Exceedingly Mundane

The long holiday weekend is history, and it’s back to a normal schedule. Although our holiday wasn’t all that spectacular. In fact, it was very normal and uneventful. We went on Thursday (July 4th) to Tim’s Aunt Becky’s house, as we always do. She is setup great for a big get-together (probably 70 people or more), and we always have a great time. We took my dad and he had fun. He enjoys getting out and seeing people. I tried to get us out in a timely manner, but Tim was visiting with cousins and other family members, so we didn’t leave until after 3. That put us back a little late for him going to the golf course. So, he hit balls behind the fence for a while and we watched tv. He made up for missing playing on Thursday by playing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

He had to work on Friday, but they cut them loose a little early (4 PM, which we found hilarious, since Tim works 7-4 this time of year anyway), so he went to play. I cooked fish and roasted veggies, and we tried to eat healthy. Which was a good plan, since we ate out, and badly, the rest of the weekend. Saturday morning, we ran errands, to Lowes and Academy, then stopped and picked up burgers at Dairy Queen on the way home (Tim’s choice, obviously). He played golf till dark and ate chicken santa fe when he got home (one of my oldest and most favorite recipes to throw together). Sunday, we went to church. Our pastor is on a 6 week sabbatical, but they did start a new series in his absence, Recreate. Yesterday’s sermon was about the Sabbath and keeping it holy, a very good message. We went to brunch at Waffle House (again, Tim’s choice, obviously) and then to look at a few houses close to Tim’s golf course. We couldn’t find any in our price range that we liked. No surprise there. After that, Tim left to play golf at The Refuge and I went to Kroger for groceries. I keep meaning to go over to FreshWay produce or maybe the farmer’s market, but keep just hitting the grocery store instead. I did buy two new things, new to me, a fresh pineapple and an eggplant. I’ve never cut a whole pineapple, I always wimp out and buy one already cut up. And I’ve had eggplant out (parmesan, in Italian restaurants), but never bought one and tried to cook it before. I need to get busy Googling ideas for how to cut and cook the darn thing! 🙂

Another year, another 4th of July celebration in the books. This makes the 17th year that we’ve gone to Tim’s family get-together on the Fourth. Well, except for maybe 2 years, we were on vacation and didn’t make it those times. His mom’s siblings and their families and friends all get together, and it’s Tim’s favorite time to go visit his aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. We always have a great time going. It’s held at his Aunt Becky’s house, and she has a pool, so the kids love going. We’ve never stayed until late, but I’ve always wondered if they do fireworks 🙂

We left before lunch to drive down. I made my mom’s lemonade cake this year to take. I always take a dessert, it travels better, I think 🙂 There was tons of food. Tim’s uncles and even Terry get together early on the day to grill up a ton of chicken, and it’s always delicious. This year, there seemed to be even more veggies than usual. Everyone’s gardens must be doing well!

After we got home, I had expected Tim to head to the golf course, but he surprised me and stayed home. We watched a lot of tv and just hung out inside, in the air conditioning! We got a short rain shower in the early evening – the first rain we’ve had in at least 3 weeks. I’m hoping for more soon 🙂 Someone in our neighborhood started shooting off fireworks (don’t they know it’s banned in our city and has been for over 20 years?!), and of course, it upset Beau. He does NOT like fireworks, he starts barking furiously.

It’s always weird when a holiday falls in the middle of the week. It was back to work for Tim, and back to a normal routine for me, on this Thursday. Gosh, I hope Christmas is not in the middle of the week this year, I better go look that up! 🙂