Trying hard...

A long time ago, before any of my kids had flown the home nest, my middle child complimented my ability to make delicious meals out of leftovers. He said I should write a cookbook, and call it "Mundane to Insane," because he thought so many of the meals from leftovers were even better than the original, and were insanely yummy.

Over the years, I've come to realize that LOTS of things in my life start out as mundane and evolve into something insanely different, although perhaps not always better.

• I took my son's advice, and have been recording illustrated recipes I've developed -- lots of experimentation, some failures, and quite a few delicious outcomes. Many of these are included in the Recipe Box on my website. When COVID happened, I just didn't have the time or inclination to keep cooking

• Nearly two years ago, my kids gave me a gift certificate to create a book of my watercolor paintings. I scanned dozens of drawings and full paintings from my earliest attempts to the ones I painted in early 2020. But then, COVID happened, and I put the book and painting on hold. I've only completed one tiny painting since March, 2020.

• I retired in June of 2018 and spent an insane amount of time visiting my three new grandchildren, leaving my husband at home to carry on by himself -- not very nice of me, but he was still working. I was still managing the fundraising and some of the quality assurance for our Public Health family planning clinic, but I could do most of that while I was on the road. Being with the little ones was vastly less mundane! But that came to a screeching halt when COVID happened.

• We used to hike, bike, and kayak frequently and spent lots of time gardening. This year, for the first summer in decades, I didn't plant any vegetables until it was too late for them to produce anything but leaves. I haven't taken nearly as many photos of the natural world as I once did. I'm not out there doing anything, thanks to COVID.

Well... this all must change! I insisted that we take one more trip in our RV before storing it for the winter, and we both took dozens of photos. We've taken pains to put the gardens to bed, so they're ready to grow much better next summer. We also finished the updates to the two bathrooms we started working on FIVE months ago. Today, I opened the computer to check my work email, dealt with several issues, and then MADE myself open my website to write a new blog. I repotted some house plants, and tended to my orchids. I'll still be busy with Public Health and the COVID response, but I will NOT continue to allow it to manipulate everything I think about, do, and say.

I'm trying hard to LIVE again.