Goodbye, March

 I haven't been around much this month. That is because it has truly been uneventful. Everyone worked and did their normal activities. I usually think March is the most boring and uneventful month of the year. 

Quick catch up ~ 

• Our sweet rat died. Willow was the best rat we ever had, but she also will be our last caged animal. I felt like she needed an hour out and about each day, which took a lot of time when her care began to fall completely on my shoulders. Everyone else became too busy to give her attention. She was very old and died peacefully.
• Tim was released from visiting nurse care and his cardiologist says that he has a clean bill of health. We are very relieved to put that scary medical chapter behind us!
• I am currently working on repairing and painting the downstairs fireplace hearth so we can get an electric fireplace. A post is coming soon on how I replaced the missing bricks with handmade artificial bricks before painting the whole thing. I look forward to tackling this ugly spot in our home. 

• Rebekah took a master dance class with Fay Van Baar (Nederlands Dance Theater) from the Netherlands. She really enjoyed it. 

Contemporary Master Class

• We also got back the professional photos from ADCIBC (dance competition in Atlanta). This is my favorite photograph.

Classical ballet piece

• Elijah is so busy these days. I made him stand still to get his picture taken before he left the house the other day. I told him I needed proof that he was still alive ~ LOL. His friend group is so lovely right now, and his job at Target is going really well. 

April should be a great deal more exciting. We have three birthdays and a few adventures. It should be a fun month!

Blessings, Dawn

My Grandmother's Cookbook

 I discovered my paternal grandmother's cookbook on my bookcase a few weeks ago. I had forgotten that I had stuck it there after my father's death. I am really enjoying exploring Good Cooking (1936). The book was cherished and well used. It has a broken spine and the pages are worn and food stained. My grandmother wrote all over the cover pages, margins and end pages. Her ideas and recipes are spread throughout the book. In addition, the book is filled with recipes she cut out of magazines and got from neighbors and friends. It is a lovely insight to the way she cooked and baked. The first recipe I made was one of her oatmeal bread recipes. I say one because she had about five different oatmeal bread recipes! She must have loved that kind of bread. I decided to try the one that was carefully typed out on an index card. It was delicious and made an almost perfect sandwich bread. I plan on trying her other oatmeal bread recipes to see if any of them are even more amazing. There are also a half dozen recipes for different cheesecakes. 

The book itself is a treasure. I am thoroughly enjoying reading all of its aged advice. It begins with how to budget your family's shopping and where to shop. We don't even have some of the types of shopping choices that were available in 1936, but it is still fascinating. The sandwich section of the book gave me a chuckle. There are some unusual ideas for fillings, such as chopped tongue with cabbage, watercress and mayonnaise or ground raw carrot, cabbage and celery with ground peanuts and mayonnaise. I actually think the baked beans mashed with sweet pickles might make a lovely filling. I plan on trying some of them. I don't know about you, but we pretty much have peanut butter and jam, lunch meat and tuna fish sandwiches. We could use some creative ideas...but not the tongue one. That one can stay in the book and belong to a bygone era.  LOL

I love old cookbooks and having one that my grandmother used so often is a true treasure. I look forward to using it more over the coming years. 

Blessings, Dawn

A Mother's Journal ~ March 2022

 On my mind ~ My heart is with Ukraine. It is so disturbing what is going on there. Also, I am so sick of listening to people complain. Yes, the gas prices are getting higher; inflation is getting higher; but the reasons are clear. Sacrifices must be made to keep our world free. Must everything be political?  Can no one in our generation pull together and care about anyone but themselves? I am just overwhelmed with how spoiled Americans are at times.  (Yes, I am aware that there are Americans who are doing things for good and care about others...they just seem few and far between these days.) If this paragraph makes you angry, check yourself and ask, "What  am I doing for others and how am I modeling sacrifice to my children without complaint?"

Outside my window ~  It feels like spring is here. It is hard to believe it is truly here, but I hope it stay. The Daffodils are in full bloom.

Where we are going ~  Rebekah and I have been travelling so much in the last few weeks. Last week found us at the UNCSA Dance Festival in Winston-Salem, NC. Rebekah took eight classes and performed at the Stevens Center with her fellow studio dancers. While we were there, Rebekah auditioned and was accepted to their ballet summer intensive. We don't know if she will accept it yet, since we are waiting to hear back from another ballet school. She has done two years of summer intensives with UNCSA (online), and it looks better on a dance resume to do summer intensives at different places. It would be an awesome experience to live on a college campus for five weeks. We are pretty sure we are dropping the summer intensive in New York City because it is just proving to be cost prohibitive with the current state of the world. There are equally exciting options closer to home. 

Where is Rebekah? Look carefully.

This weekend we took Rebekah to an audition for a summer intensive in Cary, NC. This one is the summer intensive that most excites Rebekah's teachers. We will see if she is accepted. So far, she has been accepted to every intensive for which she has auditioned. 

What I am reading ~ I am reading The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. It is a relaxing read that I am enjoying. 

What I am watching ~ I am watching way too much news on Ukraine. I am also still watching Call the Midwife with Rebekah. We continue to have our family movie nights on Fridays. It was Rebekah's pick this week and we watched How to Train Your Dragon. We have also watched the 2021 version of Dune and The Dig in recent weeks. 

What I am working on ~ I am working on making everyone's schedule work with the growing gas crisis and our two cars. We have three persons with licenses, a very lousy (almost impossible) bus system to contend with, and five people with commitments all over the place. There are a lot of moving parts to the puzzle and everyone is going to have to make sacrifices to make it work. Elijah's work schedule seems to be returning to normal hours so that is helpful. They had him and everyone else cut down to half shifts which meant he had to be picked up after only three hours. He was given a new shirt at work with the Target dog on it.  My sweet little boy is a grown up young man. 

A special find ~ I found an amazing buy at the thrift shop this week. I found this American Empire  style sofa. I think the frame might be original (1830's). It is in perfect condition with only loose feet that need to be reattached. I need to study how to do that authentically, since it is missing the old fashioned pins. I was able to just slip the feet on which works perfectly when it is stationary. It is the anchor piece I have been looking for to really pull the library together. It was only $100! 

Here is how it is coming together in spring of 2022. Yes, I still need to get the overhead lighting installed that my mother gave us.

A Touch of Beauty ~ While we were in Cary, NC this weekend, we went to the NC Art Museum. We took my mother along and had a girl's road trip. We were especially enamored with a visual light show art display. You look through the hole and see this amazing light show. 

It was lovely to fill our eyes and minds with a bit of artistic beauty!

What's working for me/not working of me ~  Timothy's wound is healing quickly and we should be released from visiting nurse care in the next week or so. It was very helpful having a visiting nurse to help us through that crazy adventure. I feel very blessed for the service. 

We are constantly struggling to figure out how to support our daughter Katie, while still maintaining boundaries and generally not going insane. She is a demanding and chaotic whirlwind, who only wants to do things on her terms and in her way and then wants to be rescued when it all explodes in her face. 

Quick update on Katie ~ She is currently living with her most recent boyfriend  and other roommates in an unfurnished house about an hour away. She has announced that she is marrying this man as soon as he manages to get divorced from his current wife. They are both 21 years old and he has obvious mental health issues, too. He doesn't seem to be dangerous which is an improvement over the last man. She has also acquired a gigantic dog which will just complicate matters the next time she finds herself homeless (sorry...if there is a next time). Who am I kidding? Her current roommates are already threatening to put her out after just a few weeks. 

Praying for all that are suffering and that peace will come to Ukraine and all of the world. Please show kindness as you move through your days. It is what we all can do to create a better tomorrow. 

Blessings, Dawn