Was March long because it has three more days than February, or did it feel long because we passed the one-year anniversary of shutdowns due to COVID? Yes? Anyway, I felt like March was kind of blah when it comes to how we spent our days, but some important things happened and I don’t want to overlook those. So, here’s our monthly round-up of what we did, what we ate, what we watched and what we read.
What We Did
Two more virtual adventures, this time to Montana and Croatia.
Got vaccinated. Phil got his second vaccine and I was able to get my one shot of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine as part of the push to get educators vaccinated. I took an evening appointment and drove to the vaccination site five minutes from my house and in a total of less than 40 minutes, I was vaccinated. (I had to be in the high-risk observation group for 30 minutes because apparently I checked a “not sure” box on my registration when I filled it out at 5 a.m. a few days before my appointment.)
Because of the availability of vaccine appointments, our school district scheduled two virtual school days where the kids are on their own to do the work assigned by their teachers, so on the heels of my vaccine appointment, we had two virtual school days.
The first of those days was our daughter’s 13th birthday. I spent most of it resting, alternating between the couch and my bed. I napped. A lot. For me. I usually never nap, so even one short nap a day is a lot and for several days after the vaccine, I took at least one nap a day.
The girl delivered cupcakes to her friends throughout the school district and hosted a Zoom call so they could eat them together and chat on a non-school day. It’s the best we can do for a pandemic birthday party. (This is already her second pandemic birthday, poor thing.)
Toward the end of the month, I paid off my credit card for the first time–I think–in our married life. This credit card was our “emergency fund” for a lot of years, and this year I set a goal to pay it off. Stimulus money helped to speed that goal along, and I feel a great relief to have it gone.
On another virtual instruction day, I took my daughter to the bookstore. I had a couple of books to pick up that I had ordered. We walked out with four more. Then she spent her Starbucks gift card on a refreshing drink on the way home.
Attended our first lacrosse game, a Saturday scrimmage on a beautiful day. I’m grateful that we don’t have Saturday games regularly, but this was a joy to watch, even if the score was one-sided and not in our team’s favor.
What We Ate
For our virtual adventure to Montana, we made nut burgers, which apparently is a delicacy in Butte, Montana. It’s a hamburger topped with mayo mixed with crushed peanuts. The website where we found the recipe said some people love it, others don’t care for it but nobody hates it. This is accurate.
We also ate Dalmatian Pasta Fazol for our Croatian virtual adventure. This pasta soup (I guess it’s kind of a soup) has pinto beans and a garlicky broth. We had A LOT of leftovers, but I wasn’t sorry.
Our son added to his Saturday menu rotation. The latest dish is spaghetti and meatballs with garlic knots. So, we attempted homemade garlic knots. I’m not great with yeast doughs, so I found a no-yeast recipe that turned out pretty well.
To celebrate our daughter’s birthday we had double chocolate chip cupcakes from Lancaster Cupcake, our award-winning local bakery. Here’s the description: Chocolate cake with a cookie dough filling, cookie frosting, and a fudge drizzle with cookie dough pieces on top. YUM! It was as delicious as it sounds.
She also chose Italian food from a local place called Fiorentino’s for her birthday dinner. Our usual place, we discovered, is closed on Sundays. We are not sorry. Our son had an individual pizza that came in a box with faux newspaper that felt very New York-y. Daughter had baked lasagna and gouda mac-n-cheese bites. Phil had a meatball sub with onion rings. I had a meatball Caesar salad with eggplant fries. All delicious.
Of course, we had corned beef with cabbage, potatoes and carrots, and brown bread for St. Patrick’s Day.
The kids and I got takeout from Gracie’s on West Main on our way back from the scrimmage. Daughter had a stuffed burrito. Son had a hamburger. I had a omelet with home fries.
Birthdays don’t count for our once-a-month takeout in support of local businesses, so we had Thai food on the final Sunday of March from Ploya Thai Kitchen. Son likes orange chicken, which was on the menu. (We have so many Thai places to choose from in our area!) Daughter and I both had a form of Pad Thai (mine was veggie, hers was crispy chicken). Phil had drunken noodles that he ordered spicier than he expected, but he likes it that way.
What We Watched
Movies
Ant-Man and the Wasp. There need to be more Paul Rudd movies in the world. He is one of my absolute favorites and if he’s ever revealed to be a dirt bag, I will cry real tears.
Captain Marvel. Whoa. If you’re uncomfortable with trauma and healing from trauma and deep searching for your identity then don’t watch this. Phil and I had never seen this one so watching it for the first time with the kids was almost overwhelming. But 90s music? And a woman learning to live in freedom out of who she really is? What is not to like?
Avengers: Endgame. So much to process. I hadn’t forgotten how hard the movie was, but I had sort of forgotten how brilliant it is. And I think I appreciated it all so much more because we’ve so recently watched all the movies so the character arcs were more obvious to me.
Shows we finished
The Crown. I finished season 4 and I have A LOT of feelings. Like a lot of little girls who grew up in the ’80s, I was a bit obsessed with Princess Diana and completely devastated by her death. Watching this season of The Crown, in which Diana and Charles’ relationship is featured, left me with renewed grief and anger. I know that it is a fictional TV show based on real people and events, so all of it may not be true and some of it may be embellished. But I still think it’s sad that an institution like the monarchy broke a woman like Diana and seemingly hasn’t learned its lesson. (See: Meghan Markle.) Am I less enamored of the Royal Family now? Yes. Will I still drink tea out of my William and Kate tea cup? Also, yes.
Schitt’s Creek. We finished it. I wasn’t ready. I have questions. I’m going to need several spin-offs to satisfy my questions. But my brother says good stories have good endings and no spin-offs are needed. (I just don’t want it to end!)
Grantchester. We’re caught up! Finished season 5 and waiting for season 6 like everyone else.
Shows we started
Cheer, the docuseries on Netflix about competitive cheerleading. Lots of people were watching this last year at the start of quarantine. I did not. One night I was needing something to put on the TV that required less of my active attention, so I gave it a try. It’s, um, interesting.
Nailed It! The kids and I love this show and were excited to see its return. It’s also interesting to see the kinds of COVID measures they’ve taken to produce the show.
Space Force. This series co-created by Steve Carell and Greg Daniels is subtly funny so far. Worth a watch if you love the kind of humor found on The Office.
Poldark, season 5. Ugh. I don’t love it so far. The series has departed from the book plots and while this isn’t the sort of thing that would always bother me, for some reason, it does with this show.
Shows in progress
Call the Midwife. I’ve been slowly working my way through this series for years. It’s equally heart-breaking and uplifting, but I love the characters.
Men in Kilts. We’ve enjoyed exploring Scotland with Sam and Graham.
And speaking of travel …
Travel shows
We always watch at least one video to accompany our virtual adventure. We watched a PBS documentary about Montana, and it’s amazing how little I know about some states in our country.
For our Croatia virtual adventure we watched a Rudy Maxa travel documentary and an episode of Bare Feet. There are a wealth of travel shows out there. Since we started doing virtual adventures last year, we haven’t completely struck out on finding a show to take us–virtually–to the place we’re interested in.
Footloose in Madeira with David and Debra Rixen. I’m not sure when we discovered these travel documentaries but they are delightful and feed my travel bug. The Rixens have probably a dozen travel documentaries on Amazon Prime. They are a calm sort of travel show. This one made me want some wine. And to travel to an island.
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We also watched part of the interview between Oprah and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle early in the month. What I saw was enough to make me sad and angry, especially since I was watching the fourth season of The Crown at the time.
A lot of nights, we watch an episode or two of Good Mythical Morning on YouTube. Phil’s brother introduced us to Rhett and Link. I don’t love every episode we watch, but they do have some interesting content.
What We Read
Truman by David McCullough. Ugh. I’m learning a lot but it’s taking such.a.long.time.
Breathing Under Water by Richard Rohr. I continued with this for my Lenten reading. It will take me past Easter to finish.
Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn. Book 4 in the Bridgerton series, and my favorite so far.
Death Before Wicket by Kerry Greenwood. Not my favorite Phryne Fisher mystery. But this was fairly quickly followed by …
Murder in Montparnasse by Kerry Greenwood. This was my favorite of the 12 books in the series so far.
The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny. I wait MONTHS for these books in the Inspector Gamache series to be available. This one arrived at the perfect time. Inspector Gamache could travel to Three Pines and find lost eyeglasses or missing kittens and I would still want to read.
How Not to Be Afraid: Seven Ways to Live When Everything Seems Terrifying by Gareth Higgins. Rarely do I tear open the mail and start reading a book immediately, but I did so with this one because I don’t know about you, but I NEED what’s in this book right now. A full review will follow in April, when the book releases.
I finished reading Monster by Walter Dean Myers, a book one of the English classes at school is reading. I’m a new fan of Myers’ work and this one is a creative way to tell the story of a trial for a juvenile charged with felony murder.
Also for school, I finished reading The Adventures of Ulysses by Bernard Evslin. I read this a few years ago because some students were reading it, but I think I enjoyed it more this time because I did some reading aloud with students.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. This is our next book club book. I’ve read it before, but it’s always good to read and discuss with a group. Still powerful the second time around.
Our son’s teacher introduced him to the Theodore Boone books by John Grisham. They read the first book together in class. He has since read the second and third books in the series. Book 4 is on hold at the library.
We read Stick Dog Meets His Match out loud together at bedtime.
Then we moved on to re-reading The Bad Guys books because we have two new ones and we wanted to revisit the previous books. We’re about halfway through the series.
Our daughter read The Unwanteds by Lisa McMann and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. She is newly obsessed with Percy Jackson books and loved The Unwanteds so much that she requested a bunch of the books in the series. She also read a book called Teen Trailblazers: 30 Fearless Girls Who Changed the World Before They Were 20, a birthday gift from a teacher friend of mine.
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Whew. There it is. March in a round-up.
