In honor of World Naked Gardening Day – yes it’s a real thing that happens the first Saturday in May (http://www.wngd.org) here are some photos from our front garden.

Surely you were expecting something different, but unfortunately with Covid-19 restrictions still in place there were far too many kids riding their bikes in the street and the backyard was full of golfers so you will just have to settle for some photos of our Rhododendron bush next to the front porch.

As part of Sam’s Life Skills class for the next 5 weeks, the class has to prepare either a dessert, breakfast, lunch or dinner and record it either with photos or videos to show them doing the work.  A group of students are assigned one of the categories each week and then each student has to prepare their own dish.  Last week Sam’s group had a dessert as their assignment.  Not wanting to do the usual cookies or cake, his original suggestion was a Japanese dough ball called a Dango.  Luckily for Dad we did not have any rice flour and we couldn’t find any at the grocery store.  Feeling a little dejected Sam grudgingly agreed to just make cookies like everyone else was probably going to do.  Luckily, Dad presented another option and one that he really liked when he was younger… Beignets.  In New Orleans, there is a little cafe in the French Quarter called Cafe du Monde that makes the best Beignets and luckily they also make a mix that you can get at the grocery store.  So last week Sam made his first batch of Beignets and they turned out pretty good… although they should be eaten right warm right out of the fryer because the next morning they are quite chewy.  Anyway, Sam put the photos and instructions together into a Powerpoint and turned it in for his assignment.  Luckily for Sam this was not an English assignment because he surely would have received a failing grade (just watch the video 😉), but since it was more a participatory homework assignment he scored 100%.  Below we made his Powerpoint into a video.

This week’s assignment is breakfast… Waffles and bacon anyone??

Also, for those of you who, like us, had never heard of a Dango here is a recipe….

https://www.thespruceeats.com/mitarashi-kushi-dango-2031131

Sorry we didn’t get the invites out in time to everyone or actually anyone for that matter as it was just immediate family, but it was definitely another Wild and Crazy birthday bash for Dad!  Unlike in year’s past, we definitely pulled out all the stops this year as we went to a Saturday matinee at the family room theater and then went to the Buffalo Wild Wings.  Unfortunately the table was located pretty close to the kitchen so it was kind of busy but we still managed to have a good time.   Afterwards, cake and ice cream all around and then everyone sang a stirring rendition of the Happy Birthday song, which in this case could have easily been mistaken for a requiem.  Sam mumbled through most of it and Alex stopped singing halfway through (claiming he didn’t know the words), while Mom bravely finished what was now a solo in the kitchen. 😷 😂😂😂

 

As today’s high only reached the high-40’s with cloudy skies and a pretty strong wind we decided to go ahead and have dinner by the fireplace just for fun.  Luckily Dad never got around to cleaning out the fireplace for the year yer.  We have another frost warning tonight and probably will tomorrow night as well, but luckily it will be back in the 70’s by Friday.  Strange weather in a very strange year.

On another note, Lis did get a raise as Publix gave most employees a 55¢ raise starting this next pay period.  Publix also asked all their employees to wear a mask the other day but only issued each employee 1 mask and asked them to steam it each night – they even gave them instruction on how to do it.  Unfortunately as Lis went to work today,  most people weren’t wearing masks as they were obviously not made for such use.  Lis, however, decided to take matters into her own hands and go ahead make a couple of masks out of material we had at home (following CDC guidelines as close as possible).  As a side note, the Governor of New York issues an Executive Order for everyone to wear face masks in public… hopefully New York has masks available for everyone because they are still sold out here and online.

Finally, Best Buy has furloughed all part time employees and some full time employees so Alex is currently out of a job.  Since the only real expense he has right now is his car payment he should be Ok for a while. This might be a blessing in disguise since both Mom and Dad are still working and it’s one less person to have to worry about catching the virus.  The company is still paying full health care for all eligible workers for the next 3 months but is discontinuing company match of our 401k starting in June.  We are expecting that salaried managers will have to take a pay cut at some point as all of the Directors have already taken a 20% cut and the CEO took a 50% cut in pay.  Hopefully that will be some ways down the road though.

 

Trying to make some normalcy out of these crazy last couple of months and on day we were all at home as both Publix and Best Buy are closed on Easter, we had a relaxed Easter dinner out on the deck.  Roasted Pork Loin with onion and carrots, Mac & Cheese and Mom had some roasted Butternut Squash.  For dessert we had homemade carrot cake and some homemade chocolate chip cookies.  After dinner we all had a food coma.   Eventually Mom and Sam did go for a walk and Dad worked on cleaning up the workshop.

Just for fun we have attached a few older photos from when the boys actually participated in Easter and one really old one of Dad with Uncle Les and Uncle Randy.

This past week, Sam had to interview Mom and Dad for a class project surrounding a poem they read in English.  The questions were centered around the Covid-19 pandemic and how it is affecting everyone.  Some of the questions were suggested by the teacher while the last few were Sam’s own choosing.  For the project to be successful, Sam needed about 15 minutes of interview time and he assumed Mom and Dad would be able to give him 7-8 minutes each.  Obviously this was a little overly optimistic, as between the two of us the total was only about 9 min.  So with time running down, Sam Skyped Gung Gung to get an additional interview to hit his time goal.  All Sam had to do was to record the interview and then email each video in to complete the assignment.  Luckily he didn’t have to edit the interviews, but just turn them in as the original recording.  After watching the interviews, we decided to create this short montage for everyone to see and for a time capsule of sorts to look back on in a few years.  None of us had a lot of time to review the questions, especially Gung Gung, but we all managed to get it through it with relatively few squeamish moments… which were thankfully edited out of the final version. 😄

 

 

In other news and views… Publix finally started handing out masks to everyone, in what is sure to be the new normal for a while.  Best Buy is now also encouraging everyone to wear a mask and has asked for volunteers to start making some for their stores and local hospitals.  Best Buy also has some on order and hopefully those will arrive next week.

Although we don’t know for sure what next year holds for Sam, we do know that we are very grateful that Sam is attending JPII this year.  The kids had their last day of class in school on Friday, March 13th and they also had their last school sporting event, a home Lacrosse game that same night.  The following Monday was a built-in teacher’s day and that was when we got the notification that the school would be closed for at least 2 weeks (it’s now indefinitely), but online classes would begin on Wednesday, March 18th.  The first day was really just a test run as everyone was getting used to the online setup, but the next day school began in earnest.  Lis even heard one of Sam’s teachers tell the class that if she couldn’t see you then you would be counted absent… no messing around here.  So Sam really only missed one day of classes and they will still have Spring Break as planned (the week of Easter) and also plan on finishing the school year on schedule.  The school announced this week that they are able to go to a 4 day work week as they are not wasting the time in between classes and trying to get the students to start class.  The 5th day of the week, the teachers will be available online for questions and tutoring as needed.  It has definitely been a blessing to know Sam is still getting a good education… can you imagine if Mom and Dad would have had to home school him? 😁 😁  We are still trying to figure out his Saturday welding class at Pitt Community College – apparently they are still continuing class online with the very large textbook and videos, but he just won’t have the on-hand training.  With a little help from Alex, we hope to sign in tonight to see how the system works and check to see if there is any homework assigned.

 

Nothing better than nature to help us relax during a pandemic…