Our newspaper subscription ran out and we decided not to renew. Now my mornings feel naked.

We’ll probably make one more library run this month and then we’ll only head back to return books (and pay fines).

I make cookies and bread, put them in the freezer, and then wonder if we’ll get around to eating them before we leave.

Last weekend we sent the kids away (not by themselves) and filled up the car with stuff to get rid of. The house still feels full and cluttered. This weekend is Dung Out Session Number Two.

It’s like there’s an elephant in the room, an elephant named Guatemala. It sits there, smack dab in the middle of everything. Sometimes I think it looks lovely and exotic and other times it seems scary and downright wrong. But there it sits. So I shrug my shoulders and go on doing other things, ordinary things, because I can’t spend my whole day staring at an elephant.

I skipped the quotidian post this week. My routines are fading. The chaotic unknown is encroaching. I feel myself slipping into lockdown mode.

I go for walks and play with my camera and watch Parenthood. I stock our toiletry kits with little tubes of toothpaste and write thank you notes and stare at the wall.

It’s too much.

This same time, years previous: cracked wheat pancakes, gingerbread men

Back to that smoking hot photography: Reader Carol guessed correctly, yay Carol!

Here’s what we did. We took the picture in the completely dark toy closet. The exposure was set for eight seconds. While the shutter was open, one of the kids jiggled a piece of twine around the object while I shone a flashlight straight down. I also made sure I shone the light on the front of the object so that it would be visible.

That’s it! Pretty nifty, no?

That night the kids and I moved the sofa out of the way and settled down in front of the tree to do some light painting.

These (very amateur) effects were accomplished by an assortment of the following:

1. Zooming in and out with my 18-55 mm lens.
2. Using a long exposure—about 5 seconds.
3. Using a flash.
4. Rotating and jiggling the camera proper.
5. Flashlights.
6. Finger flashlights.

While we played (i.e. vied for camera time and argued loudly), my potatoes that I had set to simmering on the stove boiled dry and scorched. It was kind of fitting, after all those smoking hot photos I had taken that day.

This same time, years previous: the quotidian (12.12.11),  Sunday Vignettes: Human Anatomy (“tit-bit nipply”—oh boy, I’m laughing all over again!), cashew brittle

Last Sunday when the kids were decorating the tree, I made a cheese spread to eat with our one and only pack of crumbling crackers. I also dipped some hard pretzels into the cheesy wonderfulness and that worked, too.

My parents stopped in after the tree was up and we were watching our Sunday night movie. I had left the bowl of dip on the table for them to eat. My mom sank down on a stool and started eating it straight out of the bowl with a spoon, groaning with pleasure.

All week long I’ve been eating the leftovers wrapped in a warmed corn tortilla.

The recipe and home-canned jar of pimentos came from Margo. The little recipe card has been floating around on my desk and kitchen counters ever since she gave it to me when her family came for a visit back in October. Once I got around to writing “green olives” on my grocery list, the recipe came together in a flash.

Margo’s Pimento Cheese Spread

I used a combination of regular sharp cheddar cheese and some smoked cheddar. Some cream cheese would be nice, too, I think.

½ cup mayonnaise
3/4 pound cheddar cheese, shredded
1 small onion, minced very fine
1 cup pimentos, drained
½ cup green olives, chopped
hot sauce, to taste (I used Sriracha)

Mix together. Serve with crackers, rolled up in tortillas, in sandwiches, or just eat it straight up, with a spoon.