy is pretty much identical, but their price match policy is much more lenient.

3. Costco's merchandise is higher quality.

If you actually bought items (Kirkland's vs Member's Mark) and compared them as closely to apples to apples as you could, their merchandise is definitely better quality. This also includes a higher selection of organic or imported and "exotic" items.

4. Costco's merchandise is more expensive.

Better quality comes with a higher price tag. But, this also applies to some general goods of equal branding that both warehouses carry. For example, diapers. If you bought brand name diapers at wholesale price at each warehouse, you would pay more per diaper at Costco.

5. Sam's sale prices are not as good as Costco

Although Costco's general prices are higher than Sam's, their sale prices beat Sam's sale prices on the same items. Keep in mind you cannot simply compare prices to prices as the quantities manufactured for each warehouse are different to differentiate competition. Even though prices may look lower at one warehouse, you must compare the price per item or ounce for it to be an even comparison. Generally speaking, Costco's prices will always appear to be higher than Sam's prices, but more often than not, their packaging is also larger.

6. Costco gas is top tier.

Costco gas and Sam's gas generally have comparable prices to each other. But Costco offers top tier gas whereas it is ambiguous if Sam's does.

7. Costco memberships work internationally and cross oceans.

Unfortunately, Sam's is not nearly as widespread as Costco is around the world. And Costco gas is way cheaper in Canada (and Hawaii!) than any other gas station. Our Costco membership was a life saver when we went to Hawaii. Unfortunately I can't say the same about our latest trip to Canada because our membership had just expired...

8. Both allow you to shop with gift cards.

Sam's accepts Walmart gift cards as payment which can easily be bought by anyone at any Walmart.** Unsure whether or not you still need a Sam's membership despite Sam's accepting gift cards as payment. Costco accepts their version of a gift card which is a cash card and you don't need a membership to use one. Unfortunately, these can only be purchased by Costco members.

Happy shopping!

Year 15

It was at her four month pediatrician visit. We were wrapping up and just chatting when he caught me off guard.

"So what does your mom think of her?"

I felt time slow the way it does in movies and my thoughts felt dragged out for the mere seconds it actually was, my face giving off a deer-in-headlights look.

I stammered back, "My mom?"

And he's like, " Yea, your mom," with that tone of "of course I'm talking about your mom. Who else would I be referring to?"

And then I lied. Sort of. Or I answered as if I were talking about my mother-in-law. "Oh, she thinks the world of Sasha." When you've just been caught off guard and aren't prepared and your face has already given off a bewildered look, somehow in the spur of the moment, I just couldn't justify dropping an even larger bomb on him by saying, "My mom died when I was a kid."

He doesn't remember her, but he's met my mom, and somewhere in his head he probably knows it because he knows he was once my pediatrician.

When I get wrapped up in my thoughts, the emotions are different now. Most of the time, I feel a sense of relief and thankfulness that I can do my own thing and my mother isn't going to nit-pick at the way I mother my child. If my daughter eats a leaf or some dust off the floor, I just watch her and shrug it off if it's not dangerous. If a toy falls on the floor (in certain places), I just pick it up and give it back to her - and nobody tells me it's dirty and I shouldn't do that.

But there will always be that hole when I watch her interact with people, even family members, and I'll forever be reminded that my mother is not one of them.

We Tried Plated! - Not Sponsored

This weekend we tried Plated for the first time. We got a free box, so I thought, why not, let's test the recipes and give it a try.

The three dishes I selected for our box were: garlic basil shrimp and grits with cherry tomato sauce, garlic-soy pork chop with bok choy and water chestnuts, and Indian butter chicken with sautéed spinach and toasted naan.

Now as a preface to my opinions and summary of this food delivery kit, there's a few things to note.

1. I consider myself an experienced amateur chef. I have no formal training in cooking or preparing food, but I've had a good amount of experience in the last 6-8 years to know how to eyeball things and cook by feel.

2. I know how to buy groceries and plan a "menu" for the week. Most weeks we eat homemade food 13/14 meals. (Breakfast doesn't count because it either doesn't happen or we make a PBJ.)

So here are some thoughts on our experience with Plated, how we liked the recipes/food, and general thoughts and opinions of the service from an unbiased perspective.

I was super excited to get my box delivered on Thursday around 11:30 am.

The baby was sleeping at the time so I actually was able to unbox everything and put them away in peace.

Here's the spread of contents: they package and label everything for you in bundles according to recipe.
Their recipe cards are also printed with beautiful images of the completed recipe. My daughter loved
staring at it and wanted to get it from me when I was reading the recipes. 

We made our first recipe Friday night for dinner since I had to work Thursday night and was going to be out all day Friday. I had my box delivered on Thursday because they said delivery could be as late as 8 pm and I did want to make one Friday night. We decided to make the recipe for butter chicken because that was the recipe we were both very excited for.

The recipe is pretty easy to follow and the results were quite good.

Butter chicken, spinach, and half of the gigantic piece of naan.

For this recipe, we thought the serving size was excellent. Our box included 2 servings in each recipe and it portioned out very nicely to two bowls. The total prep and cooking time was about 30 minutes unless you marinated the chicken for longer (optional) so it makes for a fast dinner if you know what you're doing. My one qualm with this recipe was in the packaging - the tomato puree was really hard to squeeze out of a zip-top bag. I used my fingers to squeeze the sauce out from both sides, but then my fingers got dirty as I reached the bottom of the bag. Not the best way of packaging in my opinion, but I guess it works. Really delicious though. I'll probably make it again myself and swap out spinach for another leafy vegetable.

Shrimp and Grits

Our next recipe was shrimp and grits. We cooked this one Saturday for lunch while the baby took her morning nap. When I first opened the bag of ingredients for this recipe, I noticed my basil was already half wilted. Somehow there was moisture in the container. Not sure if this was my fault or faulty packaging. Plated recommends cooking seafood dishes within 1-2 days of receiving the box. I got the box on Thursday and cooked it Saturday for lunch - within the 2 day requirement. I had the ingredients in the refrigerator during this time because this bundle included mascarpone and butter. If I was supposed to unbundle it and not refrigerate everything in the bag....I was not aware of that. 

Shrimp and grits

We both thought the portions for this recipe were a little out of proportion. There were definitely more than 2 servings of grits, but since in my head the recipe was portioned for 2, I just split the grits into the bowl half and half until the pot was empty. It was probably a little more than we both wanted to eat. For this recipe, I also thought it needed some tweaking of the cooking times. The recipes are written very detailed with exact minutes of cooking each step. However, I thought the shrimp cooking times were a little long, especially since you had to return them to the sauce to finish cooking a second time in a later step. Also, different pots/pans and heating elements cook at different paces so even if you time it perfectly according to the recipe, it may still over/undercook slightly. Shrimp is one of those foods for me - overcooked shrimp gets tough and rubbery. I did not want to overcook my shrimp at all so I used my own judgement on cooking times for this one. 

Pork Chop with Bok Choy and Water Chestnuts

We made this last recipe today for lunch. Total cooking time was about 30 minutes again - their recipes are pretty good at staying consistent in the amount of cooking time required.

This was our least favorite recipe of the box. Nothing was "bad" but overall, it just didn't match up. I thought it was way too salty. The recipe used two boneless pork chops with a quarter cup of soy sauce plus other seasonings. I think that was way overkill with no sweet or sour to counterbalance the salt. Even my husband who has a higher salt tolerance than me needed some more rice to balance it out. The proportion of rice to meat in this recipe was also not nearly what it should have been (especially given how salty the sauce was.) We had extra rice to mix in, but if someone is just making this recipe straight from the box, they'd be gulping down cups of water or wishing they had more rice.

There was also no marinating of the meat so the flavor was limited to the exterior of the meat and sauce. I would have liked to marinate the meat in the sauce and then maybe cut out using some in the recipe later to drizzle. The flavor of this recipe really wasn't bad, but it was too overpowering. That says a lot, especially because I use soy sauce very frequently in my own cooking.

Conclusion

Did I enjoy my Plated experience? I actually did. It was really convenient to just unbox everything and have exactly what I needed for these recipes, and I now know how to make Butter Chicken which is a dish my husband enjoys when prepared well. Will I order and pay for a box myself? Probably not. Why? The cost. This box normally costs about $71.00. Considering it made 6 servings of food, that's $11.83 per serving. I could eat out for that cost, perhaps for less gourmet food, but with much less effort as well.

Our grocery budget for the two of us is about $50.00 per week. That being said, it makes 14 meals (lunch and dinner) for 2 people for 7 days, it comes out to less than $2.00 per serving. Yes, we are eating the same thing a few times as leftovers, but I don't mind leftovers for a meal or two. It means I cook even less!

I also enjoy going to the grocery store when my daughter is in a good mood because she gets to look around and be entertained and I get my shopping done.

So should you get a food kit delivery service? I think if your lifestyle and personality is a little different, one of these is a fantastic idea for the following:

1. This makes cooking fun. Many people find cooking very stressful. This sends you everything you need pre-portioned and packaged and provides you step-by-step instructions to cook. 

2. You don't have to buy groceries. If going to the grocery store stresses you out or you end up buying way too much and waste half of it, this is fantastic. You only get what you need and you use most if not all of it.

**Sidenote: If you're super eco-friendly, their packaging might frustrate you because of how much trash there is. As I was making these recipes, I constantly felt like I was throwing things away. The butter was individually packaged pads. Every ingredient had its own zip bag or container. Super wasteful if you simply unwrap and throw it away. I actually saved some of the bags to reuse whether it's to dump my daughter's poopy diapers when we're out and about and not near a trash can or to store my vegetable scraps in for stock in the freezer. I realize it's meant to be convenient and makes the packaging process easier on their end just to grab something that's pre-wrapped and place it in the box, but wow, there is a lot of trash from cooking three meals.