Random photos

Here are just some random things that we have been up to lately. 

Last week, I took a drive to pick up a couple of wetsuits for the boys.  I know, you're probably wondering "Why??!"   Well, it was for cheap and I figured someday, we will be able to get back to the beach again!  The wetsuits are a size 12 so I'm sure it will fit once we are done with this Safer at Home order.  But look at how pretty and serene the drive is along the coast.  You can easily see Catalina island on the horizon.  Supposedly, LA's pollution has tremendously improved during these times, as well as traffic!

Lots of barricades have been set up to close up parking lots for trails and parks :-(

We are still trying to grow crystals in a jar.  I think we might be pass week 2 or 3? I've lost count!  It wasn't suppose to take this long and of course, every day Graham and Charlie keep asking when we can dump out this solution.  I'm still trying to figure out where to dump this solution.  Definitely not down the sink!  I'm hoping it will all just evaporate:

The boys are still taking their music lessons.  I'm not exactly sure what the violin is doing to Graham's posture.  Hmmm.....

We made our own sushi rolls on night and I totally forgot to by Japanese mayonnaise!  But thankfully we had a new bottle of Thousand Island dressing that actually was a pretty decent substitute.  I had sent Bobby to the store a while back to get Italian dressing but somehow said Thousand Island instead.  So this bottle had been just sitting around the counter-top, just waiting for this exact moment :-)

Charlie still has been doing art for his class.  This one was using natural elements - leaves and such to create something:

And this week, it was using recycled products.  Charlie created an electric train - probably because he didn't want to draw all those wheels on the carton!

 

Watching the news has been quite depressing.  These are the number of deaths in NY.  Increasing by so much every single day.  We've been told to not even go to the grocery store!

We decided to make muffins with the chocolate cake mix that Bobby bought the other day.  Yummy!!! Okay, so he did well by buying it.  But gosh, my waistline is really "happy" these days.  I better start walking around the neighborhood. I think this steep slope along our street is just not motivating.  Maybe if I start going downhill first...

In the meantime, I have left my starter yeast out on the counter overnight instead of putting it in the fridge. Just glad to see that it has not risen over the bowl and making a mess.  Look, so many bubbles!!!

I recently learned that I have been using bleached flour ever since I remember baking!  Somehow I never really paid attention to the word "bleached" until I opened up our next batch of flour which was an unbleached one that Bobby had bought recently.  So the chemical used to bleach flour is actually banned in some countries, but somehow it is still legal in the United States??!
Obviously unbleached flour will be more expensive and then of course, organic unbleached flour will be even more!  But at this rate, if I am going to feed my starter yeast every day, I might have to rethink this.
By the way, I am thinking of naming my starter yeast "Pancake".  Bobby is not quite approving saying that it's like naming a cow "Milk".  Ha ha!