Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Keep on Going

 

Saturday:  Last night, when sunset drew near, I realized that we weren't getting home for Shabat again. Shabat comes whether or not the candles are lit in my home.  God hasn't shut down the world yet because one person missed Shabat, but I longed suddenly for something resembling a Shabat evening.  

With the early advent of sunset these days, Caleb was still awake.  He's never been part of our Shabat here at home the way Josh and Isaac often were there for a time.  But I looked out the window at the setting sun and began to sing Shema.  Caleb, who is a busy little fellow, stopped and stood stock still.  He was still throughout the prayer I made over his home and ours and the homes of our families.  The moment I said 'Amen', he strongly followed suit.  That Amen had a sweet solemnity to it.  And then he began his previous play all over again.  But I believe the peace in that house was sealed with his 'Amen'.  The power of a child's prayer, even a plain 'Amen' is something to be considered.

The daily expansion of his vocabulary of words that he can say clearly surprised us yesterday.  In between all the "Car!" "Truck!" "Tractor!" he suddenly said "Pretty" and then "Salt and Pepper".  We both said "Wow!" after he said the last words.  Later on, he said "Car!" and I said "I didn't see a car!  What kind of car was it?"  "A BLUE car!" he shouted.  Well.  I shall miss these discoveries of what new things he's learned, but I expect by the time he's just past three, he'll be routinely saying clear sentences.

This morning, I was awakened by repeated messages from the intercessory prayer group.  Not complaining over that.  I know how to fix my phone so those messages can wait until I'm awake. 

I'm not sorry I was awakened.  I couldn't go back to sleep after, so I got up.  It was my pleasure to see a lovely hot pink sunrise.   Later the deer walked leisurely across the yard from one side of the woods to the other, pausing to gaze curiously up at the house as though to see who might be awake and stirring about.  That's not an unpleasant beginning to the day at all.

Pizza for lunch.  And for supper, not on the menu plan but oh well.  I baked potatoes and we had stuffed potatoes for supper.

Sunday:  We took the full day to ourselves today.  I felt guilty about it. I did.  Katie didn't get to see Steven this weekend.  But oh, the luxury of a full day at home with nothing to do.  I do believe that's what sent that cold scurrying finally.  It's my first day without any symptoms at all.  Not one cough.  Not one sniffle.  Goodness but it's nice to be myself once more!

Aware that I am keeping Caleb tomorrow, I decided that once home today I'd try and get a little done to help prep.  I determined what I'd do for breakfast and lunch at Katie's.  I cleaned and organized my fridge.  I thought about supper for tomorrow night.  I thought about supper for tonight.  I put away things and tidied up.  

Sam came by just as we'd finished coffee after lunch.  He'd been working at mowing the fields so that he can see the deer on the place.  He was dusty and dirty and refused to come into the living room, so we all sat in the kitchen sitting area and talked for well over an hour.  It was pleasant and nice to have conversation with our son.  He shared some news that wasn't exactly news but might affect him in the future and he wanted to let us know that he'd thought and planned for the eventuality if it did happen.  We talked over dozens of subjects and just enjoyed the time together.

I made steak for dinner.  No, it wasn't on the meal plan at all, but there you are.  We ate a lot of chicken last week and I just wanted a good red meat meal.  I roasted cauliflower to go with it and then sliced Campari tomatoes.  Supper was so good!

I spent the evening looking for '$10 dinners' on You Tube for my 'Budget Dinners'...I am so disappointed.  Do you know what most of these were?  And yet, they managed to make them cost $10!  Chili.  Chicken and Rice.  Fried Rice.  These are budget meals anyway.  We all eat them because they are inexpensive to make and filling for our families.  But seriously?  That's a $10 dinner?  Not at my house it isn't!

The search continues....

Monday:  Up super early, with an alarm so that I could make it to Katie's on time.  She had to work today.  Caleb's nursery was closed for the holiday.  Katie didn't seem to be too upset over working a holiday.  She was off on Friday attending to necessary things for the move and was more than happy to have a day to make up time missed.

Caleb was not in the least happy that his schedule was being interrupted.  He was convinced I was taking him to school, and he had a fit when he discovered I was not doing so.  Pancakes for breakfast soothed him.  Doesn't it do so for most males?

We had a nice morning together.  When it had warmed a little and wasn't dewy any longer, we went out to play in the backyard, which Caleb approved of our doing.  I thought we might have quite a fuss over coming back inside but Caleb was the one to determine when we were going in, after all.

He was thrilled to hear a train and to watch a plane fly across the sky.  But the most exciting thing of all, was when the big equipment he called 'tractor' came along and lifted pipes to carry back to the site of water work two blocks down.  That held his attention hard.

Katie had chicken pot pies in the freezer.  I am very fond of chicken pot pie, even the frozen sort.  I put two in the oven, thinking Caleb would eat one and I would have the other.  Well doggone it he ate them both!  I did get a bite or two but I'm glad I'd brought along half a sandwich from home.  I'd have been hungry this afternoon, lol.  

He did not nap today.  He gathered his tractors as he calls his excavation toys and took them to his room.  He played quietly with them for the next few hours.  He was happy and I didn't fuss.  I'd rather he'd napped since he rises so early, but he wouldn't, so there we are. 

I took advantage of the time the boy was in his room and gave in to my urge to 'help' and cleaned up an area that I knew was a bug-a-bear.  That about covered quiet time.  

Caleb was a little bit wild after not napping, a sure sign that he's tired.  He had his snack, and I was just considering taking him outside again, when we heard Katie at the door. 

All day long we worked with potty training, led by Mr. Caleb himself who determined when he needed to go and when he didn't.  He never did actually potty, but he did make a mess at one point, so there's that.  Made me glad I'm not in the potty-training business, any longer.  At least not for a full-time haul.

I hurried home just in time to see John off.  He's gone to men's meeting for the evening.  I'm watching an old black and white film called "Adam Had Four Sons," and eating leftover pizza.  Life in the fast lane.

Tuesday:  It was cool enough last night to warrant both my favorite blanket and a bit of extra cover a little later. I had to tug to get it away from John, but it was worth every inch I could wrest my way.  

Last night when he came in, I was barely awake, though it was hardly late.  John enjoyed hearing about Caleb's day.  Then he told me we'd go out to eat today.  Fell perfectly in with my plans to run a few necessary errands this morning.

Well, it's never morning when we get to go and I was impatient but as the events of the day went, no doubt we were just where we should be and when.

So, we left this morning after 11am.  We ran our errands.  It was past 1pm before we arrived at the restaurant we'd finally decided upon.  I will share that we had several ideas of where we might go today and each one, we trashed and ultimately chose the one nearest home, but where we'd not eaten in years.  I mean, literally, years.

As we walked in, I noted the changes.  Expansions.  A lovely, covered patio where I was temporarily tempted to eat.  I discounted that because of the five tables there, three were occupied and two appeared to be noisy.  I told John we'd just eat indoors.

I laugh now because I must have missed something in where we were seated.  The restrooms had been moved to a portion of the new addition, but a plethora of people walked in those doors while we were seated at our table.  I told John there must be a portal nearby because some of the people that walked through that door never went through from our side.  

Now when I'd excused myself to visit the restroom, I'd looked over the new addition well enough I thought.  I hadn't seen an outside entrance in that new section at all.  There must have been one and I was so focused on the newness of the space that I completely missed it.  That's the only explanation I can think of.

As we were getting ready to leave, I noted a very tall man standing near the bar of the place.  We passed him and walked on to the register to pay for our meal.  I went to the door, started out and felt John bump into me.  When I turned, it wasn't John at all.  It was the man from the bar.  He muttered something and laughed a bit, but John said, right behind him, "You okay?"  I turned to him and said, "I'm fine.  I thought that was you."  The man who'd been behind me went to stand against the wall of the patio area and leaned upon it.  He looked, at first to be sick, but everything in me felt sure he was stinking drunk.  And I was right.  John helped him out to the parking lot but told him repeatedly, "Do not drive..." and the man kept saying he wouldn't, but I have a long distrust of the word of drunks and was already dialing 911 to report him.  

Just as well, because he fell to the ground and smacked his head hard enough to knock him out...

Now seriously.  This isn't about the man nor about my righteousness as a citizen but about how five people made one decision today.  We all decided to go eat at the same restaurant and arrived/exited at around the same time.  Two of those people were retired medics.  One of those feared the great damage that man might do to himself or another enough to call 911.  Within a few minutes time, police and paramedics arrived to take over.  It wasn't chaos nor dramatic.  It was all quietly done and no big scene.  He was taken away in an ambulance.  His vehicle was secured by the policeman so no harm could be done to it.    

But as we left, it all felt to me a little too orchestrated and not anything at all like a coincidence.  What are the odds?  I mean seriously, what are the odds we'd all be there at that time?  I sent up a prayer thanking God we had all gone to that place today due to his leading and who knows what was avoided.  That's all I have to say about it.  But I do truly feel that something awful was averted this day.  I mean it. 

Supper tonight.  Again, nothing from my menu made up this weekend.  We had leftover steak.  The broccoli I bought last week had a long stem with each head and the cauliflower I roasted on Sunday had more than you'd think.  I diced the stems of both, and along with onion, fried them in a pan with the leftover rice we needed to use and some of the many packets of soy sauce I'd accumulated in the fridge from takeout over the past few years.  We get Chinese takeout roughly once a year but the number of soy sauce packets we get is ridiculous, so I had plenty of them.  I sliced our leftover steak, and we had a meal of stir-fry with steak.  We ate mandarins for our sweet portion of the meal.

John walked and moved about today very well, much better than in the past few weeks.  He's getting more and more free of the sciatica pain but still finds ice and stretches a huge help.  I suppose that is why he's set himself another chiropractor appointment this week, to help him over the final stages of working this out. 

Wednesday:  I had a good night's sleep but towards morning had the most awful dream that I'd lost my Samuel.  In the dream he was about 7 perhaps and we were at a huge fair.  I wandered all over the place looking for him and called his name repeatedly, finally calling out the last name only thinking that might get his attention, but I never did find him.  Just at the very point of giving up and feeling absolutely hopeless I woke suddenly.  It is very stressful to dream such things.  The tension in my body was tremendous.   

What you might not know are two things.  Sam is now 38 and not likely to get lost anywhere since he stands a good 6'3".  But he was also super prone as a little boy to go wandering off, from about age 18 months on.  He was a regular Houdini at getting into and out of places he never should have been able to from about 6 months on.  We had to put latches on all the outer doors to keep him from wandering off and if ever once someone slipped up, he was out and gone!   

It got so that if I called his name more than twice the entire neighborhood would turn out to help look for him!  It was stressful as a mom, even trying hard as I did to keep up with him, to have suddenly disappear.  The neighbors would bring him back home if they found him wandering their street, sitting on their diving board or walking through their home or gardens.

I suppose it was taking Caleb outdoors on Monday that reawakened that old anxiety of losing my child.  Mind you Caleb was very good and stayed well within my sight while we were outdoors, but facts are facts.  He's fleet of foot and what I have going in my favor is the ability to yell pretty loud, an ability to focus in and keep my eye upon him and stumble along a little quicker than he thinks I can.  

I'd mentioned to John yesterday that I'd wanted to take him back outdoors on Monday afternoon, but he was in such an obstinate, not going to listen, sort of mood, I knew I'd only have more than I could handle once he was outdoors.  At least in the house he tends to run into a corner and it's easy enough for me to get to him!

I am reading The Flowering Thorn by Margery Sharp.  I think it was Angela who had included it on a comment or Instagram post, and I bought the book right away.  I am a longtime fan of Sharp and hadn't read this particular book (nor yet several others listed in the copy as new republications.   I can't say that the main character is interesting to me, but I can see that she is going through some transformation, however slow and I'm curious how the story will turn out.

Each morning, instead of going on my phone right away, I am reading a few chapters of whatever my current book is.  I find it's far more pleasant to go with my coffee.  Not that I find Instagram stressful because I have carefully cultivated a home/family positive group of people to follow, but I think reading is a gentler way to ease into a morning, rather jumping feet first into media posts.

I went to no special effort with breakfast this morning.  Indeed, I haven't all week long.  I need to make a few things ahead for easy but more interesting meals to start our day but the usual complaint of no room in the freezers holds me back.

Just before setting out the breakfast things, I dug around in the freezer and pulled out meats to thaw for the next few days of meals.  I am sticking nearer my menu plan now that I've deviated off it, though in fact, when I pulled up the menu this morning to read through it, I decided that steak is steak whether it's in a stir fry or as a single main entree.

I chastised myself today for making so much meat for supper, but you'll see in a bit that I was right to do so, because we won't be eating alone.

After breakfast, I cleaned up our bedroom.  Then I sorted out bills and such for the last part of this month.  I had a temporary panic thinking I'd missed paying a hefty bill then realized it was dated for NOVEMBER and not October.  Phew!  We came out okay for the month, much to my surprise. It will be considerably tighter come next month and going forward but I am determined we shall do just fine.

Then I settled to doing my Bible study.  I'd missed it the past two mornings and thinking I would catch up this morning, I worked so far ahead that I finished the week!  I was very much surprised by that, but I am getting quite a lot more than I'd expected from this second study and may look to see if I can find a third study on the book of Acts online.  I may just spend the rest of this year studying Acts.

By the point when I'd finished the study, I realized that it was past noon.  I hurried into the kitchen with an eye towards prepping supper, making lunch and a cake.   That's when I fussed at myself for preparing so much meat...Never mind.  Lunch was leftover Chicken Dumpling Stew mix (no dumplings) with frozen spaghetti tossed in to sub for noodles.  It was pretty good.

After we'd eaten lunch, I made an Applesauce Cake.  The recipe is going up on the Recipe blog tonight while it's fresh in my mind.   Goodness but that cake smelled good as it baked.  And it came out just lovely although I made a mistake. I doubled the baking powder because I got confused reading the recipe...The cake turned out lovely just the same.

It's been gray and overcast all day long.  Katie had texted this morning that if it rained, she had no desire to drive to Macon and back on the interstate.  John and I both checked weather apps around 3pm and both assured us that come 6pm tonight there was a 100% chance of rain.  I texted Katie to see what her plans were regarding the weather apps and she said she'd pick up Caleb and come home.  So no going out for us.

However, a few minutes later she forwarded a text from the City Hall stating that water in town was shut off with no estimated time of return...She'll be coming out here to shower and bath Caleb, gather jugs of water to take home.  I'm just going to feed them supper here.  Why go home and mess up dishes when there's no water for washing up anyway?  So that extra chicken I cooked will be most welcome!

Maple and Mustard Chicken (I used breasts because they were at the top of the basket), Acorn Squash, Broccoli and Apple Salad, Applesauce Cake.

Thursday:  I woke at 4am this morning and could not go back to sleep for anything.  Eventually I got up and retreated to the guest room.  John was sleeping soundly, and I didn't want to disturb him.  In the guest room, though I had both my book and my phone, I laid them aside and opted instead for prayer.  I told John later, "And I prayed for everyone but the church mouse."   Thunder began to rumble along about 6am and I drifted back to sleep.  

Yes, thunder, and real rain.  It began last night to rumble and flash before 5pm and by 6 it began to rain.  It was never a heavy downpour, but it rained steadily for hours after that.  We went to bed commenting on how nice the rain sounded on the roof.  And to have a little more this morning was a nice finish to it.  By the time we rose at around 7:45, the sun was starting to peek out over the horizon.  But the grass had turned a bright green once more and we acknowledged that unless we have an early frost, we shall likely be mowing the two yards here one more time.

We'll just skip over the fact that the house in town needs mowing and has since September...

After breakfast I puttered about the house getting the housework done.  There wasn't much to it.  I will say it's maintaining well these past two months and while I do long to sock in to a good deep clean, I expect it shall wait until after the holidays.  Why delay so long?  Because once Katie is moved, I mean to clean the house in town really well.  Then I shall push for all I'm worth to either rent and fill a skip or insist and nag until the lot is carted off to the county dump.  I want to get the house listed and it shall never do a thing without all those things being done first.  I don't feel I've had the additional energy to clean deep here at home as well and that's the truth.

John had another chiropractor appointment this morning.  She wanted him to return next week but he said "No..." and I fussed at him.  I see this as a necessity sort of thing, too, not a frivolity.  We were gently arguing about it as we left the parking lot, and I glanced back to the building to see the good doctor running out the building waving at us.  It seems John was overcharged by her receptionist, and she wanted to refund his money.  "Never mind...Just make him an appointment for next week," I told her and so he is going back on Tuesday to get another treatment.  I'm trying hard to push him into visiting as often as she suggests until we get this sorted out because to be perfectly honest, I am weary of this additional bit of worrying.  It's high time he broke down and got off his wallet to pay for the treatments which are NOT expensive.  He can be stupidly cheap at times and it's odd because really that's not his nature at all.

We took a long drive back to visit the bank he prefers to go to.  Now there's an example of how he's not cheap because no further than two lots over in the town where the chiropractor is located was another branch of the bank which we might have used.  But he'd rather drive 30 miles to go to the one he likes...Seriously, not a cheap thing to do!   I don't mind the riding about.  It was rather nice and the views on the old state highway we took on our return home were breathtaking in places.  So worth it!

We've a meeting tonight at church.  Tomorrow we'll be picking up Caleb in the afternoon, but I've told John I mean to ask the children across the field to come over in the morning.  It is Fall holidays here and I'd like to get some time with Josh especially, since the younger two have been with me twice now but Josh was busy with football practice and games.  It's not much, but it's the best I have to offer right now. 

 I'd love to have all of the children here but I'm under the impression that Daniel is kept quite busy with band practice at present.  I knew this day was going to come far too quickly to suit me, lol, when the children's involvement in things would keep them occupied.

I finished The Flowering Thorn and 100% recommend it.  I found myself warming to the main character more and more.  I think it's supremely well written as we literally find the character comes to like herself more and more.

Friday:  Right now, there is gentle chaos in the house.  The children are here and have spread toys everywhere.  There are clothes to be folded, bread baking, a promise of cheeseburgers for lunch and half an applesauce cake to take home.  

I will be picking up Caleb this evening and keeping him while Katie goes to see Stephen for the first time this week.  Between my keeping him all day on Monday, Rain Wednesday evening and her trip to South Carolina last week, there's been no time she might go.  Tonight, I expect they shall be very glad to see one another.

Hot dogs for Caleb this evening, his favorite Friday evening meal...

And so ends another week in which we have kept on going.

How was your week?

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