25 To-dos while the husband is away

Roy gave me this list on Sunday night. He's back this afternoon--here's what I managed to get done. (In addition to lots of other givens, like dishes, bathing the boys, cooking meals, etc, etc.)

1. Take pictures of your spare headjoint and send them to me Went into basement to locate headjoint. Within a couple of minutes Owen was chewing on a trumpet mouthpiece, had fallen on the concrete floor, James was stuffing old grody foam into a cart, and both boys had completely dusted themselves with coffee husks.
2. Listen to a performance of a piece of music you don't know, following along with the score from IMSLP Didn’t happen.
3. Find a dessert that uses coffee as an ingredient and make it Was actually thinking about this one even before this list popped into my box. But there are enough sweets in the house already. Shelved for later.
4. Convince James and Owen to both go barefoot long enough to snap a picture of their bare piggies I convinced Owen to walk around barefoot for an evening. It was the cutest ever. James refused and complained about a hole in his right sock.
5. Dig through your inbox and read what you were up to a year, two, three, etc., ago Not unless you count looking for old correspondence regarding upcoming performances.
6. Go to Wegmans and get a cheese that you've never tried before Went to Walmart and bought new socks for James.
7. Pull out three pieces of flute music from the basement that you haven't played in a while and read through them Going into the basement is risky (see 1)
8. Return that shirt that you bought from Amazon and didn't like Printed out return label and brought shirt downstairs. Need large envelope to complete return.
9. Send me a picture of yourself We facetimed lots.

10. Piyo Nope. But I played lots of baseball and tag in the backyard. I also figured out the problem with my wrist and massaged frequently with encouraging results.
11. Make popcorn and watch something (Nemo?) with the boys on our bed? No popcorn, but Nemo happened, and was enjoyed!
12. Drop a Facebook message to someone you haven't been in contact with for awhile …not really…
13. Either FaceTime with your Mom or send her a video of you and the boys saying hello Check
14. Fine the next three books to download to your Kindle Found one. Read three already on the Kindle.
15. Binge watch some Gilmore Girls Yup. Lorelei and Luke are completely frustrating.
16. Find something encouraging to text to someone Yes!
17. Go to the library with the boys  Check.
18. Write me a short note Do long texts count?
19. Read the Kindergarten chapter in the homeschool book  Started numerous times but was interrupted consistently three paragraphs in.
20. Take the kids on a run up to the bakery Nope. But we played lots of tag and baked bread in-house.
21. Write a blog In process.
22. Try to find a worship chorus from your childhood with enough musical/theological merit to do again at Pearce I do this every week.
23. Have a ham and cheese picnic outside We had several inside. Maybe tonight?
24. Find three items of clothing to donate and put them down in the garage Two down, one to go.
25. Get into the bourbon ice cream Almost finished! (As in the entire quart…)

Today's 1%:

29/50: Open. Andre Agassi's memoir. I didn't make it through Pete Sampras' because it was so self-centered. His wasn't a whole lot better, but I felt like he was more honest about things and saw his life a bit more in the grand scheme of the world. Still, I'm thinking that all that time playing singles leads to narcissism.

30/50: Life from Scratch. I thought I was reading a book about a food blogger's journey of cooking meals from around the world. Instead I read a memoir of a tragic childhood and reconciliation through food. It was unexpectedly poignant and lovely.

31/50: GI Brides. The true stories of four British women who journey to America as WWII brides. Tragic, but not because husbands were killed in war, but what the war did to the men afterwards. Gambling, affairs, alcohol...these women gave up their homes and families to start anew for love, and this book makes it appear as if that wasn't always the wisest choice.

32/50: Sous Chef. A quick, frantic read about a night in the life of a sous chef in NYC. Fascinating, and I tracked with it pretty well thanks to a lot of chef-ery reading lately. My vocabulary is much more embracing of terms like mise en place and the pass. Still, this guy made Gordon Ramsey's mouth sound like the voice of an virgin angel. Really coarse stuff. He argues that it's the language of the kitchen, but I think it soils the perfection of the food.

33/50: The Undertaker's Daughter. I thought this was fiction for about 75% of the book. And I thought it wasn't great fiction. But it was a memoir and all of the sudden a lot of the details that seemed off for fiction became important and incredible. Takeaway: I'm really glad I didn't grow up in a funeral home.