It was 5:30 or later before I woke up this morning. After coming downstairs to turn the coffee pot on I checked the temperature - 51. Not too bad. I turned the furnace up to 72 to take the chill off, and it was soon quite comfortable.
After having our morning coffee we headed to the park to walk. What a gorgeous day! The sun was shining, the birds were singing and people were walking. Everything seems like it should be right in the world!
We walked our two miles, visiting the entire time, as we usually do. Another gorgeous morning. No wind as you can see in the picture below.
 |
| No movement of the flag. |
 |
| Pretty morning. |
 |
| The Rock - in High School kids used to carve their initials on this rock. I'm sure you could still find a few of them. It has sure worn down over the years. |
When we returned I made our morning shakes, washed the dishes, put a load of towels in the washing machine, stripped the bed then moved to the kitchen. Dean had already headed to the garage and I started in on my list for the morning. I bought some grapes and strawberries at Sam's the other day - they looked so nice, but I've not had a chance to do anything with them. So I pulled both of those containers out as well as a stalk of celery. An hour later I had 3 - two cup packages of cut up strawberries in the freezer, a plastic container of grapes picked and washed, and a bag of celery sticks cut up for snacks/lunch. Next I pulled out the Instapot, added a cup of water and my steam rack, then placed a dozen eggs inside. I left it to do it's magic. When it was done the eggs went in an ice bath. After I washed dishes, I made egg salad with six of the egss, and six more were made into deviled eggs. Next I removed a whole chicken from the freezer and set it in a pan to begin thawing for our dinner tomorrow night. After getting everything cleaned up in the kitchen, I headed back upstairs to make the bed. By now the towels were done and put away, and the sheets are now in the washer.
I was glad it was time to sit down and have lunch. After my lunch, I opened Dean's computer and finally figured out how to use it - it's been a long time since I've had to use his. I inserted the CD of pictures from Christmas 2005. They came up right away, now to try and remember how I get them uploaded to his Google photos, so I can send them to mine. It's been quite awhile since I've done that too, but it wasn't quite as difficult as I thought it might be. I downloaded the entire CD to Photos, then picked out my favorites and moved those to an Album, December 2005. All in all it is faster than taking the picture with either of the photo apps I found. It will save me much time as I go through these. Unfortunately there will still be plenty that will need to be scanned in.
I called Cindy, but she was on the phone and said she would call me back. I wanted to take the grocery items I bought to her. I also took her little chopper back to her along with the pecans she gave me. I was hoping when she put it together it would work for her, and sure enough it did. She had to be more forceful putting it together than Dean and I did. We were afraid of breaking it, but I was sure glad it worked, and I had not broke it. She said it was harder to put together than it's ever been. After she got it together, she chopped my pecans and it worked great. That is an item I have on my "wish list".
I watched an episode of Trisha Yearwood's Kitchen while I ate my lunch. She was making some giant meatballs. Instead of cutting up veggies to put in it, she used a food processor. I think I could do that with a small chopper similar to Cindy's (maybe a 3 cup rather than 2) using one veggie at a time, then mixing them. It included carrots, celery, onion and garlic. They looked delicious.
When Cindy called me back, I took her stuff out and we visited for a short time. I made a quick stop at the drug store but they didn't have what I was looking for, then I headed to our lot. Dean and I walked it again, talking about what to clear out, etc. We are anxious to get more of the "brushy" areas cleaned up and get grass growing. We took pictures of the trees and bushes trying to figure out what they were. There are several that are not familiar to either of us.
 |
| This the area where the greenery is laid down like something has been laying in it. I took a picture of these, then checked Google Lens to find out these are lily's. |
 |
| More iris' getting ready to bloom - looks like they two will be purple. |
I called my step brother Mike yesterday to wish him a happy birthday, but my call went straight to his voicemail. I didn't leave a message, as I figured he would see my missed call and call me back at some point, but I had not heard from him. I tried to call again this evening and again it went to voicemail, so this time I left a message. After a couple of hours I still had not heard from him so I sent him a text and asked if he was there? He responded Yes, I'm here, are you there? Silly guy! He called me a few minutes later. I told him Cindy and I had both called him yesterday and since we had not heard anything from him (which is very unusual) I was beginning to wonder about him. Evidently his phone is the problem. The same thing happened when his son called him on his birthday. He may be looking to upgrade soon. Lol!
While it was a busy day, it was also a very good day!
Tuesday, April 21, 2020 - Still Staying Busy!
 |
| Sun coming up as I headed to the store. |
The sun was shining this morning when we headed to the park to walk. One of the things that makes the days better right now is seeing the sun shine! It gives me hope that tomorrow WILL be a better day!
 |
Everything is turning green and the trees are so pretty as their leaves fill them out. |
After we returned and had our breakfast, Dean headed to the garage. Today was "clean the washer day". I decided to put about 1/2 cup bleach in this morning. The original instructions I received said to use a cup, but when I called the company they told me I didn't need to use it. I was surprised at the amount of suds that were generated by using the bleach. I'm not sure if the bleach caused it, or soap build up in the machine somewhere. Per the manual I received I put very little soap in the machine compared to the washer I had in our house.
It takes about 1.5 hours to run each cycle, and the instructions say to run three cycles. It took all morning to do this. In between cycles, I cooked the chicken I took out of the freezer yesterday in the Instapot. It was the first time doing this but it worked wonderfully! I didn't "roast" it since I was going to use the meat for chicken and noodles. I added a cup of water, added my trivet, then added the chicken with the breast side up. I set it on poultry, allowing six minutes for each of the 6 pounds. Once the 36 minutes were up I let it do a natural release. It was wonderful. Very tender and juicy. I let it sit to cool in a pan.
My daughter, Misti called around 10:30 to let me know she was picking Kamron (our granddaughter) up later to play golf with her and Dean. She wanted to know if I would want Jaxson to stay with me, if it was okay with my son Marc. I told her it would be fine and I'd call Marc to visit with him about it. I was sure he would be fine with it and he was, and asked if I could help him with his daily homework. Sure, I can!
Misti came by to pick Dean up a little before 1, and Jaxson stayed with me. I told him we had to do his homework first. While he wasn't real excited about it, he agreed. I tried to make it as fun as I could for him. Thirty minutes later and we were done. He said he was hungry. I asked him what he wanted....pancakes. He really liked the ones I made him last week, so of course, we made pancakes. I got the ingredients together and he stirred it up, then I helped him put the batter in the pan, then helped him turn each one. I'm glad he enjoys helping and wants to be involved. While he ate his pancakes, I picked the meat off the chicken. After it went in the refrigerator for later, I put things away while Jaxson finished eating.
Afterwards we played "Go Fish". Always fun with him. Then we decided to go for a walk. It was such a beautiful day. We saw a bluebird, and many robins. He loves new things. He chattered away the entire 1.5 miles we walked and I enjoyed having him along to visit with. He is such a happy guy.
We were almost back to the RV, when I saw a car pull up and watched Dean and Kamron got out. We watched while they went inside, then I came up and knocked on the door. It was after five so we gathered up Jaxson's things, then left to take them back to Parsons. We had a nice visit with Kamron on the way back. We missed Marc - he's been super busy trying to get projects done as well as preparing for their move to their new home in less than 2 weeks. I know they will be glad to have it all done and settled, so they can return to a normal routine.
As soon as we returned I started supper, and washing the chicken prep and lunch dishes, while the noodles cooked in the broth. You just can't beat chicken and noodles for comfort food. It was warm enough today we had to turn on the air conditioner for a couple of hours. It cooled down as soon as the sun started to drop. Having the air on long enough to take the heat out was nice since I was cooking inside tonight. I was tired once dinner and the dishes were done. I think I may have slept in my chair for at least an hour or more before heading to bed at 9:30. I'm thankful for the day though, getting things done, and spending time with the grandkids. I'm thankful Dean enjoyed his afternoon with Misti, Kamron and Haleigh too. Haleigh just rode along with them, since she's not a golfer, but it's nice they all had the chance to visit.
No comments:
Post a Comment