Friday, March 27, 2020

Links from the bunny trail



Apparently people are trying to learn how to cook now that we're all stuck at home, so here you go:  a potato salad recipe that I found, and prepared, for a social event that got cancelled.  But, silver lining, it's a yummy potato salad recipe.  So, you're welcome.




You DON'T need a Twitter account to view the Shedd Aquarium Twitter feed, where they are posting all the adorable animal videos!  Wellington the penguin is still field tripping around the aquarium, meeting the other animals.  There is also sea otter, turtle, and various-weird-underwater-critters content, as well as this gem:




What the world needs now is penguins going down stairs.   




Here are more visual hints to help us know how to stand far enough away from others.  I'm surprised they don't mention parking lot lines--which is similar to the width of a car, but sometimes a more useful visual cue if you're say, in line in a parking lot to get into a giant Costco that can only let ten people in at a time. 




Happy Friday, everyone.  Stay safe, stay home, and FaceTime your Grandma.





Monday, March 23, 2020

Like a lamb







March usually comes in like a lion and out like a lamb.








This March has come in like a ninja and out like a freaking Luftwaffe air strike.


The girls in their first (of probably many) virtual piano lesson (teacher in the screen on the far right--laptop professionally propped up on a stepstool on the arm of the sofa).







Thoughts I never had until a coronavirus pandemic took over the world



Does buying pickles count as a life-sustaining activity?




I wonder where I can find more penguin videos.




Why did you rip up that napkin??  Do you realize that was the last napkin we had in the house??!!



I hope my parents aren't being foolish and inviting all their friends over for a party.




*goes to grocery store*  Don't cough.  Don't sniff!  Do not touch face.  Don't make eye contact.  Oh wait, eye contact is ok.  Give a wide berth.  Try to look friendly while avoiding humans.  Don't sniff.  Try to look normal and healthy.  Don't touch your face! ...Please God, I don't want to go grocery shopping ever again.




If karma is real, someday there will be a virus that makes it so you can't stay home and you have to be out with all the people all the time to stay safe.  And then all the introverts who are a little inappropriately happy that everyone has to stay home now will feel the extroverts' pain.








The score







It only took a worldwide pandemic to clear up my schedule enough to take down the Christmas lights on the second day of spring.  Score one for me.






Coronavirus:  307,627.


Mindy:  1.




At least it's not a total washout.








Friday, March 20, 2020

Links from the bunny trail



Love this dramatic rendition of Grieg's Concerto in A minor.  I have childhood memories of my sister playing it on our piano, but she definitely didn't dress the part or enter the room like this lady.  She really could've upped her game.





How beautiful are these tiny embroidered landscapes?




These baby penguin comics are too cute. 




Great news item about wine miraculously coming from the water tap!  Thanks to Like Mother, Like Daughter for this one.




Have you been following Wellington and the other penguins touring the Shedd Aquarium during human quarantine? 




Happy Friday, everyone.  Maybe after you finish working from home you can enjoy a nice frosty quarantini. 




Stay safe!





Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Habits





Jeddy "getting use out of" his suit coat I bought him for a now-defunct event.


If we are creatures of habit, and act via habit some huge percentage of the time, it's no wonder these times are making us anxious and confused.  Suddenly I'm having to make decisions a million times a day about things I never, ever thought about before.




When I'm running in the park, and I pass someone going the other way on the track, should I hold my breath as we pass?  How many feet wide is this track anyway?


Should we go to Bible study?  Should we have that planned dinner with friends?  Should I go to the library per usual?  Should we continue our cleaning service?


"Wash your hands as often as possible":  should I be washing my hands right now?


Should I liberally use the last of our hand sanitizer, or should I save it for more dire need?


How much toilet paper is it prudent to use each time?


Should I let my kids go to the playground?


Should I start planting a victory garden?


Should I wipe down my phone with a Clorox wipe and risk killing it, or not wipe it down and risk killing someone else?


Should I love my neighbors by bringing them food or by staying away?


Should I politely meet the mail lady and deliverymen by taking the box directly from their hands or ignore them and let them leave it on the step?  And then can I touch the box?


Should I let my kids get the mail?


How many times a day can I check the news before it's obsessive-compulsive?


The questions go on and on and on, with no end in sight.





Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Corona



The irony of this coronavirus situation--like everything else about this situation--is surreal. 






The whole world is shutting down, school kids are playing in the park during the day, people are forced to stay home from work.... and our life goes on pretty much exactly as normal. 




Unlike my friends, my lesson plans were already in place for my kids.  I have a fully supplied school room. 


Jason already has a perfectly well-appointed home office. 






And we aren't particularly social creatures around here, as humans go, so the number of engagements we've had to cancel is... minimal.






We've stayed home from church before, for sickness and for snowstorms.  And we've generally done some sort of makeup "church" from home.  This week was more thorough, with video messages from the pastors, including a full-length sermon and announcements (that consisted of a list of cancellations) and words of encouragement, and audio clips of hymns.




{Previously when doing "Miller church," we've held it in the living room, which, by no means elegant, is at least possibly fit for human habitation.  Since this week we were watching a 45-minute sermon, we opted to hold "church" in the playroom, where the TV is.  The playroom is *not* as fit for human habitation (or at least civilized adult habitation).  I was ashamed to debase our worship by doing it in a place that in my mind is on level with a barnyard, until Jason reminded me that it wouldn't be the first barn our Lord has entered.  Praise Jesus.}






To be frank, The Babylon Bee pretty much summed up my feelings over the weekend: 


Nation's Nerds Wake Up In Utopia Where Everyone Stays Inside, Sports Are Canceled, Social Interaction Forbidden



But I am not immune (har har, groan) to anxiously wondering what life will be like a week, two weeks, a month, three months from now.  What if there are food shortages?  What if the First World becomes like the Third World?  What if I turn into Jack Nicholson in The Shining?  What if life as we knew it is over? 






So I'm here "enjoying my living room," swinging from joy that nothing can take Jesus away from me, to anxiety over whether we'll have to use creative alternatives to toilet paper, and back again. 




I guess in a global pandemic, as in all other times, I'm allowed to have all the feelings.  This is alternately (embarrassingly) pleasant, disquieting, frightening, uniting, isolating, uplifting, amusing, sobering, and uncertain.  It is definitely unscripted.  We are surely not the ones writing this story.




But my emotional bouncy ball keeps coming back to relief that I can trust the One who is writing it.









Sunday, March 15, 2020

What didn't change



What changed this week:


Our church cancelled services, sending out a recorded sermon and audio clips of songs instead.




What didn't change this week:


God is in charge of 100% of the universe.


People are mortal and we will all die some day, of something.


Also, people are still having babies.




What changed:


I didn't go to their baby shower.




Jeddy's new $75 suit from Amazon, bought specially for his debate tournament, which is now, naturally, cancelled.


What didn't change:


I love hunkering down inside my house.


We are carrying on as usual with school.




What changed:


I hear there are slight adjustments to other people's school.




What didn't change:


I still need groceries.




What changed:


Walmart has no hand sanitizer, toilet paper, or powdered milk, and very little cheese, butter, and cough syrup.


Mom and me at the theater for Much Ado About Nothing, thankfully before it shuts down.


What didn't change:


I use hand sanitizer when I get in the car after grocery shopping.


Ada has asthma.


Jason works from home.


Our hope can't possibly be in this world.  If we have no hope of Jesus bringing us to an eternal home as promised, we don't have any hope at all.


When kids are in charge of meal planning.


Buck gets a romp in the fresh air.


What changed:


Our society seems to suddenly, surprisingly, be concerned about the vulnerable amongst us.




What didn't change:


Jesus is still the Bread of Life.


The Bible still says what the Bible still says.


In this world we will have trouble.


Jesus has overcome the world.













Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...