Journal of My Week: Sweet Week

 

Saturday:  I woke from an awful dream that upset me mightily.  Then I checked my blood sugar which had spiked at a number that I personally found shocking.  

We went across the field today to celebrate a late birthday and an early birthday.  Millie and Isaac have birthdays just 8 days apart and each year they do one party for them.  They each get their own cake and presents, and they seem perfectly happy to share their party at this stage.

  

I did not eat birthday cake today or indulge in a half soda.  No way!  I drank a lovely glass of water to wash my lunch down with.

Millie got her first bicycle.  Isaac got a size larger than the one he's been riding.  

Bess's mom was there, too, and it was nice to catch up with her.  

I came home and played with genealogy for a few hours.  I checked my blood sugar again and it was far more acceptable.  Whew!  But it made me very mindful that I need to check it more often and I need to be very mindful of what I eat.

Sunday:  Church this morning was so powerful. Tuesday night we'd watched a televised ministry out of Tennessee that we watch most Tuesdays.  They sang a song that we've heard before but it was very moving.  Well, that song got played this morning at our church as well and it was just as moving.  People crowded the altar, many giving their lives for salvation, some recommitting themselves to the Lord.  It was such a powerful thing!  

We arrived at church early and we stayed until late.  We enjoyed meeting and greeting several that we know.  I truly never thought we'd be so close to so many people in our church because it is quite a large church with about 2,000 attending.  Yet, I know far more people than I'd ever imagined I might.  It's such a lovely feeling of having a community.

We went to pick up John's prescription and then headed home.  He stopped for gas and asked me to get him something to eat as well as a cup of coffee.  I got peanuts and a bottle of V-8 for myself.  I should have looked closely at that bottle.  The doggone thing was the Hot and Spicy variety and I'm telling you it lit me up.  I like spicy items and don't mind hot ones but that was way too much of both!

I reheated dinner which was thawed entrees from the freezer.  I made a salad to go with that meal.  But it was so late, nearly 3pm that we didn't want supper tonight until nearly 7pm.  John said we're getting a bit too sophisticated!

Monday:  I got up this morning and the moment my feet hit the floor the electric clicked off/on/off/on/off, hesitated and clicked back on and then off again for one last time.  I thought about my desire for coffee which is truly the thing that makes me want to get out of bed.  No electricity, no coffee?

Oh no, not at all.  I just pulled my trusty stovetop percolator from the shelf, put it on the gas stove and filled up with my regular grind coffee from the freezer.  9 minutes after it started perking, I had a lovely hot cup of coffee.  I am so glad I am prepared for such minor 'emergencies'.  

About the time I got done with my coffee, the electricity came back on.  

After breakfasting this morning, I started my Monday home blessing.  I opened all the windows in the house and just let the house air out really well.  They remained open until dark this evening.  John actually complained that it was a little chilly.  I was amused as the AC kicked on at one point, but I just turned the AC up so it wouldn't come back on.  

I'd mentioned to John that I intended to clean up the front porch.  That man went right out and tidied it up!  I was very happy to have that taken care of.  I sat down and started working on my genealogy notebook.  I am trying to gather scattered notes into some semblance of chronological sense.  I worked on that until 9pm tonight.  I was at it for 9 hours.  I didn't finish the one section I was working upon but I was about sick of it by that point.  

Tuesday:  Katie and I had planned to meet up to go grocery and Target shopping.  There was no 'fun' shopping involved today.  We each concentrated on what was needed.  

I was fascinated to see how Henry reacted to the shopping.  Turns out that like his brother, he is very much a people watcher.  He had a ready smile for most folks and spent his entire time kicking, smiling and cooing at us.  And yawning.  But he was not having a nap while we were out and about because there was too much to see.

We stopped to have lunch.  I had a buy one get one free coupon for a meal at a fast-food place.   The food was hot which made it twice the pleasure, as the day was truly cold and damp and gray.  Katie and I sat there for quite a while after the meal and chatted.  We don't get a lot of one-on-one time.  There's always a child or a man around who wants in on the conversation or to distract us.  As we were leaving, Katie asked, "Mama, can we do this once a month, just get together me and you and have a talk?"  I agreed easily.  

Home to John to unload the groceries and plan out what we'd have for supper.  I messed up this week when I took food from the freezer.  I took out something that I'd been thinking about but not planned into the menu.  The weather however, dictated soup to me and so I took the ground meat intended for the cabbage rolls and made a pot of chili which hit the spot tonight with it being so cold.

The weather was miserable all day long, but the day was sweet all the same.

Wednesday:  I've been up far too long already today.  It's only 6:30pm but I was up awake around 4am and got up about 4:45. By 5:30 I'd done all my bill work for the month and was ready for my coffee.  John was up early as well, getting up around the same time I did.  That's been 'normal' for him all this winter.  I've noticed he's coming to bed a bit earlier each night these days to offset those early mornings.

It was miserable outdoors today.  The misty rain was now a foggy rain and the temperatures, while not as cool as yesterday were still plenty cool.  My bones ached.  Just a deep-down ache that nagged at me and made me as miserable as the weather.  

I did get a few things done through the day, but I worked slowly and took my time with long spells of sitting and resting in between tasks.  I cleaned out the fridge and sorted things.  I noted I had something to make for lunch two more days this week, something towards a breakfast one morning and something I could make for supper.  I put pork roast that I shredded to use as barbecue and carnitas in the future.  I also mixed up a spaghetti casserole and divided the meats I bought yesterday.  I cleaned our room up after another rest.  

I ran to town mid-morning and dropped off mail, did some banking and made the executive decision to pick up a sandwich for us to share for lunch.  I cleaned up behind our lunch and sat down chilled to the bone.  I pulled a blanket over me and doggone if I didn't go to sleep the moment, I got warm.  Oh, but that little nap did me well.  When I woke, I still didn't feel 100% but my bones were aching a lot less.

This afternoon I prepped vegetables and meat for supper then emptied the dishwasher.  Little by little all the work got done.  I cleaned up dishes while supper was cooking so I had very few dishes to clean after.  

Thursday:  I was awakened several times last night by really heavy rain.  It's cloudy today but not foggy.  I plan to take the kids to the library this afternoon so I'm trying to get supper ready to reheat when I return.

I'd thought and thought what I might do for Valentine's Day for the children.  Naturally I forgot all about buying cards to send to the long-distance grandchildren, doggone it.  At least so far, I'm remembering birthday cards!  Anyway, John was cleaning out something in the music room and came across a box of whistles.  I remember buying those two or three years ago.  I'm sure the kids will appreciate them and each of them will get one in their favorite colors.   I thought I'd make sugar cookie hearts in various sizes and pack up a bag for each household here, too. 

John asked if he should buy me candy today.  I debated and we came to a stall in thinking.  I hate him paying full price for candy on Valentine's Day.  On the other hand...last year one the day following Valentine's there was NO chocolate left.  And the year prior, nothing was marked down even a week following Valentine's Day, they left it all at the same price it had been.   

It was rather wondrous to walk through Kroger last week with Katie because there were flowers everywhere.  LOADS and LOADS of flowers, up and down the floral station, in the produce department there was a double row of huge boxes running the full length of the produce department and the whole aisle between the food shelves and the cashier lanes was filled with boxes of flowers.  We both kept stopping to admire arrangements but admittedly we were put off by the prices.   $50 seems a bit much to me.  I usually come in under $15 with my choices of flowers and typically I'm closer to $10.  

Anyway, sugar cookies suit me best. They are one of my favorite cookies and I like having the fun of decorating them.  No child ever complains about a homemade cookie anyway.

later:  I had the loveliest time at the library this evening with over an hour of conversation between myself and the two librarians.  

Something that has come up repeatedly in conversation this past week has been the subject of sour dough and each time I mention that I am planning to start making sour dough bread.  I have had absolutely no clue that this was going on in my head but apparently it has been!  Officially I am committed to making sour dough.  I'm not going to get an old starter.  I'm going to try and make my own.  I'll start it in the morning when I am in the process of bread making and have the flour bin out already.  Y'all wish me luck! 

Friday:  Up early and working early as well.  I was happy to have all the housework completed by 10a.m.   John had finished laundry by then as well, so I was ready to make breads.  Today I started two batches of dough.  I put one in the mixer and one in the bread machine.  I made one batch into hot dog and hamburger buns (they are too large...next time I'll make them a better size).  I also started my sour dough starter.  I'm following the directions from King Arthur site.  We'll see how this goes.

I was working on my credit card bill, figuring out categories and such and that led me to my email to print out the statement.  While there I scanned mail and found some codes on Krazy coupon lady for some pretty good purchases, namely a vacuum sealer marked down from $99 to $29 and a small battery-operated fan, something we have promised ourselves for summer power outages.  That was reduced to $17.  I had saved the last two gift cards from Amazon and brought the price of the two items down to $8.04.  I am so very pleased.  That's less than 10% of the cost of the vacuum sealer for both items!    I've been looking at vacuum sealers for quite a long while now and I am very happy to get one at such a low price.

I found clear plastic food grade gift bags in my stash of things and packaged up cookies for the two households.  Then I made separate packages for the kiddos across the field of popcorn packets and whistles.  This afternoon we'll deliver cookies to the kids.  I won't get Katie's kids their stuff until Sunday.

For the rest of today, I shall work ahead at blog work and play with genealogy.  I have already read through two of the books I brought home from the library yesterday.  One was a very small book about interesting things in Georgia that I read in under two hours and the other is a Six Sisters cookbook.  It was easy enough to flip through that cookbook and scan recipes.  I don't really consider it reading, but I did find a couple of recipes worth copying out.  I look forward to trying both of them.  

I like having basically a half day free on Friday when I know I have a busy weekend ahead.  It's been another lovely week.   How was yours?

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