This is a great essay from a parenting site (fair warning, the next essay down the page talks about having a fourth kid, jesus) about the foods our moms fed us in the 80s and 90s. The food described is an instant nostalgia trip but there are great points to be made that just cooking someone something is enough; it doesn’t have to be over-engineered to the point everyone is unhappy.  (“What’s wrong with a salad being made of iceberg lettuce and bagged cheese instead of kale massaged in olive oil and pomegranate seeds? Literally nothing!”)

…there was spaghetti with parmesan from a can and baked potatoes with a big dollop of sour cream and shredded cheddar cheese. There were chicken and broccoli casseroles; there was bottled teriyaki sauce poured over frozen meatballs and rice and meatloaf with a side of steamed frozen veggies. There were frozen waffles for breakfast with sliced strawberries and normal peanut butter that didn’t gloop out when you opened the jar because it needed to be mixed together, and there was Daisy cottage cheese topped with canned, syrupy mandarin oranges, and there were bowls of Lucky Charms.

Hell yes!

A mini mood board for making it to the midpoint of winter:

I heartily agree with this in 2023, The Year of the Capybara:

Replace Groundhog Day with Capybara Spa Day pic.twitter.com/EjO72X0Un2

— Clayton Cubitt (@claytoncubitt) February 2, 2019

Doc got me a Lego set for Christmas and it might have been the most inspired gift ever: It gives you the mental break of a puzzle, but it’s structured, which means nothing is open-ended and you never have to search for a solution. If you have my brain (anxious, needs order) then this is the best possible thing you can imagine.

I built the pirate ship from my Christmas set and will disassemble it soon to turn it into a pirate tavern (it’s a 3-in-1!) but in the meantime I found the Legos marketed specifically for adults and bought one for myself:

I remember doing a few sets back in the 90s but I was still young enough that the process wasn’t important, the main thing was getting to the finished product as soon as possible so you could play Lego Pirates. But building sets an an adult? Yes, give me more instructions to follow precisely. I can’t get enough.

Some toe beans:

A magnolia bud (!):

Enjoy some softness to start the week. Only one more Monday in January!

Today’s the fourth anniversary of Mom’s death. I don’t have much to say today; the longer it is, the more grief and memory are just a daily thing versus a “before this date, everything was okay” comparison. I wish she was still here. I wish I could show her my quilts and my cakes. I’m glad she’s not sick anymore.

1. This onion definitely made me cry:

2. That’s okay, though, because this kid knows what to say to someone who’s crying:

 

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3. This was my dad’s theme song for the first few months after mom’s death. It’s just what you have to do: keep on keepin’ on.

PS–First Aid Kit is coming to town in May! Maybe Dad and I should go.