March 10th, 2019: Lenten dinners, 500 piece puzzles & spiedie sandwiches.
In contrast to last weekend this was a much slower paced one, and we really needed some down-time to recoup.
Friday
Since it is Lent – we did patronize one of the local churches for the Lenten dinner on Friday evening. But rather than go there – I went out with Gracie to get take-out. I don’t mind being the one to run many of the errands, as long as I can take at least one of the kiddos with me. This week we got the food from Saint Anthony’s church. Their menu is a little unique in that the have Manhattan clam chowder. I like both Manhattan and New England style clam chowder – but it does seem a little more difficult to find the Manhattan style around sometimes. So when we are able to get Manhattan style we take it and consider it a treat. Sophie really enjoyed it and had 2 or 3 bowls!
Since it is Lent – we did give up TV among some of the other things we do give up / do. But on Friday we let them watch the week’s episode of Survivor that we recorded. It is one of the few, if not the only, network TV shows that we watch. Since we don’t have cable TV – we use the Amazon FireTV Recast to record the show on Wednesday from the over-the-air broadcast. The Recast has recently replaced the Windows Media Center PC we have used as a DVR for the last 10 years – and we do like it so far.
On Friday evening, after the kids went to bed, I wrote and posted an article about Spiedies and some of the fond memories I have of those years of my life I worked for my uncle. You can read that here: What’s A Spiedie?
Saturday
On Saturday we started the day doing some cleaning and chores. Yes – with 4 professional crumb makers I am sure we really should be spending more time than just Saturday morning cleaning – but these days the competition for every hour of the week has some fierce competition! Later in the day Gracie went over to a friend’s house for a play-date on Saturday. They had some fun playing Minecraft on their devices and sledding a little. Lately Gracie and Dominick have really been into Minecraft. Although we do regulate their time on their devices and watch the content they view and interact with – we are ok with Minecraft – as it is mostly about building with blocks, being creative and exploring.
At some point over the weekend, a HUGE 500 piece Brady Bunch puzzle appeared on the dining room table. Like the force of gravity from a black hole – none of the family was able to resist its inescapable pull! Time slowed down in the house. Just passing close to the room could pull one in to “just complete a few pieces….” on the puzzle. 20 minutes later that person would finally emerge from the room and continue onto their destination. At some point – as I posted on our Twitter page, the words “I’m selling body parts!” were actually exclaimed in our house by Dominick. I would be more alarmed if I had not quickly realized he meant puzzle pieces with Brady body parts on them… Apparently noses were going at a premium on Saturday evening…
( As a side note – some of the enjoyable nostalgia related to the Brady Bunch show was gone for Melani and I – having recently learned that the picture perfect life the family portrayed was, in actuality, any thing but. However, it did present some opportunities for some humorous comments between Melani and I that were “above” the kids’ heads. Kinda gave some new perspective on just why everyone loved Marsha…)
Sunday
On Sunday it was pretty much our normal routine of religious education, church and a visit to my 97 year old grandmother’s house. It was nice to be able to spend some time with her this week – since I was not able to make it over there last weekend. As a bonus, Mimi (my mother) was over there too!
By the afternoon the Brady Bunch puzzle was completed – and I am happy to report that no one had to resort to buying any Brady body parts from Dominick’s black market operation!
All-in-all, a slower weekend – but no less enjoyable. I hope your weekend was wonderful too!
Sincerely,
