Grooving in the Grove

It’s been a soggy, chilly, gloomy week. Today we were supposed to go to Admitted Students Day at T’s chosen college, but it’s just too cold and rainy for a nearly all outdoor event. The dog is bored and antsy, after a solid day of heavy rain yesterday. I’m pinning my hopes on tomorrow – no rain, high of 60. I need that fence to go up tomorrow!

I didn’t quite know what to do with this now free day. After some errands, a walk for the dog, and family visits, Tom, F. and I ended up taking a ride down to Pitman, NJ, walking around in the light rain. We all just wanted to do something different. We sampled some treats I had been wanting to try, like marshmallows from The Artisan Marshmallow and cream puffs from Chloe’s Cream Puffs. We visited the Irish goods shop and some other quirky gifty places. And we walked into Pitman Grove, an adorable constellation of old, tiny homes laid out in a spoke pattern, with a meetinghouse at the center. Sidewalks only, no streets.

We realized we were only two miles from T’s school, so we headed over to the school bookstore and bought him a T-shirt. The Admitted Students crowd was there and I felt guilty for not going… But again, it was quite cold today, especially at 9 am!

I need to bake something tomorrow to redeem myself for a baking fail last Sunday. I made banana bread with frozen cauliflower using the Jessica Seinfeld recipe from that cookbook I have. While it was baking, I had to leave to take F. somewhere so Tom was tasked with taking it out of the oven. He did the toothpick test, but unfortunately it was just really undercooked in the whole lower third. I think I need to start using a skewer to test quick breads, to reach that region. Anyway, I ate some of it, defiantly, then threw it away after a day or two, worried that I would get sick. Too bad cause the taste was great (I added chocolate chips).

We had a pretty good week of (mostly) eating in and not buying dumb stuff. I did buy a plane ticket for T, who is going on a trip with friends in June. The ticket is his graduation present; he’s paying for the rest of the trip. I got a small order at Sprouts on Sunday. Monday, I ended up ordering delivery from BJs in order to get certain bulk items — including 5 dozen eggs. At 34 cents an egg, I had to give it a try. We do go through eggs pretty fast. Tom picked up a few things from Aldi as well.

Sunday: T. and I had delicious, fairly healthy Mediterranean takeout from Jersey Kebab, which has been in the news lately. The others got Popeyes…

Monday: Baked chicken drumsticks from Aldi plus mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, and corn.

Tuesday: Frozen pizza from Aldi, broccoli.

Wednesday: Tacos, with lettuce thinnings from the seedlings and cilantro from the garden! The cilantro loves this weather. And people besides me used the cilantro! That had to be a first.

Thursday: Egg salad sandwiches for some (that was 10 eggs), homemade cheesesteaks for others.

Friday: Pizza from Nick and Joe’s.

Tonight is looking like a scrounge night. F. is going to a play, T. has to work, etc.

Lunches: I was only in the office two days; I brought leftover chicken and mashed potatoes and a turkey and avocado sandwich.

I spent $67 on Saturday’s outings:

• $17 on two different Wawa trips (only $5 was actually for me).
• $10 on artisan marshmallows and bottled water
• $3 on cream puffs
• $4 on ice cream at Alaura
• $33 on a T shirt emblazoned with T’s future college name — ugh, but hey it’s not every day your first born selects a college.

I don’t feel too bad supporting small businesses by buying treats on the weekend considering that three days a week, I walk past two Dunkin’s, two Starbucks, Insomnia Cookies, Spread Bagelry and more and I never buy anything.

Tomorrow I need to bake bread, grocery shop and meal plan, and actually cook dinner. I also want to pot on my herb seedlings and take some of the other seedlings outside. We did a lot of cleaning last Sunday, so not as concerned with that. Lastly, I have to buy a few things for Easter baskets — ours are usually a pretty tame affair. I will go to the local candy shop in town and also one in a neighboring town. Oh, and we have to do our taxes.

Another week of not buying from Amazon, Target or Walmart. I had to buy underwear for one of the boys and opted for eBay (it was new lol) for a good price. I don’t know how exactly big eBay sellers come into lots of new brand-name underwear to sell, but for now, I’m not asking questions. Maybe it fell off the back of a truck…