May 26: Lovely Weekend

 

We had a lovely long weekend.  It wasn't much of anything, and it was everything at the same time.  Don't you just love a weekend like that?  

Saturday, we stayed home and went nowhere.  I made bread (an oops loaf!) and pizza dough.  I went outdoors to plant the tomatoes which are doing well and parsley and dill which are suffering and transplanted some zinnias which apparently to take a pass on living.  I discovered that four more fig stems had put out new leaves.  And I got soaked to the skin from heat and humidity.  This is where I completely forgot the bread dough.  

I went to my room to take a quick shower, thought to myself, "Check the bread dough..." and forgot it entirely.  The pizza dough was in the fridge doing a slow rise there, but the bread dough was in the bread machine.  Then I started working on genealogy as soon as I'd made pizza.  

I stopped about 3pm and watered in the parsley, dill and tomatoes and that got me hot and perspiring and so I came indoors and changed clothes again.  

About 4 o'clock, Sam stopped by to dig up the rosebush and get two fig trees. I don't know what on earth I'm going to do with twenty-three of the things if they all take and it appears they all will!   He asked me about rooting some of the Gardenia again and I assured him I'd already looked up how and when to do just that.  

Then I came back indoors and went right back to genealogy and there I was, still clueless about bread.

It rained a little bit which made me come out of my genealogy coma.  I never thought of the bread again until, oh probably around 7pm!  That's when I said, "Hey we have to have supper..." and went to the kitchen.  I was cleaning up dishes and wiping off counters and just as I got to the usual spatter of flour in front of the bread machine, I remembered the bread dough. 

It was overblown and never really rose much once in the pan.  I finally just baked it anyway and we had about a half loaf worth of bread.  It did smell pretty awesome though because the bread machine and kitchen were warm and it apparently fermented/soured a little bit.  It tasted fantastic Sunday morning when I made toast with it.

It rained on Sunday morning, but nothing like the rain we had last week on Sunday.  We went to church and had a wonderful service.  Then over to Katie's.  On our way over, Katie asked if we'd had lunch (we hadn't) and said she was going to make a quick spaghetti.  She did something I haven't done in years upon years which is to brown and season hamburger meat really well then add a jar of good sauce.  It made for a quick lunch and a very tasty one at that.  

Henry, Bella and Caleb were all a little bit wild from being indoors.  Henry is hardly used to going out but oh the middles wanted to go outdoors and looked like rain was threatening every minute so no one would let them out.  Henry was overtired.  He apparently is very afraid he's missing something if he naps and won't nap in the living room at all, so he had to go to bed which angered him greatly.  

He tried his best to go to sleep on my shoulder and would snuggle in, drift off and then jerk himself awake or one of the middles would walk up and speak near him and he'd pop his head up all over again.  But putting him to bed only made him terribly upset.  I think he finally just cried himself to sleep, poor dear.  Unfortunately, an experienced Gramma knows that sometimes crying to sleep is better than no sleep at all for a wee one.  

Bella was half wild and Caleb, not quite wild but definitely keen on doing what he knew he shouldn't and bossing Bella about what she oughtn't be doing.  The two of them really do seem more like twins than otherwise.  They are the same size.  Bella is younger than Caleb by a year and three months.  

After we left Katie's, we picked up mail for our missionary friends.  Their mailbox was filled this time around.  My job is to sort, open and then send photos of anything important.  Unfortunately, of the 16 pieces of mail this week only about 4 were junk!   So poor Donny got a load of pictures of the mail.  I can't send it on to them physically because the island where they reside has no mail service at all.  I'm pretty sure that the mail will slow down when they've been gone a bit longer.  Right now, they are too recently out of the U.S. for the mail to slow down.

While John went in to pick up the mail, I went into Publix and picked up the best of the BOGOs and dog food.  I actually made money on Ibotta.

John and I were sort of floating along all day long.  You see, Sunday was our 31st anniversary.  One or the other of us would gush a little over how happy we were, or how short the time together has seemed, or of the trials and triumphs we've seen through.  We were a bit like lovebirds, really and I have to say that I didn't mind it and neither did he.  We had a lovely quiet evening here at home.  I worked on genealogy, he played guitar, and we watched a favorite vlog that we save especially for Sunday nights.  It rained a little bit but not much.

This morning, we wake to a downpour.  We treated this morning as a holiday morning.  We didn't get dressed or make the bed until later in the morning.  We didn't do chores.  John had told me Thursday that he meant for us to go out to eat today.  I did work on the checkbook and got the bills that needed to go out sorted and ready to go into the mail.  I refuse to get caught forgetting bills again any time soon! 

We had planned to try a new restaurant because John had looked over the menu and was certain that I could get a fish plate there.  I looked yesterday on our way back home and they did have fish, but only catfish, which I don't eat much of except on the rare occasion that we might go to a 'catfish' restaurant.  So, we went to our favorite place.  I planned what I was going to have for my meal...John knew just what he wanted.

Well, I didn't get exactly what I wanted.  They gave me a Lunch menu and not the dinner menu.  The item I wanted wasn't offered on the lunch menu.  They were very busy and when the server came to take our order, I gave an alternate order instead of getting what I'd planned.  It was fine.  Our food was delicious.  Because it was a celebratory meal, we got an appetizer, and we had actual drinks (non-alcoholic but still tea and lemonade were $4 each.).  Typically, we skip an appetizer and drinks and just get water.   It was a lovely meal, and we brought home leftovers as we usually do these days.  

Once home again, we lolled around.  I did genealogy and John played guitar.  Then I watched a little YouTube and came across the vlog, A Simple Season: Homemaking Habits for a Peaceful Home in Uncertain Times was such a soothing and wonderful thing to watch.  It's just over 8 minutes long but Lisa makes the most sense in this particular video.  I really do urge you all to go watch it.  It's a voice of reason in the homemaking realm, not full of dire warnings and fear mongering as so many vloggers seem intent on creating these days.  I think the most powerful thing she said was that there were no 'simpler' times.  All times have been uncertain...How right she is!  We do not know from day to day what we will face whether it is national, local or personal.  Yet homemaking goes on and on.  

We begin the big birthday round this week.  From now until the end of the month we have nothing but birthdays and then a two-week break before we hit the next three in July.  The reality bites this year is that we truly must cut back grandkids to a card and $10.  I so much prefer giving gifts but I'm thinking that since the kids generally do get cash from one relative or another, they can put it all together and go get something really nice for themselves. 

I told John that I recall how my granddaddy always gave us 50c each when he visited.  One visit he gave us 50c.  We kids just looked terribly uncomfortable.  Granddaddy urged us to tell him what was wrong.  We reluctantly admitted that 50c no longer bought us a soda, candy bar, or bag of chips, lol.  Grandaddy obliged by giving us four quarters each instead of the two he'd always given us.  Inflation hits every grandparent at some point.  

Well, this time of year is always a bit tight for us.  This year more so than ever.  I had a grandchild graduate high school and a dear friend get married.  Gift budget was wiped out right there.  Never mind. We'll make memories instead.

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