Easter was this past Sunday, and it was definitely one that won’t soon be forgotten. Instead of going to celebrate at church, I watched the sermon from my couch. Instead of a day full of family and good food, well, we still got some of that, but from a distance.
We went to my parents’ house, where my mom set up an Easter egg hunt in their yard while they watched behind caution tape from their deck. We ate a meal “together,” but it was takeout ordered from a local restaurant and eaten from separate tables a good fifteen feet apart. The weather was, and continues to be glorious though, a bright spot in an otherwise very difficult time.
Friday’s Frugal Five
1. After enjoying being “with” each other so much on Easter, we ended up spending Thursday evening with my family again. We played yard games while my family cheered us on from the deck (instead of joining in), and then again we ate at separate tables.
Above all, I keep writing these weekly updates because I want a true diary of this time – because even while we’re living it, these kinds of evenings are so surreal and hard to believe as real life.
2. I ventured out for a grocery store stock up trip this past week. As we are doing our very best not to go more than every ten days to two weeks, the grocery list felt higher stakes than normal. While I did attempt to look at prices a little bit, just attempting to stock up on the things from our list at all was challenge enough. Again, I am so grateful to be able to shop without worrying too much about price, especially when we are so far outside of normal.
I masked up, walked into the one store entrance that’s open these days (thankfully no line to get in at our local store), and then weaved up and down the store attempting to follow the one way signs.
3. I was able to get most of what I was looking for during my trip to the grocery store, except flour, which was completely out. Again, I let my neighbors know that I was looking, and so when one was on a trip at the business Costco location, she texted me to confirm I still needed some. I now have a giant twenty five pound bag of flour in my kitchen (and a ton of yeast), both of which should last us a good while.
4. I was finally able to find some Walla Walla onion starts at our local hardware store and got them into the ground the very next day.
I have onion seeds, which I was about to plant very late, realizing they wouldn’t have time to get to any real size, so the starts were very much appreciated. With the onions from the grocery store that keep molding or sprouting in short order, I really want to have my own growing in the yard. And now I do.
5. While I myself am not an expert – or really even novice – at sewing, I know people who are. What I do have, though, is reach on the Internet, so I was able to ask and have someone write up a very thorough “how to” post on cloth mask making and publish it over on Ecofrugals this week. If you or someone you know is making masks, especially in some quantity, this is a great guide to doing it faster and easier.
PS – I’m on the Find Your Freedom podcast today talking about how to help your community during a crisis.
Exercise Update
Again I went for at least one walk every day this week. With so many of my hours sitting in front of my computer by myself, having that time in the sunshine makes a huge difference.
I also went for a twenty minute run both Friday and Monday (after running the Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday previous), and I overdid it a little. I think I’ll attempt another run today (Friday), but I’m trying hard to pace myself so I don’t have to go back to no running at all.
How was your week?
We missed seeing our loved ones in person for Easter. It was overall a good Easter weekend, though, with online church services and several much-needed Zoom calls. We were able to have Easter dinner with our dear Wisconsin friends via Zoom, which was so wonderful and we ended up staying on with them for 2.5 hours. That friend, who typically works 80+ hour weeks in an urban office with an annoying commute, is enjoying the opportunity to work from home these days. He said he really appreciates that instead of chatting around the water cooler with colleagues during downtime, he can go and talk to his wife and kids. It’s good that there are plenty of people for whom this situation is creating positive changes, however temporary they may be.
Glad you can distantly celebrate with family! Today is my dad’s 74th birthday, so we will be eating some sort of dessert with them and singing to him over Zoom later on. Taking time to appreciate the positives, even with so many negatives in the world today.
Happy birthday to your dad! Birthdays and holidays are sure weird these days.
it was another work week for me, almost like normal as i don’t go out much for social time. i feel your pain on those store onions. they seem to go bad more frequently these days. we really ought to figure out a plan for growing them and a root cellar setup while we’re at it. it’s the same with potatoes in our house. pretty soon i’m going to give up on potatoes and just have polenta in their place. if you’ve making it the coarse corn meal is best. we still can’t find yeast but we got “bread flour” which is higher in protein and makes a more sturdy loaf. i hope you’re staying sane.
Oh I would LOVE a root cellar. Maybe one of these days…
LOL! We bought one of those giant flour bags too, but NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE has yeast! We felt lucky to even find flour because it’s been gone, but we haven’t been able to secure any yeast after multiple grocery store trips. Good thing you got some!
Let me know if you still can’t find any! We now actually have a bit extra and I could mail you a few packets 🙂
Aw, thank you! I so appreciate that! We’re going to the store again this weekend. If we can’t find any, I’ll let you know. THANK YOU!!! 🙂
We’re in Jax, FL where it’s pretty spread out so we do grocery runs once a week and then errands every week to 10 days. It feels like an outing and nice break in the day. Things are pretty well-stocked here, though we recently moved from NYC where it’s more complicated to get things.
Congrats on going for 2 runs! I overdid my first week of running and had knee issues for 2 weeks. I think I’m finally well enough to try again this week. I’ll do more walk/ job alternating this time, and no two days in a row.
Seems like the right time to have left NYC! And it’s so hard not to overdo it with running.
I loved seeing what your family came up with for Easter. So glad you could still spend it together, even if physically further apart. We attempted our annual Easter egg dying competition with the kids, but all of the egg dye AND EVEN THE EGGS were sold out of stores. So we bailed.
Maybe you should have changed the TPrunchallenge to the flour run challenge 😀
Ha! Except we only have one grocery store within 3+ miles of our house, and the ones even that close are directly downhill 😜
Flour is hard to come by here these days, too. We’ve had mixed experiences with our grocery shopping lately — the store closest to us often has a lot of out of stock items, but if we made the short drive to the town over, we tend to get most of what’s on our list. We’ve been using the express pickup for the last few weeks and enjoying it. Easy, free and minimal contact. That said I look forward to the day of being able to just…go into the grocery store and not have to think too much about it.
This week wasn’t too bad. Work has been a little quieter, which was nice. Plus I finally — FINALLY — managed to deep clean both the hall closet and the bathroom which…was long overdue 😡 One step closer to being done with the quarantine clean!
um lol I did not mean to use an angry face there. I was going for : – x but…I guess it turned into that? haha, lesson learned!
😂😂
I’ve never done the grocery pickup option, from what I’ve heard from others nearby that they’re way overloaded and you’re lucky to even get a spot.
These really are such interesting times, and it’s so challenging to visit extended family at an extended distance. I seriously can’t wait for hugs to come back into fashion haha!
I have a tip for the flour storage. Buy 5-gallon buckets with gamma seal lids (typically $12, but appear to be closer to $30+ now), drop a pound of dry ice into the bucket and then pour the flour (or rice, or beans) on top, partially close the top and gently unscrew/re-screw every 15 minutes to “burp” the bucket and release all oxygen. This will keep it fresh and keep pests away. Mylar bags are a solid second-best option. I don’t know what the supply and demand looks like for either, as we’ve haven’t looked recently.
I sew casually as a hobby, so don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions! 🙂 I’ve been having so much fun refining my pattern, choosing fun fabrics from my stash, and constructing each mask with love. Though…the cost of fabric and sewing supplies has increased by SO much in the last month, which blows my mind!! Thank goodness the frugal, old lady me has been stocking up at remnant bins and the thrift shop for years because $0.25/yard sure beats $18/yard!! 😉
I am SO ready for the hugs!!!
And I’m hopeful we won’t continue buying 25lb bags of flour, but maybe I should consider it.
If your onions start sprouting, can you not just plant them? I don’t know how gardening onions work 😬
It looks like you’re getting some great sun days, I hope that’s true and not just a happy accident at the time of the pictures. I’m cherishing any day we get a bit of warmth, it feels like we’re living in Narnia without the snow.
You can plant onions, but just to leave them for a year til they go to seed and then plant those.
Oh – and it’s actually been the driest April on record, so yes, lots of sun (though the end of this month seems to be trying to catch up on rain).
Massive success with the flour!!
At the beginning people were hoarding toilet paper. Now it’s flour that is difficult to find. At least it looks they’re getting their priorities straight!
It’s definitely been interesting to watch what things have been hard to find through this.