Well hello there or "Hello Darlin!" as Conway Twitty would say!😀😀
Happy Wednesday and happy St. Patrick's Day to you all! It has been a hot minute since I have updated this here blog o' mine (looking back it has been 3 weeks!) Oops. Sorry about that. There were days that I just didn't have anything to write about, days I was too busy to write and other days that just sped on by and are now a part of history.
The last time I wrote, Rebecca had just competed in her district tournament for Power of the Pen. If you are wondering what Power of the Pen is about, it is a writing competition where students are given a prompt and then immediately have 40 minutes to write a story based on that prompt. Then they take a 10 minute break. Then they are given another prompt and have 40 minutes to write a different story. Then a 10 minute break and then again prompt and story. It is a difficult competition. Well, on March 6, they held the virtual award ceremony for that tournament which we live-streamed on YouTube.
We have been trying to take advantage of some warmer spring-like days and have gone on more walks at Ariel-Foundation Park, the bike path, Kokosing Gap Trail, and the Holmes County Trail and Mohican Valley Trail and the Bridge of Dreams and we even visited Malabar Farm so that we could pet some farm animals and walk the paths.
I fell off the porch. I was taking trash out and don't know what happened but I fell off the side of our porch and landed on top of our mini garden flag pole. Thankfully I just scraped up my arm and bruised my butt. I don't remember falling. I just remember that one second I was on the porch, the next I was on the ground. It was really weird.
Bill fixed the dryer. We just had to buy a new washer (which has been working beautifully!) and our dryer decided to make really loud noises when you would run a load-- almost like you were drying a pair of sneakers in it. Well, Bill googled the problem, figured out it was one of the gear pieces that was worn down, watched a YouTube video, took the dryer apart, bought the piece and fixed it. Took him 4+ hours but only cost $25 to fix. Yay!
We were able to attend a choir concert for Rebecca. This is the first one that they have been allowed to have in person this school year. Only parents and siblings who were too young to stay home by themselves were allowed. And everyone was seated maintaining distance between people in the theatre. The kids sounded great! It was very nice to be able to see them in person.
We went bowling as a family. I surprised the kids with a bowling outing. The boys and Rebecca had only ever been bowling like once or twice in their lives. They had a lot of fun and I didn't do too bad considering I hadn't been bowling in years! I don't think 136 and 114 are too bad of scores!
We tried out some new foods as a family. We tried a new Oreo funfetti cake mix and frosting. It was pretty good, but something I could make with crushed up Oreos and plain frosting.
We also tried some new flavors of Pocky. We love the cookies and cream and chocolate ones here but wanted to try a few more flavors. So last Friday while we were watching our DVRed episode of the new Masked Singer we tried Almond Crush (which to me tasted like the outside topping of a Drumstick ice cream!), Chocolate banana (which Bill said reminded him of banana runts candy), strawberry (which Rebecca and I both said tasted like strawberry yogurt) and Matcha Green Tea. We liked all of them to some extent except the Matcha Green Tea one. That was just weird tasting to us.
We went on a free tour at a local Maple Farm. A friend shared that a local maple syrup farm was having an open house so we decided to take the kids. Well, come to find out this farm is owned by the family of the boys' kindergarten teacher's husband! LOL Jacob and Ben enjoyed seeing Mrs. Butcher at the market when we stopped in to buy some maple syrup and some maple cream.
So there you have it. The highlights of the last 3 weeks! There have been some lowlights too--- like depression hitting Bill and I, some issues with my leg hurting, etc. But highlights and lowlights are all part of LIFE and we have to keep moving forward day by day and week by week. I am hoping to write more frequently as I do miss writing here on this blog, but I can't promise anything! (I will also try to write more so that Rebecca doesn't nag me that "You haven't written on your blog mom!" 😂 )
I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday and a Happy St. Patrick's Day!
In other news our washing machine decided to break down AGAIN on Thursday (as I was washing Rebecca's Power of the Pen shirt!). It was acting similar to the issue that we had in December. Instead of calling the repairman and being told it would be another $400 to fix (that was for the part that he told me would probably go out next), we decided that we would just get a new washer. (We have put over $700 in repairs on the washer in the last year.) I found one that had good reviews and was on sale at Lowes.com. When I looked at it on Friday they said delivery would be middle of this coming week. Ok. Well, when I ordered it on Saturday they said they could deliver it on Sunday between 3:15 and 7:00PM. Even better. However, we needed laundry done and I already had asked my mom if I could come out and do laundry so Rebecca and I headed out there. We spent the day out there doing laundry and looking at Genealogy stuff for my mom's side of the family. While we were out there, I got a call at 12:45 from Lowes saying that their delivery drivers were ahead of schedule and could they deliver around 1:15-1:30. I called Bill and after telling him, he said he had to go because they were there at 12:50. LOL So we now have a new washer. I went with a very basic washer. I did 2 loads this morning and it seems to work great. Hopefully it last longer than our last washer.
Today, I have been puttering around the house. I got a tutoring lesson ready for tonight and then thought I had better text the mom to make sure and her response was "I forgot. We are on a family vacation." URGGGGHHHH!!!! This is not a new client. It irritates me to no end. I need to go do dishes and fold some laundry before picking kids up from school, but I wanted to get my goals update post up for the week first since I didn't do that yesterday.
So my 6 goals for 2021 were:
Lose weight.
I plan on achieving this by making a monthly goal to help. January's goals are to limit myself to one pop a day and to exercise/ walk 4 times a week. Ideally I would like to walk, however it is January in Ohio so weather will be a factor.
I didn't have a good week. We will just leave it at that.
Declutter our house.
It has become messy and full of stuff again. I am not sure how it got so full of stuff again. I am going to follow along with a 52 week decluttering challenge from "Snail Pace Transformations" blog. The author also has a Facebook page that is offering the challenge titled "Snail Pace Clutter Removers."
I didn't do much of anything for this this week. However, Bill cleaned out several huge trash bags of stuff out of the basement and he threw away an old computer (after smashing in the motherboard). So I am proud of him for getting rid of some things in his domain.
This month I am doing a low spend challenge and am pledging to use up what we have in our big freezer so that I can defrost it. I also made up a monthly meal plan and will blog about it this week. I want to make this a weekly post.
I did okay with the goal this week. I continued with my food posting on Friday: "Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?" where I post about what we have been eating. This past week was an okay week.
Be more creative.
I am wanting to do this for a stress relief more than anything. I got 2 sloth coloring books for Christmas and would like to get in the habit of coloring. I also would like to get back into painting a bit. This could also look like making new recipes in the kitchen, etc.
I colored a page in my sloth coloring book one night.
Be Grateful.
I love Anne's postings of her daily joys that she was doing weekly on her blog "Cooking and All that Jazz." I have a dollar store planner that I plan on putting by my bed and each night recording at least 1 things each day that I am grateful for.
I wasn't very grateful this week. I was and am in a pretty bad mood most of the weekend and I know I should be grateful. Just so hard to do when all I seem to face are uphill battles ALL THE TIME.
Show Grace.
And finally, I have chosen a word for the year....GRACE. I would like to offer grace to others and to myself. I find at times I have a temper and get annoyed at little things. I would like to take a step back, offer grace to others and move on. I have tried to put this into practice the last 2 weeks and I have noticed a difference in my mental state.
I am trying.
So there you have it--the update on my goals.
How was your weekend? Anyone else feeling depressed/grumpy lately? What do you do when you feel grumpy or stressed out or depressed?
Happy Friday everyone! Thank you for the kind words on my post yesterday. My hubby surprised me with flowers yesterday when he came home from work. He said he knew that I had a bad day and he wanted to make me smile. I thanked him and then dropped the bombshell that our washer is broke AGAIN. I am such a great wife! LOL
I am still feeling "off" today, not really able to focus on much of anything. In fact, I zoned in front of the TV for most of the morning watching the series "Sweet Magnolias" on Netflix. I just can't seem to focus. It is really hard to explain how I am feeling today. However, focus I must. I started dishes and now am going to do my foodie post before I have to go pick up kids from school. I hope everyone in staying warm!
So now, let's talk about food! As I mentioned in my New Year's Goal post, I want to menu plan, stick to it and blog about it each week. Well, I thought about what day of the week to post these menu highlights. A lot of people post on Sunday or Monday as that is the days that their menus start. However, that really doesn't work for me. So, I have decided to post on Fridays. I am doing this because Thursdays are days that I try to go to the grocery store for the following week and it is when I really finalize my menu plan for the next week. Therefore, "Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here?" came to mind.
I am going to be doing 2 things with these posts. First I will highlight what we ate the previous week, whether we followed the plan, etc. Then I will post what the plan is for the next week. If you feel inclined to follow along, please do. I get inspiration from blogs and postings online for new recipes to try, things to add to my menus, etc. So without further ado, let's get this Foodie Friday: What are we eating around here? started.
What did we eat these past two weeks?
Friday 2-12-21: Pizza and fruit
Saturday 2-13-21: Mississippi Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes, green beans
Sunday 2-14-21: Valentine's Day so not sure what hubby and I will be eating or what we are feeding the kids. LOL The kids had dinosaur chicken nuggets, lima beans, and pineapple. Bill and I had Mexican take-out.
Monday 2-15-21: White Chicken Chili in the crockpot (this is new recipe. We are supposed to get the winter storm with 6-12 inches of snow so this seems perfect to try.) Honestly I was disappointed in this recipe... there was so much spicey heat that it was too spicy to eat. It also wasn't very creamy, so I will be continuing to be on the lookout for a different recipe.
Tuesday 2-16-21: Pancakes, bacon and fruit
Wednesday 2-17-21: Macaroni and cheese and peas
Thursday 2-18-21: Baked Denver omelet, hash browns (which cooked in the air fryer were PERFECTION!), fruit-- we also had banana bread that my nephew and I made while he and my niece were here during their snow day.
What are we planning to eat this coming week?
Friday 2-19-21: Cheese pizza and fruit
Saturday 2-20-21: BBQ pork sandwiches, cole slaw, chips
Sunday 2-21-21: Chicken pot pie turnovers and salad
Monday 2-22-21: ???
Tuesday 2-23-21: ???
Wednesday 2-24-21: ???
Thursday 2-25-21: ???
I have no clue what to make next week. I am not feeling making out a menu and I just have no inspiration. The kids have a lot of things going on next week and I just don't know.
