May bright spots

 

Once again, I am back with other monthly recap. I do kind of miss the days when I would blog more often on a whole wide range of things. But apparently I cannot not be bothered to do that. (Some of it is due to the fact that I don't have a personal laptop currently). But nor can I be bothered to let this blog go dormant either. So here we are again.

May kind of flew by. But I think that's pretty typical for me. The beginning months of the year are the slow ones. Once the weather warms up, time seems to pick up the pace.

Right now, I am perhaps not doing the best. My anxiety has been really high and I am dreading things that should be fun. And thing generally have been feeling pretty hard living in a basement, etc. But there have been some bright spots (as me and my friend Emily have come to call them). 

Here they are:

1. I made whoopie pies for the first time since I was a kid (I think. I definitely never made them in Asheville or in Kansas). I bake all the time so this isn't really news, but they were so good and so fun to make again, I felt they deserved a mention. Plus, they are for a recipe project I've been working on where I make recipes from my childhood, take photos of them and put them into a recipe book I'm making. It's been a lot of fun. I am almost done with the first round (aka recipes from Mom. I am also making a book for each of my grandmothers). But the problem is that I keep trying to add recipes to it. It's getting a bit too long. One of these days I'll have to cut myself off. But in the meanwhile, I am having a lot of fun.

2. Mom and Dad came back to visit: Once again to and from their way to Illinois, but it was fun to have them there. The highlight was Dad bringing and entire cooler of lettuce from his garden! This year, he individually planted 250 lettuce seeds and is dealing with those consequences. We were happy to take some off his hands.

3. Titus' graduation from high school!: We followed my parents to Illinois this time, although a few days a later. This time we were going to celebrate my oldest nephew graduating from high school. It was a whirlwind trip. (We were only there for 25 hours) But I am glad we went. We arrived on Saturday in time for his party and then had supper with the family (including some of Janice's relatives). On Sunday, Levent and I enjoyed a brunch date at Andor in Peoria before meeting up with everyone and heading to the ceremony in the afternoon. Afterwards, we said our goodbyes, grabbed some milkshakes, hit play on a true crime podcast and hit the road.

4. Strawberry season! There is a u-pick strawberry farm that is about 20 minutes away from us (and that's easy to get to without getting on the highway, which is a big deal for me these days). This is literally the dream. I could not get very good strawberries (or fruit in general, except watermelon) when I lived in Kansas. Now I can! What a life! One Friday morning, I went and picked a big bucket full (although I did wish I would've brought another container so I could've picked more). It was really fun and the berries were delicious. I made jam with some of them (most of which will be consumed when I make strawberry matcha's).

5. Betha and I went to Westerville: One Saturday, my cousin Betha picked me up and we went to a bookstore outside of the city (because she had a gift card). It was very cute. (Shout out Birdie Books). We had brunch a restaurant that is in an old post office (I order sausage wrapped pancakes that came on a stick. lol). Popped into a clothing boutique and stopped for matcha/coffee at Begin cafe. It was a lovely afternoon.

6. The Columbus Asian festival: That same weekend was the Columbus Asian festival at Franklin park, which is near-ish our house. So Levent and made our way over there on Sunday afternoon for some lunch. We enjoyed an eggroll, crab rangoons, a peach lychee green tea and a chicken banh mi. It was lovely. 

7. Book club. I did a very brave thing - I went to a book club with randos from the internet! I know. I can't believe I did it either. I had found this app called simply Bookclubs that shows some book clubs in certain cities. I joined a few of the Columbus ones and decided to read the books and keep my options open. Well, the last Tuesday of the month rolled around and I made myself do it. It was pretty low key (there were only three of us) but I enjoy talking about books and so, despite being awkward at times, I am glad I did it. Now the ticket will be to see if I go to any other ones.

The book club meeting was up in Dublin (which I wasn't thrilled about) but it was across the street from the Dublin public library. So I checked that out as well.

8. Levent's birthday! Levent does not like his birthday, but we still celebrate it anyway. This year, we had family dinner with his parents the day before his birthday and his mom made a Turkish feast - complete with kebabs. It was delicious. The next day, I ran out and got us some croissants for breakfast. The rest of the day, which I took off from work, was pretty low key. I spent the day mostly doing food prep. And then in the evening, we had Hugo spritz cocktails, Korean style fried chicken, quick pickled cucumbers and potato salad. We also had peanut butter pie for dessert. We watched a movie and enjoyed the evening together. 

9. Painting. As in, I finished a painting! Am I pleased with it, not really. (I think it looks kind of childish). But my mom asked me to paint her something and I pleased that I actually completed it within a year. (It actually only took me about a week). This year, my goal is to paint once a month and so far I've been able to keep that up.

And that was May. I am looking forward to whatever bright spots the rest of the summer will bring our way!