I Jumped Ship!

What happened to my pretend cruise on the QM2 from my living room? I left you with dinner on Wednesday night and disappeared. 

After our lovely dinner, the ship's galley made a dinner carryout for my daughter and her family with a larger edition of our Chicken Marsala with side dishes of brown rice and green beans. 

I managed to get dinner in the crockpot before we left for the hour and a half drive to her house.  My daughter had surgery on her foot the week before and both of us decided we should wait a week to visit since the grandchildren we care for during the day were passing around a stomach virus. She was well taken care during week one by her co-workers who organized a "meal train" and brought dinner every night. 

I would like to brag a little on my daughter. I raised her to be a strong independent woman and, darn it, she is. She started nursing school at age 17 and graduated at age 20 with her RN. She moved to a big city and worked in an ICU unit while she earned her bachelor degree and several certifications. She met her husband, a nurse anesthesiologist and they roamed the country for a few years as travel nurses. They provided me with my first grandchildren, a grandson and then boy/girl twins within 2 years of each other and she went back to work and earned her Masters degree in nursing. For the past few years she accepted a position as a professor of nursing and stepped into a position as director of student services of nursing at the college. This July she will receive her doctorate in Nursing Education. So this surgery, which had been pending, became critical with very bad timing at the end of the school year and graduation. She is working from home with her leg elevated and a fancy cast. 

Back to the ship. We got back home in time for the chef to quickly assemble the meal for the dining room as guests at our table included my youngest daughter, my youngest grandson and my youngest granddaughter who had to have dinner before kindergarten soccer practice. 

There is no appetizer because I forgot until I opened the refrigerator to put away leftovers and spotted the lettuce wedges which could have been dressed with cheese and bacon.  Instead, we went straight to Mustard Crusted Pork Loin, Long Grain Wild Rice with Roasted Vegetables and Corn with Paprika Butter.  

For dessert, we were served Roasted Pear with Cream. 

After Thursday night's dinner, I was spent. I also had a refrigerator of leftovers and two preschoolers to take care of for the fifth day in a row. We had been excited (or at least I was) about the Roaring 20's Gala on Friday night and I even had a special headpiece to wear. But we put our feet up in the recliners and ate leftovers instead. Saturday we ended up with two school aged grandsons, a kindergartener and a preschooler while the moms went to a Mother's Day painting event and ended up ordering pizza instead of an appetizer of Tuna Tartlettes with Berry Glazed Pork Chops, Pureed Potatoes and Champagne Mousse.  

I did want to share what we enjoyed for lunch all week. Yes, most of the tea sandwiches are peanut butter and jelly although there are some salmon, and chicken and ham salad sandwiches, too.  I had planned to bake, but lowered my standards and used boxed cookies. Yes, those cookies were served in Christmas mini cupcake liners. Tea Time was fashioned more for my two and three year old guests than the elegant tea party of my dreams. 

Tomorrow the REAL QM2 group is having a picnic at a park in London. I have put together a small brunch picnic and hope to require my husband to accompany me to an outdoor location for our own picnic celebration in unison with the real travelers. If I actually get up in time to do this, I will try to take some photos. 

Last week was a blur and this week will be more challenging as my three year old grandson will be spending the night as dad has to go out of town for a training and mom has to run his older brothers to before school care in the morning at a different school than the one where she teaches and we can't help because we are making breakfast and putting a different set of grandsons on a school bus for a different school. And I am tired just reading that schedule.