Nov 16 - 27, All around home

   The last two weeks have been pretty uneventful.  We have definitely settled into a Covid-19 routine, of sorts.  Daily walks around the neighborhood, sometimes going  to a nearby nature spot to walk instead.  The weekly excitement of going grocery shopping to Trader Joes, Whole Foods and Stop & Shop --woo hoo!  Peter working on his various blogs daily.  I have been helping him consolidate and update his blogs into one website/blog-- yourtaxmatterspartner.com  I have also been starting to get my photos ready for my annual Xmas letter collage, and my refrigerator photos.  I also want to create some Photo Books, one for each leg of our RV travels - southeast, northwest, and southwest.  In addition, I have taken up knitting again, and am slowly knitting a blanket to donate to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for premie babies.  And, in order to keep exercising here in New England, with the weather not suited to outdoor walking throughout the winter, I have restarted doing Jazzercise sessions.  This time, online, with Aimee's Jazzercise group.  I love just going into my basement and doing a workout there.  No driving, no need to "dress appropriately".  I hope they continue with online classes, even after Covid-19.  And, it's fun watching Aimee teach.  Almost like being there.  Then, of course, there's cooking-breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Everyday.  Being retired and with Covid-19, there's more kitchen time.  We used to go out to a restaurant usually once a month or so.  I have also started to bake more than I have in a long time.  I've started baking breads, muffins,  and cookies.  However, I stopped the cookies, since we are trying to reduce our sugar intake, and the cookies were going really quickly.   

  Something new since our return from traveling --we've decided to reduce our coffee consumption, so each afternoon, we are now drinking hot tea.  Claire & Ian were definitely our inspiration for that change, as they only drink tea.  Our evenings after dinner are usually-- read, I work on my jig saw puzzle, we may play a game, then do a sitting meditation, and watch something on the Netflix, Amazon Prime or DisneyPlus.  Maybe even a DVD.  We've gotten into watching some TV series.  Not super exciting, but OK for now.

  We did go over to Claire & Ian's new house (formerly aka Orion's).  We had to deliver some items to them, and did a game day and dinner, while there.  They have fixed up their space very nicely and seem very comfortable there.  

  Finally, this week was Thanksgiving.  It was the first time in 45 years that we have not been with family for Thanksgiving.  Thank you Covid-19.  We did have a great Zoom call with all the kids, and Scott, Amy & Adelle joined in.  We also had a great Zoom call with all my siblings and cousins, and Lisa & David joined in on that one.  It felt nice to connect with everyone.  Dinner was a lot easier, as we didn't prepare nearly the variety of foods that I would cook if we had had company.  I did, however, for the first time in my life, prepared a turkey, for Peter for dinner.  It was a Trader Joe's precooked, half breast, that I just needed to warm up in the oven.  It even had garlic butter juices  that I made into gravy, to serve on his mashed potatoes.  I, of course, had garbonzo loaf.  And, I made him super wash the pans used to cook anything having to do with the turkey.

Some daily walk photos:

Daily activity photos:

Jazzercise:

Peter Blogging:

Evie's computer station:

Evie's Jig saw puzzle area and knitting photos:

Evie's life in the kitchen and meal photos:

Evening entertainment area photo:

Claire & Ian's game room (their photo):

Thanksgiving day at Anica's (Owen & Quinn baking) -their photo:

 

Nov 8 - Nov 15, Home, Home, Westville Dam Recreation Park-Southbridge, MA

    We are "enjoying" the effects of Covid-19 stay-at-home edicts.  Learning to deal with the challenges of going stir-crazy.  Finding joy and excitement in the adventure of going out to the grocery store.   I am also starting the project of replacing the linoleum in our main bathroom, as the old one is stained and curling at the edges.  Trying to find samples of LVP (vinyl planking) online is rather difficult, as the colors are off, and I actually need a sample to put in the bathroom and see what it looks like with the cabinets and wall color that is there (I am not a great visualizer).  So a few stops at Home Depot, and the two neighborhood flooring stores (all with masks on, of course).  I may have decided on one--we'll see.

   For one of our daily walks, we decided to try to walk the woods behind the condo.  We have never stepped foot into the woods in the 9 years that we have been here.  Now I know why.  It is a wetland, with swampy, mushy areas.  But the real deterrent was all of the prickly, viney,  underbrush.  And, the very uneven, bumpy, root-filled ground.  We couldn't walk very far before needing to turn in a different direction.  So, we decided to skip that experience, and just do our regular neighborhood walk.  It is a nice view to look at, though.  

   Our once-a-week hiking excursion was to the Westville Dam Recreation Park in the nearby town of Southbridge/Sturbridge.  The Army Corp of Engineering built a dam there for flood control, and a very nice park, to go with it.  There is a longish lake, with a 1.8 mile loop trail around it.  It was a delightful walk.  We may go there again.

 With the poor weather, I have started  doing some of Aimee's online streaming Jazzercise classes.  It's really nice to be able to them in my own home.  This morning I did a class that Aimee taught, from her basement studio.  It felt like I was visiting their home--something I really miss doing.  And, Aimee is a great Jazzercise instructor.  And, I got a good work-out to boot.

  I finally finished my 3rd 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.  This one was slower, because it was just me doing it (Claire & Ian helped on the other ones) and all the pieces were mostly the same shapes!  And, there was one piece missing!  How frustrating.  But I did it.  Now on the next one.

Back deck photo:

Back woods hiking attempt photos:

Westville Dam photos:

3rd Jigsaw puzzle photo:

Nov 2 - Nov 7 - Mom's birthday and Walden Pond

  We have been keeping busy working on updating Peter's "Your Tax Matters Partner" blog.  He is consolidating his posts from Forbes.com, and two other blogs he has.  He has over 2,000 posts since he started in 2010.  And we needed to check to see if they were all there, had the proper category, tags, publishing dates, and images.  Slow going, but it needed to be done.  

Election day came and went.  Peter managed to watch the proceedings until midnight, I could only check in periodically throughout the day and evening.

Nov 6th was Mom's birthday - born 11/6/1919, she would have been 101 years old.  She is in our hearts always.

  Nov 7th - today was a beautiful 74 degree, sunny day.  Perfect for going on a day trip for our daily hike.  We decided to go to Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond in Concord, MA.  I had never been there.  It is s State Park, and has a 1.7 mile hiking trail around the lake.  It takes you over to the location of Thoreau's cabin, and has side trails down to the beaches that are all around the pond.  There is a reconstructed cabin by the parking area, that shows what Thoreau's cabin looked like, but at the actual site, there are just some plaques.  I was AMAZED to see how many people were sun bathing on the beaches and SWIMMING in the lake.  Some had wet suits on, but many didn't.  There were also lots of paddle boats.  And this is the first week of November, and we had 5 inches of snow last week!  Fortunately, everyone walking the trails had masks on, and people kept their distance.  We took a scenic ride home, so it was a very enjoyable day, which gave us a break from staying at home all the time.

Mom's birthday, remembrance photo:

Walden Pond photos:

Election Day results:

Oct 26 - Nov 1 Halloween, regular home stuff

    I have been keeping busy with home projects--several of them (Peter says LOTS of them).  Big one is reorganizing the bookshelves--in the living room, in the guest room, in the basement game area and in the storage rooms.  Also rearranging the closets--moving clothes out of our bedroom closet and into the guest room closet, shoes included.  Tossing stuff and giving away stuff.  We also rearranged my computer work area -- moved it from the bedroom  and into the kitchen area where there is a much bigger work area and the printer.  Nice view of the backyard woods too.

It snowed 5 inches, in October !!!  Crazy.  Three days later, and it ahs all melted.  Thank goodness. I knew there was a reason we had originally planned on not being in New England for the winters anymore.  Thanks to Covid, here we are.  Unfortunately, the heavy weight of the snow and the cold killed all my fall flowers.  

  Halloween came and went.  Saw the grandkids on either Zoom or photos.  Really missed seeing them this year in person.  And wouldn't you know it, this year I decided NOT to buy any candy, as there has never been anyone to come to the condo in the 9 years that we've lived here.  And, with Covid, who knew if trick-or-treating was even "ON".  And, then we would just have a bag of candy that Peter ate all by himself!  So, this year, I said "why bother", and wouldn't you know it, one of the few kids in the condo association came by with her Mom,  and I had nothing to give her!  I felt SO bad!  They understood, but I still felt bad for the rest of the evening.  

On Sunday, since this week was a Tuesday Zoom call week, I was missing speaking with the family, and Cheyenne, Savannah, & Siena called and invited me to watch Zootopia on Disney Plus with them.  The movie on one screen, and a shot of them in their living room watching the movie on the other.  And we could talk.  Fun.

I started knitting the baby blanket that I will ultimately give away to the NICU unit for preemie babies.  I haven't knit for 30 years or so, and it has taken me awhile for my fingers to remember, but it's getting there.  I also fixed the keyboard piano, and found some beginner piano books.  Not sure my fingers will ever learn the notes to play.  But, it's fun trying.  And, I continue slowly working on my 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.  Without Claire and Ian, it is slow going.

New computer set-up photo:

1st Snow photo:

Halloween photos from family:

Random grandkid photos: