Coffee Chat: The End of March

 

Come in, come in and let us have one more coffee chat for March.  It's very nearly over. With the temperatures outdoors we might have an iced drink if you'd like.  I haven't had a glass of iced tea in months now and I'd dearly love to have a glass...What do you say?  Coffee or tea?

We've been passing a church sign all month long and it's had the same message: This is normal.  I guess I needed to hear that.  I keep saying to myself that when I'm not keeping Caleb things will get back to normal and when the C is done, we'll get back to normal and when we feel better things will be back to normal...and yet life keeps moving forward.  I realized we're never going to go 'back'.  Forward is normal.  So... Normal is wherever we are in the present, isn't it? 

I thought we'd have one more chat before March is over and done.  Does it make me sound old to say, "Hasn't the year flown by thus far?"  Here we are, three months practically tucked in and bid goodbye, and I look back and ask myself "Where did it go?"    And then I wonder if the rest of the year is going to just melt away as these three months have done.  

Wednesday Ramblings: Random Things About Food

 

I thought it would be fun this week to just share my opinions (and they are mine, they do not have to be yours!) about certain foods.  I mean, I did share my opinion about Jello/Pudding 'salads' last week.  And one of you rightly pointed out that there are Jello salads with vegetables in them.   Well, yes, there are and I suppose I might have eaten some of those at some point. 

 I understand the original purpose of gelatin salads was to provide a cool balance to the heat in summer.   A nice cold salad served with cold sliced chicken or deli sliced meats and hot rolls would make a rather nice meal when it was 100F outdoors and you had no AC.

Fruit Storage

I do realize that by most accounts, I ought to have included tomatoes and avocados here amongst the fruits, but I tend to eat them as vegetables and not as fruit, so I placed them over on the vegetables page.

This week let's discuss fruits and how to keep them.   What I am sharing is what we eat.  If I don't mention how to keep a fruit or vegetable at its best, it's because I have no experience with that particular type.

This Week In My Home: Blow and Blow

 

In my home this week, I've just finished off a 3-day week with Caleb, and a whole day with the three from across the field as my last day of the week.  Of the four days spent with children, it was easier to keep the three children.  Namely because they were all well and didn't feel poorly as Caleb did.  Caleb is a dear sweet child and good natured as any of them but when he feels bad, he grizzles and fusses and cries at the drop of a hat...You might say rightly that he sounds a good bit like his Gramma!

I was so weary Friday, and it did seem that things sort of just came to a head towards the end of the day.  John was...out of sorts I suppose.  I'd say sullen but that isn't quite right and yet it's not entirely wrong either.  I soothed him repeatedly and soothed Caleb repeatedly and by end of the day I was ready to just have a short period of alone time.  That wasn't forthcoming so I did the next best thing and snipped and snapped at anyone who dared look at me.  I know my limits and I did state that I needed a bit of time alone but as I said, it didn't happen.

Diary of a Homemaker: Springing

 

Saturday:  I never shared our Friday meals yesterday.

Friday:  Cereal with Banana and Toast (John) Granola with yogurt and strawberries and toasted Irish soda biscuits(me)

Potato Soup, Toasted Reubens.  Leftover corned beef broth, and potatoes made the soup.  It was yummy.  I made a dressing for the Reubens and those two were so good.  I still have a bit of corned beef left.

Katie came out early this morning with Caleb.  We were asked to host dinner for a guest tonight and I think she really came by to insure that all was well.  

Caleb enjoyed the visit.  He pretty much ate the whole time he was here.  He had a banana, a mandarin, a few graham crackers, juice, and pizza.  After lunch they went home to take naps. I took one, too.  I felt rather done in, though I'd kept dinner and pizza prep to minimum work.

Wednesday Ramblings: Twenty Things About Me

 

I was thinking the other day as I worked in the kitchen (seems to be a good place to think) and I thought it would be fun to do a post about...me.   I would wager there are things about me you didn't know.  Some of you may know a few of these facts but I'd be curious to hear how many of the things below you DID know.

#1.  Organ music for me is the equivalent of nails on chalkboards.  I.do.not.like.it.  It doesn't matter if it's on a pop record from the 60's or a well loved church hymn, from the very first note all I want to do is run screaming from the building.  Mable, I did truly enjoy the accordion player video.  I typed this post up well before that link arrived.

Keeping Vegetables Fresh for Longer

In doing a big shop just once a month the big shop is where I stock up on my month's worth of fresh produce.  How can I have produce without it spoiling?  I have a whole series of tricks I've learned over time and I promise you I generally still have lovely lettuce as I near the end of the month.   So let me share what I've discovered about keeping produce.   And today, I'll stick to vegetables. 

I'll start with lettuce because that's the mainstay of my salads and I do love a good salad.  In summer months I might buy six heads of romaine.  In winter months, I tend to be good with just a three pack of romaine.

In My Home This Week: It Looks Like Spring!

 

In my home this week, I mean to keep puttering about indoors.  I'm rethinking some of the things I'd moved into the island.  Seems to me, I ought to use that space for the most often reached for items.  It's a minor bit of rearranging to be done there to be sure but it's proof that for all I've thought about this general turnover of the kitchen, I am not quite there yet.

In the kitchen also, I'm hopeful I have a better week in the than I did this past week. I burned several things. I managed to salvage some of all it, but as I sit here, I'm very aware of the aroma of blackened brown sugar frosting on a cake I'd made for company, sigh.  I'll serve it anyway and we can eat around the burnt parts.  Were I not so tired at the moment, I might scrape it all off and start over but I think I'll leave it alone and make the best I can of it.  I'll pull out the container of whipped topping I picked up yesterday and we'll dollop some of that on top.  

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Hot and Cold

Saturday:  I am feeling somewhat better aside from the wretched achiness and general weakness.  I woke this morning in the wee hours to heavy pouring rain, I had chills that wouldn't stop.  I put pajamas on over my gown, piled on a housecoat, put on socks and wrapped in a quilt, even covered my head with a fleece blanket.  

The chills subsided just as the terrific winds picked up outdoors.  I watched the light in the kitchen flicker repeatedly as lines were swayed this way and that.  If I can't bear sitting up in the semi-dark, I loathe sitting up in the pitch dark.  By that point I was over whatever chill had struck me and was ready to head back to bed.  

Wednesday Ramblings: We Go On

 

I follow someone who classifies herself as a homesteader.  Honestly the term amuses me mostly because everyone I knew lived in that manner when I was growing up and no one considered it homesteading, but country living.  Never mind.   That's not what prompted the thinking, but it might well prove to be a topic another day!   

The girl lives in the U.S.   She homeschools and gardens, raises their own meat animals, preserves foods and uses some holistic medicines, etc.  I've learned a good deal from her and her posts but yesterday's sort of tossed me for a loop; she'd just purchased multiple bottles of a certain supplement because she was worried about nuclear fallout.  

Future Plans...What Do You Think?

 

I was standing at the counter prepping the vegetables for supper the other night and I let my thoughts take flight.  I'll vouch that in the space of the hour I worked on those vegetables and seasonings, that I thought dozens of things followed by, "I ought to share that...".   I started jotting down those ideas as they came.

Then I ruminated a bit over the fact that right now prices and costs and how to manage are forefront of everyone's minds.    I want to share all things.  I want to share the season I'm in, and the environment I live in and the atmosphere about me.  I want to share what I've come to understand about our roles in life.  I want to share the things that never change, despite the world outside our doors. We are the peacemakers, the home keepers, the cheerleaders, the shining lights.    I want to be an encouragement to you who work hard every day being all those things to all those you love.  

In My Home This Week: Odds and Ends

In my home this week, I am starting my Saturday morning earlier than usual.   And I've done some very minor things about the house.  John is still sleeping, which isn't surprising because I think he was awake for a couple of hours in the night.  I suspect the change in weather than stormed and then blew through during the dark hours upset his painful hip.

Coffee Chat: New Seasons of Life

 

Hello dears.  You might want to come on in.  Everything is green...with pollen! Oaks and cedars and hawthorn, peaches, turkey foot oaks and more are all blooming.   It's definitely pollen season.   But more than that is the wind!  Hear it roar!

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: And Now I Know

 

Saturday:  I'd told John to expect to feel tired after his outing on Friday afternoon.  I remember how wearing it was to me to get out of the house after two weeks at home with sciatica and it was surprising how weary I was on my return.   Well, he did feel it and was glad to be home once more.  

What was unexpected was how tired I was.   We went right from supper into Shabat and then I settled in my chair and went right to sleep.  I woke after thirty minutes but yawned all through the evening until I gave up and went off to bed.  John came right along to bed early as well and as far as I know we were both sound asleep within seconds of saying prayers.  

This Week In My Home: Home Economics

A family dinner at home, compared with either giving or going to a dinner-party is, of course, of much more frequent occurrence, and many will say, of much greater importance.  Both, however, have to be considered with a view to their nicety and enjoyment and the latter more particularly with reference to economy.  ~Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management

Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Wham!

 

Saturday:  Woke very early this morning, before 7am.  I went on to the kitchen for coffee and discovered the loveliest sunrise outside.  So glad I was up early to see that!

I finished reading my latest book Where the Heart Is by Billie Letts.  I read this year's ago, and I stumbled across it again recently, recalled it was a good book and purchased it.   After reading this morning, I've determined that I'd like to have other books by the same author.  

John had a tough start to his morning but was soon walking with a bit more ease.  He continues to improve daily, but he's not yet pain free.  He even walked out on the back porch this afternoon.