March This and That

Saturday was an exciting day here at the House with the Picket Fence! We got in our car and drove to the Lutheran Church in our town where the wonderful folks at the County Health Department were dispensing Covid Vaccines!  We made the cut when our governor decreased the age to 60+ and I called to register at 8 a.m. the day the appointments opened. 

Our appointment was at 9 am. We arrived in the parking lot at 8:58 am, were immediately checked in by a masked worker with a clipboard, signed our names, and drove under the awning, I stuck out my right arm, my husband stuck out his left arm, and we exited the parking lot by 9:05 am. We actually could have left sooner but the couple in the van in front of us had to step outside and remove their coats. They efficiently administered over 500 first doses of the Moderna vaccine. 

Our only side effect was a sore arm for about 24 hours. I would say it was a dull ache which was much less than the constant pain in my "healed" left arm, which is more of a constant painful sharper ache. If I had been sitting on the driver's side, I probably would not have noticed anything. 

Meanwhile, I tried a new recipe last Friday. We eat fish on Friday for Lent and our last indoor restaurant experience was the last Friday in February 2020 at the Red Lobster. Our state has a mandatory mask directive, but our town interprets it to mean that you don't need one outdoors, even if you are standing right next to each other. Or if you are just "running in". This means we can't pick up carry out fish dinners at the local lodges or even stop at the drive in stands that are opening. 

I looked at Pinterest and kind of had the ingredients for this recipe. 

I halved the recipe and substituted 7 ounces of medium shrimp, which I cut in half, for the crab. I substituted red pepper for the pimento and substituted 8 ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese for the Cheddar and Swiss. Perhaps I threw in some diced celery, too. Measurements on all the vegetables were a little fuzzy. 

It was delicious and I will definitely make it again. My daughter is hinting that it would not be any harder to make two at once and send one home with her. I do have some imitation crab in the freezer, but I dont' think it would add enough flavor to this dish. 

Debbie at https://debbie-dabbleblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-trip-down-memory-lane.html  inspired me with her mammoth photo organizing project. I had been eyeing the photo keepers which were half off too long and they increased to the regular price of $44. For some reason I looked at them yesterday and they were on clearance for $12.59! I looked at the mountain of shoeboxes (and there are more in drawers and hidden places) and ordered 8 of the boxes. This morning I woke up and decided I would unload some of photos of my children to my children and ordered 5 more! 

https://www.michaels.com/photo-and-craft-keeper-by-simply-tidy/10174559.html

Now I HAVE to commit to this project! I need to figure out where I am going to put my command center - away from little fingers - and I hope to enlist some grandchildren on Spring Break to help me. 

 

March Word of the Month

 

This photo taken 18 months ago. The word for this month of March will be GRANDCHILDREN. 

I just moved the calendar from February to March and counted three days in February without grandchildren. We had two free Saturdays and a random Wednesday when we had so much snow that even parents could not go to work. And March looks much like the same. 

We care for my daughter's four year old and one year every day since she is a single mother and a school teacher. We also help her out on weekends so she can do grocery pickups and put groceries away without help. Now that my middle son has found a new job, his eight and six year-olds arrive at 7:00 a.m. for breakfast and the school bus picks them up at my house. My youngest son's father in law has been diagnosed with a rare cancer. Since they live 45 minutes away, we have been keeping his three boys under age 7 overnight when papa has had appointments and tests. Dad works as a police officer and mom is a school teacher.  

The co-grandparent is starting chemo this week so we are rearranging the child care set up so that it will include the five year old and two year old more often. Their oldest son attends kindergarten all day and mom can put him on the bus. If you add it up, it is an hour and a half to go and pick up these two and come back home. But due to the bus schedule for the oldest, even meeting part way is not a possibility. 

When we retired, my husband talked me into purchasing a Traverse which holds a combination of six different infant car seats, regular car seats and booster seats. I am so grateful everyday that we splurged on this school bus. 

We do what we have to do. I know it is a blessing in these times when many grandparents have not seen their grandchildren in person, we are more than lucky that we get to see our youngest grands ALL the time.  Our three oldest live over an hour and a half away and have busy lives with sports and school, even during the pandemic. We do visit them on zoom and by phone. 

While adding times and  names on my calendar today, I noticed that every school they attend is having their spring break on different days. Hmmm, that doesn't seem fair, LOL. 

Still Winter

 

Still winter. I was trying to pose moving targets in front of drifts next to our very clean driveway that Mr Merry obsessively keeps clear and ice free as possible for daughters and daughter in laws who drop off children.  I can't remember what day this was. We had 14 inches of snow last Sunday/Monday and then 3 inches on Tuesday, I think.  I look at my phone and there is no snow in the forecast, but then I look out the window and see snow falling.  Today (Saturday) it is bitter cold, but no snow. I just saw that there is a storm headed our way on Sunday night. Since the joke here is that snow is in the forecast, one to twenty inches depending on conditions, I guess I will just cross my fingers that they don't have to cancel schools. 

Mr. Merry has been very busy with his snow blower. We have a neighborhood of special circumstances, two neighbor husbands headed to the ER. One was released with restrictions, the other went to a nursing home, but was transferred to a larger hospital. We want to make sure elderly driveways are cleared, too. Just in case. And he does a few different patches of sidewalk (starting with our corner lot which has three houses worth of sidewalk) to make sure children can get to the bus stops safely. He started with a cough last night so I am grateful for the day off so he can stay indoors and try to get a handle on it before it gets worse. 

Gramma daycare numbers have increased with the addition of one, two or three more grandchildren depending on the day.  One of our co-grandparents has been diagnosed with a rare cancer and we are working out arrangements. We have a kindergartener in one school district, mom teaches at another district, one has preschool either two or four mornings a week and then there is a 2 year old.  Dad works third shift in law enforcement and sometimes has to stay over or attend court in the morning. And they live 45 minutes away which plays havoc with dad getting home, mom leaving for work, putting the kindergartener on the bus and Mr Merry and I putting two other grandchildren on the bus at our house. I am not sure what we have come up with yet. 

Last week we just kept the 2 year old for a few days and Mr. Preschool came as a drop in.  There were some snags so we are still tweaking.  When my daughter dropped off her preschooler and baby last week, she remarked that the group around the table looked familiar.  In 1986 I was feeding breakfast to my own 2nd grader, a 5 year old, a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a 1 year old.  Fast forward to 2021 and I am feeding breakfast to a 2nd grader, a 6 year old, a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a 1 year old.  You might notice there is no space at the homeschool table for gramma.  She is too busy in the cafeteria cooking and cutting food items into bite size pieces.  After grampa heads the bus stop with the older two, I get to sit down and have a cup of coffee with my slower breakfast eaters.  

Our state is currently registering those 65 and over for vaccines. Everyone I know over 65 is on multiple lists at hospitals, health departments and drug stores.  However the amount of vaccine is so minuscule that no one has been vaccinated.  I heard that the list at the hospital in my town is around 1500 and they are receiving 100 doses a week. So that is 50 people when you count the first and second shots.  Since we are 64 and can't register, I am thinking I will have to revise my June 1 projection to maybe August 1?  I know I am dreaming.

As you can see, my prayer chain is pretty full with neighbors, family and also the people in the southern part of the country dealing with these horrible effects of the storm. I have friends in Tennessee and Mississippi as well as my family and my husband's family in Texas. Our hearts and prayers go out to all suffering at this time.  

Still Winter

Overnight Mother Nature blessed us with fourteen inches of fresh snow. It is enough to close us down, another blessing. I don't have to worry about my adult children driving to work or the poor school bus drivers trying to pick up grandchildren out of snowbanks.  My teacher daughters have an extra day to catch up on the in-person, virtual, zooming and whatever else they are trying to cram in. 

My dear sweet husband not only was out by 7 a.m. to start up the snow blower for our driveway and walk, he also worked on the elderly neighbor behind us, helped another neighbor do his driveway so he could get to his correction officer position, and cleared my favorite neighbor's drive and sidewalk and took her trash to the curb. I sent him one street over to a church friend whose husband was moved from a nursing home to the ER last night and is being transferred to a larger hospital today. She can't visit him at any of the facilities, but he did clear what he could in her stone drive and plowed a path to the trash so he could take it to the curb and her puppy could get out the backdoor. He is now spent for the day. Even a snow blower is hard to push that heavy snow. 

My prayers are with all the friends and families in the southern states who are not prepared for this winter storm. And also with all the necessary workers taking care of what needs to be done. I hope that Mother Nature takes a kinder action for the rest of winter! 

We were supposed to get a big storm again tomorrow night, but now I am hearing only three inches. I hope that guesstimate is true!