If you’d told me on March 13 that I’d be full-time teleworking into mid-May and beyond, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed. My employer is on record with a policy that permits only occasional telework under certain, specific provisions. Yet here I am, in my tidy little home office, getting my job done, and even learning new things, such as how often the guys mow and edge the grass on either side of our front sidewalk. (Quite frequently, as it turns out!)
Here’s my office view yesterday
And today, taken from my desk chair
You get the idea.
One nice thing is that it’s easier to pop outside for a quick mid-day walk than it used to be. Not that it’s exactly hard to ride the elevator down 15 floors and venture out into the neighborhood surrounding my office building, waiting at traffic signals to cross the busy streets. But here, we have sidewalks, quiet streets, and paths around several small lakes (ponds, really) nearby.
On Sunday – Mother’s Day – I was set to venture out for a solo walk. The weather was lovely – springlike – and I was looking forward to placing my earbuds in my ears and listening to my current audio book. I yelled upstairs to Eli that I was going for a walk, and he said, I’ll come too! Unsolicited! What? Well, OK! It was lovely. His legs are longer than mine and he is in MUCH better shape, so I had to hustle to keep up with his loping gait. Good for my heart, both physically and emotionally.
While out, we saw this goose family – they were hanging out on the path by the lake, as if they own the place, and we bravely walked by them, and they permitted us to pass without hazing us:
In other news, we know that everyone else is baking bread now, too, and many are even venturing into the mysterious world of sourdough. Let the record show, we were dabbling in sourdough here long before it was COVID-cool (pandemic-chic?). Anyway, we have this starter that is super-active right now and it makes the fluffiest, bubbliest bread. We are refining our technique so the bottom of the loaf doesn’t burn. Steve has this fancy La Cloche clay bread baking thing that seems to be exactly what works to make pro-looking boules such as this:
Then there are the arts & crafts. I like to keep my hands busy. In the first few weeks of this crisis, I got out my sewing machine and made some cloth face masks from repurposed pillowcases. Then, I finished knitting the wrap I’d been working on since the day after Christmas – just in time for summer! – I blocked it, folded it up and hung it in the closet.
Whenever I finish a project, I feel somewhat bereft, like when you read the last word of a fantastic novel, or watch the last episode of an epic series. Now what?? I sit with that in-between feeling for a short while, then I start something new. I do have another knitting project going, but I decided to experiment with paper crafts.
This one’s easy, if you have time, which I do. I took the latest issue of Bon Appetit Magazine, read it from cover to cover, then tore out (most of) the pages, cut each one into quarters vertically, then folded each strip into fourths the long way, then taped them together and wrapped them up into a big, flat, tight coil. Then I carefully (so carefully) and gently started pulling them up to form the shape of a bowl. Once it was where I wanted it to be, I applied two coats of Mod Podge inside and out. And now, I can hardly wait for the next issue to arrive! And I am also wondering, what other magazines could I subscribe to that would make fun paper bowls.
Hey, everyone, guess what you’re getting for Christmas this year!
OH! And I now have two planters on the deck, full of herbs that I really hope will grow this year. I am proud to be the daughter of a farmer, but I haven’t exactly had the best luck growing things. Maybe this year will be different:
TL;DR: We’re fine here. We’re healthy, we miss our kids, we miss traveling, I miss singing, but we have jobs and paychecks and high-speed internet and a big-enough house to wait it all out.
Soup Is Not A Finger Food 