I haven't written about what we have done on a mundane day-to-day basis in a while, so here goes. Writing up all of this has taken me actually close to 2 hours, which is also a reason why I don't write very often any more, despite it's benefits for memory's sake. But I guess since I am also physically exhausted and half watching E roll around instead of napping (!!!), this is not time I could have used productively otherwise.
Monday - 19th April
I woke up to a text from a neighbour, Hannah, asking if E and I would like to come over for a coffee anytime during the day. As I had nothing planned, except a quick trip to a nearby grocery store, I accepted. I ended up bringing E on a whirlwind trip to the grocery store, where I quickly bought 1) Andouille sausage, 2) Chocolate mint chips, 3) Apples. Still despite our short trip, she managed to drop a snack container full of something (I no longer remember what) on the floor, and I felt bad when a passing store worker stopped what he was doing to clean it up. After we got home, I pushed E over to Hannah's in her stroller, and we ended up hanging out in her backyard with her son, J. Later, another neighbour's nanny and her charge came over to play, so I finally got to meet her after seeing her from afar for some time. When E and I left, I took the long way home, pushing her in her stroller in one big loop. Lunch (as it was for the rest of the week) was Chicken Noodle (minus the Soup bit, because it had been all absorbed by the noodles) that I had made on Sunday night.
That night for dinner, I made Red Beans and Rice, with the Andouille sausage I had bought earlier in the day. It was a lot better than the last time I made it, because I was a lot more careful with how much Slap Ya Mama Cajun seasoning I added.
Tuesday - 20th April
Tuesday is our usual playdate day with Catie and her son, S. I drove over in the morning and noted that it was already starting to snow a little (crazy since the day before it was actually quite warm outside, but luckily Hannah had warned me when I went over). I tried to parallel park right outside Catie's apartment, but ended up taking several tries this time. Unfortunately however besides E (who doesn't really count), there was a random woman waiting outside the apartment this time, who witnessed me going in and out like an idiot. When I finally succeeded, I noticed she had disappeared, and was a little disappointed that she didn't see me pull it off. However just as we got out of the car and up the stairs to the apartment building, she appeared again, Apparently she had been trying to get in to visit an upstairs apartment. I made a joke about how I had finally managed to park, and she said she admired my determination, hah.
Playdate at Catie's went as usual. She made some sort of Pineapple Marshmallow thing that E had a bit of. By the time we left it had started to snow heavily, so I decided to take local roads, stopping by Jilly's Cupcakes on the way home too. I thankfully noted that the roads seemed a lot more emptier than usual, so most people were staying in to avoid the weather. After we got home, and while eating lunch, we called my in laws to video chat.
I don't remember what we had for dinner.
Wednesday - 21st April
I decided to make Chocolate Chip cookies, after not having baked in a number of weeks. I think because I used a different recipe, I ended up estimating the quantity of everything wrong, and despite drowning in a huge pile of dough that overwhelmed my largest mixing bowl, I still ended up with too much chocolate chips. I ended up making another half measure of dough just to accommodate the chips. While I was doing this, E was running around like a maniac, and so besides later having to clean the kitchen, I had to reckon with the play area too. Making the dough and all the baking also took way longer than I remembered, and was also a lot more exhausting than I recall.
After lunch, I put E in the stroller and pushed her to Brianne and Hannah's respective houses, to drop off bags of cookies. I was too tired to push E all the way around on the big loop, so we went down the road past Hannah's house, and then we turned back. When we got home I realised that our Forest Pansy Redbud tree, that we had had ordered on the weekend from Rolling Ridge had arrived, along with the little Cavatine Pieris shrub. However this wasn't a good time, because there was a frost warning that very night. So even though I was already exhausted, I started digging and planted the Cavatine out front, and started digging 75% of the hole for the Redbud. I had hoped that I could rest and clean when E napped.
But no. E didn't nap this day. Instead she climbed out of her crib and fell on the ground, screaming because she was scared. I had barely managed to rest and was about to tackle cleaning and the laundry when this happened. So I had to take her out of the room. I optimistically tried to clean up while E was awake, but she threw a tantrum instead and I was just very frustrated, tired, and overwhelmed. Nothing was achieved that afternoon.
When Jon came home, he helped a lot with planting the Redbud tree while I heated up the Red Beans and Rice. When E and I were bathing, he folded all the laundry. Later when E went to bed, he helped me clean up the play area. I am thankful that my husband is so helpful and understanding.
Thursday - 22nd April
Thursday is our usual playdate day with Jennifer and Ilse, and their respective sons, A and L. They came over for a short playdate this time, because Jennifer had an appointment at 2pm. After they left, E and I had our lunch and we went to Aldi to get groceries. I had originally intended to go on Friday, but I decided to take the opportunity to do it on Thursday since we had time from the short playdate. E decided to wear her rain boots, and it didn't occur to me that it was a bad idea until it kept falling off, because they were a little too big for her. I don't know how many times it fell off on that trip, but it sure did at least amuse a lot of the patrons at Aldi.
That night for dinner, I made Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs, which came out really disappointing. I don't know what went wrong, because it was a recipe I had made before. Jon still said he liked it, because he is that kind of a good person.
Friday - 23rd April
Decided to go to Trader Joe's, to get snacks, since we didn't have to do our usual regular grocery run at Aldi. I remember when I used to go to Trader Joe's all the time in NYC, because it simply had the cheapest produce around. Looking around nowadays, I am struck by how much pricier it is, though as always the quality can't be beat. Loaded up an entire cart load of snacks that E likes, like freeze dried Okra and Broccoli, though they didn't have the freeze dried Mushrooms that E liked too. After that I drove to Hartke Nursery, because I wanted to get more of the same Coreopsis Presto plants that I had bought previously and planted.
Called my in-laws to video chat during lunch, and then sent E off to nap. While she napped I planted the Coreopsis plants I had just purchased, and rearranged part of the flower bed. For dinner, we had Korean food from Sides of Seoul. Jon picked it up on the way home from work, and as usual it was great.
Saturday - 24th April
We knew Saturday would be a rainy day, but we decided to venture out anyway. Jon finally got to visit OK Hatchery in Kirkwood, even though I've already been there many times. I bought 30lbs of bird seed, and some strawberry and tomato seedlings. Then we crossed the road to Summit Produce where I was just floored by the amount of available plants there. I had seen the advertisements where they advertised a larger garden center, but I hadn't expected the sheer size of it. Anyway I spent way too much time there, as Jon watched a very wriggly E (what a patient, patient man), and ended up getting some Amsonia and Lantana plants. The other patrons there must have thought I was an idiot for asking him things like, "Jon, what is 12 feet?"
After Summit Produce, we went to Walmart because I needed some items like a flash card storage box (for E), and Chocolate Almond Milk. Then, we drove to King Edwards to get takeout. It was the first time we had tried them, and their fried chicken and sides were great. The fried chicken wasn't salty at all, but was still flavourful. Their sides were the same too. Would definitely go back.
During E's nap time, I went out do more yard work. Everyone and their dogs seemed to be out too now that the rain had stopped, and I ended up chatting to quite a few neighbours. I planted the Lantana out front, where I had planted Lantana last year (they are an Annual in this climate zone, weird to think that I had never thought much about them before even though they are prevalent in Singapore), and weeded the little flower bed I had made by the driveway.
Dinner was the last of the Red Beans and Rice. Then we took a short evening walk, and ran into Brianne and Amit who were also out walking with their son, D. We chatted a little bit before we went in to bathe. That night, Jon and I watched So, I Married an Axe Murderer, and it turned out to be very enjoyable. We had both heard of the movie before, but had no idea what it was about. I had noticed it on Amazon prime earlier, and since we haven't watched a movie together in a bit, it worked as a nice date night movie after E went to bed.
Sunday - 25th April
We had no plans or concrete ideas (Jon wanted to visit a petting zoo, but it was too far away for an impromptu trip), so we ended up deciding the 'adventure' for the day would be to drive into the city to visit Flowers and Weeds, and maybe eat Mexican food on Cherokee Street. Our first stop was at Lowes, to get more top soil. Then we drove into the city. I didn't end up getting any plants from Flowers and Weeds, though I did get a couple ideas from seeing the plants there. We also didn't end up eating at Cherokee Street, because we got spooked by a guy standing almost on the middle of the street, clearly tweaked out of his mind.
Instead we decided to try the CWE, but it looked quite crowded, and so in the end we got takeout from Fork and Stix, which we were going to get last week, but ended up at Hi Pointe for burgers instead. After E napped I did more yard work, cleaned out the rest of the weeds from the driveway flower bed, and finally planted the Gentian that I had purchased weeks ago. I also planted one of the Amsonias before my battery went flat/it got too late. Dinner was a weird mish-mash of random items that had been languishing in our freezer, like King Crab and a lobster pasta bake from Aldi.
Monday - 26th April
The day before I had asked Hannah if she was interested in going to a nearby park, since J was talking about it a lot the week before. So, at 10am, I met her and J there. We hung out there until about 11:30am, when she had to return home to meet a repairman. I left then too, and E and I went to Dauster's Greenhouse. When I spent too long pondering the various types of Viburnums they had, E went and loaded up a cart full of Lavender plants (there were 13, I counted when I put them back):
I ended up spending over $100 on a few different shrubs. I ended up purchasing a Brandywine Viburnum, three Compacta Inkberry, and an ominously named Illuminati Tower Mock Orange (???). Rounding it out were some other types of Coreopsis (Zagreb?), and two Cucumber seedlings. I decided to see how much I could done immediately after getting home, and ended up planting the Viburnum and the Compacta. Again, I probably overexerted myself, but now at least our backyard looks like this after we have removed all the Bush Honeysuckle:
Then E and I finally went in for lunch, and we had Fish Nuggets with ketchup. So naturally now as I write up this super long post, I have ketchup all over my t-shirt.
Dinner will be some steaks that I picked up on a lark at Aldi last week.
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