Sunday Scratches is where I share the little stuff that has happened throughout the week. In hockey, “scratches” are people who are on the roster but do not play in the game. On the blog, “scratches” are the things that have happened to me throughout the week that aren’t necessarily big enough to be an entire post.
Please note, this post may contain affiliate links that I could make a commission off of. Learn more.
It’s Sunday! Here are the scratches for the week.
This week was hard. The past month has been hard, but this one was pretty bad. I wouldn’t say it was the worst of quarantine, but… it definitely wasn’t the best.
On Monday, we started having internet issues. I mean, we’ve had internet issues, but they started getting way worse on Monday. My wifi network dropped 5 times before 10 am.
I spent the week problem solving with my organization’s IT department, and it sounds like we have a faulty modem. In normal times, Sean would just have to drive to the Spectrum store to swap it out, but… this isn’t normal times, so the solution is still up in the air.
Things got a little better when Sean and I had a fire on Monday evening. We’ve got a lot of wood scraps from rebuilding our porch, so we got to experience our first campfire of the year and get rid of some wood scraps. A win all around.
Another bright side on Monday: I got a new HDMI adapter for my MacBook in the mail! I’ve been having issues connecting my MacBook to my external monitor ever since I updated my operating system, so I assumed it was an OS issue, but I decided to get a new adapter in case that was the problem. Turns out it was! I feel like I can use my MacBook again, because I struggle so much with a single computer screen.
This week I finally made a recipe I’ve been wanting to make for months: pan pizza! I kept avoiding it because it’s a multi-day recipe (you need to make the dough, then let it proof for 8-24 hours, then cut it in half and work it a little bit, then let it proof for another 2 hours in the skillet, then you bake it) so it always seemed intimidating to me. Turns out it’s super easy! You just do it in small batches over the course of two days. In fact, I made my second batch of dough yesterday so we can have more today. 🤤
On Wednesday, Sean and I started watching the HBO show McMillion$. It’s so frustrating and so fascinating at the same time. Highly recommend!
On Thursday, I got another technology thing figured out: all of our HDMI cords for our gaming systems! We got our new media console from West Elm a few months ago and love it, but we realized that in order to have all 4 of our systems (Fire TV Cube, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, and N64) we’d need four HDMI cords running from the console to the TV, which would be… unattractive. I randomly decided to search on Amazon for an HDMI splitter and found one! You plug it into one HDMI port on your TV, then plug up to 4 systems into it, and choose which one it broadcasts to the TV. It even has a remote so you can do that from the couch. It’s so nice. I spent a bunch of time Thursday evening getting it set up and wrangling the cords so it’s not a mess in the back.
On a more fun note, we got a new game this week based on a recommendation from my sister-in-law: House of Danger. It’s based on Choose Your Own Adventure books! We started it on Tuesday and didn’t finish it until Friday. It’s definitely a game you can play in batches, which is nice! We loved it so much that we’re now eyeing the second iteration of a Choose Your Own Adventure game from the same company. (It’s also the same game company that brought you Pandemic, which we own already and are definitely planning to play soon.)
I also got leggings in the mail this week from a brand I’ve been following forever: Senita Athletics. They’re amazing! I got two pairs of black leggings that have fun detailing and both pairs have pockets! Highly recommend. Will buy again. (PS you can get 10% off if you use this link!)
My organization gave everyone Friday afternoon off because we’ve all been working so hard in the midst of a global pandemic, and I almost cried with gratitude. I was going to sit around and read or play Animal Crossing, but I realized we really needed some groceries… so I tried out curbside pick-up at my local grocery store. It went okay! Some things weren’t available, and some things they substituted other items for. It wasn’t perfect, but I also didn’t expect it to be.
Once Sean was done working, he had a burst of motivation and decided to swing by Costco for a couple things that the local grocery store was out of. Amazingly, between the two trips, the only things we weren’t able to get were black beans and refried beans. Sean was even able to get toilet paper! My anxiety went way down as we were unpacking everything.
Yesterday, I woke up with random motivation to make mixed-berry waffles and they were amazing. Sean actually said they were so good he would buy them in a restaurant. Definitely adding those to my usual rotation!
We also got a home brew kit in the mail this week (we’ve officially hit the “make your own beer” level of quarantine) and started our first batch yesterday! It was a long process but I’m really excited to see how it turns out. (It was also on my 101 in 1001 list! I’ll cross it off when it’s done in 4 weeks.)
We rounded out the day yesterday with some yard work. We had a lot of random clumps of leaves in flower beds and corners of the deck, so we got that all taken out and put into our compost bin. We’re hoping to get some grass seed soon, but it’s unclear how accessible that will be.
For a pandemic update, Governor Whitmer extended Michigan’s stay at home orders (which were set to expire tomorrow night at midnight) through April 30. But she didn’t just extend the timeframe; she also added more restrictions on acceptable behavior.
For example, Home Depot and Lowe’s have been overrun with people trying to work on home projects since they’re stuck at home, which clearly doesn’t help stop the spread of the virus. She changed the rule so big-box stores have to close non-essential departments like flooring, carpeting, garden centers (hence our concern about grass seed), furniture, and paint.
She’s also added restrictions against traveling to vacation homes and using motor-operated boats.
I think all of these are great additions to the original stay at home orders. I know people are getting stir crazy, and I know it’s going to continue to get worse before it gets better, but I think now is the time for everyone to take one for the team and find some entertainment with what you already have at home.
Follow along on Goodreads or Instagram at @caitlinhonard to hear about these things during the week! xo
Leave a Reply