Happy Homemaker Monday, April 26, 2021

How I am feeling this today…
Ready for the week! I have a pretty busy week ahead so I spent time yesterday organizing tasks, menu planning, and setting myself up for success.

The Weather…


Seems like a nice week ahead of us! I know a lot of people who would like it warmer, but I am totally OK with temperatures in the 60s and 70s. Summer will be here soon enough — let’s enjoy spring!

On the breakfast plate…
Well, it’s long past breakfast, but I had an apple danish and a cup of tea today. For lunch I had a cup of homemade chicken noodle soup. (Call me a snob, but I just can’t stand the canned stuff!)

On my reading pile…
Yesterday I finished Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill, and I really liked it a lot! I think it’s a book that appeals to a certain personality, though. I can see why some people aren’t charmed by it, but I really enjoyed it. I also recently finished Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Mari, which is for my May Global Literature Book Club. I fell absolutely in love with this book. It is sad and emotional, and really got to my heart. Both are quick reads (or quick listens if, like me, you’re on an audiobook kick). Currently I’m getting a jump on the June Book Club selection, which is Disoriental by Négar Djavadi. I also have The Hands-On Home by Erica Strauss checked out. It looked like a sweet little book.

On my TV…
Drew and I started watching “The Last Man on Earth” on Hulu and it’s pretty good. Also, the usual “Law & Order: SVU” as well as the new “Law & Order: Organized Crime.”

On the menu this week…
Monday: Chicken cordon blue
Tuesday: BBQ pork chops and macaroni & cheese
Wednesday: Tacos
Thursday: Meatloaf
Friday: Take out (?)
Saturday: Kielbasa and pierogis

Looking around the house…
I did a ton of cleaning yesterday, catching up on laundry, washing the floors and organizing things so I’m not in bad shape! I have a pile of clean laundry to put away and I really need to clean up my “nest” area (as I like to call it) around my favorite chair. It’s where I have all of books, yarn, planner stuff, etc.

To relax this week I will…
I started a new blanket over the weekend (just a C2C pattern), so I’ll keep hooking away on that.

Something I want to share…
If you’re on Instagram and want to learn about government in a non-partisan way, follow SharonSaysSo. I absolutely love her Stories and at some point I want to take one of her Government for Grownups classes. She explains things really clearly, is not judgy at all, and she’s hilarious! Check her out.

What’s New Around Here

Forsythia

Well that week flew by, didn’t it? I don’t even know how it happened, but here we are… Wednesday again!

Spring flowers

Last Friday morning I got my 2nd COVID shot (Pfizer vaccine), and it wasn’t that bad. About four hours after the shot I got the same dull headache at the back of my head, and the sore neck I got after the 1st shot. I powered through work and by the time I sat down at home around 5 PM I realized how tired I was.

Shot #2 - Done!

The next day I felt really good when I woke up, but halfway through the morning I started to feel tired and slightly achy. If it wasn’t a Saturday I definitely could had pushed myself, but since it was the weekend I just took it easy and drank a lot of water. By Sunday I was my old self again! I went grocery shopping in the morning and spent the afternoon crafting.

This first half of this week has been a blur! Monday I was really busy at work, editing and submitting a grant. Yesterday was Drew’s birthday. He used a Lowe’s gift card to get some plants for the side of our driveway. We started working on this area last year and are trying to really fill it in with shrubs and flowers.

For dinner he wanted chicken marsala from a local restaurant so we ordered that to-go and just relaxed in the evening.

This morning I caught up on laundry, washing extra blankets that we probably won’t need again until the fall. I made tortellini soup for lunch. I have just been craving lately and since we had some spinach that really needed to be used up, it was the perfect excuse!

Tortellini Soup

After that I ran a few errands with Noah and Laura. I went to pick up my prescription (sigh, not there — our medical practice is really dropping the ball when meds need to be re-upped), dropped off some clothing donations, grabbed a few items at the store, and then we swung by Stewart’s for a treat — an ice cream cone for Laura and hot dogs for Noah, who had skipped lunch (knowing we were going to Stewart’s).

Once we got home I threw together a fajita marinade for chicken tenderloins, prepped corn for tonight, and made a delicious banana bread with dark chocolate chips. Oh, I can’t wait to grill a slice for breakfast tomorrow!

Banana bread

Yup, it was a busy day! But the good kind of busy. After all that, I just sat down to relax a bit and enjoy my day off. I finally settled on a blanket pattern for this yarn that has been staring me down for months. Nothing exciting — I just decided to do a C2C pattern. My reasoning is that there’s really no guesswork involved. Once I use half my skeins, I will start decreasing and that will be that! It’s also what I consider a pretty mindless pattern — one that I can work on while watching TV in the evening. Maybe once it’s done I’ll add a more intricate border. We’ll see.

New C2C lap blanket

Dinner came together quick, and it was delicious! I had scored some of the Elote seasoning from Aldi and was excited to try it. The corn was definitely spicy! I’m not sure if it was everyone’s cup of tea, but I really enjoyed it.

Chicken fajitas

Well, I guess that catches us up! Drew is finishing up the dishes, and that’ll be about it for tonight. Hope you all had a great day!

Blogging Like it’s 1999

Well, it’s been a while. Again. The other morning I was scrolling through my Instagram feed and saw this image and it reminded me of my poor, neglected, little blog here.

Rhonda’s comment reads,
“Listening to Prince and reading all your heartwarming comments yesterday gave me an unexpected but fun idea. If any of you are keen to join me and return to blogging the way we used to when it all first started, then please use this awesome Prince-inspired hashtag, #letsbloglikeits1999, so that we can all follow along! Who knows—maybe this is how we get the movement started? 🙂

Friends, let’s blog like it’s 1999!


Who’s in?”

The funny thing is… I actually started blogging in 1999. Back then we were calling them “online journals” but… yeah. I’ve been at this for quite a while and I definitely support Rhonda’s sentiment of blogging like it’s 1999. I love that other bloggers are embracing this, and I know I keep saying I want to write more, I want to get things down. And then… well… life kind of gets in the way. Work, family, chores, a freaking pandemic. It all just snowballs, doesn’t it? But I think I’m going to print out this Instagram pic and keep it in my planner where I’ll see it every day and it will hopefully remind me to get on here more often.