“What are you doing?”, my older son asked me as he walked into the kitchen on a Sunday in late March of 2020.

“I’m making banana bread…from scratch”, I replied.

He just stared at me.

“Why are you staring at me?”,  I asked.

“Do you even know how to make banana bread?”,  he asked.

“I have a recipe”, I told him.

“Oh” he said and walked into the family room where my younger son was sitting.

“Mom’s baking” I heard my older son tell my younger son.

“It will probably taste terrible”, my younger son replied.

“I heard that” I yelled at them.

Unfortunately I cannot blame them for their conversation.  I have never made them banana bread.  Ever.  I barely cook for them and the only baking I have ever done for them is out of a box.  When you are a widow who has a crazy job, works a ton, and has two kids who are equally busy, there is just no time to bake.  Luckily for my sons, they had an amazing Nanny for years who baked for them.

I finished making the banana bread and put it into the oven.  Thirty minutes later the house was filled with the delicious smell of baking banana bread.  I went into the family room where the boys were attached to their screens.

“It smells pretty good, doesn’t it?” I asked them.

“It still might taste like crap” my older one said.

“We’ll see” I replied.

“Are you dying?” my younger one asked, without even looking up from his screen.

“Uh, no…why?”,  I asked.

“Because you never bake for us”, he replied.

“Hell has frozen over I guess”, I said.

After another 30 mins, there was a loaf of banana bread with chocolate chips sitting on my stove top.  It looked pretty good to me but like my older son, I was a bit skeptical too.  I cut off a piece, blew on it to cool the melted chocolate chips and took a bite.

Yum.

“Hey you guys, come here.  Taste it”, I called to the boys.

They reluctantly put down their devices and came into the kitchen…looking a little fearful.  I cut them each a piece of banana bread and gave it to them.  They both took a tentative bite.  I could tell immediately they liked it.

“Mmmm…it’s pretty good” my little one said.

“It’s good but a little dry” my older son said.

Less than 36 hours later the banana bread was gone.  They boys had devoured it.

In the unprecedented pandemic lock down, we were all doing things that we rarely do or have never done.  Families were eating dinner together night after night instead of individual family members grabbing something between studying and sports practices.  Families were dusting off board games, decks of cards, and puzzles and turning off devices.  Families were watching movies and TV series…together, not individually.  Families were walking the dog…together.  Families were riding bikes…together.  Parents were trying new recipes.  Kids were learning to cook.  Kids were learning how to power wash patios and clean toilets.  People of all ages were taking up new ways to keep fit since the gyms, yoga studios, and cycling studios were closed.  Families were learning how parents could work and kids coud do their distance learning in the same house at the same time.

And widows, like me, were baking.

The pandemic lock down is long over and god willing never to happen again.  But hopefully some of those positive new behaviors will live on.

And yes, from time to time, I still bake banana bread…from scratch.