Worth Sharing This Week: Strawberry Season

This past weekend would have been the annual Strawberry Festival.  It's been ongoing for about as long as we've been here in this county and it's the one thing we usually attend.  It's pure small town festival stuff.   A couple of city blocks of bouncy houses, pony rides, live music, craft booths, the aroma of BBQ and cotton candy, popcorn and Fried Chicken in the air, along with a load of screeching children.  People crowd in from out of town.  There are lawnmower races, a teddy bear parade, classic car show, picnics in the park, and my favorite thing of all, the annual Women's Club book sale.

Not this year.  Not the first time it's been cancelled either as weather has shut it down a few times but you know it wasn't weather this year it was Covid 19.  We'll mark that one in the history of our little annual festival.

The Week Ahead: A Time To Sow

It was a lovely week overall last week...Despite the heavy rains on Sunday and again on Thursday which threatened to wash out our roadway entirely and left the river at winter rain levels of high.  The days in between however, were sunny and nice and the air was laden with the scent of honeysuckle, privet and china berry blooms.  Sneeze worthy air that smells delicious!  I love this moment of spring above all others.  Pecan trees are also blooming and that, my dears, is where my allergies come in again.  After they are done, I should be clear of allergy symptoms until sometime in autumn.

The Week Behind: In Bloom

Saturday:  What a luxury it is to wake up on a Saturday morning and know that I've nothing to do all day long except rest.   Yes, I make the bed, and I do cook but for the most part, I don't do housework and I simply rinse and stack dishes.

Yesterday in going over the fridge I found a small container of leftover corned beef and corned beef broth.  I cut up potatoes  into tiny dice and put in the container.  Today I put that on to cook with a bit of onion.  Homemade Corned Beef Hash is delicious!  I'll definitely try to have extra to do that again next time I cook a Corned Beef.

Worth Sharing This Week: Tapestry

tapestry
a piece of thick textile fabric with pictures or designs formed by weaving colored weft threads or by embroidering on canvas, used as a wall hanging or furniture covering.

used in reference to an intricate or complex combination of things or sequence of events.



On Sunday, John and I began a simple enough discussion at lunch time.  We talked about pivotal songs that totally changed music for us.  Now I have to say, modestly, that I have a wide musical genre range that I like.  Old hymns, Hebraic music, pop, rock, bossanova, new age, country, blue grass, classical, jazz.  Likely genres too that I don't even know I like.  I love music that speaks to something within and have always been deeply moved by music.  My dad was, my Granny was and both taught me to be open and to really listen to the words and the music.

The Week Ahead: A New Leaf

Last week I made up my mind to turn over a new leaf...I was sick of my own attitude, the feeling of malaise I had allowed to take over.  Frankly, all I wanted to do was eat a bunch of foods that would do me no earthly good, lay in bed overly long each morning and do nothing all day but stroll through You tube.  This won't do!  I have plenty of tasks to do  just staring me in the face!  There are loads of things extra I can think of to do that are fun.  Yes, I'm turning over a new leaf!

The Week Behind: This is Life

Saturday:  I knew Katie would be grocery shopping today.  I hadn't expected however for her to go out early.  She was here around 12noon to deliver my groceries.  I was very pleased she was able to find as much as she did.  It cost a little more than I'd planned but I'm not complaining.  I have a fresh lot of produce and fruits for us to eat, the one thing I am most concerned we shall run short upon.

Worth Sharing This Week: Random Things, a Winner!, and a New Drawing...

"Cultivate an attitude of happiness. Cultivate a spirit of optimism. Walk with faith, rejoicing in the beauties of nature, in the goodness of those you love, in the testimony which you carry in your heart concerning things divine."
― Gordon B. Hinckley 

This is something one of our neighbors on the main highway put next to their gate...I'll just bet it's made a lot of people smile.  And it's a lovely way to get a message across, isn't it?

The Home Stretch: The Kitchen Harvest

I had a miss the other day and John caught me and remarked upon it.  I had steamed peas and poured off the water down the drain.  "Couldn't you have used that for something?" he asked, quite rightly...And I nodded.  "Yes, I could have.  I could have saved it in a container in the freezer to use as broth for soups or gravies.  I could even have fed my plants with it.  I shouldn't have just let it go down the drain like that!"   I thought about it a little later and realized that I'd slipped in an area where I especially want to be diligent to save these days:  in the food area.

So this put in my mind of what I call harvesting in my kitchen...

What do I mean by a kitchen harvest?  It's where I take odds and ends that might normally not be used  and make something more from them.  Some of this we all do naturally: we turn bones into broth.  That broth is a kitchen harvest.

Kicking Myself Out of La La Land

So how are you holding up?  At first, when this whole social isolation thing came about I wasn't too concerned.  Social Isolation is what I do 9/10ths of the time and I have plenty to do anyway.  I was puzzled as the days went on by those who, like me, have been home long term who began to say they felt a malaise of sorts.  One dear friend who shared this feeling rather surprised me as I knew she was normally industrious and busy within her home on a daily basis.  I also knew she'd experienced a lot of family illness that meant she had a lot of pressure upon her shoulders.  "She's probably just tired," I thought..."Too much stress these past few months..."

Well it's contagious.  I can honestly say now that I am torn between sleeping long and late each morning and whiling away my time in the most meaningless and inane ways.  I rouse myself for a few moments at a time and do something but then I'm right back in that place that just can't quite get off the ground.  Katie asked if I was depressed and I shouldn't say that.  I really wouldn't.  It is more the effect of realizing after days upon days that it's easy to let little things and then bigger ones,  slide.
It's a realization that there is much that can't be done without running to the store to purchase things, much as I'd like it to be otherwise.  Mind you I'd been shopping loads less since the end of last year except for purchasing over the counter things for allergies that affected my ears, but now I'm not spending much of anything anywhere except the grocery once a month.

The Home Stretch: One Whole Chicken

There is little that seems as wonderful as a whole roasted chicken coming out of the oven all crispy and brown.  But if it's one of the only 'big' meats you might have on hand in your freezer and need to stretch it to cover more than one?  Well that part might give you pause.

Whole Chickens are generally one of the most affordable meats we can buy, usually costing less than all but the leg quarters.  In choosing a chicken to roast, I try to find the largest one available.  Broiler fryers will be smaller birds but may weigh up to 3 pounds or more.  A proper roasting hen though a little higher per pound is an excellent buy and will net you far more meat than a broiler fryer.   For the sake of this post, I'm supposing you have found a whole broiler fryer but by all means look at the roasting hens, too, if they are available.

The Week Ahead: Staying Alive

Don't ask me why, but when I went to type in a title, all I could hear was the Bee Gees singing "Staying Alive" and I felt it was oddly appropriate, lol.  Because much as I long to leave home and eat a meal out and TALK to someone anyone somewhere, we do what we must to 'stay alive'.  We've been very fortunate in our family, in our county.

Katie was doing her shopping today (Saturday) and I had only a portion of my funds left so asked her to get a list of things for me.  Anyone else tossing the budget out the window at present?  Katie has given me a bit extra each time over what I asked but today she told me "This was way more than what you gave me to spend..."  She'd gone to a higher priced grocery first and followed her intuition in going ahead and buying produce there.  When she got to Aldi she found they were sold out.  I handed her extra cash and thanked her. I have never regretted following my own intuition, only in not following it, so I wouldn't dream of complaining because she followed hers.   She shared with me that her own groceries had cost her more than usual, too.

Worth Sharing: Attitude of Gratitude, Thanksgiving

As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessing of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness - just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breathe it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.

Oh we have so much to be thankful for that we seldom think of it in that way!
~Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Week Behind: Pollen and Blooms

Friday:  Forgot I'd told Bess to come over today so we could discuss Josh's home school agenda and my part in it.  I am glad I got myself busy right away that morning and had done all but the vacuuming in the main room.

Josh and I worked on two or three things this morning before Bess arrived.  I guess we spent about thirty minutes working.  Then he watched a video on the Kindle (actually learned something too...He told Bess and I all about it and taught us something we didn't know).   Later I was pleased to see that I was on target with my 'sample' teaching this morning, because all of what we did was in a workbook his Gammy had sent him.

The Home Stretch: Part II Making Beef Stretch

Having learned the value of a pantry long ago, I confess I've never understood why others would forgo having one.  By the same token, I grew up with a family garden...My husband, who was raised in West Palm Beach has never been on board with gardening.   Obviously minds can be changed   I'll expect that those who've never kept a pantry will plan to create one.  In the meantime, we still must eat, whether we have no pantry or no garden.

Meat is generally the most high cost item on our menu.   When there's only a very limited amount on the grocery shelves we must learn to stretch what we're able to buy.  This is where a casserole becomes your best friend.   If your family is just not a casserole eating family then I suggest you think of all the dishes you make that are not casserole like chili, spaghetti, etc.  Both can become a casserole type dish and most families do not object to such meals.  However, in the current economy it's best to figure out now how to cut back on the meat content in those dishes and how to stretch the few meals where you typically would serve a portion of meat.

The Home Stretch: Getting The Most from Our Foods Part 1

Years ago we were po'...John says we had so little money we didn't even qualify for being properly poor!  During those days we had five children, two in diapers and one of those two on formula and two adults and two dogs to feed on a daily basis.   We didn't have a garden nor equipment to do gardening and so we relied on what we could buy at the grocery for our pittance of money.  It wasn't a lot but we fed every single one of us.

Victory Gardening of Sorts

There are a great many people who are suddenly interested in planting a vegetable garden and who can blame them?   For years now, we've rather taken it for granted we'll walk into a grocery store and purchase whatever our heart desires in any season (at a price but alas, that's the cost of heart desires!) and take it home to eat.

Suddenly we're looking at bare grocery shelves...And a great many people are thinking, "Wait a minute...Grandma and Grandpa grew that!"

The Week Ahead: Blooming Season

The roses began blooming yesterday.  It was a surprise to me because the previous two nights and mornings had been quite cool.  But as Bess was heading back home, I stepped off the back porch to look the pots over to see if maybe the basil or oregano was going to make an effort to come back (yes for the Basil) and there were deep red roses blooming on the lower half of the branches.  We walked over to the Rosemary bush and the yellow rose was blooming as well.

As I looked out the kitchen window later Friday afternoon, I saw a small patch of honeysuckle had bloomed.  There is no lovelier country bouquet than old fashioned roses and honeysuckle vine in a simple glass jar together.  You can't buy that at any store!

The Week Behind: Patiently Content

Saturday:  An absolutely beautiful day today.  Ever more green with each morning, nature is showing itself bound by no man, no calendar and no virus.

No work for us today.  I do make the bed, but dishes are rinsed and stacked, meals are super easy.  Today we had frozen fried chicken.  It was okay.  Not horrible, not great.  This was an item we used to buy years ago as a treat but the quality is not the same.  It was edible but I'll not purchase this particular brand again.

Worth Sharing: Perfect English

In my searching this week on Pinterest I came across this article by Leta Austin Foster.   I knew I'd found a designer I could follow when I read her tip on using books you read and love and collect in your interior design.  Seriously.  I'm so over the backward books, the coverless books bound with twine, the designers who suggest you put the books away. 

While Leta Austin Foster is based in Palm Beach, her style is described as traditional...I think it looks very upscale British.    I LOVED this tip:

5. Forget the colour of the year! What an advertising gimmick that is, beloved by paint companies who would love for you to feel you needed to repaint all the time. But you want to decorate for the ages, not just today. Choose colours which you love and can live with. They needn’t match your fabrics – in fact, I almost never match fabrics to the paints, but of course, you would like them to look good together. And don’t tell your friends the colours you have chosen. Usually what is your favorite is not their favorite.