Pre-Dawn Cooking

My spouse said that our kitchen smelled earthy this morning, and he thought it was the rice pudding that I had in the oven.  I think it's the small pot of lentils and barley that I also had cooking.  I think of the spices that we dumped when we moved, and then once we got settled, trying to replace them all.  And now, some of them are old again.

You might wonder why I'm making rice pudding in the pre-dawn hours.  I was making the lentils and barley for lunch and remembered that we had some leftover rice.  Did I want to use that instead of the barley?  I decided that we still had enough rice for rice pudding, so I went that route, making it while I still had milk in the fridge.

Yesterday was very strange, speaking of milk.  The store had 2% and full fat milk, no 1% or skim.  These days, I'm not picky as long as the pull date is much further out than a few days away.  We don't consume milk like we once did.

In some ways, no one consumes like we once did.  I read an article that talks about how restaurants that have pivoted to carry out food are doing very well, while sit down dining has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.  Seeing the empty racks where milk once was reminded me of those early days of the pandemic, where many items weren't restocked for weeks.  When I think back to what we were about to go through four years ago.

My experience was so different from most people.  I still went in to an office.  I was still out and about in the world, even as I was seeing fewer people.  I wonder if I'll ever get to a point where mid-March approaches, and I don't think back to 2020.

Today is a getting back on track day, teaching classes with students returning from Spring Break.  I'm also being observed teaching one of those classes.  It should be fine, but I'll be glad when it's done.  They are not a talkative group, but I have a variety of activities planned.

Hopefully, once I get through the next few days of interviews, midterm projects, grading, new online classes that I start teaching--hopefully I'll return to more sustained writing and a poem or two.

Getting back into a seminary rhythm is less hard, since I worked on projects over the break.  There is the worry that I'm forgetting something.  But that's my constant worry.  Whether it's stocking supplies or tending to duties or being on the lookout for the apocalypse, I do worry that I'm forgetting something.