In My Home This Week: Reset

Saturday:  Today has not been a 'usual' day.  I did two things I'd normally not do on Saturday: I planned to go to the grocery where we get our prescriptions filled  to buy a handful of items. I also planned to buy takeout for our dinner.  Why?  Why when I'm about to tamp down on excess spending, am I out on a Sabbath flinging money away?   I'll tell you.



First, tomorrow night starts Rosh Hashanah, the Head of the Year.  Scripture associated with this day is Genesis 1, "In the beginning...".   It is a Holy time meant for prayer.   I wanted apples and a pomegranate because those two fruits are associated with this Holy time.  I will be lighting candles tomorrow night and Monday night at sunset.  I am trying to put some of the importance upon the days.  Not successfully, just as I often fail during Passover, nor am I holding too closely to the rituals because I cannot.  But I do want to be aware of  and  acknowledge the Holy days (incidentally the source of our word 'holiday') and to learn what I can about it.  I felt sadly lacking in knowledge this past week when Lisa asked me to explain more, so I did some studying.

My second reason for the splurge  is because I am about to embark on a tighter budget.  Having worked on the budget for the coming quarter, I can see we've enough for ourselves, but I've reason to believe we might be needed in another quarter of the family and while we cannot offer full financial support, we can offer gas or grocery money to help ride out the storm in that life and I mean to do so as we can if we are needed. I'm awfully glad that my family takes it in turns to need help and they don't all need it at once, lol!

So, to prepare myself mentally, I figured we'd have a small splurge today.  It's a good bit like that splurge day just before starting a diet.  Sometimes just a small splurge is all that is necessary.  Now I move on to the days ahead.

Sunday:  John off to work this morning.  I made breakfast and coffee, packed his lunch and sent him off to work, prayed over and well loved.  It's the least I can do for him on these long days and I try hard to make it as pleasant to leave as it is to come home again.

Hungry, hungry this morning, despite the early morning breakfast I shared with John.  Stumbled upon a nutrition program on one of the religious channels with Jordan Rubin and they were discussing the benefits of bone broth as a nutritional supplement.  One thing I always have lots of  in the freezer is chicken broth.  I seldom buy bone in beef cuts but almost always have chicken or turkey carcasses awaiting broth making sessions in the freezer.  It always seemed ridiculous to me to buy canned or packaged chicken broth when I had the makings for free.  It's not only loaded with protein but also with chondroitin, which benefits the connective tissues of the muscles and joints, along with many other vital nutrients.  By the way the very best bone broth is made with chicken feet.  That's what Jordan Rubin said!  I seldom see chicken feet in any of our markets and I'm not going to make a special trip to a butcher shop.  I'll get by with the nice broth I make from bones and carcasses.

As I listened to all the good benefits of broth overall, I recalled how I felt so strongly in the summer of 2015 that I needed a daily dose of soup to encourage my body to heal itself.  I might have been acting instinctively, in  retrospect!  I  used broth as the basis for those soups each day for a couple of months and had soup as my supper.

 I've read that adding a splash of vinegar when you are cooking the bones will draw out the calcium and other good nutrients.  Vinegar in and of itself is an incredibly healthy thing to add to your diet, too, by the way.  Both are always on hand in this house anyway.  I might as well use them and get the  full benefits.

How to best add the broth to your diet?  You can sip it as a hot beverage.  It was suggested on the program to use the hot broth to make tea or a smoothie.  I'll let you know right now I wrinkled my nose over that idea.  But you can also get the benefits of the broth by using it in your cooking.  Use broth as all or part of the liquid when you make white or cheese sauce to bind a casserole, as gravy (after all gravy is just a thickener such as flour or cornstarch and liquid), as the cooking liquid in rice and pasta, not to mention using broth in soup and as part of the liquid when baking breads.  Today, I had a cup of broth as my mid-morning snack along with some whole wheat crackers.  I am also using it to cook some rice to go with a Korma Chicken that Sam made and shared with me.

I mentioned the Korma Chicken Sam sent over.  We're doing quite a few 'food swaps' of late.  I shared my chicken livers with him the other day.  He shared Chicken Korma with me.  I sent their household the  substantial leftovers of our Chinese dinner and a pan of a breakfast casserole I'd made that turned out very good if I do say so myself.

 I found the original link for the breakfast casserole  on the Medium Sized Family blog a couple of years ago. The link coming up says it is not a secure link so fair warning.  I used this recipe for the French Toast Casserole.  Remember this is not a secure link.  I wouldn't want anyone to have problems with their phone or computer!!  I used  leftover Challah and Brioche breads and cubed them.  Then I added 1 cup pumpkin to the cream cheese mixture, but I followed the recipe otherwise.   I only made a half recipe, baking it in a deep 9inch baking pan.  John and I ate heartily and had two thirds of the pan leftover, more than enough to feed  the family up the road.  Sam said both boys loved it and asked for more.

Sam and I are swapping foods  because we both have excess of leftovers at times.   We both like leftovers and use them for a second meal or quick lunch but sometimes we have too much and we prefer not to waste.  This passing back and forth is merely neighborly on our parts.

Bess has been unpacking boxes and she's brought the empties to us.  Some of these are the same boxes John and I used two years ago to pack up our rooms when we got new flooring.   They have earned back what we paid for them several times over.  I emptied a bin of books meant for donation into one of the boxes this morning.  I can now drop them off  at the library.  I found another bin of books in the shed this past week.  I must have moved them there to get them out of the guest room so Sam and Bess could have room for their things.  I'll box those up in one of the cardboard boxes as well.

The bin I've just emptied was quite large enough to hold a hanging file rack and folders.  So I emptied the files from the black file cabinet and moved it out.  The printer sits atop the new storage cabinet...the cabinet that Josh informed me he didn't like by the way.  When asked why, he pointed out the fretwork on the doors, the glass the fret work overlays and the doors themselves.  He certainly knew exactly what he didn't like! lol  Didn't change my opinion of the cabinet one whit, but I thought it interesting that he had so many thoughts on why it wasn't to his tastes.   Having the printer there on top of the display cabinet is not my ideal but it works for now.  Eventually I will have something suitable and pretty to store the files and the printer and the stuff that goes with the printer on/in. That old big two drawer file cabinet  is now  on the back porch which is not my favored dumping area but must be so for now.  It is my sincere hopes that the more I can move from the house and out on the porch the more John will realize how badly we really do need to hire that skip and toss it all!

Sometimes I do wonder at myself.  I was admiring a set of dishes this past week in a catalog and I really liked the way the copper color charger brought out the colors of the plate.

 I've been wanting a new set of plates for quite some time now and I've seen similar ones to those in the ad on sale at a local grocer.  They are something I might manage from my allowance...You see, I'm not forgetting that I am cutting back on my budget!  Anyway, copper chargers aren't a budget priority though I might well spray paint dollar store chargers that color to use.  I'm not much of one for chargers for daily use however.

 I was in the back pantry this morning  looking over the shelves and thinking what I could pack into one of those empty cardboard boxes and discovered a set of amber Brockaway salad plates and glasses on the back of a shelf.  It's a  deeper richer amber but it would certainly go well with those grocery store plates and impart the same color wave/feel that I found so appealing in the catalog photo.  And here I'd set them aside to sell. They went back into the dining room buffet.

I reminded myself again that if I love something enough to buy it for my home, maybe I should let it stick around for a bit.  Even if I don't purchase the plates from the grocery, these amber glass pieces are perfect for autumn table settings and well worth the small space they take up.

Monday:

I missed hearing the bus over on the hill this morning but Josh got a prayer just the same.  I was up early enough to have coffee and a chance to gather my thoughts and say prayers for the family before John came in.  He was one tired man this morning.

We had a substantial breakfast because I knew he meant to mow grass today and he seldom wants a meal when he comes in from the dust and heat and he had both in abundance today.   When he mows he wears a hat with a wide brim and a flap that covers his ears and neck, as well as a face shield that is stretchy nylon and has a high UV rating.  He was getting a substantial amount of dirt/dust in his ears.  This morning we used a spare set of earbud covers to go in his ears.  I'd bought him ear defenders but he says they start to hurt after about a half hour.  I'll look for some ear plugs for him to use in the future.   Now both yards are mown.  Here's hoping he doesn't need to mow again for another seven days or so.

Yesterday afternoon I found a recipe for granola.  It was simple and straightforward with ingredients that I always have on hand.  I'd never even tasted granola until about two years ago when Bess and Sam were living with us between the move from Florida to Screven.    I absolutely loved the granola but  I was less enthusiastic over the costs.  Over the years I've looked at various recipes, most all of which have ingredients I don't keep on hand and can't purchase easily.  Still couldn't bring myself to buy a packet of what I knew to be mostly toasted oatmeal!  I found a recipe for Maple Pecan Granola  I followed directions except I cut the cooking time by nearly ten minutes. Despite stirring as frequently as the recipe said, I still ended up with some almost but not quite burnt granola.  So watch carefully and adjust your time accordingly.  I will eat mine anyway, indeed had to hide it from myself because it was so nice, but next time I've got my notes ready to remind me that when I think it's smelling done it might need to come out.  I erred on the wrong side this time because I'm unfamiliar with making granola.  Now to get back to making homemade yogurt.

An easy meal for our midday, one that sits well on the stomach after being out in the morning heat was sliced apples with cheese cubes and whole wheat crackers.  It was enough.  The apples are quite large so we shared one.

Today is meant to be a day of rest so we're not trying to make work. John was just tired enough when he came in this morning that he felt if he didn't go on and mow the other yard he'd never do it at all.  He won't do anything else today except finish up the load of laundry he has drying as I write at the moment.  I will keep my activity low today as well but you'll note we aren't strict in our observance, though we do try to enter into the spirit of observance.

Later today we will ride down to pick up John's check.  I wrote out bills last Thursday and will write out our tithe checks once I have the check in hand.  We'll make our deposit and post the mail while we're out.

Tuesday:  Day check...That's what John and I did this morning.  "What IS today?" he asked as we drove out of the yard.  I told him,  "I think it's Tuesday.  Was  yesterday Monday?"  "It's all Monday or Friday in my world, " he said.  Lol.

My day started with me standing at the kitchen window looking out at the sunny yard and the butterflies flying about in the full sun, playing tag with one another.  I've seen lots of butterflies this year of all varieties, as well as moths.  It is apparently a good year for the butterflies.  I don't recall ever seeing butterflies large enough to see them mid-yard from the kitchen window.

We had cereal this morning.  I topped my raisin bran with some of the Granola and John gave it a try atop his shredded wheat.   It's a little over toasted but it's quite good with milk over it.

We were off to get groceries this morning, but not until we'd done an errand.   Bess loaded my car with donations for Goodwill Saturday.  I'd told her we'd run them by there when we were in the area getting groceries.   As it happens John and I are looking for a table to put the printer on.

We have pretty much determined what sort of table we'd like to get and where we'll put it: our bedroom near the door and a plug.  So after dropping off the donations we went around to the front of the store and went in.  Man oh man!  TWO lovely entertainment armoires which I could just see fitted with shelves and used in the kitchen to replace my cobbled together one.  Never mind how I think I could get either one home.  They were $60 each.  And four wood dining chairs with upholstered seats and backs that appeared to be in  good shape.  No the upholstery doesn't match my home but the style of the chairs do match my table.  And the chairs were just $12 each.  Gracious!  I'm seriously thinking I may have to go back tomorrow while John's working.  It would be worth spending my allowance on.  I am sure I can get them home but perhaps not all four at once.

Well spending impulses curbed because John came to buy a table and nothing but a table and only the sort of table he had in mind.  We headed off to Aldi to tend to the real business of the day: grocery shopping.

Spending was a little higher than two weeks ago.  I bought more meat this time.  While I'd love to head to Macon to buy chicken breasts and fresh ground beef, I am sticking to Aldi's frozen varieties.  I can honestly find nothing wrong with them except that they are frozen.  There is no carrageenan in either of them.  They had plenty of the Never Any! whole roasting chickens today.  I should have bought two...but I got one 5 pound one as well as a nice big 4 pound beef round roast.  Turkey bacon, chicken Italian sausage, a packet of turkey luncheon meat (also carrageenan free).  Oh yes, and a package of frozen chicken breasts and two one-pound chubs of the 85/15 frozen ground beef.

That really is enough meat to carry us about a month I think.  Especially as my new plan is to return to  one meatless, two low-meat meals, one alternative protein meal (aka tuna or eggs) per week.

Yesterday while picking up John's check from work, he made a comment that sort of shook me for a moment and made me stop and think hard this morning.   "This check is about the same amount we'll get from Social Security each month."    I know what our current income is and it's a game changer to think we'd have just the amount of the last check as our income for a full month.  You can believe I'm going to be crunching numbers!  We will have some retirement funds but those will be set aside as savings not used for the day to day.  I run a zero balance budget each month, which means that I have a place for every dollar to go.  Now to look at this budget with a less jaded eye and see where we can cut back even harder.  I'll need to come up with a good bit extra, not just the income we'll miss, but also enough to cover John's medicare supplement insurance.

Katie called to say she was heading down to pick up some necessary papers and did I mind if she stopped to have dinner with us?  I wracked my brain after I told her yes because honest truth, I hadn't planned supper.  We generally are happy with a sandwich or snack supper most evenings.  As I was putting away groceries I pulled whole wheat penne pasta from the cupboard, took three small breast pieces from the last bag of breasts I'd bought (two left in that one) and salad makings from the fridge.  We had a chicken pasta salad.  I'd had something similar not too long ago in a restaurant with a Ceasar dressing.  I had Ranch and Thousand Island dressings to set out tonight.  It was pretty good.  There was enough pasta and chicken left for a salad for me tomorrow.

Oh by the way, I simmered the chicken and pasta both in chicken broth.  Gracious but that pasta tasted good, just with salt and pepper added.  I did not do quarts of broth but put in just enough broth to barely cover the pasta.  I let it cook just long enough to become al dente.  All of the broth had been absorbed and the pan was just barely wet at that point.

Heads up for those of you who love chocolate.  Moser Roth Dark Chocolate with Chili at Aldi is so delicious!  There are small bars inside the packet, five bars in the packet.  The chocolate is super smooth and the chili is a nice background heat.

Wednesday:  I contemplated going back to Goodwill to see about those chairs.   I ticked off boxes.  Pros: they would match our table somewhat better than our current set, they appeared to be in good shape.   Cons: I would need to make two trips to haul them home.  They'd need to be reupholstered.  I had no clue if they were sturdy or flimsy.  And last, I wasn't sure the color of the stain was anywhere near my table color.  I'm thinking the chairs were lighter.  I'd merely glanced at them and noted the extra thick padding on the seat.

John called as I was thinking and I told him my thoughts.  He gently discouraged my going back.  I realized two things while talking to him.  I can repaint and upholster the chairs we currently have for the same amount I would spend on four chairs that must still be reupholstered.  I wasn't sure I could do as nice a job of re-upholstering those chairs.   They were much more detailed and had back insets.  I really would like to look for new(er) chairs for our table but not to settle for anything. There may come a time in the months ahead when I might have extra funds to shop for something that is closer to being perfect for us.

I spent the morning giving myself a full pedicure and then a nice little spa treatment for face and skin.  I haven't done that in many months and it felt nice.   Immediately after doing all that I very foolishly went out to the shed.  Humidity!  I was soaked by the time I walked back indoors with my laundry basket filled with autumn décor.  Ugh.

I must have started fifteen jobs and had fifteen of them partially finished when I stopped for a lunch break.  I realized I was tired so I set myself the goal of finishing only those jobs I'd  started.   I did not start any more tasks.  I added any jobs that came to mind as I worked to a list to work on tomorrow.   I concentrated on one job at a time, finishing each one,  and in three hours I was able to stop for the day.

Ate leftovers of last night's supper salad for my supper tonight.

 As I stood in the kitchen looking about this evening, I realized that I was very happy with that room.  It really does make me smile to walk into that room.  Yes, I wish I had nicer cabinets, or could paint the walls but I realized if I never do, I  shall still be happy with the room overall.

Thursday:  Made apple pancakes and sausage for John's welcome home breakfast this morning.  I am so glad it is apple season.  I've seen some very good prices on apples this month.  I paid about 88c a pound for Gala apples at Aldi which is the lowest price I've seen thus far this year.   They have such a great flavor.  Now to get busy and make that Apple Cake recipe I found after looking for years upon years.

I took a chicken pot pie from the freezer to thaw yesterday.  I kept telling myself it was too much for one each time I'd think to have it for one of my solo meals and that was true but it wasn't quite enough for two.  I should have added another side dish to the entrée.  That and a salad left us mighty hungry well before supper time.

I spent my morning recreating wreaths for the doors.  I used what I had on hand.   They are both hung at the doors now.  I bought a pot of mums at Aldi the other day, which I've put in a sunny spot on the front porch at present.  No one ever comes to the front door except the rare stranger and because we live so far off the road that happens about once in five years.   Mind you I like having a pretty front porch just for my own pleasure.  If John makes good on his threat to start clearing off the back porch I might get it decorated, too, lol.

I'm trying to show the wreaths but they are not coming up very well, even with editing.  I used a roll of blue gingham checked  ribbon I'd had for years on this old straw wreath and to piece it out I cut long strips of a pretty blue print with peach and gold and darker blues in it.  It matches really well with the leaves I used on the wreath.

 On the back door, I put an old wreath that I simply rewrapped with strips of blue gingham check.  I'd wrapped it with burlap a couple of years ago and sewn on the leaves and flowers.  I managed to leave them in place and wrap the wreath with the fabric strips.  I used upholstery twist pins to hold the fabric in place.  The blue bird chime rings whenever anyone opens the door.  I kept this on the back door because Josh can go out the door without our notice...I used to have the same bluebird on the backdoor so I'd hear Katie going out doors.  Golly!  It's hard to believe that was 21 years ago and I'm still employing the same means of keeping up with small children!

The back door and front door are the same exact color, painted from the same can of paint.  It's just the difference in light that makes them appear to be two different shades of red.

I took out half of the slices in a frozen loaf of bread and put them in a zippered bag to thaw for our use.  John and I seldom finish a loaf of bread before it spoils these days.  In fact, I think for Shabat I'm going to go back to making Rhonda's Grampa's bread and make the dough into rolls or buns.   We are not finishing our Shabat loaf and I dislike the waste but I could make good use of the buns.  John likes homemade bread just fine...the day it's made.  After that, even if I pre-slice it, he will eat sliced store bought bread.  I think homemade tastes much better than store bought.  My next best choice is the bakery bread we'd buy at Publix but John honestly likes store bought loaf bread.  I'm tired of watching nearly whole loaves of bread go into the trash (the dogs won't eat it either, unless I soak it in broth).  I had stopped baking bread for anything but Shabat because of this.  Hence my thought to just make a bun shape and freeze then bake the dough fresh each Friday.  John will eat the bun and I'll have no waste.

Friday:  I made two apple cakes yesterday afternoon.  I didn't want to bake a 10inch tube cake so I divided the recipe between two loaf pans.  I do the same thing with Granny's Pound cake recipe and my own Banana Pound cake recipe.  We eat one through the week, I pack up the other and freeze.   When I froze the apple cake today, I put half the glaze, already mixed up, in a small zippered freezer bag and put in the bag with the cake.  This will thaw while the cake thaws, I'll snip off the corner and drizzle over my cake.

I do not keep pumpkin pie spice on hand and so I mixed my own to put into this cake recipe.  This is the cake recipe I'd searched to find for thirty years.  And yes, it is quite as good as I recalled it being!

I have been peevish.  I told John plainly this week that I wanted some time with him away from home.  He planned otherwise.  This morning I asked again.  I told him we've gone for months with  our days out mostly being an errand run combined with a meal.  "Let's do something.  All we've done is related to work and I would really like a break from it."   He's such a good man and husband!  He came through for me.

So we left home this morning and headed to Warm Springs.  Today we did not go to the mountain because it was 94 when we arrived and frankly that mountain side is in full sun and it's hot.  We went to The Little White House.  As always I am astonished at how simply President Franklin Delano Roosevelt lived while he was visiting in Georgia.  Today we saw the film at the visitor center and I told John that I'd never before realized how FDR's administration had affected my life.

The Rural Electrification Act came about because FDR was shocked at how much his own electric bill cost in Georgia for a modest cottage compared to what he paid at Hyde Park in New York.  He felt the farmers needed affordable electricity.  Thank you, Mr. President.  Even so it was the 1950s before many of my family could get electricity, but it might not have been here yet had it not been for FDR.

My dad's mom and dad met because of the WPA.  Granddaddy went to work with WPA and was sent to South Carolina where he met Grandmama.

And now that we're nearly at retirement age, there is The Social Security Act...heh.

John bought me a gift today.  The exit is through the gift shop,  nothing subtle about that is there?  There was a whole basket of little black Scottie dogs and I laughingly picked up one and said "John!  Here's my chance at last to have a Scottie dog!"  I put it back and walked around looking for a particular book I'd wanted and when I looked up John was at the register with one of the little dogs.

I think I'm going to make a little basket bed for my new 'pet'.  I wonder how long I'll get to keep her until the boys or Taylor discovers her.  John did show her to the dogs when we got home and told them I had a new dog.   All I heard was wagging tails hitting the car door, lol.

It's been a lovely ending day to our week.  Have a great weekend!