A Mom's Year

Creating a comfortable life one moment at a time

Birthday in the Time of Coronavirus

A few months after Tim’s spinal cord injury in 2010, some friends stopped by the house with a pie. We sat around the table and they asked how he was doing. Tim was asked that question a lot, but this time he stopped and thought for a moment. Then he said, “Other than the accident itself, this has been a wonderful experience.”

Today is Tim’s birthday and maybe this seems like a strange thing to be thinking about to mark the occasion, but I’ve thought about his words a lot over the past month since the coronavirus took over our lives.

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Marilyn K’s Frikadeller (Danish Fried Meatballs)

When Tim and I got married twenty-five years ago, I meant to give cookbooks as favors to all of our wedding guests, who’d shared their favorite recipes with us. I didn’t manage to produce the cookbooks in 1995, but I’m hoping late is better than never! I think sharing these recipes (more than 100!) will be a fun part of celebrating this milestone anniversary—and celebrating our friends and family, too.

The first recipe I’m sharing is from my mom’s best friend and my honorary aunt, Marilyn Kycek. Marilyn passed away after a long cancer battle soon after we brought Lily home (I’m grateful that they got to meet each other), and it’s a loss that continues to be deeply felt. I think about Marilyn every time I sit at the piano because I have a wonderful photo of her and Yo-Yo Ma right over middle C. My mom snapped it at an event at the Ordway Center in St. Paul and it makes me smile every time. Don’t they look like they’ve known each other forever and are having the best time? That’s the beauty of music—it connects us all. Marilyn’s son, Jeff, was one of my best friends from fifth grade on, and we even went to senior prom together and had a blast.

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The Wedding Cookbook Project

Twenty-five years ago, when Tim and I were planning our wedding, I thought it’d be fun to give our guests homemade cookbooks as favors. I’m not sure why I thought this was a good idea. We were already dealing with the challenge of distance since I was living in Virginia and the wedding was going to be back in Minnesota. Plus, I was working at Special Olympics International and we were up to our eyeballs with preparations for the World Games in New Haven, Connecticut, that summer.

But I optimistically included blank recipe cards with the wedding invitations and asked everyone to send us their favorite recipes.

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Chinese New Year / Chicken Lo Mein

Chicken Lo Mein from The Woks of Life

We were snowed in yesterday, so I’m scrambling a bit to get caught up. Not that I’m complaining. The sun is shining, the snow on the trees is sparkling, and, as I write, Teddy is running in circles around the snow-covered yard. He is one crazy dog. Layla of Labrador is blissfully lying on a patch of ice. Lily even went sledding yesterday with her friends, who, luckily, have sleds. We sold all of ours in our big garage sale when we moved because everyone said it never snows on Bainbridge Island. (It does.)

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