Week 1 & 2 of 2024 (In Review)

I’m trying something new this year. Every week (or two) I’m writing in just to document the usual daily life stuff that went on this year, my last year on maternity leave. This might just be mostly text, not a lot of photos, but the point is just to document the little things in an effort to blog more. Let’s see how it goes.

It was another quiet New Year’s Eve night for us new parents, eating nachos and watching The Big Fat Quiz of the Year while baby slumbered, and I’d been anxious (for months!) about him waking thanks to the war-zone-like New Years’ fireworks around the city center. I guess they hit just at the right time in his sleep cycle because he remained asleep. Truly remarkable when I recall how loud some of those booms were.

It’s been a good start to the year! After putting away all the Christmas things on Three Kings Day I felt a welcome sense of renewal that a new year brings. Mainly, I start with food – cooking and baking more, and choosing seasonal ingredients and cooking methods that are more nutritional than I’d been subsisting off of during the holidays. I like to crack open the cook books and get inspired, but now it’s for me and the little one. One big hack is beans and legumes! Not only are they cheap (Lord knows we need cheap right now) and filling but they are feel-good foods with staying power. This week I’ve made a big pot of minestrone to power us through this sub-zero week, and last week I was pretty sure that the chicken noodle soup I whipped up single-handedly cured my cold. I will absolutely swear on it! Soups, broths, beans. Something to heal us, keep us full and make us warm.

The weekend between week one and two brought us a proper, thick dusting of snow and finally the sun has come out (after the greyest holiday season in memory, outside of Washington state). My main concern this week has been keepin’ that baby warm/keeping his mittens on!

I still don’t have a wall calendar, which somewhat bothers me, but I’m looking out for a Josef Lada one (again) this year.

I’m looking forward to just having a quiet, simple winter… as quiet as you can have with a nineteen-month-old, that is. Brisk snowy walks next to the freezing river, going nowhere too far afield. I think a good recharge will be necessary thanks to the past year and the year to come. I’m also prioritizing more self-care this winter, asking my partner for help to make time for this so I can do things like get a haircut (soon!), go to the sauna, cafe, a long yoga class.

What (Else) We Ate

PB&J Oat Squares from the Toddler Healthnut Cookbook made a nice oatey cake, good for snacks (of which I need to provide countless amounts of lately) for Little Man.

Ginger Broccoli Stir-Fry with Tofu (instead of beef), also from the Toddler Healthnut Cookbook. I loved how much like take-out this tasted! Added some chopped cashews to the adult portions to make it even more like take-out.

Falafel “Cakes” with a chopped salad, cous-cous. Whipped it up with the excellent falafel mix from DM, sprinkled with Balkan cheese (or for the little one, fresh mozzarella slices).

What I Wore

Wool sweaterssss. Long underwear, thermal socks. It is so cold, even inside that it is time to bring out the big guns. Even wearing scarves in the house (as I type). I finally procured Mouse a balaclava (in Czech, kukla) because of the sub-zero temps and feel so much better about everything!

I’ve not been taking hardly any photos of myself and I’m trying to slowly change that. Mom buns and hair clips have hardly been inspiring for a portrait but it’s a new year, right?

Reading/Watching

On New Year’s Day we watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (New Year’s tradition running since 2021 – watch Indiana Jones). It’s just so good. The physical comedy is at it’s best and, unpopular opinion, it may be the best of the original trilogy. I guess next I have to force myself to see any of the later Indy films which I’d long been avoiding.

We saw Saltburn last weekend– it was tops on my list of 2023 movies to see because 1) Directed by Emerald Fennell (and I loved Promising Young Woman) and 2) Couldn’t wait to see what Barry Keoghan could do in a leading role. I was definitely not disappointed! It took me back to that feeling of being in college in 2006 all over again with its impeccably-chosen soundtrack and just as disturbing as we assumed it would be, if not moreso. I cannot emphasize enough how not for everyone this movie is but it truly belongs with the darkest of dark academia and I loved the Oxford setting.

I’ve also just started Kleo (Netflix Deutschland) which I’m really enjoying, like a woman-fronted Deutschland 83. We needed this.

The Christmas holidays are, in my opinion, just made for picking up a classic novel and since I think I read absolutely zero classics in 2023, I chose A Tale of Two Cities. I think people don’t realize just how accessible Dickens’ writing actually is! The story is turning out completely different than I thought it would be (I was picturing something more along the lines of Hemmingway’s A Moveable Feast but wrong I was).

Hope your year’s been off to a hopeful start and let me know if you enjoy these Week in Review sorts of posts. (I think I need all the encouragement I can get, hah)