What I've been doing lately

It's been a lovely spring weekend. Finally. Last weekend it felt like December was quickly approaching. This weekend, it's been in the 80s, which feels overly hot for my liking. But hey, I'll take it. It feels lovely in the shade and I don't need to turn my AC on.

Looking back at my recent blog posts, I am a little bit surprised that I haven't been blogging very often. I am not sure what I've been doing instead. Although, when I really stop and think about it I think my chronic pain sometimes makes me depressed. (Or is it the other way around)? I haven't the heart or the energy to put words to paper (or screen in this case). Instead, I've been going down a Harry Potter audiobook/Great British Baking Show/cake baking weekend tunnel and basically been ignoring everything else. Hopefully with sunshine and nice breezes that will change my attitude, at least for the time being.

But to catch you up, here's what I've been doing lately (besides the 3 items listed above). Spoiler alert: it's possible all these highlights are about food.

1. Newton had a Food Truck Rally. What?! I know. Tiny baby Newton where residents are extremely set in their culinary ways had a food truck rally (featuring trucks from Wichita) and it went over so well (despite the weather being chilly. This was April 1 btw). In fact, it went over so well that some of the food trucks ran out of food. Thankfully, that wasn't my case. I met my friend Denise and her littles for this event so we could wait forever in a line to eat Asian/Mexican fusion food from Funky Monkey Munchies Food truck. Totally worth it.

2. Paska. OMG paska. I mentioned paska in a previous post but I did end up making 125 little paska for Tabor Mennonite Church's Easter Celebration. I never want to do it again but they seemed to enjoy them. And I needed that extra side hustle to help pay for butt/leg pain management. So it worked out. I was so happy to be done with it though.

3. Easter weekend. I am not the best with holidays that I don't get to spend with family. I get really depressed. Including making all that paska, it was a really hard weekend. But I coped the best way I knew how, by going to the Revive and catching up on some social maintenance.

 4. April apparently was Sexual Violence Prevention month. Since part of MCC's domestic work is focused around that prevention, my colleagues and I watched The Mask You Live In, which is a documentary about masculinity in the United States. (It's also on Netflix btw). It's really good and I highly recommend it especially in light of understanding that sexual abuse will not stop until rape culture is no longer considered the norm. Healthy masculinity is key.

Here's hoping these were also in the men's bathroom

5. Yoga: My leg saga continues of course, but I found out that my favorite yoga instructor at the YMCA also has her own studio. So I've been going to yoga on Saturday mornings as well. It's so helpful. I wish I could go every day.

6. Friends and Food: So I have this lovely back deck that I barely use because Kansas and I aren't always friends. However, I've used my deck twice already this spring. Once, back in March for a friends happy hour and another time yesterday evening for a small get together.

For my March happy hour, I made Joy the Baker's grapefruit margaritas. Last night I made a summery Pimm's Cup from Joy the Baker's new cookbook, Over easy, and this whipped goat cheese dip with caramelized onions from Annie's Eats. So good. 

Also I made this rosemary sourdough bread and it is amazing

Some day, I'll be better at taking pictures with my friends

Speaking of food and friends, a couple weekends ago, Denise, Tina and I went to the Monarch for supper in Wichita and ended up at Milkfloat, which is a dessert place in Wichita I've been overly excited to try. It was so lovely. I love that Wichita is becoming cool.

6. Spring bakes, which included Strawberry short cake, rosemary olive oil sourdough bread and a lemon cake with lemon curd and swiss meringue buttercream frosting (which I know sounds so fancy but was actually the most average cake I've ever made. It looked nice though).

7. And finally, I've really been enjoying all these spring flowers. This year, I think I've planted more flowers than I have vegetables in my garden, which is a first for me. (I actually finished planting my garden on Friday evening. Good luck tomatoes.. and everyone).

These 2 pictures are from flowers near the office

This is my second spring in my current rental and it turns out that I have peonies. This is the first year they've bloomed and I cannot stop taking pictures of them. And, today, I noticed my begonia is finally blooming.

Phew. It's out I've been doing a lot more things than I realized. This is why I need to blog more often. I congratulate you if you made it all the way to the bottom.

Happy Spring!