Dear Sunday Letter friends,
I barely slept a wink last night. Before I went to bed, I made the mistake of reading too many first-hand coronavirus accounts from doctors around the world. One comment in particular gnawed at me. A doctor in Italy said if you could see the truth about the virus, you wouldn’t even stick your head out the window.
Yikes.
If that wasn’t enough to keep me awake, a monstrous tornado ripped through Jonesboro, Arkansas yesterday afternoon. I have friends and family who live in Jonesboro. I believe they are safe, thank goodness, but the devastation to the city is widespread. And I wonder if the Bat Cave is still standing this morning.
Seriously, it’s as though the entire planet is majorly ticked off at her humans.
Writing makes me feel better. Pulling worries from my mind and jotting them down on paper truly helps. Try it. I think it’s important to record our thoughts and routines on a daily basis, particularly now. A hundred years from now our great-grandchildren will read our words and marvel that we hoarded toilet paper and sewed masks for nurses. Whatever happens with this global health and financial crisis, one thing’s for sure—history is being made.
Double Meaning
Am I the only one worried that COVID-19 has a double meaning? You’ve heard (and maybe even experienced) the FRESHMAN-15? I fear that before this sheltering-at-home thing ends I could see 19 pounds added to my body!
Know what I mean?
One of our favorite hobbies is cooking and eating. And because we can still do those things, we may be enjoying them a little too much.
I’m not making light of coronavirus. Not at all. But with things as they are, I think it’s easy to trade healthy habits for chocolate chips. I mean, life is falling apart, so what does it matter?
Life isn’t falling apart.
If you are doing it right, life has slowed for a while.
Do Yoga With Me
In an effort to stay healthy and avoid the COVID-19 (pounds), I’m back to doing yoga at home. I use a great website— www.doyogawithme.com. DoYogaWithMe has a variety of free classes for all levels including chair yoga and basic stretching for those who prefer a less strenuous exercise.
Linda, a Dallas friend from way back, recently reached out to a group on Facebook about doing yoga together at 9:00 a.m. Linda and I were friends when our girls were babies. After she moved to Chicago years ago, we lost touch. Fast forward twenty years, and we are virtually exercising together.
Some positive things are definitely coming from this situation.
Lucy and Annabelle absolutely LOVE IT. And they’ve added the word yoga to their impressive vocabularies.
Someone’s a smarty pants.
How long does it take to make something into a habit? I thought 21 days made a habit, but I read on average it can take 66 days. I hope I can make yoga at home part of my routine long after this virus is gone. I pray we aren’t forced to stay home 66 days…
Anyway, it’s fun knowing I am doing yoga with other ladies at 9:00 each morning. (Actually my goal is 4 days a week. But that’s pretty good I think.)
Recycling Trip
Because of the virus, the City of Fayetteville has suspended curbside recycling pickup. MOST of our trash is recycling. At first this sort of panicked me. I had visions of growing wine bottle mounds cluttering our backyard.
Since we don’t want to stop recycling, we’ve starting taking a weekly trip to the recycle center on North Street to drop off our cans and bottles and paper and cardboard. The good news—several people were doing the same thing—social distancing of course.
Two things: 1) I have a new appreciation for the garbage man who sorts our recycling curbside each week; 2) the city needs to plant flowers at the recycle center so the Fayetteville bees don’t buzz around the aluminum can dumpster. Lots of sugar in there I suppose.
This is an example of just one more small thing we are no longer taking for granted.
Victory Garden
During WWI when food was scarce, families planted victory gardens. This practice continued into WWII. Of course, I imagine this was routine for those who grew up on farms with backyard gardens. But this was a new thing for city folk.
I decided since we are fighting a coronavirus war, we need one now. Besides, we can’t leave well enough alone when it comes to our garden.
Ours won’t be a true victory garden in that it will primarily be an extension of our butterfly garden. But I plan to mix veggies in with the flowers. Food for people and pollinators.
Next week, I will bring you an entire blog post on the progress of our new garden. Maybe a virtual tour too.
In the meantime, enjoy these victory garden photos from 1945 (along with my imagined captions).
“Honey, I love how you can smoke a pipe and turn dirt at the same time.”
“Dear, I love playing the Little Red Hen. You just stand there and watch while I water the plants.”
“I better hurry and do my weeding before Mildred gets back from preaching.”
“Clarence, I hope you haven’t been working on the Sabbath.
“Of course not; gardening isn’t work. Here lambkin, a bouquet of greens to match your eyes.”
“Shouldn’t we change into our dungarees?” Arthur asked.
“No my good man. One should always dress for the job he seeks next.”
Things Momma Says:
I opened the freezer last night and a package of corn dogs fell out. I was tickled. It’s the little things that matter when you’re shut up in the house.
? ? ♻
I’ll end today’s Sunday Letter with a positive update.
Last week, I told you how I planted seeds in the raised beds at Momma’s house. Yesterday I checked and saw that they’ve germinated. Yay! I planted poppies, wildflowers, buttercrunch lettuce, and columbine. A bit random, I know. We’ve had lots of sun this past week; perfect growing weather.
Stay home and stay positive, y’all. And prayers for Jonesboro and all those affected by Covid-19.
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
Thanks for the kind words for Jonesboro! The sun is shining bright today and things will get better.
Yes, they will!
Just what I needed this morning! I too am watching all my seeds germinate and am excited for a beautiful butterfly ? garden this year! I will also mix in a few veg plants as the more is the merrier ????
I agree! Thank goodness for the love of gardening.
Great Sunday letter. We are taking each day as it comes. My anxiety comes and goes. I just read about Jonesboro. Seems like when it rains it pours.
That is all I have this morning
Thanks for keeping my Sunday Letter part of your routine.
Goodness why am I drawn to read updates at bedtime? I cannot do it. I’m trying not to read updates every day even but then it’s a shocker after missing a day or two…but I need to stay sane. I’m staying home & doing what I can do to make each day good for my family, myself & my neighbors….there really isn’t anymore that I can do beside pray so updates are not improving my daily life at all. I’m sure someone will let me know when it’s safe to go back out again. By then…I may be so content I may never leave home again!
Stress eating is a thing. 🙁 And my daughter-in-law she stress bakes…she keeps bringing me treats. My husband has juvenile diabetes so I don’t keep treats (very much) but my freezer is beginning to have it’s own treat stash from all the baking.
My dr keeps telling me to do more yoga. I am so sporadic. I’ll check out this site & maybe find the motivation to be faithful.
Having to sort your own recycling should be required…we have never had curbside pick up & I’ve always had to sort & drop off. It is not fun.
I planted a few salad greens in one of my flower beds this past week & I plant to fill my front perennial bed with tomatoes this year instead of filling in with annuals. I stopped growing a vegetable garden when I had three years in a row of not one single piece of edible food because of deer, squirrels, rabbits, groundhogs…not to mention all the insects. I’m hoping it’s been long enough that the wildlife has forgotten I used to ‘feed’ them…or they get confused with food growing next to inedibles.
I love the old photographs…people gardening in suits…hilarious. I made the sweetest garden hat for my garden club tea (which was cancelled of course) so I may need to just wear it while I sweat in the garden instead.
Your mamma is hilarious.
Thanks for keeping us sane.
Thanks Jenny. I loved reading your response at a time when I wasn’t feeling too sane. I think the old victory garden photos are incredible. People sure dressed mighty fine back in the day.
The deer and other critters make gardening in our neighborhood difficult, but I’ve been thinking of trying some tomato plants and maybe some lettuce. These are strange times, so being more self-sufficient is on my radar, too. And that baking thing, I was thinking today that I need to put my scale in a prominent place and add some Pilates back to my basic routine because this slower time brings out nesting instincts like stirring up treats I ordinarily do for special occasions.
I love the old photos and your captions. Neat rows of vegetables can be beautiful. To reap a good harvest, we gotta plant where the sun shines; however, dungarees are more practical than business attire!
Good to hear from you friend. We have a big deer problem too. Ugh.