Social Distancing - Part 19

March 15 - Wednesday

I've upped my step goal, trying to get a walk in the morning, and one in the evening. Today, my reward was getting to admire one of my neighbor's yellow roses, which were in bloom, and beautiful.

The grappler truck came through the neighborhood today, and had plenty of work to do. There was a pile of stuff about every 3rd or 4th house, most of it yard waste. Some gardening is getting done in my neighborhood. Wonder if any of them want to work in my yard, lol. I started watering the front lawn, and it is actually looking fairly good. I still need to pull weeds, but that pretty much goes without saying.

After Easter, I cooked up a pot of black eyed peas. I got a bag of the peas when that was all there was on the dried beans/rice area at the grocery store. I just kept thinking about cooking them in with the bone from the ham I had. It just sounded even better when I decided to make cornbread to go with them/under them. My mama taught me about beans and cornbread, yes she did! And black eyed peas counted, this time.

Crockpot cooking for the win!

Did you get your tax stimulus check? We did. Thank goodness we weren't hurting for it, but you can bet we are saving it just in case. I know there are people who are hurting financially at this time, while we are not. I count myself among the fortunate that my husband and I both have jobs that are not likely to lay us off, or have to be closed down long term. I feel fortunate to have a comfortable home that we feel safe in, and that we can each entertain ourselves without much problem. I've been able to keep in touch with my friends and my family, and my students. My fridge is full (like my parent's fridge always was - I think it is because we are indeed planning to eat out of that fridge every day, like they were...), and my freezer, and the cabinets have plenty. A year's worth? no. But, plenty. My days feel busy, but not overwhelming. I mostly can sleep at night (yes, there are some stress dreams), but I get rest. I am thankful, that in these uncertain times, that I can feel stability here.

I'm kind of finding my stride in my "office hours" and working from home. Finding a balance, even with the realization that the balance will shift, and that is OK. I'm enjoying interacting with my students by email and Google Classroom messages, and there seem to be more of them pitching in each day. I think I've communicated with ALL of them at this point, and that makes me happy. I'm feeling at ease with the changes in grading for the rest of this semester, and I'm interested in helping, not hindering my students. We are all going through this novel experience together, and we all need to offer a hand when we can, and grab onto a hand when we need to.

Today the winds died down, and the day was beautiful.