Monday, April 29

Up at 7:30 a.m., and did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises after breakfast. I needed this session, after not exercising since last Thursday. There was no water aerobics this morning, since the lifeguard/coach was out of town with the college's baseball team.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9:30, and I got her started dicing veggies for chicken soup before I went upstairs to get ready for the day. As soon as I was dressed, I started the chicken simmering.

In the meantime, Hubbie made a trip to the WDCS for some items I needed, including mushrooms for making cream of mushroom soup. When he got back, and we'd had lunch, Mother sliced the mushrooms and diced more onions, and I made the soup.

I sauteed the mushrooms and onions in two tablespoons of margarine; then added pepper, no-salt seasoning, and paprika, and two tablespoons of flour mixed in a cup of fat-free evaporated milk; when that was thickened, I added two cups of chicken broth. It's a very tasty soup on its own, but I plan to add it to a recipe of chicken spaghetti tomorrow.

Later, I got a call from our favorite roadside vendor, who said she had strawberries today. So Hubbie ran out there and got four quarts for us. I washed two quarts, and Mother capped and sliced them. We sugared them to have tomorrow, if and when Hubbie's sister and niece come to our town to go house hunting for niece.

At 3:30, we went to the college down the road to attend a slide program about wolves. The speaker brought along male and female wolves and one of their pups. These wolves are ambassador animals used to educate people about the fragility of wolf populations in our nation.

The wolves are fascinating, and people (most people, anyway) like to interact with them. Mother petted the male, and I got to pet the pup and the female. It was a fun afternoon, and Mother thoroughly enjoyed it.

Following the program, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up a package of noodles. It was after 5 p.m. before we got back home. We are used to having supper by that hour, but tonight, it was 6 p.m. before I was able to get the chicken noodle soup ready, and heat the bread sticks Hubbie and I brought back from the Italian restaurant on Friday.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house after supper, and then he and I watched TV, including an episode of  "Vikings," from the History Channel, and a couple of series from PBS..."Mr. Selfridge," and "The Bletchley Circle" (a mystery series about four seemingly ordinary women who investigate grisly murders in 1951).