back from staycation

It's been a while since I've written here. As I've explained, I've been on a staycation. Staycation officially ended Monday evening. Yesterday daughters and I took a ride to Cape May. We took younger daughter's car...a Honda Fit...because it gets fabulous mileage. Lots of young guys checking out the vehicle as we zoomed past them on the Garden State Parkway. The weather was terrific. The beach was only slightly populated, mostly with high school kids and toddlers with young parents. The water was COLD! I did put my toes in but they fell off! (not really...but pretty close!) Not many people were in the water.

Now that we are all older, we travel very light to the beach. We each have those folding chairs with hoods on them. We have a small cooler for snacks and a small jug for iced tea. One tote bag that you carry yourself. Mine had some magazines, a book, my camera, my wallet, my cell, my keys. I was a gorgeous day. We got there around eleven, grabbed our stuff, bought our tag ($4 a day now!) and walked to the waters edge where we plopped ourselves down for some serious down time.

I did walk down the beach once to use the restroom. That was my exercise for the day. And then I sat and alternately watched the little ones, read a magazine, or stared at the water. Dolphins swam by every now and then. Just a lovely day.

On the way home, instead of buying fudge (like we always used to), we stopped and bought blueberries and strawberries (and a cantaloupe...but not local). Came home and made a charcoal fire to cook up some delicious steaks for dinner. God bless my daughters for setting the table before we left for the day. Added some butter braised asparagus and some sauteed summer squash and a nice salad of sliced tomato and slice fresh mozzarella cheese (with some of my fresh basil snipped on top.


I took a picture of my feet and my view. Sit back. Relax. (By the way....how did we ever live without sun block? I can remember my high school girlfriends slatherting themselves with baby oil and frying themselves. I mean I'm all for taking care...youngest daughter and husband do not tan...they burn ...so as soon as sunblock was invented I bought it and used it on the kids. Yesterday we used SPF50...I just saw a commercial for SPF70...have to get some). Because of the use of sunblock...no one got a sunburn. There were some on the beach who were going to be miserable when the sun went down. I don't like the feel of sunblock. And it does give me little red spots just when I have it on. Today...I have a nice healthy glow to my face. I guess all this new stuff is great...sunblock...thawing meat in the refrigerator...fruit and vegetable wash...germ killers...but I'd like to know how so many of use managed to survive our dangerous childhoods. It's a mystery.

Today I'm home alone. It's very quiet in the house. I had my salad for lunch. Dinner is salmon filet. And I don't know what else. Working on it.

I spent much of the staycation working on my novel. It's almost done. I'm going to it now. Here I go..........

staycation

Buddha says: "An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea."

I've been on staycation. Not away...here...but on vacation...but we stayed home. Get it? A staycation.

Anyway. Remember the porch. Well, that took any vacation money there might have been. But...we don't do vacations anyway. In 28 years, not counting the honeymoon, we've gone away three times. So we kind of invented staycations. Now they're popular because of gasoline prices. The Wall Street Journal even wrote about staycations.

So...how do you do a staycation. I don't know. You stay home. I'll tell you how we did it and then you can adapt accordingly ...or not.

My husband took six days off from work (with weekends) for a total of ten days off. He sent all of us a schedule before the staycation actually started so we could get ready. Daughters worked and lived a regular schedule. Maybe they'll go on a vacation or a staycation later in the summer.
In the morning we were to get up a little later. Well, I make breakfast for younger daughter so I decided to get up and continue that tradition. So husband slept later, but I got up regular time. I had some nice quiet time to work on the Times puzzle before husband came down for breakfast. After breakfast we had limited time for chores. Then we learned to play a two handed bridge game called Bridgette. We've had the game for years and husband thought now was a good time to learn. Keeps our old brains active! Then I make lunch and we have afternoon "spa" hours. Husband has been thoroughly enjoying reading the pile of books he assigned himself and watching opera. I've used the time, as I promised myself, to work on finishing my novel (that I started seven years ago!!!) Almost done (almost 400 pages!)! After it's done then I have to figure out what to do with it. How does one get published?

I've been making and eating my salads for lunch every day. And, with the summer heat, sometimes for dinner too. I have to say here, salad for lunch AND dinner is way too much lettuce for me. After a two salad day I have to cook a meal! Tonight is franks and beans. And I'll make a little salad...in days gone by I would have bread and applesauce. But franks and beans and salad will be okay. Especially because I have strawberries for dessert!

Yesterday we had an unscheduled shopping day. Husband wanted to use some gift cards he got for his birthday. Books, CDs, DVDs, and a pair of CROCS. He's just discovered he likes CROCS. Who knew?

Last night we had a salad with chicken on it for our protein...among other delicious things. Younger daughter came home with some salad greens a co-worker had grown. That was a nice treat. I rinsed them and tossed them with some red leaf lettuce for the base of our salad. Very nice.

I've planted lettuce in my flower boxes this year. And it's already come up!












And I've planted my herbs. I do every year. Tarragon, chives, rosemary, thyme, lemon thyme (delicious in tomato sauce!), basil, parsley, dill (looking poorly). I've also planted tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, zucchini, and cucumbers.

I love my farmer's market...but they're only open on Saturday...and there's nothing like a tomato eaten warm from the garden!

Staycation's almost over. Then one day at the beach (gasoline is too high) and afternoon's and evenings on the PORCH!











Buddha say: " When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky."

happy birthday!

Yesterday was my youngest child's birthday. She was twenty-two years old. Yesterday was Thursday. She was born on a Thursday. It's hard to believe that my baby has lived more than two decades. I barely feel older than that myself. Oh, my knees ache and I have to watch what I eat, but I'm still interested and curious. I know that she was happy to be celebrating her birthday but was a little serious, sad too. I have passed the half century mark a few years ago and many of my friends are just approaching it. 50 didn't bother me. 40 didn't bother me. 30 didn't bother me. 25 bothered me. Imagine. Twenty five! I'd love to be 25 again. Especially knowing what I know now.

We celebrated quietly, like we do. Just us. My daughter spent the greater part of her day at work...that's when you know you're really grown. When you go to work on your birthday. And when there is no party to speak of. The day passes and you're older and that's it. (I did give her a new dress and sandals to wear).

Her sister baked her a cake and made homemade whipped cream and I decorated it with fresh strawberries. The cake was tiny and low carb. But very good and, of course, we added ice cream. Dinner was her request: chicken parmesan (I tried something new and rolled pounded chicken breast with prosciutto, basil pesto, provolone then baked it with tomato sauce and more chees on top). We had a dish of sauteed vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, onions) and gnocchi made from ricotta with basil pesto sauce on top. No salad for dinner just cut up celery with ranch dressing for dipping.

After we ate she opened her gifts and we played a card game that she wanted to play. A quiet night. A nice night. Everyone was in bed early. Work today.









It's hard to grow up and realize that not all the friends you thought were true are true. Everyone disappoints. To what degree is the only variable.

Hey kiddo...I know you read this...I was there that day and always will be until you don't need me to be and back again when you do. Hope yesterday was one of your good birthdays!

suppertime

My father is old school. He eats three meals a day and they are breakfast, dinner, and supper. He also believes that the reason my niece and nephew, his grandchildren, eat nothing but junk and fastfood is because they never smell food cooking. He might be right. There is something comforting about walking in the backdoor and smelling supper.

When I was in college I worked summers in a day camp. The only perks of the job were sun-streaked hair, a fabulous tan, and a great item on the resume for a teaching job. I can remember pushing in the backdoor and being enormously thankful for air conditioning and smiling at the smells coming from the kitchen. Sometimes the smell (weekly!) was hot soup and, after standing in the sun all day, I wasn't too enthused. But I'd set the table and my father would come home from work and we would all sit down and eat and talk and laugh. Suppertime was a nice time.

I read a statistic somewhere, I forget where, that the only this all Rhodes scholars had in common was that they ate supper as a family. Every night.

I know so many, many people who rarely eat a meal together ever. Our children are really missing out. My children are adults and they have always had regular mealtimes with food that I've prepared for them. I even packed their lunches. They do their own now but I still do for husband.

Right now, as I type this, I can smell a pork roast that I put in the oven a while ago. It's cooking very slowly with leeks and apples and garlic. It smells wonderful. My older daughter will come out of her third floor apartment and ask what's for supper and say that she's been smelling it all day. Younger daughter will arrive home and walk in the backdoor and smell what's for dinner. Both will ask at some point in the day what I'm planning. It's nice to know that eating dinner means something to both of them. I hope they will continue the tradition.

When younger daughter went away to college it was difficult for me to make the correct amount of food. I often would set the table for all of us instead of all of us minus one. When older daughter works and her shift keeps her away from dinner, I set her plate and put aside her food. And when she gets home, I sit with her while she eats. It's no fun to eat alone....especially supper.

Tonight we're having a pork roast with gravy made from the meat juices and the leeks and garlic and apples. We're having baked yams and green beans. A big salad, of course. Tonight we're having a real meal.

While I understand why this diet of low carbohydrates is necessary I still can't get my mind around a salad for dinner (especially since I always have one for lunch). I love to cook. I love to cook meals. I miss making beef stew with potatoes. I miss roasted chicken with parsleyed potatoes. I miss homemade pizza (a Friday night tradition that dates bake pre-children). I miss the traditional food of my family. There is a joke...although too true to be terribly funny...that a Slavic mother could make supper for twelve with one potato. I know I could.

I read cookbooks like novels. I think about what vegetables should be served with what meat and how they should be prepared. I know people who think canned corn is the only vegetable palatable to human beings. My children ask for cabbage and asparagus and squash. They've eaten it all their lives.

Yesterday I had a salad for lunch and another one for dinner. Today I had a salad for my dinner. And tonight, for my supper, I'm eating real food. Family food. Tonight's supper is a juicy pork roast and some beautifully orange baked yams and fresh green beans...and a salad.



Tonight every one will be home and supper will be on the table at 6:30.

Sunday on the porch

On Sunday I slept late. I didn't get out of bed until 8:30. That is very, very late for me. I made eggs and sausage for breakfast. Did some chores. And made a conscious effort to sit on my new porch. I ate breakfast late and intended to eat dinner early so I DID NOT EAT A SALAD for lunch (although I did have a nice salad with my dinner of chicken cutlets and yellow squash and asparagus).

A while ago my younger daughter gave me a "survey" to take. Her friends pass them around on the internet. She has been passing on a lot of them lately but she liked this one. She completed it and then sent it to me. So...while passing the time on the porch with my Sunday newspapers and the birds and the breeze...I, too, completed the survey. It was an interesting exercise. Try it...you might find something new and interesting about yourself.

So here goes...

20 YEARS AGO I ...was a relatively new wife and a young mother of two very lively and intelligent little girls. We were deep into pre-school...which, looking back...I think I would have skipped if it hadn't been for second guessing myself as a mother. Husband was traveling for work a lot. Life was busy with kids and schools and dinner and laundry. Always laundry.

15 YEARS AGO I...was teaching computers at the local Catholic school where my daughters attended school. I was a working mother. Something I never wanted to be. I had learned a great deal about computers as I got computers donated to the school and husband and I had to clean them up inside and out to make them usable. Life was busy and full of kids and schools and dinner and laundry. Always laundry.

10 YEARS AGO I...was a homeschooling mom. I had just started a non-sectarian group for homeschoolers in which I taught a lesson and the other mom planned a coordinated field trip. That was fun and it was successful. Life was full of education and fun and learning and dinner and laundry. Always laundry. But there was a peace that made it all fall into place.

5 YEARS AGO I...was finishing up being a homeschooling mom. Kids were self learners and stepping out into the world. They weren't just succeeding, they were excelling. I was deep into trying to write my first novel (I still am). Life was full of maturing kids and dinner and laundry. Always laundry.

2 YEARS AGO I ...was still working on finishing my novel and that huge pile of laundry. Always laundry.

1 YEAR AGO I ...was still working on finishing my novel and that huge pile of laundry. Always the novel. Always the laundry.

YESTERDAY I...sat on my porch (and only did a little bit of laundry...always the laundry).

TODAY I...took a long walk outside in the gorgeous day. I let the warm breeze blow through my hair. I finished shopping for two of the three birthdays this month. And I didn't do any laundry.

TOMORROW I'd better do some laundry.