Starting up the trail
We’re hiking up there?
Almost to the cave!
Climbing down through the cave entrance
Hubby looking amazing
Tiny tunnel I was crazy enough to crawl through
What’s on the ceiling?
Cool formations!
Massive stalagmite
It’s taller than I am!
Most of the spelunking group
Light at the end of the tunnel
Colorful bug
Hubby and I at the top of the trail
View from the top
Hiking back down
Souvenirs!
I’m excited to do some real cooking this week but I’ve been feeling run down the last two days. Frustrating! My brain is active but my body is tired. We’ll see what I can accomplish.
Sunday
Breakfast – Waffles with homemade Strawberry spread
Lunch – Quesadillas
Dinner – Mac & cheese (Newstart, pg. 107)
*Make pumpkin pie! (Newstart, pg. 57)*
Monday
Breakfast – Smoothies – banana/strawberry
Lunch – Subs
Dinner – Better Burgers (Newstart, pg. 114); mashed potatoes; brown gravy (pg. 86)
Tuesday
Breakfast – Cereal and raspberry muffins
Lunch – Grilled avocado sandwiches
Dinner – Pasta with the yummy, yummy sauce; garlic bread; vegetable or salad
Wednesday
Breakfast – Smoothies – banana/raspberry
Lunch – Subs
*Make beans for dinner, pg. 118*
Dinner – Haystacks (Newstart, pg. 119)
Thursday
Breakfast – Cereal; toast; apple or orange
Lunch – Leftovers
Dinner – Pasta with the yummy, yummy sauce; garlic bread; vegetable or salad
Friday
Breakfast – Smoothies – banana/strawberry
Lunch – Subs
Dinner – Homemade ramen
*make Zucchini Spinach Lasagna for Sabbath, (Newstart, pg. 128)*
Sabbath
Breakfast – Smoothies
Lunch – Zucchini Spinach Lasagna
Dinner – Pizza!
Last week’s successes:
Yummy Pad Thai
Hubby – “You said put the salsa and chips on the salad, right?”
Sexi Mexi Salad
My Sunday bummer: 
Pumpkin pie
It looked really good. It smelled good while baking. But it tasted nasty. The entire thing was tossed out. It was a new recipe, one that used dates to sweeten the pie instead of brown sugar. It also had different spices than I’m used to (cardamom?). It was just an big failure.
Oh well! I still have these beauties to cook up.
I found an event I have to participate in, the Maud Hart Lovelace reading challenge. I have seen Lovelace’s books praised on a number of blogs but I have not yet read any of her books!
It looks like my library has at least the first three books, so I aim to read those three.
I believe we are visiting the library on Tuesday evening so I will pick the books up that evening. I can’t wait!
Hubby informed me last night that he’d be out all day today. Normally, he’s home working all or part of the day so this was unusual. I decided to embrace the quiet house and get a ton of stuff done. I promised hubby that he’d be impressed by my productivity when he got home. I think I succeeded, though he’s not home yet to confirm.
Today, I…
vacuumed,
swept the kitchen and the kitty box room,
washed dishes,
cleaned out the fridge,
tidied up the entire apartment,
finished a memoir I was reading,
studied Japanese for over an hour,
made a more fancy lunch than normal,
made huge progress on my quilt,
returned some emails,
updated the budget,
completed two loads of laundry,
and a few other small things.
Whew. And since hubby is still not home, I’m writing a blog post. I love productive days! Once I’m done with this post, I’ll either spend some more time with my Japanese studies or keep working on my quilt. Hubby is working way up north today so when he calls to tell me he’s on the way, I’ll still have enough time to prepare dinner.
Bruno under the ironing board
4 blocks complete!
8 more D9P blocks to sew together. There will be 12″ solid blocks of the dark pink fabric between each of these D9P blocks. I haven’t cut those out yet, so I can’t show what it will look like. This is a new pattern for me and I think I like it. I’m not sure about all the fabric choices, but the pattern is fun.
Here’s to a day of great productivity!
I’ve read a lot this month and I finished the majority of what I aimed to finish in September. This month I took to heart some advice to grasp even the 5 minute periods available for reading instead of waiting until a chunk of time comes available. I’ve been amazed at how much more I’ve been able to read, even if some of it is in snippets!
COMPLETED (links are to my full reviews)
Biography
Classics
Christian Fiction
Memoir
Secular Fiction
IN PROGRESS
Upcoming
What I am particularly excited about:
Happy reading, everyone!
We unexpectedly spent all day yesterday shampooing our carpets, shifting things around, and waiting for everything to dry. I didn’t have time to make my planned dinner so the menu has already been changed! Instead of pierogies, we had burritos from Chipotle. I couldn’t face the kitchen after all that work on the carpeting. Not that I mind a spontaneous Chipotle dinner…
Sunday
Breakfast – Smoothies
Lunch – Quesadillas
Dinner – Homemade Potato, Onion, and Cheeze Pierogies
*soak garbanzo beans overnight for burgers*
Monday
Breakfast – Cereal and fruit
Lunch – Stir fry with garlic sauce, Newstart cookbook pg. 182
Dinner – King Burgers, Newstart cookbook pg. 115
Tuesday
Breakfast – Smoothies
Lunch – Sexi Mexi Salad
Dinner – Pasta with yummy, yummy sauce; garlic bread; vegetable or salad
Wednesday
Breakfast – Cereal and fruit
Lunch – Toasted Avocado Sandwich, Newstart cookbook pg. 150
Dinner – Easy Vegan Pad Thai
Thursday
Breakfast – Smoothies
Lunch – Subs
Dinner – Pasta with yummy, yummy sauce; garlic bread; vegetable or salad
Friday
Breakfast – Cereal and fruit
Lunch – Subs
Dinner – Quick Hawaiian Dinner, Newstart cookbook pg. 135
*Make lasagna for Sabbath*
Sabbath
Breakfast – Smoothies
Lunch – Zucchini Spinach Lasagna, Newstart cookbook pg. 128; salad
Dinner – Pizza!
Last week’s biggest success in the kitchen:
Stewed Strawberries cooking
Stewed Strawberries on Waffles Perfect
(Newstart cookbook)
The strawberries were awesome! So easy to make and really tasty. It was our biggest success from the new recipes we tried last week. As I was editing the photos for this post, I had a sudden curiosity about the possibility of adding strawberries to my waffles. That would make an even more perfect breakfast!
On Tuesday evening, I received a bit of a nudge from God.
First, a tiny bit of background. Last weekend, we drove down to my brother’s house in Sierra Vista to spend time with his family. On Sunday, as we were driving between Phoenix and Tucson, we ran over a tire in the middle of the freeway. The car in front of us swerved to miss it but they waited until the last minute and we didn’t have enough time to react. We ran right over it.
I ignored and intentionally forgot to check for damage for two days. On Tuesday evening, we needed to run some errands so I checked the front end of the car. Under the headlight, the front end is smashed. It’s ugly. I was really upset about it but knew we wouldn’t do anything about it since it was obvious it was just cosmetic.
Our first errand was to get gas. I was stewing over the car, crying about the loss in value, our $500 deductible, and how ugly the car is now. After getting gas, we tried to start the car. Click. Click. Click. Dead.
A very nice gentleman gave us a jump start and we headed over to Pep Boys. As we were also due for an oil change, we asked them to include that in the list for the evening. $195 later, we have new oil and a new car battery.
The lesson in all of this? It’s not worth getting upset about something that doesn’t truly matter. It’s just a car. If it runs, if it gets my husband to his client appointments, who cares what it looks like? If it’s reliable, does some cosmetic damage really matter? It could be worse. We could have no car at all! We are blessed to have a reliable car and I need to remember to thank God for providing it, warts and all.
I woke up this morning with a plan. Breakfast. Housework. Japanese. Lunch. More Japanese. Quilting. Reading. The first part of the day went really well. I made banana french toast, completed all of my housework, and studied Japanese for an hour. After lunch, I pulled out my supplies and prepared to spend several hours working on my quilt.
Today I was supposed to add a new pink fabric into my double nine patch blocks. It was on the cheaper end of the options at Joann Fabrics. 100% cotton, I think (usually I check but maybe I missed it this time). I washed it and everything looked fine. Ironed it. Cut it and everything looked fine. Then I started sewing it together with the blocks already completed and ran into problems. When I ironed the newly sewn seams, the fabric shrunk. It was the weirdest thing. I needed to replace the fabric I just bought.
So, now that I couldn’t work on my quilt, I didn’t know what to do with myself! My plan was thrown off. My schedule was off kilter. I could think of plenty of things that needed done but couldn’t decide on any one of them. I felt paralyzed for some reason. It was frustrating.
I ended up spending some more time with my Japanese studies, reading a bit, and catching up on some correspondence. When I told my husband what happened this afternoon, he told me that I was productive but it wasn’t the productivity I had planned on. Then why did I feel like I was wasting the afternoon? Why did I feel like I was being useless and was throwing away several perfectly good hours? I have no idea why I couldn’t just let go of my intended activities and embrace something else. A control issue? I don’t know…
I can’t post a Monday menu post because I have no idea what we are eating this week! We were going to wait until today to go grocery shopping so I didn’t rush to have a menu complete. Then we ended up going grocery shopping on Saturday night because we were already out. So we’ll be eating whatever I can cobble together from our cupboards! I do know we’re having tacos and spaghetti. Everything else is up in the air.
This morning’s smoothie – bananas, blueberries, and strawberries. It was yummy!
Here is what I accomplished on my quilt this afternoon. I cut out all the squares that go between the nine patch squares I sewed last week. Everything is stacked and ready to be pinned and sewn.
The double nine patch in the center of my cutting mat is not sewn yet but that is what each 12″ block will look like when complete. Tomorrow I hope to make great progress toward getting those blocks complete.
I did a terrible job memorizing my text last week. But I’m going to double up this week and add in the next text anyways. I love this Psalm and really want to finish memorizing it.
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye righteous:
for praise is comely for the upright.
Praise the LORD with harp:
sing unto him with the psaltery
and an instrument of ten strings.
Sing unto him a new song;
play skilfully with a loud noise.
For the word of the LORD is right;
and all his works are done in truth.
He loveth righteousness and judgment:
the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
Psalm 33:1-5
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord! Just last night we were blessed by a sudden thunderstorm. The lightning was amazing and I felt like God is all powerful. Praise the Lord for His goodness!