Tuesday, March 4

Today is Mother's 92nd birthday. Happy Birthday, Mother.

We were up around 8 a.m. Did stair stepping, but skipped the resistance bands and weights exercises, because I wanted to go ahead and get ready for the day and head to the kitchen to begin getting a meal ready for Mother's birthday celebration.

Hubbie helped in the kitchen...he diced onions, celery, and carrots, banana peppers, and cubed a ham slice, which I added to pinto beans, beef broth, chicken broth, and spices. While the beans cooked, I cooked lemon pudding and let it cool for a while before spreading it on the lemon cake I baked yesterday. I made a meringue topping for it, which didn't turn out as well as usual, probably due to the weather.

After lunch (I sent soup over to Mother, as well as a small helping of lemon pudding), Hubbie peeled and then sliced potatoes in the food processor, and I fried them. I also made a recipe of cornbread.

Around 1:30, we took the beans and ham, the potatoes, a bag of frozen okra, and the cake, and went to Mother's house. Spent a couple of hours playing Skipbo. Hubbie won two games, and I won one. Mother didn't win a game, but she was perfectly content simply to play and be with us.

Later, I heated the beans and ham and the potatoes in the microwave, and sauteed the breaded okra. It was a really satisfying meal, though not the one Mother usually has for her birthday. Usually, we take her out for catfish, but the icy weather prevented that. We are still hoping we can treat her to her favorite meal on Thursday.

She really enjoyed tonight's meal though, and ate two helpings of it, after which she had a helping of lemon pudding cake...her favorite dessert.

We presented her with a birthday card containing a few scratch-off cards, and a new jigsaw puzzle. She didn't win anything from the scratch-off cards, but they gave her a few minutes of entertainment. The puzzle will be challenging, but she's thinks she's up for it. It might be one she'll reserve for when Sis is here to help her with it.

Daughter called today to wish her grandmother a happy birthday and chat for a while. Mother enjoyed that. She also enjoyed reading all the birthday  messages on my social network page. All in all, she had a great birthday, despite the miserable weather.

This is just the beginning of her birthday week that will include dinner out Thursday, an outing to the college down the road to attend a Broadway music program Friday night, and a family gathering in her honor on Saturday.

Around 6:30, Hubbie came back home, and a few minutes later, I followed a few minutes later, and nearly did the splits on the ice. I'm glad the sun was out today, and the temperature went up a bit, because it helped start the thaw, but in so doing, it has melted the snow cover, leaving the slippery ice beneath.

Today, road graders scraped the highway in front of our house, tossing the ice into our driveway, of course. Hope it doesn't make a heap that we can't get over with our van. I'm supposed to attend a visual arts committee meeting at the gallery tomorrow evening, but if our driveway continues to be iced over, I may not go. Tonight's Friends of the Library meeting was canceled, since the college was closed because of the weather.

Spent the evening watching TV, including the remaining episodes of season four "Friday Night Lights." We've asked that the fifth and final season be held for us when it is returned, but we haven't heard whether or not it's there yet. We also watched an episode of "Downton Abbey."

No school tomorrow, so no water aerobics, which means we can sleep late in the morning.