A Busy Time of Year

Perhaps it's all in my head, but it seems when the Spring Holy Days come, so does everything else. The flu, new dog, allergies, new job...

So, I've told you about Polly. And she's great, but it's back to getting up in the middle of the night; going outside every hour in the day to keep from accidents in the house. It's nice that I can

take a break from my own projects, but sometimes all those breaks make one project last all day. The flu put me two weeks behind in my  deleavening, so at this point, it's like I need to be getting at least 3 projects done in a day. By the end of the day, I go over my list of what needs to get done and make half an "x" through one item. I'll finish the rest of that tomorrow.

Did she say, new job? Yes, Sam took a new job. There's a long-ish story to it, but I'm going to be out of character here and not go into all the details because I don't think the whole Internet world needs access to it. Sam loved his other job, and the people there--and they were happy with him (I mean, his boss had driven something like 80 miles just to bring us homemade chicken-noodle-soup when we were sick!) But without burning any bridges, he took a new job (after time and much counsel) that was offered to him.

And so, with a new job comes change; change in big ways, change in so many details. Different phone, computer, insurance, vehicle, etc, etc. All these things hit at once and we've found that it's a perfect environment for bad attitudes to creep in unawares, because who likes changing when they're already comfortable? Yes, I can tell it's Spring Holy day time!

The new job called for a cake--though, it did feel a little sinful baking a big fat cake the week before the days of unleavened bread. It was delicious! But can you go wrong with Betty Crocker's cake mix? It was originally a vanilla cake, but I turned it into a lemon cake, with lemon cream-cheese icing (Wendy, that's the best recipe EVER!) You can see my last minute decorations. I just never know when to stop decorating...like when is enough, enough? I added the words, then the strawberries, then some blueberries on top, then some sprinkles, then some blueberries on the side. Before I could ruin it with real lemon slices, I quit while I was ahead.

While deleavening, I came across a box of ice cream bars. I shoved them aside and continued to clean the freezer. The following day, I got some chicken out of the freezer for dinner. I caught another glance of the ice cream bars. I quickly did a run through in my head of the ingredients in the bars: "chocolate coating, peanuts, caramel, and ice cream." I started to laugh at myself for even considering the possibility that ice cream bars (with no bready anything) would have leavening in them, but I reached for the box anyway.

 ..."blah, blah-blah, blah, blah-blah, sodium bicarbonate, blah, blah-blah, blah, blah-blah."...wait what! Isn't that baking soda? Shocked I was to find that creepy little ingredient in my ice cream bars! I was so floored, I started checking the ingredients in literally everything....yogurt, milk, ketchup. There's a reason we examine ourselves--we find we're not as spotless as we were so sure of. God can only do so much--I have to be doing my part to start with.  

Allergies. What can I say about them other than they suck? I wrote a blog about allergies last year. They've struck again! It seems early for their attack, but alas, the trees are budding already and my hyacinths have come up and are blooming. However, with everything else looking dead and shabby, they just don't seem to look as pretty.

It's Sunday morning, and the day is afoot. And so I must keep up with it. I will see you on the other side of the beginning of the Spring Holy days! I hope everyone has a most enjoyable Night To Be Much Observed. To those who are hosting this year, we're wishing you much success! It's always exciting to serve in that way.

Happy trails!