Spring Exercise Plan

Ok.  I really need to stave off encroaching old age by doing some smart exercising.  Last October when I spent the whole month limping because of an arthritic flair that resulted in my hiking up a rocky mountain trail, should have been enough to keep me consistent.  But no it didn't.  And now my knee is starting to hurt again.  So. . .

1)  I resolve to use my elliptical to strengthen my knees by working at at least a few minutes every other day.  This is my little elliptical I have in the family room.  I can sit and work my knees with no stress from it.  It really helped build muscle around the knee and kept the arthritis under control.

2)  I resolve to exercise - doing the physical therapy guys list of exercises for people like me.  I especially like their core exercises.  And that's what I'm going to focus on.

3)  I already do stretching exercises almost every day because I stiffen up so much, especially in my neck and shoulder area, so the stretching feels really good.  I will continue with the stretching!

4)  Try to walk, at least a few minutes, as many times a week as I can.  Might be for 10 minutes, might be 20 or 30.  Whatever I can reasonably squeeze in.  The weather should be getting nicer out.  So no excuses.

I am making this commitment officially starting April 1st - Easter (just cause I like making resolutions at significant times) through July 1.   Let's see if I can stick with it for 3 months.

My Banner Was on TV!

I didn't go to the March for Our Lives protest, but the American Solidarity Party did.  It's true, I left that party but I still wish it well and I bequeathed it the banner that I had commissioned and paid for myself!  My whole idea was to get on TV with it.  This shot is from EWTN's Nightly News for Monday.  I didn't see it but a friend of mine texted me to tell me about it.

Here's a screen shot from my phone.

Cava Grille Copycat Cole Slaw Recipe

I made this coleslaw with green instead of red cabbage (because that's what I had) and it was delicious!  I think it will be even better next time when I do make it with red cabbage just like Cava Grille.  By the way, I just chopped up the cabbage and grated the carrots.  I didn't bother to get out a blender or food processor (which I haven't used in eons and have a vague memory I couldn't find all the parts last time anyway).  Either I am getting better at chopping more efficiently or am just lazy about cleaning up, but to me it is much easier to chop and then clean a knife and cutting board instead of having to deal with cleaning out my blender. 

The recipe I used is from this site.

(I had a fairly large head of green cabbage so I wound up using maybe about a bit more than half of it.)

Original recipe:
1 small head of red cabbage, shredded (I just chopped up small)
4 large carrots, shredded (I used my handy-dandy 4 sided grater)
4 green onions, thinly sliced (I picked out the 4 largest in my bunch)

The dressing makes the dish!

1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, minced (I cheated and used a dollop of already minced garlic from a jar)
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (I used Bragg's)
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp of honey
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (thought this was a weird ingredient and couldn't really taste it over the vinegar but maybe it helps?)
1/4 tsp chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
(Parsley to garnish - I didn't have any fresh parsley because the parsley I was growing on my kitchen counter died.  But this dish is so colorful, you don't really need it.  However, the parsley might also help cut the vinegar flavor a bit.  So I say, if you have fresh parsley, use it!)

I did add a splash more olive oil when making this because I do find that apple cider vinegar is pretty overpowering.

People loved this coleslaw!  It tastes even better the next day!  This one is a definite keeper.  I think the key for my family is they love raw carrots (one of the few vegetables everybody will eat happily).  So the fact that there is a lot of shredded carrot in this recipe, made the cabbage more palatable for them.  Also, this isn't a mayonnaise based dressing, which half the family objects to.

Winner!

Holy Week Count Down

Here's the plan:

Monday - attend outdoor Stations of the Cross with local homeschool group.
Tuesday - See the new movie about St. Paul
Wednesday - shop for Passover, Easter breakfast and dinner, go to confession at night
Thursday - attend Holy Thursday Mass
Good Friday - Fast, attend Adoration of the Cross, dye Easter Eggs
Holy Saturday - Host Passover for family; go to vigil (which starts at 8:30!!!)
Easter Sunday - hunt for Easter Eggs - eat matzoh brie and other things (have to be gluten free), relax, roast the lamb shoulder and do all the fixings for an early dinner. 

I am sure this is going to be complicated by B's rehearsal schedule and community college classes. 

Date Night and Planning Our Anniversary Trip!

Rick and I haven't had a real date in a while.   Lately, we just seem to run errands together and call that a date.  But last night we actually made reservations at a nice restaurant and then went to the movies afterwards!  Dinner was very nice at Sweetwater Tavern.  And then we saw Darkest Hour, which was okay but not as good as I expected it to be.  It was rather contrived and they really dumbed down Winston Churchill.  However, it wasn't horrible and I am fascinated with that time period in history.  So it was an enjoyable evening.  AND we started planning our 30th wedding anniversary trip. 

I'm a bit suspicious so I'm kind of nervous about planning this far in advance.  One never knows what may happen between now and then, but you only have 1 30th anniversary, so we decided to plan anyway.

So here's what we are thinking:

Leave home on Saturday, 10/27/18 on a night flight to London - nopstop. 
Arrive in London around 7 a.m. their time Sunday.  Spend the day going to Mass, some gentle sightseeing (maybe one of those city tour buses), some resting and relaxing.
Next morning take an early morning flight to Tel Aviv where hopefully our tour group will pick us up and get us to Jerusalem where the tour starts.
Then we spend the next week seeing Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Petra, Wadi Rum, Eilat, Negev Desert, Masada, the Dead Sea, Galilee and Nazareth.
We'll spend the last day (11/5 - our actually wedding anniversary) as a free day in Jerusalem.
11/6 we'll fly back to London and have that evening and the next two days to poke around London.
Fly home on Friday so we have the weekend to deal with jet lag.

I'm excited!  I hope this works out!

I'm thinking of starting a vlog

This may be a dumb idea.  I'm thinking of doing it for several reasons.

1) It would be to commemorate in a different way, my last year of homeschooling (so it wouldn't start officially until August or something).
2)  I would have to learn new skills which would be kind of cool.
3)  The blog world used to be hopping!  But now it has kind of died down, at least in my obscure corner of it, whereas vlogs seems to be more popular now.
4)  I think having an external, visual record of things would help me get over my extreme laziness/burn out in terms of keeping things tidier around here.  If I know the camera will be on, I think I'll be more intentional and on top of my game so to speak.  At least for a while!

I'm thinking I would still call it Household Diary and there would be different sections I'd sort of 'report' on maybe 2x a week.  I could have clips on: 

Bits and pieces of our current homeschooling
A retrospective on the last 20 years of homeschooling
My philosophy of homeschooling
My favorite read alouds and resources over the years
Zero waste living
Cooking
Gardening
Housekeeping
Books I'm currently reading
Nature/parks we visit
Prayer and spirituality/liturgical year

I keep thinking of other ideas too, for clips.  I don't think others in my family would figure heavily in this, as they are not keen on being on camera especially.