Sourdough Pretzels

I made a sourdough starter last December and so far I have only made bread with it. Today I tried making sourdough pretzels. They were a nice treat for the kids (and myself!) during this quarantine time.

Here's the recipe I followed. I needed  A LOT more water than called for. I would also add a little more salt into the dough next time. I didn't have pretzel salt so I used my Trader Joes "Everything but the bagel" seasoning, some just plain kosher salt and the rest cinnamon and sugar.

Here's the stages of the process. They were delicious!

So we don't forget

I saw this posted on Facebook and I thought it was a good reminder. So here goes...

Just so I NEVER forget..... April 3, 2020

Gas price a mile from home was $2.10
School cancelled - yes cancelled till at least 4/30
Self-distancing measures on the rise.
Tape on the floors at grocery stores and others to help distance shoppers (6ft) from each other.
Limited number of people inside stores, therefore, lineups outside the store doors.
Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.
Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.
Entire sports seasons cancelled.
Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.
Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings - cancelled.
No masses, churches are closed.
No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, then 10 or more, now 5 or more.
Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home.
Children's outdoor play parks are closed.
We are to distance from each other.
Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.
Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill.
Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towels, no hand sanitizer.
Shelves are bare.
Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.
Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.
Fines are established for breaking the rules.
Stadiums and recreation facilities open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.
Press conferences daily from the President and Governor. Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.
Government incentives to stay home.
Barely anyone on the roads.
People wearing masks and gloves outside.
Essential service workers are terrified to go to work.
Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.
If you cough, people wonder if you have it.
Life, as we knew it, slowed down.
This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

Why, you ask, do I write this status?
One day it will show up in my memory feed, and it will be a yearly reminder that life is precious and not to take the things we dearly love for granted.
We have so much!
Be thankful. Be grateful.
Be kind to each other - love one another - support everyone.
We are all one!
Copy & Share!

Waffles

Being home every day has certainly given me TIME. Lots and lots of time. We are busy all day long but I don't have the end of the day rushing around that baseball season usually brings. To be honest, baseball season is usually EXHAUSTING!!!! I do miss seeing the boys play but I don't miss the cold spring games and frazzled dinner times.

I came across this post on a blog that I follow and thought it would be a nice thing to do for the boys this morning. The waffle batter is made the night before and rises on the counter overnight. You add the eggs and baking soda into the batter in the morning and then use your waffle maker for yummy waffles!

Thought I would share this in case any of you find yourself with more time to cook than usual. This recipe makes a lot of waffles. I think I made 7. I am going to freeze the ones that don't get eaten.


(my photo is terrible!!!) but it is what it is....

Yarn Along: April 1

Happy Yarn Along Day! 

Here is what I am knitting and reading....

I started the Ninilchik Swoncho over the weekend. Using all stash yarn and some scraps leftover from other projects, I am loving this project. Cailtin Hunter makes such easy-to-knit patterns. Color work is my favorite. It flies off my needles! I love going row by row and checking off the line in the chart. Just one more row is what I always tell myself! Hah...hours later I stop when my hands cramp up.

I started reading The Nickel Boys last night. I have had it for months and didn't get a chance to read it yet. So now is the time! It's been highly recommended to me and to be honest I was nervous to read it because the subject matter is surrounded by abuse of boys. But after listening to a podcast: From the Front Porch, they picked it as the best book of the year and I decided to finally crack the cover open.

I also have a pair of socks on the needles. They have been keeping me calm while helping Chase with schoolwork.

I hope you are all staying safe and healthy.

What are you knitting, crocheting, reading?

 Joining along with Ginny over at Small Things Blog for the monthly Yarn Along.

Quarantine Weekends

My cousin was admitted into the hospital mid-week and tested positive for COVID-19. Thankfully I can now say that he is home and still recovering. I was so nervous and anxious about something happening to him and how scary this entire situation is world-wide. I had a hard time concentrating on work and helping Chase with his school work on Friday. So we hopped in the car at the end of the day and took a ride up to the beach. Some of the boardwalks are closed to keep people from getting too close. Belmar was open and there were people walking but overall it was quiet.

I spent my lunch hour on Friday going through patterns and my stash. I wanted to cast on something new to keep my mind busy. I love Caitlin Hunter and her patterns and after thinking of making the sweater you see on my computer screen, I decided on her Ninilchik Swoncho. I was able to put enough yarn together from my stash to make it.

Dalton and I enjoyed some Jersey Mikes for lunch. They are offering 50% off everything and free delivery. We are thankful to have great local businesses keeping us fed!!!

I am BINGING Homeland! OMG. I can't stop watching it!!!!!!!!!!!! OBSESSED! 

I knitted away on my new project and watched the entire first season in 2 days.

Enjoyed a fire on a nice Friday night. Bonus of this whole mess is that my teenagers are stuck home with us. It's very rare that they are home on weekend nights. It's fun to have them around. Not sure if they feel the same way! hah. 

More knitting and more movies. Charlotte's Web with Chase. I was a lazy bum on Saturday. Didn't do a darn thing! And it was wonderful.

Chase misses his cousin Shea so much. That's his sad face.

Our oldest is a die-hard sports fan and he loves his Steelers. He was so happy that NFL network is streaming the Steeler's Super Bowl win from 2009 tonight on YouTube. No sports has been killing this kid!!!!!!! And I love Sunday football days so much that I pretended it really was a football Sunday and made him some special snacks.

I'm ready for this all to be over and be back to normal. I know it's not going to be anytime soon. Homeschooling my youngest is harder than I thought it would be. Balancing work and the schooling is tricky. I try to have the best outlook possible. But man oh man.....I have my moments that I'm not the best. Tomorrow is another day and I'll get up, get dressed, make the food, wipe down the doorknobs, work, school, work, take a walk, clean up and knit when I can. 

Hoping you are all safe and healthy and hanging in there!

Quick hello

Hi friends. Just wanted to make a quick little post and take a break from working/homeschooling. I casted on another pair of socks! What??? I know...it's weird to me too. I am finding that it's the perfect thing to work on when I am helping Chase with his school work. They are the Simple Skyp Socks. It's a free pattern. I made a pair last week and it's a very fun sock pattern to knit. So if you're looking for a sock pattern, I highly recommend this one. My sister, Andee turned me on to this pattern. She was right when she said it has "just enough" changes to keep you interested.

I am knitting them with Quince and Co. (the pink yarn...gift from my friend Carrie) green yarn is from Backyard Fibreworks that I bought a few years ago at Maryland Sheep & Wool. It's leftover from my Sunset Highway sweater.

We are figuring this whole thing out day by day. Everyone is doing their part and we are all getting along for the most part. I need more wine though......I ran out last night! Ah the horror!!!!!!!!!!! Also helps with the "everyone getting along" thing.

Hope you're all well and keeping busy. Cheers!

Unprecedented Time

Well...this is a time that will be in the history books. We are on week two of working from home, remote learning and week one of NJ lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak. I go between being ok to completely overwhelmed. I thought it might be a good idea to start documenting this time on the blog so I can go back and read it...and hopefully say that it was only a few weeks of our lives and no one got sick!!!!!

When the first cases were in the United States, my oldest son was about to go on his senior class trip to Disney World. I wasn't nervous at all. I honestly didn't think much of this. The went on the trip, leaving on an early Tuesday morning. Within one day, the cases in the country went up dramatically and Disneyland was going to close. As the seniors started to worry about the virus, I started getting multiple texts a day from my son. Still, I wasn't worried. I told him have fun, enjoy the trip and wash his hands A LOT. And then it was announced that Disney World would close on Sunday, March 15. He was due to come home on Saturday, March 14 very late at night. The chaperones took the steps to get the students home a little earlier to ensure they were home safe, sound and healthy. And they did come home a day early with wonderful memories of their time together.

And then school closed. We were thrown into "remote learning" on Monday, March 16 along with most of the state. I still had to do my job (which was very stressful because I work for a senior living community). Our events and updates were changed multiple times a day. We were scrambling to figure it all out with limited time and information. To say we were stressed would be an understatement. As I sat at my dining room table, laptop open, surrounded by my family also doing their work and learning, I got overwhelmed. How will this work? How will we juggle it all? How will we all get along for weeks on end in this house? Well...we managed that first week. My little one is 8 and in third grade. He needs the most help and encouragement. He is NOT one to enjoy sitting to do work. I'm trying to give him lots of opportunities to move around, get his wiggles out so he can finish the work his teacher sent home. His teacher...can I just say that she is an angel? What a sweet girl. Young, energetic, sweet and smart. She is using Zoom to keep in contact with the kids almost every day. She reads a story to them, checks in and lets them see each other's faces. Zoom has been a godsend. My older boys are also doing some virtual classrooms with their teachers. They are handling the workload fine. Thankfully they are very good students and self governing. I don't have to do anything to keep them going! Phew!

My oldest as I said, is a senior. I grew up in a house where "feeling sorry for yourself" was not an option. I have kept that going with my own children. You can have a bad day and feel down, yes. You can complain (for a little bit) but don't wallow and go on and on, feeling sorry for yourself. Now....I'm struggling right now with my oldest. He's upset about losing his senior baseball season and possibly the rest of his year. His prom, his graduation, senior memories...I keep telling him that we don't know yet if it will all be cancelled. And I remind him that he got his Disney trip and thank goodness his Italy and Greece trip was LAST summer and not this summer. There are so many positives that he has had this year but I get it...I try to put myself back in those senior year shoes and sympathize with him. My mom pointed out that Dalton loves history. Well...he's living in a time that will be in the history books.

I have never been more grateful for knitting (and wine lol). At the end of these LONG days, I can curl up on my couch with my family around me, my yarn, knitting patterns and I get to working away the stress from the day. I have finished a pair of socks. YES! You read that right. A PAIR of socks in one week! Who am I???? I pulled out a WIP that has been in hiding for too long, my Leaves of Grass shawl/blanket. I am still working on my son's college quilt. I started watching Homeland with my middle son. Wow it's good!

Over the weekend Liz and I (with the help from our friend Paige) held a virtual knitting night through Zoom. What a great time! We planned on doing it for an hour..... 4 1/2 hours later and some of us were still on there! We hope to do this again during the quarantine time.

So from my home to yours, I hope you are all healthy and safe, not bored, figuring this whole new normal out and getting by day by day.

Things could be worse.....

Here are some photos from the past week...

My finished knitting objects are: Westfjord Wanderer Shawl by Stephen West

and Simple Skyp socks