My Cozy Corner

Staycation: A time to refresh

Hello, and welcome to My Cozy Corner. My Kitchen Table has moved here. I hope you are feeling cozy and comfortable. It’s a beautiful, sunny fall day, but I really want to tell you about the last week of my summer sabbatical. We’ll talk about all the goings on of fall, next time.

We chose not to travel this year for a couple of reasons. Number one, we have had a very expensive year. We replaced the sewer (emergently) in January, and as a result had restoration work to do in the basement, also. With that went all of the funding for our other plans for the year. The second reason for not traveling revolved around health concerns. We are not quite ready for trains, planes, and hotels. We’ll let COVID die down a bit more. We took $500 out of our savings and spent the week at home. It made so much more sense than spending thousands of dollars on travel. I did a staycation years ago when the children were small, but Mr. M never had. There are ground rules for a staycation, or it will be just more of the same as your routine life.

1. No cooking or cleaning. Those are the two biggest things that interfere with a peaceful time for me. The majority of our $500 budget was spent on eating out and ordering in our main meal every day. The rest of each day we nibbled on snacks, or heated up microwavable food. We did tidy up after ourselves so that the house would not become a complete disaster.
2. Do what you want to do. We live in an area that people drive thousands of miles to visit. There is a lot to see and do here. We decided to do one or two touristy things, and just relax the rest of the time. We did not want to overcommit, so we alternated activity days and rest days.
3. There are no rules! Go to bed when you want; get up when you want; eat where, what, and when you want. We got dressed if we wanted to, or hung out in our jammies all day. (Of course, on activity days, the general public appreciates it if you show up dressed.)
4. SLOW DOWN! Breathe deep. Savor the sunrises and sunsets. Savor the green grass and chirping birds. Savor the life you have been given

Before I move on to what I did do, I will tell you what I did not do. I did not open my day timer for an entire week. I usually check it several times a day to make sure I’m not missing anything I should be doing. Once I got used to the idea, it was freeing! It felt so good not to be on a schedule.

Monday of staycation week was spent in preparation. I made sure everything was in place for a restful week. We transferred $500 out of savings, and made sure we stuck to that budget. I did laundry so there wouldn’t be quite so much at the end of the week. I made a grocery run to pick up snacks and easy foods to heat up.

Tuesday I took Miss Christy to the airport for her real vacation to visit her brother in New Jersey. I was up early and spent a long time sending her off, so I returned home just in time to order in lunch and take a much needed nap. Day 1 in the books!

Wednesday we met friends for late lunch/early dinner. Because of COVID it had been a long time since we had been able to get together, and it was one of the things we really wanted to do. We ate Asian food and talked about anything and everything!

Thursday we were ready for a restful day at home. It was a marathon reading and movie watching day. Almost anything that breaks up your normal routine can be restful.

Friday we the one “touristy” thing we had planned for the week. We had lunch in a pub in the old Lowery Air Force Base. It was a WWII base that was deactivated 20 or 30 years ago, and it has been developed into a planned community. Pub food is always the best, when it’s available. From there we visited Wings Over the Rockies, which is an aviation museum in one of the old Lowery hangars. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it is. Mr. M grew up near there, so he was the best tour guide possible. I bought a flight log book for my next journal, to remember the occasion.

The Weekend I spent with my niece in Colorado Springs. Mr. M was not feeling good, so he stayed at home and rested. She served Peruvian Chicken. It was so good, and she has graciously shared the recipe with us. You can also find it on my Helen’s World Pinterest page under dinners.

Peruvian Chicken

1 1/2 chicken thighs or breasts

Marinade

4 garlic cloves finely minced

2 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. lime juice

2 tsp. sugar, agave, or honey

1 Tbsp. cumin

2 tsp. paprika

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp dried oregano (or 1 Tbsp fresh)

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp soy sauce (optional)

Marinate chicken several hours or overnight

Remove chicken from the marinade and grill or bake at 325 degrees until the juices run clear. Do not overcook; it will be dry.

Peruvian Green Sauce

1/2 cup sour cream or mayo

1/2 jalapeno pepper

1 garlic clove minced

1/4 tsp kosher salt

A squeeze of lime juice.Mix altogether and serve on the side. Make it far enough ahead to mingle the flavors. Serve all of this with roasted corn on the cob, and a salad of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and avocado.

Thank you for spending a bit of time with me. I hope you will make a staycation part of your future plans. I’m always eager to hear from you. You can comment below.

Until next time,

Helen