I've been season jumping in my brain. I don't mean to be jumping ahead but this month always puts me in mind of Fall and Fall always makes me think of the holidays ahead. Do you find that the time runs ahead of you, too this time of year? I think someone must because I saw a Meme that said "August is next door to Autumn."
I know many vloggers are already decorating and posting videos for autumn decor but I just can't do it, not yet. In our area of the state, we don't really see Fall like weather or scenery until November. I feel I can wait until at least October to put out autumn decor. When do you decorate for Autumn?
I find in September, when we've officially entered fall, I'm just beginning to be ready for autumn. But the Jewish calendar also plays into this as all too often, the High Holy Days come in right at the end of summer and the start of autumn. It really lends to the 'fresh new year' feeling that a hard seasonal change brings in this time of year.
I didn't grow up Jewish nor around anyone that had that heritage but somehow my soul has always been tied to it in small ways. I clearly remember hearing my teacher say in first grade that Saturday came from the word Sabbath and I remember thinking "Why are we going to church on Sunday?! We should be going on Saturday!" It made perfect sense to me then and it still makes sense to me now all these many years later that Saturday should be a Sabbath day. Just as I later learned, when we were attending Messianic synagogues that this time of year is celebrated as a sort of New Year and it simply confirmed what I'd always felt in my spirit that this time of year was a time of new beginnings, a freshening of the year, a time to leave behind the past. How and why I 'knew' these things is beyond any reasoning I might try and come up with. It simply was the way I felt and I never questioned why I felt as I did only why no one else seemed to feel it, too!
Long before we became Messianic, but after we moved here, I felt strongly that our weekends were out of hand. I don't think John and I even attended church at that time, but I remember lobbying hard for a day at home and we chose Saturday as our day to be 'at home'. Of course, his job necessitated that he work every other Saturday and there was no getting around that then. But I felt we needed to stop hurrying and scurrying around and have a day where we lived in a quieter way. Work and school demanded so much of us and the weeks sped by in a blur but one day, just one day, carved out for us to be at home with our family each week didn't seem unreasonable to me and fortunately John agreed.
I was disappointed when we did choose to attend a Messianic congregation that the days were full of activity. It seemed to me when we had to show up for worship practice at 8am and often didn't get home until 4 or 5pm, that we'd missed the whole point of 'rest', but that was the way our Rabbi wanted things done. He lobbied hard for Friday evening services, too, but no one would agree to attend and he would give up the idea temporarily and then lobby hard for them all over again.
And now we go to church on Sunday but we do truly try to keep Sabbath at home on Saturdays and it feels perfectly right to do so. Occasionally we have a Saturday such as we had a couple of weeks ago when we must run errands but mostly we honor the day by being quiet and studying and not working. I find it such a wonderfully peaceful time of week and truly restful. I don't mind the Sunday hustle nearly so much with Saturday behind me.
I have to say too that it helps tremendously that we are no longer involved in service. When we were on praise team and cleaning and such, it was very hard to find the rest in Sabbath whether it was on Saturday or Sunday. I don't regret the years we spent working in service with church or synagogue but when I remember those busy days and how hard we worked, I'm glad that we aren't so heavily involved at this stage of life. In some ways, now that John's not working and we're not going to school, it would be easier but it's no joke that it was work and a lot was asked and a lot given.
All that to say this: We had a lovely Saturday at home this week.
I always find it just sets me up for the week. By Saturday evening, I'm starting to feel restless, think that nineteen or twenty projects are a great idea and I can whip those all out on Monday...It's a lie of course, lol. I find on Monday that just getting to the regular things that are required is more than enough and if I get one or two extra jobs tossed in and finished, so much the better. But I do think it's a testament to how restful I find Saturday that I even begin to believe I might accomplish an obnoxious number of things come the start of the week.
I've complained more than once over my lack of flowers this year after spending a serious sum, in my opinion, on seeds. Not one zinnia blooming. I have three cosmos and perhaps five zinnia plants. TWO marigolds that have come up. Out of ten plants ONE has a bud. I'm so disappointed, and I'm not even kidding. But the lack of summer flowers has made me more determined than ever to amend that one flower bed over the winter months and get it ready for planting next year.
While many things failed or disappeared (hello there pricey Rose Campion, looking at you zinnias), I have had success with the Achimenes and the Touch Me Nots.
I only planted half the Touch Me Not seeds but I'll wager I have fifty times the number of seeds I planted on the plants right now. I meant to harvest them this week if the rain didn't burst them open and send them scattering. As I was pulling the seed pods from some of the plants today they burst, exploding seeds into my palms. I shall have plenty of these next year for sure.
I shall have to look up how to harvest the Achimenes which have little rhizomes that they grow from, but both those flowers have done well enough. Truthfully the Touch Me Nots do far better in ground than they did in the pot where I planted them but gracious they have given me so many seeds that I am not complaining in the least over their performance.
On the other hand, I haven't bothered to buy flowers at all this summer. If I haven't gotten a bouquet from the yard I have gone without. Admittedly the house feels odd without any flowers but I've enough houseplants that at least we have living, breathing things about us.
John and I talked over various food situations that people I follow online are experiencing. We've talked about the Pacific Northwest and Australia, the Mid-west, Texas, Oklahoma, California and here. A little of it is alarming but mostly we aren't seeing high prices or a lot of outages. After last year, we are all too aware that this might change but overall, it's a little more hopeful than some accounts made me feel we could expect.
Someone commented on another blog that she was unsure if she was experiencing intuition or anxiety due to what she's reading on other blogs. I can well understand that. When we were in shut down I refused to go to the grocery until my routine shopping times because I didn't want to get caught in a panic. When I arrived I did find hard limits and some empty shelves but thanks to my pantry, we managed with what we could find and did without what we couldn't. I took my lesson from a vlogger who 'just went to see' and even though she had 50 pounds of rice on hand snatched up the last two bags on the shelf at the grocery. I felt that was wrong then and still feel it was wrong but I knew too that she'd given in to panicked thinking and hadn't really reasoned out why she felt compelled to purchase when she had a good supply at home.
But what's the difference between panic buying and intuition?
If I experience a nudge now, I stop and examine it hard. Am I getting anxious because of what I've read or am I experiencing prodding to act? Anxiety is almost always "If" thinking. "If" can be translated as an acronym for "I Fear". Fear based thinking is seldom on target. Fear based thinking is almost always a lie meant to unsettle and disturb and generates scenarios that never occur.
One thing that I've noted happens is that fear based thinking almost always leads to hoarding. Let's just step back for a moment and examine how crazy every one got over Y2K. People bought foods they'd never eaten before and stockpiled them. Even usually sound thinkers did the same. Then it all turned out to be a non-event and how many pounds of long term storage went into landfills because once it all proved to be groundless the one stockpiling realized they were NEVER going to eat those foods? Far too much!
Right now, I've been feeling for months that I need to be adding to my pantry. I've spoken on occasion of getting another freezer. I hesitate...to me that seems a bridge too far just now. But to build up that pantry more, to replace goods that need to be replaced like torn sheets, to stock up on basic medications, household and clothing items...Well yes, I do feel intuitively that we need to stock those things and so I've been following my intuition on that score. I'm not afraid. I'm just listening to that small inner voice that quietly says, "Be prepared."
For me, preparing means to pay attention to what is wearing out, is low or out of stock here at home. But it also means I pay attention to how I use things in the first place.
My bread machine is making a funny sort of noise here of late. If the bread machine quits will I replace it? Probably not. I've liked having it and I've learned to make some pretty good bread in it but if I find that without it I can still make consistently good loaves then why replace it? It takes up counter space and it's basically just being used as a proofing oven.
Now I can make bread without the bread machine and that's truth. I got it initially because I wanted to keep the house cool in summer when baking bread. Turns out that John is no fan of the big loaves the bread machine makes. We seldom to never finished a loaf of bread in a week's time and he wanted to buy 'regular' bread, as well. This past winter I started using the bread machine only on the dough cycle and baking the bread in a regular loaf pan in our oven. That was a little more to his liking. Then I noted a couple of vloggers had long Pullman loaf pans which made a thinner, longer loaf. I now find using that bread pan that it's necessary to make bread twice a week! John said "Why buy bread when yours tastes so good?" and yet, all I changed was the shape of the loaf!
This past month I went over my wardrobe. I don't need pants at the moment nor shirts but underclothes and nighties are needed. Unbelievably I had a very hard time buying panties during the last shut down. Manufacturing and distribution levels were low and my size apparently popular as they were out of stock. Joggers or yoga pants to wear about the house are needed. I'm keeping my eyes on John's things too, even though he's pretty good about replenishing his wardrobe in a timely way. He needs summer shorts. He could use a couple of pairs of sweatpants for winter wear here in the house.
I know that come September we might well be faced with a hurricane that makes landfall and takes out our electricity. That's one reason I try to keep water supplies and why I have a gas stove. There have been winters here when we had ice storms that knocked out power for days. I opted to install a vent free propane heater as back up heat after two tense weekends when the electricity flickered time and again and the yard was packed with a foot of ice. It made me stop and think about how we'd keep warm if we lost power. How would we cook foods? How would I manage coffee?! Goodness knows we weren't going to be able to leave home to drive anywhere to shelter in all that ice!
We've had floods that closed down roadways and no supplies could come into our area. That's where my pantry came in handy. I can't be prepared for every single situation, but I can prepare for those that I've already faced more than once because the likelihood they are going to recur are high.
That's the sort of thing I mean about being prepared. My preparations are based upon what is the norm for us. Other's may feel the need to prepare in other ways or don't feel the urge at all.
Nine times out of ten when I've felt this strongly about doing prep, I can say honestly that it was not a national shut down or widespread disaster that occurred but something that my family ended facing on a personal level. As I have shared before, my pantry has supplied us and others in financial crises that didn't affect anyone but ourselves. So if you're scratching your head saying "I just don't get it..." then you likely needn't worry. I'm following an urging that has been given to me, but I am not running out to the stores in panic. I'm just slowly and steadily doing what I feel needs to be done for my family.
This past week I sat down and ordered paper plates, aluminum foil, baggies with slide locks. I've had a hard time finding these items in the few stores where I shop. I didn't check every store because that's not the way I do things. When I didn't see any at Target or Publix nor Aldi, I went online to see if they available. I can easily look at pricing over several sites and order the ones that best suit my budget and needs. Now I have a good supply of those items on hand and I haven't had to waste my time or gas going from store to store hoping I might find them and wondering if I'm getting the best buy.
So that's where my thinking has been. Not to panic, not buying in fear, but simply looking at what we might want and planning ahead to buy it now as I find good sales. One of the things I've come to admire about food storage sites is that they tend to work with the sales cycles. You stock what is on sale. Sometimes that foods and sometimes that items like charcoal and lighter fluid and matches. Sometimes it's sheets or clothing items. Buy when it's lowest priced. Buy enough for now and some for later. Done!
I shall leave off here...I need to plan something for supper and so far my mind is a blank. I have some options on hand that will cover me if I fail to be too creative and that is a blessing.
Do you hear that plane? Sound of a seasonal change, dears. It's the crop duster spraying cotton...Goodness, between that and the cicadas it's a fact that we're nearing the end of our summer...
Talk to you later, dears!
10 comments:
It got down to 34 degrees last night at our house. Fall comes early to interior Alaska. I had already pulled in tender vegetables but the leeks, potatoes and carrots will stay in the ground a few more weeks, as will the cabbages. By the time you feel like fall, in November, we are hard into winter. We put our outside Christmas lights up in early October, before the brutal cold starts and while the snow is not too high. We turn them on in November because it is wonderful to see cheerful lights when we have so few hours of daylight.
I've also had some of the same disappointments with church-going. It's all too much. I stopped going about 10 years ago about the time our daughter graduated from college. It was a deliberate choice to quit going to church after it being so important to me for over 60 years. Now it is in the past. A memory. I don't miss it. It's like I did my time.
I've had these same "new year should start in fall" feelings most of my life. I think it had something with going back to school, which in my day in California, started the day after Labor Day. THAT day felt like a new, fresh start. Within weeks the Santa Ana winds would blow the hot, clean dry air over the Los Angeles basin smog and out to sea. It was an event that only happened a couple of times a year. Interestingly enough one of the other times was in January. It's like the wind knew to clean house.
Food prices are jumping a dollar here, a dollar there. But I think we can still follow the weekly ads and do well. My freezer and pantry are somewhat decent. I know how and have time to cook from scratch if need be. I don't see panic buying here. Since I retired 6 weeks ago I do buy more items where I see need. I have backups for the foods I use regularly.
Thanks for the reminder about the water. We don't get hurricanes here but sometimes bad storms. We use our Amazon Prime account a lot for the same reasons you mention.
We have very similar thinking.
Today I noticed the sun coming in my bedroom window at an angle and landing on the pillow. Fall is coming.
Debbie, Thank you for weighing in on the food prices in your state. And happy retirement.
It's nice to hear a seasonal reference to LA. Not something I get to hear very often! I most appreciate that shaft of sunlight you mentioned, a seasonal sign I noticed today too in the way the sun fell across the bedroom floor.
I miss the church I grew up in which was a much simpler sort of church. I daresay after 30 odd years they've changed much as all churches have.
Mable, Nice to hear from you once more! I forget that Alaska begins fall in August and winter in November. It makes good sense to hang those lights before you start getting snow. I should think it would be lovely because you'll soon be getting dark early on, too. Thank you for sharing your seasonal preparations.
'For me, preparing means to pay attention to what is wearing out, is low or out of stock here at home. But it also means I pay attention to how I use things in the first place.'.
Exactly how I operate too.
I have certain amounts that I stock of most things and restock when we need to do it. I prefer to buy many cans by the case because it is easier to rotate our stock that way. Aldi prices are mostly holding steady here but other stores are really going up including Walmart. We are working the deals harder than ever. Hubby now has his own Ibotta account so we can maximize the freebies.We got ten free items this week that saved $27. I want to keep my grocery budget where it is because we are working hard on putting away money in savings and I don't want to reduce that.
We got hit hard by Tropical Storm Fred yesterday. We had 36 tornado warnings in our area yesterday and one touched down south of us. That is plenty of hurricane season for us!
I have been getting that feeling of needing to stock up on certain things. I know it sounds silly. but Tpaper is one of those things. Our toilet and sewer pipe is particular and only one brand doesn't cause our pipe to block up. I told my husband we need to stock up on that paper now and not wait around and end up using all kinds of off brands that block our line up.
The other thing that is nagging at my mind even more is that i seriously feel that we need a generator that will run on our natural gas. They are expensive, but the electricity in our neighborhood goes out quite often, and is often out for more than 24 hours. Several years ago it was out 4 days and 5 nights during 1 winter ice storm. In winter we would not be able to stay warm enough and would have to go to a hotel if the roads were fit to drive on and we could find one with an opening. And I wouldn't be comfortable in a hotel with the way covid is right now. That nagging in my brain about this is similar to the one I had about the need to cut down our beloved old spruce tree because I could see it leaning.
I absolutely couldn't get my husband to see that it was starting to lean. It took another two years until my husband could tell it was leaning more. We had it cut down and when we did, we discovered that the whole inside of it was hollow all of the way down into the middle of the roots and about 1/3 of the way up the trunk. I am thankful it didn't fall on our house before we got it cut down. That was expensive , too, but it was the same intense message in my brain that this need for a generator is.
Sometimes I feel like we need to get something, but that is a different feeling than those two items were/are.
At least the hair isn't standing up on the back of my neck yet, I have had that feeling save me from what I truly believe would have been a very dangerous situation in the past.
Hi Terri, no fall decorations going up here and if they so go up, it will be late September unless we have early cool weather. It just seems silly to me rush the seasons.
My bread machine died awhile back and I don’t plan to replace it. I’ll knead the dough in my 30+ year old Kitchenaid mixer if I bake any. Jeff has been liking the lower calorie store bread and that’s fine with me.
When you see bloggers gushing over pumpkin spice anything, you know that fall is not far behind. With the days getting shorter and the shadows are getting longer, it is beginning to feel like fall is trying to sneak in, even tho it is still hot and only the middle of August. Foggy several mornings this week. Low 90's are predicted this week. ugh...
I understand what you mean about resting on the Sabbath that was set by our Creator. It was never meant to be "changed" as the mainstream "church" tells us. We have not attended a mainstream church service in several years, opting instead to worship and study at home. My husband said he misses the singing with the piano and organ being played. I jokingly suggested that we find a congregation with good music, go and participate in that portion of the service and then leave. The last church we attended we felt overwhelmed...come do this, join this group, we can use you over here. One lady was very friendly until we declined her offer of working in junior church. The pastor had his clique and many parishioners were virtually ignored. We left before he was caught texting inappropriate messages to a divorcee in the congregation. The Urban Farmer and I consider ourselves blessed to study the Torah and discover many things that we were falsely taught in the past (replacement theology). Still learning something new everyday and finding a peace that was missing in our lives.
Y2K caught a lot of folks in its snare. What is going on these days is a bit more real and people who study prophecy and the end times are seeing signs that it is near. My parents always had supplies ahead for emergencies and the Urban Farmer's mother canned and froze just about everything. We keep a deep pantry. Even if events do not happen at the rate some people are predicting, we have food and other goods for us and can share with people in need.
Daddy always said I was my grandpa's child. I stock for 18 months. Last year and again this year it will be 2 yrs. That way when the kids (have 6 kids plus their adult kids) that need supplies I will have it AGAIN.
Lana, I think my greatest problem is I don't know what my 'level' of some of my things should be at. That's what I'm really studying and trying to figure out this year. I agree buying a case at a time would be bests. Unfortunately I can't quite convince John of it.
I am sorry about TS Fred hitting y'all so hard. I'd seen a note from another in your state who said the same. We didn't have much but overcast and a few heavy showers.
Susie, I guess maybe some of my urging is based on 2020 but I tend to think more of family at this time. My immediate family doesn't keep much stored. Mama on the other hand probably has more than enough for her, us and neighbors.
Juls, An old soul sticking to old ways. I am just trying to figure out a year for us and extra at present. 18 months will probably end being about right.
Rhonda, I agree on two scores. I don't like to rush seasons and I use my kitchen aid to do the kneading for me. I find it does a very good job of it.
Donna, NO pumpkin spice for me. I don't even like it in my pumpkin pie! I do mix up my own sort of spice blend for pumpkin pie when I'm making it but not for any other purpose.
Church can be a hard place to be and I guess they all have a flaw somewhere. John and I were talking about several of the churches we've been in since he started attending church with me. We've gone to 8 churches in 25 years which is a LOT I know. We didn't leave any of them randomly. We 'had church' at home for many months on our own. I love the church we now attend and recently joined but I'm cautious. I've been bitten and it hurt badly all three times. I think that's why a lot of Christians stand on the outskirts of a church and look in rather than choosing to serve.
Temps in the 90s here this week, and high humidity, but we've had a few 59° mornings in the past couple of weeks, so I'm ready for fall now. I'm going to pull out the fall decor over the coming weekend, and I don't feel bad about that. Lol.
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