Journal of My Week: Winter Again

 

Saturday:  We went to the Homeless Outreach this morning.  It's funny...Two years ago, John asked me to go along with him and I was in such a poor mental/emotional state at that time that I literally felt pain looking at the unfortunate people who came to be served.  A year into John's role as worship leader for the pastor who oversees this ministry, I realized as I looked around the room how many faces had become familiar to me.  I noted which children had grown.  I watched various folks and noted who looked better than they'd looked a few months ago and who was looking the worse for wear.  

Not everyone who comes in to be served are homeless, but many are broken or destitute.  Some of those who were homeless come in and help serve now, too.  It's interesting to look back not only at my emotional/mental state two years ago and at how some of the 'regulars' have changed as well.  

This morning before we left home, I took up the one fiction book I got from the library this week when I took the kids.  Oh my, that book grabbed my attention, and I decided to take it along with me.  I read for the whole of the hour drive over and most of the ride back.  I read while eating lunch and after lunch and right up until supper.  I read after supper.  I finished the book before 8pm.  I was completely caught up in the story and the characters.  I'll be looking for other books by this author.

Oh, and unbelievably the items we ordered on Friday arrived yesterday!  No kidding, the battery-operated fan and the vacuum food sealer arrived yesterday afternoon.  We were so impressed with the little fan we thought we'd go ahead and order a second one.  Well, I couldn't find the code for the fan anywhere and I wasn't half so interested in paying full price for the thing right now.  

Funny, isn't it?  Reminds me of a meme I saw today that showed a man sitting with a closed computer on his lap.  It read "You just put $378 worth of impulse items in your cart and were ready to order it all...until you saw that shipping was $7.98..."  Well, the fan was on sale for $17 with the code but I'm a bit more reluctant to pay $40 for it.  No doubt we'll end ordering another anyway, because I seriously cannot imagine John and I sharing the thing if we lost power in mid-summer. 

Sunday:  I woke several times last night to hear wind and rain pounding the house.  Thunder only rumbled once but the wind was really rough.  We didn't lose any branches though, not even small ones.  The creek between us and town was already rising on Thursday and I was pretty sure that it and the river would both be up considerably after last night's rain.  

I forgot to look at the creek as we headed to church but I did note the height of the river compared to yesterday when we came home.  It was even higher this afternoon when we returned from church.  

This morning as we were headed to church, John suggested I call the grocery store to see if I could get chicken ordered for after church.  They had a spot open, so I placed our order.  John had said, "Tell them 12:30." which I thought was being optimistic about service being over by then.  It was, as it happened.  But it meant we needed to hurry out of the door.  There was no talking to friends and catching up to be done today.  

Getting chicken was worth the pleasure the children showed when we came in.  Maybe we all just needed a break from it.  Cody confessed how happy he'd been to see us bring it in as well.  It was good and it was nice to eat it with our family.   The children were pleased about the sugar cookie hearts, too.  And the whistles.  Katie was less than thrilled over the last.  

I herded the children outdoors.  Whatever rain we might have had overnight, was long gone and the sky was clear.  The sun was warm and there was a light breeze.  The kids blew their whistles and jumped and played on the swing and ran.  I think being outdoors for that bit of time was just what they'd needed.  

I visited with Henry earlier before lunch.  He kicked in excitement when I spoke to him when I came in.  I took him up and he spent the rest of his time either looking at and talking to his daddy or looking at and talking to Grampa.  Gramma was just the one holding him.  Everyone else was much more interesting.  

I will admit to melting though when Katie brought me his bottle and he took his tiny little hands and placed them on either side of his bottle.  He soon moved them through and wrapped his hands around my wrist as I held the bottle.  His little grip is strong!    If I'd wanted to move that bottle, I couldn't have done so easily without a bit of a tug because he was holding my hand that tightly.  

This afternoon when we got home, I noted something that had apparently blown off the porch in the yard.  I asked John to stop so I could pick it up.  Then I told him to just go ahead and drive up to the house.  I walked all the way up to the house.  It isn't that far but it is if you haven't done it in a good while.  I'm not fond of walking for no good reason but I'm pushing to make myself the reason to walk.  

Once in the house, I ignored all the housework I ought to have done and went right to work on my genealogy.  That is the one thing I promised myself I would work on every weekend, and I mean to keep that promise.  Five days a week, I push off things I would like to do for the things that have to be done.  Usually, I'd spend one weekend day just setting things to rights but this weekend, I have given to me.  I read all day yesterday.  This afternoon I spent the whole of my time on genealogy and worked on it until 8pm.    

Will I regret that on Monday?  I can't say right now, but if I get up and get busy right away in the morning, I think I'll be okay with it!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Monday:  I guess I did more over the weekend than I'd realized.  This morning, I slept a wee bit later, then got up and got busy right away as I said I would do.

After breakfast I cleaned our bathroom well.  This week I took the time to wash and clean the toothbrush holders, the soap dish (free standing not attached to the sink)  and the other things I have on top of the counter to hold q-tips and rings and such.  I swept the floors and called that good for that room.  Something I'd read online that has helped, not cured, but has helped, with the mildew along the shower pan seams is a squirt of regular Hydrogen Peroxide, the same sort you'd typically pick up in the first aid section.  It lightens the color of the mildew a bit.  I think it's because that bathroom is so cool.  In warmer weather I can open the window and leave the doors cracked to dry things out more but when it's cold, we don't.  

Forming the habit of opening the window in the bathroom more will be the hardest part of solving my problems in the bath.

I cleaned our room, cleaned my closet up, decided that I had three outfits set up and could make do with those three before I figure out more, made the bed and called it good.  

Then I picked up the living room quickly.  That mostly involved tidying the chair and cleaning up the genealogy mess I'd left spread over the dining table.

I was more than ready to tackle the kitchen.  I let dishes stay in the sink all weekend, hadn't emptied the dishwasher from Friday night's load, and piled things on the counters.  John had a load of laundry hanging to dry Friday that needed to be folded up.  He does all the washing and drying in the dryer and on the line, but I fold the clothes hung to dry in the laundry area.

It took me roughly an hour to get the kitchen tamed.  I started supper in the slow cooker, put milk on to heat for yogurt and mixed up a fresh batch of the Maple Pecan Granola.  At this point, I am done for the day with the homemaking part.  The granola has baked and is in the jar, the yogurt is incubating, supper continues to simmer in the slow cooker, the house is clean.  

We are going to go to Sam's Club tomorrow after an appointment and I really want to make out a short long list of things, some to get and a few lot to check prices on.     

Tuesday:  I don't think I mentioned that we finally got the lab orders.  John called yesterday to make our appointment to get blood drawn.  We know the nurse there, a former Macon County hospital employee that we like a great deal.  She was delighted to see us this morning.  And she happens to be most excellent at sticking...

We took a different route over to Roberta from our county seat.  It winds through hills and woods and over the river and then we turn to head east once more and go along lovely old back roads.  I spied masses and masses of daffodils...And blooming Quince, a few redbuds and a Japanese magnolia or three (also called Tulip Tree by the old folks in our area).  It is a known fact that once the Japanese magnolia blooms, we are in for another cold spell.  And we're heading into five nights of freezing temps and days that barely climb into the 40's.  Goodbye Japanese Magnolia blooms.

We went to Sam's Club to do our bi-monthly shopping.  I spent all the remaining portion of my budget for the month.    We always get tired walking around Sam's Club and have yet to even see 2/3 of the store.  

We drove home admiring the sunshine and messing up at one of the three roundabouts we have to go through, so we ended up taking still another country road part of the way home.  It was a happy accident.   Do y'all have roundabouts in your area?  We are seeing more and more of them spring up and while they can be a little confusing at first, I feel for the most part they are not as bad as they seemed at the beginning.    But the one where we messed up today is weird because you take a left lane to enter the roundabout and the right lane to make a turn instead of turning out of the roundabout path as is more typical.     We are not accustomed to the double laned roundabouts at all.

Once home, we unloaded the car and as soon as we'd had a lunch break, I went to work repackaging most of the meats.  I used the new vacuum sealer and admitted that I am very happy with it.  Our first one was a Food Saver, and I never really felt comfortable with it. It didn't last long either.  

This Fresco sealer does a most excellent job and has the added benefits of a bag cutter, and a vacuum jar sealer as well.  It also came with an extra foam pad to seal the vacuum area (in case one gets wet).  

I bought a lot of meat and didn't finish putting it all away.  The cured meats are now on the fridge shelf because I got plain old fashioned tired and still needed to make supper and clear up dishes.  John helped a lot this evening.  He made out labels for me, fetched ingredients as I made supper, cooked and drained the pasta while I made other food items, cleaned the sink so I could get the dishes done and swept the floor.  He did a LOT this evening and I so appreciated it because honey, all that walking at Sam's Club and standing on my feet for hours in my kitchen this afternoon...

Not complaining!  What a blessing to have the budget I did this month to restock my pantry and freezers.  What a blessing to have so much to put away that I can grow weary with the task!  Amen!!                                                                                                                                                                               Wednesday:  The sourdough starter is bubbly...It doesn't really smell like sour dough yet to me.  But now that I'm at the stage of having discard portions of the starter (about 1 cup a day) I am already using that product because dang it...I don't want to throw it away and make waste of it.  Yesterday afternoon, when I poured out the discard portion, I made a batch of blueberry muffins.  

I thought I'd best use it in recipes I could sort of wing it at making, rather than something that needed perfect measurements.  Today as I did my discard portion, I partially mixed-up pancakes.  I put that in the fridge for tomorrow morning.  When I say, 'partially mixed', I mean that I still need to add salt, possibly baking powder if the batter doesn't seem to have risen any, but I have added flour, egg, sugar and milk to the starter.  We'll see how that turns out.  I am officially on Day 4 of sour dough with this second starter.     

After mixing up sour dough this morning, I worked on dividing the breads I bought.  Since we typically only remove one or two tortillas from the package or 4 slices of bread (two for each us) on those days when our bread has run out or we want a sandwich and our homemade bread has started to crumble, I put a small piece of waxed paper between them so that we can easily remove our portion rather than find the whole darned stack or loaf is frozen together and impossible to remove.  Then I put the tortillas and bread right back in their own packaging and close it up.  I find this has worked very well for us.  I also separated croissants and bagels using the same method.  

Then I divided out a bag of Craisins.  I ordered a 48-ounce package of Ocean Spray craisins for $5.87.  I bought dried cranberries at Publix during Christmas to make cookies.  For a 5-ounce package I think I paid nearly $4.  That seemed high to me.  I do like to snack on a few cranberries or add them to granola or cereal, as well as some baked items.  I felt they were too pricey to snack on or plan to use overmuch.  I found these and felt they were an excellent buy.  I filled five 16-ounce jars with cranberries this morning.  The 'best by' date is November, but I have vacuum sealed the jars which should help them last beyond that date quite well.

I had pulled some soup from the freezer Monday night, planning to use it as an easy lunch yesterday.  I didn't even think of it until today.  Well, it had thawed as had the corned beef and both leaked everywhere in the fridge.  Ugh!  Why do these sorts of accidents never happen when the fridge is dirty?  Why does it only happen when it's all nice and clean?   And to add insult to injury I had place the two items in a basket, but it leaked out anyway.  Double Ugh! 

It rained this morning and is in the process of cooling off to chilly grade temperatures once more.  John fussed a wee bit, saying, "I thought cold weather was gone!"   Nope it's not.  And while all of next week is meant to be mild, I'll just bet you come the first week of March it turns off chilly all over again.  In the meantime, I just pull on a pair of socks and put on a sweater.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         Friday:  I'm out of sorts today.  Now that the bulk of my work for the day is done,  I plan to sit here and do nothing much.  I've taken some pain reliever for my aching knees, I have a soda (my first in weeks), a small but satisfactory lunch.  I've got bread in the oven, and a loaf of sourdough slowly rising on the counter.  I  know what we'll be having for supper.

I've taken time to journal this morning, in order to sort out some of the feelings and thoughts and anxieties swirling in my head.  I suspect in a little while I shall take a nap and then I'll be well and truly sorted.   

There is absolutely nothing wrong but just a whole lump of feelings I haven't bothered to work through over about a dozen things.  Including sour dough anxiety.  Yes, I'm perfectly serious.  I'm having sour dough anxiety.

Never mind me.  The recipe I used for sour dough bread made a very firm dough.  It did double overnight and is now in a pan and is slowly rising.  It had a lovely fruity smell this morning when I uncovered it but it's still a very firm dough.  I think it was too much flour that perhaps my home's moisture content is lower and I needed less flour.

It's going to be fine.  

It's all going to be fine.  The things I can't change will eventually work themselves out.  

There is nothing wrong with me but what a little added rest won't help.  

It's been a good week overall.  It's really cold (for us) but the sun is shining.  Yesterday as I came home, I noted that several more daffodils are blooming and this morning, I saw that the forsythia is budding out.  The roses have new leaves sprouting.  The season is waning.  All things will change and be better for it in the end.

See you next week!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Amazon Associates Affiliate Link: If you use my link to enter the Amazon site and place an order, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases.  Thank you so much! I just received my December 2024 payment.  I earned $24.  Thank you, again.