Day 30: Grateful

April 30, 2020May 3, 2020Leave a comment

I will be the first to tell you that I’ve made a lot of stupendously stupid choices in my life, so I am exceedingly grateful that, in spite of my youthful stupidity, my life has turned out surprisingly well. I have fantastic friends and a fabulous family, and while I am always glad to see them all happy and healthy, I am doubly so in this current moment. Too many people have been lost already.

But today, I want to take a little time to remember other things I am grateful for that are perhaps less serious in tone (but also, perhaps not). So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here are some of the other things I am grateful for:

Words, and the pleasure that novel ideas can convey using them. For instance, this: “…reading a book on your own was figured as a conversation with the deceased, where you listen to the dead with your eyes.“ (emphasis mine) It’s from an excerpt from the book How to Think Like Shakespeare: Lessons from a Renaissance Education by Scott L. Newstok, and now I want to read the rest of the book because it just sounds fascinating.
Poetry, because I love it but I’m too tired right now to go into more details on why it’s important and everyone should read it, save to say that reading poetry is transformative. It forces you to see the world and everything in it in a new light, from a new perspective. Poetry, therefore, broadens the mind, as does all great literature.
Allergy medicine, because spring has finally arrived and I am suffering for it.
Caffeine, because without it, I would move slow enough to give sloths a run for their money. 😄

How about you – what are you grateful for?

Day 29: List

April 29, 2020Leave a comment

Crust
Tomato sauce
Cheese
Pepperoni
Green onions
Parsley

It’s a short list, but it’s mighty tasty when you put all those things together. The above list, of course, is a list of ingredients for my favorite pizza. Bubbles had asked me to fix it for supper last night, but the local grocery store was fresh out of the necessary ingredients, so I made a trip to town this morning to pick up what I needed—and milk, because we always need milk—and we had it for dinner this noon instead.

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It’s a really simple recipe. To start with, you prepare the crust according to the package directions. Once you have the crust prepped, prick the heck out of it with a fork and bake it for five minutes at 350°.

Next, add your sauce and toppings. I used pepperoni, green onions, fresh parsley, and colby jack cheese, though usually I use a cheddar/mozzarella blend. I like to add a few more of the toppings on top of the cheese as a garnish. Finally, bake the pizza for 20 minutes at 350° (or bake at 450° for 10 minutes, which is how I did it today).

What kind of pizza is your favorite?

Day 28: Focus

April 28, 202012 Comments

It’s really hard to focus on anything other than zoning out in front of the TV right now. I have photos to scan, videos to fix, poems and stories to write, and an anthology to edit, and I can’t seem to focus on any of it. Sunday I had a movie marathon with the kids, and yesterday morning it continued, and that was all I could summon the mental energy for.

I want to know when I’ll be able to go back to work. I want to know when my kids will be able to go back to school (not this school year, but the beginning of the coming school year is up in the air at this point). I want to know when things will return to some semblance of normal.

But the answers to those questions are…

Day 27: Team

April 27, 20202 Comments

I rather miss being part of a team. I’m not athletically inclined, so with the exception of a couple summers spent playing softball in early elementary school, I was never interested in playing sports. Band, however, is just as much a team event as basketball, baseball, or football, and as I’ve written before, I desperately miss being in band.

In order to succeed in band, you have to listen to the other musicians around you (it’s the same for choir, but I was a band geek and not a choir geek, despite my affinity for singing). I miss having a goal to work toward. Well, that’s not true…

Day 26: Hidden

April 26, 2020April 27, 2020Leave a comment

Hidden away in the store room of a castle in the clouds, my hopes and dreams of a life among the stars lie half-forgotten amid the debris of a once-vibrant imagination. Covered in cobwebs and rusted from lack of use, my imagination lies in tatters as I await the gruesome end I am certain I will see.

Day 25: Magic

April 25, 2020April 27, 20202 Comments

There’s something magical about a bonfire.

Whether you like watching that initial blaze as the fire springs to life or you like roasting marshmallows, there’s something for everyone at a bonfire. And after a long, hard day of yard work, it’s nice to kick back with the fam and some good tunes and watch the brush burn.

There’s something magical about the way the flames leap and dance over, under, around, and through the logs. Watching this, I find myself almost hypnotized by the flickering flames. It happens every time. I think I have almost as many pictures of campfires as I have of my children sleeping (and I have a lot of those 😄).

Where do you find magic?

Day 24: Elixir

April 24, 2020April 27, 2020Leave a comment

Today’s elixir of choice:

Normally I prefer the sweet bubbly fizz of Dr. Pepper, but every now and then I have to change things up a bit. It may not be the finest organic suspension ever devised, and I may not have beaten the Borg with it, but it still gets me through the day. It’s all about the little things, and at the moment, a little bit of caffeine can go a long, long way.

Mmm, caffeine…

How about you – what are the little things that get you through the day?

Day 23: Note

April 23, 2020April 27, 2020Leave a comment

Note to self: You hate yard work. Remember that the next time someone suggests it may be a good time.

P.S.: Remember to buy oversized sunglasses so that the next time you have to mow lawn on a windy day, you won’t have to worry about grass and dirt getting in your eyes.

Day 22: Tempo

April 22, 2020Leave a comment

When you have four kids and a job, life moves at a pretty fast tempo. That tempo usually looks a little something like this:

Picture, if you will, a bumblebee as you’re listening. Or even a hummingbird. Actually, a hummingbird might work better. Especially when I was in college and working and dealing with all the kids’ stuff, I kinda felt like this melody line. Even without the added pressure of college coursework, though, there are times where my life feels like I have to move at warp speed in order to keep up.

Or, you know, at ludicrous speed. Whatever.

But lately…

Day 21: Instrument

April 21, 20209 Comments

I adore the flute. It’s my favorite instrument, and I fell in love with it at an early age. A high school girl who went to my church when I was growing up played a flute solo one Sunday, and that was it – I was hooked. I was determined that I would someday play the flute as well. So when instrument try-outs for the fifth grade band rolled around the spring semester of my fourth grade year and we were asked to list which instruments we wanted to play, I listed flute first. (It was followed by clarinet, which my mom had wanted me to play because she and my aunt had also played the clarinet, and then she wouldn’t have had to buy me an instrument.)