A Day of Rest
Posted by: Karen Syed on: August 16, 2009
- In: Blatherings
- Comment!
For most people Sunday is a day of rest. Not at our house. For some reason this is the day my husband has chosen for us to put everything back into order from the week before. So let’s talk about what I did today.
Thankfully, we went grocery shopping yesterday, so the Wal-mart and Sam’s Club trip was out of the way. Of course we left at 10:30 am yesterday and got home just before 3:00. But that was yesterday.
I got up this morning, late of course, I rarely sleep until 10, but today I did. When I got up I found that yesterday I had mentioned making a big breakfast, so I did. For those of you who know me, I am not so much the health freak, but now that my mother aka the general manager is living with us, her and I are on a course for better health and increased endurance, so healthy eating it is. Mush to my husband’s dismay, we are dragging him along with us. Poor thing is starving. LOL
I made our wonderful breakfast. Boiled eggs, hash browns, low sodium turkey bacon, and fruit. Mom had a bowl of cereal w/ a banana, hubby had a piece of my homemade Applesauce Cinnamon Raisin bread that I made yesterday, and I had a Nutrigrain and fruit bar. All in all a great start. We all sat at the table as a family and ate together. Nicely done.
We then cleaned the apartment. Dusting vacuuming, putting things away, unpacking mom’s suitcases, scrubbing bathrooms, and mopping floors. When does the madness end I ask you???
I made lunch. Rice with ground turkey and spices, carrots, and 18 grapes. Yes 18 each. All of this I did while mom read her David Baldacci book. Um…what’s wrong with this picture? Again, we all sat at the table and ate together. Shocking!
Well, then I had to come into the office and unload boxes of books that were received over the last week, you know the ones that I had to take out of the main room where they sat against a wall all week. So I had to rearrange shelves to make room, and stow away all the packing filler and break down boxes etc.
So then once all that was done, we started in on laundry. Five loads later, it is all washed, dried, and now stacked precariously across my bed. Sleep is not imminent…sigh.
I put the ingredients into the bread maker for this week’s loaf. Wheat bread-made white last week, thought I would alternate. Well, 2+ hours later, the wheat bread had run amok. Yes, I mean amok. This picture is verifiable proof of what happens when good wheat bread gets attitude. So tomorrow, I will make a loaf of white bread. Wheat bread be damned!
Okay, I worked a little bit on a new plan that Echelon has for increasing our eBook sales. New products on the horizon for interested readers. Keep checking back. So by the time 4:00 rolled around it was time to get dinner ready, so I plunks a chicken into a pan with some cut up potatoes and carrots, popped it into the oven and waited…and waited…and waited. Finally at 7:00 I said the hell with the crunchy carrots and took it out, made gravy, and we all sat down at the table for dinner together. Huh!
That my friend’s is a record for me. It is the first time ever that I sat down with anyone (much less the same people) three times in one day to eat all of our meals together at the table as a family. Ever in my life. No kidding.
Why have I told you all this? Because after this day, I am just too damn tired to try and think of anything clever to say and I really wanted to post a new blog. So, there you have it.
What did you do on this day of rest? Top my day (and be honest) and I will e-mail you a FREE PDF of my novel DARK SHINES MY LOVE. But it’s gonna have to be good to earn a free books! 
If you actually rested, you can always go to Amazon and buy a copy of my book. I would appreciate the sale. LOL
9 Responses to "A Day of Rest"
September 1, 2009 at 9:15 pm
I did a whole great post about making bread from scratch a while back, on my MySpace blog. Don’t bother with those machines. I make four loaves at a time, at least once a week.
Beth, it’s just as well your adventure was real life. No one would believe it if it was in a story.
August 31, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Actually, my husband did try to eat a piece, but it was like concrete. I like birds and could only envision little broken beaks all over the yard after they tried to peck chunks off it.
I have to say that Beth won that prize hands down, but I know she has already read my book…what to do
August 31, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Sorry about your bread machine mishap! Were you able to resuse the remains for a bread pudding? Or maybe give it to the birds?
August 20, 2009 at 9:02 pm
What did I do on my day of rest? Rested, of course. Unfortunately, I can’t remember when the last time I had a day of rest. But wait, does reading a terrific Jimmy O’Brien mystery novel all day long count as resting? If so, my last day of rest was today…
August 18, 2009 at 7:50 pm
ROFLMAO!!! Oh Beth, you win. Hands down. I was so reminded of National Lampoon’s Vacation, where the Griswolds are hauling around crotchety old Aunt Edna. We all know how that ended.
And here I was going to post about my day, when I got trapped behind my broken dryer while trying to clean up the dust & lint, and the phone kept ringing, and the dust made me sneeze and I had to pee so bad I wet my pants. And that was the best part of my day…
Pam
http://beaconstreetbooks.com
August 17, 2009 at 11:02 am
My Day of UNREST! (I’d have preferred a day of cleaning)
Yesterday, I was the designated tour guide for the day, so looked on the Chamber of Commerce website and choose the Blueberry Festival. My husband’s brother and wife, my mother-in-law (aka Granny), my sister-in-law and a couple cousins-in-law came along for the adventure.
We left early (in a caravan of three cars) to situate Granny in a comfortable spot and get a good seat at the parade. The first clue that this would be the day from hell was my husband’s comment as we pulled into town, “It sure doesn’t look like there’s a celebration today.” He was correct. The streets were bare, several stores were closed, and after a stop at the gas station (all three cars), we found out the festival had been the previous weekend and the Chamber calendar was wrong.
OK, now what? Since Granny was sitting impatiently in the car, we were hungry, and it was supposed to be a day of fun and adventure, we huddled and came up with another destination thirty miles down the road. We pulled up to a gift shop/flower garden/restaurant combo and gasped. Oh oh, Granny can’t walk well, and it’s all up hill. My husband said he’d try to find a better spot on the top of the hill near the restaurant. Off he went, circled our group twice, then literally drove over someone’s lawn to get up the hill. By this time, Granny’s eyes sparked dark with impatience and starvation. We scurried into the restaurant and were met by a waitress who said, “We’re closing in ten minutes.”
“Oh no you’re not! It took an act of congress to get us here and we’re going to eat.” We sat around a rickety picnic table in their open air seating section (because the other sections were closed), oblivious to the nasty stares coming from the staff. Granny looked at the menu and shouted, “Nine bucks for a sandwich. Are you nuts?” We ate with heads hung low as Granny drank a two-buck-eighty cup of coffee and took two bites from her hoity-toity sandwich.
Then, off to another phase of our tour, twenty miles north. The Amish Furniture store. Granny might like that. It was closed. Poopola.
Finally, we pulled in to a tiny town that boasted a fine Mexican restaurant. Granny agreed she could eat again, so we piled into the crowded building (after hoisting Granny up a set of stairs). Margaritas were in order. We’d earned them, plus they specialized in strawberry margaritas. Granny sipped hers, grimaced and announced, “This tastes like shit.” Of course, because she’s hard of hearing, she speaks twenty decibels above normal and everyone heard her. As Granny browsed the menu she stated she’d never heard of this kind of food and didn’t want any. I ordered her a Lil Gringo, which is an American hamburger and fries. When it came, she refused to eat it because she wanted food like we were eating.
When we delivered Granny home, she said, “I sure had fun. We should do that again sometime.”
August 16, 2009 at 11:32 pm
It seems I did the exact opposite of what you did. Partying until 2am last night, I braved the alarm clock and set it for 7am. One of my party guests wanted to enjoy a nice cup of coffee early.
7:00am came much quicker than I had thought. In fact, I could have sworn I had just gone to bed minutes earlier. My head was still spinning and a major hangover crept in.
I woke up my employee who spent the night, at 7:15 sharp. Amazingly he bounced right up. We fixed coffee, set down in front of the TV. I remember finishing my cup, Pear Harbor was playing on Showtime. Next thing I know, I watch the very same main character in Resurrecting Champ. Huh?
I checked the clock, 11am. I look over to the chair and my employee is sound asleep. At this point I reached to wake him up, but leaning over felt like a crow bar was stabbed into the back of my head. 2 envelopes of PC Power later, followed by a shower, I felt better.
At noon my friend Pina walks in for our Sunday coffee, she is Italian, speaks very fast and loud, my headache threatened an untimely return. Pina left at 2pm and I was ready for a nap, but my cell rang. Great I thought. Some guests from the night before were on their way to pick up their cars at our house (I take the keys from people who drink when we party.)
Instead of taking their cars and leave, they sat down and asked for coffee, fine, why not right? They spoke of last nights party and I was unwillingly reminded of all my sins. Dean came home, he had left with friends after the party.
At 5pm I realized that I needed to get these people to leave so I could take a nap. I was successful whining about chores.
At 6pm, I sat by the computer checking email, then I went to lay down.
I woke up, it was dark out. Dang, I thought confused, what time was it? 8:56pm. I grabbed some unhealthy snacks and sat down for my favorite TV shows, on German television.
End result: It is past 11pm now. The house is a mess, the fridge is empty cause I failed getting groceries. Do I have any regrets? No, I’ve had a great weekend, love the company we’ve had over.
I’m 100% with you on the sitting-together to eat. I grew up that way and value those times a lot. Saturday evening before the party I sat down with Dean and ate the most awesome steak ever. It has been a while since Dean and I ate together, he is mostly running around chasing girls.
–Martin
August 16, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Wow, three meals together – I’m impressed!
I got up early because the cat said so – but you know that because I blogged about it. Then I wrote my blog post – but you know that, too, because you read my blog. Then I read the LA Times (yes, the paper version), planned a vacation I’ll never take but looked good in the Travel section, read a couple of snooty book reviews, and did both the crossword and sudoku puzzles. Afterward, I exchanged a bunch of emails with my buddies up north, trying to find places to visit when I make my little book tour up there in September. Then I sold 3 more books because the lady who bought a dozen from me yesterday sold them all at church and needed more.
Hubby is going to Laughlin with friends for 3 days, so I helped him find everything he had misplaced, and kissed him good-bye. We’ll see if he calls when he arrives – his usual philosophy is, if there’s anything I need to know, the police will contact me.
Then I sat quietly with white knuckles while my son drove to his internship job at the recording studio (he’s only got a permit, so I have to chaperone). Now I’m at home, trying to figure out ways to promote Freezer Burn, and working on Book 2.
Gayle
http://gaylecarline.blogspot.com
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October 22, 2009 at 1:13 pm
As one of the few females that work in my department I was mortified by this. ,