Let's Bake

Rolling right along with  the A-Z Blog Challenge-

Day 2-B is for Baking 

Guess who supplied the word for today? Ha! If you know her you know it would have to be my baker daughter2. When I sent her the letter she replied instantly back with this word and asked if I'd given her B on purpose. 

Nope. I'm not that clever. 

Both of my girls love to cook and bake, but Daughter2 especially has a passion for baking. We've spent many happy hours together pouring over recipes, watching bakers on TV, scooping flour, and solving the world's problems plus a few of our own, as we wait for cookies to bake and cakes to rise.

Baking is good for all sorts of things.

I learned to bake standing on a chair beside my mama. She has always been a wonderful baker and I'm sure that's where I developed my love of baking and probably my sweet tooth too. My mom has what I call a 'knack' for baking and is famous for her Christmas cookies.

Famous at least in our circle of family and friends and all the people who've been recipients of one of her fabulous loaded cookie trays. I don't know if I have the skill she has, but I do bake with lots of love which I like to think is something else I learned from her. 

I have a small cookbook obsession, and church cookbooks are some of my most favorite. They're typically filled with comfort food, and while I wouldn't make a steady diet of the calorie laden-high carb goodness we think of when we hear that word, there are days and seasons that cry out for the foods we loved as children. I had flour and yeast in the pantry so decided yesterday to bake a family favorite-cinnamon bread. 

This particular recipe is found in one of those church cookbooks, shared there by a wonderful lady everyone adored, whose family attended church with ours when I was growing up. All us kids were friends (still are) and we spent a lot of time sharing meals at those infamous church pot luck suppers the 70's were famous for.  

Hey, wouldn't a pot luck supper with family and well-loved friends hit the spot right about now? Everybody brings a dish and we talk and laugh and say,' remember when...' Instead we're tucked safely inside our own homes all by our lonesomes which is where we need to be. 

I'm not a food blogger.

Did I need to tell you that? 

I think I do need to tell you there is something supremely satisfying about kneading bread dough. For anyone counting this is mixing bowl number three because I like to use as many dishes and utensils as I can when I cook. Hubs will vouch for me here.

Once kneaded the dough rests under a cloth, somewhere warm allowing it to double in size. 

 I heart South Carolina.

And dough that does as its told.
Now for the good stuff-

Brushed with melted butter, sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar, rolled up snug, then back to jellybean corner to rise some more.  

Please disregard my half eaten jar of jelly beans.
Desperate times people.

Baking is good for all sorts of things.
Math and science for the head and contentment for the heart.

When the world feels off kilter, a bowl and a spoon and a day spent baking make it seem a little less so. 

Alphabet Soup

If you're looking for the Wednesday Hodgepodge scroll on down to the next post. 

So here we are, Day 1 in the April A-Z Blog Challenge. If you don't know what I'm talking about, or you'd like to sign up too, visit the A-Z Challenge website using this link. 

I wrote all about my theme in yesterday's post, so if you need to know more you can read that here.  Essentially I've made it a group project and given 26 friends and family members a letter of the alphabet asking each one to send me back a word. I told them any word in the universe was fine, so I've received an interesting collection of a little bit of everything. Let's get going-

Day 1-A is for Achieve

A college friend I've known for 40 years sent me this word and I like it, because it's something I've been thinking a lot about lately. Did I tell you I have a birthday coming up? In five months? Ha! Well it's a big birthday so I'm allowed to talk about it.

Big birthdays are a good time for a bit of self-reflection. Not too much, but a glance back at where you've been, a look forward to what might lie ahead, and maybe a peek in the mirror as to where you are now, is not a bad exercise to engage in every once in a while.

I've been asking myself what it is I've achieved over the course of several decades of living? Am I satisfied with where I've landed and what I've accomplished or is there more to be done, and if so what? How?

It feels like there is great emphasis in today's world on finding our purpose and running head long into it. Make things happen! Change the world in a BIG way! Do all the things!

But what if achievement is measured in an entirely different manner?

I love what Oswald Chambers says about purpose. He says that what we see as the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself. That God is not working toward a particular finish, but that His purpose is the process.

Time feels frozen in this strange season we're walking through, yet it marches on. Is remaining faithful and obedient no matter the chaos or serenity of my circumstances what I'm aiming to achieve?

Do I measure my achievements in all the seasons of my life against this standard?

Springing Back Into The Hodgepodge-Volume 362

Welcome to the Wednesday Hodgepodge! It was fun to 'see' so many familiar faces here last week, and meet some new bloggers too. If you've answered this week's questions add your link at the end of my post, then pop over and leave a comment for the blogger linking before you. Be sure to post the button code (on my sidebar) or add a link somewhere back to this post so your readers can join the party too.

Here we go-

1. Has spring sprung in your part of the world? How can you tell? Did March come in like a lion where you live? Going out like a lamb or something more ferocious?

It has most definitely sprung. How can I tell? 

On a scale of 1-10 the pollen here is at a 20. 

On the bright side,  trees are budding, azaleas are blooming, and boaters are cruising the lake which is a sure sign of spring in my little town. 

Did March come in like a lion? Hmmm...the beginning of March feels like a hundred years ago but this is the Palmetto State so probably not a lion. Maybe a lion cub? And since we've hit the 80's this week it seems to be leaving like a lamb. Course there is that whole everybody stay home and away from everybody else which does make it feel a bit more ferocious than our usual March exit. 

2. The last thing that caused you to spring to your feet?

I'm sure it was something related to the little brown dog. I probably sprung to my feet upon realizing I'd left the bathroom door open and he's now in there chowing down on dental floss he found in the bin.

He's a mostly good boy but he does love to stick his nose in an unattended trash can now and then. 

3. Do you have a spring clean to-do list? What's one chore on the list you've already managed to accomplish? What spring clean chore do you most dread?

I have a list. Hubs has a list. He is breezing through his and mine is kind of just sitting there undone. Not entirely but I've got a ways to go. The chore I'm most dreading is cleaning out my closet. I have reorganized some drawers and am working my way through the office file purge that needs to happen every year, but mostly I'm baking cookies, blogging, working jigsaw puzzles and reading books. It's a strange spring. 

4. Tell us something you've learned about yourself or the wider world as a result of social distancing/the virus crisis.

I touch my face a lot? 

People don't like to be told they can't do something? I've always been a rule follower, and staying home isn't a huge hardship for me, so I haven't resisted following the distancing guidelines the way too many people seem to be resisting. 

I guess for me the biggest thing is discovering anew that peace is possible in the midst of turmoil and uncertainty about the future.  I like to think I'm in control of my days and my calendar and my life in general, but that's only a little bit true. God knows the end from the beginning and I can rest in his faithfulness. 

5. Something you love that's the color pink?

A peony. 
Haagen-Daz strawberry ice cream.
Not neccessarily in that order.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

I'm participating all month in the April A-Z Blog Challenge, which starts today. You'll find my Letter A post just after today's Hodgepodge. To join the challenge sign up on the website (link here) by April 4th.  Let me know if you're playing along so I can read your alphabet posts too. 

Hodgepodge Questions and The A to Z

Before I post this week's questions for the Hodgepodge (scroll down) I want to mention a little something called the A-Z Blog Challenge.

As per my normal way of participating each year, I signed up last minute over the weekend and posting starts Wednesday. That would be tomorrow. I hadn't given any thought to the challenge, but since it seems there's plenty of time to blog these days I jumped on in. Visit this link by April 4th if you'd like to blog along too.

The A-Z Challenge started back in 2010, but my first year participating was 2011. I stuck with it every April through 2016, but this will be my first year back since. The way this challenge works is you post every day during the month of April, using the alphabet as your guide. Since we don't blog on Sundays that conveniently makes room for 26 posts to coincide with 26 letters of the alphabet.

You're not required to have a theme, but I like a theme. I need a jumping off place to give my normal random some structure. In the past I've written about travel (2011), a trip to Asia (2012), parenting (2013), marriage (2014), change (2015), and home (2016).

Since coming up with blog content in the age of social distancing means one must get creative,  I thought it might be fun to make this something of a group activity. I emailed 26 friends/family who I know read my blog and gave each one a letter of the alphabet. I asked them to send me a word beginning with that letter and I'll write my posts around their chosen words.

I thought they might drag their feet a little, but almost everyone responded immediately. And now I have an interesting collection of words that have nothing to do with anything so it will be fun to take off writing and see where I land. Stay tuned!

Now on to this week's Hodgepodge-

We're still here. In our own little houses with plenty of time to blog, so why not join the Wednesday Hodgepodge? Answer the questions on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to share answers with the universe. See you there!

1. Has spring sprung in your part of the world? How can you tell? Did March come in like a lion where you live? Going out like a lamb or something more ferocious?

2. The last thing that caused you to spring to your feet?

3. Do you have a spring clean to-do list? What's one chore on the list you've already managed to accomplish? What spring clean chore do you most dread?

4. Tell us something you've learned about yourself or the wider world as a result of social distancing/the virus crisis.

5. Something you love that's the color pink?

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Monday March Madness

Not the fun kind of March madness because fun was cancelled this month, wasn't it?

Well maybe not cancelled but we are definitely having to work for it. Pretty soon all my blog posts will be titled 'what I ate this week'. We're all learning to get creative and figure out new ways of connecting and socializing from at least ten feet away.

Are you on Zoom? We had a Zoom call with a group of college friends Friday night, and another with a former work colleague of the hubs on Saturday. I don't know why we never did this prior to social distancing because it's a great way to connect as a group and we laughed a lot. I even played cards with friends last week via Zoom and our Sunday School class is meeting that way as well.

Temps have climbed into the 80's here which is delightful. We haven't dropped the boat in the water yet, since pollen has run amok-

Don't think we'll be dining out here just yet, but I am looking forward to al fresco dinners in the near future. And once most of the pollen is down we'll be back to meeting up with friends by water. Everyone can stay safely on their own boats a healthy distance away and life might feel a little bit ordinary. Whoohoo!

Hubs has been spending his at-home time painting all the trim in the house. He enjoys a project and this is a tedious job that needed to be done. He's a meticulous painter and it all looks so crisp and clean. Perhaps if we're confined to home much longer he'll get to some of the walls too?

We've cooked some stuff. Ha! We're all cooking these days aren't we? We tried a new recipe on Saturday for grilled shrimp tacos with avocado salsa and it was a keeper.

So easy and I'll definitely make this one again. I found the recipe here.

Still have two dogs to walk which is a happy distraction and a reason to leave the house. I'm watching very little news, but do tune in to hear our governor's updates and catch headlines to see if there are new developments to be aware of on any given day.

We started watching a program on netflix called Tales By Light and are enjoying that. Each episode features a photographer taking pictures of something fabulous somewhere in the world and their shots are pretty amazing. My daughter and I have been binging old seasons of The Great British Baking Show and are completely addicted. I'm determined to bake something I've never tried before using my one packet of yeast, which I was lucky to get. Suddenly everybody's a baker.

Speaking of baking, daughter2 and I finished a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle last week-

It ended up being 998 pieces thanks to a lightning fast little brown dog who shall remain nameless, ahem, but still fun and really pretty. How long do you leave a completed puzzle set up? We wrapped this one up on Thursday and I put it back in the box Saturday. Since it looks like staying home is the name of the game for a while longer I need the table space to start another.

So that's about it-reading, cooking, walking the dogs, working puzzles, a little TV, a few home cleaning/organizing projects, and more blogging than I've done in months are what's filling the time here. I have to say many of these activities are things I enjoy doing anyway, even when social distancing isn't the norm.

How 'bout you? What are you doing to stay busy?

To Market To Market. Not So Fast....

Linking up with Five Minute Friday today, and here's how that looks-

Tell your inner critic to hush, then write for 5 minutes flat for pure unedited love of the written word. Then hop over to the Five Minute Friday link up hosted by Kate Motaung and add your blog to the list. Don't forget to leave a comment for the writer linking before you, because that's the neighborly thing to do.

Today's prompt-adjust

I went to the grocery store yesterday.
Sounds simple and in simpler times it was, but I think we can agree these are not simple times.

These days our every routine action requires thought, restraint, and self-control. The most mundane tasks needing to be accomplished on an ordinary weekday can't be done without taking into account people and distance and how to get from point a to point b with as little human contact as possible.

So I sat and I thought. I made a two week meal plan as opposed to my normal one week shop. I knew  it would have to be tweaked depending on what's available on this particular Thursday in my local market, but having a plan to work from helps.

We take so much for granted don't we?
Will there be any rice on the shelf? Garlic? Meat? Who knows?

I made a list. I always make a list, but this one was well organized to avoid backtracking once inside the store. Getting in and getting out is the name of the game now. No handling the avocados to find one with the exact degree of ripeness I need, no lingering at the deli trying to make up my mind. In fact bypass the deli and for once buy the prepacked safety sealed lunch meat.

Before leaving home I took my card out of my wallet and zipped it in my jacket pocket. I could leave my purse at home, meaning one less thing to wipe down. Same goes for my rings. I needed to buy gas before I shopped so I rememebered to put some plastic bags in the car to cover my hand when I grab the nozzle.

Wearing a bag on your hand to pump gas doesn't look at all crazy in 2020. I toss the bag and put a dollop of hand sanitizer in my palm. The sanitizer we've always kept in the car for emergency hand 'washing', although I honestly cannot recall ever experiencing a true hand sanitizing emergency.

Pumping gas now qualifies.

I came home and took care with where I laid the bags. One counter only so I could spray it down later. I opened boxes and dumped the contents into my own bags and took the boxes to the garage to be recycled one day.

One day someday when our recycling resumes. They sort by hand so not happening since nobody wants to touch anything, not even a brand new empty cracker box.

I washed every bit of produce and disinfected the counter where the bags sat and it made me tired and a little bit sad. It all feels so extreme.

Small adjustments to slow the curve.

Everyone is being asked to adjust to a new normal these days. For some the adjustment is enormous. Scary sickness. A new way of working or perhaps not working at all. Educating small children. Teachers learning too. College students suddenly home and at loose ends.

We're retired and our children grown so how we'll accomplish work each day or teach modern math to a nine year old isn't an issue. What we're facing is mostly inconvenience, minor irritations, and small disappointments.

Still we miss normal life. We miss meeting friends for dinner out, not thinking twice about getting on an airplane, visiting my mom, sharing a church pew with a stranger.

Most of all we miss making plans. We're wired to look forward to what's next, but in this upside down season I'm learning to adjust my line of sight and see blessings in the now.

To embrace flexibility. Grow my patience. Be grateful.

We're Baaaack...The Wednesday Hodgepodge Volume 361

Good morning! It's been a while hasn't it? I'm looking forward to 'seeing' some familiar faces here, and hopefully new faces too. If you're new to the Hodgepodge welcome to a happy little corner of the Internet. In this age of social distancing, isolation, and general unease, the Wednesday Hodgepodge feels a lot like having coffee with old friends. And it looks like we're going to have several weeks to get reaquainted, ahem.

Let's get started...answer the questions on your own blog, then hop back here and add your link at the bottom of my post. Then hop over and visit (at the very least) the blogger who linked before you. Comments make the world go round or at least the blogosphere. Don't forget to post the button code (located in my sidebar) or a link back here so your blog readers can play along too.

And we're off-

1. Howdy Hodgepodgers. It's kind of fun to be back, isn't it?  Last time we met was September, 2018. Tell me something big-important-happy-or sad that's happened in your life since that date. Just one thing. We don't know how long this current isolation situation is going to last and we might need to dole out our news bit by bit.

I suppose we've each one experienced all of the above in the past eighteen months because life is like that. I may ask this question another three times until we've shared something from each category. I'm going to start with the happy which is this-

I have a new grandson, born halfway around the world to my daughter and son-in-law who are currently living in South Korea. We were fortunate to make it to Korea two days before his birth and had the most wonderful month with this precious family. I wrote a few posts about our travels which you can read if you're so inclined, starting with the post linked here . 

While I hate the distance I am so very grateful we traveled when we did. We facetime regularly which I guess is now every grandparents new normal, and it's not the same but is still pretty great. We are completely smitten with this new little man and his big brother. 

2. Might as well get this out of the way early on...COVID-19. On a scale of 1-5 how serious are you about keeping your distance? Explain. fyi-I didn't create the scale but have seen it several places online. Also fyi-we won't only have virus related questions each week, but for this first one it feels right.

1-Not at all, living normally

2-Cautious but still going out

3-Going out as needed, mostly home or working from home, still seeing friends/family

4-Extremely limited, only going out when unavoidable, minimal contact with people

5-Full lockdown, no one in or out

We are a full 4, bordering on a 5. Definitely not letting anyone in and going out only for groceries once a week or less. I'm going to go ahead and add my .02 here...I surely hope nobody is a 1 or 2. 

3. Raise your hand if you think you might run out of steam in the cooking department before it's all said and done? What's something delcious you've cooked or eaten in your own kitchen in the past week?

I enjoy cooking but this everyday thing is likely going to get old before we're over this current crisis. I have always planned meals and shopped from a list so that's not a problem. We love a nice meal in a restaurant or a casual get together at a friend's house, but for now we're strictly cooking at home.  

Even when life is 'normal' there are no food delivery options on the lake, and we typcially don't do take out because by the time you go to town to pick it up you might as well eat there. Right now a few restaurants are offering curbside pick up so we'll probably do that at some point to help keep businesses afloat. My daughter ordered a couple of Home Chef meals (our favorite of the home delivery) for next week just to give us something new and different to eat. 

Best thing I've cooked/eaten in my own kitchen this past week? Homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I made them for a friend who had surgery recently, but the recipe (linked here and it's my favorite) makes a lot so we kept a dozen and gave another dozen to a neighbor who also had surgery recently. Hubs left the cookies on their doorstep then texted so they'd know what we'd done because that's how things work in a pandemic. 

4. What's a television show or movie you've seen recently (it could be an oldie) that you really liked?

Hubs and I watched Midway and thought it was really good. We watched Knives Out over the weekend and it was okay. Took a while to get going, but it stars Daniel Craig so there's that. 

5. Share something funny you've seen or heard this week.

The Interenet can be such a nasty place, but right now parents who find themselves suddenly at home all day every day- all night every night are killin' it. I hope they keep their sense of humor because every day I see something that makes me laugh. I was a teacher so especially relate to those memes. Visit @momonmeltdown for more funnies-




6. Insert your own random thought here.

I love listening to Claire Crosby sing with her dad. About three years ago one of their videos went viral so they're pretty well known now. This one is particularly timely. Stay well everyone!