A Birthday Pie

When we celebrated E's birthday early two weeks ago, we did so because her little brother was in town and we figured we wouldn't see him again until M's graduation in May. And here we are with K at home and no parties for birthdays or graduation on the agenda. No parties, at least, with guests beyond our little clan. Two weeks ago, I might have come up with a dozen accounts of how we were planning to spend E's actual birthday and none of them would have ended like this.

Happy 24th Birthday to E.

M and I made an apple pie today since we had already had cake. Not that two cakes would have been a bad thing. But we did have plenty of apples and E is a fan, so that is what we did. We were missing ice cream, but it was still delicious. The birthday meal was make-your-own-nachos bar. Mine ended up looking more like a taco salad.

It feels like our family members are starting to get into a rhythm - doing their thing for most of the day. For M & K today that included the start of online college classes. Each evening we've been coming together to eat, taking turns being the person in charge of preparing the meal. Perhaps it is our unschool roots showing. This part is feeling a lot like home to me. I'm treasuring this evening coming-together time at the kitchen table, listening to my children laugh and talk and tease each other. I remember my mother sitting like this, quietly at the kitchen table when all of her grown children were home. She'd have such a big smile on her face. I understand now what she was thinking, and I wonder what she'd make of the state of our world today. But especially, I wonder what she'd make of me, her baby, having a 24-year-old. E was the only one of my babies that my mother ever knew.

Some members of our writing group tried a Skype meeting tonight as Monday evenings are the usual gathering time for us (and we missed last Monday's formal meeting, one of the early casualties of the calendar when we were all attempting to make adjustments and deciding how many were too many and if we should get together at all). It's funny that I am one who often misses meetings for need of some alone time, yet I was really looking forward to seeing their faces. And though we had some technical difficulties, see most of their faces I did. I expect it will happen again. And perhaps we will even all get good at it before this is all over.

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NYTimes has us at 82 cases as of 8:11pm, 3/23/2020. Lyon County remains at 2.