Sunday Afternoon 2/21/2016

We’re enjoying a particularly gorgeous day here today – blue skies, light breeze and warm air – so Brett and I are heading to the beach in a little while for a couple of hours of relaxation and sun. The girls have a lot of homework, so they won’t be going along today.

I plan on posting the coming week’s menu tomorrow, but after that will be taking a short break from blogging for a week or so. Once again I need to stop and figure out for myself why I am blogging and what I have to say. I feel like I’m losing focus once again, but usually a week or so of reflection helps me center my thoughts, recharge, and get back on the path. I hope you’ll stick around – I’ll be back!

This afternoon I am:

• Reading: I’m still reading and enjoying Live By Night, but have also started reading a book YaYu thought I would enjoy: Stick Figure, by Lori Gottlieb. It’s her diary about being diagnosed with anorexia nervosa when she was just 11 years old. It’s well-written and an entertaining read so, but I haven’t really gotten all the deep into it yet.
• Listening to: The girls are already back in their room and studying, and Brett left early this morning to do some trail maintenance, so it’s very, very quiet around here right now.
• Watching: I can hardly believe that tonight will be the penultimate episode of Downton Abbey. I am in total denial right now that it won’t be back next year. Otherwise it’s been an eclectic week of watching for Brett and me. We watched The Monuments Men on Amazon one night, then a British series on Netflix called Run for the next three nights. It was bleak, but compelling. Last night we all watched The Martian, which we all thought was excellent (although I still prefer the book).
• Cooking/baking: Breakfast for all of this morning was apple strudel we bought yesterday at Costco (it’s vegan!). This afternoon I’m going to bake a triple chocolate fudge bundt cake (not vegan), and dinner tonight will be sloppy joes (made with a ground beef substitute), cole slaw and corn chips.
• Happy I accomplished last week: We finally got the freezer defrosted, although all the credit for the actual deed really goes to Brett. We also got our Costco shopping done for the next three weeks. We didn’t buy very much because we’ll be on our Mystery Vacation™ the last week of our food-shopping month.
• Looking forward to next week: I’m getting my hair cut tomorrow – yeah! I cannot get over how quickly my hair grows here. I used to be able to go six or seven weeks before needing it cut back on the mainland, but here I am shaggy in just four weeks. Our house is also getting sprayed for bugs tomorrow – another yeah! We rarely see any bugs here, but our current landlord is very proactive about these things, where our last landlord could have cared less (and we were almost overwhelmed at times with insects in the house). There’s not a whole lot else going on around here otherwise next week other than the usual chores and errands.
• Grateful for: I’m very thankful that Brett took on the job of teaching our children how to drive. It’s just one of those things that I do not have the temperament for, but he’s been very patient with all of them. YaYu drove us all to Costco and back yesterday and did a fantastic job, which reflects on the good job Brett has been doing with her (she’ll take her driving test after school finishes in May). In the same vein, I’m also grateful for everyone who helped teach my children to swim, something else I never could have done.
• Bonus question: What social media platforms do you use? I’ve been on Facebook for almost seven years and am a fairly heavy user. I especially enjoy it as a way to stay connected with friends and family that live far away, or that I don’t get to see very much. It’s been a terrific way for our son and daughter-in-law to share information, photos and conversations with us about our grandson. If I have a complaint it’s that there seem to be so many links to articles, political and otherwise, posted these days. Sometimes they’re interesting, but I really don’t have time to read all of them. I much more enjoy pictures and anecdotes that let me know what friends are doing. I’m also a heavy user of Pinterest. I just collect photos of things I like, but have somehow managed to acquire nearly 35,000 followers, and am I’m honestly still not sure how that happened. Finally, I’m also on Twitter, although I rarely tweet because I am awful at doing short and pithy, and I have no followers (and don’t care). I mostly use it to read quick updates about what’s going on in the world, and to find out what’s going on out in town. I’ve been thinking of joining Snapchat as another way to stay connected with the girls while they’re away at school, but haven’t done it yet. And, of course I read and follow several blogs!

How was your week? How is your Sunday afternoon going?