It's May

 

Oh No just 34 Weeks Till Christmas

If this streak of nothingness continues, I am going to be sunk once December gets here. 

Last week was filled with other things and I did not think of Christmas for even a minute. I might do better this week, or I might not. 

Since I am not at the halfway mark yet, I am a little uninspired. Additionally I still have the "room of horrors" filled with all those blasted decorations looming over me. Maybe I will actually head upstairs to work this week or maybe I won't. 

A Different Type of Week.

This week was a different type of a week. It had some fun days, home days, days of caring for others, and of course Bama sports. Love weeks with different days.

Planned but mostly didn't happen

Veggie meal TBD

Taco Salad 

BBQ chicken sandwich, caulitato salad

Beef and broccoli stir fry, rice

Grilled tuna steaks, coleslaw, potatoes 

Out to eat

Leftovers

Joys, and what we really ate:

Monday joy:  I was lucky to be able to go to my happy place Monday. Since the earliest appointment at Social Security was April 1, I was still not driving. Fortunately My Beloved Sister was going with me again and she was able to drive. 

While we were driving she told me to turn around and look behind me. A guy on a motorcycle had a helmet that looked just like Mr. Bill, the old SNL clay clown. Oh Nooooo!. We started laughing and kept saying Oh Nooo and laughing, until we were parked to go inside Independence Place.

I love seeing all my friends there and always leave happier than when I arrived.

The rest of the day was anti-climactic, except for one brief stop we made on the way home. I will refrain from telling what we did, but I will say it was nice to be able to go somewhere without TheHub driving me and knowing what I did. (We do not have secrets from each other, but sometimes chocolate calls and does not need outside witnesses)

Monday dinner: TheHub had some running around he needed to do and got back home close to dinner time. We made a joint decision to run to a local meat and 3 for dinner.

Stuffed bell pepper, turnip greens or okra, lima beans, creamed corn, turnip greens, cornbread

Tuesday joy: We spent the day at home doing home things, but also not doing some home things because I am a master at avoiding things I don't want to do. Hear that Christmas room of horrors.

I did have a phone calls with Sluggy which is always great, and another of my friends, who is not doing well. I keep telling her she reminds me of one of my grandmothers, who seemed to only talk about the sick, afflicted, and dying. 

For the record, though my knee hurts like a son of a gun sometimes, I am not falling to pieces like my Tennessee friend.

Tuesday dinner: Neither of us were terribly hungry but I did have some squash that needed to be cooked.

Squash casserole, sliced tomatoes, dinner roll

Wednesday joy: Son2 had some surgery on his hip so we went to the hospital to sit with his wife and to help if needed with transporting him after recovery. I am glad we did because he could not fit in their car with his leg straight. 

There are advantages to still be driving a soccer mom van. He could easily slide into the middle seat and keep his leg straight. I am not sure why they told him to do that, since his doc had said he could bend his knee.

Once he got home we ran out to grab them a few things from the grocery store and picked them up a little fast food. Son2  had only had crackers and juice in the recovery room and DIL2 had eaten nothing since a light breakfast. They both wanted grilled chicken sandwiches which we were more than happy to make happen. 

We unloaded groceries and their food, and made sure they needed nothing else before we headed home.

Wednesday dinner: We were hungry and grabbed a meal to eat at home when we were closer to our house..

Chicken, green beans, coleslaw

Thursday joy: We drove to Son2's house in case he needed help getting to rehab. We decided we had rather go and not be needed than to be needed and not be there. He managed quite well and did not need us to help him in and out of the car. 

While we were on his side of town we went to Aldi there. It is a much better store than the ones closest to me and has items I can't find near us. After shopping we had a late lunch, then stopped to pick up some ziti for DIL2 and Son2's dinner. 

We try to be good parents of adult sons, but  try harder to be an even better in-laws for our DILs. It's not a hard job since they are 3 wonderful women.

Once we got back to our house we took a quick snooze ( about 30 minutes) then got ready to go out for some entertainment.

The Secret Sisters performed at The Alys, backed by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. What a show! They were wonderful singers who interacted with the audience the entire time.

A major hats off to whomever scored the orchestral arrangements. They obviously were a fan of low brass. The french horns, and trombones carried the orchestra, which is really unusual. I personally am a huge fan of the lower tones, and really liked hearing them back up the singers.

                                                    This is one of the songs they sang

Thursday dinner: We had not eaten dinner before the show so we grabbed a quick dinner from The Purple Onion.

Hamburger (me) Chicken finger plate (TheHub)

Friday joy: Son2 was doing well and we did not need to go to their house until much later in the day, and we only went then to take them some food for dinner. We mainly just hung around our house doing house things and laundry.

We made an appointment with our tv to watch Bama's softball game.

Friday dinner: This was the weekend for the annual Lebanese food festival at St. Elias church. We go every year and usually eat there to enjoy all the festivities, but this year, because we were getting takeout for DIL2 and Son2, we had our entire order to go. We managed to grab the food, run over to their house, get home and eat before the ball game.

Lemon chicken, rice, green beans, pita, stuffed grape leaves, spinach pie

Saturday joy: I stayed home all day mostly reading, while TheHub did some running around to exciting places like Home Depot. 

Saturday night we watched Alabama softball.

Saturday dinner: The softball game was scheduled for 8 pm and we knew we wanted to eat before hand, but I did not want to cook.

Assorted leftovers including, grape leaves, spinach pie, lamb, mashed potatoes, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers

Sunday joys: We woke, dressed and went to our communion service, 8:30 church, then Sunday school. We got home for an early lunch and did a few chores (laundry and other things)  before settling in to watch Alabama softball sweep the series.

A few other chores, a quick dinner and we headed out to see Aly Stroker. I am sad for people from Birmingham who missed her. It was an incredible evening. 

She combined telling her life story paired with songs in a powerful performance.  I was blown away. We were able to be part of the meet and greet afterward, and she was completely charming with the crowd. 

If you live wherever she might be and you have a chance, by all means go see her. It was more than worth the financial and time investment. 

If she is ever back here we will be going again. If /when she is cast in another Broadway show we will make a trip to NYC to see her in that too!

Sunday dinner: We had a quick meal before leaving for the show. Thanks to Aldi for this quick meal.

Chicken pad Thai

Planned for the week (maybe, possibly or probably not)

1. Take out or out to eat

2. Veggie dinner TBD

3. Spaghetti, tossed salad

4. BBQ chicken sandwich

5. Pasta salad or pasta with pesto

6. Grilled tuna steaks, baked potato, coleslaw

7. Meatloaf, collards or coleslaw, new potatoes, 

Books read in April:

Listen  for the Lies

What I Ate in One Year

Sandwich

Falling up

The Second Chance

The Violin Conspiracy

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

Have a great week staying on plan, going off plan, or with no plan at all.

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

Oh no, just 35 weeks till Christmas!

 What to know what I did for Christmas this week

Sorry, Easter was happening and the Bunny took precedent

Better week

The week was much better than last week. I am counting that as good news.

What was planned for the week (that mostly didn't happen)

Boneless herb stuffed leg of lamb, new potatoes, asparagus, tossed salad, grasshopper pie 

Meatloaf, sautéed squash, cucumber tomato and onion salad, biscuits

Bbq chicken sandwiches, caulitato salad

Veggie meal TBD

Grilled tuna steak, brussels sprouts, baked potato, sliced tomatoes

Stir fried veggies w/ either beef or chicken, rice

Pasta, (w/either alfredo or pesto) tossed salad, Italian bread

Joys and what we actually ate:

Monday joy: TheHub had to run across town to do some paperwork for an estate client he is working with. (Yes, even in retirement he is still dabbling in the financial world.) Since it was lunch time, I rode with him just to get out of the house, but also there was a promise of lunch if I went. While he conducted business ( about 15 minutes) I sat in the car and read then we met Son2 who joined us at Urban Cookhouse. We had a long leisurely lunch and a lot of conversations before we left to run by Trader Joe's. I never really need anything from there, but it is generally a fun shopping trip and I always come home with only wants and flowers. 

I did pick up a dozen eggs that were comparatively inexpensive. At first I could not figure out why, until I remembered brown eggs do not dye well so they were not selling fast this week. I no longer have to dye eggs for Easter and I took advantage of the bargain.

We got home in time to do a few things before the Alabama/Oklahoma softball game started. We both put on comfortable clothes and settled in to watch it. Somehow or another Bama managed to win 2 out of 3 games, and even though they did not sweep the series, at least they won it.

The Monday night game was hard fought and went into extra innings.

Monday dinner: Because the game lasted so long I was not about to start cooking dinner at 8:30. Our meal was not good but it was quick and we ate, which is all that matters.

Peanut butter  and jelly sandwich

Tuesday joy: I have fallen into my seriously bad habit of staying up entirely too late then waking after about 4 hours sleep. If I had gone to sleep at a normal time, I would have gotten up to visit the bathroom, then gone back to bed. As it was, when I got the call from the bladder about 4 hours after I fell asleep, I felt guilty about getting back in the bed. As a consequence I was tired all day and it was totally my own fault and preventable.

TheHub and I did run a couple of errands then headed to Publix for a little cherry picking. While we were out, we drove around a little while just looking at how beautiful everything was. 

Reading also happened.

Tuesday dinner: Neither of us were very hungry and decided a small pasta meal was enough.

Penne pasta w/cilantro pesto*, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers.

Wednesday joy: I woke relatively early, even though I went to sleep too late again. I had class and TheHub and I had already coordinated our day with my need to have him be my driver. My class is supposed to be over by 11 but it ran a little late. Luckily he is like me and always has something to read while waiting. It did not hurt that the day was drop dead gorgeous as well. It made him having to wait a lot easier.

I had to return 4 items I had ordered online and picked up from the parking lot pick-up. Once I got home I realized things were not what I needed and had to replace them with what would work. I know better than to order for pickup, and should have gone in to get it in the first place. Lesson learned.

While we were out doing the return, we decided to make an afternoon of it. We would have lunch, then do every errand we could think of that would be necessary for the rest of the week. So we did just that and got home in time for TheHub to have some time to do what he wanted to do. 

For him, a gorgeous late afternoon means some time at the driving range and putting green. And while he was gone I had some "me" time alone in the house. It was good for both of us.

Wednesday dinner: I am counting our lunch out as our dinner meal. We both ate a full meal at lunch and were not hungry at dinner time.

Pork and greens over cheese grits

Thursday joy: Again I went to bed way too late. I think it was about 4 before I actually went to sleep, and woke about 9. TheHub keeps a normal sleep pattern and when I woke he was raring to go. I got dressed quickly, had about a half a cup of coffee and we rode to our favorite produce stand. I came home with strawberries, squash, corn, cucumbers, a hanging impatiens basket, and a beautiful fern. We had a couple of more stops before heading home for an early lunch. 

TheHub moved all the plants I had out outside on the back deck after overwintering inside the house. We did some pruning and I was able to get the front porch looking nice and springy. I love having both blooming and green plants close to the front door. The only plant that does not look good this year is the mandevilla . It became a little leggy over the winter, so I am keeping it in the back yard until it fills out a bit more. Even so, it is blooming away. 

We both had things to do at the house. Mine involved chores, laundry, and food preps. I am not sure what he was doing, but whatever it was he stayed in his office doing it. (Win!?!)

Thursday dinner: When we go to the produce stand, it usually means veggie meal night. (If we had realized Alabama's softball game was Eastern rather than Central time, we would have had a ball game meal. Oh well what we ate was better tasting, and we only missed watching the first 3 inning.)

Sautéed squash, black eyed peas*, corn on the cob, tomato cucumber onion salad

Friday joy: TheHub did his thing and I did mine. Since I am not driving currently, and he was out and about, I stayed home reading, doing laundry, and general house chores. 

I read exclusively on my IPad which I have synched with my phone. Imagine my surprise and laughter when a message popped up

 “This is the Christmas Room calling you!  Come clean me....”

I did not recognize the number immediately because my contacts names do not pop up with the message.  But, I only knew one person who would send me that. It would be the same black hearted individual who guilted me into working on it last week. This week I was wearing teflon and the guilt did not stick.

TheHub finished his doings just in time for us to eat before watching the Alabama/Florida softball game.

Friday dinner: Ball game dinner time!

Corn dog*, coleslaw

Saturday joy: We hung around the house watching Alabama softball and getting things ready for our Easter meal. I made a Boston cream pie, par-boiled potatoes then washed and chopped the salad fixings. 

I do need to add a little more about the meal prep, lest anyone think I was doing such a smart job by prepping ahead. 

I successfully managed to drop or knock over nearly everything I touched, including creating a dish avalanche when I tried to get my daisy plates out of the butler's pantry. Fortunately none of the dishes were broken, but an extra jar of jalapeños that were stored there bit the dust, shattered, and made the entire downstairs small like pickled japs. 

Bummed me out and I think cleaning the floor was the 4th time I had to get the mop out to rectify my mistakes. I decided to call it quits before I did any more damage.There is no telling how badly I could have messed up if I had kept on with all I planned to do.

The weather alternated between sunny blue skies and partly cloudy, but now that we are in shorts and tee shirt temps, I did not mind the periods of darker skies at all.

And because that the days are longer than the nights I am so happy. I like eating later and we tend to eat at in the dark way too early (for me) during the winter months. Now we can eat with a little bit of daylight left and it fits my natural rhythms better.  TheHub is not cranky eating late (for him) if there is still some lingering sunlight. After a few months of compromising on my part, it's nice that we can eat when I prefer.

Right after we ate dinner, TheHub and I watched The Passion of The Christ. We have watched it for the past couple of years right before Easter, even though it is very hard to watch. 

Saturday dinner: I pulled a couple of things out of the freezer, added fresh veggies and called it good (But really called it a quick solution for dinner)

Cottage pie* green beans*, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers

Sunday joy: Easter began early here with our communion service followed by our Easter traditional service, then Sunday School.  

By 11:30 we were home and ready to get started finishing up our Easter meal. Which means we came in the door at the same time, and one of us watched the golf tournament (he did run the vacuum before sitting down) while the other one got busy in the kitchen. 

Son2, DIL2, and My Beloved Sister joined us for a late lunch. We ate at 2 then either visited, or watched the remaining tournament. Without being sexist we separated XX in one room XY in the other, because some of us did not give a fat rat's fanny about golf and the others were interested in watching Justin Thomas win. You can draw your own conclusions about which was which.

Sunday dinner: We ate lunch late and ate much more than is normal for one meal, so it became our meal for the day. It was delicious but very filling. As an aside, when I talked with Son2 earlier in the week I asked him if he would like key lime or Boston cream for dessert. His response? Both!

Herb stuffed boneless leg of lamb*, smashed new potatoes, steamed asparagus sautéed in truffle oil, tossed salad, Boston cream pie, key lime pie* 

Possibilities for this week:

1. Veggie meal TBD

2. Taco Salad

3. BBQ chicken sandwich, caulitato salad

4. Beef and broccoli stir fry, rice

5. Grilled tuna steaks, coleslaw, potatoes

6. Out to eat

7. Leftovers

Books read in April:

Listen  for the Lies

What I Ate in One Year

Sandwich

Falling up

The Second Chance

The Violin Conspiracy

Have a great week staying on plan, going off plan or with no plan at all.

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

* Things used from the freezer

HAPPY EASTER!

From long long ago and not so far away!   

 Happy Easter!

It's Friday

I realize this is not for everyone, but it is part of every Good Friday for me. I am sharing it for those who care to watch without intending offense to anyone who has different beliefs.