KuKuKawaii: 2nd Week as Lone Working Parent

So my second week as lone working parent went really well. I was worried at first, mostly about my office workload and the weather. Turns out that both points fell in my favour. I was afraid of having to work overtime or being stressed out at work, but it turned out to be a managable busy, instead of my usual frantic busy work week. As previously mentioned, the weather couldn't have been any better for the month of November. So, the commute wasn't as bad as I had feared.

On the home front, I did rather well also. I managed to home cook all our meals from scratch, with the frozen lasagna as the only convenience food item. For the kids lunches, they had leftover chinese BBQ pork sandwiches, boiled egg slices with Spam sandwiches and salmon salad sandwiches. The kids have been great. They've making their own sandwiches, washing the morning dishes, taking out the garbage, doing the family laundry, including folding and putting away the clothing. They still refuse to hang dry the clothes though. The only complaint I have is that they often monopolize the main computer to do their homework, which makes it hard for me to do any meaningful blogging. Just kidding. I know their homework is more important than my blogging.

Here's a recap of this week's dinner menu: On Monday, we had Lasagna with Chickpea salad, using the last of our cherry tomato harvest. Tuesday, we had Chicken Cordon Bleu with Chinese Greens. I used the Chickpea broth from the previous night for cooking and flavouring the steamed rice and I boiled eggs along with the Chinese Greens to conserve on cooking. On Wednesday, I served Pasta with a Ham & Mushroom Sauce. On Thursday, I made fried rice with the last of the cooked ham and hotdogs. On Friday, I re-heated the second tray of Lasagna and served it with another salad using up all remaining salad veggies. On Saturday, I made 2 types of pork ribs: Ribs Stewed in Tomatoes; and Steamed Ribs with Blackbean Sauce. The kids loved the "fall-off-the-bone" Rib Stew.

Also on Saturday, I went shopping with the kids for more groceries. Between the three of us, we easily toted back more fresh food supplies, using reusable bags and a knapsack. We even did it without having to use the dreaded old lady shopping cart. So, I'm proud to say that we are trying to live a fairly low CO2 emission lifestyle.

My only disappointment of the week was that I didn't get to see the entire Burton Cummings performance at the First Canadian Place' Waterfall Stage. Unfortunately, I had to attend a group meeting scheduled halfway through his performance. I was happy that I did catch part of it. Despite being an aging Rocker (He's turning 61 next month), he put on a lively and fun performance. It was like watching a big kid play on stage. I've always enjoyed his style. Also, due to his immense popularity and the huge line-up, I didn't get his signed autograph. I went back twice after my office meeting to see if I could get in line, but no such luck. I had a listen to his new album, "Above the Ground". It had some good stuff, but definitely not as good as his 1978 album, "Dream of a Child". That was by far his greatest work, even better than some of his work as a member of the "Guess Who". I just discovered that his best album yet was one released in 1997 called "Up Close And Alone". It contains many of my favourites including "Gordon Lightfoor Does Maggie May".

Preparing Sliced Egg & Spam Sandwiches