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.

 

Oh no! Just 36 weeks till Christmas

I have mentioned before how skillful I am at avoiding some of the chores I need to do to organize my Christmas junk. I probably need to get off my rear and just wrap it up.

I was guilted into going into the room of horrors AKA the room with the gigantic holiday decorations closet where nothing was really put away and instead is strewn all over the room.* You know who you are, person who guilted me, and I did not appreciate the guilt trip even for a minute. 

But I went upstairs and worked in it a bit. Like Kay says in her blog. I am eating the metaphorical elephant one bite at a time. I think the reason it is taking me so long is because I don't like being in the room, the clutter is overwhelming, and I just flat out own too much stuff!  I really need to have people come over and take whatever they want. Except for the very few items I am sentimental about, I probably would never even notice it was gone.

I have decorations for every holiday imaginable, and normal years finds me decorating for each one. This year I have been putting off organizing everything for so long that I am kind of ignoring all but very minimal decor.

Take this Easter season for example. I have bunnies and baskets, and all kinds of Easter regalia in my stash, but my Easterizing this time was to place hand painted china eggs on Easter grass in a silver Paul Revere bowl. It is sitting in the middle of the dining room table. The only other thing I did was to change my alphabet blocks from Valentine's Day to Happy Easter, and I only did that this past week. It seems Poor St. Patrick was passed over entirely. 

I read Wally Lamb's Wishin' and Hopin' A Christmas Book, because I was cleaning our bedroom and found it in a stack of books I accidentally knocked off the bookshelf. I had read it once before, but had completely forgotten what it was about. I got to read it again for the second first time. It was really a good read, and I enjoyed it, but I decided I need to put it in the charity donation box or 10 years from now I will forget about it and read it again for the third first time.

Other than that I have nothing. No shopping or gift buying because I can't drive right now and  I am not going to get TheHub to take me shopping for anything but groceries.

This week I plan on trying at least one new to me possible Christmas recipe, but I planned on trying one last week and it never happened. So perhaps!

*This room was my former office, then Pip's toddler bedroom**, next I set it up for DIL3 to have a private place to work when they were here***, and now it is used for nothing except to collect things I have not put in the proper place. Fortunately it has a door so no one ever has to see the mess.

**Pip now has a different bedroom with a queen size, rather than a toddler bed. It is decorated somewhat to her specs.

** *We put different and more comfortable furniture in the upstairs music room, and I also bought a new couch for the main level den. They are now her two favorite spots to work when they visit.

Not The Best Week, But Not The Worst

This was a week of ups and downs and at times I felt like I was just spinning my wheels.

These were the planned meals and we actually had most of them:

Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad

Tacos with all the fixings, or taco salad

Egg rolls, fried rice, soup 

Cheese sandwiches, veggie sticks

Crack chicken, Brussels sprouts, tossed salad,  Italian bread

Chicken pot pie, coleslaw

Cheeseburger salad

Daily joys and dinners or what really happened:

Monday joy: There was nothing special about the day other than getting my ducks in a row to head to Probate court Tuesday and begin the name change process so I could renew my driver's license. 

After researching everything I would need for the process and printing and filling out all the various forms, we realized we had no idea where our marriage license might be (seems that was a crucial part of the info needed). 

Though we realized it too late for me to get it Monday, I did know the least crowded place to go.

Monday dinner: We had both been invested in March Madness and were planning on seeing it through to the end, requiring a ball game meal.

Tacos* with all the fixings

Tuesday joy: There was no joy in Mudville Tuesday, but instead of Mighty Casey, it was Anne who struck out. 

We began the day at a neighboring county's vital statistics office. Since marriage licenses are state rather than county records, any office in the state can access them. I chose this office correctly, I was the first one there and had the certificate in hand quickly. 

After that we ( I have to say we because I currently have an inactive license. My name on my social security card does not match my driver's license name. (This is a new development since the last time I had to renew it).

I took all my forms by the bank to have them notarized, then left for the courthouse.

We had researched what district we are in based on the voting districts. According to that, we would be in the Bessemer District, which was fine with me. It is a much easier and less crowded courthouse than the one in downtown Birmingham. So off we went. Again I was the only person there. Yay! The clerk took all my info, said it all looked in order, then told me he was sorry to tell me that I should be in the Birmingham district rather then there. He said it happens all the time because Vestavia is technically in 2 voting districts but they assign everything to Birmingham. 

Nice to have nothing posted anywhere online  mentioning that.

So we headed to the downtown courthouse.  Once there, after going through security and finding the probate court office, I handed them all of my forms and identification and was told the forms they have on their website are no longer the accurate forms. Not happy! 

Then I was told I could not file the forms until I had been fingerprinted at the Sheriff's office, had a report from ABI and FBI about my criminal record or lack there of. All of this would take approximately 5-9 weeks to resolve.

Now I love TheHub and he loves me most of the time, but driving me everywhere I need/want to go for 5-9 weeks while I wait for governmental agencies to authorize that my only run ins with the law are 2 speeding tickets, one in my 30's and one in my 40's would be too much for both of us.

I made it to the car before I unleashed a stream of profanities that would make a sailor blush, and some words I managed to use as every single part of speech. Adjectives, adverbs, nouns, verbs (lots of verbs) and many compound words were flying through the car. 

We stopped at the store where TheHub brought me natures best sedative, chocolate, before we came home. I am pretty sure I fumed all night! 

Tuesday dinner: Even though I was angry, dinner still needed to be made.

Egg rolls*, fried rice, served with a side of hostility

Wednesday joy: I had a weird dream about changing my name to get my drivers license and decided there had to be a better way.

After hanging on the phone with Social Security for 67 minutes before I finally talked with a human, I found it is going to be easier to just add my given first name to my SS card than to legally drop the first name. 

All my financial records are tied to my social security number and everything governmental will automatically change. Nothing  else will not really matter. But I will not be known by my given first name anywhere else.

All it requires is a birth certificate, marriage certificate, and passport. (I immediately put those in a manilla envelope and put them in a safe place to have them at the ready for my appointment with them)  Definitely a simplified solution. 

Now I only have to wait until May1 (earliest appointment date) to have my card changed and they will supply me with documentation to go straight to the DMV.

As soon as I got off the phone, I called the sheriffs office to cancel my finger printing appointment. Now no one will need to learn about the 2 speeding tickets from the past.

Wednesday dinner: I had a few things that needed to be used quickly and combined them to make a pretty decent supper.

Chicken* potpie, coleslaw, served with a side of relief

 

Thursday Joy: Our produce folks, Benny and Brenda are back. We ran by their stand and bought delicious strawberries and tomatoes that were ripe, juicy, and full of flavor. The squash and oranges were pretty tasty too. Now that they are here, I will start going every week. I pay a little more than in the grocery stores but the quality is so much better.

Other than that I just stayed home because I hate relying on TheHub to drive me. 

We watched the movie The Conclave and really did enjoy it. After reading Stanley Tucci's book "What I Ate in One Year" so many of the meals were eaten while he was in Italy filming on location, I knew I had to see it. If any of you have Peacock streaming, it is available right now.

Thursday dinner: Fresh produce screams for a veggie meal night.

Squash casserole, black eyed peas*, cucumber onion and tomato salad, strawberry shortcake.

Friday joy: TheHub played in a golf tournament in Tuscaloosa, and I had the day to myself. Even though I cannot drive currently (still unhappy about this but 19 days and counting until I will be "legally named" again) I stayed home and got some things done that needed doing without advice from the peanut gallery on how he thinks I should do them. 

I also had. long phone call catching up with Sluggy.

After dinner we began season 2 of White Lotus

Friday dinner: Freezer to the rescue!

Spaghetti sauce* with meat, spaghetti, tossed salad, garlic bread, pinot noir, salted caramel cheesecake*

Saturday joy: The day was gorgeous, but a little cooler than I like it to be.  We stayed home and just did home things which included keeping up with The Master's tournament.

I had been asked to teach our Sunday School class and had no idea what I was going to do. So I sat in front of a couple of books waiting on inspiration to hit. It finally did when I read our mail. 

We donate to Urban Ministries yearly, but they send out mailers on a regular basis soliciting more support. This time there was a note about a particular woman in a difficult situation. Her plight was what moved me, but it took me several hours to get it in some semblance of a lesson.

Saturday dinner: I wanted something that could be ready to eat with no more than 10 minutes prep time.

Cheeseburger *salad

Sunday joy: The day was beautiful again as we left to go to church then Sunday School. Our minister had a wonderful Palm Sunday service and we also had a marvelous tenor solo singing The Holy City though I do not think anything beats Mahalia Jackson's version.

After we got home we had a pimento cheese sandwich, which we traditionally have for lunch while we watch The Master's final round.

I am sharing Rory McIlroy's emotional win, and could not have been happier for him.

Sunday dinner: Son2 and DIL2 came over to watch the tail end of the golf tournament then stayed for dinner. A beautiful day called for cooking on the grill.

Rib eyes*, scalloped potatoes,* tossed salad, rolls*, brownie ala mode

What meals might happen this week:

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

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

3. Bbq chicken sandwiches, caulitato salad

4. Veggie meal TBD

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

6. Stir fried veggies w/ either beef or chicken, rice

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

Books read in April:

Listen  for the Lies

What I Ate in One Year

Sandwich

Falling up

The Second Chance

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

* Everything *'d had at least one component taken from the freezer. I am trying to use as much as I can through May. It will keep the grocery budget lower and also make room for produce I will want to process during the summer.

Oh No! Just 37 Weeks Till Christmas

Christmas has taken a back seat today.
I am in a really dark place right now because of some circular frustrations. Though I am not violent, for the first time in my life I do understand how some people blow a fuse. As for me, I tend to smile, leave the places that are causing me said frustrations, then cuss using compound words and eat chocolate.*

Before this happened, I did think about the holiday somewhat.

I bought a Christmas present from a gift shop on our trip home.

I read Paula Deen's Christmas magazine and found a couple of recipes to try, but did not try them yet.

I almost thought about doing something creative for Christmas, then decided I did not want to get any supplies I might need out of storage.  I did have a really good (stolen yet transformed) idea for giving along with some home baked treats. 

It  might happen or it might not, but I know as long as I feel like I do today nothing will be done.

* TheHub understands and is frustrated along with me, even though it only frustrates him tangentially. It's my issue, but bless him. He knows me well, and knows the big Kit Kat he bought is good medicine.

Bah Humbug

Adventures Continued

 

Mexico was in our rear view mirror and it was time to head toward home, but first a tad more adventuring.

Monday Joy: The last Puerto Vallarta joy was breakfast with Son 1’s family. They had an earlier flight than ours, so we enjoyed a few more hours before having to leave paradise and return to the real world. Ok, not our real world, but we had to at least return to the states. We landed in Dallas  that night and headed to Ft Worth to spend the night.

Monday dinner: You know that old saying “ any port in a storm”. We had not eaten since breakfast ( I had only had a cup of coffee) and it was about 9 pm by the time we retrieved the car, drove to Ft Worth and checked in to the hotel. We were both really hungry. After driving around a minute we saw the golden arches and thought all we wanted was food and at that point were not picky about what it was. Neither of us wanted a combo meal, we both just wanted a sandwich so we ordered the ala carte burgers. It seems at that particular McD’s ala carte had a different meaning. Instead of the burgers they gave us a bag with just the patties in plastic containers. We had to wait more than a couple of minutes to have our order fixed, since no one seemed to understand what ala carte on the McDonalds menu meant. 

Hamburger, water, frustration 

Tuesday joy: We checked out of the hotel and drove to my cousin K’s house. It was the first time I had seen it, though I had heard what a wonderful place it is. No one had done it justice. 

She lives in a historic area filled with Craftsman cottages. She has hers filled with period furnishings and incredible artwork. It is a fantastic home fitting for an incredible woman. 

We visited for a while then went out for lunch at a charming local restaurant.

After a meal and more conversation we dropped her back at her house, then began our journey south.

Normally the drive between Dallas and Houston might have been just a boring interstate drive. Instead we were treated to bluebonnets, plains coreopsis, primroses, and buttercups blooming all along the sides of the road and the medians. It was a visually stunning drive. 

We finally arrived at our destination, Galveston, about 8 pm

Tuesday dinner: K vacations on Galveston Island yearly and told us if we wanted a delicious meal, to eat at Gaido’s. I trust her opinions and she was not wrong. If you are ever on Galveston Island go. It is pricey but worth every penny. We left with happy mouths and overfilled stomachs. 

Blackened tile fish with jambalaya, grilled tomatoes, creamed spinach, freshly baked bread. 

Wednesday joy: We began our trip home via the coastal roads through Texas and on into Louisiana. Neither of us had ever been there before and saw and did things for the first time.

On coastal roads 82 in Louisiana the water from the Gulf literally meets the road with waves breaking on rocks place next to the pavement. The seas were rough and every time a wave hit the rocks sea foam would bounce across the road in front of the car. It only did it for a few miles and with the gray skies overhead it was eerily beautiful.

Later in the afternoon we crossed 2 bodies of water in ferry boats. We have taken a ferry before but never a car ferry. Now we have, so another check off our list of things we’ve never done. 

We drove until we reached New Iberia and decided to call it a night.

Wednesday dinner: TheHub asked the guy manning the hotel front desk for a recommendation for our dinner. Without hesitation he said Jane’s Seafood and Chinese. 

Now I don't know about you, but I was very suspicious of going somewhere with seafood and Chinese in the name, but we went anyway. 

Wow, what a surprise. Though we cannot speak for food from the Chinese menu, the seafood we had was delicious.

Gumbo, potato salad, bread, hushpuppies*

Thursday joy: We woke, checked out of the hotel and were on our way down the coastal route toward New Orleans. By this time the term coastal route was a misnomer. We went through towns that were all off the beach, and though we saw backwaters sometimes, we really were not seeing the gulf at all. 

About 2/3 of the way to New Orleans we made a decision and headed North on a four lane road to Metarie (a suburb just north of the New Orleans city limits). We stopped there to have lunch ( another delicious seafood meal) then made the decision to abandon the coastal route entirely. 

Several years ago we had driven the coast from New Orleans to Mobile. We made a quick decision because we had seen it before, and really did not relish driving through  downtown N.O. just to pick up he coastal road through Mississippi, we would just connect with I-10 and save a bit of time. OK, it would have been quite a bit of time because the coastal route through New Orleans would mean traveling through the southern part of the city block after block.

Thursday dinner: We arrived in Daphne by late afternoon, freshened up a bit and met our SIL, who lives there, for dinner. Our niece who also lives nearby came by the restaurant, but could not stay for the meal because her son had a little league baseball game. 

We had a great visit  and meal at Market on the Bay, but it was just too short.  We vowed to come back to Daphne before too long.

Crab cakes, coleslaw, Moscow mule (me) Grilled catch of the day, coleslaw, beer (TheHub) Shrimp and grits, coleslaw, pinot noir (SIL)

Friday joy: Our big adventure was finally really coming to an end. We left Daphne and headed home. 

TheHub plans every trip when we are driving on the southern part of I-65  to include a lunch stop at Bates House of Turkey. It does not matter whether we are headed south or north. If we are on 65, there will be a meal. I get tired of doing the same thing every time, but have to admit their turkey is really good. 

Another stop we have to make is Peach Park, but only if we are headed north. Usually there is a peach fried pie that comes home with us, but Friday was only a quick rest room stop with a little browsing the sale table located near the women's rest room. Coincidence that the sale table was placed there?

We finally arrived home and after unloading the car, the great wash began. We had worn every single thing we packed so there was 2 weeks of laundry to do. 

I only got three loads down before calling it quits for the day. I kind of copped a "Fiddle dee dee, I'll think of that tomorrow" Scarlett O'Hara attitude.

Friday dinner: There was no food (at least nothing thawed) to cook. Instead we went to Fired Green Tomatoes for dinner.

Pork chop, coleslaw, green beans (me) Chicken and dumplings, creamed corn, lima beans (TheHub)

Saturday joy: After waking from a delicious sleep in our own bed with my own pillows, I made my own coffee just like I prefer it- strong and black. And since I was at my own house, I could have as much of it as I wanted. 

I would have enjoyed hanging out in my pjs sipping on coffee and reading. Alas ,we had no produce, bread, milk, eggs etc. and needed to go to the grocery store. TheHub had some things he wanted that could only be found at one store and of course I wanted to cherry pick Aldi and Publix  We wound up going to all three stores, coming back by the house between each store to put things away. It seemed to take forever. 

The bonus of going with TheHub to Walmart’s Neighborhood Market to get his 1/2 loaf of rye bread was checking out the day old bakery items  I was able to snag a sliced loaf of Italian bread for 69 cents and a 6 pack of bolillo rolls half off Score!!

We finished all the shopping with time for a couple of chores before it was time to watch the semi finals of March Madness. Both Auburn and Duke lost. I thought they would both be in the final game. Never ask me to handicap anything before placing a bet!

Saturday dinner: Ball game watching requires ball game food.

Sloppy Joes on split bolillo rolls, coleslaw**

Sunday joy: We were both tired, and skipped church so I could catch up on my sleep. 

I don’t sleep well when I am away from home, which is why I’ve already read three books this month. When we are in a hotel, TheHub likes to go to sleep earlier than I do. Since I am not able to get to sleep I use my iPad to read.

Sunday dinner: After buying all the things we needed Saturday (plus a few other groceries just because we wanted them) and a full freezer, there was no excuse for me not cooking a real meal.

Pork chops, couscous, asparagus

Planned for this week:

1. Spaghetti with meat sauce, tossed salad

2. Tacos with all the fixings, or taco salad

3. Egg rolls, fried rice, soup

4. Cheese sandwiches, veggie sticks

5. Crack chicken, Brussels sprouts, tossed salad,  Italian bread

6. Chicken pot pie, coleslaw

7. Cheeseburger salad

Books read in April:

Listen  for the Lies

What I Ate in One Year

Sandwich

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

*This was one of their most requested meals and even though it sounds like a weird combination it really did work. The gumbo was chock full of shrimp, crab and fish, and the potato salad was spicy and savory rather than some I have had that are a tad sweet. The bread was a light Italian bread. The only thing I did not like were the hushpuppies that had cooked banana in the center. I thought they had committed a hushpuppy sacrilege but TheHub thought they were the bomb. Different strokes!

** You may have noticed how often we have coleslaw. We both love it so we eat it all the time. I always buy the biggest heads of cabbage I can find for that very reason.

:

Oh No, Just 38 Weeks !till Christmas

I was in Mexico this past week and thought very little about anything other than fun and sun.

I did find 3 small add-in Christmas presents while I was strolling through the markets.

Before we left home, I found 3 ornaments Mom had given Son1, so I carried them with me and gave them to him. 

Mom bought all three of them engraved ornaments every year until they were adults. I thought I had given them all to him but I found those mixed with Son 3’s, who is getting all of his the next time we see him.

I also talked with the bell captain at the resort about the holidays there. He made it sound wonderful, not only at the resort but everything that goes on throughout the town. It sounds like something we would enjoy, and we do  plan on going back next winter. Anything is possible!

Felices fiestas!