Daddy ....

Daddy turned 82 on May 31st

he didn't want a party....didn't want a fuss over his birthday

he hasn't been feeling that great so we all understood

So we just planned a lunch with all of us and the grandkids

what he didn't know is we invited his brother and sister-in-law

to lunch

we just cooked out, had fun catching up and as

with all of our family gatherings....a lot of laughing

not many of the grandkids could come but a few did

and a cousin stopped by and surprised Daddy

as did some friends

and he got phone calls all day long with well wishes

so he was pretty much smiling the whole day

which made us all smile

here's some pictures of us with our Daddy

Daddy and I below....

 
Our little sister Kandi 

Oldest sister Vickie

Brother Tracy

We sure love our Daddy!!

later......

Menu .....

Last week's meals were so yummy!!

here's our upcoming week

All clean eating and Whole30 compliant 

Saturday - Shakshouka and cucumber salad

Sunday - we are going to Jacquelyn's for dinner

Monday - Meatballs in tomato sauce over cauliflower rice

and salad

Tuesday - Shrimp with mango lime slaw and string bean salad

(we have to have string bean salad every week, Johnny's fav)

Wed - Oven fried chicken, wilted kale and roasted carrots

Thursday - Roasted sausage with veggies

(another repeat but we love this)

Friday - chicken soup

Notes....I love cauliflower rice but don't like the hassle of making it. Trader Joe's now carries a frozen bag of cauliflower rice.....
ingredients are cauliflower and salt.....perfect!!

I use the Applegate sausage from Costco and it's a 3 pack
and with a friend giving us zucchini and squash out of his
garden already, we'll be having that next week too!

later......

My brother .....

My brother has a lot of talents one of which is painting

growing up he always drew, especially cartoons

and they were always good

lately he has been painting a lot, or I guess

when he has the time and 

I asked him if you would please paint a picture for me

I wanted it to hang over my sewing machine

I didn't say what I wanted but I did send him

a picture of the color I painted my sewing room

So a month or so ago he presented me with my painting

and I LOVE it

it's beautiful

But I did not want it to be upstairs in my sewing room

where I would be the only person seeing it

I wanted to display it proudly and be able to say

"My brother painted that for me"

So it's hanging in the den

over the fireplace and it looks perfect with

the colors of my den

My brother....he's a real sweetheart especially

having to put up with 3 sisters who quite often like

to start sibling text with "OMG"....and put

a little scare in him! haha

love you Tracy

later......

Another Happy Birthday .....

And another Happy Birthday.....

I missed putting up a post for Jacquelyn's birthday
which was April 13th

oh Jacquelyn, truly my mini me!

Such a great daughter, sister, wife, mother
So dedicated to her children
and her family
and her job
sweet and smart
loves her children more than any words can express
very beautiful
loves Starbucks
Vegetarian since 8 years old
short
all her life has always "done the right thing"
beautiful blonde hair
real style in her clothes
and loves to dress her children in very stylish clothes
we love shopping together even for groceries
very, very thoughtful person
cares for others 
excellent cook
has a lot of ear piercings
loves the beach
a person that we know we can always depend on no matter what
loves her sister and brother deeply
and loves Maddox, Gabe and John

we love you so much Jacquelyn

later......

Happy Birthday....

May 6th......

Happy Happy birthday to our son Jake

my baby.....that is now 27 years old

why does time go by so fast 

I'm so behind in blogging so I wanted to make 

sure I put a post up for our son

Jake's a great son

thoughtful and caring

loves to send me recipes

cares about his family

hard worker

loves beer

got me hooked on Walking Dead

and Hell on Wheels and Breaking Bad!

is good looking

loves to cook

has a new girlfriend

and she's cute and sweet

loves the beach

loves to be with family and friends

has a lot of tattoos.....please no more

the dogs love him so much

loves cigars

loves camping and hiking

he's funny

and smart

him and Johnny are the last of the Delaney's

he loves Maddox, Gabe, John, Declan and Avery

and he is the kind of son that if we need him, 

he'll be there for us no matter the reason

we love you Jake!!

later......

This weeks menu .....

One of the tricks to clean eating is being prepared

and if I do not have our weeks menu planned out, it makes

breakfast, lunch and dinner difficult

Most weeks I'm good with it.....and I have so many sheets

of paper with all of my menus

But now I'm going to start posting each weekend our

upcoming menu....labeled "menu"  :)

so it will be so much easier to refer to and get ideas

Usually either Friday or Saturday, or both, are our eating out nights

but since we are currently doing a Whole30, we are

avoiding going out.

so here's our upcoming menu!
(this menu is clean and Whole30 compliant)

Saturday - Spinach Frittata w/bacon, watermelon salad

Sunday - Grilled chicken, roasted potatoes, wilted Kale w/bacon

Monday - Roasted sausage w/zucchini and squash & greek salad

Tuesday - Tuna salad and lemon zest asparagus

Wed - Taco Salads

Thursday - Balsamic Pork Tenderloin, cauliflower, roasted brussel sprouts

Friday - hot dogs with onions & green peppers and string bean salad

For breakfast we usually have boiled eggs, bacon and fruit

our lunches for the week will be dinner leftovers

that's it for the week.....

later.....

My first run.....

Johnny and I started running in January

a few things here.......we have never been runners!

I have a bad arthritic knee and 2 bad disc in my lower back

Johnny has a herinated disc and 2 bad knees

I am 59 years old and Johnny is getting ready to turn 62.

so to even entertain the idea of running is a bit crazy

But I also realize that my doctor is totally right when she tells me

that exercise is the best thing for my back and arthritis

and she is correct!

Doing Jazzercise has helped so much and now running

is putting me in even better shape.

Now my only pain is different muscles aching from running!!

We did discover knee braces and they helped
us a whole lot.
Most weeks, Johnny and I run 3 days a week

we used to stay together but Johnny's pace is faster than mine

so we're only together during our 5 minute warm up walk

My sister Kandi who is already a runner, encouraged us to

sign up for the Corporate 4 miler 

We did, we ran and we had fun!

I'm not going to say it was easy......it was not for me.

My longest run was only 2 miles

So I figured that I would run 2 and walk 2

Didn't turn out that way......I ran 4 :)

I have to give credit to my friend Lisa's daughter Summer

she ran with me and kept me going.....we did stop 5 times I think

and we would fast walk for about 2 minutes then start running again

She would give me a marker each time and say "when we get to that sign,

we will run again, ok?".....haha, she is so sweet!

But that is what kept me going

and it really felt good to finish
Johnny and I were very proud of ourselves
I know it's only 4 miles and people run 1/2 and full marathons
but.....we are starting at an older age and do have 
"issues"....like our knees and backs
but we did it.....we ran 4 miles!

later.....