Of Mooncakes and Moonbeams

I should warn you, there isn't any mooncake in this lunchbox though that would have been perfect because the boy's having Chinese for lunch.  As you may know, the Mid-Autumn Festival otherwise known as Moon Festival or Zhongqui Festival is celebrated every 15th of the eighth month of the year commemorates the success of the Yuan Dynasty in overthrowing Mongolian rule in 1368 A.D.  They apparently commissioned bakers to make a special cake on the occasion of the Moon Festival which they used as vehicles to communicate strategies on how to overthrow their invaders. Moon cake lovers like me have to be somewhat grateful to the Mongolians because without them, we wouldn't be enjoying the many varieties of moon cakes today.  I'm going to get us some later.

Here in Manila though, it's been awhile since I've seen a beautiful moon what with the humidity and dense cloud cover.  We even missed the Perseid meteor showers because of this Edward-Scissorhands-weather.  Everything is gray. Even when it isn't raining, like right now, the sky is still ashen like the world has been set to be viewed in grayscale and in the pantone of gray.  

Maybe I'm exaggerating.  Maybe because it's Stressful Thursday.  Maybe because the boy and I had an argument about him not finishing his homework just because it was difficult.  The little one (she's five years old) found an old Pin Yin (Mandarin) writing notebook of her brother yesterday and tried copying the characters all afternoon.  And the reason she was able to do that was because most of the pages were blank, nearly every page had the teachers marking which read: INCOMPLETE.  The boy didn't do his homework because according to him he was having a difficult time.  Really?  A difficult time writing?  These kids really have it easy, you know?  Sometimes, I'd like to believe this thing I read: A happy childhood is the worst preparation for life. I hope that's not true.

Mama needs a break.  Where is that moonbeam when you need one?

Today's lunch: Fish Fillet with Sweet Corn Sauce (Separate Sauce), Yang Chow Fried Rice, Homemade Kikiam (not made in my home though, made of chayote) and Oatmeal-Apple Cookies.