The Week Behind: Fun? Wasn't It?

 

Friday:  I got up early this morning, but not quite early enough!  It seems my family thinks I rise very early indeed.  How surprised they would be to know that I have become a regular late riser.  I told John amusedly this morning that they obviously forget he has retired and I no longer have need to rise early.

Well I rushed myself and left the house within a half hour as I'd promised but it meant no tea for me this morning.  Fortunately Katie knows I am as fond as she of barista style coffees and we stopped for coffee.  

Katie had quite a list of errands to run and happily one of those places was Target.  I don't need to walk about Target but I did have a short list of things to buy and knocked out all but TWO items off my list, so I'm glad I went along with her.  For the rest of the stops, I stayed in the car with Caleb and we too chatted and played about until he finally went off to sleep for his morning nap.

It was a lovely morning out, really...And it was what I needed for today.  

But I didn't do a thing at the house before leaving.  Well John was home and saw every thing that needed to be done.  He vacuumed and made the bed and washed dishes by hand (he doesn't touch the dishwasher at all) and did laundry twice.  Honestly, it was so lovely to walk into my home and realize that I needn't rush around doing things I hadn't done.  

As it neared the sunset hour, I was able to slip our supper into the oven, put away a handful of things that had been left out and then we settled to lighting all our candles tonight for Chanukah and Shabat, followed by a lovely hot supper.

The biggest surprise this day was the UPS truck stopping in at the late hour of 8:30pm.  I'm telling you not a single light was on outdoors safe the security light the electric company provides and that driver didn't waste a single minute extra stepping out in the dark than he had to.

Meals:  Toasts with cheese or cinnamon sugar

I had mini chicken sandwiches and fries which I shared with Caleb since I was in the back seat with him.   John ate some leftovers of some sort.

Chicken Enchiladas Verde, Rice, Pineapple Salad

Saturday:  I spent the day lazing about in lounge clothes.  I even took a ten minute nap and it was just what I needed.  The strain and stress of the week behind, nerves about the evening ahead of us, wore me out.

What was ahead of us?  As it turned out a very successful and lovely evening.   John was invited, three months ago to attend a small group from church.   I think you'll recall I wrote about my encounter with the gentleman when I shared that I wrote a blog...

Well let me share with you that I did okay, after all.  I wasn't going to share a thing and was just going to accompany and encourage John to attend future meetings, but then I'd written that coffee chat post and I'd shared the passage about Job with John.   

We had a really lovely meal.  Prime Rib, Broccoli with the most awesome Hollandaise sauce, twice baked potatoes and Croissants.  About the Hollandaise sauce, I had Eggs Benedict a few years ago and was soooo underwhelmed about the sauce on them that I wondered why anyone would bother.  Well it turns out that when you have someone who knows what they are doing making a proper  Hollandaise sauce....Well it will just about makes you happy from the first bite.   

And then the group meeting began.   I'd determined at some point that I'd share a portion of yesterday's coffee chat.   I was chosen first to share.   This is the exact opposite of any place I've been chosen before, lol.   I had the blog pulled up on my phone and  told everyone, "Look my general purpose in writing my blog is to share frugal living tips.  I believe anyone can live graciously and beautifully regardless of the size of their budget but I do share other thoughts and this is what I wrote recently"....I didn't say, "Just today..." 

I proceeded to read three or four paragraphs.  When I was done I was met with the most gratifying praise from the group as a whole.  John told me later in the car, "I was so hoping if you shared anything today, you'd share what you'd written today!"  This praise  came on the heels of a lovely compliment here on the blog.  I don't mind saying my ego got a much needed boost and my spirits lifted right up, too.  I sometimes think how shallow I must be to have my confidence so tied to the praise of others but I'm working on that.

John and I chatted so much on the way home that we were both shocked at how quickly the 40 mile trip went!  

All that to say that however morose my mood had been prior to the nap and the evening to come, it had returned to it's usual good place yesterday evening.

Meals:  Cold Cereal (it was very warm), Toast

Baked Potatoes with Cheese and Spam and Green Onions

Dinner Out

Sunday:  I slept right well considering we were late going to bed and  I had my usual alarm anxiety.   We were up very early, typical of our Sunday mornings but we especially wanted to be at church this morning.  Today was our church Christmas program.   Being early service we had the first run through of the program.  I was very impressed.  My favorite part was the Little Drummer boy portion as they had a group of drummers with various types of drums.

We headed home in a drizzly fog.   The fog had been so thick on the way over that we couldn't even see cars with lights on.  I told John I sure hoped people used their lights and didn't decide they could see without them!

As soon as we were home the sun started peeking through and burned the fog off.   I made a pizza, something I didn't feel up to doing yesterday.   The boys came in just as I started to serve it and they both ate it right up.  I was glad of that.  Typically they will be a bit choosy about food but no problems at all today with picky boys.  They both ate two pieces of pizza, drank juice, had cookies and milk.  

Isaac and I spent most of the afternoon outdoors.  We drew with chalk, blew leaves and dirt off porch and patio, and blew bubbles, before settling to shelling out pecans.   He also used the little shovel, the boys' little brush broom, my paint pole, and walking stick at various points.  I had him pick them all up again before they were 'lost' and we put them away.   He stuck with shelling pecans longest today and was happy each time he heard the first crack of the shells.

I was puttering around the kitchen before going outdoors with Isaac and discovered a damp spot under my crock pot.  A few minutes later there was another.  I soon realized the doggone crock part of the thing had finally cracked through and so I had to transfer our dinner to a casserole and put it in the oven.   I'll be shopping for a new slow cooker.  I wasn't happy with this one but I sure hadn't wanted it to die at a year's use.   I'm going to take my time and find another and hopefully it will both suit me and last a long long time.   I don't use a lot of appliances in my home, of the small kitchen sort, but I do use my crock pot/slow cooker quite a lot, so I'll feel rather lost with out that.

I sent the boys home after about three hours.  And then my body took over and went into a voluntary nap.  When I rose we'd missed Chanukah lighting hour but went ahead and lit it anyway and then we had our supper.

Not a bad day overall.  I got lots of little things done, like cleaning off my desk, writing my beginning week post,  running and unloading a load of dishes in the dishwasher, making three meals, blowing off porches and patios and shelling out another pint of pecans.   That's good enough in my opinion. 

Meals:  Oatmeal, Toast

Cheese Pizza

Swiss Chicken Casserole, Collard Greens, Cranberry Sauce

Monday:  I absolutely crashed last night and went toddling off to bed at 9:30pm and slept until (am this morning.  I woke up with a sleep hangover, too, from having slept so long.  I stumbled into the kitchen and grunted "Mornin' " at John and didn't budge until all my cup of coffee had been imbibed.  This was one of those mornings when  two cups might have been needed.

John wisely gave up waiting on me to rouse myself and make breakfast.  I would have, after coffee, but I knew there was no point in rushing the matter this morning.  His breakfast was really good and I give him kudos for grabbing the leftover chicken sausage and using it.  

We got ready and took care of all our errands this morning, then headed over to the salon so I could get a much needed haircut.  I went a little shorter this time.  I'm not used to having to get my hair cut every three weeks.  I realize it's a pixie cut and is going to need more maintenance but I'm quite okay with a much shorter cut and a longer spell between cuts.  I am very pleased with how my hair was cut today.

It happens to be next to a quiet Publix so we went in to get the last of our shopping list knocked out.  We sat in the parking lot to eat our lunch.  With the windows down.  It was sunny and windy but in the low 60's.   Then we drove over to the interstate, at John's suggestion and went into the new Buccee's mega rest stop to look for the last Christmas gift...I found it, too!  All in all we agreed that while it was an experience, unless we're just craving brisket we don't really see much reason to run in there.

We headed home and got back here about 4pm.  It was as we were putting away the few groceries items that I felt something underfoot and in turning to look at the floor found it covered with quite a mess...and the mess appeared to be fruit cake crumbs.  But why?!   I put fruitcakes away on Thursday and hadn't unwrapped them again.  We'd taken up trash and John asked did it fall from the bag?  I don't see how it could have.  Friday morning on my way out of the house, I'd taken the trash with me.   I'd swept the kitchen on Thursday, Friday and Sunday.  There's no reason I can see why fruitcake would be on the floor in the kitchen and yet there it was.  The house was locked when we returned.  I can't imagine that anyone would come in without letting me know, as family has done in the past.  I checked the fruitcakes and they don't appear to have been disturbed either.  So...mystery!

I puttered at housework today.  Tomorrow, I'll be clearing and organizing the fridge, getting laundry washed, starting cookie baking, etc, but for today I'll take it easy.

Meals:  Eggs, Toast, Sausage, Oranges

Deli foods in the parking lot

Hot Dogs, Sauerkraut, Oven Fries

Tuesday:  I had planned to have Isaac here for a few hours today and we had a grand time.  He's now old enough we can trust him to walk to our house from his.  He is over the moon about getting to do this, needless to say.  

He plays well alone but he also likes me to join in.  We did a silly version of Monkeys jumping on the bed today with puppies and ponies and balls and books all taking turns at falling off and bumping their heads.  Towards the end, John began to make silly rhymes about what the doctor said and this tickled Isaac.

I took him back home about 2:30 and then returned home.  I'd picked up mail while I was driving him home.  Yes, he might have walked but the temperature had fallen since his sunny walk over this morning.  It was overcast and a sort of raw cold filled the air.  

When I came back I got my old crockpot crock from the shed in the mild hopes that it might fit my current sleeve but it does not.   So that's it.  It's a new crockpot for me.  I admit after buying three in four years  I'm not keen to buy another Crock Pot Brand but they are the highest rated of crock pots over five or six different sites as well as the most affordable option.

While I was trolling around on websites and pricing various slow cookers on Amazon, I discovered that I can possibly order plastic lids to go on two pieces of corning ware that I have and seldom use because I hate covering with aluminum foil  which is never as secure as a lid.   I'm going to find out the sizes of those other two pieces and plan to order lids to fit them after first of the year.   

I have several options as I see it with the crockpot.  According to the website ayearofslowcooking.com I can use any of my corning ware that will fit inside the crock to cook smaller portions of food and continue to use the crockpot.  I could buy a box of the liners and use those in the crock, as well.  Obviously I don't want to continue to tax the crockery liner which is has a minor crack.  I know that it can quickly break entirely through, as other crock liners have done in the past.  Whatever I do will strictly be temporary.  I will be replacing the crockpot but want to continue to research prices, etc. and am only thinking of ways in which I might continue using it in the meantime.

After trying the old crock pot liner, I cleared up the kitchen and then went through the fridge to do a Gathering for the week.  Glad I did because I'd totally forgotten meatloaf!  Ack!  I put the venison I'd taken from the freezer this morning and put it in the fridge and took out the meatloaf to have for supper tonight.    I've been doing meal plans on the weekend, but since I don't know until Sunday or Monday usually what sort of things I might have in the fridge I'm thinking I'm going to have to delay posting my The Week Ahead post until after I've seen what I might have to use up.

There's a possibility I may be getting a second freezer.  Katie said Chad acquired it yesterday.  If it's the size Katie thinks it is, I'll likely put it in the kitchen though John suggested we put it on the back porch...I'm more reluctant over that until we have a proper laundry room out there.   I have several reasons for preferring to keep it indoors. For one thing,  I'm afraid someone might leave it open.   While Granny and Grandmother both kept their freezers on their back porch they were both much heavier and better insulated machines.  Today's freezers are so thinly clad that I'm slightly worried on a hot day it might do nothing but run and run if it were outdoors.  As well, I'd worry that the thing would get unplugged so that the outlet might be used for another item and not plugged in again. 

I didn't plan much for today on purpose.  I will be jumping into housework and kitchen work with both feet tomorrow.  I must run to town at some point and get gift bags or boxes for gifts and wrap those.    It will be middle of the week which means I must get a plan in place for what supper and breakfasts and lunch might look like while family are here.   I also need to do baking.  It isn't family Christmas without Christmas cookies!    I also need to make a firm plan for what Christmas dinner might be and see what I have on hand towards that, just for my own peace of mind.

Meals:  Toasts, Cheese and buttered

Tuna Salad Sandwiches, Chips   Which reminds me that I've been waiting months now for a sale on tuna at my price point of 50c a can...No luck y'all and the stock is LOW.  I usually keep two dozen or more cans on hand and I'm down to 7.  I've been very stingy with it to stretch it this far but it appears I'm going to have to break down and just buy it at whatever price point I can find it.  

Meatloaf, Mashed Potato Cakes, Coleslaw

Wednesday:  Evening to be exact, just gone 8pm...And where I lost this day I cannot say but lost indeed it was.  There is a counter in the kitchen filled with things I meant to use in baking Christmas cookies.  It's cool enough I'm going to just let it all sit until tomorrow.  No cookies nor cakes were made this day.  No not one.

And this makes day two of my proposed 'Getting Ready for Family Day' schedule.  Oh dear.

I was deeply asleep this morning when I was awakened by a text message notification sound.  So deeply asleep that I don't know if I should have awakened at any point.  It was 8:30 at that point and I was groggy headed and loathe to leave my bed, but I did.  I thought I might at least get a start at the day and I made myself get busy right away.  I made breakfast and started a load of dishes washing and cleaned up the house.  

I spent far too much time refurbishing my homemaking notebook which decided to truly fall apart.  I meant to buy a new one after the first of the year but once you put duct tape on something you can pretty well consider it ugly in my opinion.  All we had was Gorilla tape which is an ugly black anyway.  It did nothing for the hot pink notebook.   I decided I'd use some vinyl I had to recover the notebook and that's what I did.  It looks okay.  I'm not ashamed of it.  

I was laying out baking items and unloading the dishwasher when my phone began to ring.  John had been waiting on a call from the doctor's office and he beat me to it.  Well it wasn't the doctor but Katie who just got a new job and needed to go take a drug test to complete her hiring in.  She needed someone to keep Caleb and John said "Sure...."   "He'll be ready for a nap..."  "Great!  Bring him on out."   

I sighed.  Never ever has a baby come into this house and gone straight to bed.  And Caleb was in full agreement with all the rest.  He is teething and has that teething stomach which is acid and eats flesh if you know what I mean.  He wasn't a happy boy at all that his Mama left him and he was less than happy after he messed up his diaper.  I did my best to get him more comfortable but he wasn't going back to bed after all that.  I rocked him gently and threatened John if he so much as moved and got the baby to sleep in my arms.  That bought us 30 minutes.  Then John set a glass down on the tabletop next to me and Caleb opened his eyes and raised his head and was done.  Sigh.

Well never mind.  The truth is that for all my plans today, God's plan was that I should sit and hold a fussy little boy and rock him to sleep and if that's the only purpose I fulfilled today then so be it.  Isaac was here yesterday and he's already shying away from climbing up in our laps as he used to do.  I'll take the time to hold this wee boy while I can.  

This evening, as I walked into the dining room with his food bowl in my hand, Caleb forgot himself and took a step forward before he dropped to his knees and crawled.  He's been teasing us for weeks now as he will stand without holding on to anything at all but the moment he considers taking a step, he immediately drops to his knees and crawl.  I'm convinced that step was purely accidentally, but nevertheless told Katie he'd done it when she came in.  A few minutes later, she was watching him and saw him take another step and a little while later he did it again.  But he will not walk from me to her or to his daddy!   I do believe that he'll be walking before Christmas though.  I think he's forgetting that he can't do it and it's such an auto response to him to take a step now that he's going to keep doing it until he's completed a whole series of steps.   And I'll just bet seeing Taylor and all those big kids walking about on Saturday will reinforce the idea in his mind...

It was late when they left, beginning to get dark.   Today was rainy and as bitterly cold as wet weather can be in December, the sort of day that sets a shiver down your spine.  The heat has come on all day long.   I'd say it's very unusual, but I'll just bet in reading my own blog I can prove that it's weather such as we typically have this time of year.  True that some years we have more warmth and less cold, but I'm not going to complain over cold weather for Christmas.  That's absolutely as it should be in my opinion.

Meals:  Biscuits, Boiled Eggs

Leftover Chicken Verde Enchiladas

Biscuits with Sausage Gravy

Not a stellar day for meals. Just protein and carbs really, without a fruit or vegetable in sight.  My only excuse is that it wasn't what I planned, it was just the way the day happened to go.  Good thing I wasn't able to bake cookies today.

Thursday:  It was even colder today than yesterday.  I was very snug in my quilts and I guess because the morning was darker than I'm accustomed to I slept very late.  I skipped breakfast and suggested John help himself.  He was concerned I was ill but I felt fine.  I just wasn't hungry and saw no point in eating.  Some mornings I wake feeling quite hungry.

After doing minor housework, I decided today was a perfect baking day.   And things went very well for me.  I made the Magic Cookie Bars.  For the first time ever I realized that the original recipe, which is what I follow, says to use walnuts.  I've never used walnuts in making this cookie ever!  I suppose because we always had foraged pecans from our own trees or Granny's which we spent time shelling out, that's what we used.    I followed tradition and made the cookies with pecans, as always.

I put a big pan of nuts in the oven to roast while the cookies baked.  I used some of the Brazil nuts I'd purchased (last year? I've been storing them in the freezer), some almonds I'd bought untoasted, pecan halves that were also in the freezer.  I did a huge jar of the nuts, using just olive oil and salt.  I'd love to have done flavors such as rosemary or chili peppers but John likes them plain and plain I made them.  I have a 2 quart sized jar of roasted nuts.

Speaking of his liking plain, the oyster crackers I made for family Thanksgiving?  He felt they were too spicy...And I didn't put half the seasoning called for on them!   I ended up tossing those today because he has steadfastly refused to even consider eating them.  The little boys weren't happy when I offered them some the other day.  Nobody in my family cared for them.   Confession time, I didn't care for them.   I made them because it was cheap and I thought, "Oh it's got to be good! It's so cheap!"  Well not so much.   I had perfectly good food go to waste.  No matter how inexpensive it's never cheap when you're wasting food.

So back to baking.  I baked magic cookie bars and nuts and then started a pan of stove top cookies.  While those were coming up to a boil, I managed to mix up the sugar cookie dough.  I made lunch for us after getting the stove top cookies spooned out on waxed paper.  

After lunch, I took a break and fielded an unpleasant phone call.  Unpleasant in that following the big huge tantrum I am now assured that I took it all wrong...only the kindest best intentions were held and I shouldn't be upset any further.  Sigh.

Bess ran by to drop off a present from her mom which is too cute.  This one is similar.  I'm being lazy at the moment and don't want to hobble across the room, having spent far too long on my feet today.  

  

I love it!  

While here Bess mentioned that Josh is out of school early for Christmas.  Covid rears it's head again.

After I'd had an hour's rest I went back to the kitchen and began baking Sam and Katie's favorite Raspberry thumbprint cookies.  I used half the sugar cookie dough to make those.  Then I took the second half and split it into two.  One I used to make a replica of a cookie I'd seen on Instagram.   Mine didn't quite turn out but I knew my dough was too soft.  They did well enough and were a good try anyway.  I frosted the tops of those. 

The remaining batch of dough will be used on Monday when I hope to gather Taylor, Josh and Isaac here to make cookies once again.   I'll add a bit extra flour to the batter to stiffen it up so I can roll it out for them.

I cleaned the kitchen while the last batch of cookies baked and I had an easy supper of leftovers that I went ahead and set out.  Just to remind me not to fret when supper time rolled around.

John took off trash and brought in mail.  I don't know about your mail but ours is bombarded daily by candidate propaganda, sigh.  Buried in today's half dozen pleas to vote for this one or that were two Christmas cards.  From real people yet and not from businesses or ministries!  Personal mail is always nice.

Meals:  John had toast, I skipped and stuck with coffee and tea

Buffalo Chicken Salads with Blue Cheese dressing

Leftover Swiss Chicken Casserole, leftover Coleslaw

Friday:  Lots to do today.  I am readying my house for guests this weekend.   So coffee went with breakfast prep this morning when I made up a bunch of waffles.  For once, I didn't overflow the machine, thank goodness.  I put a dozen or more in the freezer.

I made out my list while breakfast was being cooked.  Happily I can say that I've checked off every single item and there's still an hour and half until  Shabat.  Go me!

I set up the guest bath, cleaning it and making sure it was stocked up.  Then I gathered all my paper goods and necessary foods from the guest room closet.  I put out a big stack of quilts and blankets so that the company staying with us can cozy up and not be chilly, especially the children sleeping on or near the floor.

I set up my nativity.  I had this cool idea I wanted to implement but I can't do it.  My figures will not lend themselves to my idea.  Too bad, too, because it would have been very special, I think, as we progressed towards the last days of this Christmas season and my characters moved slowly towards Bethlehem.

I set John to putting together the shopping cart I bought for Mama.   I sorted out the rest of the house which needed the attention, but by noon I was done with what I could do until I went into town.  

We went by the post office, the dollar store and by Subway to get a sandwich for lunch.   The dollar store visit was to pick up more gift bags, paper plates for dinner, crock pot liners (which I'll use until I can replace my crockpot if the crock will cooperate with me) and cottage cheese so I could make lasagna.

After lunch, I wrapped packages (please please remind me next year to do this as I get things instead of waiting until the day before!!), then diced potatoes for tomorrow's salad.  As I started doing that, I kept wondering if I oughtn't to make something else to go with dinner.  I can be assured that Josh will eat only a roll tomorrow.  He doesn't care for a thing else, I don't think.  But perhaps I'll have some plain green beans since babies and little boys will eat those as well.  

My dinner menu for tomorrow will be as follows:   

Gramma's Fried Chicken

Green Bean Casserole

Potato Salad

Baby Carrots, served raw.  Apparently the children like these.

Rolls

I'll have some plain potatoes and plain beans for those who don't eat the mixed stuff.  The babies will eat plain potatoes, plain green beans and Caleb will get tiny bits of chicken.    If I added anything I'd make a mac and cheese, but do I really want to go to the trouble?  I'll need to do it within the hour if I'm making that.

Meals:  Waffles and Venison Sausage

Sub Sandwich, Chips

Lasagna, Salad

That's all for this week...I have Advent posts scheduled for next week but I won't be posting otherwise I don't think.    So I'll wish you all a very Merry Christmas now, just in case I don't get a chance to get back to the computer.  Our week next week is stacking up as fairly busy, just as this week has been and I'm going to take it easy in between times.

Hugs and good cheer to you all.  I appreciate each of you, more than I can say.  Your encouragement and understanding and prayers mean so very much to me.  Thank you!