May 6: Sweet Things to Tuck Away

 

Hello dears.  I fell into a rabbit hole, a genealogy rabbit hole that is and hence I completely and totally forgot that I had a blog to keep up with!  It was a nice break for me, and I accomplished a load of work and found some new puzzles to fret over and figure out.    I spent all day Saturday at it.

On Saturday morning, Sam started texting me early, about 7am.  He was showing me pictures of the most beautiful rolls he'd made for breakfast, a raspberry orange filled roll.  I literally drooled looking at each of the pictures he sent (he sent them in various stages of development).  I couldn't have been more pleased when he ran by here with two large rolls for us to have as breakfast.  They were absolutely delicious, so tender and wonderful.  He made a HUGE pan of them.  

We had the rest of Saturday to ourselves.  To be honest, I rather enjoyed having a restful day with just the two of us all day long.  

On Sunday after church, we went off to Katie's and lingered longer than we'd planned.  Henry is at such a delightful stage.  He growled and roared at me and then he talked to me, very seriously with a frown and very sweetly with a smile.  He talked and talked and talked.  That was after he got through looking at everyone in the room and demanding to go to them as I held him.  Apparently, my lap is just a resting place between other laps.

It must have been a chatty boy day because later I went outdoors with Caleb, and he crawled up on my lap and talked and talked and talked which was lovely.  He told me about butterflies and chrysalis' and wings drying and how fragile they were.  He pointed out birds and dragonflies.  He told me about the neighbors and waved to people on the street.  He told me about school and what he wanted for Sunday dinner next week, which ended with 'and a new Hot Wheels car' every single time he recited it.  I really enjoyed that time on the front porch with him.  

He told me they were going to move.  I asked when and he said "We're going to get a new house.  I think before I turn six."  I'll tell you all that this is something that no one has talked of in front of him, but it is true!  Or at least it's hoped that they will be able to move before the end of this year.  The plan is to put a new home here on a section of land, something that all of us are looking forward to.  Caleb hasn't been told anything because he has difficulty accepting the concept of future time.  He's good with tomorrow and can almost handle 'in a week' but months ahead?  We just don't tell him what's afoot when it's far away.  But I found it very interesting that he'd decided they needed a new home.

He assured me that when I am 99(!), I'm going to live with him so he can take care of me.  I'm putting that promise away in my heart, just as I did Josh's promise at about the same age as Caleb now.  Josh said that when I got old, he would give me $1 every month so I'd always have money...Sweet things to hold onto!

Sunday was just a lovely day, one in which I was showered with lovely things from sweet souls.  First, I was given a little Easter bag of goodies from a church friend and then another gift bag from our friends who left this weekend to do missionary work in Roatan, Honduras.  Donny gifted me a vintage Coach purse, a wallet, and about a dozen quality necklaces to add to my costume jewelry pieces.   Then Katie gifted me a beautiful African violet and lovely coffee cup (nice and deep with pretty blooms all around the bottom) and a new pair of sandals she'd never worn.

When we got home that afternoon, almost evening, I settled right back into the rabbit trail I was on and worked away for until bedtime. 

Yesterday, I cleaned house and got ready to run errands.  I wanted a haircut, desperately.  I also wanted to run into the grocery and to get our car washed.  And we wanted to check the 'mission' mailbox.  We're picking up mail for our friends in Honduras and will ship the more important pieces to them as required.  

I was so happy to get one of my most favorite hair stylists.  At the grocery we wanted to pick up chicken for this coming Sunday's dinner, and I needed lettuce, wanted decaf instant coffee for my summer Dalgona coffee treat mid-afternoon, and a pair of sunglasses.  I bought much more than that of course. 

I got watermelon, which was buy one get one free; a box of Pop tarts, the first I've bought in ten years; a bag of tortilla chips; bananas; a box of crackers for John, which I've hidden to keep him from eating right away; two tomatoes; a rotisserie chicken; and the first soda I've purchased since Labor Day last year.    John put half and half in the buggy, though I'd not planned to buy that at all.  I'm sure there was more.  Can you tell I went in a wee bit hungry?  This all comes from my May budget, taking me down $108 (not including the sunglasses).

For all that we spent, I wish I could tell you how much money I absolutely positively saved, over and above the $30 I saved purchasing things on sale.  I know I saved a great deal more because I put ever so many things back!

 We took the car to the car wash.  Oh, how desperately it needed that cleaning!  Now the pollen season is done it seemed a good time to proceed with cleaning the car routinely once more.  We vacuumed it out as well and I thought I'd do the trunk, but it was full of stuff, including groceries.  We had picked up something to eat in the deli and had that on our drive home.  

And when we got home, once the groceries were put away, I was right back at that rabbit trail trying to sniff out more leads and unravel the mysteries I'd encountered over the weekend.  I stopped long enough to prepare supper then went right back to it until bedtime again last night.  Then I lay awake in the wee hours trying to unravel the knots and did come up with a possible solution to a name that was very badly misspelled and poorly written on a census form.  We'll see later today if that leads to any helps at all.  

I was working at my desk yesterday afternoon when Josh ran in and asked if they could borrow a tomato...I laughingly told him he was in luck because I'd just bought two.  The funny thing was I stood in front of those tomatoes yesterday and I said to myself that they were so large, I would only get one.  But I stood there debating and debating and thought, "I'd better pick up two..."...and then Sam needed a tomato, lol.  Funny how that worked out.

This morning, I sat down and transcribed all my notes onto proper family pages and finished up the whole section (save the mysteries).  But I've told myself that I need to back off and just allot an hour or two per day at most, if that much, for a good while.  I didn't even think of blogging until mid-morning this morning.  Nor did I think to log meals or check in on my app, etc.  

I did look into cancelling the app and I'm caught.  It will cost me three months of charges to disable it now.  Since I have only four months left on the agreement, I figure I might as well get my four months, but I have tagged it to unsubscribe me when that agreement period runs out.  Not logging on this weekend was simply due to my getting caught in that genealogy research and forgetting myself entirely.  Sometimes getting 'lost' in something can be very restful and soothing.

The interior work on the house is now finished.  Travis did the last of it today.  Then he went around touching up spots here and there.  It looks just lovely.  John keeps exulting over how good the new corner moldings look on the walls.  

I have bitten my tongue quite hard but slipped this afternoon and said, "I told ...." and stopped myself.  His eyes sparkled and he said, "Did you tell me it would look better?'  I looked at him and smiled.  It was an ongoing minor argument between us that the broken corner moldings on the walls were bringing the overall appearance of the house down to shabby and beyond.  He insisted it was far too expensive an issue to fix, and I insisted it was not as expensive as he feared.  He never had it priced out.  It was a further surprise to me that he contracted to have them done when the kitchen was painted.  There's one of those corner pieces in the guest bath but that will wait since we want to refresh that room in the future with paint, a new vanity, flooring and that piece of corner molding. But that will not be this year!  And likely it is one of those tasks that will be done in bits and pieces.

Our front porch had an edge board that needed to be replaced.  We knew that and that was done. What we didn't realize is that some of the other boards are just as worn and weathered and need to be replaced.  So, the railings on the step will wait until we get those new boards done in the future (it's not a dire job but needs to be this year).  What we will get done sooner though, likely in the next few weeks, is the back steps and railing will be replaced.  They take the full brunt of weather and rain since they face west.  Travis is going to replace that with concrete blocks.  

We had a nice morning here in the house.  I interspersed work on genealogy with tasks that needed to be done.  Sam came by to visit a bit and told us he'd been to see Katie and spent time with Henry.  He took Katie some of those Raspberry Rolls.  He came home with a cantaloupe, dill, parsley and marigolds from her.  Travis was working away humming as he worked.  The doors were open, and we could hear the birds singing.  There are times, I just stop and appreciate my home and all the people in it.

Oh! I cannot forget that Sam brought me something today that I've wanted for the past 15 years.  Something I'd asked for ages ago when Granny passed away but wasn't allowed to get.  He went into Granny's old house (he owns that now) and got out her cast iron pans and brought them to me!  I really only wanted one of the two large frying pans that she cooked in most frequently, but I'm proud to have all four of the pans he brought me. Once is a Dutch oven and the other is a griddle pan for making 15 layer cakes and hot water cornbread. 

 I stood on the porch and cried and cried when I saw them sitting on the chair.  I cry now as I think of them.  Of all the things Granny had, those cast-iron pans are the one thing that seem to connect me to her hardest.  She used them all of the time.  She had many pots and pans, but the cast-iron frying pans were on the stove every single day.  She fried her Sunday dinner chicken in those pans.  They'll need a lot of cleaning and will need to be re-seasoned once they are thoroughly cleaned but it's like having a piece of Granny with me here in the house to have those pans.

And there you have the past few days of life here in the Blue House.  It's been so lovely!

Amazon Associates Affiliate Link:  If you use my Amazon link to enter the site and place an order, I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases.