In Other News, the Baking was Going Very Well Until Today

When I started this I called it Kris's Pandemic 2020 Blog. It NEVER occurred to me that I would still be writing a pandemic blog in October of 2021. Today I finally bit the bullet and renamed it. It no longer has years in it. I need to both keep my optimism about 2022 (optimism is a rare quality, I hoard as much as possible) and stay sane and in this reality. So this is officially my blog of...this Covid period...whatever that might mean.

The baseball went predictably. The Mariners were really never in their last game and the teams they were up against both won so it ended up not mattering anyway. For the record, in the end the Yankees and the Red Sox ended in a tie and both qualified as wild card teams. The Blue Jays finished a game behind that and the Mariners finished a game behind the Blue Jays. All of those teams won 90+ games, a good record by any standard. The Red Sox eliminated the Yankees two days later in a playoff game (don't get me started on how dumb Major League Baseball's playoff system is...with the system now affecting the Dodgers and important LA people complaining maybe they'll change it but I don't feel optimistic.) The Red Sox are now tied in their next round series and I hope they get eliminated soon. And so far I haven't cared about any of it enough to up my TV package so I can actually watch. Maybe I will when it gets deeper in. Then again, maybe I won't. But bottom line, it is now a sad, depressing off season for the Mariners and while we try to soak up as much of lovely October as we can (it was really nice this week) the depressing and dark season is coming on fast.

Intermission while I am forced to go outside and get exercise with my family :)

That was nice. I get whiny about walks to and from school and in the forest because our neighborhood is so very hilly. But I know it is good for us.

This week I did find some time to go running by myself which I haven't been able to do since school started...with the walks to and from school I haven't found the time and while the walks are good exercise they aren't enough. My runs help me on so many levels...I need to move my body and get my heart rate up and work on getting into physical shape and I also need the alone time while doing it. So I stashed my car in a neighborhood near the school and then went for a nice run around the neighborhood and had time for a nice cool down walk in the forest. It was so completely lovely. I may try to do it once a week if Josh is cool with me leaving the toddler with him for an hour or so, which he generally is as Max is fairly independent when I'm not there. Of late I've really been embracing the idea of Health at Every Size and it is liberating...it makes me want to stick with exercise when it isn't about changing the shape of my body but just about treating it well and making it healthy. The truth is I'm probably not going to ever be a really small person but I am capable of being a much more in shape person and if I focus on the latter I won't get discouraged in ways I always do when I focus on the former. And I'm not so self conscious about my body as I once was. My body is loved and has borne babies and walked miles and can swim and dance and I don't care so much now about my tummy or my sags. I would like to take care of my skin and not get wrinkles and I would like to feel healthy and in shape so I can tackle the hills in the forest and the rest of it doesn't worry me so much.

As for feeding my body good things, we are really just trying to focus on home cooking. The pandemic has meant wayyyy too much takeout but the good news is fall is cooking season for me and Max LOVES to help in the kitchen when his brother is in school. So we have made cookies and pumpkin bread and batch and batch of applesauce and chicken stock and cooked pumpkins for freezing and eating the seeds. We need to do more pumpkins because we are already running out. James and I made a pumpkin pie today and it was a DISASTER...not his fault...I didn't notice until AFTER the sweetened condensed milk went in that it expired in 2019. It was...not the right color. We did...not eat the pie.

But when you cook with kids you have to remember process over product and again with Health at Any Size I am not focusing on calories or restrictions, just on eating foods that fuel us and make us feel good and are cooked from scratch in our home, so lots of comfort foods made from fresh ingredients. I have so many things I want to try! I've never had gnocchi. I even checked Julia Child's cookbook out from the library and dream of making her coq au van because it just sounds so yummy.

So yeah...leaning into the domesticity, lots of mothering which was hard today because James and I are so very alike and so get on each other's nerves. Lots of cooking. Lots of what would be called nesting behavior if I were pregnant but as I'm not let's call it fall prep. I think I channel my mom a lot this time of year. That's not so terrible.

Media consumption...I was watching Arrested Development which I got tired of and then I was watching classic Bewitched which I got tired of so lately I have been watching Friends which isn't good because I swear I feel my IQ decline when I watch that show. I know I am in need of something new but I don't know what. I read Room to Dream, the third book in the Front Desk series, and it was delightful and made me want to write more, which I was moderately successful at doing this week. I think I'm going to attempt an all over the place NaNoWriMo this year and see if I can finally finish my rough draft of this novel in verse. I also read Flora Segunda which was cool if slow and I've started the classic Passing by Nella Larson but so far only read the introduction which SPOILED THE BOOK, so annoying. Today I started reading We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry and the jury is very out on that one but I've just started it.

Today I'm grateful for James and I forgiving each other, a warm clean kitchen the 42 acre public forest so close to home and school, snuggles, wool socks, my doggie, and my beloved husband who I get to go through all this with.