This Week In My Home: Dog Days

The above picture is not an accurate depiction of lawncare at my home...but I do find it funny!

Saturday:  We had the boys yesterday afternoon and evening for an ice cream supper party.   I served scoops of ice cream with a variety of mini cookies, mini M&Ms, sprinkles, chocolate and caramel syrups,  and Cheese Puffs.   The boys happily ate their supper that night, lol.  

We had a set back yesterday.  It wasn't something of our doing and we don't why things have come about as they have.   There's nothing to be done about it at this stage except go on from here.  We sat here in a bit of a state of puzzlement last night when John shared the information with me (after the boys went home).

We agreed yesterday evening that we'll not lament nor worry.  After all, we'd done what we had in good faith and somewhere due to a lack of understanding or a lack of communication between other necessary parties,  things turned out very differently.  John asked me sincerely this morning "Are we going to be okay?"  "Well there's no master quite like 'must' is there?" I said in reply.  "We're fortunate that we have been accustomed to living as we have and so we won't experience any great hardship."  

I'd like to know WHY things went wrong but there's no good to be gotten from assigning blame.  What's done is done.   We've  begun discussing what we will do now.  At this point we're not sure.  We expect that aside from the repercussions we've already experienced there will be more because this twist in the plot has thrown out all sorts of things that shall have to be adjusted and refigured and is going to cost us still more money.  This was not the plan that was supposed to be put in place, but we're trusting that as in so many other matters where there have been subtractions, God's multiplication will still be in our favor.

In the meantime, I'm having to call myself to account when I find my brain fretting away at the facts and the repercussions I fear we might face and I'm having to bolster John a bit as well because though none of this had anything to do with him, he takes it as a personal failure for not foreseeing this turn of events.   I certainly don't blame him and have said so.  

We'll just go forward knowing that come what may, we are still just as blessed as we were two days ago when we knew nothing at all about the current event.

Sunday:  What a lovely day it's been.  Yesterday the house was messier than usual when we came to Saturday morning so I worked perhaps a half hour or so.  I knew what we'd have for meals but hadn't done prep work either, so when I started our supper in the crockpot, I put our lunch on to cook as well and then I took those 13 ripe figs from the fridge and made a little more than 1/2 cup of fig jam out of them.  Oh it's sooooo good.  I regret that I hadn't yet bought the paraffin I meant to have on hand to cover the jelly.  In the long ago days, that's the way I always finished my jelly, rather than put it through a hot water bath canner.  You pour melted paraffin on top of the hot jelly and it sets right away and seals it up tight.  I've had to put the fig jam in the fridge but I guess we'll eat it right up...Or perhaps I'll make a pan of oatmeal jam bars and use the fig jam in them...Hey that's an idea!

Before we left home this morning, I stripped our bed right down to the mattress.  As I type now, the first load of clothes are sitting across the room from me.  The mattress pad is outdoors on the line.  I don't ever fold my sheets and towels the day I do them.  It's not sheer laziness.  It's that I am truly too tired by the time they are dry to care.  I usually fold them as I have first coffee on Monday morning and it's a lovely little ritual to sit in my little glider rocker and fold clothes that smell of fresh air and have a crispness about them into neat stacks while the morning sun comes through the windows and warms us.  It's little home keeping rituals that set the pace of days, isn't it?  

I rotate my sheets so a set goes on the bed every third week.  I've noted that two weeks later, the stack I'm about to spread on our bed still smells of sunshine and good clean air.  

We were up very early, just a bit past 6am.  We like to go to early service at church which is at 8:30 a.m.  This morning before we'd left home, I'd stripped the bed and bath, unloaded the dishwasher, fed the pets, made us breakfast,  cooked potatoes for salad and green beans, and got myself made up and ready to go.   

We made two stops on our way to church: drop off trash at the dumpsters and drop off outgoing mail in town at the post office.

After church we stopped at Publix and got "Gramma's Fried Chicken".  That's all we bought and we headed right home.

Once home, I immediately started washing sheets and towels, put away the dishes I'd unloaded and placed in their respective zones, made a peach cobbler using the last ripe peaches on hand, made potato salad and heated green beans and chicken.  I texted Katie that chicken was in the oven and then went out to hang out the load of clothes on the line and came back indoors to start the mattress pad washing in hot soapy bleach water.   Then I sat down with a glass of iced tea and turned the fan upon me.  I was so hot and I can't even politely say I glistened.  I was more wringing wet as we say in the South.  Humidity, heat, activity...Lawdy mercy!

Taylor was allowed to have ice cream for dessert today with sprinkles and mini M&Ms.  That's as near as I could get her to join in the ice cream supper.   I am much amused at my grandchildren.  They are not big on sweets overall.  Isaac barely ate any ice cream at all...Josh had three scoops but wanted them all to be small ones.   Taylor told me she wanted a BIG scoop and made a broad scooping motion but then exclaimed "But not TOO much!" when she watched me fill the scoop with ice cream.  One scoop and she ate only about half of it though I noted that ALL the sprinkles and M&Ms were gone from it.

After washing up, she was wanted to paint her own nails.  She did right well for a first time on her own polish. Golly but she's got a streak of  her Mama's creativity in her.  One hand was one shade with one type of glitter and the other hand was another shade with a different glitter.  One foot was all red and the other foot was a mix of red and purple.    I stood by with a wet cloth and wiped up dribbles and smudges and spills but I didn't hang over her with it.  I know she must learn to do things on her own and she's old enough to practice with it.  I did note that the Sally Hansen Insta Dry polish dried far more quickly and therefore smudged less...I think I'm going to buy her a few shades of Insta Dry polish just for her own personal use.  I wonder if there's an Insta Dry glitter...  Just thought of her daddy.  He's no idea what he's about to be in for, now that she's starting to do her own nails, lol.

After Katie and Taylor left today, I brought clothes in off the line, hung out the mattress pad, and cleaned up the kitchen.  It was pretty much a mess all over again, despite all the work I put in before lunch.  

John did some maintenance on the mower then went off to mow Sam's yard.  I say 'maintenance' but it was actually repairs, replacing broken belts, fixing deck wheels etc.  I was a bit fussed that he watched so many lawnmowing videos since he has retired.  I mean, no morning starts out in our house without the sound of weedeaters and mowers running, BUT he has learned so many things and they have kept his mower running this summer.  I know that it's his plan to get through this season and next year buy a new one but he has really put a lot of time into keeping this mower going this year and almost everything he's done he learned from YouTube.  You might guess I'm feeling a lot less fussy about it and a lot more happy that he's learned so many money saving skills!

As he was headed out the door I said "I think I'm done..." and he replied "You need to be!"   I could have done loads of things, could easily have ticked off six jobs right away that I might do instead of sitting here, but the house is quiet which is rare these days and I felt I'd put a good day's worth of work behind me already.  

Our supper was an easy one of leftovers from dinner midday.   We were eating when Samuel came in bearing an apple pie.  My gosh but it was delicious!  Did I need pie after having cobbler midday.  No, I did not.  But I balanced things out a little by giving up my Coca-Cola and eating only half as much potato salad.  Had he not brought that pie in we'd have gone without dessert and not minded a bit, but y'all...The boy can cook!  It was his first pie ever, crust and all made from scratch.  Just look how pretty:

I'll promise you my first pastry attempts were never so good.   As a rule, I am a take it or leave it sort when it comes to pie.  I've always preferred cookies or cake instead, but that crust was so good that I do believe I could be a pie convert.

Sam didn't just bring pie over.  He also brought me a magazine and some Younique makeup.  I'm pretty sure that came from Bess' mom who often gifts me with little things like that and it's greatly appreciated every single time.

It was lovely to sit and visit with Sam and hear once again of all his dreams for his life and property.  John had a similar conversation with Katie earlier today.  It's nice to hear what their plans are and what timelines they are working on to get there.  

Monday:  It's been a puttery sort of day for me in my home.  Yes, I do have goals and yes, I knew they needed to be worked upon but today we were sort of up in the air about what we might have to do (still are as of this writing) and so I chose to get involved in jobs that make a difference but that aren't all consuming and would cause me no anxiety if we had to leave home.

We started our day quite early this morning, both waking a bit before 7am.  I had my coffee and Bible study and Instagram morning before starting the day.  I figured I had time to spare when I was up so early!

I made our bed, showered and dressed after coffee then made breakfast.  Breakfast was pretty good...I had some scraps to take out to the cat and dogs this morning from our breakfast, so they had a treat, too.

John forgets that as an organized person, I can tell where everything is.  His method is a bit here and a bit there and some over yonder for good measure.  I have diligently gathered important paper work from him for years and it's all filed  and in a big storage container that holds a standing file system.  He mentioned today that he has no idea where to look for things.  Humph.   So I went into the closet, hauled out the bin and filed the more recent pieces of information we have received.  Then I showed John the bin and took my Permanent marker and wrote on the lid: Financial, Insurance, Property Tax, and Other Information.   I showed him where I was storing it in the closet, right under his rack of shirts.  Do I think this is sufficient?  Likely not.  In six months he's just as likely to look at me again and tell me he has no clue where things are...But I'll betcha someone can find it in future if it's needed.

I had a big pile of things to shred that simply were no longer valid or needed.   I also went through the appliance manuals, etc.  Recently John had put several mower and equipment manuals in a binder that he keeps with his equipment, or music room, as the mood strikes him.  I handed him a whole stack of equipment manuals which he promptly hold punched and put into his binder.  He also tossed about half of those things.  We had quite a little stack of trash and papers to shred when we'd done those two jobs.

While we were working on those tasks we got the first call about the thing we needed to deal with today.  We are waiting to hear back again at this writing.  

Since the day couldn't be cleared for practical purposes, I decided that continuing in the same mode I'd started the day out in was for the best.  So I cleaned a ceiling fan I'd noted was dirty.  I typically clean all the ceiling fans at the first of each month.  I'll try to tackle all of them in the house this week.  In the meantime, one is done.

I cleaned out my fridge.  The original plan was to just organize it and take note of what I needed to use and insure I'd not missed items since last week, but I found the baskets and shelves all needed a good cleaning today, so I did that task while I organized things.  

I folded laundry from yesterday's session.  I do love taking a basket of clothes and folding it into neat stacks and piling it back in the basket all nice and neat.  I then carry the basket from room to room and unload it.

After I looked up a couple of items online, I made us lunch from leftovers in the fridge.  After lunch I started supper prep.  I made a Marinara sauce from scratch and sliced and salted eggplant to sweat out before making Eggplant Parmigiana for our supper tonight.   Then I cleaned up the dishes I'd messed up.  I should have nothing but our supper plates to rinse and load after supper tonight.     

The recipe for the Marinara made a pint more than was needed for the supper dish.  I put that in the freezer, as part of my 'every bit counts' challenge item for the day.  The recipe called for canned tomatoes drained.  I just felt that it was a lot of juice to drain off.   Well, I was right.  I have a full quart of tomato juice in the fridge.  John won't drink it, but I will!

John was a sport about the Parmigiana.  I can say for sure that I took a shortcut that just was not a good idea on my part.  Next time I'll know not to skip the pre-baking of the eggplant.  My eggplant was not large but it made a 9x9 pan just the same.  We had about half left.  I put that in the freezer for a future meal.

Knowing I needed to plan meals, but having failed to do so all through the weekend, I did finally start planning after supper tonight.  We had chicken two nights in a row this weekend and ate meatless today so I pulled out ground beef and a sirloin steak.  I  have leftovers I'll repurpose one night and we'll have another meatless meal on Friday...So I guess I've got a plan to work with.  

It's been an easy enough day with a lot of little things accomplished.   I wish the phone call we'd waited on all day long had come so we could finish up the reason for not getting involved in big projects today but no call.   Isn't that always the way of it?

Tuesday:  I could have sworn it felt a bit cooler in the house than usual this morning.  Stepping out on the front porch to feed the animals I found it very pleasant.  The humidity was decreased and the temperature rather pleasant.  "John!", I called out, "It's coffee on the porch weather!"   

Well I didn't get coffee on the porch this morning, but Katie came in about the time breakfast was ready.  She only had coffee but we sat and talked on the porch after I'd eaten my breakfast.  It was as nice as I thought it would be.  I'm glad she came by or I might have missed that little treat altogether.

She brought me lots of produce today.  I laughed over the size of the beet...It's HUGE and the red cabbage she'd gotten for me was small, smaller than the beet!  It's lovely to be given so much fresh food.  Good thing John asked me to skip getting the produce bags and move to an every other week schedule.

She also passed on to me a pair of cute (so cute!) flat pointed toe sling back shoes,  that someone had given her.  They were just a smidge too small on her but fit me perfectly.  I love them!

I gave myself a fresh manicure this morning.

When Katie left I went about the yard and deadheaded a few things and checked on plants overall.  It's nice to wander about the yard.  The zinnias and cosmos are looking healthy enough and the number of blooms are increasing.   The zinnias are loaded with buds just at the moment.  They look very promising.  I wish I could say the same for the cosmos.  I've never seen cosmos so uninterested in producing flowers!

I found I had two more new lavender plants and quite possibly have chives coming up next to the oregano I transplanted.  That oregano is suddenly taking off with good growth, as well.  Oh I do love to putter in my yard and see that things are doing well.

Indoors again and I took a complete meat inventory.  It's the one area I was unsure of because the rotation on that stock happens more quickly than with the rest of my pantry.  Well I feel quite happy with the supply we have on hand.  I don't feel as pressured to add anything but good buys or a single non sales purchase if nothing is an especially good sale this month.  

Inspired by his mower victories, John decided to try and fix the oscillator on the fan in the kitchen.  I explained that I didn't mind it not working as it tended to blow out the pilot on the gas stove if it swung in that direction but he took it apart anyway and tried.  No success, but we were able to see that my maintenance had kept it fairly dust free over the years and he noted that the fan was built in 2004...I said, "Well, I found the paper work on it yesterday and we bought these fans in 2008!"   To keep the fans going for 12 years is fairly remarkable I think since we tend to use them nearly year round!

After chasing down dropped ball bearings and tiny screws for John, which always take four eyes to find,  I did one of those whole house centered tasks.  I cleaned ALL the blinds which wasn't so very hard once I'd worked out a method.  I'm so happy we took the time to replace the mini blinds in our home with these 1 inch PVC blinds.  I have one window that still needs a replacement of the mini blinds we have had in that room and then the whole house will be converted over to a much nicer quality blind.  Well except the kitchen window which may never get converted.  It's one of the smallest windows in the house and the blind for it costs twice what my big window blinds cost.  I'm not interested in paying big money for such a small window.

I'd promised John a steak dinner this month and we'd priced steaks at Publix a couple of weeks ago...$22 for a Rib Eye or New York strip seemed ridiculous to me.  I'd expect these days to possibly maybe pay that for a roast but typically those will feed us two or three meals.  A steak is a one meal option even if we share it, which is usually what we do.   Then he went to look at sirloin steaks.  I remembered seeing one in our freezer.  I told him we'd just skip it that day but last night I dug down and found that piece of sirloin.  This was half of an Aldi steak I'd purchased and frozen.  It was more than enough for two generous servings for us and I don't think the whole steak cost $12 at the time I bought it.   So we'll say I spent $6 on this portion of steak...And John got his steak dinner tonight.

Wednesday:  John went to town to get mower gas this morning and while he was gone UPS arrived with my Amazon order of mustard seed and celery seed.   I immediately began to set up my kitchen for canning pickle relish and salsa.  I looked up recipes last week and for both I chose the ones with the most easily accessible ingredients...Or so I thought until I went shopping for mustard seed.   Well Amazon to the rescue once more.  

I had woefully few ingredients really but more than we could have eaten.  And since I have a full quart of refrigerator pickles I made last month I didn't want to have a second one taking up needed space.   So I thought pickle relish would be the answer.  We use a fair amount of pickle relish in this household.  

I didn't do things 'right'.  For one thing, I had to cut one recipe into sixths and the salsa recipe had to be halved.  I didn't seed the cucumbers but simply grated them as they were.  Somehow I missed that bit of the instructions.  I didn't have Kosher salt, so I used sea salt.  I'm not sure the turmeric was meant to be ground but it was what I had.  

I cooked the salsa too long, scorched it a bit, but managed to salvage my sauce and then it wasn't really wet enough after but I adjusted by adding more hot  water and lime juice.

And for all that work I had exactly two pint jars, one of relish and one of salsa.   They both sealed immediately when removed from the canner.   I stood looking at my two jars and felt it had been quite a lot of work for two pints of product.  I estimated the savings overall was about $3 for each jar.  I didn't bother to figure out how much the ingredients cost me...I was afraid of the results, lol.

We had an appointment in the town north of us this afternoon.  We met up at the Subway and sat on the patio there.   It was pretty warm outdoors but there was a steady breeze and it was very pleasant sitting there in the shade.   After we'd finished and were on the road to the peach shed, I reminded John that it was just such a March afternoon on that same covered patio that led us to cover our back porch.

At the peach shed, I found there were woefully few peaches.  I think their season is at an end.  The shed South of us has still later varieties of peaches but technically I know that the season is over.  I'd told John that it would be before mid-month.  I bought a big basket.  I told John when I got back into the car that I was so tempted by a box and put up jars and jars of jelly and he, sensible man that he is, said "Well that would be great...if someone just gave you peaches, otherwise it's mighty expensive stuff."  Given my wondering if I'd really saved that $6 on salsa and relish this afternoon, I felt it best to forget that particular little dream for the moment at least.

Thursday:  Katie brought Caleb out today.  He's got a stuffy nose and looked like he felt bad, but I do believe it's that stubborn top tooth that won't push through to match the other one.  He doesn't have a bit of fever, but he's also having none of my walking away from him.  Good thing I had no plans today except to grocery shop and we put that off when we knew we'd have the baby her.  He was, as always, good as gold, save the moments it took to fight my way to clear his nose.

Supper plans...well there were none.  I was taken up with the baby all day long, and in the long gap his morning nap gave me I hurried through chores.  I am at that point in grocery stock where we've loads of food to eat...but not one bit of it is easily prepared.  No 15 minute meals to be had!  No, nor 30 minutes ones either.  I had some burger thawed but we're out of all the things that might have made it truly palatable.  No cheeses, for instance, so pizza was out and we'd done cheeseburgers the night before with the last of the cheese we did have on hand.  No canned spaghetti sauce, no mac and cheese, etc.   So I browned hamburger and onion and dumped in catsup and pork n beans.  It was okay.  It was fast and it was easy to clean up behind.   

Friday:  I got up a little early this morning.  I am slated to take Caleb to his doctor's appointment (Katie's training for her new job) and I wanted to get things done.   Ha.   I started laundry, because Caleb had wet a quilt while I was changing his diaper yesterday and I tossed in all the other things with it.  I started bread...Then I sat down with coffee and my Bible.   Well...Katie called to say nursery refused to take Caleb unless he had a doctor's excuse, and I knew that she couldn't manage a 9 hour online class and baby boy as well.   So I said "Bring him here."   I rushed to shower and dress and managed that and then spilled my coffee, sigh., which was still warm.  I fed pets, hung out clothes, and made our breakfast and then baby was here.  I gulped a lukewarm cup of tea...Some days...

When littlest boy arrived, I fed him, then us.  I got cereal and applesauce and later formula on my clothes.  I was looking mighty bedraggled by the time he went down for his first nap.    He slept all of 30 minutes and woke upset because his little nose was crusted over.   John soothed him then I took over and changed his bottom, wiped his nose (oh my gracious!  Gramma made him mad doing that!) fed him a bottle and then lunch, and changed his diaper again and put clean clothes on him.  He yawned widely the whole while, so I put him back down for a second attempt at a nap while I made us lunch.

I've got his bag packed and ready and am going to run dress in fresh clothes as soon as I hit send on this post.   Then we'll head out to the doctor.  

I feel I've done very little this week for my first week of August, but it certainly hasn't been for lack of trying.  Next week...Next week, I say...

What did you do this week?