I have almost no musical ability at all. I can’t sing, I have no rhythm for dancing, I can’t play any instruments. I hope to learn how to play a song or two on our piano just to keep my brain agile as I get older and for fun, but I admire those who can play anything. Even a kazoo if they can do it well.
So I’m not saying that I am taking music lessons and am enjoying them.
No, I mean that I enjoy that Jacob is doing music lessons. I like listening to him practice, I like his recitals when he participates. I like occasionally when I’m listening that he’ll play a couple of the older songs he learned a few years ago that I really enjoyed. Like even This Is It (the Looney Tunes song).
He’s not ready for a concert hall performance, of course, but he could be doing chopsticks, and I’d enjoy it. Well, for the first hour anyway. Just hearing him play anything brings me #MoreJoy.
I mentioned earlier that I do most of my grocery ordering online, and have been since about week 7 or 8 of the pandemic. Over the years (of life, not the pandemic), Andrea and I have experimented with a few “food boxes” to have them delivered to the house. Some were “fresh veggie” orders and others were special meal collections, but while the convenience was good and the contents were quality, we found sometimes the portions were off or we were getting things we wouldn’t normally choose to eat — sometimes we were choosing three dishes out of 7 for example, but only really liked two of them. The other five weren’t terrible, we didn’t hate them, it was edible, but they were often not dishes we would care to repeat. Or, for one box, the prep time was frequently off the chart. It would say “ten minutes”, and then Andrea and I together would spend 30-40 minutes. Not a great solution for a week night.
SupperWorks had a different model. It was designed, generally speaking, for you to book a spot in their calendar, go to their store, and assemble the ingredients into packages yourself. They would have perhaps 8-10 “work stations” set up for different meals, such as a glazed pork chop recipe at one station and a stew at another. You would go in, go to a free station set up for a specific recipe, and follow the directions. Kind of like an IKEA store but you assemble all the ingredients in the box yourself. For example, you would put two tablespoons of soy sauce into a bag, and then add the pork chops, a dozen or so other pre-chopped ingredients, and seal the bag while attaching a label with the cooking instructions. If you wanted a bit more soy or a little less maple sugar, you could adjust your assembly accordingly.
You do this a few more times around the store, essentially pre-assembling all the ingredients for a few meals, and you’re good to check out. When you get home, you freeze everything you can and any time you want to make one, you take out a bag, thaw it in the fridge a day or two before, and then just follow the instructions. Everythings is already pre-assembled with the right quantities and ready to cook.
It’s more expensive than buying all the ingredients yourself, but it is all pre-assembled and ready to cook. No re-measuring, you’ve essentially prepped all the meals in advance, with the store doing most of the sous-chef duties for you. At first glance, as I said, it might seem expensive, but my wife does most of the cooking and is generally frugal, and even she considers it value-for-money for prep and meal-planning options.
Some people used to make social outings of it. Find a friend or three, book a night, and go and assemble while chatting. It’s hard to have more than two people at any one station, and you might not all want the same recipes, but it was easy enough to find open slots. Weekends, weekdays, weekday evenings.
The pandemic messed that business model up entirely, of course. People couldn’t be in the store wandering around and touching all the food stations, even with having to wash your hands between stations so there’s no cross-contamination of foods (to prevent allergic reactions). You could always pay them in the past to pre-assemble the meals for you, but the cost differential was not insignificant. Take into account the fact that you were already paying a premium for their sous-chef duties, and the price of pre-assembled packages could get out of hand quickly. Not to mention the need for a large freezer to keep everything!
SupperWorks pivoted with the pandemic and now everything is pre-assembled for you. It’s the only option. But we like the meals, partly because we get to CHOOSE which foods are in our order. No need to pick something you don’t like to fill a quota; no need to pick something with a huge prep time.
Prices vary as do personal thresholds for cost. They have a cheesy mashed potato-bacon casserole that we like, and yes, we could easily make it ourselves. This is more like a store-bought one, but tastes fresher. It runs $14.00 and is big enough for all three of us for a meal. That’s not bad for price. Meanwhile, we also have Cranberry Chicken with Apples, done up as a split meal (instead of serving 4-6, we split it into two orders to serve 2-3, which is just right for the three of us usually). With the full meal split, we get six servings for $48.00. Some orders come up with sides, some don’t. Lots of DIY sites could offer the same meal so you could get it down to less than $4 per person instead of $8, mostly by buying in bulk, buying stuff on sale or in lower-quality cuts of meat, and substituting sweat equity for cost up-front.
We find that we (aka I) tend to slightly over-order in a month, so if I do two months in a row, we tend not to order the third month as we are too backed up in the freezer department. If you reorder from month 1 to month 2, you get a discount for month 2. Similarly for subsequent months. Discounts range from 10-25%; my discount for October was 15%, and I ordered five different types of meals.
First, there are the full meals split into two meals each. For this category, I ordered Cranberry Chicken with Apples, Maple-Kissed Pork Chops, Creamy Lemony Dilly Chicken & Orzo, and Italian Herb-Crusted Pork Tenderloin. They’re a bit heavier than we normally eat, so we don’t often do more than two in a week, and often only one, hence why with four meals split into eight dinners of three portions, we often end up having to skip a month after two orders in a row.
Andrea and I are often of two minds on these ones. The meals are excellent, no issue there, and it’s nice to have all the prep work done, BUT Andrea also sells Epicure and it wouldn’t be that difficult to Epicurify the recipe to do it ourselves. Except we would have to do all the prep, have all the other ingredients ready, plan in advance to do all of that, etc. These are easier, and particularly so for mid-week meals. The only other catch is that Andrea’s version would likely be better than these ones, after a bit of experimentation. Still, it’s a pretty good set of dishes and makes for easy meal-planning.
The second category is what I considered fully pre-assembled meals, like the Cheesy Mashed Potato-Bacon Casserole. Basically, you open it up, wrap it in tinfoil, throw it in the oven, and you’re done. They’ve already got it fully ready to cook, no additional assembly is required. These are pretty close to just store-bought, and can’t be split.
The third category would be soups and sides. I ordered Asiago-Herb Mashed Potatoes and Andrea chose a Butternut Squash and Coconut Soup + Italian Wedding Soup. But the one I am excited by, and I’m surprised to ever utter these words, is a Maple-Crumble Mashed Sweet Potatoes. Here’s the thing. We don’t really like Sweet Potatoes. Yet I accidentally ended up with it as a side for something small last month, and it was AWESOME. So I ordered a full-sized one for this month.
The fourth category on the list is lunch-time meals. They’re kind of like small TV dinners, I suppose, except it’s higher-end obviously and often smaller versions of the larger dishes for the month. They’re about $9-$10, you throw them in the microwave to cook them from frozen, and they are good lunch-time options for work to have something hot for lunch when we don’t have a lot of time. I picked up an Apple Maple-Glazed Chicken, Dad’s Favorite Meatloaf, and a Quinoa Veggie Stew (yeah, that one’s not for me hehehe). I did a turkey dinner one in October around Thanksgiving which is how I ended up trying the sweet potato side, and they’re pretty good for a change of pace.
And finally they also have some dessert options. Most of the time, these are like the storebought solutions, pop them in the oven to bake, and voila! One Fudgey-Fudge Brownies. Pretty rich, though. SupperWorks also usually throws in some sort of extra bonus, which is often six chocolate chip cookies, ready to bake. Pretty good ones too, no mess or mixing required.
Some people do hard-core ordering each month with 2-3 per week because they love the time advantage of avoiding prep or the convenience of weekday cooking after working all day. Some do it because they love the taste.
We’re not hard-core, but we are regular customers. Because the meals bring us #MoreJoy. And inspire us sometimes to find a personal recipe version of the meal to do on our own.
It likely goes without saying that parents get more out of kids than they ever expected, and that is certainly true for me. I couldn’t fathom my life without Jacob right now, how empty it would be in comparison. That isn’t a slam against anyone else, not my wife, friends or family, just a reality. He is the centre of our being.
I like seeing him get taller, so there is the physical growth. Getting out of the carseats I mentioned earlier this month, going towards more independence.
But a bunch of little things happened this week. We tried on last year’s winter coat, the one we’ve had for two years at least for him, and he’s finally outgrown it. Similarly for his snowpants. We already got him a fall jacket, and he’s wearing that this week without a liner, and he has one to get him into colder fall before he switches to the winter one. We already have a new hat for him and gloves. We’ll need new boots likely later this week. Those are small things, but it isn’t something we do often. They are small milestones. We picked up some pants and some shirts while we were at it, and he went in the change room all by himself instead of with Mom or I helping him. Another little milestone.
On a far bigger scale though, he has agreed he needs a bigger desk. Something that Andrea and I knew 8-12m ago, but whatever. He’s agreed. And he wants a monitor and separate gaming keyboard and mouse. He’ll keep using his laptop for now as his CPU, but we’ll add peripherals around it for him.
For both the monitor and the desk, he went online and found what interested him. He compared features, price, reviews, etc. Some of them didn’t have much info, but his rationale for each choice is sound. Maybe not exactly what Andrea and I would suggest, but it’s his decision, and they’re viable. Maybe they work out awesome, maybe they don’t work out great. Either way, we ordered the desk and bought a new monitor, keyboard and mouse today. He’d like us to buy him a full gaming PC too, but I’ve argued him back to trying it the way it is for a few more months and I’m hoping I can extend that to 2y when he starts school. Of course, if he starts playing Call of Duty-type games that have more graphics needs, I might not be able to hold out that long.
But he asked good questions at Best Buy and Canada Computers, he had opinions about what he wanted and didn’t, and overall, I was a trusted advisor/interface for his negotiations to help him get the info that he wanted, but in the end, it was mostly his decision.
And afterwards, I talked to him about things like commissioned sales, things we sometimes have happen when we’re dealing with salespeople who are eager to sell vs. eager to help. He saw that the first person we dealt with at Best Buy was more like “here’s what you should get” before even asking what we wanted vs. the person at Canada Computers who asked us how we would use it, gave us all the pros and cons, dealt with some misinfo I had about GSync vs. FreeSync tech for compatibility, etc. It was why we went to CC after BB…the salesperson at BB “flamed out”, and so we went looking for more help, which was what CC provided.
Yet, even with all that aside, one of the best parts of the day was that Jacob had a long conversation with one of his teachers today. He’s struggling a bit in PE with things everyone else can do and he can’t. Or at least, not anywhere near their level. A test done a few weeks ago was done to be inclusive but accidentally singled him out as not being able to do it…he bombed out at level 1.3, while the next person didn’t bomb out until 24 levels later (3.7, with ten sub-levels in each phase). So we’ve exchanged as parents with the teacher, just conversing about other options for him, and today Jacob told him what he wanted. Which is a milestone of self-advocacy on its own, and was his choice. He didn’t need us to write back on his behalf, he can do that himself in person. Which he did.
But the awesome part was that when he got in the car tonight, he COULDN’T WAIT to tell me about his day. He talked to the teacher and told him what he wanted to do. And then they talked about this, and the teacher told him about that. And then this happened, etc. A whole story from the conversation with the teacher, sharing blow-by-blow with us. After computer shopping, he went into the house, and went STRAIGHT to Andrea to retell it all again.
I sent an email to the teacher tonight to share the “bump” that Jacob had after the conversation, and to basically say, “Nice job, dude!”. That is the second time that he has been superexcited to talk about someone, and both times it was because they knew what CP even WAS. I think we’re seeing some craving there for a CP-type connection, or at least a connection that is direct to Jacob’s experiences.
It’s been a big couple of months for Jacob with back to school, and a new school at that. He’s adjusted to a lot. And he’s handling it well, for the most part.
Being proud of him gives me #MoreJoy. How could it not?
Okay, I confess, I bought some Hallowe’en candy and I have no intention of giving it out. It’s just for me. Andrea and Jacob don’t like it, it’s just for me.
I like almost everything about Tootsie rolls.
Even the name is fun to say.
Okay, fine, I’ll agree that if they’re old and stale, they’re not much fun. But brand new? Gooey? Malleable?
Soft enough to NOT rip out my teeth when I bite into them?
How could that not bring me #MoreJoy? Maybe too much joy. Having them accessible during work hours is NOT healthy. Joyful, but not healthy. Particularly since I’m working from home and I don’t have to share with coworkers.
But I was having a conversation with a social worker that I seek counsel from professionally from time to time, and she mentioned that her husband had “adapted” to the new reality and was doing it all online with local pickup. In a spurt of energy that week, I “lessened” my external stress and gave it a shot. There were some basic initial logistical issues, but overall it worked.
As time progressed, and things tightened and loosened, I’ve stayed with the pickup. Now, it is practically a well-oiled machine. I can log on to the store as late as 10 a.m., or even noon somedays, and still have pickup that day. What used to be free has been equalized with a fee of $3 through the week and $5 on weekends. I know that’s a deterrent for many people, on top of those who want to pick their vegetables themselves, but I’ve never got “bad” veggies from the order. Occasionally, they make odd substitution suggestions, but mostly I say yes. My needs, as they say, are not great.
I could go in the store again, and I have on occasion. But generally speaking, I don’t care enough to go back in person. Andrea does the general list based on what we’re down on or out of in the fridge, freezer, pantry and cupboards; I add a few things that I want, particularly for lunches, snacks and pop; and then I transfer the list from the app we like (TickTick) to the PC Express website. I could go with the large Loblaws, but I really like the Independent. It makes zero difference since I’m only picking up, but for some reason, I’ve stuck with the Independent. I feel like I’m avoiding the behemoth.
But most of all? It’s easy and it works. There are still quirks, of course. Like last year’s Christmas surprise of six potatoes turning into six BAGS of potatoes due to a combination of a really good sale with inattentive clicking. Most of the time, it’s fine, although occasionally it’s hard to gauge quantities. I was low on various drinks, and so I ordered a bunch today, with double orders on multiple cases. Which made for a large order, and not as much space as I would have hoped. But I added Ginger Ale in one part of the order as I went, Coke somewhere else, a third elsewhere, and the next thing I knew, I had two bins full of drinks alone. In person, I would have cut back and not doubled-up. Online, it’s hard to see how much space your basket takes. Four peppers show up as four items, not one, so overall quantity is not always that telling.
We do lots of things still in person, as the need arises. Mostly clothes, I guess, or some specific electronics. But between Amazon and curbside pickup options everywhere else, I’m willing to continue doing it whenever I can.
It mostly works well, and I like the simplicity of it. And that leads to #MoreJoy for me.
