Hello all. It's lovely to be back home though I will confess to being more than mildly tired this afternoon as I type this out. We've been home not quite 24 hours and the cares of home were dumped right back in our laps almost immediately. So goes the way of the world.
Tired I may well be but the trip overall was very easy and I got quite a bit of reading and relaxing done. I told John I felt the burred rough edges had been worn completely smooth by the time we headed home. We found a new route that pleased us both. We're not saving one minute of time in taking it but we do enjoy the journey and it's a lot less hectic and frantic than driving the interstate and weaving our way through fourteen turns in every town. It's such an easy route I can tick it off on one hand and tell you just where we pick up each roadway...
Speaking of which the trip down wasn't half so nice. We've had this discussion before, about how directions on the internet can be so convoluted and stupid. At one point we were instructed to turn right onto one roadway and take a u-turn...Come again? There was no place to take a u-turn and anyway isn't it illegal unless you are the law officers to make a u-turn on a five lane highway? We made it through that foolish maze and I looked at John and said "Huh...I'll just bet we could have gone straight through Jesup and taken this road right off Hwy 341." Still further on the journey down, we were told to take a left, another left immediately and another left which brought us right back out on the road we could have turned right on in the first place. Along about hour 8 of traveling we were getting testy and when John suggested taking a sideroad that looked promising I suggested we follow the printed directions because I didn't know where we'd wind up and the road wasn't on my map. Mind you, I'm the adventurer, the one who doesn't worry about getting lost but when he gets anxious I get anxious for us both and when I'm tired and anxious well we're both going to be rather irritable.
We made it down and as I said the trip overall was easy and relaxed and we didn't do too much nor too little and had only one misunderstanding the whole while and I eventually got over it. The ride home was far easier as we'd scrapped the previous directions and traced it out on an actual map and lo and behold John was quite right the road he'd suggested was a good one and saved us a good hour of driving on our way home. Not that it didn't still take us 8 hours because we relaxed and stopped here and there along the way to stretch our legs and such.
Well, I'll share all about the trip later this week in a coffee chat (and it's really cool enough for a coffee chat indeed!) but for just now, I want to say that plans for last week were mostly accomplished except the part where I stopped and planned out my projects for the year ahead. No, that didn't happen, not for lack of trying mind you, but my mind somehow just wouldn't drift towards the future, it was very present in the space of now. And that's just fine too. Now I shall start planning and we'll just see what I accomplish.
Work:
It was work enough to unpack and put things back in place when we got home on Sunday and Monday morning. I did pull out the winter coverlet for the bed which is a little heavier than my summer one and a King sized cover which means that John can't grab quite all the cover at night when it's cool. The Queen summer cover will be washed and dried on the line and put away for the coming seasons.
It was harvest week today, so we wrote out checks, picked up pay, went to post office. And tomorrow is taken up with grocery shopping, haircuts, picking up glasses and another errand or two. Wednesday John is back at work. I have a little more restocking of pantry/freezer to do and some of it can be done that day. I'm also going to begin working around the outside of the house, cleaning up a few more spent flower pots and trimming the rose bushes back.
My zone work will continue in the guest bed and bath this week. I'd normally focus on porches or sheds but I didn't quite finish off that zone this past week and I'd like to tend to that. Then I'll see if I can't make the time to get my shed painted. It's about half done and shouldn't take so very long to finish.
John has promised that 'we' will finish clipping hedges at Mama's old house where Katie is living now. I said to Kate, I've noticed when he plans work it's always a 'we' job but when I plan work he doesn't think 'we' are cleaning toilets or mopping floors, lol.
Meals:
When we are on a trip, we don't eat out a lot. We ate one meal out and had appetizers one afternoon when we wandering around downtown. Meals are eaten at the room, cooked by yours truly. I sometimes get a little of it to be honest because in many ways, staying in the condo and having to make my own bed and cook my own meals and wash my own dishes is a good bit like not getting a vacation exactly as much as doing what I do daily in a different setting. To alleviate some of this 'same but different' syndrome we buy whatever we choose for our meals. The budget is a bit higher for vacation meals overall and it's nice. But I'm ready, when I get home, for some good wholesome meals, with vegetables that aren't all lettuce based.
I'm slightly hindered in planning meals this week because (a) I really don't have a clue just what we have on hand and (b)I'm pretty much out of everything except pantry items. No fresh produce, no ground beef, etc. So I'm going to set up menus for the next few days but we shall see how they will have altered by week's end.
today: Leftover deli roast chicken, wild rice mixture and canned green beans
I'll hazard a guess we'll eat out on grocery shopping day as it promises to be a long day and on Wednesday I am on my own.
Lazy Day Beef Stew, Corn Muffins
Macaroni and Cheese, Tomato Salad, Steamed Broccoli
Oven Baked Chicken and Dumplings casserole, Green Peas, Honey Glazed Carrots
Books and Leisure:
All that personal planning I meant to do last week culminated in two thoughts. I want to paint the rooms of my house. I am 59 and in all my years, in all my homes, I have never once been allowed to paint even one wall a single color of my own choosing. Yes, we have painted out bathroom here, but I am so over that color and ready for something fresh. My second thought was that I wanted to truly finish off the landscaping around our house and create a garden of flowers and vegetables. Now I desperately need to work on our budget and look at much more than what color I'll paint each room or where I'll plant flowers. So I'll be working on that this week, but at my personal leisure.
I'm still reading the Eleanor Roosevelt biography. I was looking for some of the wisdom and personality that I've heard about for many years and so far I've gotten a load of details about her life but not to know her one whit. I'm halfway through the book and thinking that she just isn't the sort one gets to know. To do that I shall have to try other resources and at this point I'm not sure I want to!
I did begin reading City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge while we were away and am touched by so many phrased on so many pages...I've never been one to mark my favorite books but I just longed for a pencil to underline phrase after phrase.
I also plan to give myself a proper manicure. About this time of year, I remove the polish from my toenails and let them rest over the winter, giving them daily treatments with cuticle oil, etc. I think a spa day is in order but it shall have to be on Wednesday or not at all. John just works the one day and then has five days off, so not a lot of room for making personal plans.
7 comments:
I recall my family getting hopelessly lost in Jesup on a dark rainy night when I was about 9 years old. We were heading for Brunswick to visit my Aunt and Uncle and it seemed like we would never find them. I am always right back there in the car with my irate Dad when I even hear Jesup.
Here at the lake I cook and Hubby cleans up and it works out pretty well for us. I have a menu but we throw it put the window at the drop of a hat and eat out whenever the mood strikes us which is fun sonce we don't do that at home.
Looking forward to hearing about your trip!
I'm glad you were able to get away. It sounds like you had a good time. Staying in a condo where you have to clean is not as fun, especially if you have to clean it all up in the end. For me, I really don't mind as long as they do the final clean-up, For me, I have to have a place to cook in due to all my special dietary needs (no gluten). We do eat out occasionally, but it's hard to stay safe. We usually camp, so take our own beds and kitchen with us and I really like that since so much is already packed in the camper at all times and I try to re-stock things that run out immediately, often while on vacation, so it stays well-stocked. We even keep toothbrushes out there permanently. I still have to get clean clothes, fresh food for the fridge, shoes and boots, etc. But, I can tell you, it's more than you took, even with the camper pretty well-stocked:). It sounds like you don't take that much.
I have recently discovered Elizabeth Goudge, thanks to you and another online friend. I just love her writing and it is exactly the sort of thing I need right now to soothe my frantic and weary mind.
I need to also remove my toenail polish as well! Something for the weekend. We are doing home improvement projects this month and are finally almost done - we got new front and back porches built last week and new skirting going on today and tomorrow. Next we will be plant some bushes in an area that is really hard to mow or weedeat so we are trying to eliminate that need.
I'm ready to be done with it all. I'm ready for "normal" whatever that is. We have no idea what that even means anymore.
Lana with the new four lanes about Jesup it's easier to bypass the city but Bess's mom was always getting hopelessly lost there too. It was the stupid directions that had us lost in Jesup on the way down but we found our way just fine when we ditched them on the way back, lol. It's funny to me that you can still hear how irate your dad got during that trip, lol.
Becky, my greatest problem with hauling loads of food isn't that I don't want to do so but that John absolutely refuses to make more than one trip up to the room. This has literally hurt us in the past and we usually end having spats. Not a good way to start a vacation. Now that it's just the two of us, and since he has absolutely no problems at all with going to the grocery and because I've always planned a certain amount as part of our vacation fund, it works out for us.
Karla, there is something both soothing and cathartic in reading Elizabeth Goudge. I am so pleased for you to get to do this work on your house. I know it's something you've wanted to do for some time.
Terri, I say this with all kindness in my heart, but perhaps you should re-examine the cooking/eating out situation on your vacations. Maybe you DO enjoy cooking no matter where you are For me, it would DEFINITELY not be a vacation if I had to cook/make beds. It didn't really sound as if John was being very sensitive in this area. Perhaps it's time for a discussion between you two on this point.
Just a thought.
I’m glad you feel better! I know those trips, down to the Jersey Shore, renting a house. Five children, all under 18, pillows,sheets, food, clothes,beach equipment, inevitably leaving essentials behind! Ugh, I still scratch my head wondering how I managed it all those years! Unfortunately I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, so our vacations HAD to be frugal! But, gosh darn it, we gave them a vacation every year! Nice to see you writing again, I enjoy the little peek into your life! Best, Liz
Dear Anne, I assure you John is all too willing to do his share. It's really a matter of how often I personally don't want to eat fried eggs, hot dogs or hamburgers which is about his range of cookery! He take turns doing dishes or he buys all paper products and asks for one pan meals to cut down on work. It doesn't always work out exactly that way but it comes out pretty even. Still, it's not a 'luxury' vacation and some work must be attended to in the condos where we generally stay.
Liz, Our childhood vacations always involved coolers of food and trips to the grocery and many and many a roadside park meal! My children didn't even know what a roadside park was because they'd done away with all of them by the time they came up. Nor did we vacation with our older teens very often because the funds weren't there. It wasn't until Katie was around 10/11 that we began having wiggle room enough to manage the occasional trip.
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