Like many of you currently, I suspect, I have good days, and I have bad days. The good days, like today, are generally when I start off with lots of time outdoors spent either hiking, walking, or kayaking, plus avoid all news other than from my two preferred sources (LA Times and NY Times). The bad days are when I do the reverse - stay indoors all day, and read/hear too much news.
Where is this Covid-19 thing going, and how will our world be affected in the aftermath? I have no idea, and since I can't control it, I'm far better off focusing on those things I can control.
Such as . . .
Family- I've spent a lot of time talking to my dad by phone in Texas this week, gently pushing him a bit more each day, until it was clear that he understood how critical it was that he stay at home as much as possible, and work to avoid being around others when he did go out. He finally agreed to cancel all of his pending social plans, and to alert his neighbor that he could no longer accept her kind dinner offerings. And I've talked with one or both of my daughters every day, sometimes by phone, but usual by virtue of the video conferencing tool, Zoom, which is turning out to be the best thing since sliced bread.
Friends- I'm using FaceTime to make virtual coffee dates with girlfriends, and my husband and I are using Zoom to set up video dates with couple friends, primarily on Friday and Saturday nights, saving Sundays for family. And we have been able to retain our long-running book club during this time as well by using Zoom. It's working out great, and a real point of pleasure during this incredibly difficult time.
Physical Health - I'm continuing to do intermittent fasting between dinner and lunch, about 16 hours in all, and in addition to not feeling remotely hungry between meals, the weight is continuing to come off. Eating until I'm good and full once a day, lunchtime in my case, seems to carry me until lunch the next day, excepting a very light dinner (generally 1/2 of whatever I'm serving my husband). Since moving to intermittent fasting (which we initiated on our cruise, simply to manage the overload of food they serve) I've lost 12 pounds, and my energy level has been consistently good. I'm so thankful to feel like my pre-menopause self again!
We are walking and hiking many miles weekly as well, and I'm also lifting small weights in our garage since our gym is closed. We have 5#, 10# and 15# weights, so I'm able to do a decent number of upper body exercises, plus walking and in-place squats with weights for my leg muscles.
Mental Health- My best days are those spent outdoors. It's a tad bit tricky to get outside and have enough space to practice proper social distancing, but we've learned that it's best if we head out prior to 8AM, and stick to remote areas only on the weekends. We found a way to walk to one of our favorite trails from the house this week, and we also found the hidden entrance to a quiet pocket park on top of one of the trail's many hills, leading us to this little slice of serenity, where we sat for quite some time before heading back:
Intellect- Our Lifelong Learning programs have gone online, as has my art class. I listened to a fabulous lecture about the artist Cezanne, studied Spanish, and learned a bit more about the Spanish Flu of 1918 and how it correlates to Covid-19. These online lectures are continuing to roll out as our various organizations get up to speed on video conferencing, and I am here for it!
Creativity- I'm continuing to practice piano, working on some very basic compositions of popular songs. I will never, ever be ready for primetime(!), but it gives me immense personal satisfaction all the same. I've also started working on some needlepoint Christmas ornaments for my family, something I really enjoy. And lastly, in going through my freezer to remove items that were simply taking up much needed space, I defrosted some leftover ricotta cheese, and used it to make this truly outstanding Ricotta Orange Pound Cake. And don't even think of leaving out the amaretto - it really makes a difference in the overall taste.
Fun - A bit lacking at the moment, though our outdoor time, and out video time with family and friends probably qualifies. Fun isn't really where my head is at at the moment. I'm fine with simply being content for now. Fun has a place, but likely not until this virus has made it's way through.
We passed the two week mark yesterday, marking 14 days since we disembarked both our cruise and the subsequent cross country flight home, and breathed a sigh of relief as we did so. We understand that we are still 100% vulnerable to picking up the Covid-19 virus here on our home turf, but at least we can put the worry of having been in two very problematic confined spaces (ship and airplane) behind us.
Orange County, where I live here in California, went into Shelter In Place mode on St. Patrick's Day, likely a deliberate move to try and minimize the celebrations that would have occurred otherwise. That was a strange day, as workplaces closed and we began to think through the long term ramifications of shuttering California's enormous economy. That was also the last day I read anything pertaining to the stock market, because it is just too stressful to do so at this time.
It's been an interesting week of self reflection and re-evaluation. I've gone from mourning the loss of our relatively carefree, pre-Covid 19 lives, to a renewed appreciation of simplicity. I am ever so thankful that we moved to our coastal location in 2017, and came to the conclusion that if we never traveled outside of the US or Canada again, I would be fine and at peace with that decision. To a certain degree, travel has provided a convenient distraction from doing the work of finding serenity within, and Covid-19 has finally forced me to do something about that.
Already, we have been told by two recently retired friends that they plan to reenter the work force once businesses reopen. I am saddened on their behalf, even as I appreciate that they are likely still going to be better off, financially, once this is behind us, than their younger counterparts, many of whom may be laid off without the benefit of a substantial nest egg to buffer them.
Our usage of video conferencing has zoomed this week. Think FaceTime, Skype, Google hangout, and Zoom. We've used all four to set up virtual face-to-face get together's with family and friends. We've been doing so, in particular, with our two granddaughters on the east coast, both to stay in touch, as well as to try and give their mommy, our youngest daughter, a bit of a break as much as we can. Her husband is a naval officer currently on deployment, and therefore she is the current sole entertainer for her two little ones. It's been a joy for us to have so much time with our granddaughters, as we alternate between reading to them, having them pretend-read to us, watching them play, and newly this past weekend, having joint coloring sessions where we color and chat together, pausing occasional to show each other our coloring progress via our respective webcams.
We've also been walking or working outside of our home every day in order to take in as much fresh air as possible. As a result, we've seen some wonderful wildlife - two osprey being chased away from nests by a pair of determined crows, a dolphin feeding just in front of a line of paused surfers, , and last evening a Cooper's hawk landed on a post in our backyard and gazed out over our canyon while I watched from within.
We've been eating well, and are trying to make it somewhat of an occasion by having our lunches outside when the day is nice, and dinner in our dining room. As much time as we are spending at home, I want to utilize more of it in order to feel like we are changing up our environment on a regular basis.
We miss the privilege of biking, hiking, kayaking whenever and wherever we want, but we are thankful for what we do still have - the ability to walk from our home and select from among a variety of routes. Today, for example, we are going to do a circuit that will provide both ocean and canyon views on our way to the market, where we will do some limited grocery shopping before walking back home.
I don't know yet what our post-Covid 19 lives will look like, trying to prepare mentally as best I can, but I have been able to experience periods of peace and serenity as I move throughout my day. I didn't get there overnight, for sure. I started from a place of pretty much shock. But some two weeks in, I am experiencing serenity via my daily check-ins with family, my online dates with friends, working in my yard, taking care of deferred household chores, cooking up nutritious meals, and re-establishing a sense of normalcy via technology. We quickly began utilizing it to stay in touch with family and friends, as mentioned above, and now our spiritual community, our Lifelong Learning community, and bits and pieces of our arts and culture community are up and using it as well. It's not at the all the same thing as being together in person, but it is a thousand times better than not having it available at all.
I am no Pollyanna, but there is enough craziness out there without adding to it here, so instead I would love to hear how some are you finding peace, happiness, or serenity at this moment in time.
We are preparing for, and coping with, the Covid-19 outbreak as best we can, similar to all of you I am sure. I will say that I am incredulous at how quickly things have unfolded here in the USA over the last seven days. I am thankful we arrived home when we did, so that we could get to work replenishing our pantry, fridge and freezer before the recent panic buying set in and grocery shelves were left bare. From last Sunday, when we first arrived home, until today, just one week later, things have been moving fast.
I have the same fears that everyone else does, but I remain hopeful that we will come out of this stronger and with a renewed sense of what matters to each one of us in our individual lives. In my case that would be family, friends, and community. Nothing else seems terribly important at this point.
Per the graph above, we are focused on social distancing in order to slow the spread of the virus to others that might be highly vulnerable due to age or underlying conditions. Nina Fussing over at Wheeling It has put up an excellent blog post that I would encourage all to read, detailing what we may all be in store for in the weeks ahead if we don't start practicing social distancing NOW.
In the meantime, stay safe, and be kind to your fellow citizens. We are all in this together.
(Note: This will be my last monthly Sentence A Day post. After two and a half years of doing these Sentence A Day posts, I think I'm at a point where I'm good with the choices I've been making on how to live each day in as full of a manner as possible.)
May turned out to be very satisfying from the home improvement front. We updated our family room and kitchen via new paint and tile, and finished repainting the outside of the house. I also managed to get in over 100 miles of hiking in, plus one 30 mile long ride on my bicycle - rain put a damper on doing much more cycling this month! And there were lots of moments spent with family and friends, plus a considerable amount of vacation planning for some upcoming trips, always fun.
May In A Sentence A Month
1. Morning hike in wildflower-crazy Casper Wilderness Park with the Sierra Club, lunch afterward at Bad To The Bone BBQ with fellow hikers John and Joyce, home to clean up and take a nap, then out again after dinner to a book club discussion on I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin, which was uber-interesting and stimulating thanks to one of the attendees having a PhD in social psychology.
2. Morning hike with new friend Nancy along the San Clemente Beach Trail, plus a stop for lunch at Catarina's (I cannot get enough of their avocado toast!), home to work in the yard a bit, then out again with hubby to enjoy a fun evening at Starfish Laguna Beach with our gastronomy dining group.
The pier along the beach path in San Clemente is one of my favorite things to photograph!
3. Spent the morning biking 30 miles along some of Irvine's numerous multi-use trails with my Friday group, lunch afterward at Board and Brew with fellow cyclists John and Joyce, home for clean up and a nap, then out again for Friday night wine tasting in Dana Point Harbor, free because we're wine club members, yeah!
4. Spent most of the day doing trip planning for our upcoming Canada cruise vacation, then enjoyed a spontaneous and very yummy dinner out with our older daughter, youngest niece, and both of their sweeties at the very fun, trendy and fast-casual The Crack Shack in Costa Mesa.
5. A gorgeous morning spent hiking along the Aliso Summit Trail, enjoying a sack lunch at the scenic halfway point just above Pacific Coast Highway, then home for clean up, naps, a little downtime, and dinner, then out again to attend our monthly couples discussion group.
6. Monday play day with hubby, wherein we walked to the beach, stopped for lunch at Pain du Monde, and visited the library, before returning home and settling into our living room for the next couple of days while painters redo the built in cabinetry in our family room.
7. Morning hike with my Tuesday group while the painters continued the takeover of our family room, plus worked on cruise planning for our 2020 S. America navigation cruise.
8. I left my keys and wallet in our SUV, which hubby accidentally drove off with for a guys bike ride, so I enjoyed my enforced 'down time' by cleaning up my email (so many emails!), doing more cruise port planning (12 port days to plan out for September, and 17 port days to plan out for next February!), and menu planning, then off to do grocery shopping once hubby finally returned.
Our Canada cruise itinerary . . .
and our South America cruise itinerary . . . so excited!
9. Settled things back into our pretty new family room cabinetry, worked an afternoon volunteer shift at the harbor, then home to collapse afterward . . . yeah for dinner leftovers!
10. Rain cancelled out my planned bike ride with my Friday group, so I instead spent the day slogging through paperwork in my office, but did have fun making a new-to-me recipe for Spinach and Feta Strudel for dinner that turned out delicious (drying off the spinach in my salad spinner was a brilliant tactic!)
11. Visited the weekly Dana Point Farmers Market, then off to enjoy a walk to Pacific City from my oldest daughter's place in Huntington Beach, where we enjoyed some terrific craft beer, plus yummy truffle garlic fries at The American Dream.
12. Happy Mother's Day!, wherein I started off the day watching my youngest granddaughter take her first steps via FaceTime, then enjoyed a lovely six mile coastline ridge hike with my older daughter, her sweetie, and their buddy Nick, followed by all of them cooking an amazing dinner for me back at the house that consisted of burgers on homemade brioche buns (!), sweet potato fries, a cumin dipping aioli, and a lemon and arugula salad . . . feeling very spoiled!
13. Super tired from our busy weekend, so we basically hibernated and worked in our respective offices all day . . . every so often we need a recovery day!
14. A lovely and fast paced six mile hike in Aliso Woods Regional Park with my Tuesday group, home for a quick clean up, then off to work a volunteer shift at Casa Romantica in San Clemente, making a fabulous lemon chicken dinner upon my return, from the wonderful Eat Delicious cookbook.
So pretty when I took this out of the oven, with it's crisped pancetta on top of the lemon and spice rubbed chicken thighs.
15. Spent the morning waiting for my handyman to return for one final small job, submitting a request for an appointment with an online interior decorator while I waited (so excited to have professional help with our upcoming bathroom remodels!), house chores in the afternoon while watching our poor painters rush to finish priming the outside of the house ahead of an incoming spring rain storm, then watched the first half of the not-what-I-expected, but still excellent, 2019 Oscar nominee Vice after dinner via Amazon Prime (I woke up at 2AM this morning and couldn't make it all the way through the movie as a result!)
16. Rainy, windy morning, so I spent time getting this summer's many, many free concerts onto our calendar (tribute bands to Abba, Queen, Neil Diamond, Aerosmith, Foreigner, and so many more . . . it's going to be a fun summer!), attempted to minimize the damage to the protective paper our painter had carefully surrounded the house with yesterday (I think it's a lost cause!), read, drank wine while lamenting the temporary loss of our views (windows currently covered in plastic due to painting project), then had leftover apricot turkey meatloaf for dinner (so good!!!) while finishing up watching Vice.
17. Morning beach walk, errands, handyman here to finish up our new kitchen accent tile work, then dinner on my own 'cause hubby away for weekend, followed by chick flick The Jane Austin Book Club via Netflix . . . it was good enough to keep me awake until the end!
At move in . . .
The short term fix - a plastic panel taped into place.
The final fix - matching travertine tile with brushed chrome insets.
18. Fabulous hike along the ridgelines of Newport Beach, art shopping on the way home (determined to purchase one of Steve Adam's amazing coastal modern abstracts!), greeted my gal pal Barri, settled her into our guest bedroom and then headed out to walk the bluff tops of Dana Point, enjoy Opium Hour at Starfish Laguna, and attend a crazy fun Full Moon Drum Ceremony at Aliso Creek Beach (so much fun as it turned out, that we can't wait to return when our granddaughter is here visiting this summer!)
19. Rain, rain, go away . . . so instead my girlfriend and I chatted and solved the world's problems over homemade avacado toast here, then walked the Salt Creek trail to the beach once the skies cleared, stopping in to PDM for coffee and their incredible almond twist Danish at the halfway point, said 'goodbye' upon returning to the house, then happily welcome hubby back home from his weekend away.
It was gorgeous at the beach post-rainstorm!
20. Monday play day with hubby, so we walked five miles along the San Clemente Beach Trail, returning through downtown San Clemente where we stopped for a shared burrito at Sancho's Tacos, then browsed out way back to our car via the many cute little shops along El Camino, all under sunny skies which we much enjoyed after all the rain showers May has been gifting us with!
We never do this route without detouring slightly to walk along pier . . . it feels like we're surrounded by ocean once we reach the end.
21. Woke up at 2:00 AM, returning to bed at 6:00 AM, so I missed my Tuesday morning hike, but did wake up in time to work my afternoon volunteer shift at the Casa, discovering this little gem of a cookbook while there, which I've already cooked from twice! (Garlic shrimp and chocolate cheesecake bites for inquiring minds :-)
22. Morning hike in Caspers Wilderness Park with Sierra Club, plus an additional three miles along the Dana Point Headlands Trail with hiking friends John and Joyce followed by lunch and lots of laughing at The Coffee Importers, home for showers and a little down time, then off to Casa Romantica for sunset viewing and a Healthy Mexican Cooking Class by T-Spoons of San Juan Capistrano . . . holy guacamole was it good!
Absolutely gorgeous skies during our morning hike.
Enjoying long-missed blue skies and some wine at the Casa.
Hubby getting started on Mexican street corn, which turned out so, so, good!
23. Met my girlfriend Cherri for a four mile walk up and around the bluffs of San Clemente, a shift at the cultural center I volunteer for, then home to enjoy dinner with hubby.
24. Attended a documentary showing of the fascinating Three Identical Strangers at our Lifelong Learning group, which included a rousing post-film discussion, then over to Waterman's Harbor for Happy Hour, an almost-every-Friday tradition since moving.
25. A wonderful first time seven mile hike along Irvine's gorgeous and hilly Turtle Ridge with a group of fellow hikers,
home to clean up afterward, a little bit of gardening under newly-sunny afternoon skies, then made dinner together, which we enjoyed eating while streaming the 2019 Oscar-nominated, and more timely than ever, documentary RBG.
26. A long drive to Ventura County in order to attend the memorial of our best friend's mother, which turned out to be a loving celebration of a life well-lived, then home to greet our friend Skip, that was spending the night with us for the first time, but hopefully not the last.
27. A wonderful Memorial Day spent kayaking five miles around Newport Harbor with hubby, older daughter and her sweetie while our house guest Skip went on a long bike ride, then home with everyone in tow to enjoy a rowdy game of ladder ball, lots of great pre-dinner appetizers and craft beer, before sitting down to a great holiday dinner of BBQ chicken, Mexican street corn, shaved Brussels sprout salad, corn bread with honey butter, and, yum, fresh strawberries over ice cream with a drizzle of Balsamic vinegar.
My oldest daughter and her sweetie leading the way.
There were all types of watercraft out enjoying the Memorial Day weekend!
28. Household chores, a volunteer shift at a cultural center, then home to enjoy wine on our back patio under beautiful spring skies before heading into dinner.
29. A five mile beach walk, lots of grocery shopping, a stop into our local hardware store, then home to gaze in delight at our almost-completed once-blue-but-now-gray house.
30. Hair appointments back in our old town, a three mile walk around our hilly neighborhood when we returned, then home to celebrate the painters finishing up the last few jobs on our beautiful new gray and white home!
31. Five mile walk-run along the beach, testing my leg to see what's what, home to again ooh and aah over our freshly finished home, time out back moving the patio furniture and other items back into place, then off to a fun date night with hubby enjoying wine, food truck cuisine, and live music at Frisby Cellars monthly celebration.
(Note: I am no longer blogging here on a regular basis, but will continue to put up my monthly Sentence A Day posts for now. In that it will be pretty quiet here on the blog otherwise, you might wish to follow me on Instagram instead at WestCoastTamara)
April turned out to be a wonderful month, sorely needed after our non-stop winter rains, and the rain-generated house siding leak issue we discovered in March. By the end of April the rains were gone, the skies were once again blue, the wildflowers blazed, adventures abounded, our leak was fixed, and the exterior of our house was on it's way to being repainted.
April In A Sentence A Month
1. No April Fool pranks, but did enjoy a lovely day with hubby walking along the beach in San Clemente under sunny skies, which included a stop for yummy avocado toast at Catarina's, and iced teas at newly opened Moulin.
2. Gorgeous seven mile hike in Aliso Woods Regional Park with my Tuesday group, absolutely soaking up all the spring wildflowers, then home to enjoy a nap, some reading, and then an easy dinner of wheatberry salad with goat cheese feta.
3. Grocery shopping and chores day, contracted with a house siding replacement company, made a final house painter selection, plus organized my bedroom closet for, hopefully the last time in that I hung about two dozen hooks for the purpose of displaying my plentiful scarves and costume jewelry . . . the older I get the more I appreciate 'distractions' around my face!
4. A visit from my girlfriend and prior neighbor, Pam, who I took hiking and to lunch in San Clemente, home afterward, then out again after dinner in order to attend a lecture about our local owls, with live guests! 😊
5. A 30 mile ride along our local bike paths to biker hangout Cooks Corner for lunch with my Friday bike group, home to clean up and enjoy some book club reading (Tolstoy's War and Peace), then to Huntington Beach via always-scenic Pacific Coast Highway in order to enjoy dinner with my oldest daughter and her sweetie . . . he is such a good cook!
6. Attended an oh-so-fun, day-long wine auction, where we started in an airplane hanger with seemingly endless wine . . .
. . . and ended up with this haul after a full day of bidding (And eating. And drinking, ha!)
One of these is a $100 bottle of wine that we purchased for half off, which we'll be saving to enjoy with friends during an RV trip this fall!
then picked up a free pizza at Blaze Pizza via a coupon on the way home, eating it while watching this year's amazing Oscar award winning documentary, Free Solo.
7. Woke up to this stunning sunrise, made a batch of mini tomato tartlets to bring to our morning spiritual services' brunch, ran errands on the way home ('cause, hubby in car!), spent the afternoon reading War and Peace, then a quick dinner before heading out again to attend a couples discussion group in the evening.
8. A super fun Monday playday with hubby spent kayaking around Dana Point Harbor, where we encountered several very large and very noisy sea lions, then lunch bagels and iced coffees at harbor-adjacent Coffee Importers, followed by a three mile walk along the harbor to Doheny State Beach and back, enjoying the sights and sounds of happy spring break vacationing families.
9. A six mile hike with our Tuesday morning group along the ridgeline of Aliso Woods Regional Park, an afternoon volunteer shift at Casa Romantica in San Clemente, then home for our own version of Taco Tuesday.
The morning marine layer burned off just as we finished our hike . . . perfect in that it got quickly hot once the sun came out!
10. Cancelled my Wednesday morning hike to await the garage door repairman, only to learn that while the repair would be modest, he didn't have the necessary part and would need to return tomorrow - grrr . . . dislike missing a hike for no good reason! - but it was a gorgeous day otherwise, so enjoyed a lovely afternoon of reading out in our backyard.
11. A morning three mile hike around our hilly neighborhood enjoying gorgeous ocean views, home in time to meet the team that would be replacing the drywall in our bedroom that had been removed as part of our earlier water leak remediation, plus the garage repairman returned with needed part, and then headed out to the Ocean Institute for an afternoon volunteer shift, then hone to cook dinner, plus make some date bars for an event occurring over the weekend.
12. Met my gal pal, Cherri, for a bright and early beach walk followed by coffee at just-opened Moulin, then home to hook up our trailer and head 30 miles south for a weekend of fun, starting with tonight's fabulous Classic Albums Live performance of The Eagle's iconic album Hotel California, plus a bunch of other Eagle's hits they played afterward - so much fun!
13. Spent the morning exploring Oceanside and Carlsbad via our bicycles, met up with our friends David and Fran for lunch in a serendipity moment, pedaled back to our travel trailer to clean up and enjoy a few hours of downtime, then headed out for the evening, first stopping in to new-to-us Prohibition Brewing Company (loved my coconut infused lager!), then to a second Classic Albums Live performance, this time of Fleetwood Mac's album, Rumours, which ended with the most amazing solo electric guitar performance I have ever witnessed - I still have shivers!!!
14. Hurried back from our trip in time to attend an Earth Day celebration at our spiritual congregation, which included the date bars I made on Friday, then errands (again, hubby in car!), and then home to unpack and relax, finally, for remainder of day, enjoying dinner outside on a gorgeous spring evening.
The canyon behind us is positively bursting with yellow mustard flowers!
15. Our weekly Monday play day, which hubby and I spent cycling 30 miles via bike trails up into Trabuco Canyon - it was a gorgeous day, plus we met a retiree couple also out for a day of cycling at our lunch stop at Cooks Corner, hitting it off so immediately and so well, that we exchanged contact info and made a date to meet up at a winery event that we're attending later this month, yeah!
This year's wildflower display has been amazing!
16. Return trip to our old town to get our hair done (so much cheaper in our old town than in our new town, plus hubby checks in with his sister during my turn with our stylist), then home to re-organize our downstairs closet thanks to new shelving that was installed by our handyman while we were away getting coiffed.
17. Kitchen backsplash tile shopping, because now that I have a great handyman the ugly mosaic above the stove, currently covered with a temporary silver screen, is on it's way to being replaced, plus packed for our trip to Metro DC, after which hubby and I headed to Laguna Beach to meet up with our friends Ed and Susan for a quick dinner at Urth Caffe, followed by a Carole King tribute concert at the Laguna Playhouse.
This travertine tile bar pattern, which matches our current travertine backsplash, will be broken up with brushed nickel bars. . . I think it's going to look great!
18. Early flight out of Los Angeles, arriving at Reagan Airport on time, at which point we picked up our rental car, ordered pizza enroute to my daughter's, and then absolutely indulged in granddaughter time the remainder of the evening, carting off the oldest one to spend the night with us at our nearby hotel when she refused to let us leave without her (no complaints here!).
This precious little pumpkin fell asleep in front of the window where she'd been watching for our arrival. Love her sooooooooo much!
19. An early departure with our oldest granddaughter in order to make our 9:00 AM entry time into the Baltimore Aquarium (such a fabulous place!), chocolate ice cream for our little one afterward, then a slow traffic filled drive back, which was fine in that our girl slept the entire way - yeah to us for successfully wearing her out! 😊
20. Babysat our girls so mama and papa could enjoy a little adult time, which meant non stop play enjoying a picnic lunch, tea party, swings, books, and much bouncing on the bed (!), then once off duty, hubby and I headed to National Harbor for our own adult time, enjoying a wonderful dinner at southern sublime Succotash.
Our meal started with hush puppies and deviled eggs . . . it doesn't get much more southern than that!
21. A beautifully sunny Easter Sunday, meaning morning services for us, then some fun with the family at Mason Neck State Park before returning home and enjoying a lovely Easter dinner together of buttermilk chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, and carrot cake.
22. Granddaughter time with our 10 month old in the AM, then picked our oldest granddaughter up from school and took her to nearby park & nature center for a wonderful afternoon of fun, followed by a stop for frozen yogurt (she got so excited about picking out her own toppings), then back to her place for dinner with the family.
23. Early morning flight back home, boo hoo, arriving early enough however, to unpack, and enjoy lunch out at Board & Brew, with enough chicken club sandwich leftovers to do us for dinner as well.
24. Our house painting project kicked off with power washing, which I escaped by going grocery and house shopping, returning with lots of food plus these cute new tomato red pillows and accent throw for our family room - the home refresh never stops around here!
New tomato red pillows and throw in family room.
Next home improvement project will be painting the media cabinetry in cream, the same as in the adjacent kitchen below.
25. Replacement of house siding commenced today, plus I did a volunteer shift at the harbor's gift shop, which resulted in this coming home, which we'll play when our granddaughter visits with us this summer.
26. Lots of Friday fun today - met my gal pal at South Coast Plaza to attend the Spring Garden Show, including lunch together at Champagne French Bakery & Cafe, then home to change clothes and head out again for an evening get together with new friends Dayna and Ray at a nearby winery, where we enjoyed great wine and BBQ, and literally closed the house down singing along with the talented singer and guitarist, Sky Green.
27. Morning beach walk with my Saturday group, then home to make this fantastic Ina Garten Shaved Brussels Sprout Slaw, our contribution for tonight's wine society get together, which we enjoyed along with lots of other great food contributions, plus a dozen blind tastings of Rhone wines . . . always a guaranteed fun event!
28. Felt the need for some slowdown time, so we skipped Sunday services and instead spent the morning walking along the beach in San Clemente, and visiting the wonderful Sunday Farmers Market (hello rosemary garlic sourdough bread, fresh made tamales, and ruby red beets!), lunch along the way back at Moulin, then home to shower and clean up before heading out to my older daughter's in Huntington Beach for a robust book club discussion on, yes, we finally finished it, War and Peace!
This was our book club dinner starter, which my daughter's sweetie made . . . he is most definitely a keeper!
29. Handyman service over to replace a couple of pieces of wood that termites had damaged, follow up from Saturday's visit by our termite inspection service, then a quiet afternoon spent napping and binge watching the utterly addictive VRBO-style home fix up show on Netflix, Stay Here.
30. Gorgeous if wet walk in the canyons with our Tuesday hiking group, then home to meet our handyman again for completion of above wood replacement, plus made an awesome pesto pasta for dinner using a new-to-me homemade pesto recipe that called for, 1) roasting the garlic, 2) toasting the pine nuts, and 3) mashing the basil, all before adding these ingredients into the food processor . . . can you say pesto flavor explosion???
We're also having an explosion of mustard this spring thanks to our winter rains.
And so went April. Looking ahead to May, we should see our house painting project completed, new cream painted cabinetry in our family room, new accent backsplash tile in our kitchen, lots of hiking and biking, weekends spent with family and friends, and trip planning completion for two upcoming vacations of almost 30 days each!
