Oh, the things

Oh, the simple things we took for granted such a short time ago. My supermarket habit is hard to break. I enjoy thinking about food, buying food, cooking food. Most mornings on the way home from the gym (what's that?) I'd stop by Trader Joe's or Safeway to pick up something fresh or some little ingredient for a special recipe. Now food shopping is like In-N-Out burger: grab and leave.  They say my demographic shouldn't even risk that much exposure.

But this is not about me. Changing the course is everyone's burden and responsibility. For millions of people around the world, daily life is unrecognizable for the foreseeable future. We're all in this together.

On the bright side, it certainly slows time down. What's the rush to do anything?  As you notice, the blog is running late these days.

We are fortunate sheltering in place at our nice home. Still no word from Betsy and Paul stranded on the high seas. The house seems small at times, but compared to a cabin on a ship? We've staked out our little corners. Of course, I'm not used to having a retired husband under foot yet. On the plus side, he's become quite helpful around the house, especially anything to do with cutting and chopping.

We have plenty of food, although the time may come when we can't get exactly what we want. Thanks mom, for showing me how to be a resourceful and frugal cook. I didn't appreciate it at the time. There's folks who don't know what do with a bag of dried beans. 

Speaking of that, the mind does funny things if it has too much time on its brain cells.  It starts to panic if an online search shows whole wheat flour is "back ordered" at Amazon Fresh, Bob's Red Mill, Walmart and Safeway. Please don't hoard excess food that you will probably never cook.  If your food needs are small like ours, leave some for the housebound families. Three meals a day plus snacks for bored kids is a daunting thought.

When I wake up, instead of succumbing to that awful "this nightmare is still real" feeling,  I'm trying to practice simple gratitude. Along those lines, here's some happy pictures from the past 24 hours.

Nova and Maya's "Good night Nana" picture yesterday.

Getting out the big mixer for bread.

Warm from the oven with Methow Valley honey and butter.

An excellent corned beef dinner.

Leftovers tonight.

 French toast breakfast.  See what I mean by plenty of food?

And Maya, loving her home school time with Teacher Mommy.

Stay on the sunny side, dear friends and family.