Cupcakes for Little Boy

Last night, we went to Menards for some goodies ... bird food, of course, plus some guy things for Bruce. I saw a DVD collection of Mister Roger's Neighborhood, and grabbed it. I'd been thinking about ordering that same DVD on Amazon, so this was an amazing find for me! I have memories of Jake sitting on my lap as we'd watch Mister Roger's together, and it's my hope that little boy will enjoy watching them when he gets a little older, too. We walked through the grocery area, and I saw one of those little packages of cupcake muffin mixes, and thought maybe little boy would enjoy that at grandma's house. So, today, I mixed it up and popped them in the oven. Little boy and I then looked through the oven window as they baked, and listened for the timer to go off. We decided that it was Buttsa Bear's birthday! Funny how something little like that can turn into such fun.

Every Day

I've been dreaming of warmer weather. Soon it'll be April, then May, and then surely it'll feel like Spring, and Energy, and Life. In the meantime, we keep going. We go on our walks to the lake and back, and spend time with little boy and Mom. We have our Wednesday suppers with Mark, and try to keep in touch with friends. It's been two years since the start of the Pandemic, and now a Russian-Ukraine war. Life doesn't feel so free and easy yet.

Last week as we were taking our walk down Hummingbird Lane, Mr. Thompson stopped in his white Caddy to chat a bit. Mr. Thompson lives alone up the road from us, and I admire his strength and determination. In his eighties, he had a fall on the ice a few years ago, and hit his head. And he might have laid much longer on the ice if he hadn't been noticed by a snow plow driver passing by. He spent weeks in the hospital and rehab recovering from his brain injury, but he was determined to go home. And, he did!

Conversation almost over, Mr. Thompson said something really deep. Have you ever all of a sudden taken notice of something somebody said? Something that speaks to you? He said: Every day, give it a go. And then he drove off. People can get tired of winter, and pandemics, and division between friends. Sometimes the blah can be almost overwhelming. But, keeping going is something worthy. Wow. It almost gave me chills. Come to think of it, Mom and Dad have always been ones to keep going, too. Give it a whirl, Dad would say!

Good advice. And Spring will be here before you know it. I can hardly wait.

Hanging With Katie and Little Boy

Little boy made a trip to the ER last week, when he woke with a scary, croupy cough. He seems better now, but coughs can linger, and it's so hard for a parent to listen to, especially in the middle of the night. And then Avi needed to go away on a work trip, so Katie invited us over for pizza. Bruce suggested that we watch Pushing Daisies! While we watched (four episodes), little boy woke up a few times coughing. Luckily, he settled down after that, and was able to sleep through the rest of the night. Poor buttsa.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

February Book Club Beauties

Our February Book Club was hosted by Mona. It was a lovely, mild day, and it almost felt like a Spring afternoon, which is a huge deal at this time of year in the state of Minnesota. As usual, we placed great emphasis on food and conversation. We did talk some about the book selection for the month, and we agreed that Echoes of The Soul was pretty interesting to read, but as far as souls reincarnating or ghostbusting endeavors, people weren't totally sure about what to think about that. We did agree that it would be comforting to not be worried about the process of dying, though, and this book seemed to give a comforting slant to that. We had appetizers, and the plan is to do that again next meeting. Mona made pigs in blankets and had strawberries with a cocoa hummus that tasted like brownie batter, Kat brought mac and cheese bites and garlic cheese toast, Cathy made deviled eggs and chocolate chip cookies, and I brought a layered taco dip with chips and crackers. Book Club will be at my house next, at the beginning of April. It was suggested that maybe we next choose a book off the banned book list to read, but come to think of it, we never got around to choosing!

Lozenger

The start of the weekend ended up kind of busy as I navigated changing cellphone carriers. I'd been thinking about changing over to Mint Mobile for probably over a year, and I finally got my courage up to do it! We've had our previous carrier for over a decade, and changing over would mean a big savings in money for us, a good $125 a month. That's almost a couple of weeks of grocery money! But, change is hard, and I was a little anxious. After all, cell phones have become so important. And, it was a process, but I pushed through it, and got it done. Yay, me. I thought that I was tired because of having to work so hard through this task, but then I started to feel a sore throat coming on. In the past, I would assume that I had a cold starting, but in this time of pandemic, you can start to wonder...

So, I've been sipping on lots of hot, herbal tea. My red, flannel hankies have been such a comfort!

I decided to make a big pot of chicken noodle soup, and added quite a bit of garlic. I even found some cough drops that had no expiration date listed on the box, and decided it probably wouldn't hurt. When I was growing up, my family called cough drops lozengers. A while back, I mentioned the word lozengers to my husband, who corrected me and said, did I mean to say lozenges? I did not. I looked the word up in a dictionary, and though it's probably an older term, it is actually a word. Hah!

And, to play it safe, I took a covid test that turned out negative. Today, my cold symptoms seem to be running their course, and I think I'm getting better. I guess there are still colds out in the world, but having worn my face mask faithfully these past two years, I've been amazingly healthy. After the mask mandate goes away, will we all start getting sick with colds again?

Last night I got an etsy order for a corsage, now boxed up and ready for the mailbox tomorrow. I take that as another sign that Spring is finally on it's way! That and all the cardinal couples I've been seeing in the yard...