To appreciate our Easter this year, we have to start on Good Friday. Maybe we can blame some of the weekend on the full moon?

Good Friday

I had the day off but J had school as they were using the day as a make-up snow day (not a hugely popular decision but it beats going to school after Memorial Day).  Spent the day making this recipe for hot cross buns. Note: The buns turned out but it also happens no one else in the family liked them. SIGH. I think if I’d skipped the glaze, I could’ve sold them better.

When I went to pick J up from school, things got interesting. We’re almost home and I casually mention I picked him up a little later because I thought he’d bring his baritone home.

J: Oh yeah, I forgot it!

Me: It’s okay, I doubt you have practice this Sunday (He’s in a band with his private lesson teacher that typically practices on Sunday nights)

J: I need it though for when we play at the church on Sunday.

Me: What? Are you playing at the church this Sunday for Easter?!

J: Yes. I told you that. (Everyone with teenagers can figure out the tone here. And no, I don’t think he did)

Me: Are you sure? What time are you supposed to be there?

J: YES. (This is where you just know it’s not worth the argument) 9:30

Me: Okay, so I guess you’re playing at the 11:00 a.m. service.

And with that, we turned around and went back to the school for the 3rd time in one day. He ran in and was able to get his baritone (A nice janitor let him in the band room. Whew!)

Saturday

Usually a day where in the past, I’d spend the entire day in the kitchen preparing for Easter brunch. Instead, early in the morning, I went to Target and overdid it on items for my big kids’ Easter baskets. Worked in the yard a bit, not much it was too cold. Overall, a rather low-key day. 

Easter Sunday

We could probably subtitle the beginning of our Easter, a comedy of errors.

First: Crockpot Chaos!

The ham I planned to cook in the crockpot while we attended the church service was too big for the lid to fit. Decided to throw it on the smoker instead. Realize, I don’t have the right size can of pineapple so make a hurried dash to the store (thank you stores for being open early in the morning on Easter) to grab it and a few dinner extras. Hurry to get back so I can take J to the church by 9:30.

Second: Time Changes are Never Fun!

Rush home, it’s 9:10 and J’s not ready. Ask him why not? He informs me he doesn’t need to be there until 10:30. Wait, what. This changes all the plans. Now, we’ll all have to hurry so we can all go together (Original plan: I drop him off, come home and get ready and the rest of us go to get there at 11). Start my mad dash of getting ready. J comes out of his room panicked. I read it wrong. It WAS 9:30.  This is at 9:20. Okay, get dressed and I’ll get you there. You’ll just be about 5-10 minutes late. Away we go!

Then, We “Home Alone’d” Our Oldest Son

Get back from mad dash number one to the church. Why isn’t G up yet? Husband tells me, G says he didn’t know anything about it and isn’t going. We had a whole conversation about it, I’m not happy at this point. However, I need to finish getting ready. About 10 minutes before we need to leave, G gets in the shower. I think, maybe he’s trying to hurry up so can come with us. Husband says we need to leave NOW. I say but I think he’s trying to go with us. No, he’s just in the shower replies my husband. I think he’s wrong but comply and we get in the car. We’re 5 minutes from the highway, a phone call from G. Where are you guys? You Home Alone’d (his words) me. I was planning to come. SIGH.

Church Service

Finally, we arrive at the church and enjoy a lovely Easter morning service. I was sorry that G missed it as the pastor shared a great message. And of course, the band and choirs sounded amazing.

Easter Dinner

Came home, starving but dinner wasn’t ready yet. Waffles for a late breakfast/lunch. We didn’t end up eating our dinner until around 5. Ham, asparagus, green beans, corn, and rolls (not the hot cross buns). White chocolate strawberries for dessert (melted too much almond bark and made pretzels as well).

Now, we have lots of leftovers but not as many as the years where I’d host the big Easter brunch for our families. Still trying to figure out how I still ended up in the kitchen almost all day though. In the end, it was a nice Easter, everyone was up at a decent but not too early time and we had a nice day and dinner.

Still trying to navigate these changing traditions as the kids get older so who knows how next year will look. And I need to work on taking more pictures on the holidays!  How was your Easter?

Had a few minutes this morning as my work schedule changed. Went from training this afternoon, to a full day, to just a few hours followed by training. And I’m going in to work to do a zoom meeting type training. Don’t even ask.

Not yet Thursday but I should also throw in here how very thankful I am for hot coffee and warm breakfasts.

Pouring down rain again today and cold! Had to don the mud boots to take the trash and recycle out to the curb. (Note: snow boots in the winter are the same boots I call mud boots once it becomes spring)

Thankfully, I brought in all the sensitive plants last night. Hopefully, Lucinda the lemon tree won’t shudder and throw off all her leaves now.

Since spring cleaning and the scary terrifying number on the scale have been mostly on my mind. Thought I’d share some fun sites I’ve found while browsing the land of the Internet. Maybe you’ll enjoy them as well.

Weight Loss Related Sites

These are some sites that caught my eye while searching for various weight loss ideas and plans. Most of my searches in this area start with the word “free” because I’m cheap. Plus, I’ll be honest, it’s not like I need to pay someone to tell me what I need to do. Going back to the old adage, really, I need to pay someone to follow me around and slap my hand whenever I pick up junk food.

Sites found browsing the land the of weight loss ideas, a vast sea I’ve narrowed to a few favorites:

The Mom Grows Up blog caught my eye when I was doing a weight watchers vs Noom search.

(Sidebar: I thought $159 for 6 months of Noom was a bit pricey! $159 for 6 months after a free 14 day trial? Pass. And why do free trials always demand your payment up front? Let me really try for free and then, if I’m happy, you can have my money. I don’t appreciate the mal-intent behind hoping I’ll forget to cancel even if it seems to be the way of the world.)

I read quite a few of her posts and found her very relatable in her struggles and enjoyed the humor in the posts. She also mentioned this book titled Brain-Powered Weight Loss which intrigued me.

Reading her posts and reviews/thoughts on the various diets made me realize something about myself, I hate doing food math. Whether with calories through Noom or points with Weight Watchers, it all feels too complicated to me.

I just want to eat and be healthy. That thought led me to this article:  20 Ways To Lose Weight Without Counting Calories, According to Experts and Real Women  

Common sense advice. I think I’ll print the article out as a reminder to myself. One last link to share in this area as I remembered I had a whole Pinterest board devoted to getting healthy! And an item on my 22 list to try my pins this year, clean up those boards. Note: pins made long ago might no long lead to very nice sites, SIGH. This pin still worked, however, and I think I’ll start by adding it in to a routine. Especially after the whole pulled muscle from kicking the chair thing: How to Regain Flexibility After 50

Let’s move on from this topic and see what I found when browsing the land of the Internet regarding spring cleaning.

Spring Cleaning Fun

I’ve not done a lot of spring cleaning this week. Honestly most my to do list items remain undone today. However, last week I did find this fun site when searching up “spring cleaning in a weekend.” It’s a site devoted to weekends and I’m quite enamored with it. Been reading it a lot when I should have been cleaning. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy Almost the Weekend as much as I am. It’s my favorite place of all the Internet land I’ve explored in the last week or so.

Finally, since I need to stay a bit on track, I also found this handy calendar called 31 Days of Deep Cleaning Your Home over at Laura’s Crafty Life. It’s nice how it isn’t for any one specific month so could be used at any time. And some time soon, I might just give it a try.

Have you found anything interesting while searching/browsing the Internet lately?

Been a while it seems since I just did a general post. So, this will likely be as the title says a long and rambling post.

Family Matters

Does anyone remember that show? Steve Urkel and his catchphrase: Did I do that?

I’ve got quite the load of parental guilt regarding J’s anxiety/mental health anguish right now. Feeling like I failed Pandemic parenting 101. I mean I was prepared for nuclear winter parenting not pandemic parenting. SIGH. Okay, I was prepared for neither and yes, I know things could be so much worse.

I struggle a bit with what and how much to share of all this. Mainly, I ask myself is it really my story to share? However, I think it might help someone not feel alone should they stumble across this blog (and they’d really have to stumble as I’m loathe to use the whole SEO stuff too often, too much of a headache!).

It also helps to share my thoughts on it a bit. Clear out a bit of the mental space it’s taking up in my head.

Snow days definitely don’t help when trying to get a kid back to some semblance of a routine. Yesterday was a rough one and a no go on the school front. Followed by more bad news from the band director. He’s sharing that sad news of ineligibility with J today. He’s still in band but because of attendance/grades ineligible for contests. One of his favorite things. I appreciated the warning from the band director who knew it was going to be a tough blow coming as things were starting to look up again.

Hope

At least we have a new therapist who seems a bit better than the last one (or perhaps that’s just wishful thinking) and full evaluation to hopefully get complete answers coming up soon. Just hoping and praying for things to get better as winter falls away into spring and summer. Might be the cause of some of my spring fever.

Recharging

When I ran to the grocery store on Monday, the everyday bouquets of flowers were marked half-price! Of course I bought some. Or rather I told my husband he bought me some. Ha!

I wanted to share more pictures of them with you here but alas the camera battery needed to recharge this morning as did my phone. Is it just here that all the phone chargers disappear on a scale on equal to socks in the dryer?

Since J did indeed go to school this morning, I plan to use some of this time to recharge myself. Doing what I do not yet know. It’s much too cold to be outside though the sun is shining brightly. Seven degrees with negative wind chills is not exactly walking weather. Perhaps I’ll do the boring mom thing and clean up a bit. A clean house always makes me feel better. Once the camera battery charges, I’ll work on taking more “in focus” photos of the flowers.

Whatever I do, I plan to take my time with it.

Healthy Stuff

Or maybe it should say unhealthy stuff? I don’t know. The scale number surpassed my scary limit so I’m trying to be a bit more mindful of the crazy amounts of junk I’ve been eating. Stress and emotional eating do not help here. Neither does the abundance of junk food first left from Christmas, then from Valentine’s Day (not quite as much but my husband did buy a giant tub of M&M’s that I keep hiding behind the vitamins. And then, someone keeps bringing back out to the kitchen table.

I have started taking a dose of apple cider vinegar (YUCK!) each morning after eating breakfast and finishing my coffee. It’s supposed to help regulate hormones, another issue happening. I have it on my list today to make a doctor’s appointment for myself. Bottom of the list mom here. Who quite honestly isn’t sure if she’s up to dealing with her own issues until she knows what’s happening with her kid.

Looked for the apple cider vinegar in caplets. So many brands! And why can’t they just have apple cider vinegar? The brand I’d planned to buy adds zinc and vitamin D to their caplets. Um, I don’t remember much from 10th grade biology (actually, I remember quite a bit which is weird) but D,E,A,K are the ones that you don’t want to over do. And I already take a vitamin with C,D, and Zinc.

Final Thoughts

This might be one for my blogging friends. Do you mentally write posts and then, never quite get the thoughts down on your blog? Or is it just me? Sometimes, I get as far as title: Dealing with Disappointment, Routine Adjustment, or A Glimpse at my Rudolph Day and then, nothing. Other times the whole posts is simply written in my head as I go about my day.

Last week (and really, I still want to officially write this one), I had a whole post about being a “but” going in my mind. Those people (sometimes it’s me) who always finish a happy thought with a negative. Perhaps, part of today’s recharge is going to be be actually writing that post as I really want to share those thoughts.

However, I think I’ve reached the end of this long and rambling post. Thanks for sticking around if you’re still reading. And tell me, how do you recharge?

I think that perhaps for the first time ever, we stayed home on Christmas day and didn’t host anyone either. It was strange and wonderful all at once!

Christmas Eve:

For the first time in many years, I didn’t spend the entire day shopping. Other than a quick run to World Market to look for golden syrup (for a recipe that didn’t happen as they were out of it), no running around in the crowds for me. It was nice to be at home during the day. Of course, my husband spent the day helping a friend so he wasn’t home. However, he spent many years “holding down the fort” while I shopped so I didn’t mind. That evening, we all went to church together (J played with the band at his baritone teacher’s church for 2 services) for the candlelight Christmas Eve service. I’ve always wanted to go to church on Christmas Eve, we just never have so I was very happy. The service was excellent. I’m hoping attending the candlelight Christmas Eve service is a tradition that continues.

…the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be
On your own front door 

And while I have a standard policy of not sharing photos of my family on the blog , I was very excited to get a great photo of my husband and kids together after the church service that tempted me to break with my policy. Maybe just this one time. (Shh! Don’t tell)

Christmas

On Christmas, the 20 year old who used to wake us up at 4 and 5 a.m. asked to sleep. So, we complied until noon. Then, I couldn’t take it anymore and we woke him up so we could do presents. Everyone seemed happy with their gifts. Mostly clothes, I do miss the sleep-deprived toy days a bit. However, waking up rested on Christmas is also an amazing gift! 

Speaking of being well-rested, my husband gifted me a new pillow. I’ve been on a quest to find a new pillow. I’m a squishy pillow person and I’d tried a couple cheaper new ones but they sounded like squished up coats to me. He splurged and got me what my oldest called “a hotel pillow.” I think it’s down. All I know is it’s squishy AND quiet.  I slept really good last night. My big gift to my husband was a new kitchen trash can as he really hated the one I’d painted to match the walls. So I bought him a plain white one. Welcome to boring married life. 

G gave me some very thoughtful gifts this year: a pop socket for my phone (how did I go so long without one of those?), a photography guide book, and these cool metal bookmarks that look like feathers. J got me the Christmas cactus I wanted and a gift card.

In the morning while waiting on the kids to wake up, we watched Die Hard. In the afternoon, while the kids messed with their gifts (it wasn’t all clothes) and my husband napped, I watched The Matrix Resurrections. I loved the movies and was not disappointed in this one. Despite the not so great reviews, I loved the cheesiness of it. To each their own I suppose.

Other Tidbits From The Day

Food was kind of weird on Christmas. I’d bought cinnamon rolls and a couple eclairs from the good (and oh so expensive, it’s definitely a special occasion kind of place) bakery for our morning. Then, had a loose plan for dinner but forgot to thaw things. So we didn’t really do a Christmas dinner. That part of the day was a bit odd with us kind of eating what was on hand, frozen pizza at lunch, leftover Church’s chicken from Christmas Eve, and then some leftover Thanksgiving turkey (from the freezer) later that night. And of course, way too many Christmas treats from stockings and earlier in the week.

I had a somewhat nice (once I convinced him I didn’t want to talk politics on Christmas) phone call with my brother who lives out of state. Exchanged Christmas texts with my other siblings (signs of the times, huh?) and a few friends. Christmas night I was as tired as if we’d run all over the place (husband said it was because we did nothing all day) and actually dozed off watching How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon one).

Overall, it was a nice day and very relaxing without having to worry about running around or time tables. However, if we repeat our lazy Christmas next year, I’ll be sure to have a proper dinner plan in place! That was the only glitch in the day.

(We do have plans to get together with family later this week.)

How was your Christmas?

It’s raining, storming to be precise, this morning. Much welcomed and needed. Thought I’d pop on here and share a little bit of my rainy day dreaming with you all.

Here are a couple of the things on my mind as I slowly clean the house. Taking my time with everything today.

Autumn?!

Dare I say I’m dreaming a bit of fall? Don’t worry fellow summer lovers, I’ve not abandoned my true summer love but I do believe like reaching the bottom of a too large bowl of ice cream, I’ve had my fill for this year. Looking forward to sitting on the front porch (of course, we need a new bench or at the least bench cushion first) and reading my books with a gentle breeze blowing.

Those classic candles burning on a cool, cloudy, and rainy fall day. (Note: I still think August/September is a bit too soon for pumpkin spice anything but I do have my eye on trying the apple chip macchiato also offered up by Starbucks. And plan to make an apple chip cake very soon!)

A Giant Cottage Garden

Since I didn’t get out and water this morning or get a chance to wander around the flowers and vegetable garden, I’m also rainy day dreaming about next year’s garden already. Ordering away for some free flower and seed garden catalogs. Trying to solve the space problem. In my mind I have a big rambling area to create the perfect cottage garden complete with gravel paths. Maybe something that looks like this garden.

However, in reality…SIGH. I could take over the whole front yard and am tempted. I’ll just have to do it slowly so the husband won’t notice when it went from grass to a huge flower/vegetable garden. Back yard is still so shady, maybe some day I’ll get around to focusing more on it.

And since this is my only day off this week, I’m also dreaming of a slower paced schedule (hopefully) for next week. What’s on your mind today?

(Note: Here I go again with forgetting to hit the publish button on my posts! This was from yesterday. Our weather today is great & I’m off to work. Happy Wednesday!)

Today I’m not working but rather eating many frogs.

Working on this post between bites. Just finished one of the biggest frogs on the plate, cleaning the room where we had to keep Chip after his vet visit on Tuesday. Suffice it to say, he needs to be someone’s outdoor cat for sure. Also, cleaned out Chelsey’s litter box.  The joys of owning a cat! Hopefully, Chip will be with his new family soon and Chelsey can return to being queen of the front porch.

After that fun, I’m paying bills. Filling some paperwork. And trying to organize (yet again) this desk top area. Soon, I’m hoping to transition some of these tasks to upstairs once I get familiar with my new (to me) laptop computer.

Spending some time downstairs cleaning up the mess left by my basement camp week. Not sure where I’m going to put all the stuff but I’ll figure it out.

Sadly, ordering flowers for a funeral service. The classic, a peace lily. Don’t want to order as that will make things seem so real. However, it must be done.

Finally, opening and washing the extra masks I ordered. With both boys in school and wearing masks almost daily, I didn’t want to be washing masks twice a week. If you’re interested (I get no commissions or anything just sharing for the sake of sharing here), I ordered these masks from Amazon. Aside from the paper ones, we all agree these are the most comfortable as they are very light weight.  And can I just add that I very much hope/pray the only masks we’re discussing this time next year are of the Halloween variety?

And all throughout the eating of my many frogs today, a side serving of laundry. Of course!

Do you have any frogs to eat? Speaking of eating frogs, have you ever had frog legs? I have not but have heard they taste just like chicken. I think, however, I’ll continue to stick with simply the chicken.