Day 16

There's a thing going around social media right now encouraging people to put greenery on their doors for Palm Sunday.  These are the examples I've seen:

I think Jesus is saying, "I love that.  It reflects my qualities of creativity and beauty."
And here's what I made:

to which I picture Jesus saying, "I love that just as much.  It reflects my qualities of grace and acceptance."

I visited the nest today and found that Mrs. Duck had laid yet another egg!  The nest is now absolutely crammed full of 12 eggs.

I saw a super friendly dog who was so desperate for me to pet him that he charged up and rammed his head under my hand.  I pulled my hand inside my sleeve and stroked his back once with the outside of my jacket, came home, washed, and petted my cats like crazy.

Day 15

I went for a walk this morning to check on the duck nest.  I was about to plunge my hand into the bush, and I was startled to find Mrs. Duck sitting on the eggs!  She's extremely well camouflaged.

Today is my friend Bev's birthday.  She's one of the four of us (affectionately known as the bananagirls) who play bananagrams together.  She thinks we're meeting online for a group game of bananagrams like we did last Monday, but we're going to surprise her by driving (individually in our own cars) to her house and popping up in our banana suits (yes, we each have a banana costume) outside her window (6 feet apart)!  I've never given toilet paper as a birthday gift before, but this year it's an actual valuable commodity, so that's what she's getting.

Noah is happy to be back working with Brad today after not doing any work at all last week.

Duck update: Mike and I walked to the nest tonight. Mrs. Duck was gone, and there were 11 eggs.  Babies should be arriving right around the end of quarantine!  They'll have to cross two streets to get to the creek.

Day 14

It's very strange not to go to church on Sunday.  I worked a little this morning.  It's hard to find decent  jobs on the weekends, but I got a good one.

I gave Noah a haircut and threw the clippings out for the birds.  His hair is perfect nesting material.

I made turkey salad and another pot pie.

It boiled over in the oven, so that will be a mess for me to clean up after it cools.

Bouts of irritation occasionally flare up between certain people in the house and certain other people in the house, who shall remain nameless.  Mike has spent more time in the basement today.  I think he's building a nice little nest for himself down there.  I'm grateful that we have enough room in the house for each person to have a private space away from everyone else.  We all need that sometimes.  I'm going to play an online game of Scrabble with my friend Denise.

Did some laundry, made toffee bars, and went for a walk to counteract yesterday's slothfulness.  While I was out walking, I found a treasure:  a nest of duck eggs!

It was in a low bush a couple streets over.  I'm always on the lookout for nest activity, and this area struck me as a good place, so I peered in, and sure enough, there were about 10 eggs in there!  That made me ridiculously happy.  It almost makes up for not being able to pet dogs when I'm out for walks.  I miss petting dogs.  They always look so confused and sad, especially the ones that know me and are used to my petting.

President Trump today extended the time of quarantine until April 30, so we have more than a month of this to go.  It's not a complete quarantine unless you're sick.  We just can't gather in group of more than 10 and have to stay 6 feet away from people.  We're not supposed to shop for anything but essential supplies like food and medicine.  So churches, schools, gyms, restaurants will still be closed for a long time.  I feel safe, I'm not scared, and I don't really mind the isolation.

Day 13

Today started at 6:00 a.m. with a big fat (she must be pregnant) possum on the back patio.
Mike went to Kroger, against my advice. He got  milk, frozen pizzas, and a bag of onions. He and I went for a walk, which was cut short, because it started raining. Virtual church starts at 6:00 tonight.  I didn't do much of anything today. I think (hope) Mike must be cleaning the basement, because every time I can't find him, he's been down there.

Speaking of the basement, that's where all 7 of us ended up just now (9:00 p.m.) because of a tornado warning.  We played some euchre until it passed.

Day 12

Even the animals seem stir-crazy, which seems odd, because nothing has changed for them.  Maybe they can just sense the vibe.

Shadow walked around the house yowling like he does when he's about to do something weird.  Then he vaulted up to the top of the fridge!  He's really quite an athlete.  After stirring the dust around and enjoying the view from up there, he jumped straight down to the floor and landed very close to his sister, which caused her to fluff up in terror and go skidding down the hall, which caused him to chase her.  They chased each other all through the house for several minutes.  It was very entertaining!  

Today's breakfast of quarantined champions is a coffee cake, inspired by the bag of frozen mixed berries I found in the freezer and the granola I found in the pantry.

And for dinner, they'll be having a turkey from 2012, discovered during the Great Defrost.  

Update: The turkey has been cooking all day, and the whole house should smell like Thanksgiving by now, but instead, it smells oddly like strawberry oatmeal. I just had this conversation with Noah:

Me: What do you smell?

N: My fart.

M: What do you smell out in the world?

N: Fire?

M: No, what do you smell cooking in the crockpot?

N: Roast beef?

(pause)

Turkey?

M: Yes, it's a turkey.

N: (in his "I'm trying to please you" voice) Mmm, smells good.

I got this sad email this afternoon:

Dear Janel Janes, Here's a message from your SignUp.com organizer, Heather Berger, Co-Director/Music Director: Hello, Big Fish Parents, It is with very heavy hearts that our production team announced today that we must cancel the show. Your students were sent a video with a statement created by Mrs. Berger, Miss Isacksen, Sra. Zehr, Mr. Feleccia, and Mrs. Farwell. Please watch that statement with your child and be with them during this painful and utterly disappointing announcement. We, as directors, felt that canceling was the only option for the safety of our students and staff. We know that this is just one of many disappointments that we have all felt in the past 2 weeks. But we also know that this could hit some of our students the hardest. Please contact any of us if you need anything. We are here to help however we can. Thank you for your support of your children and of the MHS Theatre program. We appreciate your willingness to help in every production that we produce. Take care of those wonderfully talented kids of yours. Hug them tight. We love them! Until we meet again, Heather Berger, Sarah Isacksen, Vonda Zehr, Tony Feleccia, & Miki Farwell I cried for a good five minutes, because I knew it was going to break Sarah's heart.  But she took it surprisingly well.  She tried to find something positive about it and said that at least now she'll have more time for track.  I dread the day that she finds out the whole track season is cancelled too.  I know it's coming.

Day 11

Early this morning, Noah and I went for a walk, because the weather was perfect (cloudy and 50 degrees) and it's supposed to rain the rest of the day.  It felt good to exercise, get fresh air, and chat with my boy.  We walked around a park, and I greeted the squirrels, then we walked around a nursing home and waved at the residents, and we wrote chalk messages for our little neighbor kids across the street.

When we got home, he rode the broken chair down the street. 

The media is magnifying this virus.  Check out a couple of the graphics on the news:

 Mike said this one looks like Hiroshima.

This one pictures a huge virus ball looming over the Peoria skyline.

 I much prefer this painting that a couple friends of mine did before the pandemic.  Jesus, the lion of Judah, protecting the city.

I have no graphic arts ability, but I wanted to make something that shows Jesus as more powerful than the virus, so this is my attempt.

During the Great Freezer Defrost of 2020, I found some frozen butternut squash, so I used that and my last onion to make butternut squash soup. 

It was pretty boring, like baby food, so I added some beans, spinach, rice, and quinoa.  It wasn't boring anymore, but still not very good.  I ate the whole bowl though, because I don't waste food.

Day 10

Worked this morning at my paid job, did a photo shoot with Sarah in the afternoon, and had Zoom meetings in the evening.

Day 9 -- stress and productivity

Today's cleaning project was huge: defrosting the garage freezer.

The teenagers are forever leaving the door ajar, so ice builds up on everything in there.  Mike is going to work on installing some kind of latch to keep that from happening. Some treasures I found in there:

 Vegan meatloaf from 3 years ago.

 The healthiest soup on Earth.

 This is embarrassing.  It's labeled "Beef for Korean food" and the date is...1/20/10.  Yep, it's been in there for 10 years.  

 Serious ice buildup.

 My chisel got stuck.

 Some of the tools I used.  I started with a hairdryer but quickly realized that wasn't going to be enough.  It needed a lot of elbow grease.  So I counted that as my exercise for the day too.

 I was wearing my pajamas that I wear every day, and I put my Fightin' Illini rain boots on top.  They kept my feet dry, but eventually I couldn't feel my toes because they were so cold.

 I was staring at the tool area, wondering where I might find a chisel, and look at that!  My organized husband labeled the tools. I opened the drawer, and there was the chisel. 

 Quick break to warm my toes.

 Completely ineffective sign on the front of the freezer.  They just ignore it.

 My winter boots were much better for this job.

 I started to put stuff back in before I realized I forgot to take a picture of it empty. 

Done.  Took several hours, and I ignored the children and pets and transcription work the whole time.  I didn't even eat all day, because as soon as I finished this, I had to start a more urgent project: getting set up for my first virtual Bible study tonight.  I took Mike's computer down to the basement and got an area set up where I can have a reasonably quiet space while the rest of the family is upstairs.  Then I had to work out all the technical issues of using Zoom, which I have never done before, so that took a long time.  Then I had just enough time to make pot pies before Mike got home.  I found 2 pie crusts and a bag of mixed vegetables in the freezer, and I had cooked a turkey yesterday, so obviously I had to make pot pies. 

My thought was to take one of the pies to Mike's parents, but the entire first one is gone, and this much of the second one, and Sarah hasn't even eaten yet, so it doesn't look like my in-laws are getting any.  I often make extra food and think I'll take it to them, but it usually gets eaten before I can get it to them. 10 days since I've been to the store, and still plenty to eat. I'm not going until we're out of everything, which will be awhile.

So today was no fun and not relational at all.  Didn't talk much to the kids, and I don't think I even petted a cat all day.   I just yelled at one for being in the way when I was trying to set up the Zoom.  Another one was screaming and crying for my attention the whole time, and I just yelled at her to shush.  

The kids did their own school work while I was busy elsewhere, which is ok for one day, but not ideal. Feeling very unbalanced today.  Probably shouldn't have tackled the freezer project on the day that I knew would be busy with Bible study prep, but it was a cold, cloudy day, perfect for setting the food outside while I defrosted.  And tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 60, so I'm sure I'll be glad I got it done today.