Productive Sunday

Today, I woke up to a phone call from my neighbor T - saying there was something for me on the front porch!  When I opened my front door, I found a lovely poinsettia plant and a card from her!  I was very touched.  Her husband of over 50 years died two days before Christmas, last year, so I'm sure it is a very emotional time of the year for her, yet she was selfless enough to think of her neighbor.

While I was preparing my brunch (scrambled egg on toast), one of my aunts, Aunt C, called to ask how I was.  She said she was reading a magazine she had received and there was a recipe for a pound cake in it and she thought of me because she knows I like to bake.  She even read out the list of ingredients to me and said she will bring me the magazine when she comes to the almsgiving so I can see the recipe!  It sounded to me like aunt would like me to make this cake for her!  LOL.  It calls for amaretto and bitters, which I don't have.  But, I guess I could substitute almond essence and maybe some lemon juice or lemon zest.  Oh, I had better buy a box of powdered sugar to have on hand, because she mentioned something about a glaze. 

Today, I cleaned the living room, which means I dusted the furniture, including all the shelves, washed the inside of my front door, and taped up the holiday greetings cards that I've received so far on the inside of the front door.  I call them holiday greetings cards because not all of them are Christmas cards.  Some of my family and friends send me New Year greetings.

Then, I did another baby step in the preparations for the almsgiving and diced two large onions to freeze until needed.  Past experiences have taught me that my hands cramp up when I do a lot of cutting and chopping at a time (or washing dishes by hand!) .  So, I am doing as much as I can to prepare ahead - this way, when I go to make up the cashew curry (cashews are already boiled and frozen), all I have to do is add the frozen diced onions, cut up a green chili or two, and add the rest of the spices and milk.  And I'll have the onions ready when I go to cook the lentil curry, too.  I want to cut at least one more onion, later, for the egg curry I am planning to make.

In the afternoon, I went grocery shopping.  I did the major portion of shopping at the regular grocery store and bought a few additional items at the dollar store.  I will post the grocery shopping in a separate post, maybe tomorrow.  But I was able to get almost everything I needed for the almsgiving, except the fresh vegetables and fruits and yogurt; I'll get those items next weekend.


I also cleaned my kitchen in the evening, which involved accidentally breaking a glass while I was cooking dinner and led to wiping the counters and the stove (shards of glass everywhere!), sweeping the floor, taking the trash out, putting away dried dishes, and washing more dishes! It wasn't even on my list of things to do, but that was OK.

Last thing I need to do tonight, before I go to bed, is clean the litter box.

Today, I am grateful for:
- A gift from my neighbor
- A phone call from Aunt C (and a possible new pound cake recipe!)
- Bargains at the grocery store
- A productive day
- Video chatting with my daughter (who spent an hour and a half meal prepping and cooking, she said, and made all her lunches and dinners for the week; now how can I get her to come down and do that for me?)

I am going to post my to do lists, again, to keep me focused:

Monday To Do List:
- Go to the office
- Dr's appt. in afternoon
- Shop for bath mats
- Take trash cans to the curb
- Vacuum - Living room and dining area

How was your Sunday?  Hope you had a pleasant day.  What are your plans for Monday?