Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a good day to say hello. 

 I hope your week is off to a lovely start!

Sometimes Monday ...

... calls for tackling the zucchini mountain. We’ve been absolutely inundated, and while I’ve already made zucchini bread and fritters—and stashed away 20 cups of grated zucchini in the freezer for winter baking—I still had eight medium-to-large ones staring at me from the fridge.

I’ll admit, I briefly considered the classic “leave some in the neighbors’ cars” trick, but instead I searched for recipes that use a lot of zucchini. That’s when I found this casserole. Nothing fancy, but it calls for nine cups of grated zucchini, which sounded perfect. I actually ended up with 11 cups, so I tossed in an extra egg and it worked out just fine.

I used pepper jack cheese because that’s what was on hand, but I’m already dreaming of trying gruyere or havarti next time. Since zucchini doesn’t have much flavor on its own, it happily takes on the taste of whatever cheese and seasoning you add.

 

So tonight: zucchini casserole for dinner, zucchini bread for dessert. Honestly, meals like this make me think I could live quite happily on a vegetarian diet… at least for a while.

 

I hope your week is off to a good start and make sure to lock your cars. You wouldn't want somebody leaving zucchini on your front seat! 

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a good day to quit Duolingo. 

I actually stopped effective Friday after I had completed 365 days. I began this one year ago to try to "exercise" my brain in hopes that my cognition wouldn't slip too much as I age, but it's no longer fun. In fact, it's kind of stressful and I'm not sure I'm learning much of anything.  

The darn owl has been persistent in badgering me despite turning off all the reminders. Maybe someday he'll finally understand that I've broken up with him and leave me alone. Maybe someday I'll give Duolingo another try with a different language, but for now I'm enjoying Wordle more and that is certainly testing my brain.

 

 

I'm breathing a big sigh of relief and feeling quite free this morning; I hope you are also having a good Monday! 

Sometimes Monday ...

... is a day to wonder what this might mean.

 

Justin was showing me some "cool quotes" he had saved on Instagram and this was one of them. I'm not exactly sure what it means, but I've found myself thinking about it a lot over the past couple of weeks. Sometimes I wake up wondering what it might mean, and other times it's the last thing I think about before I fall asleep. 

 

In order to stop thinking about it so much, I thought I'd ask, what do you think it might mean? It's a haunting quote and I'd like to have better understanding of it. 

 

Now if this is too much for a Monday morning, how about something a little simpler?

 

I'm well past midlife but I can definitely get behind knitting, birdwatching, and reading with cats! 

 

Thanks in advance, and I hope you have a good Monday! 

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a day to curse deer ticks and their very existence. 

Justin called me last week to ask if he needed an appointment at the doctor for blood work. It took a few questions to find out why he was asking but the answer is that he had a bullseye rash on his back but didn't know where to go. He's had Lyme disease before but that was several years ago and they did blood work if there was no rash present. It took a couple of days but he finally went to the doctor on Friday afternoon and asked if I would go with him. As a healthy young man he never goes to the doctor and often feels like he doesn't know what to ask. I think that patients can almost always benefit from having an advocate with them in any medical situation, so of course, I went with him. 

Sometimes Monday is also a day to be thankful that doxycycline is effective against Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases. Justin is taking it for the next two weeks and that means he also needs to also be careful of photosensitivity as a side effect. As someone who is outside every day working on the grounds crew that may be a little difficult, but so is avoiding ticks. 

Have a good Monday and check yourself for ticks! 

 

Sometimes Monday . . .

 . . . is a day to work in the kitchen. 

There is a little bit of a story behind this. Towards the end of last month, Kat posted this amazing video from Rajiv Surendra about his most valuable piece of clothing. It was a stunning embroidered waistcoat, and I was so entranced that I sent it to my SiL. She has become slightly obsessed with his videos and now tells me every week that I must watch his kitchen tour or his talk about his Indian jewelry. He has a lovely voice, lives in an apartment in NYC that he carefully curates, and seems like a gentle soul that appreciates beauty. 

The video that my SiL said I must watch this week was this one:

 

I have never viewed washing my floors as therapy but it is a new way to think about a chore that needs to be done. My SiL said it has made a difference to her; she has very little control about what is happening in the world or our country, but she can control whether her floors are clean or not. 

 

 

That makes sense to me, so I told her I would give it a try. I found four gallon bags of tomato puree from last year's garden in the freezer and I cooked them down into sauce yesterday. The area by my stove has plenty of sauce spots and needs to be thoroughly cleaned. I've also been getting increasingly aggravated with the mess in my pantry cupboard, so my plan today is to take everything out, clean the shelves, throw away everything that is old and/or expired, and then put it back in an organized way. 

 

Then I'll wash the kitchen floor after doing two messy jobs. I hope to have a clean and organized pantry along with a clean kitchen floor and maybe even improve my mental health along the way. Here's hoping your Monday is a good one whatever you do!

 

Sometimes Monday . . .

 . . . is the day I expand my search for chive plants. I would use chives more if I had a ready source of them at hand and didn't have to buy a bunch every time I made baked potatoes or an omelet. I planted two different types of seeds several months ago, but all I've gotten so far are the spindliest, weakest chives I've ever seen. 

They can barely withstand being watered! 

I spent last weekend going to Lowe's, Home Depot, and the two (quite pitiful) plant nurseries in our town. I did find herbs - lots of basil, some thyme, rosemary, and even lemongrass and citronella, but no chives anywhere. 

But I have a plan today. There is a lovely garden center an hour away, and it happens to be in the same town where John has a doctor's appointment. I called them yesterday and they do have chive plants. I'll be going along with John to his appointment, and then we'll go to the garden center. John likes company but I don't "ride along" very often. For some chive plants and maybe some other delightful surprises at the garden center, it's worth it.

Keep your fingers crossed that my plan works out, and I hope you're having a good Monday!

Sometimes Monday . . .

 . . . is a day that you remember you didn't take a single photo over the weekend, even though it was one of the best weekends you've had in quite a while. So I'm committing one of the cardinal sins of blogging by writing a post that doesn't include any photos I took.

Mother's Day has long been fraught with varying emotions for me. But this year I was lucky enough to have a perfectly lovely day that was wonderful in many ways. My sister and I had a very nice conversation by text. She would love to ignore the day for many reasons, not the least of which is the loss of her youngest son. She has come a long way since his death and it was so nice to really understand her and what she was saying without any judgements. 

I had decreed that I didn't need to go out or be treated to any big celebration, but Justin asked on the spur of the moment if we wanted to go to his house for hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill, and I did. It was such a nice day and I even came home with leftover macaroni and cheese. 

I'm headed to Ryan's today to plant seedlings in the garden, and he says he'll make me lunch and maybe even bake something. I feel very lucky to have finally had the low-key, perfect Mother's Day I've wished for, especially when it includes both of my sons making food for me. I won't even need pictures to remember this weekend. Here's hoping yours was equally as wonderful. 

Sometimes Monday . . .

 

. . . is a day to enjoy the fruits of your labors over the weekend. I made split pea soup (it turned out a little thick, but that's how I like it) and some bread that we had for dinner last night and there are plenty of leftovers for dinner tonight. 

 

 

I also did a couple of loads of laundry so there aren't too many household chores for me to feel guilty about not doing. Yes, I could vacuum, dust, clean out the refrigerator, and mop the kitchen floor, but I think I'll leave those chores for another time. John is away for much of the day and I've found that for my sanity I need to take advantage of the time when he's not here. He used to travel a lot and I got fairly used to figuring out how to do most things myself. Now that he's retired, he can often be found hanging around in the kitchen telling me how to dice ham, and he's also offered me advice on how to hang laundry on the clothesline, how to fold clothes, the best way to water my plants, and when the best time is to go to the grocery store. (Keep in mind, he hasn't been to the grocery store in at least five years.) I love him dearly but there is a limit on how much advice I need (or want). There are times when I can't seem to do anything right, so today I'm reading, knitting, and not cleaning out the refrigerator. I bet I'll do those correctly!

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... you're just waiting for it to be Tuesday!

Martina Behm (the designer of the Hitchhiker pattern) has published a new pattern called Hitch on the Move (Ravelry link). It's an interesting combination of her Hitchhiker and her Match & Move patterns, and I purchased it as soon as I saw it last week. I knit a Match & Move in two colors that I loved but I rarely wear it because I seem to lack the ability to artfully drape it around my neck and it's always falling off. I've dreamed of knitting something Hitchhiker-esque in those same colors and I finally have the chance. 

Past me was clever enough to buy extra skeins of both of those yarns, so I just had to toss my stash to find them. I did, but I also found a single skein that I don't remember buying but really liked when I came upon it. I didn't have a second color to go with it but took a look at The Yarn Attic's website. This is a nearby yarn store that I've never been to but Dee has spoken of it quite highly. They had a yarn that looked promising but I couldn't decide what color would look best. Of course, the answer was to go and see, but I didn't get there for several reasons - John had truck trouble and that meant I needed to pick him up and follow him to the dealer, pea vines needed to be pulled out in the garden, the peas picked off, blanched, and frozen, and beans had to be planted. I also had a few medical appointments, so it seemed that the universe was conspiring against me going to the yarn store. When I finally finished blanching peas late Saturday afternoon, I was all excited about heading to the yarn store. I did a quick check of their hours and almost cried when I found that they had closed at 4:00 pm. on Saturday and wouldn't reopen until Tuesday morning.

I silently cursed yarn stores that aren't open 24 hours, but sucked it up, continued with my Hitchhiker knitting, and will be in my car and revving my engine at 9:30 tomorrow to enjoy myself at the yarn store in person and hopefully match my yarn. Hopefully, I'll be telling you more about this on Wednesday. 

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a day to plant seeds. 

I actually planted a few types (green peppers, hot peppers, and Napa cabbage) 7-10 days ago and put in three types of tomatoes and swiss chard today. They don't look like much so far, but the cabbage seeds have germinated. Since John can hardly bear to thin seeds after he plants them in the garden, I'm planting fewer seeds and I'll thin them in the pots. This will just give John the actual plants we have room for in the garden and we'll hopefully avoid a tomato jungle this year. 

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is for reminiscence. Over the weekend I spent some time in my messy back bedroom. My original goal was to bring some organization to the various photo albums that I've removed from the bookcase and are currently lying piled up in various places around the room. Photos are my organizational downfall, and it was pretty much the same with this attempt. I started paging through the albums, quickly getting sucked in by how cute everyone was when they were younger, people and events I have forgotten about, and quickly abandoning any attempt at organizing. I thought I'd share a few examples of what waylaid me. 

Me, five years old

Me in college with my dulcimer

Ryan eating strawberries, two years old

Ryan in a tree in Rocky Mt. National Park

Justin after catching two fish on one lure in TX

Justin with the inconnu he caught in the Yukon

Justin and Ryan trying to catch a squirrel by painting themselves with mud. The plan was that the mud would act as camouflage
 and they would be able to hide in that little tree and catch squirrels unaware. Alas, they were not successful. 

I hope your weekend was filled with lots of things that brought a big smile to your face!

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a day to check on my hyacinth's progress. 

Lots of roots, the stems are coming up, and hopefully, I'll have buds and blossoms soon. 

And look, a bonus geranium bud, too!

Here's hoping there is something good happening in your world this Monday!

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a good day to look through another Christmas picture book. The one I've chosen for today is The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, written by Susan Wojciechowski and illustrated by P.J. Lynch. 

I'll be honest, I enjoyed this book more than my kids did. They tolerated it when I chose it, but the recommended age level is grades 1-4, and I was reading this to them when they were much younger. But that's okay; sometimes the reader gets to choose a book they love even if those being read to don't love it quite as much. 

Jonathan Toomey is the best woodcarver in the valley, but he is always alone and never smiles. The children in the village call him Mr. Gloomy. One day a widow and her young son come to his woodshop with a request for nativity figures. 

The young boy has some specific requests, like the sheep need to be smiling and happy. 

Mr. Toomey works on the nativity figures over several days while the boy and his mother try to be quiet and unobtrusive. But the woodcarver has a problem when it comes time to carve Jesus and Mary. 

He despairs getting the expressions right until he retrieves a photo from a closed drawer of his wife and child that he had lost to illness. 

Through his carving of the family he lost, Mr. Toomey once again finds love and hope in his heart and even has a smile on his face at the end of the book. 

This story isn't nearly as saccharine as I may have made it sound. I hardly ever cry reading books, but this one does make me a bit misty-eyed. 

If you'd like to see the whole book and have the story read to you (by James Earl Jones), you can click below.

"I met a teacher who talked to me about how perceptive children are. She had read the book to her first-graders, then asked questions. When she asked what Jonathan Toomey had taken from a drawer, a child answered, "He took his heart out of the drawer." When you read the book, you'll understand the profound depth of that child's answer. "

~Susan Wojciechowski (Author's note)

I don't think you can go wrong with a Christmas story about hope and heart!

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a day to gaze gratefully into your freezers.

We have two chest freezers and now they both look pretty much like this - about 2/3 full of venison in steaks, stew meat, roasts, and ground into burger. For readers that might not want to see the details, don't worry, this is the only photo I'm going to subject you to. 

John and Justin both hunt, in PA and NJ. Justin has gotten two deer and taken them to the butcher for processing. John got one deer and because he says "he wants it done right", we butchered John's deer ourselves. (This may also be due to being somewhat frugal, but it is his deer.) I had forgotten the time and effort that it took to butcher a deer as I haven't done one in over a year. It took us 22 man-hours to process this one, including all the actual butchering, grinding, and packaging the meat. I'm glad for the meat in the freezer, and I'll be even happier when my back feels better. John figures that we got ~ 100 pounds of meat, and I hope the loin roast that we're having tonight is delicious. 

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... looks like a day for meal planning. 

Ryan's birthday is on Friday and since he's now local, I'm making dinner for him. He lives by himself and even though he enjoys cooking, it gets to be a bit of a drag sometimes. My grandmother always said that food tastes better when somebody you love makes it for you, and I definitely think that is true. So I wanted to make him some good things, but not necessarily difficult, complicated, or fancy. I looked through my recipe box for inspiration and here's what I arrived at. 

• Swedish Meatballs
• Mashed Potatoes
• Green Beans (from the garden)
• Watergate Salad (from John's mother)

• Mrs. O'Neill's Pound Cake - she was Ryan's 7th grade English teacher and one of the best bakers I know. I feel very lucky that she wrote the recipe out for me one day, and once I confirmed that she had forgotten a few things, it was perfect.

The pound cake is the best if it's made a day ahead of time, so that's what I'll be doing on Thursday. 

I can hardly wait to taste all these. They are some of Ryan's favorites (and if I'm honest, mine, too)!

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a day for small wins!

(This is just a picture I like from Ryan's time at Gettysburg College. It doesn't have anything to do with the post. :-)) 

Some of the small wins that I am anticipating and celebrating:

• I am on my own until Friday. Retirement is good, but spending all day, every day together isn't good for anyone (or any couple).
• Ryan and I will be having dinner together on at least one of those evenings.
• I made baked ziti over the weekend and have lots of leftovers for when I'm not enjoying dinner with Ryan.
• I am dropping off four boxes of stuff that I have decluttered at Salvation Army.
• I have successfully removed the condensation from beneath my watch crystal by placing it in some rice. This is a small thing but might even be considered a big win because the watch is 18 years old and I'm quite sentimentally attached to it.

What are your recent small wins? I hope you've had several!

Sometimes Monday ...

 ...is a day to breathe a big sigh of relief. 

We still haven't had any rain, but the temperatures and humidity dropped over the weekend. I managed to mop the kitchen floor without sweating and even turned the oven on to bake some zucchini bread. The temperatures look bearable this week and there is that ever-elusive prediction of rain by the weekend. I have hope this week and I hope you do, too!

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is for miscellany. I have a bunch of pictures in my Miscellaneous folder, but none of them warrant a post of their own. Today I'm cleaning it out, hopefully putting together a post with some of the things I found in it, and maybe providing an update or something mildly interesting.

You may remember when I posted a picture of this car I see every day on my walk in Elkton (or maybe not, as it was way back in June).  The car has still not moved, but there is now a passenger.

Skelly's pal, cheerful Rover, has joined him on his trip to nowhere. I've never seen anybody outside when I was walking past or I might ask them about the car, but I'll just keep taking pictures as additional passengers climb in.

On a completely different subject, I was asked to fill out a library survey about accessibility and if I felt welcome using the library. Several of the questions pointed out to me that I might need to do some reading about gender and sexual orientation.

I've never thought much about what gender and orientation could mean, and how many variations could exist. I like that "Questioning" is a choice for gender and "Two Spirit" is completely new to me. I only did a little bit of reading, but it refers to a person who identifies as having both a masculine and a feminine spirit, and is used by some Indigenous people to describe their sexual, gender and/or spiritual identity. There are plenty of arguments about whether this should only be used by Native Americans or even if it should be used at all. It was created in English and translated into Ojibwe, and was "meant to serve as a pan-Indian unifier, to be used for general audiences instead of the traditional terms in Indigenous languages for what are diverse, culturally-specific ceremonial and social roles that can vary widely." I've come to think of gender and orientation as sort of a spectrum, and think that much of the terminology can be used to include or exclude. Whatever you think about all this, it still seemed fairly progressive for a library survey. 

Changing the subject completely again - Really, Hallmark?! Was this necessary? I am not always up on popular culture, so I may be missing something, but I don't think a sparkly rainbow poop ornament will be on my Christmas tree. Of course, it was the last one, so maybe I should have grabbed it. 

This is exactly what I intend to do on this Monday. Here's hoping you can, too. 

Sometimes Monday ...

... is for laundry.

Usually I just do laundry whenever I have a full load, or if the weather is good for hanging on the line. I have a lot of laundry to do today - several afghans and a quilt that my MiL made that I want to wash and take over to Ryan, in addition to all the regular clothing and towels, plus it's a beautiful drying day. While sorting my laundry, I started thinking about these sweet day of the week dishtowels that my grandmother had.

She pretty much scheduled her week according to the traditional rhyme:

Wash on Monday,
Iron on Tuesday,
Mend on Wednesday,
Shop on Thursday,
Clean on Friday,
Bake on Saturday,
Rest on Sunday.

It seems quaint to plan your housework that way, and also rigid and impossible if you work or have young children that produce mountains of dirty clothes all week. But it might also be a little more efficient and maybe a little reassuring to know what chores are ahead of you when you wake up in the morning. 

I wish I had my grandmother's tea towels but wash day isn't always on Monday for me. While my first load was sloshing around in the washing machine I looked for embroidery patterns and was intrigued by this Wednesday one.

Wednesday is for mending, but it looks like it might also be for knitting. Sounds good to me!

How are you starting your week?