Passing the days

On Saturday I texted the science teacher from my school who keeps bees and chickens, asking her if any eggs and honey were available. She answered with an emphatic "yes" and told me to meet her at the school, since she was headed out there to plant some stuff in our pollinator garden. I was able to score two containers of honey and two dozen of the prettiest eggs you ever saw:

Look at those colors, like Easter eggs. 

I made a loaf of banana nut bread and chocolate chip pumpkin bread with them. You can see the bananas and walnuts on the edge of the top picture. Marco hung out on my shoulder and helped. He also insisted on having some walnuts before I folded them into the batter:

Do you see his eyes closed in bliss as he munches them? :)

I also made fabulous omelets for dinner the other night. You just can't beat fresh eggs.

So, how are you doing? We seem to be settling down into the new normal for now. Since we're both finally almost over whatever illnesses we've had, we've started working on various projects around the house to keep our minds occupied. I did our taxes the other day which is always a relief. We cleaned the trim on our house, which had algae in some spots. Yesterday we undertook a big project in the front yard. We have a line of crepe myrtle trees beside the house, which had a border all around them of concrete "stones" and weed-smothering black netting put down when the trees were planted. The stones were sinking into the ground, the netting had a thick layer of dirt on top which was growing copious weeds, and overall it wasn't very nice to look at. We decided to remove the stones and stack them in the back yard for future use in flower beds I'm planning, and to remove the netting altogether. We had no idea what a labor intensive project that was going to be! The stones are connected in 3s and they're very heavy, and there's a LOT of them. It took us almost three hours to get them moved, and then getting up the black netting material was difficult because of all the heavy soil and weed roots that had settled on top. But three hours later, we were done and very proud of our efforts! Now we'll be able to mow in between the trees and it should look much neater. And I have lots of border stones for use elsewhere. As we were sitting on the front steps resting from our labors, a pair of bluebirds showed up and started hopping through the fresh soil we had uncovered, looking for bugs. We took that as a good omen.

Keeping busy seems to be the best way for me to cope with this pandemic. Being outside in the fresh air and sunshine is like a tonic after so many anxious hours watching the news or sitting in front of the computer reading the news. And the dogs think everything is just fine and dandy these days! They love our new routine of being home all the time, catering to their every whim. We've been going on plenty of walks around the neighborhood, and of course sitting on the back porch with them in the evenings. If only things weren't so scary out in the wider world, this would be like a treat. We've never had so much time off together to spend at home, and except for being afraid of the virus we're starting to enjoy spending so much time together. I do miss my friends, though. I've tried to text/call/message most of them from time to time just to check in but it's not like seeing them in person, hugging them, and being together. I was chatting with Marla the other day on Facebook manager and she sent me a couple of sweet pictures of little Carsen. I'll finish up this post with them, because they're cheerful. Take care everyone.

Standing up in her "big girl" bed that she's now sleeping in. 

Fingerpainting with her mommy to pass the time.