Sam Squared

      It was a good Sunday overall with coffee to start the day. I made my son a huge stuffed omelette before he set out for work, and I had avocado toast and an egg.  My older daughter came over before my sister picked me up to meet others car pooling to a town northwest of the cities for a family graduation party. I made chocolate chip pan cookies and these little s'more snacks to add to the dessert bar. They proved popular with kids and teens. On line they got mixed reviews. I had already wrapped them up with the pan cookies on a large disposable tin, so the pictures not great. There's about three dozen. There should have been more but I kept breaking the crackers. I also ran low on chocolate after going overboard on the pan cookies.     Pup finally slept through the night, from 11:00 after one more bathroom trip, until after 7. I thought he made it without an accident, but he had one right after he woke up barking and before I got him out. I've been gat...

                                                   For my Friday posts, I copy a previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This helps me add as the week goes on. Here's my recap of Friday, May 22 to Thursday, May 28. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing.  Use it Up/Avoid Waste  With just myself home Memorial Day weekend, I used it as an opportunity to use up bits and "one of" items for meals. I got the refrigerator good and tidy. Avoiding Spending/Saving on needs  I chose not to meet a couple sisters for dinner out on Friday. The timing just wasn't great with having all the pets and I really was looking forward to a quiet night and starting the last Outlander season. (I said yes to the pets instead of sisters.) No heat or AC over the weekend, but by Monday it was getting a bit hot i...

      Photo by Marta Branco      My mom's book club is made up of very busy women, present company excluded. We've had to pivot and adapt on dates and by our June meeting, we'll have read eight books. We'll skip July and August. S, our fearless coordinator and probably the busiest, had a fun idea to cap off the year. We each picked a book and will bring a food or beverage featured in the book. She's doing string cheese and complimentary bites to represent The Measure.  M picked Dear Mrs. Bird but didn't say what she'd bring.       P hopped on  Something from Tiffany's  right away and not to give away the book too much, is going to bringing sweet rolls. I'm stretching a bit, but selected the Venice set book, The Instrumentalist, which did reference the fruit and veg markets so I'm bringing a fruit platter. There's two other regular attendees and three sporadic joiners so we'll see what else might surface.      J...

         I've been doing a lots of day dreaming while trying to be fully present. When I want to feel productive with this dreaming, I research and track potential itineraries for vacations and longer stays/slow travel. This is my travel notebook, appropriately using a Princess Cruise line notebook that was part of a Christmas White Elephant gift. Two sisters and their husbands are on back to back cruises as I finish this post and it's been good fun seeing glimpses of their trip.      I've thought a bit about a permanent vacation home but have ruled it out at least for the time being. There's too much to do owning one home on my own, so buying a vacation property feels daunting. My friend who has a Florida place has a love-hate relationship with it. She loves the familiarity of the area, the beautiful beach, and pretty condo, but hates that even with a management company, at a high price point, it consumes a lot of her non-vacation time, and neces...

                                                     I appreciated the feedback and will keep posting these checkins on Friday, though might try and edit word count.  For my Friday posts, I copy the previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This helps me add as the week goes on. I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing. As I wasn't feeling great last week, I didn't keep track well so this covers a few weeks.  Use it Up/Avoid Waste  Made the strawberry jam from the pre-measured supply. As I've now plenty for my own family and giving, t he remaining frozen fruit will be used for muffins, quick breads, and desserts for get together before the summer fruit starts coming again. I want to get involved in new jam varieties to me such as blueberries and peach. My SIL made last summer and t...

      Humor amongst my sister's. Yet, hoping  I'm moving away from this default response to challenges in life.       Oh my gosh do I need to keep moving, reading, learning to feel like I'm not just surviving in life. I blink and the week is over with not much to report or even have a conversation about. I fear I'm in the early steps of heading for one of my gray periods. Summer, with all the promise of sunshine and fun, brings forward complex initiators to anxiety mixed with expectations and loneliness. My physical soreness isn't helping, reminiscent of my sense of helplessness/ hopelessness pre- knee surgery. I'm trying hard to push through this current mood drop and irrational thoughts that my life is just leftovers and crumbs or another day figuring out yet another problem.      I recently got a lesson via a memorial, given by my friend in tribute to her dad. She summarized his life in three "rules" to live by, and I took them as a l...

      Photo from pexel.com      So about Mothers Day...      All my optimism for getting my outside shaped up, a garden planted, and healthier behaviors was hit with a big pause sign on Mother's Day. I still don't quite remember how or exactly what happened. One minute I was carefully trimming around the new (last year) hostas planted on the side of the patio, and the next I was falling backwards. Perhaps I tripped on the subtle step up to the patio, merely inches, catching a foot. Maybe I just tripped over my own feet. I fell hard, hitting my head and getting the wind knocked out of me.       Fortunately I wasn't alone, but my poor daughter finding me laying there as I was trying to get my breathing regulated was sure scared. I got a lump on my head and a cracked rib, but no other damage but even days later, a lot of pain in certain positions or movements . I've been moving slow all week and it'll take weeks to heal prope...

      I've been noodling and drafting this post for a while. As I haven't posted for a few days as a bit of an accident has me slow, I'm just doing a quick edit before hitting publish.  Photo from Pexels.com      The ripple effect of the Iran war, high gas prices, lingering tariff BS, is hitting in just about every expense American's have. I'm sorry to my international friends that you're caught in this as well. We all know, with the exception of gas, once prices on consumables go up, they do not go down. I love how stores market "new lower prices" by cherry picking a few items as loss leaders, hoping folks don't get too frustrated overall. Humans need food, clean water, gas to get to work or school/public transport options, and dare I say the occasional indulgence to feel like we're living not just surviving.      My family is not hurting too much. Our needs are covered and we're enjoying things in our free time. However, knowing there...

                                                   Feedback appreciated as the Friday Fiscal Wellness check to me seems the dullest of all my regular topic posts. This is probably because its more about my own reflection and accountability and not really a way to have conversation. Let me know if this should be kept hidden, and I look for other things on Friday, keep but shorten, or keep as is.       For my Friday posts, I copy the previous week, delete the old and update as I go along the week. This helps me add as the week goes on.I just sort of list things as they come up, then edit before publishing. Since I haven't done one of these for several weeks, I'm just grabbing a few things I remember. April was expensive but I'm looking forward to a low spend on regular life things in May...a slow down month, though theres a few timed bi...

Last years unexpected sunflower.      Remember this lady from last year? Two years ago I planted a single sunflower seed that was part of a tiny grow kit from the Target dollar section then replanted in a big pot and it took off. Then last year, unexpectedly, a new plant sprouted in the place, but in the ground, where old plant had been. I took those dried flowers and shook the seeds out in the same area, plus in a rectangular planter. Maybe just maybe I'll have gifts this year.      The free from my local Buy Nothing peony from last spring is sprouting. It's small, so not sure how long before it grows enough to flower, but I didn't kill it! The chive clumps from the same woman are starting to sprout again in one of the pots, but the other is bone dry. I'm not sure yet if the hostas she also gave will flourish...there's early signs that are promising but I have to carefully weed/ mow around them so as not to clip. My SIL's hosta gifts from 2020 are coming u...

      N ow a big life update and another explanation for my blog absence. I toured a few homes with my son in mid April. He wanted me with as he's not really lived in Minnesota (before coming back) since he was 19 and he's never owned a home. After a winter of snow, a spring so far of cold, and rain, and employment opportunities that require flexibility, he shifted his search to low maintenance living.       He almost put an offer on a beautiful condo with all his buttons checked just across the main road from my neighborhood. He paused though, realizing he doesn't want to settle down in our town but rather move to one of the twin cities. I'm much less familiar with Minneapolis but aware areas he'd probably like were a tad out of his pric e point. I know St Paul pretty well so was of more help. We proceeded to tour a few condos in St. Paul. A great two bedroom, two bath, while needing updates, was a top contender. Still, something was missing though lo...

          Photo from Pexels.com free to use, and this one made me think of my own multiple screen use.        I appreciate the messages and comments on old posts checking in. Everything is good. I unintentionally took a blog break last week and most of this week for no real reason at all, just living life, and just wasn't putting things into the computer. I've read many of my regulars sporadically, but apologies for infrequent comments. I don't feel my regular rotation of posts are or have been very interesting either so can't imagine no blog posts for a bit were missed; I put myself to sleep, but haven't had new ideas to blog about since my Lessons post. I guess I gave myself a bit of a social media break in general or at least minimized. I'm weeks behind watching a few favorite YouTube channels, and other than messenger and for a couple groups, I've ignored Facebook.       Part of being less screen time active is the we...