Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Family Days

Saturday:  Family matters this morning that had to be attended to.  None of us enjoy these things but sometimes, you just need to clear the tables.  It went well enough and yes, tables got cleared and hopefully we can go on quite well for the next month or so until we are due another round.

John and I went out to lunch.  We chose to go to our favorite steak house restaurant today.  We talked over things as we drove and were satisfied on all fronts.  I had put my heels in, and John had put his in and we needed to come to some sort of compromise and save face at the same time.  I think we managed that nicely and, in the end, we are agreed. 

 

The restaurant was not busy, and the service was like lightning.  It's normally good service but today our salads were on the table when we got our bread and right behind salads came the appetizer we decided to order because we were so hungry and thought food would take time to come.  Before we'd even gotten half through the salads, our entrees arrived...We debated whether the weekday lunch time rush cook was working the weekend, lol.  

When we left the restaurant, it was 97F.  Not sure what the 'feels like' was because I didn't check my phone, but it sure felt like it was hot!  We came back to our hometown and went into the new grocery to check it out.  It's not a new building.  It's the old grocery building, and it's been here for as long as I can remember but this is a new owner/manager after a spell of having the store closed. The store wasn't as busy as it was yesterday, but it was a normal busy that looked like how we remembered it being.  There have been some improvements.  There will be a deli with both ready to slice deli meats and hot food offerings.  

We saw Bess who is working in the meat department.  She looked so happy when I saw her through the window.  When she saw me, she came out and gave me a big hug. She showed me the meat case which is her handiwork, asked me how I felt about two different meat cuts, and just generally gave me the 'tour'.  lol.  

We also ran into the contractor and boy was that an enlightening conversation.  It seems that when cabinets were delivered the sink cabinet was missing.  I hadn't heard from him nor the cabinet people and since I have paid in full, I tried to call the cabinet place.  Answering machine said they would be back on July 5.  Contractor told me, "No starting the job until we get all the cabinets."  Philosophical on the whole thing.  I've said all along it's in God's timing, not mine.  Likely he will move on to his next job and I'll be pushed back to the next slot.  Disappointed for sure, sorry I packed up so hard last week...Not really.  It's been interesting with such minimal supplies, but it's worked just fine.

Home.  Caleb was tired and wound up.  He was crying and fussing and screaming now and then.  I asked him, "Caleb...Do you know you sound like Millie at the moment?"  Just this morning he and I were outdoors.  He was playing with his kinetic sand, and he had the shovel in his hand.  "My shobel" he'd said, and I told him, "Yes, it's yours and today you don't have to share it with Millie."  "Miwwe cwied and was sad."  "No Millie cried because she was mad."  He looked at me and said "Yes, Miwwe was mad.  And woud."   So, when I told him he sounded like Millie he stopped a moment and then he said, "I'm not Miwwe!"  lol

We all pretty much endured the next two hours.  We each had it in turns to deal with him over one thing or another.  After supper, we took him on his promised ride and he was quiet and calm and as good as could be.  Katie had stayed home.  I thought she likely was appreciating her own peace and quiet.  Caleb told us on the way home, "I'm tired..."  "Yes, we know."  He came indoors and got ready for bed right away.

I talked to my second granddaughter while we were on our way home yesterday afternoon.  She's been very ambitious all through her school days, joining multiples of extracurricular things.  Right now she's working part time, pulling A's in schoolwork, part of JROTC and other groups.  She told me she's planning to not just go to college but to go to college in FINLAND.  I won't be in the least bit surprised.  Lily has more ambition than the average bear, that's for sure.

Sunday:  If I ever wondered if John's thyroid medication was working, I can tell you for sure it is.  Where he used to be constantly dozing, lately he's not taken even a light nap.    I on the other hand, am getting more and more accustomed to the light afternoon nap.  Or in the case of today, a long hard nap.  I simply could not hold my eyes open after lunch and finally, being fully miserable, I went off to bed, pulled my great grandmother's old quilt over the top of me and went right off to sleep.  Two hours later...

I was introduced through comments on a blog to a vlogger called Sutton's Daze.  I've listened to only one video, but that touched on something that Amie mentioned to me on Friday when I spoke with her.  Amie said, "We're having a terrible time with our garden.  The smoke is so bad most days that it's simply not getting any light.  And we'd already had such cold temperatures for the Spring that we just aren't going to produce much this year..."  Most of you know that Amie lives on the Canadian border in North Dakota.   Now this was an aspect of the Canadian wildfires that I hadn't even thought about but suddenly it was brought home to me that yet another year we are going to be facing some price increases and shortages due to natural disasters.   

I admit, sometimes I'm slow to catch on to things.  I simply never thought even once about the wildfires affecting our Northern states' crops.  In North Dakota alone, wheat, barley, Potatoes, soy beans, sunflowers and canola are grown as major food crops.  

The vlogger on Sutton's Daze said to expect to see food and SEED cost increases of another 30% in the year ahead.  She went on to say that she cannot grow enough food in her short growing season to meet all of her family needs, but she was going to try to put in more short season foods and go ahead and get her seeds for next year now.  She went on to state that one area she wants to learn to be better in is harvesting seeds from her own foods so that she can depend less on suppliers for those.  It's an area she has struggled with.  But the most impactful thing she said was a simple statement: "Don't Panic...Prepare."   

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I'm going to watch a few more of her videos.  I really liked that she is not so hyped on the fear factors of being prepared as much as she is in encouraging others to begin and to keep learning how to do things they don't know how to do.

I know that many of my audience does can and store foods, garden on a small basis, etc.   Frankly I'm not interested in adding a huge garden and full-time work in that to my already busy schedule.  Do any of you know of senior vloggers who are prepping in their own ways?  If you have recommendations, then please share in the comments below this post.  I'd be very interested in hearing who you find encouraging.

Monday:  Stinking horned worm on one of the tomato plants this morning.  HUGE one.  I checked the tomatoes yesterday at noon and spied none.  I peered at the soil to see if I saw any more emerging worms.  Nothing.  It poured last night, and I hoped that would wash away any critters, but early this morning there he was happily getting fat on my plants.  John has gotten the Sevin from the shed and I will dust the plants.  Of course, the moment he got it out of the shed, it began rumbling thunder.  It rumbled for two and a half hours.

  Is it raining now, three hours later?  No. The sun is shining.  

Noted that my eggplant has got a bud that is slowly opening to bloom.

John drilled holes in my bin.  I crushed aluminum cans to lay over the drainage holes then put some broken clay pot pieces over the other holes. I laid a cardboard box down on top of those, added in the paper from my shredder and then filled the bin with the last of the potting soil.  I planted my rooted Sweet Potatoes.   At present I have onions, potatoes, eggplants, tomatoes and sweet potatoes planted.  I have dill, basil, chives, oregano and sage, the herbs I use most often. (Not forgetting rosemary, which is growing in two bushes at either end of the back porch and the bucket of mint around back).  Now I need more soil, but my next project will be to plant green beans or zucchini or yellow squash. 

 I am slow.  I don't plant things at the 'right' times. I pull the side branches of the lower portions of my tomato plants and the shoulder sprouts too and then pop them in soil and root them.  I pull things up from the compost that sprout and transplant them.   Will I produce anything besides horned worms?  I sure hope so!  But I feel like I'm doing something, I've tried, rather than just sit around and just think about it.

I was going to dust, declutter, do big things.  Then I went outdoors and puttered about with plants, went to the compost with Caleb to empty the cans and visit with the Eastern Fence Lizard that resides there, straightened up the patio again, planted the sweet potatoes and sweated up a storm.  It wasn't hot but it was terribly muggy.  Sweating that heavily always drains me empty of any ambition whatsoever, but I tried to push on.  Caleb and I did stop and have a strawberry mango smoothie.  He wasn't keen on it.  He prefers his smoothies to be more milkshake like.  I like them to be fruity rather than milky.

I took time this morning to sort out the buffet at long last.  I emptied the drawers.  I checked the contents of the two side sections where I have dishes and glassware stored.  I got rid of enough stuff to make me feel I'd accomplished something.  Most of it was trash.  Candle stubs I'd saved, sheets of paper that the kids had already used, odd single placemats with no mates.  I refolded linens more neatly so they fit the drawers better.  I left behind a nicely organized space.  

I prepped ahead for tonight's dinner.  It was a complicated dish, no kidding and I had it practically ready when I realized that the pan was too small.  Fortunately, the new slow cooker arrived today. I quickly took it from the box, washed the metal pan and I moved my entree into that pan so I can bake it.  Not thrilled it will have to go into the oven, but at least all the food fit.  I don't mind telling you though, I was plenty tired when I was done with that!  Tomorrow night Katie is making a meal...It will be nice to have the evening off.

Tuesday:  I guess everyone has their own 'traditions'.  It's a holiday and that for me, means as little housework/yardwork as possible and my traditional holiday breakfast of Orange Danish and fancy sausage, in this case, sausage balls.   

For Katie, July 4th is all about playing in the water and sunbathing.  She likes to lie in the sun on July 4th.  This morning she hooked up the new sprinkler and Caleb went out to play under the hose.  To be fair, he'd already been playing outdoors about an hour and was plenty hot.  They were both well slathered with sunscreen.   Then she spread out her towel on the patio and lay down.  Myself, I'd have chosen the grass which wouldn't have been half so hard nor half so hot.  I snickered when I went outdoors after 15 minutes to take them both their water bottles and she was already getting up.  'It's just too hot!"  Yep.

But I remember my brothers and I often did that in the summer, the laying out in the sun.  We'd take an old quilt that Mama didn't care a thing about and go outdoors to lie in the sunniest part of the yard.  They were shirtless and I often as not wore a tank top to maximize the amount of sun that could reach my body.  

We used iodine mixed with baby oil, plain baby oil, or tanning lotions to try and get that elusive California tan.  I remember using products on our hair like Sun-In to give that sun-streaked look and now and then we'd sneak the peroxide bottle or filch a lemon from the kitchen and try to add a few discreet highlights to our hair.  

If we got too hot, we'd turn on the sprinkler and cool off and then lay out a bit more.  Because we had a well and electricity cost dearly, we never let the sprinkler just run for very long at all.  Sprinklers were meant for gardens not for children insisting on getting as red as lobsters on a hot summer's day.  

Along about the end of July, it was too hot to even care if we got a tan any longer.  We just wanted to sit indoors with the AC blowing on us and stay as cool as we possibly could, but for all of July, we were all about going back to school looking like we'd lived on a beach somewhere.

Looking back now, I don't recall it being torturous to lie in the sun, but pleasant.  Of course, those were days before we all became so fearful of skin cancers.   And isn't it funny, we never felt that mowing the yard or working in the garden was as good for getting the same amount of sun and being productive as just lying on that old quilt was.  It might have had something to do with the fact that we had real conversations during those sun sessions.  We'd listen to the radio which was set to the nearest local station and was either country or rock and roll depending on what their lineup was for that year, and we'd discuss school, friends, family matters, life, and the future.  Somehow in the garden, all we did was argue and snip and snap because the gnats and sweat and itchy vines and aching backs and red-hot soil under our bare feet were all we could think of at that moment.  

Wednesday:  Katie made supper last night and cleaned up behind herself as well.  It was nice to have such a leisurely ending to my day 'off'.  John laughed when I said it was my day off, but I reminded him that I'd worked as hard or harder since I've so called retired as I ever did before and I guess I deserved to take a holiday as my day off as well as anyone else who works.  He had no argument for that!

The neighbors shot off fireworks but around here they tend to start early, around 8:45 and by 10pm they are all over and done.  It's a working-class neighborhood and everyone has to get up early for work the day after a holiday, so early to bed for everyone.

I slept hard last night and well into this morning.  What made me finally get out of bed was the idea that any moment I should be getting a call back from the cabinet manufacturer.  Numerous phone calls have ensued.  No cabinet has materialized as of yet. Manufacturer says order went in, order was fulfilled, order was delivered.  Contractor says it was not.  Currently, it is now back on the contractor's plate to prove he hasn't gotten the piece.  He's had a call from me and the manufacturer.  The contractor needs to check the number of boxes received.  

In the meantime, I am in limbo.  No renovation scheduled until the cabinet is found.  Cooking in a kitchen that is bare minimum scaled at present is a little bit of a challenge, yet I am reluctant to put anything back in place, as a sort of 'good faith' principle.  I'm not as frustrated as you might suppose.  I believe this is all going to get sorted out in the end and it will.  I keep reminding myself that we said this would happen in God's good timing, and it will. I do know how to be a squeaky wheel, just annoying enough to make someone pay attention.  

I have a very early start to my day tomorrow as Sam needs to leave early for work and Bess has to be at work by 7am.  I suppose the children will all be ready for a nice quiet lie down when we've had lunch.  And I think perhaps an early lunch might be in order, too, so we can get to quiet time just a wee bit sooner.

I know it will be a long day however I look at it, but as with all things, it's doable.

I went out this morning for a quiet half hour of puttering about the yard.  Katie's had hung a hummingbird feeder and I told her I have three more.  I set up some unused shepherd's hooks that I want to hang more feeders from.  We have a black hummingbird, the ruby throated hummingbird and some tiny grey ones as well coming around.  I think setting up feeders will perhaps bring in more of them.  I love feeding the other birds in the late autumn and into the early spring months, but our heat, humidity and sudden rain makes it necessary to stop filling feeders because the food inside will mold in the warmer months.  This will give us another set of birds to watch.  

I weeded three flower beds along the back of the house and checked out plants.  I have somethings I need to trim out and spray.  There's a tree that insists on growing right up into a rosebush and another that insists on growing beside the house.  I checked on the potato peels I'd planted that had sprouts and they are poking their heads up through the soil.  

I walked around front and noted that I'll be picking a half dozen tomatoes by end of the week or weekend because they are just beginning to turn.  They aren't huge tomatoes, but they are tomatoes...My first harvest of any sort in years.  One of my eggplants has its first bloom.  The sweet potatoes are apparently happy in their new bed and the onions tops say that the onions are growing.  

I broke off some coleus and dusty miller and shoved them in the soil of another pot, which is my alternate method of rooting plants.  I've got some coleus rooted in water in the house that I'll be setting out next week.  I'm going to working my way around the house to the other flower beds snow that the patio is looking so full and lush.

I have so many ideas, far more than I have energy to execute but I'm just going to start a gardening work list and get it all done a bit at a time...In season or out, it will be done!

While I was around front, I weeded under the Faith tree.  I really must get that bed straightened out.  The dogs dug up the weed proof matting and it all looks a bit like a badly made bed when its weeded and worse than that when it isn't.  It's on my list for next week's work.

I've fallen into a book, one I hadn't at all meant to read and yet when I went to the shelves the other night it was there in a pile of books I'd recently purchased (in the past year...I still limit myself to a few dollars a month because I can be quite spendy where books are concerned).  But there the book was and as I held it in my hand and read the title over once again, curiosity commanded me to read the epilogue and then I found I could barely stand to put it down.  For all that, I am trying to read slowly but it's really a story that interests me and has taken my attention right away. 

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.  I'm pretty sure I stumbled on the title on Amazon when I was purchasing something else.  This book came up as an 'also purchased by others' suggestion, I think.  Click on the link and it will take you to my Amazon Associates Affiliate page. Later update as I'm not about half through, there is some nudity, some crude language.  Nothing openly sexual, no dwelling on the bad language but I thought I'd give those of you who don't want to read such a heads up.  I find I'm less and less in tune with this book...but I'll probably go on and finish it.

The children are coming tomorrow before 7am.  We shall see who wants to stay up and who wants to try to go back to sleep.  I have made no plans for breakfasts but shall manage cereal or French Toast or something without too much fuss.  Lunch plans are all sorted, and I've got an easy dinner that only needs to be heated.  

Here's hoping that they all are happy children tomorrow...

Thursday:  A very long day behind us.  And it's hot as can be outdoors and warmer than I like indoors.  No, the AC isn't on the fritz.  It's just the usual struggle when the doors to some rooms must be kept shut due to small ones that want to plunder and explore a space where they don't belong, AC vents that run through the ceiling rather than up through the floor, and high temperatures over all.  Just ugh.

I've had a headache all day long and tummy that insists upon twisting and turning.  Katie complained of the same when she arose and Sam called out sick today because he felt the same thing.  I suspect migraines for us all and no doubt due to barometric pressure readings.  Or it could be a virus.  Mild enough but miserable enough as well.

You realize of course that not one of the four children was affected by our feeling ill in the least and so they were wild and rambunctious.  We tried playing outdoors after they'd gone through the house like rampaging elephants 100 times over, but Josh immediately began to break out in welts from his grass allergy.  He attempted to play my old childhood game of school on the steps with the three children, but they didn't understand the rules in the least...and Caleb who didn't understand had a most uncanny ability of guessing right every single time when it was his turn, while Millie was right 50% of the time and Isaac lost.  Every single time.

So, we were soon back indoors.  There were more thundering elephants and then I hit upon a silly game called Gramma Says and the children spent the next hour and a half acting like various animals minus the rampaging elephants.

Katie made lunch while I entertained the children. 

John had an appointment this morning that felt through.  He asked if I wanted anything as he came home, and I said "No."  So naturally he stopped in at the local grocery store and did the sort of shopping you'd expect a man to do.  He bought steaks, cookies and candy.  When he came in, before lunch, he passed out cookies to all the children.  Thanks, John.  Lol.

To his credit the steaks were exceptionally good buys, manager specials leftover from the holiday just past.

The children were just finishing up lunch when Sam came in to get his trio of kids.  

Caleb and Millie continued to play while John and Sam talked.  At one point, Millie lay down on the ottoman and Caleb started pushing her across the floor.  "I take you shoppin'," he told her.  And Little Miss just lay there and let him push her about the living room.

After lunch I played renovating Mama and made phone calls to the contractor, the cabinetry place, Lowe's and got all those ducks lined up. My missing cabinet has been found.  Now to get myself rescheduled with the contractor...

Katie cooked supper, steaks, naturally which weren't on the menu.  Nor did we eat all of the meat but it was good.  Even despite the twisty turny tummy and the headache that won't quit.

We've just gotten Caleb laid down.  It took all three of us to get him through the process of picking up toys, going to potty and putting on his pajamas but the children's part of the day is finally done.  He is one tired and weary little boy after a big day playing with the cousins.

I am one tired Gramma with a house that could use a proper deep clean and desperate need to have a day to myself.

Friday:  I'll say one thing, this week I've slept very well indeed.  This morning, I simply lay in bed and dozed after I woke.  I had a very very leisurely cup of coffee, drank it all down to the last drop before I ever bothered with breakfast.  I felt better than yesterday...or so I thought.

It did feel as though everything I wanted to do was a slow slog through never ending muck and mire.  I totted up the checkbook, checked on a bill that has become problematic when I pay it by mail (I suspect company is trying to force my hand on the online payment method).  I made our bed, did some light housework, put on makeup but it all took hours and I'm not kidding in the least. 

I put on my makeup and debated and debated exactly what I wanted to do today.  For one thing, I wanted to walk slowly through the new grocery in town and check a few prices.  I needed to cash a check that I'd received about a month ago and hadn't taken to the bank yet.  I needed to pick up a prescription out of town.  

I thought about going shopping but really didn't feel I wanted to bother with getting in and out of the car in this heat.  Not that's not entirely true.  I felt like it was a less acceptable way to spend money than shopping for still more food, even though we really don't need foodstuffs beyond lettuce and juice.  I just didn't feel I should spend on clothes or anything frivolous. I wanted more plants, so that I can begin to carry flowers around to the back porch and backside of the house.  I wanted to stay home but knew that would mean I'd work hard at the house, and I'd end keeping Caleb occupied.  And frankly I really needed that alone time.  But the whole while I was fighting nausea.

I finally got myself dressed and printed off the Lowe's gift card I'd bought with credit card reward points.  I stopped at the gas station to get a Ginger ale hoping it would help settle my tummy.  I picked up the prescription.  I decided at the last moment that I absolutely wanted flowers, the sort that I plant myself.  So I headed to Lowe's.  I picked up three different Phlox (it's supposed to be a perennial here) and some Speedwell, an Angelonia and finally two bell pepper plants with teensy tiny bell peppers already forming on them.  I got a bag of soil.  I used our military veteran discount and my gift card and still paid out a nice little sum, but it was far less than anything I'd have spent at the clothing stores.

I stopped for a quick bite of lunch, then came to our hometown and went into that grocery where I picked up somethings for this weekend, checked out the offerings on the shelves and found myself thinking prices overall weren't too bad.  I mean I can almost see myself capable of shopping locally and not feeling I was overspending by any means.  I grabbed a 2.5-pound packet of ground chuck and a ham that had been marked down as manager's specials.  

As I was choosing the meat, a man leaned in, looked at what I was getting and asked if I'd found what I wanted and did I need any help.  I thanked him but when I looked up, I thought just possibly he might be the manager, so I asked if he was, and he said "Yes.  I'm Alex."  I thanked him for opening his store to us the night of the wild storm front and told him how happy I was to have a local grocery once more.  

I noted that there were several people shopping and several people working the floor restocking shelves.  I spoke to Bess who was busy as could be.  She certainly looks like she's enjoying her work.  

I came home and unloaded the car.  I could hear John mowing over at the Manor house as he calls Sam's home.  Katie had Caleb down for a nap.  When I opened the trunk to pull out the plants the Phlox smelled so wonderful!  But raindrops made me hurry...I knew John would be home very shortly.

It was hot...the rain provided some relief from that and we got honest to goodness rain all afternoon long.  It felt like it had set in to stay, but as I write this now, the sun is shining across the room and the skies are clear once again.  

And so another week ends.  How did your week go?