Life: It Goes On - March 1

Well, hey there! Happy Sunday! I definitely did not intend to go radio silent for two weeks, but I'm so frustrated with my inability to figure out how to get photos uploaded the way I want them that I'm disinclined to sit down to the blog at all. And then suddenly this morning, I tried something different and it seems to have worked! 

I knocked out a ton of cleaning yesterday so I'm hoping to have time today to get some reviews written - I'm so far behind! Lately, though, I'm trying to allow myself to work on whatever suits my fancy in any given day - so it may just be reorganizing the kitchen or working on genealogy. 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Kevin Wilson's Run For The Hills, which I'm really enjoying. 

Watched: A friend and I went to watch a one-woman play called All Things Equal: The Life and Trials of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. It was funny and touching and we would both highly commend it.

Read: I'm currently reading Karen Schatz's Where The Girls Were. Next up is probably Melanie Benjamin's latest, The Windsor Affair. 

Made: Pork roast and smashed potatoes and pasta with bolognese sauce. Otherwise, we somehow ended up eating out a lot this week. 

Enjoyed: It was 70 degrees and sunny here on Friday afternoon so the Big Guy and I joined friends for happy hour on a local brew pub's patio. It was lovely and just the thing I need to make it through the rest of winter. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: It's going to be a paperwork kind of week this week, as I'm still working on closing up my dad's estate. It's also time to get back to Go Simplified's decluttering plan for the year - February got away from me so I'm going to be trying to get through both February's and March's assignments this month. 

Thinking About: I keep thinking I need to take a break from the news for my own sanity, but then something new comes up and I don't want to be uninformed. Working on trying to find a balance so my brain doesn't burn out. 

Feeling: Wistful. Today is Miss H's and Ms. S's birthday and I'm missing the days when that meant celebrating with them, making a cake and watching them open their gifts. 

Looking forward to: A friend and I are going to hear Anna Quindlen speak on Tuesday. 

Question of the week: Are any of you planning on being The Bride? The cast is terrific, but it's not the kind of movie I usually see in the theater. I'm on the fence about it. Any other movies you'd recommend? 

Life: It Goes On - June 9

Happy Sunday! As I type, I'm watching out the window for a truck to arrive with my new washing machine. Mine decided it would tumble long enough to fill with water and it was fine with draining and spinning. It was just all of that stuff in the middle that it didn't want to do any more...like actually wash the clothes. I'd much rather be spending this money on a vacation! 

Last Week I: 

Listened To: I finished Lynn Painter's The Love Wager and started Madeline Martin's The Keeper of Hidden Books. Quite the change in mood from one to the other!

Watched: Lots of college baseball (again), game one of the NBA finals, and Jerry Seinfeld's latest movie, Unfrosted (a little stupid, but also fun with a lot of sly things thrown in and Hugh Grant was hilarious). 

Read: I finished Julia Alvarez's latest, The Cemetery of Untold Stories and started Kris Carr's I'm Not A Mourning Person: Braving Loss, Grief, and the Big Messy Emotions That Happen When Life Falls Apart. 

Made: Ravioli - both a spinach/ricotta and a sweet corn/spinach/ricotta type, chicken nugget salads, and a chicken pasta dish. 

The way you dress for a matinee
when you're following it up with
a trip to an arts festival. 

Enjoyed: Yesterday BG, Mini-him, Miss C and I went to a matinee performance (matinee because I was more concerned about getting seats where I wanted them than to pay attention to the fact that it wasn't an evening performance!) of Moulin Rouge, which we all thought was excellent. We followed that up with a trip to the Omaha Summer Arts Festival where we ate African, Mexican, Southern, and Indian food and came home with some art purchases. 

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This Week I’m:  

Planning: This week should be quieter so I'm hoping to get caught up on paperwork, do some work in the basement, and get some extra reading time in because I have so many books I need to get read. 

Thinking About: Father's Day and what to get for my dad and my hubby. 

Feeling: Like a different woman. Got my hair done on Thursday and we went lighter than I have been in years (gotta move that way to make the grays not so obvious quite so soon!). 

Looking forward to: Evenings on the patio since we'll finally have evenings that are free this week when it's not raining. 

Question of the week: Have you seen the theatrical production of Moulin Rouge? 

Life: It Goes On - February 12

Happy Sunday and happy Super Bowl Sunday! Do you all have big plans for watching the game? If you do, are you there for the game, the ads, or the half time show? I'll be honest, those half time shows haven't held much interest for me for quite a while (no criticism of the talent but not the music I listen to) and I've been pretty disappointed in the ads the past few years. But I am 100% there for the game, especially since it's the last football I'll be watching until August. 

The Big Guy is headed off to a friend's party but I've no interest in spending a few hours with people I don't really know and will only see once a year so I watch at home alone. Which sounds sad and pathetic but allows me to watch and also get the usual Sunday night things-that-need-to-be-done-before-the-work-week-starts done.

Last Week I: 

Listened To: Geraldine Brooks' latest, Horse. Brooks has a way of finding topics to write about that I've never considered and then weaving a story around them that makes you think about ethics and morals and humanity. 

Watched: More of Emily In Paris. I've been loving these light, romantic shows lately. I'm well into the third season and wondered if you have any recommendations of something similar that I can watch when I'm caught up with this one. I could go back to Bridgerton but I'm not sure I want to (unless one of you suggests to me that I'll really enjoy Season 2). 

Read: I've been trying to read The Untethered Soul, by Michael A. Singer, as recommended by Glennon Doyle. But the Midwest pragmatist in me is struggling. It feels like so much New Age-ism without any really guidance was to how to get where Singer says we need to be. I'm not sure I'll be finishing it. I've also just started Lawn Boy, by Jonathan Evison, as recommended to me by my aunt. 

Made: Lasagna (looking forward to having leftovers of that again today!) and tapioca pudding. I'm almost certain I've had tapioca in my cupboard before but I can't, for the life of me, remember making it. I will definitely be making it again and can't wait to try to variations. 

Enjoyed: The touring production of Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird, starring Richard Thomas. We really enjoyed it. The acting was really great and the sets worked wonderfully. 

It lacks the slow pace of the book and the movie adaptation; what was Scout's narration alone in the book is spread amongst the three children (who are all played by adults because they have to be due to the length of the tour); and the black characters are given more voice. While I appreciated that last, it definitely felt more of this time than of the time in which the book was set. 

This Week I’m:  

Planning: I'm making tremendous progress on cleaning up my office (who would have thought such a small room could hold so much?!) and will finish cleaning it out this week. Hard to believe that next week starts 40 Bags In 40 Days. I'm determined that the majority of that will be spent working on our basement, although I'll also be making a pass through any space I haven't gotten finished yet this year. 

Thinking About: My dad and I went to a presentation for a new senior living facility that's being built nearby and he put down a deposit to hold a spot there. Yes, I know he just moved in October; but things where he's at have not been what he was promised and I'm not sure I feel that he's entirely safe there. So it's time to look at a change, which means thinking about what gets moved with him this next time. 

Feeling: I had a couple of terrible nights of sleep this week, which might actually have been made worse by having worn my watch so that I know exactly how little sleep I got. But the past two nights have been much better and I'm feeling vastly more energetic today. So I should probably get off the computer and get moving, right? 

Looking forward to: The calendar for this week is entirely blank, which you know I always enjoy! Work is really getting busy so I'm going to very much appreciate being able to just come home and relax in the evenings. 

Question of the week: Eagles or Chiefs? 

Life: It Goes On - September 23

Happy fall, y’all!
I have no idea why I suddenly became a Southerner – you would not believe how often I randomly start talking in some accent that makes no sense at all. Nevertheless, I am finally embracing the fact that it’s fall. I bought a small mountain of pumpkins on Saturday and decided, almost as soon as I left the farm, that I need more. Even though I have no idea where I’m putting all of the pumpkins and gourds I already bought. Miss H would say I’m “so extra.”

Last Week I:

Listened to: All Hamilton, all of the time. I anticipate that I’ll continue to listen to it some this week as I relive the show but I think it’s time to move on, too, to Roxane Gay’s Hunger.

Watched: The season finale of America’s Got Talent and lots of football. Friday, The Big Guy splurged and went to the cheap theater to see Yesterday. We both enjoyed it a lot. For the drive home I even turned off Hamilton so that I could listen to the Beatles.

Read: I finished Tiny Beautiful Things and This Blessed Earth and read Lucy Kinsey’s Relish: My Life In The Kitchen as part of my Fall Feasting reading. Today I’m starting Jessica Fechtor’s Stir.

Made: Remember how I told you last week that I had my cooking mojo back? Yeah, not so much this week. I did make a yummy chicken pasta dish one night. In my defense, there has been a lot of coming and going this week at our house so it’s been a lot of quick and easy meals for whoever happened to be home to eat that night.

Enjoyed: I think enjoyed might be too weak a word. Mini-him and I went to Hamilton yesterday. There’s a part of me that wishes I weren’t so family with the soundtrack so I hadn’t spent so much time comparing voices but I really did love it. The cast was wonderful and the staging was just incredible. It was fun to get Mini-him’s perspective on how this performance was different from the one he’d previously seen and to hear the responses of those around us who clearly weren’t familiar with the music.

This Week I'm:

Thinking About: We spent Saturday with our friends whose son died a few months ago. They are learning to move on but it’s tough. Each of the family is grieving in their own way and it’s definitely a strain on their relationships. I can’t stop thinking about the long road they still have ahead of them.

Feeling: A little down. I’d been looking forward to Hamilton for months and I’m a little sad that it’s now in the past. Unless I wanted to pony up another couple hundred to go see it again. I’m going to say that The Big Guy probably won’t go for that!

Looking Forward To: A quiet week. We have absolutely nothing on the calendar. Hopefully more time home this week means my house can be put back to rights.

Question of the Week: How many pumpkins do you buy?