Baking:
I have made six or seven batches of bread. I'm not an outstanding bread baker and shy away from yeast breads (too difficult for this non-cook), but this recipe from Celebrating Sweets for Honey Oat Quick Bread solved a few dilemmas (solidifying honey and soon-to-be-outdated flour):
Plus, Trevor is on a cookie baking binge - we've made chocolate chip cookies, chocolate white-chocolate chip cookies, funfetti cookies, and sugar cookies, plus several batches of buttercream icing. Needless to say, we are also
Eating:
Good Lord, it seems like every time I turn around someone is wanting something to eat again (given the late hours of the boys, it is like running two different schedules of meals, so I think I prepare food and clean the kitchen about six times a day, seriously!). Food bills climb and waistlines expand. I am sad to say, almost all the weight I lost doing the time-restricted ketogenic plan has managed to find its way back to my mid-section. Groan. For the life of me, I cannot stay away from the fridge or all those baked goods we keep making. I tell myself I'll go back on the diet, but every day I put it off one more day.
Puzzling:
I've seen several families post photos of their puzzle adventures on Facebook and we are well behind the curve (indeed, saw images of some 40,000 piece Disney puzzle - insane). I like to choose puzzles with lots of different colors and patterns (i.e., easier!). I enjoyed this doors puzzle:
But, this White Mountain 1000 piece book covers puzzle was my all-time favorite - such fun!
Zooming:
Can I tell you how much I hate Zoom? I loathe it. You either get two extremes - nobody talks or several begin speaking at the same time and then you're scrambling to see who will take the floor. The connections feel artificial. Conversation feels forced. I have yet to find a location in my home that has a decent background (yes, I know you can add artificial backgrounds) with adequate lighting and little foot traffic. But, for now, I continue to attend my weekly Bible study group gathering (thankfully, we only have a few more sessions and then I may swear off Zoom altogether).
I thought, perhaps, it was a matter of limited connection.You know, if I zoomed with my family - people I share more intimate connections with - would it flow better? Well, nobody in my family suggested a zoom meeting for Easter, but I recently saw an invitation from some old Salvation Army friends. Even though it had been years since I'd been in contact with the initiators of this group, I had high hopes. Sadly, only twelve individuals participated and I only knew 5 well, 2 peripherally, and the rest not at all. I was trying to figure out if we were mostly officer's kids, but don't know for sure.
While it was better than the Bible study sessions, I still don't think I'll join in if they schedule a second session of the get-together. I'll just be happy when we can go back to regular group gatherings and not the artificial, technological gatherings of Zoom.
What I have NOT been doing - cleaning or writing. Nothing will ever induce me to seek cleaning as a past-time, ha! (My poor husband breathes a sigh of frustration - all this time on my hands and no motivation to Marie Kondo our house or scrub our floors - ha!) Besides my morning pages, I cannot focus or concentrate on any writing. My mind is too cluttered with daily doses of depressing news (my cousin, a professor in Massachusetts, posted that his university is considering holding off on the resume button until January of 2021 and if they do, will others follow suit?; CBLI has been cancelled for 2020 - sob; options for a 30-year-anniversary trip dwindle daily - we weren't planning anything major, but perhaps a getaway to Mackinac Island; and they have begun work on the new development of homes coming to the field across from our meadow).
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