This week was not my favourite. Nothing objectively terrible happened, but it felt like walking around with pebbles in my shoes. (For people I care about, it was more like giant boulders.)
If you’ll allow me to complain lament for a few minutes…I promise there are Happy Things ahead; I did read Laura’s post yesterday!
The Hard Things section includes reflections on aging parents and disturbing global news. Feel free to skip ahead to Happy Things if you need to focus on lighter topics today.
Hard Things
Sleep hygiene gone awry. In an effort to improve my deep sleep, I queued up an audio track from The Sleep Reset. So far, so good. I could feel myself relaxing. Then came a fairly standard visualization exercise. I was asked to think of a specific place that was a safe, happy retreat. The spot I envisioned was the exact vantage in the photo above — looking out over the lake where my parents converted their tiny cottage into a retirement home. I’ve spent a portion of every summer of my life at this lake. Still great. Until the exercise prompted me to turn around and take in my surroundings. There they were: my aging parents, sitting on the beach around a bonfire. Suddenly, my happy place felt bittersweet and I could not shake the sudden onset of dread/sadness. I got out of bed, made toast with peanut butter and chocolate (delicious, as expected), and tried to calm down. The result? Less than six hours of sleep. Total backfire.
The neighbourhood situation. It’s still not resolved. I’m not sure what to call the current state of affairs, but resolved isn’t the word. After years of blurred lines, there are now very clearly defined lines and the difference is staggering…but during the summer months, those lines start to overlap. I’m not on high alert or overly vigilant, but I’m observant. And it’s those fleeting observations, happening more frequently now that the days are longer, that leave me slightly on edge in a complicated, virtually unavoidable sort of way.
Illness and suffering. A friend’s family member is going through a sudden, incredibly difficult illness. Someone I oversee at the university wrote this week to tell me her elderly mother had passed away. Another day I had lunch with a dear friend who works out of a children’s hospital supporting refugee families who have experienced severe trauma and fled active war zones — the scope of what she sees is utterly heartbreaking.
The state of the world. I read a BBC article about infants on the verge of dying from malnutrition in Gaza (*warning: the pictures in this news article are highly distressing*). I want to race to my local pharmacy and buy every case of formula on the shelf and get it into the hands of these desperate mother’s who have nothing to do with the current conflict and just. want. to. feed. their. babies. In the same article there was a picture of the back of a boy — he looks about Indy’s age — and you can see every single rib. It made me want to scream. And weep. How is this the state of the world? That could be my boy. He’s someone’s son! And my son gets to sleep in a soft bed at night and eats three meals a day and copious snacks and has fresh, clean drinking water whenever he needs it. It’s utterly heartbreaking. Even more so when one stops to remember this is just one of many regions in the world where basic human rights are being jeopardized right now.
There is no good way to transition back to my inconsequential pebbles…this sentence will have to suffice.
- And at the end of one long day, I was elated to take a shower. The water pressure was virtually nonexistent. What is going on?? (Still haven’t figured it out, and the water pressure – in the shower only – is still not atrocious.)
- John was away on a work trip, including all last weekend, and most of the previous weekend. The kids were great but still…it can grow wearisome to be the only adult in the house.
- Our very old, very reliable, hasn’t-broken-once dishwasher is starting to fall apart. The metal spokes on the bottom rack are breaking off one by one. This thing is a workhorse and I know when we eventually have to replace it with something new that dishwasher won’t last for decades.
- We have a floor drain in our basement that’s hard to access (requires crawling in through a tiny hole), but needs to periodically have some water poured in to make sure the P-trap is full. We’ve had a lot of rain and I could smell sewer gas in the basement and I know I need to crawl into the tiny space and pour some water down the drain and it would solve the problem. And yet, I chose to silently retch instead of do anything.
- Groceries needed to be purchased and food needed to be prepared and laundry needed to be washed and dried and appointments needed to be made and bills needed to be paid (I paid car insurance for the year — which is $$$ — and that same day both vehicle registration bills arrived) and I STILL haven’t dealt with the giant pile of winter gear I threw into a heap in our storage room last week.
Tuesday was a hectic day with lots of moving parts. I thought I was on top of things. I had soup bubbling on the stove — enough for leftovers and maybe even some for the freezer. It’s Belle’s favourite and I thought it would be nice to come back from the orthodontist to soup waiting and ready (before we headed out the door for Indy’s soccer practice).
I was on the phone with John and made the whole soup while chatting. I thought I turned off the stove (cue ominous music), but uncharacteristically left the pot on the element so the carrots could soften a bit more. I headed back to the basement to work in the office. Thirty minutes later, I heard loud beeping.
The smoke detector.
Turns out I had NOT turned off the element.
I consulted the internet to see how to salvage scorched soup. I poured it into two glass containers, stirred in peanut butter (why?? I knew this wasn’t going to get rid of the burnt taste, but it’s what the internet told me to do). Then I decided I should actually put it into the slow cooker. No sooner had I transferred the soup…the handle on my crock pot (a wedding gift over 15 years ago, so it doesn’t owe me anything) broke.
Did I mention I needed to be AT THE SCHOOL collecting Belle for her orthodontist appointment.
But then I made a list of all the good things:
- The smoke detector worked!!!!!!!!
- I hadn’t left the house. What if I hadn’t been down in the office? Or what if I’d had noise cancelling headphones in?
- I was able to clean out the pot — it took an hour and lots of elbow grease, but I love my pots and am relieved it survived my negligence.
- I hate food waste, but even though I had to throw out a huge pot of soup *sob*, I didn’t have to worry about my kids missing a meal.
- Subway coupons had arrived in the mail the day before. So…we went to Subway for supper and it was HILARIOUS and a highlight of my year for various inside-family-joke reasons.
- It was spring and the weather was mild enough I could open all the windows to get rid of the lingering burnt smell.
Moving on to Happy Things.
Ice Cream
I crossed another fun idea off my list! On the way home from soccer last week, John suggested we stop for ice cream. No one disagreed. Of course I picked mint chip. Was it as good as the gelato in Portugal? Not even close. Was it still delicious? YES!
Another night — again, after soccer (oops, this is verging on being a habit) — I asked Indy if he wanted to stop at Burger King for a soft serve. Months ago someone mentioned Burger King has the best vanilla soft serve ice cream. I’d never had their ice cream (or their burgers, for that matter), so this was all in the name of research.
The ice cream was fine (nothing earth-shattering) but it was a fun and unexpected one-on-one memory with Indy.
Movie Night
John left for his work trip on Saturday which is typically one of our at-home date nights. I pivoted and the kids and I spent the evening watching a movie (Ocean’s Eleven — more profanity than I’d like but SO up my kids’ alley and I’ve long adored this movie.)
Belle and I worked together to make Peanut Butter Lava Cakes and *chefs kiss*.
Also, wow…I had a lot of ice cream this week!
Formula One – Miami Grand Prix
This has become another family “thing.” We all have our favourite drivers and teams and take the whole thing quite seriously (we’re even hoping to make a family trip out of attending a race at some point). It was a sprint weekend, meaning there was the regular race, plus a shorter “sprint.”
The main race was Sunday at supper time and we made grilled cheese (I had a salad on the side), and cuddled up to watch people drive cars maniacally fast. If you’d told me a few years ago I’d care about any of this, I’d have flat-out denied the possibility. Now I’ll quickly admit I love it!
Salad
Speaking of salads…here are three new things I’ve added to my rotation:
- Olive Feta. You know how Feta is usually dry and crumbly? This version with olives is soft and creamy and SO good.
- I bought a new salad dressing (Hope Blooms) at a local farm market. It’s made locally and has an incredible back story with 100% of the proceeds going back to this worthy initiative!
- Pickled asparagus. I picked this up on a whim. When I got home and ate a spear I wasn’t sure…but then I chopped some up and added it to a salad. Shut the front door. SO GOOD.
BONUS HAPPY THINGS
- A long Sunday afternoon nap.
- John got home early yesterday evening! He managed to catch a flight that landed three hours earlier than his original scheduled arrival. Three hours makes a big difference at the end of an exhausting trans-Atlantic flight.
- Postcards in the mail from Anne and Engie! Thank you both for brightening my day!
- The kids singing Disney songs at the top of their lungs before bedtime.
- Peanut butter and banana toast. This is my ultimate comfort food.
- Birdsong in the morning.
- Delicious dark chocolate. (85% Laura Secord – highly recommend!)
- Magic bags at my feet.
- Mint gum.
- Listening to a classical music playlist while I did some deep work.
- Hot showers. (Even if the pressure was pitiful.)
- Electricity.
- There was a half day of school on Wednesday and we ended up with three extra kids at our house. The entry-way jumble of shoes made me smile. As did the fact Belle abandoned her phone behind for the whole visit.
- Getting caught up on laundry.
- I walked with SHU!! Okay, okay — it was a walk-and-talk via WhatsApp, but after years of hearing her voice on podcasts, it was such a treat to get to talk back.
Okay. That’s a wrap on my week. The world is full of pebbles and boulders — but thankfully also birdsong, postcards, and mint-chip ice cream.
Your turn.
- When’s the last time you burned supper?
- Tell me what I should start adding to my salads?
- Any Hard Things/Happy Things to share?
- Who wants to join me for a walk-and-talk?
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Suzanne
Those hard things are hard, Elisabeth ❤️
I once had to throw out an entire pot of lobster bisque and it still pains me to think of it.
Happy things this week include a house project with my dad, a walk with girlfriends, and a card in the mail from you!!!!
Elisabeth
Yup. I can name my hard things and not compare! Hard is hard and when I process the hard, it tends to make it easier to focus on the brighter side of things WHICH makes me more likely to radiate kindness and joy to others which hopefully will have a ripple effect. I can’t get formula into the hands of that needy mother, but hopefully I can help someone closer to home in some equally important way.
Yay! You got a card from me! I feel like it’s as much fun to send (and hear about the arrival of) snail mail to others as it is to receive it.
I know how expensive lobster is – OUCH!
mbmom11
Oh, I have burnt so many things on the stove! String beans.suffer the most: they don’t take long to cook, but I invariable get distracted at dinner time and finally notice the burnt green smell. I’ll tell you the worst thing I burnt: I left a pan of cookies in the oven for hours. I was in junior high and made a quick batch of cookies before school. I must have forgotten the last tray. My brother came home a few hours later and found the lumps of charcoal in the oven.
I can’t do much about your hard things, except give you sympathy and hope it gets better. I encourage you to go online and see if you can buy the parts for your dishwasher. Those usually aren’t hard to replace.
Also, talk to your parents about your worries over them. They might make you feel less concerned.
Random ice cream is a good idea!
A few very hard things this week – sometimes you get so much trouble that the next bad thing doesn’t get such a strong reaction – you’re already full up! But I did drive my sons class for a field trip to a museum. I had 5 preteen boys in my car- they were a hoot.
mbmom11
For your shower, try unscrewing the shower head. Mineral deposits can build up and all of a sudden, there’s small pebble things blocking the flow. Happens to me all the time, as I live in an area with hard water and no water softener.
Elisabeth
Okay. I’ve done this, run some CLR through it and will report back!
Elisabeth
Someone else in my family recently forgot they were steaming green beans and the pot boiled dry. Ugh. The SMELL.
The very first time I was asked to boil potatoes for supper, I peeled them, set them on the stove to cook and promptly walked to my neighbours house to borrow a book. Again, the smell…
I looked up the parts and they’re as expensive as a new dishwasher. I do think I’m going to go to the hardware store and get a set of plumbers tape which will help me reinforce and rejuvenate the life of what we have left in this dishwasher.
Listening to a gaggle of kids carrying on in my car is one of my absolute favourite things about having older kids. The things they talk about are hilarious!
Catrina
I feel the same about my parents – a sort of anticipatory grief. They’re both in their mid-80s and still doing well, but I live in Cape Town and they’re in Zurich.
Every time I leave after a visit, there’s this underlying anxiety that one of them might die while I’m away, and that this is the LAST goodbye.
It’s intense how quickly a happy memory or place can tip into something bittersweet when love and loss get tangled. (And yes, peanut butter and chocolate on toast is an excellent emergency protocol!)
Elisabeth
YES! This exactly. It’s anticipatory grief.
And yes, the underlying sadness this could be the “last time.” Of course that’s always a possibility for any of us, but it becomes far more pronounced the older our parents get. *Sob*
And yes to love and loss getting tangled.
This whole comment = exactly how I feel.
Katy @PracticalWalk
After a hard conversation last night of people we know who are going through difficulties, I think a happy things post will be a good exercise for me:
– my new doctor, who unbeknownst to me before my appointment worked in the same country and area as us in West Africa! It was the craziest and most pleasant surprise!
– Jobs for my husband
– I’ve made 4 ebay sales
– Plants growing in the garden
– the book of James
Sorry for your difficult things this week.
Elisabeth
Congrats on all the happy things. Yay for my eBay sales. You just opened the store, so that’s incredible.
And I read about the doctor connection on your blog and that is just wonderful. Such a beautiful God moment.
Birchie
I’m sorry for the tough things but overjoyed at the happy things! Spontaneous Subway dinner! PB chocolate lava cake!!! A walk with SHU!!!
My memory is hazy of what/when the last time I burned something but it was an epic thing that made the whole house stink for a few hours.
Yummy thing to add to salads or honestly just eat out of the jar – hearts of palm!
Happy thing is that we have a stepson birthday over the weekend which means a big family party this weekend! And on Monday I’m getting on a plane to go hang out with some of our friends for a week!
Elisabeth
I know! So many good things! I mean…lava cakes? SHU? Subway? Life is good.
I’ve never had hearts of palm. Stupid question – in what aisle does one find these?
Enjoy the party and I can’t wait to hear all about your fun adventures.
Central Calif. Artist Jana
I also have wondered about hearts of palm. Where are they in the grocery store? Are they good for you? In what way? I need someone else to buy a jar (a package? a can?) and hand me one to try.
Elisabeth
Well, I can’t hand you one to try, but I will be on the lookout at the grocery store and will aim to report back via the blog 🙂
Grateful Kae
One time I put eggs on the stove to hard boil and then proceeded to completely forget about them and GOT IN THE SHOWER. The water eventually all boiled away and then the eggs start crackling and popping as they were like, frying in the dry pan!! omg. Thankfully I think I got out of the shower by the time it got to that point and I was like, what on earth is that weird burning smell and those popping noises!?! I have a tendency to do things like that when I’m not “really” in a certain mode but am attempting to “multi-task”. For example, I have put chicken in water to boil to make shredded chicken and then gone back downstairs to my office intending to pop back up and check on it in 10 minutes. Well. I narrowly avoided the egg situation (but with chicken) another time. It’s like as soon as I got back to my desk, my brain completely forgot about the chicken!! (in fact, I made some shredded chicken this week and did the same thing, but I wrote “CHICKEN” on a big post it and stuck in on my screen! haha.
I also once went outside to put chemicals in our hot tub on a break (requires leaving the lid off for 15 minutes or so to circulate the chlorine, so I was just going to run back outside to close it in a bit) and I ended up leaving the hot tub open for like, 5 hours. hahahaha. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess…. lol.
Elisabeth
EGGS! And the popping. I just can’t even, Kae. This is hilarious and also must have smelled SO BAD.
Yup, I was trying to do too many things at once. This is all too common for me 🙁 I often do the note to myself thing, too. Very smart!
Hey, we’re busy ladies with very busy lives. We have to drop the ball sometimes…and unfortunately that can include burned eggs and soup.
Jenny
Sometimes even the happy things in life are tinged with sadness. Watching kids grow up= a little bit of grieving for each stage that’s passed. And seeing your parents age is so, so hard. It seems like it shouldn’t be this hard… but it is. Sorry about your ongoing neighborhood situation (ugh, I thought that had been resolved) and yes… starving children. What is wrong with this world?
But there are still Happy Things! Ice cream and pickled asparagus! (Not together). To answer your question- I was once making tortilla chips (cut up tortillas, drizzled them with oil and salt, and baked in the oven). I left the chips in the oven and thought I turned it off, but I actually SET IT TO BROIL and then walked away. The chips caught on fire AND WE HAD TO GET A NEW OVEN. So, there’s a worst case scenario, although I guess in retrospect things could have actually been a lot worse- at least the fire was contained to the oven.
You got to talk to SHU! I’ve heard rumors about an upcoming Nova Scotia trip and I am SO JEALOUS.
Elisabeth
Your post today = perfect. I really appreciated Catrina’s take on it, calling it anticipatory grief. And with kids it’s the finality of realizing a particular routine or season is over. Forever. I don’t miss the little stages of parenting, but sometimes I DO wish I could rock my kids to sleep or feed them a bottle or push them in a stroller.
Also YOU WIN THIS GAME. You burned something and had to get a new oven. That is definitely a worst-case-scenario and I will add “Did not have to buy a new oven” to my gratitude list surrounding the recent burned food incident in my home.
And yes…there are supposed to be multiple special guests coming east this year and I am excited!!!!!
Nicole MacPherson
Oh boy, what a week. I’m so sorry about the neighbourhood sitch, I had to take a few deep breaths reading that. Sending you a big hug. And some unburnt soup (gahhhhhh).
We have that same thing with our P-trap and I had never heard of it until we were in this house. Periodically our house would smell like sewage, which is obviously not ideal. The water thing works but Rob is the only one who has done it and he hasn’t yet shown me how. I will get him to show me today because you just KNOW it’s going to need filling when he’s gone or something and then I will die of the septic smell of the house.
Oh nooooo sorry about the sleep thing and the visualization. Talk about a backfire, here you are in your happy place and bam.
But onto good things – I love pickled asparagus! It even makes a brief appearance in my book in the most random way.
A walk and talk, how fun is that!
One of our current fave salads has candied pecans (just heat up some brown sugar and water together, add pecans, cook until NOT BURNT, that is the one thing that I have low-level burned), roasted chickpeas, dried blueberries, goat cheese, and apple.
Elisabeth
Thanks, friend. Nothing new or big, just the uneasiness that comes with living in the middle of a dormant issue.
The frustrating thing about the P-trap is we had a trap-seal primer installed which is supposed to drip tiny amounts of water into the drain so there is never a need to do it manually (in fact, it’s necessary according to new code) – but it still smells.
I am INTRIGUED that pickled asparagus makes an appearance in your book. I had never heard of it before in my life before I spotted it on a store shelf the other day. The ingredient list is short and sweet, so I picked it up on a whim. So good.
I love roasted chickpeas, too. I bought some from Costco but they’re soooo hard. I really need to just make it myself. And dried blueberries are something I have never once tried, but they sound delish.
Bijoux
I remember how hard it was raising children while my spouse traveled. I thought I’d lose my mind some days. I have never tried pickled asparagus, but it sounds good. I love roasted chickpeas, feta, kalamata olives on salad. Also, any berry with nuts or pepitas.
Elisabeth
I love that this current feta has both the cheese AND olives. Both add such a great zing. I adore pepitas and eat them literally every single day!
Colleen Martin
The soup hurt my heart. I always always set a timer when I cook because if not I will always always forget about something cooking. Even just a 5 minute timer reminding me to come back and stir/check. Have you tried pickled onions on salad? Yum! And there’s no such thing as too much ice cream in a week 🙂 I hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day Elisabeth!
Elisabeth
It hurt my heart too. All that time chopping veggies! Throwing out food! But…so much to be thankful for.
I always set a timer, too. Except this time I was sure I had turned the stove off. Argh. Moving on.
Unfortunately, onion really upsets my stomach, but it is yummy.
I’m sure you will be VERY busy over the Mother’s Day weekend between the ice cream cottage and time with the family.
Ally Bean
It’s been a while since I burned anything, but I’m an expert at spilling things all over the counters. Does that count?
We’ve started adding pepitas [hulless pumpkin seeds] to our salads and enjoy the crunch + fiber.
A walk and talk sounds like it could be fun if the talker isn’a a complainer. That would ruin the experience for me.
Elisabeth
Spilling is a whole other kettle of fish, but equally annoying.
I do love pepitas and my favourite way to consume them is on my daily bowl of Greek yogurt and cottage cheese.
I am here to confirm Sarah is NOT a complainer <3 It was an absolutely lovely conversation.
Diane
OMG – the knob on the slow cooker is like the cherry on top of a downward spiral cone. It’s like any one thing is fine, but a string of pebbles…
Sometimes I pass off burnt soup as “smoked”… and add a dash of smoked paprika to lean into it.
I got some candy cane beets at the farmer’s market this week and I’m looking forward to making beet, cucumber, chickpeas salad with dill and lemon.
Elisabeth
I actually laughed when the handle broke. Really????
I tried to pass off the soup as smoked to myself and it was not convincing so I knew it was going to be hopeless trying to pass it off to my kids. I hate food waste, but I also feel like life is too short to eat objectively bad tasting food. I DID compost it, so it will break down and make good soil eventually.
That salad sounds delicious.
Central Calif. Artist Jana
There is a book called “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman in which he addresses the fact that we are receiving bad news from all over the world. We are completely impotent to deal with it, making it irrelevant to our lives, and it weighs us down. Really, WHY do I need to know about an apartment fire, a bus wreck, a train derailment? I’ve chosen to limit my exposure to news because I am already weighed down by all the troubles in my own life and in those of people I love.
You had a lot of good in your life this week to balance the bad. Kind of produces emotional whiplash, doesn’t it?
Elisabeth
It’s so true. I have become much more selective about how much I read. I waffle on this – I often am unaware of big things happening, especially in our local area, and that can feel “wrong” in a way? But you are so true that most of these big things we can’t help offset. All I can do is look to make wise choices and show love and kindness within my actual sphere of influence. Which, unfortunately, does not extend to peace in the Middle East.
LEA
I know you’re in Canada but if youre interested in finding a creamier feta you can see if you’re near a Greek supermarket (or check your local supermarkets). There are two really good types of Feta. One is named Arahova (the region in Greece where it comes from) and the second is Dodoni (this one is the name of the company that makes it). Both are creamier than the standard supermarket types of Feta cheese.
Elisabeth
Noted! Creamy feta was something new too me and I liked it! There is also a slightly milder taste about this one which I’m enjoying. Sharp, but in an even more pleasant way.
Thanks for the tip 🙂
Alexandra
Sorry to hear of the pebbles in your shoe. Life always seems to throw everything but the kitchen sink at us all at once. Hang in there, you know things will turn around. Also, it’s tough seeing our parents aging. I remember coming back from working in the States for several years and seeing my parents was a shocked, how much they had aged treasure every moment you you have with them, while you can.
I would have cried if I had lost a whole pot of soup. I do love my soup. I actually don’t remember when I last burnt anything, but it was probably toast. As for what to add to salads? Yikes. What don’t I add? I try to source all sorts of nuts, seeds, greens and beans. I certainly know what I don’t like in my salads.
It’s been another rather quiet week here. We had good news about the mother in law who has a new doctor, and she’s getting a lot better health care since. That’s our big win of the week.
Elisabeth
That’s a huge win! I’m so glad to hear this news, Alexandra. Yay for victories like this.
I didn’t cry and I have to admit that noting all the GOOD things was extremely helpful to reframe the situation and get a bit more perspective.
Alexandra
We do have a tendency, as humans, to focus on the bad rather than the good. As you say, reminding ourselves of all the good is a great way to remember it’s not all gloom and doom.
Oh, indeed, the doctor finally order a ton of tests and now, my MiL is not passing out all over the place. She fell earlier this year and got an awful gash on her forehead. It was all very frightening for everyone, not least, my MiL.
Elisabeth
That is so scary! Falling is such a pressing issue as we get older. I think about that with my own parents and know a bad fall would cause major disruption to their lives at this point. Sigh. Getting older is not easy or glamorous.
Michelle G.
Oh, Elisabeth, I’m sorry you had to deal with so many pebbles and rocks this week. I understand all too well about the “anticipatory grief” of aging parents, as Catrina put it. I’m sorry about the burned soup, but look at you adding a positive spin to it by being grateful that your smoke detector worked! My mother-in-law once boiled her teapot dry, and it burned out the bottom of the kettle. It left a coating of black soot all over her kitchen, even on the ceiling. I helped her clean it up, and it took forever. It made a big impression on me, so it’s always in the back of my mind when I’m cooking something! So far, I’ve been lucky.
Elisabeth
They really are just pebbles for me, but I think most of us also feel the collective weight of the boulders other people are dealing with; life just feels…heavy in the world these days.
Yikes! That teapot story sounds like it could have ended VERY badly.
Rebecca Jo
Its always like a WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS sort of things isnt it?
Glad you still found some GOOD in the yucky moments!!!
This is a reminder to me to charge up my sleep headphones to try some SLEEP podcasts.
Elisabeth
Yes! I almost had to laugh by the time the slow cooker broke 🙂 Almost!
SHU
if I had a happy things round up you would have been on it, too! That was so lovely.
I have to crack up about the peanut butter attempt. I can’t wrap my head around how burned soup PLUS peanut butter would be any better than burned soup without peanut butter!!!
Elisabeth
It was a lot of fun. Can’t wait to talk in person soon.
I know. I KNEW the peanut butter wasn’t going to work, but the tiniest part of me thought maybe this is some internet wizardry you have to see to believe. Nope. It was not magic. It did not work. (But many, many sources said it helps – the combo of salt and fat, I think? Maybe my soup was too far gone to be rescued. Yuck it tasted BAD.)
Lisa's Yarns
There are a lot of heavy things in the world right now. I complain about things in the U.S. but have to acknowledge how lucky I was to be born in the U.S. which I did not earn – I just lucked out. My heart goes out to those living in far worse circumstances!
I nearly burned Will’s grilled cheese a few weeks ago. But I put the dark side down and he did not notice. Phil had said, “you are watching his sandwich, right?” but I clearly wasn’t and multi-tasking got the best of me.
Hmmm, salad ingredients are tough. I sometimes get a salad mix that has edamame in it and I really like that on my salad!
I love that you walked and talked with SHU! Kae has suggested we do that sometime, too, but I have the hardest time scheduling phone calls between work travel and then trying to make up for said work travel by doing bedtimes/etc. But we should find a time to catch up on the phone for once!!
Elisabeth
I have put the “dark side down” SO many times with grilled cheese.
The walk and talk was so much fun. I’d love to do it with you sometime. Did we talk on WhatsApp once? I can’t remember. I know Kae was startled when we talked and she heard my voice for the first time. SHU said I sounded just like she imagined; it was odd since of course I know her voice incredibly well from all her podcasting).
NGS
Black olives to any salad is divine. It adds just a bit of salt and I am here for it.
I hate to admit that I was laughing at the cursed soup. It burns! The crockpot breaks! What else could go wrong? I like your Subway solution. Sometimes you just have to admit defeat.
Back in the day I would buy myself a McDonald’s ice cream cone and a Diet Coke on my way home if I worked late. My mouth is watering just thinking about the delicacy. LOL.
Elisabeth
Yes! We like olives on our salad. They are yummy.
It was a cursed soup. And the Subway was delicious.
Ice cream and Diet Coke sound like a lovely way to end a long shift!
J
The situation in Gaza is giving me stomach aches. I feel so helpless. Netanyahu is a war criminal.
Your soup burning and THEN trying to save it with PB and THEN the crock pot. Crap! I’m glad you had Subway and a lot of laughs while there. My husband made a beef stew recipe once where you used filet mignon and cooked everything quickly, and at the end of the recipe you added a little gelatin and turned the heat to high, which made no sense, and it scorched and ruined the stew. We wrote to the author (America’s Test Kitchen) and they stood by the recipe as written. When we saw them make it on TV, they did not include that step, so I don’t know, ATK, I don’t know. I have a delicious recipe for short ribs where you simmer the meat in a bottle of Chianti with veggies, and at the end you strain the liquid to get the veggies out, BUT YOU KEEP THE LIQUID. I did this correctly the first couple of times I made it, and it was wonderful, but then one day I strained the veggies right over the sink and the glorious gravy went down the drain. I almost cried. The meat was still good, but still.
Your meditation experience was so poignant. Sigh. My dad came to visit me in a dream last night, and it was GREAT. All he did was pour me a glass of wine while I waited to be admitted to the hospital for COVID, but it was great to see him and somehow I was not the least bit stressed about any of it.
Elisabeth
I’m so glad you got to have a positive interaction with your dad in a dream last night. There can be a lot of emotion involved. I once had a dream one of my siblings had died and I believed that was true for hours and hours after waking up. It was so realistic.
Gelatin??? that sounds so weird. I want to go with my gut when I cook and most of the time I do. Sometimes recipes just don’t make sense and I have to trust my instincts.
Stephany
Oh, I can relate SO MUCH to that feeling of going to your happy place but then it turning into a source of stress and anxiety. I think nighttime is the worst for those feelings, too. Sometimes, I’ll get off the phone with my mom and think, “That was such a great conversation. I’m glad I have her.” And then that immediately devolves into, “OMG, one day I will not be able to call her whenever I want.” And that’s when the spiral happens. Or just thinking about how short our time on earth is and how one day I’ll be dead and so will everyone I love and gah, it’s just too much. I hate going into that way of thinking!
I’m glad you were able to find some happy things from a hard week. <3 A "walk" with a blog friend sounds like such a fun time!
Elisabeth
It is so hard. SO HARD. Then again, I think it does make us more likely to seize each day, tell the people we love we love them, etc. So there is a good side to the realization that death comes for all of us. But still…that’s so hard and accept and just heartbreaking. ENOUGH SAID.
I live so far away from other bloggers (or at least ones I know) and I’m so glad SHU pitched a digital walk. It made the time fly and we got to talk about some things that aren’t necessarily easy to cover on a public blog.
Ernie
It is unthinkable what some people have to cope with. Heart breaking to think about babies and children without food.
I sometimes make a big batch of quinoa and a year or two ago I forgot it was simmering on the stove when I went up to do laundry. It took time to get that pot clean. Bummer about your soup. I gather the peanut butter addition did not make it edible.
We had an incident with the girls this week that was unpleasant. Not the worst thing we’ve dealt with but the disrespect that followed is something we won’t tolerate. Rae has not apologized yet and we will not be telling her to because we dislike it when she acts like nothing happens. She knows better by now. I guess she will figure out eventually when we are not agreeing that she hang out with friends, etc.
We made a decision about the direction of reg’s basketball goal. Basically we hired a recruiter for Curly and he agreed to find Reg a spot free of charge. I love a good BOGO deal. Still unsure if what he finds will be the right fit for Reg, but it feels like a weight lifted.
I would love to schedule a walk and talk. Maybe once my daycare wraps up for the summer.
Elisabeth
The PB did not help. I didn’t think it would, but people were very persuasive about it working when I Googled it. Perhaps mine was just “too far gone”.
You have had so many challenges on the basketball front. Sigh. I’m glad you have some good news!
Kate
Oh my goodness, this post truly reflects the yin and yang of life. So many small (and large!) gifts. So many heartaches. I have to confess my heart started pounding as I read the story of the soup because I felt sure you were going to leave the house to pick up Belle before realizing the element was still on! But still, so painful to have to dump the whole thing, and then the crockpot knob to boot. (My wedding-present crockpot also lost its knob a few years ago, but I still used it for a while and just used it again a few weeks ago in addition to my replacement crockpot when we hosted Cece’s First Communion party!)
Grilled cheese is the absolute most common thing for me to burn. I get the first side right and then get distracted after flipping the sandwich (and admittedly, the second side never takes as long as the first side!). I have definitely done Lisa’s trick of serving it burnt side down on the plate. 😉
Happy things: running a 5K race last Saturday – even though I hadn’t been consistently running beforehand, I just love the race atmosphere and plus I got chocolate milk at the end! Haha. Hard things: one of my patients scheduled an emergency video visit with me yesterday because her beautiful newborn was diagnosed with a massive stroke at just 2 days old and is in the NICU. No risk factors, all of her prenatal testing was normal, and there is no explanation for it. We just talked and I offered some practical tips for her recovery after birth and of course prescribed some medications to help her sleep when needed. Then we ended the video visit and I sat in my office and sobbed. I just don’t understand and my heart is breaking for her.
Elisabeth
I am so thankful to the good Lord that I was still in the house and didn’t have noise-cancelling on (which would have made it about the same as being out of the house though eventually I would have smelled the burning downstairs).
Without the knob the crockpot won’t turn. I fixed the plastic handle but it still won’t turn. Sigh.
Kate – what a horrifically sad and terrifying situation for your patient. At such a beautiful and vulnerable time to have to endure something like this is unspeakably difficult. I pray the baby recovers quickly with no lasting impacts and I’m sure your kind words and gentle encouragement and help meant so very much in the middle of this devastating time.
coco
Walk with SHU!!! thats awesome! It’s always to reflect on simple life conveniences and pleasure in the midst of things that are beyond our control.
When I have scattered mind, I will make mistakes more often, like not turning off things.
I love the top picture, so serene and peaceful, yet when thinking about aging parents, it makes feel a bit sad.
Happy mothers’ day!
Elisabeth
Happy Mother’s Day!!!
K @ TS
Ice cream! You know I’m on board with that. I’ve never had the BK soft serve but last year when riding I tried my first McDonald’s cone. After a long bike ride it’s not too bad. I am actually not a big fan of soft serve if I had a choice but really who am I kidding, I would eat it all, any day really.
I’ve burned things of course, but I think Jenny does “win” the burning game. Mine is often potatoes or something that you boil but not forever!
Elisabeth
I was horrified at poor Jenny’s experience 🙁
Melissa
Ugh! I’m sorry to hear that the neighbourhood situation is still giving you grief. The Gaza situation is horrific, so sad. I’ve burned soup and stews a few times, not enough to set off the smoke detector though and I was careful to scoop the top off and not get the burnt bit mixed in. We managed to eat it, as they were just a bit smoky on the flavour, but cleaning the saucepans took ages. I wanted to give up, but made myself persevere.
I love getting the feta that is marinated in oil because it is super soft and creamy, but it is more expensive. When you toss the salad it all mixes in with the dressing and coats anything it touches.
Elisabeth
Yes! Getting rid of the smell in the house and the scalding on the pot was the worst part of the experience!
Geneva
Enjoy reading your blog. Guess I’m curious what the neighbourhood situation in is?!
Elisabeth
Thanks for asking. It’s a complicated, multi-layered situation that I’m only able to share about vaguely on the internet 🙁
San
Oh man, Elisabeth, that was at tough week… not just (local and global) hard things that were pulling you down but also a burned soup and things breaking. When it rains, it pours. I feel that a lot lately and I keep thinking and hoping that there won’t be more hard things around the corner.
I am a big fan of adding red onions to my salad. Thinkly sliced. It makes such a difference!
And you know, ice-cream almost solves everything (at least temporarily ;)).
Elisabeth
I like the taste of red onions, but they hurt my stomach soooo badly 🙁 In fact, all raw onions bother me to a certain extent, even green onions. Argh.
Daria
Pebbles in shoe is truly a thing.
Hard things: entitlement of youth (I’m generalizing of course) + state of the world +anxiety
Happy things: going to R’s preschool for “mother’s brunch” and attending L’s spring concert. So adorable. Thankful for having what we have, little things, as you stated above: safety, beds, food. Each other.
Elisabeth
It’s good to hang on to those “little” things (which we all start to realize are big things) when the world starts feeling extra bleak.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
So many hard things. The state of the world is something I am really struggling with myself. I try not to get too much into the news and at the same time I feel by not abiding I diminish the heartache of people living it. Does that make sense? Also I am really anxious about the political climate right now. It’s going in a direction I do not feel comfortable with.
But I am happy you ended the post on so many high notes. There is joy and gratitude and happiness in so many things.
I am all for mint chip ice cream. It’s not easy to come by. Last summer I experimented with making my own. not bad but not great.