Time Is Fleeting
How are you feeling? Is this a fabulous magical time for you? I hope so. I love this time of year. I also feel like there’s a secret fairy or mischievous elf who is definitely stealing hours out of the day. It’s not just the sunlight. Things are getting magnified: Am I catching the right sales to get the gifts that I want without busting my budget? Am I connecting with the people I wanted to before the year is over? Is anything I’m doing enough?
Let’s not worry about that. As cliché as it is, and is as everyone says, let’s be okay with what we’ve done. I’m closer to that this year.
Good: Christmas delivered! The first & Sons’s snow day of the 25/26 school year fell on Tuesday. No snow days for Byers & Sons Gas & More! I went to the island on the 7:45am ferry and sent a text to the boys to find when they awoke from their indulgent snowy slumbers.
Beyond expectations, my work order list was complete! I will dream up a bigger list next time.
You meet expectations, you get the promotion.
Bad: I had a hard time thinking of a bad this week. Truthfully, I had a hard time finishing this post. Why? Because I’m having a hard time carving out time to write. That is the bad for me this week.
I’m cleaning up from Thanksgiving, shopping for Christmas gifts, wrapping said Christmas gifts, decorating for the holidays, cleaning up all the glitter and dust that comes with the decorations that have been stowed since last year. . . All things I enjoy because it means: Boss Lady Lunch Group cocktail parties, family holiday dinners, & Sons Two’s and & Sons Three’s birthdays, CHRISTMAS DAY (the guest list is at 29, still waiting additional RSVPs). All fun!
. . . But then, every time my housemates the & Sons need something (grocery shopping, dinner, rides to practices, haircuts, homework help), personal time and energy is bypassed. No time for Mom. (Why would Mom need her own time?)
But it’s just time. And it’s fleeting. Pretty soon, as the & Sons start to move out, I’m going to have too much time to do all these tasks. Then what? That will be a bad because I will miss them.
Unexpected: I delay getting out of bed by picking up my phone and scrolling in the mornings.
My morning goes: alarm, out of bed, physically harass the & Sons to awaken for school, crawl back into bed and wait to make sure they catch that big yellow school bus.
I snuggle back into the covers with Apple News+, Gmail, Wordle, Facebook, Instagram. Sometimes I take a NYT History Quiz: put 8 evets in chronological order. Anyone else? These excite me more than anything when I find one in the inbox! Flashback - The New York Times. This week’s news feed doomscroll popped up: Dumpster diver shocked after peeking into bins outside Old Navy: 'I can't believe this'. Cliff notes: The author was poking through dumpsters, and he came across bags and bags of unsold, discarded Old Navy clothing that had been intentionally destroyed. I can assume that Old Navy is trying to make room for new season’s inventory? Who knows. It is quite a bad look.
What came first to mind is our winter nachos situation at the Bakehouse! Stay with me.
Just last week Ron and I were discussing said nachos. We prep them ahead of shift and put them in the warmer. Usually two or three servings. There they remain in the warmer until the end of the night. I guess no one is that into nachos. (They come with melty cheese and diced banana pepper, onions, black olives, salsa and sour cream—not awful!)
Because of the spirit of the Bakehouse and Ron, they would never be discarded. They are put out to all the patrons who are still there at closing for snacking while cleaning up.
Do people not like nachos? Or have they been conditioned to know that if they stay until close you get free nachos? We will still make nachos, and Ron will not toss them in the trash just because we didn’t sell them at the end of the night.
Unexpected, Old Navy! I would assume you would donate clothes to Good Will or a local shelter. But who knows. Maybe what was inside of those bags was ridiculous and fast fashion and didn’t sell because no one would be caught dead in any of it. And it would actually be a burden to Good Will and to local shelters. “Here, you throw this away for me.”
What I’m reading: I’m not reading anything except my news feed in the 6:00am hour. I will try to do better. I feel like great people read a lot. I will aspire. Matt reads The Economist with delight. That feels to dramatic for me.
I did read in the local news scroll that Castine Historical Society stumbled across the fact that they had some unexploded cannonballs in their museum! Maine State Police bomb squad investigates dozens of museum cannonballs. That would be my bad, if I took the & Sons to see some artifacts from the War of 1812 and they fell into fisticuffs close to the exhibit. I wish I could say that I made up that scenario for dramatic effect.
What the & Sons are asking for: Everyone’s pretty quiet. Trying to stay on Santa’s Good List, I presume.
This week’s paper cup contains: Mississippi Chicken Mississippi Chicken Recipe - The New York Times. I don’t know about these Mississippi Recipes. I guess it’s a thing? Earlier this fall while trying to dream up something different to do to the 6-lb roast needed to satisfy the & Sons dinner needs, I stumbled across Mississippi Roast Mississippi Roast Recipe. It was RICH but delicious.
So when I saw the recipe for the chicken version, I thought I’d give it a shot. The recipe is for a slow cooker meal, but almost any of those can be turned into a stew with enough broth. It’s garlicy, has soy sauce in the broth, and is finished with tons of fresh herbs. I put half of the herbs into the cooking stew to add depth the broth, and minced up the rest for Ron to sprinkle over the top. Served with rice.
