Z is for Zeal

This post is part of the A-to-Z Challenge.

My daughter was home for the weekend. We had a huge list of things to do, mostly revolving around her need for a vision checkup and new glasses.

I took a half day vacation and picked her up at her college around 3:30. I had already been on the road for 3 hours and was settling in for another 3 hours back.

We made it back in time to grab a bite to eat for dinner. I had the best (and cutest) chicken pot pie. The little pie crust topper of a chicken was tasty too. Daughter thought it was a whale.

We then headed to a bath/body store to buy soaps and lotions. Also went to a sports shop to purchase some running shorts and spandex shorts for daughter. That was all we could squeeze in for Friday.

Here is our list for Saturday so you will understand the Z is for Zeal title.

• 9:30 appointment for eye checkup.
• Take new Rx to new optical place.
• Daughter found frames for sunglasses, but not for regular glasses. Ordered the sunglasses; they will ship them to her.
• Go to another optical store and try to find acceptable frames. Yay, found some and get those ordered. They will be ready in an hour.
• Meet with my mom for lunch as we all have April birthdays. Tasty lunch for our 3 generations!
• Pick up new glasses.
• Daughter shops at Victoria’s Secret, while I shop at another store.
• Stop to pick up running shoes for daughter; these were preordered and just waiting for us.
• Stop to get frozen yogurt milk shake and a smoothie. Yum!
• Take eye drop prescription to be filled. Will take about 15 minutes, so go run another errand.
• Returned to first optical shop. They made a mistake on the bill, so we returned to settle up.
• Back to drug store to pick up prescription.
• Go home to take quick nap; we both are tired.
• Wake up refreshed and hungry.
• Daughter crawls into crawl space to turn on water for sprinklers.
• Oops, there is a leak and a problem. I fix both. Aren’t you impressed? I was!
• Daughter and I move patio table from under the deck to on top of the deck. I can’t do that one alone.
• Research and purchase daughter’s plane ticket to Japan. She is going for 17 days to visit her many many Japanese friends.
• Go to a favorite restaurant to eat and also have a legal drink together. We had strawberry daiquiris.

Had to get up early Sunday so could drive daughter to meet her ride back to college. So I got up even earlier to make lemon poppyseed muffins for the ride. I think they were a hit!

Daughter was back at school, I was exhausted, and the only thing we didn’t get done were pedicures for the both of us. But that wasn’t a top priority, so I hereby deem the weekend mission a huge success!

And that is what youthful zeal can do to your day!

The April A-toZ Challenge was just that… a challenge to post (almost) every day. But I did it and discovered several blogs to follow. I think the best part is that I actually finished something. That’s a Win-Win for me so I will carry that success forward. Spring cleaning and back to quilting. Wish me luck.

Y is for YUM…Yogurt!

This post is part of the A-to-Z Challenge.

Today, Daughter and I stopped at a local yogurt shop and indulged in a favorite treat – soft-serve frozen yogurt.  It was difficult to decide what to get. The shop changes out their flavors on a weekly basis, so it is always a surprise what is going to be available.  Today they had a raspberry pomegranate flavor. Oh, so tempting! However, I deviated from the norm and had a wild berry smoothie that not only hit the spot, but every other spot too. Daughter had huckleberry frozen yogurt.

The first time I ate soft serve frozen yogurt was in Idaho Falls, Idaho in June 1977. A bunch of friends and I were going to see Star Wars — the very first one. One of the friends suggested we stop to get a little treat before the movie. Soft serve frozen yogurt — what the heck is that?  Best thing on earth apparently. And the movie was pretty good too. So there were two firsts on the same day.

Our family history with yogurt goes back to age 2. Daughter was a picky eater but she liked yogurt. She had those little tiny cups of yogurt for lunch every day! As she got older, it  was the yogurt in a tube. You could freeze it and by lunch time it was the perfect temperature.

In high school, we made smoothies with yogurt. A little vanilla yogurt, sliced fruit, banana, a couple of splashes of orange juice and a Magic Bullet; voila — the best yogurt smoothie on earth. We were so into the yogurt smoothies that we would buy fresh fruit all summer, wash, slice, and freeze it so there would be fruit the rest of the year.  Strawberries, raspberries, peaches — YUM!

I still make the yogurt smoothies, but only on special occasions.  Whenever Daughter had friends for a sleepover,  I always made smoothies and pancakes for breakfast. Even now, when Japanese exchange students or anyone else comes to visit, I still make smoothies!

I’m thinking I should get back to making them every day because not only are they good, but also good for you!

X is for Xtra

This post is part of the A-to-Z Challenge.

I need lots of Xtra; extra time, extra sleep, extra stamina, and anything else.
And yes indeed I am taking literary license and considering extra as an X word.

Right now I need some extra time to finish vacuuming the house before I go to work and then drive for 3 hours to pick up daughter. And then I need the extra stamina to drive another 3 hours back home.

I am tired already and I guess I need the extra sleep so I can get through an incredibly busy Saturday.

But if wishes were horses and I could dip into that extra bowl, I would like some extra thick hair. My hair is very fine and I want a change.

As long as I am wishing, I would also like some extra patience. I have zip, zero, none. If I catch the situation early enough, I can control my impatience a little bit.

What do you want a little extra of?