I was listening to this fantastic, new-to-me-but-well-established podcast the other day, about the importance of ritual and soulful practices in our everyday life. It got me thinking about all the little rituals I incorporate into my day, from my coffee-and-early-morning reading and writing to putting on my five different moisturizers before bedtime. Some of the little rituals came about because of the pandemic: daily inspirational reading and poetry before my morning yoga practice and my long daily walks are the two most notable ones. However, some rituals predate the pandemic by a long shot, and one of those is Sunday Dinner.
We eat dinner as a family every night, with the exception of the evenings when my younger son is at wrestling practice; those nights, it is just the three of us, and I save him a plate for when he’s home at 8:30 pm. Sunday Dinner is a different thing, though. It’s a big, semi-elaborate meal that always ends in dessert.
I cook a lot; it feels like half my life is devoted to food acquisition, preparation, and the cleanup afterwards. It can be very boring and tedious; this is why I listen to so many podcasts. But there is one thing I am never bored of, and that is making Sunday dessert. Throughout the week I bake a lot of things and I make a lot of ice cream, but I don’t partake in any of those; Sunday dessert, however, is my jam. I think about different recipes and I always get excited, choosing and then making the Dessert of the Week.
This past weekend was really fun for me, though, because we went up to my parents’ house for two nights. Not only did I not cook for two days, I also had my favourite dessert:
My birthday is coming up this week, so we had a combined birthday/ Easter celebration.
Not only did we have a wonderful dinner made by my mother with my favourite strawberry angel food cake, but we went out to dinner in an actual restaurant, we played a lot of games, drank a lot of wine, and my mom and I went shopping.
I have been searching for the perfect garden gnome for my entire life, and this fellow was the first thing I saw at Merry’s Mercantile, and I love him so much. His name is Salvadore.
Side note: longtime Calgary bloggers may remember Merry as Merry About Town or Merry With Children! She has the cutest little store in Bentley, and if you are ever in Central Alberta, you must go. You must! I saw this and I did not buy it, which I regret deeply.
Regrets about mug non-purchases aside, it was a nice finish to what was a really cold, grey, snowy week. On Wednesday I was getting groceries and the parking lot was so cold and windy that I checked my weather app.
Feels like minus 18! No wonder I was cold. Luckily the weather is supposed to turn warm and more “seasonal” this week; I feel like the whole city was starting to slip into depression, what with the return of winter.
Back to the topic of groceries, there are supply chain issues that are AFFECTING MY POPCORN PURCHASES. Boom Chicka Pop has gone from just my favourite light kettle corn being unavailable to being all flavours being completely unavailable. And – AND – there was also no Skinny Pop popcorn, my second choice, which feels like a Punishment From The Universe for buying something with such a stupid name. What’s next, am I going to be forced (“forced”) to buy Lesser Evil popcorn, just because I publicly announced I would not support a company that assigns moral values to food? Or will that start a chain reaction of more popcorn emergencies? I’m in a vicious circle of my own making. The snake is eating its own tail!
Sure, I could make my own popcorn. I do own all the appropriate accoutrements. But I don’t want to. I look forward to opening a bag of popcorn on Friday night and not doing anything else; I don’t WANT to pop my own popcorn, like a Luddite. Is a bag of popcorn too much to ask for?
Pandemic Reading
Girls Lost. I really appreciated the quality of the writing and the creativity of this book. This author is renowned and award-winning, and I loved the Swedish setting. It’s a really unique concept and English classes everywhere could have a field day with the symbolism of a meat-eating flower whose nectar turns girls into boys; the theme of toxic masculinity and violence is strong. However, I didn’t really love the book as a whole, as magic and fantasy are not to my taste. If they are to your taste, though, I think you might love this.
The Space Between Us. Wow, just wow. This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time, perhaps ever. There’s just so much in here, I hardly even know where to begin. This is a story of two women; one is the house servant to the other. It’s a story about intertwined lives, about class differences, about the incredible burden of being a woman, about how pain is universal, about poverty and literacy and education and the lack thereof. It’s set in Bombay but honestly, the lessons are for everyone, all over the world. It’s an incredibly written book, with so much beauty and sadness. I was distraught and uplifted and so sad to finish this. It is the first book I have read by this author; I have had one of her books on hold for a few months now, and I just put everything she’s ever written on hold. I cannot say enough about this book and how it touched me.
How To Be A Grown-Up. I picked this up on a whim since the authors wrote The Nanny Diaries, which I really enjoyed back in the day. This book is okay; it deals with a woman going through a separation from literally one of the worst non-physically abusive character you can imagine. I mean, this guy is a complete loser of a child-man. So I found it hard to get into the story as I was so constantly incensed by what a jerk this guy was, and how he reminded me of someone I know who is also involved in a divorce from someone I know, and I am not going to put any more details than that but THOSE OF YOU WHO KNOW ME WELL KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. I guess I found it triggering? Anyway, it’s fine, this book is fine, I liked it fine, everything is fine. Parts of it are really, really funny and parts of it are astonishingly distressing.
I am very much looking forward to this week, and not just because it’s my birthday; I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of milder weather so I can find a spot for Salvadore to live. I hope you have a beautiful week, my friends. xo
So many things about this post:
First – Sunday dessert sounds so, so lovely. I love rituals and look to incorporate them all over my life. I *used* to make cookies every Friday after school for the kids and then I started eating way too many cookies and it just wasn’t working well anymore. But for a few years, it was a wonderful way to end the school week.
Your birthday cake looks delicious.
Salvadore is the best name for a garden gnome ever. Case closed.
And, finally, your writing is hilarious, insightful and just down-right engaging. But the bit about the popcorn is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read, in large part because you managed to use the word accoutrements which is one of the best words in the English language and very under-utilized in my opinion. A bag of popcorn is not too much to ask for, and I wish you all the best in tracking down suitable popcorn supplies.
Oh…one final, final thing: -18. That is awful. After our snow-storm two weeks ago, I don’t think we’ve dipped below 0 and I’m still grumpy about how windy/cold/wet it has been. I think this is why more people don’t move to Canada. Our winters seem to last forever and then it’s mosquito season. (Don’t let Nova Scotia hear me say that; I love this province so much, but is it too much to ask for some spring sunshine?!)
Oh, thank you Elisabeth! You are so kind.
I will take your good wishes on my popcorn quest this week!
It’s still SO cold here, but better than -18. Whew!
Omg that mug- how could you have passed that up???
i’m also laughing at the fact that I am apparently a Luddite- I pop my own popcorn. Not all the time though- I like a good bag of Skinny Pop as much as the next person. But sometimes on a Sunday afternoon I’ll make a big bowl of popcorn, popped on the stovetop like my mom used to do it.
Your Easter/birthday celebration sounds wonderful! I hope you have a nice week, full of beautiful weather!
I know, I regret not buying it so much! I’ll have to go back.
I haven’t popped my own popcorn for years, but I guess I’ll have to start…
Another wonderful post Nicole. I love that gnome with the little bee & honey pot, so much. I also love rituals and routine, especially my morning coffee and reading time. I baked a lot when my kids were home and we ate meals together, with Sunday being the most special. A few years back, my youngest, about age 20, was living in a different town for college & sharing a house with a few guys. I spoke to him one Sunday and he said they were just prepping “family dinner”. No family – just young guys – they would cook a full meal, invite friends form around. My two youngest still do this with all their single and couple friends for all the holiday meals. It really touched me that they continued this tradition and saw the value in it.
Oh, that is SO wonderful, Pat! I love that your rituals have passed on to your kids. I love that tradition.
Happy Birthday week! Yes I *could* pop my own popcorn but I just can’t be bothered. I’m sure that the popcorn supply chain issues will be resolved soon.
We’ve got another snow storm on the way and the promise of warm weather after that…here’s hoping.
Gosh, I hope so! Fingers crossed!
Happy birthday in advance!
We are making our way back from Michigan and we are currently at a high elevation in Western PA where it’s supposed to snow today, but probably not until after we leave. It made me think of you during my chilly morning walk.
IT’S SUPPOSED TO SNOW THIS WEEK TOO. Sigh! Well, I guess I won’t put my winter boots away.
You were in Michigan!?! 🙂 Would have loved to see you.
I agree with Elizabeth, there is so much in this post. My personal favorite is “The snake is eating its own tail.” Love that. Now I can’t wait to find a time to pop that sentiment in a conversation. I so enjoyed how you described your popcorn dilemma.
Love the Sunday dinner ritual. We try to eat together whenever possible. It happens more on Sundays than other days, but no guarantee. Coach works till 9 pm two nights a week, but when the kids were tiny it was 3 nights a week. THREE. I do not make dessert every Sunday, but now I want to . . . to bake something that I can enjoy once a week? Great idea. I, too, cook a lot of dinners and spend a great deal of time grocery shopping, prepping, and cooking. My people ARE very appreciative and I don’t mind occasionally sharing that sometimes as a kid we ate leftover meatloaf warmed up in tomato paste in a frying pan because there were no microwaves.
Your weekend sounds delightful, and I’m happy that you got to celebrate your birthday and Easter and not have to cook/bake. How nice to celebrate your birthday just as the warmer weather is arriving (fingers crossed).
Oh, I can’t wait to read that book, The Space Between Us. It sounds amazing.
Thanks so much Ernie!! My people are very appreciative of my cooking as well. I highly recommend a weekly dessert that you can look forward to – it’s so fun!
Nicole, have a wonderful birthday week! I adore that we share a birthday month. It’s no surprise we get along so well. 🙂
This morning we awoke to snow. It has snowed numerous times this month. I don’t get enthusiastic about the weather until May.
I love the concept of your Sunday dessert. I haven’t been motivated to cook in a long time because my family has such a diverse range of tastes. Maybe having my eldest move back home next month will motivate me to shake things up.
Here’s to April Birthday Month! Xoxo
Happy birthday month to you! April is a great month for a birthday (now, hopefully it will stop snowing!)
Ooh I just put The Space Between Us on my list. I love stories of relationships between women, especially in other countries. That is so frustrating about your popcorn! I don’t buy pre-popped popcorn because I have an 8 year old that will make a whole bag disappear in like, 7 minutes. I’m not rolling in THAT kind of money! (I have so far managed to hang on to my own trail mix because I told my kids that it’s spicy… they haven’t thought too hard about the presence of chocolate chips in it.)
Ooooh I think you’ll love this book, Sarah!!
Happy Birthday week!! That cake looks delightful. I love your Sunday dinner ritual. When I was growing up, we had a Sunday mid-day meal, which was referred to as dinner (and the evening meal was supper) but I now refer to the midday meal as lunch so it’s weird to think of that meal as dinner… But I digress. We always had a hearty meal after church and then in the evening, my mom would make a huge bowl of popcorn and we’d have popcorn and sliced apples for dinner. I got the same style of popcorn popper when we got married but my husband thinks it is the dumbest gadget since it takes up a lot of room and pops a huge amount of popcorn… So we buy bags of popcorn at Aldi instead and the popcorn popper collects dust. But some day when our kids are older and can eat a lot of popcorn in one sitting, I will pull that thing out and re-create the Sunday dinners of my childhood!
It’s cold and depressing here as well. Winter feels endless. Next weekend looks better but beyond that it looks unseasonably cold. Womp womp.
My grandma always referred to the mid-day meal as dinner, which led to confusion – “I’ll be there after dinner, Grandma” meant for me, around 7, but for her, around 1.
Popcorn and apple slices sounds divine to me!
By the Book is such an interesting podcast. I don’t always with their takes, but they do seem to be pretty open about dealing with disagreements from listeners in their epilogue episodes. I also listen to Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, which is the podcast that the author of that book used to be on, so when I was listening to that episode, it felt very META.
There are big work things afoot for me here this week and so I am not looking forward to this week at all, but I am looking forward to Thursday, when it will all be over. Ha!
I love that podcast (did I hear about it from you? If so, thank you!) I really relate to one of the hosts, I wonder if you can guess who!
Happy, happy Birthday week, Nicole!!!
“Sure, I could make my own popcorn. I do own all the appropriate accoutrements.” No, the trick here (in the event you can’t find the bagged popcorn) is get the husband to do it. I have it on authority, that husband’s make delicious popcorn. 😉
That mug? *I* have regrets that you didn’t get that mug! But Salvadore is the perfect garden gnome.
I think I need to go back and get that mug!
Earlier in the pandemic, when I needed kettle corn and kettle corn was unavailable, I tried MICROWAVE kettle corn. It seemed like the PERFECT SOLUTION: not only were microwave kettle-corn packets available, but now I could have FRESH CRISP kettle corn whenever I wanted it! I wish I could say this was the good solution it seemed as if it would be. (I still have the mostly-full box of packets of microwave kettle corn.)
I am going to try to make my morning/evening routines into soulful rituals, because right now they are tedious slogs and I feel resentful that ONLY I open the curtains and close them each night; ONLY I make sure the doors are locked/unlocked; ONLY I get the coffee maker set up; etc., as well as feeling resentful that I have to shower AGAIN, I have to moisturize AGAIN, I have to deal with my hair AGAIN. When I am blogging about this in a month or so, and I say “WHERE did I get this idea???,” that is your cue to say “IT WAS HERE.”
This is an excellent tip because I have seen those microwave packs and wondered. I will wait until it’s back in stock (and then possibly start hoarding popcorn, who can say.)
Happy, happy birthday (week) dear Nicole!!! Those desserts (nests and cake) look SO yum. Love hearing that your boys appreciate your cooking so. We are a dinner together every night family too–I think it’s a meaningful ritual, although I will say ours has changed over time.
I loved the couple of Thrity Umrigars I’ve read that were set in the US, but I haven’t read this one… yet. Thanks for the rec. (Also, just in case Canadian Rohinton Mistry’s work hasn’t crossed your path yet–he’s another who writes so beautifully about Parsi life.)
I read (and own!) A Fine Balance but it’s been years since I read it, so I may need a re-read!
A Fine Balance. OMG. I remember being depressed by it for the longest time. I do not plan to re read that one anytime soon. I do reread some of the short stories from _Tales from Firozsha Baag_ because I can handle that.
I’ve liked By the Book since it started. Don’t know who told me about it, but it was probably another blogger. I like the idea of having meals together as a family. It’s easy for just two of us, but for you it is more of an accomplishment. Congrats.
I have the Thrity Umrigar novel on my TBR list. I appreciate your review. Sorry it’s been so darned cold where you are. I love, love the good morning mug.
Maybe it was you who told me about By the Book? Maybe? I love it too, I so relate to one of the hosts! It’s also just a really fun podcast.
THERE IS POPCORN CALLED LESSER EVIL? And people buy it? Uggggghhhhhhh I hate everything.
I remember really liking The Space Between Us but I see I gave it three stars instead of four, so hmmm.
I love going to my parents’ place for Sunday dinner. I always liked having dinner as a family too, but it was hard with the kids’ schedules.
I used to go to my parents’ for Sunday dinner, then they moved 2 hours away!
The snake eating its own tail. You crack me up! If I start having popcorn issues way down here, I know it was you.
Your birthday and Easter celebration look beautiful; what a nice weekend of normalcy. Let’s hope that continues on for you. Your desserts are out of this world, I can hardly make cupcakes without ruining them. Wishing you a wonderful birthday week!
Thanks Suz! Today is grocery day and I’m wondering what the popcorn aisle will look like!
It’s funny that you mention how you don’t like the act of popping popcorn because, for me, one of my favorite little rituals is making popcorn in my air popper with butter. It takes longer and requires a lot more dishes to clean up, but man, I just love it so much. It makes popcorn feel so special. (That is, when the popcorn doesn’t irritate my gums, sigh. I’m nervous to eat popcorn again!
Happy birthday week! That cake looks soooo very yummy!
Thanks Stephany! The cake was delicious. Oh, your poor gums! So painful!
Happy Birthday! And that gnome is perfect – excellent find! Sunday dinner along with dessert sounds wonderful. I hate cooking, but wish I enjoyed it more. Like you, so much of my time is spent preparing food. I hear “I’m hungry” about a hundred times a day and it drives me totally bananas. I hope you get the popcorn situation sorted out! And thank you for the book recommendations – they’re all new to me.
Thanks Katie! Once I thought I would track how much time I spend cooking, shopping, cleaning up…and I stopped after the first half day because it was so depressing!
Your pre-birthday celebration sounds SO lovely! And I love your gnome!
The topic of rituals is so fascinating to me. I don’t know that I have ANY rituals. Maybe adding some would make my life richer and more satisfying? Or maybe it would make me feel like I have YET ONE MORE obligation to fulfill? I don’t know!
I am also a little wistful about your daily family dinners. I wish we could do that, I do. My husband gets home too late on the weekdays and my daughter needs to eat and go to bed, so we just can’t, 90% of the time. And the 10% of the time that we CAN eat together, well… probably a good 90% of THAT time, I just can’t get it together enough to eat together.
We didn’t even have dinner together on EASTER SUNDAY. But that’s because my husband and daughter voted that we eat in front of the TV instead. GRIMACE. I don’t have enough energy to push back against their combined anti-eating-together desire, but I wish, I WISH that we could eat dinner together more.
Happy early birthday! May the universe celebrate you by making Book Chicka Pop available in all its many flavored glory!
Eating dinner together was much less frequent when the boys were small and my husband worked until late evening – often he’d come home as the boys were getting into the bath or bed. It’s so much easier to coordinate now! I hope it gets easier for you too xoxo
Please please please tell me that the mug is on a table next to a plaque kind of thing that says “What a wonderful world”. Because if it is, that is seriously the best product placement I have ever seen. 😀
Also, happy birthday, and may all the light kettle corn in the world be yours.
Oooooh that WOULD be amazing! Thanks for your well wishes!
Your posts crack me up, Nicole…. so does a garden gnome named Salvadore. Nailed it! 🙂
I love that you have these dinner rituals. I grew up the same way (minus the dessert though – we only had that for special occasions) and I cherish those memories and always love meals at my parents’ house for that very reason.