July Diary: Week Two

Monday:  A long weekend behind.

Katie was here early Saturday morning and we had coffee and talking time.  I had slipped back to bed after a rather rotten night of not sleeping (NO MORE caffeine after 2pm!!) but I managed about an extra hour of rest before she called to say she was on her way out.  She was shocked I was still asleep.   I know that I have a reputation as an early riser, but you can pretty well bet that my family almost always is going to wake me and be astonished that I might still be in bed at 7:15...



Truth told the night was so awful with tossing and turning on my part that I finally crept out of bed and went to the guest room because I didn't want to disturb John and I'd reached the point of tired that made me want to cry like a baby who hasn't had sleep.  I slept through the alarm clock and didn't wake until I heard the back door open...That was John getting ready to leave!  Dear man just let me sleep right on through everything and had hoped to sneak away.  I saw him off, then headed back to bed, only to hear his car pull back up as soon as I'd got comfortable.  I hurried to the door to see what was the matter.  He'd forgotten his phone.  I went back to bed after the second goodbye and slept hard until Katie's call.

Katie left to go get Taylor and I decided to experiment with my new spray nozzle on the new water hose and see how the peeling paint on the rescued wicker chair responded.  I wanted to experiment only on my chair because if it proved too much and broke still more of the wicker I wanted to ruin my chair and not Kate's rocker.  It came off like a dream.  In under a half hour I'd very nearly removed all the paint.  I quit only because it was Saturday and not a work day.

Katie and Taylor returned in time for lunch.  Taylor wanted cereal and no one argued about because we were all tired,  then we ALL had a nap, even me.

I made some of the easy tomato sauce and sat on the counter to marinate well together.  Glad I did because I was in need of a supper for us and that worked out fine.  I had cooked a package of chicken tenders this time around and skipped adding the cheeses into the pasta.

Taylor and I were watching a movie when Sam called asking me to come watch the boys while he ran to the diy store looking for AC parts to fix his home's ductwork.  Bess works weekend nights so she wasn't home.  I was glad I was able to turn loose and go up.  Mostly I amused myself by listening to them make noise and folded a big basket of clothes that Bess had  washed and dried.  I suspect she'd gotten a mailing of clothes from V whose little boy is just ahead of Josh in size.  Quite nice lot of clothes she sent over and I know that Josh and Isaac both will get loads of wear from them.

The boys were 'in bed' but you never heard such giggles and ruckuses as came out of that room.  They weren't even aware that I was there until I started hearing a great 'WHUMP!'...but that noise concerned me.   Sam called just about that time to say he'd had a futile trip and had ordered needed stuff online  and I shared with him about the horrendous noise.  He knew just what it was and told me I'd have to spank Isaac because he was responsible for it.   Well I didn't want the boys to have me stroll in and start walloping, but it turned out just the oddity of having someone unexpected come through the door startled Isaac enough that he sat down on the bed and got very still for a moment.  Then he recognized my voice and came running for a hug.  I explained to him that his daddy had told me to spank him and asked if he needed that spanking?  "No, nuh-uh" he said.  "Then no more of that racket!  Go to bed, now."  He kissed me then crawled back into bed.  Josh hugged and kissed me too and all was much more quiet.  However when Sam got back and I was leaving, I turned to speak to Sam who'd seen me out to my car and saw Isaac standing at the door looking out.  Little stinker...

Home at last.  I found Katie asleep and Taylor awake when I came in Saturday night.  Taylor didn't come out of 'her room' as she calls John's music room where her blow up bed is, but spoke to me from under the door, lol.  She was shocked to hear that it was dark and time to sleep all night.  "For real?" she asked when I told her.  "For real."  She does adhere to a schedule and went right to her bed and went to sleep. I was more than ready to drop into bed and sleep like the dead, but somehow it wasn't enough.

 I got up early Sunday  and Katie and I had first coffee on the porch.  Taylor was still asleep at that point.  It was cooler and lovely outdoors that morning.

I couldn't, however, get my feet under me very well and along about 1 o'clock I had no clue at all what we'd have for dinner.  I'd made a simple breakfast and put a peach cobbler in the oven using the peaches I got at Aldi last week (all local peaches!) around noon.  One cannot make a meal off peach cobbler, though in long ago days I might have attempted to do so.

I started a big pot of spaghetti sauce using a variety of vegetables but that is one meal that needs to be slow simmered and really is best the next day.   I just could not make myself come up with any solution for a meal.  I went and lay down for 15 minutes or so and then got up.   Finally determined to just pull out leftovers and see what we could piece together.  Taylor and Katie had eaten earlier.  This weird system of having multiple meals ongoing at various times of the day is unsettling to me and throws me off still further when I am already swimming hard and not catching up to the day.  

Taylor and Katie left to meet up with Matt and do the child swap...and John and I just hunkered into our chairs and didn't move.  Supper was salad and Cheesy Bread Sticks from Aldi's refrigerator section.  John and I went to bed about 10pm and both slept until 8am this morning.  That's late for both of us!  

This morning, I spent a few minutes in Bible study and then we had a simple breakfast of cereal and toast.  

And then I began the post weekend 'loving' on my house.  I swept and straightened and put away things that were out of place.  I cleaned the porches and watered plants indoors and out.  I made the bed and straightened a drawer in my room that had begun to irritate me with it's messiness.  I cleaned the bread machine and looked up the manual for that.  I folded clothes and rehung some pictures that were noticeably wonky.  I cleaned bathrooms.  In short, I worked on the whole house.  It looked so much better when I was all done.   Then I sat down to cool off and decided that after all spaghetti with meat sauce was a good enough meal for today.  I had no plan and nothing thawed except the meat sauce.    

While the pasta water and sauce heated, I started a loaf of bread in the bread machine.  It appears to be working just fine and the dough looked quite good when I took my last peek at it.  It's noisy enough but I suspect the savings of not heating up the kitchen to make bread will be worth while.  I unloaded the dishwasher after starting the bread.

John must work one day and has class two days this week, so I'll have three days to do projects or whatever I choose.  I have plenty of projects to tackle.  There's the new to me wicker chair to finish stripping and repaint, then the new planter to be painted.  I have a rusty old wagon I want to paint and the footboard of the bed used in the guest room, too...I have Mandevillas to pot up and a whole list of things on my July goals list to attend to yet.  Will I get much of it done?  I sure hope so!  I'm feeling pretty gung ho now that I've caught up on my rest.

Tuesday:  People keep posting about how terribly hot it is but it isn't that hot out there...Low 90's is as high as it's gotten and it's breezy at that.  But then again, some people just need to complain about something even if there's really nothing to complain about!

Sent John off to work today and when he left I had no real idea what I might do but at the same time I had this mental list of things I could do.  I really wanted to go shopping.  Here's the deal: (A) I have no set list for spending, so picking up random things  is not the sort of spending I want to do. (B) The credit card is DEAD...seriously dead.  (C) I only have my allowance and I'm hanging on to it for dear life so when I do create that spending list mentioned in (A) I can make my money work hard for me and not end up working harder for it.   In the end, I know that shopping is a soothing mechanism, just like too much mindless game time on computer and overeating.  I don't NEED to shop to soothe my upsets and worries.  I need only to turn to prayer.  Amen.  

Speaking of prayers, this week I'm reading in Ephesians and so far I've found two worthy prayers to repeat.  One is in chapter 1:17-first portion of verse 19, and 3:16-21.   Both really spoke to my heart and I have copied these two prayers down in the back of my prayer book to repeat daily over my family.

After John was gone, I hurried around front and fed the pets because the cat is the worst one for reminding me I'm falling down on my duty to her.  The dogs are always fine until I show up but the cat has a time table... When they were done eating, I returned indoors and decided to put on my painting clothes.   I could make something old look new again, right?   I will say I almost quit before I got started though.  I'd planned to use Palm Green (I mistakenly said "Island" but it really might as well have been called John Deere Green) on the new planter.  When I dug out the can I realized immediately that was a dream.  There might have been a quarter of a cup of paint in that can, sigh.  So no paint on the planter and no touch up for the rocking chair but I had plenty of spray paint yet.

So I painted the rusty wagon and the footboard of the old iron bed and I sort of pressured washed the  rescued wicker chair and when it was good and dry it got a heavy dose of paint on it. 

Katie came in while the smell of paint was hanging heavy in the air and went straight indoors to sit in a chair and fell asleep.  She'd mistakenly thought the pest control guy was coming to her house this morning, when he's not due until  late afternoon.  She ended up going to bed, and so while paint dried, I started work on the laundry area bins that hid things too well. I sorted them out and labeled them with some chalkboard labels I'd bought ages ago.   

Then I went on into the bathroom and sorted out the bathroom cabinets.  I had quite a few paint cans that were too near empty to have bothered to save them.  Here of late, my mission is to spray every last drop of paint from a can and then dispose of it, rather than keep any bits for an unknown purpose.  I don't mind having a full can of something leftover but this business of saving dibs and dabs makes no sense at all...Sometimes, I let my so called thrifty nature become a hoarding nature, living in the 'you never know when you might need that' state that is really nothing more than disguised fear.  Here's the deal: a quarter cup of paint won't cover anything of size and I don't do tiny jobs when I'm painting.

I seemed to be up every few minutes even after I sat down to rest.  Floors needed sweeping.  Dishes needed to be hand washed.  Laundry needed to come in.  I ran out to put on extra coats of paint and carry some items to the shed that were in the way and then back indoors to do yet another task.  I brought clothes in off the line and swept the kitchen floor.   I finally settled down and said "Enough!"

 I did think I'd go out to pick up something for supper but there's thunder booming and I think I'll just plan to eat right here at home instead.  Besides, walking out to the car just seems a hard job to face at the moment.


Thursday:  I'll likely end this week's diary with this day.  It was a very long day yesterday, shattering and wearying, and I fell into bed last night and slept hard for hours.  It was much needed and deeply appreciated.

Today was my day with Mama.    Mine and Mama's day went by fairly well.  I always plan to do so much more than just visit her because the area where she lives is near nearly all the stores where I generally pick up needed items but I am usually too drained to do anything more and that was the case again today.  Truth told my best option for 'doing more' is to leave home early and go do my errands and then go visit Mama.  I won't be any less tired but I'll have gotten more for energy expended.

We picked up lunch in Centerville which is about ten or fifteen miles from her house in one direction and then drove 50 miles from there to a peach shed she likes to visit.  Today I went in to pick up the items she wanted and peach ice cream.  It was chaos in the peach shed.  Three bus loads of seniors from mid-state were in as well as two dozen local vehicles.  Not a problem for the big peach packing plant in Ft. Valley to have so many visitors at once but this is not much more than a glorified road side stand and it was packed to capacity.  It's mostly run by young teens and I must say they were busy but gracious they were not interacting with customers in the least and one young man was rather snarky until an older gentleman had quite enough and put him in his place politely but sternly too.  I was rather glad to see it to be honest.

From that chaos we drove  back to Perry where Mama lives.  I figure I drove a total of about 100 miles today in her car alone.  That's not even counting the 70 mile round trip I make driving over to Perry and back home again.  No wonder I felt drained!

So yes, the visit was draining and so was the heat.  It's not intensely hot as everyone keeps dramatically complaining.  It's low to mid 90's which is about average for July in middle Georgia.  It's humid. It does stress the body.   It's quite possible to take a deep breath and break out in a body drenching sweat from the effort.  But it's absolutely NORMAL.

I got Mama indoors at her house and then went  to the grocery store.  I had decided that I'd need a supper for John who didn't carry a lunch with him today, and would be coming home this evening.  I thought deli fried chicken and homemade potato salad would do just fine.  I'd bought peaches and tomatoes at Brown's Peach Shed.  I also found apricots and white peaches in the grocery. These are seasonal items and there's no way I'm going to say "It can wait."  They will be gone gone gone by the time I went back.  These are definitely two "get 'em while you can" items.   I texted Katie to see what she might need while I was in the shopping area.  Her list was short:  Lettuce and Dill Pickle Chips.  

Stopped by to visit with her and have coffee.  It was awfully nice to sit down and talk with her and I felt a little restored when I left her house.   Then I headed home and before I'd fully unloaded what I'd bought, John was home.

Tomorrow...

I shall give my home a Shabat blessing.

I will bake a loaf of bread for Shabat in the breadmaker.

I will go visit a HUGE local estate sale.  I looked at hundreds of pictures of items for sale online and honestly they are calling this estate a collector's dream and it probably is...but it looks like a huge amount of stuff.  Why then am I going?  Because I am nosy, because it's local, because I love to see how someone else decorates their house and what the layout of the house is like, because there may be a treasure that really should come home with me, because...I like estate sales!  There's one or two a year just now in the town, mostly people my mom's age and maybe a little older.  Thank goodness I still have this pay period's allowance in my purse.  I will likely thoroughly enjoy myself even if I come home with nothing at all.  I think I'm due a bit of fun.

And we will end the day with a lovely sunset Sabath lighting of the candles and prayer.  

That seems like a pretty awesome day...

Frugal Things:  Inspired by Coffee With Kate vlog to pull my copy of Tightwad Gazette from the bookshelf and see what tips and reminders I can glean from it.   It's something I like to do periodically anyway and it's been nearly two years since my last time going through the book.  I'm essentially just scanning and not doing an in depth sort of reading.

Removing paint from the two salvaged wicker chairs seemed daunting.  John has a pressure washer but it's still new in box and I have no idea how to operate it anyway...I am not the patient sort and seeing how easily some of the vinyl wicker was breaking I thought it not the best idea to apply too much force to cleaning the chairs.  I had bought an adjustable spray nozzle for the new water hose so I could gently water plants.   I hooked up the hose, put the nozzle on and then used the 'jet' spray feature.  My goodness!  In a half hour's time I'd gotten 3/4 of the paint off one chair.  I quit only because it was Shabat and really I do try not to work on a project that day.  I'd only meant to experiment but found the results so instantly satisfying that I'd kept on until I was wet from head to toe.

I've been thinking I'd get a bread machine for use here in the hot months.  It will not make bagels but it will make Shabat bread. That's one reason I'd been haunting the thrift stores, because I was looking for one.   Last night  I remembered that Mama had one in the pantry of the house where Katie's living and it had never been used more than once or twice.  I have no clue where the booklet might be but I've asked Katie to bring me the machine.  I figure I can always look the manual up online. (Found it!)  Everything else seems to be online.   I let Mama know I'd borrowed it and she said I could have it.  Awesome!

Ever wonder what difference there is between bread flour and all purpose?  All the bread machine recipes call for bread flour, which I don't have at present.   Here's the deal:  Bread flour has a higher protein content, up to 11 - 13 % more than all purpose flour.  Protein helps the gluten to become more elastic and promotes a higher rise and chewier crumb.  However, YES you can substitute all purpose for bread flour, measure for measure.   You will have a softer crumb (which makes all purpose perfect for cookies, cakes, muffins, biscuits, scones  and such) and get slightly less rise but nothing dramatically different.  I wish Aldi would carry a bread flour, but as they don't I'll source out the least expensive in my area and stock up.  These days I do about an equal amount of bread making as I do cakes or cookies.

Used tomatoes bought three weeks ago to make up another batch of Easy Tomato Sauce to go over pasta for supper one night.   I used basil and oregano from the herb bed.  I've noticed that while the petunias are not so happy with the heat, the oregano, basil and peppermint have had growth spurts.

I got sort of caught up in a weekend with Taylor and didn't get meals cooked as I'd tentatively planned.  I ended up making a big pot of spaghetti sauce using a single zucchini, a few leftover mushrooms, a carrot, some green bell pepper, celery, onion, tomatoes and  leftover marinara, etc.  This made a nice batch of sauce and while I didn't intend to eat spaghetti twice in two days, I do like to have the sauce in the freezer as an easy to prepare meal.

Just longing to get out of the house and go spend some money on something, anything at all on Tuesday...but I did not. Instead I grabbed my cans of paint and put a nice coat of paint on the old rusty wagon (now cherry red) and the footboard (bright pink) and the wicker chair (pale rose pink).  New for nothing.

I made a charge on my card...Three dollars for parking.  I felt very leery of using the machine and figured the credit card would be safest option.   It was wee hours of the morning and I had no option for cash.

When Mama and I spent the day together, I brought home half my sandwich at lunch.  This will be lunch again on Friday.   When we stopped at the peach shed, she offered to buy what I wanted.  I generally don't take her up on these offers but since we usually end sharing items I bought a basket of tomatoes that we split and a basket of peaches that we split as well.  She wanted a cantaloupe and I wanted an eggplant and we each got some green tomatoes to fry.   I don't think I even need to buy produce this next pay period.

Meals this week:
Chicken Tenders with pasta and Easy Tomato Sauce (no cheese)

Cheesy Bread Sticks and Green Salad

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce...no salad.  I make my sauce vegetable heavy so we had plenty of good nutrition in our bowl of pasta.

on my own

Cranberry Crockpot Chicken, Baked Potatoes, Green Peas

out with Mama AND Fried Chicken (deli) and potato salad (Homemade) because John had class and was home for supper.

on my own and I don't know what yet...Friday because John is in class again.  It will be a light meal whatever I make.