In the Midst of Chaos, Spring...

It is comforting to know that while everything else around me is uncertain in this day and age, I can still rely on spring coming and bringing sunshine and color back into the world.  Every time that I step outside my front door, or come back up the driveway to the garage, I see this beautiful forsythia.

I planted this back in 2010, and it was just one sad little stick from Aldi.  Now it is the embodiment of spring - bright yellow sunshine in flower form, boldly showing its face in the cold and grey.

Today I washed all of the windows and put the screens back in, another sign of spring on its way.

I am behind in planting seeds for my garden.  It needs a lot of work out there because JP was unable to help convert the raised beds back to normal garden last winter due to having another retinal detachment and surgery.  I sort of put things off this spring, uncertain if I would be able to garden after having foot surgery this spring.  Since elective surgery is postponed for an unknown period of time, I need to get on the ball now.

I did FINALLY finish the project that I intended to do over the winter 2 years ago.  I finished building a music box with my dad's help.  I both looks and sounds beautiful!

Enjoy spring in your neck of the woods, just practice social distancing while you are doing it!

And So it Begins...

On Friday the 13th, the Governor closed the schools for 2 weeks in order to try to slow the spread of the corona virus in our state.  Both girls were devastated - J was 2 weeks away from opening night of the spring musical, and L had just completed her first week of track practice.

JP began self isolating and using the downstairs guest room and guest bathroom 2 days later, and I was laid off from work 2 days after that.  It has been a worldwind of weirdness for our family, and (I'm guessing) for a lot of people.  

After 2 weeks off school, the Governor extended the closures through April 6th, and although we have very poor internet connectivity in our school district, the schools have made plans to begin work on line (for those who can) and handed out packets of information and lessons (for those who can't connect.)  So the girls start lessons again tomorrow.

Because it seems a good way to keep friends and family updated on how we are doing, I decided to dust off this old blog and fire her back up!

This week we decided to try to make a literary themed meal - the menu items should be from (or inspired by) a book or movie.

Literary Menu

-Danny the Champion of the World (Roald Dahl) - Toad in a Hole

   We actually made this one before - link here.

 -Farmer Boy (Laura Ingalls Wilder) - Creamed Carrots

  This recipe was found in my The Little House Cookbook.

-Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (Rick Riordan) - Blue Chocolate Chip Cookies

  I found this recipe on a blog, but I'm not crazy about it.  I would recommend that you just add blue food coloring to the wet ingredients of your favorite chocolate chip recipe.

-Harry Potter series (JK Rowling) - Butter Beer Ice Cream

  This recipe is VERY good and very simple.

-The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (CS Lewis) - Turkish Delight

  J has been wanting to try to make this for a long time, so we FINALLY did it!  It was different.  Good, but not selling my siblings out to the White Witch good.

Have you been trying anything new to make the pandemic, social distancing, and stay at home orders more fun?