forestofglory

Here's the latest batch of DecRecs!

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It's the start of a new month, so it is time to look back on my goals for last month and set some goals for the coming month.

March has been fairly disorganized and I've been a bit sick the last couple of days, so I haven't completed all my goals.

1) Work on fic at least 25 20 days this month
I manged 19. Most of these days where writing but I also decided that I needed to read the whole thing over form the beginning, and did that with some editing over the course of several days. I also took a research day. I'm a little discouraged by just how long its taking me to writing this story.

2) Write two posts talking about what I've been observing in the built and natural environment around me
I used a very broad interpretation of "built and natural enviroments" this month and wrote about "Delicious Exciting food" and
"What Makes a Sense of Place in A Story?"

3) Read Five Online SFF shorts
Completed! Where most of these very very short stories? Yes, they where because I've not had the focus for more. But it still counts!

4)Finish the Sea Quilt, sea quilt mini
This are done and have been mailed to their new homes!
mini
Sea Quilt

5)Baste the quilt for baby N, and sew a back for the forest quilt.
I've done part one of this but not part two. Once I had the baby quilt basted and the machine all set up for quilting I decided to just go for it and start quilting the baby quilt.

6)Have some kind of Passover Seder
I had small outdoor seder with my parent -- we sat at separate tables. I'm still using my homemade haggadah which features a poem about robots and singing Joe Hill. For the meal I made mazto ball soup, fritta, and veggies and dip. My mom made an asparagus dish and chocolate ice cream for desert.

Well, actually I didn't do too badly at my goals. I still struggle with noticing when I'm accomplishing things and mostly feel like I get nothing done ever unless I do a write up like this.

On to April goals!

1) Finish the space cat quilt top
I have all of the block for this sewn but I have to decide how I want them arranged and then sew them together with boarders.

2) Finish the quilt for baby N
As mentioned above I've started quilting this! So there's not that much more to do.

3) Sew the back of the Forest Quilt
Is this going to take me like a hour tops? Yes. Will I get it done if I don't make it a goal? Likely no.

4) Write two posts talking about what I've been observing in the built and natural environment around me

5) Read Five Online SFF shorts

6) Write one longer piece
This might be another Short and Sweet, or maybe the rant about agrarianism I've been thinking about writing for a while now, or maybe something else.

7) Work on fic at least 15 days this month
Making this fewer days then last month because I want time to work on other writing, and also because maybe I'll actually finish a draft and it that case I'll want to take a break for a bit.

8) Make a vaccine appointment!
Everyone over 16 in California is going be come vaccine eligible on the 15th! So far appointments are not avaible in advance, but I'm going to make one as soon as I can!

So that's what I've got planned for April. We'll see how it goes.

So today is not Tu B'shevat, the Jewish new year of trees. That would be February 10. However I a person who is apparently bad at dates have been going around telling people in my circle who are doing the January talking meme that the holiday is today and asking them to post about a meaningful tree. So if that's you I'm sorry I got the date wrong but I'm still looking forward to reading your thoughts on trees!

I've been thinking about this prompt a bit myself and I have realized that I don't interact with trees that much any more. I could tell you a lot about the benefits of street trees, or a bit about the ecology of live oak savanna, or even about some special trees form my childhood, but not a lot about trees in my daily life these days. The trees that I see the most these days are the two redwoods in our backyard, and they are lovely and I enjoy looking at them but I don't feel really personal about them.

Bits an bobs is my many short unrelated things make a post category. Feel free to comment any of the points without commenting on all of them.

*R was in SoCal visiting with friends for most of last week. He left Tuesday and got back Friday before dinner. We where able to have N stay late at school most days so it wasn't too much extra childcare, but I was surprised by how stressful I found it. I really missed him!

*Wednesday was one of those very hot days we often get this time of year in the Bay Area. So after I picked N up from pre-school we headed to the Oakland Museum. Its really lovely local museum where I have membership, and they have AC, which is a bit rare in these parts. We spent time in all three permanent exhibits -- History, Science and Art. So that was pretty fun and good way to beat the heat.

*Rosh Hashanah starts tonight at sundown. Happy New Year everyone! I have not gotten organized to go to services tonight, but I have stared making this recipe for apple and honey challah. I guess that's pretty typical of my Judaism: good at food, and bad at ritual, but I do wish I was bit better at the community stuff.

*This morning the kid wanted to have her stuffed animals fight each other but I suggested we have protest march instead. I made little protest signs! I thought they where pretty cute, have a picture (via twitter). This felt like a pretty good parenting win!

I hosted a Seder on the first night of Passover! There where 12 people total, including a baby. I have home made haggadah that's pretty short and all in English. Its got my favorite bits, and a poem about robots, and at after the meal when when we are supposed sing song of freedom its got Joe Hill. So its good fit for my people.

It was nice to have multiple small children. They mostly played with each other on the floor while we did the ritual, but my kid came back at the right time to ask "Why is this night different from all other nights?" which she learned at her Jewish preschool. And they had fun being very bad at finding the afikomen.

I loved getting to feed people -- ok so I actually ended up out sourcing most of the food. But we had lovely feast. I made matzo ball soup, frittata, and the ritual stuff like the charoset. The I outsourced lots of lots of veggies -- my mom made three different dishes. Another friend brought a green salad, and R made hearty quinoa salad with beans. And E made almond maroons.

Then for the second night I went to the seder at my humanistic Jewish group, which was also very nice. I haven't been going as much this year because I'm working now and have less time and the events are not very child friendly but it nice to do ritual with other people who are Jewish in a humanistic way. I love the focus on members stories of escape.

I've been keeping Passover and not eating chametz. Sometimes by the end of the week I'm really desperate for bread but Passover ends tomorrow at sunset and I'm doing ok so far. I've been making matzo brei for me a the kid. There seem to be a lot of ways to do this -- I've settled on a fairly simple one that makes a big eggy pancake like thing that I've been eating with butter and jam.

How is everyone else's holiday/week going?

Passover started Friday at sunset. I had small seder for my family on Friday evening. My mom and Edith helped with the cooking so I didn't have to do too much work. I just made a main dish (frittata) and mazto ball soup. I think people had a nice time.

The last night I went to the seder held by my secular jewish group. It was lot of fun. The theme was modern exdous and several people told family stories of escaping from persecution, which were both interesting and moving. The meal was part catered and part potluck.

I've tried two different types of non-chametz cereal and not really liked either. Oh well, at lest I got strawberries this morning.

Yesterday was my mothers annual "I survived cancer" tea (17 years!) I offered to help out. R was going out for the day and dropped me off at the family home at 9:30ish. My Dad and Brother were just about to take a walk to a bakery about a mile and a half away, so I said I'd go along. And I did and it was nice.

We got back around 11 and I started making scones for the tea. I hadn't made scones in a while, and the recipe is only a list of ingredients plus an oven temp, and baking time, but I remembered how it went and make good scones.

The I tried to make french macrons. The batter came out the wrong consistency, so that the cookies don't look right or have quite the right texture. However the are still quite tasty. I sandwiched then with chestnut paste and will serve them at tonight's seder.

Around noon I took a break to eat something.

Then I made tea sandwiches, cucumber and cream cheese; and salmon with watercress butter. For some reason this took a long time. I cut the crusts of then cut the sandwiches in fourths, squares for cucumber and triangles for the salmon.

Then I helped but various other foods in plates and bowls. Strawberries, and tiny little tea cookies, and tomatoes, and some dips, and I don't remember what else. Then I got to chill on the sofa for a little bit.

At 3 the 1st guest arrived. We were still bringing the food out the the garden, and making tea. The party itself was quite nice. I had good time talking to people I had not seen in a while. (One of them has a foster cat she is looking for a home for -- I wish I could take her.)

Then after the part stopped by my sister-in-laws place to bring her some leftovers. The came back and boiled some eggs to be made in to deviled eggs tonight.

I'm hosting a seder tonight at 5:30. 16 people are coming, two of whom cook professionally. I'm also quite tried for yesterday.

I slept in this morning (lately I've been reading books in my dreams, and they are awesome, so when I wake up I'm sad that said books aren't real. This morning I was dream reading and awesome Vorkosigan book, that was sequel to another awesome book, and then I woke up and neither existed. It was sad.)

I was about to start on the chicken soup for tonight when my nephew asked for ride to school, because his bike had a flat tire. So I did that got back started the soup, and made the matzoh ball mix. I'm supposed to be updating the Hagadah now, but instead I'm writing this and a reading the internet.

I'm having a bit slow morning. Trying not to beat myself up for only slowly adding words to the thesis.

I ended up making a lego sukkah. It has lego walls and twigs on top. Not as much fun as a real sukkah, but better suited to my current energy levels. I also made cake for the 1st night of Sukkot.

We were planning to go up to Minneapolis this weekend and stay with a friend of R's. However R's friend had heart attack! He seems to be as ok as possible, but needs to rest. So we aren't going, it is quite disappointing.

So my seder last night went really well. People liked my Haggadah with agnostic gender neutral English blessings,("Let us bless the source of life which ..."), the bit about the hand of god and the finger of god, and "When We Were Robots in Egypt". There was good amount of discussion, enough that people got their questions asked, but not so much that we got really off track.

The food turned out well too -- the best thing was the matzo ball soup, which I made really good by boiling some onions,carrots, celery and chicken pieces in the stock before adding the matzo balls. I also made a fritata with some of caramelized onions, Kale and Parmesan, and baked chicken pieces. The guests brought a salad and some lentils. For desert we had ice cream.

People really liked eating the parsley dipped in salt water, so now I don't have much parsley leftover, which is good. I do have big chunk of horseradish root that I'm not sure what to do with.

If you attended a seder last night I'd love to hear about it.

Friday night I went to a seder. I planned it with some friends. My friend M was excited about using her table linens and knows more people them me, so she hosted. I was in charge of the menu. Planning a vegetarian seder is a bit tricky, and I'd never done it before. I did a bit of prep before hand (see last post). I had few things I knew I wanted to make. (And had asked R to bring a yummy quinoa dish) but I knew my friend was getting her veggie box Thursday so we didn't plan everything ahead. Planning the menu the afternoon of the meal was a bit scary but everything worked out great. Here is what we ate:

Carrot and Celery sticks with (store bought) dip -- this was to keep us going during the bit before the meal.

Frittata with caramelized onions and Parmesan cheese
Roasted asparagus
Broccoli with a soy dressing
Mashed sweet potatoes
Matzoh ball soup (brought by someone else)
southwest quinoa (brought by R)
Haroseth
Mataoh, plain and whole wheat

The French Macaroons -- which where a hit (yay!)
Ice Cream a pint each of chocolate and salted caramel from bi-rite
Chocolate sauce
Raspberries

There was also going to be sauteed chard, but we forgot to cook it until the last minute and then decided there was too much other food to bother.

I also enjoyed the ritual part of the Seder. We had three Haggadot, with different numbers of copies. The where "seder in the bar" -- very short and basic haggadah one of M's friends put together -- 10 copies as it was only about 10 pages long. A traditional Haggadah that I fond on my parents book shelves --3 copies. The Velveteen Rabbi's feminist hagadah -- one copy.

So we mostly used the short one, but digressed a lot. I read a few bits from the VR hagadah, and we read a few bits from the traditional Haggadah, including my family's favorite bit that no one else knew about. This is the bit where the Rabbis are discussing how many plagues there where and go on about the hand of God and the finger of God.

We also digressed to tell personal stories about our families and favorite Midrash.

R had never been to a seder before so I recruited him to ask the 4 questions which he did with style. I think he had and ok time, but was bored by some of the longer bits.