Mondays being retired are so different than when I was working. Often I would get up with the “back to the work grind” attitude and pull myself out of bed and start the commute to work. The last 3 years that commute was the shortest ever going from our bedroom in to the office! 🙂 Before that, there were memories of various commutes — snowy, traffic filled commutes or back road, longer to get there but less stress commutes. That commute from Corcoran to Chaska, then Eden Prairie sure changed over the years. When I have the time, I often take those back roads when we are back in MN just to see even more changes. But my “commute” this morning was from the coffee maker to the high top table on the deck again watching the golfers and admiring the fall colored trees. That was one thing I didn’t expect to see in AZ is fall changing trees — they are not numerous like in MN, but there are splashes of yellow along the gully of the golf course. Not really any reds…just the yellows.
So how was the week?
HelloFresh
A few weeks ago we decided to try HelloFresh one of the meal delivery services. I like to cook now, more than when I worked, but it is always a challenge to come up with good meals. So we thought we would try this out and see how we liked it. Will have to say that 95% of the meals were very good…although I did notice in the last couple of weeks some of the ingredients were getting a little skimpy. The shallots, that should have both white parts and green parts, were definitely lacking in the white parts. They were the ones that you would quickly pass over if you were picking them out at the store. Also the amount of carrots seemed reduced. One of the meals, I swear, we each got about 8 pieces of carrots! That was disappointing. With the holidays coming up and us being gone for a couple of weeks, we decided this weekend to cancel out subscription for now. We may start up again in January — it was really nice to have all of the ingredients laid out for you, and some of the meals were outstanding. And it was fun to try completely new meals rather than the traditional standards like mac & cheese, untidy Josephs, Spam and sausage, open faced tuna sandwiches, etc. I kept all of the instruction cards from the meals were got, and added some comments, so we would either know we want to order those again, or I may even attempt the meal on my own!
Visitors
Next week, Jason and Jen will be coming to visit for Thanksgiving week. We are so excited to have them visit us. I sent poor Jen a LONG email with options of what we could do the week they are here. If we did everything, they would probably need to stay for a month, but it gives us some options. And staying at home playing cards/games was not even on the list!!! We did decide to take the Verde Valley train which will be fun. These past few days the weather has been warm, almost to the point of thinking of turning on the air!! ….but of course we didn’t!! So then I look at next week’s forecast — highs in the 60’s and lows in the 30’s!!!! Dang it!!! We were hoping to have them enjoy our great warm weather and away from the cold of MN. Of course sitting on the deck in the sun you don’t realize it is chilly….but still…kind of disappointing!! Oh well, it will still be fun. The community puts on a Thanksgiving meal where they provide all the main stuff, and everyone just brings sides. Sounds like it is pretty popular as all the seats in the main dining room are already spoken for — glad I put our RSVP in very early!! Not only residents, but guests are also allowed to attend so it will be an easy meal for me! 🙂
Walking on Main
Last weekend was the annual Walking on Main in Old Town Cottonwood. They close down the main street and there are lots of artists that display their beautiful work, a live band, some food trucks, a car show and also a wine tasting area. This area is apparently well known for their wineries. A lot of the art work was very nice, but a little pricey when we did not have any specific thing in mind or any specific location in the house. We still have a number of pictures to hang so until we do that and realize we have a space that needs a picture, we will wait to make any purchase. But it was really fun to people watch. We stopped to listen to the band and a number of “older” people were out dancing. It was such an eclectic group, almost like you were back in the hippie days. I think this valley area is also known for accumulation of interesting people, and especially in Sedona, but this group was sort of a micro look at the community, I think.
We did enjoy lunch outside, which is one of the things that is so nice here that you can still enjoy that option for a few weeks until the “cold” arrives.
Javelina
What would my blog be without a discussion on Javelinas. So I was in the kitchen, making supper and looked out and saw 2 javelinas walk between our yard and the neighbors. One of the stopped and sat down by one of our big rocks and scratched its back. Reminded me of a bear sitting there! Then they crossed the street to go to the neighbors yard and probably have a meal of prickly pear cactus. So I decided to go outside and take some pictures, and actually a short video. As I was standing there, probably too close for my comfort, something startled the close javelina and it went running, thankfully in the other direction from me, but you should have seen me RUN for it back to the house!!!! It was pretty funny after I thought about it.
Santas
For a number of years after we moved to Corcoran I started to collect Santas. I would put them up every Christmas and take them down after. Then we had a TV stand/credenza in the family room downstairs that had glass doors which were a perfect spot for my santas. One Christmas I put them up and then decided that it was a perfect spot to keep them all year long!! It was kind of fun to see those santas in mid July and feel a ping of Christmas joy in your heart at that time. When we moved to Louisiana, we packed the santas and they traveled with us. In our living room there, we had built in shelves on either side of the TV that were a perfect home for santas. Again, I decided to keep them up there all year long, which was often a source of conversation. Well, probably the source of more conversation was the black santa I had on display — we were after all…in the south. One Christmas my SIL, Jermar, decided I needed to add a “home boy” to my collection and he presented me with the black santa!!! I loved it!!! When we sold the house in Louisiana, I knew I could not take the santas with me since our home in MN was so small. I did take 2 santas to put on my shelf at our MN home, but really did not want to part with the others. Thankfully Jenny took them and last Christmas, their first one in their new home in Otsego, she found a perfect location to store them…so why the santa story now….well now that we have the space in the house in AZ, I thought that it was a sign that I could amass santas again….LOL…not to the level I had, but at least a small collection. I went to our favorite thrift store and found 4 santas that were very interesting. There was a perfect spot for them in the keyboard area we set up, and even behind glass doors so I can keep them up there all year. And notice, there is a 2nd glass door that would be a perfect home for more santas!!
Anniversary
We achieved another milestone this week, as yesterday was our 46th wedding anniversary!! 46 years just seems crazy!! So much life in 46 years — 3 fantastic kids and 4 beautiful, wonderful grandkids — we could not be more blessed!! It is still fun to think of my mom’s comment about making it past 20 years!! We are way past that now, Mom!! 🙂 Lots of memories in these last years and more to make in the coming 40+ years!! 🙂
Random
There was a full moon this last week and seeing it rise over the red rocks was really pretty! …along with some other sunrise shots!
Jason is very active in his church and this week he is building a manger for the children’s Christmas program. He still has to stain it, but the construction is done and he even built it in pieces for easy storage. Can’s wait to see pictures of the finished project on stage with the kids using it.
This is a random picture I took of the candle on our deck table, looking over to Mingus mountain — I just thought it was a cool shot.
Flu Season
It is that time of year again…hopefully if you are one that needs to get the flu shot you have done so. We got ours on Friday, along with our shingles shot and were down for the count on Saturday. Just general aches and pains, just kind of crummy feeling. But better than Jaxen who got some kind of stomach bug this last week — even sick he looks cute….and we sure don’t want to get something like that!!
Well guess I should update more often…this got kind of wordy. May not write next week, but will when I can with the adventures we have with Jason and Jen. All have a great Thanksgiving week — give thanks for all of those around you and have a great day with family. We will miss everyone!!
TIFN
Dandy Ventures 