Wilderness

One thing about not mowing the lawn - you get to see pretty little wildflowers sprout up everywhere.

And some of them are of the wild garlic or onion or chive variety, which I love to pluck and smell whenever I have the chance to, on our daily walks.

Also, the little boy has a little rocky hilly spot where he likes to plant his bahonkus to see if he can make a deeper and deeper "impression" each time. 

Such is the humor of a 11 year old boy.

Happy 11th Birthday, Little Boy

It's been 11 years, can you believe it??! 

The days and years seem to rush by, and yet it seems so long ago when the now-not-so-little boy was a mere baby.

It is such a paradox of time when it comes to your kids. It is all so bittersweet.

They are growing up and into their own and we try to cling on to their sweetness and love before teenagerism takes a hold.

I am thankful that the little boy is still as sweet as ever,

This year he has asked for an Undertale birthday cake - so I decided to do a Sans cake, like what he dressed up as on Halloween.

There were Gamer themed presents ...

and a Birthday Red Packet from Poh Poh

He even got to video chat with her on Whatsapp later that day!

Succumbing to Covid Baking

Today, I made some scones for lunch. There still isn't any yeast available, and so i decided to make recipes that called for baking powder instead :)

They turned out pretty good, I s'pose :)  The boys sure gobbled them up as if they were :)

Getting Groceries Post Covid

We have been isolating ourselves since we got back from Colorado, not venturing out except in the car that one time during the tornado scare.

The Grocery Shopping Routine has also taken quite the hit, and now I just get everything we need online, to be delivered.

I like how you can get notifications of when your delivery is on its way and you can track it in real time, down to what make car with what license plate number to look out for.  I'm not sure why the screenshot says "Meet Krystle at the front door to sign for your order" because we always opt for the delivery person to sign on our behalf.

I pull our little utility cart to the front "gate", where the Bin-From-A-Previous-Post is, and empty the bin's contents into the aforementioned cart. 

At the moment, it is still cool-ish, but once the weather gets warm and then sizzling, I will NOT look forward to this.

I know the cart has seen better days, but it's hanging on and working hard.

Usually I will then bring the groceries back to the front yard, where they will undergo the "wipe down" / "spray down" / disinfecting process.

On this day, I was even able to score some FLOUR, which had been missing from the shelves for weeks!  At least online, that is.

Everyone knows about the toilet paper fiasco, and along with that, there's all this shortage of baking ingredients!

There is still no Instant Yeast anywhere to be seen though. I will keep an eye out and use Baking Soda for now.

And so it begins..

Praying everyone out there uses common sense and recommended measures to keep the community safe from Covid.

Morning Walk and Delivery Bin

The little boy and myself have taken to going for morning and evening walks, talking about anything and everything

and keeping an eye out for weirdness left behind by all the wild animals we have around here.

AND I love picking the wild chives and smelling in that glorious fresh-cut/picked chivey smell. 

I also thought I would take this opportunity to take a picture of our recently deployed "Delivery Bin".

We were fortunate to have had this Cargo type bin that is actually roomier than I would have thought, and which is plenty big enough for whatever deliveries we have - whether it is from grocery stores, UPS, USPS, you name it.

Also, the hubs strung a rope across the gate posts temporarily while we get someone to put a gate in.

You won't believe the people we have had who would just drive in to sell stuff from the back of their truck and whatnot.

"In These Uncertain Times.."

Few things can be as comforting as some Keropok, all crispy and lovely.

Social Distancing

We are not about to go out unnecessarily and put ourselves at risk. 

Knowing that we have the option of contactless  grocery delivery - which is what I expect will be our new norm - is reassuring.

A Jungle in the Back

With all the rain we've been having, it is no surprise that the weeds have overtaken the place.

For the sake of humans and dogs alike, something is going to have to be done soon. Ugh.

Remember those dark skies from yesterday?

Well, THIS happened.

We had to wake Jaxon up in the middle of the night and drive away/flee, because of the reported tornadoes coming toward us.

The closest ones were 3 miles away, touching down at the prisons near us.

I swear I could out the back window while we were racing away.

Thank God we didn't have any damage, nor did our neighbors.

Frightfully Dark Skies

A Short Road Trip To Colorado... and back

Maybe it was the monotony of it all, maybe it was knowing that we would soon not be able to do much what with not wanting to expose ourselves irresponsibly and unnecessarily to getting sick.

Anyhow, we took a road trip to several places in Colorado, a short one-day trip.

We started pretty early, right before sunrise, feeling all excited.

It was getting light just as we reached the border..

I don't exactly remember the names of the towns we went through, but it was good to see new things and new landscape around us.

We stopped by a park, where the little boy spent some time goofing off and rolling down hills,

we got all excited whenever we saw mountains with snow on them,

and stopped at some point so the little boy could go frolic in some :D

We rolled through some towns, not stopping though. Just looking...too many people a-bustling.

The little boy was tired out from the trip,

but we made him get out to stretch his legs for a few things :)

We hope to be able to do a few more things and stay longer next time.