The Ghost of Onions Past

It is 8 pm.  I was just out back with Ruby the Wonder Spaniel and sensed that something was wrong.  It took a moment for me to realize:  it is sooooo quiet.  There are no planes overhead.  People are in their houses.  There are no cars on the road in our little neighborhood.  I can’t hear any road noise from busy Ray Road.  Even the coyotes and owls must be on quarantine, since I’ve not heard them for days.

It’s nice to have peace and quiet, because OMG, the sounds of all the children home during the day is very annoying.  I’m a preschool teacher; you KNOW I love children!  But the constant screaming from two doors down is enough to work my last nerve. They are just playing in the backyard, and I’m thinking the parents are inside wearing noise cancelling head phones??  The fact that our neighbors have six children under the age of 10 should certainly have been included in the disclosure section of our home sale contract!  Eve asked me, “Did we yell all day when we were little?”  NOOOOOOO!!!

I’ve mostly been inside anyway, glued to the news about the Corona virus.  I listen to NPR a lot of the day, then I watch interviews with health officials on my phone. I saw a very informative interview with Dr. Fauci on the Trevor Noah show today which made me feel more calm about this huge global disaster.

We are using this time to do little things around the house.  Cliff built us a lovely raised vegetable bed in the side yard. I went to Lowe’s a few days ago and bought tomato plants, a banana pepper plant, some basil and oregano. I ordered seed packets of  mesclun lettuce mix, snap peas, and carrots which will arrive soon. We have bunnies in the neighborhood, but I can’t see a way they could get into our backyard. Just in case, we will finish it off with a chicken wire enclosure.  Cliff worked so hard on it, and I will very much enjoy tending a small garden.  I am about a month late on planting seeds, but our side yard is cool and our spring has been unseasonably mild!

We are fully stocked (except for pasta) and will be fine without going to the store for many weeks.  When the stores started having TP shortages, I ordered an 80-roll package on Amazon.  No, it is not the plush Charmin our tushes are used to, but I’m so happy to not have to worry about that.  If you need some, let me know.  I’m seriously using up a roll a day with allergy snot.  I don’t take an allergy pill because a) I’ve never found one that works and b) they all make me drowsy and cranky.  I won’t do it. My springtime allergies started when I was a teenager. I sneezed and was so boogery one year that a boyfriend actually broke up with me over it.  I remember him saying something like, “I just can’t take this anymore!”  Geez.

One of my favorite things to do is cook, so with Eve and her boyfriend often here at dinnertime, most evenings you will find me happily singing along with the radio and playing in the kitchen.  Tonight was a delicious Gnocchi-cheese bake, and I baked an apple pie. Apples were almost free at the grocery last week since people aren’t shopping like they used to and I presume the store has a surplus. After six months in our new house, I’m finally able to locate things easily in our kitchen.  There is a mysterious onion smell in one cupboard, and I can’t get rid of it no matter what I do! I call that area of the kitchen “The Ghost of Onions Past” and oh well, there are certainly worse smells in our house.

The three cats certainly produce a lot of smells, and constant vacuuming is a must to control the litter on the tile. I love my cats; it’s kitten season and I’m planning to sneak in another one (shhhhh, don’t tell Cliff!).  The other day I was vacuuming up litter on the upstairs landing outside of Eve’s room when I had a great idea.  “Eve! I just invented something!  Picture a car-wash style litter box:  The cats enter the litter box on one end, they do their business, then exit through the OTHER side, where their feet activate a small vacuum that sucks the litter off their feet, and TADA!”  Eve says, “Mom, the cats would be so afraid that they’d never want to go in!” I’m still trying to work out that last detail.  Maybe a treat dispenser at the end??  I may be onto something.

If you need a break from the news, there are hundreds of tiny concerts being played on the interwebs.  Jimmy Kimmel is doing a “Bathroom Concert series” where I watched Dave Matthews sing An American Tune on the can from his house.  If you want the full interview, here it is.  Gave me a big smile!  Dan Smith from Bastille has been singing every few days from his living room in London.   I’m still hiking every day.  It’s not as much fun when we are social distancing, my friends six feet in front of me. There is a lot of “What did you say???”  No hugs and they don’t come into our house, but it’s the best part of my day.

And if you need toilet paper, I would be happy to share—just let me know.

Cheers,

Mary

Home from the UK

There really ought to be safeguards in place when logging in to write my blog, for example, how long have you been awake?  Because I have been awake for (counts on fingers) 24 hours, with a one-hour nap on the plane home.  I woke up at 6am London time (the sun was so bright in our hotel room) and was so squished in the middle seat on the plane, it was uncomfortable to nap.  I’m trying to get back on Tempe time; my goal is to stay awake until 11.

My advice to you is this:  VISIT WALES!!!  There are miles and miles of verdant countryside, and from the coast road, the sea views were breathtaking.  The people were so friendly and polite and all seem gifted at the exchange of light banter, happy to ask where we were from and what we’d seen.  We saw ten castles, each different and exciting in its own way.  My favorites were the hill-top ruins with nobody around except for us, where I could close my eyes and imagine myself there 1000 years ago when the castle was inhabited . . . and I’d listen into the wind for the whispers of ghosts.

We began our trip in London, staying at my all-time favorite hotel, CitizenM Tower of London.  It’s always a thrill to be in vibrant London, my favorite big city.  We spent three days exploring the city and revisiting favorite museums, on foot and by Tube.  We are lucky enough to have visited the National Gallery the past four summers . . . and it never gets old.  I always get goosebumps seeing Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, and they had a special exhibit of 75 Monets!  He’s always been my favorite, and we spent hours looking at pieces we’d never seen before. THRILLING.  The British museum was full of school children and large, rude Japanese tour groups, but we were able to push through them and say hi to the mummies, the ancient Greek and Roman sculptures and of course, the Rosetta Stone.  We did NOT yell, “Godzilla” to distract the Japanese tourists as suggested by a friend (haha) so as to get closer to the exhibits, but seriously, the groups we came upon were impolite and did not share space well.

It was so great to get home and give BIG HUGS to our son William and his girlfriend Katherine.  Ruby the Wonder Spaniel and the cats (Cosmo, Tilly, Olive, and Maisy) were very happy to see us as well.  Shortly after we arrived home, the kids left for the movies and Hubby checked stuff on his computer in the office, so ever since I’ve been singing loudly which is something I couldn’t do for two weeks  living in hotel rooms.  We were road tripping through Wales, but any time I tried to play music, we would quickly become lost. The navigation was very demanding and I had to stay sharp:  “In .5 miles take the second exit from the roundabout to B4047.”  Seriously, any time I daydreamed and we missed a cue from bossy British navigation lady, we ended up on one-lane roads with huge-ass tractors coming at us at 40 mph.  (What you do in that situation is run your car into the hedges and exchange happy waves with the other driver.)  If I had a dollar for every time I said, “Oh shit,” our bar bill would have been covered in full!

I’m finally feeling sleepy.  Jet lag sucks, but it’s a small price to pay for my two weeks of adventures in the beautiful UK.

Cheers,

Mary

 

 

 

The Return of the Scorpions (and Other Stories)

It’s Wednesday evening at 6 pm, and I’m making soup while listening to Lyle Lovett.  I’m always telling people I hate country music . . .  and I’m hoping Lyle doesn’t fall into that category since I love him so.  He sings so many amazing songs, and they always lift my spirits.

So tonight I was singing along with Lyle and getting out ingredients for my soup when I soon realized I’m talking to the vegetables.  “Tomatoes–you are positively squishy! You are definitely going into the soup!  Old onion, you smell terrible.  Hmmm, we’ll have to think about you.  Carrots, you are extremely long in the tooth, but I think you’ll do just fine.  I have my eye on you, red potatoes, haha!  Get it, eye??  I’m sorry, broccoli, I don’t think you’ll be a good choice for this particular batch.  Hope you don’t rot before someone eats you.” Then I made a sad face and placed the broccoli bag back in the crisper.

Should I be concerned about my mental health? I guess I should start worrying when the vegetables start talking back to me . . .  I’m just glad the family is not around tonight so I can chit-chat with my soup ingredients without being mocked.  With two adult children living with us this summer, I have to walk a fine line or else I find myself being teased by my wise-ass kids.  I guess evidence of their snarky humor just shows we raised them right.  (I feel it’s served me well in my own life.)

You may be asking, why is Mary making soup when today’s high temperature was 101 degrees?  The answer is I was feeling guilty about all the veg going bad from the lovely fruit/veg box I picked up at Clark Park a week ago.  What a bargain for only $20, but next time I will most definitely share it with a friend!  I’ve taken some fruit to school for our preschool snack, and gave a huge bag of Brusell sprouts to our friend, Chuck. (We are anti-cabbage here in the Vaughan household.)

In other news is the Terrible Annual Return of the Bark Scorpions.  I take my black light and an old flip flop out back every few days for a scorp hunt, and so far this Spring the grand kill total is 38.   We  had one in the house last week which Hubby decided to kill by squishing it  in a paper napkin. Let’s just say that didn’t go well, and he had a numb thumb for three days.  Another big number in my life is FIVE.  As in, FIVE DAYS LEFT OF SCHOOL!!!!!  Woot woot.  I’m really not sure what I’ll do with myself, but I know I’m looking forward to getting more sleep.

Lastly, I believe it may be time to take a break with Words with Friends since I’ve been playing the game in my dreams.  That can’t be good.  Some of my favorite, long-time WWF opponents have seemingly dropped off the planet.  To me it’s more fun to play the same people (all strangers) day after day.  For example, I try harder after Chocolate Thunder (this is a real person) has beaten me four times in a row!

My (mostly) carrot soup is now happy and is ready to be blended (recipe below).  Tonight I added an old jalapeno and two extra tomatoes.  Goodnight!

Do you Carrot All? Soup
2 teaspoons butter
5 large potatoes, skinned and chopped
1 onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 jalepeno pepper, seeds removed, diced

6 large carrots, skinned and chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
32 ounces chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup chicken shmaltz

In a big-ass soup pot, melt butter and stir in vegetables. Cook for ten minutes, stirring constantly.  Add shmaltz and vegetable stock.  Cover and cook for an hour, or until potatoes and carrots are soft.  (Sometimes I precook the carrots and potatoes in the microwave to speed up the process.) Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cheers,

Mary

That Day a Dog Ran into my Car

You will not believe what happened to me yesterday:  I left the house for work at 8:00 and made an easy left onto Warner Road.  Two minutes later, driving west, I saw a golden retriever (off leash) run into the road heading straight for me.  I braked, and felt the loud thud of the dog hitting my right side door.  Panicked, I pulled off onto the nearest side street, grabbed my phone (to call someone to help me get the dog to a vet), and ran towards the site of impact.

I scanned the five-lane road.  No dog. I ran to the canal path where the dog had run from.  No dog.  I flagged down an elderly woman on a bicycle.  I was shaking and trying not to cry and explained what happened.   She pointed to three women walking north and away with a golden retriever and said, “It looks like it’s okay. ”

Well.  The dog could certainly NOT be okay.  I wondered if the women even saw their dog get hit?  It felt like so much bad karma to leave without talking to the owners, so I got back in my car and drove down the residential street that runs parallel to the canal, but I could not find them.  At this point I was shaking so much that I could barely call my school to tell them I would be late.  I drove the 20 minutes to school dripping tears, wondering if that beautiful dog was okay and wondering if there was something I could have done differently.  One might say I overreacted, but I live in a city where we do not run over live animals on the roads on the reg.  I posted about it on the Nextdoor website, saying if the dog had been on a leash, that never would have happened. It kinda ruined my day . . . and the dog’s.

So add a dog hitting my car to the list of awkward things in my life.  Let’s just say I feel like my life needs a good shake or two, sort of like a snow globe with all the glitter stuck in one corner. I’m listening and waiting not-so-patiently for the message the Universe is trying to deliver.  Everyone and everything is just a little bit off—and it’s not even a full moon.  Everything seems to take a little bit more effort, especially at school.  Today I asked my students, “Did you have coffee before school?”  Everybody’s crying or mad, or is handing out some kind of damage.  And it’s not just the students . . .  I get home from work and my kids are angsty.  William is having weird stomach pain and anxiety (appointments are scheduled), and Eve is having terrible luck finding a good summer job.  She deals with the stress by sewing and crafting all over our kitchen.  I find it admirable that she works out her worries by making something new (I’ve always dealt with stress by administering the appropriate number of cocktails), but I must say, it IS messy.  Bits of thread and fabric on the floor, the sewing machine perched prominently on the kitchen table for days on end.  Nobody is helping with the cleaning, and our house looks like a bomb went off.

99% of the time I can turn lemons into lemonade, and today was no different. I mean, it’s my job to make sure I’m happy, not anyone else’s.  I made a plan to meet gal pals for a beer after work (laughing with friends is my favorite thing).  I smiled at my students all day and when one little guy asked for a hug, he randomly looked at my feet and said, “I like your shoes.  And I need to poop.”

Maybe I’m just making things too complicated.  I need to take that little guy’s attitude—just say nice things to people and remember to poop.

Cheers,

Mary

 

May

Because it’s a time of endings and beginnings, May is definitely my favorite month of the year.  The spring semester ends in May, and we feel exhilarated and celebratory for all the work we’ve accomplished in our classrooms, whether we are teachers or students.  Anticipation for summer travel and summer projects is keenly felt.  Summer is a time to reconnect with friends and enjoy lengthy family dinners followed by a good game of Shanghai Rummy.  (I’m thinking a few games of Feely Cup are in order . . . )  I’m pretty sure my family would say in May, Mary is completely spastic, but I would respond saying, “I’m feeling positively giddy!” (My earworm this week is The Wind by Cat Stevens.)

May is also a time when our college student moves back home.  We couldn’t be more excited to move William home from Flagstaff this Saturday (you might recall Eve moved back home at Christmas to finish her degree and save some cash).  I’m trying not to be too worried about transporting William’s huge bed and couch to a storage unit three miles from campus in Hubby’s RAV4.  I have a strong feeling the Universe will smile upon us and all will go well.  If, instead, there is some bad karma to be reckoned with, I will be cleaning the apartment toilets at 10 pm while Hubby is out renting a truck to haul all our crap.  I’m trying not to give this move on Saturday much energy, instead focusing on how happy we will be to have William back home for THREE WHOLE MONTHS!!!!  With Eve here, too, it’s going to be a crazy, fun summer for sure.

Speaking of having our adult children back home, I wish I could travel back in time two years and slap my “oh pity me” self, who was so super angsty about becoming an Empty Nester.  OMG, what a WHINER she was.  Apologies all around to whoever had to hear my sad story about how my kids were abandoning me.  I’ve hated change my whole life, but once it happens, I’m filled with renewed vigor and vim.  (I know it’s usually “vim and vigor,” buy I’m doing a social experiment to see if I can change it.)  Hubby and I actually embraced being the only two people in our house (besides the three cats and Ruby the Wonder Spaniel).  The house was always clean and quiet, and we never ran out of toilet paper or toothpaste. There were always milk and eggs if we wanted them.  After raising three children, it felt extremely civilized (but a little boring).

If I could turn back time, slapping my old pitiful almost-empty-nester self would not be at the top of the list.  I would change a thousand things before changing that one thing.  At the top of my list of things to change would be being a better student instead of being such a wild child, visiting my grandparents in Illinois more often, being more patient with my children, and appreciating how good my life was even though we had little money.

I’ll wrap up with an interesting story from my classroom today: Our students begin the year at age three, and most of them have reached their fourth birthday now.  They are a very social, distracted bunch, so I appreciated when my lead teacher, put in place a strict lunch policy.  All children were to stay in their seats “attempting” to eat their lunches until the clock read 11:55.  This has been a challenge since our students don’t know if 53 or 59 come before, or after, “55.”  Today one boy thought he noticed the clock moving BACKWARDS, and Andrew (wise beyond his years), said, “Time never moves backwards. If any one of you can figure out how to go back in time, you will be the most famous person in the world.”  This gave them so much to think about that they quietly finished their sandwiches and fruit, their tiny containers of hummus, applesauce, and yogurt, and went out to recess with full bellies to play.

Cheers,

Mary

 

 

Friday Again?

Life has been SO busy.  Every Friday, I say to my family, how can it be Friday again so soon?  The novel I’ve been trying to finish for book group sits gathering dust on the coffee table, my house looks like a bomb went off (a pet hair bomb), and the poor dog is itchy and needs a bath.  It seems either we are at work, or we’re being social, and then we’re too tired to clean the house (or the dog)!

One wonderful reason for not doing housework:  My aunt and uncle are in town from Illinois!  It was a last-minute trip, and we’re having so much fun hanging out with them.  Aunt Linda loves Changing Hands book store, so we spent an hour there, looking at every little thing.  We had long, relaxing dinners at both Pedal Haus and The Perch (I would recommend both).  If you haven’t been to The Perch, their “thing” is lots of exotic birds in cages.  They are all rescue birds cared for by professionals.  But man, they can be LOUD!  We had fun “chatting” with all the beautiful birds while waiting for our food to be served.  Due to the loud music and the loud birds, we were having a bit of trouble hearing each other.  We joked about how old we’re all getting.  I am a terrible joke teller, but managed to tell this old thing: “A woman goes to her doctor.  Doctor, she says, I’m having a terrible case of silent toots!  Can you help me?  And the doctor says, the first thing we need to do is get you a hearing aid.”  Ba-doom-cha!  (Apologies all around.)   I’m hoping we’ll see my aunt and uncle again before they had back to the chilly Midwest.

In other news, we teachers are counting down the weeks until summer vacation.  After this weekend, only EIGHT WEEKS LEFT!  I’m feeling worn down lately and am so happy when my lunch break arrives each day, when I have about 20 minutes to eat, and play Words with Friends, and look at Facebook.  Today while browsing Facebook, I almost spit out my sandwich reading a meme called,  “Name Your Vagina by using the name of the last movie or tv show you watched.”  Okay then:  Either Shameless . . . or New Girl!  LOL!  Ahhhh, the Internet.  What did I do before Facebook brought such class and sophistication into my daily life???

After lunch today, my lead teacher and I looked over photos from the entire school year to be used in the year book.  We were amazed at how much we have accomplished and how much our students have grown.  I love my job, but teaching preschool can be pretty intense mentally and physically and on some days, really overstimulating.  I can’t imagine doing anything else!!!  I’m 99% sure there’s no other job that includes as much laughter as we experience every single day, teachers and students alike.  I’m looking forward to summer travel and having time to lunch with my best gal pals, but I’m also feeling a great sadness knowing that soon my “kids” will be moving up a grade and having adventures of their own . . . without me.

Cheers,

Mary

 

 

Soup Days

By Golly, it’s been a long time since I posted anything here.  To be honest, I was plumb tuckered after all of the many wedding festivities!  Hubby and I hunkered down for a good two weeks, only making last-minute plans with friends.  What wonderful memories we have with friends and family from the wedding weekend!!!  Thanks again to everyone for their well wishes for the young couple.  Pat &  Sam’s wedding will go down in the books as one helluva party!

But now we are back to our usual busy pace, very happy and productive. I’ve planned a Spring Break trip for Hubby and I to San Diego, and both of us have spent approximately a bazillion hours looking for cheap flights to London for a summer vacation to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.  If you fly to JFK first, the flights are reasonable, but then you risk missing connections which adds stress.  I’m sure we’ll figure it all out.  I heart London so much, and we will spend a few days there before renting a car to tour (drum roll, please!) . . . WALES!  Wales has amazingly beautiful countryside and a rich history; you can’t swing a cat without hitting a castle.  Right now I’m revisiting a novel I read in my youth about Welsh history called Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman.  At 704 pages, I’ve assigned myself 50 pages a day so Hubby can also read it before our trip in late June!  It’s so good that it’s hard to put down.

I’ve spent way too much time googling stuff the past few days and giggled while viewing my browsing history.  Here’s a brief list:

• Dulse Seaweed butter–a chefs secret weapon (can’t wait to try it)
• Black Panther movie trailer (looks good)
• Cheddar Broccoli Soup recipe (YUM!!!)
• How tall is Charlie Barnes? (never did find that–he tours with Bastille)
• List of the busiest US airports (Atlanta, LAX, then Chicago)
• Phoebe Buffay’s fake names (just couldn’t remember Regina Phalange)
• What is motor boating?  (er, umm, that’s what I thought it was–too much time reading weird stuff on FB lately!)
• Henry Plantagenet family tree (to assist while reading a historical fiction novel)
• 24 Things Not to Miss in Wales
• SOOOOOOO much flight pricing!!!!!!!!

I’m just INTERESTED in stuff, you know?  Now I’ll give you the soup recipe.  I changed it by adding two potatoes and decreasing the amount of cheese and butter and flour.  My family thought it was delicious!  I love to make soup.  I find it homey to have a large pot bubbling on the stove, filling the house with yummy aromas.  My daughter bakes to relax.  She must’ve had a really stressful week since she made three different types of macaroons on three separate days this week!

Broccoli Cheese Soup
1/2 cup butter
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 cup flour
5 cups broccoli, chopped small
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut in half
2 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth if you prefer)
4 cups milk
2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
salt and white pepper to taste
one teaspoon chopped garlic

Get out a big-ass pot.  Melt the butter, adding onions and sauteing until soft. Stir in half a cup flour to give the soup some legs to stand on.  Add in chicken broth and milk, then the carrots, potatoes, and the star of our show–BROCCOLI!  Reduce the heat or else the milk will foam up into a huge cloud, which will spill all over your stove top and be a nasty mess.  (This happened to a friend—not me, of course.)   I simmered everything for maybe 45 minutes, testing the carrots with a fork for softness.  When all veg are tender:  add salt, pepper, and garlic, then stir in the cheese.  I used an immersion blender because the potatoes were still in chunks, and also because it’s a fun toy that I rarely get to use. Plus it scares the bejeezus out of the cats, which makes me laugh.

Cheers,

Mary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peace and Quiet

As a teacher, I look forward to the long holiday break as a time to see friends and family, and even more so as a time to get loads of peace and quiet.  Hubby also has off a week at Christmas, and besides organizing the garage and fixing stuff about the house, he also anticipates our quiet week with time to sleep late and and time for reading on the back patio.

Imagine our distress on our very first day of holiday break.  At 6am we were awakened to the sound of a bobcat in reverse. “Beep! Beep! Beep!”  We put our pillows over our ears, but this continued for hours. What kind of madman would schedule home renovations on the 23rd of December?  Turns out it was our neighbors two doors to the west of us.  Seriously?  Whatever happened to the etiquette of not having work done on the weekends?  And two days before Christmas?? The beeping and other construction noises continued until yesterday.

Christmas Day was quiet in the hood.

But the day AFTER Christmas, we were greeted by the sound of a wood chipper in front of our house.  WTF???  Whose idea was it to have all the neighborhood trees trimmed while so many of us were home for the holiday break??  The sound of chainsaws, Mexican music, and wood chippers are still being heard today, two weeks post-Christmas.  We have many common areas in our neighborhood with many trees. Since I am on the HOA board now, I’m definitely going to do my best to get the schedule changed for December 2018.  As I often say, if I were in charge, things would be a LOT different!!!

On the bright side, I got enough peace and quiet that I was eager to get back to school Monday.  I simply feel better when I’m on a schedule.  I truly missed my wee preschool friends–they’re just so stinkin’ cute (three years old)!  Today a boy arrived a bit late, and one girl was so happy to see him that she ran up and planted a big smooch right on his kisser!  The boy’s reaction was one of being completely stunned . . . and then the girl looked right at me, knowing she’d been naughty.  We talk a lot about germs, and they all know kissing is a no-no at school.  I totally let it go because it was such a heartfelt greeting that warmed my heart.  It was an adorable, unexpected moment . . . just one of many I see at my school each day.

The wood chippers are finally gone, and one of the sounds in my home is William playing computer upstairs on Skype with friends.  He leaves for college in two days, and I will cry.  We miss him so much when he is away, but are proud of the good grades he got last semester while pursuing his Chemistry degree.  Another sound is my persistent hacking.  It’s been two weeks now, and I’m tired of this cough!  And lastly, there is the sound of our daughter’s voice.  Eve decided to return to our nest for financial reasons.  We are proud of her grades, too, and (crossed fingers) she will be graduating from ASU with her Bachelors of Science in Biology in December.  Here’s hoping all of you found peaceful moments over the holidays.  Here’s wishing you all the best in 2018!

Cheers,

Mary

 

Hungry!

I started a diet today.

It started out great.

I am never hungry in the morning, so I met a friend for coffee at 10 without eating first. It was an interesting exercise. The smells at The Hillside Spot were tantalizing: Waffles, eggs with a side of fried potatoes, and lush buttery pastries. My mouth was watering, and my sense of smell was keen. I caught myself turning my head to get a better whiff as the full platters went by.  I most likely resembled my Springer Spaniel following her nose about while I’m cooking dinner. My hands shook a bit from the lack of food combined with the jolt of caffeine, but I was doing well.

I felt strong.

Mind over matter.

This time I was going to stick with it and lose at least five pounds before our son’s wedding in three weeks. I was going to feel so much healthier, and wouldn’t it be nice to NOT have to unbutton my jeans every time I sat down?

But then I got home.

I sat down to my computer to do some research for a summer vacation, and that’s when it started. My mind began cataloguing the food in the fridge. First the top shelf:  Half a leftover steak. A raspberry yogurt.  A bowl of pudding. Second shelf: The bag of expensive cheeses leftover from our holiday entertaining.  Deli sausage slices!  Chicken tortilla soup!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I ate a banana and drank a big glass of water and got back to work. My stomach growled madly but I ignored it and started to answer email.  My mind wandered uncontrollably back to the contents of the fridge. Black beans with tomatoes and onion. Sour cream! The last slice of coconut cake.

I slowly peeled an orange and savored every juicy segment. I heated up another cup of coffee and settled back in at my laptop.

That was an hour ago. My work is constantly being interrupted. Did you hear that? I swear I just heard the pepperoni pizza calling to me from the freezer. “Just one slice. I’m so tasty. I’ll fill you up so you won’t be hungry anymore. I’m greasy and delicious. EAT ME!”

I don’t know how much longer I can hold out. The coconut cake is competing with the apple pie, and the half and half is mad I didn’t put it in my coffee. All dozen of the eggs insist I fry them up in just a little bit of bacon grease.

I think I’d better peel another orange–I am not feeling strong. I am feeling . . . HUNGRY!!!

Cheers,

Mary

Thanksgiving 2017

Well I did it:  served another Thanksgiving dinner to my family.  I’m not sure what happened.  I did everything I usually do, yet the green beans in the cheesy bacon casserole were too crunchy, the mashed potatoes were too soupy, the dressing not bready enough, and by the time Hubby carved the turkey, it arrived at the table cold.  Our daughter asked, “Is there any WARM turkey??”  In the middle of dinner, I had to transfer the turkey out of the fancy china dish with the golden trim into a casserole dish and microwave it so it would edible!  I forgot the rolls were rising in the oven and preheated the oven with them inside, causing them to seize rising and not cook thoroughly.  Thank goodness for my “almost daughter-in-law” who brought a delicious pumpkin pie and apple tarts!  Thanks, Samantha!  I guess after cooking this same meal for so many years, I just phoned it in this time.  I love the cooking marathon, but next year will find the recipes in the cupboard and double check my work.

Of course it was great to have our whole family together, but lately the kids want to play games I’m not interested in such as Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne and then when they got to Scrabble, there wasn’t really room for me at the table.  So I sat on the couch nearby playing Words with Friends enjoying the music of their voices and soaking up the nearness of my children.  But lately I feel like when they are all together (and now they are four, instead of three, because of Patrick’s fiance) there is a bit more teasing (not always kindly) and treating me like “Mom,” as opposed to when I see them one-on-one and they mostly treat me like “Mary.”  My kids are all in their twenties now, and I like that we can have a relationship as adults together, without me being in charge of their lives.  I like that we all ENJOY being together (most of the time, haha).  We giggled together over the movie, Seems Like Old Times, which was certainly a highlight of the day for me.  Overall it was very nice, and Christmas time will be here before you know it and we will all be together again.

So the day after Thanksgiving, I was feeling a little blue because Thanksgiving had not gone exactly as I had planned, but I shook the feeling off because it was A GOOD DAY.  I asked myself, why should I get to plan the games and the movie just because I am the host?  I’m so happy to host, so the lesson for me is “let it go” and “be flexible” and  remember to be so incredibly grateful that we live close to each other and can be together often.

I distracted myself from over-thinking the situation by watching several new episodes of Chef and the Farmer on the PBS website.  Vivian exhausts me!  I want to say to her, slow down, Girlfriend . . . and I want to give her a hug.  After watching Vivian cook persimmon pudding, I went into the living room and there I spied it:  The dreaded Book Group novel.  It sat on my coffee table, taunting me with its thick spine which encased all tedious 462 pages.  The title sounded so appealing:  A Gentleman in Moscow.  Doesn’t it sound so romantic, like one of those books you finish and sigh sadly because you’re so sad it’s over?  Well folks, let me tell you, it is NOT that kind of book, and I decided to not let it mock me anymore and placed it firmly in the library pile where it will be donated,and I will never have to look at it again.

Then I picked up Cold Tangerines by Shauna Niequist, a book my friend Hanna loaned me . . . and it was just what I needed! I don’t know much about this author, but I would summarize this book by saying it’s about her struggle to be the best person she can be and to be a good person in the World.  She has so many great quotes, but this one is what I needed to read this week:  “We sometimes choose the most locked-up, dark versions of the story, but what a good friend does is turn on the lights, open the window, and remind us that there are a whole lot of  ways to tell the same story.”  I hope my kids tell the story of this year’s Thanksgiving that we had a great day together (and not that mom seemed grumpy).

Cheers,

Mary