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Sunrise

The hubby and I started our day with a trip to the beach to see the sunrise. While the weather didn’t cooperate fully, it was beautiful to watch the sky and water change as the sun came up. We got there just before 6:30 and were taken aback by the number of people already there. Consequently, the surf was unusually high for South Florida, so the surfers were there to take advantage of the nice waves.

It’s always nice to taken in the salty air of the beach. My sinuses always feel better after spending time near the water. Hopefully, next time the weather will cooperate, so we can see the sunrise fully. Nonetheless, it was the perfect way to start our day. Afterwards, we just chilled on the couch with the puppies.

Originally, I had a lunch date with my friend Terri, but had to cancel since Goalielocks had been sick. Fortunately, he does not have Covid. Unfortunately, he does have the flu. Thankfully, we caught it super early and he hasn’t been around the rest of us since Wednesday. Last time he had the flu, we caught it late and had all been exposed. Thank God this time he’s on Tamiflu and is self sufficient. Like last time, he had the flu vaccine, which should lessen the severity of his illness.

This afternoon I channeled my inner baker, thank you Great British Bake-off, and made a Swiss cake roll. It was relatively easy to make, but there are a couple of adjustments I’ll make for the next time. First, the pan has to be 11X17. Secondly, when I roll it with the tea towel, I’ll not wrap it up in the tea towel. This should allow for a tighter wrap.

While I was waiting for the cake roll to cool, I made some pickled vegetables. I’ve developed a taste for pickled vegetables. Naturally, this works well since it’s minimal calories, yet satiating. This time I used cauliflower, orange pepper, carrots, onions, garlic and dill. I made a quick pickle recipe, so I didn’t have to boil the jars or anything. Once I’ve tried them, I’lll share the recipe here (only if it turns out good.)

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Organizing

I spent the last two days organizing. I spent my days going through all of our kitchen cupboards and pantries to maximize our storage. The kitchen has been looking a bit cluttered and we have mugs, plastic cups and water bottles coming out our ass. Honestly, we have way too much stuff in here. This weekend I l culled through our kitchenware and will be donating at least half of it. Some of it isn’t in a good enough condition to be donated, so we’ll be throwing it out.

It feels good to get rid of the extra crap we don’t need. Moreover, I find mind kitchen more peaceful now that it’s better organized. We have two big boxes of stuff to donate, which is awesome. I also had three bags of garbage from the endeavor. Thankfully, I’m almost done. The last piece of the puzzle will be to match all the tops to the travel mugs and water bottles.

Yesterday I baked some Pulla and mixed up cookie dough for more the mint cookies and my favorite Finnish cookie. Today I baked fresh bread to go along with the beef stew I made for dinner. The family loved the stew and the bread. In fact, they ate the bread and there’s only a little bit of stew left. Obviously, my boys eat a lot, so I made a double batch so the Hubby, Goalielocks’ girlfriend and I could actually have some.

While the bread rose, I got my run in. I ran two miles and walked a mile. Today’s run went really well. It’s so much easier for me to run later in the morning or afternoon. Honestly, I feel like I’m dying when I run before work. Obviously, I feel great afterwards, but it’s tough. Before I started dinner, I did a nice yin practice on the Practyce app. I’m loving the Practyce app and the variety of yoga practices it provides.

Tomorrow, I’ll finish organizing the kitchen before switching focus to our room. Again we just have way more stuff than we need. We really need to go through everything and get rid of some stuff. Hopefully, this will generate a few more boxes of goodies to donate to Goodwill. Moreover, I hope we actually get around to dropping the donations off this weekend.

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Loss

Loss seems to be the overwhelming theme of 2020 and 2021. Life naturally brings us life as we age and the people we love age with us. It sucks but it’s reality. The past eighteen months, however, has presented us with loss on a scale we’re not accustomed to. Just this week, we have lost two hockey dads to COVID. Men that were far too young to leave this earth.

It’s, of course, a lot easier for us as adults to process these losses. Which is to say it’s not easy, but we’re better equipped than our kids to handle and process the grief. For our kids, it’s not just the loss of their friend’s parent they’re trying to process, but the possibility that they could lose their parents to Covid. To a kid of any age, this is terrifying.

The sense of loss, the fear of loss remains omni present even as we’re eighteen months into this thing. Honestly, it’s exhausting. Nonetheless, you have to live your life and move forward. The boys being back in school is an important step in moving forward. Moreover, hockey has been an integral part of keeping them socially engaged and active. During this difficult time, exercise be it hockey, running or lifting weights is an easy way to help cope during this period.

In other news, it’s only Tuesday. Truly, it feels like it should be Saturday already. This week is dragging. Fortunately, I had a much better day at work today. Thank God. They say laughter is the best medicine and I wholeheartedly agree, so I’ll leave you with this.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading Far From the Madding Crowdby Thomas Hardy. At first I wasn’t sure about the book, but now I like it. Albeit some of the plot twists have left me aghast.

*I ran a mile and a half. It in many ways sucked. Especially since it’s my first run post leg day in over two months. Leg day yesterday killed me!

*We’re tracking the Tropics here in Florida. The tropics are heating up again with three areas of concern. Fortunately, all the tropical weather is moving away from us! Unfortunately, the heat has really cranked up due to the Saharan dust cloud overhead.

*Since Goalielocks is home sick, I drove to pick up my coffee this morning. Fortunately, Goalielocks’ Covid test came back negative! Thank God!

* Every day I watch the live Safaris on YouTube, I’m inspired. I never thought I’d be one for a safari, but the views and the animals are incredible. It’s now on my bucket list. Today was a banner day. I always love watching the young elephants or lions playing. They’re so cute!

*For dinner, I made home made meatballs and spaghetti. Tonight we tried Michael’s from Brooklyn’s tomato basil sauce. It was super yummy. As a family, we’re trying all the top jarred spaghetti sauce. The Mayor and I love spaghetti, so I thought it would be a fun activity for us.

*The word of the day and it is kakorrhaphiophobia, which means and abnormal fear of failure. I think a lot of have a fear of failure, but for most it’s not a paralyzing fear.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a. I put on his harness every morning. Otherwise, I have difficulty controlling him on the leash. He’s incredible strong and can pull me off balance.

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Almost Over

The weekend is almost over and so is our summer. Tomorrow marks the official start of the Mayor’s hockey season, so there will be no more down time. At least no down time until next March. In preparation for the craziness, my Sunday was quite lazy. I’m still dealing with the cold, so I spent the day literally doing nothing. Truly, it was as amazing as it sounds.

Actually to be fully transparent, I did make some carrot ginger soup. Since my cold started, eating meals has been a challenged. However, small bowl of soup have been going down okay. I bought some Rao’s minestrone, which is super yummy. But I was craving some carrot ginger soup, so I decided to make my own. It’s a super easy and vegan (if you want it to be) recipe with just a few ingredients. I’ll share the recipe here later.

I have been ordering from Butcher Box for awhile now. Their prices are good and the convenience is undeniable. This month I opted for the big box with some nice add-ons. The box was supposed to arrive Friday, but it arrived today in terrible condition. The box was destroyed and all of the meat had defrosted and smelled terribly. Talk about a buzz kill. Now we’ll have to wait for the replacement box to get here. So aggravating!

While the weekend is almost over, I still love Sundays the best. Sunday, of course, is the day we talk to Jake every week. Thank god for technology and the ability to FaceTime our loved ones. He looked and sounded great, which always puts this mama’s mind at ease. I’m so proud of my boy! Unfortunately, he’s still in a rental car as the body shop is still waiting for parts. Hopefully, he’ll get his car back this week.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading Far From the Madding Crowdby Thomas Hardy last night. This is quite the departure from the world of Queen Asa.

*I’m still under the weather. Consequently, I took another rest day today.  Unfortunately, there will be no rollicking or running until I’m better.

*We’re tracking the Tropics here in Florida. Tropical Storm Fred Tropical is back and sliding away from us. Now we’ll focus on TS Grace, which looks to be following south of Fred’s path.

*The hubby picked up Dunkin’ this morning, which was awesome sauce.

*For dinner, the Hubby and the Mayor chicken, black beans and rice. This week I’m strictly limiting my carb intake as part of the 5:2 Plan, so it was mostly chicken for me.

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*Today’s word of the day is damp, which is exactly how our weather has been this weekend.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Today he didn’t pull my arm off or anything like that. I put on his harness

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Homemade Chicken Broth for Dogs

Homemade Chicken Broth for Dogs is the perfect healthy treat for man’s best friend. I started making this when our dog Maya got ill in June. The hope was that it would help stimulate her appetite and increase her calorie intake.

Homemade Chicken Broth for Dogs
1 chicken carcass and bones (A store-bought rotisserie chicken works really well.)
4-5 carrots
Enough water to cover the chicken and bones

Maya enjoying the homemade chicken broth

Steps:
1: Add chicken bones and carrots to the pot and cover with water.
2: Bring broth to a boil
3: Simmer on low for at least 1 hour. I prefer to simmer the broth for at least 4-5 hours
4: Allow the broth to cool before preparing to store it. I’ve been storing the broth in a pitcher, so it’s easy to pour into her bowl.

I don’t add onions to the broth as they’re not good for dogs. If I was making it for the family, I’d add both onions and celery to the pot.

On that note, I have to go finish the incomplete batch of broth I started earlier today. Then I’ll pack up the latest batch of fresh chicken broth!

Here are the tools I used to make the broth:

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Week 12

After fifteen weeks, I’ve finally made it to week 12 (aka the final week) of BBG. Ordinarily, this 12 week program takes 12 weeks to complete. However, I ran into three separate weeks where my allergies and/or a cold settled into my chest. Consequently, I took those weeks off when I was sick to ensure my asthma get aggravated and reappear during this Covid-19 season. Sadly, I learned my lesson several years ago when I spent four months ill with bronchitis. This timeline probably would have been shortened if I had relaxed when I first got sick. Nonetheless, I’m no longer a BBG novice!

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Since quarantine has started, my Monday workout routine has shifted a bit. Now I got to yoga with Monica in the morning and then complete my BBG workout in the early afternoon. Thanks to the Mayor, Anakin made a quick impromptu visit to class.  Fortunately, the yoga leaves my legs stretched and ready to go for the workout. This is important because the Monday leg workout is super intense. Today’s workout was no exception! Indeed the evil burpees with a push-up and tuck jump we’re back. Those things are the worst! However, they went far better this week as opposed to two weeks ago. Needless to say, my legs will be sore tomorrow.

After a quick lunch, the Mayor and I took the three dogs for a walk. Okay, truth be told it was more like they walked us. Anakin is still learning to walk on a leash, so he pulls a lot. While he may be little, he is mighty. Consequently, I ended up walking him and the Mayor took the girls less than half way through. Naturally, it was at this point that Anakin decided he wanted to run. He’d run with a big smile on his face and then stop to turn around and look at his sisters. Then he’d do it again. I wanted to use the gentle leader collar or whatever thingamajig is called. So I guess the upside is I got a little bit of a run in with my jog. Fortunately, the weather was absolutely perfect so we definitely enjoyed our time outside.

 

Of course it wouldn’t be Monday if my day didn’t include virtual school woes. While Goalielocks got up for his dad and started to get to work, he was back in bed by the time I got up a half an hour later. So frustrating! Unfortunately, I spent more time than I wanted to arguing about whether he was sleeping or not. Of course adding to the frustration was the fact he didn’t do the dishes before going to bed last night or this morning! I need to remind myself that this will all be over at the end of the month.

 

Tonight I cooked my latest Blue Apron meal and it was Mexican spiced beef and rice. Again the recipe was easy to follow and the ingredients were high quality. Additionally, this recipe took less than thirty minutes to cook, which is awesome. For the first time in years, Goalielocks liked the tacos! I was so surprised! He ate his meat and rice on a tortilla, while I ate mine as a rice bowl. Naturally the best part of the dinner is the left over guacamole sauce since I’m the only one that eats it.  I hope your Monday wasn’t too manic!

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*Reading Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

*Gentle Vinyasa Class with Monica from Yoga Mundo 

*Watched Impractical Jokers

*Morning and afternoon meditation

*Week 12 BBG day 1 leg day!

*Obedience training Anakin courtesy of myself and the Mayor. 

*Took Anakin, Maya and Athena on a walk. 

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Hidden Joy

Some days it’s easier to see the hidden joy that seems scarcer during a crisis. Today was one of those days. Admittedly, the end of last week was rough, but today I woke up with a renewed spirit and joy in my heart. Hopefully, virtual school won’t kill the joy by Monday evening! My body and soul felt restored from the fatigue of the previous days at least until about 3:30 pm.

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Like Pinky and the Brain, my mission remains consistent from day to day. I get my Dunkin’ coffee and remain out of the public unless absolutely necessary. Since we were running low on chicken and Prosecco, the Hubby and I headed to BJ’s after coffee. Much like last time, we had to wait in line before we were allowed into the store. Fortunately, there was a nice zephyr and cloud cover to mitigate the heat and humidity.

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For the most part our shopping experience was great. There was a shopper on her phone, who rudely monopolized the meat aisle. Clearly, she was more important than everyone else. Finally, a fellow shopper got tired of waiting for her to move or respond to her. When the other shopper reached over her to grab meat, the Covidiot lost her mind in a profanity laced tirade. If I was quicker and not wearing a mask, I would have recorded the shit show for your viewing pleasure. Outside of that one, selfish Covidiot everyone else was pleasant and nice. Fortunately, we’re fully stocked and won’t need to go back or order until next month.

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Afterwards, we headed to Joey’s Bakery. I may have been craving a bagel with cream cheese. Also, Joey’s has the best gluten free baked goods around. Consequently, I also picked up a baguette for dinner and a piece of cake for dessert. Honestly, I can’t tell you how happy I am to have a good gluten free diary nearby. I don’t eat baked goods often anymore, but when I do they should be tasty I’ve been gluten free since January. Although I’m not a stickler about it, I feel much better when I don’t eat it.
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Once we got home, we started preparing the roast we bought at BJ’s. Thankfully, I had the farm fresh carrots and onion to add into the crockpot to accompany the roast. We also added some small golden potatoes. While I prepared the vegetables, the Hubby browned and spiced the roast. We cooked the roast on high for five hours. While the roast, rested I made the gravy. As I finished the gravy, the hubby sliced the roast. Fortunately, this was another successful culinary collaboration. It was super yummy and we’ll have enough leftovers for lunch and another dinner.
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While the roast cooked, we actually had a productive day. We got the floors vacuumed and mopped. The Hubby got some work done in the garden before a storm blew in. Indeed the storm was a godsend as we badly needed the rain. Of course, a non severe storm would have been optimal. Nonetheless, we used the the time wisely by getting work done around the house. I even logged a meditation for shrugging off negative. For this I used the Sattva app and their free Combat the Crisis- Covid-19 series.

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The meditation left me feeling refreshed and energized for the rest of the day. Shortly thereafter, the roast was done and we had dinner. After dinner on Sunday is always my favorite time because our Airman calls! Could there be anything better? Nope! He’s loving the Air Force and really excelling in Tech School. We’re hoping to be able to drive him to his FDS upon his graduation, but we’ll have to wait and see what travel restrictions remain in place. Let’s pray that the travel restrictions have been lifted by that time!

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Today’s storm did come as a harbinger of things to come.  The rainy season and hurricane season are right around the corner.  I’m not sure we’re ready to face the cone of so death while living under the Spector of Covid19.  It honestly just feels like a lot.  Perhaps it feels that way because again we’ll be remanded to our homes, but with the threat of no WiFi or power.  At this point, it just seems inhumane.  Here’s hoping that this hurricane season is uneventful and full of fish storms!!!

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*Reading My Antonia by Willa Cather and loving it!

*Grocery shopping at BJ’s

*Facetime with my Airman!

*Morning and afternoon meditation

*Week 9 BBG day 7 rest day 

*Took Anakin, Maya and Athena on multiple walks

 

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Simple Saturday

Today was a nice, simple Saturday.   I was beyond exhausted after the craziness of Irma and work.   I ran a little over three miles last night, which marked the 5th straight day of running for the Piggie and I.  We haven’t ran outside since before our Norway trip, so it’s been a bit taxing for me as we recreate our running habit.  Like many in S. Florida, I’ve been fighting off a cold/sinus bug since the storm.  Consequently, I slept like a baby until almost 11:00 am and it felt amazeballs.  My sinuses, however, do not feel amazeballs.  giphy (19)giphy (20)

I had the distinct honor and privilege of grocery shopping once I finally got out of bed.  I’m not even being sarcastic here.  I got to have a normal, sort of, Target run today.  This trip wasn’t an emergency hurricane sustenance run, but a get our normal Target stuff run.  Except it wasn’t our normal Target run because they still haven’t been able to restock their perishables fully.  I got as much as I could at Target, and more (thanks Target), but have to make a trip to Publix and BJ’s to get  our perishables.

I was loving my newly found freedom to be out and about..   After being caged up for the weekend, which felt like years, it was awesome to be out and about.   I made a Kohl’s run.  I had to pick up some new sheets for our bed.  There is nothing more tedious or boring than shopping for sheets.  In addition, to the boring sheets I had to buy I had to pick up some casual shoes with better support for my foot.  Who knows what I did to it, but it hurt like a mother pucker this morning. I obviously had to buy a pair in both black and brown.  A girl has to have options.  Nevertheless, it should be an interesting run tomorrow….

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Dinner tonight came courtesy of Goalielocks, who found a recipe for cheeseburgers made from chuck roast online.  Goalielocks cut up the chuck roast, grounded it up and formed the patties.  I have to say I was impressed with his ingenuity and his drive to make these tasty and flavorful burgers.  Moreover, I’m happy to see another one of my boy’s cooking independently – their wives will thank me later.   As for the burger, it was delicious.  Goalielocks really impressed me with his culinary skills, however, it looks like a burger bomb went off in my kitchen.  Baby steps….. 

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