Thursday, March 6

Up around 7:30. Postponed my exercises until after lunch. After breakfast I made a cake for Saturday and stored it in the refrigerator once it had cooled.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 9:30, and she sliced and diced veggies for making vegetable and potato soups. In the meantime, Hubbie went to a grocery store to pick up zucchini and yellow squash and chicken broth for the soups. while he was there, I tried to call him, but he was unable to hear his cell phone under his coat. So when he returned, I had to send him right back to get bell pepper.

It was noon before I finally got the soups made. For lunch, I fixed Mother usual Ramen noodle soup, and scrambled egg substitute with cheese and a small piece of leftover ham for Hubbie and me. Served the eggs with toast and jelly.

After lunch, I did stair stepping, but skipped the resistance bands and weights exercises, so I could go ahead and shower and dress, and then do other things around the house. Mother spent her afternoon working on her jigsaw puzzle, and Hubbie ran more errands, including picking up tables and chairs for the party Saturday.

Later, for supper, we had leftover beans and ham, fried potatoes, sweet potatoes, and macaroni and cheese, served with a choice of leftover cornbread, or canned biscuits.

Shortly afterward, Hubbie and I went to the college down the road, so I could take pictures of our state university's mascot animal. This is the first time we've seen the animal up close. It's an animal that's fearsome looking...and would be fearsome in the wild, but this one is pampered, so he tolerates folks touching him. His handler told me that his very wiry, stiff, hair is prized in some places for use in hair brushes and paint brushes.

Back home, Hubbie accompanied Mother to her house, and then he and I went to the other college to attend a basketball game. Unfortunately, our team lost by one point, so that ends the season for them. Nephew, the coach, was visibly downhearted, but we assured him that it has been an excellent season, and we enjoyed it.

Tonight there were four students dressed in colorful Teletubbie costumes. We don't know why they were costumed, since they didn't entertain at halftime. At any rate, Great-Niece kept calling them monkeys.

Back home, we watched a couple of this season's new episodes of  "Vikings."

Since school is back in session tomorrow, after being out all week because of the ice storm, water aerobics will also take place. But I don't think I'll go, because I have plenty to do tomorrow getting ready for Saturday. The college is closed all next week for spring break, so I hope to go back to the pool after that.

Hooray! The temperature rose today, and the thaw began. We can actually see patches of yard again. Of course, all that melting ice is leaving the ground muddy. But at least it's not ice.

Wednesday, March 5

Today is Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of Lent.

We were up around 8 a.m., and I did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises after breakfast. Then, before I went upstairs to get ready for the day, I made a recipe of macaroni and cheese.

Around 11:30, Hubbie took a serving of the mac and cheese, along with a serving of leftover tilapia fish that I had taken out of the freezer earlier to thaw a little, over to Mother's house for her lunch. This fish lunch was in observance of Ash Wednesday.

Hubbie and I settled for PB&J sandwiches for lunch. Afterward, we busied ourselves doing things related to the family gathering Saturday. We moved one of the couches back to make room for tables and chairs, and moved the sofa table against a wall to act as a serving area for desserts. Hubbie vacuumed, and I did this and that to begin sprucing the house.

I gathered various items to give to family who come Saturday, including magazines, children's books, birthday and baby gifts, coupons, canned foods that are not salt free (Hubbie bought these by mistake), and other stuff.

I wanted to add a small bag of sweet potatoes to the tote of "stuff" to give to Son and Daughter-in-law, and in so doing, I noticed that some of the potatoes were starting to go south, so I culled those out and baked them for the freezer.

Then I read a stack of newspapers that have been collecting over the past few days, and worked this week's word search puzzle contest.

Later, we took food over to Mother's house for supper. I heated fried potatoes, sweet potatoes, and macaroni and cheese in her oven, and served the meal with leftover canned cranberry sauce. It was a strange combination of high-carb foods, but it tasted good, and it was meatless in observance of Ash Wednesday.

We returned home after supper, and watched our favorite state college basketball team live streaming online, as they played to a very wide-margin win. This is not our favorite way to watch a game, but it's better than not being able to watch one at all. Of course, the games are always on radio, but that's our least favorite choice.

Watched one-hour shows on TV after that.

Temps rose today, making the icy yard and driveway slushy enough to walk on without fear of falling. I opted out of going to the art gallery meeting this evening, though. I don't think I was really needed, anyway. And I wanted to be home to get the basketball game on my laptop, since Hubbie wouldn't have known how to do that.

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. 

Monday, March 3

Slept late, until after 8 a.m. No reason to get up early, since the world was pretty much shut down thanks to the solid sheet of ice covering everything. On top of the sleet (three inches fell, according to the rain gauge) there was also a layer of snow. The good thing about that is it made it easier to walk between our house and Mother's.

We finally got around to having breakfast around 9 a.m., and afterward I did stair stepping, resistance bands, and weights exercises, and then got ready for the day.

Just as I finished exercising, a friend called to say she is putting her house up for sale in April, and in sorting things she wondered if I knew anyone who would like a box of various sizes and colors of tiles. I said I was sure the arts council would like to have them, and I'd contact the director to find out. The director was delighted to accept them. I'll pick them up next week and deliver them to the gallery.

The friend also said she wanted to give away her bird feeders, and Hubbie is excited to have those. This lady has a bag full of old greeting cards, too, that Mother and I will use in making new greeting cards.

This is the friend who hosts Mother and me when our other friend comes from a town about two hours away to stay for a few days. She's scheduled to be here next week, so we can visit then and pick up the tiles, bird feeders, and cards.

This just wasn't one of those days that inspires me to do much, but I did bake a lemon cake for Mother's birthday tomorrow. In the morning, I'll make lemon pudding and meringue for it.

Later, I went to Mother's house to fix supper. I took leftover chili-mac, salad makings, and cottage cheese. Mother cut up veggies and made three individual salads, while I heated the leftovers. While supper heated, Mother sorted pinto beans, which I'll soak to cook tomorrow.

A ham and beans dinner is an unusual meal for Mother's birthday, but it'll have to do until we can take her out...and it looks like it could be Thursday, maybe, before we can do that. Until then, she'll enjoy the lemon pudding cake...her favorite.

Today, she got a really cute card from our friend from the town about an hour and half away. The front says, "People are drawn to you like june bugs to a light...," and inside it  says , "and your light shines brighter every year." Mother was delighted with the sentiment. It was obviously the bright spot of her day.

I stayed and visited with Mother for a couple of hours after supper, then returned home to put the beans in water to soak. Then Hubbie and I watched the remaining episodes of the fourth season of "Friday Night Lights."

It promises to be bitter cold again tonight, and not much warmer tomorrow, so I don't know how much thawing will occur. A meeting of the Friends of the Library at the college is scheduled for tomorrow evening, but if the roads aren't a whole lot better by then than they are now, I'll not be attending. I'm hoping the meeting will be postponed until next week.

Sunday, March 2

I woke up at 6 a.m. this morning and at 6:30 I decided to head to the shower. I wanted to be fresh, dressed and ready in case wintry weather causes the power to go out...though I'm fervently hoping that it doesn't happen.

Downstairs, I started a pot of chicken stewing. Hubbie helped by dicing onions, carrots, and celery. Afterward, he checked on Mother. I fully expected her to want to stay home today, so I was surprised when a little while later, she came over, accompanied by Hubbie.

I remarked that if freezing rain began, she would probably need to go back home. I laughed when she said, "I'm not leaving until I get lunch." Fortunately, the weather held until then.

For lunch, I baked sweet potatoes, and heated a ham slice and canned asparagus in the oven. Served the meal with a side of canned cranberry sauce. Mother commented that it was like a holiday meal.

Afterward, we watched an episode of "When Calls the Heart."  When the show was over at 1:30, it began to thunder-sleet. Hubbie went to Mother's house to check the wheelchair ramp and came back to say it was beginning to get slick, so he sprinkled kitty litter on it. Then he accompanied Mother home.

During stormy or wintry events, I always suggest that Mother stay at our house, but she always refuses. So if there is a power outage, it'll be a struggle to get her back over here, or to the camper, if we have to stay out there for a time.

Hubbie and I spent the afternoon watching TV, including a thoroughly unbelievable disaster movie starring Stephen Baldwin, in which a massive asteroid collides with the moon, causing a gargantuan fissure on it. Of course Baldwin must travel to the moon and take care of the problem, if the earth is to be saved.

Followed that watching episodes of "Friday Night Lights."

For supper, we had helpings of the chicken noodle soup, which was good on this cold night. I'd sent a serving of it home with Mother earlier.

The wintry weather continued on and off all afternoon, and by 6 p.m., sleet as deep as snow covered the ground, and ice began forming on the trees. It is expected to continue through the night, so it's obvious I will not be going to water aerobics in the morning.

In fact, I'm not sure if there will be water aerobics for the rest of the week, since a message on the aerobics leader's social network page stated that the boiler at the pool is acting up again. This could mean the pool will be down until repairs can be made.