Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa

Wednesday, March 25, 2026

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s Hodgepodge day with Joyce!

1. It’s officially spring in the northern hemisphere. Does it feel like spring in your part of the world? If you’re in the southern hemisphere it’s officially autumn where you live. Does the weather say autumn? Which do you prefer-spring or autumn? Why? 

It sure did this weekend! I am hoping we don’t get the flooding we can get in the spring. I love rain, but not flooding, of course. I feel like I prefer spring just because of mindset and from living my life on the school calendar for so long. Spring meant summer was not far behind. I love fall, but I know what is coming – winter.

2. What’s your favorite thing about spring? 

I love seeing all the green. I love the flowers and trees blooming, the garden centers coming to life – even Kroger has flowers outside. I don’t even mind a spring rain. It’s so nice to not need a jacket anymore. I love spring clothing. Give me all the colors! I love driving with the sun roof or windows open.

3. Spring into action, spring in your step, spring to life, spring to one’s feet…which spring idiom currently applies to your life in some way? Explain.  

I think I have a spring in my step. I am feeling more positive, finally. I had a hard year – blah, blah, blah. I am not going to rehash it all – don’t worry. I have done some major internal work over the last few months about what I need, how I show up for myself and in my relationships, and what I want moving forward. I have sat with discomfort. I have had the blessing of time to reflect. I know myself better.

4. Which spring food from this list is your favorite? What’s a dish you like that includes your favorite spring ingredient? 

asparagus, strawberries, salad greens like mesclun, artichokes, spinach, eggs, peas, spring onions

The only one I don’t like is peas. I can handle snap peas in some dishes but I just don’t like peas. I love asparagus, artichokes, spinach, and eggs the most. I’m excited to lighten up my menus and embrace the flavors of spring.

5. What’s one task on your spring cleaning list? Do you actually have a list? 

Gosh, what isn’t on my list. I don’t have one actually written down this year and that could be my problem. I am feeling overwhelmed by stuff. I need to declutter, but I am also kind of mad at what my kids have left me to declutter that isn’t mine! I probably need to ask them to devote a couple of hours to come help me with their cast offs. I’m in limbo waiting on house projects to begin.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

With all the good of spring, we also have the bad. My neighbor’s ex-husband has already started his leaf blower back up. Friday was a gorgeous day, and he blew for about 3 hours. Saturday, he blew during dinner near our front windows for about 2 hours. Like, it was so loud in our house we had to turn the tv volume up. There is nothing to blow. There are no leaves. What is he blowing? It’s 2026. Can we make a quiet leaf blower? It wouldn’t matter; this guy goes to Home Depot and says “give me the loudest you’ve got”. Tom has a theory that he is not allowed in the house, so he blows to be close. He doesn’t mow the yard; a mowing company does it. He only blows. Yes, he blows!

Currently has snuck up on me!

Please join me next Wednesday, April 1; this ain’t no April Fool’s joke!

Let’s share what we are:

Planting or hatching (literal or figurative – like planting an idea or hatching a plan)

Cleaning (spring)

Eating and drinking

Reading and watching

Loving

The link up will go live at 4:00 am on Tuesday so you can link up early and it will remain open for a week. I hope you will join in!

Amy

Tuesday, March 24, 2026

You might find this a super boring post! For some reason, I find what people buy at the grocery very interesting.

It’s been a little over a month since Mason moved out. He is thriving living in the same city, working a new job that allows him work/life balance, and cooking for himself. He moved into a bungalow with his college roommate. The house is owned by his roommate’s grandparents, and they are getting a sweet deal.

He is meal planning and picking out some elaborate meals for himself. He sent me this photo of his Friday night cooking.

Roasted carrots and Boursin chicken:

This kid cracks me up. He is the one who wanted to bring in broccoli for his classmates on his birthday.

So, now there are two…

So, let’s talk about this month. I am recording my grocery expenditures and trying to reduce waste. March will be the first full month where it’s just the two mouths to feed.

Let’s start with Tom. He takes this to work with him everyday. He eats his yogurt and banana for breakfast along with his protein shake. He eats his cuties (mandarins) after lunch and sends me photos of his ability to keep the peel in one piece.

He sends me his orange peel photo that he says is an elephant:

Until about a month ago, he went out to lunch every.single.day. He said he needed to get out of the office and I get it. But then I think he got frustrated by how much lunch costs and he was tired of fighting traffic at lunch time. Where are all these people coming from? I have also noticed so much traffic. Does anyone work anymore? (says the person who doesn’t work)

Sometimes I get a nice thank you for his sandwich:

I did not get a rave review from the bulk chocolate candies from Fresh Market:

Tom is like a toddler. He drinks a giant glass of milk with dinner no matter what we are having. So weird.

He eats Raisin Bran on weekends, but only on weekends. He is like Rainman.

We both think Kroger brand is better than the real thing.

Tom loves beer cheese. We get this at Liquor Barn every few months.

He eats it with Scoops. We have way less chips in the house now. We only have tortilla chips, Scoops, and spicy Doritos or something else spicy or BBQ that I won’t eat.

I have been getting some little things like this for his lunch. See? You can still pack a lunch if you miss having little kids in the house. Just start babying your husband! Or yourself!

This is Tom’s preferred bread. I don’t know why it only comes in 1/2 loaves.

He likes Velveeta Slices, packaged ham (carcinogen – we need to work on this) and light Miracle Whip.

He loves tuna on Ritz so sometimes he has this for lunch on the weekends.

I’ve been getting him seasonal candy.

Ok, enough about Tom! He is so spoiled! This is all relatively new, by the way. He got nothing but dinner from me for many years.

Let’s talk about me now. I have been trying to wait until 10 to eat breakfast. I get up at 6 so I have water and coffee and then by 10 I am pretty hungry. I am still enjoying roasting sweet potato cubes on Monday to have for the whole week and pairing them with Amylu chicken breakfast sausage, my Pyrex egg mixture (one egg, egg whites, cottage cheese) and avocado. Sometimes I will sprinkle feta. Sometimes I make an omelet with spinach and feta, and sometimes I make a La Banderita wrap.

Sometimes this can be lunch, too. For lunch I usually don’t need much but I will have leftovers or a sandwich or a wrap.

For dinner, it’s always different. This week we are having salmon, rice, and brussels sprouts that were on sale on night. One night we are having an entree salad that is a copycat from a restaurant we like (lettuce, hardboiled egg, croutons, Bare chicken nuggets, tomato, cheese, cucumber) and one night I’m excited to try this egg noodle, onion, cabbage dish with turkey kielbasa on the side. We both really like cooked cabbage. I usually only need to plan about 3 meals for us now because of leftovers.

If we do need more meals, I have tomato soup and grilled cheese, loaded baked potatoes, and BLTS as options. I try to write the meals down on an index card and keep it on the memo board.

I don’t really assign a night for the meals but look at what I am doing and when I have more time to cook. I also look at expiration dates for what to cook first and last. I’m not always the best at this.

I sometimes cook in the morning. Sunday night we had all of us here for dinner! I made spaghetti, Texas Toast, and dark chocolate brownies. I made the sauce in the morning since I knew I had an afternoon event to attend.

Last week I kept trying to push the grocery store run one more day to see if we could keep eating from what we had at home.

I primarily shop at Kroger and I mostly do pick up. I do know that when I go in I can find the sale priced Brussel sprouts, though.

I fear that I have made Tom out to be super high maintenance. He never complains about what is on his plate and is also fine to eat leftovers. He only gives me an opinion if I ask. I usually get compliments like this: “Sorry, Eddie Otis, this dinner is too good to share.”

Bon Appetit!

Amy

Monday, March 23, 2026

It literally felt like summer this weekend! Today is the birthday of my twin niece and nephew Mia and Miles! They are 19! Let’s link up with Sarah and Holly to share the weekend.

Friday dinner started out with a pineapple margarita! Highly recommend! I had sugar on the rim rather than salt, too. I got to a Mexican restaurant patio early to get a table for six and I’m glad I did. Everyone had the same idea.

We had a nice dinner with our couple friends. I had fish tacos.

Saturday morning, Tom, Eddie Otis, and I walked the nature preserve and it was gorgeous.

It runs along the river…

I got bagel sandwiches for us and met Tom and Eddie Otis at the marina where EO was swimming and fetching sticks.

Cute new bagel shop…

Starting to look like spring at the river, too…

I stopped at a market that I would describe as a year-round farmer’s market that is near the marina.

I spent most of the day reading in my happy place…

It got hot in the sun and I moved to the shade with my shadow…

We opted to stay home for Saturday night dinner and just eat what we had in the fridge.

Sunday morning Eddie Otis didn’t want to come back inside so we had our coffee out here while Tom slept in. I can’t really sleep past 7:00, but Tom can sleep until 9:00 sometimes on the weekends.

Chilling…

I placed a Kroger pick up order Saturday night to be ready early Sunday but I also had to go in for a couple more last minute items.

It was nice and empty! Then I put all the groceries away and cleaned and then headed to this food hall for an event that I got tickets to.

It was a premiere of a PBS/KET (Kentucky Educational Television) show called The Farmer and the Foodie.

The food hall has a Spanish food booth!

It was a cool thing to experience!

The highlight was definitely the weather! I am enjoying an easy chick lit book after some deeper reads this month:

What about you?

Amy

Friday, March 20, 2026

Sunday night we had tornado sirens going off from midnight until 12:30. I am grateful it wasn’t worse than it was. Monday was frigid with snow showers! I told you Mother Nature is menopausal. What about you? Have you had crazy weather? I guess we are at the “lion” portion of March. The weather really affected my mood this week and all I wanted to do was hibernate at the beginning of the week.

Let’s link up with Erika and Andrea to share some favorites of the week!

Not a favorite – snow in March:

And ice…

I was glad I did my Irish crockpot meal on Sunday and then had easy leftovers on Tuesday. My tutoring got moved to Tuesday so it was nice to just heat up our dinner.

Here is my Irish soda bread. It looked funny but tasted great! I made it on Sunday and we still had some for Tuesday.

I also made some “hash” for lunch one day with the corned beef.

My mom talked about having to eat this as a kid and how much she hated it. Depression era food, maybe?

As you know, I tutor at Starbuck’s once a week and I am trying to get a simple brewed coffee in a real cup. I only added cinnamon. It’s not bad! The employees are so nice at this Starbuck’s and it is really big inside. It even has a private room with tables and chairs – maybe for study sessions? It’s funny that the same people seem to be there at the same time each week.

Little boy sometimes isn’t ready to get out of the car after running an errand! He went with me for a Facebook Marketplace sale and barked his head off at my buyer. I made $140 this week on shoes that would have just been sitting in my closet! Girl math says that I now buy $140 in shoes!

He’s so weird! He jumps right in when we are going somewhere but then waits up to 15 minutes to get out when we get home.

TV Favorites of the week:

Bravo shows: Below Deck, Ladies of London, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Summer House, Southern Charm, Southern Hospitality

Eek – so many good shows on Bravo right now. I have all my favorites set to record and they are in my library when I want to watch. We have YouTubeTV. I watch about 2 hours of tv after my shower. It’s Amy time and I love it!

Age of Attraction on Netflix – men and women make connections without knowing each other’s ages. This is pretty interesting! My favorite couple is a woman my age (54) and a dude who is only 27! I thought he was in his 30s and she was 40 something. You don’t find out how old they are until they have established a connection. Tom is 4.5 years older than me. I do think that being closer in age helps with sense of humor and pop culture, you know? I dated a guy in Spain and thought it might not work out with not having the same references, you know? But it does work for many people.

Bridgerton – trying to finish. It’s really good but I keep falling asleep. Oopsie.

Love Story – watching as episodes come out.

What is not a favorite:

I did not like the choice of Taylor Frankie Paul for The Bachelorette. She has had her platform. This is a mom of 3 (which is fine) by different baby daddies (which is fine) who has a domestic abuse charge against her (absolutely not fine!!!!!!). She could very well ruin the whole franchise which probably has run its course anyway.

*Edited at the final hour – I believe ABC has had to pull the entire show! OMG!

The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives – I watched the first season with my jaw hanging open. Then, I just couldn’t. Because of the The Bachelorette Taylor Frankie Paul, I tried to watch the first episode of Season 4 that just came out and I just want to say that the dads/”DadTok” are super homely, and I just don’t understand any of this. If I were a Mormon, I would be mad at the name they are giving the religion, too. So, we are celebrating women that get married at 16 (one of them) and have four kids by the time they are 22? And the amount of work(beauty treatments) these women have had done at such young ages…So, alcohol and caffeine are the problem, but we are going to get an IV of “dirty soda”, do ketamine therapy and all kinds of beauty treatments for our outer appearance and just be horrible humans?

Oopsie, I’ve said too much.

Reading:

A few people have said they couldn’t finish this book. I finished it this week. I liked it fine but it won’t be one of my favorites. I read 7 books in January and 7 books in February. I don’t count non-fiction because I end up skimming those. We will see if I hit that number in March, too. This book’s dysfunctional family was interesting but became annoying after a while.

I am desperate for some of my library requests to come in. I might have to buy a book! Eek!

I bought this thin scarf back in November at a holiday fair. I think it looks cute on my leather tote and Derby is coming up and it has horses!

If you listen to Big Boo podcast, then you might also have started listening to Tuesday Date Night, too. The wife talked about this jelly tote from Old Navy and I went and got it for $7.50 for summer.

I also made myself a “set”. Sets are hard for me because my bottom isn’t the same size as my top. I swooned over this color. I mentioned in Fashion Files that I need more athletic and at home clothing. I do need to put a t-shirt under the hoodie sweatshirt.

Also, I played one gave of mah jong this week!

Tell me a favorite of yours this week!

Cheers to the weekend,

Amy

Thursday, March 19, 2026

Ok, Mother Nature brought us a tornado warning on Sunday night and then frigid wind and snow on Monday! Tuesday was also super cold with snow but then she decided to start warming us up again yesterday. Is this the lion portion of March? Is this it for cold? We shall see.

This is the time of year when our closets are all over the place! I still have not fully inventoried my spring clothing or my summer clothing. I am hoping to be content with what I have since I really don’t need anything!

I definitely have spring fever! Once you get a taste of spring clothing and no jacket required, it hurts to put the winter stuff back on.

As a recent retiree, I have been surprised by how few clothes I really need. My home clothes and my exercise clothes could use an upgrade. I still want to “get dressed” each day after changing out of them, though. It’s important to me.

If you are new here, this is what I really wore!

This is what I wore last Saturday afternoon:

I really have gotten my money’s worth from these neutral Adidas Sambas. I get lots of compliments on them and I don’t think many people have this woven style. Sambas are very flat, but I find them to be very comfortable.

I wore light Halara jeans, a thin white tee from Old Navy – I have two and they are slightly cropped and really great for wearing under things. I love this sweater from Target and considered getting a similar version in baby blue – I might still get it. I have on a very old consignment necklace that looks like gold and green shamrocks – I think it’s a Van Cleef and Arpels lookalike shape. I decided to wear my kelly green hat from a bar in Michigan.

Friday night for plant BINGO I decided to wear my Old Navy white blouse, my St. Patrick’s day headband and green beer earrings – “beerrings”. It was a shamrock themed event. I have on darker Halara jeans and gold Mary Janes for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He he.

I can’t tell you how much I love a white blouse and jeans look for spring. I proceeded to buy this blouse in two other patterns – the blue stripe and the blue floral. I just really like this blouse style. I also like that it’s not too long. But, pro tip – order it in tall if you want or need more length.

Honestly, I mostly shop Target.com and Oldnavy.com. The returns are super easy and you have more of a sizing selection.

I feel like blue is going to be my spring color this year. There are so many cute things in blue.

Another thing I heard from a wise blogger…is it fast fashion anymore if you keep the item for several years? Boom!

Thursday I played afternoon mah jong and wore my Adidas Sambas, my pink consigment pants, and my fish sweater. I actually really liked this outfit and was pushing myself to wear pants that aren’t jeans.

Tanya found some really good – like really good – jeans on Amazon. For my sister’s birthday, I sent her the pecan brown ones and she loved them so much that she had a try on sesh and wore them the very next day! I have them in blue tide. They are a dupe for an Anthropologie jean. I just thought this color would work with my sister’s wardrobe and it did!

Do you sell or buy from Facebook Marketplace? I decided to sell my Tory Burch sandals. They were $70 at a consignment store and I have had them for years – maybe 10. I don’t wear them anymore and they really aren’t my style anymore. The emblem hurts the foot, too.

And my Tieks collection…

And my Tory Burch flats…

It’s been several seasons since I have worn any of these so I thought I would finally say bye bye. I had one person meet me in the Kroger parking lot and the other two came to the Starbuck’s where I tutor. I made some cash to put back into my shoe collection.

My manicure this week:

So, I have added two pairs of gold shoes to my wardrobe in the last month:

Here I am wearing the Old Navy blue floral version of the blouse:

Here I am wearing my blue tides Amazon jeans:

Gold Aerosoles kitten heel pumps

Gold Dr. Scholl’s Mary Janes

The other gold shoes I have had for years:

Gold Birkenstocks

Gold lace up sandals that I swooned over by Marc Jacobs. They are a little fussy due to the tie, but I think they are in style this season and the square toe is also a thing.

I am planning to add a gold flip flop (on the dressy side of flip flops), too.

What have you been wearing?

What are you looking forward to wearing?

Amy

Wednesday, March 18, 2026

It’s Hodgepodge day with Joyce!

1. St. Patrick’s Day lands on March 17th. Do you believe in luck? Are there things you do thinking they’ll  bring good luck or  things you avoid because they’re considered bad luck? 

This is a tough one to answer if you are a spiritual person, I think. I used to tell my Dad I was lucky because of something that had happened and he would tell me it wasn’t luck, but rather it was based on my own ability, but then it’s also not my own ability if it’s my God-given ability. This also goes into the conversation of free will or pre-ordainment. Did you truly have choices in life or is everything pre-ordained?

When you have a bit of age on you, you can see how so many pieces of your life’s puzzle have come together. I had twin imaginary friends as a child named Yoki and Boki. They might have been Japanese. When I found out I was pregnant for the first and only time in my life, twins didn’t even cross my mind until my ultrasound where I found out I was having twins! Were Yoki and Boki foreshadowing? I was obsessed with playing school as a child and played with my stuffed animals, my sisters, and my neighborhood friends. One neighbor girl never let me be the teacher. Joke’s on her. I became one and she didn’t.

But I also think feeling lucky can just be about perspective. I feel lucky because of certain things I have been given, which is good perspective on my life, which leads to contentment and happiness.

I don’t think Joyce will give me an A for that answer as I was all over the place!

2. Forest-lime-sage-mint-olive-emerald…what’s your favorite shade of green? 

Green has always been a favorite color. I love lime green in the summer. I love kelly green in the spring. Green is a calming color to me.

In my 30s I had bright green pants in my teacher wardrobe. The students lovingly(?) made fun of them. Someone made a piñata of me wearing my green pants and then wanted to beat me/the piñata after stuffing me with candy. The abuse that high school teachers have to endure, am I right?

3. In Ireland the meal on this day is often a hearty beef or lamb stew served with colcannon (mashed potato mixed with cabbage and leeks). In the US corned beef and cabbage is the more typical St. Patty’s Day meal. Will you/did you mark the day with one of these dishes? Baked-fried-roasted-mashed…what’s your favorite way to eat a potato?

My friend Victoria made colcannon on Saturday and I am going to get her recipe. She had a St. Patrick’s Day parade party because she lives on the parade route.

I decided to go ahead and do Jen’s crockpot meal on Sunday because I like a crockpot going on a weekend for some reason. I plan to have leftovers on Tuesday. I also got the idea from a blog to make Reuben sandwiches and Reuben quesadillas. I was thinking I could then put the corned beef in the freezer and bring it out to make corned beef hash.

I have never met a potato I didn’t like. I think it’s one of the best foods on God’s green earth. Mashed potatoes will always be special to me because my grandma taught me how to make them. She thought it was so funny that when everyone else asked for dessert later in the evening after the meal that I wanted mashed potatoes instead. Germans love a potato and we are part German. My husband is half German but he had potato overload as a child. My mom rarely made potatoes. Isn’t that funny?

Lately I am loving the sweet potato. I mostly have it for breakfast/brunch.

I often wonder how young people can learn to feed themselves economically when they get out on their own. We just don’t do a good job with teaching this in high school. Bring back home ec! If you buy potatoes, eggs, beans, rice, tomatoes, bananas, carrots, corn, and minimal meat, you can eat very cheaply and very healthy.

4. What color of the rainbow best represents your personality/mood today? Tell us why. 

I would like to think yellow? I hope that I am a bright light to people.

5. Which ‘lucky’ quote resonates with you. Elaborate. 

 ‘Luck is not something you can mention in the presence of self-made men.’ E.B. White 

‘Diligence is the mother of good luck.” Benjamin Franklin 

‘Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.’ Seneca 

‘Shallow men believe in luck. Strong men believe in cause and effect.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson 

I think the two that I have put in bold type resonate with me and kind of go with my answer to question #1 as well. I always try to work hard at anything I do, and I always try to be prepared.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

I was in low key awe of Tom Sunday. He really knows how to do so many things. He was building this fence using a technique that I thought was interesting where he nailed a block of wood to get the slats laid before nailing them to the post and I asked how he learned to do it. Also, he put the boards up and then will cut the gate from the boards that are up because he said that is the easier way to do it. I found that so interesting. I think he thought I was being sarcastic, but I was genuinely intrigued. I’m not sure I explained that very well. I helped hold boards, hand him things, and just kept him company. A lot of my friends say they wish their husbands were handy, but when your husband is handy you can’t pay someone to get something done fast. Does that make sense? Ha!

What would you say to any of these questions today?

Amy

Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! When my kids were little, I made green foods but now I make traditional Irish food as seen above!

I used to get a Shamrock shake one time in March!

Today is my sister’s birthday! I was three when she was born and I could say I remember her coming home from the hospital to my first house as a child, but the memories might be borne of the photos. I have lots of photos of me standing next to her bassinet. Family lore says that I said, “I hate her. Take her back.” Wow, what a jerk I was. Kate and I are very different but also a lot alike in many ways and I truly can’t imagine her having been “taken back”. I do absolutely remember the day Molly came home from the hospital because I was 6. We had been watched by a neighbor, and our mom had given us cigar boxes with presents in them that we could open while waiting. I remember standing on the neighbor’s driveway and watching for my parents’ brown Oldsmobile to pull into our driveway so we could run up and greet them.

The original fam – I am the one standing in the back, Kate is below me and Molly is on my Dad’s lap:

*I wanted to start a podcast this year, but I know it’s more work than maybe I am ready for. I also know my friend Dan’s heart wasn’t in it and I didn’t want to push him. If he gets inspired, I still want to do it, though. It was going to be based on topics that 50-year-olds face called “Our Fifties Sense”. Dan would have to do the technical end of things most likely, and he works full time and is a busy Dad. The podcasts I enjoy most right now are chatty and funny. My idea was to take a topic and chat about it from the female v. male perspective.

This is Dan and I at his mom’s 80th birthday party:

*I went to a library cooking class in January, and it was good but chaotic. The German cookbook author was the featured chef and did more in January, but I wasn’t interested in the foods they were teaching and after how crowded and chaotic the first one was, I didn’t really want to do another one. February’s chef cancelled for some reason. March’s chef is based on kid allergen-free foods and that doesn’t interest me. So, I still might attend another one in the future, but I haven’t been that interested in the ones on offer. I love that they have a demo kitchen and are doing a chef-in-residence program. Mason says I should pay and take a “real” cooking class and not just go to the free library ones.

*The pandemic taught me how to make dressings and sauces when I couldn’t find the ones I would usually buy. I save the most wonderful jam jars from the Bonne Maman brand and make my own dressing most of the time in the jar and then shake it up. Here is one from Cup of Jo blog:

Lemon-Dijon Dressing
1/4 cup lemon juice (from about 1 1/2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 1/2 teaspoon honey (or sugar to make vegan)
1/3 cup olive oil
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Every time I make my own dressing I feel so amazing! Ha!

*Empty nester house is quiet but it’s going well. I would love to have a set family meal night eventually but right now I am not sure we can coordinate a night between the kids’ work schedules, sadly. I would love to do Sunday night. I am still figuring out how to grocery shop for just two. I am buying less chips, for sure! My fridge and freezer are way too stuffed currently for some reason. I can’t function when it’s overstuffed. This will be the first full month of only grocery shopping for two and I have been tracking again this month. I feel much less pressure about cooking dinner even though Mason was super easy.

*Eddie Otis is still crated when I leave the house. I don’t want to leave him for more than four hours because of this so I am a bit limited in how long I leave the house.

I am trying to take him on some errands with me. He can do the Kroger pickup if I have them put the groceries in the front with me since he is in the back area of my car. He barks his head off, unfortunately. He can go to Feeder’s Supply with me to get his treats. He can return library books with me if I just use the drop off bin. He is an excellent car rider unless we come to a stop sign and he sees a threat. I try to end an errand with something in it for him like a new field to run in and sniff. Anyway, I am that crazy dog lady.

*My feelings about being retired are still confusing. I really miss the students and all the fun I had. I really don’t miss the lack of work/life balance, the admin bs, the PDs, the meetings for meetings’ sake, etc. I think of a school memory almost every day. I communicate with former students on social media most days. I miss the social interactions and some days I don’t have enough to satisfy my social side.

My tutoring student has brought his grade up two letter grades! I was so happy! We are still meeting most weeks at a Starbuck’s. This has been good for me. I think about subbing sometimes but I just really don’t want a full 8 hour day right now.

*I am trying to establish some routines/rhythms to my new life at home. Mondays are generally look at calendar, pay bills, do admin stuff, prep some food for the week, Amy laundry. Thursdays are water the plants and collect trash day. Friday I generally try to do house laundry and clean as much as I can with EO and then do whatever else on Saturday. I don’t really have a set grocery shop day yet. Things can be moved around if needed.

I never want to leave you hanging about anything I’ve mentioned here on the blog. I hope that I am authentic and that you feel like you “know” me. I am open to suggestions or tips that have made your life better.

My coffee is now cold!

Amy

Monday, March 16, 2026

Wow – March is really flying! Maybe I also said that in February, but I know I didn’t say that in January. Let’s link up with Sarah and Holly to share our weekends. Did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day this weekend? The green drink above is a “Dubliner”.

Friday, I got out of the house early and went to the library and Trader Joe’s. I usually pair these two errands together as they are close together. Does anyone work on Fridays anymore? What is going on? The traffic is so bad on Fridays around here. Are you noticing that as well? I don’t want to work on Fridays, but I need everyone else to go to work.

I bought pink and purple tulips to make a bouquet for myself and for my friend Elizabeth who I was seeing later that day.

Look at the library display!

I only picked up one book. I have a ton of requests but none had come in yet.

I went home and put away all the Trader Joe’s things, made lunch, read, and talked on the phone. I walked EO a couple of times, too. Then, Elizabeth came over for a simple dinner before we went to plant BINGO.

You get to shop during the intermission and I bought a Venus flytrap…

and a wizard philodendron…

It was fun!

I finished this over the weekend. Whoa! It would make a good movie. COHO sucks me in and always provides a quick read for me.

Then, I started:

It seems like it will be good, but this was just an impulse pick for me from the library new releases shelf.

I had to show Tom’s green. He had on green socks and another green layer under this sweater jacket thing. He understood the assignment as we were going to a St. Patrick’s Day parade party.

Victoria and her husband have been our friends for a long time. I think I met Victoria in 1999!

She made colcannon soup which was delicious! She also made Irish soda bread and Guinness bread.

We went down to NULU to walk around and shop a little.

I had a Dubliner cocktail that was amazing…

We decided to eat pizza at home with our Eddie Otis that night.

Yesterday morning I decided to do the crockpot corned beef, carrot, onion, potato, and cabbage in the crockpot instead of waiting until Tuesday. We can have it again tomorrow and dinner will be done!

I went to the gym, got gas, and went to the car wash later in the day.

Tom, Eddie Otis, and I worked on the fence project in the exteme windy conditions!

Inspector Eddie Otis…

It was so nice that dinner was hands off! Well, the soda bread isn’t hands off but it’s not hard, either.

What was the highlight of your weekend?

Amy

Friday, March 13, 2026

It’s Friday and I’m linking up with Erika and Andrea to share some favorites from the week, but first…

Do you remember another Friday the 13th six years ago?

It was my twins’ senior year of high school, and I had the experience of teaching Mason in my 3rd period AP Spanish class and Jack in my 6th period AP Spanish class. The rumors had started that we might have to be out of school for a couple of weeks for the virus that had started impacting our country. It would turn out to be the last day I would get to teach them (and the class of 2020 many of whom I had known since kindergarten because of my kids) and the last day my two would enter their school as students. Wowowowow. Do you remember March 13, 2020?

I’m not living in the past but I do like to reflect on dates like this.

This felt like a very retired life for Amy this week! On Monday I went to play mah jong(g) at a mj teacher’s house with my bestie Heather and another beginner. The first game hurt my brain so much. The second game was way better and I started enjoying it. The third game was good, too.

Beginner’s luck for Heath…

I went home and watched a bunch of Instagram videos about strategies and rules.

Here is my mah jongg story. I took a lesson in June. I didn’t play again until October. I didn’t play again until Monday which was March. I didn’t think I liked it very much and it made me angry until Monday. Monday was daytime and June and October were nighttime. I really think I can focus more during the day so that helped a lot. Stay tuned…

Tuesday I took Eddie Otis on a fun walk/hike to a historic home and its grounds which have woodsy trails. One of my March goals is to walk more and walk in different places.

We went with Heather who is a serious walker. Eddie kept looking back at me like –

“mom, you have to keep up with this fast lady”.

My tree is in bloom!

I almost gave up on this book…

Wow – I finished it on Wednesday, and it was really good. I’m glad I stuck with it.

Up next – COHO books are usually quick reads for me. It’s good to have a big change of genre.

Also on Wednesday, I went back to the same house for three-person mah jong games because we lost our fourth player. I won a game! The teacher is developing her own branded sorority mats and tiles and plans to travel to college campus to teach to college kids. Give her a follow on Instagram if that interests you: “Mahjong is Greek to Me”.

And, I had another game yesterday!

I apologize for all the mean things I said about mah jong when I was frustrated by it. It has really helped to play several games this week.

Mason shared his lofty recipes with me over the weekend and we shopped together. He had plans to make homemade pasta sauce, two fish dishes, and things with whole nutmeg and parsley. I did give him the advice to have some quick things when he didn’t feel like being Gordon Ramsey. Who is this kid?

He sent me these photos this week…

His homemade pasta sauce:

Some catfish with parsley and white wine and potatoes with herbs de provence. Ok, Mason!

I was given an Amish Friendship bread starter which is kind of like giving someone a kitten. I did the 10-day process of “mushing the bag” and adding to the bag and finally was ready to bake on Day 10. It’s delicious. It’s a cinnamon bread. I have cut it up and shared it and begged friends to adopt a starter. It’s a great sweet bread (not the intestines kind) to have at breakfast or in the afternoon with coffee. Just don’t crave it if you are out because you have to wait 10 days.

This is a really good creamer for those who do creamer. It’s “buy two get $6 off” at Kroger right now. That doesn’t have a good ring to it but it made one carton $6.49 and the other carton 49 cents. Or you can be a normal person and say it cost $3.49 a carton.

I stopped in a cute little shop this week called Pink Tag. The Derby stuff is out competing with the Easter stuff around here.

I finally achieved my life’s goal to use coupons. I had $17 worth of Kroger coupons!

I did a really dumb thing and took a blurry photo of it. I thought I bought lip gloss and it turns out its highlighter for your cheeks. Oopsie. This is why my lips were gold and had a weird texture.

I am making Jen’s Irish meal either Sunday or Tuesday. That was part of my Kroger haul.

Tonight I have plant BINGO! It’s regular BINGO but you win plants and you get 25% off the plants in the store. I hope to bring home a spider plant.

So, let me sum up my “basic retiree week”. I played 3 games of mah jong, took daily walks with dog, baked bread, and played BINGO. Could I be more basic? Also, I want to say happy birthday to my internet friend Kim! This is a test, Kim, to see if you made it to the end! Hahahahaha!

Cheers,

Amy

Thursday, March 12, 2026

What have you been wearing lately?

I have been struggling with my spring shoes. Until this year I “needed” “teacher shoes”. They had to be comfortable enough to stand on hard cement floors for 8 plus hours. I also wanted them to be stylish and cute. Talk about hard!

Now, I am figuring out my retired wardrobe. I have been struggling with the shoes to wear in the transitional time between winter and summer. It seems (and is) way too early to wear open toe but I needed shoes to wear with jeans and blouses. Also, I think the students did rub off on me because they didn’t like people “showing their dogs” and now I do think about that and feel like there is too much “showing of the dogs” when another shoe would look better.

I’ve also shared my love of a gold shoe. It’s just a great neutral. I am going to look for a gold flip flop, too.

I swooned over the Aerosoles gold kitten heel pump for at least a month and then I snagged them for only $33 (regularly $99) in a BOGO half off DSW deal. I am wearing them in the above photo!

Want to know what the other pair was? A Sperry topsider! I am not sure if I will keep them and therefore upon returning to DSW I might lose the BOGO half off deal.

Here they are as a try-on. They didn’t look right with this pair of jeans.

I also ordered a light gold Mary Jane from Dr. Scholl’s brand.

I am wanting to wear jeans with blouses and an occasional graphic tee with cardigan or button up situation in this transitional time.

I found my color palette from having my colors done in the 80s. I also attended a boutique opening that has their clothing arranged by your season with a space for having your colors done. Isn’t that cool? It’s very expensive to have your colors done these days – $300ish!

I also decided I was still going to wear what I wanted to wear regardless of my palette. I do think it’s interesting, though.

I also placed a big ol’ Old Navy order with my Old Navy cash that I got from a purchase back in January, I think. It started with a recommendation for a simple navy blouse (that is part of my color palette as a summer) and I found some other blouses for less than consignment prices. I will return anything that looks or feels cheap or isn’t the right fit. But with the amount I spent I got free shipping and I can just take it to my local store. I am having lots of luck with Old Navy and Target in 2026. I would like to live contentedly with my wardrobe for a while after this haul. Here’s the thing. I hate that I like fast fashion. I do very much care about quality and the washability and the feel of the fabric. I just can’t stomach paying Anthro, Madewell, or any higher end store prices. I try to find things that have that look, though.

Here is most of the haul…

I already had this blouse in white so when I saw this pinstripe I knew my size and I knew I love this style.

Same style in blue floral:

But, the whole order started from wanting this simple navy blouse. I ordered it in white, too. The white will need a cami under it and that could get hot.

I’ve been needing a chambray shirt replacement and I am really happy with the weight of this one. I plan to wear it open mostly, I think.

I got 6 blouses and one final sale skort that is a little big for $78.

When I got dressed on Saturday it was rainy and I put on my jeans and my fish sweater. Get it? Rain – fish?

I wore my new gold Mary Janes to go to Kroger with Mason:

They are Dr. Scholl’s.

When we went out to dinner I changed into the gold Aerosoles kitten heel pumps:

Friday, I tried the scarf with striped shirt look with my new scarf tie method I learned on Instagram. I’ve never liked this striped shirt and it’s going to get donated. I would like to get a replacement stripe. I think it’s the fabric that is too thick. It just doesn’t hang right or feel comfortable.

My favorite outfit was this with a plain white tee, my Target crochet sweater, my new scarf tie and my cream pumps that I am going to switch out for the gold pumps. I feel like this could be a go-to spring outfit.

I started following some summer accounts on IG. They even give you nail colors! It’s funny to me that these are some of my regular nail colors.

This is my current color:

I’ve been cleaning things out and it’s been so fun to see old photos. This is us visiting my sister at Ohio State. We were probably 24 and Kate was 21. Kate, me, Heather, and our good friend Julia. We had so much fun on this visit and decided we wanted to go back to college at OSU.

I put this on to play Mah Jong:

Then, decided the mary janes were probably better for day time.

Let’s talk about the jeans again. I think these are a dupe for the Anthro Collette jean. These are really, really good. I think I need them in white.

I do have a legitimate question. What pants are we wearing besides jeans? I have some printed pants and some gauzy pants. What else is there?

What have you been wearing lately?

Amy