Diary of a Homemaker: Let the Blessings Come

 

Friday:  I am a woman of my word. I promised John if we worked really hard together on a set schedule at the house in town this week that we'd take Friday off and boy did we plow through the work.  We didn't quite finish up, but we'll go back on Monday (though John's said twice now we'd go over Sunday after church) and do some of the last bits.

We were very leisurely in our getting ready this morning.  We took time to strip our bed and remake it.  I wanted to sweep the kitchen floor and we just went about everything slowly and easily without rushing.  We puttered, literally puttered.  So, we didn't leave home until nearly 12N.  After a week of hurrying to get things done here and hurrying to go to town and do things there and hurrying back, today was just as leisurely as could be.

We'd promised ourselves a trip over to the mountain on September 2.  On September 1, all our lives were dramatically changed when Steven was in that horrific accident.  Two months later, we finally had a chance to go.  I believe, as with most things, that God's timing was on that trip to the mountain.  

John laughingly said we were making our trip like a couple of Sunday after church drivers, and we were.  We just took our time.  We noted all the changes since our last trip over.  A newly logged stretch of land cleared and leveled, as though for a house.  A new home.  A new coat of paint or a new roof on others.  

And then there was all the autumn color.  A Hickory tree that was ablaze in gold, a red leafed maple that throbbed with color, copper colored wild huckleberry, Sweet Gums in all sorts of colors, brown oak leaves, orange leaves on a Persimmon.  Oh, gracious there were lovely things to see.

We went to the Bulloch House to eat lunch.  As late as we were in arriving, we still had to circle the block to get a parking space.  There were still plenty of folks eating lunch. It's just a country buffet really but it's always good food.  We ate all our favorite things.   Then we headed to the mountain.

As we went up the mountain, we had the windows down.  We could smell that lovely autumn spice of decaying leaves, hidden dampness, wood and rock.  The view from the parking spot was like a patchwork of colors.  There was a steady trickle of people coming in to take in the view.  We sat in the car and whispered our prayers.   There's just something about that place for us that makes us speak a little more freely, open our hearts a bit more fully and things come out.  We never plan what we're going to pray over.  We just feel that deep need to GO and then when we're there, things come out of us that we didn't even know were in our hearts.  We watched people and listened to the conversations of others who weren't whispering.  We smiled.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit there.

When we left there, we made a point of heading to another small town that is within 10 miles of the mountain where a favorite vlogger lives.  We usually turn just before that town to go back home but today we went and explored the small town itself and said "Oh look, there's the store!  Oh look, there's the old pharmacy!  There's the auction house that had all those China cabinets!"   When we'd satisfied our curiosity about that little town we went back to the spot where we head east once again and drove home.  That's another lovely ride of back roads.  We usually choose to make a big circular route, taking different roads home than we took going up.  We see a lot of countryside in that way.

We went by the town house and picked up mail, then went inside and assessed one more time the last indoors jobs.  We came home and determined what our supper would be (leftovers).  Later we had Shabat, our first in many weeks.  We've made a few changes in our lives, feeling led by God to do so, but that practice of lighting candles, having prayer and taking communion is something we have simply missed due to how late we often came in on Friday nights.  It was such a joy to return to that practice and we both felt really blessed to be back in a place where we can return to that practice.

What a lovely, really lovely, day!

Supper:  Ravioli lasagna.  No sides, no salad, just leftover main dish.  We both ate generously of vegetables and salad at luncheon today.

Saturday:    I slept so well last night.  However, the reduced number of hours I've been sleeping is apparently a habit already.  I was awake around 6:15.  I enjoyed my coffee.  John made breakfast.

I walked through the house afterwards and noted how messy our bedroom looked.  It prompted me to do a little housekeeping.  I put away clothes, straightened the surface of the desk, stacked dishes in the kitchen.  It took just a few minutes, but it made the house look so much better.  

I made pizza for lunch today.  Truth, I'm starting to get a little weary of pizza as a Saturday lunch.  I'm going to think of something else that we can have routinely on Saturdays for lunch.  I want no fussing about but something that can be easily changed into a similar but different tasting meal, as I've been able to do with Pizza. In the meantime, I had pizza dough.  I thought about what type of pizza we might have today and determined a Philly Cheesesteak pizza would be good.   I recalled I'd seen some diced green peppers in the freezer as I was taking out meats to thaw for the week ahead...

Well, it wasn't green pepper. I realized it was diced broccoli stem I'd put in the freezer on Thursday.  I was just on the brink of calling to ask Sam and Bess if they had green pepper when I remembered that I had freeze dried green bell peppers in the pantry.  I reconstituted them to use on our pizza.  Sorry to say I overbaked the pizza badly.  Sigh.  I guess I really didn't want pizza for lunch today!

Bess texted this afternoon to say she had picked up the deer at the processors and would bring it over shortly.  I didn't count the packages, but I think for what we have it will run us about $4.00 a pound, which is cheap for red meat these days and roughly a savings of $1 a pound over ground beef on the best sale for 80/20.  The venison is more like 97/3 in ratio of lean meat to fat.  I don't even know how much that grade of beef is per pound because the less lean is about as high as our budget goes for ground meat.  I am very pleased to have the venison. 

I'm glad as I was messing about in the freezer this morning that I made room, so I could just put it in the freezer.  It's not quite all I'd want for a year, but I find with John these days I have to switch in beef now and then.  Invariably as he's eating beef, he'll get this funny look on his face and say, "I really prefer beef over venison."  I think he actually thinks he's eating venison when he's eating beef from the store.  But I digress.

I made a pan of brownies today and then frosted them with a light chocolate glaze.  This mix only makes an 8x8 pan.  I sent home 2/3 of the pan with Bess for them to enjoy this evening after their supper.  John and I will have plenty for our needs from what's left.

Meal:  Pot Roast with Vegetables, Mandarin oranges.  

Sunday:  And just like that, the leaves have dropped from the pecan and the Faith trees.  I noticed it this morning as we were coming up the hill when we returned from church.  The trees were bare.  It's saddening really.  This season has made my heart break over and over this year.  

It's also hot outdoors.  Hot enough that when we left home at 8am the AC had already kicked on.  Our high today is mid-80s.  It will start to cool down a wee bit after Tuesday.  But after a cool spell, a hot humid spell is NOT welcome.  It is for this reason that we can never really switch over our wardrobe to cool weather things, and we seldom have a day without AC coming on at least once.  Our closet is always a mix of summer and winter clothes from September through May.  

We had a rousing sermon this morning at church.  It was lovely to be there and see so many familiar faces about us.  Back when John worked and missed Sundays at church people always sort of acted like we were new even after we'd been there a couple of years.  But now that we're there most every Sunday and gotten involved in some small group activities, we're getting to know more and more people.  It's a lovely feeling!

After we left there, I asked to run by Kroger.  With 18ct eggs on sale I didn't want to miss that sale.  It's been a few weeks and you might want to know that eggs were 97c for 18 in July, $1.27 in September and here in November they are now $1.99.  I am not complaining.  I have paid as much as $5.59 a dozen just to get eggs of any sort in the house.  For all the shock I might feel at the cost, eggs are still fairly inexpensive for a protein product.   Not to mention that John likes eggs.  So, we might cut back here and there but eggs will be in the house regardless of what they cost.

I didn't do a lot of shopping today. Nonetheless the total was fairly high.  I chose to take advantage of some of the baking products on sale but truthfully those weren't the culprits either.  I am happy to say though that I shouldn't need any items for baking for Thanksgiving or Christmas either one.

John rarely chooses anything for himself to put in the cart.  Today he picked up a piece of Gouda.  He expected me to look for 'some fancy cheese' too.  I chose a piece of Gouda with smoked cumin seeds in it.  That was $10 easily spent right there for the two wedges of cheese.  He didn't ask me if I wanted flowers today. He just stopped at the flower section, pointed to purple mums and said "I want you to get those.  They're a nice color."  I'd shared last time I shopped that I'd looked at flowers and couldn't bring myself to pay the price for them.  You can't argue with a man who is insisting you get them.  Not that I even pretended to resist him. I suppose when you consider flowers and cheese as extras, I did quite all right on groceries after all, lol.  

I say all that and then will share that when we came through town today the truck farmer was on the corner.  I have had such a longing for boiled peanuts this year.  Last year I don't think I got them but once.  This week the man had tomatoes, sweet potatoes, mandarins and the back of his truck was loaded with the prettiest turnip greens with roots attached and they were lovely roots.  I flipped back the cover he had over them to just look.  I prefer collards which are a little sturdier than turnips.  He said he preferred rutabaga greens and I looked surprised.  "I didn't know you could eat rutabaga greens..."  "I have some right here."  I looked to where he pointed and saw they had the smallest little rutabagas on the bottom.  Since everything I'd chosen was $5 (tomatoes, sweet potatoes and peanuts) I asked if they were $5, too.  They were $6 and I had a $20 bill.  He quickly said he'd sell them for $5 which was nice of him.  

As he was loading stuff into my car, we talked about foods we'd eaten growing up, etc.  His grandmother had cooked foods he now grew but he said his mother did not.  I laughingly said, "John grew up in the city and he's forever asking, 'Don't they sell that stuff in the grocery?'  When he asked what city, I told him.  Lo and behold, he was from the same town in Florida, and like John he grew up there and lived there into adulthood.   He quickly went around to the driver window and he and John talked for quite a bit about their old neighborhoods and familiar landmarks.  

When I arranged my flowers this afternoon, I mixed in some faux stems with the real flowers.  It's made for a very lush looking autumnal bouquet that is rather pretty.  And yes, I put water in the vase.  I don't suppose the plastic stems will do any harm to the water and certainly the water will do no harm to them.

It took most of the afternoon to sort out Katie's things into one box, carefully wrapping those that are breakable.  But there was just a lot of excess stuff in the kitchen that needed to be dealt with.  Pictures and frames, those boxes, other things we'd brought in over last week, etc.  It took several trips back and forth to the guest room to store the majority of those items.  The boxes will go into the shed, as nothing there can be harmed by being outdoors, but I wasn't up to a trek across the yard.  

I cleaned the rutabagas and trimmed the roots, prepped foods for supper, made a quick lunch and cleared that away.  I just basically worked for several hours and then I had a load of stuff to go to the compost bin which meant a trip across the yard anyway.    I put away groceries.  I tidied for the nineteenth time.  I swept the floor.   I sorted out the fridge and organized it.  It wasn't hard work, but it did seem constant, you know? 

We called Caleb to wish him a happy birthday.  Steven's mom is out of town, so Steven is spending the weekend with Caleb and Katie, too.  Katie had asked Caleb if he wanted a birthday cake or cupcakes and he shouted for the cupcakes.  He was still shouting about cupcakes when we called, lol.  We did a video call and when Katie showed him the phone he said, "A Papa and a Mamama!"  Then he pointed to himself and said "A Caweb!" lol   Then he pointed to his trash truck which is apparently still a much-favored toy.  I swear he has changed in just a week.  He looks more and more like a little boy and has left that chubby toddler look behind him.  He's been sick this past week with double ear infections, but he looked like he was feeling fine.  

We spoke with Stephen, too.  He looked well.  Like Caleb, he'd just had a nap.  I asked Katie if he was able to manage the wheelchair in the house and she said yes but he needed help making transfers to the bed and back to the wheelchair.  He couldn't go into the bathroom at all with the chair.

It's been a good day.  Tomorrow, we're back to work at the house in town, but hopefully this will be finished off and that will be the end of that.

Supper:  BBQ wings, Sweet Potato fries (fresh potatoes from the vendor today) and nothing else.  We were completely happy with our very simple, very fresh meal.   BTW, I paid a ridiculous price for those wings but felt a little better about the purchase over all when I realized that I could easily make two meals for us from the one package.  It kind of offset the 'Ow' factor.

Monday:  It's done.  At least all the inside work is done.  There are a few other items indoors that Bess will pick up this afternoon and there are the outdoors items that will be taken to the dump tomorrow.  I'm also meeting with the realtor tomorrow, as well.  

The huge amount of relief I feel in having this task finished once and finally is more than I can convey.  I literally feel as though, after five years of dealing with the house in one form or another, that a mountain is being removed from my shoulders.

Before I left today, I walked through the house and talked to it.  I don't care what anyone else thinks about houses, but I feel they have personalities.  The town house is patient, enduring, strong, stoic and nurturing.  No matter who lived in it before nor what the people's personalities were or their way of keeping house, the house itself has all those characteristics.

So, I went through the house room by room and thanked it for housing my family: Mama, my deceased brother, Granny, Katie, and Caleb.  I told it how much I appreciated the care it had given them and how it had never let them down despite the lack of care it sometimes got (maintenance).  I thanked it for being a blessing and then I thanked it for the blessings that it will give in future, when the eventual new owners arrive to take possession.  I prayed a blessing upon that house that it would be blessed for all that it has blessed others and told it I was sorry that I couldn't be the one to give it the care it needs.  And then I shut the last door and walked out.

We came home today about 1:45 and I rustled around in the fridge to find what we might have for a meal.  I ended up making a chef's salad, using leftover salad, boiled eggs, bacon and cheese.  It was a really good lunch and filled the empty places where our bellies had been.

I am off to fold sheets that we didn't wash on Friday but washed today instead and to figure out what I'm having for tonight's supper.

later:  Supper was easy enough once I read through my planned menus. I made the Cottage Pie for tonight, and biscuits and opened a can of Pineapple Tidbits.  While supper finished up in the oven, I watched the moon rise from the window at the kitchen sink as I hand washed a few dishes.  Honestly it was so lovely.  I thought once again that in every season there is something to appreciate.  I might be busy in the kitchen at sunset, but moonrise is nothing to sneeze at either, especially when it's a full moon slipping up into the sky.

Tuesday:  The morning didn't go exactly as I'd planned but I made up my mind I wouldn't get frustrated.  I am so tired of being frustrated and that's truth.  I just want to be calm and peaceful.  I was going to read my Bible study, the one that I swore I'd get back to this week.  Well, I didn't.  Instead, I agreed to keep Millie, and I did some necessary housework and played with her.  Then we three went over to the town house to meet the realtor.  Bess arrived and picked up Millie moments after the realtor arrived.  

We did our walk through, and I was transparent about what issues I know the house has.  I want to be honest as can be about what the house is and isn't.  The yard looks pretty awful, but things weren't getting done today about those.  It is what it is.  And we will attend to those things sooner rather than later, but I am at the mercy of others with this.  If it drags on, we'll go to the expense of hiring a skip.  When you're relying on the kindness of another you can't very well push a personal deadline.

Our hard work paid off.  The house must have put on her Spanx and touched up her lipstick, because she showed herself well.  Seriously, the house did look like it improved itself in some way.  We were encouraged with the talk of pricing the house.  It is low.  You all that don't live in very rural areas can't even realize how low priced a home can be.  We felt the suggestion was more than fair.  I have paperwork to fill out, but the process is begun.

As we left today, I was shaking.  I felt a bit in a state of shock. It's a funny thing to go from a house where your family lives to an empty house put on the market in eight days.  All these years of me caring for the house and suddenly I'm done.  I felt the same way I felt when I left my last job.  Shaken.  Lost.  Elated. Dazed.

Katie texted me on the way home.  She has the flu and was trying to make chicken broth.  Bess came by with Millie.  They'd been going to be here doing laundry, but Bess said she'd changed her mind, they'd just go home.  

I celebrated big. I came home and took all the chicken frames, backs, wing tips from the freezer and tossed them into the stock pot to simmer all afternoon long.  I pulled every last leftover from the fridge to make a smorgasbord lunch.  I spent the whole afternoon working on getting my bills ready to go out tomorrow.  Momentous moments come and go but life just keeps being itself despite those moments.  

Supper:  Off menu tonight. I did a sheet pan supper with a Chicken Garlic Sausage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, Onions and Potato.  It was pretty good.  We have enough for a lunch for one day this week. 

Wednesday:  Another busy, busy day.  I give up the idea I'm getting back to the Bible study this week.  I promise myself I will finish it off next week.  And then I think I'll just wait until the New Year to start another.

When I got up this morning, I sat right down with my checkbook and bills and finished off the task I started the day before.  Call me superstitious or wise or whatever, but I prefer to wait until the money is actually in our account before I mail bills and tot up the balance.  I went ahead and took a shower and dressed, too.  Then I called our pest control service to take care of some business there.

After coffee and an easy breakfast, I did the usual quick housework. John was actually ready to leave before I was this morning, which is unusual.  And why was the man so eager?  Because I'd told him we'd go get a haircut today and he said he'd started to feel like a baby duck, lol.  He'd asked Katie to cut it before she moved (she's been his 'stylist' for years now) but I figured rightly she'd be far too busy and overwhelmed with the move to be bothered with taking time out to cut his hair.

We had to stop in town at the post office which is where one of those small-town things occurred.  The postal clerk was in the back chatting with the UPS man.  She said she'd wait on me to get my stuff ready for her, but I needed an item from her to get my things ready to go.  It wasn't a long wait, but it slowed down the process a little.  Then my own business was rather complicated as I needed things explained to me about how to change addresses, etc. for previous occupants of the house, asked questions about mail that had come to the house regarding Katie's change of address, etc.  She was very helpful and very nice about everything.  

Went over to city hall to pay the water bill for the town house and ask questions there about various things and left a message for the young lady who expressed a possible interest in seeing the house once it was up for sale.

From there we went to see the realtor.  And then things took a John turn.   As left the realtor's office, John headed off in a direction that puzzled me.  I have to ask him periodically where he's going and sometimes that is a loaded question. Today he answered reasonably enough that he didn't know.  Ok.  So, I asked him where he wanted to go.  He didn't know that either.  He got on the interstate and started driving and then asked if he should get off at an exit and when I said, "I can't answer until I know where it is you plan to go," he got a little testy.  At the next exit he asked if he should get off and I said, "Yes.  And then you can stop and tell me exactly where it is you want to go."  "I want to get a haircut."  "Fine.  We go to any one of three places.  Do you want the place in Bonaire, the place in Kathleen, or the place in Perry?"  "I don't know."  "While you figure that out, perhaps we should head back in the direction of those towns."  So, he turned down a roadway and said, "I don't know where we're going."  "I don't know either but you're just going to have to trust in my sense of direction."   I got us away from the interstate and after a nice little ride through the countryside, which I admitted I had never seen before, we eventually found our way to a road we did recognize.  

John has no sense of direction at all and often gets upset when he doesn't know where he is.  I have a child who is the same way.  I've heard other people say they have no sense of direction either, so I guess it's a fairly common thing.  I personally DO and my only gripe with John is that he's convinced his lack of that sense means I also lack it.  I don't.  I do get lost but give me a moment to get my bearings and I'll get myself straight and we'll get where we are going.

So after a lovely little jaunt through all sorts of countryside, we ended up back in the town where we'd started this particular journey and I told John well ahead of time, "Now tell me exactly which salon you want me to direct you to."  He did and we had a nice long ride to get there, but we got there.

The poor guy who cut my hair had practically no voice.  I've heard of this particular 'virus' that is going around where people feel just fine, have no other symptoms but lose their voice.  He said he'd lost his voice about four months ago and nothing has helped him.  He's been to the doctor multiples of times.  And he's getting married this Friday and worried he wouldn't be able to say his vows.  I felt for him when I asked his name so that I might pray for his voice because he tried to say it three times and his voice broke badly each time. 

We went into Publix next door to the salon and got a lunch plate that we shared at a park a little further up the road.  John kept insisting all the time that we must go to the house and clean up something in the yard, just to get it done.  I gave him directions of where to go but told him, "It's not the most direct route, it's just I haven't been out this way in so long I wanted to see what all is new in that area."  We'd seen so many new things, places of business and homes, etc. that we'd actually gotten interested in the riding about to look, so he had no objections.

At the house, I cleared the back deck of sun brittle plastic chairs and then blew off the leaves.  I doubt it does much good because leaves were falling hard with all the outer wind bands we're already getting with Tropical Storm off the coast of Bermuda.  John loaded up some other things onto the truck and went to take them off.  I was so pleased with how the house looked without that particular lot of stuff.

Were we finished with our day?  Nope.  Off to the bank in the next town to get our monthly allowances.  There we exclaimed over more new things we hadn't seen.  And then we came home, where we brought in things off the porch that rain would spoil.  It's not meant to start until tomorrow evening here but I wanted to be sure to have those things off the porch just in case we get rain earlier than expected.

Supper:  Pimento Cheese and Tomato Sandwiches.  Not on the menu, but we were sort of overfull at lunch and wanted to keep it lighter. I made my pimento cheese as an open face toasted sandwich and had a half tomato sandwich.  John had two sandwiches, but the homemade bread pieces are smaller than standard store-bought loaf bread.

Thursday:  I am tired.  And my back hurts.  BUT...we have only one more load to move from the town house and we will be done!  It won't happen tomorrow due to rain nor over the weekend, unless we do this on Sunday, but we are truly so nearly done now.   

I got nothing done on my list this week.  Nope!  I just went to read through the work list, and I did everything there except work on the shed and the patio.   And the Christmas gift list work but there's tomorrow yet to perhaps attend to that.

Since we will be home all day tomorrow, I'll make bagels and bread.  I'll take time too to make up some hot cocoa mix.  I'm thinking of trying this recipe that Cindy mentioned in comments last weekend.   I've just put a Pineapple Upside Down Cake in the oven.  That will be for just us.  I think no one really cares for pineapple at the other house unless it's fresh pineapple.  

I've touched on little of my Personal/Leisure list this week either.  Hmmm...It feels like a week has flown by and nothing's been done but I have worked HARD all week long, as we did last week.

I took time this morning to read one chapter of the Bible Study I'm working on.  I'll catch that up this weekend and then next week I'll finish it, I hope.  Then we went to the house and worked.  That yard is looking very nice these days!  John drove the truck home from town so Sam could have it this weekend in case he goes deer hunting and needs it for going to the processor.  

When we arrived back at our home, while lunch heated, John vacuumed his car out and I arranged the gas grill in a better position on the back porch.  That's my new cooking toy.  We had decided to get a gas grill this year and priced one at the hardware store in town.  I think I mentioned that about the time we had money free to go buy it the darn thing doubled in price.  It hasn't sold yet, and though I keep checking they won't mark it down again.  Anyway, this grill is a lot bigger and nicer than the one we hoped to buy.  It was very nice of Katie to offer it to us when she was planning her move.  I don't think she knew we'd planned to buy one.

Indoors we got the jugs filled with fresh water for drinking, washed clothes and dishes.  We've only had little bands of rain thus far, but I just heard a bit of thunder rumbling.  Always best to be prepared for weather when it's coming in.  We really need the rain that this storm is bringing to our area.  I just pray that we don't have tornados or wind damage to deal with.  We watched reports of what they were expecting in St. Augustine this morning.  

I do believe I'm just rambling, so I shall end today's post right here.  

Supper:  Roast Beef Hash, Green Peas, Sliced tomatoes, Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Later:  Just off the phone with Katie.  She's sick and tired and weary of everything at present. I chuckle, but it's a very sympathetic and rueful one.  Been there.  Given all that she's gone through the past two months, this is just one more rock in the path, but we do get tired of stumbling on the unknown paths, don't we?  Prayers for her please.  And for Steven who is getting the best care his mom can provide for him at present.  

Friday:  I haven't been on news site yet to see how everyone fared with the latest storm but will say that we had very high winds...by that I mean the currents were high above the house and trees and while we did get a few gusts down low, the majority of the noise and action was overhead and not along the ground.  We were so very grateful for the real honest to goodness rain that came with this storm.  But we didn't have much storming activity.  A little thunder Thursday evening, a little lightning early this morning.  Nothing more.

John's brother contacted him last night to confirm their visit.  They'll come in on Wednesday and leave on Sunday, so not a long visit for them.  I hope they rest well between their trips, but they do stop for one night coming and going, rather than make the whole journey as a straight drive.

Home, home, home is best...I slept in this morning and then went right to work after coffee.  I was so late getting up that John had fixed himself breakfast, which was just fine.  I wasn't hungry and felt a great relief that I could skip the meal.  

I made bread, pizza dough, and bagels.   After boiling the bagels I dumped half a box of mac and cheese in the boiling water and cooked macaroni.  When I drained the cooked pasta, I made the cheese sauce in the same pan.  Half of the mac and cheese went into the oven for lunch today (with sliced tomatoes) and the other half went into the freezer for a meal another day.

I did a proper cleaning of the house today and it took a lot of time.  John did laundry and floors.  

One job that took quite a chunk of time, was sorting out the paperwork and getting it all filed.  I'd mentioned the need to do this several weeks ago and it's been on my mind ever since.  However, John really precipitated this job because he turns to me quite casually last night and asks, "When did we last buy a battery for the car?"

This always riles me.  For one thing, the cars are not my responsibility.  They are his.  And he doesn't keep track of this information but assumes that I do.  Does he keep track of how high our electric usage is, or how much cooking oil is on the shelf in the pantry?  But because he asked, I was expected to find the answer in the files which he refuses to touch.  His attitude towards our files is about the same as his attitude towards my purse.  Apparently, both are filled with baby copperheads just waiting to bite and take his life.

Well, the filing IS my responsibility and so I gathered the vast stack of paperwork I'd stashed and not filed and the filed box and went to work sorting that out this morning.  And I decided to make myself a cheat sheet.  Now when he asks me questions that really aren't in my wheelhouse of responsibility, like 'What year did we install the roof?' or "When was the last time we bought a battery for the car?" I will have that information in my check register (remember I use full sized ledger sheets) and I can tell him, "We last had the septic pumped in April of 2022," etc. by simply going to that notebook.   It ate up about an hour overall but should be worth the saving of aggravation.

I have a Thanksgiving cactus blooming in the bathroom and noted one of the Orchids is sending up a stem so that will be blooming here in a bit.  I need to rearrange plants.  Mine have been sitting in the garden tub in our bathroom for the past four weeks since we had our first freeze here.  Usually, I disperse them about the house but it's a sign of how busy I've been that they have just been in the tub this whole while.  

Supper tonight is frozen reheated leftovers.  Cabbage Rolls, Mashed Potatoes, Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

And that is my week.  It's been just full of the loveliest things despite all the heavy-duty work.   How was your week?