1.  Things are super weird at the stores in corona times. For a while there was no meat, no chicken, no soup. Chicken returned, rice disappeared. Sometimes there’s onions, sometimes not. Things that disappear sometimes show up again, or not, all of it out of my control. So flexibility is the name of the game.

2.  This didn’t used to be my strong suit. I planned a menu, wrote the ingredients on my shopping list, and then by God those were the things I’d hunt down. If that meant hitting two or three stores then so be it.

3.  Since May my most frequent grocery store Google search has been “substitute for ___”. You just gotta make it work, man.

4.  I learned how to debone a chicken thigh. Not well, mind you, but close enough. God bless the magic of YouTube.

5.  I was in the grocery store looking for two packages of chicken thighs. It was one of those weird weeks, though, and apparently the stars didn’t align for thighs already prepped. Who knew they sold those things with the skin on and bone still in.

6.  Other corona times lessons abound. Like how to disinfect a house with ammonia, bleach, and alcohol.

7.  How to make homemade butter in our blender. (That one’s just for fun, though.)

8.  How to check our blood pressure and oxygen levels at home. Now there’s a skill set I never knew I’d need.

9.  How to make parmesan garlic knots, homemade fries, shrimp and grits, fresh fruit margaritas, and air fryer Southern fried chicken that’s out of this world.

10.  Last but not least (and far from last overall, I’m sure), how to watch Hulu.com with my earbuds so I don’t distract the kids during remote classes. Thank heavens for technology.