Quarantine and chill and kindness chatty clubhouse: Jump in and join the conversation! All is welcome!

[lovemygoofy]

Hello to all Disers!
Happy Wednesday. I'm cranky. My allergies are bothering me and I'm just blah today. Tomorrow is a different day but for today I might just sit in my bad attitude. That's okay. I'm working on my accounting homework and trying my best to have patience to deal with my mom. She is spinning out with her anxiety today and results in tons of phone calls. I try my best to have patience but I'm not always full of grace either. I can be honest about it. She is just really nervous with all going on and her own routine is out the door and I understand. I did get out to go to the store where I usually buy fruits/veggies and it was almost normal and stocked full of fresh foods even meats and dairy. We just needed fruits and veggies so I didn't pick up any meat but it was just nice to seem normal well other than everyone wearing masks. I suppose the new normal for a while. Even if wearing a mask, people can still smile and try to put others at ease. I saw lot of scared people today. I hate that for everyone. So I just kept smiling when eye contact was made. Smiles and kindness don't cost anything to give it away.

I'm going to find a fun movie to watch and just tonight I think. Dinner is leftover or if you can find it you can have it. I'm thinking bowl cereal and banana tonight.

Gratitudes today:
1. Having my mother around to complain about her calling.
2. Being blessed to be able to go out buy what we need when we need it.
3. My accounting teacher and her patience with me. Moving from traditional in house to online has been quite the transition for someone who hasn't been in class in 20 years.

Pease and safe health to all!

 

[lovemygoofy]

Question of the day: 4/15 Tell me about a childhood friend

Are you still in contact with a friend from your childhood? I am and I just smile whenever I text with her and when we are together it's like we are 14 again giggling over boys, reading Sweet Valley High or watching Teen Witch over and over. She still in the hometown where I grew up and although our paths went different ways, it feels like no time has passed when we are together.

 

[lovemygoofy]

Thanksgiving dinner!


Ooh, that sounds intriguing! I would love the recipe If you can share it.

I sort of just made it up and it's not scientific measurements.

Cook up elbow macaroni
I boil 2-3 chicken breasts, drain and shred or chop up.
I mix the chicken with good 2-3 tbsp. of dry ranch dressing mix
While the chicken or elbows are cooking, I make a quick cream sauce alfredo style but I don't make mine that reach.
After the cream sauce is made, I pour in buffalo sauce and taste until we get the amount of heat we like.

In big casserole dish I add the cooked elbows, buffalo sauce and chicken. I add in some tangy cheese like feta or blue cheese and drained canned tomatoes and stir throughout the pasta. I top with some shredded cheddar and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. If you like pasta saucy, make or add more sauce. If you like to serve with carrots and celery or some sort salad, go ahead. I usually add shredded spinach to the casserole before baking to pretend I'm making it healthier.

 

[lynxstch]

Question of the day: 4/15 Tell me about a childhood friend

Sad to say that I really didn't have many childhood friends, other than our next door neighbors oldest daughter. We lost touch after high school, and even though I have looked for her on FB, I haven't been able to find her. I did recently reconnect with 2 of my ex sister in laws, who I hadn't talked to in almost 20 years. We picked right up where we had left off, and have been in contact almost daily since

Tina, you are allowed to have an 'off day', we all are. None of this is easy, too many changes, too many 'what if's. That's what you started this thread for, for all of us to tell what we are grateful for, or to complain about an off day. To share laughs, tears, memories, recipes, and answer your daily question. I for one, am so thankful that you have kept it going, as this thread has gotten me through some rough days. You are lucky that you still have your Mom here to talk to and complain about. My Mom has been gone for almost 35 years now. My Dad has been gone for 27.

Today I am grateful that the sun is shining, even though the temps haven't gone much above 50
I am grateful that I am still able to get most of the yardwork done, though I am much slower at it, and have many more aches and pains after doing it, lol
I am grateful for this thread, to have met 'new DIS family' members from it, to have gotten a lot of new recipe ideas, that I have laughed at some of the threads, and gotten sad at others..it has kept me sane on some days!

Keep going DIS family, we are getting thru this, slowly but surely!

 

[Bianca and Bernard]

Question of the day: 4/15 Tell me about a childhood friend

Are you still in contact with a friend from your childhood? I am and I just smile whenever I text with her and when we are together it's like we are 14 again giggling over boys, reading Sweet Valley High or watching Teen Witch over and over. She still in the hometown where I grew up and although our paths went different ways, it feels like no time has passed when we are together.

On Facebook, with some friends from middle and high school. I haven't met up with any of them since high school, though.

Tonight I'm making roasted sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots and brussel sprouts; and Bulgogi (sp?) marinated flank steak. it's a spicy Korean style marinade I found at Fresh Market, and it's really good.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Checking for each day's update to this thread always brings me cheer Today it feels Summer-y here in LA, near 80! Supposed to cool down later in the week. Lovely to have some warmth and sun. Tina, I love how you said smiles and kindness don't cost anything. Amen and also you never do know how a simple kind word or smile may make a huge difference to someone. The fear in people's eyes indeed causes me great sadness too. I do pray we all might use this time to grow in our faith. It's definitely an unusual time especially with the masks. I am not able to wear a mask (health reasons, they don't work for me) so I stay home to do my part. Prayer that I can send prayer and cheer through phone, email, and on here, as well. I will be thrilled when the mask mandate can be safely lifted. I want all to feel and be safe! I can't stress that enough. As I have said before I will never take for granted again feeling safe in a store or laundry mat!

Gratitudes for today:

Talking with a dear church friend who is in her 90's brought me much cheer. I was also so thankful for a lovely email reply from another dear friend who was our former church choir director. He and his family moved back East a couple years ago.

Sparklett's Water delivery. Lol, now being at home, I am even more one of their best customers.

From my senior Pastor's nightly email last night, remembering the Good News Network website. Check it out for a smile.

My childhood was not always the best. I don't keep in touch with any friends from it. I will always remember my best friend in early elementary school. I do wish we had stayed in touch.

 

[Meriweather]

Not in touch with any childhood friends......we moved after college and lost touch with everyone (days before computers and cell phones, etc).

I spent the whole day making masks Not fun. Got 10 done for the family. I hate sewing and did not enjoy it at all, but you do things for your family, right?

Dinner tonight is edamame noodles with meat sauce. I will make the sauce in the instant pot.

Allergies are not fun here either. Skipping walks, so sad.
81 degrees right now, due to be 88 tomorrow

 

[Breezy_Carol]

I spent the whole day making masks Not fun. Got 10 done for the family. I hate sewing and did not enjoy it at all, but you do things for your family, right?

I know how you feel. I made 8 and hate sewing also.

Question of the day: 4/15 Tell me about a childhood friend

I don't really have any. I am Facebook friends with a neighbor who was my brother's friend. And I have reconnected on Facebook with a high school friend.

Tonight's dinner was a spicy chicken fiesta soup I had made and frozen. And I made biscuits from the recipe on the Bisquick box. First time and they were good.

I spent the day working in DH's office. He retired this month, because of the shutdown, after 40 years as an optometrist. I was doing inventory of his frames. Tedious but I feel accomplished.

Gratitudes:
1. Feeling that I accomplished something today
2. Both DD and I received the Federal stimulus $$ today
3. Hearing the Spring peepers

 

[Kittyblue]

I'm still friends with a girl I met in 9th grade band. We played the same instrument and sat next to each other. We were best friends almost from the start and still are. She lives a few hours away now so we take turns visiting each other a few times per year, but we're constantly texting one another.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I haven't been able to smile at people in the normal manner probably because my eyeglasses plus the mask make it difficult to see my face. Still, I feel joy in my heart when I go outside even when it's raining. Just great to be alive.

Lots of glass in this apartment I see. A mirrored wall, bank of windows, decorative mirrors and glass doors, make for great odor holders so I cleaned them all today as well as frames and added to the spring cleaning. Viewed all the supermarket circulars I could find online and decided there was nothing on sale worth leaving the house. A bit sigh ish ish. I really need to paint the book shelves but that will require products I don't have so I'll continue dreaming and hopefully come up with a better visualization.

Dinner tonight was sopressata and chicken. Cauliflower rice for me and bowtie pasta for the man. Added broccoli to the dish since we love veggies and I prefer one pot meals for the clean-up. I've added greens to the pot successfully in the past. Mustard, collard, Swiss chard, escarole, or spinach do nice:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/257125/lemon-sopressata-chicken/
Cook's Note: To make the protein cook faster and more evenly I pound the chicken breasts till they are between 1/4"-1/2" thick. Halve a full breast serves two nicely on this end.

For dessert we had poached pears. So easy to do a few and not think about dessert or even breakfast for a bit.

I remain in close contact with 2 of my contemporaries from childhood. One is a friend, the other an acquaintance. i don't make friends with ease but have many acquaintances.

 

[Nora03]

I have to say how grateful I am for this thread. We’ve been avoiding the news and watching live bird cams. Thank you Tina for starting it and keeping it up. I’ll be turning 70 in a couple of weeks and was dreading it a little, but I’m so grateful to be healthy and have a wonderful DH who does all the grocery shopping now. I haven’t left the house since March 13, except to sit on rhe deck once on a warmer day. It’s still cold here, and we’re still getting snow on and off. I am so fortunate to have a BFF. We met at age ten and have been best friends since then. We meet regularly for lunch, email each other every day, and even went on a big trip to Europe for a month nine years ago. Her friendship means the world to me.

 

[AuntieMe3]

So yesterday was a yucky day for me, seem to have them about once a week. I was stressing about finances and right before I went to bed, I got notification I got my first unemployment check...OMG such a relief. Then today in the mail we got our state refund back and I'm feeling so much better. Its not like we were going broke since Hubby is still working but I don't like not having my own paycheck so now I can pay some bills and have some money to set aside not be stressed.

My allergies have been making me crazy too. We have soo many weeds...now that I have my check I might hire someone to do some no contact yard clean up.... Hubby is soo busy he hasn't had time to get it done.

Tonight I made some green chili chicken enchiladas and OMG they were soo good. Why don't I make these more often??

Question of the day: 4/15 Tell me about a childhood friend

I'm fortunate to have lots of childhood friends still in my life. My parents have always been very social people so our friend "family" was very large and we are all still close all these years later, we still consider each other family.

As for friend friends, I am still in touch with my best friend since 3rd grade....sooo like 36 years... We stayed friends even when I moved in High School before social media, cellphones, all that...LOL We don't get to hang out as often as I would like but we still talk often and when we do get together its like old times. Love her.

Then I have my two best friends from High School....we talk/text/hang out all the time(well before lockdown anyway...lol). We have lunch/dinner dates, weekend getaways. The three of us are so close, again we're like family, we've been through a lot together....they consider themselves aunt and uncle to my daughter. She says since neither of them have kids, she'll be taking care of all of us at the nursing home when we're old.

 

[chickapin parterre]

Gratitude for the day ending in a hour away

1. saw some nice snake tracks that might indicate one was chasing the other.

2. In my simple mechanical mindless amidst my successful friends leaving north, I was able to organize their pick-up load and secure it with a spider net

3. lizards sunny themselves around the pool

4. the most beautiful flower on earth, is blooming again, this time with two flowers, hope I wake up in time to photo it, cactus flowers are only grateful for the night, they shed their flowers by daybreak.

 

[Owlpost23]

How does to-go fondue work?? I assume you have your own pot, so maybe they give you the broth or melted cheese or chocolate in a container maybe?

I believe you get it cold,and you warm it up at home.

 

[sparkle78]

Childhood friend J and I met at story hour at the library when we were 4 years old. We went to the same school till high school, summer pool days, competing against each other for reading champ, Girl Scouts, and crazy adventures. Went to same college. Then I got married and my kids are now teenagers. She got married in her mid 30s and now has 4 little ones. We now have a deeper connection sharing ideas on parenting. Just seeing a photo of her daughters at 4 and age 6 make me remember our shared childhood and smile

 

[bobbiwoz]

We are in our 70’s now, but Beverly and I met in kindergarten. It’s a friendship that has endured without any interval of not being friends. In our late teens, she thought she had a vocation to religious life, but it was not to be. We have not lived in the same state since high school. We both became Math educators, she went on to become Mathematics Coordinator for a wonderful district in NJ and I spent years as a adjunct associate professor for U of Cincinnati! She had a second career as a mathematics teacher in FL!!!

We see each other 3 or 4 times a year now, mostly in WDW! Our husbands have become good friends as well.

I am thankful for this friendship. She has always accepted me as I am, and we have a respect for each other and encourage each other in the paths we have chosen.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I am fortunate to have retained quite a few childhood friendships. I was trying to think of which one to write about here. I guess I will start with the earliest one.

When I was a baby my family moved to a new neighborhood. A three year old girl lived a few houses down and her mother told her to go say hi to the new neighbors. (!) So she did, and our friendship was born. We still stay in touch, talk randomly, about anything and everything, and we got to see eachother last year even though we live far away from eachother. Her mother was my first licensed nurse role model, and her father used to take us ice skating in the winter - I remember him patiently tying my skates up even though he had several kids of his own to tend to. (God love him!) I was always at their house and it was like a second home to me; was even close to her brothers and sisters. She says the same and thought my mother was like June Cleaver, saying she always had an apron on and was cooking something, etc. I feel so fortunate to have a life long friend like her. There's nothing we can't say to eachother.

Another friend I've known since kindergarten. We actually met for coffee last month, and would've again by now had it not been for this friggin' virus! We were very close during our school years, high school and afterward. She is part of a larger group of us who stayed close since grade school, but some of them were a year or two older than me. Another one of those girls has been a blessing to me during tough times, she's incredibly supportive and always shows up just when I need someone. We share some similarities with our kids that keep us in touch a lot, which is nice.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Watched Alien last night. This line got a laugh/sigh

 

[Pea-n-Me]

@lovemygoofy I had one of your type days yesterday! Around 2am DS went to get a Claritin out of the medicine cabinet and accidentally knocked a pill bottle into the toilet as it was flushing! So in the middle of the night, DS and DH had to break out the coat hangers to try to fish it out, without luck. So no one could use that toilet all day. DH bought an auger on the way home and spent an hour or two trying to get it out - it would've been DS's job but he was working a 12 hr shift (of course, right) and we wanted to get that toilet back in use. By late afternoon we realized we'd have to call a plumber, so started calling around and couldn't get a hold of one anywhere! Till finally we found one and lucked out as he came out by supper time and was able to fish the pill bottle out by taking the toilet off the wall - all the while, while social distancing! He was actually quite the character, walking downstairs holding the pill bottle with his mask and gloves on saying, "Here is the culprit!" So we got it fixed but it cost us almost $500 plus we gave him a cash tip for coming out right away. Ugh.

My Gratitudes for the day:

- Good friendships
- Family you can work and laugh with
- Ability to still pay bills
- My dog who has been like Velcro to me and is such a good buddy

I really haven't mentioned it here before but I lost my mother before this all happened. Still coping with the loss. We'd cared for her at home for a year and were fortunate enough to see her through to the end. As many of you know from my posts she'd lived with me for a long time so I am still finding my new normal. It is another blessing to me that I do not have to worry about trying to protect her from Covid as that would've been a huge challenge (and probably next to impossible) since both my daughter and I are now caring for Covid patients, too. No stress here! So thanks again for this thread that celebrates some of the "normal" things of our lives during this craziness and helps us remember all the blessings we have despite the difficulties. Love to you all.

 

[lynxstch]

@lovemygoofy I had one of your type days yesterday! Around 2am DS went to get a Claritin out of the medicine cabinet and accidentally knocked a pill bottle into the toilet as it was flushing! So in the middle of the night, DS and DH had to break out the coat hangers to try to fish it out, without luck. So no one could use that toilet all day. DH bought an auger on the way home and spent an hour or two trying to get it out - it would've been DS's job but he was working a 12 hr shift (of course, right) and we wanted to get that toilet back in use. By late afternoon we realized we'd have to call a plumber, so started calling around and couldn't get a hold of one anywhere! Till finally we found one and lucked out as he came out by supper time and was able to fish the pill bottle out by taking the toilet off the wall - all the while, while social distancing! He was actually quite the character, walking downstairs holding the pill bottle with his mask and gloves on saying, "Here is the culprit!" So we got it fixed but it cost us almost $500 plus we gave him a cash tip for coming out right away. Ugh.

My Gratitudes for the day:

- Good friendships
- Family you can work and laugh with
- Ability to still pay bills
- My dog who has been like Velcro to me and is such a good buddy

I really haven't mentioned it here before but I lost my mother before this all happened. Still coping with the loss. We'd cared for her at home for a year and were fortunate enough to see her through to the end. As many of you know from my posts she'd lived with me for a long time so I am still finding my new normal. It is another blessing to me that I do not have to worry about trying to protect her from Covid as that would've been a huge challenge (and probably next to impossible) since both my daughter and I are now caring for Covid patients, too. No stress here! So thanks again for this thread that celebrates some of the "normal" things of our lives during this craziness and helps us remember all the blessings we have despite the difficulties. Love to you all.

So sorry to hear about the loss of your Mother. I recall some of your posts saying she had lived with you for a long time. And as sad and hard as it must have been losing her, you are right, it's a blessing that you didn't have to worry about protecting her from this virus. Like I said, this thread is keeping some of us sane, and giving us a place to vent if needed. Thank you for sharing your loss with your DIS family--Love right back to you! Lynn