A post of random

 I very much enjoy posts of random. I don't have to worry about whether the photos are going to load in the proper order or anything. I just type using stream of consciousness, which  is fun when it's just you but annoying as heck when you're trying to read someone else's. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, anyone? Ick. Not my cup of tea. 

But speaking of tea, I've been having many, many scones with mine! We have partaken in the "must have a sourdough starter during a pandemic" craze and our starter has been around longer than some people's relationships. Therefore, I've named it Maurice a la Steve Miller Band's "The Joker":

"Some people call me the space cowboy, yeah, some call me the gangster of love, some people call me Maurice 'cause I speak of the pompatus of love..." 

I don't even know what that means. And spellcheck underlined it. Hmmm. 

Anyway, Maurice has been diligently fed and watered for months. I don't even remember when we got him. We had sourdough pancakes for weeks until I was the only one not tired of them, the boys declaring them "too eggy". So I started hunting other recipes. I made a sourdough banana bread, but I was the only one to eat that and it got buried in the back of the fridge so I had to throw it out. Then I found chocolate chip sourdough scones and they are fun! I've even started to change up the chocolate chips for other flavors or combinations. Some have butterscotch and white chocolate chips. Some are dark chocolate. The "black and white ones" are white chocolate with either semi sweet or dark chocolate. I freeze a lot of them and give away a bunch. Our mail carrier has had one, I took a tray to the guys at the Honda dealership when they fixed up two of our vehicles, I've taken some to neighbors, sent some home with Pap, etc. 

I've also fallen in love with a new comfort food: dal. It's red lentils, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, zucchini, onions, and so on. As you can see, I figured I better designate an "I'm cooking with turmeric" spoon lest they ALL turn yellow.

So, so yummy. A small brown birdie told me it's very forgiving and that it can be doubled or even tripled, so I have doubled it and have been pleased. The kids won't touch it, but I can't get enough. So satisfying.

This kid. He had just put on his Old Spice Swagger deodorant, which is pretty darn close to any Axe body wash in scent power if you ask me; he snagged my sunglasses of the bar and vogues, "Now I'm officially called a Swagger!" Cracks me up every day.

We are still trying to be responsible about keeping our social bubble small, so we ordered in for Valentine's Day and kept things low-key. We did order a new set of sheets because we've been married over twenty years now and you know how sheets and towels start to get ratty looking. Dada ordered a red set from, get this, Sheets & Giggles. They are super soft, environmentally friendly eucalyptus, and we love them. However, they are also red and I feel like they shout, "welcome to the Den of Iniquity!" I keep sniggering as I make the bed, but they are comfy! So here's the shameless plug: if you, too, would like to have your own Den of Iniquity, (they have other lovely colors besides red) check out Sheets & Giggles and see for yourself.

I experienced a virtual women's retreat, which was lovely, and I can honestly say that I think perhaps it was the first time I've ever had a donut for communion... that's just how it worked out!

Feel free to capture this one yourself:

Damon had a dessert fail:

You can caption this one, too. Audience participation time!

My lovely birthday earrings from Becky. Check out all the beautiful options at Made for Freedom and read about how they are helping women rescued from sexual slavery find meaningful employment.

I'm not even sure what's happening here, probably just a "smile for Grandmama" photo op. It looks like pancakes (not sourdough) so I'm thinking Fat Tuesday, perhaps? Liam's old robe was suddenly like 4 inches too small in all directions so we found him a new one at goodwill and I am not sure that he's taken it off. Let's just say that boy is loving remote schooling. He very much enjoys the not getting up at 6 to be on the bus at 7. He still disappears when he turns sideways, but at least he does it in a snazzy bathrobe, haha!

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day

I'd like to say that Liam takes breakfast seriously, but if you've ever been in the tri-state area when he's supposed to be eating breakfast, you'd more often hear my voice reminding him to eat than you'd actually hear him chewing. I suppose I should be grateful as I hate hearing the sound of chewing. Licking is even worse. 

Anyway, Liam does however take the making of breakfast very seriously. He loves weekends so he can putter about in his robe (and sometimes hairnet, of his own volition, don't ask) and whip up pancakes and French toast and his favorite meat, bacon. An added bonus is that PaPa gave us his old griddle; you'd have thought we'd handed Liam the moon. 

                                          

At least we know that once he's out into the real world he won't starve to death when there are breakfast ingredients at hand. Dinner is a different story, but one thing at a time. 

Now what?

Well, it was a close thing, but we survived "Spring Break". That's in quotes because we had three days of wind measurements higher than temperatures (and they were none too high, though mostly double digits, thank goodness) so I couldn't even boot the kids outside. Spring Break when it is still officially winter is baloney in my book, but since I don't run the world I guess we'll just have to deal. 

So here's how we deal. I order seeds. Lots of seeds, or as Carrie told Aunt Chris forever ago, "yotsa" seeds. If you click on the pictures you can see everything larger. I picked out multiple kinds of tomatoes, sugar snap peas, herbs like cilantro, basil, sage, and creeping thyme, some corn (Dada laughed at me), many flowers such as borage, zinnia, non-culinary sages, and marigolds. Now all I have to do is the Herculean task of cleaning off the bar so we can get seeds in trays and under grow lights. Nooooo problem... 

And I baked. These are Kamish of the Mandelbrot tribe. In other words, yummy almond bread that is crispy like biscotti. I'm trying very hard to not eat them all myself.

We played Settlers of Catan. Those of you who have played this are probably noticing that we have the expansion set going also. And some stray Legos. And a blank spot we named Oz which would yield whatever the person camping around it most needed. Needless to say the boys set up camp around Oz mighty quick!

There was even a Carrie sighting or two! I like this one as it looks like the kraken plant behind her is gonna get her!

Dada made pancakes for Fat Tuesday and then we had them again last weekend. Never enough pancakes, teehee!

And there were some naps. This is Damon in what I call my Cookie Monster blanket, sacked out in the big chair. 

There will be more photos because {unbelievably} the big kids are testing for their second degree black belts this spring. Test one is done, they all passed, photos eventually!