Saturday: Late yesterday afternoon we sat on the front porch until supper was ready. It was cool and breezy, comfortable. So very unlike our usual August afternoons/evenings.
Rufus came up to speak to John, thinking he was safe from scissors snipping at him, but unfortunately for Rufus, John picked him up and called to me to get the scissors and finish cutting the big patch of matted fur I'd gotten almost loose yesterday morning when he mutinied on me and walked away.
August 21:
Today I didn't put anything up in the pantry or freezer, but I did go to the hardware/auto parts store with John where I bought a flat of half-pint and a flat of quart sized canning jars.
When my Amazon order arrives today, I will have the Cream of Mushroom soup to put away. Apparently, the Cream of chicken soup is delayed until next week.
Saturday:
John and I ate leftovers for supper, the chicken and dressing and vegetables leftover from last week.
Sunday:
John stopped to pick up chicken tenders and potato logs on the way home. I appreciated that very much. But we had supper of more leftovers from the week behind.
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Today on the way home from running errands and shopping, I was chatting away to John. We passed the home of someone we know from church. Since we have been to his home in the past, I made comment that he had a nice home. It's average mind you on the outside and it's not fancy inside. But it sits far back off the road in a shady garden and it looks cozy. But, having been in the yard and home that one time, I knew that in the backyard, surrounded by a white picket fence was an in-ground swimming pool. Also surrounded by trees and bushes and in a semi-shaded setting, it had a tropical feel. It was quite private.
As we speak, bread is rising, spaghetti meat and vegetables are cooking waiting on seasoning and tomatoes and sauce, kidney beans are soaking to be canned tomorrow (hopefully) and my mind is awhirl with Fall cleaning plans for September. I've just got a brain full of things!
But my current thoughts are centered on my post from yesterday. While writing about a discovery season in my life during which I learned a great deal about myself, I recalled that there were some formative book and movies that hit me like a ton of bricks and really made me stop to think about that future ideal life. I thought I'd carry on in that line of thought.
When I was growing up there were three things the women in my family said repeatedly. "I'm not as smart as some and not as stupid as others." "We're as good as anybody else and better than some." "I'm exercising my prerogative to change my mind."
I haven't used any of these terms in my life that I'm aware of, except for the last one. I do occasionally exercise my prerogative and change my mind. I practiced that today.
Just recently I'd said, I wasn't going to can those bags of collards that were eating up space in my freezer. I was going to cook them, preferably in the slow cooker outdoors, then freeze them. This was due in part to my desire to season the greens as they cooked and partly due to the fact that I like pot likker, the juices the collards cook in, rather well. I find the liquid left behind after cooking very tasty and it's full of all those nutrients that cooked from the greens which makes it like a health boost in my personal opinion.
I was sad to hear the AC on when I woke this morning at 7:00am... What about the cooler weather we were promised with mornings in the mid-60s and days barely over 85f? I'd planned to clean the back porch this morning, but I had no desire to go outside in heat and humidity to work. Instead, I gave the house a Monday house blessing. I did a lot of work yesterday evening because of my plans for this morning.
The low 60's temperatures are coming! Tonight, we're supposed to get down to 61 and for the next 10 days we'll be hovering in that low to mid-60's vicinity. I am not prepared for this!
I got up early...Not intentional. I'd forgotten to turn off my alarm last Saturday. Never mind. I got coffee and afterwards I had a bit of time with Rufus on the back porch. He let me shear another portion of his matted fur off him and now he's acting like a puppy. I suspect when I get the rest of that mess of him, he'll feel like he's gained ten years of youth back.
I did get a bit close to his skin. He's not cut anywhere, nor even been pinched. But he does have some bare spots because that is how matted up his fur was.
The back pain has lingered on for so long that I began to be fearful I had something else entirely going on. Like any other good internet junkie, I finally looked up my symptoms and struck out all of the least likely things (liver infection, kidney stones, gallbladder) and landed right back on what I thought it was initially: Muscle strain). I stopped being stubborn and went back to taking the occasional pain reliever. I try not to use it multiple times a day but when it's bad enough, I'll take some just to get the relief, which helps my attitude tremendously.
Saturday:
For breakfast this morning, I pulled muffins from the freezer that I'd made earlier in the month.
lunch: we had leftover pizza slices left from mid-week.
supper: Chicken and Rice Soup. One container of the Chicken soup said it had been in the freezer since 2023...Sheesh. How did I miss that one? It smells good still. It's basically just leftover broth and bits of meat from cooking off broth at some point. I added rice to the pot after the soup base came up to a boil.
August 11:
I've already counted this into the first record of this challenge, but I bottled the herbs I'd harvested last week.
Started planting the fall 2025 garden today. I had potato eyes (I let the pieces scab over), green onion in water and a celery end root here in the house. All of those got planted. Then I planted Blue Lake green beans, parsley, Japanese eggplant, carrots, zucchini and yellow squash.
Our hectic weekend took a toll. But so did canning last week. I hurt my back at some point on Thursday when I had the water bath and electric canners going. I've been struggling along ever since.
Even though I'd gone through my home on Sunday and tried to pick up, it was still in need of a lot of loving care come Monday morning. I decided to just take the day off of from canning and kitchen work in general and continue to rest my back which is a good deal better but still twinging.
Ruth Ann Zimmerman, whom I follow on Instagram, about having food preservation in her DNA. And later she shared a brief post about having anxiety this time of year. She felt it was because she came from a long line of hunters/gatherers who produced, harvested, preserved, and stored food for the year ahead.
I can so identify with that attitude of feeling you must create food storage.
Saturday: Today on our way home, two things heralded the coming end of summer. Pearsons Peach Shed put up a "Closed for the Season" placard on their main road sign. No more local peaches for us! I had stopped just yesterday by the truck farmer's stand here in my town because I saw he had a few baskets, but I'd noted that he had had two cases and only one of them had any peaches left. I realized that it was likely the last we'd have this year. I picked up a basket from him.
The other sign was along the creek banks on the highway that leads up to our road. Goldenrod was blooming
One thing I mean to do in this challenge is use up expired, older items that have been lingering in the pantry and freezer. I have a small amount of stuff on a pantry shelf that I need to use. There are two or three items in the prepared foods bin in the freezer that I certainly need to use. I did not even pull the about the expire items on the shelves of the pantry, just those that absolutely were expired.
This is my attempt to use food we've already paid for and not let it just become money thrown away. I confess they are sometimes things I just don't want to eat, but we will eat them. On the days when I cannot make something more palatable with an item, I will make a plan to have something we really like along with it or at least at the next meal. We are adults. We can eat our foods and not kick up a fuss about it.
I was having the oddest dream this morning when John woke me. In the dream he'd booked a family day outing to a labyrinth of an old house to be followed by sea fishing. Bess, Sam and the children, John and me, and Caleb were all there. Bess was troubled about something and I got an overall feeling of sadness from her that really made me feel upset.
Somehow I got left behind and I kept catching glimpses of Caleb who'd apparently been cut off from the group as well and I was chasing him down. There was a room full of huge ice blocks (pretty sure that is the result of reading Farmer Boy), a sand snail farm with gigantic snails that had a Zen like patterns raked into the sand beds, a farmer's market (prices on beef were good, lol) and more. Suddenly John was with me and he corralled Caleb. We were checking out of the place and the cashier insisted I had to unbox every item I was purchasing because they wanted to recycle it all. I was so upset because some of the items were meant to be gifts. At this point, John woke me.
John left moments ago to attend men's meeting at church, and my supper is a frozen dinner that says it requires 45 minutes to cook. So I've time to spare and I've had much on my mind, again. So here I am.
I refuse this time of year to go into any craft store. I don't want to look at autumn and Christmas displays...I don't, but I know if I want something very specific for either season I need to be out looking right now because if I wait until I feel it's an appropriate time, everything will be picked over hard and nothing worth having will remain.
This is what I added to may pantry/freezer for the first week of August.
August 1:
6 boxes of cereal: I got a variety of our favorites. These were BOGO at Publix and a really good deal. I earned Ibotta and extra Fetch rewards on them. I put 5 in the pantry storage. Why 5? Because John opened one right away.
2 boxes of Poptart's (BOGO). We rarely eat these, but they are nice to have on hand especially if the grandchildren come in.
Saturday: This morning, I woke up and made coffee. On Saturday, I forgo Instagram which is how I take coffee during the weekday. But on Saturday's I abstain. No particular reason, just something I felt led to do a few weeks ago and I've honored since. When I no longer feel the stay on my spirit about it, I'll probably return to it. This morning, I watched a couple of videos on YouTube. I'm in the blessed position of sleeping fairly well lately with only an occasional night of not sleeping at all. So, I'm well behind on all of the YouTube channels I normally would watch.
Hello dears. I've been terribly busy here at home, getting things in order, but I wanted to take time to just chat and not just about the work I've been doing in my home.
John and I have had some deep conversations of late: about finances, aging, dreams we've had to let go, kids...Pretty much what all folks our age discuss. It's led me to do a lot of thinking during my working hours when he generally leaves me alone to do whatever I am doing. Deep thinking.
I recall the days when I was filling out one of those magazine surveys. You know the ones I mean, where you were filling out a card for a magazine subscription or a free sample and the company printed part of the card with a simple survey to be filled out. That was way yonder back before computers were normal household items and demographics were gathered in just the way I said: on post cards that you mailed in to a company.
Saturday: Roasted Chicken Sandwiches. I took a whole chicken from the freezer to thaw last night. I put it into the slow cooker this morning, then after it was done put it to crisp and brown in the oven. Delicious! This was our supper. John had a sandwich. I chose to have a piece of bread and sliced chicken, not made into a sandwich.
Chef Salad. For lunch today we had big bowls of Salad. I used sliced ham from the freezer along with a variety of vegetable from the fridge.
I should truly say that "I am a canner once more." I canned years ago, both hot water bath and pressure canning, but I haven't done it in so many years I feel like a newbie. Today I canned 5 pints of chicken stock and 4 quarts of ham broth.
I was nervous as could be. One thing that my Nesco canner had me stumped with was there is a condensation catcher that is not attached. It doesn't show me where I should attach it either. I've absolutely no idea. The other thing that delayed my progress was this thing called a U-Pin that they showed in the manual which was supposed to be in the sub-assembly of the pressure gauge. I didn't ese it anywhere in my accessories and no one online even mentioned it.
We've had rain for the past four days. It had rained before I got up. The morning was cool and overcast. I had my coffee on the porch and left my phone inside. Rufus and I sat together. I saw a hummingbird fluttering about my few flowers. That's the first time I've seen a hummingbird this year.
We walked out on the patio after I'd finished my coffee, and I looked over the plants. The fig tree I thought had died has already budded again. There are a few zinnias popping up from the last planting. The basil has grown to nearly six inches in the last few days. I checked the tomato plants. As full of blooms as ever, but still no tomatoes.
I woke rather early Monday morning, around 6:15. I slept incredibly well Sunday night due in part to the cooler, rainy weather we're having just now.
I was feeling very ambitious but decided I would take time to have a cup of coffee before I went and started any projects. I tend to have muddled brain before I am caffeinated! When I'd finished my coffee, I got up and got busy in the kitchen right away.
Friday Evening: It's 8:30pm. In 15 minutes, it will be dark outdoors. When did that happen? Oh, I know it's gradually coming when we hit June 21. I know that the days slowly start to become shorter. But just last night I got up to shut the blinds because it was fully dark outside. Not even a hint of light in the sky. I turned to look at the clock and it was barely 8:46.
Saturday: Chili Dogs, Chips, Fruit. It wasn't about to expire, but there was a can of chili in my pantry that was not a favorite brand. I had hot dogs leftover from the last time the kiddos were here that I'd popped in the freezer. I loaded the hot dogs, wrapped in foil and put them in the oven. It was lovely and delicious, but messy.
1. Take part in the #everybitcounts challenge. My focus will be restocking my pantry and supplies this month. I don't especially need to make jam or jelly. I don't have vegetables to can or freeze, but I do have empty spaces in the pantry that need to be filled. I'm very mindful of what has expired in the past and why. I won't be stocking some things as heavily as I have done in prior years and there are things I won't bother restocking at all. My main focus here at the beginning of this challenge will be on basic items and then I'll look at the 'nice to have' items later. I'm very happy with my progress!