April 21: How Pretty!

 

The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies. ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

Hello loves.  I decided to take Easter Sunday as a day off.  Saturday was busy so I didn't feel I'd had a proper weekend and didn't work ahead on my usual post of goals and meal plans for the week.  

Friday night we drove over to church to participate in Communion service.  It was a lovely service with a powerful worship service and a short but even more powerful sermon.  We sat and talked for a few moments with friends before driving home.  The weather was wonderful by the time we'd headed home and the sun setting in a haze of amethyst, pink, pale coral.  The soft air, the green trees, soft blues of woods beyond us. It was a beautiful ride home.  

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day, quite warm.  We had a few come forward after the worship and sermon at Outreach and a few gave their lives to Christ.  That's always a blessed thing to have happen.  From the holy to the mundane...We left there and went to the grocery where I picked up cheese, butter, milk, eggs.  Then home.

When we walked in the walls in the entry and kitchen sitting had been painted with the first coat of paint.  Oh, I do like this color!  I absolutely love it.  It made my heart sing to see the way the sunlight looked on the walls.

Several who've seen the color swatch for the kitchen and the bathroom walls all tell me it's the exact color.  It isn't, truly.  If I stand in the living room and look through the doorways at each room in turn the kitchen, while it has a blue-ish color is distinctly greener than the bath which reads blue indeed.  What's more as the light shifts in the dining room the color changes subtly to green with a tint of blue rather than the blue it appears in the morning light.  

We woke Easter morning to find the Easter Bunny had visited us old folks...Don't get too excited, I planned this ahead.  It is part of my resolve this year for us to celebrate holidays instead of ignoring them.  I picked up two Lindt solid chocolate bunnies and two Reeses' Peanut Butter bunnies for us and set them out on Saturday night.  John said, "I saw the Easter Bunny came...But I'm afraid he missed you."  I guess he was thinking I'd just done something for him.  "Oh no!  She came to see me, too!"  He was happy about that.  

I confess that this weekend behind was not the most stellar where meals and fasting were concerned.  Yes, I ate a bit of junk, though I've gotten very good at controlling portions and not eating more than one serving of anything.  However, it was the fasting hours that got tossed.  We didn't get in from communion service until 8pm and that's when we had supper.  Saturday, I wasn't supposed to eat until 1pm, but we had to leave the house to go to Outreach and so I ate breakfast at 9am just before we left.  I snacked after the Outreach because we were stopping at the grocery and we ate a late lunch at 2:30. Sunday morning, the app didn't care for my morning meal at all.  Apparently, they felt sure it was far higher in fat and sugar calories than it was in reality.  This is one area where I find fault with the app.  Unless I specifically list the full entire recipe as I make, it will not credit the food correctly.  I don't buy convenience; I cook from scratch so I can lower sugar and fats and add fiber.  However, the app gave me a record low score.  I might as well have eaten one of those Easter Bunnies in entirety!

Being the reformed perfectionist type, I nearly scrapped the whole plan this weekend, since I couldn't do it perfectly.  But I reasoned that was rather foolish.  I've done well enough thus far and I'm in it for the long haul with four and a half months to go, not for just a short period, so I'll just hang right on in there. 

I am waking early once more, now that it's light out earlier in the morning.  Even though we are on the west facing side of the house by 6:30 daylight begins to lighten the room.  I personally love this, as I feel I waste a good deal of the colder darker months sleeping through the morning but this time of year I feel I hit my stride of being awake for my 'best' hours.  I am more prone to get things done if I am up early and I feel more energetic overall.  Of course, it means that by 10pm each night I am more than ready for bed, but I'm learning to just go with that, even though John will progressively stay up later and later as summer comes on.  It's almost as though his body clock is set to only feel sleepy after so many hours of darkness.  I've noted that in the winter he's more prone to come to bed earlier.  

We ended up being quite alone all day yesterday.  The contractor had truck issues on Saturday, breaking down in the first drive on the way to the house.  He broke down again yesterday while trying to run another errand for another client and so he never returned as he had hoped he might.  

We had a lovely dinner and a quiet day to ourselves.  I spent the afternoon working on my genealogy pages and finished the first huge binder.  Now I can move on to a different side of the family.  I was quite excited to be able to look at fresh names, lol.  However, I am assured this time around that all of my information is recorded, is neatly organized and will be understandable and legible for anyone might need that information.

What I found with the next notebook is that it is a tangled web.  I don't understand my own reasoning in organizing it as I did, so I'll have to work that out.  

Let me move on.  I need to plan my week and my meals and then I must get up and get busy.  The golden yellow iris is blooming and look so lovely.  The sunshine and blue sky is calling to me and perhaps this morning I might work outside for a while.  

I hope you all had a beautiful day yesterday.  

Plans for this week:

Plan meals.  What I won't do this week is a lot of meal prep and I'll tell you why.  My fridge at present is quite full.   I don't have space to store more food in it at present.  And I've noted that I often get overwhelmed when I find I have all this cooked food and plans suddenly change.  Then I'm left scrambling trying to figure out just when I can use it.  As it was last week, meal prep on Monday carried me through the entire week and weekend!  I don't need that much ready prepared food on hand at one time.

Go to Sam's Club.  I have about $175 of my grocery budget left and three weeks before our next paycheck, so I want to make this trip count but not spend all I have.  I know I shall need lettuce and a few other produce items before the next check.  I should be good on milk and cheese.  

Clean up the patio.  Plant some seeds and stop procrastinating on this task!

Get the front porch cleaned.  This involves railings and floors and siding.  I do have a special spray to help and there's always a 10% bleach solution if all else fails that seems to work without fail.

2x Home Blessing Days.

Get the back entry and Kitchen sitting areas reset.

Meals:

Ham, Macaroni and Cheese, Spring Salad, Ambrosia, Biscuits and Easter Candy for dessert.

Lemon Pepper Chicken, Broccoli, Orzo, Salad

Pork Chops, Green Peas, Potato Salad

Big Mac Smash Burger Tacos, Oven Fries

Chicken Pot Pie, Pear Salad

Ham and Potatoes au gratin, Green Beans, Slaw

I need only one item to make this entire meal plan this week and that is tortillas for the Big Mac Smash Burger Tacos.  I plan to pick those up at Sam's Club this week.   Everything else is in my fridge, freezer, or pantry at present.  If I don't make it to Sam's Club?  I'll just make burgers and serve them on loaf bread.

Now let this week begin!

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