Currently... 30.09.20

It's 8:30pm, the kids are in bed. I'm tired. Putting Ella to bed requires lying down while she listens to a children's meditation. I usually shut my eyes and try and focus on my breath while she wriggles around beside me, and occasionally peels open one of my eyes to see if I've fallen asleep. I generally stay until she is nearly asleep, it's much easier this way, and by the time I leave her room (usually just after 8pm) I feel like going to bed myself. But I'm determined to publish this post tonight - my first "Currently" post in, I don't know, years?! It's been a while for sure. I wrote it over the past week so it just needs a proofread and some pictures added. I can do this!!

Reading Trevor Noah’s memoir, Born a Crime. It is SO GOOD. I am a huge fan of Trevor Noah so I’m sure I’m a bit biased, but whatever. If you haven't read this yet, do yourself a favour and pick up a copy. 

I’ve also got a fiction book on the go, A Good Marriage by Kimberly McCreight. I read another book of hers, Reconstructing Amelia, years ago and thought it was a good read. A Good Marriage is a suspenseful book, the same kind of genre as Big Little Lies. It keeps me up past my bedtime reading so I’d say I recommend it, although it’s not so good that I’m trying to sneak in reading when I should be playing with the kids. (Born a Crime I try to sneak in...)

Listening to my first audiobook ever: Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell. The audiobook has been produced to sound like a (very long) podcast, with audio from actual interviews rather than just a reading of the book. Like anything of Gladwell’s it is thought provoking and makes you question what you thought you knew. I’m only an hour into the 8.5 hour long book, but so far it seems the main point is that people are terrible at making judgements about other people, especially when those people are lying.

Now that I’m back at work I can catch up on my podcasts during my commute. Armchair Expert is definitely my favourite right now, followed closely by the Hamish and Andy podcast. When I feel like listening to something a bit more intellectual (which, let’s face it, is not often after a day of work), I’ll dig into Sam Harris’s podcast, or Mr. Barton Maths, my favourite math education podcast. (Favourite and only math education podcast.)

Watching barely any TV lately. I’ve gone off stressful dramas the past month or two. The world just seems quite dreadful at the moment, and I right now when I watch TV I want some escapism. I started watching Modern Family from the very beginning a few months ago, and during the 20 minutes of an episode I just laugh and forget about all the depressing news. 

We did watch World’s Toughest Race on Amazon Prime recently, which I LOVED! A crazy adventure race through Fiji with 66 teams, which I thought was going to be sort of like Amazing Race. It was actually far less reality-TV like and far more “wow look at these incredible athletes” and was totally inspiring. 

Looking forward to the autumn weather. The humidity of the summer has been replaced with crisp mornings and sunny, warm afternoons. The weather in September in this part of the world is pretty much perfect in my opinion. Also the leaves are starting to change colour, the vibrant oranges and reds are gorgeous against a bright blue sky. 

Trying to get in 15,000 steps a day. I’ve set this goal over the past two weeks to encourage myself to move more while at work. In my current role I meet with students one-on-one all day, so could spend the whole day sitting if I'm not careful. Instead I try to make time for two 15-30 minute walks every day, and consciously take longer routes around the school when I do things like get coffee or talk to other teachers. 

Cooking on the weekends only! My mom generally cooks for us during the week. It’s pretty fantastic, I get to walk through the door at 5pm to the delicious smell of something in the oven. On the weekends I try to take over this duty. I really like cooking when I have the time - and when the kids are occupied with something else so they are not running around the kitchen trying to sneak in a pre-dinner snack. One of my favourite dishes recently has been this Charred Sweet Potatoes with Butter Bean Hummus & Lentil Salad from the website Green Kitchen Stories.

This wasn’t a super kid-friendly meal (well at least not for my kids). Ella will eat sweet potato and Ollie loves hummus, but neither would touch the lentil salad. I think we probably added some leftover chicken and raw veggies for their meals. But I LOVED it, and it made enough that there was hummus and lentil salad leftover, so the next day we could just roast a few more potatoes and then we had a healthy and filling lunch.

I also made a Root Vegetable Tagine with Lemon Couscous from my Love & Lemons cookbook. A traditional Moroccan tagine this is not, but the flavour was incredible and the Lemon couscous, made with Pearl couscous, gave it a refreshing pop. I can’t find the recipe online unfortunately, it's just in the cookbook, but you can see a picture of it here. This recipe was a hit, and Ella even had some in her school lunch the next day. 

Enjoying some early morning walks. This year I am able to leave for work around 7am, and the drive takes about 45 minutes. Last year I had to leave before 6:30am or the traffic would be so bad that I wouldn’t get to school in time for our 8:15am briefing. Reduced traffic is definitely a silver lining of the pandemic! We also have our staff briefing on Microsoft Teams now, instead of in person. It means that I can take a walk before school starts and listen to briefing on my phone, and it is a fabulous way to start the day. (It also makes my 15,000 steps a day goal much more achievable.) My school is located in a commercial area with some very busy roads, but fortunately it is close to a gorgeous walking path alongside the Don River, which flows from Lake Ontario north through the city and past my school. Yesterday I passed a snapping turtle that looked a bit lost on the path!

Wondering when and how the pandemic will end. At the moment it feels kind of endless. Currently the new normal we are living in is totally fine. Although the numbers of cases in Ontario have been increasing over the past month, I feel like it is not difficult to keep to activities that are low risk, such as dining on patios, going on hikes, and playing outside. Masks are mandatory indoors, and we personally don’t really visit many public places indoors at the moment. But I think that once the cold weather sets in we will start to feel a bit more locked in.

Wearing work clothes again! Ugh. After six months of leggings and athleisure wear, putting on fitted and tailored clothing is a bit of a drag. And don't even get me started on ironing.

Needing a massage. My back is killing lately. I think it’s from the amount of sitting I do now. Even though my commute is shorter than it used to be, it is still nearly two hours in the car every day. It’s frustrating as I do some sort of yoga EVERY DAY, and although there is some temporary relief right after my practice, I wake up every day feeling like I am 80 years old. 

Feeling tired after a month of going to work again. Excited and nervous about a major life decision we've recently made (which deserves its own blog post). Stressed about the upcoming US election. Even though we are not American, the results will have major implications worldwide. We watched the first presidential debate last night, and... wow. It was not reassuring at all. 

Well on that cheery note - I'm off to do some yoga and read my book before bed. I hope you are all staying safe, wherever you are.