What Are You Up To? Covid-19

We started self-isolating, which then moved to  "Stay Home, Stay Safe" as directed by our governor.
So I decided to show you what we have been up to.
You can see what has been our happy spot each day -  baking and cooking.  I haven't been this diligent  since the kids left home and hubby is loving it!   We always had the rule with the kids that whoever  cooked didn't have to clean, so hubby is doing the  dishes.  I love to cook, but not to clean.  
Right as the virus started to reach the United States  I had received my rebate check from my Costco credit card,  so I had stocked up on a lot of things.  In addition,  we have always been taught at church to be  self-sufficient, and to have a year's supply of food  on hand.  I don't know that I have a year's supply, but  we usually have a good supply.  
Hubby happened to read an article the other  night on how people are now making bread  at home, but not very successfully.  We laughed!  I have always loved making breads, but for  a long time, we have done more low carb.  Now  we are eating comfort carbs - food therapy!

Our first comfort food therapy was making pretzels.  

I hadn't done that in forever.  These cheddar jalapeno 

ones were amazing.  

Of course, a basic salted pretzel dipped in 

yellow mustard is hard to beat.  Hubby wanted his 

unsalted and dipped in butter and cinnamon sugar. 

This was the recipe that tempted me.

Those who have followed me for a while know I have 

a wood burning pizza oven, but honestly for just 

the two of us, that seemed such a waste to fire up.  

My daughter had purchased a Pizza Craft portable 

pizza oven for Christmas last year, and we had taken 

it up to our cabin over the holidays.  It worked great.  

So I looked into one of those, but it was close to $300.  

I decided to give this gas stove-top Pizza Pronto oven 

a try for $60.  I ordered it off Amazon, and used their 

recipe for pizza crust. It was amazing.  It took about 

15-20 minutes to heat up to 600 degrees and we cooked 

the pizzas about 6.5 minutes.  Perfect for cooking for two! 

We are famous for interactive dinners, and a friend had given 

us a raclette machine years ago.  We fell in love, and our 

family fell in love, but again, a raclette machine for 8 

is just too big.  We had purchased a few of these for 

a dinner party, and the size is perfect.  Click here for a two 

person raclette machine.

I had purchased the steak from Costco 

when I used my rebate check and divided it into 

smaller packages to freeze.

I decided to make some hamburger buns.  I had done that 

several times in the past, but hadn't been thrilled.  

These Brioche Buns were amazing.  I didn't follow her 

recipe exactly - I did more of a standard rise, but next 

time I will try her quick rise.  I highly recommend 

these - so much better than store bought.

We made a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough 

and baked two, and shaped the rest into balls to 

place in the freezer.  This is a pizzookie we made 

with one of the frozen ones. 

We had two sweet nieces pick up some groceries 

for us once each, but other than that we 

have stayed away from the stores. We truly 

want to help stop the spread.   

It's not all just comfort food around here - 

we are doing our protein shakes too!  

To balance out all of our comfort baking

we are making protein shakes with 

frozen fruit added.

My kids said I need to create our 

Quarantine Cookbook!!!

I decided to start a 21 Day Challenge doing  Pilates - Boho Body on YouTube.  I am used to  cardio and weight lifting, and have loved weight  lifting for how it tones and shapes your body,  but I decided to try this out - wow, I am working  muscles that didn't know they needed to be worked.   This is kicking me, but I am writing it down, so  hopefully I will stick to it.
I have also been calendaring and journaling, as  everything is happening so fast as we see Covid-19  change what our normal lives were.  

I had wanted to sew masks to help out, but there 

was so much question about what would or wouldn't 

be used by professionals.  Then this week I was asked 

to participate in a pilot program to sew medical grade 

masks.  We received the fabric pre-cut with instructions 

on Wednesday and were to have them sewn by noon 

today.  They asked 150 people to sew 100 masks, so 

in two days we will have completed 15,000 masks.  

I wanted hubby to take a photo of me sewing them, so 

that I could add that to my journal.  What a satisfying 

project. I was reminded of photos of women 

working in factories during WWII.

 I am hoping we will be allowed to do this again. 

I have also been sewing 100% cotton masks 

for personal use.  

Our business associates in China are begging us to 

wear masks whenever we go out.  Now the CDC is 

finally admitting that people wearing masks will help.  

Find any mask instruction on YouTube, and make 

them for your family and for nursing homes and 

doctors' offices who are accepting homemade masks.  

many are placing the washable masks over their 

n95 masks, so the n95's can be used more than once.  

Hubby is able to work from home running his business 

over Zoom and FaceTime and also doing his Bishop 

work over Zoom and FaceTime.  

I have only seen the grandkids over FaceTime, but on 

Wednesday as I was delivering medical grade masks 

kits for others to help sew, I stopped by to see some of 

them.  I wore a mask and gloves and stayed way back off 

the porch.  My darling two year old wanted a hug and 

cried when I kept backing away and saying no.  

These will be days we will always remember.  We are 

trying to fill them with meaning and service and some 

homemade fun foods.  

Hope you are safe and well, and thanks for visiting. 

Let me know what you are up to.

I will be sharing this with 

Metamorphosis Monday

and

Love Your Creativity

In My Easter Basket Table

The smell of chocolate still reminds me of Easter Bunnies!

If I had only one thing in my Easter Basket, it would be 

Chocolate Bunnies and Chocolate Eggs.

Easter will be different this year, with no family 

gathering.  We are to "Stay Home and Stay Safe",

and we are taking it seriously.

We will miss having all of the little ones here 

and the fun and joy that they bring, but we can 

enjoy them by FaceTime - how blessed are we?!!

I thought this table runner, which I had 

purchased on sale a few years ago was 

the perfect theme for this year's Easter Tablescape.

I had also purchased these darling MacKenzie-Childs 

egg-shaped plates last year, but never used them.

They feature a gold bunny, 

and a gold chick.

Did the Easter Bunny always leave trails of candy for 

you?  Ours did, and one year he even hopped over 

my bed and left trails on me bed!!

Although this makes a pretty table,

I have to move the chocolate, as the morning 

sun would melt it all.  

Everything else can stay.

My stack started with gold ceramic chargers that 

I have had for at least 30 years.  Then it was topped 

with a scalloped MC enamel plate, a gold rimmed 

rustic glass plate, and finally the MC egg plates.

I brought out the gold twig flatware to go with 

this black and white and gold table.

Thanks for stopping by to visit!  I hope you are all 

Staying Home, and Staying Safe!

Nevertheless, at this time when we celebrate 

the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, 

may faith and hope be in your hearts and minds.  

Hugs from our home to yours.

(The huge bunny and egg were saved 

from last year - even though the 

kids wanted to eat them.  Two of the "chocolate 

bunnies" are not real.  Other candy was 

purchased before we started "Stay Home

Stay Safe" but some things can still be

ordered online.)

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday

Love Your Creativity

Cabo Home and Coronavirus

(A partially finished half bath)

Many of you know we headed down to Cabo last week to 

crack the whip on the construction of our never-ending 

build in Cabo.  We had decided that we could self-isolate 

there, since there was no presence of Coronavirus in 

lower Baja Mexico.  

We packed our bags with the intent to stay two to four 

weeks as they finished up construction. 

We were some of the handful of people who wore 

masks on the way down.  Someone needs to work 

with hubby on proper use of mask while sleeping!!

We had warned them in January that we would be bringing 

a group of 4 down this week for my son's Spring Break. 

We asked that they have two bedrooms and baths ready.  

But knowing how things go, we decided to also book a room 

at Villa La Estancia, where we have stayed during 

the construction process. 

That way we could continue to enjoy pools and their 

incredible shrimp nachos at the pool. 

As we had suspected, the house was nowhere near ready 

to stay at, although they had two bedrooms and baths 

that we could have stayed in, but there wasn't glass 

in the front door - haha - didn't feel that comfortable 

to be staying in a house that was wide open. 

My son and his wife weren't able to make it, but we had 

great friends who had volunteered to drive our 15 passenger 

van down the Baja, filled with household goods.  

This will be our last in-restaurant dining for a while, so 

we had to get our picture taken. 

Everything was business as usual at Cabo, with some cancellations, 

and definitely not as busy as Spring Break would usually feel.

We enjoyed the sun and water, food and pools, 

but you may have heard that our area experienced 

a 5.7 earthquake on Wednesday morning.  Their teenage 

daughter was at home with his brother and wife, but 

that kind of freaked her out.  They decided to go 

home a day early.  The airport was closed half a day 

because of broken water pipes.  If Coronavirus fears weren't 

enough, the earthquake made people tremble even more. 

False rumors were started that a 9.0 would follow within 

30 minutes!!  All was well at home.  My daughter went to 

check and a decorative metal platter had fallen off of 

the pizza oven, but that was about all.  

Meanwhile, my daughter got laid off that day, and so 

did my niece - both working in restaurants. 

Despite all of this, we felt comfortable with our decision to stay awhile 

and keep people finishing up the house - also making critical 

design decisions.  

The people in Cabo also told us to stay - that we were safer down 

there, where there was no Coronavirus.

So, on a daily basis we saw things progress - like this outdoor shower,

and this saying put up down by the lower pool,

and furniture being unpacked.  The original plan was for the kids 

and their kids to come down April 6th for their Spring Break, 

although at this point, we doubted that would be happening.

On the second day we noticed a cruise ship pull into the bay.  

We wondered at that and finally found an article about it.  

It is a Holland America ship.  There are not enough places for 

cruise ships to dock, so they had received permission from Cabo 

to anchor their boat.  There are 800 crew members living onboard.  

Had you thought about what happened to crew members when 

the cruise lines stopped?  They can't afford to fly home and are 

under contract, so they are living on the ships, wherever they 

could dock or anchor.  

Our friends decided to fly home on Thursday, as their daughter 

wanted them home.  

We had originally planned this trip for our college son's Spring Break 

from Monday to Saturday, but right before dinner Friday night 

we decided to see if there would be flights home a week later.  If we 

stayed one more week we could get a lot of things wrapped up on 

the house.  There was a pretty full flight, so we thought we wouldn't 

get trapped in Cabo like so many had in Europe.  We booked the 

flight and booked another week at the resort.  Off to dinner we went. 

As we were eating, the waiter asked when we were leaving.  Then he 

told us that the resorts and restaurants were all shutting down 

on Monday since the border was closing Saturday.  

We had followed 

that story, but it was the land border that 

was closing and Delta showed pretty full flights 

leaving the next weekend.  

These pictures are from a happier dinner, earlier 

in the week,  because as we heard that,

hubby left to go back to the room 

to try and change our flights back to the following day

 - Saturday.  He never returned to the table, so I 

had them box up our main dishes.  We had both 

kind of lost our appetites.

Saturday morning we went to the house a final time

 with staples that we had purchased for a long stay. 

 As we drove through the town, there were no tourists left.

  The rental car companies had their parking lots spilling

onto the streets. 

The airport was packed and people everywhere now

 were wearing masks.  

(Hubby wore his correctly on the way home - just a little 

humor to deal with the stress!) 

Arriving in the Salt Lake City 

airport was like being in an apocalyptic movie - 

the roads were 

empty and tons of planes were parked out on the tarmac.  

My heart hurt so badly for the Mexican people we left behind.  

They have so little and their incomes depend on the tourist 

industry, and literally overnight the city was emptied.  

This rock down on the beach below our house has always looked 

like a turtle (I didn't show the turtle's shell) or a lop-eared bunny, 

but this time we could see Ariel - in a tribute to the closed Disney parks. So much is changing so quickly, and without much 

notice.  We have no idea how our income will be 

impacted, and those of our children.  One daughter has 

already been laid off. 

We don't have to self quarantine, but we decided that since 

we were around so many passengers on the plane, we would 

stay away from people for awhile.  

My children with kids home from school are doing their 

best with homework and boredom.  The weather hasn't been 

great, so even though they could play outside, it hasn't been 

nice enough to.  We have decided no family dinners for

the next while.  We truly want everyone to isolate.

We have plenty of food and supplies with the exception of 

antiseptic wipes, but I got on YouTube and saw how to 

make those with a bleach solution and baby wipes or paper towels.  

You already know I love to cook, so that is enjoyable, but 

I will probably gain weight over this!  Haha.

Hubby is able to do his Bishop interviews over Facetime.  We 

can talk to the grandkids over Facetime too.  

How are you coping in this time unlike any we have seen?

We hope you are all well and stay safe.  Our business 

acquaintances in China said they learned to stay 

inside for 30 days and if you had to go out - keep 

your face covered.   

I will be posting with

Metamorphosis Monday 

and 

Love Your Creativity