Category Archives: Good for Me

thanksgiving 2020

visitor to our backyard the day before thanksgiving

I had a five day long weekend for the US Thanksgiving holiday and it was delightful. I can’t deny that my morale and productivity in my home office was at a low point in the days leading up to it. Five days off and now it’s Monday morning and I have the glad feeling that I’m ready to be back at my desk. I have to-do lists to make, emails to read, documents to review, and meetings to schedule, and I’m ready for the push through to the end of the year, where I’ve scheduled even more time off.

Miss L was at her dad’s for the holiday so it was just me and Brandon. We’d originally planned our family holiday celebration for the weekend, and invited Brandon’s cousin and girlfriend over for Wednesday night drinks, but with the three-week “pause” instituted by our governor, in the end, no one really wanted to meet up. This was fine with me as it gave me the ideal sort of holiday for an introvert and just what I needed, really. Hopefully Covid cases go down in upcoming days and if not then at least I’ll have the feeling that I’ve properly isolated to see my family over Christmas.

So Brandon and I were in our own little holiday world. We cooked our turkey and had a candlelight dinner and he made his special family dressing. Unfortunately the only photograph I got was of the pumpkin pie I made. I was very proud of this as I love pumpkin pie and I feel now like the true embodiment of “teach a man to fish” (although my mom’s pie is still the best).

We went for runs and long walks and bought nothing on Black Friday.

I had spectacular afternoon naps with the cats every day, and read and knitted a bit. We drank lots of Malbec and stayed up late watching the latest season of “The Crown” as well as “The Miniaturist” and “Vienna Blood” from PBS (all ‘recommends’). I didn’t worry at all about what I ate or drank but tried to temper it by getting outside daily for fresh air and steps.

I’ve explored some new and fun ways to present turkey leftovers since we had a 14-lb bird and despite our best efforts we did not eat our required 7 lbs each on Thursday. We tried these recipes and all received thumbs-up from Brandon.

Cranberry Turkey Crescent Ring (from Pillsbury)

Pot pie (from Two Peas and their Pod – it’s written for chicken but is great for turkey, too. I’ve made this many times with both chicken and turkey and always a crowd-pleaser.)

Turkey Monte Cristo (from Martha Stewart. We actually got lazy and skipped the French toast step here and just grilled it on the stovetop like a classic grilled cheese, with some good bread, and it turned out absolutely yummy.)

I hope everyone had an equally relaxing weekend and we’re all ready for the push to the end of the year. What’s on tap for this week? We will get our Christmas tree up, and I have to go into the office one day, and I have to meet up at the bank with some of the Girl Scout moms as I’m taking over the role of troop treasurer for this cookie season (whyyyyyyyy do I do this to myself argh). I also have a late work call with Japan one night. I’m still looking forward to being back on a more normal schedule. Oh – and we’re supposed to get SNOW later today and tomorrow!

As Garrison Keillor used to say, be well, do good work, and keep in touch. xo

weekend edition

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Happy weekend, all!

June was a quiet month on the blog but very busy IRL.

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We celebrated my 47th birthday and Miss L finished her very strange 6th grade year. I now have a 7th grader – I can barely believe it. Although it seems that the kiddos may be able to go back to school in the fall, nothing is certain right now, and even if they do, it will surely look different than it does now.

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I’m still working from home and feeling blessed that my company is being very cautious about bringing everyone back. Miss L’s camps were cancelled this summer and it’s so nice not to have to worry about rearranging all of our schedules to accommodate for her summer care – although the weeks when she is home feel just as busy in the summertime as they did when she was doing virtual school. While I am an introvert, and happy to be at home for large swathes of time without social contact (in this way, self-isolation was no problem for me whatsoever), Miss L is extroverted and I think all kids need social stimulation, interests, and friendships. She and Brandon have bonded over their mutual enjoyment of old kung fu movies and skateboarding, so there are regular visits to the local skate park, but during the weeks we try to make sure she sees her friends from school and get out into the neighborhood. It’s been a balancing act to do this in a responsible, socially distanced way but I think most of her friends’ parents are simpatico on this, and Miss L has been happy to have more bandwidth with a few of her friends and some neighborhood friends at both her dad’s house and mine.

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I have been doing Weight Watchers for about a month now and am thrilled to report that I’ve lost 8 lbs. I still have a bit to go before I get back to what I thought I was before the pandemic, and another 10+ to go before I am finally at my goal weight, but the program is working for me and I am feeling really good on it. In addition to seeing the scale move a little bit in the right direction every week, I’m drinking way more water than I used to, and my skin looks much better. I am strictly limiting refined sugar, processed foods, and alcohol, and I am less bloated, my clothes feel better. I’m taking supplements and sleeping like a baby, and have more energy all around – I haven’t felt a mid-afternoon crash into sluggishness since I started the plan. The plan I’ve picked meshes well with the way we eat anyway, and feels more like a reminder / education about making good choices with food and movement. So here’s to the next month on it and hopefully more loss.

I went a little crazy signing us up for virtual running events but Brandon and I are having a lot of fun getting our miles in and tracking our progress. The big one, you’ll remember, is the Mitten Run – 160 virtual miles from Oscoda to Empire (across the upper half of the lower peninsula, for you non-Michiganders) and I also signed us up for the Michigan Harvest Challenge, which is a different harvest-themed run per month through October. We’re also doing the virtual Fishtown 5k, which is a fundraiser for historic Leland, and the virtual Crim 10-miler in August. Whew! It’s a lot of running and so far we haven’t made it out of Farmington for our runs, but the Harvest Challenge offers suggested Strava routes up north for the various events so maybe one month we’ll get crazy and drive up north to do one.

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I hope you are all well and safe and healthy. xoxo

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dark and bright

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I had to get off Facebook last week because I am so angry at some of my fellow Michiganders who felt that they needed to exercise their pique. While we are in the middle of a pandemic, surrounded by families who have loved ones in the hospital, who have passed away, or are working on the front lines, many decided to storm Lansing to protest “government overreach” and what they consider to be overly restrictive stay at home orders. They blocked a driveway at a level-1 trauma center and despite doctors begging them to move their cars to allow ambulances access, they laughed and maintained they were “exercising their rights”. What a selfish, ignorant, uneducated and disrespectful slap in the face to so many working so hard to keep us safe. I’m disgusted and sad. I fully understand people who have lost their jobs or businesses, who are worried and upset about loss of income and loss of security. But clogging streets, waving Confederate flags and wearing MAGA hats instead of masks, and keeping essential workers and healthcare vehicles from accomplishing their tasks is not the way to safely or constructively express this.

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Anyway. Deep breath and move on. I can only control myself, my own priorities and my own actions, not those of others.

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And I can note and take comfort in the fact that spring is here and there is brightness everywhere – in flowers, sky, a red-haired girl, and in the reflection of sun on water.

Be well and take care of yourself and, if you can, others.

good friday

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You know, Good Friday.

I’m not religious but am super willing to take advantage of this holiday. Everything is going fine, really, here in suburban Elysia’s quarantine fields, but I am feeling the results of having to keep plates spinning. It’s funny but in quarantine I am less alone than I am on a regular basis, I think – when Miss L is with me, we are set up at the same table, doing our online tasks together, and although Brandon is still working, his days start early and end early so he’s home mid-afternoon. I’m responding to emails, working on documents, doing teleconferences and web meetings, planning our annual Board meetings, helping Miss L stay on track with her weekly schedule of classwork, stopping to make lunch and snacks and then dinner (everyone is always hungry) and trying to meal plan for upcoming days and weeks and plan either food deliveries or trips to the store for essentials. I am checking in regularly with my neighbor behind, who is a lovely older woman with cats and a preexisting respiratory condition, and so far she’s only let me get milk for her, but she calls me sometimes when she needs to talk and I am always keeping an eye on the lights in her house and making sure she’s okay.

So it does get to be a lot for an introvert like me and there are times when I just need some alone time, and today I was able to do that. I restarted the Pink Memories sweater, watched a few episodes of Poldark (Brandon and Miss L tease me for my crush on Poldark “Ooohhhh Poooolddarkkk”) and took a long nap with Emmett aka Unpaid Intern. Of all three of our cats, Emmett is the most unabashedly cuddly and affectionate and needy, and the most willing to disappear for a good long nap with me.

In other quarantine news, Michigan extended its Stay Home Stay Safe order until April 30, which is no surprise and for which I am glad. Our office will be closed at least through then and probably into May, and after that I’ll have to figure out what to do with schools closed and summer camp cancellations.

I did make a trip into our office this week – we are considered an “essential business” so we can access our building, although if we can work from home, we are required to do so – I needed to drop off some documents for signature and pick up some files. I had to be screened, have my temperature taken, and the place was like a ghost town. It made me realize how quickly everything has changed for everyone. I can be a bit dissociated – just head down, focusing on the task – but I never, ever, ever imagined that we would live in a world where masks and gloves are a common sight, everywhere, the roads empty, parking lots deserted.

I’ve scouted out fabric masks and Miss L’s dad and crafty stepmom made some and gifted them to me & Brandon for our trips to the store. I have a few more coming, as well, from a coworker who only asked for more fabric in return, so she could continue to make more. I slip coffee filters into them and wash after every wear. So we have a bit of a stockpile. My freezer is well stocked and our grocery stores, while not as full of the plethora of choices as they have been in the past, are stocked with everything I could need (except toilet paper, but I got on that train weeks ago and am in good shape). All of these are blessings. I feel like I’m tempting fate if I don’t add, always, gratitude – being busy and stressed means that my job continues and my paycheck keeps coming. Miss L working on her computer means that she’s continuing to get an education and having to meal plan and cook means that we have ample access to food. No one we know is sick, and every prayer to everything I hold true in the universe, I’m sending up that it stays that way.

There are some things that I’m indulging in to make these days easier – little gifts every day. I love this inexpensive bath salt, which I found during a quarantine trip to Wal-Mart (a place I rarely venture into). I am a huge fan of these candles from Target. I burned through the library stockpile I laid in before quarantine, so have a lot of Kindle finds that I’ve started on, with some shipments from Cottage Book Shop (my favorite independent bookstore that I will support as much as I can) to look forward to, as well. I’ll run these down in our next Show Us Your Books and warning, it will be a whomper.

I hope you are all well and safe and healthy. xo

start the way you mean to finish

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I’m not big on posts that are essentially “all the awesome things that happened to me / I accomplished / I read / I ate in 20xx” so this isn’t that. I do, however, like a bit of reflection.

That sweater hasn’t gotten knit yet (although I just have ribbing, pockets, and sleeves to go); I beat my running mileage goal by 1.5 miles; and I read a lot of good books.

2019 was a wonderful year for me, after several bad-to-middling ones; but rest assured, if you are going through a hard time and don’t want to read a self-congratulatory post, please know that I had to go through rough times to get to this part of my life. A lot of them were through my own choices. So now, every day that I’m able to see the blessings in being surrounded by love, peace, calm, simplicity, and family is a day that I feel immense gratitude for. I fought against myself so hard for so long, and against the flow of my life, and against things that were good for me and made me happy, and I’m so thankful for the person I am now, and for all of my people – family born and family chosen.

The last couple of days of the year have been restful and quiet, some shopping, some running, lots of eating and drinking and cats.

I’m really excited for 2020 and so grateful for all of you who read this blog and look at my pictures and keep coming back. I look forward to starting 2020 the way I mean to finish it, with gratitude and love and peace, and that’s my wish for all of you, as well.

See you next year.

xoxo

“for last year’s words belong to last year’s language; and next year’s words await another voice.” – TS Eliot

making soap at the michigan folk school

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My mom got me a subscription to Midwest Living, and in a recent issue, they had a great article about folk schools. It was lovely and I found myself thinking, ‘wow, if there was something like that around here, I would really want to take advantage of it!’ I didn’t have to feel envious and left-out for long; as soon as I got to the index, I saw the Michigan Folk School is located a bit north of Ann Arbor, where I work. And as if that wasn’t enough of an enticement, it’s part of a historic farmstead that I drive past almost every day on my commute.

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From the article – “Recharge Your Spirit at a Midwest Folk School” – “Folk schools emerged in 19th-century Denmark. These grassroots schools channeled life skills, cultural identity and the natural world to dignify rural life and farmers. Scandinavian heritage still anchors many Midwest folk schools, with daylong and weekend workshops on rosemaling, woodworking, metalsmithing or fiber arts.”

The Michigan Folk School is located at the Staebler family farm on Plymouth Road in Washtenaw County. This is or was a working farm with a 140-year old farmhouse, and the Folk School is currently developing additional facilities to support their extensive dreams and plans. Right now, you park in a somewhat lonely carpark and trudge along a curving path to the small set of buildings – barn, outbuildings, and house – and you wonder if you’re in the right place until you push open the door to a warm, friendly and bustling workspace.

Yesterday, when I arrived for my basic cold-process soap workshop, I was joined by twelve or so other people, and more came in from the cold to come walk through to the adjoining blacksmith workshop. Soon, my class introduced ourselves to the faint accompaniment of clanging iron and the smell of coal smoke. Most of us were folks who had an interest in soap making but were scared of working with lye; most of us were folks who loved a return to the old traditional ways, the handmade and homemade, and wanted to be more self-sufficient, do more with our hands, and preserve arts that are quickly becoming obsolete. And most of us wanted to make our own soaps to reduce packaging, be environmentally friendly, and lessen our contact with synthetics, perfumes, dyes and chemicals.

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We were split up into table groups of three or four and I found myself joined up with two great women who work together in the operating room at the University of Michigan hospital – I suspect they are doctors but I did not ask. We were too busy measuring, pouring, agreeing on an essential oil for our shared soap batch (lemongrass). We worked together really well, seamlessly sharing the tasks of pouring and mixing the lye and the oils, and using infrared thermometers to check our temperatures. The three hours flew by and before I knew it, I was walking back along the rutted, frozen path holding two containers of handmade soap that I can cut tomorrow and then cure for 4-6 weeks.

The staff at the Folk School were so friendly and passionate about their place, and everyone that I met felt immediately like a friend. I can’t wait to test my soap, and the class made me very comfortable with learning more about soap making on my own. I plan on collecting a few bits and bobs of equipment and trying my own batch after the holidays. And I loved the Folk School so much that I plan to go back for more classes – Healing Balms, Salves, and Creams in January and maybe after that, stained glass or sourdough bread (a long-dormant passion of mine).

Sunday.

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A rare session of lunchtime knitting at the Matthei Botanical Gardens conservatory last week.

Turkey Tom is safely in our fridge defrosting and our new Turkey Trot shirts are neatly folded – BOTH waiting for their debut on Thanksgiving Day. Brandon, Miss L & I spent a nice Sunday working around the house – Miss L is becoming quite a little baker, after we’ve rabidly consumed most seasons of Great British Baking Show on Netflix, and when she puts her hair up in a messy bun, I know she’s about to produce something yummy- and a lot of dishes to boot. I love her cheese buns but the dishes are no joke. My Bosch, which I think was purchased when Lily was a baby, finally died and although I would have hoped to have gotten a few more years out of a Bosch, we bit the bullet and found a new Maytag on sale at Home Despot. To be delivered later this week and although my credit card is smoking hot after holiday shopping and will definitely need a post-holiday break, a dishwasher is kind of a big makes-my-life-a-lot-easier appliance that I don’t like going without. So it goes. In addition to getting the dishwasher sorted out, Brandon has spent a lot of time in the house doing renovations – building shelves in our spare room and hall closet, cleaning the basement and garage, unpacking his study, rearranging our belongings in the house, and hanging art. Wwe finally finished up a few projects today that gave us a working spare bedroom and much-needed storage space, and had some time after L went to her dad’s for a three mile run in the to-be-valued November sunshine.

Brandon is carving out a knitting corner for me in the upstairs bedroom, and I look forward to the day soon when I’ll have a painted shelf for my stash and knitting books and an old comfy armchair. Sarge has pretty much claimed the spare room bed for himself, as you can see in this shot of the knitting nook in-progress.

It wasn’t a very relaxing weekend, but it was very productive, and very rewarding to see his belongings mesh with ours in this house. He has a great aesthetic and a talent for knowing what looks good, and his touch and his things have made me love our space even more. We are definitely not a couple that goes to Pottery Barn and buys a matching living room set and Home Goods art and has a carefully curated furniture storeroom. We’re much more of a mismatched, whimsical decorating style, things collected and handed down, things meaningful and interesting and a little shabby. I wouldn’t change a thing.

I’m looking forward to a nice break later this week, catching up on some of my favorite vlogs (Ina Knits and By the Lakeside on YouTube), magazines (loving Midwest Living), knitting (still working on the hot-water bottle cover, Log Cabin blanket and the Isabel Kraemer Pink Memories sweater), television (Crown Season 3 and of course more Great British Baking Show), spending time with family, running the Detroit Turkey Trot on Thursday along the route of the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and going ice skating at Campus Martius on Black Friday now that the Christmas tree is lit.