This Week: January Resolutions

Saturday:  John went off to work a half shift today.  He answered a call for help from his boss.   I'm not in the least pleased but then again, I've been reasoning myself out of a lonely sulk.  He needs new tires on his car and though I'm half way there, this will surely boost us to the next level and get us to our goal.  We wouldn't have  done a thing all day long anyway.  I just hate getting up at 5am two mornings in a row and having two late nights prior to 5am mornings.  The curse of those who sleep lightly is you either stay awake until the late bedtime other folks in your house go to bed or you wake three dozen times anticipating they will be coming to bed at any moment and then lie awake for hours after they do come in.  I confess mostly I'm bored without him at home when I've no housework or projects to see to.  All stuff and nonsense as we wouldn't have done a thing.  It's just that somehow John is the sort that can be quietly sitting next to you and yet be the very best company.



Yes, the last time he worked a Shabbat, I did work too, but I've a hunch he's going to answer more and more of these calls for help and I really do need my Shabbat rest.  So I've forced myself to do no work.

I kept breakfast simple, just as I'd planned: Bagels and cream cheese.  He refused to carry his lunch today but I worry not at all.  He has a nice little pantry of his own at work and while it's hardly the most nutritious one there are things to eat.  And besides how much more nutritious is his chosen work menu of hot dogs and peanut butter sandwiches anyway?   If they do go out he's likely to purchase himself a submarine sandwich that is loaded with vegetables and that's better fare than he'd have insisted on bringing from home.

Naturally eating half a bagel at 5:30am did not hold me.  By 8:30 I was digging about in the fridge and came out with a sliced orange and the last two little sausage and egg cups.

I really thought I'd watch TV but I see no purpose in marathon watching the few shows I enjoy any more than I wanted to watch marathons of a single program when we had satellite.  I cut off the tv after two programs and went off to find my color pencils and adult coloring book and spent an hour and a half coloring a page.

At noon I determined that I was hungry all over again and ready to have lunch.  I pulled a packet of thin, frozen solid, steaks from the freezer, along with a bag of smoked mozzarella ravioli (a most excellent Aldi product found in the freezer case), and a handful of carrots from the fridge.  I cooked the steaks and served the ravioli with a butter and bourbon sauce I mixed up there at the stove with a side of  steamed tender baby carrots.  It was quite satisfying.

I amusedly noted that had I driven to the next town to indulge in drive thru take out, I'd have spent an hour driving and the minimum of $5 plus $2 gasoline there and back. I'm not even counting the time spent in the drive thru lane waiting on a weekend.  Staying home I had a dinner cooked, eaten and cleared in 45 minutes and while I can hardly say the meal cost nothing, it was not over that $7 mark.  The steaks were clearance pieces I'd picked up from the local market's meat counter.  I have three portions left to serve us a second meal and another lunch.  I used only a single serving size of the ravioli.  The baby carrots were holiday leftovers.  I felt rather smug at the time savings and the idea that I'd had a gourmet meal over a hamburger and fries for about the same price as the most cheaply priced meal.

We had such fun with the little boys yesterday afternoon.   They sat on our laps and watched most of Despicable Me 3.  Josh and I made a pizza for supper.  He's quite good in the kitchen and really enjoys cooking though he seldom likes to eat anything, lol.  At least with the pizza I was assured he'd eat what he had a hand in making.   After supper, we had our Shabat blessing and lighting of candles.  There was something incredibly sweet in hearing the two little boys attempting to sing "Shema" with us.  It's a simple enough tune and though we sing it in Hebrew, they carried the tune right along.  Surely there is a superior blessing in the sound of children singing "Hear O Israel, the Lord God is One."  The boys know just what to do at each step of the Shabat ritual and shouted "Shabat Shalom!" when we were done then took turns blowing out a candle each.  Isaac had been practicing blowing out candles for two days and did very well, blowing the flame completely out on his first try.

I still smile at the idea that this one can only just barely say an intelligible word or two but he communicates thoroughly with gestures, facial expression and gibberish.  He and Bess visited me on Thursday and he'd motioned to the candles then and pursed his lips and blown and he did the same Friday evening.  I knew perfectly well that he felt the time had come for his blowing a candle out just like his 'brudder' as he calls Josh.   I was not about to disappoint him.   Getting Josh to understand that it was time to share with Isaac in this was a good deal harder than understanding Isaac's simple communications!

After Shabat, Grampa turned on You Tube and Isaac stood transfixed listening to a Mozart concerto with a flute passage.  Then it was on to Harmonica solos and songs with a kazoo.  Isaac took up the little dinner bell and rang it in time to the music while Josh played his harmonica and did very well indeed.  Isaac is not yet coordinated enough to blow on a kazoo and ring a bell, too.  He requires both hands to wave about when ringing the bell or to use all his concentration on blowing the kazoo.  He tried to do both and tickled us mightily with his body's absolute refusal to do two things at once.   Their daddy came in the midst of their noisy concert.  We all laughed out loud when Josh told his Grampa when he grew up he was going to play harmonica "and be a Troll Hunter."   It was the last unexpected  bit that tickled us so.

Sunday:  John was quite late coming in last night, a bit after 9pm.   He brought me half a sub sandwich for my supper tomorrow night.  We watched a tv program and John finished the last 15 minutes of another and then we toddled off to bed and both fell right to sleep as well we ought to have done.  5am comes early if you work hard or hardly work.  Proven again this morning when the alarm sounded at 5am for his routine work day.

I sent John off this morning with breakfast eaten, a thermal cup of coffee and his regular work lunch in hand.

I looked from the kitchen door through to the kitchen and realized I could easily go from here to there and then wander back again and miss a dozen things that wanted doing, so I started where I was.  Our laundry area is just to the left of the back door when you walk in.  I put all the dirty towels, dish cloths and such in the washer.  I didn't start it, because I wanted to strip my bed and gather my bath towels.  But the washer was partially loaded.  I picked up and straightened the entry area.  This was a matter of putting shoes in egg basket or coal scuttle, my chosen shoe boxes for back door, and hanging up coats and shopping bags, etc.

I stopped at my desk and worked up bills to be paid this week.

I stopped at the kitchen sink and unloaded the dishwasher, putting away dishes as I did so.  My little economy of time here is to gather all items going to a certain area in the kitchen.  All glasses and coffee cups are removed and put in the cupboard where those go, then all jars and mixing utensils, etc. were taken over to the baking center and put away.  Then all the dishes, all the casseroles and frying pans, all the baking pans and pots, all the recycled plastic containers and so on until all the dishes were put away in their places, but only one trip was made to each storage area.

I put chicken breasts on to cook, using a quarter of an onion from a bag in the freezer and a handful of carrot and celery sticks from the fridge.

After unloading the dishwasher, I loaded it with yesterday's dirty dishes.  I do try hard to do no work on Sabbath except to make the bed, and so yesterday I rinsed and stacked dishes neatly.  I've found for myself that it's far simpler though loading straight away into the dishwasher doesn't seem onerous.  And it's not!  It's just that my hands naturally begin to go on to do other work, like wiping off countertops and then straightening towels and setting up coffee pot for the next brew and cleaning the stove top and sweeping the floor.  So much easier to tell myself to rinse and stack neatly and leaving it at that.

Off to my bathroom where I took time to shower and dress, then gathered towels and sheets and carried those to the laundry to start that load.  I sat down with a Smoothie (using a freezer pack of fruit and spinach and homemade yogurt to make).  The smoothie ingredients made a HUGE portion, so I put half of that in a jar in the fridge.

Bible study done, it was time to put clothes in the dryer.  I washed a very large load of clothes and knew that my best bet was to divide them for the dryer.  I put all the sheets and pillow cases in the dryer first, then I set the timer for half an hour and wandered off to my bedroom where I pulled every single item from that bottom drawer of my dresser.   I cleared the drawer.  I decided to keep about 1/4 of the drawer for future gift storage which included a few items I had on hand already.   I dedicated 1/4 of my household clothes drawer to some sentimental items I didn't want to part with.  I was able to move my extra mattress pad and my summer quilt to the bottom drawer and still had room leftover.  I had a small grocery sack of items to go out to the shed and a full grocery sack of trash.

About this time, the timer went off so I took sheets from the dryer and put in the towels and dishcloths and other heavier items.  I set the timer for 40 minutes and went off to clear out and clean  my closet.  I had a large trash can bag of items for donation, a handful of items to go to the shed and a much neater if slimmer closet when I was done.  I vacuumed the floor and emptied my little trash can I keep there for tissue paper and tags and such.   The timer went off just as I put the last clothing item on a hanger.

I gave myself a 15 minute sit down break once I'd taken clothes from the dryer.  Then I got up and started my dinner.  I made Baked Chicken and Dumplings (Karla, there's the link) for dinner today using that chicken I put on to cook earlier as well as the resulting broth.  I love a good hot dish and especially on a cold foggy day such as today was.  I went ahead while the oven was on for this dish and made up a Peach Cobbler, using the easy recipe where you pour a batter over canned peaches.  I heated green beans in the oven too, while it was on anyway.  My gracious!  This food hit the spot today.     I have a world of leftovers which we will eat this coming week either as a dinner entrée or as a supper.  I'm so full, I'm glad that I finished all the housework.  I'll be good for nothing much the rest of the afternoon!

Sat reading while dinner was in the oven.  I came across this line, "...love is not some marvelous thing that you feel but some hard thing that you do..."    Given my reading in proverbs this week I should more than agree.  It's what we don't say, what kindnesses we do despite how we feel about another, what we are willing to let go of, how willing we are to sacrifice our time, our dreams, our strength  that shows love, isn't it?   Love is not 'never having to say you're sorry' as that silly immature writer once said in a book popular in my teen years.   Love is going on even when the one who hurts you most doesn't say I'm sorry.  Love is forgiving long before the 'I'm sorry' comes if it ever does.  Love is putting yourself aside and honestly looking at what is best for another.  It's seldom easy even in the happiest of homes and it always asks something more than what was given the last time.

On that note, I might add that among the things I'd kept for too long were several letters John had written in the early years of our marriage following major quarrels we'd had.   I'd watched one episode of Maria Kondo's "The Magic of Tidying Up" and while I hardly fully understand her method and cannot claim myself a Kondo expert, I did gather enough to ask myself that if things we keep are meant to spark joy, what joy was I getting from keeping those letters?    I can't tell you I remember the reason for the quarrels, truly I can't, but I do remember the hurt and the anguish I felt at our emotional separation during them and that was certainly not joy.  I decided to let the letters go.  I don't need them to remind me that John loves me dearly nor that we went on despite those bad moments.   And that is enough to digest this day!

Monday:  Up early this morning.  Bess gave me a bit more than 1 cup of blueberries the other day.  I thought blueberry muffins with a bit of lemon zest and a light lemon glaze would be a little sunshine on this cloudy day.  I have an overly large muffin pan but managed a good 8 muffins.  That was enough for this morning's breakfast and another morning besides plus a lunch treat for John.  I decided to go back to basics and pulled out my cookbook and followed the recipe...I do this now and then to remind myself of what a dish was meant to taste like and to insure that I'm not overusing any ingredient.  I was well pleased with the tender crumbly muffin that resulted.

John washed a full load of clothes.  He hung some to dry outdoors, some to dry indoors and put a few through the dryer.

I ran a full load of dishes. After emptying and putting away the dishes, I ran vinegar and baking soda in the dishwasher to clean it.

I wanted very much to call the day a free day but I decided that I'd best get to work.  I sorted out the craft and sewing items and managed to gather a black trash bag for trash.   Happily I also 'found' in my fabric drawer a Queen sized flat sheet.  Mama gave me several that she'd bought some time ago to use as lining for drapes I was making.  I did not realize I had one leftover.  This was a good thing to find, since I have a Queen fitted sheet with no top sheet mate.  Now I have a complete set.

In organizing my sewing basket I utilized the smallest containers that came with my new set of storage pieces.   These were very handy for containing small twist pins and safety pins, etc. with the bonus that they fit neatly into my sewing box.

By the way, the work done today was all in the guest room.  I emptied two drawers in the chifforobe, have room for a guest to hang clothes if desired and organized items better overall.  My ideal would be to have one drawer as linens for the room and a guest basket with toothbrush and paste, small travel sizes of shampoo and mouthwash, disposable razor, etc. in it as well as clean towels for their exclusive use.   In the meantime, I haven't the sort of storage I need to completely remove all other items from the chifforobe but I'm making progress.  I also sorted out the  plastic storage drawer unit I use to hold craft paints, glue, items in progress, etc.

We had leftover Baked Chicken and Dumplings for our dinner.    I still have enough for yet another meal that I shall put in the freezer.   Yes, I think I shall try a half recipe next time I make this dish, yummy as it is.

We drove down to John's work place to pick up his check.  On our way out, we took off trash.  We carried outgoing mail with us so we could write out our tithe checks and post those and our bills right away.  We went by the bank and deposited funds and took out allowance for the two weeks.  On our way back into our yard, we stopped at our mailbox and picked up today's incoming mail.  We took care of supper plans while we were out, too. No, not take out...We discussed what we had at home.  John requested a green salad and Friday's leftover pizza.  Easy meal to prepare since the salad greens were washed and needed only to be cut, the pizza reheated.

John worked away at earning CEUs again today.  I sat nearby this evening coloring in my adult coloring book.  It was a nice way to spend time together without chattering at each other.

Tuesday:  The sun is finally shining now but this day started out cold and gray as the past five have done.  We've missed the window of opportunity to get out of the 40's today.  Never mind.  The sun is shining and we're not slated for rain until Saturday or Sunday.

We had leftover blueberry muffins this morning.  I added about 2 ounces of cubed cream cheese and the last of the chives to the scrambled eggs this morning.  It's a nice change from our usual cheese eggs.

We went off to do our grocery shopping.  Our only store today was Aldi.  I feel very comfortable adding 'extra' to the buggy at Aldi but it's still all part of the grocery budget in the end, isn't it, so it all counts.  Today my 'extras' were V8 juice cans for me and 6 ounces of fresh raspberries.  Yes, those were my extras and I'm not in the least sorry for giving in to impulse on either score.  I know that both are good healthy snacks for me and I'll greatly enjoy them.

We bought some meat today.  I opted to try the grass fed organic ground beef.  It was on sale today and not much more than we pay for the ground beef I drive to the special organic market to buy.   The added savings was in gasoline in driving to the other store.    I picked up another small corned beef at John's request and I got a round rump roast which I like to cook and slice thin for sandwich meats.  I also bought a whole Never Any! roasting chicken, a whopping 6 pound bird.  I'll save that for meals this weekend.

I do not shop with a list anymore.  We tend to buy pretty much the same things over and over again and I only jot down the odd outage (like chives...I'll have to pick those up elsewhere).  This is one advantage to shopping almost fully at Aldi with it's rather limited selections of things.  I know pretty much what we're going to buy each time we go in and so no list is necessary.

I did have an idea of what I meant to make this week.  Breakfast sandwiches so I bought English muffins, slider sandwiches to put in the freezer for simple hot suppers (Hawaiian rolls and carrageenan free sliced turkey), more flour tortillas so I can make up some bean and cheese burritos for the freezer (another easy supper meal) as well as a pan of beef or chicken enchiladas (probably chicken since we'll have leftover chicken this weekend and I've a can of green enchilada sauce on hand).  Oh yes, and rye bread so I can make those Reubens I meant to have last week, using the last of the cooked corned beef that is in the freezer.   So you see, list or not, I have a clear idea of what I have on hand when I enter the grocery and plans for how I shall use it and what I might need.

I bought an extra gallon of milk.  I'll use half to make yogurt and likely use another good amount to make up a strata for weekend breakfasts since I've a plentiful supply of bread end pieces on hand again and no need for further croutons.  I will also grind a few of these for fresh breadcrumbs that I will store in the freezer, handy to make casserole topping or to use as filler in meatloaf or meatballs, etc.

I mentally added my total to my previous totals and have determined that at best we'll buy only bread in the coming two weeks and stick pretty hard to what we already have on hand until next pay period.

We had a lovely lunch out using a gift card we were given for Christmas.  John brought half his steak home.  I unashamedly and happily ate all of mine.

I've started a 'mad money' fund.  While John's making plenty of overtime of late, we don't really have to pay for certain things out of pocket as we typically would do.  So each time John or I orders something and puts the money to cover purchases into the bill box, or I get a $5 or $1 bill back as change, I set the money aside.  I've already accumulated a small sum.  These funds will pay for some special fun or meal out we might have.  I mean to try and keep this up all year long even when the overtime ceases.

Wednesday:  It was quite cold this morning and the frost was heavy.  I'd been listening to the heater come on all night long so knew it was really cold.  When the alarm went off this morning, I got up and turned on the propane heater to offset the heat pump and give the electricity a rest.

Cold mornings and hot cereal sort of go hand in hand, I think.  I made the butterscotch oatmeal for us.  Fed John and sent him off to work with packed lunch and hot coffee in hand.  He was soon back indoors.  The windshield was so heavily frosted he couldn't see to leave and so left the car on defrost.

John and I had meant to go by Hobby Lobby for a couple of items yesterday and we both forgot.  I'll blame it on running into a family friend, but it's really poor memory on our part.  We kind of had our minds set on our lunch.  I told him I would go to that store today as I had a list of things I wanted to look for.  After he left this morning, I took time to measure one or two things and planned to shop at Publix (more grocery...say NOTHING),  Walmart, TJMaxx while I was within blocks of each.  I started at Hobby Lobby.

Here I picked up a half dozen candles for use at Shabat, a larger pillow form to fill a handmade pillow cover, an extra long zipper to finish the seat cushion of the slipcover I made late last summer, Velcro for John's use and a little low basket that I wanted for the pastry cloths on my baking counter.   I did use a 40% off coupon that I pulled up on my phone.

Over to TJMaxx.  I kept in mind my list of wants for wardrobe and home.  Came out with a new casual brown bag to replace the one I had to discard due to excessive wear and a set of full sized sheets, all cotton, for a much more reasonable price than any I've seen.

To Walmart where I bought two corner plate racks, a laundry basket with reinforced handles to replace my broken one and an over the counter pharmacy item.

I put things back at all three of these stores.  Lovely things I thought I might like to have but hadn't on my list of needs or wants.  I wasn't shopping for pleasure this day, much as I'd have liked to have done.  I was shopping with purpose.  There is a difference.

I was good and tired when I left Walmart.  I really didn't want to shop elsewhere but reasoned that purchasing a deli item would be less expensive than buying lunch out.  I should have quit right then but no.  I splurged a bit, all quite reasonable splurges, but extras over and beyond what I'd meant to buy.   Officially we are DONE with this month's grocery budget and shall pay out of pocket for any further expenses we might have.  

No, not my last stop at all.  The deli item was dead cold and needed to be reheated.  I was beyond hungry, having eaten my oatmeal at 5:30am and it now being 12:30.  I was also weary tired.  I knew I was losing ground fast, so  I stopped for a quick take out meal which I ate in my favorite cemetery next to the oldest residents of the place, Elizabeth and Jacob and their family.  I paid for that meal out of my own allowance, having spent entirely enough of the general funds.  Slightly refreshed I headed home to unload the car.  Never mind that deli item I'd picked up.  I'll divide it into two and package it as two future meals for John and I, and put in the freezer.  Just more ready to eat items on hand.

Put everything away right away while I still had energy to move.  Made coffee to brew while I was unpacking and putting away items.  Nice to sit down with my hot cup of coffee and admire the sun coming in through the living room windows.  Lovely to have my home all neat about me so that I could relax with my aching feet and ankles propped on the ottoman in front of my chair.

Added $9 to my mad money fund.

I made myself a simple supper this evening.  1 serving of the deli item heated in the microwave, some fresh tomatoes from Aldi, bread and butter.  That was the last thing I did today and I have officially stamped this day as DONE.  Now I am ready to toddle I will read a few pages in my book.  Yes, the same book...

Thursday:  I figure I slept around 10 hours total last night.  I do appreciate the opportunity to get some solid sleep when I'm alone.

I had a plan for breakfast.  John brought home half his steak the other day and he loves Steak and Eggs.  Me?  Not so much.  I prefer my steak with potatoes and onions and crusty bread and a salad on the side, lol.   Anyway, for John I made eggs and reheated his steak and we each had eggs and toast and grits and I had a couple of small link beef link sausages.  It was a big breakfast for us both.  I decided a later lunch was in order.

Took time this morning to completely remove all items on each counter and wipe them down well, then swept the floor.  I had a full load of dishes in the dishwasher and ran that.   I also swept and cleaned the baths this morning.

I sat down long enough to cool off but was soon back at work.  Today I sorted out and tidied the buffet in the dining area.  I then emptied out the bottom portion of our middle bookcase where I'd stored miscellaneous items as well as all the Grace Livingstone Hill books.  That area now houses GLH on the upper shelf and all the photos and genealogy files and printed books that I have.  Moving those items in meant that I considerably neatened the messy bookcase in the guest room.  It also meant that I had no place to put the children's coloring books and sidewalk chalk etc.   This is what makes organizing so difficult at times.  Moving one thing often points up the fact that another item really doesn't have a home.  As it happens that cabinet area is one I seldom go into and so I'd forgotten that chalk and crayons had been put there.   Now the chalk is in a waterproof container outdoors and the coloring books and crayons are in the buffet drawer.  Still not an ideal place but the best place at present.

I made a quick lunch for us using 1/2 the deli wings, some homemade oven fries and a salad.  It was quick and easy and required little messing up of dishes.

It is the end of the day.  In a few moments I will get up and go make Quesadilla for our supper.   It started as a beautifully sunny day but after lunch I watched as a single strand of cloud gradually grew to cover the sky.  Now it is dripping rain.   Bess sent a wonderful photo of Isaac earlier who was watching a nature program.  He'd just seen butterflies for the first time.  His mouth was open, his eyes fixed had upon the screen and the awe on his face was something wonderful to see.  Life is awesome altogether isn't it?

Friday:  Off this morning to Lowe's.  We haven't done a walkabout in the DIY store in quite a few months.  We planned this last night and it was timely for me as I had a short list of items I could only buy there.   John has a small project for the music room he means to work upon and that was his main reason for going.

We had a quite leisurely mornings watching a rather silly romantic comedy movie.  Bless my romantic husband for wanting to do so.

I made sure to take along a small snack with me just in case.  A few crackers, a square of cheese, a can of V8.

In Lowe's I wanted green plants.  I bought a small staghorn fern which was truly the best priced and best looking of the lot of plants they had.  Most of what they had in green plants was not at all what I had in mind.  Marantha plants looked the best and I'd noted last night that my own tiny one had two plants in the pot and could likely use a bit separate pots at this stage of growth to encourage them both.  I'll just report mine.

I also bought two gorgeous orchid pots which were reasonably priced.  I wanted African violet pots as well but none of those were to be had.   I bought new potting medium.  When my orchids have finished blooming in the next couple of months I will be trimming away dead roots and repotting two  from broken pots.  I need to remove a set of tiny palms that was planted in with another which is still another set of houseplants I shall have.

My last purchase was a small bird feeder and a bag of seed.  I've wanted to have a bird feeder for the longest time.   I plan to hang this one on the pecan tree that I can see from the living room windows.

We stopped at a favorite pizza place to have lunch which is quite reasonable.  After eating we discussed ordering a small pizza on our next visit rather than a medium.   I snicker, since pizzas seem to have shrunk considerably over the last few years but we keep going to the next size down.  I suppose we'll end buying it by the slice before we're done and then sharing a slice!

We stopped by a machine shop where John priced chain saws.   We now know which he wants and what it shall run.

When we came to town again, we stopped by Katie's.  Mama had requested we wrap the outdoor faucets for the weekend cold front.  We'd bought faucet protectors but found that both spigots was already well wrapped.   I did suggest to Katie to open the sink cabinets which will allow warmer air to circulate around those pipes at night when it's the coldest.

We visited with Katie a bit.  She is working all weekend long.   Baby kitty, whom I wanted to snuggle, only wants to give hard love bites.  I settled for not touching his little self but teased him with a pheasant feather  pick from autumn florals.

Home once more, we stopped to speak to Bess at the bus stop and then we picked up our incoming mail and stayed outdoors long enough to wrap our faucets for the winter cold coming in.

It's drear looking outdoors but it's been nice to visit with family and pick up a few needed supplies.  I have plans for weekend meals.  I feel good about the work and shopping done this week and am deeply grateful for the little extra that allowed us to stock up on things we'd have done without otherwise.

How did you do this week?