Saturday: I woke after 12 hours of sleep this morning and felt so much better. I'd followed Lana's advice of using the Lavender Oil on the soles of my feet, took myself off to bed and went right to sleep and there I stayed all night long. I felt 90% improved this morning and felt better as the day went on until late afternoon when I started to flag. I plan to continue to take it easy these two days I have off and hopefully will be right back to my usual healthy self Monday morning.
It was lovely this morning to take a leisurely Bible study with my coffee and watch leaves drift slowly from the trees when I looked out at the sunny morning. It was just lovely. I don't mind saying, I miss these quiet morning starts to my weekdays as much as I love the little boy who has sent them scurrying. I remind myself that this season is so sweet and will end as all other seasons do. And in the meantime, I have daily hugs and kisses and mischievously sparkling blue gray eyes and winning smiles to brighten the moments of each day.
But all the same...What a lovely morning!
I made pizza for lunch and John raved as he usually does these days over my pizza. I'm glad he enjoys it so and certainly it's nice to have pizza most every Saturday. I find it comes together quickly and I can make one in about the time it would take me to drive over and pick one up at the pizza place and return home again. What's more, even if I'm lavish with ingredients, and often my pizza includes the last bits of something or even leftovers, my homemade pizza rarely comes in at anything near $5. I couldn't pick one up of the same size for that price with 'to order' ingredients.
Tonight we have the first freezing temperatures. I looked out the bedroom window yesterday when I woke from my nap and realized that the pecan tree is bare. All the leaves are gone and now we have the tracery of the shadow of the branches spreading across the yard. It is a sight that makes my heart ache with both joy and regret, as so many things do in these autumn months. Beauty is so often the result of age, or decay, isn't it?
Now let me share a few inspirations I found today as I perused my current blog reading list:
If you take the time to plan the good life that you want to live, and then take the little steps each and every day to get to that place, then you truly will be living well. Kirsty at Itsaclassicallife I so enjoyed this whole post but this one line really struck me hard. Do go read the whole of the post. I think I'm going to print it to re-read just for the lovely inspiration it gives!
"Unfortunately we don’t always heed the clear warnings of our prophets. We coast complacently along until calamity strikes, and then we panic.
"When it starts raining, it is too late to begin building the ark. However, we do need to listen to the Lord’s spokesmen. We need to calmly continue to move ahead and prepare for what will surely come. We need not panic or fear, for if we are prepared, spiritually and temporally, we and our families will survive any flood. Our arks will float on a sea of faith if our works have been steadily and surely preparing for the future." (W. Don Ladd, October 1994 General Conference) lead quote from Becky's latest post at frugalmeasures.blogspot.com
Sunday: I woke with a headache several times in the night. I just didn't feel up to church this morning. John was not happy about going without me, but he understood that I cough when I get too warm or too cool. I wasn't keen on sitting in a church where I typically find my feet are cold. I promised him I'd be watching the early service online.
After he left, I showered, worked on a pedicure (taking that in small bites) and put lavender oil on the soles of my feet. I put on socks and was in my chair two minutes before service began. I got up during the song service and unloaded the dishwasher but was back in my seat for announcements and offering before the sermon.
I was thinking about lunch and tonight's supper after church ended so I was gathering items from the freezer to thaw for the week when John called to say he was bringing home steak, potatoes, blue cheese dressing and 'a surprise'. He said he felt I needed a good red meat meal to boost my system. I think he's rather sweet. I put away the dishes and settled to do my morning Bible study.
I was pleased when John came in to find his surprise was strawberries and a carton of orange juice. We made lunch together. We don't cook together often but here of late we seem to make at least one meal a weekend together. I made sandwiches the other night to go with the soup John was making. Today I made salad and put the potatoes in the microwave while he pan fried the steak. It was all delicious and I enjoyed my portion. Both John and I had leftovers that we wrapped up separately and put away for another meal.
Our afternoon has been relaxed and easy and restful. Aside from clearing up dishes and putting away clean ones, I've done absolutely nothing.
I did only one chore this afternoon. I picked up all the odds and ends I've piled in the guest room these past two weeks and put them into the French shopping cart that I'd been keeping in my pantry. I rolled it into the kitchen with the intention of taking it outdoors tomorrow but John figured I needed it out today. He rolled it out to the shed and loaded it in. I sat on the back porch with my face pointed into the sun. I told John I might as well get some good natural Vitamin D while the sun was warm.
I'll have to make it a point to clean off the back porch sometime this week. The coleus and tomato plants were done in by the freezing temperatures last night, as was my big half barrel of plants in front of the back porch. I noted too that I've failed, all summer long, to remove the bird bath that broke. I shall have to start a list of outdoor chores to tackle.
Monday: I wanted to make a point, after my leisurely weekend, to do something each day this week to maintain my home or get ahead for Thanksgiving prep.
For Thanksgiving, I chose to write out my menu list, including what others have said they'd bring. Mind you all, I will be making enough so that if anyone fails to bring a thing, we'll have a decent meal right on. I've learned that often people are eager to promise but less eager to keep their word as the day draws nearer and they find it takes far more effort than they'd realized to prepare said promised dish. Not a big deal if you plan to make enough that no one will miss the extra items, right?
I made out a short shopping list. I only need to buy three items to have a complete meal: Cool Whip (or a carrageenan free whipping cream which is far harder to come by); Cranberry sauce, both whole berry and jelly (and if I can find none I can make some with a bag of cranberries I have on hand); and Sweet Potatoes to bake and mash for the casserole. I have everything else on hand. That is such a lovely feeling! I'll try to do this shopping this weekend. I typically do NOT shop the week of any major holiday if I can avoid it simply because it gets rather crazy in the stores if you wait until the week of a holiday to do your shopping.
I could make whipped cream from powdered milk, make cranberry sauce myself and use canned sweet potatoes which I do have on hand, along with a little from the freezer that are mashed...Hmmmm...Maybe I'll just skip that shopping for those items?
I wrote out a master list of what I can do ahead and when I think I should do it, spreading it out liberally over the two weeks. Everything from making pie crusts and freezing them to chopping and dicing onions and celery and freezing those, to when to thaw and assemble or bake.
For household things today, I cleared out my house drawer, where I keep the clothing I typically wear at home. I've found I had a drawer crammed full and truth is there were items that were badly stained that I avoided wearing, things that were ill fitting, things that I just disliked...Now what is in my drawer are the things I'd typically put on. I put the nicer items that weren't stained but were seldom worn (which is why they left my closet and went into the drawer) into the donation bag. Others went right into the trash. I always I should put these things to better use somehow but generally I don't like the material any better than I like the way the things are cut. I've already collected a huge bag of rags for John to use in his workshop so I would rather just let these go.
I cleaned our bathroom and swept the kitchen.
I went out on the back porch and pulled up the dead plants and cut a few healthier suckers off the tomato plant in hopes of rooting and continuing old Champ's life a bit longer. Amazed to find the silly thing had finally set one tiny tomato just as it has hit freezing temperatures here...Apparently the wind had broken the tomato stem so it wasn't likely to get any bigger, but it made me very reluctant to pull up the tomato plant. So I settled for pruning it back and we'll see what happens from this point.
I was chomping at the bit this afternoon wanting to do something more but Katie's hours changed. She now arrives around 8 and doesn't pick Caleb up until 5:30. Knowing how tired he's typically been by 4:30 each day John and I were a bit nervous about this change. We thought perhaps a later nap would be a good thing. It was not. A later nap only meant that he woke at his usual time and he was irritable as could be because he hadn't had enough rest. Lesson learned. He'll go down nearer his usual time tomorrow.
Because he had such a short nap time I didn't get a chance to even think of doing anything extra as I'd wanted to do. That's fine. He needed my attention more than anything in my house did and he got it.
Tuesday: I'm late, as usual, in getting birthday cards in the mail for the twins, Zach and Hailey. Their birthday is tomorrow and I've only mailed their cards off today. I made good on my word to make my own cards. Hailey's was really pretty but I was stumped for what to do for Zach. Katie picked up a card for me but John said it was too young for Zach. I'll save it for one of the younger boys (Isaac or maybe Caleb). I took out my bird book and made a copy of a pretty Blue Jay, cut it out and made up a nice card for Zach.
During Caleb's nap today I ran into town to the auto parts/hardware store to get Chain Saw bar lubricant for John. I noted that still had a few boxes of canning jars and opted to get a dozen of the quart sized jars, nice wide mouth ones. The manager I stood talking at the register and he asked if I was putting something up. "Noooo...but I feel I need to be, you know? I haven't canned much in years upon years but I'm thinking I need to start and to start gardening, too." He nodded and began to tell me all that he'd canned himself this year.
I left there and headed to Dollar General. I needed five or six items. It's interesting to note these days what isn't stocked. What isn't stocked at present is cookies and candy (except for individual sale items, there were loads of those) and plastic bins of any size or type.
They had shoe boxes and that just happened to be the size I needed for a special purpose so I got one of those, but usually they have a whole aisle of the bins of all sizes, along with baskets and containers but not today. Also no children's Tylenol which I needed to replenish at my house. Children's fevers shoot up so high so quickly that I feel uncomfortable not having any on hand. I needed envelopes to mail my handmade cards in. I picked up some aluminum pie pans so I can make pie crusts ahead for next week. That's all I went in for.
I stopped by the post office to mail off the birthday cards and came home to unload the car. Caleb was just waking up when I got back. And wouldn't you know it? He had a fever! Katie and I'd been suspecting he was getting ill and I'd been doing preventative stuff all morning with lavender oil on his soles, natural grape juice and even pineapple and pineapple juice. I had just enough Tylenol to give him a dose and that was that. I knew Bess was out and called to see where she was. She'd just gotten to the river bridges and that was too close to home to ask her to pick any up for me anywhere. She happened to stop by Katie's to drop off something and picked up a fresh bottle there and brought it out.
Poor Caleb didn't feel well this afternoon and he was having a hard time. If he played he seemed to hurt himself. John picked him up to soothe him at one point and Caleb got down off his lap and came to sit on mine. "Does Gramma's love just feel that much better?" John asked and Caleb said "Yes." He spent most of the afternoon on my lap and that was quite all right.
His fever went down and he seemed to feel a little better but he still needed lots of snuggles. I managed to make supper but he was right back on my lap when I was done in the kitchen. He wanted to watch Instagram Reels which on my phone is mostly dogs and cats.
After supper, I was cleaning up dishes and he brought my shoes back to the kitchen and put them under the bench. Then he started picking up his toys in the kitchen...I took the hint and told John he wanted to get ready to go home. So I left my dishes and we picked up toys. I rinsed the dishes and Caleb and I sat in the kitchen sitting rocker and watched out the window for Katie to come up the driveway. When he saw her he went running to the living room window so he could see her pull around back and then to the back door. He was knocking on it from the inside when she got to the door.
After Caleb and Katie left, John and I went around shutting the blinds and then gathered up trash to go to the dump. I don't like going to the dump in the dark, but I don't like having stinky diapers in my trash cupboard a whole lot more. As we were going up the dark roadway, I could see the sunset at the other end with trees silhouetted against the sky. It was so pretty and I was staring at it intently which is why I saw the deer crossing the road. That deer was so big I thought I was seeing a horse! John saw him, too.
Today's 'extra' items were accomplished. I cleaned out the washstand drawer next to my bed and then tackled my sock and undie drawer. For Thanksgiving I picked up the pie pans and two cans of cranberry sauce at the dollar store. I also made Cornbread and biscuit breads and crumbled them once cool. That's in the freezer now waiting for next week.
I've been doing another 'extra' this week, too. I've been gleaning. I've gone to JES's Strangers and Pilgrims blog and gone all the way back to the beginning and am reading recipes, learning canning methods, tips on herbs and essential oils, etc. It's been very inspiring to realize how much I can do with a hot water bath canner for example and to learn a bevy of natural remedies. It's just the sort of new skill sets I'm wanting to implement. I've said before and will likely say it again: you reach a certain point where you've cut away the extras. You reach a level where the next thing you must do is to learn new skill sets that will save you still more money.
Wednesday: An unexpected day off.
Katie texted this morning that Caleb was sick and had had a bad night so she planned to keep him at home. I don't know if she's trying to work with him there or not. It doesn't matter. I know that when I'm sick I want to be at home with my own bed, and I'm sure he is better just having his mama nearby.
So what did I do with my day off? I made hay, my dears, I made hay. I haven't been able to get outdoors for any length of time for weeks now. I started out with a desire to clean off the porches and I did get porches and patio blown off. Leaves accumulate on the patio especially and ever since the autumn that Misu gifted me a snake and it slithered itself into the piles of leaves on the patio, I've been very careful to keep the patio clear.
I started by blowing the front porch and contemplated the wisdom of rearranging furniture. I think I'd like to put my chairs back around the table on the patio and perhaps move something off the back porch around to the front. Here I was stymied. I could move the rocker and stop in at the local flea market and price the rocker I saw there inside the door the other day. I wouldn't mind having two rockers on the front porch at all.
Or I could move the two red chairs and put them back and leave the cafe table and the green rocker on the back porch as they used to be. Or move the cafe table and chairs to the front porch since we never use it on the back porch...So many possibilities to contemplate, all of which involve lugging heavy furniture about, so I am mulling over my ideas until such a time as I've made a decision.
As I cleaned off the patio, I thought it might be a good idea to move the planters there into a more sheltered area. Around back and against the house or simply to the opposite side of the front porch where they would be sheltered from wind? No decision made there either. The planters are heavy and will require the same amount of strength as shifting furniture about.
Around the back porch, I did move some planters into sheltered areas there next to the house and the heat pump in hopes of keeping those plants alive through winter. Then I noted the potato plants had died back, so I dug around and found six potatoes, four the size of marbles and two that were golf ball sized. I emptied the buckets of soil into my wagon and then went to the back porch and dumped all the empty pots of soil into the wagon, too. I gathered a bag of trash from the cast iron wash pot where I'd been shoving gardening items all summer long.
I took the soil over to the shed flower bed and pulled up the spent flowers there. I know there are seed pods to mature still on those stems so I put them in a meadow like area at the edge of the yard. I hope that some of the seeds might 'catch' next spring and surprise me with a few flowers more. When the bed was free of weeds, I dumped my wagon load of soil into the flower bed...
At this point I was starting to get tired. I came back to the porch and loaded up the wagon with all the empty buckets and pots. And that's where I stopped my work outdoors this morning.
Indoors, I settled to do my Bible Study book, called Del Monte to register a complaint about a can of pineapple (underripe, hard, tasteless), cleaned the fridge, organized it and made out a menu using all the things in the fridge.
Then I prepped supper for tonight, chopped onion and celery for stuffing and put that in the freezer, and made Calzones for lunch. We have two of those left for a future meal. I'll probably put them in the freezer, too, for an easy meal one day when I need one.
I've made two meals and prepped one, unloaded the dishwasher, done dishes and reloaded the dishwasher a number of times now.
I now have the afternoon before me to do whatever else I might get done today. I'm undecided at the moment what I want to do. I'm going to sit here a bit and enjoy the rest time.
Thursday: Do you ever wonder why some things don't make it through the ether in a timely manner? Bess came by the other day and after she'd been here about 20 minutes my phone pinged. It was a text from Bess, sent an hour or so earlier saying she was going to stop by!
Well when I was working on that post about the current season the other day I read an interesting UK article written by a man who'd taken a temporary job as a delivery person for Tesco (a British grocery chain). I sent it to my email and waited and waited and I gave up on it and couldn't find it again. Got up this morning and there it was in my inbox! So if you'd like to read the article you can find it right here.
Had Caleb today and the little fellow didn't feel well enough to get into mischief. He was running a low fever off and on and didn't nap well at all. Mind you in between feeling bad he felt just fine and did his usual little trots from one room to another. I didn't get much done today with him here though and that is due to the lack of nap and the need for extra lap sitting time. I didn't mind. It meant that nothing extra was accomplished.
Read a lovely Instagram post from Lanier Ivester along the same lines as my own idea of doing little extras only she put it in the loveliest way: "I harvest the odd and in-between moments..." Isn't that a lovely thought? That we are harvesting moments of time to do these extra little things that will make the holidays ahead go more smoothly?
May I ask a favor? I can't really share why but would you all pray for Sam and Bess? They've had a tough time of it the past two or three weeks and they are both grieving at the moment. Just ask God to heal and comfort them both. I know that they would appreciate it.
Friday: Caleb is better today but he's been a handful. Contrary from the word 'Go'...I managed to get him to eat a half can of Chicken Vienna Sausages which is, so far today, the only food he's bothered to eat. I know not to worry with toddlers. They will go days surviving on mere bites of food and then suddenly they are ravenous bears with appetites to outweigh a Grizzly.
He shouted his frustration at being put down for a nap this afternoon and I've no idea if I'll get a proper time out or not. No such luck yesterday...Hopefully not a repeat.
I don't think I'm going to manage the 'extra' household part today but there are five pie crusts in the freezer. I tried a new recipe, an oil based one, meant to be made up in bulk and it seemed too oily but it held together well. The crusts are wrapped and in the freezer. I'll pull two out next week to make up my Pumpkin Pie recipe and leave the rest for future needs. It's a good feeling to know I've got extras if I want to make a sweet or savory pie.
I've scrambled for meal ideas for lunch and supper today. I have been longing for a hamburger so I decided to make up a portion of my bread dough into two burger sized buns. John and I will have our burgers for supper.
I need to sweep and touch up our bathroom and check the guest bath to see how it's holding up. The rest of the house looks nice enough. John will run vacuum tonight when Caleb has gone home. We shall have to do Shabat almost as soon as he's gone. The sheets were done this morning and I'm glad to have fresh ones to lie down upon tonight.
I think John is going to go help with a ministry outreach tomorrow which means I'll be on my own. I would like to slip off and go find my sweet potatoes and the chickens for the weekend and Thanksgiving and maybe get my haircut. I'd love to stop in the local flea market and nose about for a bit. I haven't been in there in ages upon and I'd love a good plunder. But I shall do nothing more. I'll try to be on standby really in case Bess and Sam need a hand with the children but if I get out early, I can do most of the things I'd like to do and be here if needed, too.
Our propane man is outside and just topped up our tank. Normally he'd not bother in November but I'm assuming they are trying to keep the routine paying customers on full tanks. I did take a peek at next week's forecast and it's meant to be below freezing one night and at freezing another.
I don't know if I'll post this next week or not. It's meant to be a busy weekend and the week will be hectic enough what with trying to make things ahead and getting myself prepared for Thanksgiving. I know it shall be equally as busy in your own households. I want to wish you all a lovely Holiday week ahead and may it all be good family fun.
6 comments:
I hope Caleb is feeling all back to normal soon. Today we are celebrating our youngest granddaughter's first birthday and thanking God for her all over again. She's the baby that her Mama went into labor at 20 weeks and through the grace of God labor was stopped and we all prayed her through week by week until she was born full term. Today all those weeks just came rushing back to me and how every week that she stayed inside was a miracle. We were able to face time and sing to her and watch her open her gifts from us.
For a one year old I would use three drops of essential oil in a teaspoon of carrier and no more. We had a great pediatrician when our kids were little and he told us to fill the kitchen sink with cool water and let them stand on a stool and play in the water. Getting their hands in the water often brought their fever down some and we sometimes never had to give Tylenol. I think we are so taught that we must bring a fever down that we forget that the body is meant to use a fever to kill the infection. As adults when we get a fever we take Calcium Lactate because the fever is actually what the body does to be able to pull calcium lactate from the bones to fight the infection. That is also the ache. We take the Calcium Lactate and the body has what it needs and it is amazing how quickly we feel better and don't go into that awful aching at all. Kids can take it too if you can get it down them. Anyway...do some research on it. It is very interesting.
We have our lists made and are ticking off everything that needs doing here by Wednesday afternoon and then beyond. I hope we still have some get up and go by the time the kids roll into town!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
Terri - I so enjoy your posts and reading about your everyday life. It is like chatting with a good friend! I hope Caleb is feeling better soon. I stopped reading and prayed for Sam and Bess when you mentioned their need for prayer and will add them to my prayer list. It is so hard to see our "kids" go through hard times. Blessings to you and yours, Shirley
Lana - I just read your post about your youngest granddaughter's birthday today. Today is my youngest granddaughter's 1st birthday also! A year ago we were at our daughter's house with our other 3 grandkids waiting to meet the new little one. I am so glad you granddaughter arrived safely and is a healthy little one. Blessings, Shirley
A very happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. I have been with you since before you had grands around. They sure do change your life in so many wonderful ways. Now, instead of working around John's schedule it makes room for little men. So happy I could be an active part of my grandsons lives. It really makes me miss being part of my NC grands. Waiting for instructions from my daughter on what is happening for Thanksgiving. Nice to have the younger generation take over some of the holidays. Gramma D
Terri, it sounds like you have had an incredibly busy week but I'm glad you still managed to make some hay! Thank you so much for the lovely review of my blog in your post - I really appreciate it. I think it is wonderful that you have the time, inclination and desire to spend your days with your grandson, as I'm sure Katie is too! What a nice opportunity for you all, though exhausting I'm sure! I hope that this coming week is better and that everyone is feeling well again. I also hope that you and your family have a lovely Thanksgiving.
Kirsty x
Lana, Thank you I shall write that information down and use it in future.
Shirley, the nicest compliment ever is that reading my posts feels like chatting with a friend! That's just what I hope to convey. Thank you so much for reading and taking time to comment.
Dora (Grammy D) I'm curious how your Thanksgiving went.
Kirsty, it was a busy week but I actually enjoy them. That helps a lot, lol.
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