April 2021: Actually, I WOULD like a sweater

“Actually, I would like a sweater” -real live verbatim sentence spoken by the kiddo when we arrived at a playground and it was colder/windier than expected.

This April was: some sunshine and some rain (and one tremendous thunderstorm), a belated Passover seder, vaccines, playgrounds, several dozens of library books (AND library Lego, a very exciting new development), biking, growing tomato seedlings and peas, putting raised beds in the garden, visiting old friends, Tinkergarten, Rockabye Beats, the Carle Museum, Puffer’s Pond, and a horse barn!

What we’ve read so far

Some highlights from our month of reading:

Chapter books

• Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O’Brien, audiobook narrated by Barbara Caruso (1972 Newbery Medal)
• Too Small Tola by Atinuke (collection of three stories about the title character)
• Ivy & Bean Get to Work by Annie Barrows, illustrated by Sophie Blackall (the 12th and final Ivy & Bean)
• Henry and Beezus by Beverly Cleary

Graphic novels/comics

• Narwhal & Jelly series by Ben Clanton

Picture books

• Animals Brag About Their Bottoms by Maki Sato (thank you to Karen C. for reading this at Winchester Preschool Storytime!)
• Laxmi’s Mooch by Shelly Anand, illustrated by Nabi H. Ali
• Amy Wu and the Patchwork Dragon by Kat Zhang, illustrated by Charlene Chua
• Night Out by Daniel Miyares
• Gurple and Preen by Linda Sue Park, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
• The Farmer trilogy by Marla Frazee

YA/Adult

• Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley (YA)
• Love is a Revolution by Renee Watson (YA)
• We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry (adult fiction/YA crossover)
• The Souvenir Museum by Elizabeth McCracken (stories)
• The Office of Historical Corrections and Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
• Candyfreak by Steve Almond (nonfiction)

What we’ve made in the kitchen

Savory/bread

• KAF English Muffin Toasting Bread
• KAF Beautiful Burger Buns
• Matzah ball soup
• Charoset (apples, nuts, raisins – Team Raisin! – cinnamon, honey, wine)
• Honey mustard salmon
• Lasagna with spinach
• Cream biscuits with thyme (ATK)
• Oatmeal pecan maple scones (ATK)
• Zucchini muffins (adapted from the ATK zucchini bread recipe)
• Pumpkin muffins (Flour by Joanne Chang)

Sweet

• Lemon bars (shortbread base from ATK I think,
• Macarons (Chocolate with chocolate-almond filling, lemon with raspberry jam, lemon with lemon curd. Recipe from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts; lemon curd recipe from Flour, Too)
• Oatmeal cookies (Ruth Reichl recipe from Rage Baking)
• Lemon poppyseed cake (Helen Goh’s recipe from Sweet)
• Chocolate chip cookies (Good to the Grain)

What we’ve grown in the garden

We’ve finally gotten to do some real gardening this month! We put in two raised beds. One is full of strawberries – a few plants I brought from Arlington and which survived in a basket over the winter, and the rest from someone in town who was thinning her patch. The other bed has kale in it, and will have cucumbers when it’s a little warmer. We also started tomato seedlings indoors (Sun Gold and Chocolate Cherry). We’ve put up hanging baskets of calibrochoa. The lemon tree has been mostly living inside at night and going out on the porch in the daytime.

Outside, the forsythia popped, and the new shrubs/perennials/herbs (lilac, abbotswood potentilla, lavender, coral bells, lamb’s ear) seem to be doing well. The hydrangea is leafing out, and the Japanese crabapple (we think) tree in front is in spectacular magenta bloom. Some little yellow flowers with mottled green leaves popped up all over the forest floor; my cousin Anne identified it as trout lily. It’s nice to see things greening up again and color bursting out!

March 2021: Look Before You Leap

“Remember how we talked about ‘Look before you leap’?”

“I did look! I just didn’t know how far I was going to leap!”

What We’ve Read So Far

Picture Books:

• What A Lucky Day! by Jashar Awan
• Little i by Michael Hall
• Blanket: Journey to Extreme Coziness by Loryn Brantz
• Tanna’s Owl by Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, and Yong Ling Kang
• The Midnight Fair by Gideon Sterer and Mariachiara Di Giorgio
• Scarlet’s Tale by Audrey Vernick and Jarvis

We’ve also finished making our way through the Zoey & Sassafras series (and are hoping for more), read a couple more “Living In…” early readers by Chloe Perkins and learned about South Africa and China, and discovered early chapter book Desmond Cole, Ghost Patrol thanks to some friends (FYI, ghost vomit is slimy). The kiddo was captivated by Diana: Princess of the Amazons, a graphic novel by Shannon Hale, and also read a Narwhal & Jelly book by herself. And perhaps best of all, we both fell head over heels in love with Ursula Vernon’s stand-alone Castle Hangnail, which is like Arthur Howard’s picture book Hoodwinked meets Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle with, of course, some Hamster Princess thrown in.

I’d also like to cheer for Christina Soontornvat’s A Wish in the Dark (middle grade fantasy) and Cilla Lee-Jenkins: Future Author Extraordinaire by Susan Tan, which is brilliant in the vein of Ruby Lu by Lenore Look and Clementine by Sara Pennypacker, and uses parentheses like William Goldman (i.e. to hilarious effect).

What We’ve Made (Edible)

Savory:

• Green pasta
• Root vegetable pancakes/hash browns (russet potato, sweet potato, carrot, beet)
• Roasted beets and potatoes
• Roasted beet, crispy kale, pear, and halloumi salad
• Spinach onion cheese quiche
• Honey mustard chicken, sauteed asparagus, mashed potatoes
• Whole wheat wrap with asparagus, red bell pepper, tofu, mustard, and cheese
• Couscous with fried egg, scallions, caramelized onions, crispy chickpeas

Baked/sweet:

• Cinnamon swirl bread (this makes the BEST French toast)
• Chocolate Chip Cookies (Good to the Grain)
• Good Morning Muffins (Flour)
• Granola
• Potato bread (Mary Berry)
• Brownies (Flour)
• Pizzelles (Cuisinart, marbled with chocolate)
• Mini rhubarb and berry crumbles (improvised recipe, a fruit crumble is difficult to mess up)
• Triple chocolate almond cookies (Milk Street Tuesday Nights)

What We’ve Made (Not Edible)

The kiddo has taken to putting complaints in writing. So far, top concerns are (1) WIND TOO LOUD. SAD SAD SAD SAD SAD BABY, (2) BIRDS TOO LOUD. TOO EARLY. SAD SAD SAD SAD BABY, and (3) when a book that a librarian read during preschool storytime via zoom was not immediately available at our (beloved!) local public library: I WANT THE BOOK! I WANT IT NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW. I AM NOT GOING AWAY UNTIL THE BOOK IS HEAR [sic]. I REALLY LOVED IT. [picture of crying face, many tears] The book in question was the above-mentioned Scarlet’s Tale by Audrey Vernick and Jarvis, which we did eventually get from the library, and read many times (definitely pick it up if you liked Imogene’s Antlers by David Small).

Sad, sad, sad, sad baby still writes in all caps. She has also drawn some pretty amazing pictures lately, and has enjoyed coloring pages from NASA. And since we’ve been able to spend more time outside without freezing our tails off, she’s back to making birds’ nests with twigs and grasses, and playing in whatever mud she can find.

What’s Growing in the Garden

Green things are finally starting to grow! Snowdrops came up (in a neighbor’s yard, but I’ll plant some bulbs in the fall), and crocuses and squill and daffodils. Tulip leaves are up, but no bulbs yet. I’ve visited some local garden centers and found two types of mint, two types of lavender, rosemary, and a pothos (for indoors). We also (today, so technically not March anymore) cut down/dug up two thorny shrubs – neighbors obligingly lent us loppers and shears, thank you neighbors! – and replaced them with a(n allegedly) three-season lilac and an abbotswood potentilla (quite possibly my favorite shrub). I also picked up some muscari (grape hyacinth), lamb’s ear (so soft), and coral bells (“Fire alarm”). This month (April) we’ll start some seeds indoors and set up a raised bed for strawberries. Hurray, spring!