I’m amazed at how long and short a week can feel. We’re quite into the swing of things and dealing with a great deal of stir crazy and bored. Things are starting to green up. Even the indoor plants seem happier for the extra hours of daylight each day. While cleaning out my office this week, I found a pair of socks that I knit and stashed away unblocked. I had completely forgotten them. Plenty of time for blocking things now.
Knitting: Still working on my zauberball socks.
Watching: Jesse and I finished Tiger King. It was so beyond bizarre. We both sat there every night wondering about the lives some people live. Still watching Virgin River. And Little Fires Everywhere.
Reading: I’ve completely stalled out on reading anything. I started reading Anna K by Jenny Lee and it’s not for me. It’s just full of name dropping labels to establish wealth and references to show a “cool factor” that will leave the book dated in three years and are trying too hard now. Maybe I just really loved Anna Karenina and this feels like the cheap knock off?
Making: Before things got REALLY crazy here some friends dropped off Amish friendship bread which will be baked up and split up yet today. I’m supposed to pass along three starters but I don’t know if we’ll be doing that. It feels wrong right now. (Even though we are all healthy – Jesse is still having to leave for work and that just makes me nervous about accidentally passing anything along.) I’ve been sewing masks. I don’t have any elastic stashed (I donated a lot of my sewing supplies to a senior center about six months ago when cleaning out my office. Oops.) and most places seem to be sold out so I’m making a kind that uses ties which is kind of fiddly but that’s okay. We’re also eating lots of meals at home. This makes a great lunch. We also love this hash with eggs or sausage or just by itself.
I hope you are all hanging in there and washing your hands and staying healthy both physically and mentally. What are you reading, watching, making (any other -ing?) to keep yourself occupied during this difficult time?
We started Little Fires Everywhere on Sunday and only have one episode left. SO GOOD. I now want to read the book because I am sure it is a bit different, as that often is the case.
I am a bit blue today but I mean, it’s to be expected. Then I think about all of the extra time I am getting with my oldest since she is usually away at college and I need to be more present and less the world is ending.
I have been busying myself with laundry and wiping surfaces and visiting my parents through the window. I don’t let myself watch television Monday through Friday during the day but rather fill it up with busy work, music only, writing, homeschool, walks. Then on Saturdays I make up for that by sitting on the couch all day binge watching stuff. Virgin River will probably be my next binge, so thank you for the suggestion! š
Stay safe and healthy, my friend.
I like your system. We were doing slow start screen free mornings which I loved, but our schedule has kind of gotten a little wonky since Abeās school decided to move forward and provide new content. This bothers me but it doesnāt seem to bother him so…Iām having to readjust the schedule.
Iām sorry to hear youāre having a blue day. Youāre right, those days are to be expected. Itās hard not to feel like the world is ending – when for a time – it kind of HAS. Iām glad you have your daughter home with you.
Wishing you a good day, Kari!!
Hi Kate,
I’m glad you’re well.
I’ve made a few of the same masks and wore one for the first time today when grocery shopping; unfortunately I didn’t tie it properly and it slipped, so I ended up having to do the exact thing you’re not supposed to do while wearing a mask: I touched it in order to adjust it. (This is the reason Canada’s chief medical doctor initially advised against using masksāit’s so easy to inadvertently contaminate yourself; she is now saying it’s a good idea to wear them if we’re going to be in a place where physical distancing isn’t possible, but it is vital that you know what you’re doing.) Have you worn yours out yet? If you have, and if you didn’t have the same problem I did, you perhaps don’t need this next bit, but just in case: When I got home, I experimented with a clean mask and found that if I draped the upper strings over my ears and then tied it at the bottom of each ear with the lower string, I was essentially mimicking the design of an elastic-around-the-ears type of mask. Then I took the strings from both sides and tied them together at the nape of my neck. I didn’t have it on long, but it seemed as though tying the strings like that might keep the mask from slipping.
Other than mask making, I’ve been doing a lot of cooking and baking now that my older son and his GF are home. Currently reading Miss Buncle’s Book, which I’m really enjoying, and I’m on the second pair of socks for my youngest son.
Love all your photos, Kate š
Hi Marian! I donāt do any going out in public. Jesse has to leave for work. He works for a food distributor so he brings most things from there and if we need anything he canāt get in a small enough quantity for home – he shops when heās already out. (No more than one run a week). He went yesterday and said the mask works well, but weāre also aware that masks are less to protect us as much as to protect others FROM us.
Glad to hear you have your older son home with you and that youāre doing plenty of baking. Iām going to attempt a sourdough starter this week!! It feels good to be working in the kitchen again!
Sorry! I meant to add – Iām going to tell Jesse about how you use your mask so he can see if that works for him!! (Typing in my phone while also trying to get a few things tidied up before bed….)
Stay well!!
Hi Kate,
I love that puzzle. I’ve done some like that before–they are really a lot of mini-puzzles, and they just feel so manageable. In fact, I think I may have done that very same one. And your dining room wall! I want to hear that story of that. It’s so bold! Your whole house looks so stylish, but not in a trendy like a thousand other homes on Pinterest way. More like a very Kate way.
I’ve hardly been watching or reading anything since we went back to work. I tried Tiger King and I just can’t. Can’t stand any of them and don’t want to spend time with them. Life is way too short to invite those folks to hang out in my living room.
And ohmygosh that is a full-on teen-ager you’ve got there. Her face is my mood about this pandemic. I love it.
I’m glad you are finding a groove of sorts. Wishing I could come hang out at your house with you for an afternoon. My big goal for tomorrow is that I’ll get a shower, because it just didn’t happen today.
Thank you for your compliment on my home. It’s such a lovely thing to hear. That wallpaper in my dining room was a love at first sight situation and it is on one of the first things you see when you walk in the front door. It is bold, but it also works with everything we have and it still makes me smile two years later. I would love to have you come visit. We could drink tea and do needlework and it would be so, so lovely.
I can understand you not being able to watch Tiger King. I sometimes wonder if it would have become the phenomenon it did if we all weren’t locked in our homes.
And yes, to everything you’ve said about V. I don’t even have words for how much I love that kid. (Both of them.) I know you know.
Stay well, Rita.
I am looking at wallpaper for the wall behind my bed. I like it dark, but I’m feeling the need for some pattern. Maybe. I want to find what you did–a love at first sight reaction. A knowing as soon as I see it. You have such a great eye. I don’t know if I trust mine enough to go with something as bold as the design you chose, but I love it. I want to make brave design choices (she writes as she embroiders her small, tidy little houses š
Every time you post pictures of your house, Rita, I feel like you create a home that feels exactly like home should feel…comfortable and cozy and filled with treasures you’ve found or made. I very much like your style and hope you’ll find a wallpaper for your room that makes you light up as soon as you see it.
Your photos are beautiful as usual. I’m content to be at home but even I’m getting a little stir crazy. I want to watch Little Fires Everywhere, it looks good. But I’m determined to watch only one or two episodes of a TV show per day and am making my way through Schitt’s Creek. There’s no real reason why I can’t watch more TV, but I’m trying to impose some sort of routine on myself. ?āāļø
I respect that rule and you for sticking with it. I also agree with your choice because Iād choose Schittās Creek too. Itās so sweet and funny.
I realized Iāve been picking up the camera a lot more. I think itās my own way of documenting how we are spending this time right now. Or itās that my kids are home and I have things to photograph. š