Moving on

This was a week to get some things done preparing for a new normal 

What I thought we might eat last week:

Hamburger patty, broccoli salad, saffron rice

Big salad meal TBD

Veggie meal TBD

Thai chicken, jasmine rice. coleslaw

Tuna steaks, baked potato, tossed salad

Sandwiches, coleslaw, french fries

Out to eat or take out

Monday: Began the week with a lengthy phone call with My Beloved Sister. (know from here forward as MBS). She was going to have her SIL over so I stayed at home. I did not want to interfere with them. Her SIL did not make it to town until much later in the afternoon so she did not go to MBS's house. I would have gone over with some boxes she requested and helped her go through some of the non-personal items she does not want to keep anymore.

Monday dinner: It was planned and easy. I will opt for easy almost every meal.

Thai chicken, rice, asian coleslaw, dinner rolls

Tuesday: I went with MBS to pick up BIL's death certificate. I was no help whatsoever, but I was a buffer just to keep her from becoming upset when she actually saw it. 

I had gathered some moving boxes for her that we had did not use when we sold the lake place along with several Trader Joe's paper bags. There are some things she is getting rid of because they will never be used again, and she had many things BIL's nephew could use, so she wanted him to have them.

You don't always think that to get rid of things you need to have something to contain them. I could at least help getting those to her.

She also had many things that belonged to BIL's deceased brother that needed to go to their sister, instead of staying at MBS's house. 

Tuesday dinner: I had dressed for the day and rode with TheHub to go sign some checks for one of the contract projects he is still working on, and to have a quick meeting signing a few papers.  While we were in that part of town we went to a men's clothing store he loves, to pick up a couple of casual wear items he wanted. After he completed his shopping, we decided to run by a restaurant near by for dinner.

Veggie soup and greek salad or Greek sandwich.

Wednesday: I stayed at home planning the post funeral reception via phone calls with MBS and our good friend C, who agreed to help putting the reception table together after the service. My church's parlor is a large very pretty but fairly formal room. The service was to be held there with refreshments to be served afterward.

 C has a knack for making everything beautiful and when she asked what she could do for MBS, I told her using her talent was the best possible "gift".

After discussion, we agreed that we needed silver trays and candelabra, along with serving pieces, tiered tray, crystal pitchers, ice bucket and serving utensils. 
I have a lot of "things", most of which stay tucked in various cabinets and drawers. You know all that stuff you have in your house that you rarely use and then you pull them out and realize they need some serious attention? To quote Son2. "you had a little silver with your tarnish, Mom". Needless to say, there was a whole lot of polishing going on.

Wednesday dinner. I invited MBS over to eat with us, but also to let her have the final say about the all the serving pieces. I did not think she would care one way or another, but it was still her call.

Taco salad

Thursday: TheHub and I ran out to all of the various places we needed to go to to purchase all the foods we needed for after the service. My aim was to have every single thing on hand so I could wake Friday morning ready to roll. I managed to get everything going to only 4 different stored, got home and got everything unloaded  and stored, ready and waiting for early Friday morning when I could begin.

Thankfully friend C took purchasing the flowers off my plate, which was wonderful because she does so much better with arrangements than I do

Thursday dinner: I had most of this on hand and in the freezer.

Rosemary chicken, au gratin potatoes  leftover club salad*

Friday:  I woke very early and began working on the food. One of the things I planned to make was finger sandwiches. I had put the bread in the freezer so it would be partially frozen making it much easier to remove the crusts, and cut the sandwiches into 4ths. I knew things were going too well. When I took the first few pieces out of the loaves of bread, I realized all the loaves had huge air bubbles throughout them. That would not work at all, which meant I had to change into going out in public clothes to buy more bread. It put me a good bit of time behind schedule, but I got all those suckers made with just the tiniest bit of time to spare. 

I might have meant a speed shower and getting ready in record time, but we made it and were at the church a few minutes before our agreed arrival time. Whew! 

The service was very personal and MBS had the most wonderful eulogy, which included both tender and funny memories. And like all services, once the final prayer was said there was some closure and people began moving around the room, nibbling on the goodies, talking to each other, and sharing stories and memories .

Friday dinner: TheHub and I had a long day and neither of us wanted to cook. I am very grateful we live in the south where delicious BBQ is available all around us.

BBQ sandwich, baked beans, potato salad

Saturday: We woke and dressed to run a few errands. We began going to Argo (a community about 35 minutes from our house) to give some of the excess food from the reception to one of my cousins. They have 6 grandchildren who come to their house often, so things will be eaten. We had already split some between MBS, BiIl's family and us, and there was still so much left. (Never ask me to do food for an uncertain crowd number for I will always fall in the rather have  "too much"rather than "too little" category).

Since we were already in the general direction, we called Son2 and DIL2 to have them meet us for lunch at  a Thai restaurant near their home.  It is always wonderful being around them, even if we had just been with them at the funeral the day before.

After eating we had one more stop before heading home. TheHub had ordered and received some shirts from Untuckit. They sent 2 of one shirt but there was no charge for it, so he decided to just stop at the store to return the unordered one. 

The store personnel were most appreciative and really could not believe he would return it.

We try very hard to always live an honest life and have even taken a rogue lemon that hid in the grocery cart after paying, back into the store. The right thing to do is always the right thing to do.

 Saturday dinner: We still had reception leftovers.

Finger sandwiches, coleslaw

Sunday: We woke early to go to the communion service followed by church at 8:30, then Sunday school. I like to start my week doing that. Once home we started doing a few things to get ready for our upcoming beach trip and both took a little recliner snooze while watching the NCAA world series.

Sunday dinner: Leftovers was the name of the game again, but this time they were different ones.

Thai chicken pineapple fried rice (The servings at Thai Basil are huge)

What's up fpr this week?

Who knows? We are headed to the beach Tuesday and whatever happens happens!

Books read in June:

We Could Be Rats (This book has a hard subject matter)

My Italian Bulldozer

The Dutch House

The Friday Afternoon Club

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

*TheHub had a luncheon meeting that afternoon and he always brings any leftovers home.