Day Seventy-Six: Slow-Mo, and a Bed
Jeremy rescued a box turtle from one of the farm dogs today, so we had a much slower reptilian visitor at the house. We named him (or her) Slow-Mo. Slow-Mo got a lot less attention than Speed Boost, since he (or she) was a lot less active, and we couldn't admire her much when she was all shut up in her shell.
The big event for the day was that Jeremy and William drove to Fayetteville to get a new-to-us bed frame. We've never had a proper bed, and I have been wanting one for a while instead of just a mattress and box spring on the floor, so I had been perusing Facebook Marketplace for a bed off and on. One popped up that I really liked, and so we got it! Happy early birthday to me (really early- my birthday is not until mid-July). It's solid oak, and much bigger than I thought, and lovely. It makes me feel like a real grown-up, having a bed. We did the exchange as a no-contact sale, so we paid them over Venmo (my first Venmo purchase ever) and just picked it up off their porch. I was glad we could do it this way, since COVID-19 cases are spiking in Northwest Arkansas.
While the boys were gone, Taiya and I made her a satin cloak, because that's what you do on a Saturday morning, right? She had found a piece of navy blue satin coat lining I had cut out of an old moth-eaten wool jacket, and found that if she draped it over her shoulders it was cloak-ish and elegant. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I successfully hemmed it all the way around, and now she has a fancy, navy blue, satin cloak. We're going to add a button tomorrow, and maybe some lace.
We also spent some time in the part of the old cabin we call Mimi's room. It's where Mimi (my mom) stays when she visits, and somehow it has always remained hers. Jeremy and I are planning on finally fixing it up all the way to turn it into our bedroom so the kids can each have their own rooms. There's a lot of work that needs to be done, so it's a long ways off, but Taiya and I sat in there a while discussing where the bed will go, where we could put chairs, where we should put the book shelves, etc. She said we definitely have to add a splash of pink. It was fun imagining a whole new space for us to be able to use. Once our new shed building arrives, a lot of that cabin space that is currently occupied by tools and construction materials will be freed up, and we can visualize and work on it more easily. The last part of our girl-time morning was spent reading the book Wise Child, by Monica Furlong. It's a sequel to Juniper, and both were favorites of mine when I was a kid. Taiya loved Juniper too and has been looking forward to the sequel for a while, enough to pause reading Prince Caspian to get started on it.
Once the boys were back with the bed, we got it all set up, and the novelty of it led the kids to invent a complicated pretend game where Taiya was a mermaid, and I am not sure if William was a ship's captain or a mer-pup. In any case, I was able to do the dishes, make lunch, eat my lunch peacefully all alone on the porch, and clean up while they played. Later in the day I sewed some new pillowcases, which we've been low on for a while. Having the same number of pillowcases as you have pillows may be minimalist, but it makes laundry difficult. I had been saving some top sheets that we never use (they just get wadded at the foot of the bed, so we just use a comforter and bottom sheet) to make pillowcases out of. It was one of those forever-put-off projects while I was fully employed and working an hour away. But, now is the time to tackle those projects, I should think! We now have two very nice new pillowcases that took me about fifteen minutes to do from start to finish. I'm really getting the hang of this sewing thing! I think I'll do a table cloth and napkins next. Nice straight lines, I think I can manage that. Curves are tricky.
For dinner, I got motivated to make something more involved than Salsa Dogs. I made a red lentil coconut milk soup with carrots, red onion, fresh ginger and garlic, turmeric, soy sauce, and a splash of lemon juice. Served with jasmine rice, it was light but satisfying.
This particular recipe is part of a long-running joke between Jeremy and me. Way back when I first moved here, we helped Granny during lambing season. We camped in their camper trailer by the barn for two weeks (or more, I can't remember) so we could listen for sheep going into labor at night. Her sheep were big Suffolks and their births often required assistance. Previous years when she had no one to help her, Granny would spend many nights in lambing season falling asleep on hay bales in the barn, so we wanted to pitch in and help the 70-something Granny get some rest.
In this camper, all we had to cook on was a slow cooker, and I decided to try to make this red lentil soup in it, but it was doomed from the start. First, we didn't have a can opener, and Jeremy the boy scout stabbed himself in the hand trying to open the coconut milk with a knife. Second, if you can't brown the onions and all that, it changes the flavor and texture of the soup, not for the better. Third, it just wasn't getting hot enough I guess, and it took like two days to cook (in contrast, it took me about 30 minutes tonight to make it). When it was cooked it tasted so bad we couldn't even eat it. Jeremy tossed it out to the farm dogs, who came running over, took one sniff, and ran away again. It was bad. When I told Jeremy tonight that this was the same soup recipe, he said, "Well, we've come a long way in 13 years." Indeed we have. Taiya even asked for seconds.
While the boys were gone, Taiya and I made her a satin cloak, because that's what you do on a Saturday morning, right? She had found a piece of navy blue satin coat lining I had cut out of an old moth-eaten wool jacket, and found that if she draped it over her shoulders it was cloak-ish and elegant. It took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I successfully hemmed it all the way around, and now she has a fancy, navy blue, satin cloak. We're going to add a button tomorrow, and maybe some lace.
We also spent some time in the part of the old cabin we call Mimi's room. It's where Mimi (my mom) stays when she visits, and somehow it has always remained hers. Jeremy and I are planning on finally fixing it up all the way to turn it into our bedroom so the kids can each have their own rooms. There's a lot of work that needs to be done, so it's a long ways off, but Taiya and I sat in there a while discussing where the bed will go, where we could put chairs, where we should put the book shelves, etc. She said we definitely have to add a splash of pink. It was fun imagining a whole new space for us to be able to use. Once our new shed building arrives, a lot of that cabin space that is currently occupied by tools and construction materials will be freed up, and we can visualize and work on it more easily. The last part of our girl-time morning was spent reading the book Wise Child, by Monica Furlong. It's a sequel to Juniper, and both were favorites of mine when I was a kid. Taiya loved Juniper too and has been looking forward to the sequel for a while, enough to pause reading Prince Caspian to get started on it.
Once the boys were back with the bed, we got it all set up, and the novelty of it led the kids to invent a complicated pretend game where Taiya was a mermaid, and I am not sure if William was a ship's captain or a mer-pup. In any case, I was able to do the dishes, make lunch, eat my lunch peacefully all alone on the porch, and clean up while they played. Later in the day I sewed some new pillowcases, which we've been low on for a while. Having the same number of pillowcases as you have pillows may be minimalist, but it makes laundry difficult. I had been saving some top sheets that we never use (they just get wadded at the foot of the bed, so we just use a comforter and bottom sheet) to make pillowcases out of. It was one of those forever-put-off projects while I was fully employed and working an hour away. But, now is the time to tackle those projects, I should think! We now have two very nice new pillowcases that took me about fifteen minutes to do from start to finish. I'm really getting the hang of this sewing thing! I think I'll do a table cloth and napkins next. Nice straight lines, I think I can manage that. Curves are tricky.
For dinner, I got motivated to make something more involved than Salsa Dogs. I made a red lentil coconut milk soup with carrots, red onion, fresh ginger and garlic, turmeric, soy sauce, and a splash of lemon juice. Served with jasmine rice, it was light but satisfying.
This particular recipe is part of a long-running joke between Jeremy and me. Way back when I first moved here, we helped Granny during lambing season. We camped in their camper trailer by the barn for two weeks (or more, I can't remember) so we could listen for sheep going into labor at night. Her sheep were big Suffolks and their births often required assistance. Previous years when she had no one to help her, Granny would spend many nights in lambing season falling asleep on hay bales in the barn, so we wanted to pitch in and help the 70-something Granny get some rest.
In this camper, all we had to cook on was a slow cooker, and I decided to try to make this red lentil soup in it, but it was doomed from the start. First, we didn't have a can opener, and Jeremy the boy scout stabbed himself in the hand trying to open the coconut milk with a knife. Second, if you can't brown the onions and all that, it changes the flavor and texture of the soup, not for the better. Third, it just wasn't getting hot enough I guess, and it took like two days to cook (in contrast, it took me about 30 minutes tonight to make it). When it was cooked it tasted so bad we couldn't even eat it. Jeremy tossed it out to the farm dogs, who came running over, took one sniff, and ran away again. It was bad. When I told Jeremy tonight that this was the same soup recipe, he said, "Well, we've come a long way in 13 years." Indeed we have. Taiya even asked for seconds.
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