Little books - Good reads

I’ve finished three more prompts for the 52 books challenge by choosing short books. Two of them are children’s books but I enjoyed them all.

Genre chosen for you by someone else: My 8 yr old granddaughter has zipped through this whole series and says they are really good! I thought it had good characters and the story worked for both children and adults.

Has a moon on the cover: This came up in the Facebook group for this challenge and I thought "Why not?" Really good art, very short brief written segments and I learned something.

Author has won an Edgar award: I've never made it through one of his doorstop books but was intrigued by this different one. Quite short, written in 2 weeks after he was requested to do so, mixes history of cathedral construction and fires with his own experiences. All profits and royalties went to the reconstruction fund.

Monday musings & the week ahead

I’ve decided I need to push through getting some things done instead of not being as focused.

This past weekend I poached 2 large chicken breasts which also produced a batch of chicken stock. One was shredded and the other cut in slices. Half a shredded breast went into a chicken and black bean enchilada casserole which is 2 dinners. The rest went into the freezer along with leftover tortillas, cheese and enchiladas sauce for a future casserole. 

Chicken chef salad and a chicken stir fry will be on the menu in the future too. I also made a big pot of veggie soup which will do a couple of dinners and some lunches.

I painted 15 swatches of paint samples on the patio - 5 different colors in 3 different locations to check against house/trim and flagstone/gravel colors plus different lights. We think we have a winner so I enlarged the main swatches of the top 2 and will live with them a while. 

I also just went ahead and tried ironing the creases out of the dress I am wearing to our niece's wedding. After reading up on how to steam a dress,  I wasn’t ready to learn how using this one. The creases are mostly gone and who knows what being in a suitcase will do to it anyway. As my son says, “It will be fine”.

I also drove to the mall to do the last batch of returns. The American hobby of shopping was in full swing despite the current economic uncertainty. I think I am fine for clothes for the rest of the year though and really am not interested in ordering online or going back to the mall for the forseeable future.

Looking ahead to this week:

We are babysitting both girls the evening of the annual gala fundraiser at the nonprofit DIL works for as head of development. Then, pending the 8 year old’s social calendar, we are having her over Friday evening for parents' date night while the 2 year old stays at daycare for kid’s night out.

Otherwise just at home exercise as my Pilates trainer sprained her ankle. I also have my biannual bone density test. Not that time with the grandkids won’t be fun, but I would like to add something fun for me and/or us.  

I’ll probably focus on pushing to have as little as possible on the endless to do list to rollover into June however.  Possibilities are to clear out the old computer, finish cleaning kitchen cupboards & drawers, and starting to paint the rusty spots on the outdoor metal benches. I have a couple of phone calls I need to make too. Fun? Nope, but I'm the one who has to do these things.

Five Plus on Friday

It has been a good week. The weather is warming up, family time was fun, I'm working on getting my dinner planning mojo back and the pup is lots of fun as usual.

I’m going to try to not read the news through the weekend to see if it helps my mood. Has anyone done a news fast since the new administration took over?

1. Saturday we went to the 8 year old granddaughter's practice swim meet at her final swim team prep class. She sure does love being in the water and the bonus is it is such great exercise. I think she is enjoying getting strong as well as mastering of all the strokes. 

2. Mother's Day we went to brunch at our son and DIL's. They fixed quite a feast. Hubby pitched in while the grandmother's got to enjoy the kiddos. At the end of the meal the 2 year old decided to sing us her repertoire of songs - Twinkle, Twinkle; ABCs; Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Old MacDonald. We were all singing along and laughing by the end. She has a very outgoing personality.

3. An across the street neighbor's house is now for sale. I hope the new neighbors are as pleasant as the others living on our little court. The house is in lovely shape and larger than ours. It is hard to tell if the market here has slowed or not so we are following the sale progress out of nosy neighborliness lol.

4. The pup is really warming up to the neighbor who will pet sit him while we go to the wedding at the end of the month. We went over to visit again and he very busily took off to check out all the rooms in her house as the curious pup he is. He asks to go to her door now each time we walk past her house.

5. Wedding attendance prep is almost done - clothes bought, car and plane reserved, gift purchased, dog info together, Uber back on my phone, and plans coordinated with our "kids". We are all going out to dinner on the night before the wedding before attending the drinks and nibbles evening event. Breakfasts at the condo thankfully.

6. We went to the nearby Pacific East mall and had a nice lunch. We planned to go to a dim sum restaurant but the wait was too long. We'll try again another time but enjoyed the restaurant we went to. We used to go to Chinatown in Los Angeles decades ago dim sum and it would be fun to do it again. I'd only driven by the mall before and now am curious about its history.

7. We really want to paint our large patio as the current paint is chipping a lot and currently is three different colors in places showing its history. The difficulty of finding a color that will work and we both like is real especially when your husband has a form of red-green color deficiency. We haven’t gotten the bid yet so it’s all ok but I always seem to block out how hard this is for us until we do it again!

Healthy vegetarian or minimal meat/fish/eggs dinner ideas?

I came up with a list of ones we have eaten in the past and would really like to add others that aren’t too complicated or take a long time.

FYI, I don’t like chickpeas, hate olives, and am not that fond of tofu or quinoa although I will eat them. I like the taste of Asian and Indian foods but have to really watch my salt intake. Hubby is non-dairy except for cheese and yogurt.

I went through our recipe file, looked online, asked Hubby and searched my memory for these ideas.

• Eggplant Parmesan with rice or pasta
• Roasted eggplant ratatouille 
• Vegetable pizza
• Stuffed zucchini 
• Mexican stuffed peppers 
• Corn and black bean enchiladas
• Bean and cheese tostados 
• Vegetarian nachos
• Black beans, rice, peppers & onion skillet with shredded cheese - serve fajita style or with Spanish rice
• Tofu and veggie stir fry 
• Veggies (steamed or roasted) and cheese over brown rice
• Stuffed acorn squash
• Pasta primavera
• Goat cheese pasta with broccoli
• Pasta salad
• Bean salad
• Bruschetta 
• Minestrone
• Lentil and carrot soup
• Bob’s Red Mill Veggie soup mix

Minimal meat/fish/eggs

• Pesto and salmon pasta
• Chicken and bean tostados 
• Fish/shrimp and bean tacos
• Fajitas 
• Huevos rancheros
• Turkey and bean chili
• Beef, pork or shrimp stir fry
• Veggie frittata 
• Chicken noodle soup
• Tuna chef salad
• Spinach salad with strawberries, cheese, nuts and hard cooked eggs
• Potato salad with hard cooked eggs
• Nicoise salad

The Hawaii Plan had a recent post with a great list of dinner ideas with lots of recipe links. That will be very helpful too.

Monday Musings & the Week Ahead

My musings today are on the topic of Spend a Lot and Save a Little (but do it repeatedly!)

House Improvement Spending:

We had the painter we trust to do a good job on our old, many layers of paint, and very large concrete patio out for a consultation. We feel confident that his approach would be the best we could hope for and know it will cost us. This is the last piece of redoing the yard and would make it more pleasant to set up an outdoor eating area or otherwise spend more time out there.

We are waiting for the bid and trying to pick out colors. I say colors because the patio has 2 levels with on step between and people don't see that step unless we point it out. We are going to do the 2 levels in different shades of the same color to get some contrast.

Not Shopping Savings:

I was getting ready to ask around to try to borrow a clothes steamer for the wedding guest dress but thinking I would have to buy one. When searching reviews I was reminded that the steamer I bought for cleaning tile floors has an attachment to steam clothes. I found a YouTube on how to use it properly! 

I do like figuring out how to use what I already own. I think if I can get the creases out from how it arrived I can pack it for a brief plane trip without having a problem at the other end. It is washable and can be ironed but I am reluctant before the event is over to do that.

Picking Up Pennies:

I’ll definitely not get rich but I’m now at 15 cents for the year to date. I think Pennie’s are dropped the most because people don’t value them. I use all change for tips at the coffee shop once I have enough so I don’t mind any change.

The Week Ahead

On the calendar are a haircut and Pilates. Possibilities include going to a library presentation on Jack London's photographs and the citywide yard sale on Saturday. As I did for the last yard sale day, I’ll put out with a free sign anything we or our son’s family want to pass on that is in good shape.

Happy Mother’s Day to everyone who …

Was ever kind, supportive, encouraging, loving, helpful, etc. to a child or mother including all who are mothers! You are magnificent!

Five plus on Friday

1. Wedding Prep

• We bought a wedding gift from their registry. Love that it is wrapped, a card included and sent without us having to do it.
• The cleaning fee for the home exchange condo we are sharing with our sons and DILs was $25 less than I remembered and way less than a hotel for 2 nights. We said we would pay it so I mailed a check to my DIL who is handling the arrangements.
• I am sticking with the dress I bought and using a necklace, purse and cardigan I already have. I do have sandals I can use but ordered a couple more pairs to try. The ones I was going to keep hurt my feet when I walked around the house a bit so they went back.
• Hubby went shopping for clothes to wear and got what he needed.
• I am going to write an info sheet about our dog with stuff like words he responds to, feeding schedule, bee sting allergy, etc. In addition I found a "pet caretaker permission to authorize treatment" form and will include it for both our neighbor and our back up sitter along with his vaccination record. 
• Finally put the Uber app back on my phone. I deleted it during the pandemic and actually never used it. It could be essential in Palm Springs.

2. We had a helping family weekend. Saturday I stopped by their house to drop off an anniversary gift and the 8 year old asked to come to our house for a while. Sunday we went over in the afternoon to help clear out their basement for the upcoming foundation replacement. The three of us managed to move out 2/3 of the stuff with brief help from the 8 year old. Some of it moved to our garage to be stored during the work.

 

3. The roadside seller of local honey was set up nearby just as we needed some. I bought another decent sized jar for $20. That makes the 3rd jar for us plus one gift jar since we moved in 2 years ago. He thanked me for "supporting my bees"! Bees are so essential for the ecosystem that I should have thanked him.

4. I washed and scrubbed the patio. We have decided to see what it would cost to get it painted properly. That would just leave replacing the carpet as a significant improvement. Then onward to appliances as they age I suppose.

5. I just happened to see that the dress I had bought for the wedding had gone sale for 30% off. My purchase was within the price adjustment window and when they did the adjustment they gave me an additional 20% off which must have been the deal of the day. So the dress that started at $129.99 now is costing me $55.99 plus tax. I won't feel nearly as bad if I never wear it again as it is now less than using Rent the Runway! 

6. I really need a few nicer clothes for the not very warm Spring and summer here. I came home from returning the too large dress with a couple of items and then, after thinking about it, ordered some others I had tried on. We will see what gets to stay and watch for more price adjustment opportunities.