The Pandemic has thoroughly turned my world on its head. As it is all new, I have had to adjust my expectations to reality. There have been some lovely days in which things fell into place and I really enjoyed just spending so much time with my family–idyllic days that almost make me feel guilty because I know that they come at such a high cost for so many. Then, I say a prayer for the many problems out of my control and take a minute to feel gratitude for my tranquility.
There have been other days as well. Many of them. These are days in which I find myself crying at the recognition of how deep our societal troubles are at this point, or when I think of how many people are suffering in so many ways. Some days I feel like crying because my own household is so far from the idyll I described above. Some days, particularly those prior to June 17 (the last day of school for our district), I felt more harried and worn out than I have for quite a while. Spur-of-the-moment distance learning was intense, wasn’t it!?! Oh, and I, who have always contentedly ignored the realms of painting and home improvement, realized that my house, which has sheltered growing kids for 11 1/2 years is in serious want of a significant sprucing up. So, I also began several home improvement projects, which has been rewarding and stressful in its own way. The days have all been different in their stresses, goals, and realities.
Lots of days have turned out like my dinner tonight, which was edible, but different than I planned and far short of the standard I set for myself. Superguy and I will soon be celebrating 15 years of wedded bliss and I decided to recreate one of our favorite first foods together for dinner tonight: crumpets. I made them with relative frequency prior to celiac disease, and thought that the recipe should be fairly easy to adapt. It wasn’t. The flat, sad pucks that resulted tasted ok, but they were a far cry from crumpets. Hmmm…
But we ate them and then we had a family dance party in the backyard under our recently installed outdoor lighting. We had a great time, despite the crumpet pucks. This brought into focus the reality that I can be content and happy, even in the midst of my messes and failures. Yesterday’s failure, while informing today, certainly does not need to define it.
I will keep working on my crumpet recipe. It is a delight worth working for. If I figure it out, I will share here. In the meantime, I had better go work in my garden.
Crumpet Pucks–no recipe included below
