a little extra to eat

Headline tonight: Toronto expected to be in lock-down for 12 more weeks. There are a total of 9,677 (8,505 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 114 (101 yesterday) deaths to date.

It’s starting to become clear that real pants with a real waistband should be tried on every few days… I’ve either been wearing pjs or stretchy leggings and loose t-shirts, the perfect clothes to trick me into thinking nothing has changed in my waistline. 

The enforced isolation has me spending more time in the kitchen, often making new recipes with the ‘bad’ food that we stocked up on. Cream has factored into a few meals. Chicken and ground beef have featured in some menus. Last friday I made cake, today I made peanut butter cookies - baking is not normally an activity that I pursue. 

Cooking is a good diversion that makes me feel somewhat in control. Making food has always been a nesting activity for me - it emparts the ‘peaceful easy feeling’ better than a glass of wine!

“You know, the act of feeding someone is the ultimate act of care and 

affection...sharing yourself with someone else through food." ~Sylvain Reynard

We had a few hours of welcome sunshine today! Almost all the snow is gone and the field is starting to dry up in places.

I promised myself that I’d stay away from facebook comments, but sometimes I can’t stop myself. There are some people freaked out about what a horrible effect this will have on their children and that they’d be scarred for life. My thought: they will be scarred because ‘you’ are freaked out and scaring them. Relax. I know it’s scary but we have to keep it in perspective and stay strong. We have to stay strong for each other.

My Mom posted this from somewhere on Facebook - it puts our ‘hardship’ into perspective:

2020 - We just have to stay in for a couple of months.

WW II - You have to leave your loved ones and might never see them again.

2020 - But my kids need some fresh air so we're all going to the park.

WW II - Your kids have to be evacuated and live with random good samaritans for their safety.

2020 - I can only Facetime my family and friends, I can't see them.

WW II - I have written letters, I'm hoping they're received and I get a response this year.

2020 - I am trying to order my food online, it's taking ages to get to me, I need alcohol and all the other foods I'm craving.

WW II - Are you coming to queue-up in the line for our rations-potato soup every day of the week?

2020 - The government hasn't said we can't go out, they just said we can but only once to exercise so I'm going to go meet my friends and do what I want.

WW II - I'm not going out just in case a bomb drops so I will stay in listening to some music quietly because the air raid siren might go off.

Stay in, it really is that simple.

Read a news article tonight that said we should only get in the car for essential trips - 

no just going for a car ride!!! 

Could it be considered essential that I have to go for a ride to keep my mood from plummeting?

“There certainly don't seem to be any food shortages in town. All day long, we see women parading beneath our windows bearing aloft enormous tarts to cook in the baker's oven. Easter cakes, no doubt. We wonder whether we might be given a little extra to eat tomorrow, as our hunger is intolerable.”

~Agnès Humbert, Resistance: A French Woman's Journal of the War