A State of Neglect

Woe, this is the longest I've ever gone without a record of what we've been up to.   It appears I started this a while back, but couldn't get the pictures to load, so I abandoned it and just never returned.  I do know I'll likely be sad whenever I am trying to remember when something happened and there is a big blank spot here.  So, I'll go on with this one I started on Christmas Day and try to get up to speed. 

As is usual, by the last day of school, before break, I could have said, "So long Christmas, see you next year!"  After a couple of days, I got my groove back and started home Christmas. Monday was with Ol' Mother Hubbard and the Cupboard, black bean omelets, home fries and lots of fudge and shenanigans. Now they are 12 to 17, but they do an awesome job making our few hours a priority of joy and laughter and watching our traditional "The Light Before Christmas" one more time.  We think this might have been year thirteen. 

For now, my own kid Christmas is moved to Christmas Eve.  We had brunch on Christmas Eve morning and enjoyed the day. I tried a new recipe for Hawaiian Sliders and we're all fans. 

Well, I don't know if these three are fans. They exited pretty quickly. 

Earlier in the month I had a friend over for lunch. 

We visited a German Christmas Market one Saturday

I used a Sunday dinner to sort all of the plastic pieces and part with all the lids and containers that didn't find a match. We are just a barrel of fun around here. 

Covid has been relentless hasn't it. Since the return from Thanksgiving, my students have been sick. For most every day I've had one to five students out, up until we left on Wednesday with an ice storm on the way. Also, over Christmas break we lost our 38 year old, mother of four, music director to Covid.  So awful.   Most of  my kids have had it, Handy Man has had it and now both my sisters have had it.  I am so relieved that they weathered it without medical intervention.  That leaves me.  There is so much controversy about the vaccines.  All the ways we judge each other is just heartbreaking to me sometimes. I had the vaccines in the spring and had an immediate reaction, as well as what might be an ongoing reaction of vertigo and super sensitivity to fruit, veggies, spice, vinegar, etc. At my yearly appointment in December, I requested an antibody test.  So, I have no antibodies to Covid and the doc isn't comfortable with me having anymore vaccines.  Wow, considering I live in a petri dish were every kind of everything contagious is being breathed on me six hours a day. When I think I know what I want to do, or when I don't have a single clue, the result is the same. Pray about it.  I speculate that I may not have good receptors for Covid due to my blood type.  I also consume a lot of anti-viral supplements. Still, as I prayed, I don't want to be foolish or cocky, but I also don't want to live in fear. My sister procured me some better masks and I continue the supplements.  I really don't like snow/ice days.  I feel my students don't really benefit from e-learning days, but after so many tested positive last week, I was honestly relieved to be off this for four days.  Hopefully, every one being house bound will slow things down. This ice storm wasn't as bad as the one in 2009. So far, no problem trees down and we have power. 

I am always looking for something to beef up my immunity and help my achy joints.  I ran across the benefit of seaweed, Irish Moss in this case.  On the one hand, I absolutely believe in the benefit of many things found in nature, on the other hand, people are very clever car salesman these days. 

Anyway, I ordered some and followed the procedures. 

It came stuffed to hilt in a sealed bag, very dry.  You have to start with a rinse and soak. It looks like a hunk of ramen noodles before you cook them.  I started these yesterday afternoon. 

This morning, I poured off the water and poured more in. Now it looked like a bowl of tiny antlers. 

So another rinse and into the blender.

This what you get. That little clump of weed in the first picture becomes one pint of, umm well, goo. 

It actually has no taste.  Now I can't really wrap my head around how something that has no color and no taste could possible have all the nutrients they claim, but what do I know. 

They say you can stir into anything, but I stir it into my aronia sludge. 

I grew an aronia bush by mistake, thinking it was a blueberry.  Quite unlike the blueberries I've tried to grow, this was a roaring success.  

Wonderful right?

Well the berries taste like grainy dirt and are as astringent as unripe persimmons. It turns out they are one of the most nutrient dense berries around. Awesome, but umm, how do you eat them?  Anyway, I froze them at the end of the summer.  I decided I'd try to figure out a way to get them down during flu season and this onslaught of Covid. I take a cup, blend it with two apples and some honey my brother provided. I slurry it up and stick it in the frig. I pour one fourth in a cup, stir in the above goop and drink it down.  It isn't horrible. 

Here's to God's provision keeping nasty bugs away!

Rae and I are trying to take a pottery class. So far we've had two classes cancelled.  It really is something I need to do again and again to even have a hope of getting the idea of how it works. Oh well, I've enjoyed a different winter activity, the time with my kiddo and when I'm there, I really can't worry  much about anything else. Nice. 

Phil's Mom has been hospital to rehab to hospital three times now over six weeks.  Ceece's grandma broke her hip.  Prayers for them.