Work Wednesday?

Having recently identified two new themed tracks to this blog (Museum Monday and Food Friday) I had to chuckle to myself when I thought of a third:  Work Wednesday.

I'm only half serious about this idea, which came to me as I thought about my new relationship to work and what it means to me.  It's probably more of a one-off post than a regular feature but I'll see where it goes...

I have always worked and always enjoyed working.  I started babysitting at age 10, helping out my much-more-responsible older sister.  When I was 13 I looked forward eagerly to getting my working papers so I could have a "real" job.  Why, I don't know, because by that time I was already pulling in a decent income with my own babysitting jobs.  I have had all sorts of jobs over the years:  mowing lawns, retail, the hired companion of an elderly lady, event photographer, photography editor, department store product demonstrator, pub quiz score keeper, office worker, model, ice-cream scooper, and life coach.  And that doesn't even begin to get at the jobs I've held in my professional career of librarianship--including jobs in libraries as well as editorial and writing jobs, teaching in graduate library programs and facilitating workshops. Then, of course, there's being a mom.

Suffice it to say I like being productive.  When asked how I felt about taking a leave from my job I would always explain to people that I've basically been working since I was 14, and was looking forward to the break. Now that I have actually made the break I realize that that's not exactly true.  I am still working, just in different ways from how I have before.

I'm not just talking about keeping a household, but that is part of it.  I look at keeping a household differently now, certainly.  I look at it as more of a job.  And, since I'm more focused I definitely do a better job at it.  I'm talking more about categories of work beyond the work for pay/work you don't get paid for dichotomy.  Currently, I'm not getting paid for any of my work in the traditional sense.  I make sure we eat and have a reasonably clean home and clothes to wear, and sure, I guess in exchange for that I don't want for anything.  But I don't think Peter would chuck me out if I suddenly gave up doing the laundry or grocery shopping or started buying prepared foods exclusively.

Perhaps it's a "work that's intellectual/work that's not intellectual" dichotomy I'm contemplating, as opposed to thinking about work as only something you get paid for. There is also other work I do, work that's infinitely more satisfying than the household stuff.  Work that is intellectual.  For instance, I recently submitted some proposals for online learning modules sponsored by a library organization.  A lot of proposals.  It took a significant amount of mental bandwidth to organize my thoughts and pull the proposals together, not to mention navigating the technical glitches of the online submission process.  Then I applied for a part time temporary job in in the library of a local international school.  And then there's the reading I'm beginning to do; both background reading for an organization which will hopefully have some work for me come the new year, but also just keeping up with my field so that when I do return to the States I'll still be effective in a field I love.  I was compensated for none of this, but it was all pretty satisfying.

My new relationship with work has more to do with pursuing a meaningful contribution than pursuing money.  I feel really fortunate that I have the opportunity to discover that.

Museum Monday: The Rub

The only problem with Museum Monday is that many museums are closed on Mondays. Last Monday we attempted to visit the Royal Palace. After a very difficult time convincing M that it was time to leave the house (I actually started to write the blog post in my head about how there was no Museum Monday because Mairtin refused to cooperate...) we finally made it to Dam Square only to find out the Palace was closed. I had checked this specifically online but was foiled by the Euro calendar which has Monday as the first column as opposed to the more familiar Sunday.

So, I took a disappointed boy out for ice cream anyway, we went to the Magna Plaza mall, and we stopped by the library on our way home to read a book and get a video.

Food Friday: The Gear Up to Thanksgiving

So, Thanksgiving came and went here in Amsterdam.  I used the day to do a little prep for our Thanksgiving feast for Sunday.  Turkey ordered, roasting pan purchased, INSTANT READ located.  Yes, that's right, the very same cooking store in which the guy told me that they didn't sell instant read thermometers had an Oxo Good Grips one.  So, I'm now reasonably sure I won't poison my guests.  Plus, I found a really nice rasp at Blokker.

I'll be making roast turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes (M has been asking me to make the potatoes "sweet" every time I make them lately, so I was really happy to find sweet potatoes at the local Asian grocer), stuffing, corn bread and green beans.  For desert I'm buying an apple pie at HEMA, which is better than anything I could make, and Peter will make some whipped cream.  I have everything organized and even bought a nice pinot noir.

One good thing about making Thanksgiving dinner after the fact is you can be inspired by everyone else's meals.  I've seen countless plate photos posted to Facebook and also have some extra time to read the tips posted on my favorite blog, Lifehacker.

We didn't have a very exciting week food-wise, I think because all my effort is going into planning Thanksgiving.  We ate burgers & fries, eggs, and chicken stir-fry (seasoned like the low-mein I did) and frozen pizza with salad.  Tomorrow we are having haring (Dutch salt-cured herring) or Kibbeling (glorified fish sticks) from the fish market.  So, nothing worth photographing (although maybe I'll do a post on the Kibbeling, which is awesome) until the turkey comes out.

Zoo

A Last week we went to the zoo with M's friend from school.  We'll call her West Coast L to differentiate her from M's cousin L.  West Coast L is a lovely little girl with a great imagination, just like M.  She is also one of the older kids in a class of kids with birthdays in both 2007 and 2008 and when M started school and there were only a handful of English speakers, she was there for him.  She also doesn't go to school on Fridays so it works out well.

It was freezing cold but that was OK.  The zoo has plenty of inside places:  reptile house, primate house, butterfly house and one we'd never been in, the small mammal house.

This past Friday we also hung out with West Coast L and her mom.  M had suggested a swim, so we took a trip out to Amstelveen to the hotel pool we used when we came here for house hunting.  The previous two times we went to the pool we were actually registered guests but nobody checked.  On Friday were weren't, and they checked, so as you might imagine M was pretty disappointed.  But we decided to go to West Coast L's house for lunch and when I later apologized to M for swimming not working out, he said, "That's OK, going to [West Coast L]'s house was even better!"

M's love of swimming is another motivator to get the bike situation sorted out.  There's a great pool not to far away from us, but it's too long a walk, especially with a little kid.  Public transport is kind of a pain, but it would be a very easy, fast cycle.

Museum Monday: The Diamond Museum

The reviews I read of the Diamond Musueum described it as more of a big exhibit than a museum which I thought could work well with the spirit of Museum Monday (short visits).  But I was a little concerned because we entered into a diamond polishing area, then walked forever (through some small exhibits, a gift shop and the world's lamest cafeteria.  Finally we got to the museum and I realized I had entered through the wrong door.

The museum itself was good, not great, meaning had I paid for entry I would have been disappointed.  We watched a short video on how diamonds are made and mined, M got to sit at a polishing table and  we saw a number of crowns on exhibit.  M learned:

1. Diamonds come from volcanos, and are sometimes washed downstream.
2. Diamonds aren't shiny when they are found
3. They are polished to make them shiny

Not bad for a 30 minute visit.  We also learned that vending machines aren't a good enough snack bar, but luckily the Museumkaart makes it possible to pop into any museum for free, so we decided to return to the Van Gogh museum for lunch since it was right across the street.  We were excited to see a new acquisition in the entry lobby:  Van Gogh's "the Bedroom" painted with characters from Sesamestraat (yes, that's the Dutch version of Sesame Street and the only noticeable difference is that Big Bird is blue).  If that wasn't exciting enough for a 4-year-old, when we entered the museum we saw Ernie, Bert, Elmo and Rolf!  They must have been there for the unveiling, and we must have missed the unveiling by about 5 minutes.  Even though he isn't a huge Sesame fan, M was pretty thrilled. 

Food Friday: Instant Read

So, evidently there is something about Amsterdam that's inhospitable to instant read meat thermometers.  Mine died the moment I moved here.  Peter insists it just needs a new battery, but there's something about the way it doesn't change temperature reading that makes me think it's more than that.

I tried to find one at Blokker, which is my source for nearly everything, kind of like the Dutch answer to Bed, Bath and Beyond.  No luck.  So when I finally went out to Gelderlandplein, our local mall, I was pleased to see they have a cooking store.  I am so desperate for a new instant read I dragged a very reluctant M into the cooking store with me.  I clearly asked the guy for an instant read, and he showed me thermometers with giant faces, circa 1970.  You know, the type that would dry the s*%t out of your roast?  One of those. I clarified INSTANT READ.  They didn't sell any.  (despite this fact, the store looked great.  I didn't get a very thorough look because M was a little distracting, but I did see a little rotating stand for decorating cupcakes which looked kind of interesting, and I'm looking forward to going back on my own).

I suspect it may be that the Dutch don't make roasts .  Either they don't make roasts at all, or they favor more of a pot roast.  I'm also having a similarly difficult time finding a roasting pan or roasting rack.  Having the proper cooking tools is so important. I don't know how I thought I'd make cooking my "project" this year without them.  Peter returns from New York tomorrow, hopefully with a few of my non-electric cooking tools!

Happy Sinterklaas!

Here in Amsterdam, Christmas seems to take a backseat to Sinterklaas, the feast of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of both Children and the city of Amsterdam.  In the past week I have learned a lot about Sint, although I am by no means an expert (for more authoritative info, check out Wikipedia). The season starts with a very Haloweenesque type of carroling (kids go from house to house singing Sinterklass songs in exchange for sweets).  He arrived in Amsterdam by steamship from Spain, on Sunday.  Children dressed as the Sint himself, or as his able (yet mischievous) assistant Zarte Piet--a character whom Peter and I still can't believe--to welcome him to town.  Here he will stay until December 6th, the  feast day, when children who have left out their cleaned shoes will receive small gifts in them--a clementine, a chocolate letter, etc.  

I love all holidays, including those I have no business celebrating, plus the whole point of being here is to learn about another culture, so Sint will be visiting our house on the evening of December 5th.  M will receive the little wooden flute he coveted from Hema (but could not get the day it was originally a possibility because of naughty behavior in the store), a CD of Sinterklass music, and a little Hema chocolate bar.

In honor of the season, the dress-ups box at M's school has been stocked exclusively with holiday-themed apparel.  This morning, he and his best mate dressed up as a couple of Zwarte Pieten.  

Museum Monday: Vincent van Gogh

Last week M and I began our first true "Museum Monday" visit at the Van Gogh museum.  I picked this for our first art museum visit for several reasons:  interesting art, story appealing to children, and close to home.

Sure, M has been to art museums before, but this would be  little different from his infant visits to the Met and his more recent visits to the Cloisters.  The Cloisters has more objects than paintings, plus the cool knight theme going on.  Looking back, I think his many visits to the Cloisters (as well as countless visits to libraries) helped him to understand "museum etiquette":  quiet voices, no touching, etc.  I set some low expectations for the attention span (30-60 minutes of art looking, then on to the cafe and we could quit whenever M indicated he was done).  It actually went pretty well.


We looked at art for about 45 minutes.  A lot of this involved moving among the different galleries, so the actual art gazing was more like 10-15 minutes, and involved M making up a lot of stories, like, "this is a picture of flowers, from when they first invented flowers..."  But, later that day I was really pleased that, when asked some questions about our day M could recollect:

1. We went to the Vincent van Gogh museum
2. Vincent van Gogh was an artist who painted
3. One interesting thing about Vincent van Gogh was that he cut off part of his own ear.

I'm also fairly certain M could recognize Van Gogh's self portrait, since we spent a lot of time looking at both the oversized version by th entrance and the picture on the brochure.  And he thoroughly enjoyed the giant ice cream he got in the cafe.  I think we will go back at some point.  They have an audio tour specifically designed for children (6 and over, but I'd like to try it in a few months with M).

Food Friday: My Kingdom for Some Parelgort!!

The weirdest things can make you homesick.  On Saturday, I almost started to cry in the middle of the grocery store because I couldn't find barley.  And I was in the big Albert Hein, too, and I asked for help and probably the worst part about it was that the 3 people who helped me didn't know what I was talking about (they kept bringing me to the frosting aisle) even thought I had google translated barley (gerst) before I went to the store.  I realized later what I should have been asking for was parelgort (pearl barley).

I make a killer lamb stew, and the barley adds a lot of body the dish.  So I persisted.  I went to 4 stores looking for Barley, including 2 health-food, organic type stores.  I finally gave up when one [helpful] person at Marqt told me he used to buy it at a restaurant supply store and one [unhelpful and, frankly, bitchy] person at Food for You told me it was a very old fashioned thing to be looking for and I wouldn't find it in a city [as cosmopolitan as] Amsterdam.  Old fashioned? Uncosmopolitan?  You can find it in any bodega in New York, which I dare say is a bit more cosmopolitan than Amsterdam.  But alas, I was reminded of something my brother-in-law David recently said:  he thinks that in 50 years no one will know how to cook anymore.  I see signs of that here like I never saw in New York:  people purchase an unbelievable amount of prepared food. I'm sure the signs were there in New York as well, I just didn't notice them.  

Mini-Yorkshire puddings I made for a recent Sunday roast; probably the best I've ever made.

Alas, in desperation I purchased something in the Jewish/whole grain aisle at the big Albert Hein that ultimately did the trick.  According to the package it was some type of wheat, maybe bulgar, and it definitely cooked a lot faster than pearl barley but it did the trick, and my stew really came out nice.  M even ate a big bowl and there is enough left over to have another dinner.

Last night I made an excellent chicken chow mein that both my boys loved.  They love it from the Chinese take-away, too, but unlike New York, here in Amsterdam, Chinese food doesn't seem to be a cheap take out, but rather a pricey treat.  I was drawn to this recipe because one review said it tasted just like take-out.  It does.  I had some pad-thai type noodles in the house (which I bought one day when I couldn't find regular egg noodles at Albert Hein...) which were a little too linguine-esque for this dish, but still pretty tasty.  As a side note I am determined to cure M's (normal 4-year-old) pickiness by not catering to it and involving him in food preparation, both of which appear to be working!

In other food news I recently learned of the new USDA guidelines on nutrition.  Evidently, they have ditched the food pyramid for a simpler "plate."  It's simpler because it basically indicates that half of your plate should be vegetables.  Half?  Yes, half.  Well, USDA, you have thrown down the gauntlet and I have accepted the challenge.  Living in Europe's garden has its advantages and (perhaps to the utter confusion of my meat-and-potatoes loving husband and son) I am serving half-a-plate of veggies at dinner.  Basically, this means that I'm serving two veg at every meal instead of one.  So far, so good.

Museum Monday: NEMO

Peter recently took a day off and we went to NEMO, Amsterdam's science museum, as a family.  While there, we bought our Museumkaarts, a card that for 40 Euro provides access into 400 museums in the Netherlands.  Having a card like this changes one's relationship to museums.  Instead of feeling like you have to see everything to get your 12.50 worth, suddenly you can go to a museum for an hour, anytime you want.  This was a relationship that I also enjoyed living in Washington, D.C., where most of the museums are free of charge.

I have decided to get the most out of our Museumkaarts, taking M to a different museum every Monday since he doesn't go to school on Mondays.  It's a tall order, taking a 4-year-old to a museum, but I figure we'll start slow, spending a half hour at the museum and then hitting the cafe.  M gets introduced to museums and a new feature on My 'dam Adventure is born:  Museum Monday.

So, our trip to NEMO was exhausting.  It's a long-ish tram ride from our Neighborhood and a long-ish walk from the tram stop.  Once we got there M was so stimulated he bounced from exhibit to exhibit like a pinball.  The museum itself was interesting, if aimed at a bit of an older audience than the preschool set.

There were a couple of really interesting exhibits, including a hands-on one about water that M loved.  We also spent some time in the Wonder Lab, first doing an experiment about color, which kind of bored M, then experimenting on the absorbancy of kitty litter, which was VERY difficult to clean up.  There's a great cafe on the ground floor, and a really crap one, albeit with an amazing view, on the top floor.  In short, the day was exhausting, but M loved it, and I'm sure he'd want to go back.

Happy Halloween!

M and his cousin L are best friends.  They dream of experiencing the trivialities of childhood together:  riding in a wagon at the grocery store, traveling in the same car, etc.  So, we planned several months ago that M and I would travel to Boston for some cousin-bonding-cum-trick-or-treating this year.

The kids all had a great time.  L and A gave M an Imaginext Robot Police Headquarters and Deep Sea Robot for his birthday, which was a huge hit with all the kids.  In fact, it was at the heart of our first gender discrimination play (A and M played, L got a little bored and felt left out) which was an interesting dynamic to watch.

Our plans were somewhat disrupted by a freak snowstorm and resultant power failure.   

Grandma tortured the kids to get a photo for her Christmas cards. 

A is crazy for Papa, and at a mere 20 months of age clearly expressed that he wanted Papa to be his grown up at gymnastics.

M joined L at gymnastics and did a great job following directions.The class had a Halloween theme and he's still practicing his Frankenstein walk (his "favorite monster").

A with his favorite grown up.

M and L having fun in the snow.  It's amazing how much they hug each other.

M messing around when the snow began to fall.

L messing around when the snow began to fall.

A also loved the snow.

It was pretty chilly when we woke up to no power.  S, L and A are pretending to be asleep.

And the snow just kept on falling!

Sledding before Halloween!

After 24 hours, record low temps and no heat we gave up and headed to Grandma & Papa's, who had power.

Trick or treating in L's neighborhood would have had more kids (uh, any other kids) but they still made the best of it!

Papa very kindly drove us to the airport.  We were there in plenty of time (no lines or waiting anywhere)  and we conveniently forgot the sandwiches I made, so we had dinner at Legal Seafood and found a new airport playground.

Legoland

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip to Billund, Denmark, home of the original Legoland.  I'll let the pictures tell the story...

Denmark seemed incredibly expensive.  At one of our very overpriced dinners Grandma and M planned our Legoland visit.

 

One of the highlights of Legoland was the Bob the Builder 4D movie.  The 4th D was basically weather--it snowed and rained in the theater.  We all enjoyed the fill so much I don't think we noticed that it was in Danish.

When the movie started, M asked, "Why do things keep sticking out of the screen?"

The Duplo playground was the only Legoland attraction M asked to go back to. 

I can see the appeal of visiting Legoland in the summer; there are a lot of water-park type attractions.  M and Daddy had fun pretending the giant dryer was a space ship.

M and Daddy (AKA the Unabomber) on the Lego safari ride.  All the adults spent a lot of time cramming their bodies into kid-size vehicles.  Apparently, the Danish put their preschoolers on these rides unattended.

Legoland had a really cool aquarium.

A tired M (who held up remarkably well) trying on a crown at the end of the day.

 

I still can't decide if I loved or hated our resort.  It had a Las Vegas style fake outdoor "square."

We stayed at a Danish "campsite" which was a little 3 bedroom house.  The resort included a massive indoor water park and indoor play space for kids.

M playing at the indoor play space.  He loved this as much as Legoland.

Not sure how much P loved the play space...

Grandma and Papa watched us in the playspace from afar...

M and P enjoyed playing on the motor scooters.

When we returned, M saw his first rainbow.