Friday, March 6, 2026

We started the week with this:

The thing that kept me going was this:

Are you ready to “spring forward” overnight Saturday into Sunday? I am!

Mason gave me this devotional book for Christmas and I just started using it because I had January and February left of another one. It’s really nice.

My little blogging companion. He usually is in this spot when I am at my computer.

Monday is the day I like to do some meal prep – lately that has just been roasting sweet potatoes. When will I get tired of this first meal of the day? When will you get tired of me showing it?

This is a great lunch – the sweet potatoes with black beans, red onion, avocado, a little bit of lime and EVOO.

I like to have a non-fiction book going along with my fiction book. Wow – is this good.

Ever since I heard about HSPs – highly sensitive people – I have identified as one. There are just people who feel things deeply. “It’s like carrying an emotional radar that’s always on, always picking up signals, always processing”. Who knows if this is because I was a first-born daughter or a teacher, but this is spot on. And this pretty much sums up the years of teaching after the pandemic: “…it can also leave you drained because you’re carrying the weight of emotions that aren’t even yours”.

HSP plus Enneagram 2 and there ya go…

I have been transparent over the last week on the blog about a couple of friendship hurts I have had and then I shared my new empty-nester status this week and this book is really helping me to understand where these emotions are coming from. I realize I have more time now than I have had in 31 years to even think about my friendships this much and I am taking this into account.

I made an entree salad one night for dinner this week that is a re-creation of Tom’s favorite dish at Harry’s/Malone’s. Malone’s is the nice restaurant on the first floor and Harry’s is the bar atop. It turned out pretty well and was super healthy.

I have been a fan of SNL over the past several months. I record it from Saturday night and usually watch it Sunday night. It’s extremely liberal and it’s not politically correct. I realize as I type those things that they are contradictory. They had the star of Heated Rivalry (which I don’t watch) as the host and then two members of the men’s and two members of the women’s Olympic hockey teams on. My favorite part of SNL is Weekend Update with Collin Jost (Scarlet Johannsen’s hub) and Michael Che. I enjoyed the hockey jokes, and they had a skit with Punch the monkey’s mom. It was ridiculous but I laughed my head off.

By the way, are you up on pop culture? I was talking to my high school friends last week about how some ladies I know have no clue about current pop culture. They told me they get their pop culture from my blog. Ha! Do you care about pop culture? I felt like it was part of my job as a high school teacher. I still think I am pretty up on pop culture.

I’m over Love is Blind 10 and even Love Story! Love is Blind 10 is painful. I don’t like any of the couples except one and they are boring. I am fast forwarding. I really don’t care who actually gets married. They are all messed up. I am on Episode 5 of Love Story, and it’s lost its shine for me. This is very typical of me, though. I will like a show at the beginning and then I will lose interest. I think the fight in Battery Park made me mad. It’s not a spoiler; they fought in Battery Park and all the paparazzi took photos of what looked like a very physical and toxic fight in a very public place.

This is a sweet photo. Mason’s new house has a big dip at the bottom of the driveway and Tom taught him how to drill and secure “curb bumpers”.

First, they had to dig out the crumbling pavement. It was so cold and next to a two lane road and it was quite scary. Tom found a work vest in his truck for me to wear so I had a very important purpose.

Have you tried Lambrusco? It’s a fizzy red wine. I picked this up at Trader Joe’s and it’s really good.

OMG – the chocolate chip cookie dough at TJ’s is amazing. It’s not cheap at $5.49 for about a dozen – maybe a few more – but these are like bakery cookies.

Have you heard of an “analog bag”? This is a tote bag of non-tech things to do – a book to read, a crossword puzzle book, a crochet or embroidery project, etc. I love this idea for me and for children, too. Wouldn’t this be a fun grandparent project to create a bag for the kids for a gift?

By the way, I told my mom I wanted her to stop bringing my kids gifts every time she visited and suggested a “grandma bag” instead of things she would bring and then take home. She loved the idea and jumped on it. My kids loved it, too, and it helped them to not be so spoiled – maybe?

When I was a babysitter, I had a babysitting bag of things I would bring to the kids – coloring pages, old toys of mine and my sisters and things like that. The kids loved it.

Look how cute – Kroger has these 99 cent carrot bags that I think I will use as “Easter baskets” for adult offspring this year.

I had tutoring this week and it went really well. My student got an A on the last quiz!

I just ordered a drip coffee and added cinnamon and it was quite nice. This was $2 and change!

Remember how I’m a sourdough flunkie? I really think the summer humidity hurt me. But, anyway, Kristin has written up her method and I think I could even do this.

Speaking of bread…

I had lunch with my friend Elizabeth this week and she gave me a retirement gift. She is so funny; she said she had been waiting until she could get it just perfect.

It was a basket of things I love. One thing was this Amish Friendship Bread starter. The bread is a cinnamon bread and it contains a dry pudding mix which is interesting. I can’t bake it for about 10 days because I have to follow the process.

She wrote me a poem!

An Eddie Otis keychain was part of the gift!

There were a few other things, too. How thoughtful!

We went to one of my favorite places for their…

cup of soup with puff pastry – I had tomato and she had lobster bisque and they have fries that taste like bougie McDonald’s fries.

I finished this and it could be my favorite book of 2026. I just loved it.

I started this next…

Have you read it?

It’s so promising to see the first signs of spring…

And inside my white hydrangeas are still beautiful – two weeks later!

Thank you for all the comments on my February Spending Diary post; it was like sharing my dirty laundry. I have started tracking for March.

Thank you for your comments on my Adult Children – New Empty Nest post, too. I’m doing pretty well with my new normal.

You all are the best!

Wishing you a happy Friday and something this weekend that fills your cup whether that be a coffee cup or a cocktail glass!

Amy