Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued a “stay at home” order for Maryland residents on Monday — further curtailing daily life in the Free State in hopes of slowing the spread of the new coronavirus.

“Every Marylander can be a hero, just by staying home,” Hogan, a Republican, said in a news conference outside the State House in Annapolis Monday morning.

I woke up to this order from Governor Hogan this morning.  We are to stay in our homes and only go out for essentials, i.e. food or medical.  I never, ever, in my wildest dreams thought our state (or nation) would have a pandemic, let alone being 'ordered' to stay in our homes.  This is like something out of a cartoon movie or even the Bible where the king or ruler tells everyone they have to stay in their homes or else.  I was telling hubby today, 'just think, when our great-great grandkids (assuming we'll have one or two) study this pandemic in school {they will, won't they?} they'll talk about how their great-great grandparents survived it. 

Donald and I stay home mostly anyway...okay, we do go out to eat or go to medical appointments, but we mostly we stay home.  So this really isn't a huge problem for us.  

This is a great time for people to clean out their closets, organize their homes, deep clean it, and just chill.  I hope that parents who are homeschooling their kids will decided to continue to do so even after this virus has passed.  It would be wonderful for parents to realize what they are missing in seeing their children finding joy in education and learning.  And that working from home can be an option for parents who have learned that being home with their family is something they have truly missed out on.  

There are blessings in everything.  Sometimes we just have to see past the negative to see the positive.  I believe that is how God made it.  Because He is in charge of everything single thing.  The good, the bad and the ugly.  

Blessings!

On my Quest to Cook More at Home---

On my quest to cook more at home I made a pot of chilli today.  I can still remember the day, a long time ago, when my mom stood in my kitchen and showed me how to make chilli.  I was so impressed at how she just browned the ground beef, added onions, showed me how many cans of stuff to add.  She told me to get the one pot cooking while I was browning the beef and onions.  I don't know why.  I suppose that's the way she always made it, so who was I to question her? LOL  Then I add chilli powder to taste.  I usually serve chilli with saltine crackers, but I looked in my cabinet and I don't have any!  So I gotta come up with a plan b.  I don't know what it is yet.  Now that I think about it, I have Ritz crackers; that might have to do.  I thought about cornbread, but I don't have any of that either!  Stocking the pantry is gonna have to be another thing to keep up with in the new year. 

I went to the store last night to get all the Christmas dinner stuff.  We just have ham sandwiches, potato salad, chips, etc.  Nothing fancy.  Again, that's my mom's tradition.  I don't know how or when she started it; I don't remember my grandmother doing that.  I remember always big meals at grandmas, never sandwiches, so I guess maybe mom wanted to make things easy on herself.  That's okay. 

This will be the first year my kids won't be here sleeping on Christmas Eve.  Our son has lived in our basement and our daughter would usually come over Christmas Eve to spend the night, but this year she is sleeping at her brothers (he moved out in May) which is okay.  They will be coming Christmas morning.  Last New Year's Eve was the first time I didn't have my kids home.  Our son, who is a police officer had to go to work and he took his sister on a ride along with him.  Just as the new year was ringing in our daughter called to say they were on their way to the hospital to check out a dead body.  Crazy.  So that's how my kids rung in the new year.  And it was the first time husband and I had been alone for New Year's in over 30 years.  Awkward is a good word to describe how it felt.  A mother duck lost with her ducklings.

I don't care how old I get or my children get they are my children, my babies and I will always feel that way about them.  I will always see the little boy and little girl in them.  Some days I just want to squeeze them and pick them up like I did when they were small enough to do that and just show them how much I love them, but they really aren't into all that kind of love anymore.  They allow me to hug them and give them a kiss, but they have outgrown the playfulness of all that tickling and stuff.  *sigh*

The dog went to be spayed today and the cat is having female problems and she had to go to the vets.  She is scheduled to be spayed next Wednesday.  I wish I was rich. 

I keep putting off cleaning the house.  I don't know why.  I never used to be this way.  The husband used to have a saying, 'just do it' and we were good about getting our chores done, but honestly as we've gotten older we just don't commit to chores like we should.  I believe I totally understand older people now that I've become one myself!

Now I need to go stir my chilli.  Until next time..

Christmas 2009

Last Christmas was fun.  Daughter came down to help bake cookies.  She makes the best chocolate chips cookies..she definitely has a talent for that!  She rolls the dough in balls, puts them on the cookie sheet and bakes them just right.  Me, well, my cookies come out too hard sometimes.  I guess I'm just in a rush to get 'em done.  The son hates holidays.  He thinks he always has other places to be or other stuff to do, which he doesn't, but I just think he doesn't like the fact that he is expected to participate.  LOL---but he does anyway.  I got him to decorate the tree a little last year.

I don't think I'll get him to do it this year, though.  Considering last year he lived in our basement apartment and this year he moved out to live with two other police officers.  This time last year I was painting the living room.  I bought this blue paint which I had custom made, but when I got it on the walls it looked awful.  I had three gallons of it and didn't want to waste the money, so I used it anyway.  A year later I still haven't gotten my pictures on the walls.  Which only makes me wonder, what have I done this past year?  I was hoping that I'd get life in order, but I think after my son moved out of the house, it was another emotional hit and I fell short of my goals.  I think I'm better now and am determined to get stuff done.  My #1 goal right now is

to get menus made up for the following year.  We eat out way too much and I believe it's because my table is empty; no children.  I remember when husband and I were married I would look at our table anticipating the day when we had children around it.  It's hard to believe those days are behind us.  It's very sad.  But I am also happy for them as they are hard workers, have good jobs, nice places to live.  That is what I want for my children.  It's just I want them with me, too.  I haven't gotten out the decorations yet.  We are planning to do that Sunday as we'll be going to our daughter's gravesite and my parent's gravesite to decorate. 



The Canters Christmas 2009