In MyHome This Week: A Cheerful Homemaker

Thursday:  A quiet enough holiday for us.  I made our special breakfast and we've agreed that while we love sausage balls they are just a bit much, too bready,  with a sweet roll.  I think we need to find an acceptable sausage or breakfast meat that will work for us that is not our usual fare but something we save for special occasions.

I baked the chicken, sweet potato casserole and dressing this morning and made chicken gravy.  I packed everything up spanking hot and wrapped the dishes in a thick towel and loaded it into our insulated bag.  Do you know that the chicken was still warm in it's dish when we brought it back home?  This works incredibly well for packing a hot meal.    We had a nice meal with Mama and it was just the three of us but we heard from all of our young families during the day.



We came home and had chicken sandwiches for our supper.  Mama sent home pumpkin pie, Broccoli and rice casserole with us.  I left her with a plate of food and pie for her meal on Friday.

Friday:  Sent John off to work this morning with a packed lunch, breakfast and coffee.  I put on a load of clothes to wash and then carried myself off to bed for an extra hour or two of sleep since I knew the boys were mine this evening.  I slept about an hour but lay abed just listening to vlogs on the phone for another thirty minutes or so before I crawled from bed.

I did a full household routine this morning, starting at our bath and working my way out into the rest of the house.  I didn't much think I wanted to spend the day working but in the end, I got quite a lot done in a shorter time than I'd thought it might take.  I even remade the bathroom curtain and recovered the bench that sits under that window with the excess material from the curtain remodel, as well.  While I was at the sewing machine I made a new cover for my stand mixer from  a vintage pillowcase.

Got the Christmas tree set up.  I never did find my extension cord so I must have put it out in the shop last year.   I thought about how excited the boys would be to see the tree and so I went on and decorated it.  It's not really done but it's pretty enough with the lights turned on and the boys loved coming in to find the tree up and ready.

I'd spent all morning working so allowed myself the rest of the afternoon off.  I watched a few television programs and even took a brief nap.

Sam announced he was staying for supper...I hadn't really planned anything since Josh is so picky I generally just feed him whatever he says he will eat.  With Sam staying, the prospect changed a bit.  I made cheese omelets and toast for us.  Josh had omelet and Shabbat roll.  All the boys had a slice of pumpkin pie to finish off the meal.

I got the boys bathed and dressed in their pajamas and Josh asked to watch Paw Patrol.  I could not get my Directv box to power on for anything.  I'm thinking Isaac pressed a button on it at some point.  I searched on Netflix for Paw Patrol and found a Disney movie called 'Santa Paws' that held the boys interest for an hour and forty-five minutes.  Both boys were obviously tired and I think both dozed off a little while watching the movie but neither was willing to go to bed until the movie was done.

After the boys went to bed, I manually pushed the power button on the Directv box and nothing happened.  I unplugged it and then plugged it back in and it came right on.  By the way, our audio/video was all out of sync a couple of weeks ago and none of the prescribed fixes we found online worked.  I told John that it couldn't hurt to return to basics.  We unplugged the tv and after waiting a few minutes plugged it back in.  Voila!  The audio and video were back in sync.

Saturday:  I made kielbasa and French Toast for our breakfast this morning.  Josh deigned to eat a slice of bread with butter and about 1 egg worth of scrambled eggs.  He topped off his meal with 4 ounces of orange juice and a whole banana.   Isaac, on the other hand, ate his full plate of 1 egg, 5 slices kielbasa and a whole piece of French toast.   John said he ate a lumberjack's breakfast.

The boys slept soundly last night.  Gramma woke frequently to listen for them but that is okay.  Both boys are getting over their latest illness and were to be given medications as needed.  They apparently didn't need any as I never heard a cough nor snuffle.  I was up just early enough to pull on clothes before Isaac started talking and woke Josh.

  I confess I felt a bit wimpy by the time the boys left, a sign that as well as I think I am, I've still got some lingering effects of whatever I had, be it cold, flu or upper respiratory.   The boys were here until about 10am when the parents arrived to come pick them up.  Both boys opted to go home in the big truck with Daddy.  Sam and Bess had gone hunting this morning so they were especially glad I had the boys overnight.

I put a turkey breast, stuffed, into the oven early this morning and added in saved over sweet potato soufflé that I topped with marshmallows.  I considered making a salad but took into account that my romaine is old enough to be bitter and it's romaine which may or may not have been recalled.  I opened a can of Garden peas I found under the cabinet in the foodstuffs.  I heated them in the oven alongside the rest of the meal.  

I washed a full load of dishes from necessity, not because I especially wanted to do so.

I spent the afternoon watching videos on how to make ricotta and cottage cheese.  I noted that ricotta takes salt, lemon juice or vinegar and whole milk in most recipes.  Cottage cheese requires rennet, buttermilk or yogurt, a gallon of milk and salt and cream.   In our most recent sales sheet a good carrageenan free cottage cheese is $1.79 for a pint.  I confess I'd be hard pressed to make it for the same amount, no matter how good it might taste, as a full gallon of milk is required to make about 2 cups of cottage cheese.  Ricotta on the other hand was advertised as two pints for $7.  It seems to me that I would get a bigger bang for my buck to make the ricotta here at home as the savings would be much more.  However, we seldom have eaten ricotta because it was always so expensive.  John does like cottage cheese at times.  I'm pricing rennet tablets (only 1/4 is needed so no need to buy multiple packs at once).  I watched the cottage cheese making process on a YouTube channel called Noreen's Kitchen .  Remember I said that at this point in my money saving process I can only save more by adding to my skill set?   This is part of that theory of mine being put into practice.

Katie came over to fill water bottles and we ate a supper of whatever we chose from the fridge.  Not one of us ate a balanced meal but it sure was good food.

Sunday:  John up earlier than usual, or so it seemed to me.  I heard him shower and then laundry going long before I crawled from bed.  I confess my high carb supper made me pay the price of not being able to go to sleep, something I have noticed bothers me as much as late afternoon caffeine.   I reminded myself this morning that supper was delicious but not likely something I'd do on a daily basis.   In fact, I am quite ready to return to 'normal' eating, but we must stop at the grocery to get lettuce (NOT romaine).

I managed to get the dishwasher unloaded and had time to sit down with my journal for a bit before finishing my getting dressed for church.  I think one of the best favors I've done myself is move that Sunday washing of sheets and towels to Mondays which tend to be less hectic paced.

I received some blush and eye shadow samples in a Mary Kay beauty catalog in the mail.  Quite pleased to find that there was enough makeup on the card to do a full makeup on my face.  I wish more companies would allow you to experiment with a sample of something with enough to fully make up your eyes or cheeks or lips.   These were not colors I'd typically choose but I liked them very well and it's something I'll consider in my first of the year shopping for new makeup.

We took off trash and picked up mail on our way out.  I also put dishes I need to return to Mama in my car this morning while they were on my mind.  I find I am far less forgetful if I do things when I think of them rather than putting it off.

I was sort of pleased with how my outfit came together this morning.  Jeans jacket over white tee shirt and khaki slacks with a pretty necklace and a scarf.  It was simple but looked classic and I felt rather nice when I saw my reflection in the doors at church.  Mind you I have two full length mirrors in my bath but I never seem to take time to glance at myself in them, so it's always a nice surprise to note I look well in a reflection elsewhere, lol.

I was hungry after church.  Despite this, I stuck to my mental list.   We picked up John's prescription, got a Sunday paper.  I priced cottage cheese and discovered that while it might go on sale for less than a gallon of milk, overall the prices are $3.59 for 24-32 ounce packages.  Ricotta 32 ounce cups were $3.50 on sale.   So yes, it would pay me to make my own cottage and ricotta cheeses most of the time when we desire to have it, unless I can buy the cottage cheese on sale.  I will note here that the cups on sale were $1.79 for 16 ounces and in summer months it's usually 2/$4 in most stores for the only brand cottage cheese that does not have carrageenan in it.  That's the other advantage to making my own.   I looked for rennet tablets in the store, but found none.  I'll check a few more stores before I order them online.

We bought sliced cheese for John's lunch, stocked up on bogo Mayonnaise (unusual this time of year to find mayonnaise on sale!) and I paid less than I'd have paid at Aldi for the store brand which I like but don't love.  I got two bottles of the Kraft Olive Oil vinaigrette which is John's dressing of choice at present.   I bought grapes on sale, decaf coffee bogo, breads.  I picked up a clearance priced bottle of cooking sherry.  I bought a single head of iceberg lettuce which was about all the lettuce there was, everything else being spinach or kale.   When I noted the register was going to go over $50, I ran and got a $50 gas card which was on sale for $40 with a $50 purchase.  We gather a few of these cards and use them to fill up when we go on trips or give to one of the children if they are traveling or running low on funds.

Remember I said I was hungry?  We didn't buy drinks or a snack or lunch today.  Instead, when we got back to the car, I washed off a stem of grapes with the bottle of water I'd brought along and we had a cheese slice each.  No extra money required and it was a balanced carb/protein snack.

When we got home, I set out ALL the leftovers on the counter and we helped ourselves.  After lunch I bagged or boxed up every single item.  I am so over holiday eating, and leftovers!  I had a chicken carcass, a turkey breast carcass, enough stuffing for a second meal, a bit of yellow rice and some broccoli rice casserole that Mama made that I mixed together, enough sweet potato souffle (two types mixed together) to serve 4-6.  I put about half a breast worth of turkey into the fridge which will provide us with sandwiches and probably an entrée in the week ahead.

I have not received my billing for my medical insurance, so I went ahead and addressed a standard envelope so I can get it in the mail before the due date.  I went ahead and wrote out the gas card bill (that money is always subtracted as we use the card each time), and the cell phone bills.  I'll mail those off tomorrow as I go over to take Mama shopping.

My last task was to add up what I've spent on groceries this month and the total was startling.  I am sure I was nowhere near that mark just Tuesday when I sat down to add up those figures.  I'm going to go back and check myself but I have determined if I buy anything while shopping with Mama, it shall have to come from my pocket.  It's amazing how I will dither over prices or even put things back when I know it's coming out of my purse and not our account.

This makes me think I shall try to go on a cash basis once again.  I must determine what my monthly budget amount shall be before I do this...and I'll likely wait until January to start it as holidays seem a rather silly time to suddenly go budget minded.


Monday:  After sending John off to work with breakfast eaten, coffee in hand and lunch packed, I swept the kitchen floor, stripped and remade our bed, put away clothes left out over the weekend, washed a full load of laundry and hung it on the line to dry, washed a very full load of dishes.  I left those to air dry when they were done.

Pieced together another outfit.  This time I wanted to wear the teal sweater from last year and I put it over a pale yellow shirt with a pretty infinity scarf that has both colors in it and wore my khaki pants because they are so very comfortable.  I knew I wanted to be comfortable above all else, as I find shopping with Mama is tedious work at best.

I used the last bits of kielbasa chopped into scrambled eggs for John and reheated French toast for us both.  I waited until he'd left and I'd gotten a good bit of my morning's work done before having my breakfast.  I cooked myself turkey sausage and then deglazed the pan with water and put that over the pet food.

While hanging clothes and feeding pets, I looked over my avocado and chrysanthemum on the front porch.  The chrysanthemum I'd trimmed back ruthlessly a couple of weeks ago.  It now has fresh green leaves coming out and is budding for a second blooming.

Mama's car refused to start this morning.  I think there may be a computer switch at root but my brother is going to go buy this afternoon and jump the car off and will tend to any mechanical needs it has.   Because we used my car, Mama insisted on filling it up.  I didn't need quite half a tank and assured her I could fill it with my own card but she was very adamant, so I thanked her.

It was my turn to buy dinner.  Today we shared an entrée and ordered two extra sides.  We were not charged for the extra sides which was nice.  We have given up our ice cream after dinner because it seems Dairy Queen has changed their recipe for making the cream.  Mama and I opted for a piece of pie and coffee for after dinner treat today.

I wandered around the store after we ate, while waiting on Mama.  I found a necklace that will be a perfect addition to my wardrobe from the clearance rack.

Mama insisted at first that she needed no groceries which I much appreciated, but then changed her mind.  I had a very short list for the week: milk, mushrooms, a birthday card.  I added a few extra items but nothing frivolous and I stayed within what I could pay from my pocket....and good thing because for whatever reason my card was declined!  I think it must have been a system error because I used it at the post office and another store minutes later without a problem.  However, when I got home, my bank info showed both the denied transactions as pending...I called the store manager and he assures me it should go right back into my account within 24 hours.  I loathe, loathe, loathe this sort of mistake with a store as it seems it always far more difficult to correct than it was to mess up but we shall wait and see.  In the meantime, the manager assured me he will look over the store transactions and be sure the transaction was not charge through.

On a whim, I went by Cato, which is pretty much my favorite clothing shop.  I found a lovely shirt on clearance that I can wear with multiple pairs of pants, a pair of much needed black pants (dressy) and a pretty classic black and white sweater.  I avoided looking to see what costume jewelry might be on sale.  I have a plethora at present and I need to take stock to see what I could really use rather than continuing to buying whatever strikes my fancy.

Tuesday:  Yesterday afternoon Sam called to invite me to come for a Chicken and Dumpling dinner.  It was so tasty and I enjoyed my time with my boys, as I refer to the little ones and my big boy Sam.
It was a good supper and much appreciated as the wind had picked up and was coming from the North.

I got deeply cold last night so I made a cup of Hot Vanilla Milk.   This is as good as Hot Chocolate to me.  I use honey or sugar (just a little) vanilla and milk and heat in the microwave.    This not only warmed me up nicely, it also put me right to sleep.

This morning, I turned on the propane heater because the heat pump ran non-stop.  It is only efficient up to the freezing point and while it does keep the house warm enough, I hate to hear it run and run.  I put a pot of water on the stovetop to humidify the air.  The house was soon noticeably warmer and the heat pump cut off.

I made a big breakfast for John.  He'd called on his way home and said he had been out in the cold since 4am.  I felt a warm breakfast was all I could do for him.

I had a half gallon of milk that was 8 days from the best buy date.  It was just beginning to taste less than fresh, so I measured it out to 8 cups and made yogurt.  I had a tiny bit of yogurt and a little milk left in the gallon of milk and I poured the two together and marked it SOUR so I'll know to use it to make bread.  I have four pints and 1 cup of yogurt incubating at present.

I made a big batch of spaghetti sauce.  I always lots of vegetables: onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, zucchini and carrot in addition to tomatoes and sauce and seasonings.  I will put some of this in the freezer for future meals.  I'd like to make a lasagna with some of it as well but I will either need to make ricotta or buy cottage cheese.  The irony that just this week I looked up how to do both does not elude me.  I don't have rennet tablets yet but I do have all I need to make ricotta so I'll likely go in that direction.

I had to work harder than I ought to have done this morning and it's my own fault.  I did hang laundry to dry yesterday but when I brought it in, I didn't take time to fold them, even though I had nothing else to do.  The same with unloading the dishwasher.  It took me fifteen minutes to unload and put away everything this morning which is a little longer than usual but that's fifteen minutes I could easily have spared yesterday after I got home but I procrastinated.  Result: I had a far more hectic morning and more complicated one than was necessary.  I couldn't rinse and load the breakfast dishes until I'd unloaded the dishwasher.  I couldn't unload the dishwasher because the counters were stacked with dirty dishes.  Oh how I rued not taking that extra time yesterday to do my work!

John did a small load of clothes this morning and hung several items out to dry in the sun and wind.

I took a few minutes this morning to fill out several surveys from stores visited yesterday.  All offer the chance to win a free gift card.  It's not guaranteed but it takes just a few minutes to do and if I win then so much the better.  If not, I've at least taken time to express my opinion of the good or bad service received.

Wednesday:   Last night as we were finishing up our evening rounds of the house, John said "If we get up early, I'll take you out for breakfast."   It is one of my favorite meals to eat away from home.  I didn't sleep well last night for no reason I can fathom since the two nights previous were wonderful for sleep, but I rose early this morning just the same and hurried through my shower and makeup routines.  Thankfully I had finished all my housework yesterday and even taken time to put away dishes I'd washed after supper etc.  So other than making the bed and gathering trash I had no real housework to do this morning.

John and I did as we always do.  If we are leaving home we make the day count.  Today we took off trash, took along outgoing mail.  I took along the paint sample bottle so I could get a quart of paint to finish the chifforobe.  We chose a restaurant that was in the same shopping center as a Lowe's which is where I wanted to buy the paint.   Because we had planned to get haircuts as well, I had my list for Kroger which is next door to the salon in another shopping center.   While eating breakfast we laid out our intentions for gifting the children for Christmas and went by the credit union which is between the restaurant/Lowes and the shopping center where Kroger and the salon are located.  After we left that area we drove back to our county seat and voted early for the December 4 run-off and paid our property taxes.  We dropped off Josh's jacket which he'd left here last night and picked up our mail on our way back in.  It was overall, a long day out and we were steadily busy aside from our leisurely breakfast.

In Kroger, I edited my list again...One item was not available, although it had been in stock.  The shelves were simply bare in that area.  That is one free item I'll try for again as I have another 11 days to get it.   I scanned the weekly ad this morning before leaving home and noted which items were good buys and whether or not I had coupons for them.  I saved $15 in coupons along today and we spent just $27.   I find cheese at Kroger is often cheaper per pound than what I can buy it at Aldi so I stocked up as I had coupons and a good sale to combine to lower the prices still further.

My treat today was a Gingerbread Latte at Starbucks which is located inside the grocery.  I used the gift card we were given last Christmas.     I noted today that the remodel in the store that displaced the organic/health food section  was a bar in the grocery...Honestly not sure how I feel about that, nor how ambient the atmosphere of a bar in the midst of groceries would be.

It was a late lunch for us which we ate here at home.  Sam brought us a quart of venison chili last night and John asked me to make Chili Mac for him.   While I waited on the water to heat for the pasta, I used deeply discounted cottage cheese and leftover spaghetti sauce from yesterday, lasagna pasta sheets, and cheese from the fridge to make up a 3 layer lasagna that will serve 3 servings.

 I put a quart of sauce in the freezer yesterday and had enough leftover to make this lasagna for the freezer today and give Josh a serving of spaghetti and sauce for his supper last night.  He does not like red meat at all and was not in the least happy about having chili for supper.  Spaghetti sauce is the only way in which he typically eats hamburger.  I did not ask if he actually ate it, though.  Josh is very picky overall about food and often won't eat even things he does like.  I think he lives partly on air for nourishment.

John typically does not ask for certain meals and routinely denies that he has 'comfort' foods but in the past week he's mentioned several entrees he'd like to eat: tuna pasta salad (I said no to that one as I don't like to eat cold salads on a cold day), beef stew (no chuck roast or stew beef in the house) and chili mac.   Even though we had spaghetti yesterday I made the chili mac for him today because I do hate to tell him no or I can't when he seldom asks for any specific foods.  I had to use penne rigata as I've been completely unable to find whole wheat elbow shaped macaroni but I have been to Amazon and found I can buy a pack of 8 boxes very reasonably.  It is in my cart.  I generally place an order once a month and let my cart build to a certain price point before ordering.  I am about there.

I placed an order at Chewy for cat and dog foods both of which are running low.  I'm finding more and more I rather like this ordering online especially for heavier items like 40 pounds of dog food, etc.

Thursday:    I start most of my days alone with a plan.  Now and then that plan gets changed.  Today it changed but I'm not upset about it.  Katie needed a prescription that she had filled but her work hours meant more than two days without medication.  That is not good.  She really needs this particular medication and so when she asked if I'd mind picking it up, I assured her I wouldn't mind in the least.  She'd mentioned Saturday that she really needed to clean house then went off to visit a friend and stayed overnight.  I knew that she has Taylor this weekend and with the super late hours the need to do housework, too was an added anxiety for her.   So I went into town.

I meant to check for eggs and bread but only checked her fridge for eggs.  She has fresh eggs in old cartons.  I know these eggs are fresh because I gave them to her.  I forgot all about checking to see if she needed bread.  Oh well.  I ran the vacuum, tended to the litter box and put out food and water for the cat and kitten.  That little kitten of hers is a sweetie who follows you everywhere you go.  He's a tiny little thing but he likes company.   He followed me all over the house as I worked this morning and though I scared him a time or two he is also a brave little kitten and returns very shortly after he's taken time to look and listen.

I went over to Ft. Valley to pick up the prescription which was meant to be ready by noon.  It wasn't.  Fortunately I only had to squeeze through a hoop or two to get it done.  I had to wait a good little bit, but avoided the temptation of being in the store and didn't look around.  I just sat and waited  and then delivered to Kate's house.   It will be there when she comes in tonight.  I did not think about bread until I was back home again.

I intended to run into town anyway today.  John requested beef stew the other day and I had no stew meat nor roast to cut into chunks.  He also stood starting at steaks yesterday, which I do have in the freezer but foolishly froze as a whole unit instead of cutting it in half which is our usual means of dealing with those huge sirloins from Aldi.  So I went into the local grocery which I seldom do much anymore.  It used to be we'd go in there at least once every two weeks but here of late it's more like once every six or eight weeks.  It's partly pricing and partly that they are once again an independent grocer but they do not put out sales papers any longer.  It is rare they have a sale worth stopping in for even when they did publish a weekly sales sheet so I tend to scan the marquis outside for sale items and often enough decide to skip going in.

Anyway, I was hungry by the time I got around to the store today and I even, daringly, gave myself permission to buy just anything at all that I wanted.  Reason took hold after scanning the first set of shelves and noting prices, lol.    I bought a rutabaga, which seldom find in stores elsewhere.  I went by the meat counter and picked up a package each of cubed steak and marked down rib eye steaks and a nice shoulder roast.   I got a bag of fries.  That was all.   I reasoned I had just plenty of stuff at home I could eat for my late lunch and I do.

Before I left home this morning I'd gone through the freezer looking to see if by chance I had a half chuck roast that might have fallen from the Beef basket.  No, I didn't.  But I had about ten jars with a dab of this and a dollop of that and half a can of tomatoes or corn or green beans,  etc. in them.   I took them all out and this afternoon when I'd returned they were thawed enough to pour into a big Dutch oven.  I chipped in some cooked roast beef, some onion, a half can of refried beans from the fridge.  I will have a pot of vegetable soup by supper time this evening.  I hope it tastes good and I don't have to 'adjust' it too much!

For my lunch I'd decided I'd use some of the garlic bread from Aldi that we'd had left over on Monday.   I tell you truly I shall not be buying that bread again.   When we first purchased it we were all over board about it but this last loaf had so much garlic seasoning no it that it's been hard to stomach as it heats in the oven.  I did make myself a piece Garlic bread pizza but I ended tossing half of that into the trash and then I took up the remainder of the loaf and threw it away too.  There's always the chance I was just being sensitive to the aroma on Monday but it's highly unlikely that I am being same today, too.    I knew I'd not eaten enough for dinner so I scrounged in the fridge and decided I'd have a piece of pumpkin pie.   I'm just going to say this: it's full of squash and it served as a vegetable as well as dessert.  So two birds...right?

While this morning was freezing, the weather this afternoon is rather pleasant.  I opened the kitchen sink window when I came in and hope that will help dissipate the garlic from the air.  It's a little too cool yet to open any other window without the heat coming on automatically.

I'm glad I took time to do my chores before I left home this morning!  I've hit my 3pm workday slump.   I think I shall go read my book.  I made a lot of headway on Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm  last night and I think I can finish it today.

Friday:   It's a COP (Change of Plan) sort of week.  I was all settled, ready to devote an hour or so to reading yesterday and Bess texted to ask if I'd pick up Josh at the bus stop.  Well of course, I would!  He was overjoyed to see me and I had put some large ghost shaped marshmallows (which seem to me to look more like Gingerbread Men) in a zippered bag thinking he'd appreciate having a snack to share with Isaac.   He wasn't in the door at his house before he was fussing with Bess over how many he would be allowed to eat and generally showing out.    I made a hasty goodbye after telling Josh that was a pretty poor "Hello" to his Mama.   Ugh.

Back home I settled to read for an hour again and managed it rather easily.  That's when I discovered a gem:  "...and as she uttered the words, they became true in the uttering;  as she voiced her aspirations, they settled into realities."   ~Kate Douglas Wiggins,  Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm .

What I wasn't planning was the nap that snuck up on me and just an hour or so before my usual work day early bedtime.   Even so, I slept well and hard last night.

Up this morning to make pancakes for John as promised.  I made them from scratch and I used a mixture of leftover yogurt mixed in with the very last of the old gallon of milk (same that I'd used to make the yogurt).    The pancakes were really light and fluffy and rose beautifully when cooked.

As soon as breakfast dishes were cleared up I went to work on making a Cranberry Upside Down Cake.  I haven't made one of these in forty years...I had a little trouble with the sugar not melting but  started it again.  I haven't tried it yet, so can't tell you how it's turned out.

As I was making the cake, I was also prepping the beef stew which I'd planned to cook on top of the stove.  Right in the midst of all this, John announced we'd go visit a business and rent a dumpster skip for disposing of the things I've had stacked up on porch or in guest room or shed...COP.

I put the stew beef into the crockpot and began to get ready.  I was not feeling well and when I checked my blood sugar it was in very high for me.  I drank a glass of water and took a second metformin since it had been about four hours since my last dose.   When I checked again about 40 minutes later it had dropped nearly 100 points which was a great relief to me.

We went on to run our errand, taking off trash, posting outgoing mail and stopping at the bank.  John and I got lost trying to find the business but we did find it eventually and without too much fuss between us.  John told me he wanted to take me out for lunch.  Just as well since the crockpot was not going to finish that stew in time for our main meal today.

By the time we'd driven to the restaurant, my blood sugar had dropped further and I was a little low.  I have no clue why I'm so whack a doodle with my blood sugar at present but I hope it soon comes right.  It is not uncommon when one is ill, as I have been for most of this month, to have higher than usual readings but this mornings reading was really very high and not at all common.  I confess between the coughing and the high reading I got a little nervous and fearful but I recalled that this cough is not the same, nor is my reading as high as it was at that time.   That it dropped so this afternoon (not to dangerous lows, but to a lower than normal level) is an indicator something is off within my body.

John and I were neither of us able to finish our lunch of soup and sandwich.  We each brought half a sandwich home.  It was a healthy lunch.  I had a chicken salad sandwich on whole wheat with a tomato soup.  We ate the rest of our sandwich for supper tonight.  I added a big lettuce leaf and we had half an orange each.

After we returned home, John washed a load of clothes and dried them in the dryer.  I swept the floors.  Our late activity in the house had everything to do with it being Shabat tomorrow.  We try to avoid most household tasks though I will make our bed and load the dishwasher at the end of the day.  Because of John's desire to go ahead and leave home this morning, I have a cake and a crock pot of Beef Stew for our dinner tomorrow.  I need only make a salad to go with it.  This is one COP that has worked in my favor!

That is my week and what I did to live well and make the most of all I could.  Please share with us what you did this week.    I and others enjoy reading your comments.