Positively Monday

Each week I post the best things that happen every day of the week.  It helps me focus on good rather than dwelling on unpleasant things. Some weeks are easier than others, but each day brings something good as long as I look for it. The bad thing about this week is it is a holiday weekend here, and I forgot it was Monday (feels like Sunday) until just now!

Monday: Got the freezer cleaned, the auxiliary fridge cleaned and the freezer in the kitchen fridge cleaned.  Now I have an absolute current count of the available foods.  Bonus: the citrus infused white wine is ready just in time for summer__ and it is delicious.

Tuesday: Took My Beloved Sister to have her colonoscopy and everything looked great!

Wednesday: Class was great and Mom was angry with me so she had very little to say to me today.

Thursday: Another tree service guy called me back and gave us a bid for Mom's tree work. (There is so much tree work around and not enough bonded and insured folks to do the work that non emergency tree removals are being put on the back burner.  It is like pulling teeth just to get them out to give a ridiculously high bid)

Friday: Went to the lake early to meet the a/c guy. He had the correct part on his truck and was in and out in about 2 hours.  So what did I do the remainder of the day? Napped on the screened porch then went shopping.  Great day!

Saturday: Got 2 big jobs at the lake place completed.  This has been bugging me for months and now they are behind me.

Sunday: We came home from the lake early in the afternoon, changed clothes and headed to Atlanta to pick up Son3 for a few days visit. (He had flown in there to spend a couple of days there before coming here).  TheHub and I had a couple of hours of conversation, we picked up Son3, ate dinner and headed home. So TheHub and I had another couple of hours of conversation while Son3 slept in the back seat.

Positively Mmonday

Like every single person alive, my weeks have ups and downs but I try and begin each week listing the most positive thing/things that happened each day. Some days are so disjointed it is a stretch to remember even one single good thing that happened, and the exercise of actually recalling it and writing it down is a positive in itself.   It is a good way for me to remember that even the roughest weeks/day have something good in them,  and it's a great way for me to clear my mind and be receptive toward every good thing the coming week offers.

Monday: Enjoyed a quiet day after a 4 day trip to New York.

Tuesday: Did a quick refrigerator inventory and found we had enough produce left from the past week to get through the next 2 days so I didn't have to go to the grocery store until we got back from NY trip 2.

Wednesday: I went shopping for one item I needed for the trip  and without intending to or without looking I found a cute tee shirt, a summer sweater, and a blouse, all on sale, so I bought them. The down side is I found 3 more things I really, really want but they were not on sale.

Thursday: Easy flight to New York landing right in time for the 6 o'clock traffic.  After a 1+ hour ride from Laguardia to the hotel (under 10 miles, yikes) we met Son3 at the hotel. Special thanks to Maggie at The Empire who helped us tremendously with 2 adjoining rooms. (For some reason even though the Sunday before this trip, as we were checking out from our prior trip, I had stressed how critical it was to have Mom's room next to ours, they had assigned us rooms on the same floor but on 2 different halls) For a minimal fee we were able to upgrade to a two room suite with a couch, dining table and 4 chairs which more than paid for itself with the money we saved by buying a couple of meals at the deli down the street and bringing them back to the room to eat.)  We had dinner with Son3 that night then came back to our room to visit until bedtime.

Friday: Graduation Day, followed by a celebratory late lunch with Son3.  Mom took a much needed long nap and afterward we sat at a table in the park across the street from the hotel and people watched until about 9:45.  When we saw the crowd starting to leave the Opera house we walked quickly to a nearby restaurant just in time to beat the hoards and shared two appetizers for dinner.

Saturday: Son3 came to our hotel room for a leisurely takeout breakfast and visit. We left the hotel and went straight to the airport. TSA pre-check! Woo Hoo!  The simple things are the greatest! After a protracted weather delay in Atlanta we made it home about an hour and a half late but it was fine, evidently we missed the storms and high winds.  Unpacked and read a bit then at 2 am I got a call from the security company who monitors the lake place. The motion alarm was tripped, so I stayed awake until about 3. They were only going to call back if the sheriff found evidence of forced entry or something afoot.

Sunday: We woke early, threw on clothes and headed to the lake place just to check it out. We found everything inside looked fine  but obviously there had been high winds because one huge tree was blown over. (Maybe the ground shook when it hit and set the alarm off?) Fortunately it did not hit the house, the boathouse or the neighbors fence and it will be fine staying on the ground until next weekend. I think we will be having an Alabama chainsaw tree massacre.

And now I am ready for the good things this new week brings!

At Last!

Graduation for Son3 (the bearded wonder)!
Raise for TheHub and Anne!

And now life as a musician begins. Luckily he is very polite and has wonderful manners so if necessary he can be a fantastic waiter.

And lastly to share a quote from the commencement speech:
"The time has come to gather your belongings, pack what you can, put the rest in your heart and go___.
The world is waiting on you!

Positively Monday

I have been trying to keep an active list of the positive things that happen each day. I find if I keep notes daily I see that even the cruddiest day is  filled with random joys and blessings, so I am sharing them here. If I feel obligated to post them thinking about them becomes a daily action and it keeps me from wallowing in self pity when every single thing does not go my way.

Monday: I was doing an intense cleaning of the laundry room and found several things I thought were lost forever. Though none were huge and life altering I did find the mate to my favorite pair of  earrings I had been searching for that little bugger for weeks with no success. Earrings can be sneaky critters!

Tuesday:  After all the harping I do to Mom about taking her medicine on a timely basis, she saw her pulmonary guy and for the first time in years everything sounded good and her blood oxygen level was great. It is amazing how much better those meds work when used daily.

Wednesday:  The weekly weigh in was pretty nice.

Thursday: Had time to tidy the kitchen, wash the sheets and remake the bed before catching a plane! The flight was uneventful until we got to LGA at 8:00. We sat and sat and sat, then they let us sit a little more until they then let us off and loaded us on buses to take us to the gate.  We had reservations for the 2nd set at Dizzy's for the 9:30 show.  Instead of checking our coats we checked our luggage ( had to go straight to the airport, not the hotel first) and got there about 10 minutes before showtime. Thankfully Girlfriend 3 was there to snag our table saving our reservation. (If you are not there 15 minutes before showtime they release the reservation to those who are waiting for a table)

Friday: Got to spend some time with Son3 and Girlfriend3.  She is a lovely, talented, and beautiful young woman. Son2 arrived for dinner right after the food was delivered. Ate Dominican with them.(Cuban/Dominican are one in the same and my favorite ethnic food) Great food and even better company!
Also extremely thankful that Girlfriend2 stayed at our house to take care of Shelby, the dog. (She is a wonderful person.)

Saturday: Scored orchestra tickets for half price to Bandstand, a new musical about musician veterans post WW2. Nice high energy performance with some killer choreography. After that we met up with Son2 for a quick cup of coffee, then we all went to Dizzy's again for  both sets of jazz.

Sunday: We must have hit some terrific tailwinds because our flight was only about  1 hour and thirty minutes. We got home in time to run down to Mom's and wish her a Happy Mother's day and found out that Girlfriend2 not only babysat the dog but she also babysat the Mom.  She went to Mom's house Thursday, Friday and Saturday night, as well as Sunday early afternoon. She is a veritable saintly being!

This lovely young woman is Girlfriend3.  I have told Son3 (whom I love with all my heart) that I am pretty sure he has out kicked his coverage here!

Happy Mother's Day

I meant to have this all ready to post remotely early this morning, but while getting ready for the trip this is one of those things that slipped through my fingers. So to all of you who are mother's, step mother's, anyone who has acted as a surrogate mother, anyone who shows motherly love to another, , or anyone who had a mother figure in their lives at any time . . .

And especially to Mom,

                 Happy Mother's Day, Y'all!

Wicked Wednesday

In an effort to keep me on the straight and narrow, or at least to have some accountability to someone
other than myself  I began a Wednesday post to chart weight movement, be it up, down,or no change.
I also posted a weekly to do list of major and minor projects. The theory behind it is because there is something humbling about admitting I failed, I might be more inclined to knock things off the list. I fully understand that life (and cake) happens and plans can change on a dime.

My starting weight was XXX.x
My today weight is        XXX.x
Total loss/gain               -      5.2

I understand that this is mostly water weight, but I have to shed it before I lose anything else, so I am counting this week as a very good week. Honestly each time I was tempted by something delicious I managed to resist because I could not bear the thought of having no weight loss this week, so thank each of you who read last weeks post that kept me honest.

I am leaving for NYC tomorrow afternoon and staying through Sunday so I am doubtful I will see any loss at all, and mostly just hope for no gain. Doubtful since we already have reservations at several restaurants.

As for the to do list? It was mostly a to don't list. I was here Thursday, then had to be at the lake early Friday to meet the a/c man. I didn't get back until late Saturday night and had some Mom things on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so my week was pretty much shot.

Outdoors
Work on outdoor raised beds. 
Cut dead canes from the hydrangeas (drought damage)
Plant okra
Get pool water balanced
Drain and scrub hot tub
Scrub screened in porch (de-pollen)
Wash porch furniture
Scrub front porch
Put Amdro by ant hills to rid the yard of fire ants (Yes I hate using pesticides, but I hate stepping in the ant beds and getting hundreds of stings more)

Indoors
Complete and total clean out in the laundry room including:
defrost the big freezer
totally clean auxiliary refrigerator
reorganize all art supplies
clean all drawers and cabinets
rearrange/reposition the center island
clean out sewing center
wash ironing board cover
fix the hanging rod.

MBR:
Wash walls and blinds
wash and rehang curtains
clean all drawers
change over to summer comforter and pillows
wash winter comforter, shams, quilts and blankets and store until fall
wash bed pillows

Everything else:
routine daily cleaning or reading (whichever comes first) routine only if you mean minimal by the definition of the word routine (obviously I do)

So the to do list moves effortlessly to the upcoming week, but I am only going to be here Monday and Tuesday of the week so I am pretty sure things will get punted to the next week.

Positively Monday

As usual now on Mondays I try and recap the joyful moments of each day.  Most days I remember to write the best thing that happened every day, but this week I may have flubbed one day.  If you can live with it, so can I. Actually I am fine with it even if you're not. Some days things just get a little frantic and writing a joyful memo doesn't happen. I don't realize there is nothing there until I am just about to hit publish. Most of the time I can remember at least one thing that was really good about any given day and I know there was something joyful
on Wednesday, but this morning I've got nothing. Is this a sign I am getting older or is life just rushing by faster and faster making it impossible for me to sort memories on demand. Or it is a combination of both? The mirror suggests it might be!


Monday: Finished making all the flowers for the tops of the fairy jars.  Whoo hoo! Life is good and I am done now! Plus I tried to recreate a chicken dish we had in New York and I came pretty dang close

Tuesday: Had a nice morning with TheHub since we both woke butt early.  We rarely have time to talk before he goes to work but we did Tuesday.  We were able to firm up some of the details of our next trip.

Wednesday: I forgot to write anything down for today.  I am sure there was something wonderful, but you know, memory and all that!

Thursday:  Involuntarily involved in an extended family dispute, (Dispute is probably the mildest word I can possibly use here.)  There is no joy in being brought into something that is not my issue, however, I find extreme joy knowing the true caring for family the rest of the clan has.

Friday Cinco de Mayo!!! TheHub and I celebrated by going into "town" (OK celebrated it way to big of a word but we did eat at a Mexican restaurant and going into town is actually going into a little village about 15 miles from the lake place.) and had so much food from my order that we did the doggy bag thing and took it with us for lunch the next day. This was a bonus because I had forgotten to pack anything for lunch the next day.

 Saturday: The unseasonably cold weather and rains on Friday passed and the day was gorgeous, I was able to watch blue herons, egrets, osprey, bluebirds and purple martins while havig my morning coffee. I decided to head back home so I could do a few things for Mom while TheHub stayed at the lake.  You know what that means? I got to stay up late reading and listening to podcasts without bothering a soul!

Sunday: TheHub and I had take out Persian food (insanely delicious) before a scheduled date night to watch Billions season finale! 

Chinese Peruvian Chicken Wannabe

A few weeks ago we were in New York to hear Son3's last official school concert. We stay at the same hotel every time mainly because of its convenience.  It is very close to the performance venue/s and has quite a few really delicious restaurants within a block of the hotel entrance TheHub has a tendency to eat at the same places every time we are there. At night they cater to the Lincoln Center crowd (both pre and post event meals) and are quite pricy. I usually don't say too much about it because the food is fabulous but there are approximately 24,000 places in the city to procure something to eat so why stick  to the same dozen places.?

I secretly conspired with Son3 who has a lot better luck than I do getting his dad to venture out and we wound up at Flor De Mayo, A Chinese Peruvian fusion restaurant, around Amsterdam and 85th (ish) where the aroma of something good about to happen hit us as soon as we opened the door. TheHub and Son3 opted for the roasted chicken which is their house speciality for good reasons. It was outstanding.  (Yes, we are that family who shares bites just to make sure everyone at our table knows how delicious our choice was.)

I am generally pretty good about picking out the different flavors of seasonings, so I decided to try and replicate what they used on it. I know it had allspice because I could taste it and I think it had a little cinnamon, but I am not positive so I added a little anyway. It had a fairly mild herb so I chose thyme and then just added a couple of traditional Chinese and Latin spices. When all was said and done this was the final result of my efforts and it was pretty darn close to what they served. Or at least it was close to what my taste and smell memory thinks it was.

Chinese Peruvian Chicken Fusion Seasoning Knock Off

1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4  teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (reduce or leave out is you don't like heat)
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
*salt as desired (I don't like salty things so I was fine just using the salt in the garlic salt)

2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 teaspoons olive oil
seasoning blend

Rub the olive oil over the chicken. Place in an oven safe pan and sprinkle liberally with the seasoning. Bake at 350 degrees until the chicken is done. (It took me about 35 minutes)
Slice or serve as a whole breast.  We had 3 people eating and only 2 chicken breasts so slicing was necessary.  Yum good!
Flor De Mayo serves this with a vinegar based dipping sauce, but I did not think about it until the chicken was out of the oven.  It tasted like pickled chopped onions of sorts with a strong vinegar taste.  I will work on it next time, but this was really delicious without it.

I am going to increase the measurements and make a spice jar full of this to have on hand for regular seasonings. I think it would be equally good on pork and possibly on fish.

Wicked Wednesday

I decided to use Wicked Wednesday as the title of this post for the simple reason that I will be using Wednesday as my accountability day.  Yes, this will be my weekly weigh in day as well as my post for what I hope to accomplish for the week ahead and how well I did the week before.  Since this is a clean slate week where I am beginning everything I have nothing for you. Instead of knowing that I moved all week at a snail's pace and accomplished very few of my projects, let's just pretend that I got everything done in record time.  Let's also pretend that I exercised daily, ate all my fruits and veggies and drank 64 ounces of water.

So now the evil has begun.  I know what my starting weight is (And we all know what will freeze over before I post THAT number) so next Wednesday I will share any scale movement, up or down, and will share how I did with exercise, water and veggies. **For the record, extreme kudos to those of you who will actually share your personal numbers. You are much braver and more self confident than I will ever be and I sincerely applaud you.**

My to do list, hmmm. Not exactly sure what I want to do this week but these are the highlights;
Outdoors
Work on outdoor raised beds.
Cut dead canes from the hydrangeas (drought damage)
Plant okra
Get pool water balanced
Drain and scrub hot tub
Scrub screened in porch (de-pollen)
Wash porch furniture
Scrub front porch
Put Amdro by ant hills to rid the yard of fire ants (Yes I hate using pesticides, but I hate stepping in the ant beds and getting hundreds of stings more)

Indoors
Complete and total clean out in the laundry room including:
defrost the big freezer
totally clean auxiliary refrigerator
reorganize all art supplies
clean all drawers and cabinets
rearrange/reposition the center island
clean out sewing center
wash ironing board cover
fix the hanging rod.

MBR:
Wash walls and blinds
wash and rehang curtains
clean all drawers
change over to summer comforter and pillows
wash winter comforter, shams, quilts and blankets and store until fall
wash bed pillows

Everything else:
routine daily cleaning or reading (whichever comes first)

Positively Monday

A while back I began tracking the best things that happened every day. Before that I had begun
noticing before bedtime I had a mental list of what was wrong rather than recounting what was happy or made me smile.  When I started actually thinking about it at the end of each day I realized even one of those absolutely "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad" days had at least one thing I could find to smile about. And so this weekly post was born.

Monday: Many years ago I had a wonderful friend and neighbor who lived across the street then moved when her then husband was transferred to Nashville. For the first few years we visited back and forth and kept up via monthly phone calls.  Then, as so often happens, the visits stopped and the calls became less frequent. Now we only talk every year or so. Today out of the blue she called which was funny because I had dreamed of her the night before.  In the dream we were driving all over Nashville covertly seeking a document her father had left for her but I woke before we found it. I enjoyed  the conversation, catching up and laughing.

Tuesday: Dinner out with my book club pals.  We ate at the gas station on Lorna which seemingly overnight changed from a gas station/convenience store to a gas station/Thai restaurant. Then one day (again overnight) the gas pumps were removed so they no longer sell Thai and gas, it is just a straight up Thai joint. It is small with virtually no parking and has the most delicious Thai food I have ever eaten. Son1 and his family live in Portland where delicious Thai is found everywhere and even they think this is the best they have eaten, but I digress.
I had fantastic food, fantastic fellowship, and we discussed a really crappy book, but we all bought a digital version for 99 cents so no one was upset if they put it down halfway through. (But mainly we discussed S-Town!)

Wednesday:  Got the house in order for a luncheon on Thursday.  It sounds like work and it was but it left me with plenty of time to get the food prepared the next morning without having to do anything to the house  but a quick touch up.

Thursday:  Had the participants of Independence Place (young adults with special needs) over for lunch.  At about a quarter till eleven 13 people arrived via a bus at my front door for a barbecue. I had no idea how much fun they would have, but they stayed until ten after 3 and were griping because the IP director made them leave. (It seems none of them have a fez on a shelf, a monkey butler in their foyer, a golden snitch on the buffet, and Amazon Echo  or a wind up nun carrying a ruler who spits "fire" from her mouth. They loved my "toys" and I am glad they were entertained even if it did mean listening to "Paranoid" by the Jonas Brothers about a thousand time)
I love volunteering there and having them here and watching them have fun here at my house was a personal bonus.  I am very lucky to have such a special group of very special people in my life.

Friday: This is going to sound like a weird positive but I am secretly so pleased.  The a/c at the lake place was on the fritz last week and it is overly warm here now.  We called the hvac guy who met TheHub there one  afternoon.  He did not have the part  he needed and can't get it until Monday afternoon at the earliest.  It was about 85 degrees in the house and TheHub declared it was too hot to spend the weekend there.  After the debacle of last weekend I really did not want to go anyway and I had planned to just spend one night there, so this let me totally off the hook.

Saturday: Spent some glorious time reading.  I have been cleaning my Kindle Cloud and reading all the books I began but never finished before I delete them. (Or just deleting the ones I began and have no intention of finishing. Now that I have gotten older and there are free downloads daily I no longer feel obliged to finish anything I doesn't teach me something or I simply don't enjoy reading.)
In addition to the reading time I received a thank you card form Independence Place. The card was printed in different colored pencils by each participant thanking me for whatever they liked best. I am going to share a couple of there here.  "You sweet, I ate to muck food" "I am having fun with you are the best." "I like your alexa"

Sunday: We had a much needed rain to knock the last of the pollen down.  Nothing clears the air like a windy thunderstorm. In addition to the day of rain, TheHub and I watched Billions.  We both really do love that show and I was stunned with the ending tonight. TheHub saw it coming.


And because I heard this 1 million times Thursday after I am sharing it with you compliments of Youtube