Saturday: Happy Birthday to Taylor...Not really. Her birthday is next week. It was also our anniversary, our 30th. It really was. We celebrated on Thursday. But I will share that John asked if we could celebrate again in 30 more years. I'm game if we can manage to live that long.
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Friday: I was planning to make a purchase but wanted to check with someone knowledgeable about the item before I bought it. I'm glad I did. Sam came over to return a borrowed item and was familiar with the product. I need a much more expensive item. I'll save my money until I can afford to buy what is actually needed.
When I researched how my Granny and Grandmother might have cooked in summers in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s without air conditioning in the household, I was surprised to discover that most of their meals would have been hearty affairs, at least according to the vintage magazines I own and my own memory of what they ate in the 1960s and 70's.
Summertimes were distinguished by a plethora of fresh seasonal vegetables. But pot roasts, fried chicken, meatloaf and such still carried their menus. Heat in the kitchen apparently was not quite the onus I recalled it being in my own homes without AC in the 1980's, and 90's.
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Hello, dears. There's water, lemon, black tea, violet butterfly pea tea, and peach tea, but no iced coffee.
Speaking of the coffee, once the cold brew sachets are gone, I'm going to try to make my own. I watched Ree Drummond make it on an episode of her program when she'd just started and it's not difficult. I've found the type of coffee used in the sachet is acidic. Very much so. One of John's friends told me that her father-in-law always added a pinch of baking soda or salt to his coffee every morning to cut the acidity. I shall have to do that. Warning though: if the coffee isn't overly acidic, this will render it nearly tasteless.
Everyone has just left. I've picked up the house, rinsed and stacked the dishes, and settled in my chair with a tall glass of much-looked-forward-to iced water. One does not have an open container of water around rollicking children and they rollicked, jumped, stomped, ran, wrestled, slung stuffed animals about, and played tag. They played indoors and out. They were calmed, soothed, hugged, kissed, and encouraged to stop and rest but the amount of energy in my home this afternoon would power the AC for the hottest summer month. Guaranteed.
Saturday: John was not playing for the Outreach Ministry today but wanted to attend. I did not and since my sole purpose in going is to be his main support and ears to hear his sound system from a distance and let him know how to adjust. The volunteers who run all else are so well organized that I felt sure I'd be in the way. When John suggested I just stay home, I was fine with it.
And I enjoyed it!
Friday: I have blooms everywhere at the moment. Balsam has started to bloom. These are just a handful of volunteer blooms but I always let them go to seed and will sprinkle them in various spots throughout my garden beds. I love these little flowers!
The Ditch Lilies are blooming. How lovely they are to bring in a few of those bright orange flowers and put in the blue and white vases. And the hydrangeas are blooming and turning that lovely shade of blue. It is the season when I can turn to my own yard to cut flowers for indoors. Right now we have a shallow bowl of gardenias that is scenting the room in a lovely way.
Earlier this month, when the daytime temperatures shot into the low 90s, I thought it best to plan warmer weather menus. I easily think of the comforting hearty things we eat in cooler temperatures, but I struggle with the warm weather fare. I hope this list will help me be aware of my mealtime options.
When temperatures soar here, my AC does not keep up. If it's 95 or 100F outdoors, it's going to be 80F at least indoors, which isn't exactly cool. No, there's nothing wrong with my heat pump/AC. This is perfectly normal if you live here. I will keep my thermostat set a bit higher (usually about 76F) than most people to save on the electricity costs. I know many who routinely set their summer thermostat at 70F. I just can't do that. The unit will run and never shut off!
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About this time of every month, I like to review the goals for the month and the proceeding weeks. I'm doing well enough, considering I've given in to weather, 'don't-want-to-itis', and busyness. Mostly the first two stalled me out. Yet, I am doing okay as far as May's goals are concerned.
The week ahead is meant to be sunny and clear and not too hot. I want to get as much done outdoors as I can before the season becomes too uncomfortable.
Saturday: I was sitting here leisurely enjoying my Saturday morning coffee when I got a text from Katie. I knew she would be here for a little while today but I'd somehow not planned on lunch...I'd planned to have the children from across the field this morning, but those plans changed to the afternoon so I'd been focused on what I might make for supper tonight instead. Sigh. I scrambled to think of a meal idea for lunch and decided that having Gramma's Fried Chicken today was my best bet.
Friday: While I was digging in the fridge last night to find the Chicken Noodle casserole, I found the bowl of Vanilla Pudding I'd made earlier in the week. I moved it to a more visible point so I'd remember to offer it up as dessert tonight.
Hello, dears...Come in and let's have a glass of iced tea. Our temperatures here in the South are firmly set towards the 90-degree mark and humidity has increased. We stepped out on the porch yesterday morning, and I immediately felt damp sticky, and too warm. I hadn't even started work! All I'd done was step outdoors.
April is finished and May has begun. April was unusually pleasant for us in so many ways. Well, most of April was unusually pleasant. We darn near spoiled it for ourselves by worrying about that destination wedding we attended the first weekend. We didn't enjoy that trip nearly as much as we should have. That's a shame because it will be months before we can do that again. We can't turn back the clock and do it over, so we move on.
Although we put off our Friday work until later in the day, I'm glad we took time to get out of the house for a while. We have a busy weekend behind us. I had five grandchildren and one bonus grand plus Katie and Cody here most of Saturday. Then on Sunday, it was two grands and a bonus grand with Katie and Cody here. It got very loud and noisy.
Saturday: Our local paper joined with a group of Georgia Associated Press Newspapers to lobby a complaint against the USPS in Georgia. Now, not to be ugly, but ours is a small town newspaper and isn't that heavy on news beyond the city councils, commissioners, school board meetings, and elections in an election year. Pretty much everything from there is strictly local: honor roll students, college news of Taylor County students, obits, local festivals, etc. It is also the legal organ of the county. Typically it's about 6 pages and takes under 5 minutes to read through even if you look at everything.
Friday: Yesterday's meals: We skipped breakfast
John had frozen Chicken Fried Rice. I ate Chicken Shawarma and Rice Pilaf from dinner the other night. I followed my meal up with Strawberries and John ate an apple.
Cheeseburgers, Baked Beans, French Fries, Lettuce and Tomato Salad, Bread and butter Pickles.
We went to tend to Caleb while Katie had a doctor's appointment. They brought home a pizza and we shared lunch with them.
We had a busy weekend. Friday we went to keep Caleb while Katie went to her OB appointment. This was a long appointment where they did all sorts of tests and ultrasounds and incidentally learned the gender of her baby. Then we did some errands before returning home. I did my Friday Home Blessing on Thursday, anticipating that I'd be tired by the time we returned.
On Saturday we were back at her home for a gender reveal party. Her best friend had been given the results, so Katie and Cody would have the 'surprise'. It turns out that the ones surprised were those of us who weren't at the appointment because the baby was front and center during the ultrasound and though the technician said nothing to indicate gender, Kate told me that it was very obvious.
Saturday: Sometimes things just don't go well at all, and it's hard to see the things that come instead the welcome things they might have been under other circumstances.
Our day out yesterday was a disaster. We ended up arguing gently about why that disaster occurred. I sulked. I did. I sulked all the way back home, sulked all evening and most of the night, and had a good case of sulk going on still today.
Friday: I'll start with the usual weekly things: I washed a full load of dishes last night. John did laundry yesterday afternoon when he'd finished mowing and hung a few things on the line to dry. We did sheets and towels this morning and more things were hung to dry.
We made plans to have a day out. Well, circumstances were against us. That's all there was to it. We had a nice long ride but not to the destination. We ended up turning around and driving home.
Now we enter the fifth month of the year. I heard someone say that time is passing quickly. I've not been as aware of time passing lately as I am at other times. Is it because I've been busy and can look back over the accomplishments in the weeks behind? Or did I just stop paying attention? I don't know.
New months mean new goals for me. I did quite well last month in getting the things done I had on my goals list. I would say I'd get a solid 90 out of 100. That's good enough. It means I focused on the areas I'd said I would and that the things that didn't get done were due to other events like unplanned visits, days out, or inclement weather. Though I know one or two days were solid fails simply because I couldn't find the energy after several busy days. I'm okay with that. My goal is not 100% but to DO SOMETHING. And I did exactly that. I DID things. Back to Rhonda's motto, "If you do stuff, stuff gets done." Amen!