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