Oh no just 19 weeks till Christmas

 I did go into the room of horrors and work some more, but am now wondering if I have exceeded the legal limit of decorations. Each bin of Christmas decorations I open creates another level of chaos in the room. 

Right now each container opened is separated into one of three bins, keep, toss, or give away.

As of today (Tuesday) all the foyer decor is in its own bin (except for the tree and tree ornaments, which I may or may not use), all the den decor is in its bin (minus the tree and ornaments), and all lights are separated into either a white lights bin or a colored lights one. 

I have not yet sorted through things for the kitchen, living room or dining room. but they are out in stacks on the floor of the horror room.

I also still need to go through the ornaments for the trees. I probably have close to 1,000 of them, and need to see what I want to keep or what I am perfectly happy to get rid of. I think I would like to toss about half of them. I am not overly sentimental, so it should be doable. Maybe!

And just in case you are wondering, yes, I do have Christmas linens for the guest bath, powder room, and of course sheets and shams for my bed.

Overload? If you are the one wading through all this holiday stuff the answer is a resounding yes!

And that is all she wrote, because I had other things to do and places to be this week, or at least had some swimming and reading to do.

Ho Ho Ho no! The man with the bag is getting closer and closer.

It Was A Week

This was not a normal week, though I am not sure what a normal week is anymore. TheHub is still working most days, but he works from home. (What is retirement?)

It is nice to have him around all the time (I think) but he has moved his workspace from either of the 2 dedicated offices we have in the house to the dining room table. It is seriously cutting into my normally loud music obsession, which is not cool, though I know it is definitely a first world problem.

Meals I thought we might have:

Crack chicken, rice, coleslaw

Steak, baked potato, tossed salad

Big salad dinner

Veggie dinner

Spaghetti w/ meat sauce, tossed salad

Pizza bowl, tossed salad

Out to eat or take out

Monday: The morning was spent doing a few light chores than it was time to go to my happy place. My Beloved Sister went with me and we made individual pizzas with the Independence Place participants. I cannot even begin to convey how much joy I get from being with them.

On the way home we always drive past the day old bread store. Thanks to Belinda's blog post a few days ago I knew to stop and check out the selection of Keto bread. I am not a huge fan of it, but for a sandwich or burger I will always use the much lower carb bread. Instead of paying 5+ bucks for 8 burger buns I got them for $2.00. That was a huge savings, and thank you!

Once home, I putzed around (translation: read)  until it was time to get dinner ready 

Monday dinner: I was late getting the meal started and this is why I keep browned ground chuck and marinara sauce in the freezer, and a Duke's mayonnaise jar filled with dehydrated mushrooms in the pantry.*

Spaghetti, tossed salad, dinner rolls

Tuesday: My Beloved Sister had to drive to Carrollton GA to physically identify herself at the nearest Bank of America brick and mortar bank. What a crock of whatever, for a credit card she has had since the 90's. Someone, somewhere had erroneously put a hold on her account and despite all common sense (like suggesting she go to her local bank, having her identity notarized and forwarded to BOA)  the road trip was necessary.

Since she has no sense of direction, I went along for the ride. I have been to Carrollton only once before and assumed the bank would be downtown. I was incorrect as we were routed outside of town through the West Georgia University campus to get to the bank, for her to walk in with 2 forms of ID and the teller to verify she was who she is. 

Any bets on how long it takes for her to cancel the card with them?

We got back home a bit after mid-day in time for me to run to ThePig and cherry pick their ground chuck sale. I only redeem ThePig's free item if there is something on sale I would normally buy that meets the $10 dollar minimum for redemption. I bought 10 pounds of the chuck and processed it in freezer bags for future use. And that is why my freezer is always filled to the brim.

Tuesday dinner: TheHub had been out to lunch and ate a big meal, and I had a few peaches left from a corporate gift we received. No cooking was done!

Big tossed salad, peach shortcake

Wednesday: I was secretly glad I did not have to go anywhere. I stayed at home and did dang well what I wanted to do, which turned out to be not much. There were tons of things that needed to be done (room of horrors for one) but I ignored them, sat on the screened porch with fans going to keep me somewhat cool while I read.

Wednesday dinner: We have been in an eating rut and it was time to try something new. Recently I bought several 1 pound packs of ground pork with no idea how I would be using them. Thank you Food Network.

Did I follow the recipe, not really** but it was a good place to begin.

Spicy pork bowl on bean thread noodles

Thursday: My Beloved Sister was having a seriously bad day. It is bad enough to be in the middle of the grief process but adding all the ever changing legal and business hoops one has to jump through can make things feel unbearable. 

She had been so strong and stoic, but she had a little "come apart" day. She did not want me to go to her house, so instead, I stayed on the phone with her for a long time talking her and reassuring her she that she was not a failure and could do nothing but do whatever various entities demanded. It is all just paperwork, but it had gotten to the point where it felt endless, overwhelming, and left her feeling hopeless.

Hamburger patty, saffron rice, cucumber tomato onion salad

Friday: I had a low key morning, talked with Sluggy and ate TheHub's leftover lunch from a lunch meeting he had with bankers. I don't have any idea why Perry's serves such huge lunches, but we both ate from it and I had enough left over for at least one of us to have lunch another day.

TheHub and I ran a few errands then decided rather than come home and cook we would just pick up dinner.

Jack's 2 piece chicken dinner with green beans and coleslaw

Saturday: Chores!!! Not my most cherished thing to do. I don't know if I have mentioned it before but I abhor housework. Unfortunately it has to be done regularly and since I have neither upstairs nor downstairs maids living in the house, it pretty much falls to me. Ugh! 

I had put off several things that just could not be put off another day, but I did get most of the tasks I wanted to do done. I did not get the dryer moved out from the wall so I could vacuum the vent hose, but I need help with that and will put that off for a long time. 

There is still a ton to do and I need to get it done before Friday when my cousin is coming to spend the night before a family reunion.

Saturday dinner: I had some leftover shredded cheeses  and sauce from Monday at IP and knew I would have them when I planned this week's menu. A few added vegetables  and dinner was ready.

Pizza bowl

Sunday: We woke in time to make it to our church's early communion service, regular early church, and Sunday school.

On our way home we stopped at The Electric for a quick lunch, then came home to do a few chores, like rearrange the freezer. I don't mind doing it in the summertime, but will confess that I keep a pair of ski gloves on a hook attached to the freezer side so I can move things about without my hands getting too cold. 

I also have learned to wear toed shoes when I do it. My freezer is an upright and on occasion while moving things something will fall out.  A falling one pound bag of frozen ground chuck can do some damage to uncovered tootsies. Ask me how I know? 

I moved from the laundry room freezer to the refrigerator in the kitchen. I needed to clean it out before our garbage collection on Tuesday, but I also needed to make room in the meat drawer for things I took from the freezer to slowly thaw for the coming week's meals. While I was moving and reorganizing I found 4 pounds of bacon that needed to be cooked.

I always cook it on a parchment covered jelly roll pan, the store it in a rectangular container I keep in the freezer. That amount of bacon will probably last us through September and part of October.

Sunday dinner: TheHub  could not keep from smelling the bacon while it was cooking and thought it would be good for dinner. Fine with me! 

BLT sandwiches

Planned maybe sorta for the next week:

Crack chicken***, green beans, rice

Conecuh sausage, kraut, skillet potatoes

Air fryer pork chops, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts

Veggie meal

(We are going out Friday night, have a family reunion Saturday, and Sunday will be a surprise meal****)

Books read in August

Fly Away

The Noticer

Odd Thomas

The Noticer Returns

Rum, A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails*****

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

*Reminder to self to dehydrate onions the next time I catch them on sale

** I wanted a one dish meal so I upped the vegetables and added chopped sweet peppers,  carton of mushrooms , a chopped onion, and did not make the sesame paste or add the brown sugar. I had no chili garlic sauce and used Thai chili sauce instead. It was really good!

***I finally remembered to take the chicken out of the freezer in time to thaw to make this week.

****Fancy way of saying I have no clue and don't want to think any more

***** I learned more about rum and pirates than I ever wanted or needed to know, but the book was actually pretty entertaining

Oh no just 20 weeks until Christmas

Even though I have been doing a Christmas countdown since the week after Christmas 2024, to me, now the holiday season has officially begun.

I went to Publix Monday morning to pick up pepperoni for the Independence Place cooking class and what did I see when I walked in the store but Halloween candy. 

Then Tuesday, when I was at The Pig (cherry picking the sale on ground chuck), the entire front of the store was decorated for Halloween. I am talking about skeletons, light up pumpkins and the whole shebang. 

In my world as soon as school begins, time speeds up. I have to make sure I have everything I need to do done during the school hours (no school buses in my burb, so the traffic picking up and dropping off all those kids is horrid). There are no more lazy summer days when I can do whatever needs to be done any time of the day.

Next,  football season starts. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy college football as much as the next person and loved the high school season when our sons were in school, but it means weekends are tied to game times. And, once again, things to be done are schedule sensitive. For those of us who are Alabama fans, the season starts on August 30.  The saving grace is that the game is an away game, so we only have to carve out the actual TV game time to be faithful fans.

Along with this seasonal roller coaster come the holidays we personally celebrate, Labor Day, Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

This year Labor Day falls on September 1st. My personal set in stone September schedule includes our local Broadway season opening play, 2 charity fundraisers, a baby shower, a concert in Florence, AL, plus ball games every Saturday except the 20th. There are a few other events planned but I have wiggle room with them and they are not things I absolutely have to do, and we are trying to have a few days getaway to the beach.

October is not so scheduled__yet. Other than football games, there are a couple of family birthdays in October and a couple of concerts we would like to see. One in particular, Sugar Rush, looks very interesting.

Add to October the decorating for Halloween and then enjoying all the creatures who trick or treat us right as we slide headfirst into . . . 

. . . November.  Besides, football, another Broadway series play, a concert at The Alys, there is Veteran's Day,  decorating for Thanksgiving and of course the big day, and hopefully a trip to Portland as a pre-holiday madness trip to see Pip (and her parents, but all grandparents know the grands are the primary reason for the visit).  Add to that pre-Christmas shopping, wrapping and decorating. (I want everything in place and the lights ready to turn on the Friday after Thanksgiving.) 

And then up pops Christmas filled with all the activities associated with the holidays Whew! And before I can catch my breath the 52 weeks until Christmas will begin again.

And with that, what exactly did I do concerning Christmas prep this week?  A big fat nothing!!!  I need to get my rear in gear . . .  and fast!

A Changeable Week

The week began with temps that felt chilly to me. The high was in the low 80's which was unheard of (until Monday). The week did get progressively warmer, but it was still cooler than normal. This changed my plans for the week a bit.

What I was silly enough to think we might actually eat for the week:

Crack chicken, coleslaw, rice

Steak, baked potato, tossed salad

Burgers and all the fixings

Veggie meal

Out to eat

Big salad meal

Something I have not thought of yet

Monday: This was a day filled with regular routine type of chores. Nothing dramatic happened, nothing unexpected happened and nothing bad happened.  The temps were much cooler and meant I would not swim at all.

Monday dinner:TheHub suggested we have soup since it felt cooler than it had been. I am not arguing with a meal from a can

 Progresso minestrone soup

Tuesday: Again, cooler than normal temperatures, no swimming, just regular chores and reading. I talked with Sluggy while sorting more of the decorations in the room of horrors.Yay!

Tuesday dinner: Veggie meal

Butter peas, squash and onions, okra, tomato slices, cucumber slices

Wednesday: My beloved sister went with me to my happy place. It was National Root Beer Float day so the participants made floats and popcorn. Son3 and DIL3 were planning on coming Wednesday, but changed their plans to arrive Thursday. I spent a good part of the day upstairs getting things ready for their visit. 

Wednesday dinner: Neither TheHub nor I were very hungry.

Mac and cheese, green beans

Thursday: Son3 and DIL3 got a little later start heading to town than they had planned on and got caught in Nashville traffic. Once they got through the southern suburbs they made great time and got here shortly before Son2, DIL2, and My Beloved Sister arrived for dinner.

Thursday dinner: This was a fun dinner with a lot of laughing.

Pulled pork, smoked chicken, coleslaw, turnip greens, potato salad, banana pudding, Smokey Mountain Fudge* ice cream

Friday: Lots of swimming and hot tubbing happened, Son2 and DIL2 came over to swim, and I am so thankful they all get along and enjoy each others company

Friday dinner: Son2 and DIL2 had to get home to take care of their dogs and did not stay for dinner. Everyone  wanted something different so we had takeout from Fried Green Tomatoes. 

Fried Green Tomatoes meals, mine was a porkchop, cabbage, and creamed corn. 

Saturday: DIL3 and Son3 hung around until about 4:30, washed about 6 loads of clothes than headed back home. We love having them visit and are so thankful they can drive down rather than having to fly.

Saturday dinner: We were tired and not very hungry. We have found that one meal from Zaxby's with double coleslaw and no fries is the prefect meal for us to share.

Zaxby's 6 lemon pepper chicken tender meal.

Sunday: We woke early and made it to the communion service, then early church, followed by Sunday School (our class takes July off)

Once home we ate lunch and settled in to watch the first round of the FedEx golf tournament. I literally watched the leaders tee off until the third extra hole tie breaker. It was fun to watch, but I will admit I only like to watch golf during the FedEx three tournaments.

Sunday dinner: We cobbed together a meal from anything leftover in the fridge

Bit and pieces of whatever.

What we might eat this week (probably not though)

1. Crack chicken, rice, coleslaw

2. Steak, baked potato, tossed salad

3. Big salad dinner

4. Veggie dinner

5. Spaghetti w/ meat sauce, tossed salad

6. Pizza bowl, tossed salad

7. Out to eat or take out

Books read in August

Fly Away

The Noticer

Odd Thomas

The Noticer Returns

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

* If you have access to Mayfield ice cream, the Smoky Mountain Fudge is delicious.

Oh no just 21 weeks till Christmas

I found the best way to work in the room of horrors. I either need to be on the phone talking with Sluggy or listening to an audiobook. I did both the other day and it made a huge difference in the amount of time I could work without feeling totally overwhelmed. Now, did this new found way of working mean I am finished with the room? 

Not at all, but I have been through all the decorations from New Year's to Thanksgiving, leaving just a ridiculous stash of Christmas decorations to sort through. I had already sorted through some bins, but I swear something supernatural happened in that closet once the door was shut and the Christmas decor multiplied.  There is no way a single family could have possibly collected that many decorative items and ornaments without some sort of hocus pocus going on.

So for now, I am quite a bit further that I was and the room is not so treacherous as it has felt before. In fact I am feeling a little bit like going upstairs and working on it a little bit today, however I can always be persuaded to put off finishing with the least little suggestion of doing something else.

Ho, Ho, Hmmmmmm

Hi, my name is Anne and I'm bored

It is now the midpoint of the hot weather here and I am getting bored with summer. There is still a lot to do, but I am just not in the mood to get it done. 

What I was stupid enough to think we might eat

Big salad meal

Veggie meal

Pork chops, mashed potatoes or baked potato, sautéed vegetables

Out to eat (Have a club minimum we need to use by the 31st)

Possibly out to eat again (Son2's birthday celebration)

Crack chicken, coleslaw, rice

Burgers and all the fixings

Joys and what we ate for dinner:

Monday: I went to sleep Sunday night feeling cruddy. Advil cold and sinus and a really good nights sleep changed all of that and I woke ready to take on the day. 

My beloved sister called as I was finishing up a cup of coffee to see if she could swim. I don't know why she calls because she knows she can use the pool anytime she wants to. Since she was coming, I went ahead and suited up too. 

We had a couple of hard but quick rains Sunday and it cooled the pool temp substantially. Laps were refreshing instead of overly warm. 

I was just finishing up when my neighbor came over with her two nieces. I am so glad she was using it like I told her to. I don't have the pool open to the entire neighborhood, but I do have a few neighbors who are welcome any time.

Monday dinner: TheHub and I were on different schedules and I did not even think about cooking until about 6:30. I am not a fan of thawing in the microwave, but sometimes it is essential.

Cajun pork chops, sautéed vegetable medley, mashed or baked potato, 

Tuesday: This was just an average ordinary day with laundry, sheet changing, and just normal chores. It was not an exciting day at all. My neighbors came with their nieces to swim  and beat the heat. At least someone used the pool, because I just did not feel like doing laps.

Tuesday dinner: We had to use the club minimum before the 31, and figured Tuesday night was as good as any night.

Mediterranean chicken bowl or Shrimp and oyster bowl

Wednesday: Wonderful swim! The sun was shining and it was hot as a firecracker, but the water felt great. After the extra long time in the pool and a ton of laps, I was tired and did little the rest of the day, just a few routine chores and some reading.

Wednesday dinner: TheHu did not feel like eating much and I had at l had at least half of Tuesday night's dinner leftover.

Baked potato, cherry tomatoes, or leftover chicken bowl

Thursday: I woke and was ready to go to the produce stand as soon as it opened, but TheHub wanted to go too, so I had to wait around for him to finish up some business. If he would just tell me how long it would be I could begin a job, rather than waiting around  and reading. Instead he kept telling me he would be ready in about 15 minutes.  Two and a half hours later he was ready to go. I could have gone and come back a dozen or more times!

Because he took so long and he still has a high noon lunch mentality, he mentioned that we still had about 20 bucks left on the club dining minimum. While we were out, we called in a to go order of a club sandwich and a chicken salad plate. The portions were huge! We knew we were going out to dinner that night so we decided to share the club sandwich. 

Each half of the sandwich was on skewers with about 10 inches of bread, meats, cheeses, and tomatoes and the rest of the container was filled to the brim with homemade potato chips, more than enough for both of us.

I planned on swimming after lunch but the pool guy came and put shock in the water. I would have to wait an additional 3 hours before I could swim and by then it would be time to get ready to go out for dinner. Drats!

Thursday dinner: It was Son2's birthday and we met them at Season's 52 for dinner.

Scallops, watermelon salad, asparagus and whatever everyone else had.

Friday: Swimming was the name of the game for the day and I started early. The weather report predicted thunderstorms in the afternoon (they lied) so I got the laps crossed off early. If I weren't waiting for the thunderstorms (which finally appeared well after dark) I would have done more laps in the afternoon. The rest of the day was spent running a few errands and avoiding going upstairs to work in the room of horrors.

Friday dinner: We had the chicken salad plate we had ordered the day before. I padded it with a few things from the kitchen and we shared it.

Chicken salad, sliced tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, olives, pita quarters.

Saturday: We woke, got dressed and headed to Gee's Bend. A local internal medicine doctor and her clergyman husband dedicate one Saturday each month to provide medical care to underserved communities in the Black Belt* region of Alabama. 

TheHub is heavily involved in the Alabama Parkinson's Association, and in the recent past, one of the board members has started setting up a booth wherever the doctor sets up her temporary clinic, with information on the resources available to Parkinson's patients. . We went to see how The Parkinson's Association can broaden getting the info out into those communities, and to see how they can better service them.

After spending a little time talking with Dr. Ford and Mr. Ford, we are also interested in helping them in some capacity with their charity.

We were there a bit longer than we intended to be, and headed back thinking we would stop for a late lunch in Marion**. That didn't work as planned and we headed north to Brent to eat at The Sawmill. It was a surprisingly large restaurant for a relatively small town, with very slow service. Instead of a late lunch we called it lunner.

Saturday late late dinner: We ate a combo lunch dinner at about 4 and were both a little hungry at 8:30.

Watermelon

Sunday: TheHub has been fighting a sinus infection and I stayed up entirely too late Saturday night reading. As a result we slept until a little after 8 and missed both the early communion service and our regular early church service. We could have gone to either the  9:45 or 11:00 service but we didn't. Instead I made and canned pear ginger lime jam. TheHub did a lot of resting trying to feel better. 

We had a party to attend at 4 for a friend's birthday. It was a gigantic party and we saw people we have not seen in years. 

The best thing was the break in the weather. People milled both in the house and outside and it felt like an early fall day, complete with a breeze and virtually no humidity. It was perfect.

Sunday dinner: We did not realize a meal was planned for the party, but they had an assortment of delicious foods.

Party fare

What we might have this week (possible but not probable)

1. Crack chicken, coleslaw, rice

2. Steak, baked potato, tossed salad

3. Burgers and all the fixings

4. Veggie meal

5. Out to eat

6. Big salad meal

7. Something I have not thought of yet

Books read in August

Fly Away

The Noticer

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

May all your weeds be wildflowers.

Anne

* The Black Belt is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. The term originally referred to the region's rich, black soil, Much of it in the soil order Vertisols. The term took on an additional meaning in the 19th century, when the region was developed for cotton plantation agriculture, in which the workers were enslaved African Americans. After the American Civil War, many freedmen stayed in the area as sharecroppers and tenant farmers, continuing to comprise a majority of the population in many of these counties.

**Lottie's was not open and we never could find The Shack, but thank you Cindy in the south for the recommendations anyway.

Oh no just 22 weeks till Christmas

We are now officially on the downhill side of Christmas, and we all know how quickly things speed up when going down hill.  However it is insanely hot here and nothing says "Hey Anne, why don't you do something Christmasy?"

Our house does have central a/c which makes the inside bearable and we have a separate unit to keep the upstairs cool, but no one is here to use the bedrooms thus we keep the thermostat set at 81 and close it off from the main level. 81 degrees is not unbearable, but it is hotter than I want to be, so unfortunately all the plans I had for finishing the room of horrors are on hold until the weather breaks. Yeah, like I was really going to do that! I still have at least 14 weeks before things are critical, right?

I do have several new to me recipes of Christmas cookies I wanted to try, but it was also just too hot to turn on the oven, so I didn't, nor will I until this heatwave is over.

I guess the long and short of it is I may or may not do anything even remotely resembling Christmas prep depending on the weather.

Ho, Ho, Hot!

Anne