Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Bing Bang Boom

 

Saturday:  It's been an odd day.  We were up past midnight last night because I am a Deep Space 9 junky.  We've been watching an episode each night for over a year.  Last month we suddenly started getting a running notice across the top of the screen that the program wouldn't be available after July 1.  John and I realized last week that we had two full seasons to go, so we pushed hard and made it through season 6.  At the beginning of this week, we started pushing to get through season 7 but Friday afternoon, we realized there was no way we'd see every episode.  At 11pm last night we made the decision to watch the final episode of Season 7 and call it good.  It was a double episode, and we were sure we'd lose it at midnight, but we didn't.  Apparently, it was due to stop on Pacific time and not Eastern. We finished that episode around 1:30 am this morning.  Then we lay in bed talking over the ending.    

Not at all surprising that we both slept in a bit late this morning.  I had dressed when Katie called to ask if we'd watch Caleb for a bit while she went to run an errand.  I agreed to do so if she'd pick up Chinese and bring it back for our lunch.  I gave her some cash to pick up lunch with.

When they came in, Caleb ran straight to the music room door, where John was playing, lay down on the floor and called under the door "Apapa! Apapa!"  John opened the door and let him in, shutting it behind them.  I waited for the usual yells of "NO!" that follows such an action but not one time did I hear that.  Instead, I heard the cymbals being hit in time to the music John was playing.  I knew it had to be Caleb because playing guitar takes two hands!

The morning went along just fine.  Caleb played with cars and trucks.  He played with blocks and dishes.  He colored for a little bit.  I found a sheet of stickers and we stuck them to paper, to faces and forearms.  Caleb played on the slide.  He also spent quite a bit of time on my lap.  Some days he's all about me and some days he's all about Grampa.  Aside from his running to greet John, today he was mine.  He wouldn't go to John for anything until right at the very end of the visit.

Katie shared her money saving hint with me today.  She ordered two lunch combo plates.  "There's so much food on them we should have more than enough, but it's way cheaper than ordering an entree with rice."  It was a lot of food, enough to feed the four of us and leftovers to serve two later on.  I offered it up to Katie for her lunches next week, but she declined.  I put it in the freezer for one of our easy meals a little later on.  I'll probably make some eggrolls or pick up a package of frozen ones at Aldi to go with it.

I looked over the Publix sales ads for this week and decided that I didn't need a thing there.  Chicken breasts (boneless skinless) are $3.99 a pound which is what they seem to be running these days, but I have NO room in my freezer.  I could make room by removing that bag of ice we'd bought to keep things cold on the way home a few weeks ago but I then get caught in my own web.  I loathe throwing away ice I paid money for.  

Never mind.  We'll fare well enough with what we have on hand.

Anxiety rife this evening.   Why?  Too much noise, I think.  I listened to videos most all day today trying to catch up with my YouTube vloggers videos that I wanted to see.  In the meantime, John had the television going at a blaring level.  There was an upset and that added tension, too.  Was that all there was to it?  I doubt it.  There was thunder this evening and the AC ran non-stop, so we'll call it sensory overload on top of natural barometric trigger anxiety.

Meals:  Bagels with cream cheese

General Tso Chicken, Rice, Broccoli, Watermelon

Pepperoni Pizza

Sunday: Why does setting an alarm automatically mean I can't sleep the night before we're meant to rise early? When the alarm went off this morning, I slapped the phone which apparently put it into snooze mode.  When it went off again five minutes later, we both rolled reluctantly out of bed.

We left home in plenty of time to take off trash and get to church.   Every July we have a wonderful service.  We say the pledge of allegiance, sing a few patriotic songs, the veterans and active-duty military personnel come forward to be honored.  I get a lump in my throat every single year.  This year was the same.   

Tonight, they will have a huge firework display if the rain threatening at present holds off, lots of food trucks and activities for children like giant slides, and bouncy houses, and train rides.  We went last year and enjoyed it, but we aren't planning to go this year.  What happens if it does rain?  I don't know.  I'm sure some of those food trucks must be engaged to be elsewhere tomorrow for other events.

 It was already warm-ish outdoors when we headed home, but not as humid as yesterday and so more pleasant.  I encouraged John to drive down some back roads, hoping that a small out of the way peach shed would be open.  

I'd always thought of that route as the long way home, but we realized today that in miles it isn't any longer, it just takes more time because we drive so much more slowly.  These are true little country roads with lots of hairpin type curves and stop signs that seemingly pop up out of nowhere.

The peach shed wasn't open, alas, so no peaches for me today.  We continued on our leisurely drive home, taking more backroads between the shed and our homeplace.  It was really a lovely Sunday drive and relaxing.

Once home, we changed clothing and I went right to work on my kitchen.  Since I planned to clean it well this week, I decided to start today.  I removed all items from the counters and cleaned them nicely, wiped down cabinet and appliance fronts and took a bit of Bon Ami powdered cleaner to scrub out the groves in the textured stove hood.  

I wonder who had the bright idea to come up with these textured surfaces?  Yes, yes, it was meant to keep down fingerprints which apparently was the homemaker's chief complaint back in the day, but these textured finishes are no favor to us homemakers either.  Without fail, grime gets down in those little grooves and lines and doesn't just wipe out easily.  Even a Magic eraser is no good. It takes a good hard scrub with some powdered cleanser to get them clean.

I made lunch and utilized a small number of leftovers.  In the past, I might have ignored certain leftovers because I could always feed them to Maddie and felt justified that I was 'saving' dog food since someone of my household was actually eating the food we'd bought.  Rufus has been off food for a week.  I suspect he's eating more at Bess's house.  Now there's no one here to make good use of my leftovers if we don't want to eat them so I'm trying not to have any leftovers go to waste at all. 

John mentioned gas prices as were sitting here today and said "$3.99 isn't a great price but I actually heard someone say it was because 'At least it's not over $4 a gallon now...'"  I laughed.  "That's just the way people do think, John and those who set the prices count on it.  I've caught myself saying, '$3.99 a pound is a great price for boneless skinless breasts,' and it is compared to what they go for these days but a year or so ago we were still getting them for $1.99 a pound!  Yet there I am thinking "oooh that's a good price..." when it isn't a good price at all."   Truth: We're just frogs swimming around in a pot of water that is slowly coming to a boil.

Meals: Breakfast Sandwiches

Pizza slices with a small amount of leftover Meatloaf spread on top, Salad leftovers

Homemade Hamburger Stroganoff   I found this recipe online several months ago and have made it several times.  Tonight, I halved the recipe since I have no room to put the leftovers.  I cooked 1 pound ground venison with 1 cup of onions.  I put half that meat into the fridge for later in the week before I made the stroganoff recipe.  I subbed in a previously opened box of whole wheat macaroni for the egg noodles.

Monday:  We had no particular plans for the holiday, but I had planned to take the day off.  We so seldom enjoy a holiday and usually treating it like any other day.  

I made our go to holiday morning breakfast.  That helped set the tone for the day.

I walked outdoors after I'd made the bed and wandered about the yard.  I have two tomatoes on two of my tomato plants with more blooms which will hopefully form into tomatoes since we've had more rain and it's cooler.   Plenty of basil coming up, too and the oregano is recovering well from the drought.  The mint and pineapple sage have loved the dry hot weather and are flourishing.

In the shed flower bed, I've a few scraggly looking zinnias and two cosmos, sigh.  I'll wager that the end of the fall will see these blooming gloriously just weeks before frost, just like last year.  It gets plenty of sun and has decent soil there.  I'm going to see what other seeds I have that I might sow there and see if the next lot do any better.

While I was puttering around the yard, Katie called asking if I'd keep Caleb while she went to hang out in her friend's pool.  I figured keeping Caleb was likely to prevent my doing any housework, lol or getting deep into project work when I'd meant to relax.  And you know what?  That's just what he did.  

The red potatoes were fast spoiling.  Not growing eyes or getting wrinkly but getting bad spots and smelling.  There are few things that smell as bad as a spoiled potato.  When I was pulling out potatoes to prepare for tonight's meal, I noted a soft spot that was just beginning to seep.  Since I had just cleared potatoes last week, washed and relined the basket, washed the potatoes that had come in contact with the ooze and carefully let them dry to prevent further spoilage, I was not pleased to find a bad spot on two more potatoes.  I went ahead and chopped all the potatoes, removing the bad pieces to the compost.

Caleb was quite good today.  Probably the highlight for me was while I was in the kitchen prepping potatoes and tomatoes for supper tonight.  He pulled his scooter over to the counter and stood next to me while I chopped vegetables, asking "Some?" when he wanted a bite of anything.  Cooking and grandchildren are a happy zone for me!

Meals:  Orange Danish, Lil Smokies

Sloppy Joe meat mixed with wild rice and folded into burritos, chips and salsa, apple, cookies

Steak, Armenian Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli

Just about the time it was dark enough for the neighborhood to have fireworks we started to hear thunder booming in the distance.  By the time it was fully dark, I could hear the ping of raindrops on the roof.  Shortly after that the rain poured and lightning ensued.  God's own fireworks were on display.  I'm sorry the kids didn't get their firework fun in but glad we had rain.

Tuesday: Started a new Grace Livingston Hill book last night and it's full of menus!  I've been making notes for my next menu post. 

I was up early enough this morning, but somehow breakfast took longer than planned.  John wanted to use a leftover from supper last night and that led to a larger than usual menu plan.  Even though food was prepped it took a bit more time to cook than I'd thought it might.  

While I waited on breakfast to cook, I made the bed, straightened the bedroom, rinsed and stacked dishes and just generally tried to make good use of my time.  I even managed to get showered and dressed!

After breakfast I decided I was ready to tackle more deep cleaning in the kitchen.  Today I took the blower we use in the yard and poked it down behind the washer and dryer.  This blows dust and lint out into the back entry where I can easily sweep it up.  I cleaned the machines, wiping away dust and smears, put new products up in the baskets and straightened the baskets up.  I was quite pleased with how well the laundry looked after that small amount of work. I include it in my Kitchen zone work, but I will be honest and say if I actually clean the area, it's more often than not an afterthought and not habit.  I'd like to make it a habit.

I took up the rugs and swept the floors, mopped the floors and when dry replaced the rugs, turning them so they'd get traffic on a different side and vacuumed them thoroughly.  I replaced the chairs in the kitchen sitting and had the thought I'd try a fabric I have in multiples of yards on the wing chair. I didn't mind the fabric on that chair at all, but as I sat across the room and looked at the chairs, I realized afresh that the rug in that area is smaller than it ought to be, and the furniture too large.  I could sit and wish for new chairs for the area until the world spins completely around all over again but wishing is not putting any funds into my account to purchase them. 

I completed cleaning the kitchen floor and contemplated the spot for at least an hour as I scrubbed cabinet door fronts and generally tidied the room.  I decided to move a wooden library chair from the living room into the kitchen sitting and move the big wing chair out completely.  John kindly pushed the wingchair into the library chair's former space while I played in the kitchen sitting area.  When I stood back and took in the long view, I was much happier with how those chairs fit that space.  

One look in the living room, however, told me that the wing chair was far too big for the spot where the library chair had been.  It was just all wrong, as wrong as it had been in the kitchen sitting area.  I contemplated it all through lunchtime and for about an hour after lunch.  I finally decided that the way to proceed was to move more furniture about.  I put the two gray chairs on the window wall and the wing chair into place where it used to sit for years.  This all looks much better and I'm doubly sure of it because when John saw what I'd done, he immediately said "Oh that looks better!"

But as with all things, once switch something around you know you must make a change.  The wing chair shall have to recovered.  Not with the fabric I have just yards of either, but with something else entirely.  Currently it has a cream canvas duck slipcover.  I considered recovering it with the same navy fabric I used on the ottoman, but I only had 2 yards left.  I needed just one yard to cover John's ottoman.  Oh, my goodness! Move a little something here or buy one thing new and next thing you know you're in the middle of a re-do.  I had a pretty piece of blue and white floral and rather liked the idea of that, but it was just a 1-yard piece.  I eventually found a very reasonable navy and white ticking stripe that I could afford (always key, lol), and went ahead and ordered it.

I spent my afternoon recovering the other ottoman.  Then I took time to cut the navy guest towels in half and hemmed them.  Now we have a cover on each arm of the new chairs.   John was off cutting grass while I worked on that.  I also managed to get our bathroom cleaned and mopped and planned meals for the rest of the week.

At 4pm, as I was struggling to recover the other ottoman, I got a call from Caleb's nursery that he had a fever and needed to be picked up.  I explained to the girl that called that I was a 45-minute ride away and in 60 minutes Katie would be off work.  She said, "But our policy..." and I said, "Yes I understand.  And if he'd been ill this morning and you'd called I'd have come right over but as it is, and gas being what it is, surely, he can wait that 15 minutes longer for his mom to show up and save me the expense?"   She did agree then that it would be okay.

Tomorrow, all my plans are changed.  I'd meant to take the boys to the library for another special program but instead I'll have Caleb and will be taking him to the doctor to see if his ears are infected again. Judging by his temperature and the way he acted yesterday morning when he arrived (a little off balance) Katie and I both agree that he might well have one.  He never tugs on his ears or cries the way some children will when they have infections. 

I have supper in the oven.  It did not thaw at all.  I should have probably started it thawing in the microwave, but I will just have a later supper tonight and cook it slowly until it is done.

I'm calling today DONE.

Meals:  Steak (for John), hashbrowns, fried eggs, toast

BLTs

BBQ chicken breast, wild rice (leftover), Black eyed peas, Fried Green Tomatoes, Corn Muffins

Wednesday:  We got up extra early this morning. I wanted to be pretty much ready when Caleb arrived.  He was happy enough to be here.  Katie was able to get an appointment for him to see a doctor this morning and the result was that there is nothing wrong with him except a little redness in his throat.  To be on the safe side of things he was tested for strep (which the doctor told me she already knew wasn't an issue) and Covid.  Both tests were negative.  Both ears are clear. His lungs and sinuses are clear.  He isn't having any stomach issues.  The doctor said that his lymph nodes were slightly swollen but no doubt his body had fought off whatever was trying to make him sick.  As I told Katie later this evening, it means his immune system is working well and there's no need of her worrying further over him.

He'll be able to return to nursery tomorrow, since he had no fever at all today.  

Caleb, having been violated by extra-long Q-tips up his nose and into the back of his throat shed angry tears and then grabbed my purse and handed me my cosmetic bag.  He remembered that last doctor visit I had a bit of candy in that bag, and he fully expected I had another supply.  I usually keep a dumdum in my purse just in case my blood sugar drops low.  Must remember to replace that...He was quite happy to take my lollipop as consolation for his suffering.

We headed over to Publix where I bought a loaf of bakery bread, some luncheon meat and plenty of fruit: peaches, bananas, apples, plums and two bottles of juice, a fruit punch mix for Caleb and a bottle of V-8 for myself.  I got four shelf stable milk cartons to add to my pantry, one of those is lactose free.

John bought a small fruit cup with sliced apples and grapes in it for Caleb to have a snack on the way home.  I wouldn't have chosen to do that, since we'd just bought fruits, but it really did turn out to be one of those things that was a blessing.  Not only was this fruit washed and ready to eat, but all three of us got a snack off that fruit cup, making the cost per serving quite low.

We came home.  I made sandwiches and sliced up a peach.  So yummy! After lunch, Caleb caught his second wind and bounced all over the living room.  He tested every boundary we've set and then tested then again to be sure we meant what we said.  My struggle to think of what I might make for supper was given up.  I figured we weren't going to go hungry with all the food we have in the house, and I'd fly by the seat of my pants.  

Meals:  Blueberry Pancakes, Fried Spam

Turkey Sandwiches, homemade pickles, chips, peaches

Cheeseburger Mac (using the last of that open box of macaroni and a packet of cheese sauce mix from a mac n cheese dinner somewhere along the line) Corn Muffins (leftover from last night)

Thursday:  Fail to plan, then plan to fail...

Some weeks, you just can't work the plan no matter how much you try.  

I had no plans to spend a second day with Caleb yesterday and no plans today to run to Katie's not once but twice.  They moved her furniture delivery date forward by a week.  My first trip over this morning was to move the other furniture out of the way and pick up Caleb's toys.  My second trip over was for the actual delivery window.  

In between, I finished up the kitchen deep clean.  Today I tackled the drawers and got them all tidy once more.  Then I cleaned the broom cupboard up and made it neater.

I was ready to tackle my own dresser drawers which are untidy and to go ahead and work on the bills for this month when the call came from Katie that furniture delivery would be today.  

I ran over there and picked up Caleb's toys, moved the old loveseat out of the space and swept the floor underneath.  Now it's all ready for me to come back to let the delivery folks place them for us.

Back home again, I did get the bills for this month taken care of.  I've got to do something a little differently and I need to figure it out.   Every few months we run into a month where there are five weeks between pay periods.  I was telling John yesterday that we got an extra paycheck twice a year when he was working, equal to an extra month of pay.  Now that we're living off a once check we've got to plan a bit differently. 

Made a quick lunch...Then I thought about supper but that's as far as it went.  Just plain thinking.  I should have done something more about it but did I?  No, not at all.  My mixed-up morning completely threw me off and the slow cooker plan bit the dust.  

Out one more time.  On my way to Katie's to meet the furniture delivery, I got a phone call from nursery saying Caleb has a fever, someone needs to pick him up.  Really?  He never ran a fever at all yesterday.  What now?

I've had him three different days this week and the only fever he had was Monday morning and his cheek was red, a sign he is teething once again.  I was driving when they called but when I stopped, I returned the call.  No answer.  I texted Katie who said she'd been calling and got no answer at the phone number left to call either.  I'll have Caleb tomorrow because their policy states any child with a fever is out of there for 24 hours before he can return.  I did suggest to Katie that she have them check his temperature when she picked him up this afternoon.  And yes, I do have my doubts that he's sick.  I can well recall the gut-wrenching anxiety I felt when I was a single mom and I got a phone call that my child was sick (heck, even as a married mom!).   And you're in a rock/hard place situation because you need that paycheck and to tend to that child, too.  It's a horrible situation to be in.  

I did all I could at the house waiting on the delivery and then it was so late that I texted Katie I would leave picking Caleb up to her.  She texted back that after two hours she'd yet to have a return call nor had they called her to report him as ill again.  It really does make you stop and wonder.

All my plans for tomorrow have been changed to suit the needs of that day.  I think I'm just going to keep Caleb at his house.  He can play with his toys, sleep in his bed and just generally be in his own comfort zone.  

Meals:  Oatmeal, Toast, Peaches

BBQ Chicken Sandwich, Chips

Kielbasa, Potatoes au gratin, Green Beans

I'm just going to go ahead and set this to send in the morning without a Friday update.   I hope you all have a great weekend.

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