In My Home This Week: All In the Family

Saturday:  Shoulda, coulda, woulda...I did not prep ahead on Friday for today's meal as I'd meant to do.  Partly because I was tired and didn't feel quite well and partly because I wasn't really sure we'd have anyone but ourselves here...Well we had plenty of folks, 3 adults and 3 children and I had one pound of ground beef thawing.



Everyone seemed to be hungry, so I felt pressured to hurry through making lunch.  That meant using the not quite thawed beef and the only way to manage that was to scramble it.  I relied upon an old Weight Watchers recipe for Sloppy Joes.   I grated a medium zucchini, a medium carrot and diced a quarter of a very strong onion.   I added a little minced garlic and some watered down catsup.  The original recipe calls for a can of diced tomatoes and some tomato sauce if I recall aright.  I skipped those two items.    I stretched the beef to enough to make six sandwiches.  The children wouldn't eat it but they thought Peanut butter and  jelly sandwiches sounded all right.  Not one of them really ate.  Josh refused entirely and Isaac barely ate 1/6 of his sandwich.  Taylor ate half and that was that.

I'm pretty sure Josh is unwell, though Sam tells me he's just tired.  He lay down on the floor with a pillow and afghan while we ate lunch and went to sleep.  He was very clingy as well.

The children all went to their own homes, and we were alone for the rest of the afternoon.   John slept.  He was more than weary from work the night before and had pushed hard through the morning.

I opened the windows and let the cool air breeze through the house.  I even got a little chilly but put on socks and a jacket.

Samuel told me he'd gotten about 90 pounds of meat off the buck he shot.  I figured he had put at the least $450 worth of meat in his freezer.

The day was lovely overall but it was especially lovely at sunset.  I went to shut the windows this evening and found the sky striped with pink and lavender.  I stood and gathered in the deep peace that end of day brings and thanked the Lord for the day it had been.

Sunday:  We woke early this morning after going to bed later than usual last night.  That 'extra hour' of daylight savings time really irks me, lol.  I can never quite find that so called extra hour.  Oh well.  Early we rose and I had time before church to set the house to rights, gather the trash, make us breakfast and even do a load of laundry which I hung on the line to dry.  Oh yes.  I unloaded the dishwasher.  I'd actually washed dishes yesterday after our breakfast.

I remembered to grab my shopping list for Publix before we left home.  I'd noted a few good sales on items we'd typically buy there and I may as well be shot for a pound as for a penny as far as the budget is concerned.

After church we went into the store.  I won't share the total but I will share what we purchased.  It was a substantial savings really on items we use daily.  I bought 4 packages of Decaf coffee which were buy one get one free, ditto on price for  2 cat food, 2-6 packs of soda, 2 pints of carrageenan free ice cream.   John put in two half gallons of unsweetened tea, also priced as a buy one get one free.

I bought Campari tomatoes that were on sale, and 3 loaves of bakery bread, plus a quart of carrageenan free half and half.  I picked up 3 packages of Beef Polska Kielbasa which I can't find at any other store and 2 packages of beef breakfast sausages.  John bought a package of all beef hot dogs to go in his lunch. I'd planned to buy fried chicken for our dinner but there was NONE, not even cold.  Instead I got two packs of cold chicken tenders.  John got  his macaroni salad and a mini blueberry pie.

Then we stopped in the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and picked up two over the counter meds I have been holding off buying waiting on a sale.  None has come along and we're out.  Both are needed items.   So I bought them.  All in all, we had five bags of groceries when we walked out.  Plus side on our dinner stuff is that we ended putting one packet of the chicken tenders in the freezer, and we've enough pie for a second dessert this week.  John has a second serving of macaroni salad, too.

I had a small windfall in Friday's mail.  I decided after tithing to take the funds and stock up on a few items for our stockpile and some meats for the freezer.  This is not my typical reaction to a windfall.  I'd generally set it aside and let it 'rest' a bit before spending, taking care to determine how to make the most of it, but having just done the pantry inventory and checking the meat baskets in the freezer, I'm pretty sure this is the wiser course.

Sam stopped by this afternoon with a portion of the meal he'd made today.  My children put me to shame, let me assure you.  His menu today was Braised Venison Tenderloin with a Marsala Mushroom and Onion sauce over Smoked Mozzarella Ravioli.   Yes, really and it was so delicious.   Since John and I had such a late dinner, we shared the portion for our supper tonight.  Sam told me he'd bought the Smoked Mozzarella Ravioli at Aldi, which just floors me.  I'm going to be looking harder at the refrigerator case at Aldi!  That was awfully good.

Apparently Smoked Cheeses are 'in' food-wise.  I noted at Publix this afternoon a man asked for a side of Smoke Gouda Mac n Cheese.  I often buy a small round of smoked Gouda for John at Aldi.  It's not expensive though it costs more than Cheddar as you might expect.  I'd mentioned to John I'd like to try a smoky mac and cheese.  Based on my experience today with the Smoked Mozzarella Ravioli, I'd say it would be delicious.

I'm afraid my family is ailing.  Bess wasn't well yesterday and Sam said the two boys were unwell today.  John isn't ailing but he does feel a little off.  Katie called this evening to say that Taylor, who acted perfectly fine, kept telling her that she was sick.   She had a slight cough but no other symptoms.  Katie asked Matt to take her by urgent care and have her checked.  Taylor has the flu.  You might recall she had a pretty tough case of it earlier this year.  They were told she should have a relatively mild case because they caught it at the very early stage.

Monday:  Gosh but I'm hungry for my lunch!  I've had a very productive morning.   I started folding laundry from yesterday before John was out of the drive, then stripped our bed and started it washing with our towels.  I sat down to have a second cup of coffee and journal for a few minutes.  In that writing, I decided that I will not take this windfall to spend on the grocery stockpile.  Call me unsettled, just like our weather, but I rethought my whole line of thinking of last night and determined that after all we are NOT about to starve or go without and I can easily just fine slowly rebuilding the stockpile.  What I will do, is change how I allocate my grocery budget.  I'm going to begin at the beginning of each month and end at the end of the month.  I've also determined what my budget will be for this month, a little higher than we've had but we do have a need to buy a turkey.

When I considered that we're having dinner at Mama's and I am responsible for all the meal, it seemed to me the more easily transported it is,  the better for me it will be. I can always reheat things when we get to her house but I am not going to cart along loads of heavy stuff.  The turkey will be cooked here and pre-carved and packed.   I confess it lacks the presentation factor that we all love, because there is something about seeing that golden brown crispy skinned whole turkey isn't there?  But it's far more portable if it's pre-carved.    I've done a little more planning for the menu but not lots yet.  I haven't yet asked  Katie and Jd if they are coming nor if their families will be with them.

And of course, Mama hasn't yet tossed her usual monkey wrenches into the mix.  She has always done so either by inviting extra and largely unwanted guests or by demanding something extra be done and generally it's at the last minute so that stress is maximized.  Y'all,  I tell you now... I am going to hold firm.   I will plan and let my plan stand.   If extra are invited it will be up to Mama to have them bring something along or to prepare something extra herself.  If she demands an extra dish or three I will remind her that I am taking food to her house, and I'm limited in what I can bring along.

So that was thought about and then the laundry was finished washing and I moved the sheets into the dryer.  I let them dry while I did my Bible study and prayer time.   I swept the kitchen, cleared off the counters, put away the few dirty dishes and that room was presentable just about the time the sheets were dry.   I put in the towels to dry then went off to tend to our bedroom.

Lol!  A woodpecker just landed on the edge of the storm window and peered into the house at me!

I planned the living room/dining room/front entry as my zone this week.  First off, I cleaned ceiling fans, including ours in the bedroom.  I also vacuumed the bedroom.  I made the bed with the clean linen.  Typically I would rotate my sheets but on the rare occasions when I have to dry sheets in the dryer, I usually put them right back on the bed.    After I put away clothes (folded earlier this morning), I turned off the lights and turned on the fan once again and called that room done.  Two down...

I moved the dining room chairs to the kitchen.  My dining chairs are something I'd talked about replacing.  The ones I have are sturdy and heavy.  They do not match the style of the dining furniture, at all.  That's my main reason for wishing to replace them.  They are metal and more modern in shape, while my table and buffet are French provincial style.   But then as Katie is prone to point out, nothing in my house matches anything else anyway, lol.  And because the chairs are sturdy and heavy and a good height for sitting I think I'll repaint and recover and call that good enough.  (Changeable mind again!).

I cleaned the buffet, and the table.  I cleaned the mirror and dusted the chair rail molding and the chairs.  Then I cleaned the upholstery of the chairs with Resolve Spray.  I moved on to the entry and cleaned the front door and frame and then cleaned the storm door glass and the glass on the doors of the new music cabinet.  After I'd dusted that piece and the chair rail along that side of the room I went ahead and vacuumed that side of the room.

Here's where I started to get ahead of myself.   When I wiped the dining table off, I also wiped off the living room side tables.  When I cleaned the lamps on the dining side, I went ahead and cleaned the glass of the gun cabinet and the blue glass lamp on the table between mine and John's chair.

After I vacuumed the dining room, entry and little hallway that leads to the back rooms, I flipped the chairs we sit in daily and vacuumed under them.  Then I set the dining table with fresh linens, new candles and refilled the salt and pepper.   And then I forgot all about my intention to dust the living room.  Forgot all about it.  I grabbed the vacuum and used the attachment to 'dust' the chairs and ottomans and pillows and then I vacuumed the carpet and realized I'd not dusted after I'd put away the vacuum.  I was good and tired at this point and had been working for more or less four hours.  I decided I'd wait and dust later this week when I again plan to vacuum the room.

While I was working I noted that I was hungry, as well I might be.  I planned to make quiche, small ones, just for myself.  John doesn't care for quiche but I do like them.  I had a pat of pastry in the freezer and I set it out to come to room temperature so I could easily roll it out.  I planned my fillings: sun dried tomatoes, black olives and pepper jack cheese for one and onion and cream cheese with chives for the other.  I have saved several mini pie pans.

I realized I wasn't going to get quiche for lunch...so I grabbed a big red potato and sliced it.  I put it in the same pan I'd caramelized my onion in for the cream cheese quiche.  I topped with sliced onion and a piece of kielbasa.  That cooked while I dealt with the slipcover on my chair, replaced the items on the side tables and went to find a pretty quilt to put over the back of the wingback chair.

I got 3 small crusts from my piece of dough.  I blind baked them first, then added my assorted fillings.  I ended up with five quiche, two without a crust.   I put four in the freezer when they had cooled, and saved one out for supper tonight.  It will be lovely with my Campari tomatoes.

It feels like a long day already so I shall end here and do some study and then perhaps start a coffee chat.  The weather is more conducive to chatting and coffee than it is to working hard anyway.  It was foggy all morning and has been drizzling rain this afternoon.

later:  Just bit the bullet and found a new health care plan.  Happily I'll be saving nearly $100 a month for the same type of coverage I've got now.   I don't know why they keep cancelling these policies when they basically rename them and offer them up to us once more.

Tuesday:  I am sticking firmly to my decision to  officially set a monthly amount beginning at the first of each month whether or not we have a pay period on that date.  It's just got to be easier than trying to figure a budget the way I've been doing for years upon years...And doesn't it make sense to you that thirty days is easiest counted from 1-30 rather than from 8th of one month to the 7th of another?  I get confused...especially if we don't shop until much later in a pay period.  So rather than dig about trying to determine if I spent 'xxx' in four weeks ( or was it six weeks or three?), I am going to just withdraw cash on the first of each month and that shall be my budget until the first day of the next month.

Oh by the way, the September 2018 numbers are up on the government food costs site.  I fell below the thrifty plan for a family of 2 over 50.   I don't know just where they get the figures from and I'm sure it's all averaged out which is never a true statement either of how things actually are, but it does make me feel better somehow to know that I stay in the 'thrifty' category and at best slide to 'low budget'.

John is not feeling well but I have given him pineapple juice and today a pineapple sundae following a serving of Hot and Sour soup. I went out of my way today to pick up Chinese takeout for him, as I knew he likes the soup as a cold remedy.  He sounds 'loose' so I'll assume he's doing well enough.   Bess took both boys to the doctor this morning and Isaac had a breathing treatment.  Those little lungs of his simply can't handle a cold.  I'm afraid it's partly due to his having been a preemie and partly inherited from his gramma.  If everyone else gets a cold it goes straight to my lungs and always has.  Thank the good Lord, Samuel and Katie and I are holding out against this stuff.   The little boys both have ear infections.

I  ran errands this morning while John stayed home.  I went to the post office to drop off the outgoing mail and then over to Katie's to gather items Mama had asked me to find.  I don't know just where she means to put some of this stuff, nor why after two years of living without it she now feels she needs it,  but she'll have it regardless.   Katie and I visited for about an hour while she readied herself to go to work.  I was happy to hear that Taylor never even ran any fever with her flu they caught it so early.

After I left Katie, I went to the Dollar General Marketplace in Ft. Valley which is a much larger store than we have locally and includes fresh produce and a more expansive freezer and fridge cases, but not fresh meats.  I was looking for another of those hermetically sealed bins.  Found one lid but the bin itself was missing entirely.  I loathed the state the store was in.  It all just looked so unkempt.  And yet, I tell you honestly that unkempt and over filled there are nice things to be found if you take time to look about.  I just wasn't in the mood for it this morning.

After going to the bank, I went to CVS where I spent a chunk of change on four little items.  Even though sales saved me the cost of one item,  I was not at all happy to walk out of that store with four items I'd held easily in one hand prior to check out for the cost of two hours and a portion of another of John's work time!   Even swapping in my $4 ECBs and receiving $7 ECBs back did little to assuage my feeling of having seriously overspent.

To the grocery to buy my every other month stock of packets of crackers for John's work locker, turkey sausage and turkey spam.  John prefers the Turkey Spam over the turkey bacon I usually buy.  He says it tastes better and has a better texture when fried.  I happen to agree.  The turkey sausage I can buy at Kroger but I pay LESS for two pounds at this discount grocer than I can buy 1/2 pound for at Kroger.  No brainer, right?

Then I went over to a less favored Chinese place to pick up the soup for John.  It started to rain while I was waiting for my order.  I don't say this lightly but I began to feel my mood sliding down into grumpy while I was there.  No one's fault, just the weather, traffic and crowds everywhere I went.

I have little to show for my day.  I barely dented the outages in the household, my wallet holds considerably less than it did despite my adding to it while I was out, and so far today I've managed to only make beds and wash a load of dishes...When I look back at all that I accomplished yesterday I am shocked that so little was achieved today and it all cost so very much.  Blech!

While I was at Mama's,  I took time to pull up some of the old fashioned chrysanthemums that have been passed about the family.  Mama got hers from Aunt Chris who got them from Aunt Mattie Lee (my great, great aunt), who got them from ???  As near as I can tell from a crash course in mums, they are heirloom Rubellums which do have a tendency to wander and roam and don't form a 'cushion' as most modern mums tend to do.  They do not grow into a bush or upright but run along the ground and put out more little plants and roots that are quite shallow.  They have pretty pink blooms on them and chrysanthemum shaped single flowers and leaves.  I've never yet grown them here on this place, but I am going to put them in a pot and see how well they take hold.  They've nearly died out at Mama's and I don't want to lose them entirely.

The mums I bought the past few years have all been corralled into one pot and I failed to prune them properly this year so they are leggy as can be standing upwards of two or two and a half feet tall.   Despite this, with the cooler weather and rain they have put forth a third set of blooms this year and look rather pretty.   Next year, I shall be more mindful of their tendency to grow tall and try to 'prune' them judiciously in the beginning of July as one gardener reports doing.   I have the single pot I purchased this year on the front porch and need to get it into the barrel with the others so that it can overwinter in good company and deeper soil.

I put a small chuck roast in the crockpot this morning with a little sliced onion.   That was our supper tonight.  We had roast beef sandwiches with a really nice whole grain mustard I bought at Aldi last pay period.  I cut this portion off a larger roast we brought home a few weeks ago and froze it with the idea we could use it for sandwiches.

Wednesday:  We're just in from Aldi and I feel I did very well indeed.  At last, they had the Spekulaas cookies I like so very well.  That was my splurge for this pay period.  All else we picked up were mostly doubles of items I need to restock (canned things this pay period) and fresh produce.  I completely forgot all about the orange juice I meant to buy but I did get a bag of oranges.

I was pleased this afternoon to sit down with my restocking list and note that I'd actually brought several items up to  maintenance levels, so now when I use one I will add one to my next shopping list.  This restocking went far more quickly than I'd anticipated and I came in well within budget today.  I think next pay period will see the entire list completely brought to  maintenance levels  

I have a slight case of the crud.  We stopped by at the other house to drop off a photo of John in uniform for Josh's Veteran's Day program in his class.   I wasn't worried about making the boys sick since they were both ill and at home today.  Isaac's little nose was running and Josh told me his throat hurt and he didn't feel good.  Bess had let them play outdoors but it's warm and humid out so she'd kept a close eye on them to make sure they didn't get too hot.  She said it really wasn't a problem as neither boy felt well enough to run around.  I was hoping they'd both be better today with the usual resilience children have in overcoming illness.

I'd heard Josh crying in his room and Bess told me they were just in their room to keep them from under foot long enough for her to put lunch on the table.  "You can go get them if you don't mind keeping them occupied for me."  I opened the door and Josh's eyes lit up with surprise and a huge smile spread across his face.

The room was dark so I thought they were meant to be lying down but Isaac was nowhere to be seen.  "Josh, where is Isaac?" I asked and Josh pointed to the doorway next to me and said "Right there." I turned and found myself eye to eye with that impish child.  He'd climbed atop the small bookcase and was right at my eye level.  He burst into laughter when I looked at him and jumped a little.  Somehow one doesn't expect to find an 18 month old boy standing level with an adult Gramma's eye level.  He'd apparently been torturing Josh by cutting the light on and off.

I took the boys into the living room and we sat on the couch and visited.  I read them a book and then kissed them goodbye when their lunch was ready.  It was a nice little visit.

Because I am at the beginning of feeling unwell, I started taking zinc and an elderberry gummy drop.  I picked up the elderberry drops at CVS this morning and used the $7 ECB I got yesterday to offset the cost a bit.  I've never tried elderberry before but I have heard so many people sing the praises of it and so I figured I'd try it as well.  I can say simply that I don't feel good, but I truly believe my cough is less chesty and more throat already.  I have great hopes in recovering more quickly than John has.

However, I am also going to drink loads of fluids and rest a good bit this afternoon.  I figure it can't hurt to be cautious since I don't feel exactly well nor exactly bad but just 'off' in general.  I'm pretty sure I've already fought off one ailment because I woke last week with a sore lymph node on one side of my throat.  It went away after a day or two but again, I felt 'off' during that time.

John, in an effort to care for me today, insisted we go by the pizza place and order salads and spaghetti plates.  It's really good spaghetti and the salads are full of tomatoes and oregano and lovely dark green romaine lettuce so we got a  plentiful dose of Vitamin C in our dinner today.  I typically do not eat white pasta but I feel far more comfortable in my ability to 'balance' my carb intake now than I did three years ago.

I've been pushing hard to finish A City Of  Bells .   I don't know why it's dragging so for me just now.  Perhaps because I find Goudge is one of those authors best read hard and continuously rather than a chapter here and part of a chapter there as I have time.  I looked through and read more of Jerusalem, A Cookbook last night.  I've gotten ideas of how to jazz up vegetables that we can easily find in our markets here, but some of the seasonings and spices they use in the recipes are just not easily available nor something I'd typically have on hand.  I try not to buy spices or herbs I won't use regularly.   Still, it's inspiring me to think differently about how we eat some vegetables.  I have not picked up the Roosevelt autobiography and I'd completely forgotten that last month I also started Kate Douglas Wiggins Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.  I think I just want to finish something, if not all of these books,  and then move on to reading something fresh.

As we were on our way home today we discussed Thanksgiving.  It will be just  four of us.  I'm going to contact Jd and let him know that we will not be doing a big family gathering that day nor that weekend.  John has to work the day after as does Katie, Sam and Bess.  John's shift on that Friday will be especially difficult, as he'll be the only paramedic on duty, which  means he will have to be on every life threatening call and is responsible for determining which calls require a medic.  I'm expecting him to come home on Saturday morning more than usually tired and I don't think a house full of family will promote rest.   We will, instead, arrange a family day for one of the weekends post Thanksgiving.

We also decided that we'd buy just a turkey breast and I'd cook it here at home and stuff it for us as part of our weekend meal.  Mama nor Katie  like turkey and neither of them likes stuffing but prefer dressing,  so I'll roast one of those big organic roasters from Aldi and make traditional sides to go with it.

One of my purchases today at Aldi was a package of discounted ghost shaped marshmallows.  I told John they melt just as well as regular shaped marshmallows on top of sweet potato casserole or S'mores.

Tonight's supper was leftover General Tso chicken, leftover rice and a very small head of steamed broccoli.  It was easy and not too taxing and had the added bonus of the Vitamin C from the broccoli atop the orange we'd eaten earlier, and the Elderberry Gummy Vitamin C.  Shot in the arm to this cold, I hope.

Thursday:  Early morning after a rough night.  John was very restless and his fever broke.  That is never a restful sleep for anyone either the sicker of the two nor for the one who must be the bed companion.  I was grateful the coffee pot was pre-set because I forgot to turn on the alarm clock.  Had it not been for the aroma of brewing coffee I'd never have gotten up this morning to see John off to work.

I did a few things about the house this morning and then I slipped back to bed and grabbed an extra hour of sleep.  When I awoke at 9am I felt quite well and decided it was now or never to get fresh meats in the freezer.  The market where I buy ground beef and chicken breasts has the meat on sale all week long this week.  Typically they stop these sales during the holidays and I didn't really want to use an inferior product from now until January so I headed to Macon.

It was a miserable ride really.  The trees look so drab and the weather was drizzly and fitful so that I had to constantly turn on the wipers or turn them off again, or run them up to the maximum intermittent rate or lower them back to the least.  I barely saw a thing on the ride over for continually having to monitor the windshield wipers.

I'd forgotten how lovely it is to shop in that market with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee and all the beautifully displayed produce and products and the classical music that plays in the background.  I didn't over indulge today, being too well aware of having just spent a sizable portion of the budget at Publix and Aldi.  I got a lovely huge lemon because I had to have that big thing.  I chose one each of two new to me apple varieties.  This is a very affordable splurge over all.  I bought two new to me varieties of apples  at the end of October: Snapdragon, which is from the Honey Crisp cultivar and Smitten which is from Fiesta, Falstaff, Gala and Braeburn apples.  I will buy the Snapdragon again if I see it.  It was tangy and crisp and sweet.  Today's selections at The Fresh Market were Autumn  Glory, a hybrid of Fuji and Golden Delicious,  and Opal Sweet, which is a cross between Golden Delicious and Topaz apple varieties.  I'll wait and share these two apples with John as they are quite large and merit sharing.  I must say though that some of the new apple varieties are really delicious.

I thought about apples on my way home.  Growing up we saw a great deal more of the Golden Delicious apples but basically we had an option of Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious.  I seldom see a Golden Delicious apple anymore, which was what drew me to the Autumn Glory.  It looked so much like the Golden Delicious apples of my childhood with just a blushing streak of red on the peel.   I appreciate the opportunity to try different varieties and see how their flavors and textures differentiate.  I haven't had my favorite apple, Winesap, at all.  There's only one  grocery store I know which sells them and it is the grocery in the foothills northwest of here.  I wish I could go to  one of the farmer's markets in north Georgia which generally have Winesaps as well.

Besides apples, I found my meats.  I determined how much of each I would purchase and then looked over the rest of the store. I  only picked up a packet of Farro which I'd tried to find at Aldi but with no luck.  Last year they had it for months, but not one packet of it this year.  We grew fond of that Kale and Farro soup and I while I will substitute spinach for the Kale if it's better priced, I do not know what I might substitute for the Farro.  I can add some of that to any pot of soup or to pots of rice, too, so it shall not go to waste.

I hurried home with only one stop on the way: Dollar General in another nearby town to see if they had the hermetically sealing bins.  No they did not.  They did, however, carry the filter that fits our heat pump so I bought two.  Ours was past the point of needing to be replaced and had already been vacuumed off once.

I set aside half a sandwich for John to snack on over the next couple of days after my lunch today and my supper this evening was the last of the Hot and Sour Soup and a portion of the Smitten apple I'd put in the fridge on Monday.

I am weary and feeling the burden of my cold, so off I go.  Bedtime is still hours away, even for my early night, sigh.

Friday:   I went off to bed last night about 9pm, chilled to the bone.  I woke at 1am fighting the covers and gasping from being overheated.   I did go back to sleep but I felt pretty rotten this morning when I awoke.  I looked at what needed to be done and decided that I really didn't care...It all has a tendency to wait on me anyway, so let it wait.

I kept breakfast easy as I knew John would barely have time to eat if indeed he came in at all.  I think I hear his car now...He and Sam went to a Veteran's program at Josh's school this morning.  John has little sympathy for my not feeling well, which is typical isn't it? lol  He did give me a packet of fizzy Vitamin C powder and suggested I take it as he was leaving for the school.

I was not feeling ill used despite my pseudo complaints.  After all, he'd just worked a 24 hour shift and he hadn't felt a bit better going off to work than I did this morning.

While John was gone I determined that I would at least prep food for the weekend and so that was my task.  I had a bunch of red potatoes that just had not held up well over the last two weeks.  I peeled those and sliced some for mashed potatoes and diced the rest.  I covered the diced ones with water and put in the fridge.  I will use some of those to make hash brown potatoes one morning and the rest I'll mix into Funeral Potatoes as a friend calls them.  I find I can mix this casserole up and freeze the leftovers without any compromise.

I chopped celery and onions and shredded carrots and then a zucchini.  I put a pound of ground beef and a packet of chicken breasts in the fridge yesterday.  I decided to make meat loaf from the ground beef for today and chicken and dumplings for tomorrow's dinner.  The zucchini, some of the carrots and onions were put in the meatloaf (along with bread crumbs, eggs and parmesan cheese and garlic).  This mixture netted me enough for a small meatloaf and a medium meatloaf.  I put the small one in the freezer.  It will serve John and I a serving each.  The medium meatloaf is in the oven now, cooking for our dinner today.  I expect we'll have enough leftover to make sandwiches with.

I put aside some of the onion, carrots and celery for the chicken and dumplings tomorrow and retrieved a quart of chicken broth from the freezer to thaw.  All I need to do tomorrow is dump in a Dutch oven and mix my drop dumplings.

I had leftover shredded carrots which I mixed into a Wacky Cake.  This will serve as our dessert this weekend. I will frost it with cream cheese frosting when the cake is cool.  I moved the meatloaf into the oven as I took the cake out.

I was mindful of my strength and tried to clear up as I went today.  While chopping vegetables I sat at my desk.  I will say I felt pretty well done by the time I finished up. I'd been resting about an hour when John came in bearing warm cookies, a ginger ale and the promise of a batch of soup for me this evening that he'd requested Sam pick up on his way back home this afternoon.

While John told me about the morning's program, I sliced that big lovely lemon and squeezed some of the juice into my glass and poured over some of the ginger ale.  It was really lovely and the lemon smelled so very good.

I'm happy to have so much accomplished for the weekend and now I shall spend the rest of the weekend resting.  I hope you all have a great weekend.