Wintry Walks & More Thrifting

I really needed this weekend. I was practically skipping home on Friday, so glad the work week was done.

Work was extremely busy; at home I was pulling single-parent duty Sunday through Tuesday while Tom and T went to Green Bay for the Eagles game. I worked from home Monday and Tuesday. N and F didn’t need me that much but Tom’s absence meant I had to walk Rocco twice a day. I took him on some car rides, too, to tucker him out. I’m working on training him to stay in the back seat, because unlike Tom, I can’t drive with him hanging over my shoulder. Some of the nighttime walks were freezing and windy, but it felt good. Tuesday the 11th was our 20th wedding anniversary. During that night’s walk I remembered what day it was, and I thought: here I am walking the dog we always said we wanted, in the town where our whole married life has taken place. It felt right.

Saturday morning Rocco and I did some training in the yard to get him used to my neighbor (he barks like a maniac at all the neighbors), and that went well, but on our walk later he almost pulled me off my feet going after a squirrel, just would not give it up, and I felt defeated. He’s improved in a lot of ways but squirrels/stray cats/bunnies remain a problem. So are other dogs on leashes, if they are too close. It’s a shame because he’s such a sweetie otherwise.

I finally got eyes on the brassicas yesterday morning. The Brussels sprouts had some aphids but otherwise look good, and the broccoli is coming along too. I also potted my rooted basil clipping, finally.

After some minor cleaning/straightening up, I took a ride to Goodwill to drop off four bags of stuff, and then did some browsing. Found two nice sleeveless tops that will be good for work ($7 each) and these adorable Christmas cards for $4:

I also stopped at CVS for a prescription and got a bag of Halloween candy that was 50% off. I had a $2 coupon too. Some of it I will use for chocolate emergencies and some I’ll use for stocking stuffers. Believe it or not, there was a chocolate emergency when I got home.

Popped into Acme for some dinner items. After I got home, I completed our past-due state taxes (ugh) and worked more on switching out our summer/fall stuff for winter stuff. I also had to buy swim gear for N. on Amazon because swim starts Monday and that completely crept up on me. This will be a new experience for both of us.

To go off on a short tangent: I’ve realized that the busyness at work has made me very good at kind of half-listening to people, and I’m starting to do it at home. At work I have no choice but to sort of tune people out after they’ve said the most important thing (whether in person, in video chat or in IM) and turn my focus to the next crisis coming down the pike. I caught myself doing the same thing with N. and I called myself out. I have to try not to do that at home, not cool!

This morning I made gravy so we can have spaghetti tomorrow. That was pleasant: using one of my frozen containers of tomatoes, queuing up a great music playlist.

After lunch, F. and I went out to get her a few more pairs of pants. We got one at Plato’s Closet (used) and two at Old Navy. She wanted lunch at Panera and I happened to have a reward for a free mac n cheese of any size. I didn’t have anything.

I felt exhausted after that, and I don’t think food shopping is going to happen, not in person, anyway. But I did go through the fridge, freezer and pantry this morning and I wrote a new inventory/weekly menu for the first time in months! We definitely have a good amount of food here and it would be great to push off food shopping by a couple days.

Meals this week:

Monday: leftover chicken, mashed potatoes and roasted carrots for me; Finizio’s takeout for N and F

Tuesday: Pierogis and broccoli for N and F; still more leftover chicken for me, and a piece of my whole wheat bread.

Wednesday: Ellio’s pizza for me

Thursday: PB&J for me

Friday: Pizza and stromboli from Stella Pizza

Saturday: Pulled pork and carnitas on rolls, scalloped potatoes (all ready-to-heat), steamed broccoli and, for me, a baked sweet potato

Sunday: I made a delicious carnitas wrap with avocado, this guacamole salsa Tom bought, Mexican cheese mix, and lettuce from the garden. Plus another baked sweet potato. It sounds like the rest of them are ordering pizza again rather than following my lead…

Lunches: bought all three days (boooo).

I’ve started to put out feelers for Christmas gifts. And F and I are discussing a girls’ trip in early December.

All in all, it was a restful weekend, some cleaning/decluttering happened, I got on top of the food situation, and I didn’t spend any money I didn’t have to. I don’t ask for much more than that. In a perfect world, I wouldn’t rely on prepared foods and I wouldn’t have bought stuff from Amazon and Old Navy, and I’d have more free time than the approximately 40 hours of waking time I have from 5 pm Friday to bedtime on Sunday…