AuburnChick's Adventures

Happy Wednesday, friends! For those of us stateside, how wonderful was the long weekend?! Sundays just hit differently when you know you don’t have to report for work the next day.

Anyhoo, it’s time for me to share my answers to the questions that Joyce collected for us this week.

Thank you for visiting, and I look forward to reciprocating!

1. Next Sunday is Grandparent’s Day. Share a favorite memory, photo, recipe, or something you learned from a grandparent. 

I didn’t grow up around my grandparents. One set lived in Canada, and the other set were from France. I saw them twice that I can remember.

My stepdad’s mom lived in North Carolina. My sister and I spent a couple of weeks with her one summer. She was a very sweet, southern lady. That summer, she taught us how to cross-stitch after taking us to Walmart to find something to keep us occupied. I think that is what ignited a love for fiber arts. I spent many an hour making beautiful cross stitch pieces, and later expanded my crafting skills to knitting.

2. What’s a quote from a book (besides The Bible) that has stayed with you? 

My hero has always been Corrie ten Boom. I began reading her books when I was a child. The Hiding Place quickly became a favorite of mine. In fact, it is one of a very few books I’ve carried with me all of these years.

The broken spine is evidence of a much-loved book.

The following passage is from this book. The part in red is what has reverberated in my brain ever since I first read it.

And so seated next to my father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked, “Father, what is sexsin?”
He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case off the floor and set it on the floor.
“Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?” he said.
I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
“It’s too heavy,” I said.
“Yes,” he said, “and it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.”

Corrie was blessed to have an incredibly wise father here on earth.

3. What’s your number one food pet peeve? 

I despise wasting food. I will eat leftovers for days and will take leftovers home from a restaurant as well. I find it appalling to see how much food is wasted in our country.

4. What’s one thing about you that is still the same as it was when you were young? 

I still love to read – so much. I used to pretend I was asleep on Saturday mornings when, in fact, I was buried under the covers reading a beloved book. Early favorites included A Wrinkle in Time, Nancy Drew books, and the Sweet Valley High series.

I still appreciate the telling of a story that makes me forget where I am – that drowns out the noise from a world that has lost its ever loving mind.

5. September is National Preparedness Month…does your family have an emergency plan? Do you have some sort of preparedness kit you keep on hand? If so, tell us one thing that’s kept there. 

When we lived in Florida, I always had things ready for a hasty getaway during hurricane season. Thank goodness I was prepped because I had to make a run for it a mere four hours before we got hit by Hurricane Michael in 2018. We took a direct hit from this Cat 5 storm, and the aftermath was devastating.

I always kept bottled water, canned goods, candles, lighters, and matches packed. I had a small safe that held important papers, and I kept a suitcase packed with a couple of outfits.

I don’t have an emergency kit now that I live in Alabama. I need to get a weather radio, and I would love to install a whole-house generator because we have some pretty icky storms that come through.

6. My Random Thought

Speaking of reading . . .

Here are the books I finished in August.

I’m a tough critic. It takes an incredible book to earn five ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me. The Room in the Attic had great pacing that seamlessly alternated between two timelines. I checked out the Kindle version of this book through Prime Reading on Amazon.

Have a great week, y’all!

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Happy Labor Day y’all!

I don’t know about you, but I am very thankful to have the day off. Labor Day is always a great way to transition from a somewhat sluggish summer season to a hectic fall one.

Let’s recap my weekend, shall we?

By Friday, I’d eaten all of my leftovers, so a colleague and I ordered lunch from Niffers. I don’t know if this is a chain, but I hadn’t eaten there in a couple of years. They offer a portobello mushroom “burger,” and I got a side of tater tots. It was delightful!

By 2pm, my brain was mush. I pushed through and managed to get completely caught up with all of my tasks. I’d fallen behind when I had my surgery back in June. The recovery made computer work slow-going, and my brain, quite honestly, was also slow to catch up.

The Mr. and I ran a couple of errands on the way home from work. He loves getting Buffalo wings from Jim Bob’s, a hometown restaurant. I also ran into Kroger for a couple jars of black bean dip.

Nothing says college football like snacky snacks.

Auburn managed to prove naysayers wrong by beating Baylor.

The Mr. and I were happy campers.

Saturday morning, I woke up in plenty of time to watch ESPN’s Gameday. It was Lee Corso’s final day on the show after being one of the original hosts eons ago.

I was emotional throughout the entire broadcast. The tributes were heartfelt.

I love me some Kirk Herbstreit. His affection and respect for Lee Corso has always been genuine. You could see the emotion on his face.

The crew moved down to the field for last, big pick. Look how Ohio State’s band honored him.

If you haven’t watched this show before you probably aren’t familiar with Corso’s tradition of donning the mascot’s head of the team he has picked to win the featured game of the day.

He ended his career exactly as he’d started this tradition – by picking Ohio State to win.

They did, quite soundly. In fact, Corso accurately picked all of the day’s game winners Saturday.

Needless to say, we watched football all day.

I eked out some time to put together a vegan “chicken” salad, made with tofu that I grated up and baked.

Baking tofu is my newest obsession. The texture of the tofu resembles chicken once it’s baked. It’s magical!

The “chicken” salad was delicious!

I also did some reading.

We watched FSU tear up Alabama. I didn’t want to root for either team. We lived in Tallahassee for five years; FSU is so gag to me. Sorry, not sorry. Of course, being an Auburn fan makes me not root for the other team in our state. Ugh.

I will say that Auburn fans everywhere were happy to see Gus, our former head coach and now the offensive coordinator for FSU, get that win. He’s a genuinely great guy who led our team to some of its best seasons.

Sunday, the Mr. and I attended church, and then we ran a couple of errands. We had Kroger fuel points to finish using up, so I decided to try to drive again so we wouldn’t have to make two trips.

Y’all, I did it – without any extra pain!

Two weeks ago when I’d last tried to drive, I experienced so much pain during the ride and all day afterward that I decided to wait awhile longer to give myself more time to heal.

What a difference!

I had to use my left arm to assist the right one with changing from drive to reverse, etc., and when I needed to make a turn, I did so with my left arm, but things were so much easier.

I wound up going to Ulta afterwards because you know – a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Ahhhh. It was so nice to be able to shop without any assistance.

I did my PT exercises when I got home. Oh vey. The new exercises are challenging. My right shoulder has very limited rotation still. Trying to pull my arm inward is almost impossible.

I worked both shoulders. Seeing how far I’ve come with the left one gives me hope and encouragement for what’s coming in the next few months.

After I finished, the Mr. and I went to our siblings’ house (his brother and my sister are married) to watch more college football.

Upon our return home we watched even more football (the theme of the weekend), and I caught up with Big Brother.

I also started a new book.

Whew! That’s a lot, y’all!

I’m planning on staying home today to let myself rest. We will watch tennis all day, which I’m excited about. I’ve really gotten back into tennis the last year or so. Each major tournament has its own vibe.

I am sad for Ben Shelton, who hurt his shoulder during a match Friday. I cringed as I watched the trainers perform the very same tests I went through while trying to diagnose my shoulder injury. Ben had to end the match early because of the pain and the fear that he would do something worse.

Y’all have a fabulous day and a wonderful week!

Filed under: This-n-That | 4 Comments »