My Dear Friend- Notes to Seniors who need them

Last year, my Dad fractured his hip, and for five months, he stayed in a hospital, a long-term care facility, and then a rehab facility. This was all through COVID restrictions, and I couldn’t visit him. It was tough, and I know it took a toll on my Dad. I wish that there were more opportunities to connect.

GlamourGals is a nonprofit that provides programming for elderly residents. They currently help reach out to isolated seniors through their #mydearfriend program, where individuals can write notes to senior citizens in need of some care and comfort in various facilities. This is my second batch of letters within the year, and I enjoy it. These cards are geared towards Valentine’s Day and Galentine’s Day, but you can make cards year-round.

If you want to do some good on your own or with friends, consider making cards or having a card-making party! Here is where you can find out more information.

January Pantry Challenge

This month, I took part in The Sweet Frugal Life’s January Pantry Challenge, where I took an inventory of what I had in the pantry, fridge, and freezer to make dishes. I wasn’t super strict with it and only made a handful of meals, but I still consider it a success!

The main takeaway from my experience; I have a lot of soup in my pantry!

Here are some of my dishes.

shrimp and veggie stir fry
red beans and rice take 1
red beans and rice take 2
dumplings
eggs and spam
miso ramen
ramen
New England clam chowder
cream of mushroom chicken

Queens Perennial- Flower CSA

I first heard about Queens Perennial through a friend’s Instagram post last year. The CSA partners with Luna Family Farm to offer flowers each week from May to October. I knew I wanted to take part this year because who doesn’t want amazing flowers each week!

I’ve loved all the flowers so far. Check out the beauties I received…

Rose Quince
Snowballs and Lilacs
Peonies and Crimson Clovers
Peonies
Pastel Yarrow
Sunflowers
Snapdragons
Lisianthus
Marigolds
Lisianthus
Rudbeckia
Cockscombs
Teddy Bear Sunflowers and Amaranth
Aster

Each week, I get a new bouquet and instructions on how to take care of it. Besides appreciating the beautiful flowers, I also enjoy learning about each one. Most of the flowers I’ve never heard of.

The CSA has four locations to pick up from (Astoria, Jackson Heights, Greenpoint, and Williamsburg). If you are interested in learning more and signing up for the last six weeks, check out queensperennial.com.

Halloween 2019

It’s been a minute but I’m back! Life happens and sometimes you just have to keep your head above water.

Celebrating Halloween is usually hit or miss for me. This year, I celebrated by carving pumpkins! I don’t have any memory of doing this when I was younger so I was truly excited. I would have loved to have gotten my pumpkins from an actual farm but it wasn’t in the cards. Got mine at Home Depot.

Here are some pictures of my husband and I having a blast.

The final products:

Mine, the true classic…

My husband brought out the creativity…

So happy how they came out!!

I want this to become a family tradition, even get other family members involved!

We didn’t dress up this year but our cats had no choice.

I was expecting them to fight me on this but they didn’t even meow! I dare say they might have enjoyed it.

Happy Halloween!