On Friday

 

Calamondin

The calamondin tree is starting to form fruits again after being pruned back in December of 2024.  There aren't that many fruit on the tree, but, there are enough to pick a few to make infused water.  

On Friday, daughter had the day off from work and we picked up my friend R and we went to the Sri Lankan store again.  I mostly wanted some items for the almsgiving, but, as always, there were some treats that found their way to my basket.  Afterwards, I dropped friend R off at her apartment and came home.  

We had hamburgers for lunch after we got home and then, daughter and I watched some videos and we napped a bit, too.  

Later in the evening, M came over to tend to the garden.  He did a little tidying up and watering of the garden. He also brought us Green Dragon apples. 

We had tea after M left and I did the dishes.  Then, I cooked a big pot of dhal, which I froze for the almsgiving.  I put a bag of garbanzo beans to soak overnight and I will cook it on Saturday and freeze that, too.  Then, most of the almsgiving dishes I can make ahead would be done and I'll be free to work on other things.

Daughter did some crocheting and I sat down to make some Christmas cards.  I think I made more mess than cards, but, I am trying to streamline the process.  I also finished knitting a sock and started on the second one.

On Friday, I was grateful for:

- Having access to a Sri Lankan store 
- Being able to give friend R a ride to the Sri Lankan store and back
- M tending to the garden
- Time spent crafting with my daugher
- A safe drive to the Sri Lankan store and back

Friday's joyful activities included chatting with friend R on the drive to the store and back, picking up some treats at the Sri Lankan store, and crafting.

Plans for Saturday include one of daughter's friends visiting in the afternoon.  I think they are planning to make fish cutlets.  I will continue to make my cards and knit.  

How was your Friday?  What are your plans for the weekend?

On Thursday

 

Aloe Flower Stalks Forming

The aloe plants in the front garden are starting to form flower stalks.  They'll take several weeks before they form flowers and bloom.

I went to my doctor's appointment on Thursday afternoon.  The appointment went well and we discussed the blood test results and I mentioned some symptoms I've been experiencing.  As a result, the doctor made some changes to my medications and she also wants me to increase my protein in-take.  So, I shall be making some changes to my diet and meal planning in the future.  I need to take another blood test and see her again in three months time for a follow up.

I picked up a pizza on the way home and daughter and I had some of that for a late lunch.  After lunch, I took another short walk to enjoy the afternoon sunshine.

M sent me a picture of the pineapple he is growing in his garden:

M's Pineapple

Isn't it amazing?  He grew if from a pineapple top and now it's produced a fruit of its own!

In the evening, after daughter got off work, we went to the crafts store.  She had already ordered the items she wanted online for store pick up, but, I wanted to walk around the store and take a look at what they had on sale.  I also wanted to buy some blank cards with envelopes and I found them on sale for 50% off, so, I bought two packets of 25 cards and envelopes each.  I spent $7.71 with tax.  I will use these blank cards for my Christmas and New Year greetings cards.

I took a nap after I came home!  I guess shopping tires me!  

Later, I made fried rice for dinner, using up some leftover rice, leftover ground turkey mixture, a small piece of leftover smoked sausage, some frozen green peas, a scrambled egg, and a handful of cashews.  Daughter and I shared a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert and I had a tangerine and some dates, too.  Later, daughter warmed up a chocolate chip cookie and shared it with me.  Yum!

Daughter has the day off on Friday.  We are planning another trip to the Sri Lankan store to buy a few more items I want for the almsgiving and some snacks, as well.  Later, M will be here to tend to the garden.  

On Thursday, I was grateful for:

- The doctor's appointment went well
- A safe drive there and back
- Bargains at the craft store
- An evening nap
- Working appliances

Thursday's joyful activities included shopping at the crafts store and knitting.

How was your Thursday?  What are your plans for Friday?

Mid-Week on Wednesday

 

The Last of the Feijoa (Pineapple Guava)

The last month of the year has started.  

On Monday, we had a sunny day.  I made milkrice for brunch, as I usually do on the first of the month, picked some fresh flowers - paperwhites - for the altar, cleaned the kitchen, did a load of laundry, made a couple of phone calls to set up appointments, broke down several cardboard boxes in which various items had been delivered, and filled the recycling bin with them.  Later, I took the trash bin, yard waste bin, and the recycling bin to the curb to be collected and emptied on Tuesday.

Brunch had been milk rice with shrimp curry and/or jaggery.  Dinner was leftovers - egg rolls and a cut up mango.  I told daughter that I wished we had some chocolate chip cookies and she baked a new batch, using butter instead of olive oil, this time:

More Chocolate Chip Cookies

They were delicious! 

Tuesday was another sunny day.  I did another load of laundry, brought the emptied trash cans in with daughter's help, spoke with the ophthalmologist's office to confirm an upcoming appointment, and, later, planned the almsgiving menu with my daughter and made up the grocery shopping lists for the items needed.  My almsgiving menu doesn't change that much from year to year.  It is mostly a vegetarian meal (I do serve eggs with it and yogurt) and I always have two kinds of rice, a cashew curry, dhal curry, garbanzo beans, green beans, sauteed leafy greens cooked with grated coconut (what we call a "mallung"), potato curry, a salad, poppadum, an assortment of fruits and sweets, and dessert.  Often, the actual number of dishes prepared for the almsgiving depends on my energy levels, so, I try as much as possible to cook in advance and freeze.  To that end, I put a packet of raw cashews to soak overnight.  Daughter has offered to cook some of the dishes, so that will be a big help.

I had leftover milkrice for brunch with shrimp curry; daughter had some rice and kebabs; we also had the last of the fish cutlets. For dinner, daughter had the last steamed bun, and I had some of the leftover ground turkey mixture with mashed potatoes and gravy.  We also shared the last of the feijoas (pineapple guavas) from my tree.   

Wednesday, was another sunny day.  My gardener friend M arrived in the late morning to tend to the garden.  After he sampled one of daughter's chocolate chip cookies, we divided a huge lemon grass clump that was growing in a planter and replanted the divisions in four pots.  I also harvested some lemon grass stems to use in my cooking and put some individual plants to root in water, just in case the divided clumps of lemon grass don't grow.  We added more potting soil to two passionfruit plants that I've grown from seed in pots and M watered the winter vegetable seedlings we have planted.

Later in the afternoon, I went to the library to collect a book that I had placed on hold.  I walked for a little bit after I got home, cooked the cashew curry and froze it once it had cooled, cleaned the kitchen a bit, and took a nap!  

Brunch had been the last of the egg rolls with sweet chili sauce as a dip.  For dinner, I had a roast chicken sandwich and daughter had leftovers from the Friendsgiving dinner.

So far this week, I've been grateful for:

- Sunny days
- Working appliances
- Daughter baking another batch of chocolate chip cookies
- M's help with the garden
- Lots of leftovers

My joyful activities have included gardening and knitting.

Plans for Thursday include going to a doctor's appointment and maybe a bit of shopping after daughter gets off work.

How is your week so far?  What are your plans for Thursday?

Thriving in November

Rose Garden

My goal this year is to thrive each month.  To that end, here's my review of November, which is, usually, my favorite month of the year! 

Spiritual:

In November, my spirituality included daily prayers, meditations, and practicing non-attachment by letting go of certain items to which I was attached.  I also called the monks at the Temple and set a date for my almsgiving, which will take place in December and I made a donation, through the Temple, to the Sri Lankan flood victims' relief fund.  I consider the spiritual part of my life to be thriving.

Daughter:

In November, daughter accompanied me to the Descanso botanical gardens and quite spoiled me with presents and meals to celebrate my 70th birthday.  I am glad I was able to celebrate both my birthday and Thanksgiving with my daughter.

She accompanied me to my dental appointments for moral support and to drive me home, afterwards, if needed, (which she did on the second visit) and she went with me to take Dancer to his vet's appointment and kept him from getting too anxious about the drive there and back.  

We've spent some time doing crafts together, which has been fun.

She has also badgered me into letting her assume responsibility for paying for the utilities, since she still has her job and no longer has to pay rent for her apartment.  

I can honestly say that my relationship with my daughter is thriving.

Health & Well Being:

In November, I had two appointments with the dental hygienist, an appointment with the dermatologist, and did some lab tests prior to an upcoming doctor's appointment.  Daughter helped me to set up an online account to access the lab test results (I used to wait until I got to the doctor's office and request a print out); there were some test results that were out of the normal range, but most of them were within range and my A1c level stayed the same.  

Family, Friends, & Community:

Social interactions in November consisted mostly of phone calls, emails, and texts with family and friends.  Various family members and friends called or emailed or texted and wished me for my birthday and some sent cards.

 

In person visits included Neighbor S coming over to bring us some food and daughter's friends coming over to afternoon tea.

I invited my late friend A's family to Thanksgiving dinner, but, they had made other plans and weren't able to accept my invitation.  While I was disappointed, it worked out for the best as daughter was recovering from a migraine headache and she was able to relax without having to entertain company.

We also supported a small business in my local community by ordering my birthday meal from a local restaurant.  

I'm pleased with the amount of interaction with my family, friends, and community, in November.

Finances:

November expenses included paying my property taxes, dental bills, and Dancer's vet bills.  However, daughter taking over the responsibility for the utility bills is a big help.  I was able to keep my finances maintained in November.  

I think I am managing well where finances are concerned.  

Time Management:

Time management continues to be a work in progress and there is definitely room for improvement!  However, important tasks such as paying bills and attending medical appointments have been done on time and I have taken some time for fun activities and crafting, etc., so, I am happy.   

Leisure/Hobbies/Crafting:

In November leisure/hobbies/crafting activities consisted of a visit to the botanical garden which was wonderful, doing crafting projects with my daughter, and knitting.  I also participated in November's monthly photo challenge, which I enjoy. 

I am going to say that I thrived in this area of my life.

House:

In November daughter helped me with housework, doing the vacuuming regularly (even though she doesn't enjoy vacuuming) and tidying the place before her friends came to the tea party she hosted.

I decorated the house very minimally for Thanksgiving putting up just one decoration I had made several years ago.  So, it was very easy to undecorate afterwards.  

We still need to declutter the kitchen and I want to do some additional renovations (paint the family room, repair some water damage in one of the bathrooms, get some new drapes in the living room, etc.), but, in the meantime, the house is being maintained and I think I'm making good progress in this area of my life.

Garden:

The garden continued to thrive in November.  M continues to tend to the garden and he and my daughter set up her raised garden and planted some herbs.  We had some much needed rain in November and the garden plants were happy.

Over all, November was a good month.  There is room for improvement, as always, but, for the most part, I can say that I thrived in November

I'm looking forward to thriving in December, too.

I hope that November was a good month for you, too.

Monthly Photo Challenge: November - Tools for Hobbies

The theme for November's Monthly Photo Challenge, hosted by Eileen at A Bracelet of Days, was "Tools for Hobbies"; specifically the tools/equipment used for hobbies and interests.  These are the pictures I took:

Knitting Needles and Stitch Holder

Crochet Hooks (including my mother's steel
crochet hook which is a bit bent with use)

Stylus, Bead Tray, Glue and Drills (or "Diamonds")

Paint Brushes, Paints, Palette 

Decorative Edged Scissors, Paper, Stencils, Glue Sticks

Hot Glue Gun and Glue Sticks

Mixing Bowl, Measuring Cups and Spoons, Whisk

Vases, Kenzan, Secateurs

Pot, Trowel, Seed Packets, Watering Can, and
Gloves (peeking from behind the seed packets)

 

Pins, Needles, and Notions

The only thing I can say is, I have too many hobbies and interests!  

Thank you, Eileen, for another fun monthly photo challenge theme.  Looking forward to December's theme!

On Sunday

 

Making Fish Cutlets

Daughter forwarded the pictures she took of the fish cutlets.  She forgot to take a picture of the fish and potato mixture, but, the first picture shows the formed cutlets after being dipped in beaten eggs and coated with bread crumbs.  The second picture shows the cutlets being deep fried.  According to my daughter, the fish cutlets were a hit at the dinner with several of her friends who wanted to know the recipe and how they were made.  Which left daughter trying to figure out quantities because we didn't measure anything!  

Frying the Fish Cutlets

The potluck dinner turned out well and everyone took some leftovers.  In addition to the leftovers, daughter brought home some Vietnamese egg rolls and steamed buns that one of her friends had made for the party and kept aside for her to bring home to share with me.  Daughter had taken some extra cutlets to give to that friend and apparently they were shared with the friend's parents and sister, too.  The "food-go-round" as one of my friends refers to it is very much in evidence!  LOL.

Today, Sunday, is the last day of November.  It was a cloudy, cooler day.  Both daughter and I took it easy and relaxed.  I did a load of laundry and watered the back garden.

The orange tree is full of flowers, now:

Orange Blossoms

They perfume the whole garden, especially at night.

More Orange Blossoms

The bees are loving it:

Bees Enjoying the Orange Blossom Nectar

I hope the bees will pollinate the flowers and we will have a plentiful crop of oranges to enjoy next year.  This year's orange crop was a non-event as all the little fruits dropped off the tree in the spring.

Another Orange Flower, Another Bee

Friend R called in the evening and we chatted for a bit.  There was a cyclone in Sri Lanka which has resulted in severe flooding and mudslides and over 330 people dead.  It's very sad to hear and read about all the devastation.

Daughter and I had leftovers for both brunch and dinner, today.  We had Vietnamese steamed buns for brunch and Armenian rice and kebab for dinner.  

On this last day of November, I am grateful for:

- A warm and safe home
- Water for the garden
- An assortment of leftovers for meals
- Working appliances
- Packages being delivered

Today's joyful activity was spending time in the garden.

Plans for tomorrow include making milkrice for brunch, making some phone calls to set up appointments, taking the trash cans to the curb for pick up and some housecleaning.

How was your Sunday?  What are your plans for Monday?

November Meal Plans - Week 3 and Week 4

Sunday Afternoon Tea

Here we are on the last day of November and I haven't kept up with my meal planning!  I did make some meal plan options for Week 3, but, Week 4 sort of planned itself based of leftovers from daughter's afternoon tea, the week's grocery shopping, and the Thanksgiving dinner.

These were my meal plan options for Week 3 (November 17 - 23): 

Brunches:  Onion bagels with butter or cream cheese;  boiled mung beans with lunu miris; instant stringhoppers with chicken curry and seeni sambol; cold cuts sandwiches; leftovers

Dinners:   Instant tonkatsu ramen noodles and parathas with scrambled eggs and lunu miris (Monday) Chicken curry, dhal, broccoli and rice;  macaroni and cheese with canned chicken or tuna; scrambled eggs and toast or fried potatoes; beef pot pies; leftovers

Snacks/Desserts:  Fruit; crackers; chips; granola bars; leftover scones and maybe cookies and cakes, too

Here's how it worked out:

Monday:

Brunch:  Onion bagels with butter or cream cheese

Dinner:   Instant tonkatsu ramen noodles and parathas with scrambled eggs and lunu miris 

Snacks/Dessert:  Persimmons, grapes, chips

Tuesday:

Brunch:   Tangerine and crackers (me; I was feeling a bit off); onion bagel and butter (daughter)

Dinner:  Rice, chicken curry, dhal, broccoli, and mango chutney (daughter preferred my homemade tomato chutney instead)

Snacks/Dessert:  Pink dragonfruit; granola bar (daughter), dates (me), chips

Pink Dragonfruit Chunks

Wednesday:

Brunch:  We both skipped brunch! 

Late Lunch:  A piece of curried chicken (daughter); instant stringhoppers with dhal, potato curry, and seeni sambol (me)

Stringhoppers, dhal, seeni sambol, potato curry

Dinner: Instant stringhoppers, chicken curry, dhal, broccoli, and potato curry (daughter); I didn't want dinner

Snacks/Dessert:  Pineapple guava (feijoa), apple juice, crackers, pomegranate

Thursday:

Brunch:  Scones

Dinner:  Leftover stringhoppers with chicken curry, dhal, and potato curry (me); leftover rice, chicken curry, dhal, potato curry, and sauteed curried okra (daughter)

Snacks/Dessert:  Tangerines, apple juice, olive oil chocolate chip cookie (delicious)

Friday:

Brunch:   Frozen burrito

Dinner:   Macaroni & cheese with canned chicken and green peas

Snacks/Dessert:  Chai muffins, crackers, ice cream

Saturday:

Brunch:  Burrito

Dinner:  Boxed pasta mix (Fettuccini Alfredo), green peas, ham slices from the freezer

Snacks/Dessert:  Chips, ice cream, tangerines and Fuyu persimmons

Sunday:

Brunch:  Ham sandwiches
Afternoon Tea:  All the goodies that daughter made for her afternoon tea party

Dinner:  Leftover mac & cheese, sandwiches, and fruit

Snacks/Dessert:  Leftovers from the tea party!

Which brings us to November Week 4 (November 24-30), which went by without a meal plan other than Thanksgiving Dinner!  But, it all worked out well.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Monday:  On Monday, I had my second dental deep cleaning.
Brunch: Egg salad sandwiches
Dinner: Canned chicken noodle soup and a cold cuts sandwich (me);  Pasta with ground turkey mixture (ground turkey, onions, celery, grated carrots, bell peppers, tomatoes) with pesto sauce (daughter)

Snacks/desserts: Various bits and pieces leftover from Sunday afternoon tea; fresh fruit (blackberries, raspberries, grapes, etc.)

Tuesday:  On Tuesday, we took Dancer to the vet's for his injection

Brunch:  Bread rolls sandwiched with cold cuts
Dinner: Fried rice: leftover rice, some of the ground turkey mixture I cooked on Monday, frozen green peas, and a scrambled egg)

Snacks/desserts:  Fruit, chips, various bits and pieces leftover from Sunday's tea

Wednesday:

Brunch: Leftovers (daughter), half a bread roll with dhal (me)
Dinner: Rice, shrimp curry, sauteed curried green beans, tomato chutney

Snacks/desserts:  Sliced pears poached in a sugar syrup with tangerines; maybe a pre-Thanksgiving slice of pumpkin pie and a mini pecan pie!  

Thursday: Thanksgiving Day

Brunch: Skipped brunch
Dinner:  Thanksgiving Dinner - Roast chicken, garlicky sauteed green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, baked beans.  The baked beans came from a can, but, everything else was homemade.  I had planned to make cornbread, but, I ran out of energy and we had plenty of food anyway.

Snacks/desserts: Mini pecan pie (daughter); pumpkin pie (me); the pies were purchased.

Friday:

Brunch:  French toast
Dinner:  Ham and potato soup (daughter had boiled potatoes for the fish cutlets filling and there was leftover water from boiling the potatoes; I boiled three more cut up potatoes in the same water, added some diced onions, cut up leftover ham, a couple of table spoons of chicken bouillon powder, salt and pepper, some half & half and a little bit of the leftover gravy from Thanksgiving dinner to thicken it up)

Snacks/desserts:  Fruit (persimmons, grapes, dates), leftover pumpkin pie

Saturday:

Brunch:  Fish cutlets

Dinner: Vietnamese egg rolls (daughter's friend had made)

Snacks/desserts:  Toast with butter and strawberry jam (me); cream puffs

Sunday:

Brunch:  Vietnamese bahn bao (steamed buns)
Dinner: Leftovers - plenty to pick and choose from

Snacks/desserts:  Assorted leftovers

Going forward into December, I will be making milkrice on the 1st as that is a given.  However, I am not going to make a meal plan for at least the first week in December because the fridge is full with an assortment of leftovers!  I will, however, try to keep track of what we have for our meals, each day.  

I am grateful for the abundance and variety of food with which we've been blessed and the generosity of those who have shared their food with us.

How did your November meal planning work out?  Will you be making meal plans for December?