Woods

A drawing by Phoebe

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

by Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

My neighborhood path through the woods.

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

My Developing Relationship with One-Ply

The shelves offer more toilet paper now, for which I am grateful. I can live without pasta or Del Monte Cut Green Beans, but TP is essential -- a tough item to lose.

These shelf offerings are unknown to me. Where is my familiar Charmin Essentials Soft?! I see Angel Soft over there, but I've been down that road before and it was disappointing.

We have strange faces staring back at us: Aqua, Rojo, Hill Country Essentials. I recognize the Hill Country label so that's the one I choose.

I take it home. It is dense. Hefty. Promising a substantial roll instead of a readily emptying one.

But, oh! Discoveries! Alas, it is one-ply. The dreaded, joke-inducing one-ply. So thin. So..... cheap. It doesn't tear at the perforations! Are there perforations? An attempt, presumably, at perforations.

Time passes and I grow to appreciate my one-ply. It is indeed a hefty roll. Though thin, it be sturdy. It lasts a long time between tube changes. If not the handsomest of packaging, it is reliable and not altogether unpleasant. I come to be surprised at how much I delight in one-ply when compared with other knavish plies I have purchased.

During this novel coronavirus, I have learned true love. A love for the vexatious, the irksome, the infernal. A love that has not only come to tolerate one-ply, but may even keep him around when new choices appear on the shelves.

Birthdays and the Elevation of the Family

Phoebe turned 14 this week! 

She had talked about going to one of those Old-Timey Photo places to get some pictures taken. But everything is closed right now. So we had her meal of Stromboli, her cake of Boston Cream Pie, her opening of gifts and the watching of her choice of movie. She wanted a funny Western. We found several suggestions, but she decided on a familiar one.

Maverick

Phoebe has been doing some sewing lately, embroidery, drawing, listening to books, reading books. She's gotten Harrison to listen to Harry Potter. Phillip and Jon got Phoebe to read Lamour's Down the Long Hills. I'm trying to get Phoebe to read Love Comes Softly. Liz is going back to Mere Christianity because when I had her read it a few years ago, it was a little over her head. I enjoy a little book swapping and chatting amongst the family.

Snowball fight! 

Jon's fake snowballs gave them a few minutes of fun this afternoon. 

It's been surprisingly cool this past week. I was glad because I've been wanting to have one last backyard fire. It was a good fire too ~ we aren't always successful at building one. We cooked bacon. Campfire bacon is the best. 

Our neighborhood found out this week that their schools are shut down for the rest of this current school year. We weren't too surprised at the news. Our family has 5 weeks of school left, and we're keeping at it like we were before Corona. Except I do half a math lesson with Harrison per day instead of a whole one. That's my one little concession to lighten up our days. 

I feel bad for all the high school seniors who are really celebrated their last year of school. No proms or Skip Days or graduation ceremonies. If I had been looking forward to all of that, it would be such a depressing bummer. Liz wasn't going to have a graduation ceremony. She was going to attend a prom, and that's up in air as to if it will happen. She also had a graduation party date picked out, and we'll have to see if that can still happen. Her college is getting kids registered early for classes, so they'll be calling her soon to get her college freshman classes set up. She's out shopping with her dad right now for a car. Life is moving on, if a little differently than planned.

Around our house I see old advertisements for daycares and preschools promoting early education and such. It made me so, so happy that the family is being elevated right at this moment of crisis. When it came around to hunkering down, they didn't separate family units and put them under an authority the government deemed a better fit. They actually said that the family, the home was the best place for everyone. What a testimony to the reality He put in place from the very beginning. I don't like quarantining. But I'm super thankful for my husband and kids and our home.

Celebrate!

This Easter has been a real day of celebration. 

I feel our family has found its routine after three weeks of Covid Quarantine. Routine is truly cause for celebration. There's something calming and comforting about it.  

Jon is almost done getting his driving hours in. He drove to Krispy Kreme this week, and I was enraptured by these Spring Minis. They are disgustingly sweet, but they were so cute.

The neighbor shared the egg-dying experience with the rest of the kids who were outside playing. I'm not sure Harrison has ever dyed eggs. Have my others ever dyed eggs? It's never been a thing that I felt the need to do. But they sure enjoyed it! So, thank you, Ms. T for letting the kids in on it.

This looked like a William Tell reenactment, only with a shoe on the head and a stuffed soccer ball "arrow." I asked the kids if they were doing William Tell, and they said, "Huh? We call this Man-Ball." The little "man" was hit by the ball quite a few times. 

We did Drive-in Church at Castle Hills again. It was a really good Easter sermon: Silent Saturday, the day when you think nothing is happening and you have lost hope. The day right before the miraculous is going to happen, but you don't know it yet. The day you must trust Someone who is above it all and knows.....

We are grateful our church has kept up services through all the Quarantine stuff. It's not the same. We can't get out of our cars, and you feel like you're singing by yourself. It's sad really. But it's something. I can't wait to gather together again. 

And then we had the most bestest Easter Hour with the neighborhood! 

Some of the moms and I had been talking this week about doing a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. I told them we were planning to do one for everyone, so they gave us their eggs and candy to add to ours. Several neighbors also contributed cascarones. We had over 200 stuffed eggs and probably 200 cascarones. 

While my older kids and neighbor moms hid the eggs, Phillip did the Bible Easter Story using Resurrection Eggs ~ the kind that each have a plastic symbol inside. Like, there was a donkey for Palm Sunday and 3 silver coins for Judas' betrayal. I've always loved these for telling the Easter story. 

And then they were let loose to gather the eggs in their baskets! 

I'm sure they'll be finding eggs in the days to come, but all the Golden Eggs were found. 

Here they are getting the candy out and a neighbor mom is saving the plastic eggs for next year. 

So many cascarones! 

Jonathan had looked for these at Walmart and couldn't find them. Turns out we didn't need to provide any! 

Cascarone fight! 

I got exactly one cracked on my head. One is all you need to have a mess on your hands. 

And so it turned out to be a very celebratory Easter. It was so good to be IN something together with others.  I love my neighbors! 

The Weird Quiet

Doesn't it seem like this panic is a weirdly quiet panic? 

We go out to get food or go to the park, and there are lots of people around, but they are all far apart from one another and just sort of quietly talking. I wish there was at least some loud music playing somewhere. Loud music is socially distant. Why is no one playing loud music?!

We had an ice cream picnic at Lady Bird Johnson Park. 

The playground was taped off, but there are a lot of beautiful grassy areas with trees and a little stream running down one side. 

The boys ran around. The girls walked and sat. I read a book and listened to a podcast and followed the stream until it left the park. I think it's part of Salado Creek Greenway. I've been wanting to bike that trail; we'll see if I get a chance this summer. 

Jonathan got in some driving practice and drove to see a couple of friends. He took a picture of their home and texted it to them. We got to wave to them from the window. Anything to go somewhere!

Liz can make a mean Whipped Coffee. 

It's very sweet so I don't think I'd choose it every day as a drink, but I sure enjoyed having the one she made for me. She and a friend also figured out how to make homemade Boba Tea. With the little tapioca balls and everything! Good going, girls. They've been exercising and learning piano and doing all kinds of good things to keep busy. 

So much toilet paper when I did my weekly shopping trip on Friday! It's not our usual brand and your purchase was limited to one, but there were no cops around this time and everyone was being calm in the store. The airport-sounding PSA's that interrupt the music weird me out a little. They now limit the number of people who can be in the store at a time, and they had a line for the eggs, and I could only get French style green beans instead of Cut green beans. Just a little shopping weirdness. Not earth shatteringly awful. 

Phillip and I have been going through drive through's for our date nights. If it's not rainy, we sit on the tailgate of the truck. That's fun. I prefer that to eating inside almost. It would be really fun to have other people around who are also tailgating, but there just aren't many people out. Come on, Texans! Tailgate already! And play your music loud!

We did an Art Contest for the kids to give them something to do besides be on their phone or fuss at each other. Harrison broke down on the last set we did. I said this was just a fun, lighthearted thing. He said we should call it something else then, instead of Art Contest. Something like Fun Drawing Art Thingy. So I guess that's what we did. A Fun Drawing Art Thingy.

The first set was to draw a llama surfing. Jon won first place for "Most Serene Scene."

The second set was to draw a food eating another food. Harrison won first place for "Most Expressive Pizza and Bacon" (and then he told me it was a hot dog; oops).

The third set was to draw a crayon crying. Phoebe won first place for "Most Completed Crayon" (Harrison had erased his and started crying and Jon was annoyed and said he was done). 

Anyway, some laughs, some tears, and some drawings for the fridge. 

For church today we went to our church's Drive-In service. You listen to the songs and sermon through the radio and take communion that you brought yourself. Short and sweet, and we're really glad they are doing what they can to keep church going during lock-down. It was good to see people from church, but it was a little sad too! You didn't get to talk to people. I mean, we did say hi through our window.  But it was the Weird Quiet again.

 I'm so grateful for the kids being at home. I'm thankful for the phone and internet. I'm loving podcasts right now. Nature is awesome ~ it's free and social-distancing friendly. 

I can't wait for public exuberance to return.