In My Home This Week: A Lovely Week

Saturday:  Got up early this morning just so I could have a quiet coffee and devotional before John came in.  Lovely morning outdoors!  What a beautiful start to September!  Sunrise, coffee, a Bible reading that spoke to my heart, and finally my husband walking in the back door with every appearance of being glad to be here.



I made a roasted chicken for dinner today, used a box of Rice Pilaf from Katie's previous pantry stash and Broccoli.  The chicken was so large that we shared breast.  Leftover pilaf was mixed with broth from cooked chicken and some tidbits of chicken.  I will make it a soup later in the week.

Spent a lovely afternoon with John watching the University of Georgia game, and gathering inspiration from the two modern day magazines I still take.  Lots of recipes I think sound good.  We'll see if any of them make a lineup.

Reading the September pleasures in Sarah ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance I decided to add my own list at the bottom of the page. I've never quite gotten over the idea one shouldn't write in a book but I think I shall add my own list to hers each month from now on.  In September I am all about apples.  It's the one month I'm most likely to bake a homemade apple pie.  This year I want to make old fashioned fried apple pies, I think.  Easier to do in a small batch!

Angela reminded me I'd meant to do a September budget rather than wait until October to do a fourth quarter one.  I did that yesterday evening.   Ha.  Eye opening.  If there's no overtime forthcoming we'll be trimming a few categories.

Sunday:  Yesterday evening, I took time to unload the dishwasher and re-load it.  Well worth the few minutes time it took to do.  Leaving for church this morning was a breeze, even though I did have to go pet sit while Maddie ate her breakfast.  The plan had been to leave the pans on the porch, since she and Rufus always finish all they have.  Maddie refused to eat!  John told me, "Go on and sit with her.  She obviously needs you today and we've time to spare."

It was a fun morning at church, as we all had Children's Church this morning.  And I learned something, too!

I'd told John on our way out this morning that I needed nothing at the grocery.  "If I go in, I will pick up something..."   John didn't go to the grocery at all.  We stopped at the gas station where he bought a paper and a brought me out a bottle of unsweetened tea and a banana.  Bless him.  I'd had a nasty sudden headache hit me at church  and a queasy feel.  I was almost certain there was incoming weather that caused the headache.  Much later in the afternoon we had a very quick storm go through.  My headache and nausea left shortly thereafter.

At home we had our easy Sunday afternoon luncheon.  I reheated some corned beef and served it with potato salad I'd made this morning.

John did a load of clothes and hung most to dry.

We had fun this afternoon.  We had Josh and Isaac come to pay a visit, a planned one.  The boys and I enjoyed a tea party.  John and I both played with them.  It was so much fun!  When I found myself waning, I texted their daddy to pick them up.  I'll have them again soon but it's a lot more fun to plan to have fun than it is to know you're locked in for hours of care...just saying!

Monday:  Work day for John.  He woke especially early this morning.  I for one am a tired woman just now.  Did all the usual stuff: coffee, breakfast, packed lunch, kissed goodbye, etc.

Ran a load of dishes early this morning.  I prefer to fill the dishwasher to capacity but I don't always do so.  If it's been three or four days since I last washed (three this time), I look about to see what I can add to the machine to fill it up.  Well, this time around I find myself having cleaned so thoroughly over the past month that there was nothing to add.  So I ran an almost full load of dishes and let them air dry.

I experienced something today that I've experienced a good bit of late and I wonder if anyone else has noticed it.   When I am out ordering something to eat, the waitress interrupts me constantly as I try to place my order.  I mean, literally cuts me off mid word to ask a question about my order.  I had the same thing happen today at a drive in place where we were having lunch.  I said, "I'd like to get a coney dog, with ta-" and the girl on the other end said "Six inch or 12 inch? Catsup and mustard?"  I answered the size and started to say once more "and a side of ta-" "Do you want fries or tater tots?"  "Tater tots please..and a med-" "What kind of tots?" "What kind?"  "What kind of tots do you want?"  I scanned the menu looking to see what the options were and answered her "Just plain tots and a med-" "Do you want catsup with those?" "Yes please, and a med-" "What would you like to drink?'  "A medium sweet tea please and I'd like.." "Does this complete your order?"  "No.  I'd like a..." "What else would you like?"  "I'd like a number 11 please with an un-"  "Three piece or five piece?"  "Five.  With an un-.." "What drink do you want?"  At this point I felt beyond flustered and so frustrated that I turned to Mama and said "Gee I wish she'd let me finish a sentence!"  I did eventually get my order done but this has happened to us several times of late both in restaurant and at drive thru and it's so irritating as well as just plain rude.  I understand that an order can't very well be rung up until they know all the details but can't they just hear me out first?  All of their questions might well be answered and the order completed in far less time if they stopped flustrating this customer.

My only expense today has been lunch.  My turn to pay and I did so from my allowance.

My new headboard arrived last Friday and is not attached to the bed.  John made no move to put it together for me so I attached the legs to it.  It was not hard to do, I'm just terribly spoiled with assembly required items, lol.  The headboard could be attached to the frame but I think it's totally unnecessary.   John helped me lift it into place and agreed that it is quite stable as is.  I'm very pleased with it and finally feel I have a 'proper' bed.

It just looks so much nicer and more finished to me.  Now to determine how to better utilize my artwork in that room.

I'd meant to buy box springs to go under our new mattress, but the costs were prohibitive.  And honestly, the term 'box springs' is about ridiculous.  It's really called a 'foundation' these days and it's  basically a bunch of lath  boards with a little fabric stapled over it to hold it all together.  Utterly ridiculous the cost of those things!  Anyway, I recalled that Mama had an old queen mattress set in her house.  It is not in use, nor wanted and I asked if I might have the box spring to use as a foundation under our mattress.  She agreed.  Now to convince Samuel to drive his truck over there to pick the thing up for me.

My lunch may not have suited me very well today but I had leftovers of the chicken strips, which did well enough for supper with what I had on hand: potato salad and some cherry tomatoes.  It was a nice meal after all.

Tuesday:  Every now and then I think about working outside my home, because, you know, I so seldom stay busy here, and then something comes right along and makes me glad I don't.  This morning it was a phone call from one of my children who needed bolstering.  Can't do that if I'm on someone's time clock.

John brought home a piece of steak from his dinner last night.  The crew chipped in and bought meal ingredients to grill yesterday.  He asked if I'd heat it to go with our eggs and toast this morning.

Our dinner today was a mix of things leftover from Saturday: chicken, rice pilaf and a handful of frozen peas.  I used the onion I'd stuffed in the chicken cavity to season the soup.  It tasted really good and hit the spot even if it was hot outdoors.

I spent the afternoon sewing buttons on two pairs of pants for John to wear to work.  The buttons keep the teeth of his suspenders from sliding off the pants.  It is a difficult task and requires a lot of push and a very strong and sharp needle to go through all those layers of fabric.  It took nearly an hour to sew four buttons onto just one pair of pants and I'm not even kidding.  I worked my way through two pairs of pants.  I still have another pair to go, but not today.

Wednesday:  Woke feeling dissatisfied with the world this morning.  Coffee was so so, breakfast so so, the world at large looked so so.   Dislike that mightily.  As I've said before I'm just as blessed today (and possibly even more so) than I was yesterday.  I'll be even more blessed if I see tomorrow, but for today I woke with the grim grumps.   I told John I wanted out of the house, this homebody who has been quite content these past weeks to mostly be at home.  I wanted to go somewhere and do something different.   Bless the man, he got ready to go shortly after I said I'd like to get out and we finally determined on what we were going to do.

We went out to lunch at one of the few restaurants we know of which has an actual salad bar.  That made me wonder, when exactly did salad bars go 'out'?  And why?  I remember that salad bars were a thing for at least three decades but nowadays, you can order a main dish salad but no such thing as a salad bar.  Well there are still no salad bars.  Ruby Tuesday's has a 'Garden Bar' and it's part of their fresh, simple American foods menu.  Nope not trying to sell the place, just saying what their motto is.  I had soup and a salad.  John got an entrée and salad bar.  These were  combination meals and the entrée is smaller than that served if you ordered only the main dish.   I ordered the broccoli cheese and soup and won't twice.  I didn't finish the bowl and the waitress took one look  at the table as she checked glasses and  asked if I'd like to try another kind.  Seriously?  Who even makes that sort of offer these days?  I asked if I might try the tomato and found it much better tasting.

I must say it was a refreshing meal and I was surprised all over again about why we so seldom to choose to go to that particular restaurant.  Would I have enjoyed the day as much if we'd gone to our favorite place and ordered what we typically order there?  Probably.  But breaking out of the rut was probably the very thing I needed most of all.

We took a different route home than we'd taken over.  And yes, that's all we did, just go out to lunch.  We didn't run errands or do any shopping or get haircuts.  We didn't even say, "We might as well..."  We just simply went to lunch.  I felt the grim grumps disappear with the change of scenery.  Sometimes, you just need to break out of the homebody habit...and since this is my workplace, it's only natural that every now and then I just want a break from it.

My new purse arrived today!  I was so excited to see it looks even better than I thought.  I'm so excited because there's not just blue but also teals and olive and will really help pull together my fall/winter wardrobe.

Friday:  My new winter coat arrived today.  Good thing I read the reviews about it running a little smaller and ordered the next size up.  And I'd best not gain any weight either or it shall not fit!  It's a good quality piece and not so heavy that I'll rue owning it, nor so light that I'll end shivering my way through the few wintry days we do enjoy here in the South.

Yes, I did forget to write yesterday.  Not that you missed a great deal.  I had Katie and Taylor here for a few hours and I spent most of my time answering that 3 year old's questions: What doin'?  What's that?   Rapid fire, repeat 47,000 times.  I loved every minute of it.  I seldom get time with that wee girl and I sure was glad to have it.

I went out yesterday afternoon to run a necessary errand and while out treated myself to a chicken liver lunch.  I can never eat all the food they put on the plate so set aside over half , thinking of Sam who loves them as much as I do.

Glad I did set them aside because yesterday afternoon, I heard a 'tap, tap, tap' on the door and then a 'pat pat pat' and a little voice calling something garbled.  It was Sam with Isaac and Josh and Isaac who was patting and calling me.  Sam was pleased to be handed the livers.  Isaac, being the 'Oooh you have food?" type, came right over and happily munched one.   Maybe we have another liver eater on our hands.

It was an unexpected day of family visits but I sure did enjoy both of them.

Today we went to visit Josh at school for grandparents day.  Oh my goodness that was fun to see the whole class of 4 year old children.  All of them were so excited to have grandparents visiting.  Josh pointed out all the kids and their grandparents.  The children had made a little card for the grandparents with their handprint on it.  Josh gave it to me to see, but took it back.  I told him I'd bring it home and put on my refrigerator and he frowned.  "I don't want it cold!"  At that point he put it in his backpack to take home, lol.

Oh the tears and crying and mayhem as we grandparents left the room.  I told John I should think this is a difficult day for the teachers overall, getting the children prepared for the visit and then having to clear up all the weeping and crying after they leave.    And can I just say how odd it felt to walk into that building 20 years after my first visit when Katie was there.

John mowed grass this afternoon after our return.  I was meant to keep Isaac but he's a no-show...Bess said he'd had a hard time today and his dad was going to bring him over after he finished his nap.    At 2:30 she texted saying he was still asleep.

I decided to go on and do my Shabat cleaning while I waited.  When I was done indoors, I went out and cleaned the patio and porches.  I told John the patio is an exercise in futility.  I got it all cleaned up and the breeze blew and rained leaves all over it once more.  I noted the Sweet Gum around front had scattered leaves all over the area he'd just mown, too.  Tis the season.

 John stopped mid-way through mowing and we sipped ice cold sodas and had a packet of crackers as a pseudo lunch.  We'll have a hot meal tonight with a salad.  We chatted and talked to the dogs who came to join us.  Maddie was quite happy to take the ice cubes John tossed down to her, but Rufus sat hopefully in front of the door

It's been a nice week overall.