Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Come Rain or Come Shine

 

Late Friday afternoon:  John and I took off trash earlier and then went into town to get gasoline for the lawn mower.  Driving along the dirt road that leads out of this place was a whole different space than it was a week ago.  Then there were some new leaves and a few privet blooms but this week it was all verdantly green, full and lush and ripe.  Honeysuckle bloomed where blackberries had been in bloom the week before.    I saw some deep red wild roses blooming on the old highway that I'd never before noticed.  How lovely it all was swaying in the wind with the sun shine dappled across it all.  It made me feel wealthy in a very abundant sense of the word.  It wasn't a ride for thinking.  It was a ride for just plain enjoying.

I meant to record the meals that we ate this past week so you could track my Gathered Fragments usage etc.   I'm not going to list what we actually had for every meal because honestly I stuck pretty close to my plan with just a few variations so I'll only post the meals where I strayed from my plan.  So here goes, near as I can remember:

Breakfast:  Hashed potatoes and Spam with steamed eggs, toast

Lunch: I added tomato soup to Friday's sandwich meal because it was chilly indoors and out.

Supper: Venison Burgers (meat meant for taco salad) and Fries (from freezer)

Turkey Salad Sandwiches and Chips, because John wanted tuna salad for lunch a second day.

Saturday:  Reading has been the order of the day.  I sailed right through the Emilie Loring book and now I am about to start  The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See.   But before diving into yet another book, I flipped through the magazines in the basket by my chair.  

Bess' mom often sends me magazines that have been given to her to read through and I save them until I want to spend an afternoon with a magazine.  I enjoyed that today.  I  remove any recipes or pictures I think would make pretty cards and set the magazines aside to pass on to someone else.

Speaking of making cards, I have been left  cold of late by the greeting cards in stores.   I am going to return to making my own.   I don't want to pay $8-$10 for the nicer cards.   Isn't that a ridiculous price?  If you think I'm just being cheap then please remember that I have 4 children, 3 in-laws (children) 12 grandchildren, a former son in law,  my mother and two 'of my heart' children with their child to consider each year.     

The obvious choice is to switch to the 99c cards at the dollar stores, which seems reasonable until you start to add that up by the number of holidays/birthdays, etc.  I like to not only send out birthday cards for everyone but if I think of it I like to send anniversary cards and all the  holiday cards for the children and that adds up to a LOT of money still which I could use gifting them with instead of sending a card that will end in the trash.    Not to mention that quite often those cards are poor quality and tend to be ugly or garish and definitely not pretty.   The verses within them are insipid or downright vulgar.  No, the cheaper line of  cards aren't the answer.  

I confess I haven't made cards in years but I did enjoy making them, people seemed to enjoy receiving them and I enjoyed the process of creating them.  I think I'd really enjoy doing it once more!  I always bought proper envelopes to house them when they were mailed off (Hobby Lobby and Michaels are good sources).  So yeah.  I think I'm going to return to making cards and I'll keep my eye out for some reasonably priced, good looking, boxed all occasion cards.

So I think I want to return to making cards for all but Christmas.  And speaking of Christmas why doesn't someone get smart and work up pretty boxes of cards for a reasonable sum rather than thinking these holidays and special days and birthdays and such should warrant a card that costs $8 each?   I never pay more than that for 20 Christmas cards and they often are quite beautiful. 

Sunday:  I don't typically go to church on Mother's Day.   Does that sound odd?  I always figure it's going to be super crowded and the parking is going to be a nightmare, etc.  However, when John asked me last night if I'd like to go,  I just couldn't say I didn't want to  because I really did.  "Maybe since we go to early service it won't be so bad..."  I told him.   So we were up early this morning and went on ahead...but not before I'd heard from three of five children this morning to wish me a Happy Mother's Day.  The fourth followed suit a little later than usual but I know why that good wish was a little late.  As for the fifth child...he seldom remembers to do what he means to do so I take no offense at him.

I'm glad we went on to church.  For one thing it was lovely outdoors so the ride over and back again was more than pleasant.  And the sermon was a good one and gave me food for thought.  Our church gifted all the mothers a pretty zippered bag, the sort some might keep cosmetics in.  I organize my purse with such bags, a tip I picked up years ago from an Emilie Barnes book.  I keep diabetic supplies in one, lipsticks and nail clippers and file, a cloth to clean my glasses, a small mirror and such in another one.  A third one holds a tape measure (handier than you'd think especially if you happen to come across an item that you want for a very specific sized space), pens, a tiny notebook, that sort of thing.   And now that I fourth bag I mean to put in all those gift cards and store loyalty cards and shopping lists and such to relieve the burden on my wallet.   Since they are all different, I know just which one I want when I open my purse and what's more, because they are all lighter colors, if I happen to be looking for a dark object against the black inner lining of a purse I can actually see it.   That's the bonus of it in my opinion.

After church John asked if we needed to go to the grocery.  I confess I kind of hoped he'd just go but that word 'needed' tossed in made me look at him and say, "No, we don't need to go," and being male he didn't get the emphasis and I didn't enlighten him when he turned homeward.

We drove by a food chain that specializes in Fried Chicken and Wings.   We had our car windows open and I can't begin to describe to you all the nostalgia the aroma of frying chicken  brought over me.  This is common enough in the South, especially in small Southern towns to smell chicken frying at noon and 5pm daily.  Daily.   But it was more than just small town nostalgia.  

This morning, that aroma swept me clean back to childhood and our once a month Sunday dinner at Granny's house in which Fried Chicken figured about 8 Sundays out of 10.   We'd arrive at her home and the back door would be open and the smell of chicken frying would greet us as soon as we opened the car doors.    I suppose it was the warm soft air and that we'd just been to church that made me sigh deeply and tell John "Oh that reminds me of Sundays at Granny's!"

John went to fill the car with gas and then turned back towards town, which surprised me but I didn't ask what he was doing.  I thought perhaps he'd decided to buy chicken for Sunday dinner at home.  We do it every now and then, but no he didn't stop at the chicken place we'd placed and then he got on the interstate.   And while I confess I was curious, I didn't ask.  Sometimes, it's nice to just wait and see how things unfold.

He took us to our favorite restaurant, the place near the interstate that somehow manages to be quiet and tucked away and restful.  We were second in line waiting for the doors to open and there just ten minutes before.   By the time the door opened right on the dot of 11am, the line stretched far behind us into the parking lot and twisted around it this way and that.  Yes, it was at just about full capacity at 11am.   I truly expected no less.  

We NEVER go out for Sunday dinner and what's even more important we have NEVER eaten out on Mother's Day.  Indeed, John's contribution to Mother's Day has been, since the kids left home, to make me breakfast.   Not breakfast in bed, just breakfast.  He's always pointed out quite rightly that I'm not his mother.   He's left any gifting, cards, etc. to the children.   So  today was a complete surprise to me.   And a lovely one.   I appreciated it very much.

It was lovely to once again be sitting in a restaurant that was full.  People talked and laughed and children chattered and it sounded normal in a way that normal hasn't been around in 15 months.  It was a wonderful gift to me, to tell you the truth, just that bit of normalcy.

We rode home along back roads with the windows down.  I directed John where to drive today because I wanted to show him all the new things that he hasn't yet seen since we have traveled those roads so seldom over the past months.  There was a new addition to a home here, a sign indicating that the University had taken over some farm land for their agricultural program, a vast cleared bit of acreage where the University is putting their own solar panel farm.  John even pointed out where a house had been removed that I'd not noticed...Changes everywhere!  And on top of that was all the lovely natural scenery to be found about the backroads. 

Back home once more, I decided to take advantage of sun and clear blue skies to strip the bed and bath and wash those things.  I hung them on the line to dry and they were fully dry within two hours.  I do love fresh line dried linens.   I hear people complain all the time about crispy towels but ours are never crispy.   I don't use fabric softener nor baking soda.   They just always come out nice and fluffy but then I do have two things that I attribute that to.  For one thing we have thick towels.  That's the sort that we like quite a lot in this house.  The second thing that I think helps is that our water here tests as naturally soft.  I'm pretty sure that is the biggest help of all.

There's only one thing that bothers me.  The Faith tree is in bloom. It is a male persimmon tree and the bees pollinate the female trees from that one.  There were no buzzing bees in it...And that concerns me.  Is it because we cut down the one female tree that stood near the house and so they have no job nearby?  Are there other male trees to furnish them with necessary pollen nearer other female trees?   I don't know.  I'm going to try and pay attention this week and see if I just happened to catch the blossoming stage early and the bees hadn't yet arrived or if they have truly left it this year.

Monday:  Katie ran by yesterday evening on her way to work.  She suggested we grocery shop together this week which is fine by me.  Somehow I'd been thinking of groceries all afternoon long.  I know that I am out of many things and low on several others.  I'd planned to spend extra this month.   

I'd mentioned this in my weekly planning post and reader Anne suggested that I might need to raise my grocery budget.   I balked immediately because I'd worked very hard to get it down to this point but truth is it's gotten harder and harder to keep it at this point.   Before I made a reply to her I thought I'd go check the government budget guidelines.  I noted that the page I pulled up was 2019...so I clicked on a link within that page and came up with a listing for March 2021 and wow....I've been spending about 1/4 less than the lowest Thrifty food plan according to government figures. Now mind you we weren't starving on that budget of mine, but we had cut back and cut back and cut back and were going without some things that we'd previously considered 'nice to have' even on a firm low budget. It wasn't that I just couldn't manage any longer at what I'd been spending, I'd actually been underspending per their figures.   I suggested to John then that I might well be increasing my budget.

Katie was the deciding factor.  Even though she works and gets paid a fair salary under government guidelines she qualifies for assistance and she told me that they've increased her assistance funds by nearly double what she received in the past.  Double!    Katie's budget is slightly higher than mine because of her need of special foods for the baby who isn't quite on full table foods just yet.   We  discussed current prices and spending overall and  agreed that things were definitely higher (hence our reliance on venison rather than beef in this household and my increasing trips to various stores which offer foods at much lower prices than even Aldi has to offer). 

Well that was it.  I told John we're increasing the budget.  We'd even cut out the bulk of any snacks we'd been buying as well as a few not snack but higher priced food items I'd never before thought we needed to cut out...Even that was not enough to get us spot on the budget I'd had for the past few years.

I'm quite happy with our food use here at home. We are using nearly ALL the food that comes into the house and only a very very small portion of it spoils due to forgetfulness or simply not being able to refreeze and re-use later.   I won't include the potatoes, produce or fruit that spoils through no fault of mine.  We all know that sometimes that just happens and it's more to do with the age of the item  or exposure to other spoiled items prior to purchase,  than it is consumer fault.   

Now I say all that to also go on and share that a bit later, after Katie left, John immediately suggested I limit myself to a figure roughly 30% lower than what I spend at present...Seriously.  I said "Sure I will...and in two weeks I'll go spend that and more because we are simply going to need it, there's no way around that fact!"  I don't argue about much but I do my research and I look at my previous price guidelines and I know what I know...I know my grocery prices for sure and I stick pretty hard to my price points.   So much has gone beyond my price point of late that it's ridiculous. 

This is one reason I prefer for John to go with me to the grocery.   He thinks it's because I appreciate the help in lifting and hauling and I do but I have another reason.  If he sees himself what goes into the buggy and the prices on shelves then he knows that I am not being frivolous.   Now he doesn't always 'see' the prices, but I will read them out to him if I find they are higher and I'll say "Boy!  Two weeks ago this only cost $2.49 and now it's at $2.99!"   Or when he suggests he'd like steak, I can look at the price of various packages and say "No...$15 is too much to spend on what will essentially be one meal for us." or I'll indicate what we need to leave off buying in order to purchase that one item.   

Somehow our diet never leaves him convinced and I'll take that as a compliment to my skills in the kitchen and in making our foods stretch.   I guess I'll just have to ease him into this next higher bracket.  Fortunately this comes just as we've experienced a slight increase in our income and can afford to raise the amount we spend  if we're to net any good at all off the increase (i.e. additional savings for other needed and necessary items).

Why is it when you do have an increase everything else seems to increase exponentially as well?  It's not just coincidental.  It happens every single time!   I'm sure others of you experience the very same thing, so please do not think I'm feeling like a lone ranger or that I'm just complaining.  I'm really just making an observation.

later:  This came up for discussion again with John and I.  I'd been going over the budget sheet trying to determine how an increased grocery bill would fit in the budget (it can and does, praise God!).  John asked what I was doing and I told him.  I know what he said last night but I also know what I know so I thought I'd just go on and check the figures.  I can be very stubborn in a battle when I am certain I am in the right.

This led to two smaller discussions: one about all the categories we've had to increase since March: gasoline, car and house maintenance, prescriptions, house maintenance, mower repairs...Then too,  we'd committed to an increase in giving and raised our allowances by a little bit.   It is never my rule to go back and lower anything I've increased.  Increases are not given randomly and whimsically they are thought out well before we increase and John knows this.  So he suggested I put it all to prayer and he's quite right about that.

Second, we were going back over the subject while we had lunch and he suggested wisely that I look into using store pick up for items.  "Just plan a day, make your orders, go let them do the shopping, package it up and put in the car."  I looked at him and nodded.  There's only one store where I shop that does not do this.  All the rest do and what's more, I realized he'd hit on the number one prevention for impulse buys and that is to not go into the store at all.  If I want only certain sales items then I can  order just those.  "Times have changed Terri and we have to make changes with it..."  And he's quite right there, as well.   

So lots of thinking time today and it's all food for thought about food!

Oh by the way, I mentioned the Faith Tree and the lack of bees yesterday.  Well never mind me.  I'd apparently just noticed the earliest arrivals yesterday because this morning that tree was humming with activity.  I'm so glad!   This pollination time will go on for roughly two weeks and then the bees will go do a task in another place and I won't see or hear them again until next spring when the male Persimmon blooms once more.

Tuesday:  Another grocery centered day. Katie asked me to go shopping with her today.  She said Caleb is really good in stores and she wasn't kidding.  The secret is that boy is a people watcher and he likes watching them so much that he doesn't fuss at anyone about anything as long as there's someone for him to watch!

I was up around 6am and watched dawn light creep over the property this morning.   I had done Bible study, totted up the checkbook, had first and second coffees and even gone to the guest bath to shower before John got up this morning.  I was typing a reply to an email when he finally came in the kitchen and I was sooooo hungry!  After we had breakfast, we had a long talk at the table before Katie called to say she was ready to go.  Well thankfully, so was I, as all I had to do was dress and that was easy enough since I've practically nothing to choose from!

I went into Publix and got two items on sale as BOGOs today.  And then we headed to Aldi.  Both Katie and I felt we'd piled our buggies (shopping carts to you non-Southerners) pretty full and thought we'd done well, but I told John when I got home that when you consider I bought NO fruit (nothing looked good enough to bother purchasing), NO canned items save the tomato sauce I was out of, NO meat, NO baking items, NO snack items, or cereal and not a great deal of produce...inn hindsight, we did well enough on our spending but gracious at all the things we didn't buy!  And yes, it was more than it's been in the past when you consider that I didn't purchase much of what is normal for us.

Long before John got up this morning I reviewed my Subscribe and Save for this month from Amazon.  I have a certain price point for coffee k-cups and the decaf k-cup had risen well beyond my price.  I unsubscribed from that brand and looked for one that is at my price point.  I found one, too.  Here's hoping it's a good coffee.

It was a long day, as grocery days generally are.  I've a list yet of things I didn't get at all today and will have to go out again at some point but as the fridge is full, I plan to wait unless there is an awesome sale on something in the next week or two.  John, bless him, pointed out that he doesn't mind eating certain fruits from a can and so we'll use our stock of canned fruit and applesauce here for the next couple of  weeks.   We've also agreed that I will make our own bread and we'll stop buying all but two loaves a month.  John really likes my bread recipe and now that I take the dough from the bread machine and bake it in the oven he's even happier with it and routinely finishes a full loaf.  

Enough grocery talk....

Yesterday I received the Rose Campion and there were three plants not just two.  I was so pleased to get them and planted them right away in front of one of the rose bushes.  They are not a showy sort of flower but I like them quite well and I hope that these will multiply for me.  I decided to plant them directly in the ground and not in a pot as my reading suggested they liked a poorer soil rather than a richer one.  I buy only a really good quality soil but the soil underneath the mulch and weed mat is not great soil at all.  Perfect.  I just cut a slit in the weed mat and planted them right in that poorer dirt.

After planting I went to sit on the back porch and the nesting bird came to sit on the gate I moved from the flower bed and twisted her head this way and that and never minded any movement I made at all.  It is not the Sedge Wren this year as I supposed.    I was struck by the tuft of feathers at the top of her head first and that gave me an indication of what type of bird to look up.  I thought at first it was a Tufted Titmouse but Wikipedia has a bird identification soundtrack and when I listened I knew that my bird was not a Titmouse at all.  I kept looking and listening and finally found my little bird.  It's an Eastern Phoebe and it is quite pretty.   

Later in the day I went into the kitchen and two deer stepped out of the woods to walk sedately down the driveway as though they'd just stepped out of doors for a stroll.

And later in the evening, John and I were talking in the kitchen when I caught a movement at one side of the yard.   I watched a Rabbit take a dust bath.  He was a real dust bunny!  He stretched his body out long and very lean, like a Dachshund in length and then he'd flop in the dirt and then stand up and stretch out and flop on the other side.     I've seen them dance and play and twirl but I've never seen one take a dust bath before. I love that I get to see so much nature here on my home place.

Wednesday:  Not much went on in our home today.  John and I both slept in this morning and when I did rise, I did a quick house pickup.   Isaac, Bess, and Millie were coming to spend the morning, but about 9:30 Bess said Millie wasn't feeling well and asked if I wanted just Isaac.  I did and said so.  

She brought him over and I 'forced' him to play for an hour or so with me and play we did.  We bowled.  That might have lasted longer if Gramma had been any sort of competition for Isaac but apparently I don't pretend bowl any better than I do in real life.  I have a cute little Melissa and Doug set of pins and a plastic ball and our alley is a small hallway where the other two bedrooms and guest bath come off that end of the house.

We set up a tent  with two chairs and a sheet and had cotton ball marshmallows on Orchid support bamboo sticks to toast over our campfire of colorful blocks.  Under the dining table was a cave with a pet bear, one of our stock supply of stuffed animals.  Isaac crawled over a chair and we pretended he was going down a waterfall.  We had quite a bit of fun with that game.  

Then he colored for a bit and I'd pushed him to play as much as he wanted to play.  I agreed that tablet time would be okay at that point.  Isaac gets up very early every morning and at 11:30 he's just naturally tired.    Millie apparently felt better and she and Bess came to have a chat and lunch with us.  

They all left about 1:30 and went home to take naps.  Again, I could tell Isaac was tired because he didn't even fuss about going home today.  It's usually a storm of tears when he goes home.  He was sent out the door with  his lollipop bouquet and a loaf of homemade bread so that might have helped a little.  

After they left John and I did the minor picking up that Bess had left.  I will say my children are all very good about picking up behind their kids and Bess is no exception.  She just missed a few things that were in places she didn't know about and I gathered those up and put them away.   

After house pick up, I sat down with the checkbook (it does seem this week has been about either groceries or checkbook) and wrote out our tithe checks.  I looked things over and told John that if we need more mower repairs this month he'll have to take it from savings.  I've stretched the limits of our funds on that score.  

Speaking of groceries, I will need to buy several things that I just didn't have on a list or even think of yesterday while I was out.  One of those items is vinegar (white) so that I can treat the drains.   I have no aluminum foil, either.

Another item I forgot and thought I should purchase I really don't need at all...and why not?  Because it is Oregano and I've got a whole plant of fresh oregano in my herb box.   I remembered it last night and thought, "Well for goodness sake Terri just harvest some of your own!"  I need to prune it a little anyway and I will warrant I can get enough in one pruning to fill the spice jar once it has dried.

Thursday:   I never really know anymore what a week will contain.  Last night Katie called to ask if they might stop here for a couple of hours while their house was being sprayed for bugs.  I said "Yes" and then started thinking about what I could feed them because they were coming here just before lunchtime and who are we kidding thinking they won't want anything to eat?  Of course, they would!  I want my lunch every day and why shouldn't everyone else want theirs?   

This morning, after breakfast, John and I headed out to do the errands we'd normally have done on Wednesday.  Bank, post office, a quick run by the grocery store and back home again to greet the family who had come in while we were gone.

Before we left home, I'd put bread dough to rise in the bread machine since Isaac wanted my homemade bread to take home yesterday and boiled chicken breasts that I'd thawed overnight   When we got back home from the grocery, I started putting together the casserole dish for lunch.

Katie had asked me to make her Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole earlier this week which rather puzzled me until today when I was actually putting that dish together.   I realized that the reason she probably didn't make it herself is because I had never shared the recipe which is ridiculously simple.   When I shared with her today how easy it was to put together she looked at me and said "Oh..."   I said, "I know.  It tastes like it's more complicated but really that's all there is to it."    

So the casserole consists of about four or five cups cooked chopped chicken, a can of mushroom soup and a cup of sour cream.   I seasoned to taste with salt and pepper since I didn't season the chicken while it was boiling today, then topped with crushed Ritz crackers, sprinkled that with poppy seeds and dotted the top with butter and baked it for a half hour at 350 until it was brown and bubbly.   That's all there is to it.

What did I pick up at the grocery today?   Sour cream for obvious reasons, white vinegar, heavy duty aluminum foil (the shorter roll not the big long one), a package of John's favorite cheap Duplex cookies, a bag of chips for us to keep for snacking and two cans of Del Monte Pineapple.   Nothing was on sale and I was shopping locally which is pricey so it all came up to about $25.  I did buy more than one container of sour cream but it was roughly twice the cost I'd have paid elsewhere and I got half as much.     I'll be sure to buy more sour cream  when we're in a more competitive shopping area.  Ditto for the brand name pineapple, too.

There's good reason why I seldom shop locally, but I am trying to catch sales and pick up a few things just to help the local stores out.  However, I try to be mindful of what I've read often enough that if everyone in our county buys just $50 worth of stuff at our local merchants each month it will help them stay afloat.  Now truly we can do that much and I do try to go into one of several local businesses like our local hardware, gas station, local grocery, dollar store, etc.   There's not a lot in town so I don't worry about over spending here as a rule.  However, $1.79 for 8 ounces of sour cream is about double what I'd pay in most stores for 16 ounces...So yeah.  I can be loyal but budget smart, too!

We've had an ongoing conversation about pineapple these past three weeks that started when I made a pineapple salad and continued through the eating of the pineapple upside down cupcakes that flopped but tasted well enough.   The pineapple I'd gotten was from Aldi and it's less than $1 a can.  That is the firmest and palest pineapple I've ever seen.  Cooking doesn't soften it up in the least.  After making out way through the two recipes I'd made, John suggested I just go back to buying the brand name stuff.  I'd only quit buying it because the Aldi brand was nearer my old price point but as John pointed out it is definitely inferior.  It's edible so I won't return it, but it's not nearly so good as Del Monte or Dole or Libby  brands.   So today I picked up two cans of Del Monte pineapple and next time I shop I'll buy two more and I'll just slowly build up a stock pile of it in that way.  And by the way, Pineapple cost the same here as I've priced it at other stores. I won't make a savings on it buying it out of town.

Chad took two of my dining chairs home with them when they left today.  We removed the seats which I'll recover.   One of my dining chairs broke at the bottom.  They are metal and it was a welded area that simply broke apart.  He's going to fix that break, grind off the paint and repaint the chairs for me, so I guess that is going to be my Zone 2 project this month.  After he's done the two chairs, he'll take the other two and do the same to them.  In the meantime, I'll be removing and recovering seats.  

John went to town with them because he and Chad are on a limb cutting mission.  They cut several tree limbs here this morning and now they are going to trim trees at the house in town.  I reminded John that he has a men's meeting tonight so hopefully they won't be long getting their task done.  I'm afraid he won't be mowing grass today but I'm pretty sure nothing will deter him from that task tomorrow.

Friday:  We've all had a productive week both separately and as a family this week.  Katie has knocked out a to do list daily, things that were absolutely necessary to attend to which included making phone calls and straightening out issues, etc.  She spurred me on to make two or three phone calls I'd put off making, including one to the county asking that they dig out my ditches next time they come this way.  Each time the road crew team changes, they push dirt into the ditches and the water runs across the road and up our main driveway which was left a super muddy mess this week by the heavy rain we had on Tuesday.

She's also worked five days, got her homework done for college and kept up with Caleb in the 'off' time...Is there really any such thing with a baby?

Chad and John were cutting tree limbs yesterday and his and Katie's senior neighbor next door came over to watch.   He told Chad he'd see him at 8 this morning and he brought over a lift and helped (instructed) Chad on which branches to cut and how on a tree that has been dangerously full of limbs near an electric line.   Mr. JE is a former lineman and knows his job well.  Chad's smart and follows directions so it was all done quite safely and now that house is looking much better!

Bess came by yesterday on foot (she's walking a lot again which she enjoys and always results in lost weight for her)  to give me three new tops she'd ordered from a clearance sale that were all too big.  Every one of them fit me perfectly.  She's not my size at all and we had a brief discussion about sizing and what she might ought to order.  I helped her determine that since I do what sizing is but we're both puzzled by the 'new' 0X size.  It's not an XL and it's not a 1X which generally are 14-16 and 18-20 respectively.   So...is 0X 16-18?  We've no idea but we at least got it straight that she needs a L and not a 1X.

She's been busy doing yard work at their home and working outside the home and keeping up with kids.

Sam did his job, watched kids and was out running his big tractor this morning clearing more of the overgrown property.

Chad has two of my dining chairs at their house, one to repair with welding and then he'll be stripping them to repaint and he's going to reinforce the other chair.   Then we'll swap out the other two and he'll do those.   He and John worked on mowing the yard at that house on Tuesday and then spent yesterday cutting limbs at our house and his.

 I got my other zone work done and kept up with house and meals and had company two days and ran errands 1 day so I suppose all in all the week has been full enough.  I feel I did little to the house this week but the dining room chair seats are recovered.   I bought groceries, ran errands, made a couple of necessary phone calls, worked on the checkbook and the budget and researched shopping via Instacart.  I've had grandchildren here two days this week and played with them all, visited with my girls, I've made all of our meals and puttered in my house and yard.   

Today I found 3 shirts that were too small for me to give to Bess along with cat treats that Misu no longer wants.   I deviated from my plans in this way only:

I made a Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole for our main dish yesterday and one evening when I didn't feel well I fixed fish sticks and oven fries instead of one of the meals I'd meant to make.

John has repaired the mower more times than I care to mention, he's mown two yards and  worked most of the day yesterday on trimming limbs at our house and the house in town.  With Chad's help he got a VA form taken care of that he needed to fill out and got a permanent military I.D.  For years now he's only carried around a DD2-14 form in his wallet but the ID will be easier to carry and be of more use to him since some people have no clue what a DD2-14 is.  He went to men's meeting last night on top of his very busy day.

We've two evenings out this weekend, both with small groups at church. and there will be church to attend and I am absolutely getting a haircut come Sunday following church.   In the meantime, I need to determine what we might have for supper tonight (I'm saving the Calzones for lunch tomorrow), what I shall take to both the meetings as my 'dish' to share... I need to get that figured out and get busy so I don't have to work all day tomorrow.  

John is going to go over and help Chad saw up limbs that got cut this morning...So Friday continues on and we keep moving with it until Shabat time tonight.  And then we rest.  Thank you and Amen!

How was your week?  Was it as productive as ours?