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.