....found my attitude wanted less adjusting than in weeks past but still some adjustment was needed all the same.
Things have not been easy. We are all working hard, all pulling together hard and all taking the punches as they continue to come. The news this week was not any better than that of the last two weeks have been but we just kept right on doing what we could. Our new mantra in the house is, "That's not my battle to fight just now..." when there's nothing else we can possibly do to help a situation or to face it differently. It might sound a bit Scarlett O'Hara, putting off until tomorrow what we might worry over today but the truth is that it's the most practical thing we can do at present. We can't control anything except our own reaction and fears and worries...and so that is just what we do.
It's not just John's job worries, Katie's troubles, nor Amie's, nor Sam's either. Mama's had her share of woes and worries as she moves into an apartment. Her situation with my brother did NOT work out for her for various reasons. She's very nervous about the new apartment, the expenses, the changes ahead. Fortunately Katie has helped her pack up her things. Sam and Tony will be moving her bigger pieces into the apartment on Saturday. I'll head over on Monday to help her unpack and put things to rights.
And woven between all the cares and worries are the two little boys who delight and frustrate us mightily and in equal proportion. I haven't been this tired in several years but I am truly tired. We are all truly tired but we all push right on doing what we must and remembering to save those other things for the days when those battles are necessary.
Things have not been easy. We are all working hard, all pulling together hard and all taking the punches as they continue to come. The news this week was not any better than that of the last two weeks have been but we just kept right on doing what we could. Our new mantra in the house is, "That's not my battle to fight just now..." when there's nothing else we can possibly do to help a situation or to face it differently. It might sound a bit Scarlett O'Hara, putting off until tomorrow what we might worry over today but the truth is that it's the most practical thing we can do at present. We can't control anything except our own reaction and fears and worries...and so that is just what we do.
It's not just John's job worries, Katie's troubles, nor Amie's, nor Sam's either. Mama's had her share of woes and worries as she moves into an apartment. Her situation with my brother did NOT work out for her for various reasons. She's very nervous about the new apartment, the expenses, the changes ahead. Fortunately Katie has helped her pack up her things. Sam and Tony will be moving her bigger pieces into the apartment on Saturday. I'll head over on Monday to help her unpack and put things to rights.
And woven between all the cares and worries are the two little boys who delight and frustrate us mightily and in equal proportion. I haven't been this tired in several years but I am truly tired. We are all truly tired but we all push right on doing what we must and remembering to save those other things for the days when those battles are necessary.
...worked:
Kept boys, did laundry, dishes, made meals, kept house. Nothing extraordinary but plenty of work all the same. How I long to have a big project and time to see it come to satisfactory end!
I have three parties in these last three weeks of May and I needed to plan them all so I worked away at that in spare moments.
Ran a party this week.
Spent one afternoon with Mama at Katie's place, talking over various point and reassuring her that things would be attended to as needed. Katie is a bargain hunter extraordinaire and had already shown Mama several money saving tricks. We ended up convincing her to put two really lovely, expensive rugs that she can no longer use and no one in the family can use either, up for sale on Facebook Yard Sale to offset some of her current expenditures.
Kept boys, did laundry, dishes, made meals, kept house. Nothing extraordinary but plenty of work all the same. How I long to have a big project and time to see it come to satisfactory end!
I have three parties in these last three weeks of May and I needed to plan them all so I worked away at that in spare moments.
Ran a party this week.
Spent one afternoon with Mama at Katie's place, talking over various point and reassuring her that things would be attended to as needed. Katie is a bargain hunter extraordinaire and had already shown Mama several money saving tricks. We ended up convincing her to put two really lovely, expensive rugs that she can no longer use and no one in the family can use either, up for sale on Facebook Yard Sale to offset some of her current expenditures.
...made meals:
Chef Salads, Crackers, Fruit
Steak, Braised Mushrooms and Onions, Roasted Potatoes, Asiago Asparagus
BBQ Chicken, Mac and Cheese, Steamed Broccoli
Mongolian Beef, Stir Fry Vegetables, Egg Noodles
Meat Loaf, Mashed potatoes, Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Fetticini with Alfredo Chicken Sauce, Steamed Broccoli, Garlic Bread
Fish, French Fries, Salad
and for snacking, Gramma's Favorite Cake with Broiled Frosting. The cake was a from mix Devil's Food Cake to which Oatmeal had been added. It was rather tasty. I didn't name it as my favorite, it was the name on the recipe in the old Pillsbury cookbook I pulled the recipe from.
Steak, Braised Mushrooms and Onions, Roasted Potatoes, Asiago Asparagus
BBQ Chicken, Mac and Cheese, Steamed Broccoli
Mongolian Beef, Stir Fry Vegetables, Egg Noodles
Meat Loaf, Mashed potatoes, Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Fetticini with Alfredo Chicken Sauce, Steamed Broccoli, Garlic Bread
Fish, French Fries, Salad
and for snacking, Gramma's Favorite Cake with Broiled Frosting. The cake was a from mix Devil's Food Cake to which Oatmeal had been added. It was rather tasty. I didn't name it as my favorite, it was the name on the recipe in the old Pillsbury cookbook I pulled the recipe from.
...saved:
I was scratching my head for lunch on Saturday. The boys are not very particular about what they eat but they do like variety. I settled on Quesadilla for them but adults stymied me for a bit. I had about 1 cup taco meat left from supper last week and I wanted to use it up. I suddenly recalled the 7 layer Mexican dip which we have not had in ages upon. I always served it as a meal in itself since it was so hearty and it suited the need for lunch quite well with the working adults today. I used leftover taco shells that had broken as chips. Bess filled a tortilla and the guys ate the dip with tortilla chips. This was quite economical really and tasty besides.
Washed and hung to dry our towels and sheets. Also hung out all jeans as week's laundry was done. I hang shirts to dry on curtain rod at laundry area. This was over the weekend while the sun shone bright. Later in the week we found it a bit harder to get anything to dry in the humidity and continuous showers.
Not my doing but savings appreciated: temperatures dropped slightly and cloudy weather ensued bringing in some much needed rain to refill water buckets and water potted plants. It also meant the AC ran a good bit less than it did over the hot weekend when temperatures crept to mid-90's.
Noted AC running a bit more than usual. Changed filter. Have money set aside for annual addition of Freon that is typically required after winter. I will call the company shortly.
Packed mac and cheese (homemade) in John's rather scanty work lunch. Apparently my supplies for his lunch have been hit hard by others...So I really need to replenish but at present I'm stuck in that budget area where I have no more to spend. I scraped together a few things to make up for the lack but it still looked scant for two meals and a couple of snacks. His second lunch this week looked a little more full because by that point I'd made a cake, we had further leftovers.
I continually sought out the nearly empty, leftover bits of things to use up this week. Saturday lunch and Monday's comprised of leftover bits and bobs and made several recipes with additions that weren't great in volume but did add to flavor overall. I continued this all through the week. Funds have been a little tight and I have been especially careful to use ALL rather than let foods go to waste.
Thursday morning we were near the end of the last gallon of milk. I am at my spending limit and simply couldn't spend more money. Bess asked if rent funds could be applied to groceries and offered to go pick up the necessities. I assured her that was exactly what rent money was most especially meant to help with and I'd be appreciative of anything she could get. We made a short list of necessities and those things are restocked.
Washed and hung to dry our towels and sheets. Also hung out all jeans as week's laundry was done. I hang shirts to dry on curtain rod at laundry area. This was over the weekend while the sun shone bright. Later in the week we found it a bit harder to get anything to dry in the humidity and continuous showers.
Not my doing but savings appreciated: temperatures dropped slightly and cloudy weather ensued bringing in some much needed rain to refill water buckets and water potted plants. It also meant the AC ran a good bit less than it did over the hot weekend when temperatures crept to mid-90's.
Noted AC running a bit more than usual. Changed filter. Have money set aside for annual addition of Freon that is typically required after winter. I will call the company shortly.
Packed mac and cheese (homemade) in John's rather scanty work lunch. Apparently my supplies for his lunch have been hit hard by others...So I really need to replenish but at present I'm stuck in that budget area where I have no more to spend. I scraped together a few things to make up for the lack but it still looked scant for two meals and a couple of snacks. His second lunch this week looked a little more full because by that point I'd made a cake, we had further leftovers.
I continually sought out the nearly empty, leftover bits of things to use up this week. Saturday lunch and Monday's comprised of leftover bits and bobs and made several recipes with additions that weren't great in volume but did add to flavor overall. I continued this all through the week. Funds have been a little tight and I have been especially careful to use ALL rather than let foods go to waste.
Thursday morning we were near the end of the last gallon of milk. I am at my spending limit and simply couldn't spend more money. Bess asked if rent funds could be applied to groceries and offered to go pick up the necessities. I assured her that was exactly what rent money was most especially meant to help with and I'd be appreciative of anything she could get. We made a short list of necessities and those things are restocked.
...had my leisure:
I read most of Sunday afternoon, despite baby sitting. I managed to finish my latest Emilie Loring novel, Swift Water, one of the few I can honestly say I didn't much care for overall, though as always the descriptive powers of the author held me at attention, despite disliking the characters so.A few months ago I did a course through Chabad.org and really enjoyed it. This past week I received notice of a new course called Food and Faith. I took a few minutes to start the course, and read the supplemental readings. I've started many courses over the past three months and haven't had time to finish any of them. Fortunately with these classes on Chabad.org the time limit is much longer on each lesson, while in the last several courses I've tried to take, I have only 24 hours to listen to a long video and read many supplemental lessons then the opportunity is done and the next portion of the lesson is online.
5 comments:
Enjoying your posts, amd since my week has looked a lot like yours, I don’t feel so alone! You have more stamina than me tho, keeping your blogging up to date, and really heart felt and inspiring to read! Thanks for the pick-me-up! Liz from New York
We reached crisis level with Mom and Dad this week when both of them fell at once. Sister found a house for sale 2 blockS from her and they have a contract. My husband's disability was approved after only 9 months. Relief and now we can stop worrying that he will have to try to work again which he cannot do. We enjoy a quessidilla with a bit of taco meat, salsa and cheese when there is not enough meat for anything else. Sorry for typos. Phone comments are difficult for me here.
A recipe we learned while living in Okinawa, Japan, was taco rice. Take the taco fixings but serve them on rice (they used white, I use brown). Another fun one is nacho rice - same concept, you put your nacho toppings on rice instead of chips. It really helps spread the toppings across a whole family quite nicely; the rice is so filling, naturally. But the toppings are fun and it makes quite a spread.
Any leftovers I turn into taco soup in the crock pot the next day. I just add some broth or a can of diced tomatoes, undrained, if it needs a bit to stretch it further again!
It is sometimes hard to keep the meals coming in a frugal fashion when other things are occupying your mind. It sounds like you did a great job with that.
I'm glad you are getting your mother settled in her new apartment, and helping her best utilize her things/money/resources. I'm sure she must be overwhelmed with all the changes.
2 summers ago, when we were living in a camper because we had no home, yet, I prayed often that God would keep us from killing each other and that I would still like camping after it was over. He has answered both prayers. It turned out just as I hoped. We talk fondly about that time, and I still can't wait to go camping! I'll bet when this busy, crazy time is over, you, too, will have many memories about your time all squished together, and reminisce about it when you get together.
Going through a hard spell too. Just keep on doing the best we can.
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