Joys of the Week, Week 3

 Tempus fugit! We have just completed the third week, but it honestly feels to me like Thanksgiving was just a couple of weeks ago. At this rate in what feels like  a month I will be swimming on the 4th of July, wait a week or two then it will be time to buy Halloween candy, click my heels twice and I will be in full fledged holiday mode again.

I am keeping a list this year (so far) of things that bring me joy each day. My goal is to look back at the end of the year and read all the good things I have to be thankful for, and there are so many things! So here it my joyous things list for this week.

Jan 15. I know this sounds like a weird joy but I almost broke out in my happy dance when I saw this at Aldi. I am a member of the Aldi nerd group on facebook and everyone has been raving about the zero net carb bread. It has not been at any of the Aldi stores I frequent. Today I had a dentist appointment near Aldi so I ran by afterward. Since Keto is a grain free way of eating I only do a cursory look at the bread aisle. If there had not been a big sign saying "Limit 4, I might have never seen it. But as of this minute I am the owner of 4 loaves. I froze 3 and left one out. I tried one slice completely plain and it was not like real bread, but it was a wonderful alternative. I think I will slice it to make 2 very thin slices. I see a peanut butter and (sugar free) jelly sandwich with a glass of almond milk for lunch tomorrow.

Jan 16 Another day, another weird joy. After going to Mom's for the morning sitter gap, I came home and was able to stay at home all day. Whoo hoo! I had forgotten how easy it is get everything on the to-do list done when the day is not filled with interruptions! And because I got everything finished during the day and TheHub is out of town, I was able to spend some time learning to play my Christmas present, a ukulele.  I am playing a very lame version of "Havana". I have always heard that practice makes perfect, but does it apply only if you practice perfectly?

Jan 17 Spent about 45 minutes playing the uke. I am not sure I am necessarily getting better but the fingertips on my left hand are flatter and sore. 1 other specific joy happened today. Remember the skull plates I absolutely had to have, well I found 4 salad plates from the same set. I bought bowls with the dinner plates and knew their designs were different, but I am beyond thrilled with the one on the salad plates. I might like these even better.  Now I wonder what the cups and saucers might possibly look like.





Jan.18  Special joy is DIL1's birthday. I wish we could have been there to celebrate but had to settle for sending her love and a present. The second joy was about TheHub's travel home. He missed his flight out of Newark (no one to blame but himself for that) then was scheduled to fly standby on a much later flight when the snow storm hit. The later flight was delayed a little, but he did make it to Atlanta with about 30 minutes between flights. He made the second flight with a few minutes to spare (why are connecting flights always in a different terminal?) and made it home before 11.

Jan. 19  TheHub and I hung out at home most of the day. We did eat a leisurely breakfast ( I had enough pancakes left over to freeze for a few more meals) before getting dressed for the day. A stay in the pajamas, eat and have several cups of coffee type morning which rarely happens! After the Titans game we watched The Joker. I was indifferent about the movie as a whole but thought Joaquin Phoenix's performance was stellar.  Now we only need to see Parasite, Little Women and Jojo Rabbit

Jan. 20  This sounds like a rather silly joy but it really was something that pleased me tremendously. I was trying to come up a tablescape for the Poe dinner and decided I wanted the table to look a little creepy. Then I thought it would be nice to drip wax all over my silver candlesticks to look like Poe had been doing some serious writing by candlelight. But who want's to clean dripped wax off of them later? Not me!  Instead I covered some glass candlesticks with aluminum foil, then pounced some black paint on scattered areas, blotted it off and added a few strokes of gold and blotted it. The result looked like well tarnished silver candlesticks that I then dripped wax over to my hearts content.  The result it pretty cool and I only sacrificed some foil and one 25 cent candle.

Jan. 21 The Edgar Allen Poe birthday celebration was a success and the table looked really good. We decided as a book club we would celebrate Shakespeare's birthday in April


Jan 15  Breakfast: coffee  Lunch: slice zero carb bread, sliced cheese, coffee Dinner: buffalo chicken dip with veggies and keto crackers Snack: blueberries

Jan 16  Breakfast; coffee, sausage. blueberries  Lunch: huge green salad  Dinner: Keto pbj, almond milk  Snack: olive tapenade, cream cheese

Jan 17  Breakfast: homemade keto bread, bacon  Lunch: coffee  Dinner: chicken veggie (very veggie dense) soup, Diet Coke, Snack: cheese slice, olive tapenade, blueberries

Jan 18  Breakfast: coffee  Lunch: broccoli salad, blueberries, chopped pecans, Dinner: cauliflower with shredded cheese, leftover chopped pork tenderloin with keto bbq sauce  Snack macadamia nuts

Jan 19: Breakfast: coffee, keto pancakes with sf syrup, bacon  Lunch: 5 strawberries  Dinner: Keto chili (veggie dense) over cauliflower, keto cornbread Snack: macadamia nuts

Jan.20 Breakfast: coffee, 1 egg omelet scramblet with onions, peppers and mushrooms, slice of bacon  Lunch: sugar free chocolate almond milk (not good), 4 quarter size keto almond cookies Dinner: baked chicken, broccoli  Snack: Cheese crisps, coffee with cream

Jan 21. Breakfast: coffee  Lunch: coffee (I knew I was going to eat at dinner) Snack: Diet Dr Pepper 
Dinner:   (The appetizers) smoked sausage with mustard dipping sauce, roasted red peppers with cream cheese and olive tapanade  (the meal) roasted chicken, mixed green salad with artichoke hearts, roasted brussels sprouts, cauli rice pilaf (the dessert) keto almond cinnamon cookies.