Besides the snowdrop, I also found a few yellow blossoms emerging on the forsythia. I'm not sure they will survive the next freeze, but they are a nice break among the brown and gray branches for now.
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| We were mostly on back roads but did drive on the interstate from time to time, where we enjoyed the view of the mountains. |
Over the weekend, Ward and I took a trip to Virginia. We enjoyed the mountain scenery as we drove from place to place, visiting friends and searching for landmarks. On one of the winding roads, we came upon a sign for a Regular Baptist Church.
When we got home and did the mandatory unloading of the car and petting the cats, I did some research about Regular Baptist churches. And then I got confused.
Origins of the Regular Baptist church has its roots in England during the late 1600s and was part of a movement to bring atonement to all people because rich people had more access to churches than poor people. Names changed with the times, and General, Old Regular, Partic, Orthodox, and Free Baptist have been somewhat synonymous with Regular Baptist from time to time. In the U.S. in 1790, most Baptists were Regular Baptists.
There was no set doctrine I could find for the Regular Baptists, but generally, they are a more conservative group who believe that you should be baptized before taking communion. And some of them practice foot washing. Regular Baptists are more prevalent in the South.
My little bit of research was not clearing much up for me, so I decided to find a list of Baptist denominations. Maybe a list would help put everything in context and make things clearer. Well, here's the list I found on Wikipedia.
Nope, not clearer. But I have learned a little. I learned it's not so simple.
Note: My sincere apologies to anyone who is a Regular Baptist for anything I got mixed up or just plain wrong. No harm intended.
Until next time...
We are not big on celebrations here. However, we try to do a bit from time to time to break up our everyday routine, and recently, we did our bits.
First up was the Super Bowl. Neither Ward nor I are big football fans, but what better excuse for snacky food than the Super Bowl. For the game, we made guacamole and pizza sliders using up several leftovers we had - except for the avocados for the guacamole, which are always on sale this time of year. The pizza sliders were made from leftover rolls from the freezer which we had at Christmas. They were topped with tomato sauce and various toppings from the fridge. They were delicious. Theo made chips for the dip with corn tortillas that we've been meaning to use up.
Then with our snacks in hand, we set up a puzzle and turned on the game. Well, actually, we watched other things and occasionally turned back to the game to get the score and watch a few commercials. BTW, maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but I think the commercials used to be better than they are these days.
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| Pizza sliders. Toppings included pepperoni, yellow peppers, ham, tomatoes, and smoked turkey (leftover from Thanksgiving). |
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| Ward finished the 1000-piece puzzle a couple of days later. It was a Christmas gift from Aunt Martha. |
And just a couple of short days later, it was Valentine's Day. We have done all the traditional things over the years - cards, poems, flowers, chocolates, dinner out, etc. However, we decided to try something different this year - couples yoga. Yep, you read that right. We celebrated Valentine's Day by doing yoga. Neither of us has ever taken more than a few yoga classes, so we weren't sure what to expect. The room was full of couples, most of who had a wife/girlfriend who was a yoga enthusiast who drug brought along their partner. The hour was spent doing poses and stretches together while connecting physically. There was a lot of good-natured laughter, including Ward and me, as we tried to get into the various poses. We both enjoyed it more than we had anticipated. Afterward, they had a huge cookie and chocolates for each couple. I'd say that the class was a success and a fun way to celebrate. I don't have any pictures. I'm not sure that Ward and I contorting ourselves into various positions is something you'd want to see, anyway.
Until next time...
Or A Day in the Life
or I don't have anything to say, so I thought I'd blog about it. (This may be my byline now.)
Yesterday, Ward and I spent most of the day doing this and that while out and about. We didn't do anything inspiring, but I'm going to share anyway.
Our main goal of the morning was to go back to Costco and get our glasses adjusted. My new glasses are still giving me a headache and needed to be loosened. Ward's were too loose. Along the way, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts to use up coupons that were expiring for a complimentary egg wrap and coffee. I had the egg wrap for my second breakfast, and Ward had the coffee.
Costco was a success, but I managed to make a couple of impulse buys of things I found while I was walking around the store for steps. I got some yoga pants for me and a new sweatshirt for Theo. Although, maybe they weren't entirely impulse buys in that both items were needed, and prices were reasonable. I just hadn't planned on buying them at Costco that day.
Next up were the grocery stores - Aldi and Food Lion. We got only what we needed in those stores except for another impulse buy I found as I was walking around Aldi's for extra steps. We didn't need the Nutter Butters, but that's what happens when you go into the store hungry. My second breakfast was already wearing off. Have I mentioned that I'm an eat-small-amounts-all-day-long eater?
Across the street from the Food Lion was CVS, where I wanted to use some store bucks before they expired. This time I resisted the impulse to buy Doritos and instead picked up two bottles of shampoo. I felt pretty good that it was strictly business in that store.
Then we finally found our first park. It was called a pocket park and was a charming little park with flower beds and a gazebo. We will make a point to go back in the spring when it should be in full bloom. After a couple of wrong turns, we found the next park. It had a playground along with ball fields. Both parks were empty, and we walked around them for a little exercise. The sun was shining, and even though there were strong winds, it was nice to be outside.
After that, it was back home to unload the groceries and have lunch. Next up was a trip to pick up some eyedrops that were being made for me. It was a long trip in traffic, so I was happy when Ward volunteered to come along. We made it home just in time for Ward to go to the gym for a class, and I set about doing dishes and laundry. I hate to admit it, but doing both of those was kind of relaxing after a day of being out and about.
So there you have it. My day out and about. Below are a couple of pictures I took.
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| The gazebo at the pocket park. |
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| We took advantage of the swings at the second park. I think that's the first time I've swung since our kids were little. However, Ward suggested that maybe I shouldn't jump out like I wanted when I was swinging high. :) |
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| The second park also had a large-size checkerboard. It was a Boy Scout Eagle project. |
Until next time...
Close, But No Cigar.
On various social media accounts, I've been seeing pictures of spring flowers. It seems a little early, but while we have had some frigid weather, we have not sustained time below freezing. I guess the flowers are reacting to that. So when today turned out to be a nice day, I thought I would go explore our yard to see what had popped up.
But, alas, I didn't find any gently curving snowdrops, brightly colored crocus, or trumpeting daffodils. But I did see some green sprouting up from the ground. And if the weather remains mild, I may indeed start to see flowers sooner rather than later. I can only hope.
Here are the few signs of spring I did see.
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| Crocus |
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| Day Lily |
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| Daffodil |
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| Nandina. These berries have been with us all winter. |
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| No pictures of the chili, so here's one of a young Theo. |
Theo likes to cook. Partly because he likes to eat good food but partly because he enjoys the science and creativity of cooking. So for Christmas, we got him a gift certificate for a session at a cooking school - the real thing with big-time chefs, good equipment, and helpers. He recently went to a class for one-pot meals. I'm not sure if that's what he wanted to learn about the most from the wide variety of classes, but that's the one that fit into his work schedule. He said he learned a few things and had other things that reinforced what he knew, like the importance of layering flavors. They made three dishes: Morrocan chicken, mushroom risotto, and southwest chili.
He came home and said he'd like to try making the chili for us. That required a trip to the grocery store and five hours of his time. He roasted peppers, he chopped peppers, he ground peppers. Five kinds of peppers in all. He roasted a whole head of garlic in olive oil. He chopped, he browned, he braised. And the end result was delicious. There are almost as many ways to make chili as there are cooks, and I've tasted many of them. This batch may have ranked at the top. But was it worth the effort? We all agreed that it wasn't. None of us have enough time in our schedules to cook this way, even with the excellent results it provided. Theo said that he would be looking at ways to streamline the process and still maintain the rich blend of flavors.
I hope he didn't get too discouraged by his efforts because I'm looking forward to some Moroccan chicken. Not sure exactly what that is, but I hope I get to find out soon. :)
