We had lasagna one night this week, and though a loaf of crusty French bread sounded great, I didn't want to make any unnecessary trips to the grocery store. Instead, I looked up a recipe for no-yeast dinner rolls. The only recipe that had higher than a three star rating belonged to The Feast and Farm blog. It required four ingredients and had four simple instructions. Doable. But the absolute best part was what the blogger wrote next to "1/2 cup self-rising flour." Written in all caps was: "SEE VERY IMPORTANT NOTE BELOW." This was her note:
"
NOTE: If your self rising flour is old, the baking powder in it will be as well and your rolls will not rise. This is not my fault, and I'd love it if people would stop yelling at me about it. Leavening agents are good for about 6 months and even if you just bought that bag of flour, you don't know how long it sat there. If you are in doubt, add a 1/2 teaspoon of extra baking powder to the recipe. I will no longer be responding to comments about how hard, flat or miserable your rolls are."
If someone was willing to put that NOTE out there, there was no question that I wanted to try these rolls. They ended up being horrible. They took twice as long to cook and even then didn't brown on the top. They were a pasty white, dense, gummy, and totally tasteless. But they were also made with bread flour that expired in 2018 and old baking powder as well. They were so, so bad. The worst part was that Henry and Josiah loved them. And part of what they liked was the lack of taste. I don't know what is wrong with those boys. Henry asked me to buy flour now so that I could make them for his birthday in two years. I would like to try them again with fresh ingredients.
Josiah has been wanting to make us breakfast every morning and continue with making my coffee. We woke up on April 1st to Josiah's Cafe. I was leary since it was April Fool's Day and he had put mayo on my toast instead of butter in the past. But he had Todd and I sit down. He made us toast with a massive dollop of butter each. He prepared my coffee and then while we ate, he danced around the kitchen. Arms and legs flying every which way. His payment was four hugs. Then he gave us a customer card to fill out about our experience. Todd gave it four out of five stars. Always good to keep aspiring to higher levels. We complimented him on his entertainment though.
And speaking of April 1st, we wanted to get the kids for April Fool's this year, but didn't want to use food as a means to get them. I wanted to tell them that the COVID-19 virus could live on their hair so we would have to shave everyone's heads. (It was hair cutting night, so it would have played into it nicely.) Todd wanted to tell them that the virus lived on stuffed animals and dolls so they would all have to be thrown away. Todd wrote a Trump meme that was really good. He texted it to me and I showed it to Josiah who immediately and completely melted down. Tears were flowing. Henry was crying too. Caroline didn't see the big deal, but I don't think she fully understood she would have to throw away all her dolls. Even Ja-Neesa. Even her Barbies. We let them cry it out for about five minutes before saying April Fool's. It came back to bite us, because Josiah couldn't sleep that night because he was scared his stuffed animals would be taken away. I assured him that the virus died from soap/washing and all we'd have to do is wash his things just like when he had pink eye and we had to wash everything. Next year we need more joke, less tears.
In school news this week, Caroline started her 2nd Grade math book. She was pretty happy with herself.
We are having to do our CC science experiments at home now. This past week's experiment was to make a straw bridge. The objective was strength, so we built with that in mind. Now, if we were at CC, the three kids would be in different classes and they would only be paired up with another child close to their own age. At home it was a little different. In the beginning, I asked them to each share their ideas. They did. And they all had very different opinions about how to make the bridge. Henry wanted more of a rectangular prism shape with the straws. Fat and strong. Caroline was concerned about color coordination and wanted a pretty rainbow bridge. Josiah wanted triangles because he knew that shape was strongest. Though triangles are great for bridges, making triangles was not exactly feasible with the slim materials we had. We had 30 paper straws (which were fairly strong), lots of rubber bands (fairly useless), clay, and masking tape. We ended up doing three rows of ten straws. Each set of ten was taped tightly together, then we had clay between each layer and finally tape to hold all three layers together. It ended up being a strong bridge, but the process was a bit tedious. A case of too many cooks in the kitchen. Everyone wanted to be the person to do every step. We had to fall back on our rotation schedule which we sort of live by around here. We tested the final product with our dumbbells. Individually, it held the 3 lb., 5 lb., 8 lb., and 10 lb. easily. A few days later, when Henry was doing his CC class virtually, he wanted to show off and managed to balance all 26 lbs of weights on top of the bridge. It held firm. We accomplished the strength portion. As for CC, the kids are really liking their virtual classes. I'm glad for that. We have three more weeks to go.
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| 10 lb dumbbell |
We had a yearbook committee that is now working virtually as well. We had to get our yearbook pictures in this week, so we stood outside by the tree in the backyard where we take every formal picture. Caroline even wore the same shirt that she did last year.
We are trying to make sure that the kids get outside every day to get some exercise and fresh air. Henry is a very strict quarantiner. He will not play out front if any of the neighborhood kids are out (because he knows that the other kids are not very good at maintaining social distancing). Sometimes he'll just stand out in the driveway and then report back to me that either Josiah or Caroline is not maintaining 6 feet of social distancing. "Mom. He was like 3 feet away from [neighbor kid]." "Mom. Josiah says he doesn't know what 6 feet is." "Mom. Josiah went by the neighbors on roller blades and he was closer than 6 feet." It is frustrating because the neighbors really do not follow the quarantine well. They know that our kids will not play til this thing is over, but they are not well-versed in the six feet distancing rule. Today, to get the kids exercise, but also not play with friends, Todd took each of them on a walk individually. Todd got over 8000 steps in. One of the cool things is how many people are outside walking around, riding bikes, doing roller blades and scooters. There is so much more activity outside, which is a good thing.
To give the kids some fun and normal time, we let them play in the sprinkler while we were watering the lawn to help fertilize it. They had a lot of fun, though it isn't quite warm enough to play in it for too long. The 70s/low 80s gets chilly when you're soaked.
Things here are getting more strict. All grocery stores are starting to limit the number of customers in the store at one time. Many want just one family member to come in, while all others stay home. They've advised us to always wear a face mask when going out. We do one grocery run a week. This week we went to Sam's. I got geared up in the only face mask we had - a very old one that Todd used to mow the lawn. It had the lovely odor of sweat and grass, but hopefully it kept me safe. I wore gloves as well and long sleeves. Then when we get home, we wipe down every thing we buy, wash all the clothes I was wearing and I take a shower. It is just a whole different way of doing things. They have said that the Houston area will not peak until the first week of May. That is an incredibly long way off. Like everyone else, we just take it one day, one week at a time.
Several weeks back we had the sex talk with Henry. Well, the majority of nights Henry has asked to have a private conversation with Todd and I. He has had a continual flow of questions about it. We have moved on from the physical act of love to how a baby develops in utero. He had a lot of questions about cell division and umbilical cords and how the baby "breathed." One night, without me present, he asked Todd about the use of breasts. Todd told them they made milk to feed the baby. Then about a week later, with both of us present, Henry had this question, "I know what a woman's [feels his own chest] are for, to make milk for the baby. What does a man's make? Cheese?" Oh, child. BUT we are glad he is comfortable enough to ask questions. We know eventually he'll probably be too embarrassed to ask.
These are my favorite memes of the week. I swear the memes have made this quarantine so much easier. Humor goes a long way.
And so another week in quarantine begins.
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