Tour les Jours Bakery

Located in Ellicott City, Maryland, along the Baltimore National Parkway there is a wonderful gem of a bakery called Tour les Jours Bakery.  

The place was absolutely filled with delectable sweets of every kind!  I felt like a kid in a candy store!  There were so many choices.  In addition to offering sweet and savory pastries, they also offered a dizzying array of tea and coffee drinks - both hot and iced.  I was on my way to a training, and water was the order of the day.  When I drink coffee, I find myself unable to sit still and focus. That's a problem!

After roaming around and gazing longingly at many different pastries, I finally settled on this one.  It was a cream danish. I savored every single bite of that bad boy. I have no regrets!  It was delicious.

The Peep Show

 The Arts Council in Carroll County, Maryland hosts a Peep Festival every year.  Every entry must be made of Peeps.  You know Peeps... those little marshmallows shaped like bunnies or rabbits that come in ultra bright colors?

The Peep show runs for a couple of weeks leading up to Easter.  When it first began, the Peep Show was held in the Arts Council building. But, as time has passed, the Peep Show has outgrown the space. It has now moved into the space once occupied by a Department Store.

I did get the opportunity to venture out to the Peep Show!  It was awesome and wonderful! So much creativity.  And good golly, that place had a heavy smell of sugar, everywhere!

Below are some of the pictures that I took during my visit!

It was a lot of fun!

                                      

2026 Goals

I feel like I've hit my stride in accomplishing goals!  I don't think I'm going to get 40 boxes out of the house before Easter.  I will get them all out sometime after Easter.  How long after Easter is the big question.

1) Lose 25 pounds.

Weight Lost This Month:  2 pounds

Total Weight Lost to Date: 3 pounds.

Slowly making progress!

2) Visit 1 new to me state.

Hawaii

I'd love to visit another new to me state this fall!

3)  3 repairs/improvements to the house.

Project #1: Add surge protectors to the heat pumps.  It's not a sexy fix, but it will definitely keep the heat pumps around for a longer period of time!  Honestly, who wants to spend to replace an HVAC system?  They are not cheap.

4) 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge

It's been a while since I've done this.  You get 40 bags or boxes of stuff out of your house over the 40 days of Lent.

Progress as of today: 6 boxes

Easter is in a few days.  I honestly don't think I'm going to get all of this finished before Easter.  I'll still be plugging away on this for a while.

5) Organize old correspondence/letters

I found a treasure trove of old letters and notes from high school.  I have them in a box to sort through next month.  The bigger question is - what gets kept and what gets thrown out?  Do I really want to save any evidence of high school me?  Most likely, NO.

On the other hand... I was given a box of old papers from a historical organization that I volunteer with to organize.  I was in my happy place, organizing that mess!  Many of the documents were of historical value, and there were a lot of photographs.  The photographs have been placed into acid free albums and labeled to the best of my ability.  The documents were sorted and organized into binders in acid free pages.  The next step - for someone else - is to digitize those documents so that back up copies exist somewhere.

6) Big backyard garden project.

I want to put in some sort of shelter for the local pollinators.  I've been searching through the garden catalogs for something.  I saw something when we were in England a couple of years ago that really tickled my fancy!

7) Finish the cross stitch project I've been working on for 3+ years.

Slowly but surely, progress is being made!

From the end of February.

End of March

8) Transfer Dad's slides to digital.

See my post here about transferring the slides!

9) Put those images into an album.

These have been printed out and are awaiting a home.  I am going to a crop later this month.  Getting this finished is my goal for this crop!  I need to buy an album to put them in.  Add that to the list of things I need to do....

10) Fill my America 250 Passport with lots of stamps!

My National Parks Passport got many new stamps while we were in Hawaii.  Sadly, my America 250 pass needs stamps.  

11) Clear out the storage unit.

The things I have found in that storage unit.  The invitations to my high school graduation.  Extra copies of our wedding invitations, the RSVP's.  My Brownie Friendship Book from the 1970's!!!  So much junk.  Why did we hold onto it all?  

I sorted it all once before I added it to the storage unit.  I've been sorting it again before it comes back into the house. And I know I'll eventually sort it again when we go to refinish the basement.

12)  Do one totally irresponsible and fun thing each month! 

I had a dentist appointment earlier this month.  The appointment was at 2.  I took the rest of the afternoon off.  What did I do?

Went to the dentist.  No cavities!

Got a haircut! 

Called a friend to see if she was free and we had an early dinner together.

ALSO - on the first day of spring, I went to Rita's to get my free Italian Ice.  Happy Spring!

13) Go see Falling Water. (Frank Lloyd Wright) 

This is a Bucket List item. 

14) Visit 12 new to me bakeries.

        1) Eli Mochi Donut

        2) The Reister's Daughter

        3) Leonard's Bakery (Honolulu)

Pickle Soup

You read that right.  Pickle Soup.  When I first saw the recipe, my thought was not "oh yum"!  

It was "What the heck?  What are pickles doing in a soup?"  I honestly didn't think that it had much potential.  But, my co-workers had other thoughts.  We had a Stone Soup kind of day.  We each brought in an ingredient from the recipe, tossed it into the crockpot and set it on high. By lunchtime, we had a very delicious aroma filling our workspace.  We were nibbling on the soup throughout the afternoon, and it kept getting better as the afternoon went on!

If you are looking for a most delicious and very unusual soup for the last of these chilly spring days, give this one a try! 

I am not affiliated with The Kitchn Blog in any way whatsoever, but this is recipe that they wrote, along with all of the instructions and history of this Polish Staple.  This was the recipe that we used.

Polish Pickle Soup - https://www.thekitchn.com/polish-pickle-soup-recipe-23628556

This picture should be definitive proof that 
I am NOT an influencer of any kind!
Just a ladle full of a very tasty soup!

Opening Day

 Today is Opening Day of the 2026 Baseball season!

I love going to baseball games.  Not just for the game - but for the spectacle.  The mustard/ketchup/relish races.  The food, the people watching... everything is just so much fun!

Here in Baltimore, the Orioles are our home team.

Our favorite song is "Country Boy" by John Denver.  It was performed twice on the roof of the Orioles Dugout.  Once in the 1983 World Series and again in 1997 at Camden Yards, shortly before his death.

Today, in honor of the Orioles Opening Day, I present to you the Oriole Bird, dancing along to the sweet, sweet strains of John Denver.

Welcome SPRING!

In like a Lion, out like a Lamb?

There is an old weather proverb that proclaims if March comes in "like a lion", it will go out "like a lamb."

Way back when I was teaching, we used to track lion and lamb days during the month of March.  Warm, sunny days were considered to be lamb days.  Windy, cold, stormy days were considered to be lion days.  Every day, we would talk about the weather and track the forecast.  March has always been a very changeable month for weather as the seasons change.  The daily swings in temperature can give you whiplash.

Back in the day, we would create a bar graph, and compare whether we had more lion or lamb days, how many more, how many less, make our predictions for the next day... I always enjoyed those graphs.  I have no idea about the kids, but it was a highlight I looked forward to every spring.

It has been many years since I last taught in a classroom, but this March has made me think deeply about those days and the charts.  While I have not gone so far as to create a lion/lamb bar graph, I have been keeping a running tally on a post-it on my desk. So far, in Central Maryland, we have had more Lion Days.  Days that start out sunny and end with accumulating snow on the ground.  Brisk Days with high winds, rain... so much rain.  Tornadoes. It's been a very weatherful spring here!

Looking out at the 10 day forecast, it looks like we should end with a Lamb Day.  What about you?  What kind of spring have you had so far?  I know parts of the country have been consumed by wildfire, and other parts are underwater. I'm fortunate in that we seem to be in between the extremes.

My Ex-Husband's Ex-husband

 My Ex-Husband's Ex-Husband, written by Rachel Cohn and Melissa DeLa Cruz.

When two powerhouse authors get together to write a romantic comedy of epic proportions, you know the product is going to be excellent!

In this lively Romantic Comedy, we visit Audrey and Ian.  They were best friends in college - up until they both fell in love with the same man, Beau.  Beau met Audrey and Ian while they were doing a semester abroad in Vienna. The love triangle thickens when first Audrey, and then Ian, marry Beau.  And then divorce him. It has been 20 years since the friends have last seen each other.  The oldest of Beau and Audrey's children is getting married in Vienna and the entire family is showing up.  There's just one problem - nobody can find Beau.

In order to save the wedding, Audrey and Ian join forces to find Beau. As they scour the countryside for their wandering ex-husband, they find themselves rediscovering their friendship and rehashing old wrongs.  

Every chapter of this book was delightful.  Dynamic authors on their own, by each giving voice to a single character they really flesh out the characters and bring them to life.  I believe that this gave the book more depth, as we were able to more fully explore the main characters.

And what characters they are!  Ian and Audrey, reliving the absolute best and worst of their study abroad in Vienna.  I could feel the joy of their friendship as well as the stress that they had lived through their shared relationship (and it's subsequent failure) with Beau.  I could be friends with Audrey.  She seems like my kind of woman.  Ian is a character that I would absolutely love to meet and spend time with.

If you are looking for a lighthearted read, this is the book for you!