What I learned in March

At the end of every month, Emily at Chatting at the Sky shares what she's been learning lately - be it frivolous or profound - and invites her readers to do the same. This time round is a bit of slap-dash between stomach flus and babysitting (consecutively, not concurrently), but I did manage to pull together a few things the ides have taught me.

Here's a glimpse of what I've been learning:

"Keats' Eremite" is a hermit, not a scientific discovery. My most striking memory of grade 11 physics was learning what an honour it was to have a theory named after you; or an element, if you're a chemist. I first sang "Choose Something Like a Star" around that time, and assumed that Keats was some kind of scientist and that eremite was either an equation or a rock. "Frostiana" is back in my repertoire, and I now know Keats to be a poet, so I looked it up. The truth is so much better. Poetry. It's growing on me.

Meal planning has a learning curve, but it's still worth the effort. Back in February, I took Breanne's advice from This Vintage Moment and made up a master list of recipes to choose my meals from for the Lenten season. Flipping through old cook-books was a great reminder of all the things I'd forgotten that I know how - and love - to cook. I wrote down over twenty old favourites with a few newbies that looked interesting and called it a day. It took a week of putting my list in practice to bring out its major flaws: every single meal I'd chosen included rice, there was no thought what all I'd be adding to our already well-stocked freezer, and none of my daughter's favourites had made the cut. My list grew longer as the weeks went on - we love our pasta and our grocery service kept sending us potatoes (plus my girlie kept remembering yet another tasty soup) - and some of the original ideas have yet to be tried. White bean ribbolita and cumin-spiced red beans look less enticing with each go 'round - I should really just cross them off and save myself the weekly "ugh." We'll see how I fare with my next list. Thanks for the great idea, Breanne!

Snow pile in the mall parking lot, mid-month. Small child and condo included for scale.

Crazy weather isn't always a bad thing.  On March 8th, my husband and I enjoyed a beer and a cold appetizer on a river-front patio - something I usually wouldn't dream of attempting before June. It was glorious. Since then, we've had a wallop of snow and miserable temperatures before the next upswing that's almost melted it all. Today, the forecast included sunshine, thunderstorms, cool rain, and the promise of 10 cm of snow by morning.  I didn't see any lightning, but this evening's gloomy skies belie this afternoon's summery warmth. I think I got a sunburn at the playground. The grey skies and whitish mounds are still hard on the old psyche (especially if I happen to catch a post of flowering trees in Victoria), but the memories of the unusually beautiful days between keep me buoyant. It still could be really nice tomorrow. Stranger things have happened!

That's it for this month. I'm off to bed. May April Fools be kind tomorrow ;)

Comments

  1. I've been in such a slump food wise lately, and really like the notion of a master list of good things. Today I was finally craving something: beef vegetable soup and popcorn. So the soup is made and I'm about to make the popcorn. My heart is happy. :-)

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    Replies
    1. The master list was great for my slump too! There are only so many exciting meals I can keep in my head at any one time.
      Popcorn in one of my all-time favourite lazy evening snacks. My husband always dresses it with olive oil and melted butter - with just a sprinkle of sea salt. Glad for happy hearts!

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