May 15: Just Relax and Flow With It

 

After a bit, you can get awfully tired of trying to fight the current.  All set for a day at home today, and the last thing last night was John turning to say, "We have to go get mower blades tomorrow."  I sat there for a silent second and then said "Okay".  I just let my body relax and went with the flow.  This week will not bend to my will, so I must bend to it.  

I slept like a rock last night.  And woke about 5:20 this morning.  John and I both were up by full daylight (which is somewhere around 6:20 or so).  That is typical of this time of year for us.  I showered and stripped the bed and bath...Wait!  Did I forget today was Thursday and not Friday?  Nope!  I was thinking about how we must be up earlier than we've been getting up in order to follow Sam over to Columbus to the body shop he's using to repair his truck.  And anticipating that likely neither John nor I will feel like doing loads of stuff once we're back home.

So yes, Friday chores started the day.  John did two loads of laundry today.   I made the bed up fresh.  

I mixed up muffins before I sat down to have coffee.  I had about 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce left in a jar and 1 lonely overripe banana.  I added in almond flour, flax seed meal, egg, half Stevia and half sugar, some oatmeal, chopped nuts.  They came out almost too tender and soft, but they tasted well enough.  I put a half dozen in the freezer and four were set aside for snacks/easy breakfasts after we ate our meal this morning.  

After the muffins were done, Katie and I were texting back and forth and she said if I wasn't busy, she'd call.  I told her I wasn't busy and went out on the front porch to sit and watch the birds.  It was lovely.  Not just being outdoors but listening to Katie chatter away telling me all the news.  I really enjoyed that morning call.

After breakfast I got ready to go.  John wasn't ready quite as soon as I was, so I filled that brief window with the beginning stages of a pedicure.  That made me feel good, about myself because I stayed on top of my footcare this time around.  I still need to polish my toenails but all else is done.  

Then we went over to Perry to the lawncare dealer and picked up his blades.  Can we order them online?  We can.  But the last time we did, the blades were stolen from the package, and we ended up paying over $50 for an empty package.  We just figure it's best to go pick them up.  They are a bit cheaper, and we don't spend enough on gas on this trip to make up the difference.  AND we know we have blades, in hand, not 'lost' in the mail.  Admittedly, we seldom have anything 'lost' or stolen' but when you have to pay twice for something you reconsider ordering it at all.  

And yes, mail woes continue here in Georgia.  It is a rare day I get a bill early enough to mail a payment with a ten-day window between receipt and due date.  It is an even rarer day when I mail a bill more than ten days earlier than the ten-day window and the company receives it before it's gone past due.  

On the way home, John and I stopped at Dairy Queen and picked up burgers and a fries.  I have asked several times that John add tomato and lettuce to my burger, but he never remembers.   I might have fussed or insisted he correct it but again, I just relaxed and flowed with it.  Why make a scene over a slice of tomato and a measly lettuce leaf?

The food was good and hot.  So hot that the fries sizzled on the tongue.  They put several packets of catsup in the bag as well and I couldn't resist eating hot fries with a drizzle of catsup.  John and I took it in turns, each eating just one hot fry with a squeeze of catsup until we'd eaten them all.  They were so good!  Mind you we were both fairly hungry.  And the burgers were still warm when we got home with them.  They were good, too.

And that was about all we did today.  I settled in to do quiet sort of work this afternoon.  I worked on my grocery list.  

You know, I always made out my grocery list based on every sale item I wished I could buy if the budget stretched and the things I absolutely had to get.  And there was a time when I could get all of what I needed if it was in stock and enough of what I wanted to keep me happy.  These days my lists of what I hope to buy on sale are down to about five items per store.  And the 'wish list' part doesn't even exist!  I was going over the sales this afternoon at Publix, Kroger, Food Depot, Aldi and Piggy Wiggly.  There weren't a dozen items for all those stores.  My needs list is long enough but the sales simply aren't there, not on the sort of items we routinely use.  

What do I see on sale most lately?  Lots of processed food items, cleaning and personal care things.  We buy very little processed food, seldom purchase cleaning or personal care items.  We've relatively low consumption in the last two areas.

I am not saying prices are higher than ever.  Yes, they have increased a little.  I'm still struggling with the idea that I can seldom find a reasonable (80/20) ground beef for a bit over 5.  That Chuck Roasts continue to be about $7/pound.  What I am not seeing, despite a lot of claims that we are in the direst of places are empty shelves, or outrageously high.  So, my dollars aren't stretching quite as far as they used to overall.  The same boat that apparently all of us are in.  

Yet I feel very assured that we will manage just fine.  As I told John the other day, for all that I do, I have yet to dig down to the deepest of my money stretching skills.  I am employing more of them than I did say ten years ago, and yes, I'm spending more on groceries than I did ten years ago, but we are managing to eat and we're not starving by any means.  And knowing that I have a whole set of skills that are unused as of yet...Yeah.  I feel like I can manage for a bit longer.

Let's just relax and flow with it all.

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