It seems like March and April are two big birthday months for our little family and also for my family back in Denmark. My nephew, my brother-in-law, my mother, our oldest daughter, close friends’ kids, and now our youngest daughter is celebrating her birthday, turning 14.
I love our youngest daughter tremendously. We are super proud of her; she has developed a fantastic personality.
She has a personality that sometimes challenges our sanity as she often tests our patience. I do not think it is uncommon for teenagers, but sweet lord, I sometimes need a glass of wine and count to 20 (at least).
That said, she’s a wonderful daughter (most of the time), and we love her to the solar eclipse and back. Not a day goes by when we don’t admire how fantastic she is.
I’m sure many of you parents out there with teenage kids will recognize that we love our kids, but I’m not sure we fully appreciate some of the challenges that they present, such as teenage mood swings, constantly staring at the phones, and reluctance to help around the house.
It’s part of parenting, and we try to stay calm. However, it does not change the fact that we love her.
Happy birthday to the wonderful girl!
Earthquake & Disaster Planning
When we arrived in the US in 2011, we were “greeted” by a few freak weather and disasters that made us rethink why we moved to the US. Indeed, these were not regular occurrences, but coming from the safety of Europe (Ireland and Denmark), it was unusual weather.
Yes, we get heavy rain and winter weather, the odd, powerful winds, and nice warm weather in Ireland and Denmark. The mid-70s to early-80s Fahrenheit is considered a warm summer. We don’t experience that too often, and in the early to mid-70s, Fahrenheit is a typical Scandinavian summer that lasts for a few weeks.
In 2011, when we stepped off the plane at JFK airport, we were greeted by a mild 80-90F!! It was like being smacked in the face with a coal shovel, especially as I was wearing jeans and an Arran sweater because it was a whopping 58-64F when we left Ireland.
Upon arriving in the US, and the following months, we encountered:
- Record warm summer with temps reaching mid/end 90s Fahrenheit
- Minor 2.4 or 2.8 earthquake
- Severe summer rain storm dropping 2-3 inches of rain within an hour (or at least if it felt like it)
- Freak fall winter storm where thick branches snapped off trees
- Hurricane/storm Sandy hit and flooded many parts of the North East, causing power outages
- 1-2 feet of snow and ice over roads
That sums up our first six months in the US. We seriously considered returning to the safe shores of Ireland, but we thankfully stayed.
Fast forward 11 years, and we were greeted by yet another planetary natural occurrence – a stronger earthquake hit New Jersey, which was felt across several regional states.
A 4.8-strong earthquake rocked my office building. It initially sounded like a freight train or a subway was passing by, but we did not have one near the office. Then, the building started to rumble and move, causing our patient call center staff to run screaming from their cubicles.
We all felt the earth and buildings move. It was an odd and very intimidating experience, but nothing compared to the earthquake in Taiwan in March or the earthquake that caused havoc in San Fransisco a few decades ago.
Still, it was a significant earthquake for the North East and measured the third strongest since 1780-something.
Airports stopped all flights from taking off and landing, and the subways in NYC stopped. They inspected the Holland Tunnel for cracks, and one of our clinics suffered a minor crack in the walls; we had to evacuate patients to our nearby clinics to inspect the damages.
Disaster Planning
I’m proud to say that my IT redundancy planning and setup worked beautifully. We suffered no network connectivity issues during or after. Some utility providers (internet) got disconnected, but our sites all stayed up as we instantly failed to connect seamlessly to the secondary provider.
Since a truck hit a few utility poles a year ago, bringing down access to our primary data center for a few days, I prioritized implementing better redundancy for our critical data center services.
We have a primary and secondary data center, but I installed secondary lines into both buildings, with alternative entry points into our data center. If a pole or line is cut, we have a secondary connection that will remain active.
Planning for disasters is not only a tabletop exercise or conversation. You need to prepare for the unforeseen, and a truck hitting a utility pole was my wake-up call.
This is in addition to the cybersecurity incident response planning but should be part of your same documentation.
Week Fifteen Meals
As per usual, when we have birthdays, the birthday kid gets to choose most of the meals. It’s an opportunity to eat all your favorite meals. True to my word, I asked our daughter to pick some meals, to which a moody teenager responded, “Whatever… I don’t care … I’m not going to eat any of it … I don’t like anything … you decide.”
When his daughter expresses those sentiments, a father is instilled with all kinds of fears. I know that even if I made her favorite food (spaghetti and meatballs), she may express utter dismay with having to eat it.
Nevertheless, I made a meal plan with dishes I think she likes. She used to like them, at least, so here goes nothing. I have everything to gain … or lose.
School Lunches
Finally, we are back to a whole week of school, and lunches are back on the menu. While I enjoy making meals, it is always challenging to find something that offers a good meal and also ensures that kids are not being teased with some strange lunch unboxing events.
I’m determined to make bread instead of relying on store-bought unhealthy bread. I bought flour from King Arthur’s Baking and prepared some dough. One is for whole wheat English muffins, and one is for pizza using 00 flour.
Birthday school lunches:
- Homemade pizza baked on the Traeger
- Breakfast sandwiches using the English muffins and adding an egg and pork herb patty
- Toasted whole wheat sandwich with mozzarella and pesto
She also enjoys pizza rolls, so I had to buy a bag of frozen pizza rolls. I’m not a fan of these, but I’ll buy anything for my birthday girl.
Dinner Time
I’m trying to continue the Mediterranean and high-protein diet, although this week might fail slightly, given that I have to make a few of the birthday girl’s favorites. She loves pasta, so we are starting with a few simple dishes.
I make my meatballs using ground beef and some herbs and then grill them in the oven. In hindsight, I should’ve smoked them on the Traeger, but that’ll be next time.
I also made the tomato sauce with red wine and let the grilled meatballs simmer for an hour in the tomato sauce, adding more flavor. I, too, have watched Godfather and Sopranos.
She enjoys salmon, so I made a refreshing salmon stew with corn and potatoes. It took 30-40 minutes to prepare, and I used light sour cream instead of heavy cream to be at least healthy.
Later in the week, we will enjoy a quick one-pan chicken and orzo dish served with spinach and tomatoes. Yes, more pasta!
Lastly, I’ll grill some vegetables and shrimp on the Traeger, boil some pasta, and serve it with grated parmesan cheese on Friday.
That has to be enough pasta for the birthday girl! While still keeping it relatively healthy and Mediterranean.
Meal Prep Party Pictures
Meal Plan
| Lunch | Dinner | |
| Monday | Homemade pizza on the Traeger | Spinach, corn, and pasta |
| Tuesday | Breakfast English homemade muffin with pork patty | Homemade Italian meatballs with spaghetti |
| Wednesday | Mozzarella, pesto, and tomato sandwich on wheat bread | North-Western Salmon stew with corn and potatoes. |
| Thursday | Pizza rolls (not homemade) | Chicken Orzo with spinach and tomatoes |
| Friday | Mozzarella, pesto and tomato sandwich on wheat bread | Roasted vegetables (on the Traeger) with shrimp and pasta |
One day, I might get so organized that I will link the meals below to my recipes. We can only live in hope!
Have a fantastic week, my friends. I hope you enjoy these meal plans. It is much easier to make food in advance, although you must invest several hours preparing meals during the weekend.
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The Viking Heart Within 