04.28.2020
In the interest of culinary science, only, and not because I wanted to eat a dozen chocolate chip cookies all by myself again, I made the Double Tree Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.
I have to say, these are the best chocolate chip cookies ever. The difference is the lemon juice, the cinnamon, and more chocolate chips.
The more chocolate, the better, is how the saying goes, I think…
04.28.2020
Hangin’ in my garden with Leroy The Cat.
Grateful for our heroic medical workers, ambulance drivers, firefighters, police, and all the people working for minimum wage in grocery stores risking their health, and lives, for us.
Take care everyone.
04.22.2020
All these days at home are running together as one for me.
It’s like an endless streak of days with no names. Is today Saturday? Or is it Tuesday? WAIT! It’s Thursday already? What happened to Wednesday? Did we decide to skip Wednesday this week? When was the last time we had a Sunday? We’re on Friday? Don’t lie to me now. Are you serious!? It’s Friday? Really? Has Monday been deleted? Are we on a six day week now? DOES IT MATTER?
I’m also getting my dates confused. I have to sneakily check my phone so I don’t look too crazy. I was very surprised to find out today that we are already on April 21.
How can this be? What happened to April 10th and April 14th and April 18th? Did we bypass those dates, too, so that we can hurry up and get to May? Was there some national agreement to speed April up that I missed out on?
So confusing. I may be losing my mind. In fact, I think I saw my mind wandering down the street…
Stay healthy everyone. Stay home. Read a book.
Try to figure out what day it is now and then…If you don’t know, it probably doesn’t matter…
04.21.2020
Yes, Cookie Butter is a thing.
It was a surprise to me, too.
In quarantine I will take all the cookie butter surprises I can get.
I didn’t know what to do with it so I ate it straight out of the jar with a spoon.
Seemed to work just fine that way.
04.13.2020
Innocent Husband and I have obviously spent too much time alone together.
He was complaining because the cats’ dirty paw prints are making a mess on the carpet when they come in from playing in the garden. So, in my infinite wisdom, I made a helpful sign.
I’m sure the cats, Leroy and Simon The Terrors, will do better in future.
04.13.2020
Well, this is a proud moment in my life. I am now a Sourdough Starter.
Montana Sister’s Man, nicknamed by me Magnificent Mighty Matt, made a sourdough starter and named her Catherine.
I am told that Catherine makes amazing bread.
It’s not often you get to have your name on a sourdough starter now, is it?
04.03.2020
In my neighborhood, we are following the national game of Count That Teddy Bear.
So, I put teddy bears in my windows, above rose bushes and rhododendrons, so the kids could see and count them.
However, my teddy bears look like they’re being held hostage and are desperately trying to get someone’s attention so they can escape.
Adventurous Singing Daughter could hardly stop laughing when she came downstairs.
Sigh. I tried.
04.02.2020
One of the most influential people in my life is my high school journalism teacher, Beverle Kerns.
She encouraged me to write, and made me believe that I could do it. Bev sent me this poem today. I thought it was lovely and well needed. To look at small beauties – like daffodils – even in times of worry and stress, and rejoice in them.
I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud
by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay,
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves besides them danced;
but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude,
And then my heart with laughter fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
03.27.2020
I’ve been taking a lot of walks and I’ve seen these decorated rocks around my neighborhood.
They always make me smile.
It’s interesting that something this simple can bring joy to an otherwise stressful time. I don’t know who is making them, but thank you!
03.25.2020
The other day I finally pulled on gloves and headed to Walmart.
As I was scrambling around, trying not to get too close to anyone, buying milk and eggs and, okay, chocolate (for me) and ice cream (for Innocent Husband) for nutritional reasons, I could not help but think about all the employees there.
Cashiers at Walmart are some of the lowest paid employees in this country.
And yet.
There they were. Smiling. Ready to help. They are serving everyone – those people who are healthy, those people who have had Corona Virus, and those that have it now but must take care of themselves and their kids so are up there searching for toilet paper like everyone else.
The cashiers at our grocery stores/pharmacies are exposed to hundreds of people a day. We all have to be able to get food and medicine during this time, and by working there, they’re allowing us to function as a country. Without them, we’ll utterly break down.
It’s brave to even work there right now, it really is.
Thanks to everyone, once again, on the front lines.
I hope you’re all AT HOME and healthy and finding projects to do, books to read, art to start, closets to clean…