April 26, 2020

The first time I made bread, I was disappointed because it suggested that I make the bread in a cast iron pan.  I have cast iron skillets but no pan that would work for the bread.  Instead, I just used my regular pan but turned down the oven so it wouldn't ruin the pan.  I told Rick about my change and he suggested I order the cast iron pan.  It came in yesterday so voila!  Also, as an aside, it makes me crazy when people misspell voila.  Please don't use it if you can't spell it.  Riley has an old gymnastics coach who ALWAYS spells definitely as defiantly.  The other day she "defiantly" loved someone on facebook.  Ooh, I laughed and laughed because I'm a horrible person.

Back to bread.  I made it at the suggested temperature and oh my goodness.  It was yummy.  I may turn it down a bit because the bottom was a little crunchy.  Also, the sourdough flavor is filling out since it's a few months old.

Speaking of cooking...I made Chicken Vesuvio tonight which is my favorite way to eat potatoes.  SO GOOD.

April 25, 2020

One of Riley's gymnastics coaches texted me to tell us that she misses us.  So we dialed her up!!

At the Super Bowl party, my cousin Natalie brought some wings.  They were SO GOOD but my favorite part about them was the ranch dressing.  A couple of months ago, Riley asked for wings for dinner so I texted her to ask which restaurant they were from.  We had a couple of good laughs about them.  A week or so later, she ended up with a fever, a week after that, she was in the hospital and just days later, we thought we were going to lose her.  Now she's home and doing better but she doesn't have the energy to do much of anything.  So last week, we stopped by and picked up some gift cards for her to use when her sense of taste comes back.  That was a long story to just say that we decided we needed some wings for ourselves this week.  We tried lemon pepper, mild, bbq and korean jerk with LOTS of ranch dressing.

April 24, 2020

One of the young ladies in my Faith Formation class had a birthday today.  She is "dating" another person in class.  He asked everyone to parade by her house in our cars to wish her a happy birthday.  I love this young lady so I was very excited to to it.  Until her boyfriend got in the back of his dad's truck and played the trumpet for her.  And then I wanted to die.  But it was funny.

Two brothers are decorating my car.  LOL!

Tonight's dinner was steak fajitas.  They were tasty.

We decided to play a game of "Escape Room".  We hated it and put the game away.  It was hard.

We skipped to Clue.  I almost solved the dang thing in about 3 minutes.  I won on the next round so it was more like 8 minutes.

April 23, 2020

So much of me is grateful for this bonus time with her.  But I worry about our family's future.

 

 

I did have to text her from downstairs to let her know that Chris Hemsworth was on tv.

April 22, 2020

 

It makes video chat more palatable to put a filter on myself.

 

So I was sitting at the kitchen table craving cake.  I really am not even a cake person.  But it sounded good because it was on the aforementioned recipe page.  I got up and checked the pantry, all while telling myself that I didn't need cake.  I had a cake mix and it expires in two days.  I made a cake. Our next door neighbor has 2 elementary school kids.  They got half a cake as a gift.

 

Riley was cold but didn't want to change clothes so she just got in the bathtub like this. 

April 21, 2020

When this quarantine first began, I felt optimistic.  I was going to lose weight, get in shape, organize my house, enjoy more time with Riley and Rick, crochet more, learn to play my guitalele, read more, connect with friends while social distancing, etc.

And there was ONE day so far out of the 5 weeks that I've been off work that I felt like I went to bed feeling fulfilled.  I don't think it's depression or anxiety.  It's just blech.  We cook more as a family.  I have exercised more but not like I had envisioned.  I haven't touched a crochet hook or my guitalele.  I have found that we are connecting more with people but I want more of that.  And I want to know that we will ALL be safe when we come out the other end of this.  So maybe I am a little depressed.

Anyway...back to pictures.

One of my challenges today was to create a food from a recipe on a special food site that I'm on that was started by a friend.  I chose to make "naan" because it was 2 ingredients (that I already had) and I could make it in about 20 minutes which worked well since I'm still working full time, I'm just doing it from home.

 Here is the final product.  It looks like chicken and tasted like a pancake.

 

I also threw together some homemade salsa and made carnitas in the crockpot. 

 

We were playing House party last night.  So funny.  I had an open closet door in my room so everyone else could see my closet.  I asked them to let me know if a creature or clown came out of the closet behind me.  This was everyone screaming at me that there was someone behind me. 

April 20, 2020

Proof that we went outside yesterday.

April 19, 2020

This afternoon, we had a parade at church.  Our priest misses everyone and added our names to the pews where we normally sit.  My parents were there but we were not allowed to get out of our car to give the things to them that they needed from the store.  Bread, stamps, etc.  I was brought to tears seeing people that I hug every week that I haven't seen in a month. Some of those people are family.  We unfortunately have lost a couple of people from church.  These are people that we are used to seeing every week and not being able to say goodbye or hug their family has been hard.

April 18, 2020

Ribs smoked in the smoker for 6 hours, and homemade potato salad.

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April 17, 2020

Riley decided to show that she could put her shirt on while doing a handstand 

ala an internet challenge.

Earlier in the week, Riley heard that John Krysinski was going to host an internet prom tonight. It took some discussion to decide it was worth dressing up, going outside for a picture then settling on the couch with virtual friends.  It was something that made her laugh, but it wasn't her Senior Prom.  Y'know?

April 16, 2020

If I've said it once, I'll say it again.  

We all need someone who looks at us the way Green looks at Riley.

So funny story about those glasses.  We went to the eye doctor about a week before the shit hit the fan.  So when her glasses came in, we asked for them to be delivered and figured we could go from there.  All was good until in the midst of doing yoga, Riley fell over and smacked her face on the floor.  The glasses got smished, one eye piece fell out and the ear piece got bent.  And yes, this occurred the day she got them.  We decided we were not going to Target just to fix the glasses so she tried to fix them herself.  SO....every now and then I will hear a "DANGIT" and yes, she's 18 and says "dangit", and she will appear in front of me with only one eyepiece in her glasses.  We have tried to fix with the tiny screwdriver but alas, no luck yet of permanence.

April 15, 2020

We are working on bringing smiles to the faces around us...and to ourselves.  It's not always easy.  Today, we baked some cookies and delivered them to some people we love.  At one house, that person was outside with her brand new puppy.  Riley is in love with this adorable pupper.

We chose to deliver cookies to the chosen few who live near a friend's pizza place.  We were looking forward to supporting her restaurant but it did take AN HOUR AND A HALF to get our food.  Riley wanted to complain but the last thing we needed was for her to offer to comp our food.  So maybe next time it will be better.  We are all adjusting.

April 14, 2020

I took a picture of my step counter to challenge the rest of my family.  Not that either of them needed challenging,  but at noon, I was winning.

I made a big pot of chicken and noodle soup to add a little pizzaz to our lunches.

All it takes to make the cat happy is a little spot of sun.

April 13, 2020

Work zoom.  You may notice that I look like I'm coming from the Millenial Falcon.  I am.

 Rick decided we need steaks tonight.  Those look pretty good.

April 12, 2020

Hunting for eggs

An Easter zoom

First time ever making a ham

Boiled eggs from the Instapot

Brother Jason was coming by for Easter dinner.  It's all packed up at the end of the driveway.

Corn casserole.  Hilariously, I walked by and was like, "Why isn't this in the oven"  It was almost done when I realized I hadn't put sour cream in it which is why it wasn't in the oven...then I remembered the eggs. HAHA  I added them, stirred vigorously then baked the rest of the time.

We finished up the rest of the houses today.