Diary of a Homemaker's Week: January's Joyful Days

 

Saturday:  It rained and rained last night.  However, that rain kept the weather fairly mild, and we slept very comfortably without any heat at all.  We did add an additional blanket to the bed and we both slept with socks on.  That helps a lot.

We had a quiet morning at home, which is very beneficial.  Then we went out to lunch. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts and got a cup of really good coffee and a donut as our last bit of something sweet.  On the way home the skies cleared, and it had turned into a lovely day.  

I realized something on the way home.  For the past 6 days I've been happy.  Not worried.  Not broken up about family life things going on or worrying about things over which I have no control.  Yes, all of those things are ongoing, but I am happy anyway.  I do not take this lightly.  I have lived in what seemed to be a constant state of frustration, worry, hurt and upset over the past year so to have this feeling for even just this part of this year has been a completely unexpected blessing.  

When I got home, my phone rang.  It was my granddaughter Lily calling to tell me she's booked tickets to come to Georgia in June for a visit.  I'm so excited to see this girl once more.  It's hard to believe that she will be 18 when I see her.  Sam connected Josh and I on messenger, so Josh can talk to me now and then if he likes.  Those two things are my January Joy for today.

All in all, a wonderfully relaxed and happy day.  

Sunday:  We made it through the night with it chilly in the house.  My biggest concern, as I keep telling John, is that my Amaryllis is coming up and my orchids are ready to bloom.  I am so afraid the chill time in the house will do them harm.  And I do so look forward to that burst of blooms along about my birthday each year.   I got up about 3am and turned on the heater when it went below 50F in the house.  

I could hear the wind blowing this morning as I got ready for church.  It was still fairly cool in the house and after getting colder and colder as I put on my makeup, I decided that warmer clothes were in order.  I also pulled out that new winter coat.  I didn't take it off, even in church!  It is so cozy and warm and fits just perfectly.  I'll share that down below as my Amazon link for this week.  If you need a winter coat and want one that looks a wee bit dressy, this one is a great one to have.  

What surprised me was not teenagers in shorts today but grown-up men.  Old men!   What on earth are they thinking?!   Do they not notice the weather outdoors?   I just shook my head, as did John.  Perhaps they are just super spoiled by their convenient heaters?

We stopped on the way home to get gasoline.  I went in to get John a cup of coffee and I looked hard at juices but settled on a V-8.  I like V-8, and John groans every time he sees me with one, but as I pointed out to him yesterday, it's got 3 servings of vegetables, no added sugar, fiber, protein and the whole bottle is just 60 calories.  It made me wonder why I haven't opted for this more often.  When I choose a soda, or cold coffee, I generally only drink half but that's still way more than 60 calories.  Not that I count calories, but I am thinking of something that Jennifer at A Country Life shared.

She said she'd had a word of the year just pop into her head and she'd decided to go with it. Her word for 2024 is 'better'.  She said it was a reminder to her to do things better than she has in the past.  So instead of eating 3 cookies she might have 2, or she might choose to do a job better than her first impulse might have led her to do it.   

I kind of adopted the word myself after watching.  I ask myself over and over, "How can I do this better?"  And so, it popped into mind yesterday when I walked into the gas station store.  "Can I do something better than a soda?"

When we got home today, I made up a recipe.  I don't know if any of you used to follow a woman named Jo on Yahoo groups years ago or not.  Her group was called $3 a day and it was her goal to come in under $3 every day for meals and snacks and such.  She had two sons, one of whom was disabled.  And just about the time yahoo groups was disbanding groups entirely, that son died.  I learned a LOT from her back in the day, just reading how she made broths and how she used foods up and how she planned meals and such.  

Whenever she made up a recipe, she called it cooking 'Off the Cuff'.  Personally, I call it being creative.  Whatever you call it, I made up my own recipe yesterday for an Italian Sausage and Peppers Pasta that turned out super good.  I put that recipe in a note following the menu item on my Homemaker Plans Her Week post for this week.

I went about the house after lunch and picked up somewhat but mostly I sat in my chair, covered with a blanket, feeling so cozy and warm and that sent me off to sleep for a good 20 minutes.  It was a lovely nap.  I'm counting that as my lovely thing for today.  I don't get to nap often and when one surprises me, I really enjoy it!

The day went on after that, as such days as this do.  It's been a quiet, peaceful day at home.  Now I'm ready to jump into work for the week ahead.

Monday:  I stopped about an hour ago for a cup of hot tea and some fruit cake.  That was a lovely rest stop in what has been a busy and productive day.   

The house is Monday tidied.  Truthfully, I didn't expect to get this done today because I was under the impression that I had Caleb today but no, he went to school, and he is now going full time there?  I think.  Truly I don't know.  Kate texted this morning that if he failed to behave at nap time, we'd have to go fetch him and then texted that he was asleep.  So, there we are.  That's today sorted. 

That freed me to get busy in the house and I did.  I cleaned every single room and even managed to get the guest room rearranged and partly sorted.  I found a missing sock of mine and sorted through the clothes I had set aside for future Caleb.  I was able to pull a few 3T shorts to be donated.

I made a recipe I've had my eye upon for years now.  It's called 'Tamale Pie' and I didn't make it exactly to recipe but as near as the original as I could.  I'm not sure about this one...Just taste tasting alone has me convinced we're going to nix this one in future, but we'll see.  I might end being pleasantly surprised. 

UPS brought my new bathroom trash can and curtain rods.  Not impressed with the curtain rod at all.  It's not as nice as it looked online, and it proved to be fussy in various ways.  John worked that part out.  Then I had to alter the rod pocket of my curtain for it to fit the new rod.  It looks nice enough now we've got the thing hung and all the kinks worked out but yeah, not impressed.

Then Amie contacted me and after waiting a month for her Christmas gift to ship and it being delayed repeatedly it arrived and was the wrong size.  I suppose a 9 looks like a 6 to some.  She's so busy, I don't feel I can possibly ask her to process a return of the item...She said the package was badly damaged in shipping on top of all that, sigh. Amie said she'd pass them on to her youngest who could probably wear them.

I told her how sorry I was.  This whole ordering of gifts for her household was just a right mess and a total pain from start to finish and cost me twice what it ought due to a silly error on my part...Phooey.  I told her I'd make it up to her and I shall.  She'll get an early birthday and it will be doubly nice since it's a combined Christmas and birthday gift. 

While John went to fetch Caleb from school, I went outdoors and filled the bird feeders.  I meant to have done this mid-autumn when it began to get cold, but I failed.  I wonder how long before they finally discover there's food here.  I also took a few minutes to look over the 'garden' such as it is. I pulled my first carrot.   That's one of my joyful things for today.

After I washed it really well, I cut it up for Caleb to eat with his supper.  He ate it all!  I saved the tops to dry for 'parsley'.  

I wasn't home while Caleb ate supper.  I went next door to watch Isaac and Millie.  My joys there: playing with the kids.  Isaac is a budding playwright.  He kept telling me what to pretend and coached me through my lines, lol.  And Seneca, the big dog, came running indoors when Sam returned and she tucked herself up tight between my knees in the hopes that Gramma would keep dad from getting her back outdoors.  Silly girl.

Tuesday:  Weather warnings the day before resounded and Caleb's school closed.  Initially Katie had a doctor's appointment that was cancelled.  She was planning to bring Caleb to us but instead he stayed home with Cody, after Cody came in from his morning's work.  

The weather here was rough enough, but not horrible.  It thundered some, but not any of those great claps that scare you, just rumbles.  And it lightninged some but nothing too scary there either.  It blew some and brought down limbs that were already dead or weak but not any more than usual.  It rained a heap.  Boy did it rain!  And the electricity went out for a few hours which made the house very dark and gloomy because it was so dark outdoors.  But all in all, it wasn't the worst of storms and I'm glad that we had no damage to report. 

Proof of rain:

I lit candles and we sat down at the table near one where I read and colored and John played about with the guitar and played games on his computer.  We had lunch and gradually watched as the sky lightened up and finally the electricity came back on.  

Having spent the morning lolling about, I felt compelled to get up and do something, so I worked on the checkbook to bring it up to date, then I made supper.  Katie called while I was doing that, and we chatted.  She said that Caleb had ridden on Cody's bus route this afternoon.  Cody had gotten permission to install a car seat on the bench right behind his driver's seat.  I'll bet Caleb was over the moon about that.  

After supper, I worked on getting our check register page set up for paying bills tomorrow.  At 8pm tonight I called the day done and came to relax and watch tv with John.  Not one of my most productive days but at least I got something done.

The joyful thing today wasn't when the electricity returned. It was looking out the window later and seeing the heart shaped puddle was still there, larger than before, a little ragged looking around the edges but very much a heart shaped puddle still.

Wednesday:  I was awakened by the phone ringing.  I couldn't find my glasses and then I heard John speaking, so I figured whoever called me must have called him.  It was Kate.  Due to whatever, she had forgotten to get the car seat out of Cody's car last night and he'd gone off to work, taking it with him.  She had a doctor's appointment this morning, after they cancelled her due to weather yesterday.  So, she had apparently slept in and not until she started out the door did, she realize that she didn't have the car seat.  We had to go over to Perry to pick up Caleb and bring him back to the school.  

He insisted all the way over to town that he was not going to school today.  I told him repeatedly that he was going to school and just how his day was going to go.  I promised him a treat if he was good all day long.  I haven't heard a thing from anyone about coming to get him, so perhaps he has been good.  We'll see.  

After we got home, it was hurry and scurry.  I made the bed, fixed breakfast, shivered and shook...The repairman was due this morning about 11.  Having had to leave the house and turn off the heat, it was well and truly cold to me, especially after coming in from the cold.  I longed for a second cup of hot coffee, but alas...I settled for a hot breakfast instead and putting on my warm slippers.  

I worked on our bills.  Then I took time to write down our final budget for this year.  I now know all the increases and decreases we will face and could be very accurate.  I won't save 10% of our income as hoped for but I will have some savings I can make each month.  I planned for all the usual fees and such and then set aside a little extra for miscellaneous expenses.  I like to work with a zero balance budget, meaning I account for every single bit of our income and know where every dollar and penny is going to go.  I'm satisfied that what I have on paper is something that should work, given normal circumstances.

I got supper started for tonight in the crockpot, shifted my menu about a bit, then folded clothes.  The repair man came and apologized to us for the expense.  Seriously?  It was about what I paid last time this happened which was a nice surprise because I fully expected it to be a LOT more.  And it was nice to have the heat come on and warm the house right up.  As I thought, we're now accustomed to temperatures being a little lower and we're probably going to adjust our thermostat down to something between where we've been keeping it and where it's been the past few days.

I did a complete big freezer inventory this afternoon and was pleasantly surprised at how much more food we have on hand than I'd thought.  If I do nothing else, I'm going to try to better track my inventory but ingoing and outgoing items.  I do inventories about once every three months as a rule and had done both a pantry and freezer inventory less than a month ago, but I seldom remember to add or subtract from the items on my listing.  That inventory had shifted quite a lot (I had MORE which is always nice) and that made me realize that I really do need to be more on top of this.

While I was busy with that John was busy too.  I'm not really sure what all he did, but one thing I know he did was to make sure the pumphouse light is working.  We haven't really had to use it yet this winter, but next Tuesday it's meant to be cold all day and then well below freezing at night and I want us to be fully prepared for the seasonal weather that is surely coming to us over the next few weeks.

Today's Joy: I can't share it just yet but it's a nice thing.

Thursday:  I slept really late this morning.  For some reason I had a hard time last night, not sleeping but in staying asleep.  John got up a little before 7am this morning.  I put in my earbud and listened to today's scripture on Daily Audio Bible app.  Well, I heard the Old Testament part of the message.  I went off to sleep again before he moved to the New Testament scripture.  I woke up again about 8:45.  I haven't slept that late since summer.

I had a lovely morning puttering around the house.  I moved things that were out of place and put them away.  I wiped down areas that were spotty.  I tidied.  No, I'm not done but it was nice to just go from room to room and attend to various little things I am prone to ignore for weeks at a time.  I ended this afternoon by taking a green scrubbie to the entry wall where two chairs had rubbed paint off onto the wall board.  I wondered to John why it had taken me so long to get around to that little task...But I know just why.  It was one of those little things that we become blind to after looking at it and forgetting it over and over again for days/weeks/months on end.  

Today's joy: puttering about the house.  I was reminded yet again of how very happy it makes me to see my home looking neat and clean and pretty.  And to have the time to get such done.

I thought about my goals for this week and finally decided today was THE day to get all the stuff going to the shed out to the shed. I took it in stages.  I got it onto the porch and then puttered around indoors and then finally after lunch, I said to John "I know it's going to rain tomorrow, that's why I put it on the porch.  So, I'm going to go on out and just deal with it."

Not only did I get stuff to the shed, but I cleared the porch of the broken rocker and stool and a potted plant that was dead.  I moved the bin of potted plants I am trying to overwinter to the front porch and gathered up an armful of trash there.  Then back to the back porch where I continued to move and organize things. 

 I decided for now to leave the shelfing unit on the back porch.  I just moved it down on the wall beyond the middle of the porch.  I now have stored some things on it, like the bin with the birdseed for the feeders in the yard and the dog's food container.  Caleb had already claimed the front of one shelf as his place to line up his yard trucks and cars and tools.  I'm not keen on having shelves piled with stuff on the porch but then again, I'm not totally against it either if it's neat and tidy.  I mean, most of the stuff is on the porch anyway.  Now it's contained to one area and not here and there and in the way.  I have done what I can.

This is only a beginning on the porch work but it's a start.  

Friday:  No contractor to see to the leak yesterday and none today.  I'm glad it's still a minor thing but honestly...I'd rather have it all seen to.

Today we were forecasted to have rain.  It's not been much of an 'event'.  In fact, this morning, Caleb and I went outdoors and cleaned up the rest of the yard. I even got the patio clean-up done.   When I say clean-up, I mean that I got things looking tidy.  It is by no means clean.  Like the porches, it looks better but not clean.  

Big news is that I finally finished off the flower bed about the Sweet Gum tree that I've been working with for years.  I decided this past summer to reconfigure the bed, and this meant that I had spare blocks which finished off that bed at long last.  Now, obviously, I can finally start a new bed.  Here's hoping that it doesn't take the same number of years as this last one.  And that's not a fully done bed.  That's just the blocks.  I'm still planting and working on the Sweet Gum bed.  But the outline of the bed is finally complete.  

Do you know what I'm struggling with at present?  A good hard case of not wanting to have to cook a thing.  It couldn't come at a worse time.  I have nothing convenient in the house, and a 4-year old with me.  Not conducive to making me want to get out in the weather to pick up take-out.    But does that fuel my desire to want to cook?  Nope.  I have cooking fatigue.  

That doesn't stop the need to do something, though.  Sigh.

All in all, I got more done today than I'd hoped.  Having Caleb here is a good reminder of why I accomplished so much less over the past two years, lol.

How was your week?  Any weekend plans?  

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