Bubble, bubble, toil, and fun (mostly). I am making progress on weeds, the garden, and re-adapting to being alone. In this small town, things are relaxing a bit, however, I think there is a false sense of security especially in rural parts of the country that this is over. I am not ready to believe that and I will continue to distance myself with a wait and see attitude. Luckily my work happens in my studio so I am very lucky to be able to keep working on art projects and supplying handmade cards to my customers online. I’m an artist and we artists are very much at home working and being on our own. Yes, I do miss personal contact with friends, but I will be fine and I have a goal to stay healthy.

As I have said before, I am working on getting back to my total creative self, not just an art-making-for-profit self. Spending time in the garden, getting back to practicing the piano, doing more creative projects around my home and doing more cooking. Worrying less about getting ahead and taking more time to discover me and all the many facets of me. Just like my sourdough starter, things are bubbling in my life with new ideas and possibilities.

I thought I killed the starter the other day, but as it turned out it was just hungry and came roaring back after a dose of flour and water and it did so well, I made sourdough ciabatta which happens to be quite a lot of work, but was very much worth it. Hmm, here is another metaphor for how to make life work. 🙂

I am also exploring more vegetarian cooking ideas, I’m not, nor do I have plans to be a vegetarian, however I do realize that this pandemic is affecting our food supply chain and eating less meat would actually be good for me plus we do have a very lovely farmers market here that is always brimming with fresh local produce to work with. I am excited to be exploring many new flavors and food ideas and recipes. So far in the last week I made fresh spinach enchiladas suiza, risotto with sauteed mushrooms and a white bean salad with a tomato vinaigrette. Along with croutons made from the sourdough ciabatta, with a fresh olive and thyme spread, super delicioso! ( I guess I should be taking pictures of these things, oops). Yes, I know how to cook, and it makes me feel special to set the table, use my good dishes and have music along with a beautifully prepared meal, no matter how simple or elaborate it might be even if it is only for me, because after all, I’m worth it.

I do know I’m lucky to be ok through all of this and I do know our country needs to get back to work and back to school. I also know much of our culture was not working very well for the environment, for families, for people in general and maybe we can take this as a reset to find better ways to deal with things like healthcare that takes care of everyone, education that trains our kids to work in a new kind of world that is more technology based, and wages for workers who keep this world running beyond the office and the boardroom. Our local and national governments need to be worrying about more than just the stock market.

To end this rambling post for today, I would just like to say, that it is the little things that matter and it is the little things that make life worthwhile. My goal everyday, no matter how things are going, is to make a list of all the good things that happened through the day and it is always longer than the list of things that didn’t go as planned and I can be happy about that. So I will just continue to bubble along and figure it out. I hope you are also making progress too.

Take care, be safe, and of course,

Have a happy day!

Cheryl