A Good Thursday

Yesterday was a good day.  I'd been feeling so blue.  I still can't believe Tillie is gone though.  I am astonished at my own grief.  R and I are both kind of amazed at just how sad we are.  I mean I know it is in no way the same as losing a human you love, but it has taken me aback a bit.

The first Thursday of the month, my parish supplies lunch to a local homeless shelter.  Usually, I just make chicken for 16, but because of the summer, no one signed up for rice or veggies either.  So they sent out a last minute can anyone help notice.  So I said I could.  I got up early yesterday morning and ran to Giant because it turns out I was fresh out of rice and I never buy frozen veggies anymore (trying to avoid plastic packaging).  So I wound up buying a big plastic bag of rice (usually I buy bulk but I didn't have time) and a big plastic bag of mixed veggies.  Came home and cooked up 5 cups of rice.  The only way I could do this was by using a big casserole dish and baking the rice.  I don't usually cook rice this way but it turned out really well!  However, it was exceedingly hot outside yesterday so I really didn't like having to put the oven on.  Oh well.  I just cooked up the veggies in the microwave and then cooled them a bit and put homemade vinaigrette over them.  I then took a quick shower and headed over to the shelter to deliver the food. 

Then I took off to Manassas where I was scheduled to meet up with the Latin 2 teacher at the co-op where I've been teaching Latin 1 for the last few years.  He's doing this weekly summer meet up at a Panera there at 11:30 a.m. to sit and translate a Latin text.  I am not even sure of the text.  I think it is a recounting of Erasmus' Lives of the Apostles or De Vitis Apostolorum.  He wound up being a half hour late though.  He is sandwiching this in between work and family and errands.  He hopes that some of the Latin students will want to participate.  But I think I am the only one to show interest.  So we sat there with our laptops open so we could consult on line Latin dictionaries and managed to translate the first paragraph.  He is way, way further along than I am in Latin so he'd say things like so what case is that word in?  Or what is the tense, mood and voice of that verb?  It was challenging but I actually got most of it right!  I find translating so hard but then when it clicks, it is so satisfying!  It's like solving a puzzle! I get that same sense of triumph.  So that was fun.

Then I had pre-arranged to meet with another homeschooling mom at the same Panera right after the Latin session.  She and I are planning a Not Back to School Catholic Family Camp Out & Conference for 2019.  This has been something I've had in my imagination for years and I decided as I leave the homeschooling world, as my kids age out, this would be my last hurrah.  We wound up talking over coffee for almost 2.5 hours.  It was really enjoyable and exciting.

Then I drove home and relaxed for a bit.  Then I made dinner:  I cooked up more chicken in bbq sauce on the stove.  I boiled up some more corn and I sliced up a watermelon and that was dinner.

There's other stuff going on too, but I won't detail them here. 

Today's agenda:
Plastic Free October campaign meeting at 10:30
B to math tutor at 12:00; pick up at 1:30
Make veggie chili
Adoration hour is 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.