Recently, Steve and Nathan joined forces to fix the brakes on Nathan’s minivan. I love seeing them have father-son time.
Unfortunately, in the process of fixing the brakes, Steve’s finger became infected, which required a doctor’s visit, a tetanus shot, and an antibiotic injection. Thankfully, he was still able to play bass for church. Few things can stop him from doing that.
Which reminds me of this post where he injured himself even worse and still managed to play the bass, even with this bandage.
I mentioned in last week’s post that our friend Greta spent the night with us on Friday. Since I had to work, Steve straightened the house and picked up groceries. He told me I didn’t need to worry about dinner at all; he would take care of it all. We had discussed the menu ahead of time, so everything was good to go.
Speaking of menus, Steve and I both have an app on our phones called AnyList, where we keep lists and collect recipes. Steve has his own folder with all the recipes he knows how to make, and he had the evening’s recipe saved to that folder.
When I got home from work, Steve was down the hall vacuuming. Usually, that would warm my heart, but my heart was actually unwarmed because our guest was due and dinner was supposed to be ready at 6:30 p.m.
I decided that I should appoint myself as sous chef, so I opened the app and started reading through the ingredients. Looking a little further, I saw that it said the dish had to bake for about 20 minutes. It was 6 pm, and Steve hadn’t even started prep yet!
Cue the Wife Emergency Panic Code Red Button.
I whipped out ingredients and started chopping, dicing, slicing, and doing as much as I could to speed up the prep for The Chef’s arrival. When Steve eventually made his way back to the kitchen, I said in the most non-frantic voice I could manage, “Steve, this has to bake for 20 minutes!”
He said, “No, it doesn’t.” I said, “Yes, it does.” “He said, “No, it doesn’t.” I said, “Yes, it does.” We sounded like a couple of third graders on the playground.
Finally, we both pulled up the app on our phones so we could access the recipe and defend our position. And that was when we discovered that I had been looking at the wrong recipe, which means I had been prepping the wrong ingredients. Sure enough, it only had to broil for three minutes after a few minutes in the skillet. He was right. I was wrong. (Even though he was, in my humble opinion, still running a bit behind.) Isn’t it lovely, living in marital bliss around the clock?
He told me later that he jokingly came thisclose to saying “Woman! Get out of my kitchen!” But he didn’t. Wise man.
We got the dinner on the table a few minutes after 6:30, and all was well. (Plus, Greta–who arrived about 6:15– was hugely entertained by the dinner prep story.)
Whenever anyone is in the kitchen, the dogs are always supremely helpful.
Steve sent me this meme a few days ago. Definitely made me smile since that is actually my getting-up time.
I was cleaning out some drawers and ran across this picture of Sarah with Richard Petty and some of his family. Such a wonderful and generous family. The Pettys built Victory Junction Game Camp in memory of Richard’s grandson, Kyle, who was killed in a race. Sarah attended at least three times and loved every moment of it.
And now that little girl is all grown up and helping run media at her church. She sent me this photo yesterday morning of her work station in the media booth.
You may remember a few weeks ago that I wrote a post about being glad that my painful/swollen ankle had been diagnosed as gout. Even though gout is not fun, at least it is treatable. Well, it turns out, the medication I was given didn’t really help, so my doctor sent me to a sports medicine physician who is more familiar with bones, muscles, tendons, etc. He looked at the X-ray and said it was not gout; instead, two bones have more space between them than they should, and they are not in alignment up and down or side to side. (Arthritic changes.) It seems fluid is leaking out from that area and causing the swelling.
He said my options were to have ultrasound-guided injections done every few months or to have an MRI and then see a foot surgeon for his/her opinion on whether surgery would be helpful.
The doctor told me injections were not a permanent fix; the relief would only last 3 or 4 months. Also steroid injections can eventually start to degrade cartilage, tendons, and surrounding soft tissue. So not an ideal solution.
My third option? Just live with it. Not my favorite option either. We shall see!
I saw these t-shirts on Facebook and fell in love with the sayings, especially, “I shennaned once and I’ll shenangian.” That is my kind of pun! I also loved “Off to cause a kerfuffle.” Isn’t language so much fun?
Last Monday (April 27), I celebrated my third anniversary at my current job. My boss gave me these flowers to commemorate the occasion, and she and the other woman on our team had a meal together. I have really fabulous work colleagues.
Except for the long hours, I love my job and feel blessed to have it. And after a long day, it’s always lovely to be able to pull into this driveway, exchanging the freeway for peace.
What about you?
Do you do the cooking in the family or does someone else?
Do you use a recipe/grocery list app? Which one and why?
If you are employed outside the home, how long have you been at your current job? What do you do?
What’s one thing that made you smile this past week?
“Woman! Get out of my kitchen” would be an absolute dream to hear from my husband! I very much dislike cooking and never know what to cook. We eat out way too often. I always told my daughter “get yourself a man who loves to cook and life will be golden.” She did just that and she absolutely loves her life with him! 😂
Lizz,
I’m glad your daughter found a man who cooks!
Steve never cooked much before the past three years but he’s really jumped in with both feet since I work so many hours. I am grateful!
I do the cooking in our house. No app here. We just sit down and decide what we would like to eat for the week, then make a grocery list from that.
My smiles came from watching the baby Robins leave the nest on their wobbly legs. They all tried to fly for the first time which did not go well. The nest was on our deck railing so we got to watch them ‘grow up’. So fun! They are still learning to fly and remain in the area so we see them occasionally. 🙂
LeeAnne,
Nice that they the robins were thoughtful enough to set up housekeeping on your deck railing so you could get a front row seat.
Oh, the joy of watching babies of any species try their “wings” for the first time. They teach us humans a good lesson–even though our first attempts at new things may be wobbly, we’ll be flying high before we know it.
Thanks for the story.
Well, Steve, you had two more fingers on that hand that are not wrapped – did they forget about those two??? I basically, when cooking, do the most, but on Sat. mornings, my husband makes black forest oatmeal (that’s what he calls it). He adds cut up cherries and dark chocolate to the oatmeal – soooo good. We also add chopped walnuts. You say tomato, I say tomaato? You two are just like a normal married couple. I too love puns, so did my mom. The pictures of the flowers, absolutely gorgeous and how thoughtful of them to remember you in this way. Oh, before I forget – Happy Mother’s Day, Becky and Megan.
Love that picture/cartoon. That would be me, nope, I don’t get up at 4:00 unless I need to catch a plane or train.
Sharyn,
Black forest oatmeal? You definitely married the right fella! That sounds fabulous. I have oatmeal every morning but have never tried such an exotic combination.
Glad to meet another pun-lover. The English language is fascinating and there are so many ways to put all those words together. Here’s to many more puns to come!
Blessings to you and your hubby today.
My husband, Tim, does WAY more cooking than I do (and he’s MUCH better at it!). Neither of us use a list app.
I work at one of our local high schools and I’ve been with the school district 14 years now. I’ve been in my current position as our campus special education secretary for 4 years and I really enjoy it – even though it can get chaotic at times.
Wow – 3 years at your job already???? Time sure flies… and your flowers are lovely….so thoughtful of your boss. I hope you have a wonderful week!
Sue Ellen,
I can only imagine how chaotic a job at a school can get. After as many years as you’ve been there, though, there’s probably not much they can throw at you that you can’t handle! I bet “unflappable” is your middle name.
Glad you have a husband who cooks. Enjoy!
hi Becky! For some reason, I wasn’t getting your email updates about your blog and I keep forgetting to check it. So I’ve missed a lot of weeks. I will be catching up tonight. I’m so glad everything is going well. I’m sorry about Steve’s finger and your ankle. Getting older just comes with challenges. What made me smile this week? My sweet little grandbaby trying to talk. He just turned three months old and has so much to say.
Lisa,
Well, I’m glad you’re back and are going to get caught up!
I love it when pre-speech babies let us know exactly what’s on their minds. 🙂 They are always so earnest and “into it” with hand wavings and vocal inflections. Such a sweet age.
The dinner looks very tasty. My husband does most of the cooking, and doesn’t want anyone in the kitchen when he does as we have a small kitchen and not much room to move around. I used to do a lot of baking, but with his diabetes, I don’t bake much anymore.
We don’t use any apps as our phones don’t have much space for them. We need something to remind us to use up the foods we bought. Just found some slimy veggies that were in the crisper and forgotten. I hate to throw out food, but we keep forgetting what is there.
My smile this week came on Grandparents day at the youngest grands school. Always fun to see their work and class.
Patti,
My biggest challenge is remembering what I have put in the freezer. Sometimes things get buried so deep, they aren’t any good by the time I re-find them. I’m like you–I hate throwing away food so I’m trying to be more diligent with that.
Grandparent’s Day is a treat and makes such happy memories for everyone involved.
Oh! Another AnyList user! We have SO MANY lists on AnyList! Recipes, grocery lists, Home Depot lists, all of our travel numbers (airline, hotel, rental car “membership” numbers, plus passport info), movies to watch, books to read (both of those are handy when having random conversations and someone recommends a book or movie), etc.
I met Richard Petty last year (I’m a big racing fan) and it was a highlight of my year, until I also met Mario Andretti, who has always been my favorite racer of ALL.TIME. Richard Petty is so kind and friendly.
Your workplace sounds divine – and those flowers are just gorgeous!
Sorry to hear your ankle isn’t gout after all! Hopefully a skilled doctor will find an “easy” solution!
Sefanie,
Hmm. You’ve given me some good ideas for our AnyList app. My favorite part of it is that Steve and I both have the grocery list so if I he doesn’t put something on the list and I don’t order it, then it’s not my fault! 🙂 It is such a great app and reasonably priced.
It’s funny; when we told Sarah back in the day she would be meeting Richard Petty she said, “Who?” When he told her he’d been on the front of cereal boxes, she was much more impressed. She was actually in People magazine with him.
I don’t know the first thing about racing except you go round and round and someone wins. But I’m glad for you that you got to meet two favorite racers. Those are two big time guys!
Have you seen Ford vs. Ferrari? Even though I don’t like racing, I enjoyed that movei.
I loved that movie, yes! And the completely unbelievable FI Movie. Both good fun for me. 🙂
Many of our AnyList lists are shared, but I also have a few that are only for my eyes – gift ideas for Mike or my daughter or son-in-law (again – easy to add to a list after a conversation where something is casually mentioned). 🙂
Stefanie,
I also take note of when people casually mention something in a conversation but I usually put in in the notes area of their phone number in Contacts. Using AnyList is a great option, especially for things you want to keep private.