Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Not Quite As Planned

 

Saturday:  I went to an estate sale this morning.  Do you know what I like about estate sales?  Often enough they are places where one can plunder through stuff and find all kinds of treasures.  But I also love that I get to walk through houses I might not otherwise have had a chance to know.

I like houses almost as well as I like people.  I like to see how a house, especially an older home evolved over time.  The house I was in on Saturday was unusual because the central hall ran north to south in the house, though the front of the house faced east. I'm curious if that was the original plan or if the house was altered at some point, because the front door opened directly into the living room, and it's been my experience with older homes of this sort that the front and back door generally were at either end of the wide central hallway. 

A back porch off the kitchen had been enclosed to make a den.  The central hall had been turned into a sort of library with walls of bookcases and chair scattered here and there.  The kitchen I've shared about all ready in the post at the beginning of the week.  There were three or so large bedrooms with huge old walnut bedsteads, the sort with turned posts on the headboard and footboard and wooden sides.  

It was a solid built home from the late 1800's I'd say, and it was a pretty little house seen from the street but a great deal bigger than you'd imagine once you were inside.  Not one floor creaked as I walked through the house, so it must have been solidly built.  

It wasn't a fine home, but it could be made into a fine one if one had the money and the vision.  I always think I have the vision, but I know I don't have the money, lol.  So, I resort to praying for a house I hope to see rescued and made over.  

Sunday:  Yesterday afternoon, John and I attended a dinner for the Ushers of the church. John has never been a regular usher but has filled in now and then at church and we were passing by the pastor in charge of ushers who grabbed John and shoved an invitation into his hand, saying "You've ushered with us before...".  That was last Sunday and John said to me he'd like to go, so off we went.  

We were requested to bring a side dish while the hosts provided the meat.  I love this sort of gathering.  It brings back so many childhood and young adult memories of growing up in the South where every holiday, occasion and church dinner usually involved 'a covered dish' brought from home to share.  There were rules: make enough for your family group and at least one other person.  The trouble was always that those without families brought enough for one and a whole family to share so there was always an overload of foods.  Same on Saturday.  Nearly all of us have long since had an empty nest but we all brought enough for a full family.   There was a LOT of food.

It also brought back memories to see people walk past me on their way to the table with a heavily filled plate of food.  Everyone wanted to sample everything.  And then the good part came: sitting down to eat and talk together.  

I may often feel I am on the outside of things when I'm at certain church functions, but I felt myself drawn into that group on Saturday and it felt nice.  There were a few familiar faces, a few new ones.  But conversation was good all around.  I really enjoyed the whole thing and was pleased to be told we'd be doing this again sometime around February of next year.  Lovely!  I'm looking forward to it.

Monday:  I was feeling antsy this morning about all the things I needed to do this week, several of which are absolutely necessary and a couple I'd really like to get to (getting houseplants indoors and mulching out some plants before the frost comes in).  But Caleb really wanted to play outdoors.  Bess texted that Sam had a doctor's appointment and she needed to attend a program at Josh's school and asked, "Can Millie stay with you for a couple of hours?"  

Humph.  I know too well when God is changing my direction and pointing me in another.  I made a single phone call to start the ball rolling on one necessary thing and accepted that my day was about to change.

Caleb played for a good three hours outdoors.  When Millie arrived I was prepping tonight's supper and getting lunch together.  She and Caleb ran through the house playing their own version of hide and seek, "3, 6, 9, here I come!"  Then the one hiding ran out to meet the seeker.  They were having fun. About 40 minutes later when we were ready to sit down and have lunch, Caleb had gone to bed.  John went in to tell him lunch was ready.  "I'm tired.  I want to sleep."  And he really must have because there was no tv on and no request for his Kindle and no lunch eaten.

After lunch, I painted Millie's nails after she said "Gramma, I don't like lelllow nails anymore. I want pink."  As soon as I was done, I went to check on Caleb.  He was pink cheeked and HOT.  I took his temperature.  102F.  Uh Oh.

I gave him Tylenol, pulled off his jeans and pushed back the heavy blanket he was under.  Then Millie and I kept checking in on him.  He slept or lay in bed for the next hour or so until Sam stopped by.  He came in to see Sam and shortly after he left, I heard Caleb make a choking sound.  John and I ran to the bedroom just in time to find him being sick which really upset him.  We explained that everyone gets sick now and then and cleaned him up, stripped the bed and made things up fresh.  This was repeated twice more.  Ugh.  Poor little boy.  He just wanted to be comfy under a blanket and not be sick and who can blame him?  Oh, and he wanted Mama.  By the time Katie came in from work he was over all but the feeling bad part.  

I let Sam and Bess know so they can keep an eye on Millie.  Here's hoping she doesn't catch anything.

One thing I found a little bit funny and a whole lot of not funny was that this evening was the one evening when both John and Katie objected to my menu plan.  It was really just a case of them being picky-ish but I didn't appreciate it in light of how hectic our afternoon had been.  And then they both ended up liking dinner just fine.  But Mama was not amused this evening when faced with mutiny over the menu, let me tell you.

Tuesday:  I was sipping coffee this morning and decided to check the weather since it was looking cloudy outdoors.  I was shocked to see that our previous temperatures had been altered by 10 degrees lower than predicted last week when I last checked.  We weren't just going to be frosty; we were headed into freezing temperatures.  

I knew I was going to have to get my plants under cover tomorrow night but this changed my plans entirely.  I needed to get them under cover today.   I didn't even ask Caleb if he felt up to going outdoors.  I just headed outdoors and started harvesting herbs, gathering pots from the flower beds and patio that help plants I wanted to overwinter, cutting coleus to bring indoors to root for next year's flower pots.  

And in doing that I had to rescue a toad that decided after all the shed looked like a nice place to get in from the cold.  I scooted him back out and felt sorry for the old thing as he landed on his bag and lay there panting.  I shut the shed door and then flipped him over to his belly side so he could get out of the way.

Later indoors I took up a bunch of coleus and a tree frog came flying out.  Frog rescue mission went on again. I had a bunch of basil in my hand and managed to gently brush him in the direction of the back door and got him to go out on the porch.

I told John about it later and he said he was proud of me for accomplishing those rescues without screaming.  I told him knowing that Caleb is already afraid of them makes me want to calm his fears, so I just handle it like it's nothing much.  I'm quivering on the inside like jelly, but on the outside, I look like a brave Gramma.

Speaking of Caleb, I'll update you on him.  The sickness with the virus was over fairly quickly, in less than 6 hours.  The aftereffects are a low fever and a tendency to whine or out and out crying.  I've tried without success to get him to go lie down and rest because Cody and Katie wanted to take him out tonight.  I guess we'll see how they all feel this evening.

Wednesday:  I walked into the kitchen yesterday afternoon and found a pretty green Anole lizard perched on the seat of my kitchen sitting chair.  I tried to catch him, but with no luck.  I told the family about him later and asked if they did see him to please get him outdoors and assured Katie that I did not want him shoved in my face as I was trying to NOT scare Caleb about them.  

Today Sam and I picked up my pretty table from the estate sale.  When we got it home, I proceeded to clean it to get off some of the ground in dust.  As I was cleaning, Caleb 'helped' and suddenly he said, "There's a lizard!"  

There Petey was (all Green Anoles are called "Petey" by John) on the slats of the blind looking at us.  He really was quite a pretty green and not very large at all.  John was able to catch him this time, but Caleb was of a different opinion.  He kept saying "Smash him Grampa!"  We explained that we didn't want to hurt him because he was a beneficial critter to have around the house.  Petey was relocated to his natural outdoors, a fact he might not appreciate as it was 48F outdoors and a good deal warmer indoors!

Cold weather came in last night sooner rather than later.  Caleb did go take a very late nap, then woke when Katie came home.  She and Cody took him to the Trunk or Treat at the churches in town.  They walked around without jackets but two hours later, when they were home, they went out on the back porch and came in shivering.  "It's gotten COLD out there!"   Well, it is still cold out there this afternoon.  

Sam and I were discussing it this morning and we noted that every year in November we have some really cold weather and then it warms up to something disgustingly warm later in the month or early December and stays there until we have hard freezes anytime from January to late March.  But mostly our weather is pretty mild with the exception of these first cold spells starting in November.  

Oh yes, we were talking to the man about the estate sale house this morning and I was right!  The house front door was relocated.  Originally the street to the north of the house was meant to be extended and the house was to face out that way.  Instead, the lot of land was sold to someone who built a house, which blocked the roadway and so the owners reoriented the house to face east towards the other street.  That explains that odd central hallway running north and south inside and not east and west from the front door.

No frost last night by the way.  We had just enough breeze to keep frost from settling so the garden was spared.

Thursday:    It was a frosty world this morning.  Everything was coated with frost.  It was beautiful, truly it was but now it's time to go clear stuff out of the pots.  But that will wait.  

I sat outdoors yesterday evening with Caleb and got cold.  I have a scratchy throat this morning and can't determine if I'm sick or it's just the dry air from having the heater run all night long.  

I sat down with pen and paper this morning and determined what I'll do when this renovation starts.  I think the more I limit dishes until the dishwasher is up and running again the better off I'll be so lots of disposable dishes and cups (but real silverware because I loathe eating with plastic forks and spoons).  

I'm going to try to concentrate all my food making around the slow cooker and toaster oven with occasional use of the microwave.  I'm glad that it's the season of the year when soups, stews, pot roasts and other slow cooked, one pot sort of meals are welcome.  I have some frozen pre-made entrees in the freezer that can be reheated in the slow cooker, too.  

This means that I can put away ALL of the pots and pans, except the nine-inch square pans and two low profile loaf pans I have.  

Because I can put the pots and pans and real dishes away, I'll be able to put a few food items in the island limiting trips needed to the pantry...I remind myself this is probably only going to be for two weeks or so.

I took note on Tuesday that Kroger is having a decent sale on a few items.  They claim their flour and sugar is a sale price, but I think not.  However, with their buy 6 bonus buy, Green Giant vegetables are 49c a can, cream of soups are 99c a can, and name brand cranberry sauce is 99c a can which leads me to think they are starting their Thanksgiving sales early in the month.  I'll be stocking up on the items mentioned except the cream of soup.  I have plenty of those.  They also have Spam on sale, and I'd like to stock up on that, as well as Apple juice for Caleb, eggs and cheese.  I plan to buy grapes which are well priced this week, too.  Other than that, sales are so-so and I really don't feel I want to indulge in any other purchases unless they are already on my list of things necessary for restocking the pantry.

Friday:  Late today.  I'd had a miserable night Wednesday night because John was so restless.  He wasn't much improved last night either.  It was all I could do to drag myself about the house and make meals.  And that was about all I did do.  Except nap long and hard when Caleb went down for his quiet time.  He and I went outdoors this afternoon where he tested his new shoes by 'runnin' faster!'...I remember feeling my new shoes also ran faster and bounced me higher than the old pair.  It was much warmer out this afternoon than the past two days had been and the sun felt good on my aching body.

Now the family has gone to spend their weekend.  John and I have had Shabat.  And despite my two hours nap this afternoon, I am seriously considering slipping off to bed and sleeping a bit more.

I did manage to clear the entire bottom cabinet (except potatoes and onions) and most of the snack cupboard this afternoon and those items are mostly put away in the pantry...So the day wasn't a total waste.

How did your week go?  Do you have plans for the weekend?  I'd love to get out of the house...But will I feel up to it tomorrow?  No clue.