Happy happy happy June – my favorite month of the year! The first Wednesday of the month brings the Currently linkup with Anne In Residence. This month’s words are: celebrating, collecting, gifting, thinking, and trying.
celebrating: our world opening up again. I’m being mindful that not everyone can be vaccinated right now, but watching the 7-day average for new cases drop each day for the USA is a thrill, especially after the prior management of this crisis. I am thankful for science, and for everyone who’s doing the right thing. Next week I’ll see my father for the first time since September, 2019. At the end of the month I’ll see some cousins for the first time since December, 2020. It will take everything not to start crying every time I “re-meet” somebody again. That’s a tall order for me, the Grim Weeper.
collecting: My unworn clothes to give away. I took three garbage bags worth of clothes to Goodwill on Monday. There’s room in my drawers and closet again. I kept looking at my winter pieces and thinking, “do I even want to wear this again?” For example, I can’t imagine cramming ass into a pencil skirt anytime soon. I’m glad the looks for summer (and hopefully fall) are loose and flowy.
gifting: Erm, family birthday season is in its yearly hiatus. I have a wedding this weekend (food! dancing! strangers! structured shoes!) so that will be a cash gift. I’ll make the card myself.
thinking: a lot about my capital-F Faith and how every time that Faith is shattered by something (3.5 million dead from Covid worldwide, etc etc), I end up putting the pieces back together and trying again. I’ve been watching weekly church services on Youtube from a lovely, welcoming, progressive Presbyterian church in …. Oakland, California. Which is a bit out of my commuting range. Finding a faith home has been a lifelong struggle for me and some days I feel like I am the shaggiest, dirtiest, and slowest sheep ten steps behind the rest of The Flock. But I’m still here, clopping away, getting stuck in bushes and falling into crevasses. This entire paragraph makes no sense but neither does my faith journey.
trying: to grow a new sourdough starter because I miss baking bread. This one, Caren IV, is two days old and hopefully tomorrow I’ll see some bubbles. Caren III died when we forgot she lived in the oven and preheated it without taking her out. Caren II was my most successful starter, but a fruitfly found its way into her jar last summer and NOPE. Caren Prime passed at about a month old.
Past Currentlys (Pastlys?): July 2021 | June 2021 | May 2021 | April 2021 (erroneously titled April 2020) | March 2021
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I have been enjoying the fact that more things are opening up. I’m ready for some fun “normal” activities this summer! I have to figure out my dad’s Father’s Day gift. I have one thing, but it’s not terribly big. I also have my niece and my sister who have birthdays this month.
No idea what to get my Dad for Father’s Day. He has everything he needs.
Yes, feeling all those feelings about being with family again too! And RIP to Caren III but that kind of cracked me up… Thanks for joining in the linkup 🙂
Thanks for hosting the linkup! It’s a lot of fun. It took a few days, but we eventually laughed at Caren III’s demise.
Oh my gosh YOU MAKE ME LAUGH! I’m very curious how Caren got her name….?
Back in the early days of the pandemic, somebody named Caren wrote a piece on medium.com that complained that people buying yeast and flour were taking food from her very mouth. See, she baked bread from scratch long before everyone else and yadda yadda yadda. I, who had also been baking long before Covid, thought it was hysterical and I named my sourdough starter after her.
I don’t even know what I’ll do when I can finally see my family again. Right now I can’t even imagine when that might be. Switzerland just added the UK back onto it’s risk list because of the Indian variant. It feels like the Never ending story!
I had to laugh at Caren III’s demise (sorry!). That’s definitely something I would do.
I am so sorry. Maybe you and your family can all can fly here to New Jersey and visit. I have a guest room! 😉
Seeing family again is so so great. I didn’t know how much I missed mine until I hugged yesterday after so so many month apart. I might have shed a tear. I am not that strong. But happy tears are good tears.
I am so happy for you! And yes, happy tears are good tears.
I enjoy your sense of humor! And now if I ever have a sourdough starter, I will have to name it.
I really hope we’re going to open up a bit more this summer too. That would be so wonderful for the kids, especially, to have a little more normalcy. I LOVED your faith paragraph — I would be stuck in the bushes with you — so I could totally relate. Although thankfully I have a local church which I love.
And your sourdough starter story made me laugh, although I’m sure it was frustrating at the time…!
Also, I will be crying so much when I finally get to hug all my friends and family again so I feel you on that one.
You must be so excited to see family again. It is almost 15 months since I’ve seen my parents and sister (and parents-in-law). Goodness I know I’m going to be crying such happy tears the moment I do see them.
Your paragraph on faith makes sense 🙂 You’re not the only one. I started some sourdough starter last year and while I don’t make it weekly I’ve really enjoyed learning how. My daughters and I had a garage sale last weekened and I discovered that I didn’t have as much to give away as I thought I might. I guess I don’t accumulate much in between yearly sales..lol