ABC Post 5--The Corona Projects Plus How-to's

From sewing to baking to friendly competitions to gathering in Cousin Darrell's field at 6:30 a.m., we've tried lots of quarantine projects.

Paul reading How the Virus Stole Easter

Here are a few things we've been working on as we wait out the virus, along with instructions in case you want to replicate them for yourself.

1. Me: Sewing T-shirts.  I used to sew dozens of simple, boxy-but-cute T-shirts for the children, but I sewed very few for myself, since I never found a pattern I liked.

Some time ago I found the Anything But Basic T-shirt pattern and have been singing its praises ever since.



A. It's free. Here's the link. Yes, you have to download, print, tape, and cut, but it's worth the effort.
B. It fits real people who have strange shapes and odd proportions. It includes extensive instructions on making the right size.
C. It's easy to sew.
D. It's long, wide, and high enough without alterations.

Yes, there's a funny buckling under my arm.
I prefer a loose fit.

I always like to add a ribbon on the inside/back.

2. Jenny: Baking a Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake.

I'd copy the recipe except the original includes lots of additional information, enough that I don't think it's ethical to copy it here. So click on the link if you have access to blueberries and lemons.

 I like cakes that are moist but not heavy, and sweet enough but not too sweet. This qualified all around.



3. Ben: cleaning out the spare room.

Our son Ben lives in a house in Corvallis, near Oregon State University, with a few other guys. They had one empty room, so when our oldest, Matt, got permission to telework from Oregon for his job at NASA in Houston, Ben offered to let him move into that spare room.

Ben came home for our Easter Sunday family service with an armload of treasures that previous tenants had left. 

1. The kind of hat that stern Asian border officials wear.
2. The sort of box drum that expressionless, deeply concentrating young worship team members sit on and thump with their fingers.
3. A 100% felt fedora.
4. Bamboo knitting needles.


I found this particular combination wildly entertaining. But then, I am easily amused these days.

The hats will go to the costume collection in the attic. They will appear in a future production at Pioneer Christian Academy, I am quite sure.

The drum went to Jenny's room. I don't expect to see it up front at Brownsville Mennonite any time soon, but we now have a worship team on the Sunday-service videos, so who knows what other changes this virus will bring. 

The knitting needles are, of course, mine.

 How to:
Take a deep breath.
Dive in.
Empty closets and drawers.
Return items to former owners if possible. Otherwise, pass things along to your family, or take it to Goodwill after the quarantine.
Scrub everything.
Feel accomplished.

4. Me: Making separate hand towels.

A third of the occupants in this house still work in the wider world, so we've been careful about sanitizing.

Probably 15 years ago I took a large square of terrycloth fabric and made a hooded towel for Jenny. She loved it, used it until sections were threadbare, and finally decided the time has come to part ways.

I cut up the best parts of the towel into hand-towel-sized pieces and serged the edges.

Next I put suctioned hooks onto the bathroom mirror and labeled each with a dry-erase marker.

I keep the clean towels on a stack on the counter.

A couple of times a week, I snatch all the used towels off the hooks and wash them in hot water and bleach.

They will become cleaning rags when the Corona caution is over.



5. Emily and Jenny: Recording a podcast
This endeavor is called Quarantined with Jenny and Emily. I don't know how to link the podcast, but you can find it on Emily's blog.

How to record a podcast: sit on the bedroom floor upstairs. Brainstorm, talk, and laugh a lot for a good part of the afternoon, just loud enough to make everyone in the house curious. Record and publish.

If you want specifics, message the girls, [@emilytheduchess and @therealjenny.s on Instagram] because I have no clue about the technical aspects.

6. Amy: baking monster cookies



When I posted a similar photo last week, people asked for the recipe. Here it is:

Amy Smucker's Monster Cookies

Mix together:
1/2 lb [2 sticks] butter
1 1/2 c. brown sugar
1 1/4 c. white sugar
Add and mix well:
2 1/2 c. peanut butter
6 eggs
1 1/2 t. vanilla
Add:
1 1/2 t. light corn syrup
4 t. baking soda
Stir in:
9 c. old fashioned oats
1 1/2 c. chocolate chips
1/2 lb [1 1/2 c.] M&Ms
Bake 12 minutes at 350.

Note: the original recipe called for 2 1/3 cups brown sugar and 2 cups white sugar. We prefer Amy's modifications.

7. Me: refilling printer inks

This little project scratches a number of itches:
A. The desire to save money.
B. The urge to outmaneuver the unfair, frustrating, expensive, darkly conspiratorial computer printer and ink coalition.
C. The secret wish to poke things with sharp objects.

 

How to: order ink from here, or simply search for ink refills on ebay.
Find a syringe and needle that the naturopath gave you ten years ago to give yourself B-12 shots.
Peel the sticker off the cartridge.
Fill the syringe with ink from the bottle.
Stab it into a hole that the sticker was hiding.
Slowly inject 5 ml of ink.
Replace the sticker, if you wish.

This part is weird but trust me:
Lay a tissue over the coppery part on the bottom. Hold it on tight.
Push the end of the vacuum cleaner hose up against the tissue.
Turn on the vacuum for five or ten seconds at a time.
When a good streak of ink appears on the tissue, turn off the vac.
Pop that cartridge back into the printer.

I haven’t been able to make this work with 3-in-1 colored ink cartridges. This doesn’t diminish the satisfaction of beating the system with the black ink.

8. Me: Making sanitizing wipes.

When we ran out of disposable wipes to sanitize doorknobs and light switches, I was inspired by Zonya Gingrich from Georgia who cuts up old cotton t-shirts and such to save on disposable paper products.

How to:
Gather a few cotton or cotton-blend knit t-shirts, leggings, etc. that are too stained to give to Goodwill. Cut them into roughly 8-inch squares.
Put them into a container.
Pour one of these mixtures over them:

3 c. distilled water
3/4 c. rubbing alcohol
6 T. Dawn dish soap

or

1 c. water
1/2 c. vinegar
1 t. dish soap
5-10 drops essential oil

Grab one to wipe the frequently-touched surfaces.
Toss it in the dirty laundry.
Wash, dry, and save on a pile.
Make another batch of cleaner and pour it over.



9. All of us: have church at home

We raised our children with prayers before meals, Bible reading at breakfast, and other religious/spiritual exercises that varied with our life stages.

Having a family-only Sunday morning service is new, different, and very special. One surprise is the delight of taking on new roles. Paul, who always organized family worship and Bible times, has been too busy planning an online service for the church to plan something for the family.

So Jenny took on that role. She might, for instance, tell me to be in charge of the prayer time, Amy to lead singing, and someone else to read the Bible passage.

We also watch the YouTube service from church.

On Easter Sunday we went out in a field east of the warehouse and had a sunrise service.

"Well, the women were first to the tomb, so it's appropriate that we showed up here first."

How to:
Appoint one person to plan the service and delegate responsibilities.
Figure out what time to meet.
Do what you were told, even if it feels awkward.
Have the dad make pancakes for everyone beforehand, if you wish.

10. Ben and me: Writing projects and a competition.

I would love to publish three books this year. Ben would like to publish three papers on his smoldering combustion research. These are frighteningly ambitious and frankly unrealistic goals, but this quarantine time is ideal for endeavors that involve long stretches of intense mental work, as long as you have a place to be alone.

However, Ben and I both find an amazing number of distractions from such work.

So, the idea is to motivate each other.
I made this chart to help us.
The little figures are on Post-it tabs.


How to:
Find someone with goals in similar areas and difficulty.

Decide to “compete,” which in this case means, keep up in a friendly manner on how you’re both advancing.

Create a visual record.

In our case: Sit down. Jot notes. Type. Make frustrated noises. Depending on your assignment, be grateful that at least you’re not writing about the combustion rate of lignin or making up stories about Mennonite teens.

Feel free to comment with your own Corona projects.