Clouds Parting

First off, I want to say thank you to all of you who have given me words of support, advice, and encouragement after my last post. I feel hugged by the universe. Thank you.

I’m still not great, but I’m trying to shake this off, and there are things on the horizon that are good things, and I need to focus on them and, as my sister said just this morning, stop giving myself crap about the past. It’s hard, though. Still, she’s right.

So, to focus on the good stuff, and the now…well, food-wise, I’ve got brisket brining (since last week) and tonight I’ll be turning one of them (there are two) into corned beef and the other into pastrami. They’re basically the same thing – brined brisket – but corned beef is then boiled (or simmered) and pastrami is coated with a mixture of cracked pepper and coriander and then smoked first before slowwwwly cooking it in the oven above simmering water (to keep it moist). I’ll certainly let you know how all that goes. We’ll slice up the pastrami and freeze it for sandwiches, and we’ll dine on corned beef tonight and I’ll make corned beef hash for breakfast at some point this weekend.

That’s most of the food stuff. I’ll be making Irish Soda Bread too, for the next Tuesdays with Dorie post – and because it’s fitting, and because it’s yummy. And easy.

I worked with Julia last night on her math homework. They’re working on subtraction. Double-digit subtraction, where you have to carry the one… Homework the day before had her drawing lines and circles to represent the “tens” and the “ones” and then you cross out a “ten” line and add ten “ones” circles to the other column, and then you cross out “ones” to correspond with the subtraction taking place in that column…somehow it seemed to make it even more complicated than it needed to be. So for last night’s homework, rather than drawing lines and circles and all that, I gave Julia dimes and pennies and we used them to carry the tens and do the subtraction. By the end of homework, Julia had nailed the whole thought process and didn’t need the coins any more. Yay!

I’ve noticed I haven’t felt like making any jewelry or anything lately. I haven’t had the enthusiasm for it. But over the last couple of days I’ve found myself thinking of things I want to sew. Projects I keep picking up and putting down over the years. And new projects I see completed in my mind. So I’m thinking maybe now would be a good time, while I have the next 45 minutes or so free, to tidy up this work area so it’s ready for me when I decide to pick up scissors and fabric and a needle and thread.