Happy Thanksgiving

 

I am thankful today and every day for each of you. Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving, or if you live outside the states, Happy Thursday!

Trying to Push Through

This was the week prior to Thanksgiving week when we try and get things in order. The operative word is try!

I am not the least bit depressed (except maybe for the dining room still being an office) but I like this song title, the music and the vocals.

What might be dinner this week:

1. Minestrone soup, dinner rolls

2. Leftover pumpkin sausage soup, waldorf salad

3. Leftover brisket, broccoli, rice

4. Out to eat

5. Cheese sandwiches, coleslaw

6. Pizza in a bowl, tossed salad

7. Chicken scampi over pasta, some green veggie TBD

Monday: 38 Days until Christmas

When Son3 and DIL3 were at our house for their last visit they left a few things that they needed. We drove halfway to Athens and met them for lunch, conversation and an exchange. We were there a little early and saw a Russel Stover outlet store nearby. Both of us are chocolate lovers so of course we went in there. I did find a couple of Christmas presents there. It seems if you are related to us the love of chocolate comes with it.

After we ate and said our goodbyes, we headed home but stopped at a place called Smith Farm on the way home. It has a huge assortment of smoked meats and walking into the shop is an olfactory delight. 

We bought a couple of things there before heading back to the house, getting home at the start of rush hour. Oh well! The stop was worth fighting the traffic.

Monday dinner: Freezer finds

Minestrone soup, dinner roll

Tuesday: 37 Days until Christmas

TheHub, My Beloved Sister and I met with the Tuesday Independence Place participants for lunch. If any of you have ever read or seen the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, The Irondale Cafe where we ate, was Fannie Flagg's inspiration. It literally sits right in front of the train tracks she talks about in the book.

We had a wonderful time with all of the participants and the staff. 

Tuesday dinner: We both had vegetable plates for lunch and were not very hungry at dinnertime. A repeat never hurt anyone did it?

Minestrone soup, leftover basil sourdough

Wednesday: 36 Days until Christmas

The morning ride to class was drop dead gorgeous, not because the sun was shining and the skies were blue. In fact it was a dismal looking day, but the fall leaves were at their prime. All the yellows, reds and occasional oranges were eye candy the entire drive. I made a stop or two on the way home, changed and spent the rest of the day at the house.

Wednesday dinner: The weather outside was abnormally warm, so I kept the door to the screened porch opened until the temperature dropped and cooled the den. Since we are not running the heater we became chilled. Thank you leftovers.

Pumpkin sausage soup, rolls

 

Thursday; 35 Days until Christmas

There was dense fog with early morning sun filtering through. I sit sometimes at the kitchen table which fits in a bay window overlooking the back yard. The fog, the filtered light and the fall leaves on the trees made the backyard look like a fairy land. While sitting there I played my Thanksgiving playlist and I can't describe now much I enjoyed the early morning. coffee time.

TheHub had a meeting and I ran a few errands. Other than that it was a run of th mill day.

Thursday dinner: Once again I had leftovers and just had to make a couple of sides.

Brisket, mashed potatoes, coleslaw

Friday: 34 Days until Christmas

 What a difference 24 hours makes. Instead of waking to fog with sunlight peeking through, I woke to a gloomy overcast day, but the temperatures were overly warm. Ick! The humidity was too high for me to be comfortable sitting on the porch for coffee. Instead I sat at the kitchen table watching the winds kick up. All of a sudden the entire backyard was filled with swirling gold and scarlet leaves. It seemed like it lasted much longer than it did (probably 30-45 seconds) but it was beautiful while it lasted. Instead of raining men it was raining leaves. 

I stayed home and began the Christmas decorating process. This year I actually had some well thought out process with no chaos, which is not my norm. Damn if organization is not a good thing that I had been fighting all my life. Don't get me wrong, I love spontaneity and will continue to live that way, but there is something to be said for having a plan and following it.

Friday dinner: Neither of us were very hungry, and succumbed to a quick pantry meal. Sometimes dinner is nothing but fodder to fill a belly.

Cheese toast, tomato soup

Saturday: 33 Days until Christmas

Ball game day! As usual we started the morning watching/listening to shows, first from the radio then Game Day on ESPN. Truth be told we do not turn on a radio. Instead we ask Alexa to do the work for us. Sometimes with technology and AI  I feel we are living perilously close to the Ray Bradbury short story "There Will Come Soft Rains".

Both Bama and Auburn won big, and both will go into the rival game next Saturday with a vengeance. I hope Alabama wins but they are playing in Auburn and anything can happen.

Saturday dinner: We still had about half our monthly minimum to use and ordered takeout.

Cobb salad and sliders.

Sunday: 32 Days until Christmas

TheHub was felling pretty lousy so we skipped church. Well he skipped it totally; I watched it via our church streaming site. I still missed the early morning communion service and Sunday school, but at least I did get to see the actual service. This coming Sunday will begin Advent season. I plan on waking  then at 6:30 so I can at least stream the first Sunday of Advent.

I won't say there was a flurry of activity going on here but there was a little additional Christmas decorating, clothes washing, and getting things in order for the trip. As much as I hate that we did not plan on being there a full week, TheHub needed the additional days here to work on the project that has claimed my dining room for over a year.

Sunday dinner: TheHub still felt rotten (but tested negative so that's good) and I was not about to cook for just me. The bonus of the day? I ate the last of the gozillion cherry tomatoes we grew.

Soup and crackers (him)  Cherry tomato laden tossed salad (me)

Menu for the week:

Monday: Something with ground beef (some in the fridge that needs to be used)

Tuesday: Cheese and dried fruit (eaten on the plane)

Wednesday: Who knows

Thursday: Thanksgiving meal

Friday - Sunday: No clue

Books read in November:

The Harbinger

No More Tears:The Dark Secrets of Johnson and Johnson

The Librarian

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 5 weeks till Christmas

Time for us all to get our "Merry" on

This past week was the week before we were scheduled to leave for our trip to see Son1's family. (OK if truth be known we love all of them but we are really going to see Pip, and be there to celebrate her birthday. Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade) Regardless, we saw a flurry of Christmas activity. List that had been made were revised, bins were moved downstairs in an orderly fashion (A first for me), cookie baking day was scheduled as was candy making day and events have been added to the calendar

As of today, the foyer is decorated with the exception of the foyer tree. (It might get done today or tomorrow, or it might not) The welcome Christmas painting is out, the carolers are around the tree on the foyer table singing their little hearts out, the resin bronze colored Santa is standing guard by the foyer table, and the monkey butler is wearing his Santa hat and is holding his tray topped with candles and a small bowl of Christmas candy.

Moving to the living rooms, the three glass floor vases are filled with silver, gold and copper colored balls and the piano is mostly done. The living room tree is not up, maybe tomorrow or maybe not. 

The den has the coffee table decorated with a small tree and small bowed wrapped boxes beneath it. The hearth has Christmas themed toys on it and the mantle is decorated with greenery, bows and fairly lights in addition to two stocking hangers where the stockings* are already hung.

The side tables by the couch and chair are decorated and Wooden Face ** is wearing a Santa hat.

The den tree is still not up. Bummer

That leads us to the kitchen. There are a few things I put out every year.  The lazy susan Uncle Bob made me sits in the middle of the table every day of the year. Sometimes it is seasonally decorated but I always put Christmas things on it. Right now it is home to candles of various sizes, 3 funky metal Christmas trees and the non-festooned salt and pepper shakers (I guess I am slacking)

The buffet has been spruced up and has a couple of Christmas themed items on it, along with the Christmas carol singing Elvis.

The cabinet behind the table has been Christmasfied, with the container for arriving Christmas cards all bowed and ready to hold any incoming cards. (Believe it or not, we have already received three. Even though I have been getting ready for  the entire year, I am nowhere near mailing mine)

The dining room is still an office, and that is all I am going to say about that.😒😒😒

The exterior decorating will be done once we return home, but I planned on that anyway.

And that is it until we return.

4  Days till Thanksgiving

32 Days till Christmas

Ho, Ho, Hope the week is great for you all!

* Mom made my stocking when I was a baby and it has been hanging every year since. The year TheHub and I were married, Mom made a matching one for him, and as each successive child was born she made one for them. The last one she ever made was for Pip and by then she was having difficulty keeping count when the pattern changed. What a gift!

**Wooden Face is a 3d face carved from wood (obviously) with a support in the back so it can stand. One of Mom's childhood neighbors cared them in his spare time. I not remember a time when they were not in my parents house. After we cleared out Mom and Dad's house My Beloved Sister split them. I got Wooden Face and Harry Truman, MBS has Wooden Head and Sir Walter Raleigh. As an aside My cousin has possession of Rumplestiltskin. I am assuming these were all carved sometime in the '40's based on what we were told about them, but I suppose some could have been carved much earlier. Sir Walter is a larger than life size bust including the intricate ruff around his necks that would have taken forever to carve

Volunteer Kind of Week

This was a week filled with some things we had volunteered for and one thing I forgot!

Meals planned for this past week:

1. Lasagne leftovers, tossed salad

2. Chicken stew, coleslaw, cornbread

3. Soup, rolls 

4. Egg roll in a bowl

5. Chicken Alfredo leftovers, tossed salad

6. Brisket, brussels sprouts, potatoes

7. Out to eat

Monday: 45 Days till Christmas

I stayed home and did stuff around the house. 

Actually I screwed up when I filled out my calendar and was supposed to be at IP. I had written it down for Tuesday, so I missed it, and was very sad I did that. As you know, that is my happy place and I missed seeing all the Monday participants. (I will make it up to them) 

I was able to catch up with my cousin via a phone call, and do some much needed work upstairs. 

Monday dinner: Lasagne, tossed salad

Tuesday:  44 Days till Christmas

Ran a few errands, and did a little at home self pampering. I have been lucky enough to find some incredibly tasty apple lately. I love honeycrisp apples and the ones I bought recently were some of the best I have ever eaten. My old apple slicer broke, so I treated myself to a new one. I love eating those perfect slices, but I wonder if some homemade caramel might enhance them even more!

Tuesday dinner: Chicken alfredo, spinach, carrots, dinner rolls

Wednesday: 43 Days till Christmas

TheHub and I went to our church food pantry early Wednesday morning to help pack  Thanksgiving bags. For years our church has worked with the school counselors in our city, to identify needs for families in our school district, along with "love" offering to the custodial staff at all the schools. A small group of us packed and delivered about 250 bags to the various schools. In addition to the bags filled with enough food for a substantial Thanksgiving meal, each recipient  received a whole turkey. It is all done "under the cover of darkness" to save the students from any embarrassment they might feel. TheHub and I delivered to the middle school, then went out to lunch. middle school, out to lunch.

This coming Wednesday is the day our church drive by food bank is available for those in need of food assistance and because we had been in the literally pantry earlier in the day we were able to see what holes needed filling and ran to the store to buy a few cases to donate. 

Each time we do, I remember a former minister at our church whose ongoing message was "It is a blessing to be a blessing"

Wednesday dinner: What do you do when you have some leftovers but not quite enough for 2 people. Get creative!

Chicken and dumplings soup

Thursday: 42 days Had fun at my happy place. At least my Thursday calendar was correct! My Beloved Sister and I went to Independence Place and made homemade PayDay bars with the participants. The Thursday group is lively (loud) but a lot of fun. 

When MBS goes with me, we laugh on the drive over and back, and usually stop to grab a quick meal ( really late lunch) to eat in the car. There are a couple of parking lots nearby which are great for people watching.

Thursday dinner: We only had 10 days remaining to use our monthly dining minimum. We have some busy days ahead and and will be in Portland the week of Thanksgiving, so we decided Thursday night would be as good a night as any to use some of it.

Cobb salad

Friday: 41 Days till Christmas

Our church holds a Merry Market each November where people who are artisans, craftspersons, bakers, etc, pay a vendor's fee to sell their goods. There is no cost to enter, but there are tons of other options to spend your money.

TheHub and I volunteered to work a shift at the welcoming table. I am not a particularly shy person and it is very easy for me to talk to strangers, so it was a good place for me to be. TheHub acted as the doorman helping anyone who needed help in or out (but mainly out once they were loaded down with their purchases).

I met many new people, saw folks I had not seen in years, and had some wonderful "catch up" conversations.

TheHub became a fetcher and pointer helping people find specific vendors. He also did a little shopping, and we came home after our shift with a ton of breads, crackers, cookies, jellies and hot chocolate mixes, You would think he is never fed!

Friday dinner: I had 2 heads of cabbage in the fridge and needed to use some of it.

Eggroll in a bowl

Saturday: 40 days until Christmas

As you might know now, Saturday's around here means watching Game Day, having coffee with the televisions crew and gearing up to watch several games, or in TheHub's case, getting ready to go to the game. He and Son2 left the house at about 11 for a 2:30 game. They met TheHub's brother and nephew and had reservations for a pre-game lunch in the stadium. It was good for them to have that time to talk.

I stayed home, did some laundry, grabbed my new blanket and settled in on the couch to read and watch games.

DIL2 came over to watch part of the Bama game with me. Too bad they didn't win. I am a fan, but the wins or losses do not affect my everyday life at all. 

Saturday dinner: I knew it would be 8ish before they got in from th game and needed something that would taste good but would "hold".

Pumpkin sausage soup, basil sourdough bread

Sunday: 39 Days till Christmas

We were back in our normal Sunday routine, early communion service, early traditional worship service then. Sunday school.

Most Sunday's we stop and pick up lunch or run by the grocery store, but this day we came straight home, and changed clothes ate a quick sandwich and headed downtown for Birmingham's Broadway play "Clue". It was a cute and funny production which I enjoyed but I don't have to ever see it again.

Once home we both put of house type clothes, and watched The Beast in Me, a Netflix show.

Sunday dinner: I had put some frozen meat in a low temp crockpot early Saturday night. By the time I went to bed it had thawed, so I seasoned it and kept it cooking on the low setting until we got in from church. I turned it to the warm setting to keep it at  a safe temperature without too much additional cooking.

Brisket, mashed potatoes, tossed salad, apple sourdough bread

What might be dinner this week:

1. Minestrone soup, dinner rolls

2. Leftover pumpkin sausage soup, waldorf salad

3. Leftover brisket, broccoli, rice

4. Out to eat

5. Cheese sandwiches, coleslaw

6. Pizza in a bowl, tossed salad

7. Chicken scampi over pasta, some green veggie TBD

Books read in November:

The Harbinger

No More Tears:The Dark Secrets of Johnson and Johnson

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

May all your weeks be wildflowers.

Anne

Oh no just 6 weeks till Christmas

 My Beloved Sister and I are not teetotalers, but we seldom imbibe in adult beverages. The one she orders for her 2 or 3 times a year cocktail is a White Russian. Why? Just to be non traditional. 

The other day I saw a recipe for a winter inspired White Russian and thought I could get her all the ingredients to give her for an additional Christmas present. 

If you have been reading me, you would know she only wants things that are consumable, since she is like the rest of us "of a certain age" who are decluttering rather than adding to our lifetime accumulation of stuff. 

I was all set to head to a package store to see what small  bottles (preferably miniatures) I could find to make a little composite gift, but I spoke to her via a phone call and just mentioned the recipe, not my idea of giving it to her.

She told me it sounded really tasty but she could not have one since she is boycotting* them because of the war with Ukraine. 

Bummer! It was a great idea for another present. A little later I was talking with Son2 and he agreed it would be a fun gift and entirely doable if I gave it to her and used The Big Lebowski's name for the drink. Throughout the movie he refers to it as a Caucasian, so now the hunt** is back on.

I have bought several small presents this week, I think I still have a couple to wrap, but most are in the box in the living room waiting to be tagged, bowed, and zhuzhed up. 

I fully intended to get the Dickens village set up, but I did not, so it will be on my Tuesday to-do list. 

Then it will also be time to do the living room decorations. I have the plan on paper where everything should go, and have the containers in Pip's room upstairs in the order the rooms will be decorated. It will be much easier to bring things downstairs room at a time rather than to bring it all at once and create unnecessary chaos.

11 Days until Thanksgiving

40 Days until Christmas

Ho, Ho, Hope I get it all done next week . . . or I am up a creek

* Her boycott has nothing to do with her position on the war, but she always enjoys a good boycott of anything that does not affect her everyday life. 

** If I can't find a miniature bottle of Kahlúa, I will just pour some from my stash into a small bottle, though I will probably have to purchase some to add to my stash before I can share a bit with her. 

And Then There Was A Weekend

**This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but our internet connection was lost, and I could not see well enough on my phone to edit it and post. AT&T fiber is not all it is cracked up to be**

We had our first freeze of the year so that ends the tomatoes. I still have about a quart of cherry tomatoes, but am down to about 10 regular sized ones. We decided to not worry about any green ones still on the vine. I have 2 pints of green tomato relish I made last year that have not been touched and I am not going to add to it. And that means I am finished processing them for this year! 

Other than finishing up the tomato harvest processing, working around the house, finishing changing over my wardrobe, going a few places, the week was pretty unexciting, at least until the weekend.

What was planned but mainly didn't happen

1. Chicken patty, potatoes, tomato onion cucumber salad

2. Leftover Moo shu pork, rice

3. Stuffed bell pepper, coleslaw

4. Steak, baked potato, tossed salad

5. Chicken stew, cornbread, coleslaw

6. Sandwich meal TBD

7. Out to eat

Monday: 52 Days till Christmas

 I worked primarily in the Room of Horrors all day. It is not my most favorite thing to do, however seeing things in the closet have hands on them, sorted and, straightened out does give me joy. 

I still have no idea what to do with my childhood microscope. I could not let it go like I should have, and the only sentimental attachment I have to it is memories of looking through it some nights with Dad, examining the world too small to be seen with our eyes. (The creek water was teeming with life.)

I did run by ThePig Monday to grab both the weekly and the Monday free item. They had a sale on several produce items I wanted to buy so it was easy to meet the 10 buck requirement to snag the freebies.

Monday dinner: Thanks to the freezer and the tomato plants dinner was a snap.

Chicken patty, new potatoes, tomato cucumber onion salad

Tuesday: 51 Days till Christmas TheHub had a meeting, thank goodness it was a long enough meeting that I had time alone. That means I can play whatever music I want to listen to as loud as I want it. I indulged when the opportunity presented itself. 

Once he got home, we went shopping for our church's food pantry. We knew there might be a bigger turnout on food bank day than normal and wanted to do something to hep out. We were very lucky after shopping when we ran it by the church. I knew the outer doors to the hall where the food pantry is located would be unlocked, but did not know there would be so many people in there getting the bags ready for the Wednesday drive by food bank. All we had to do was roll a cart to the car, load it with the things we bought, and they took it from there. Easy enough!

Tuesday night we started a new series on Netflix (new to us, that is) Dark Winds

Tuesday dinner:Leftovers to the rescue!

Moo shu pork, wraps, rice

Wednesday dinner: 50 Days till Christmas

 I woke early, got dressed then left home about 30 minutes before class started. I knew there would be a larger than normal group for the church food bank, but had no idea that 30 minutes before it opened the line would have queued through the entire parking lot and would be backed up 2 additional blocks. Glad we got the donation there Tuesday, but it was a traffic nightmare.

Once my class was over, I drove home and. picked up TheHub. He likes to go out for lunch, but I normally don't want to stop what I am doing and get dressed in going out to lunch clothes, just to eat. Our new thing is most likely going to be a standing Wednesday lunch, since I am already dressed, out and about.

We had a nice meal at Chicken Salad Chick (not my favorite but I was not going to argue about where we went, since it was just lunch).

After we ate, we ran a few quick errands before heading home for the day.

Wednesday dinner: I bought some gorgeous peppers Monday, and needed to use them.

Stuffed bell pepper, tossed salad

Thursday: 49 days till Christmas

 This was just a regular ordinary type of a day. I did a little more work in the room of horrors, did some laundry, had a longer than normal daily conversation with My Beloved Sister, and otherwise did nothing other than some routine chores. It was just one of those days I was not feeling!

Thursday dinner: I guess I was really not feeling like cooking either!

Hamburger patty, green beans, tater tots

Friday: 48 Days till Christmas

Son3 and DIL3 came down for the weekend. We have not seen them in a few months and it was great having them here.

Friday dinner: We had a table full of family. DILs 2 and 3, Sons 2 and 3, My Beloved Sister, TheHub and me.We brought dinner in from Vecchia, DIL3 brought a gorgeous sourdough loaf she had baked, and dessert was from our recent trip to The Dutch Oven.

Lasagna, chicken alfredo, tossed salad, sourdough loaf, cheesecake

Saturday: 47 days till Christmas

Son3 and TheHub were ballgame bound. DIL3 and I stayed in town. And even though Youtube and ESPN were still at odds, we figured a way to watch the games. DIL3 and I just snacked through the day, and there was no real meal other than breakfast.

We watched games, did a little work (DIL on her upcoming project and me (? )a little laundry and kitchen tidying. Naps may have occurred. 

Saturday dinner: Snacks!

Sunday: 46 Days till Christmas

 We woke, had breakfast and visited with DIL3 and Son3 for a bit before they left to head back to Nashville. The rest of the day was spent doing odd jobs around the house and working in the room of horrors

Sunday dinner: The day was getting colder and colder and we wanted something that was comfort food.

Gumbo, leftover sourdough bread, cheesecake

Maybe for the week

1. Lasagne leftovers, tossed salad

2. Chicken stew, coleslaw, cornbread

3. Soup, rolls 

4. Egg roll in a bowl

5. Chicken alfredo leftovers, tossed salad

6. Brisket, brussels sprouts, potatoes

7. Out to eat

Books read in November

The Harbinger

Have a great week staying on plan, going off plan or with non plan at all.

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

Oh no just 7 weeks till Christmas

 This week I did some serious work in the room of horrors. It is now no longer the room of horrors, but is the room of the empty closet, ready to be filled with all the purged and organized containers. 

I have all the Christmas bins ready to take downstairs in the order they will be used. Starting Monday I will begin my Christmas decorating.  If you have read one of these posts before you will know we are leaving for Oregon the 23rd and will be home the 1st. I want all the decorating done before we leave (except for the outside, but they are minimal and can be placed that Monday*). 

Son3 and DIL3 were here for a short visit and they left with some of the ornaments I no longer wanted. I think there were enough of them to cover their entire tree. I am glad they wanted and can use them, and really glad they are non longer cluttering my house.

Every single gift that is bought as of right now is wrapped and in a very large box** in the living room. I do not bow or otherwise decorate the presents until they are about to go under the tree. I will arrange the presents so the bows will not be smashed when I give them. And yes I know it is unnecessary, but it is what I like to do. Truth be known the presents under the living room tree are wrapped in papers that coordinate with the ornaments on that tree and are a bit more formal looking. The den tree's gifts have a more casual and random look. Obsessive? Possibly, but I will deny it.

The only other Christmas prep I did was to have a list and approximate cooking/baking time/dates for the cookies and candies I will make for Christmas. I plan on having anything that can be frozen done and in the freezer before we leave. Most of them will just be partially done with the finishing touches, like iced, dipped, or second bakes to be done close to Christmas .

I also made a master shopping list of items I need to purchase for said cooking. Most things I have but there are a few specific ingredients I do not keep on hand at all times.

So that is all I did in the 7th week before Christmas. 

18 days until Thanksgiving

46 days until Christmas

Ho, Ho, HooWee! It's getting close~!

*I only put out 3 lighted trees, a door wreath and a lighted swag over the door. They have all been strung, fluffed, bows retied and are just waiting for their moment in the spotlight, so to speak.

**This is a basic corrugated cardboard box that has a huge red blanket lining it, which then overhangs the sides and back of the box. It actually looks like I planned on doing things that way, but it was a serendipitous happening. I had stuck the box in the corner of the living room and filled it, but when I went back upstairs to see if I had anything remaining in my double secret gift drawer, I saw (through an open closet door) the red blanket that I had forgotten about. Unplanned, but a nice accidental touch.

Make Up Travel

This week was a fun week, and I really did enjoy the low key days as well as those with activities. I did not even mind cooking the tomatoes daily (except when we were out of town)

The break mid-week was a great way to change my perspective and adjust my attitude.

No need to post the menu that was planned, since only the hot dog meal happened:

What we did and what we ate:

Monday: 59 days till Christmas

The day was pretty and I probably should have been doing stuff outside but instead I stayed in the house most of the day doing odd jobs that I had been putting off. Other than that, I had a couple of quick errands, that really amounted to much of nothing, along with a singularly important quick one. 

Both TheHub and I are avid readers and both use the Libby app and iPads for our primary reading. Our library cards expired while I was in the middle of reading a book. Normally this would not be a big deal for I usually have several in a queue, downloaded and waiting on me to finish whatever I was reading. 

Wouldn't you know the one time I had no back up would be the day my library card expired, and I do not go a day without reading something. 

It might not constitute an emergency for some people, but the thought of finishing my book and having nothing to read that night was not going to happen.*

Monday dinner: Thankfully I had the bones of this dinner to pull out of storage, just requiring a couple of additions (glad I keep potatoes on hand nearly all the time)

Corned beef hash, coleslaw.

Tuesday: 58 days till Christmas

We woke, packed our totes and took off on a quick trip. TheHub thought after messing up our projected beach trip the week before, that we would just go there Tuesday. Because of Halloween, and the fact that I had already purchased 84 Hershey bars, as treats, I wanted to be back home by Thursday night. That made the beach trip a bit impractical because the original intent of the trip was to explore a beach about an hour and a half from the beaches we are familiar with.

Instead, we drove about 2 hours to The Shoals in Northwest Alabama. The area consists of 4 incorporated cities/towns (depending on your perspective) on the banks of the Tennessee river.

On our way into town we stopped at Trowbridge's for a sandwich and a shared scoop of ice cream. The orange pineapple ice cream is featured as one of the 100 dishes in Alabama you need to eat. We have not had all of them yet but are knocking the list down whenever we are in a particular area.

After lunch we had some time to kill and went to see the Rosenbaum house. It was designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930's as a wedding present from his parents to they young Rosenbaum newlyweds. 
I am glad we went and enjoyed seeing the house and "feeling" Wright's esthetics, but I was surprised how small and tight compact the house was. I had always thought his builds were an open airy concept. I was wrong about the actual structure, but the floor to ceiling window doors on the outside walls of each room did make the small spaces "feel" much larger. Once the tour of the home was over, (hats off to the docent who was a wealth of knowledge and graciously answered every question) it was about time for us to check in our hotel.

We decided to use  Florence (the largest city) as our base and stayed in a cool boutique hotel, The GunRunner. Each room has its own theme and is decorated based on something or someone that influenced The Shoals area. 

It was a great place to stay, convenient to things we wanted to see, and shared a bottom floor with  to a wonderful coffee shop. Morning coffee is critical to me, plus we woke each morning to the aroma of  coffee and the cinnamon rolls they baked fresh daily. 

We are going back in the early summer and might stay there again, though there is another hotel, The Stricklin we might try. Where else can you stay that has a bowling alley in the basement?

Tuesday dinner: This was our planned anniversary celebration meal. We ate at the 360 Grille, a rotating restaurant in Florence at the edge of the Tennessee river. What a fantastic meal! We will go back!!!

Crispy pork belly on glazed sweet potato slices with cotton candy and a Dr.Pepper  beurre blanc (don't ask me how it worked, but it was an absolutely delicious appetizer) I had the vegetarian plate as my entree, TheHub has salmon, and both were fantastic, creme brulee.

Wednesday: 57 days till Christmas

We woke, got dressed for the day and headed to Turbo, the adjoining coffee shop for a quick coffee and breakfast before heading out for the day. Florence is a lovely town with many locally owned businesses. We stopped by a shop filled with items made by locals (scored several Christmas presents there), hit a few more places people had recommended to us, then explored the University of North Alabama campus. 

We had a multiple folks tell us to go to Yum (Thai restaurant) for lunch. It was esthetically pleasing, but we can get much better Thai food here. It was not bad food, it was just not as delicious as we are used to.

After we ate we headed to Muscle Shoals Sound Studios for a tour of the place that recorded such artists as Cher, Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, etc. It was founded by The Swampers**, local studio musicians who backed up everyone from Etta James, Aretha Franklin, The Allman Brothers among many others. They began their careers at Fame Studio also in Muscle Shoals. The artists who recorded there were blown away by the studio musicians, who could seamlessly back up any genre from R&B, to rock, to C&W. There was a serious issue between The Swampers and the Fame studio head (it's always about money, right) which lead to their split and they opened their own studio which still stands today. (They left the original building and moved to a much larger studio space later, but this particular building is where all of their early recordings too place.) We were even able to see the toilet Keith Richards sat on for hours while writing "Wild Horses".

It is still a functioning recording studio, as is their newer space. 

About 30 minutes after we finished that tour, we drove about a mile away to Fame Studios, for another tour of where it all began. It was interesting but it was more about the physical studio than about the artists who had recorded  (and continue to record) there. Fame has two separate recording studios and both have different sounds based on the construction and materials used in the building. Like I said , the Fame tour was geared more to the actual studio than the musicians. Though we enjoyed both tours we liked hearing the skinny on the time the musicians spent in the studio  more than learning about the more technical side of production.

After the tour concluded we headed to Sheffield (next town over) for dinner.

Wednesday dinner: We heard from a couple of people that Southern Grocery was a great  Cajun inspired place to eat.

Shrimp and Crawfish Cake (dinner) Gumbo and side salad (me)***

Thursday: 56 days till Christms

We woke dressed and checked out of the hotel. It was rainy, cold (cold is relative and we were cold though some of you might call it springlike weather), and very windy. We had planned to go tour Ivy Green (Helen Keller's birthplace) and actually drove there but the grounds are pretty big and of course we wanted to see the water pump where she "found" language. (If you have never seen The Miracle Worker you really should watch it. I recommend the original with Ann Bancroft and Patty Duke)

We decided to pass and go back in the summer when we can not only tour the grounds and house, but can also see them perform a play "The Miracle Worker".

We also ran by W.C. Handy's (father of the blues) birthplace, but could not find an place to park. It will also be part of our summer time visit.

We left the area and headed home after lunch, stopping at The Dutch Oven Bakery, which is about midway between the Shoals area and home. We have been there a couple of times before and came home with 3 different breads and a pound cake to share with Son2 and MBS, a couple of cheesecakes for the freezer, and some chocolate covered nuts because, well just because.

Thursday dinner: We were getting home right at dinner time so we stopped and picked something from Guthries and brought it home.

Shared 6 piece chicken tender dinner with coleslaw for each of us.

Friday: 55 days till Christmas

Happy Halloween. It was a good day, with a phone call from Kim and Sissy, then getting ready for the big nighttime event. We had 75 ghosts and goblins ring the doorbell, because I am The Big Candy Bar Lady, and none of the kids ever skip my house.

Friday dinner: Every Halloween when our kids were young and trick or treating, we had hot dogs for dinner before they went out. It is something we have continued.

Traditional hot dog meal

Saturday: 54 days till Christmas

We use YouTube tv as our television subscriber.  They are in a dispute with Disney, particularly ESPN, and there were no SEC games available for us to watch. I know those of you who do not watch college games on Saturday have no clue how despondent we were having to settle for Big 10 games on CBS. 

The upside I suppose is because we could not watch the Auburn game, we watched the last game of the World Series. I was pulling for the Bluejays, but it did not work out that way, but you can't complain when the 7th game went 11 innings.

Saturday dinner: We wanted and easy to eat meal before watching the Series.

Chicken and dumplings, coleslaw

Sunday: 53 days till Christmas

We woke and for the first time I was wide awake when we went to the early communion service. Guess that is what happens when I gain an hour. Afterward we went to traditional  worship at 8:30. Our church celebrates All Saints Day the first Sunday in November, remembering those who are no longer with us. It is always a very touching service saying the names of church members who died during the year, ringing a bell as each name is said, and lighting a candle for each. It is a lovely way to remember them.

After Sunday school TheHub and I at first were going out for an early lunch, but decided to take out Chinese. 
The rest of the day we pretty much just hung out doing little other than reading and watching the documentary Muscle Shoals.

Sunday dinner: Because we had a big lunch we opted for a simple dinner

Chili mac soup

Possibilities for the coming week:

1. Chicken patty, potatoes, tomato onion cucumber salad

2. Leftover Moo shu pork, rice

3. Stuffed bell pepper, coleslaw

4. Steak, baked potato, tossed salad

5. Chicken stew, cornbread, coleslaw

6. Sandwich meal TBD

7. Out to eat

Books read in October:

The Backyard Bird Chronicles

107 Days

The Women

The River Is Waiting

Firefly Lane

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

* There is an online renewal process but it has a 72 hour delay, which was unacceptable! 

** The Swampers have only one member who is still living, and he drops by the studio at least once a week.

***I will never be one of those people who leave negative Yelp reviews but this was honestly the worst gumbo I have ever been served. It tasted like someone had put red beans and rice in Campbells tomato soup and floated a slice of sausage, no seafood in it. I have never in my life sent anything back but I did and had them take it off the bill. I tried one spoonful then TheHub tried one just to make sure it was not just me. It wasn't.

TheHub's shrimp and crawfish cake was little more than fried sweet cornbread with one or two small shrimp pieces in it.

Won't go back and will not recommend this place to anyone.

Oh no just 8 weeks till Christmas

Well the 8th week of Christmas has come and gone and I was mostly in Halloween mode instead of feeling much like Christmas, but a few things did happen.

We were out of town for a couple of days and I found my way to a couple of really cute shops. I did not buy any major gifts, but as I have said before, I do like to have multi presents for everyone. I found several little add in gifts at those, including 2 gag gifts that are sure to make folks laugh Christmas morning.

The room of horrors is shaping up finally, and I am able to move freely throughout both the room and the closet. That is a huge win. There are still some things that need to be sorted, tossed and re-homed, and I have not yet made it to the back wall of decorations. (And other stuff. I am pretty sure I saw my 4th grade Christmas present microscope on one of the shelves there.)

I also have not happened on the container of ornaments for the foyer tree, which gets put up some years and ignored others. I am assuming it will be among the stuff at the back wall. 

And now before anymore daylight burns, I need to get my rear in gear and head upstairs to attack said wall.

Ho, Ho, Hope I get finished today!