Getting Back to Normal on Monday

Today, daughter's visit came to an end and she had to go back to Berkeley.  Last night, she was saying, she's fine once she's at Berkeley, but, she hates to leave when she comes home.  I suggested she comes down again over the Memorial Day weekend - we'll see how that works out. 

We spent a relaxed morning and I packed up some food for her to take with her - some of the rest of the birthday cake (I froze the remaining portion, which was about one quarter of the cake), some frozen fish curry and frozen vegetable curries (dhal/lentils, green beans, and kale that had been shredded and cooked with grated coconut).  All she'll need to do is boil some rice and she'll have enough for a couple of meals - maybe tonight's dinner and perhaps tomorrow's lunch, if she chooses to do so.  That way, she won't have to cook when she gets home, tonight.

I ran the dishwasher, too, and hand washed my china tea cups and saucers. 

She had an early lunch, before I took her to the airport.  Her flight was delayed an hour, but she wanted to get to the airport at the regular time, just in case.  She said that once or twice, they've said the flight was delayed and then, announced that it has arrived at the usual time and will be departing as originally scheduled!

So, at two o'clock, I dropped her off at the airport, then, went to the pharmacy to pick up my medication refill that was ready for pick up (they had sent me a text this morning, saying it was ready).  Then, I went to the bank since it was located in the same mall area, and decided to put gas to the car on the way home. 

Daughter called a little after 4:00 p.m. to say she had just boarded her flight.  The flight itself is a little over 1 hour, then, it takes another hour or so by subway to get from the airport in Oakland to downtown Berkeley and then, she has to take a bus or walk from the subway station to her apartment.  She called me when she got to her apartment a little after 6:30 p.m. 

Today, I am grateful for:
- Daughter had a safe flight and a safe rest of the journey to her apartment
- Another sunny and warmer day
- Drama free medication refills!
- Being able to run a few errands
- A productive day

In the evening, I emptied the waste baskets and took the kitchen trash, etc. to the big trash can and  took the big trash bin and recycling bin to the curb.  Then, I washed out the kitchen trash can before putting a new trash can liner.  I also did a load of laundry.  After that, I ran out of energy, so the tidying I had planned to do will have to wait (I went to the pharmacy, bank, and put gas to the car, instead, as none of them were in my to do list that I made, yesterday!)  I will spend the rest of the evening knitting and video chatting with daughter and will empty the dishwasher and do the litter box before I sleep,

Monday's To Do List:
- Take daughter to the airport - DONE
- Do the dishes - DONE
- Do some tidying
- Do a load of laundry - DONE
- Pharmacy to pick up refill - DONE
- Bank - DONE
- Put gas to car - DONE
- Empty the waste baskets, kitchen trash can, etc. - DONE
- Take the trash and recycling bins to the curb - DONE

Tuesday's To Do List:
- Bring the trash cans in
- Put away the dried laundry
- Do some tidying
- Dust the living room
- Water the indoor plants
- Clean daughter's bathroom (if I feel up to it)

How was your Monday?  What are your plans for Tuesday?

Sunny Sunday!

On Sunday, we had sunshine and clear blue skies.

Dancer enjoying the sunshine

Daughter woke up early and went out to breakfast with one of her friends.  I slept in and woke up after she had left.

My neighbor T called around 11:30 a.m. and we had our usual Sunday morning chat.  I called friend R and left a message; she called back, later, and we chatted a bit.

Shortly after noon, daughter and I decided to go shopping!  She wanted to get some felt and fabric glue from the craft store and I wanted to get some kitty litter before she left, because I can't carry those heavy buckets of litter, still. 

When we were at the crafts supplies store, I saw some yarn on sale (50% off!) and couldn't resist:

Soft Yarn

Well, I tried to resist, but daughter urged me to buy them and when I couldn't decide between the two colors, she encouraged me to buy both!  They were originally priced $7.99 but on sale for $4.00 each.  The yarn is acylic and each skein is  7 oz.and 350 yards (200g/320m) according to the label.  I bought 3 skeins of each color.  It's probably more than what I need for sweaters, but I didn't want to run short of yarn; any extra yarn can be used for scarves and other items.

In the afternoon, after we came home from our shopping and had lunch, daughter took a nap and I started to knit:

New sweater in the making

I haven't finished knitting the grey wool sweater, yet, but I was eager to see how this yarn worked up.  I think a plain knit (stockinette stitch) sweater with minimal detailing would be best with the color changes in the yarn, don't you?  I did the ribbing (knit 1 purl 1) with US size 6 needles and am doing the body with US size 8 needles. 

Later, we watched the Academy Awards show and I sewed two cushion covers for daughter to take back with her; the fabric is what she bought on her last visit home at Christmas:

Harry Potter Themed Cushion Cover

They are both sewn in the envelope style, with a flap instead of a zipper:

Avengers Themed Cushion Cover

I inserted one of my cushions to show how it looks; daughter will take only the covers and use the cushion inserts she has up there with her. 

She also sewed a cushion cover with some fleece that she will decorate and give as a gift to one of her friends as a birthday gift.  She picked out 26 assorted buttons from my button box to attach to that cushion cover as part of the decorations!

Today, I am grateful for:
- A sunny day
- Neighbor T calling to check on me
- Going shopping with daughter
- Yarn on sale!
- Being able to sew the two cushion covers for her

Daughter also applied the monthly flea medicine on Dancer, so that is done for another month.

Daughter will leave tomorrow.  Her flight is in the afternoon, so we'll spend a quiet morning together, then, I'll drop her off at the airport, and come home to do some knitting and maybe some sewing too.

Monday's To Do List:
- Take daughter to the airport
- Do the dishes
- Do some tidying
- Do a load of laundry

How was your Sunday?  If you knit or crochet, would you have bought yarn because it was on sale, even if you haven't finished an earlier project? 

On the Third of March

It has been another, somewhat wet day, today.  The sky was cloudy and there was a misty fine drizzle when I woke up in the morning.  As I mentioned to one of my friends, only those of us who live in as arid an area as this would call it "rain"!  But it caused the ground to be wet, and, later, increased in intensity and became a definite drizzle and then, still later, a short lived shower of rain.  It stopped raining in the afternoon (although it remained cloudy) and I turned the heater off and opened a window or two to air out the house, a bit.

At 4 o'clock, there was a break in the clouds and the sun shone, brightly!  I ran outside to look for the rainbow, but it was very faint and my cell phone camera wasn't able to capture the rainbow that well:

Rainbow - between the two chimneys

Perhaps this might help.

Never mind - just imagine that there is a rainbow there!  LOL.

Then, I had to take a couple of pictures of the clouds:

Clouds in the Front (facing west)

Clouds in the Back (facing east)

 I took some pictures of the front garden, too:

The newly planted lavender plants

There was a bud on one of the few rose bushes surviving in the same flower bed as the lavender:

Rose Bud

The flower bed along the walk up to the front door

The lantana continues to do well

Today, daughter left to go out with some of her friends from middle school and high school, to celebrate her birthday.  One of them picked her up around 11:30 a.m. and they were going to pick up another friend and go downtown; another friend was going to meet them in downtown.   Daughter has been friends with one of these girls since 7th grade and the other two since 9th grade.  I am so glad that they make an effort to get together at Christmas and birthdays when possible.  Daughter offered to pick up some raisin buns or cream buns (or both!) for me, from the Japanese bakery; I opted for raisin buns, as both would have been a bit too much!

I had the rest of my lasagna, some of the pasta alfredo, and half of the chicken parmesan for my brunch.  There's enough of the pasta and the chicken for another meal.

I spent some time doing a bit of mending for daughter, this afternoon.  I managed to sew up the side seam of a short sleeved knitted top that had unraveled (I actually crocheted the seam) and the shoulder seam of a 3/4 length sleeve t-shirt, where the serger hadn't caught enough of one of the edges (I did a blanket stitch and a back stitch to approximate the serging).  Daughter also brought down some other clothing items to be given away - I am including them (4 tops) in my decluttering for today. 

When I went out to take pictures, after the rain ceased, I also took the bags of recycling out to the big bin, outside.  I had three bags of plastic, glass, cans, and paper to recycle!  And I collected the mail, including package that came for daughter, but without any indication of who might have sent it!  We guessed it was one of two friends and then, narrowed it down further to one of them.  Then she texted a picture of the gift to that friend, asking if it was from him and he said, yes!  There was supposed to have been a card included but Amazon didn't include the card!   

At 6 o'clock, it began to rain, again!  Not very heavily, but it looks like we might be getting a winter's worth of rain in one weekend?  I am not complaining, because the rain is a blessing!

Daughter came home around 6:30 p.m. and brought me my raisin buns (and a package of melon buns for herself).

Raisin Buns and Melon Buns

She said there was no rain in the downtown area and it was sunny, if a bit cold.

In the evening, I called my cousin N and wished her for her birthday. 

Today, I am grateful for:
- More rain for the garden
- A rainbow, even if it was faint and didn't photograph well
- Daughter had a fun day with her friends
- Raisin buns!
- Another relaxed day

Today's decluttering:

3/3 Decluttering (4 tops, 1 completed crossword puzzles book)

How was your Saturday?   Any special plans for tomorrow?

Happy Birthday, Daughter!

Twenty five candles!

Today, we celebrated my daughter's twenty fifth birthday.  I had a high risk pregnancy and almost miscarried her at one point.  She was born almost 7 weeks prematurely, but weighed 5 lbs. at birth. She wouldn't nurse and I had to bottle feed her; she would take 1 hour to drink 1 oz. of milk and couldn't finish the 3 oz. bottle.  One of my cousins lost her first baby because she wasn't nursing enough and they didn't realize it until the baby got too dehydrated; I was so worried that the same thing might happen with my daughter, too.  But, we made it through all that and more!  

Today also marks one week since my surgery.  My incision seems to have healed nicely.  There is no bruising where the port was, just a little tender to the touch, that's all.  There is, however, a small, perfectly round bruise on the side of the breast; it doesn't hurt or anything and I noticed it only today.  I will ask the surgeon about it when I go to see him, next week.

It rained last night (I love going to sleep while listening to the sound of rain falling) and it has drizzled all day, today.  The garden has received a good watering!

We slept in as daughter didn't have to work today.  Then, we spent the rest of the morning relaxing.    Around 1:30 p.m. we ordered Italian food for our lunch.  Daughter prefers to bring the food home to eat, rather than eat in the restaurant, so we went and picked it up.  Daughter also picked up a free Starbucks coffee because she received a coupon for her birthday.  Then, we came home and ate lunch:

My lunch

I ordered zuppa toscana, a combination plate of pasta alfredo, lasgna, and chicken parmesan (pictured above); daughter ordered chicken and gnocchi soup and cavatappi pasta with asiago garlic alfredo and shrimp (she had already started eating her lunch, before I could take a picture).  There was a package of bread sticks, too, which came with the order.  We both ordered a strawberry-passion fruit lemonade each, as well.  The whole order came to $34 and some cents (daughter had a 10% off coupon).  I ate about a third of my soup, a bread stick, and about half of the lasagna.  Daughter ate maybe half of her pasta and a bread stick.  There was plenty of leftovers for dinner, too (and probably another meal for us both).  

After lunch, we went to the discount clothing store called Fallas Parades and I bought her some clothes and a new purse, as part of her birthday gift.  She found some really cute dresses, a warm sweater, and several tops (mostly long sleeved).  The dresses are probably better for summer, but, she can wear them with a cardigan or a jacket and leggings and they'll be fine for spring, too. 

She said I wasn't supposed to get her any birthday gifts, as I paid for her phone, last summer, and she had told me then that the phone was her Christmas and birthday gifts, both.  But, I wanted to get her something to celebrate her 25th birthday.  

After our shopping expedition, we came home and had tea.  At least, I had tea and daughter had some of her birthday coffee.    

We have had a relaxed evening.  We had some of the leftovers from lunch for dinner (we shared the rest of the zuppa toscana and daughter had some of her pasta, as well) and cake and ice cream for dessert.  Daughter didn't want me to buy her any candles when we shopped for the cake, yesterday, but I had a packet of the small birthday candles and stuck them on the cake.  I had candle wax dripping all over the cake by the time I lit all of them!  Afterwards, daughter picked off all the bits of wax, before cutting the cake!  

Today, I am grateful for:

- My daughter

- Being able to celebrate her birthday with her

- All the birthday wishes that came in for her from family and friends

- A celebratory meal

- All the rain for the garden

3/2 decluttering: 25 birthday candles!

Tomorrow's weather forecast says scattered showers.  Daughter will be going out for lunch and possibly some karaoke with her friends.  I plan to stay home and relax.  I might go grocery shopping to buy some chicken, however, because daughter said she'll cook it for me so I can keep in the freezer to enjoy later.  

How was your day?  What are your plans for the weekend?  

On the First of March

Daughter was already up and working, when I woke up, today, and had my cup of morning coffee.  I spent the day "recuperating"!  I did respond to one work email and called the office to take care of one small matter related to the move to the other building.  But, otherwise, I responded to blog comments, read a couple of blogs, and played a lot of sudoku!

Brunch was one of the curry puffs from yesterday.  In the afternoon, daughter made tea for us.  After she finished her work for the day, we went grocery shopping, as we needed more milk, bananas, and tangerines.

At first, we thought of going to one of the usual regular grocery stores, but then, we decided to go to a warehouse type store that doesn't require membership, mostly because daughter likes their tiramisu cake; it's one of her favorite cakes and the one she wanted for her birthday.  Unfortunately, they didn't have any of their tiramisu cake, today.  I even asked the cashier and she called one of the managers and they looked in the stock room, but they didn't have any.  All they could say was they were expecting another delivery tomorrow and maybe try again, later in the day, tomorrow.

So, instead of the tiramisu, we bought a chocolate fudge cake ($3.99) because I insisted we bought a cake (daughter was willing to buy some mini cinnamon rolls instead, but who ever heard of a birthday cinnamon roll?) and ice cream  (because birthday cake needs ice cream; 2 kinds for $3.49 and $3.99) and gelato ($2.25) because she likes it; she was going to put it back in the freezer when I got the cartons of ice cream, but I bought the gelato, as well, because I was in the mood to indulge her. 

We bought the milk ($2.79), bananas (@$.57/lb = $1.48), and tangerines (3lb. bag @$2.49), a package of frozen tamales ($5.29 for 5 tamales), a bag of sweetener (Splenda) for daughter to take back with her ($7.99), and a container of Cafe Mocha flavored iced coffee ($4.99).  I also bought a big package of toilet paper (36 rolls for $17 and Dancer's cat food for $9.80).  And I bought two Amazon gift cards for daughter, as a birthday gift - she can buy whatever she likes with them.

I also bought 3 boxes (that was all they had on the shelf) of the brand of tea bags that R likes, because she had said she forgot to buy her tea when she went shopping the other day.  Afterwards, we called R and asked her if she could come down to the gate of her apartment building in 15 minutes time, drove there, and gave her the bag of tea boxes.  She was so happy!    

When we came home, daughter put away the groceries before I could take a photograph of it.  I spent a total of $172.12.  But the groceries came to $38.75, not counting the toilet paper (Household Products budget), Dancer's cat food (Pet Care budget), daughter's gift cards and the boxes of tea bags (Gifts budget).

I think I will count it as my February Week 4 grocery shopping, since I went grocery shopping only 3 times in February (other than the raspberries and grapes bought earlier this week; $5 for that):

February grocery budget = $75 + $17.23 carried over from January = $92.23

Spent = $7.03 + $27.44 + $13.35 + $5 + $38.75 = $91.57

Balance left in the budget = $92.23 - $91.57 = $0.66

I will start March with a new grocery budget of $75.

I drove again, today, for the first time since last Friday.  I covered the scar with a gauze pad, to minimize being rubbed by the seat belt (which goes exactly over the scar), but I think I really didn't need it.  

.

After we came home, we sampled some of the iced coffee we had bought from the store - it was a little strong tasting for me, but I added a little of my creamer to it and it was just right!  

For dinner, I cooked some fresh rice, pulled out a bunch of curries from the freezer (fish, dhal, cashew, green beans, cooked greens) and opened one of my jars of tomato chutney:

Daughter's Plate 

It was a good dinner; what daughter calls "a proper Sri Lankan meal".  She likes having several different curries with her rice.  There are leftovers in the fridge for another meal. 

Later, I ran the dishwasher and handwashed the pans from yesterday.  

Today, I am grateful for:

- Another day of recuperating

- Being able to drive again

- Being able to reciprocate my friend's kindness

- Being able to splurge on some treats at the grocery store

- A working dishwasher!  

It has been a very good day.  Twenty five years ago, today, I was at the hospital, in labor, awaiting the birth of my daughter.  It was a long afternoon and night, I remember.  

How was your day?  Did you have a good start to the month of March?

March Balanced Life Goals

As I've explained before, when I do my monthly balanced life goals, I picture a wheel with several spokes, each spoke representing an aspect of my life that is important to me.  Taken together, I like to think that they make a well-balanced life.  Ideally, each spoke is of equal length and the arcs drawn between the spokes are equally rounded to make a perfectly circular rim around the wheel, without any bump-outs or indents.  A well-balanced wheel results in a smoother ride; a wonky wheel results in a bumpy ride.  Currently, as shown in my month-end reviews, I am mostly wobbling along!

These are my March Goals for a more Balanced Life:

Spiritual:  The goal is to live a spiritually meaningful life.
- Continue with daily prayers and gratitude; focus on being positive
- Take time for meditation

- Cultivate non-attachment  - continue with the attempt to declutter; the goal is 100 items in March

- Attend the monthly rosary prayer gathering

Environment:  The goal is a clean, tidy, uncluttered house and a well-maintained garden.

House: 

- Focus on decluttering and maintaining cleaned areas

Garden:
- Maintain (water 2x per week; weed)

- Prepare a planting bed & scatter some flower/vegetable seeds

Daughter:  The goal is to continue to have a close relationship with her.
- Celebrate her 25th birthday with her!

- Daily texts, phone calls, emails, and video chatting, once she goes back

Family & Friends:  The goal is to keep in touch with various family members and friends.

- Call, email, etc. 

- Wish cousin N and cousin P on their birthdays
- Will be seeing several members of the family and friends at the monthly prayer gathering, if attending

- Weekly calls with neighbor T

Community:  The goal is to become more involved in my community

- Continue to participate in the blogging community

Career:  The goal is to continue to do work which I enjoy (for the most part) and which enables me to support myself.

- Continue to do my assignments in a timely manner
- Reserve a space to attend one of the monthly retirement seminars

Finances:  The goal is financial security.

- Continue budgeting and spending mindfully, with purpose

Health & Well Being:  The goal is good health.

- Attend the appointments with my various medical doctors - 3 scheduled so far in March (surgeon - to get stitches removed - on 3/7; primary care on 3/9, podiatrist on 3/15)

- Continue to go for additional screening tests, as needed

- Continue to monitor blood pressure, sugar levels, and weight

- Continue to focus on a healthier diet, drinking enough water (8x 8oz), exercising regularly (walk for 30 minutes during the work week), and getting sufficient sleep (keep trying for that elusive 11:30 p.m. bed time during the work week!)

- Focus on accomplishments and staying positive

Time Management:  The goal is having enough time to do all what I want to do!

- Procrastinate less

- Implement routines and schedules/get myself on a better time table!

Leisure/Crafts/Hobbies/Me-Time:  The goal is to relax doing something I enjoy doing for the pleasure of it.

- Set aside 30 minutes a day to do something relaxing, such as reading books, or doing a craft

So, those are my goals for March!  Is anyone else making monthly goals?

On the Last Day of February

Yesterday, Wednesday, the last day of February, I had a very relaxed day and "recuperated", which means I didn't do anything much!  In the morning, I had a phone call from neighbor T who was calling to see how I was.  Later, I put away the laundry and emptied the dishwasher and I posted my February Goals Update.

For brunch, I ate some of the leftover pancake breakfast friend R had brought - a little of the scrambled eggs, one piece of bacon, and about a quarter of a cranberry-orange pancake.  There is still another pancake and a quarter, left, as well as a lot of egg, another piece of bacon, and some hash browns!  I thought daughter might eat some of it, for her brunch, but she chose to finish the rest of her Japanese teriyaki beef lunch from the day before.

When we went to pick up the Japanese food, the other day, and I asked her to buy some grapes from the market next to it, she heard it as "crepes" instead of "grapes" and she got all excited because she loves crepes!  So, I promised to make her some crepes and yesterday, at tea time, I decided to make some to have with our tea:

The first one out of the pan

She had hers with Nutella, I had one of mine with some leftover canned corned beef and the rest with sugar and lemon juice.

Later in the evening, since daughter had asked for curry puffs for dinner, I made some:

Curry Puffs

I used two packages of frozen puff pastry (each package contained eight 4-inch squares of pastry) and they are filled with a mixture of cooked ground beef, onions, celery, potato, tomato, grated carrot, seasoned with curry powder, chili powder, curry leaves, salt, lemon juice, etc.  There was enough of the ground beef mixture for 14 of the 16 pieces of puff pastry.

With the remaining two pieces of puff pastry, I made us a dessert:

Raspberry Pastries

I spread a spoonful of raspberry preserves in the middle of the pastry, sprinkled the edges of the pastry with a little bit of sugar and baked them for about 15 minutes (at 350F).  Then, I filled the middle with fresh raspberries and spooned a little more melted raspberry preserves over the berries.  They would have looked pretty with a dusting of powdered sugar on top, but I didn't have any powdered sugar.  It was sweet without being too sweet and daughter loved it so much, I gave her half of mine, as well! 

After that, I was too tired to do the dishes, so everything was piled in the sink, overnight!  Daughter put away the leftovers and I told her to freeze some of the curry puffs to take back with her, but I don't know if she did that or not. 

Friend R called in the evening, before I made the curry puffs and we had a long chat.  Later, just as I had finished making the curry puffs, cousin V called to ask how the surgery went and how I was feeling. 

In between writing my blog post, speaking on the phone, and baking pastries, I played sudoku, read blogs, corresponded by email with a friend, and relaxed, er, I mean, recuperated!

Yesterday, I was grateful for:
- Another day to recuperate
- Leftover pancakes for breakfast
- Phone calls from neighbor T, friend R, and cousin V
- Curry puffs for dinner
- Raspberry pastries for dessert and the fact that daughter liked them so much

Looking back, it was a nice way to end February.  How was your day?