This Charming Candy will be on hiatus through all of 2015.
It's been just over five weeks since the passing of my mother,
Ruth, from the pulmonary disease she fought for the past 15 years:
Non-tuberculosis Mycobacteria. I posted earlier this spring about moving her all the way across the country, to be close by while she was in her final decline, and that I was putting This Charming Candy on hiatus. It meant a lot to both of us that I was able to be with mom every day, and I'm so thankful that we had that opportunity.
Five weeks seems like a number that's impossible to believe -- it feels to me like this all just happened. And, in the grand scheme of things, that's correct. Five weeks is no time at all. On the other side, my past few years have been spent in such a heightened state of concern and anxiety, over issues of mom's basic safety and survival, that I'm finding it relatively easy to adjust to a less fraught state of mind.
That said, it's clear to me that I must continue to take an extended hiatus from This Charming Candy - likely for the rest of 2015 - to be kind to myself, to have "only" my full time Day Job to occupy my time, and to prioritize surrounding myself with my loving community of friends and to fill my free time with activities that re-energize me. Those of you who follow
This Charming Candy's Instagram account have seen that my latest home kitchen adventures involve making batches of homemade ice cream, most recently a batch of Fresh Apricot ice cream. Apricots were mom's favorite fruit, after all. Love you, mom, forever.
