Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Another Lovely Week

August 6:  There was a hot southern breeze blowing up this morning that made standing outdoors not as pleasant as it might have been.  It wasn't hard to determine I'd like to stay indoors.  

No big plans for today.  In fact, no plans at all beyond reading my weekly list of blogs.  I've enjoyed that bit of reading today.  I've found lots of inspiration and am ready to tackle a brand-new week of summer.  

This afternoon Bess came by to return an item, bring me some product samples and a bag of cucumbers.  We discussed my tomato plants and that they have been poor performers all around.  I've decided to take them out of the pots and put them into the flower bed where no flowers want to grow.  If the plants die, so what?  All they are doing is sitting there looking sad anyway.  I'm not familiar with this variety and have no idea if they are heirloom or what have you.  They were given to us by someone who had too many seedlings.

At least I've got loads of basil, right?

Just a relaxed and easy day at home.

Summer Pleasure:  Mango smoothie and Croissant for breakfast.  This is something I would have on a vacation morning and yes, it was every bit as good as when I'm sitting on the balcony overlooking the ocean.  Makes me ask myself why I reserve so many things for only vacation...I do like things to be special, but do they have to be exclusive to just one area of my life?  Isn't there a little leeway in my life to make some of these things seasonal?

I'm sharing a lot of food related pleasures.  That's part of the joy of eating seasonally as well as food being an affordable vacation pleasure.  I'm going to make meals anyway...Might as well make those that remind me of summer, right?

August 7:  Three seasonal signs appeared this past week and two were noted this morning.  For one thing, it's now dark along about 8:45pm.  It shocked me to look out the window and realize that it was dark at that time the other night.  

This morning, when we rose to get ready for church it was 6:30 a.m. and quite dark outdoors.  Sigh.    And later when it was daylight, I noted that there were yellow leaves falling off the Faith tree.  Goodness!  I think I planned to have 31 days of summer just in time.

After church we went to Kroger.   I went with open eyes and only two items on my list.  I wanted the mandarins for $2.99/bag, and half-gallons of milk for $1.27.  I only had room in the freezer for two half gallons, but I saved a dollar over the cost of a gallon of milk.   I knew we were out of cheese, so we priced it and found it was roughly the same as at Aldi.  

I didn't go in for a thing more.  Did I come out with more?  A little.  I had received my monthly supply of digital coupons and decided to get the free Hillshire farm sausage.  We looked at the reduced-price baker's rack (bread is very pricey these days even when marked at 50% off!).   The 'impulse' buys today were baked beans.  Kroger brand Country Style beans are fat free and a large can cost 3 for $5.  I told John that price is what baked beans sold for two years ago!  I wanted to pick up a few cans of those at that price.  I think I got four.

While I was looking at beans, that sharp eyed John noted that a 29 ounce can of diced tomatoes was being clearance priced at 2/$1.  He only put two in the cart.  Now I'm wishing I'd bought at least one case of both the beans and the tomatoes!   Never mind.  

We had lunch with Katie and Caleb and a friend of Kate's here at home.  The guys got haircuts.  Caleb is always so good about sitting on John's lap and letting Katie clip his hair.  He admired how nice he looked afterwards when I held up a mirror for him.

After they'd gone home John and I settled into our chairs to watch a few favorite videos.  Of course, we both dozed off.  There was a clap of thunder and it started to rain.  I said I'd like to put the plants from the back porch under the eaves so they could get wet.  John headed right outdoors to set them out.  I was helping him.  

Summer Pleasure:  The aroma of fresh rain.  We might have gone out to take care of the plants, but we stayed for the sheer pleasure of rain on a summer's day.

We're ending our day watching an old favorite, "Breakfast at Tiffany's".  Audrey Hepburn's glamour is to die for, but the story is truly sad and troubled.

August 8:  The weather outdoors is so iffy.  It's hot but not unbearably so.  The humidity is not too high.  But it is first sunny, then cloudy as can be, then sunny and clear all over again.  We had lots of thunder and a little lightning last night but not so much rain.  The plants put on the steps never did get deeply wet, just enough to quench their immediate thirst.

I got some breakfast time inspirations from She's in Her Apron yesterday.  One thing I like is breakfast casserole, but it makes a big pan and that is the deal killer.  Even halved it's far too much for us to eat in one go.  However, one of the recipes she made last night showed her making individual little cups of breakfast casserole.  And I thought, "Bingo!  I could make, freeze and reheat!"   So, this morning, when I went into the kitchen, that was my first task, to make up a muffin pan full of breakfast casseroles.  I put 8 of those little babies in the freezer this morning.  And yes, they are good!

I've puttered indoors and out this morning.  Nothing much to my day, though it was all housework/yardwork.  I'm stopping repeatedly to read just one more chapter of my current read, Emilie Loring's, Where Beauty Dwells.  

I saw Millie for an instant when Bess stopped by on her way to an appointment.  She is such a pretty little girl and has the sweetest smile.  She says 'Gramma' quite plainly and in such a lovely childish way that my heart melts each time I hear her say it.

I tried a makeup sample Bess had given me the other day and so far, I'm not at all unhappy with the product.  I'll do a wear test of several days use before I share the product but it's not bad.  I have no idea what the price point is.  I don't need makeup just at the moment, but this wore nice.  I noted Bess was wearing makeup, too.  I wondered if my skin looked as dewy fresh as hers.

I went over my checkbook and brought it up to date.  That's a habit I'm trying to get into, checking in on where we are a couple of times a week.  It's a steadying reminder of what we can and can't spend when I'm checking in more often.  It's the exact reminder I need to steady the I-want-itis and I-need-it syndrome.

The truth is I'm restless!  Yes, indeed.  With no extra writing, the house being kept fairly well, and no big projects planned now that the slipcover is so nearly finished, I am rattling around here at home wondering what I might do to fill my time.  I like to be busy.   The restlessness is a good sign, I know this, because it indicates that I have rested myself.  I can always tell when I've had an honest rest day each week on Sabbath because at the end of the day, I feel restless and ready to take on the week.  That's kind of how I'm feeling at present.  I'm ready to take on tasks and jobs.  So, what am I going to do?

I'm going to keep right on taking it easy for the rest of this week.  I'll putter about and enjoy the time off.  And then next week, I'm going to start tackling a long list of tasks I wrote out at the very beginning of this 'time off'.  I won't be posting anything extra beyond this weekly diary post this month, but I will be putting out more posts when September arrives.  

Now I see a big patch of blue sky outdoors again.  I'm going to wander about and see if I can find enough in the yard to make up a bouquet of sorts.  I looked at flowers at the grocery yesterday and was unimpressed with the options.   Happy to say this morning, I noted a bud on a marigold plant in the shed bed.

Summer Pleasure:  There were no flowers to harvest, but there were some surprises in the yard.  One Dianthus finally bloomed.  I found a few zinnias had come up in the Gingko flower bed.  I ended up harvesting herbs.  I got chives, oregano, mint, rosemary, basil from my beds.  They've been washed and are drying on a towel now.  I'll use a few fresh but most will be dried to use in various dishes.

August 9:  I've been sleeping until I wake up each morning.  It's a small thing really but it makes such a big difference in how I feel each day, as I'm apparently getting enough sleep, even if it is broken.  

This morning, I knew John wanted cereal (he'd purchased bananas on Sunday) so I set those things out for our first meal and when he was ready to eat, he could come in and get things started.  I, in the meantime, did the only sane thing a person should do in the morning and imbibed my cup of coffee!

Easy breakfast, easy clearing up.  I puttered about the house but really there's hardly a thing that needed to be done.  

John was meant to go to a meeting last night at church, but yesterday afternoon he hurt his back/hip again.  We think it was due to the manner in which he was sitting in a chair...  No, it's not as bad as last time but it was enough to make him stay home last night.  I got out the heating pad and set it up for him to use.  A few hours of that and a minor amount of pain reliever tamed the pain, praises be!  He's continued to treat himself rather tenderly today but he's moving much better.

Since he was going to be home last night, that shot my plans to have the last of the soup (just enough for one) for a supper meal.  I had fortunately started cooking a Mississippi pot roast yesterday morning, with the intention of being ahead for one day this week.   Nothing like the current need to make me grateful I'd prepped it.  I just added fresh succotash and made some instant mashed potatoes for sides.

After the house was picked up this morning, I went to do Bible study then sat down to bring checkbook up to date and write out bills that need to go out in the next day or two if they are to be on time.  I had to strategically adjust our budget.  We added a bill two months ago, some others increased and that meant finding balance.  Balance comes in cutting back on groceries and being keenly aware of exactly what is required monthly for a few other items.  I was able to trim a few dollars here and there and the budget is currently balancing.  How one little thing can make it teeter but when it's two or three things then it ends to hit hard.

After working on that task, I went to the kitchen and prepped tonight's supper, of Chicken Souvlaki and a Greek tomato and cucumber salad.  That set me to working with the cucumbers.

Summer Pleasure: Making homemade pickles. I put up two jars each of the Bread and Butter and Kosher Dill refrigerator pickles.  I love making good use of the foods I'm given.

There's a second pleasure in today's kitchen work.  I used fresh herbs from the yard in my marinade for the chicken.  Fresh diced mint and oregano mixed with lemon juice and zest, garlic, and olive oil.  So simple but golly that smelt wonderful just in the prep.  Tasted pretty great too after it was cooked.

August 10:  Where to begin today?  

I've been fighting off minor anxiety attacks for the past few days.  I think some of it might be weather related.  We're not getting storms but there are late afternoon or evening showers most days accompanied by some thunder.

But part of it is also a growing uneasiness overall.  Nothing I can honestly pinpoint to say, "That's it...right there is the issue."

It's an old habit of mine from years and years back, when I feel anxious, I get really anxious about money issues first.  I go over accounts to be sure I haven't missed paying a bill.  I check the balance and make sure all my additions and subtractions are true.  

It doesn't help when it seems that money isn't stretching quite as far.  I look all around me and see the abundance of our lives here, but I also see the prices on the majority of products and shake my head.    I see the strain of our budget as we try to shape it to fit what is required.  Not just food and shelter.  Those are covered fine for right now.  But there are other things that are necessary that makes the fit rather tight and then there are those things we must do in order to be good stewards.  

I know we can keep up if I work a bit harder.  By that I mean if I can find more ways to save, do more things at home that I haven't done in years that pinch pennies, or learn new skills that will help...but I confess that today I don't want to work harder.  I've been working harder for a good many years now and once I conquer one thing, I must conquer something else.   But today is the sort of day where I wonder, will it ever end?  Will we ever be able to relax and not work so much?  That's how I'm feeling at the moment.  Anybody else feel the same?

Restless I might be, but it's also truth that I'm still tired enough to feel overwhelmed easily at the moment.  I was going to cut this month short and hop back to work.  Today has changed my mind somewhat.

 Never mind...I'd told John last night that I'd make waffles this morning and I almost reneged on my promise because it was late, but I thought, "Oh go ahead!  You gotta eat anyway and it doesn't take long to make."   It certainly was yummy.  I love the Presto Belgian waffle iron I bought back earlier this year.  It is a game changer for me.  I never have a mess to clear up, nor under or overcooked waffles.  However, like the pizza stone, I want to find more ways to use the waffle iron.  I don't like to have one use items on hand.  Fortunately, someone has already figured this out and I'll benefit from their experience.

After breakfast, Bible study and puttering, I reluctantly got myself ready to go out.  Reluctant only because I am in a homebody phase.  I have to force myself out of the house sometimes.   I'd determined it was time to do something I haven't done in a couple of months: visit another nearby town's groceries and check out prices.  I feel it is necessary to be aware of prices in my town and the towns nearest to me.  This is partly due to wanting reassurance that I am getting the best prices on the items I typically buy and partly because I want to know what I might experience if I were restricted to areas nearer home.

So off I went with outgoing mail in hand and a sense that I'd enjoy the time alone if I'd just get started.  I did.  

I started at the small town east of us which has an IGA store, a Dollar General Market that is much nicer than the ones we have here in our county, a Family Dollar, a Dollar Tree (not a good one), a Hispanic market that I've yet to visit, and the discount grocer that isn't really a discount store but does have some good prices.

My stop today was the IGA store.  Produce prices were crazy.  10 pounds of potatoes for $9.  2-pound bags of oranges $6.69.  Peanut butter, 15-ounce jars, $5.99.   The store brands of most items were about 50c less than the name brands.  2.5 dozen eggs were over $10.  Overall, the prices were shocking to me.  I haven't really walked the aisles of Publix lately but some of these prices are well beyond Publix prices. Having shopped a lot of loss leaders on items such as these at Kroger and Publix, I was doubly impressed that the prices were really high.  The few items that were on sale didn't impress me at all.  A lot of tags said things like "Save 6c" or "Save 4c".  I told John not one item had a savings as great as 10c on the tags.

There were plenty of empty shelves and whole sections of the freezer units were just shut off entirely and were completely empty.  It's not a grocery I go into usually.  I noted at the cash register that they don't accept WIC vouchers.

I headed over to the discount grocer after I'd run another errand.  I found there that prices were so so.  Some were markedly higher; some were just a few cents higher.   Shelves were well stocked.  The meat case was empty, but only because they were refreshing the paper on the wire shelving and the meat was stacked on carts nearby.

I was amused in this grocery because there was a sale on bacon, $1.49 a package.  I've no idea what size package but people were flocking and those who took advantage were sent over by others who were spreading the word.  I overheard a woman say to another, "Is that all you're getting?  Just one package?!"   "It's all I need..."  "At that price?  You got a freezer, don't you?  You'd better get another package or two.  Who knows when you'll see this price again?"  

The same woman who'd spoken came down the aisle I was on and told me "There's bacon for $1.49 a package!"  I thanked her and assured her that I knew that to be a good price.  Of course, we don't eat bacon and I'm not sure any of my family does, but there was a small group of people there at that counter when I turned the corner.

My biggest group of purchases were fresh produce from the clearance rack. I got about 4 pounds of russet potatoes for 75c, 4 large ripe mangoes for $1, Bananas for 40c a pound, fresh garlic for 25c, a bag of shallots for 70c.  I was very pleased with my scores on those items.    I picked up a few items that were lower priced than many similar ones I've been pricing at Kroger and Publix or that weren't available at Aldi.  I felt a little less disheartened about prices overall in that store.  After all Banquet pot pies and a can of pasta sauce are still less than $1 at this store.  That gives me hope that affordable food will be available to us if we just look.

I came home and put away my items in the pantry and freezer.  John and I reheated leftover hot dogs for lunch.  We chatted away.  It does me good to get out of the house on my own.  I find I have things I want to come home and share with John.  He seems to enjoy my chatter.  I am fairly quiet as a rule and that's because we are together so much that I often feel I must bore him to tears.  I know I don't because he assures me that I amuse him, make him think, etc.

He went out to mow this afternoon and I hurriedly did some housework.  I want to share this second stage work we've done on the kitchen a few months ago but I've never had the room cleared up enough to photograph it.  So, I did that cleaning and then photographed it.  It's not fancy nor picture perfect.  I haven't done a whole list of things yet, but it's different than it was when we moved in.  I'm pretty happy with the changes thus far.

Summer Pleasure:  Living in the country, I pay attention to the crops in the fields around my home.  Crops here in this area of Georgia are looking uncommonly good.  Green as can be.  Lush even.  I love looking over a field and seeing the rows of thriving plants.  Peanuts, cotton, soybeans, cow corn (used for silage usually or cut and harvested when dry) are all looking as though they will produce good crops this year.  On some of the roads we travel, I can see field after field stretching out and everyone as lush and green and neat as the last.  Makes my summer heart happy to see thriving crops.

August 11:  Last night I made cubed steaks for supper.  Instead of rinsing and washing the pan, I decided to take advantage of the crusty goodness left in the pan and made gravy.  John came in and saw the gravy. "What are you gonna do with that?"  "Make biscuits and use it over them in the morning."  "Oh boy!"  It happens nearly every August.  We've been eating warm weather fare for months now but somewhere in August we want those comfort foods, like the soup I made last week or gravy and biscuits for breakfast and just never mind that it might be 90 odd degrees outdoors.

I kept my word and made the biscuits.  It was yummy.  I used the last of the buttermilk that I'd been feeding for months now and freezing then thawing and using and culturing and freezing all over again.  I'll have to get a new bottle so I can start some more.  I think buttermilk is a good thing, only I wish it weren't cultured and was real.  I remember when we used to have a tall cold glass of buttermilk mid-afternoon on a hot day and those little, tiny flecks of butter were suspended in the slightly tart milk.  

After my usual morning routine, I came back to the kitchen and made our supper for tonight.  I prepped a tuna casserole.   I was halving the recipe but there looked to be a lot, so I separated into two small loaf pans and put one of them in the freezer.   I can't seem to empty the freezer for always having something more to put in for everything I take out.  And that's why I am so very aware of the abundance we live with day in and day out.  I have a good-sized piece of the Mississippi pot roast that I need to package in a freezer container and add that back into the freezer, too.   So far, though I've been working on clearing it out, this month I've added in not just the chicken, ground beef, small roast and the sausages I bought but Stuffed Bell Peppers, Tuna Casserole, Chicken Indienne, Vegetable Beef Soup, and Mississippi Pot Roast.  

I processed the bananas which weren't at all over ripe.  I put half in the freezer for Banana Chocolate Milkshakes.  I cut up the mangoes which were ripe.  I froze that for smoothies.  And finally, I pared and sliced all the peaches.  I put two packets in the freezer for winter peach cobblers.  I told John I'd like to go see if I can get a few more.  I don't know where the space in the freezer is to come from, lol...

All of the food prep generated compost enough to fill my can and an additional bowl.  I took those out to pour into the can and noted it looked like it was about to rain.  I grabbed the last two sets of flower seeds I'd found and went ahead and dumped them into the shed bed.  One zinnia has a bud now.  I saw some tiny cosmos coming up, about 1/4 the height of those that had already come up.  Why did those seeds wait to germinate?   Next year, I'll make a flower bed elsewhere.  This one is not conducive to early blooms and will only wait until nearly fall to take off.

Summer Pleasure:  It's one of the loveliest things in January or so to pull out a packet of peaches from the freezer and make a cobbler.  It's like having any other summer preserved item in winter.  It just tastes of summer.  John came in while I was peeling peaches and asked if I'd make a cobbler today.  I'd planned to make another treat but what are summer peaches for if not to enjoy now as well as later?

August 12:  John enticed me last night. "If we get up early enough..."  Oh, just let the man begin a sentence that way and then tell me we're going to do something nice!  I'll be up early enough in the morning, you just bet!

In fact, I woke at 4am, which seems to be my thing lately.  I prayed.  I got up and came back to bed.  I watched the last half of a video I'd started the night before.  I sang to myself (in my mind) and I had 100 conversations with family members and finally I dozed off again.   But yes, I still got up early.

I stripped the bed and bath and then got dressed and ready to go.  John had already been up a little while and was ready himself.  He made coffee while I put the finishing touches on my makeup and off we went.  It was cool enough to ride with the windows down.  Overcast, but not muggy.  The fog that came in last night had cleared.  We drove back roads most of the way to our destination which wasn't anyplace fancy.  It was Burger King...

When we take a road trip, which we weren't doing today, part of our routine always is to head to Burger King and get a chicken biscuit and orange juice.  I'd remarked two or three weeks ago to John that we not only weren't going to St. Augustine this year (price increases blew us out of the market), but we weren't even getting a chicken biscuit anytime soon, either.   Well, he decided we might not get to St. Augustine, but we could get to Burger King just fine.  

We took our food to go and headed to the graveyard to eat with dear old Elizabeth and family.  Summer Pleasure:  a morning picnic... It was a lovely morning for it.  We talked, we noted changes to landscape (some very old headstones had been removed and replaced with new ones; a tree had died; another family plot had been cleared of cedars) and we ate.  It was just lovely.

Then we came home.  On the way, I noted that cypress and morning glory were all blooming at roadside.  I saw my second stand of golden rod, this one in full bloom.  We noted that the leaves on the peach trees were beginning to turn color.  Signs of a fleeting summer!

Back home, finally and we went to work.  We cleaned house.  I prepped food for this evening and the weekend ahead, baked bread, helped John complete a deep vacuuming (he vacuumed while I moved chairs about).    We stopped for lunch and then went right back to work.

As I've worked today, I kept thinking about those signs of a new season approaching.  It's made me look harder at my home.  There are a few things that need to be cleaned for fall.  I found myself mentally planning a fall cleaning list for September.

Lunch today was the last of the soup from last Friday, plus all the random bits of vegetables we'd had leftover this week which made just enough soup for two people.  

And now another week is done...

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