aKathy's What's for Dinner 5/26

Hi scrapmaven! Your day sounds a lot like my day. Jeremy is off golfing in a tournament. I've been up since 5 (it's 11 now) and I've just been crocheting. I might read too. I'm just enjoying some music right now while I work on my shawl. Dinner will be rechauffe. There's plenty of good stuff in the fridge.

Yes. I do my stretches and that really helps. For some reason, sometimes about dinnertime, I get pain that feels vaguely like kidney stone pain. Not the sharp unable-to-stand-it pain but a dull pain. It's strange. I have another chiropractic appointment on Thursday. I've heard that lower back pain/muscle spasms can take 3-6 weeks to heal. I'm just starting week 3.

thinking of gypsygirl... and cadoddlebug.. hope your back gets better. I am waking up these days with a sore hip.. so hoping that sort of goes away.

thick fog this morning.. so back into summer weather. an extra layer day. had a great time scrapbooking yesterday.
I need to go the store.. my exercise class cancelled this morning too. working on organizing my pile of photos/slides today.

dinner probably is take out. we will see. I do think of all those who served, and all those who gave their lives for us. my dad missed ww2--as he hurt his back as he was to be drafted (good thing.. allergic to many many common foods). my father in law was in the army in the 10th mountain division, then the reserves. my dad grew up with the story that his grandfather (who he knew) was a draft dodger from the Kaiser's army.. that's why he came to america. turns out when I looked through the family history--that grandfather was in an artillery unit during the franco-prussian war. so the stories are not always right!! we need to be sure that our kids know what really happened.

Happy Monday! I've been up since 7 am. As the sole caretaker of the bird dog, sleeping in may well be a thing of the past! I've done all my puzzles, drank all the coffee and about to get a shower and start sending emails/texts to notify more people.

They started working on the new paver/sand front walkway this morning. So excited to get this done. It's been on the back burner for a while and we decided to go ahead so that DH would have another access point to the house with his wheelchair. He would have wanted me to do it anyway so full steam ahead. They are removing the old pavers/black star gravel today. Also going to check the sprinkler line that runs under there because I swear there is a leak. Should be done by the weekend. Will look so much better with the house.

It is supposed to rain late afternoon/evening so going to pass on cranking up the grill. There are leftovers or I can cook inside. Plenty of stuff in the fridge/freezer.



Thank you to everyone for all their support and love.     It has meant so much to me.  For the most part, I am doing very well.  I think once we have all the arrangements made and have the memorial service it will really hit me.   But for now it's like he's on assignment overseas or in the hospital.  

**GypsyGirl** I'm glad to hear from you today. There's no right way to process a big loss but talking with friends, being surrounded by people really helped me.

I believe we are having burgers, hot dogs, sausages, baked beans, macaroni salad, and cheesy potatoes/hash brown casserole/funeral potatoes.

We are eating excellent, southern cooking this week.

**GypsyGirl**, thinking of you constantly and praying for comfort for you 💙

I decided to take today off ... something you can do when you are retired!    

I will work the remainder of the week ...


No plans other than a bit of laundry and clean my stove ... it has splatters from dinner last night ...

Dinner is up in the air ...


So great to hear from you **GypsyGirl**!  You are in my thoughts!

Good morning! I slept in. Until 8:30. I was hoping to hop out of bed and go to Walmart. I need a couple of towels to finish the bathroom re-do. It was DH's and was so dark. There is a box over the lights and I had wanted to take it down. DD said to not do it as I did do it in the other bathroom. She said it was a lot of follow up clean up I didn't need to worry about. So I painted. The cabinets are the prettiest emerald green and the wall color I picked out was the lightest of that color. I feel so bad now. The room is so much lighter. I apologized to DH as I stood in the room and looked around. I picked out navy mats and hand towels. I decided to add in a navy background watercolor lemons valance. I then sat on the bed and realized it still needed something. A navy bath towel with a bright lemon yellow hand towel on the towel rack. At Walmart. But I woke up to storms and it's going on all day. So it was a pajama morning.

I am dressed now and making tofu bacon bits. Thinking about making Mac and cheese. 'Cause I can. I've got some chick-un nuggets to go with. I was going to make hot dogs but rain, no store running. I've cleaned a bit in the kitchen and now I'm going to sit down and read Crescent City.

Let me get off the phone now so I can read and talk on my tablet.

OMG the sun is out!! The farmer my mom rents the land to was out cutting the crop for his cows today. Now, if Harper goes out there, I can actually see her. No party plans today I don’t look at this as a holiday to be honest with you. It’s more of a day of remembrance of everyone in our lives who served and fought for this country. My paternal grandfather was a member of the rainbow division in World War I and now my nephew Nicholas is tied to that division through his national guard duty. Can’t remember exactly how but he has my grandpa‘s flag that  was on his coffin along with a rainbow division patch.  I have two uncles who were on the beach in Normandy and thankfully came home safe and two uncles who went to Vietnam and also came home safe. Well, one of those uncles was a paratrooper and the other never left the island of Hawaii, but they are  still Vietnam Vets.  

**GypsyGirl** when my dad died of renal carcinoma, he’d only been in the hospital for 10 days , but in my head, he was still there.  Lots of hugs to you

**GypsyGirl** , good to hear that you're doing okay right now. Glad you're posting here and I think it's great that you're going ahead with the walkway project. Sending love and peace. 


My dad was a radio repairman in the Korean War, and also did recon, some mechanic work, and signal communications. Went on to earn a degree in electrical engineering on the GI bill post-war, then worked for NASA almost his entire career. He was too young for WWII, but 3 of his brothers served, and at least one of his BILs. He and his younger brother (11 and 7 at the time, respectively) helped their dad run their farm during WWII while the older brothers were away. He always said that's how he knew he didn't want to be a farmer when he grew up!    My siblings and I used to love hearing my dad and his brothers sit and talk about the WWII years (well, once we were adults we did, LOL) because they all had completely different perspectives and experiences during that time and it made for interesting stories. Now my dad's younger brother is the only one from their generation left.   ETA: All of the above did make it home safely from war.

Anyway, last night we ended up having rechauffe so tonight is the basil-peach Italian sausage skillet meatballs chicken. Hugs to all (especially **GypsyGirl** ) and thank yous to those who served.

ETA: cadoodlebug - wow, that is a lot of medals and honors. RIP.

Funny story with my mom today. She was so happy to see my BFF. We've been friends since junior high. Mom kept saying over and over "it's so unusual" and I thought she meant that we had been friends for so long but finally I asked her what she meant and she said it was unusual to be a patient after you had worked at the hospital as a doctor. I said, Mom you were an elementary school secretary. She said "I wasn't a doctor?" I said, nope!

Dementia can be kind of funny sometimes. It was very cute.

DH and I went for a 20 km bike ride along the waterfront and then stopped at our favourite chip truck for pulled pork fries and finished with ice cream for dessert.

The temperature was 20 degrees C at our house but when we got to the waterfront, it was 15degrees. Thankfully the sun was out which helped and we had enough layers on to keep warm.

Supper is pork loin with sweet potatoes and carrots along with coleslaw.