The Nelson Narrative

It has been ages since I have participated in the What's Up Wednesday link-up by Shay and Sheaffer , but here I am. What We're Eating I didn't want to have to cook on Sunday because of the game, so I made Taco Soup in the crock pot. Other meals this week include low-carb Chicken Alfredo, some ravioli thing that Paul picked up a Costco and not sure what else yet. What I'm Reminiscing about The Seahawks just won the NFC Championship and are heading to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2015, so I've been reminiscing about their first Super Bowl win in 2014. What I'm Loving Up until a few months ago I had never heard of Dubai chocolate and now it's everywhere.  So yummy! Also, the current Seahawks season. What We've Been up to celebrating my birthday What I'm Dreading The girls are graduating from high school this year and heading to college in the fall, so I'm kind of dreading the tuition payments (times two!) and other expenses. What I'm...

What a great weekend!  My birthday was Saturday, and birthdays around here always drag out for a week or so, although this year I was able to rein it in to just a weekend.  On Friday night, Paul and I had a date night at Earl's Kitchen + Bar.  I had been wanting to go there for years and we finally did and it was great. We got the calamari appetizer and then I had steak and tortellini and Paul had a southwest chicken salad.  Everything was delicious. Saturday morning the four of us went to brunch at the neighborhood Irish Pub.  That was really great as well.  Then the girls went out to get me a coffee from Huxdotter and some flowers. Paul had got me flowers, too, and I also had some delivered from my best friend. So many flowers! In the afternoon Paul and I took Kona for a nice walk and it was a beautiful sunny day.  The whole week has been really nice.  Then we went to Paul's mom's for dinner and she had got my favorite cake from Costco. Today we...

I meant to post this Sunday or Monday or at least Tuesday, since Monday was a holiday anyway, but couldn't quite get around to it. We had a great weekend.  On Saturday, we went to a wedding.  It was in a town about an hour and 40 minutes from where we live, but Paul's mom's is in-between, and he needed to go there anyway to help her put all her Christmas storage boxes away, plus the Seahawks game was on at 5:00, the wedding was at 2:00, so we weren't going to make it home in time, so it worked out great to just stop at her house after the wedding and watch the game there.  And what a game it was.  The Seahawks DESTROYED the 49ers 41-6! Looking forward to the NFC championship game on Sunday! I loved the centerpieces at the wedding.  Every table had a small stack of books, with a candle/lantern thingie and lights.  They were so pretty.  After all that, it was nice to have Monday off.  I think I mostly just cleaned and maybe grocery shopped, but what...

In light of the girls' impending graduation/going off to college, I'm starting a new series called, "Things I Won't Miss".  In this inaugural episode, the topic is laundry. A common site around here is a pile of unfolded laundry.  It seems like one or the other does a huge load about every other day, and usually around 10:00 PM when Paul's already asleep and I'm thinking about it.  And then it sits in said pile for several days, while the owner just randomly selects what they need that day instead of folding and putting everything away.  I almost always end up folding it and putting it in their room, but I'm trying hard not to do that anymore.

Today I am linking up with Erika and Shay for a series they do called Let’s Look, where they "look" at various aspects of their lives. Today’s topic is what we outsource without regret. At first, I didn’t think I outsource anything but then I remembered a few things. Meal planning -  It's only a small percentage that gets outsourced but it helps. We get Hello Fresh for 2 meals per week most weeks, and I love not having to worry about what’s for dinner those two days. The rental of our Crescent Bar condo . This was kind of built in, because we were gifted the unit from Paul’s parents and they were already doing that with their other unit and most of the owners do, and so it just kind of naturally happened that way.  Every now and then we will rent it on our own to someone we know but mostly it’s through the rental company. Car maintenance - I don't know very many people who do their own but I know there are some, just not us. Dog nail trims - I do the cats myself, but...

I like to occasionally document what a typical day is like so I have something to look back on years from now.  Today I will recap a typical Monday.  Mondays are one of my two work-from-home days, so I will also try to document an in-office day soon, as well as a typical weekend. My alarm usually goes off at 6:00, but sometimes I reset it to 6:20 or 6:30, especially if I plan to skip my shower which I typically do on WFH days (sometimes I'll take it in the evening). I like to save time and get an earlier start and end time, so I just get dressed in sweats or leggings or yoga pants and put my hair in a ponytail and I'm ready to go.  I do have on-camera meetings on Mondays, however, so I will put make-up on whereas I don't bother on Fridays (my other WFH day).  Every morning, when I first come out of the bathroom Kona has gotten in our bed.  It's the cutest thing.  On this particular day, however, I had just changed the sheets the night before so I pulled eve...

I love a good organizational project any time of year, but especially at the beginning of the year.  At the start of every year I have plans to go through every single room/cabinet/closet/drawer in the entire house (not all in one day, obviously), but rarely actually do.  Just a little here and there but only ever a small percentage of the whole house. I wasn't planning on doing the pantry yesterday, but just kind of decided to on a whim.  I had finally broke down and ordered a tiered canned good shelf that arrived yesterday so it seemed liked a great time to get started.  Here is what it looked like before: That's the door going out to the garage, so this room also acts as a mud room.  Under the shelves on the floor are plastic bins that we put our shoes (and sometimes hats and gloves) in, one for each family member plus an extra.  Then there is the garbage/recycling and a container of cat food On this side, I have a step stool, dog food, cat litter and a ...

It turns out that it's very hard to find time to blog during the week.  I meant to post a few times by now but couldn't quite get around to it. But it's Saturday, and we blissfully have no plans, other than watching football. No Seahawks, though, because they are the NUMBER ONE SEED!!!!  Whoo-hoo! My favorite thing to do on a Saturday morning is relax on the couch in my pajamas with a cup of coffee and play all of my favorite mobile games, then do some Bible study, then maybe some yoga or other workout or take the dog for walk. I got this Bible in a Year book from the TikTok shop, but it was kind of misleading because the name implies that you will read the entire Bible in a year and that is not the case.  The daily readings are all just a verse or two or three.  So next year I'm going to try the Bible Recap.

Saturday morning I sat with my coffee and admired the tree one last time before taking it and the rest of the Christmas decorations down. We usually always do it on the 1st but didn’t quite get around to it this year.  After spending most of the day taking down Christmas and putting the house back together, we went to the neighborhood Irish pub for dinner and to watch the Seahawks-49ers game (we don’t have cable so can only watch the games that are on Peacock or Prime). The Hawks won, securing the #1 seed and the NFC West title. Whoo-hoo! Today (Sunday) we went to church, then I did some meal planning and laundry.  I tried to take a nap but I have a bad hip and couldn't get comfortable. Back to reality tomorrow.  I haven't been off the entire time but I have worked somewhat sporadically since Christmas Eve, so tomorrow will be the start of the first normal work week in awhile.

I make the same New Year's Resolution every year--lose weight.  But I really need to get serious this year because Paul and I have our 20th anniversary in May, we have an amazing trip planned for the girls' graduation, plus with the graduation itself there will be lots of photos taken.  Also, I am prediabetic, so there's that, and my 40th high school reunion is coming up in the summer of 2027.  So here are my goals and resolutions for 2026: Lose weight Increase exercise Hike more.  3 or 4 years ago we started hiking more, but last year we dropped off again because Paul was having a lot of issues with plantar fasciitis/other foot issues. Be more consistent with Bible reading/devotions Read more.  I typically read around 15 or 16 books per year, but would like to increase that to 20-24.  I just need to overcome my addiction to Happy Color, Township and Match 3D (super fun mobile games) In addition to all that, I have a mental list of things I want to do this ...

 As little as I've blogged the last several years, I have managed to do an annual "year in review"-type post most years.  Here is a recap of our 2025. I started the year off flying to Kauai!  Not a bad start to the year.  A friend had turned 60 the previous October and didn't manage to put anything together for her birthday, but three of us ended up meeting in Kauai in January. We (me, Paul and the girls) had just gone for spring break in 2024, so it was weird to go back so soon, but we had a great time and I had the chance to see some things that I didn't see the first time. The girls turned 17 in February and we celebrate with dinner at Agave. In May we celebrated 19 years of marriage.  Nothing too big, just dinner at an Italian restaurant. In June Olivia went to her boyfiend's prom (he was a senior last year).  Groups of prom-goers and their parents always go to the golf course for photos.  Earlier that day, a bunch of her friends came over for "Bru...