TCC, Day 30: Blah Blah Blah

I started counting days on the Monday we were supposed to go to work and school but couldn't. That makes today day #30.

I've been hopeful this week that a re-opening of the world is around the corner. Either I'm right, or we're about to get hit with more days of shut down. I pray that things start gradually and safely opening back up.

The haircut situation around here is rough for everyone except me. The other three get their hair cut every three weeks. We are well past that. Tucker has threatened to get the clippers out, but the fact that prom could still happen in mid-May is stopping him. Perhaps his girlfriend also has something to do with that. I feel pretty strongly that Keaton's hair should only be cut by a professional (those curls are wild!), but soon he'll be forced to wear a headband or something so we can see his face!

Keaton is SUPER stir crazy today. He's happy but full of energy with no good way to burn it off. He really misses the gym, and I really miss it for him. We've often discussed how it's as good for him mentally as it is for him physically.

I don't have anything too exciting to write about today. I find that work is frantic and busy earlier in the week and less so later in the week. I don't know if that's really true or if it's a reflection of my perception or energy level or what. Nonetheless, today was mostly just work.

So this post is mostly blah blah blah.

The end.

TCC, Day 29: Covers

I don't really have anything to write about today. I worked, bought groceries, made dinner. The usual.

Trey and I are watching The Voice tonight. We don't normally watch it, but we have caught a few episodes this season because we ain't got nothing else to do.

Some girl on the show sang Kelly Clarkson's Piece by Piece. It wasn't great. I went into a rant about how Kelly Clarkson's slow songs might be songs that other people shouldn't try to sing. I'm not always a fan of her voice, but she owns songs like that.

I feel the same way about Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. Only like five people in the world should sing their songs, and one of them is named Mariah and one of them is no longer with us.

Then a sixteen year old boy sang The Scientist. It was not a good choice for him. The song is so unique he would either end up being a bad comparison to the original or "making it his own" and, therefore, making it terrible. The latter was true. Poor kid.

I commented that probably no one should sing The Scientist except Coldplay.

Then I remembered that Willie Nelson covered it, and it was fantastic.

Then I decided that some people can sing whatever they darn well please, and this list includes Willie Nelson. As I continued making that list in my head, I added Johnny Cash because of his cover of Nine Inch Nails's Hurt.

That song reminded me of Not Ready to Make Nice by the Dixie Chicks and how I used some crazy contraption to capture the video for it from the interwebs to play it on the computer in my classroom as an introduction to The Scarlet Letter a very long time ago. It was before we had the capability to stream YouTube in classrooms, so I had to get creative. Teaching kids about books is the best job in the world.

Not Ready to Make Nice and Hurt came out four years apart. I wonder why one led my thoughts to the other. Perhaps the darkness of the videos? Brains are weird.

Basically I'm a back up judge on The Voice now.

I'll probably spend the rest of the evening googling "best covers" because we ain't got nothing else to do.

The end.

TCC, Day 28: David

For the first time in my life (that I know of) I wasn't in a church building on Easter Sunday. We had breakfast together as a family and then we watched the 8:00 service at around 10:30. I think the boys could get used to that schedule!  It was mostly reverent and joyful, as an Easter service should be.

Here's our family Easter picture with Trey and I in our Easter shorts and with the boys wearing shirts. (I made them put shirts on for the picture - last night I set the guideline that no one attends Easter church in their underwear, so that bridge had already been crossed):

Did you know this is the 103rd day of the year? I know this because I've been following a Bible reading plan to read through the whole Bible in one year, and today is day 103. That means that over one quarter of the year we've been social distancing. Weird.

Rarely am I right on with the Bible reading plan. Sometimes I'm a day or two behind, and sometimes I accidentally read ahead. I primarily listen to it, but I've done more reading now that I'm home so much. This afternoon I caught up on about three days' worth, currently reading in first Samuel.

I love the story of David and Goliath. It has to be a favorite childhood Bible story for lots of folks. As I read it today, I was struck by David's retort to Goliath when Goliath laughed at the possibility of fighting such a wimp. In I Samuel 17:45, David said, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."

Basically, he said, "Uh, I've got God. I'm not scared."

I also read the section a little earlier when Samuel anointed David as the future king. Jesse paraded all of his sons in front of Samuel. When the Jesse's oldest son showed up, he looked impressive. Samuel thought "surely this must be the guy."

"But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.'" I Samuel 16:7

How appropriate it is that these versus were in my reading during this strange time. Many of us have countless worries these days:

Are we doing enough?
Will this ever end?
The experts say this could last until the fall.
Will my loved ones get sick?
Is my family safe?
Will the economy recover?
Will life ever be the same?

When those thoughts start creeping in, let's all think of David. Let's remember that we've got God, so we're not scared. And let's be people who have hearts that delight the Lord, shown in the way that we treat others and respond in times of crisis.

Maybe, just maybe, we'll come out of this whole thing better off than when we started.

Happy Easter!

The end.

TCC, Day 27: Saturday

It's Saturday. It was going to storm this afternoon, so we got going this morning on our chores.

We had Another Broken Egg for breakfast. It was delicious, as usual.

Trey took care of the lawn.

I did some sewing. Went for a walk since it was going to storm all afternoon. Completed my one grad school task for the day. (I've made a list of everything due for the next two week and have decided to do one thing every day until I'm done.)

I sat next to Keaton while he did school work for almost three hours. He doesn't need my help, but sometimes he needs my presence.

At home learning has one very exciting quality. I can see what assignments my kids have due and also see if they've turned them in. I know they're in high school and should be responsible for themselves and shouldn't need their mom checking in on them. I also know that teenage boy brains are mostly made of spaghetti and you don't teach organizational skills and responsibility by saying, "Okay, you're in high school. Be responsible. See ya!" And I also know there's no magic age or grade where a particular kid is ready to be on their own - we just have to get them there before college.

If you've ever gotten me started about the boxes we try to put kids into, then you know I feel strongly about this. (I'm referring to the royal "we" - society, culture, whatever.)

I have two children who may or may not turn in all of their assigned work. They are smart and capable and kind and hard-working. It's possible to be all of those things and not make straight A's, despite what our culture sometimes does to rank or rate teenagers.

One of them is pretty good about making sure he does enough to make the grade he cares about making without much intervention from me. The other one gets overwhelmed and his perfectionism flares and he can't see the way out. I don't usually know this is happening until he's really far gone.

With at home learning, I can make him make a list, then check his list and make sure it includes everything. And I watch him check items off of his list. And I can check to see if he actually pressed submit on the things he checked off his list. It's not like school is suddenly easier or less work, but I can hold him accountable before he's drowning.

I wonder how this can translate when real, in-person school starts again.

It still hasn't rained. Since I didn't water my flowers, we better at least get a sprinkle or I'll have to send a strongly worded letter to the weatherman.

We ate a delicious dinner and are now spending a lazy Saturday night at home. Life is pretty good in quarantine today.


The end.

TCC, Day 26: Are we still doing this?

I now find myself several times a day being caught off guard. "Wait. Are we still doing this?"

There are currently 116 positive cases in Brazos County, 80 of those are still active, and there have been 9 deaths. I'm watching less news these days, but I'm hearing that in New York things are bad. I heard a report that New York now has more cases than most other countries. I didn't verify that or anything, but it doesn't seem good.

Today was a school holiday, so I told myself I was going to treat it as such. That doesn't mean I didn't work at all - I responded to emails and took care of a few small things - but for the most part it was a day off. I cleaned the living room floors, did grad school work, watched some Criminal Minds.

I haven't really been out in public (out of my car, at least) since last weekend. I think we're now supposed to wear masks. That seems so strange to me, but if it's what we have to do to keep our community healthy I suppose I'll wear one. I never could have predicted that in my lifetime I would wear a mask to HEB.

It's Good Friday. We've been talking about our plans for Easter. We'll all watch church together, and I've been trying to pin the boys down on something I can order for a nice lunch. After I gave them the 500th option, Tucker finally said, "Can we just have French toast?" Of course we can. I was trying to get fancy, and they just want Trey to make them French toast. It was a good reminder that simpler is better most of the time.

I had two boxes of books from Keaton's room clean out sitting in my living room. This morning I put them out on the sidewalk with a note that they were free and had been Lysol-ed. I had put one of the boxes out a week or so ago, but it started to look like rain that day so I brought them in soon after. This evening, however, I went to bring the leftover ones back in before it got dark and found them all gone. I'm so happy about that!  Someone is enjoying some great books this evening!

Our currently shelter in place lasts three more weeks. Will we really be able to go back to normal on May 4th? What is normal now anyway?  Our economy needs us to get out of our houses, but our collective health may not be ready. My current prediction is that things start to reopen gradually beginning May 4th. There probably won't be a big "Corona's Over!" announcement, but rather a gradual release of us all back into the world. But I guess no one really knows.

I'm also hearing that we should never go back to shaking hands.  I appreciate a good handshake, and as a professional woman I've always found it important to look a person in the eye and provide a hearty handshake when I meet him or her in a work capacity. If that goes away, what will take it's place? I wonder if my grandkids will think it's weird if they see someone putting out their hand for handshake.

The end.

TCC, Day 25: Mexican Food

I've been taking a Mexican cooking class on Master Class. It's taught by Gabriela Camera who owns restaurants in Mexico City and San Francisco. So far I've watched classes on making tortillas, two kinds of raw salsas, tacos al pastor, pescado a la Talla, refried beans, and huevos rancheros divorciado.

It's like Gabby - that's what I call her now - and I are BFF's.

Now, I should be spending every moment I'm not working learning about quantitative analysis, but that makes me feel dumb and my brain hurts, so instead I learn about cooking. Those three major assignments due this Sunday aren't going to do themselves, so I've stopped myself from all things fun and done one each day the last two days. Tomorrow I'll do the last one, and then I will block them from my mind forever because they are evil. I don't seem to have the capacity for this particular level of difficulty these days. The semester will be over soon enough.

Back to the fun stuff.

In my tortilla making class I learned how to grind my own masa out of heirloom corn, but I seem to be fresh out of heirloom corn. Instead I bought masa, and Keaton and I have been practicing our tortilla making skills. (FYI - They sell tortilla presses at HEB.) At first they stuck to the plastic. Gabby said not to use plastic wrap but to use a heavier plastic instead, but Saran Wrap was all we had. She was right. They stuck. She is so smart.

Keaton had the genius idea of cutting up a gallon ziploc bag to have heavier plastic, and the sticking problem improved dramatically.

Our tortillas are still a little too thick, but we'll keep working on them. If anyone has tips for us, we'll take them. Gabby was right when she said they are best if you eat them fresh with a sprinkle of salt.

We've also made salsa verde cruda. It's a raw salsa made by throwing various raw veggies and herbs into the blender (super complicated). It's delicious. Since all of the measurements are in grams, I estimated a little too heavily in some cases. I think I over estimated the tomatillos, and with fewer of them the sauce would be creamier. Also, I bought large tomatillos and later learned small ones are preferred. I will definitely make this again and it will be even more delicious.

Next on my list is tacos al pastor. I was able to find all of the chiles I need at HEB except one. I got ancho, guajillo, pasilla, and chili de arbol. Isn't HEB fantastic?  I couldn't find any cascabels, but I've ordered them from Amazon and they should be here Saturday. I am SO EXCITED to make this! Maybe my tortillas will be a little closer to perfect by then.

I'm super intrigued by the fish. I was thinking it's not something I would attempt until I watched the class, but now I might have to try it. It's a butterflied fish with green sauce on half and red sauce on half, and you serve it with tortillas and refried black beans. It looks beautiful. We shall see if I get brave enough to try it.

Lots of Gabby's recipes call for epazote. It's an herb. I wonder if I can grow it here. I don't remember ever seeing it in the store, but I've never actually looked for it.

It's a good thing Trey likes Mexican food.

The end.

PS - So many words in this don't spell check. Perhaps my friend April will point out anything I've spelled wrong.

TCC, Day 24: Hickman Children

I'm currently in the middle of a complete emotional meltdown as a result of the Modern Family series finale. We've watched it since the beginning. Even when it wasn't at its best it was good for a belly laugh. The finale was perfect. I may have sobbed.

Sometime during the middle of the two hour event I decided I needed a treat. I went into the kitchen to retrieve one of the delicious and wonderful Cadbury eggs that I knew was there waiting for me. Trey had to go to Walgreens yesterday, and he brought home two just for me. He knows the way to my heart.

I was saddened but not shocked to find they were gone. There were no Cadbury eggs. They were gone. Missing. Vanished. I remembered this blog post from WAY back in 2012, when the culprit was young and innocent, and I knew who ate them.

Keaton. When he was six it was kind of cute. Now it's evil.

The Hickman boys awoke today to a list of things I required of them. They made donuts for breakfast, seemed to get along pretty well all day, and thought a lot about doing the things on my list. They informed me early this morning we would be having a red carpet steak dinner tonight. I wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but I was working so I did not ask additional questions.

Finally, late this afternoon, after some perfectly sane yelling by me, Tucker started cleaning. I know this because I heard the ensuing fist fight from my make shift office. I have no idea what actually happened, but I'm sure it had something to do with Tucker being a jerk because he had to clean and Keaton being a hot-head.

I broke up the fight and mostly gave up on everything. This was evidenced by my placement of myself in the recliner with a glass of sweet tea and a bag of cheese puffs to watch an episode of Criminal Minds. Hashtag winning.

I had a facetime meeting for my grad school class a few minutes later which I totally forgot about. I opened my computer to send a work email while it was on my mind, and then I remembered the meeting, and joined like that was my plan all along. Turns out I had also scheduled a Zoom hangout with some awesome friends at the same time, so when I finished my class call I chatted with them, and it made my heart happy.

What day is it anyway?

Imagine my surprise when I came out of my room to find that red carpet dinner was not, in fact, cancelled because of the fist fight. Tucker had grilled steaks, and the boys attended dinner in full dress attire. I attended in my shorts and t-shirt. Because Hashtag Winning.

Did you know that if you ask Alexa to play fancy restaurant music she will play a song called "Fancy Restaurant Music"?

These children. I suppose I should check to see if they actually did the items on my list. Maybe tomorrow.

For good measure, here's a picture from yesterday with one of them in a dinosaur costume and the other with his flowing locks braided.

These children.

I wish I had a Cadbury egg.

The end.