The poppies are blooming here - kind of a big deal for our little town - the festival has been cancelled no doubt. I particularly enjoy the drive through the Hill Country this time of year while the bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush festoon the roadsides with color - Spring in Texas. It is good to be home.

Last week I had planned to drive over for a day with my youngest. 

Every time they invite me to do something I say yes. I am the yes mom. So far it hasn't gotten me in over my head. I'm just going to tell you, adult children rock. I'm starting to understand how I want to do it ... I want to treat them like I do my friends. Basically, don't feel entitled to say just anything you think, don't "get in their business", make time, help them remember how great they are doing at "life" - love them ... think grace where they rub you wrong.

My friends are pretty graceful with me. More on that later.

I started getting a feeling that we, my husband and I, should maybe make a COSTCO run just to kinda restock a few things. Even when I noticed that e v e r y kart except mine was holding at least one case of toilet paper it didn't occur to me that we might be in for SOMETHING, who knows what, yet to be discovered ... only the shadow knows ... 

 I thought, wow, these people are in panic mode. Orderly, polite, down every aisle that fed to the cash registers, anxiety pervading the air kind of panic mode. I didn't even think to add a bale of Tp to our basket, Tp wasn't on my list. It seems like we were driving out of the parking lot when the first text message came from a kid. I think the second one called, then another text then a smirky FaceTime (which immediately confirmed my suspicion that this was orchestrated) call cancelling my drive over to share a day with my youngest.  Thanks again to FaceTime, we were able to reschedule a cook and chat together date later in the week. (I left the sugar out of the banana bread - okay, not yummy (I use the Starbucks copycat recipe substituting coconut oil for the vegetable oil, adding extra walnuts and coating the pan with coconut oil spray - so good - usually.) I like visiting but I like to cook alone. I really prefer it. I like the vegetables cut "a certain way", it bothers me when they are not "right".  I don't know which one of those 1000 THANKFULS I am on but this is definitely another one of them:
I am thankful that my husband thinks that QWERK is adorable and doesn't aggravate me by trying to help. He keeps me company while I cook, but other than grating cheese he just watches and smiles. Pretty great.

The kids thought it was a good idea if we (they said "... if you keep Dad at home ...", but obviously that would necessarily include me) just stayed home for the next couple of weeks. I thought it was kinda cute. I also thought Two had stirred that up, but it is good to see them group text huddling after their epic dust up at Christmas. That is when I had the epiphany to treat my kids more as I do other adults who I care about. Except the youngest. She's a bit extra occasionally.

So, because we could, we decided to do that starting last Friday. And we still go to the dog park. Before this voluntary isolation thing is finished, going to the dog park may be as exciting for me as it has always been for Max. Probably not. He really loves it.

Both the pictures with this post were taken today. From the car. After the dog park walk we drive around a bit seeing whats going on. It was Monday when we first noticed the lines of shoppers standing pretty much as close as their grocery karts would allow outside all three of our most usual grocery stores. Hmmm. On Tuesday I heard that curbside pickup is now a free service, but the wait once you place your order is two or three days.  No line at Randall's or at Natural Grocers.

I am spending my days fiddling around with fabric scrapes. Pictures later. And I'm cooking one really fabulous meal every day. And working in my garden.

And I'm going to try to do this more often.