2021 Resolutions - Final Update

I  like to keep a list of resolutions on the blog.  It helps keep me accountable and  helps me keep track of my goals - what I wanted to do and whether or not I actually got them accomplished during the year.  I had a few goals in 2020.  Those all went out the window in March.  I don't even want to talk about those goals anymore.  But, this is 2021, and we are all set for a new series of goals.  So, here they are.  It's a short list this year.  

1) Get away with my husband twice this year. DONE!

We made it to Acadia National Park in June! (Pictures to follow.)

One weekend at the beach in Delaware.

2) Visit middle child in Kansas.

He's been out here to see us thrice now. Once for my Mother in Laws funeral, once in October, and again for Christmas. We will get out there in 2022. 

3) Visit all of the state parks in Maryland.

Calvert Cliffs  

Patapsco Valley 

Soldier's Delight 

Sandy Point 

Rock

I've got a way to go.... 

We received a State Parks pass from one of the kids for Christmas. We are looking forward to using it extensively this coming year!

4) Get one more stamp in my National Parks Passport

Acadia National Park

Gettysburg

Harper's Ferry

C&O Canal

5) Lose 10% of my body weight.

Why are those last 2 pounds the hardest 2 pounds?

I’ve given up on this for this year.  I’ve lost weight, and that’s what matters. It makes me happy that my clothes fit better, and honestly? That’s what matters.

6) Get a storage unit and move stuff there to sort it out.

We had stuff we needed to get out.  And then we cleaned out my Mom's house when we moved her to Assisted Living and then we cleaned out my MIL's condo and apartment and THEN the oldest child moved back in.  AND THEN my Step-Mother's niece called me and gave me BOXES of my Dad's stuff.  You know, my Dad.  Who passed away over 12 years ago.  (There's another story...)  This house looks like a real life episode of Hoarders. 

Update: We have the storage unit. It has been filled. Much of what is in there will be going to the White Elephant Sale at the church in November. And then, we will be moving more stuff over there while we figure out where to put it.

Update 2: No White Elephant sale this year due to COVID. So, the storage unit is still full of stuff we need to deal with. Our local thrift store is now going through the donations in the trunk of the car and only taking what they want.  So, I’m still left with a ton of junk I need to get rid of.

7) Do a minor home improvement project.

There's a lot to choose from.  Which one will we pick?  Fixing the fence line in the back?  Getting the wood trim on the house painted?  Replacing the floor in the utility area in the basement? Hiring the tree guys to come out and get rid of the brush piles in the back? Having someone come out and landscape the front of the house?

Update: nothing visible. The outdoor a/c unit was hit by lightning over the summer during the big heatwave. We had to wait the better part of a week to get that fixed.  

Update #2

I’m counting the installation of the Septic Riser as our minor home improvement project. It’s not a big, showy project, but being able to have the solids sucked out of the tank on a regular basis? That’s a pretty big improvement.

Update #3

Oh, and the pipes in the kitchen sink got clogged. Again. It turns out that when this house was built in 1970, the plumbing code at the time was written by drunk people. (kidding)  Maybe it was just the builders. The pipe leaving the kitchen sink and running down to join the rest of the pipes runs the length of the house. But not the way you'd think.  The pipes run underneath the kitchen floor straight across to the support bean in the middle of the basement and then run the length of the house to the main sewer line. It has a total of 3 turns in the pipes. 

We found a new to us plumber who came in and really fixed the line. He snaked it out to the very end of the sewer line, and he had an assistant down in the basement who verified when the snake got to each turn in the line. After he finished snaking out the lines, he turned the hot water on and then went down to verify that the pipe was hot all the way around just where the sink line joins the line leaving the house. So amazing to have the job done right, and we were thrilled with his work!

Those are minor, but necessary improvements!

8) Visit my cousins in Texas (a trip postponed from 2020.)

Not this year. It's just not going to happen in 2021.

We have a tentative plan to visit them in 2022.

9) Get my kids and all of my sister's kids together in the same place at the same time.

DONE! It’s the first time we’ve had all of them together in 4 years! 

That was harder than we thought it would be!

Glenwood Library

 I stopped by the Glenwood Library in Howard County recently. It has always been one of my favorite libraries. I loved how they integrated the bucolic rural surroundings and used that in the architecture of the building. When I first went there after they opened, I felt like they had taken a farm, and tossed some of the typical architectural pieces you find around a farm and put them in a blender - which helped design this wonderful rural library that was incredibly modern with a bow towards the agricultural surroundings.

Fast forward several years, (has it really been 20 years since it opened?) and Howard County decided to refresh the branch. From new paint, to new ways of interpreting and using the space, the library looks beautiful. Not only did they update the building and add new technology, they did an excellent job of honoring the architecture of the original building and keeping the more iconic parts of the design in place. 

The result is an eye catching space that meets the needs of the community and offers the very latest in technology. They have added a fabulous maker space along the wall that used to house the magazines, and they have everything you could want to use but can’t afford to buy - laser cutters, 3D Printers, a Photo Preservation Station, a large printer that prints out banners, a recording studio, OZ Bots, Lego Mindstorms - the list goes on and on.  The pictures below capture everything. They’ve also included a dedicated space in the middle of the library with a hard floor where people can eat and drink away from the books and electronics.

I’d like to add that you do have to pay for use of consumable materials. That’s how the library can afford to have them. So, if you want to use a laser cutter on Walnut, you are going to have to pay for the wood. BUT - you aren’t paying for the laser cutter, and the prices are posted on the material samples in the Tinker Space.

I’m including the pictures below. I’m not going to add a lot of commentary, because I honestly think that the pictures speak for themselves. If you’d like to see my original post on the Glenwood Library from 2016, you can find it here:

https://mini-van-mom.blogspot.com/2016/05/glenwood-library.html

A Very Merry Christmas to You!

 This is a little late, but I send you the merriest of Christmas Wishes to you all!

We’ve had a busy week. My kids have all been home for a week now and I have enjoyed every single minute that I have had with them. We’ve played games, watched movies, worked on jigsaw puzzles and stayed up entirely too late talking and laughing. It’s been wonderful!

We spent one day with my Mom. One entire day. We were thoroughly masked the entire time we were together, and we spent several hours laughing and catching up with her. It was a good day filled with great memories!

We have lost so many people we love  this year, and this has been a sorrowful season as we struggle to adapt to a different holiday season.

We are ending on a hopeful note. One of our children is engaged, and another one defended a PhD. The third is hoping to settle on a new house in the next few weeks. Husband and I are getting ready to undertake some extensive home renovations this next year. They are long overdue, and my in-laws, when they owned this house had talked about doing them. They lived here 30 years. We’ve been here for 16. It’s well past time to get them finished. 

I sincerely hope that you have found joy and peace in your memories this season.

Let’s all work to be kind and gentle with each other this season. We’ve had a difficult two years.

Christmas Movie of the Day

 The Santa Claus starring Tim Allen.

This movie was released in 1994. 

My favorite part of the movie? How they explained how Santa got up and down chimneys in the houses without a chimney or a fireplace.

Book Review: My Heart is a Chainsaw

 My Heart is a Chainsaw

Written by Stephen Graham Jones

Fans of slasher movies will enjoy My Heart is a Chainsaw, written by Stephe Graham Jones and set in the lakeside mountain town of Proofrock, Idaho.

As the story opens, we witness an unexpected attack on two tourists in the middle of the night by the lake. This events sets the stage for the horror yet to come. 

Our heroine is 17 year old Jade, a rebel who has an encyclopedic knowledge of every slasher film ever made. She is convinced that the town will eventually become the site of a slasher type massacre, and has done her best to warn everyone but nobody believes her.

Sentenced to community service for “Unauthorized Use of the Town Canoe”, Jade finds herself in the middle of an uncanny set of events that leads her to believe that her prophecy is about to come true and everyone in the town is about to be murdered by someone. But who? One of the rich founders from across the lake? The sheriff with a grudge? The beautiful new girl in school?

The story is interspersed with papers that Jade writes for a school assignment that describe the slasher film genre and also drop very subtle hints about the murderer. Filled with red herrings, the plot offers enough twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

One warning: If you are squeamish about blood or violence, this is not the book for you.

A note from me:

I felt there were several loose ends that I would love to have seen tied up at the end of the story, but overall this was a good read and well worth the time I put into reading the book.

Our Dinner Spreadsheet for this week.

Yesterday, I posted about my spreadsheet that I have been using for dinner. Actually, I have an entire workbook, with tabs for each week spanning about 20 weeks. At this point, it's easy for me to go back through the spreadsheet and pick and choose from past recipes or weeks based upon what we liked in the past and what our schedules look like for the upcoming week.

So, here is a copy of the spreadsheet that we are using for dinner this week. The only way I could easily share this was to do a screen shot, so the links aren't live. 

If you can see the teeny tiny print, you can see that I try to prepare meals for two days, or double a meal and freeze the extras for another day to make life easier for us when we get home from work on a weekday.  Both husband and I are able to access this from our devices, and pick up what we need at the store. What this doesn't show is that I will go through and use the strikethrough feature on any ingredients we already have in the house so that it's easy to see what we need for the week. 

Pulling together a shopping list from this is fairly easy and makes grocery shopping much less frustrating.

In case if you can't see the recipes, and need the links, here they are:

White Bean Kale Soup: https://midwestfoodieblog.com/white-bean-kale-soup/

Paleo Baked Butter Chicken: https://www.maryswholelife.com/paleo-baked-butter-chicken-meatballs/

The Freezer Meal we are pulling out of the freezer on Thursday night:  https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-chicken-and-wild-rice-bake-216431

Sheet Pan Chicken Tikka: https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-chicken-and-wild-rice-bake-216431

Friday night is my own chili recipe, and prep meal for Saturday. Since I work Saturday, I'm off Friday and will have the time to do a quick meal prep.  I always like to have 3 or 4 meals in the freezer, and when I can, I make a roast on Sunday so that I can use the leftovers for the rest of the week.

What about you? How do you organize your meals for the week? 

Meals When You are Cooking for Two

This has become a challenge for us. For years, we cooked for 3 kids + the 2 of us. Cooking for teenagers requires a lot of food. During that time, I worked part time and was able to work cooking around my work schedule. Even during the Pandemic Shut Downs, we had our grown children living at home with us, so I was once again cooking in large quantities. And since we were all working virtually, cooking meals from scratch was easy-peasy.

But now, at the end of 2021 we find ourselves to be Empty Nesters for the first time. Both my husband and I work full time now, and putting nutritious food on the table quickly has become a challenge. With my food allergies, going out to eat or subscribing to a meal prep service really aren't viable options.  (Not to mention expensive.)

Short of yelling at each other because we're both Hangry and then devolving into peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every night, what do you do?

Enter my spreadsheet. (I am the Queen of Spreadsheets.)

I put this together with the intention of planning out meals a month in advance. I grocery shop weekly, and the spread sheet lets me know what I need to get each week. We will make at least one double batch of something with the express intent of freezing one of the batches for dinner another night in the month. Anything left over from one night's dinner is wrapped up to become lunch for another day.

So, how is it working for us?  Simply put, it's amazing. I have everything in a Google Spreadsheet so that we can both access everything from our own device - this makes preparing dinner and grocery shopping so much easier.

What do you do to plan out your meals?

Christmas Movie of the Day

 White Christmas 

Starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye 

Did you know that the song White Christmas was released on Dec. 25, 1941.

This was just weeks after Pear Harbor was bombed.

The movie White Christmas was released in 1954, which was the second Bing Crosby movie that centered around the song White Christmas  

I love the dances with Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen. 

Have you seen this movie? What do you think?

Christmas Movies

It’s a Wonderful Life

This classic film starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed was released in 1946. Jimmy Stewart was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a leading role for his portrayal of George Bailey,. The award was won by Frederic March for The Best Years of Our Lives.

The Foundation Series

 Have you ever read the classic Foundation Trilogy written by Isaac Asimov? I read it many years ago, and I absolutely loved the book. I enjoyed watching the Foundation grow from the seeds of nothing. However, I admit that I always had a few questions about some of the nuts and bolts of the Foundation, the Second Foundation, and the end of the Empire.  

I enjoyed the series so much, I ran a program on the Foundation at the Library pre-pandemic. I even put together what I consider to be a masterpiece of programming where we compared the Asimov's "I, Robot" series to "Westworld". Let me tell you, we did not have enough time in the day to encompass all of the points that needed to be made when comparing the two universes once you take the Three Laws of Robotics into account. It was a HOT discussion.

But then, Apple TV added a whole new layer into this discussion. They have given us The Foundation.

Season 1 is now fully available on Apple TV.  And I have watched all of it, and I will watch it all again, because there are just so many layers of this thing that I know I missed stuff.  And it was brilliant.  Brilliantly directed, and brilliantly written.  

It's been years since I read the books, but this feels true to the books as they were written. As of this writing, I don't feel a driving need to go back and read the novels - the adaptation makes me that happy.

If you've been on the fence about watching this series, wait no more. 

I really do hope that Apple releases this - either to DVD or another streaming platform.

Christmas Movies

 

  

 It’s Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!

It’s an oldie but a goodie! It’s actually so old we watch it on VHS.

Did you know that there is a relatively recent book about Rudolph written for adults?

It’s a fascinating look at the history of Rudolph, who was first immortalized by Robert May who worked for Montgomery Ward as part of a Christmas giveaway in 1939.

The book traces Rudolph from his humble beginnings,  through the stop motion movie that I love and adore, and explores the Rudolph universe to the present day.

If you’re looking for a light hearted read about a holiday icon, this would be the book for you! You should be able to find it at your local library!

Trivia Question: Do you know who originally sang the song which has become one of the most popular Christmas songs of all time?

Answer: Gene Autry

Christmas Movies

 I dearly love Christmas Movies. I watch them all - the good, the bad, and the ugly. How about you? 

I try to watch one every night during December. This year, I’ve decided to share my viewing list with you as we go!

Dec. 1 

 How the Grinch stole Christmas. 

Charlie Brown Christmas.

What about you? What are you watching?

2021 Resolutions - December

 I like to keep a list of resolutions on the blog.  It helps keep me accountable and  helps me keep track of my goals - what I wanted to do and whether or not I actually got them accomplished during the year.  I had a few goals in 2020.  Those all went out the window in March.  I don't even want to talk about those goals anymore.  But, this is 2021, and we are all set for a new series of goals.  So, here they are.  It's a short list this year.  

1) Get away with my husband twice this year. 

We made it to Acadia National Park in June! (Pictures to follow.)

We've got our fingers crossed for a weekend later this month.

2) Visit middle child in Kansas.

He's been out here to see us twice now. Once for my Mother in Laws funeral in October, and earlier this month. Will we make it out there? Only time will tell....

3) Visit all of the state parks in Maryland.

Calvert Cliffs  

Patapsco Valley 

Soldier's Delight 

Sandy Point 

Rock

I've got a way to go.... 

4) Get one more stamp in my National Parks Passport

Acadia National Park

Gettysburg

Harper's Ferry

C&O Canal

5) Lose 10% of my body weight.

Why are those last 2 pounds the hardest 2 pounds?

6) Get a storage unit and move stuff there to sort it out.

We had stuff we needed to get out.  And then we cleaned out my Mom's house when we moved her to Assisted Living and then we cleaned out my MIL's condo and apartment and THEN the oldest child moved back in.  AND THEN my Step-Mother's niece called me and gave me BOXES of my Dad's stuff.  You know, my Dad.  Who passed away over 12 years ago.  (There's another story...)  This house looks like a real life episode of Hoarders. 

Update: We have the storage unit. It has been filled. Much of what is in there will be going to the White Elephant Sale at the church in November. And then, we will be moving more stuff over there while we figure out where to put it.

7) Do a minor home improvement project.

There's a lot to choose from.  Which one will we pick?  Fixing the fence line in the back?  Getting the wood trim on the house painted?  Replacing the floor in the utility area in the basement? Hiring the tree guys to come out and get rid of the brush piles in the back? Having someone come out and landscape the front of the house?

Update: nothing visible. The outdoor a/c unit was hit by lightning over the summer during the big heatwave. We had to wait the better part of a week to get that fixed.  

Update #2

I’m counting the installation of the Septic Riser as our minor home improvement project. It’s not a big, showy project, but being able to have the solids sucked out of the tank on a regular basis? That’s a pretty big improvement.

Update #3

Oh, and the pipes in the kitchen sink got clogged. Again. It turns out that when this house was built in 1970, the plumbing code at the time was written by drunk people. (kidding)  Maybe it was just the builders. The pipe leaving the kitchen sink and running down to join the rest of the pipes runs the length of the house. But not the way you'd think.  The pipes run underneath the kitchen floor straight across to the support bean in the middle of the basement and then run the length of the house to the main sewer line. It has a total of 3 turns in the pipes. 

We found a new to us plumber who came in and really fixed the line. He snaked it out to the very end of the sewer line, and he had an assistant down in the basement who verified when the snake got to each turn in the line. After he finished snaking out the lines, he turned the hot water on and then went down to verify that the pipe was hot all the way around just where the sink line joins the line leaving the house. So amazing to have the job done right, and we were thrilled with his work!

Those are minor, but necessary improvements!

8) Visit my cousins in Texas (a trip postponed from 2020.)

Not this year. It's just not going to happen in 2021.

9) Get my kids and all of my sister's kids together in the same place at the same time.

We're still working on this one. It's hard when the kids are all grown and living around the country. We are hoping we can get this done later this month when middle child is home for a week. 

Update: It didn't happen when he was home in October. Nor did it happen in November. I think we just might have to push this off and enjoy it when and if it ever happens.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In 2000, I went out to Indiana to spend one last Thanksgiving with the extended family. We knew we had some terminally ill family members, so we made the trek out to spend one last giant holiday party with the family. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and our family. We talked for hours into the night, telling stories and laughing. There were close to 30 members of the extended family who showed up. Dinner started at  2:00 pm and people sit around and talked for 12 straight hours. As we got tired, we would pull out a blanket, find a place on a sofa or the floor and doze off while everyone else kept going. By the time we finally went to bed at 2, there was no food left. We had decimated the deserts early, and then kept pulling leftovers out of the fridge to make sandwiches as the night wore on. This remains one of my favorite Thanksgiving memories.

This year, our daughter is cooking. 

They want to host both families in their tiny little one bedroom apartment.  This is going to be great! It has all of the hallmarks of the very best of memories in the making.  Small apartment, first large family gathering, first time cooking a turkey...  So many possibilities for so many wonderful stories. Best of all, the two families will get to spend time getting to know each other better as our kids make a new family.  Who could ask for more?

Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving memory?

WKRP Turkey Drop

To mark the beginning of Thanksgiving Week, I give you my most favorite bit of television, ever. I will forever be thankful that I remember seeing this on television with my family the first time this aired. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

This is one of my all time favorite Thanksgiving specials. I really love the old animation from the 70's. It aired for the first time in 1973, back when I was in Elementary School. Everyone in our class watched it the night before, and that was all we talked about the next day at school. This classic is a part of the triad of holiday classics that I have to watch every year. (It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and a Charlie Brown Christmas).

Funny story about this special. When I was in college, my roommate was suffering from some severe stomach pains.  I mean they were horrific. I wanted to call an ambulance and get her to the hospital, but she refused to go until after she watched this show.  That's right, she was in excruciating pain and refused to go to the hospital until after the show was over. This was back in the days of broadcast tv with cable - there was no streaming, so it's not like she could have caught it later.  Later would have been next year.

Anyway, it's not like she had appendicitis or anything. Oh wait, she did.

I gave up at the first commercial break and called 9-1-1 over her protests.  They showed up right at the second commercial break and she refused to let them treat her until after the show was over.  So, we all stood there, me and the 2 paramedics, the firemen who responded with the paramedics, and the various other people from our building who wandered by and stuck their heads in to make sure we were okay.  I have never heard so many people heave a sigh of relief at the end of a television show before. The paramedics popped her onto the gurney and I handed her her backpack and promised to call her parents. 

It's been years since this happened, and every year, this moment in my life pops back up into my memory like it was just yesterday.

If this is also a must watch in your holiday catalog, you can stream it on Apple TV.

PBS will be broadcasting it tonight, Nov. 21 at 7:30 locally.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy this classic!

It's Been a Busy Week

This week was full of all things related to books.  This made my nerdy little librarian heart very happy. I spent most of the week discussing books with other librarians, and looking through new releases and making book lists. It's all very fun and exciting!

The problem is, this week has led to piles of books around my house. 

I've got the maximum 100 books checked out from library system and 100 each from the two neighboring systems. I had SO MANY books spread all over the house. 

I spent today finding books and returning them to the various libraries from whence they came. It turns out that 100 books is a LOT of books. Multiply that by 3, and it's overwhelming. I checked my account online after I got home to verify that everything had been returned and thankfully I hadn't missed anything.

It's nice to finally see the horizontal surfaces in the house again!

Thanksgiving Plans

 This is not really a year that I want to spend a lot of time thinking about Thanksgiving. My MIL passed earlier this year, and she has always been a huge part of our Holiday Traditions. My middle child will not be coming home this year, and our daughter and her fiance visit with us before heading to his family later in the day. I have no interest in making a big turkey, but I really feel like we need to do something.

So this year, we've decided it's time to make some new memories and start some new traditions. Fruit salad, cinnamon rolls, turkey crepes, quinoa and salmon will be among the food on the menu. If it can't be made easily, it just won't appear on our table.

After daughter leaves and heads off to go see her in-laws, we are going to head down to Virginia to go take spend some time with my mom. Hopefully, traffic will be light and we won't be spending a lot of time in traffic.

On Saturday evening, we are going to start a fire in the fire pit and invite all of our friends over. It's a pot luck think - bring a desert to share. I'm going to have 2 pots of chili and mulled cider. Many laughs and much talking and reminiscing is on the menu. 

What about you? What are your plans for Thanksgiving this year?

Walk on a Fall Day

 I went on a beautiful walk around Lake Elkhorn in Columbia. The day was absolutely perfect.It was one of those beautiful fall days that encapsulated everything that fall is supposed to be: crisp day, blue sky that seems to go on forever and lots of wildlife outside, sunning in the last rays of the beautiful day.

I snapped a few pictures to share of this glorious day!  I thoroughly enjoyed my 5 mile walk!

Down by the pond, just below the waterfall dam. I love this spot!

The path around the lake.  Look at those leaves!

Gorgeous blue heron on the log in the water.

A closer view of the heron.

Look at the sky and the Lake! That's my favorite shade of blue!

The House in the Cerulean Sea

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

 

Have you read this wonderful piece of fiction yet? People keep talking about it, and it's been on the best seller list for quite some time. I had to read this book for a workshop I attended last month, and I was enchanted by the book. It turned into a page turner for me. My only complaint about this book? When I finished it, I had to leave the Marsyas Island Orphanage and the Cerulean Sea and come back to my ordinary, every day world.

The house in this book is set across from the mainland in the Cerulean Sea. The house is a home for magical creatures. This home (and others like it) are orphanages meant to train magical creatures. 

Linus Baker works for the Department of Magical Youth, and he oversees the orphanages making certain that everything is up to code and the children are safe. One unexpected day, he is sent to speak with Extremely Upper Management and he is sent to this orphanage to make certain that the children who live there will not inadvertently bring about the end of the world.

What kind of children live there, you ask? Why a sprite, a were-pomeranian, a gnome, a wyvern, an unidentifiable green thing, and the anitichrist.

But the island holds many unexpected secrets. The head of the orphanage, Arthur Parnassus will do anything to keep the children in his care safe. As Arthur explores the orphanage and the island he uncovers many long held secrets. 

At the end of the day, Arthur must decide whether to destroy the orphanage and send the children out into the world or let the kids stay where they are and risk the end of the world.

This fantasy novel of love and acceptance and finding family wherever you are will warm your heart and keep you intrigued until the very last page.

For those of you who've read the book, I have to ask: Don't you wish you were here?

Freezer Meals for November

Have you noticed how outrageous prices are at the grocery store recently? I was honestly stunned the last time I went to the store and came out with one reusable bag full of groceries that cost well over $50. When the kids were living at home, I used to regularly cook once a month. Some people call it Freezer Cooking, others call it Investment Cooking, some call it Once a Month Cooking. I call it a huge time and money saver. Because I buy groceries in bulk, I can get a slightly better price. And since I know that we have ready made meals waiting for us in the freezer, we are less likely to pick up fast food or "pick up a quick something" at the grocery store. (Quick, yes. Cheap, no.)

I recently invested a day in cooking. I went grocery shopping the night before and spent $70 in ingredients. At the end of the day, I had 9 meals in the freezer, one in the fridge,  plus a pot of soup on the stove. Half of the soup went into freezer containers to round out the meal count to 11. 12 if you count the soup.

My $70 in groceries for 12 meals comes out to $5.83 cents per meal. I haven't averaged that out per serving, but a little less than $6 to feed the two of us a healthy meal is a bargain. When the kids were still living at home, each of these meals would have fed us once - for one meal. Now that it's just the two of us, some of these meals will feed us for a couple of days either becoming dinner another night or taken to work as lunch for the next day. 

Here's how it all went down:

I began my day by mixing up a meatloaf. I absolutely love meatloaf, but the husband hates to mix it up. I used the recipe from Quaker Oatmeal. After I mixed it together, I put it in a loaf pan, double wrapped it and stuck it in the freezer.

Next up was Chicken and Brown Rice Casserole. I made 3 of three of these meals. I chopped the veggies, and while they were getting their first go round in the freezer I continued chopping the veggies for the Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps and the soup for dinner. I love the Chicken Brown Rice mix. The chicken doesn't get cooked yet. It is frozen while marinating in a vinaigrette. It's an easy recipe to pull together.

The Asian Lettuce Wraps involved browning vegetables and ground chicken. I made 4 packages of the lettuce wrap mix. I "cleverly" planned things out well enough that I was able to eat what didn't fill into the bags as my lunch.  

I cut everything for a Harvest Sheet Pan bake. I put this into a container so that I could pull it out on Monday night, toss everything in a pan and bake it for 20 minutes. Since I pre-cut everything,and not all of the ingredients freeze well. I didn't want to wait too terribly long to cook it.

Dinner was a White Bean Kale soup. We ate half for dinner that night and then we froze the rest for another night's dinner. The total time it took to shop and assemble all of this was around 6 hours. 1 hour shopping and 5 prepping.  It was totally worth every minute to have 11 nights of meals ahead of me that I no longer need to think about. (12 nights if you count the day that I cooked everything)

While the soup was cooking I glanced through the kitchen and realized that I had all of the ingredients on hand for a batch of oatmeal cookies! I'm not a fan of raisins but I love mixed dried berries.  I used those in place of the raisins. Let me tell you, they were amazing.  I have to admit - I found a little bit of dairy free ice cream in the fridge and so I took one for the team. I made a few ice cream sandwiches.  It's tough, I tell you. Consider it a public service I perform - testing new and unique ways of combing cookies and ice cream. (This would also explain why I am having trouble losing those last 2 pounds...)

Please note that I eat Gluten and Dairy Free. I used gluten and dairy free versions of every ingredient in the recipes. For the cookies, I used a digital scale to weigh the gluten free flour. I find that I get much better results with a digital scale.

If you're curious to see the recipes I used:

Meatloaf:https://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/classic-meatloaf

Chicken and Wild Rice Bake: https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-chicken-and-wild-rice-bake-216431

Asian Lettuce Wraps: https://thrivinghomeblog.com/asian-lettuce-wraps/ 

30 Minute White Bean Kale Soup: https://midwestfoodieblog.com/white-bean-kale-soup/

Harvest Sheet Pan Bake: https://www.maryswholelife.com/whole30-harvest-sheet-pan-dinner/

Oatmeal Cookies: https://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipes/vanishing-oatmeal-raisin-cookies 

National Parks Passport

We love visiting our National Parks. A couple of years ago, we decide we were going to get a Passport and start filling it with stamps. We should have done it years ago when the kids were little, but we just never did find the time to pick one up.  Now that the kids are grown and out of the house, we are making a concerted effort to visit all of the parks - even the ones we visited with little kids. The passport is a nice way to keep track of the parks we have visited. The stamps give us the date we were there. I love stickers, so many times I will pick up stickers from the State Parks we visit and add them to the passport just for fun. The passports are text heavy, so I have been known to put the stickers over some of the text. 

This year we were able to get to Harper's Ferry, Acadia, and Gettysburg. I'm looking forward to adding several new stamps this next year! 

In 2019, we gave each of our children parks passports for Christmas. This year they were able to get their first stamps in their passports. Each one of them texted me pictures as they added their first stamps into their passport.

Attendance at our National Parks has been up dramatically over the past year. The park staff has been stretched thin attempting to keep up with visitors I think it's great that so many people are discovering the wonders of our parks!

Did you know that by purchasing a Parks Passport you are supporting our parks? You are helping to support them! If you do frequent any of our National Parks, please support them however you can!

Stickers and stamps from our day trip to Harper's Ferry this summer.

Remembering Jenny

 A friend of our passed away earlier this week. Her funeral is today.  She was in her middle 50's, and she had one son who was 17 years old. 

Jenny was amazing. She was so talented, with a heart for young children. Her degree was in Early Childhood Education. She spent her career working in head start centers and preschools, working as a teacher and a director. She has been in charge of the nursery on Sunday mornings for years. She was an artist and owned her own small business, selling vintage furniture that she had given new life. She basically ran the church bazaar - from planning what crafts would be sold to decorating the rooms and planning for the staffing for each room. 

She was funny and had a great sense of humor that made working on any project with her an absolute joy.

She will be missed so much. 

Hug your loved ones tight. Life is short and uncertain.

Really Bad Jokes

Once a month, I run a Nature Club for elementary age children. As part of my program, I tell the kids jokes of some kind or another.  While researching for this month's program, I ran across some phenomenally bad space jokes that I just need to share with someone.  They aren't going to work for young kids. But you, lucky reader, YOU are the recipient of my phenomenally bad jokes.

Are you ready?

How many ears does Captain Kirk have?

3! The left ear, the right ear, and the frontier.

What's light year?

The same as a regular year, but with less calories.

Why did the star get arrested?

Because it was a shooting star!

Why didn't the dog star laugh at the joke?

It was too Sirius.

How does Jupiter hold up it's trousers?

With an asteroid belt!

I was up all night wondering where the sun had gone.... and then it dawned on me.

Harper's Ferry

 Have you ever been to Harper's Ferry?  Despite having lived in the Metro Washington DC area for all of my adult life, I had never been there until this summer.  I had always wanted to go - it played a pivotal role in the Civil War. Since I love history, getting there and seeing the actual location of John Brown's Raid and what role Harper's Ferry played in the War has been on my History Geek check list for a very long time. (Like, since High School, when I took U.S. History and found out that Harper's Ferry was less than an hour from our new house. Dad was transferred from Ohio to Virginia the summer before I started high school.)

Officially, Harper's Ferry is in West Virginia. You can stand on the edge of the river and look across to Maryland, and Virginia is literally a hop skip and jump down the road. Up until the war, this area was part of Virginia.

If you are curious to find out more about the history of Harper's Ferry, you can find more information here:

From the National Park Service:  https://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/historyculture/stories.htm

10 Facts about Harper's Ferry: https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/10-facts-harpers-ferry

The history geek in me freaked out for a day. We explored nooks and crannies. We hiked across the bridge. We ate lunch under the giant trees. We hiked out to the island and explored. It was a wonderfully magic (but very hot day) 

This is the train station.  It’s been here forever, and it’s still active!

Commuter trains run through here daily into Washington DC. 

This beautiful hilltop was the scene of a very bloody battle. 

If you look down into the valley, you can barely see the Potomac River. 

The view of the train track from the station. 

I’m standing in West Virginia, looking at the Potomac River. Maryland is to the left. Virginia is to the right a little further downstream. The structure in the River is the old railroad bridge. 

Another view of the Potomac River and the highway bridge over top. 

6 Pounds of chicken thighs, 3 meals

 Has anyone else noticed the phenomenally high prices of groceries at the store lately? It takes the breath away. Seriously, when I drop $60 at the store I expect to have more than one bag of groceries. With prices as high as they are, we have fallen into old habits. We are stretching our food as far as we can. I used to stretch our food like this when the kids were little. Once the boys became teenagers, cooking with leftovers became a distant memory.  But now that it's just the two of us again we are cooking with leftovers and stretching our food as far as possible.

So, here's what we did this past week with a 5 pound packakge of chicken thighs that were on sale at the store.

Sunday:

Put the chicken in the crock pot, seasoned it with salt and pepper and cooked it on high for 4 hours. We shredded the chicken, broke it into 3 equal size portions and refrigerated 2. We kept that 3rd portion out, mixed it with BBQ sauce and had pulled chicken BBQ with mashed potatoes and green beans.

Monday:

Taco Bowls

We mixed the chicken with 2 TBSP of taco seasoning and reheated it.

One can of refried beans, reheated/

Shredded romaine lettuce.

Chopped Tomatoes

Corn Chips

Cheese

Salsa

Rice (I had quinoa left over from another meal last week, so we used the quinoa.)

In a bowl, combine a little of everything together.  Top with guacamole or sour cream. (If desired)

Wednesday:

Green Chicken Enchilada Casserole

In an 8 by 8 pan, we layered the leftover chicken, green enchilada sauce, refried beans, and corn tortillas. (Kind of like you layer a lasagna.)

Since every ingredient in the casserole had already been cooked, assembling this was the hardest part. It took 10 minutes to assemble, and then we put it in the oven at 350* for 20 minutes.

Bonus Meal -

Chicken Salad. I pulled enough chicken to make chicken salad for lunch 2 days this week. I mixed mayo, pickle relish, mustard, onion, pecans and poultry seasoning with the chicken. 

I packed it into 2 different containers and had it on lettuce leaves each day. It was very, very good!

2021 Resolutions - November

I like to keep a list of resolutions on the blog.  It helps keep me accountable and  helps me keep track of my goals - what I wanted to do and whether or not I actually got them accomplished during the year.  I had a few goals in 2020.  Those all went out the window in March.  I don't even want to talk about those goals anymore.  But, this is 2021, and we are all set for a new series of goals.  So, here they are.  It's a short list this year.  

1) Get away with my husband twice this year. 

We made it to Acadia National Park in June! (Pictures to follow.)

2) Visit middle child in Kansas.

He's been out here to see us twice now. Once for my Mother in Laws funeral in October, and earlier this month. Will we make it out there? Only time will tell....

3) Visit all of the state parks in Maryland.

Calvert Cliffs  

Patapsco Valley 

Soldier's Delight 

Sandy Point 

Rock

I've got a way to go.... 

4) Get one more stamp in my National Parks Passport

Acadia National Park

Gettysburg

Harper's Ferry

5) Lose 10% of my body weight.

Why are those last 2 pounds the hardest 2 pounds?

6) Get a storage unit and move stuff there to sort it out.

We had stuff we needed to get out.  And then we cleaned out my Mom's house when we moved her to Assisted Living and then we cleaned out my MIL's condo and apartment and THEN the oldest child moved back in.  AND THEN my Step-Mother's niece called me and gave me BOXES of my Dad's stuff.  You know, my Dad.  Who passed away over 12 years ago.  (There's another story...)  This house looks like a real life episode of Hoarders. 

Update: We have the storage unit. It has been filled. Much of what is in there will be going to the White Elephant Sale at the church in November. And then, we will be moving more stuff over there while we figure out where to put it.

7) Do a minor home improvement project.

There's a lot to choose from.  Which one will we pick?  Fixing the fence line in the back?  Getting the wood trim on the house painted?  Replacing the floor in the utility area in the basement? Hiring the tree guys to come out and get rid of the brush piles in the back? Having someone come out and landscape the front of the house?

Update: nothing visible. The outdoor a/c unit was hit by lightning over the summer during the big heatwave. We had to wait the better part of a week to get that fixed.  

Update #2

I’m counting the installation of the Septic Riser as our minor home improvement project. It’s not a big, showy project, but being able to have the solids sucked out of the tank on a regular basis? That’s a pretty big improvement.

Update #3

Oh, and the pipes in the kitchen sink got clogged. Again. It turns out that when this house was built in 1970, the plumbing code at the time was written by drunk people. (kidding)  Maybe it was just the builders. The pipe leaving the kitchen sink and running down to join the rest of the pipes runs the length of the house. But not the way you'd think.  The pipes run underneath the kitchen floor straight across to the support bean in the middle of the basement and then run the length of the house to the main sewer line. It has a total of 3 turns in the pipes. 

We found a new to us plumber who came in and really fixed the line. He snaked it out to the very end of the sewer line, and he had an assistant down in the basement who verified when the snake got to each turn in the line. After he finished snaking out the lines, he turned the hot water on and then went down to verify that the pipe was hot all the way around just where the sink line joins the line leaving the house. So amazing to have the job done right, and we were thrilled with his work!

Those are minor, but necessary improvements!

8) Visit my cousins in Texas (a trip postponed from 2020.)

Not this year. It's just not going to happen in 2021.

9) Get my kids and all of my sister's kids together in the same place at the same time.

We're still working on this one. It's hard when the kids are all grown and living around the country. We are hoping we can get this done later this month when middle child is home for a week. 

Update: It didn't happen when he was home in October. Maybe it will happen around the Holidays?

October Random Pictures

Our Starbucks is really enjoying Halloween!

                            A beautiful sunset closes out the month. No filters on this picture!

I stopped by the reservoir for lunch on one of my days off and got to watch the Deep Water Diving Team from the State Police doing some practice dives.

We made it to the Maryland Renaissance Festival!  Here you see Puke & Snot - longtime performers at the Festival, and huge crowd favorites.

I stopped by our local farm stand and found these glorious hot peppers! I bought a box for the soon to be son in law. He loves hot peppers.  I'm curious to see what these become!

The goats at the farm. She is looking towards the store itself. They keep a box of Kale and Collard Greens by the door and visitors can pick up a bunch and feed them to the goats. This goat spies a little boy digging through the box!

 A night at the fire pit, surrounded by family.

Nor'easter

 If you live on the East Coast, in the Mid Atlantic Region, you know we are having some weather today. We are expecting record coastal flooding.  Ironically, I had taken today off work so that I could go hiking and enjoy the glorious fall weather. I've had a hideous 2 weeks and I really need the time to mentally reset. So much for being outdoors today!

Instead, I have a fire in the fireplace. I'm baking Oatmeal Cookies and I've spent the morning prepping freezer meals. (More about that soon.)  I have a freezer full of freezer meals now and a pot of soup simmering on the stove. I have plans to finish watching Westworld this afternoon and maybe, just maybe I will watch Dune for the second time! It won't be the same as it is in the theater, but it will still be awesome.

I hope that wherever you are, you are warm and toasty today.  Stay safe!

The Power of an Acorn

 Since trading in the mini-van, I've been driving a Honda CRV. We picked it up used at Car Max. While it's not a mini-van, it does do a great job of getting me where I need to go. Monday morning, I left the house to head to work and as I pulled out of the driveway, and as I turned left a hideous metal on metal screeching sound began. I pulled over and looked under the car to see if anything was trapped under there, but could find nothing.

As I drove into work with the noise getting louder, I saw the kids standing at bus stops along my way in, with kids and parents pointing at my car. As I stopped at a light by my work, someone stopped by my car, had me roll down my window and asked me if I knew my car was making a weird noise? He suggested that I should get it looked at.  As I made the turn into the parking garage the car shimmied so hard, I thought that the wheel was going to fall off.

The car got to my mechanic that afternoon.  And the mechanic called me on Tuesday to let me know that he had finally dug out the cause of the problem.  An Acorn. Stuck between the brake pad and the rotor. 

That's nuts!

A Quick Trip to See the Oldest Kid

We took a quick trip up to Pennsylvania to see our oldest last week. There’s nothing like a college town in the mountains in the middle of fall, is there? We took the opportunity to walk around campus, explore the campus and spend an intense 24 hours talking and laughing with each other. We had an amazing dinner from a Chinese restaurant that came highly recommended by the Chinese students that he works with. The food was absolutely amazing.  Best Chinese food I’ve ever had.  I tried something different for me - peppercorn chicken. Have you ever had it? It’s the best. I had never heard of it before, and now I just can’t stop thinking about it. 

Above, a view down one of the little alleys off Main Street. Below, the view of campus from our hotel.