Notes from the kitchen table: no. 02

Hello -

A shorter update today than I plan to normally do, and more of just a brain dump, and a bit late, because I’ve got a lot going on this week.

I have three heading to school in a couple of weeks. This is new for us - we’ve been homeschooling for many years now. One started high school two years ago, but I was still homeschooling three. Now I’ve got two more going to high school and I will just have one left at home this year. It’s an exciting new phase for all us. I’m not a fan of school starting in August though, if we’re being honest. When we lived in Seattle school still started after Labor Day, and that still seems more right to me. Middle of august still feels like the middle of summer. Oh well, it is what it is so we’re making the best of it.

So a theme in our house this week is getting ready for school. Especially for the two that haven’t been since third grade - there’s a lot of uncertainty happening and a bit of stress. I think they will do great though. We’ve done a bit of school shopping, we need to figure out what they want to do about lunch. I’m sure the first few weeks will be a little exhausting as they adjust to the schedule.

We have lots of critters around our place. It’s one of our favorite things about living here. Very common visitors are deer, small birds, ravens, butterflies, squirrels, frogs, lizards. Sometimes we see skunks, eagles and hawks. Less often and more exciting are when we get to glimpse the occasional owl, bear, coyote, fox, raccoon. We wait excitedly for the baby deer, their mommas keep them well hidden. And just the other day for the first time we got to see a little bobcat. A few critter pictures are in the album at the end.

Two of my kids are involved in local theater, and one is currently in a summer production. This is tech week, and if you’ve got theater kids you probably know that it’s a bit like finals week or crunch time. Rehearsals every day leading up to opening night of the show. It’s her first musical and we are really excited to see how she does.

We’ve had big wildfire burning a ways north of here. No danger to us but the view of the smoke clouds have been impressive.

Out in the yard we’ve been doing a bit of clean up in preparation for friends coming to visit - we’ve raked a new path through our woods and my husband put in some steps up to the path and to the house from where our friends will be parking their RV while they visit.

I’ve made a trip to Costco in preparation for having a house full. I have a love / hate relationship with that place. It can be fun, but also so overwhelming. I try very hard not to impulse buy and focus just on the bulk food that really is a better deal than elsewhere. But it is a bit fun to browse. ;-)

On the menu this week:

Sunday: pasta with bolognese sauce, salad with berries & lemon vinaigrette

Monday: chicken & thai basil stir fry, coconut rice, crispy salt and pepper tofu

Tuesday: fish tacos

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: lasagna with béchamel and leftover bolognese

Friday: pizza

Saturday: salmon

Next week we’ve got houseguests, friends from Seattle visiting, a family of 5. So I’ll be cooking for 11 people. My goal when cooking for a crowd is to make things that are easy to feed a lot of people but don’t require working in the kitchen for hours and hours. I like to enjoy my time with my friends. I’m still tweaking the details but my tentative plan includes burgers, carnitas, fried chicken, maybe gumbo or paella, pizza, and maybe we’ll all go out one night.

Just a quick one so signing off. More next week.