Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Oh the Plans I Made!

 

Saturday:  Friday night as we sat in church, a conversation that took place behind us made John and I look out of the side of our eyes at one another.   The woman, about our age, was relating to a much younger couple that she and her husband had gotten Friday and Saturday evening service times confused and so she'd suggested they go out to eat supper.  "But we had over two hours to kill and we've been married so long and are together all the time.  We got through one hour or so but we wer silent the whole while.  I don't know how anyone our age manages two hours of conversation!"

What caused us to look sidewise at one another is that John and I spend quite a lot of time together ourselves, and we do have quiet moments, but we seldom lack for things to talk over.  We talk at meals here at home and over meals eaten in the car or in a restaurant.  We talk when we're just sitting around and when we're driving somewhere and we talk all through out the day.   We talk when we're on our computers or reading or watching tv.  We talk when we go to bed each night and once I've had coffee I'm all too happy to talk with him all through breakfast and the rest of our day.

But the funny thing to me was that as she spoke, John looked out of the corner of his eye at me just as I looked at him and then he shook his head and sort of grimaced and shrugged his shoulders with a "Wow, I don't understand that" sort of look.  You see, John has always cultivated our relationship.   

 We can spend hours together every week but at some point he's going to look me dead in the eye and ask, "So how are things really going with you at present?"  or "How's life treating you?"  or even "Are you still happy?  Anything troubling you we need to discuss?"   It's very refreshing to tell you the truth because he's genuinely interested in discovering what's going on inside my heart and mind, rather than taking things at face value.   I could, actually, learn a few lessons from this man of mine...

After church last night, he informed me that he'd like to volunteer for the task of helping to set up the egg hunt this morning.  "Come with me, but you don't have to do anything except go pick up some breakfast or coffee that we can share after I'm done."  I told him I'd come along and go on to Publix to get Fried Chicken for Sunday's dinner if it was  at all possible to find and if not I'd order it and pick it up later that morning.  

So we were up before dawn this morning, in order to head over to church and grocery.  A goodly number of people showed up to help.   The grounds were divided into areas dedicated to age groups and honestly it was not going to be hard for any child to find an egg or thirty.   Everywhere you looked were eggs!   It's all flat, well mown lawn.  Not half as fun as our egg hunts as kids with eggs resting in the crotch of a tree or under the edge of a shrub.   We used to find eggs all through the spring and summer that even the adults had forgotten where they'd hidden them.

I am so glad we made the plans we did because I discovered that Publix will be closed tomorrow which was my alternative plan.  I didn't have to order ahead as they had some in the cold case in the deli which was fine.  I always heat the chicken in the oven here anyway.     It always tastes good and is always well priced.  Bonus today, it was on sale.  

And just for the record, we talked all the way over to church,  all through our breakfast which we ate in the parking lot after he was done and all the way home again, too...

Sunday: 

Happy Easter!!

 I happened on Saturday evening to be scanning old posts from earlier this year to determine if the kitchen I was about to share was a repeat or a new to us all image.  I don't want to repeat images.  I found the first post in January was where I started this up again.

I went on to quickly scan through the writing there and discovered that I had quite a few goals for my blog that I'd shared with you all...I had a few more that I didn't share, too.  What happened to all those ideas?    I've incorporated about one third of the ones I shared.  So now that I've refreshed my memory of what my initial intentions were, I'll try to incorporate more of the things I'd planned.

Of the one third that I had incorporated, I'd been hit and miss with two of those items...I was not pleased to see how I'd drifted into auto pilot and just gone on as before.  I was excited in January about my inspirations for the blog for this year.  How did I lose it so quickly?

I incorporated a quarterly review years ago of my annual resolutions and projects list  because I knew I'd hit and miss things otherwise.  I used also to do a quarterly review of our budget because although John's pay rarely rose in hourly wages, it often fluctuated with holidays and vacation seasons. A quarterly review was an effective tool to insure I reached my goals in those areas.  A quarterly review of the blog was unintentional this week but it sure didn't hurt me to find that post and realize that I needed to get off autopilot and start being intentional here, as well as in my offline life.

We had another frosty morning for Easter  but what a beautiful sunny day.   Family came to lunch and I did my best to keep it all simple enough that I didn't act as anxious as I feel whenever I want to do something extra.  It was just Katie and her family, Sam and his and John and I.   I didn't do an egg hunt but the children had goody bags I'd made up for them.  Though the parents somewhat dampened my giving...  They pointed out quite rightly that the children were well sugared when they arrived having all eaten their way through Easter baskets since they all arose.  And apparently they'd gotten up quite early.  I think parents planned naps for themselves as well as the children this afternoon

 I'd bought Annie's Organic Bunny Grahams for the little babies to have as a treat.  I had seen these on a vlog and thought they'd be just the thing.  Well, when I opened the box, I had to pick and sort thru to find any whole bunny cookies.  In the end, I figured that Millie nor Caleb was likely to know that they were bunnies anyway and just filled the bags with bits and pieces, too  but I paid a pretty penny for those doggone cookies and I was more than a little peeved that I'd paid for a box of glorified graham cracker crumbs!  

It was a lovely family time.   The older children were wild so we turned them outdoors and then suddenly they were all quite tired.  The darents sighed with relief and headed home to put them down for naps.   With Katie's and Bess's help I got foods put away, dishes in the sink, trash gathered and tables wiped down right after lunch.  After everyone left I loaded my dishwasher and rinsed the dishes in the sink and was going to just work myself down to nothing to be honest, but my husband came along and said "I believe that everything here can wait until later."   Yes, dear.  Not a bit of it has got up and marched out of the house   so I suspect I shall find it patiently waiting on me.

Monday:  An older body is a total mystery to me.  I had a lovely time yesterday, felt well and strong, ya da ya da ya da.  At some point in the evening I started feeling a certain stiffness in my movements.  By bedtime, my left hip was sore.   By the time I should have been asleep I was completely unable to even think of sleep due to  pain.  I took pain relievers and put the heating pad on my hip.   Off I went to sleep at last but I woke with that same hip still feeling a bit iffy-ish.   

No I am not sidelined, but I feel a bit tender and prone to be cautious.  I've noted that my lower back is fine for a bit and then I begin to feel the strain so I sit and rest with the heating pad all over again.  The mystery isn't that I feel pain but the why of it.  What did I do?  I didn't grab up a baby or grandchild as I've done in the past.  I didn't spend hours on my feet nor sitting.  I didn't, to the best of my knowledge, move in any unusual way.  

And experience tells me that tomorrow I shall likely feel just fine without one dab of tension or twinge of pain and still none the wiser of why!

No deep thoughts to share today but I will share with you all the tasks I've done today...and take time to ask now if anyone finds that the least interesting?   Do you want to what daily tasks I do or am I boring you to tears?  Does it inspire you or serve as a reminder?   Let me know this week in the comments when you read this please.  I'm curious.

But in the meantime, I shall share what I did today.  I started my day early enough because I woke before the alarm went off this morning which is good.  It meant I was up early and didn't feel groggy and weary as I sometimes do when I roll over and keep on sleeping.  Since I'd gone off to the guest bed, I quickly set that bed to rights and then went to make myself a cup of coffee and put on the tea pot.  I walked out of the room to fetch something in the back bedroom and when I came out John was up, too.

I drank my first cup of caffeine and then made us a quick breakfast of leftover Orange Danish and scrambled eggs.  I put chives and a tablespoon of sour cream in the eggs this morning as I beat them and they cooked up so fluffy and creamy.  That's worth repeating in the future!

I stacked dishes in the sink, started a load of sheets and towels, and put in the fabric I'd bought for spring/summer cushions for the living room.  I loaded the dishwasher and then hand washed the rest of the dishes then  I sat down for a bit with John.   You'll see that I sat down for a little bit all along today.  I worked until I felt tension building up in my back and then I'd sit and relax and get up and go for a bit more work.   John put on two vlogs that we like back to back and I sort of got the message he wanted me to sit with him.  

As the last vlog ended he suggested it was time to go to work in the cemetery and I told him I had no desire today.   As most all of the work I do is bending over towards the ground to cut out plants at the ground line that are too much for the mower, there seemed to be little point in my thinking I could even manage that task at all today, much less walk over the uneven ground.   He got up and went out on his own.

I started a load of dishes washing once the laundry was done.  I put the first half of the load of wash in the dryer, and went on to clean our bed and bath.   I cleaned the bathroom mirror and window.  I swept/vacuumed, put things away, hung fresh towels and put away my things that were laying about.   I then headed into the kitchen and shook out all the rugs, put the bench back in the entry (we use it as extra seating at the dining table when family is all here) and swept that floor.  Then I took down all the curtains and tossed them into the dirty clothes basket.  I'd liked to have gone on and washed them, too, but John mentioned mowing the lawn and I didn't want curtains on the line when he decided to start that job.  It never fails that dirt, dust and grass bits will be on the laundry even if he's careful to mow well away from it.

I went out to sit on the back porch with John.   I'd thought to take out things I planned to prepare this week from the freezer.  I had spaghetti sauce,  a roast, beef/venison for tacos for the day the boys and Millie visit and I'd found two beef patties that I put out for our lunch.   After we'd talked a good bit, he asked what I was making for lunch and said he'd wait until after we'd eaten before he'd mow.  So I came indoors and cooked burgers.

I don't know what you all use but I've had multiples of those spatter screens and they all end up lost or useless.  No different today.  I have/had one but I couldn't find it.  The burgers were still partially frozen and they spattered and spat.  I turned my metal colander upside down over the pan and it worked wonderfully well at preventing splatters yet not braising the meat since there were air holes enough to continue the frying.  Honestly, I don't think I'm a genius who just invented the idea but I do like to find I can use something for more than one use.   Here to date a colander has been my pasta strainer and now and then broth strainer but I've never used it as a spatter cover.  I will in the future!

After lunch, I opened the door of the dishwasher to let the inside dry out a little.  One common complaint with nearly all the dishwashers I reviewed online was that they never fully dried dishes.  I don't find my dishes are so very wet but as the dishes sit, the sides and door of the dishwasher cools and water begins to condense inside.  Opening the door for 15 minutes will dry them quite well and no buildup of condensation on dishes occurs either.  

I'd been piling things in the guest room because the sewing table needed to be put back in place and covered it with the drop cloth once more.   We use the sewing table as the children's table for family meals.  I g put the sewing machine and desk chair back into place and then cleared the items off the bed I'd stacked there as the morning went on because I couldn't get to the closet and chiffarobe.  Now that room is tidy once more, too.

I took compost out to empty, gathered up trash, and cleared away the lunch items.  I unloaded the dishwasher and then I had a spell of sitting and easing my back.  I'd started a crock pot of chicken broth this morning with a bag of frozen bones/skin when I took the meat from the freezer.   The spaghetti sauce had about half thawed, so I started that in a pan and added in tomato sauce, mushrooms and a bit of onion from the weekend.  I started the slightly frozen ground venison and beef cooking for tacos and then I sorted out my fridge and took note of what we have. 

Gathered fragments today included the previously mentioned chicken skin/bones from the freezer, the tomatoes and tomato sauce I added to the spaghetti sauce, half a Buffalo Chicken Pizza, some mac n cheese and chicken wings from yesterday's big meal (we ate leftovers last night for supper and still have a few).  I have some chicken breast I cooked on Friday, tuna pasta salad from Friday's apology lunch.   I found a little Beans and Franks that John didn't eat last week when we were having leftovers.  I didn't realize he hadn't finished them.  Those will go to the dogs.

I'm trying to make a point of late to feed the dogs table scraps more often.  I don't know just why we got out of the habit of it.  Yes, Maddie does act as though I am poisoning her nearly every time but as she's getting older she's eating less and less.  Rufus has no such problems with appetite or digestion, Misu insists that as Queen of the pets she gets first choice from the pan of scraps and River happily cleans any dog pans when she shows up for her morning walk with Rufus.  So today's offering to the dogs will be the juices drained from the venison as it cooked, any skin or soft gristle I pick from the chicken pieces and the Beans and franks.  

The chicken breast and a large red potato I diced  will go into Tikka Masala along with the  last of a bag of frozen green peas from the freezer.  The pizza, tuna pasta salad, wings and mac n cheese should serve us three lunches this week.  I'll add a can of tomato soup to lunch the day we have the pasta salad to stretch that meal a wee bit further.

I'm going to put half the taco meat in the freezer as a future quick fix meal that I can thaw and heat in the microwave.  As I said earlier I'll have tacos for lunch the day the children are here, which is planned for Wednesday.   I will use the spaghetti sauce to make a small loaf pan lasagna.  I recall well that the last few times I've had children for hours on end, I was over tired and couldn't think what we might eat that would be easy so this week I'll be prepared.

As I type this, I am of course, sitting down relaxing my back, but I think I'm heading back to the kitchen to try and assemble the lasagna, put the taco meat into containers to cool and clear up the dishes.  The bones and skin of the chicken are draining at present and I'll pick the bones over before I finish up.  Grating cheese and picking chicken are jobs I can do while sitting so perhaps I will finish my day strong.  

As it's now 4:30 and I still need to make our Tikka Masala and Rice (can cook while I do these other tasks thankfully) I don't think I'll be cleaning the kitchen windows today.  I'd hoped I'd get to at least two of them but I think I'll have done quite enough for this Monday.

Tuesday:   Back/hip so much better today.  Even though I worked yesterday those frequent breaks with the heating pad worked well for me.  I was so ready to get outdoors to work in the cemetery that I told John I'd skip breakfast and head on out.  I went into the bathroom to retrieve a stretch hairband from under the cabinet and found it wet...

Can I just say I am so over plumbing problems these past two months?   There was water standing on the floor of the cupboard which is not the bathroom floor.  I started hauling things out from under the cabinet while calling to John.  His first question was "What did you do?"  Sigh and rolling of eyes but hard biting of tongue.  

Today's task was not an easy one.  One thing we are discovering with our work in this house is that the materials are great materials.  The finishing is not nice and some of the finishing pieces are just plain cheap but the construction pieces used in our home are solid and good.  Nothing is an easy fix.  It requires earnest deconstruction to get at problems.  So there is that as a positive note. 

John of course was imagining all manner of damage and said our trip would be cancelled and all other sorts of dire predictions.  I bit my tongue (gracious how often one must bite that unruly member!  And why couldn't he have bitten his, too?) and said nothing, but I did let a sigh escape.  

They not only screwed the cupboard floor into place but used roughly 100 or more staples as well.    It took him a good solid hour of prying to get the staples loose and then we had to use the loppers to cut through the wet MDF to get it away from around the pipes so we could remove it.  It was a real bugger to get it up so that we could assess if water had run underneath that cabinet floor. 

It appears in this manufactured home where a sink is concerned there is a layer of plastic sheeting atop the floor as well.  It's an added protection we have come to appreciate these past two months but water can run under it.   We discovered that water had gone under but only a very minor amount.  However, that had to come up in order to thoroughly dry the area.  I found that the plastic was placed on the flooring before walls went up, so it was well and truly held in place.   My utility knife is missing so we improvised and used my rotary cutter to slit the plastic and get it up.   John's fond of saying "Anybody can do a job  with the right tool, but it takes somebody to do a job with what they have at hand."  I guess you can just call the two of us, "Somebody."  

John bled all over the floor from multiple minor cuts from the staples.    I told him, as I went to wipe the floor and cabinet frame and doors down  to please promise he'd not disappear as I was pretty sure there was enough blood to warrant a crime scene  if anyone cared to investigate  (a real exaggeration but it made him laugh).

Good news is that despite all this our floor is sound and dry, clean up under the cabinet was minor enough and we've now gained an added three inches of space  We also discovered the source of the leak was a grommet in the boot of the water valve that had eroded.  That is now replaced and fixed and we've no leaking.   

Bad news is that John damaged the cabinet in getting out the flooring.  It's not horrible and I doubt most would notice it since we seldom invite guests to use our bathroom.   As I pointed out to him, we were going to replace it this year anyway...and the way I see it, this is just one more reason to redo that bath sooner rather than later, right?

If I sound optimistic and positive, please let me tell you that it's just because I'd weep otherwise.  We've a tiny leak under the kitchen sink, a small amount of water accumulates there in a two week period.  John had already tightened that fitting one more time and wiped out the bowl only to discover a droplet inside it two hours later.  

In between plumbing issues, I managed to get the curtains washed and hung on the line, ran another full of clothes and have them drying, and cleaned the kitchen windows.  They really need a good clean outside but I'm not up to that task at present.  However they do look better.   The weather is warm enough the curtains were dry before lunch and they are rehung fresh and crisp at the windows already.  I might just slip the living room drapes into the wash  tomorrow while the sunshine is with us and clean those four windows after the children go home.  It's meant to rain after Wednesday and I won't even try to get the other rooms done until I have more sunshine promised next week.  

We had a lot of the Tikka Masala and Rice left last night though we ate heartily.  That will make supper another night as it's far too much to serve as a lunch.  I also picked a good 1 1/4 cups chicken from the bones I used to make broth yesterday.  I cooked rice for supper last night  with 2 1/2 cups of chicken broth, put another 2 cups in the fridge and two quarts in the freezer.   The dogs got a good two cups of soft gristle and skin added to their food bowls. 

When I made the lasagna yesterday, which was meant for Wednesday's supper,  I didn't have enough sauce to make up a second pan, though I did have a little leftover.  I also had lasagna noodles leftover.  I broke those up and mixed them with the bit of sauce and put the whole lot in a zippered bag into the freezer.  Bess has a recipe for a crockpot lasagna that calls for broken noodles mixed with cooked meat and sauce.  I'll use that  baggie with some fresh sauce and cooked meat sometime in the warmer months to make our own version of crockpot lasagna.

Now I am off to do something restful for a little while.  I'm awfully glad I made that lasagna yesterday because I have not gotten my Mongolian pot roast started in the slow cooker with all the morning's work.   Lasagna will be our meal tonight.

Wednesday:  I'd planned to take the three children today and give the adults a break.  Sam's been working at home for the past year and his new position apparently will never manifest into an office setting.  With three normal healthy children and two adults in a small house with no office, it's inevitable that home life and work life collide often.   So knowing Josh was out of school this week, I offered up today, from breakfast until after lunch, to keep the kids here.

I had plans for breakfast and lunch and meant to start supper in the crockpot just to keep things easy for myself.  What I didn't count on was waking extra early and lying awake a bit in the middle of the night.  

 Never mind, I am good as my word and only true illness would have made me beg off.  At 8am, I was ready for the children and on they came to spend time with me.  Millie is pretty independent and entertains herself very nicely as long as an adult is there to occasionally smile at her or say she's pretty.  The boys are at the age where all they want is Kindles but I assured them that today we'd wait on Kindles and play a bit first.  The ground was soaking wet from heavy dew so there was no sending them out to play today.  I encouraged them to play with little success.  I'm sorry to say we resorted to television as entertainment early on in the morning, though Josh did take time to color and Isaac occupied himself 'making ice cream' for a bit.  

Just as I needed to get lunch started and assemble my crockpot meal we allowed them to have the Kindles and that left just Millie to watch over.  Though I'd prepped our taco meat for today I found that prepping the rest of the meal took a bit longer than I'd thought it might, so I was glad to have the boys occupied.

I put lunch on the table just a little bit before 12.  Millie, by this point,  had been laying down on the floor and whimpering.  I saw a big molar trying to push through on her gum and she wasn't too terribly interested in food today.  She seemed to feel all right otherwise, so I guessed she was just tired.    Her daddy came over about then and took her home so that just left me with the two boys. 

I cleared up the messes and the kitchen, then our bathroom which John said could be put back together once more.   I took the opportunity of things being out already to rearrange some cabinets.  I'd been unhappy for a while with the area under the sink and felt I could make better use of the tall narrow cabinet.  I got that all settled up and looked at the clock.  The boys had about 30 minutes until Daddy expected them back home for Isaac's nap.  I could tell Isaac was a bit sleepy at this point.

When the boys left I had a few final things to do such as cleaning floors and then I sat down in my chair and went right to sleep.   I had no idea I was so tired myself but I was.  I slept right up until I'd normally help myself to coffee and felt terribly groggy besides.   

Bess stopped by with a lovely early Mother's Day gift.  She'd spied it as she was doing an Insta-cart order for Aldi and asked if I liked it. I think it's just lovely!

John had been urging me for months now to get a proper tea kettle rather than continue to use the iron teapot that is meant for steeping tea not boiling water though it's worked well enough.   This is a nice sturdy pot with a four year warranty.  

Bess said after delivering it to me that she wasn't sure of quality but it was pretty.  I've bought Crofton cookware items before and I've had nothing but good use and long lasting quality from them thus far.

Supper was easy enough to prepare.  I needed only to reheat leftover rice, steam broccoli and thicken the sauce that went with our roast.   It was a good and filling dinner and much appreciated in that it was easy to prepare.   I had so much extra sauce and since it included soy sauce didn't want to feed it to the dogs.  I bagged it up and froze it.  I can use it over meatballs or chicken at some point in the future and there will be very little waste. 

Our weekly paper had notice that our state's governor has eliminated ALL C-virus restrictions for all social gatherings and businesses  except a few related to manufacturing/industry.  Hallelujah!   I confess that the restrictions really affected us only in a minor way since we were already limited in where we went and with whom we spent time but it's nice to know that we are finally coming out from under what was undoubtedly the strangest year I've seen in my lifetime.  

I hope that this means that next year on grandparent's day we'll be able to go see Isaac at school as we did Josh when he was in pre-K and Kindergarten.  

Thursday:  I was unusually tired yesterday afternoon, taking that deep nap and later dozing off in my chair well before time for bed.  Before 10pm I'd gotten up and crawled into bed and gone right to sleep barely waking enough to know that John had come to bed.

The night was not restful however.  Somewhere  along about 12:30 he was up again and went to stare at his computer.  I tossed and turned and turned and dozed and tossed and turned until he came back to bed somewhere closer to 3am.  I woke long enough to shut off my alarm before it rang this morning and then slept until 8:30.

Sam had asked yesterday if he might come to work here today and Friday and we agreed.  I myself had planned to do curtains yesterday but never got around to it and so I'd thought I'd do a load today.   The morning scampered away on rapid feet.   I figured if Sam was coming to work in the guest room there'd be no sewing today but I never did get curtains off windows or unload the dishwasher.  A chance conversation with John inspired me and I sat down and spent the next five hours working on a future post.  I pulled out leftovers for lunch and now at 3:30 I'm contemplating my options for supper.  I haven't anything thawed.  I'm over the leftovers.  I want some real food.   What might that be?!   

Sam never showed today but he still might tomorrow so I'm not sure if I'll get any sewing done then.  And now there are heavy black clouds hanging in the sky, I'm thinking I might have missed the chance to do a load of curtains altogether.   So much for my plans!

Friday:  Sigh... Another day of plans gone awry.  Yesterday John assured me we'd go to pick up a short list of items.  It never happened.  "Tomorrow we're going out to do that errand," he assured me last night.  It's now going on past 11am and he's made no move to shower nor does he look as though he remembers he made plans for the second day in a row.   Nor has Sam shown up this morning.  Yet, I know that I dare not slip off to the craft room and think I'm going to start sewing  because surely then my second set of plans shall go awry.  

I have tentative meal plans for this evening and Saturday and I shall face Sunday as I get nearer that day.  The house is clean and neat and not much required of me at this point, unless I can finally tackle a project of some sort.

But the week is, for all purposes, done and while everything I wanted to do didn't get done, enough has been done that I am satisfied with what has been accomplished.   It's been a good week without drama or angst.   I am pleased and that's all I require.

How did your week go?