Editor's note: Aceis blogging about being a dad trying to rebound from the coronaivrus pandemic at My Rebound by FOX 17. He desired for his son to feel both pride in and connection to his Filipino heritage, so he founded the Grand Rapids Asian-Pacific Festival in 2016. Also a banker, he recently resigned from his position – now staying full-time with his 6-year-old son. He and his wife, son and dog live in Plainfield Township.
As I keep on blogging, some of my stories have received proper attention. In the past few weeks, I’ve had a lot of people reach out to support me, and some of these conversations have led to possible job opportunities.
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I don’t have the skills for some, but yet my good friends extend their support and confidence into anything that I do.
In the meantime, I still have a growing boy at home who is happy to eat anywhere from 3-20 times a day. Did I tell you Redd loves pizza? We don't order take out that often, but from time to time, Redd will draw cute pictures of pizza. So cute that I can't say no.
But we are ordering less take out to fit into our current budget, and so Redd and I have had to be more creative with the refrigerator. There is one condiment that Redd can't live without, and that is ketchup. I feel like we can go through a gallon a month. It seems like ketchup partners up with anything and everything. Toasts, cheese, sushi, noodles, and rice.
It’s hard to compete with my wife Jackie’s cooking. Any of my friends know how fantastic her cooking is, and Redd and I are lucky to enjoy her wonderful dishes. But mealtimes are on my stay-at-home schedule these days and the first thing I have to do in the morning is feed Redd.
The other day, he wanted to surprise me with bowls of cereals for the two of us. Redd sat next to me as we ate and was so proud of himself. I'm not too fond of breakfast cereals, but I pushed on to swallow every bite with a smile.
After some creative thinking, I decided the next day that we will be Scientist Chefs. We will challenge ourselves to eat up ingredients that may not be our most favorite. This morning we are looking at the rather uninteresting egg carton I have set out on the counter. Our first of many experiments, as we call them.
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One of my favorite egg dishes is tamagoyaki, a type of rolled-up Japanese omelette made of layers of cooked egg. When I make tamagoyaki, I like to add a dash of brown sugar. Usually Redd hates my tamagoyaki. So we decided to create a new scrambled egg dish with maple syrup dip on the side.
Once we started working together, we discovered that if you make small slices to a sausage link, not all the way through, when you fry it the slices will curl up. It looked like a little baby octopus, which delighted Redd and made breakfast taste far better. The experiment was a surprise success, and even though breakfast took a very long time, Redd is also learning how to cook eggs now.
Now that I am conquering new ground at home with our successful experiments, I am able to organize my own thoughts as well. There was a lesson for me in the octopus sausage. Applying my skills to home-making reminds me that while I am excellent at organizing and completing detailed tasks, my ideas of fun have changed over the years. One of the things I loved about my former position was learning a skill that helped me guide other people in finding success, usually by making the less tasty parts easier to swallow. I feel like I am making progress towards finding my next career with my experiments both at home and with my recent projects outside the home. Thank you to all my friends who keep me encouraged and share with me as I continue exploring with Redd!