I just got done baking cookies. I don’t think they turned out very well, but it is possible that certain people may choke them down and say they are good anyway. The reasons they aren’t very good are as follow, from 1 to 3…

1. The recipe was not a very good recipe. Any recipe with only 5 ingredients is probably not worth your while.
2. I didn’t follow the recipe. I added an extra egg, extra peanut butter, and flour. Because see #1. Also, the dough didn’t look good. But altering recipes as one goes does not ALWAYS (SOMETIMES it does, Mom) improve recipes.
3. The oven is a little toaster oven, and I only had it at 200 degrees. When it was at 250 it started smelling hot, and it doesn’t go above 250, but if it did it probably would still smell hot, so that wouldn’t help anyway.

These are the things one does to entertain oneself in quarantine. What else happens in Alison’s Wonderland, you wonder? Read along with me, and you shall find out.

#1- Artwork happens in Alison’s wonderland. Yes, this is wonderful, if you know Alison. However, quarantine is the mother of originality, right? When I asked Bethanie if there were any pencil crayons anywhere, she replied that she would get me some. She was as good as her word, and I was excited.

#2- In my very own couple-room wonderland, there are also stacks of boxes with medicines, with unusual brand names and generic names that are like old friends. It has been my privilege to count all of them, and write them down on an order form, and keep track of inventory in the computer. I have been more than happy to do this, as it makes me feel a little useful. I also do pharmacy inventory every day, entering the medications that have been given out on a spreadsheet.

#3- There is a cute kitchen here also, where I cook things over a gas stove for supper. This takes a little creativity, as the options are a little limited. There is no lettuce here, no sour cream, no ground beef, and no oven but the little toaster oven that goes on the blink when the electricity goes off, as it does frequently. It is fun, though, and I have enjoyed figuring out different ways to do things that would be so thoughtless at home. I made taco salad one night–it had chicken with taco seasoning (no ground beef), cabbage slaw (no lettuce), some kind of interesting Bangladeshi chips (no nachos), and no sour cream. It was good, though! At least what I could taste of it. I made the mistake of squirting hot sauce on my salad before I knew how hot it was…

#4- Other things we do in this quarantine wonderland include drinking coffee. I have been drinking coffee a lot! It is one of my consolations in quarantine. Usually when I wake up in the morning, Bethanie has already made coffee, and I stumble out half asleep and pour myself a cup and inhale the aroma gratefully. And often I continue to pour myself a cup the rest of the day, until the French press is empty.

#5- I have done some really worthwhile thinking, studying, and reading while in quarantine, too. I have been taking a class on the Gospel of John online. It has been really, really good so far. Dallas Theological Seminary offers free classes online, and I would highly recommend them for anyone else who has to quarantine. I never before heard anyone describe the Logos that became flesh in quite that way before…

I also am reading an autobiography of Patricia St. John, and just yesterday I watched Beyond the Gates of Splendor, a documentary about Jim Elliot and the other men that died with him. These have inspired some deep thinking–how can one live in such a way that one doesn’t care about life or death itself but is centered in the peace of God, the power of God, and a love for others… I’ve concluded that there is no way someone can live like that on their own, the only way is through the indwelling of and obedience to the Spirit of God. That is the only way to transcend fear…

The writing challenge you have been seeing pieces from on my blog, has also afforded much amusement to me. I am thankful for all the ones who participated in it with me.

I also saw my first baby gecko this morning, and I said, “Oh, hi… I don’t care if there’s a baby gecko in my bathroom, but I do care about baby snakes!” Just so he knows. He ran so fast that I only got a blurry picture of him on my shampoo bottle.

Well, I hope you enjoyed our little excursion in the land that has been my world for the last 10 days. After today, there are only three more days until I can leave my little wonderland behind and begin exploring the big, wide world! I may go into sensory overload…