It’s a whole new year

This was the first full week of 2024, and it is early enough in the year that the only serious goof I have made this year was bashing my shin into the opened dishwasher door and taking a hunk out of my leg. Thanks to some liquid bandage and TheHub who wrapped it for me, after 2 days it was fine, ugly but fine.

Now on to the second full week filled with possibilities and a new start.

Monday joy: We had nothing planned and actually did very little other than a ton of laundry. Mom always made sure every single dirty item was laundered before the new year arrived. She firmly believed in the old wives tale that if you went into the new year with dirty clothes you would not catch up on your laundry all year. The one year I scoffed at her tradition was a year I had houseguests one after the other, and felt like I never caught up on the wash. I WILL NO LONGER TEMPT FATE.

Monday dinner: I had tidied the pantry and found I was more than a little overstocked with pasta.

Pasta with pesto sauce, tossed salad

Tuesday joy: I was so obsessed with getting every single thing laundered that as soon as we woke I stripped the bed of the Christmas sheets, had them laundered and packed back in their container before 9 am. The upside was knowing we would not go to bed before 12 midnight so the sheets I put on the bed would be nice and clean to officially start the new year. 

This obsession did not stop there. We both took showers to get ready to go out NYE, so I washed a load of towels once we were dressed. Then when we came home I threw my black slacks in a small load of darks I had saved to run once we got home.  We were both in clean pajamas by 10:00 pm, so we would begin 2025 in clean duds.

Tuesday dinner: We go out to eat every NYE

Spinach salad, sea bass over polenta with sautéed Swiss chard, triple chocolate mousse over raspberry coulis, dirty vodka martini, Prosecco

Wednesday joylessness: We woke anticipating watching the New Year's Day football games. Instead we found ourselves glued to the news about the horror in New Orleans. I will not say we watched the coverage all day, and we did watch a couple of football games, but flipped back and forth continually to the news.

Wednesday dinner: We have had this same meal every New Years Day that I can remember with the exception of one year when we were in London. I can't believe we could not find it there (she said sarcastically)

Black eyed peas, collards, ham, cornbread

Thursday joy: TheHub had a few tasks to do for work (because he  retired in June and it is now January) so he ran to the office, getting home in time to watch the Sugar Bowl.  Secretly I was not upset Georgia lost.

Thursday dinner: We ate lunch late, and neither of us were very hungry 

Soup compliments of Progresso

Friday joy: DIL2 needed a little help with her car. She had an appointment to have her car recalls fixed as well as a general yearly check. The dealership is close to my house so I picked her up and we came back here for a visit until her car was done. 

On the way to pick up her car we stopped at a store that was going out of business, and bought a few things. 

I dropped her off at the dealership and she stopped by to grab us some lunch. She stayed nearly all day and it was such a pleasure. 

If I had hand picked a DIL I never could have found a more perfect one for Son2. I loved having her here all to myself!

Friday dinner: It was a mostly leftover kind of night.

Mac and cheese, leftover blacked peas, leftover collards

Saturday joy: TheHub and I will keep things forever and are not  in the demographic of those who have to have the newest and coolest anythings. We both have had our phones for years and years and many of the apps I used regularly were no longer compatible with the operating system my ancient phone had. So we headed to Verizon to see what we could find.  

As luck would have it, or the fact that we are not update hounds, we both qualified for upgrades for no additional costs. Possibly because we have been Verizon customers since 1998 and have only upgraded smart phones once each in that time. (I did have a flip phone for years that I loved but there was nothing remotely smart about it.)  I suppose being held captive at Verizon for nearly 4 hours (Not my fault, TheHub was changing from Android to an Iphone and it took forever for his data to transfer) and getting a free phone upgraded was worth the time. 

Meanwhile I left the crowded store and sat in the car where I was able to call Sluggy and talk for a bit until TheHub needed me to tell him what his old Ipad apple account password was. (I had no clue and it meant he had to come back to the house, find it among his paperwork, and go back to the store.)

Saturday dinner: We had eaten nothing  all day and by the time we got out of Verizon  it was after 3:30. 

We stopped on the way home and picked up a breakfast, lunch, and dinner  combination meal

Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, coleslaw compliments of Jack's

Sunday joy: We woke and got dressed for Sunday things. We have been going to a communion service at 7:55, then early church at 8:30, followed by Sunday School. I made the mistake of thinking since I was just going to run into the building there was no reason I would need a coat. What I was not expecting was for the church to be so blooming cold. By the time the service was over, I was freezing. I learned my lesson. and will not go again this winter without a coat and a scarf to wrap around my neck. 

The sanctuary is quite large and of course the doors were opened often as people came in.  It/I  just never got anywhere close to warm. I am not cold natured so the people who get cold easily must have been freezing.

We stopped by Publix on the way home to pick up a couple of things and by that time the winds had picked up,  I was still coatless, and it started spitting rain. I did not warm up until we got back in the house and I had changed into sweat pants, thermal undershirt and a sweater. Getting toasty warm after being cold is a serious joy.

Sunday dinner: This just felt like another soup night

Smoked sausage gumbo.

Books read in January:

None finished yet though I am juggling 3

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

What might happen this week*:

1. Chili, coleslaw, cornbread

2. Soup of some kind

3. Lamb chops, baked potato, broccoli

4,  Undetermined pasta dish

5. Veggie dinner TBD

6. Tacos with all the fixings

7. Eggroll in a bowl

* I know I usually include at least one night as an out to eat meal. We are not giving up going out to eat each week, but as TheHub realized he has mostly retired we are going to start going out to eat at lunch. Any day we go out to eat at lunch will mean a soup or sandwich  meal for dinner. If soup is listed it most likely its an undetermined  hodgepodge soup made of leftovers from the fridge  and broth from the freezer..