Transition and Confusion

This was a transition week after having Son1 and Pip here. Even though they left on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I woke still thinking they were here. I am not the brightest bulb in the box until I have been awake a couple of minutes.

What was planned:

Grilled tripletail, baked potato, coleslaw

leftover conecuh sausage, leftover cheese biscuits, coleslaw

Veggie dinner TBD

BLT salad

Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad, garlic toast

Something*

Something*

How far I veered off the planned path:

Monday: Pip had one last request of things she wanted to do while here, so off we went to Starbucks. She has some pink drink she likes to drink and wanted a grilled cheese from there. I had no idea Starbucks even had a grilled cheese option, but I am not a Starbucks regular. I only go twice a year, once for a caramel macchiato and another time at Christmas for their peppermint mocha. 

I love coffee, but I am not a fancy coffee drinker. I make it at home every morning like I prefer it, strong and black, not burnt tasting like Starbucks plain coffee tastes to me. 

Mid-day we had to leave to get them to the airport. It is always hard saying goodbye, but we had them for 2 weeks and that filled my cup until the next time we see them.

We got home and rested because we both were tired. I did pick some of the bigger pears from the tree in the front yard, then decided to research what to do with them. I need to harvest them all soon and need, plans in place for long term, as well as short term storage.

The tree is covered  this year, but a mocking bird is nesting there and she is not fond of me being around. I don't mind sharing the tree and some pears with her, and will not bother her babies, but would appreciate her not dive bombing me.

Monday dinner: We had some food in the fridge that needed to be eaten.

 Leftover conecuh sausage, coleslaw,  cheese biscuits

Tuesday: We woke and hoped to get out early to beat the heat. What a foolish thought. It was hot and humid at the start of the day. We had been missing Benny and Brenda's produce stand because the rains kept them from setting up on their usual days closest to my house. I was getting desperate for some good tomatoes (the ones in our yard are not really producing yet) . We ran by and they were there, but without their usual glut of produce. The rains have really affected their crop growth with some crops molding in the fields. Though I was happy for the tomatoes, I really wanted yellow squash and cucumbers, but they have not been producing well this year.

After the produce run we ran by Pilleteri's to grab some of their ground chuck/bacon mix. We have never had it before but 2 different trusted friends told us how good it is so we decided to give it a try.

Next we headed to Snapper Grabber to see if they had any tripletail. It was our lucky day.

Tuesday dinner: Because our fish monger did have tripletail in their case, dinner planned itself. Honestly though, even if they had not had it I would have just bought grouper because we love it also.

Grilled tripletail, baked potato, tossed salad

Wednesday: I did a bunch of laundry, then talked with MBS while I cleaned out the laundry room refrigerator. After it was cleaned and the many loads of clothes I was doing Wednesday were done, I spent time reviewing our July schedule, browsing recipes for potential meals, some advance cooking, and catching up on some reading.

Wednesday dinner: I found a lot of things in the laundry room fridge that needed to be eaten, cooked, or frozen.

Leftover collards, corn on the cob, pink eyed peas, cornbread, peach cobbler

Thursday: I have to stop staying up so late. It was 4 before I finally went to bed, so I slept until a little after 9.  Bad me!

Got up, had coffee (needed a caffeine i.v drip for I was still tired) talked with My Beloved Sister then got ready for the day. Cute clothes and summer heat are not mutually inclusive, but I refuse to compromise and am just very thankful for a really good car a/c.

TheHub and I ran a few errands, picked up the ribs for the fourth (yes I let someone else do the smoking and I pick them up cooked and ready to eat. It is worth every penny). After we grabbed the ribs we stopped by JaWanda's Pies in Inverness. I was not, nor am I ever interested in a sweet potato pie, but she also makes delicious pound cakes. Again I paid for the convenience of not having to bake, and again it was worth it. I do not mind spending money if there is value in it, and after the past two weeks I am putting a price on my time. I had rather be spending the fourth swimming and having fun than cooking.

Thursday dinner: Thanks to the refrigerator clean out and advance cooking, dinner was almost ready and only took about 5 minutes to heat and throw together.

Something like if a fajita and nachos had a really weird baby

Friday: Happy 4th of July if you live in the States and Happy Friday  (or Saturday) to everyone else. Hope all of you had a good day regardless of what side of the pond you live on.

We had a day of swimming and enjoying family. Son2 and DIL2 were here along with MBS. The day was hot but the pool felt great.

Friday dinner: We had just one meal for the day because we knew it would be a big meal, and it was.

BBQ ribs, potato salad, collard greens, vidalia onion pie, watermelon, chocolate pound cake, ice cream

Saturday: TheHub and I got up and ran a few errands. ( I left before coffee which is always dangerous for anyone around me) We ran by Benny's produce stand and he was not there. Brenda had told us they would only be there if they had enough to harvest, so I am assuming the weather (rain) still was impacting their yield.

We had a few more things to do before we came home to eat lunch, then rested, read and did a few chores. TheHub left to play 9 holes of golf and we had planned on swimming after he got home, but he ran into some friends on the course and golf was extended. Did not matter at all to me, but once it got closer to 6, I decided to nix swimming and just get dinner started. 

Saturday dinner: I don't mind swimming before dinner if all I am going to do is warm leftovers but I was going to cook and I don't like coming in from the pool, taking a shower then starting dinner from scratch. It is never about eating late, but cleaning the kitchen late really pisses me off.

Hamburger patties, french fries, cucumber tomato onion salad

Sunday: We woke in plenty of time to get to church, but right before time to get dressed we decided to stay home and watch it online. Since it was the 4th weekend, we only had one service and no Sunday School.

The day was beautiful and I decided the pool was calling me. MBS came over and we swam laps, then just floated and talked. It felt great!

Later in the afternoon I talked with Sluggy and caught up on her trip. Now I know my southern rear end does not need to go near the Arctic Circle__ever. A summertime high of 47? No thanks!

Sunday dinner: This was a reheat and eat type of night.

Ribs, collards, potato salad, baked beans

What might possibly happen this week? Because we might swim right before dinner I want things I can have ready in a jiffy.

1. Big salad meal

2. Veggie meal

3. Grilled tuna, tossed salad, green beans, mashed potatoes

4. Zucchini cheese strata, tossed salad

5. Stuffed peppers, coleslaw, mashed potatoes

6. We might be going tn Nashville and if we do we will eat out some

7. Ditto

Books read in July:

Holly

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 26 weeks till Christmas

 I did go into the room of horrors and work a little bit, but did I finish?

Nope!!! I guess you can call me  a . . . 

                                     . . . 

The whirlwind is over__for now

After time at the beach and a week+ having Son1 and Pip here, our lives are now back to just the two of us. My days are all mixed up and I operated all day today assuming it was Monday. It wasn't. We really did love being with them and now things will settle to a dull roar for a bit, and we will just do the things we normally do together.

Meals planned for the week:

None. I knew the week was going to be unusual and there would be no reason to plan, so I didn't.

Monday: When Pip is in town, TheHub and I act like Disneyland grandparents. On a good year we see her three times, but usually twice is the norm. Though, there was that 2 year period during Covid when we did not see her live and in person at all. 

Instead of being able to take her to grab a burger or something similar every week, like all of my friends who have grands living close by, our spending on her is done in a concentrated amount of time during visits. It might seem excessive to some, but our options for spoiling our only grandchild are limited and we plan for and take full advantage of it when she is in town.

Since she was a little older and wiser, this year instead of grabbing the credit card and swiping every time we were out and about, we gave her cash the first day she was here, with the promise I would take her shopping wherever/whenever she wanted to go, but once the money ran out, that was the end of what we would buy. (There was a codicil that if we were out and about, food purchases were excluded and would be on us.)

Our first stop was to her favorite place, Sephora. And trust me, she flat out knows what she wants there. We shopped and shopped and shopped some more, until she had found the things she wanted, ever mindful of her budget. We would still be there today if I was not about to wet my pants. Sephora at the Summit has no rest rooms and it required going to Trader Joe's for a little relief. While we were in the store I did pick up a few necessities.

We had not eaten lunch by about 2:30 and were hungry. When I asked her what she was thinking might be good, she suggested sushi. Not my favorite, but I gave her the option and she chose, so I went along with it.

We came home in time to find the pool guy here. The rains are still messing with the water balance, but he assured us it would be good to go by Tuesday.

Monday dinner: We scraped together leftovers from the Sunday birthday party

Hamburger patties, salad

Tuesday: The first thing Pip wanted to do was go to Crumbl cookies. We went and came home with a 4 pack. Of course she got to pick out all the flavors.

Swim day, all day with jumping out of the pool only to eat or get out of the sun. Fortunately it was overcast part of the day so no one was sunburned. 

Tuesday dinner: A quick and simple dinner was called for

Conecuh sausage, coleslaw or salad, rice, mango cubes

There may or may not have been a Bruster's ice cream run!

Wednesday: I had arranged for one of our neighbors who has a daughter Pip's age to come over. They had a good time swimming, laughing, talking, eating until it was time for L to head home. 

Pip had to make a choice between seeing the play Frozen or visiting Son2, DIL2 and their 4 dogs. (Know what you call the condition of having too many dogs?   A Roverdose!) She chose to see Jack, Reesie, Cocopuff and Trixie.

Wednesday dinner: We took dinner to their house

BBQ pork, coleslaw, baked beans, cornbread

Thursday: Another swim day. MBS came over to swim with Pip and me. After swimming we got dressed and headed to Barnes and Noble. Pip has developed a keen interest in CD's and Vinyl albums and wanted to go browse and see if she could find anything she wanted. After looking through every single cd and album available, she bought what she said she wanted before we ever left for B and N. So the band, Brat, can count on Pip for another CD sale.

(As an aside: I subscribe to Sirius radio for my car and until the past week it had never been tuned to a pop 40's station. This past week that is all I listened to. I am unsure if it was my ears or brain bleeding!)

Thursday dinner: 

Thursday dinner: We met Son2 and DIL2 for dinner at Waldos

Chicken, collards, coleslaw, toast, fried pickles, other stuff that I don't remember.

Friday: Swimming happened in the morning, then Son1 took Pip to the Galleria then to Son2's house. She wanted to spend the night with them and have lots of time with the dogs.

Friday dinner: Son1 met two of his former fraternity brothers and their wives for dinner, so it was just TheHub and me for dinner here.

Hot dogs, french fries

Saturday: We met Son2 at a restaurant halfway between our houses for a quick lunch and Pip exchange. Once we were home she decided some shop[ping was in order. We left with the intention of going to Ross then Ulta. However she found a haul at Ross then nixed Ulta altogether. If the truth is being told, she still had one large bill left from the money we gave her for shopping and did not want to break it, so it could go back to Portland with her.  I am sure she had plans to use it there, probably for entertainment with her friends. Fine with me! I don't like to shop and only go with her because I love her.

Saturday dinner: We were running out of days to use our minimum from the club so we had to use it.

Fish sandwich, shrimp bowl, or pizza

Sunday: This was the last full day for Son1 and Pip to be at our house. It was a swim, pack get things together kind of day.

Sunday dinner: Son1 wanted bbq one last time. It is not that you can't find bbq in Portland, you can. You just can't find that slow hickory smoked jukcy delicious type you can find all over the south.

We were happy to oblidge and invited Son2 and DIL2 to join us. They love bbq too!

Pulled pork, baked beans, collard greens, cheese biscuits, mac and cheese

And with the exception of a flight the next day, our time with them was over. Did I mention how tired I was, since Pip did not go to bed before 2 every night and I stayed up with her watching Young Sheldon. I had never seen it before and it was a cute show, and I shoud know because we watched episode after episode, season after season

What might be on the menu this week? 

Grilled tripletail, baked potato, coleslaw

leftover conecuh sausage, leftover cheese biscuits, coleslaw

Veggie dinner TBD

BLT salad

Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad, garlic toast

Something*

Something*

Books read in June

We Could Be Rats (This book has a hard subject matter)

My Italian Bulldozer

The Dutch House

The Friday Afternoon Club

The Year I Turned Pretty**

This is a Love Story***

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

* I need to clean the fridge and see what needs to be eaten, but I am not in the mood to do it today.

** Read in tandem with Pip. Now I wonder why I am not churning out "Hallmark books" for tweens.

*** Supposed to be good but I found it just tedious

Oh no just 27 weeks until Christmas

 Hey, give me a break  First I was at the beach and now Pip is at my house. Whole lotta shakin’ is going on, none of which is Christmas related

Summer fun!

Last week was a fun and family filled summertime week, with promises of more of the same this week. 

Monday: Got ready to go to the beach

Monday dinner: It was a clean out the fridge night

Leftover Thai food

Tuesday: Left for the beach. What can you say? We arrived to a gorgeous condo, met Son2 and DIL2. Son1, DIL1, and Pip were supposed to arrive at the PCB airport that evening, but unfortunately they got stuck in Denver overnight, so our planned pickup did not happen. 

Tuesday night: We had not been to the grocery store and had nothing for dinner, so we went to a small seafood restaurant. The food was OK but not great. Since everyone orders differently I will only post what I ate.

Shrimp and scallops, cheese grits, coleslaw

Wednesday: We all went shopping for groceries, then it was time for beach or reading activities. Since we were going to have to drive about 50 minutes to the airport in the late afternoon, I opted for reading. 

We left in what we thought was enough time to get to the airport by the time their flight came in. Unfortunately we did not allow for getting stuck in traffic. We were about 10 minutes later than when they landed, but the upside was a delay getting their luggage, so we managed to have to wait for them a few minutes. I had much rather wait to pick someone up than to have them waiting for me. 

I was thrilled to see all of them but sad they lost a day of Florida fun due to flight delays.

We drove back to the condo and a quick dip in the pool was first on Pip's agenda. For Son1 and DIL1 taking a shower and changing out of the clothes they had been wearing for two days was paramount.

Priorities, right?

Wednesday dinner: There was a seafood restaurant near the condo that offered take out options. I took orders from everyone and called them in. Again everyone wanted something different so I am only listing my dinner.

Fish tacos, green beans

Thursday: It was a near perfect beach day. Lots of sun, the water was clear (big undertow but at least the flags were just yellow rather than  red like they were Wednesday. Lots of sunscreen was used and no one was sunburned. I call that an extremely successful beach day.

Thursday dinner: No one wanted to come in early and get dressed to go out to eat, so earlier in the day TheHub and I had run to a local seafood market to buy foods for dinner.

Grilled grouper, seared scallops, steamed shrimp, asparagus, coleslaw, tossed salad, croissants, ley lime pie 

Friday: Beach day, what else is there to say?

Friday dinner: They made to drive to Boondocks for seafood. I was not feeling well and stayed home.

Assorted seafood dishes served with fantastic hushpuppies.

Saturday: All good things must come to an end. We had to drive to the PCB airport to take DIL1 to the airport. She had to be back in Portland for work. Son1 and Pip rode back to Birmingham with us to stay for a bit. We stopped multi times on the way home, traffic was horrendous, and it took us what seemed like forever to get home. Once home we were delighted (SHE SAID SARCASTICALLY) to find a green pool. The excessive rains diluted the chemicals and the water that was perfect when we left was not so perfect once we were home. Boo!

Saturday dinner: Pip is a big fan of the show "Young Sheldon".  In one episode Sheldons brother and sister split a steak and lobster dinner at Red Lobster. That is where she wanted to go . Insert the name Piper for Lola, and lobster for what she wants, in the song below.

Son1 and Pip split the steak and lobster dinner. TheHub and I shared the bacon wrapped scallops, stuffed mushrooms and each had a side salad.

Sunday: When we woke, Pip and I made cupcakes to have with dinner Sunday.

After that, because our pool was still being a little temperamental, TheHub took Pip to the club to swim. After all, swimming is swimming, and at the club she had the option of much larger pool plus a slide and diving well. 

While she was gone I got the house tidied up a little for a party that night.

My Beloved Sister's birthday was Friday while we were gone, but we had planned a birthday dinner for Sunday night. 

When Pip got home from swimming, she and I went to Dollar Tree to pick some birthday decorations. She was in charge of what we were purchasing and how we were decorating. Turns out she had very specific ideas. On the drive home she confessed if she had been with her parents they would not have let her get as much stuff as her sucker grandmother did.

She directed, and the rest of us followed her decorating instructions.

Sunday dinner: Happy Birthday MBS! The four of us, MBS,  plus Son2 and DIL2 had dinner together served with lots of laughter

Hamburgers w/ fixings, pasta salad, baked beans, cupcakes, ice cream

What might possibly be eaten this week:

Who knows? We have another week of winging it based on whatever sounds good to any/everyone.

Next week I will get back to a meal plan of sorts, but I am not willing to do anything right now. I had rather be flexible. 

Oh no, just 28 weeks till Christmas

After all the goings on during the last week the only thing even remotely Christmasy I did was walk into the room of horrors, look around and shut the door.

Packed my duds for the beach and left with no remorse.

Moving on

This was a week to get some things done preparing for a new normal 

What I thought we might eat last week:

Hamburger patty, broccoli salad, saffron rice

Big salad meal TBD

Veggie meal TBD

Thai chicken, jasmine rice. coleslaw

Tuna steaks, baked potato, tossed salad

Sandwiches, coleslaw, french fries

Out to eat or take out

Monday: Began the week with a lengthy phone call with My Beloved Sister. (know from here forward as MBS). She was going to have her SIL over so I stayed at home. I did not want to interfere with them. Her SIL did not make it to town until much later in the afternoon so she did not go to MBS's house. I would have gone over with some boxes she requested and helped her go through some of the non-personal items she does not want to keep anymore.

Monday dinner: It was planned and easy. I will opt for easy almost every meal.

Thai chicken, rice, asian coleslaw, dinner rolls

Tuesday: I went with MBS to pick up BIL's death certificate. I was no help whatsoever, but I was a buffer just to keep her from becoming upset when she actually saw it. 

I had gathered some moving boxes for her that we had did not use when we sold the lake place along with several Trader Joe's paper bags. There are some things she is getting rid of because they will never be used again, and she had many things BIL's nephew could use, so she wanted him to have them.

You don't always think that to get rid of things you need to have something to contain them. I could at least help getting those to her.

She also had many things that belonged to BIL's deceased brother that needed to go to their sister, instead of staying at MBS's house. 

Tuesday dinner: I had dressed for the day and rode with TheHub to go sign some checks for one of the contract projects he is still working on, and to have a quick meeting signing a few papers.  While we were in that part of town we went to a men's clothing store he loves, to pick up a couple of casual wear items he wanted. After he completed his shopping, we decided to run by a restaurant near by for dinner.

Veggie soup and greek salad or Greek sandwich.

Wednesday: I stayed at home planning the post funeral reception via phone calls with MBS and our good friend C, who agreed to help putting the reception table together after the service. My church's parlor is a large very pretty but fairly formal room. The service was to be held there with refreshments to be served afterward.

 C has a knack for making everything beautiful and when she asked what she could do for MBS, I told her using her talent was the best possible "gift".

After discussion, we agreed that we needed silver trays and candelabra, along with serving pieces, tiered tray, crystal pitchers, ice bucket and serving utensils. 
I have a lot of "things", most of which stay tucked in various cabinets and drawers. You know all that stuff you have in your house that you rarely use and then you pull them out and realize they need some serious attention? To quote Son2. "you had a little silver with your tarnish, Mom". Needless to say, there was a whole lot of polishing going on.

Wednesday dinner. I invited MBS over to eat with us, but also to let her have the final say about the all the serving pieces. I did not think she would care one way or another, but it was still her call.

Taco salad

Thursday: TheHub and I ran out to all of the various places we needed to go to to purchase all the foods we needed for after the service. My aim was to have every single thing on hand so I could wake Friday morning ready to roll. I managed to get everything going to only 4 different stored, got home and got everything unloaded  and stored, ready and waiting for early Friday morning when I could begin.

Thankfully friend C took purchasing the flowers off my plate, which was wonderful because she does so much better with arrangements than I do

Thursday dinner: I had most of this on hand and in the freezer.

Rosemary chicken, au gratin potatoes  leftover club salad*

Friday:  I woke very early and began working on the food. One of the things I planned to make was finger sandwiches. I had put the bread in the freezer so it would be partially frozen making it much easier to remove the crusts, and cut the sandwiches into 4ths. I knew things were going too well. When I took the first few pieces out of the loaves of bread, I realized all the loaves had huge air bubbles throughout them. That would not work at all, which meant I had to change into going out in public clothes to buy more bread. It put me a good bit of time behind schedule, but I got all those suckers made with just the tiniest bit of time to spare. 

I might have meant a speed shower and getting ready in record time, but we made it and were at the church a few minutes before our agreed arrival time. Whew! 

The service was very personal and MBS had the most wonderful eulogy, which included both tender and funny memories. And like all services, once the final prayer was said there was some closure and people began moving around the room, nibbling on the goodies, talking to each other, and sharing stories and memories .

Friday dinner: TheHub and I had a long day and neither of us wanted to cook. I am very grateful we live in the south where delicious BBQ is available all around us.

BBQ sandwich, baked beans, potato salad

Saturday: We woke and dressed to run a few errands. We began going to Argo (a community about 35 minutes from our house) to give some of the excess food from the reception to one of my cousins. They have 6 grandchildren who come to their house often, so things will be eaten. We had already split some between MBS, BiIl's family and us, and there was still so much left. (Never ask me to do food for an uncertain crowd number for I will always fall in the rather have  "too much"rather than "too little" category).

Since we were already in the general direction, we called Son2 and DIL2 to have them meet us for lunch at  a Thai restaurant near their home.  It is always wonderful being around them, even if we had just been with them at the funeral the day before.

After eating we had one more stop before heading home. TheHub had ordered and received some shirts from Untuckit. They sent 2 of one shirt but there was no charge for it, so he decided to just stop at the store to return the unordered one. 

The store personnel were most appreciative and really could not believe he would return it.

We try very hard to always live an honest life and have even taken a rogue lemon that hid in the grocery cart after paying, back into the store. The right thing to do is always the right thing to do.

 Saturday dinner: We still had reception leftovers.

Finger sandwiches, coleslaw

Sunday: We woke early to go to the communion service followed by church at 8:30, then Sunday school. I like to start my week doing that. Once home we started doing a few things to get ready for our upcoming beach trip and both took a little recliner snooze while watching the NCAA world series.

Sunday dinner: Leftovers was the name of the game again, but this time they were different ones.

Thai chicken pineapple fried rice (The servings at Thai Basil are huge)

What's up fpr this week?

Who knows? We are headed to the beach Tuesday and whatever happens happens!

Books read in June:

We Could Be Rats (This book has a hard subject matter)

My Italian Bulldozer

The Dutch House

The Friday Afternoon Club

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

*TheHub had a luncheon meeting that afternoon and he always brings any leftovers home.