Sunday Morning

Well Saturday saw us with cold temps to start the day but by late afternoon the winds calmed down and with lots of sunshine we reached a high into the 60's. It was just a mite nippy after sunset but not nearly as cold as it has been. Today we start to feet the warmth of the 70's once again before supposedly rain comes in the first of the week.

I started the day out much the usual despite it being a Saturday. I was up around 6'ish then did my morning routine after my quiet moments before heading out to the rec for a couple hours of pickle ball. This month of January will be our last month of having the gym on Saturdays for the game but with the weather being nice we can always play outside once the youth basketball have the gym. Yesterday we had 24 players most of whom are intermediate and beginner players for the morning session. I stayed until 10 then headed home to work in the garden after a decent workout.

I harvested once again several different lettuces, beet greens and kale for the salad and then Nancy added all kinds of other veggie for the mix. We made a run to the local veggie stand for tomato's and wound up getting turnips, grapes, green beans, cukes, sweet taters and of course Ruskin tomato's. We haven't shopped there in quite awhile and their produce is always so nice and fresh and reasonable as well. My green beans are about a half inch in length and so far no tomato's have set any fruit. I then harvested  the leaves of 4 collard plants and cleaned then for the pot. We crisp up bacon added a whole cooking onion and a little red pepper flakes then the chopped collards which simmered for about 4 hours. They were to die for and without a doubt absolutely the best broth ever as the leaves literally disintegrated in your mouth. Nancy also made a turnip casserole with a white sauce which also was to die for. We took the salad, collards and casserole with us up the street for our pulled supper with the Botbyl's and Tracy's.

I spent the rest of the afternoon feeding my plants and hand watering the garden as the outside air slowly warmed to where a jacket wasn't needed. Around 4 I tuned into the NFL playoff game and at first thought the Ravens were going to beat the Patriots on their home field but Brady pulled out another win with his leadership and skills despite being 2 TD's down a couple times. The Panthers in the late game in Seattle played well the first half but again the ability of the Seahawks quarterback Wilson prevailed and that turned out to be a blow out when I shut the tube off. There should be a couple decent games on today(Sun) as well.

Well Dan cooked fillets and Kathryn made scalloped taters and of course there was salsa, guacamole and what we brought to the table so we had us a sit down feast. We ate healthy with no breads or dessert but did have a little glass of red vino for a couple of us who partake. Nancy and I ate somewhat unhealthy for lunch with a frozen pizza doctored up with fresh mushrooms. That was the first use of flour for me this week but it tasted great especially with fresh mushrooms and lots of red pepper flakes and additional oregano and basil sprinkled on top to accompany a fresh garden salad.

Today we drive to Tampa to Element Church with a stop afterwards at IKEA afterwards to look for a new TV stand. We are modernizing with a new 42 inch LED smart TV and of course it won't fit in our entertainment center so that luxury piece of furniture will be moved to the garage for storage. This afternoon at 3 we are meeting with our Amway leaders at the Salt Rock Grill on the beach for a sumptuous lunch/dinner as a reward for doing so well in November with our business as an IBO. Our leaders are just so giving and fun to do business with and we just love all of the products we are using that specifically are only distributed by Amway.

That was about all that is going on except we got a call from Paw Paw(dad) and while he is 87 he seems to be in good spirits and health, but his younger brother Junior is in the hospital with some health issues. Seems he has some internal bleeding issues and has been given some units of blood. I gave him a call in N.C. and he didn't seem worried but sounded in good spirits despite this same issue occurring once before.

I almost forgot to mention we played a new game called THINGS at last night's supper. It is a hoot and it took a couple rounds and the reading of the directions several times to learn how to score the game but the essence of the game was laughter and lots of humor. I think we will keep this game and play it several times in the future. You must write an answer to a question and then the fellow players must guess who wrote the answer and if you guess who wrote the answer they are out of that round. It's fast and fun and somewhat like Balderdash as you try to influence people with your answer, LATER