Planning Well to Do Less, Cones, Chairs and Birthdays

I have always felt that organization is my one superpower. Even as a small child, I organized and put in order anything I could. As I have matured into the middle-aged adult that I am, I now feel like planning and organizing are not for improving my productivity, but for increasing my leisure. Unfortunately, I still judge my worth based on how much I can get done. Self esteem sometimes comes from external rewards, but mostly I find my value in crossing an item off my list.

Now I want to plan well so I can do less.

My Hobonichi Techo. True Love.

The other true loves showing me how to do less.

An unusually calm day for a walk. Looking North.

Cedar has now been neutered and has a tracking chip. These new chips are amazing; the one he has also can take his body temperature so he will never have to get a thermometer reading again. He struggled at first, but did get used to his cone. The biggest trouble was that it would fill up with litter when he dug in his box. He is a very enthusiastic litter mover. He ended up wearing the cone for two weeks while he healed up enough to not over-clean the incision and get infected.

"I don't like the cone of shame."

Dozing by the baseboard.

We finally got our chair re-upholstered. The wait was long. We ordered the fabric last August and they got to the job the February. I love this chair and we had worn it out! It's also nice to save resources and extend the life of something. I think I may have bought this chair around 2002.

Cedar likes the updated chair.

They did an amazing job. Plus we got extra arm protectors.

I've been failing in my cooking duties; we've been eating out a lot. I have made a few good meals though. My big success was baking a king cake for Mardi Gras for the first time. It was fun, but it took two days of intermittent effort. Not sure I would do it on the regular.

Baked, but not glazed.

I didn't have any purple sugar, so green and yellow only.

Red beans and rice, squash, and corn muffins for dinner on Mardi Gras.

Shells with vodka sauce. A winter favorite.

Valentine's Day Special: Crab-stuffed poblano peppers and a bees knees cocktail.

A chile relleno hides under all that batter.

Tofu fried rice with a favorite red blend from Bookwalters.

Mushroom cambozola burger with oven fries.

We celebrated my Dad's 79th birthday and Russ' Dad's 76th birthday this month. My brother's birthday is also later this month. I feel so lucky that we are close with our families and that we can spend so much time with them. We went out for a meal at one of my Dad's favorite restaurants, and we had a zoom call with Russ' family to celebrate their big days. Here's to many more years of love.