Yesterday was a beautiful day here, and I felt guilty about it all day. It just seems bizarre that we enjoyed lovely weather and I was looking at photos on Facebook from friends up north with 2 feet of snow outside the door.
Wacky weather indeed.High today will be 60, with a chance of showers.
Michael needed to practice his serve, so we loaded up some tennis balls and went to the courts. My job was just to send the balls back to him so he could serve, but when I hit them he kept hitting them back. So I was able to haul my big butt around a little and volley. A LITTLE BIT. I spent most of the time walking around the courts picking up balls. That's OK. Got me outside and I got a little exercise. My right arm is sure sore though.
I was just happy to be able to hit the ball at all. Last time I played tennis was about 25 years ago when I was in grad school.I was on a date, and I beat the guy, and we broke up shortly afterwards. I never subscribed to the "act ladylike" school of sports.
I had put dinner in the crockpot yesterday morning. I loaded in some chicken filets, a can of black beans, a can of pinto beans, 2 cans of Ro-tel, and some onion. Didn't realize that one can of Hot Ro-tel would make the entire dish SPICY. Like, even Michael said "It's pretty spicy, Mom. Uncle Bruce would like this."
I put big dollops of guacamole and sour cream in my bowl and it was still spicy. Cleared my sinuses. I kept sniffing. Then Michael started sniffing, imitating me. Then Mother [who was eating a different meal] started sniffing. They both laughed at me sitting there sniffing, sweat on my forehead.
Hey, when I meal makes you sweat it's a win-win right?!
We watched one of our favorite family movies last night, Hopscotch, with Walter Matthau. As soon as Michael saw his face he hollered "The grumpy old man!" and grinned.
This is the basic plot: "A CIA agent tired of his incompetent colleagues retires and dares them to stop him from publishing an embarrassing book of memoirs."
If you are looking for an intelligent and gentle movie that will make you chuckle, get Hopscotch from Netflix.
I spent a good bit of time yesterday helping Michael with a project wherein he makes a booklet of snack recipes for kids. I thought it would be hard to do but it wasn't, just time-consuming.
This is a recipe I might actually try making, I thought it sounded so good, but I would likely add some honey for sweetness:
Zucchini Muffins
Into a large bowl mix:
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp. ginger
- 1/8 tsp. allspice
- 1/2 tsp. salt
Stir in: 2 cups grated zucchini, 1 apple peeled, cored and grated
In another bowl, beat: 3 eggs, 2 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce, 1/2 cup oil (vegetable or canola)
Stir into flour mixture until batter is just combined. Spoon into well greased muffin cups, filling to the top. (Note: If you are using muffin liners you may need to spray with cooking spray to prevent the muffins from sticking to the paper.) Bake at 350° for 20 minutes.
