The Week Behind: July-ish

Saturday:  John was off to church for men's meeting this morning.  He does his best to let me sleep in but do you know what woke me?  He put on a different cologne than he normally wears and that aroma woke me right up.  I do have a sensitive nose and even in the depths of sleep an unusual (as in not the usual) smell can wake me.

I tried to go back to sleep and it was a no go.  I did stay in bed until he had left, somewhere near 7:40 before I got up.   Even if I'm not actually sleeping in, he likes the illusion that he has let me sleep in and I do try to accommodate that notion.  I had a great morning in my kitchen sitting area with my Blueberry coffee and Bible study and Instagram stories, lol.  It mightn't sound like much but it was really lovely to sit in my spot with no tv running in the next room nor any need to hurry through coffee.  Just lovely!  

I phoned Mama and had a very pleasant conversation with her.  This whole business of being tied up with social isolation has been lonely for her, but at least she lives in an area where she can get out of the house for a bit and do drive thru stuff. 

Do you know what kind of man I married?  I mentioned last night that I wished I had blueberry jam to go on the sourdough bread he'd brought home from the Mennonite bakery earlier in the week.  And so he comes home with a jar of Bonne Maman Wild Blueberry Jam.  Needless to say, I had a piece of toast with butter and blueberry jam!

I made up a pan of Enchiladas with half the taco meat I made  and some of the leftover rice I wanted to use up this past week.  I froze those.  I thought they'd make a good and easy lunch for us today.  They were good, with salsa and a fresh peach on the side.  

I have to say that on these very hot days, even the toaster oven has to run an overlong spell if I use a frozen entree.  I'm thinking for now it's better to make fresh and bake fresh and save the freezing of items for the days when it starts to cool. 

I put a bottom round roast in the slow cooker this morning.  I've had an issue with the spot where I normally use the slow cooker.  It's right at the entrance to the kitchen and the aromas drift right into out bedroom and linger.  It might smell pretty doggone awesome at 1pm but by 11pm when you're trying to sleep the aroma of what you had for supper is not the most welcome thing ever, and I reckon that's further proof that I am sensitive to smells.   Today I moved the slow cooker to the kitchen sink counter and turned on the stove vent, too.  I hope that has prevented lingering food odors in the bedroom. later note: Happy to say that I didn't smell supper last night when we went to bed.

The roast was seasoned simply with salt, rosemary and garlic.  This is a terrific all purpose sort of seasoning for poultry, beef, pork, lamb and fish.   I have a HUGE rosemary bush at the corner of the back steps.  It's about three feet wide I think and about that tall.   I gave it a hard pruning earlier this summer and just again recently and it's repaid with lots of growth.

It's hot.  The AC is running pretty much non-stop and not quite keeping things at temperature indoors but by no means is it running far behind.  I help it by pulling curtains, much as I loathe being in a dark house, it pays off these summer days when the heat is baking hot.  We also turn on the oscillating fans which are about ten years old and have lasted extremely well.  They get a lot of work in our home, not just in summer, but especially in summer.  Thank goodness the big Pecan and Sweet Gum start to shade the southwest end of the house about 5:30 onward and that helps the AC catch up once more.

Sunday:  Up before 6:15 this morning.  Well it was worth every bit of the rising early because I got the bed and bath stripped down, clothes washed and hung on the line, the dishwasher unloaded and re-loaded with yesterday's mess and we had breakfast all before heading out to early church service.  We took off trash and dropped off mail on our way.

On our way home, we stopped at the grocery.  My purpose was real: Daniel turns 11 (!) this next week and I needed to get him a birthday card.  Next step is to send him a gift card via his dad so he can buy game tokens for his favorite online game.     I was flabbergasted to realize he'd be 11 but sure enough, one of those Facebook 'Memories' pages came up this weekend and it was a photo from his 3rd birthday party eight years ago.  Where does time go?

John went in to the store and used my face mask.  When he came out he said "You've got to have a new mask...This one is stifling hot!"   Well it is.  I've told him so time and again.  It's a wool blend and it scratches on top of being miserably hot.  I'll try to find something  less itchy in my stash this week and maybe make up a couple more for us to use.  It seems to me a stash of masks will come in handy.

I only requested two items from Publix besides the birthday card and that was romaine lettuce and cookies for dessert for Taylor.  John can usually be counted on for chocolate chip cookies but he surprised me today with a store brand Chocolate Cream (like Oreos).  I haven't had one of the store brand of these ever and it was delicious, buttery and crisp.  I think it's even better than the name brand counterpart.   We stopped for gas and then came on home.

Once home, I made up our bed with fresh sheets, put out fresh toweling in the bathroom and then put the 'Gramma's Fried Chicken' in the oven to reheat.  I dug out baked beans and made a salad which was really delicious.  I think I was just ready for a salad.  We eat quite a lot of salad but then I hit a space where I want anything at all except a salad.  Always nice to have one taste so goo after taking a break.

Taylor came in full of pep and vim.  She's such a chatty child and I really love listening to her.   She ate some salad and two chicken legs and then had an ice pop from the freezer before helping herself to one Oreo type cookie.  She and I drew pictures in the kitchen.  She was telling me that she couldn't draw this or that because she didn't know how and I said "Just do it anyway.  Even if you don't know how, try to draw it anyway.  I'm not very good but I like to try things."   Well, little missy was listening because she asked me if I'd draw something and I said "I'll try."  "Well...it's not very pretty but you tried..." she told me.  But then I heard her talking to herself about trying even if she couldn't make it pretty, so I guess I made my point.

Then I introduced her to the paper dolls.  At one point she was chatting to herself over the paper doll clothes and I looked over at John and he was looking at me, smiling.  He knew that moment meant something special to me.   Paper dolls kept her occupied about a half hour which was a wonderful thing.

She was delighted to see Aunt Bess when she stopped by for a moment.  She asked after Josh and Isaac.  Bess told her they were having lunch and that she was on her way to work.  "Why are you working?"  I said quickly "So she can buy coffee and get her nails done..." and Bess and I laughed over that because that was what Taylor had told Katie she wanted to do with her money some months back.

Taylor wanted to play out of the toy box and wanted me to come sit with her.  I pulled up the basket of sheets to fold and found I'd brought in a Grandaddy Long Legs spider.   I loathe these as they look so weird, but Taylor was plum scared of it.  I got her to open the front door and I shook the spider off outdoors.  A little bit later Taylor was talking to me and sat down on the edge of the basket then suddenly jumped up and said "Wait!  Is there another spider in here?"  lol

Bess dropped by to give me a sample bag from a local farm.  It's a young missionary couple that is selling  bags of produce each week from their garden.  Sam had tagged their homepage on Facebook and I'd expressed curiosity over what they had to offer.  Hence the sample bag.  I received the prettiest spinach I've seen, a zucchini, two yellow squash, a cucumber, a tomato and a paper sack of about a half pound of green beans. This was a 'half bag' , Bess said, just for the purpose of letting me see what I'd get each week.   I am impressed.  

John and I had already talked over the possibility of subscribing to their service as we'd love to support them until they can go back to the mission field and this would be a very doable means.  I've left a message for them to contact me so we can make arrangements.  We often run out of produce well before our month is up (hence the purchase of romaine today) and since my own gardening efforts came to naught, I'd already looked into doing a weekly produce box from another source.  I'd love to do something local like this!

I took a brief nap after Taylor and Katie left.  I was just plain tired and it felt like I'd lived a whole day long already.  I guess I had!  

We had roast beef sandwiches tonight for supper and peaches.  There's one more peach in the bowl.  I think peach pancakes will be a very good breakfast.

Monday:  There's a little boy in the next room who was tired of rolling about the floor, tired of sitting on laps and apparently too tired to take a nap, too.   I've just passed him off to John and he's very content to sit with Grampa for a bit.  We'll see how long that lasts.

Not a busy morning, though I did gather up a few things I want to make sure we use this week.  I don't have many leftovers but I do have odds and ends to use.  

Had just finished Bible study and checked my phone.  That's when I discovered it was 92f at 10:30 with a 'feels like' temperature of 98f.  I recalled seeing the basil looking a tiny bit wilted yesterday so I ran out right then to water things heavily.  I found the hydrangea wilted and the Angelonia curling up it's leaves.  Goodness.  I hope that heavy watering will do a world of good.  I expect I'll spend a lot of time this week doing that.

I harvested two large green onions this morning, grown from root ends.  I'll plant more I think, now I know that they will eventually take and grow well.    I also gathered a handful of roses just beginning to bloom that I was convinced would just burn in the heat, and a few zinnias and another lonely cosmos.  I was happy to note the Gardenia has buds.  All those flowers got a good watering, too, as well as the Hydrangea.

This afternoon we're  at 98F as a high...Ugh.  I've been slowly edging our thermostat upwards.  Right now it's set at 79F and that's a touch warm for me, but the AC doesn't have to work half as hard.  I keep telling John as we get older and our blood gets thinner we won't mind half so much, lol.

I had no plan for lunch today.  None.  I thought and thought and I finally came to eggs.  John is always telling me at weird hours of the night that he wants a fried egg sandwich.  Suddenly that seemed a rather nice lunch to my mind, so I cooked up one of those green onions and some of the fresh eggs Bess gave us.  It was good!  If I'd thought I'd have dashed hot sauce over it, too.  

Nothing I took from the freezer this morning is thawing nearly as quickly as it ought. I don't have a clue why not, as it's all piled in a bowl on the counter, but apparently it's keeping one another cold enough to stay frozen!  

I thought, since I posted the fragments I was gathering earlier this week I'd share what and how I actually use them in this post.  Writing time is premium these days and I get things jotted down daily on this post or it doesn't get out!

So today, I made peach* pancakes for breakfast, using the last peach in the bowl on the counter.  The recipe made enough for us to have breakfast two more times off that batch of pancakes.  I put them in the freezer.  

For lunch today, I made Fried egg Sandwiches which didn't use a thing from the Gathered list but did take advantage of the glut of eggs we have.  I chopped up one of the green onions I harvested and added to them.  Goodness that was a good sandwich!  I used some of the eggs Bess gave us.  If I'm going to have a fried egg, I want it to be rich and golden and really fresh.  I just love the bloom on these eggs, which gives them a soft mist covered look over the shells.  And then the rich yolk makes the store bought eggs look pitifully pale.

And for supper tonight, faced with a bowl full of frozen items, I put some of the hamburger in a pan and thawed/browned it.  I added some of the produce on hand: chopped tomato* and another that was a little overripe and then the two Romas harvested from my own plants. I shredded a carrot and added that in, then  I chopped onion, added garlic and cut the big zucchini* from the produce bag in half and diced it.  I stirred all that around in the pan and pulled about two ounces of whole wheat spaghetti from the cabinet and broken it up fine, added in the spinach* from the produce bag, some fresh chopped basil and a bit of water and cooked it all together.  I don't know what you'd call it but we called it 'Good'.   Katie commented on how nice it smelled when she came in to get Caleb.  I topped it with Parmesan and we ate it from bowls since it was so saucy.  I didn't see the need of adding a salad on the side when it was so full of vegetables already.

Caleb was so ill this afternoon.  He was angry with me if I picked him up, angry with me if I put him down and angry at me for not paying attention to how angry he was.  Well John finally took him up and patted his back and said "shh" and he drifted off to sleep but there John was stuck for a full half hour before Katie came in.  It was worth every minute of peace we had though.  That little fellow was miserable.

Tuesday:  Caleb came in sunny as sunshine again this morning.  Always a joy to see his sweet little smile.

After I fed him breakfast, I fed John and I a simple breakfast of thawed potato doughnuts that I glazed and cubes of cheese.  It was quick and easy.

Caleb went down for a nap along about 10am and I took advantage of it to get the dishwasher unloaded and the dishes put away, as well as to start prepping food for this week.  I  got the Deviled Chicken Legs in the toaster oven and topped them with the crushed chips* as I'd said I would.  This is another old recipe from my favorite Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook.   I cooked the green beans* from the produce bag and will reheat the Broccoli Rice Casserole* from the freezer to go along with this for our supper tonight.

After I got that chicken done, I cooked the chicken breasts I'd thawed with  Greek seasonings in the toaster oven and fried bacon for BLT's for our lunch.  This is a new recipe for Shwarma Chicken and I think it's going to be a lot less spicy than the last I made.  I'll serve it later this week with more produce from the produce bag.

I mixed up meatloaf using the last of the crushed chips* and mashed leftover baked beans*.  That will be another meal for another night.   

Caleb slept for 3 1/2 hours this morning and I could hardly believe it when he got as ill as yesterday an hour and a half later.  I told him I knew how to treat his upset today and put him back to bed and sure enough he's slept 45 minutes already.  I think he's in a growing stage. note: I ended having to wake him at 4:30 after he slept two hours.  I was afraid no one in his home was going to sleep through the night!

I ran Caleb home after his daddy reached the house.  I put our supper in the toaster oven and microwave to reheat while I was gone.  Obviously the microwave was done before I was out of the door good but it just brought food up to room temperature so it would heat quicker when I got back from town.

Supper was really good.  I'll share the recipe here:

Deviled Chicken  (Legs, Backs and Wings)

1 1/2 pounds of chicken ( I used only legs but in the past I when I cut up my own chicken, I did use the backs and wings as well)

1/4 cup fat (I used olive oil) melted if needed

1 tsp mustard (I used prepared yellow and cut down on the vinegar at the end of the recipe)

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp salt

Few grains of cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 cup soft buttered bread crumbs (I used crushed potato chips, skipped the butter and it was delicious)

Place chicken in a baking dish.  Mix the fat and seasonings and spread over the pieces, preferably on the skin side.  Cover with crumbs and bake covered at 350F until tender.   (I didn't cover mine so the chips crisped up a bit and it was really nice).

The end note on this recipe in my old cookbook offers this tip: Heart, gizzard, and neck may be simmered in water until partially tender, then cooked in the same way.   This note tickles me because it appeals to my frugalista side.

Wednesday:  There is no misery as great as the need of a haircut and the desire to cut one's own hair even if one has no talent for it at all!   

Katie left Caleb here this morning and said she'd be back at 12p.  I didn't argue or ask why!  John and I immediately made plans to leave home this afternoon.  I checked an out of the way branch of the place where I get my haircut and was pleased to note they had 0 minutes of wait time.  I went through the sales ads for the groceries and noted that a store next to the shop had a deli sandwich on sale as well as M&Ms.   John and I had a plan just that quick for an outing!

Caleb went to sleep about 10am and Katie had to wake him when she came in.  He was surprised and pleased to see her.  

We shut off all the fans (ceiling and oscillating), shut the blinds and pulled the curtains closed on the side of the house the sun would be on when we returned, packed up trash and off we went!   I told John I felt like I was escaping.

All went to plan, except we decided it was too hot to enjoy a picnic anywhere much less in the car so we bought a very overpriced packet of deviled eggs and some lemonade to hold us over until we got home.  It did the trick, but I told John they averaged 40c each half...Rather ridiculous, really, but cheaper than other choices we might have made and healthier.   And yes, we wore masks every time we walked into a store...even at the salon.

We ate lunch when we got home.  Honestly I'm glad we came home because I had hair down my back and front and in my eyes and I was itchy by the time we got home.  I changed clothes right away and then we ate our 'picnic lunch at our dining table, lol.   At least it was nice and cool!

Got our electric bill in the mail.  Nice surprise there.  I've been setting aside $200 a month for several months now and we've not yet reached that amount.  I've been saving the overage and we have a good balance to pick up any difference next month's bill if needed.  If I don't need it, I plan to stock up our pantry with the overage.

I went out this morning and again watered plants heavily.  I want to keep my few plants going strong but I am supplementing my watering by dumping dishwater over some of the pots each day.

I used some soil from an unused pot to top off the potato plants.  Since I grew these two plants from a single eye on a bit of potato skin, I'll be happy if I harvest only one potato from each plant!  It's been a good learning experience and I'm convinced I can grow potatoes in these repurposed pet food bags.  I have two more bags that I'll use in future and will continue to save bags.  I'm sure they are going to break down in the sun and rain as most plastics do, but they are free and they work.

I used soil from another unused pot to plant out coleus, portulaca and basil that rooted in a glass of water on my windowsill.  Right now those plants are on the front porch where they will get partial sun and have time to acclimate to the weather.   Once established I'll move that pot to a shadier flower bed where coleus will do well.

We likely won't have a planned meal tonight since we ate lunch at 3:30.  That's fine.  I'll have an additional meal ahead.

My credit card bill dropped and was much much less than last month's high.  It's even lower than my monthly average and that is pretty inspiring.  I wonder if I can make it half that again for August totals.  Goals!

Thursday:  Supper last night for John was cereal and toast, and a fruit smoothie for me.  I used the last of my homemade yogurt and really should make more but I'll probably wait until next week when I have more milk on hand.

I was up earlier than usual this morning, not just because I was anticipating Caleb's arrival but because I was headed out to get my first produce bag from the local farm.  Local as in less than 30 miles away.  I'm not aware of anyone here selling a thing, but this is a friend of Sam's school years and after the sample bag I was sent, I was interested in supplementing our diet with good fresh vegetables.

It was a lovely ride over, cool enough to ride with the windows only partially down, as it was too chilly to be blown about on the way over, but just right on the way back.  I found the farm easily enough once I got turned back around following the missing road sign...that combined with a dead spot for cell service, I had to wind on up the road a bit to find a spot where I could discover the name of the road I'd passed.

The road I took over is one of my favorite to just ride in any season.  It's windy and curvy and wooded for the most part but here and there the woods were clear cut and you can see miles and miles over the blue hills.  It takes the breath away.   I would have loved to tour the farm but time didn't allow for that this morning.  Perhaps next week?  We shall see.

I headed right back home because Katie dropped Caleb off at 8am, while I didn't get back home until 8:45.   Grampa had things well under control but Caleb was ready to eat and that was a job for Gramma!   As soon as he'd eaten, I unpacked my bag and admired all the beautiful produce.  This week's bag had a variety of things in it including fresh figs and okra.

Figs are something I've never learned to love but I made up my mind as I looked at that package that I'd learn to at least appreciate them.  I had one and it was okay, not the sickly sweet thing that I recall Granny's figs were.  I  also tried a little Balsamic vinegar on the one I sampled and that was pretty good.  So I shall figure out how to present it to our table.   Okra is the one thing John mentioned last weekend that he'd prefer not to get...but as I stood there looking I told him, "I'll fry it..." and he nodded because he does like fried okra.

Today might be my last day keeping Caleb.  He'll be going back to nursery soon and there are changes in our lives yet again.  It seems to be an never ending thing in this year.   Some seasons in our lives are very short ones indeed and others are very very long and painfully slow ones, sigh.  Keeping Caleb was a short season, but a blessed one.  Of course, I'll do the odd job of babysitting here and there but not full hands on day to day care.

For supper tonight I made up a big Shawarma Chicken Salad.   I'd tried another recipe for Chicken Shawarma and found it far too spicy for our tastes, but this one is excellent.  John even liked the yogurt dressing that goes with this salad!  This one is definitely a keeper and I'll use it as my go to in the future.  I used cucumber* and tomato* from my produce bag and homemade croutons since I didn't have time to make Pita bread.  

Friday:  Same old song and dance.  I'm tired.  I haven't been sleeping well.  I haven't been sleeping enough.   Yet I got up before 8am this morning and worked until 2pm just getting my house in order for the weekend ahead.

I washed a load of dishes, unloaded the dishwasher and reloaded and washed a sink full of dishes by hand.  I planned and prepped meals for today and the weekend ahead, made bread and a cake that I'm sharing with Chad for his birthday.  I weeded two flower beds, blew off the porch and patio.  I vacuumed the whole house, tidied the house and swept the hard surfaces and put hundreds of items away that were cluttering surfaces.  I made lunch and cleared up behind that and then frosted the cake and put away every single thing I'd touched since my last sweep of the house.  I.am.tired.

But it feels GOOD to put in a full day's housekeeping once more.   I think sometimes I just need that time with my home to set it to rights and love on it a bit, you know?  I do believe homes are living things and need interaction as much as people do.

For lunch today we had Roast Beef Hash* and I tossed in a handful of shredded carrots with the potatoes and onions.  

I kept noticing droplets of grape juice in the fridge and couldn't for the life of me determine why I was finding them.  No one had jostled the glass pitcher which had a silicone cover.  Today as I was shifting things in the fridge, I started to pull the pitcher out to make a glass of juice for John so he could rehydrate whilst mowing.  That's when I noticed a crack running from the top of the handle to about two and a half inches below it.

It's an old pitcher and I really liked it, but I've no regrets about using it and having it break.  It's by no means priceless, nor did it have sentimental value.  It was just fun and unique and I liked it.  I'd lots rather use these things I collect and have them break in use than shoved in the back of a cabinet and never seeing the light of  day.   Loved, used and retired.  That's the way it ought to be.  

I shall end here for this week.  How was your week?