Quick trip and bird trills

This past week began with a little road trip and was followed by a lot of ordinary. 

My resident groundhog, who had been laying low, has come back to taunt me, the apples are not yet big enough that they are calling to the squirrels, and the birds have all left their nests and are learning to fend for themselves__kind of. 

That I know of, we had doves, finches, wrens, cardinals, robins and brown thrashers nesting in various areas of the back yard and every morning and evening recently the yard is filled with them. I have really enjoyed watching them while I have my coffee each day.  

The front yard is still the home of nesting mockingbirds. I love hearing their song, but they are aggressive little critters, who are not fond of us walking outside. We give them a lot of space and so far have not been the subject of their dive bombing, unlike the bluejays, crows, or Gray Greg (the neighborhood assassin cat) who venture too close.

What was planned for the past week:

Out of town

Out of town

BLT salad

Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, coleslaw

Fish, baked potato, tossed salad

Greek chicken, greek green beans , rice

Something cooked on the grill (TBD), baked potato, tossed salad

Joys and dinner that really happened:

Monday joy: TheHub had an early morning funeral visitation to go to, then a work call before we loaded up the car to drive to Daphne. 

We had a leisurely and uneventful drive after we got through torrential rains. From outside Montgomery on, the weather was very nice and the remaining drive was uneventful.

We made it to Daphne with enough time to both doze off for a minute before getting ready to meet our SIL, Niece, and great nephew for dinner.  

We had told them to pick where we would eat, but, because it was a Monday night a lot of the places we would normally go were closed. 

Monday dinner: We met them at Champy's (a chicken joint) for dinner and a lot of conversation and laughter. We have seen them a couple of times recently and really do miss them. It is so nice to catch up and it was hard to believe J.P. turned 13 during the week. Can't  imagine how that happened!

The food was good, the company was great!
Catfish, coleslaw, green beans, and whatever chicken and sides they had

Tuesday joy: TheHub is on the board for the Alabama Parkinson's Foundation. They were having an event to explain the resources available to patients in South Alabama. Along with all the info, there were vendors who have products to aid Parkinson's patients. 

He had to be there early to help set everything up, and was the closing speaker, so he was there from soup to nuts. Luckily for me, three other board members were staying at the same hotel and he was able to snag a ride with them. I  did not have to drive him and got to sleep a little later, then read and get ready for the day without rushing. 

Normally I go to the grocery store either Monday or Tuesday (our local food ads run Wednesday- Tuesday) but I missed shopping Monday because we were driving.

When we packed the car, we loaded the car refrigerator we bought for our cross country driving trip that didn't happen__yet. I figured it would be a good trial to see how it worked, but wanted to time my shopping so the car would be running the majority of the time it had refrigerated items in it.

The Publix and Aldi ads were the same as my local stores and I decided I would hit both of them. 

Publix was closest to the hotel and I was not getting any refrigerated items there, so it became my first stop. After shopping, I loaded everything I bought in the car  and turned the refrigerator on to begin cooling, before driving to a local park where I parked in the shade and had my turkey sandwich  and diet Dr. Pepper ( both bought at Publix) 

I turned the car off while eating because I hate wasting gas, until it was got too hot. I still had one more shopping trip to do and didn't want to be a sweaty mess, so I caved and turned the car back on. The a/c felt wonderful and I only had to let it idle about 10 minutes before I finished eating and headed to Aldi. 

I did take a little longer in the store than I normally do, but again, timing was everything. and I needed the stop there to be at least 45 minutes. For the record, The Daphne Aldi is so much better than my local one. It was a lot of fun to browse and see things my Aldi does not carry. I would love having that store to go to weekly! 

All the cold items (and the chocolate that jumped in my cart) were loaded in the now cold refrigerator and I drove literally across the street to pick up TheHub.  

He was going to be delayed about 20 minutes beyond the end of the event, so I parked (again in the shade) rolled the windows down and watched Episode 1 of Netflix's The Four Seasons. I had downloaded it to my phone "just in case" because "just in case" happens just about every time TheHub has something like this.

Tuesday dinner: I had planned nothing for dinner, assuming we would pick something up on the way home, not realizing we would make 2 stops that would change that assumption. 

One was the Conecuh Sausage Retail Store (exit 96 off I-65 not only delicious sausage but fantastic restrooms) where we bought a few sausages I have never seen in any of my local grocery stores.

The second stop was Peach Park. TheHub loves to stop here, and I don't mind at all. Of course we had to buy something.

Conecuh sausage dogs* (bun length hickory smoked deliciousness)with mustard and vidalia onion slices,  apple hand pie*** (Peach Park's contribution)

Wednesday joy: I stayed home the entire day doing laundry, and trying to get the laundry room completely organized (fail)

Wednesday dinner: I was rearranging the laundry room freezer and pulled some chicken out to thaw.

Greek chicken**, rice, sautéed mushrooms, coleslaw w/ Greekish dressing, peach hand pie (also from Peach Park***)

Thursday joy: We did a little running around including a stop at our favorite produce stand. While out and about we stopped at the Pita Cafe for a quick lunch. TheHub would go out for lunch everyday if I would agree to it. Decades of his lunch habit is hard to break. He ate lunch out every single week day. I ate lunch out maybe twice a month, so we have different takes on it.  

If I am dressed for the day (meaning presentable to the world and not the usual "soft clothes" I wear at home) and we are already out doing something I will agree to an occasional daytime meal out. 

Since I had on makeup and CRC's (what a former local theater director used to call cute rehearsal clothes on days a photographer was going to shoot rehearsals) I was all in.

All I had planned for the rest of the day was laundry and junk like that, and who would ever care if that was delayed?

Thursday dinner: Fresh produce almost always means a veggie dinner for us.

Corn on the cob, steamed yellow squash, tomato onion and cucumber salad

Friday joy: Woke and got ready to run out. TheHub had a few errands he wanted to do and then he wanted to go to Trader Joe's new store nearer our house. I was ready to leave shortly after the store opened, then hung around waiting for "just one more thing" that TheHub was doing. Finally after about 2 hours of "Just . . .thing" we left the house. 

The newly opened TJ's has the same stuff all of them have, but it is so much easier to navigate with wider aisles, and the parking lot is infinitely better. The nearness alone would make it my TJ's of choice, but the additional ease getting in, out, and through the store makes it a true no-brainer. 

I only bought things I buy regularly there but I did add a small bouquet of matricaria to fill in some flowers that had wilted and needed to be discarded from the Mother's Day bouquet TheHub gave me.

Once home soft clothes replaced what I was wearing and chores took over. Oh well.

Friday dinner: It was a night for Bama softball, so life required a ball game meal.

B**LT salad

Saturday joy: The day was just a normal overly warm day. We’ve been having a lot of rain and even when it’s not raining it has been terribly humid, which just makes hot feel hotter 

We watched Bama softball, then Bama baseball, because they were playing and if they play we will watch. (It is entirely possible I read while the games are oh. Shhh! It’s a secret.)

Saturday dinner: I thwarted TheHubs desire to eat lunch out again but he was really interested in eating at one of the 3 places in our burb that opened last week. My compromise was to do takeout from Guthrie’s 

Chicken fingers, fries,  coleslaw

Sunday joy: We veered from our usual Sunday morning and did not go to the communion or early church service. Instead we first went to Sunday School then to the 11:00 worship service. Every year the Sunday before high school graduation our church has Senior Sunday. The graduating seniors conduct all phases of the service and it is always wonderful. Several of our friends had graduating grandchildren participating and we wanted to see them. 

After church and a quick bite for lunch we settled in to watch Bama softball which was scheduled to begin at 1 but did not actually begin until 4:30. Rain delays meant a cat nap and some reading!

Sunday dinner: The softball game was not over until after 6:30 and I was not in the mood to make a meatloaf then. Punt!

Ground chuck patties with onions and mushrooms, mashed potatoes, tomato slices

Meals that might happen this week:

1. Crack chicken, brussels sprouts, rice, tomato slices

2. Veggie meal TBD (depends on what Benny has at the produce stand)

3. BLT salad (perfect tomatoes are here now!)

4. Grilled tuna steaks, tossed salad, dinner rolls

5. Beef and broccoli stir fry, rice

6. Cheeseburger casserole, coleslaw

7. Out to eat or take out

Books read in May

A Homemade Life

The Light of Days

The Making of Home

Wintering

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

* After portioning and freezing the package of sausage dogs, we will have enough for 7 more meals. The next time we have them I am going to make peach chutney and caramelize the vidalia slices to go along with the mustard.  I am pretty sure we will be stopping at that store every time we are going in the direction of South Alabama.

**Used from freezer. I am not making any headway using foods from it.

***When we buy hand pies from Peach Park, we usually buy 1 apple and 1 peach, then we each have half of one on two separate nights. A whole one is really too big for either of us.