When you feel like you are getting nothing done....

 You actually check and see what you did yesterday and find progress. The 'news' is getting me upset with the freedoms being taken away and trampled on. I just hope that since I changed my name when I got married, I can still vote in the next election..... if we have one? I've already told hubby I might need to legally change my name back, no offense. He is perfectly fine with that. My legal name no longer matches my birth certificate. Do you know where your birth certificate is? Mine is in my safe.

The SAVE Act (H.R. 22 / S.128) – A Voter Suppression Bill

Back to more fun things....

Diann asked for the Mexican Skillet recipe.  I figured I'd share it on here as well. This is a snapshot of the recipe page from the Taste of Home 2003 Cookbook. We have tried the spinach apple salad as well and it was yummy.

Instead of starting stitching the prepped hexagons, I decided to start stitching the done ones into sets of two. They will become sets of 4 soon.

I also added a granny square after work and before heading to pick up Emily from horses. She and Kyra went to the barn for a few hours while Lori taught a few lessons and had theirs. I believe they were brushing and giving the horses some pampering and attention. She also had her lesson on Doc and then rode 3 other horses for a little bit. She was exhausted when I picked her up. The temps were in the mid 80's. 

Today I've got an appointment for a bone density and mammogram, then I have my riding at 2. I might cancel it though as Emily has a guard practice at 4 and hubby has been feeling off in the afternoons and should not be driving. We will see.

Since we have boatloads of eggs ( more than 4 dozen) it will be a quiche kind of night I think. 

Hexagons prepped, check

I made myself a list of things to do today. I'm happy to say I actually checked off about 5 or 6 from the list. 

One thing on the list was to prep hexagons. Once these are stitched, I have enough prepped for another column to add to the quilt. 

I made a list of meals for the week. Well, most of the week. I tape this to the fridge. 

Monday - was the corned beef and veggies in the crock pot that got unplugged and stopped cooking Sunday afternoon, so I let it go all night on low. I added an irish soda bread to the meal. 

That lead to a change for Sunday (which would have been the corned beef meal with cabbage). We fried some empanadas for dinner. I have a friends Mom from Puerto Rico that occasionally takes orders and will deliver them frozen to make some $. I got a dozen each of beef and chicken. We cooked up 3 of each for the 4 of us. 

Tuesday - I had pan seared scallops with garlic and lemon, the rest had salmon. I made a sheet pan of roasted red potatoes with rosemary and blanched some asparagus. Yummy.

Wednesday - Greg asked for the Mexican Skillet meal. It is quick and easy.

Thursday and Friday I left open. Emily added pork schnitzel with homemade mashed potato and peas for Friday's meal. She has winter guard practice Thursday from 4-6 and didn't want to miss 'her' meal. She usually helps me with getting the schnitzel prepped for frying. Aidan might also be late on Thursday. It depends on if his retainer is ready or not yet. Did I mention he got his braces off last Wednesday?

What I'm reading. I just finished the 3rd book in the Stella and Lyndie series by Clara McKenna. Murder at Keyhaven Castle. I'm enjoying this on my audible audiobook.

Then I swapped to my Libby app since The Thursday Murder Club Mystery - book 2 became available by Richard Osman. The man who died Twice. I'm enjoying this mystery series as well. I hope more of his books become available with my library card soon.

What are you reading?

Tuesday

I have been doing a little hand work. The last 4 hexagons got stitched and a couple of granny squares were added with their grey surround.

I need to start stitching these sets of 4 together!

I think I was a worried Mom yesterday. It is Spring Break. The girl is getting lots of sleep trying to catch up from a busy life. She did pop over to a friends for a few hours in the afternoon. The boy, he signed up for a Certification course up in Gainesville at a UF (University of Florida) lab for the week. It was his first time driving on I75.... and through all the traffic areas. I finally got a 'I'm here and fine' around 1:30. They are feeding them lunch and there appears to be a snack tree they can grab from. He is working on a certificate in designing in 3D printing I believe. There are only 12 high school kids in the class, so lots of hands-on teaching and learning. He showed me the part he made. 3 days of working with them and then they get to design and make their own the last 2 days. His Skills USA is similar - they get a project with certain things they need to include as skills. Then they design and make something to fit it.  His buddy Issac is also in the class, and they stayed later and had dinner up there and then explored a bit. Aidan was excited to see all the things to do up there. Issac took him to an Asian market they go to a lot (his Mom Pei is Asian). He brought home some interesting snacks! UF is one of the schools he is considering for Engineering. It appears he likes the area.

I played with my sourdough yesterday and made another sandwich loaf. I kinda forgot it was proofing in the oven last night. I pulled it out and formed it to a loaf and popped it in the pan. It rose overnight and is in the oven baking now.

Time to shower and then log onto work. The boy is off to class and the rest of the house is sleeping.

Weekend

I have been doing a little stitching this week. These little QAYG hexagons got stitched up and will be added to the finished quilt eventually to make it bigger. I have a lot more of these to stitch and hand sew together. I have a set of black prepped but will need to prep more today now that I have freed up the clips. 

I'm going to be moving slowly today, as yesterday was a long day. Emily had a competition, and the call time was 6AM at school. That's a leave the house at 5:30. We got back to school before 7PM, but they had to refold the floors from the programs. We left the school around 7:30. It was a long day, but I learned a lot about winter guard and lots of gossip from the adults on the nearly 2 hour bus ride there =). 

This is the JV team with their coaches. They improved their points, but I hear the routine was 'not crisp'. They need to work on getting in sync. They have a practice over break and then the last performance is the end of the month. I got to see a couple of teams perform and just Wow. The talent of these athletes is amazing. I also liked there was lots of body shapes represented. Their Varsity team took first in their category. It was an awesome routine. The winter guard routine contains dance, flag, riffle and saber tricks.

I went to bed early (9:30ish) and woke up a little after 1AM. I poked my head out to the living room and Aidan was watching the F1 race in Australia. I watched with him from lap 33 on. It was quite a race with rain and crashes. 

We are under a tornado threat today. It is a little windy before the storm rolls through. It will knock our 90 temps down into the 70's for the week, which will be nice. I am just catching up on news from yesterday and I hope all in the path of this storm are ok. It looks like it has been wrecking havoc across the US the last 2 days.

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers. Now I'd better go walk the dog before the crazy weather hits. 
 

Monday

 Ugggh. It is dark again in the mornings and today was a rainy one as well. I did text Emily around 7:30 AM to make sure they got to school ok. There was quite the downpour right after they left. The dog had to wait for my lunchtime to get his walk today. 

Sunday, Emily needed more driving hours with her permit and has not seen Grandma in a while since she is so busy with school and extra things. She drove over to Inverness to spend the afternoon chatting and playing Domino's with her. We did pop out for Checkers for lunch and had a nice picnic outside on their stone benches. Both kids, Grandma and me. It was domino's time after that. We played from double 12 down to double 0. I was doing ok, until I kept picking up all the doubles! It was a fun afternoon and then she got another 45 minutes of drive time to get home. Chatting with the kids in the car about life, what's happening at school and the world is always a good thing. I kinda miss that, not picking them up from school this year.

I had to do a quick grocery run to grab a few things for the kids for lunches this week and some BOGOs. 

I had picked up a head of broccoli last week with plans to try this salad recipe I found on Facebook. I made it last night and it was really yummy. I used whatever apple I had in the fridge and forgot the cranberries, but added a few to my leftovers for lunch. I left out the nuts as well, and the cheese. I didn't have red onion, so used a couple of scallions. I will make this again! It was yummy.

Honeycrisp Apple Broccoli Salad

A crisp and refreshing salad combining sweet Honeycrisp apples, crunchy broccoli, and a creamy tangy dressing. Perfect for fall gatherings or as a healthy side dish, this salad is packed with flavor and texture from fresh ingredients and a touch of sweetness.

Ingredients:

4 cups broccoli florets, chopped

1 large Honeycrisp apple, diced

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/4 cup red onion, finely diced

1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese (optional)

For the dressing:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the chopped broccoli, diced Honeycrisp apple, dried cranberries, chopped pecans, red onion, and shredded cheddar (if using).

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, and pepper until smooth.

Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients and toss until everything is well coated.

Chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the flavors to meld.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Chilling Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 45 minutes

I wrote out a proposed menu for dinners this week and added it to the fridge. They seem to like that as they know what is planned. Emily asked for Taco's this week and Aidan asked for Weatherby Chicken on the grill. That made life easy.

Monday - taco meat, pinto beans (I made these in the instapot at lunch) for salads or soft taco's with the fixings.

Tuesday - beef fajitas. I've got peppers that need using. Aidan is helping at senior presentations tonight at school so that delayed tomorrow's meal. He is my grill master.

Wednesday- Weatherby Chicken on the grill (bone in chicken grilled and seasoned with a butter/oleo/vinegar/water/salt sauce that is boiled together. It is better than it sounds, and I grew up with it as a staple for summer BBQ. Potato salad will go with it. Aidan gets his braces off today!

Thursday- leftovers probably. Or Fridays plan.

Friday - pizza or lobster cakes. I got a bag of these and crab cakes from Aldi a few months ago. The crab cakes were good.

A new project

 Someone talk me out of this! Who am I kidding, you all are enablers!

I love my Scrappy Pinwheel quilt - pattern by Kim Brackett. I made this back in 2011 as I won the quilt guilds block one month and came home with 11 of them. I added more scrappy ones and made this quilt. It is currently on my bed. 

In 2012 I made scrappy ones with the RSC and donated these 2 quilts to a family that my sister was mentoring one of the girls. I also made 2 single irish chain quilts for the boys in the family.

I am not sure where the instructions were, I know the pattern is in a book and they got permission from the author to use that pattern as a monthly guild block. I took a photo of a block on my quilt and used that to figure out that middle part. It took me 2 tries to get it correct.

I just used scraps from the cutting mat to sew these 4 parts up.

With the leftover triangle cuts I made these blocks.

I was thinking a scrappy blue one with a solid yellowish background. I could also use a light print and pull colors from that. I have a few yard cuts of those that would work well... if my math is correct. 

We will see what happens.

Today Emily is riding a horse. Aidan is at school with the second to last engineering day with CF and NASA. Their presentation to the NASA engineers is next month. Tomorrow she will drive us to Grandmas to get some driving time, so I need to go with her. It will be a family game day. She will be getting her license in a month and needs a few more hours of drive time. That should add another 3 hours or so.

I snapped this photo the other day when I let the girls out to roam in the backyard for a few hours. They are happy and providing between 3-5 eggs a day. Not bad considering 3 of them are 4.5 years old and the other 2 are a couple of years old.

Linking up with the RSC.

 

Arkansas Traveller is a top

 

It needs a good press, but it is a top. I hope to get it pinned for quilting this weekend. It is about 68x68.

Linking up Saturday with the RSC.