Better Living Through Literature
Words + Projects + Stuff I Like
I noticed some bookended purple flowers at the care center where Doc’s mom is getting better…
…and on the trail in Millcreek.
The first flush of green is still in the mountains but it’s already starting to dry out–good thing the violets got a chance to bloom.
Not shown in this weekend’s pictures: my meltdown over getting the pies my nephew requested too brown; my meltdown over not being able to actually fit the intended patterns on the fabric I laid out for cutting; my meltdown over making a grocery list so we can go to Trader Joe’s. HMMM…
At least today is a new day?
We did the new Easter tradition of brunch and cookie delivery over the weekend. Six dozen cookies and six pastry tips this time!
I took today off too, because it’s so slow/I decorated cookies most of Saturday. Time to eat cookies and sew!
Our mild winter met some record heat (and the worst water outlook in history) and now everything is blooming. On one hand, it feels deeply unsettling; but on the other, I’m just happy it’s warm. We were outside both days this weekend–in shorts! without jackets!–and it felt amazing.
I had no idea Pizza Hut is remodeling some older stores to look like the 80s and 90s “Pizza Hut Classics.” The New York Times had a feature on it, which linked to a comprehensive list of locations from The Retrologist newsletter. Who wants to go to Lander, Wyoming and order a pan pizza with me?!
I might have posted that Kafka quote too early last week, because I was really feeling it this weekend:
“Every day I watch the terror grow and every day I have to work, run errands, do chores—how to describe that contradiction, and how to survive it.
Germany has declared war on Russia. Swimming in the afternoon.”
Except the modern version of his postscript would be, “We started a war in the Middle East. Hanging art and sewing on Sunday.”
It’s hard to know what to even say. It’s hard to not worry about, well, everything. It’s hard to take a few pictures because you’re really happy with your new space and then think about missiles hitting cities and destroying someone else’s space.
But I got my amaryllis bulb to send up a bud for the second year in a row? I guess that’s something. 
We said goodbye to Mom seven years ago today. Sometimes it seems like it happened decades ago; sometimes I still think, “I need to call her and tell her this!”
Grief does change, though. It doesn’t get “better,” but you get more used to it. Your loved one’s loss is (usually) less of a surprise, and you get more used to thinking about them without your heart breaking all over again.
It doesn’t go away, though, and I’m realizing that I don’t want it to. Because:
My HEARTFELT wish for all of us:
But if that’s not the case, then here are my hopes for the year: 
(You can buy this from Old Made Good! I might have to.)
I fully intended to post some seasonal links on Christmas Eve but I started cooking and didn’t even remember the blog until the afternoon. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Here, have some proof that I was cooking:
The traditional sugar cookies, a three-day affair (dough, baking, decorating).
Baby’s first coq au vin, a dish I’ve always wondered about.
Blanched green beans as a side dish (they died tragically in the oven upon reheating).
Cranberry orange rolls for Christmas breakfast because I thought eating cookies for breakfast would be anarchy.
And! We finally got snow on Saturday–last weekend was 60 degrees, yikes–so that was fun to hike in yesterday. 
Now that I’m sewing for long periods of time without having to go sit with an old kitty (sob), I’ve finally started listening to podcasts. Well, a podcast–the history of fashion one, Articles of Interest, by Avery Trufelman. I’d heard about it a few years ago when she spent a whole season dissecting Ivy League style. When she launched the new season about the history of outdoor gear, I jumped in.
It is FASCINATING. So far I’ve learned about:
…BANANA REPUBLIC.
In the newsletter that accompanies each episode, Avery includes photos and links. I clicked on “what the pictures of Banana Republic used to look like” so fast I might have broken the sound barrier. Someone has collected old photos but also SCANNED THE CATALOGS:
That’s right, Banana Republic was doing J. Peterman BEFORE J. PETERMAN. And if I’d never listened to a podcast, I would never have known! I’ve been liking the “Gear” season so much that I went back and listened to the entire Ivy Style season between new episodes of Gear being released. Check it out–think of the things you could learn!