Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a good day for another poem. Yes, it's another one by Barbara Crooker but it felt right to share it for Thanksgiving week. I promise I'll move on to other poets (someday). 

Praise Song

by Barbara Crooker 

Praise the light of late November,
the thin sunlight that goes deep in the bones.
Praise the crows chattering in the oak trees;
though they are clothed in night, they do not
despair. Praise what little there's left:
the small boats of milkweed pods, husks, hulls,
shells, the architecture of trees. Praise the meadow
of dried weeds: yarrow, goldenrod, chicory,
the remains of summer. Praise the blue sky
that hasn't cracked yet. Praise the sun slipping down
behind the beechnuts, praise the quilt of leaves
that covers the grass: Scarlet Oak, Sweet Gum,
Sugar Maple. Though darkness gathers, praise our crazy
fallen world; it's all we have, and it's never enough. 

 

Crooker, Barbara. "Praise Song". Radiance. Word Press, 2005. 

 

Here's hoping you can find a reason or two of your own to praise our "crazy fallen world".

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a day for letting go. 

Ryan enjoys cooking and has been pestering politely asking me for several years if I thought maybe we could have Thanksgiving at his house. I've always said that it's my favorite holiday because it's just about good food and good company, with no extra pressure for gifts. I really do love Thanksgiving leftovers, even more than the meal itself, so I've always said, "That's okay, we'll just have Thanksgiving here."

But this is the year I've finally let it go. After a lively group text with Justin and Ryan, we decided that dinner will be at Ryan's. I will still be making a couple of pies, apple crisp, and crescent rolls, and Jess is bringing macaroni & cheese and Brussels sprouts. (Those are two different dishes!) Ryan is doing everything else, and I'm happy about it. I may have to bring home a piece of pie so I can have my traditional day-after-Thanksgiving pumpkin pie with too much whipped cream for breakfast, but I think Ryan will be okay with that. 

Sometimes it's good to let go and do something a bit different.

 

Sometimes Monday ...

... you are lucky enough to have a couple of early Christmas cactus blossoms, 

along with a bunch of buds waiting to burst forth with more color. 

I hope your week is off to a beautiful start! 

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is when I hope to start feeling better. 

 

A couple of weeks ago, when I went to CVS for my flu and COVID vaccines, the pharmacist cheerfully suggested I should also make appointments for shingles, pneumonia, RSV, and a Tdap booster. That sounded like an awful lot of poking for one person, but I decided I’d better at least start with the shingles shot while vaccines are still available.

So on Thursday, I got my first shingles vaccine and a Tdap booster. I felt fine until Friday afternoon, when I suddenly needed a three-hour nap and still went to bed at 8:00 p.m. By Saturday I was feeling better, doing laundry, folding clothes, making baked ziti, baking muffins, and paying bills like a responsible adult again.

Then came Sunday. At 5:00 a.m., I woke up with one of the worst headaches I’ve ever had plus a fever. I alternated ibuprofen and Tylenol until things started to ease up a bit, and I managed the rest of the day pretty well, as long as I remembered to keep taking ibuprofen every six hours.

According to GlaxoSmithKline, the shingles vaccine can cause pain, redness, swelling, muscle aches, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, and an upset stomach. Lucky me, I checked every single box! Still, I’d much rather deal with a few rough days than go through shingles. My mom and sister have both had it, and they were miserable.

So today, I’m determined to start feeling better, maybe with a little help from one last dose of ibuprofen. I’ll have to work up the courage to go back for that second shingles shot (not until December, thankfully), but I will. Otherwise, all this feeling lousy will have been for nothing!

Here’s hoping your Monday is off to a good and healthy start!

 

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a good day to say goodbye to my finch friends.

Justin got me this bird feeder last Christmas and I quickly attached it to my kitchen window. That seemed like the perfect place - I could reach it to refill the tray with seed, it was right by my chair at the kitchen table so I could see any birds that visited, and there were no good ways for the squirrels to get into it. I filled it with seed and waited for the birds to find it. 

 

 

And they did find it within a couple of weeks. I've had cardinals, finches, and even a nuthatch or two. After a while it was mainly the finches that came, and they only seemed to eat the sunflower seeds and leave the rest.

 

I finally got the hint and started filling the feeder with unsalted sunflower kernels. John thought I was nuts, but seeing the finches regularly for their breakfast, lunch, and dinner made me happy. 

 

Last week they seemed to be visiting less frequently and by Saturday I realized that I hadn't seen any of them for a couple of days. Even though we're in an area where finches can live here year-round, some house finches from the northeastern U.S. do move south for the winter. I feel a bit sad without their frequent visits and I didn't even say goodbye. (I realize this sounds kind of silly but I do miss them.) I'm just going to keep the feeder filled and hope that maybe some sweet chickadees and other birds find it this winter. Maybe the finches will even return in the spring. 

 

Here's hoping you've got birds at your feeder and any other wildlife in your yard is not eating your landscape plantings.  

 

 

Sometimes Monday ...

 ... is a good day for some reflections on the Delaware River. 

 

 I hope your view of things today is a lovely one!

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!