This week, I had a laze around and eat weekend at Noosa, with lots of good food and good views. G had a solid run in the Noosa half-marathon in preparation for the Gold Coast Marathon in July. He’s nursing an Achilles injury, and we’re hoping it holds up until then so he can get a time well and truly under the Boston qualifier this time. He was only 4:30 under the qualifying time this year. Here’s some good things from this week:
Coming Home
While I love holidays, I also love coming home, especially when the weather is as stunning as it was on Monday. The sky was blue, there was no wind and the bay looked like a pond, it was so smooth. Coming home Monday also means we’ll likely see the girls because Monday is family dinner night at our place. We arrived home from Noosa late afternoon in time for the girls to come over after work for dinner … and bring Riley with them. He had gone home with them the previous Monday, and it feels so weird when he’s not around home. Since then, Melbourne has turned on the most beautiful blue-sky Autumn weather, with temperatures reaching 18-19C.
vegetables
We are so fortunate to have access to good-quality fruit and vegetables. After all our eating out, I was craving some vegetables when I got home. I mean, we ate vegetables while we were away, just not in the volume I normally would. We didn’t order any vegetable sides because the travel mates are not huge on veggies. Sitting in the gate lounge waiting for our flight home on Monday, I logged on and ordered a box of vegetables from CERES to arrive on Tuesday. I knew I had a cabbage, a carrot and some capsicum to make coleslaw to eat for dinner on Monday, but it was so good to get the rest of our week’s vegetables sorted.
I usually use an oil-based coleslaw dressing, making it easy to repurpose the leftovers. On Tuesday and Thursday, I made some of the leftovers into an okonomiyaki-inspired lunch.
shopping lists in library books
I love being able to borrow library books, and I get such a little burst of joy when I find little bits of other people’s lives nestled in the pages of a library book. I’m not sure why it is. Normally, they are just reserve slips. I guess many people do what I do and use their reserve slips as bookmarks. This time, I found a shopping list in “The Art of Prayer.” I’m not sure I want to eat whatever this person was shopping for, though … tinned champignon is not really my cup of tea. I’m using this as my bookmark, and I’ll make sure I slip it back into the pages for the next reader.
Puzzle Changeover night
A few weeks ago, I found a 1000-piece puzzle to tide us over while we searched for a larger puzzle in the nearby op shops. We only had a small number of pieces to finish this puzzle on Monday night. Often, we let it sit so I can get a photo when it’s daylight, but H was having none of that. We had most of the evening stretching out before us, so I took the photo, which ended up with the shadow of my arm across it. Then, the puzzle was boxed up, and the next one pulled out from under our bed. Luckily, before we went away, G found a 2000-piece mountain village scene, all wood houses with geranium-filled window boxes. It was $3, with a little note stuck to the box “As is—take a chance on me.” My eldest’s response: “Challenge accepted.” I will report back on how many pieces are missing.
Bonus Good Things
- Gym membership. I joined recently so I could replace running with cycling, and I’ve found out how convenient it is to get on the calf raises machine. This will continue even once I’m able to run. I think the treadmills will provide a good start to get back into running too—no uneven ground to contend with while I build back up my foot strength.
- G is still doing the grocery shopping for me. He doesn’t even complain when I ask him to go down late in the afternoon to pick up what we need for dinner.
- Fantastic deep conversations at our small group … plus yummy freshly baked raspberry and coconut cake.
- My little massage ball that helps clear the kinks in my traps. Painful, but brings relief.
- I listened to a few podcasts on my flights. The Bible Project: Sermon on the Mount: E21 had an interesting little aside about the importance of routines and rituals, in the ancient church—”if you want to be filled with the Spirit, do these things” (rituals etc). This connected with some of my thoughts around, RENEWAL, my word for the year. I also have a little collection of notes from the lastest Rebuilders episode “Are we on the brink of spiritual revival”. With this especially standing out: “part of renewal is stewarding and stewarding is often about perseverence, about holding on and plodding on.”
- On the topic of notes, I love my little Field Notes (I have the United States of Letterpress Edition 3-pack A). They take up hardly any room in my bag and are convenient for jotting down little bits and pieces. I mainly use them when I’m travelling.
- Some little laughs from Aussie comedian Jimmy Rees “first time running” and “Pass this test to become a mother”
- My broad beans are sprouting. Next week, they should be big enough to mulch the bed, and then it will be a matter of waiting for the beans.
How has your week been? What kinds of things have you found sandwiched between the pages of a library book? Do you have any suggestions for what the mystery reader was going to make? Do you crave veggies if you’ve been eating out a lot?
Comments
18 responses to “Good Things Friday”
I also love little snippets of other people’s lives – and in a library book, it feels like a little secret gift! We also eat a ton of vegetables, and I find when we are travelling and eating out that *my* idea of a vegetable portion and a restaurant’s idea of a vegetable portion are just not the same. It’s so hard to get the same volume!
I agree about restaurant vegetable portions. We often order a side of beans or broccollini to counter that. I also find that one pot recipes usually need their veggie quota increased.
That blue sky! Your weather sounds amazing. And those vegetables… yum.
I like the note on that 2000 piece puzzle. Yes, you’ll have to report back on that one!
Gyms are great- I have to get back to mine. I really prefer the treadmill when coming back from an injury. No uneven ground, like you said- and when I started running again after spraining, my ankle, I was actually so scared to run that I started while holding onto the handrails. GOOD LUCK WITH IT.
THanks Jenny, I’ve got about four weeks to go I think until I’ll be back running but I’ve been doing SIT on the bike.
I laughed and laughed at the “challenge accepted.”
It looks like we are going to meet the challenge, altohugh the puzzle does look to have 1 corner piece missing.
Yes, I always crave a ton of veggies when we had stretches of eating out a lot. It’s like your body KNOWS that veggies are good for it 🙂
I love that you’re doing these big puzzles all the time.
And yay for the gym membership – it’ll be so beneficial during your recovery to have access to some machines.
I can imagine you getting into a big plate of veggies.
Always so amazed with your puzzle frenzy. I wished I had more puzzle time in my life and maybe someone to do it with. I used to go to my aunts house just for the purpose of puzzling, drinking wine, eating chocolate and chatting the night aways. Miss those days.
Those veggies look amazing. I always consider getting one of those boxes but never do. Maybe I should treat myself to one to test it out.
There is an instagram account of someone collecting shopping lists he finds in carts.
It is much more fun to do puzzles with other people. My eldest is the big driver of the puzzling.
I find I eat more veggies and a bigger variety of veggies when I order the box which is a bonus.
A yes, lists in trolleys. I’ve found a few of those.
I like the shadow of your arm on the puzzle…I think I would have thought it was part of the puzzle and tried to figure it out myself.
I had to look up ‘champignons’ because I had no idea what they are. Canned mushrooms?
Yes, canned mushrooms.
I so rarely check out physical books but I would be delighted to find a shopping list like that. I am not sure what they are making though – some sort of stirfry maybe although the tinned tomatoes don’t fit with that. Or maybe a pasta sauce? I only had tinned mushrooms as a child. We lived in a really rural area so getting fresh mushrooms was a bit of a hassle. I didn’t mind canned mushrooms in a pasta sauce as a child as they meshed in with everything else but I would NEVER buy them as an adult!!
I love that you guys always have a puzzle going! I love puzzles but I have a toddler that would certainly destroy a puzzle or walk off with pieces to play with them… I do have a puzzle mat so I can roll up an in-progress puzzle but the puzzle kind of comes apart when you roll it up until you are further along so it’s not a great solution.
I get burned out on eating out VERY FAST so I crave simple, healthy meals when we get back!!
I wonder whether it was a sweet and sour type of thing with the tomatoes, mushrooms and corn? I would never buy tinned mushrooms either … the texture is not nice.
We have a puzzle roll too for our largest puzzles and we found the same, that it doesn’t hold that well together. I usually lay a towel over the top of the puzzle before I roll it up which helps a bit, but it still needs putting back together when you unroll it.
I love coming back home after a trip! That is the reason why I like to clean the house before we (or, I) leave. So good to burrow into clean sheets, after being on the plane or in the car for a while…
Once, ions ago, I found a list in the book that was a reflection of sorts- they wrote what they liked/disliked about the character. So I also reflected and included MY list along with the other and returned the book to the library. I wonder if it kept going…
Clean sheets re wonderful, and this time I was able to wash our blankets, pillow and mattress protectors so the bed was extra clean when we climbed in.
That is so cool that you added in your own reflections to the library book note.
Those vegetables look so good; I know what you mean about travel and eating out and just wanting to come home and eat a plate full of veggies! I love how you repurposed the cabbage etc. I often do that with salads as well, just cook them if there are leftovers! I will also just throw the dregs of a chip or cracker bag into my meals sometimes to use them up and since they are not big enough for dipping.
My aunt is a librarian and she posts a lot of photos on the library’s IG page of notes found in books. Some of them are quite old and they are very fun to guess where they came from and what the person was thinking when they wrote it!
I love that your aunt posts photos of the notes found in their library books. Yes, it’s so intriguing to think about.