April 22nd, 2019

Happy Day after Easter everyone!  Hope you did something fun and maybe ate some chocolate bunnies, some marshmallow chicks, maybe a few jellybeans?

Tim and I had a good day for sure.  We started out sleeping late.  A perfect start to the day.    Any day that we don't leap out of bed at the buzz of the alarm, feet on the floor, dashing to the shower (Tim) and to the coffee pot (me) is a very good day.

But we slacked off even more than that.  We didn't just wake up late.  We also just lounged around watching something on TV for awhile (I don't remember what but knowing Tim it was probably an old episode of NCIS).  Eventually we got up and showered and dressed, prepared for whatever the day had to offer but we were in no rush.  Just being in "no rush" is a treat.  We had some breakfast and read the newspaper.  Ahhhhh.  A beautiful start to our day! And the absolute best part of the day was that we had absolutely no plan.  Zero plan. A rare event indeed.

At some point, I went out to water my little potted garden and decided that the weather was far too beautiful to be inside all day.  So I invited Tim to take a walk with me.

There was no big planned destination.  We just stepped out onto our street, faced south and started walking.  We live on the northeast end of the island so our walking options are limited to south and west. We chose south.  We admired various houses and gardens along the way.  We chitchatted about this and that and cabbages and kings and the price of sealing wax. In other words, nothing particularly important.  But that's part of the joy of it.  No stress, no pressure, no deadlines. just walkin' and talkin'.

We ended up walking nearly the full length of the island.  When we reached Service Club Park we stopped and decided to return via the beach.   Luckily for us, that park has beach access.  It also had covered picnic areas!  Awesome!

We made our way to the beach by weaving through groups of people taking advantage of the picnic areas. What a great idea!  Picnic Easter! I am always so impressed by how clever some people are.  I am not sure I ever would have thought of it. 

They brought table clothes and Easter Centerpieces, picnic baskets and coolers!  Everyone was in a great mood!  There was a l lot of talking and laughing going on.  There was frisbee on the beach and someone out on the water in a paddle boat.  Sand castles were being built, lots of napping in the sun,  one miniature easter egg hunt and of course a whole lot of eating.  I wish I had thought of it.  

It was a long walk back but a beautiful one. Sand, surf, sun....can't ask for a better day than that!

We were gone for hours!  And arrived home just in time to  start dinner!

I wanted to do something a little special for Easter Dinner. I mean it's a holiday after all even if it was just the two of us.  So I made a pork loin roast, home made baked macaroni and cheese and steamed asparagus.  I made a lot of noise, a big mess and a yummy dinner.

Blurry photo but you get the idea.  The biggest difference about this dinner is that for the first time ever in my adult life, I did no holiday baking.  NONE!  I didn't know I was even capable of Not Baking. Especially for a holiday. But it appears that I am.  And you know what?  The sun rose, the sun set and the world continued to turn.   

I didn't intentionally set out to Not Bake. It wasn't as if I planned dinner and consciously said, "And there will be no baked goods for Easter this year!".  It wasn't a punishment.  It wasn't a diet plan (I made mac'n'cheese so obviously not for health reasons). It wasn't a time constraint thing.   It just honestly didn't even cross my mind!  Wowza!  That is a first!

Normally when I plan a holiday meal or any special occasional menu, it STARTS with the dessert and then grows from there.  This time, it wasn't even on my radar!  How very bizarre!  

Well however it happened, we were so full from dinner, we didn't even miss dessert.  And of course, there were the chocolate bunnies available for chocolate emergencies.  I suppose they could serve as dessert emergencies as well.

But meanwhile, I had lots of leftover pork roast and mac'n'cheese.  The leftovers are both the best and the worst part of amy holiday meal.  Best because I can slapdash a leftovers meal together in no time at all.  Worst because it's kind of the same meal, several days in a row and honestly, even a meal you like can be boring to many days running, right?

Regardless, today is the day after Easter and the next holiday on my radar, I think, is Memorial Day.  Maybe a picnic is in order?