Hanging Out With Grandma - Monday Evening

After the adventure in the garden, she sat in the sun room looking outside for awhile. I helped her upstairs and back into bed, which left me able to prepare dinner.

My dear Grandmother showed a different side of herself this evening - not the fierce side from this afternoon, but the sweet and pleasant side.

When I went up to tell her it was dinner time, she groggily lifted her head and decided to sit at the kitchen table for the meal. We had a simple and odd meal of salad, rice, baba ghounoush and bread, pork and veggie dumplings, and 미역국 (seaweed soup). I let the boys pick and choose what they wanted to eat from the hodge podge of food choices, a rather rare treat for them.

After dinner, she marveled as my older son did the dishes and loaded the dishwasher. We talked about my philosophy of raising my sons and the part their dad plays in being a good example of helping in the home. She talked about how different Korean men are from American men in the chores they do in the home, if any. We talked about the ages of my children and that I could have daughters-in-law "soon."

She laid on the couch to rest while the boys did some computer stuff and every so often turned to me to ask me questions, which started a loop of questions: How old am I? How old are my children - are they over the age of ten? How old is my Dearest? How long have I been married? How many children does my sister have? What gender are her children?  And then she would start the loop of questions again.

She dozed on the couch a little, but I thought she would be warmer in her room with her heated blanket so I helped her upstairs, but when I woke her to take her, she asked me whose house we were in and if this was America. She asked about the layout of the house. She did remember that her room is upstairs.

When we approached her room, she remembered that it was her room. She looked around and recognized some of her belongings, and also "found" her jacket. She mentioned that she needed it for tomorrow since she'll be going out. When I asked her where, she said she she'll be leaving since this house can't possibly be where she lives. I reminded her that this is her house and where she lives. She asked if she has lived in this house a long time.

When I took her her evening medication, she was up and rummaging through some of her belongings. She seemed to be aware of things, until I suggested she get back into bed. She said she had better behave, otherwise she would be thrown out.

Overall, a very nice evening with my grandma with pleasant, (mostly) aware conversation.

Hanging Out With Grandma - Monday Afternoon

I did not hear Grandma stirring until I went into her room at 9 am to bring her her breakfast. She opted to breakfast upstairs, which was fine with me.

At 1 pm, I woke her for lunch and she, again, opted to lunch upstairs. Again, fine with me.

The boys worked on school work until about 3:30 and when they were done, they were excited to go play with toys in their room.

I had forgotten to close my grandmother's door so she saw them walking past her room and must have thought it was her turn to play.  She came downstairs declaring her desire to go outside, but was afraid she would fall. She conned me into going outside with her, since I'm sure she knows how I feel about her falling - that it should be avoided.  I agreed to take her outside and walk a little, but, I was totally conned.

We went out the back door to the small garden where some greens grow. She looked in the shed and grabbed some scissors. She dropped them and seeing where this was heading, I picked them up and joked with her, "I won! I have the scissors."  The look she gave me was fierce and for as old as she is, 96 years old, she puts feisty women half her age to shame. But, because I value my life and am really not confident that I can take on my grandma, I relented and gave her the scissors.

She used her walking stick to drag over a stool and started snipping these greens. I don't know what kind of greens they are, but apparently they would make great 나몰 and she started snipping with great gusto.

I realized she doesn't have the strength to stand at the sink and stove to wash and boil these things -- She's making more work for me!!!  Plus, one side of the sink isn't draining well for some reason I can't figure out. No disposal, but decent dishwasher usage - so far. At this point, I tried to stop her. I cajoled her. I pleaded with her. I told her there was enough cut already. Finally, I tried to help her stand by holding her under the arms, but she refused to budge. She reminded me of my sons when they were toddlers who didn't want to do something and were suddenly five times their original weight in determination. Yup, that's my grandma. She tried to beat me back with her stick, but kept hitting herself instead. She gave up the stick and I realized this was a battle of wills. And this wasn't as big of a battle as I thought it should be.  And I lack the will to battle with her.  So there is a large containers of greens I need to do something with  now. *deep sigh.

Now that she's up and around, I am dreading making dinner.

Hanging Out With Grandma - Sunday

We went to visit my sister last weekend and took colds with us, apparently. We got sick and also infected nearly all of my sister's family. (So sorry!!) We spent most of last week recovering so that this week, we can hang out with my Grandmother for a few days. "Hanging out" is easier on my stress levels than "caring for her" for some reason.

Today, she knows who I am, where she is, and is quite aware. She was surprised by how much my children have grown. On the downside, her health is definitely deteriorating more quickly - I am supporting more of her weight while walking and she's sliding her feet instead of picking up her feet to walk.

My Dearest, children, and I arrived at my parents' home after church today and my mom had my grandmother's dinner prepared - a soft oatmeal made with 미역국 (seaweed soup), which sounds appetizing for non-Asians, I'm sure - all I had to do was heat it for her.

At 4:45 this afternoon, she walked slowly downstairs and declared that she was hungry, and we should eat also. I heated her dinner, served her, and sat with her while she ate. She implored me to eat with her, but we had had a late lunch and we weren't ready for dinner. Being the food-centered grandmother that she is, she was concerned I was starving my children and reminded me to feed them at the proper times.

As my grandmother ate, she thought the food was tasty and well seasoned (thanks, Mom!) and asked if we were going to eat breakfast, too. I gently reminded her that this was dinner and it was dinner time. She nodded her agreement. Not seeing my Dearest or youngest son, she asked if my Dearest had eaten breakfast before he had left for work. I reminded her that it was Sunday, dinnertime, and that my Dearest and youngest had gone to the store.

She also asked me tonight when my parents would be back and when I had told her, she replied with a serious declaration: "That's a lot of meals."

While I'm here, I'm planning on continuing with school for my sons, exercising, and recapping episode 6 of Dream High 2. Planning being the operative word.

New Adventure!

I was over at Twinkie's site last week reading her Dream High 2 survey post, and I realized something absolutely crazy: I could help her recap it!  The Dream High 2 vocabulary wouldn't be too difficult (unlike medical or law/police/procedural kdramas) and it would get me back into the kdrama saddle while also forcing encouraging me to look at kdramas more critically instead of completely turning my brain off. I also thought a 16 episode (eight week) fluffy kdrama would be a good way to test the waters in case it's not a good fit or I hate it or any number of other reasons. (But so far, I am really enjoying the recapping process!)

Twinkie was kind enough to let me try out the recapping waters on her site so I'm wading into the recapping kdrama pool slowly - posting about once a week or so.

My first post is up if you'd like to read a 6k word epic.  I'm working on shortening the recaps because "there is too much. Let me sum up." I think 1k - 2k would be more reasonable, so that's my goal. 6k is waaaay too many words to read, let alone write. Must control the word count for future recaps! I wanted to get the first recap out there somewhat quickly so it was a swift 6k rush job, quite the oxymoron. heh.

So I'm on a new adventure - kdrama recapping! Feel free to pop over there and comment; I'd love to see more faces I "know."

(I'll still be posting here as sporadically as I usually do.)

Super Bowl Menu

We're hosting a small Super Bowl party and I'm making foods that sound and will be delicious, but aren't very nutritionally sound. I'm still eating healthfully, but once in awhile it goes out the window. Like on Super Bowl Sunday.  Back to healthier eating on Monday!

Baked Buffalo Chicken Dip from Chef John
Beer Brats from a mash-up of recipes found on allrecipes
Deviled Eggs
Chips and Salsa
Fruit and Veggies
and Chocolate Stout Cupcakes

So, who are you hoping wins the Super Bowl - the New England Patriots or the New York Giants? One of our children is rooting for the Patriots while the rest of us are rooting for the Giants. It will be interesting to see who the gracious rooters will be! ;-)

Drama!

I have since returned from taking care of my grandmother at my parents' home and am just now recovering from all of the drama.  Wait, that sounds bad.  I guess what I mean is that I tend to be the list-maker/beaver personality type when I'm taking care of my grandmother; I'm there to do a job (keep her safe, cook, and take care of the house) and I do that, in addition to taking care of my husband and sons. Sometimes it can cause friction between me and my grandmother, since I feel that she questions everything I do, what I cook, and how I do things in the kitchen instead of viewing me as her granddaughter who is married with two children, and runs her own home. It also doesn't help that I don't have a really great relationship with my grandmother or that she is incredibly strong-willed and stubborn about almost everything. My sister on the other hand, does have a really great relationship with her. She really gets Grandma and plays the games to get her to eat or rest or whatever. I'm so incredibly thankful she was able to come and help distract her or divert her attention as I took care of other things.

All of this to say I've been stressed dealing with Grandma and since the kdrama genre is usually heavy on the melodrama, I really needed to take a break. I watched a couple of American procedural shows and a new fairy tale drama, Once Upon a Time, which is interesting and fun. I might even continue watching that one.

Before I went to take care of Grandma, I was watching Hooray for Love, a kdrama train wreck. A man divorces his wife because he (possibly) impregnated his mistress and is receiving threats from his soon-to-be brother-in-law that he had better do the honorable thing and marry the pregnant girl. The ex-wife falls in love with her divorce lawyer and is trying to run a business, which her ex-husband keeps sabotaging. I started watching because of one of the actors (Lee Tae Sung) but it's quite a train wreck.  I haven't been able to return to it yet. I'm on episode 30 or 31 out of 50+. This is the longest kdrama I've ever watched. I thought 24 was long - whooo boy.

I had also been watching A Thousand Kisses, which is not quite a train wreck, but it's heavy on the melodrama. A woman (Joo Young) divorces her husband because he was cheating on her. She falls in love with a guy (Woo Bin) who happens to be her boss' ex-boyfriend. Joo Young's sister (Joo Mi) falls in love with a guy (Woo Jin), is getting married him and he turns out to be the older cousin of Woo Bin. To add more fuel to the fire, the girls' mother left the girls when they were young and turns out to be the step-mother of Woo Jin, thus becoming her younger daughter's mother-in-law. This one is also a long drama - 50 episodes, I think. I don't think I'm going to finish this one. I might just read the recaps over at Twinkie's site.

Since I feel like I'm just ready to handle some kdrama now, I'm starting with something light and fluffy - Flower Boy Ramyun Shop (꽃미남 라면 가게). I've only watched one episode and I think it's just the right amount of fluff to kick the melo to the curb!

Another kdrama I've had my eye on for awhile is Dream High 2 - which just started this week. I will start that one this weekend, I think.

So, what are you watching these days?

Dinner Menus

I was making dinner last night, Indian curry and salad to be exact.  And then, I got hit by something like a train that looked an awful lot like a strong-willed grandmother.

The doorbell rang and in came a mother and daughter I hadn't seen in years. They were here to visit my grandmother. I didn't mention that I'm at my parents' house while they're out of town caring for my grandmother, did I?

In they came and talked to my grandmother while I sauteed diced onions and minced garlic and the boys chopped broccoli (Sing it with me, now! Choppin' broccalaaaayyy) and opened cans of coconut milk and diced tomatoes. They continued chatting while I heated curry powder, cumin, and ginger. The mother pulled out containers of 팥죽 (paht jook, red bean porridge, like this) she had made while I added coconut milk and brought my curry to a simmer. They talked about the daughter returning to school and how she wanted to see my grandmother before she left while I added veggies to the pot. They left and I stirred the simmering curry.

While I was stirring the simmering curry and directing final salad prep from the stove with my back turned to everyone, things were happening at the table. When I turned around, there were five or six bowls of 팥죽 portioned out and ready to be eaten with dinner. She insisted that we eat this porridge with dinner since someone had brought it over for her. I decided that it wasn't so crucial to eat what I had prepared so we had 팥죽 and Indian curry. Strange, but it was dinner.

For tonight's dinner, I'm planning on chicken enchiladas and salad.  I wonder what we'll really eat.