End of the Month of March

Spring Rose

Monday morning started with a phone call from neighbor S, this time with an offer of cheesecake!  Oh, I can't say no to cheesecake, either!  I love cheesecake even more than I love doughnuts!  LOL.  But, I didn't take a picture, so, imagine, if you will, four delicious slices of cheesecake!

Neighbor T called a little later in the morning, apologizing for not calling on Sunday as usual.  Apparently, her daughter came over and helped her do a few things and the time got away with her.  I assured her that it was fine.  I usually call her on Monday evenings, if she hasn't called me by then.

In the afternoon, I went to do a grocery pick up.  My daughter and I put the order in on Sunday night as we were getting low on a few items.  My last grocery pick up had been on March 12.  This order consisted of a loaf of multi grain bread, half-and-half (milk/cream) for daughter's coffee, two boxes of frozen potstickers (a $6.99 box will provide us with at least two meals and has become our version of a take out dinner when we want something different), fruits (bananas, grapes, tangerines, mango, blueberries, apples, and plums), vegetables (cucumber, a red onion, baby bella mushrooms, sugar snap peas, radishes, and broccoli), a 5 lb. bag of flour, a jar of salsa, helados (frozen fruit and cream bars), ice cream, salt, and a spiral cut half ham (on sale for $1.39/lb.; the $.99/lb. ham was an in-store special).  

Daughter did most of the disinfecting and putting away of the groceries; all I had to do was wash the fresh produce.  Afterwards, she made us a salad for brunch and we "shared" a slice of cheesecake.  I'm not sure if shared is the correct word because she only likes the graham cracker crust!  She ate the crust and I had the rest of that slice!

In the evening, I put water to the garden and took the trash cans to the curb for pick up on Tuesday morning.

Later in the evening, I had my piano lesson, a day early.  I am still struggling through the theme from Godfather and Hedwig's Theme!  Keep making silly mistakes when S is watching me!  I seem to play just fine when I am practicing on my own! 

Neighbor T called again in the evening to ask if I had the phone number for the neighbors on the other side of her.  They are fairly new neighbors and, apparently, the children in that house have been throwing bottle caps, egg shells, stones, etc. into her yard over the fence!  T is elderly and has some difficulty walking, etc.  She finds it difficult to pick up all the things that are being thrown into her yard and she wants to complain to the parents of the children.  Unfortunately, I don't have any contact information for these neighbors.  I suggested she asked her daughter to go over, on her behalf, and discuss the matter with the neighbors.

Tuesday morning, I woke up to find that Dancer had left me presents outside of his litter box!  Oh, no!  Dancer!  Even before I could have my morning cup of tea, I had to clean up after him, sanitize my bedroom floor and the bathroom floor, put the bathroom rugs to wash, and mop the bathroom floor, which led to cleaning the toilet, too, and scrubbing the sink!  I did two additional loads of laundry, too.

Salad for Brunch

Once again, daughter made us both a salad for brunch: lettuce, cabbage, sauteed chicken, radishes, sugar snap peas, and tangerine segments.  She added red onion slices to her salad, but, I don't like raw onions, so, didn't add them to my salad.  

In the evening, I cooked dinner.  But, while peeling and cutting some vegetables, my hands began to cramp.  Daughter had me drink some water and take one of my magnesium pills.  Then, she finished cooking the dinner.  But, my hands kept cramping the rest of the evening, until, eventually, they stopped.  Our weather has been quite warm (in the upper 80s this week) and probably I was dehydrated.  I don't always remember to drink as much water as I should.

Today, Wednesday, has been a relaxed day.  Another warm day and the first roses are blooming!  I had a banana for breakfast and daughter made us another delicious salad for my lunch and her brunch.  This time, she added some of the baked sweet potato cubes we made last night for dinner to the salad.  In the afternoon, I read and commented on blogs and decided to bake the frozen bread dough I had in the freezer.  It took the longest time to thaw and didn't rise as much as it normally does, but, we had freshly baked bread, eventually.  While the dough was thawing and rising, I watered the back garden and picked a few vegetables:

Today's Garden Harvest

A few broccoli side shoots, a handful of peapods, the last two radishes (a third radish has started to bolt, so I left it in place to harvest the radish seed pods once they form), a bunch of broccoli leaves, and some chard leaves.  The broccoli side shoots, peapods, radish roots, and the stems from the broccoli and chard leaves were made into a stir fry with the addition of a carrot.  The leaves were cut into fine shreds and made into a mallung, sauteed with grated coconut, turmeric, and other spices.  

After dinner, I practiced the piano, chatted with two of my cousins and friend R.

I've been making it a point to drink plenty of water, today, so no cramping of my hands!  

Today, I am grateful for:

- The first roses

- The vegetables I am harvesting

- Daughter making our brunches/lunches

- The good neighbors (especially S and her daughters)

- Water for hydration!

Today's joyful activity was harvesting vegetables from the garden.

And with that, March comes to an end and the first quarter of this year is over!  All in all, it has been a good month for me.  How was your March?

Another look at the rose