Rainy Days

 

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.

I'd noted Sunday that at least two of the peaches had started to turn brown and knew the bowl full was fully ripe at this point.   So, my first project was to start a batch of Peach Streusel muffins.  These turned out just lovely.  I used part almond flour and part stevia to sub in for half the flour and half the sugar in the muffins and a bit over a cup of diced peaches.  

When I was making muffins, I decided to use the almond flour to make the streusel...Y'all those muffins turned out so good.  

I did note that the almond flour had a very slight 'off' taste.  Not rancid but obviously planning to turn soon.  I put it in the freezer which should hold that off.  And in future if I buy almond flour, I shall put it straight into the fridge or freezer and not into my cabinet.  I don't know why I didn't think to do that right off.   I did check the expiration date, and it said "Best by May 2026" so it was well within date.

After I made the muffins, I went through the fruit bowl and set aside two peaches that weren't bruised and still had a little firmness to them.  I told John that was our 'eating peaches'.  I had about six more that I peeled and pitted then cut two large ones into dices and made a peach cobbler.  The rest of them I sliced and put on a cookie sheet to flash freeze.  I vacuum sealed those into two portions to be used in the distant future.

By the way, I was curious about what I paid for these peaches.  They were a half peck basket and cost $22.  That's far more than I paid for peaches last year when I was buying half bushel boxes and bringing them home.  I don't know why they were so high this year, but I confess it's one of those things I don't care whether they cost much or little.  I love peaches and it's one of the truly seasonal local items I can buy and really enjoy.  However, I'm no spendthrift either.  If peaches are that pricey, I'll eat fewer peaches!

I started bread dough in my bread machine.

I had taken ground sausage from the freezer to thaw.  I made sausage balls with that meat.  When I stock up on meats this month, I'm going to get extra bulk sausage and make up some sausage balls to have in the freezer.  And now I realize I just purchased five pounds of bulk sausage and put it ALL in the freezer and didn't make a single sausage ball.  Oh well.

I partly sorted out the fridge.  I began by taking out the 4 pack of bone in skin on chicken breasts I'd gotten on sale Friday.  I put one in the oven to bake for dinner, and vacuum sealed the other three to go into the freezer.  I brought out the squash and the bag of green beans I'd bought when I got the peaches and some onion I'd peeled and put into a jar in the fridge.  After breakfast, when my bread went into the oven, I diced and cooked the squash and onion and cut the green beans and set them to cook, as well. 

When I put the chicken breasts into the freezer, I took out an ear of corn that I know is from last year's batch and two of the Twice Baked Potatoes I'd made up about two weeks ago and frozen.  Those went into the oven with the chicken breast.  Now my dinner is cooked and all I'll have to do is reheat it all.

I went out to put the stinky compost bowl on the back porch railing and was shocked at how cool it was outdoors.  It was down in the 60's!  I had gotten hot running about the kitchen and doggone if that cool air didn't feel really good.  It was raining again, too.  With the cool air and slow rain, it felt like autumn outdoors.  

Rufus and I sat together and just enjoyed the gentle ping of the rain on the tin roof of the porch and the cool air.  Sassy didn't care for the atmosphere of anything except the inside of her food bowl...She has no care beyond her belly.

I came indoors and cleaned up the kitchen and thought of all the rest of my work for the day. But first, I sat down to rest with my feet up.  I have learned that I need those rest breaks if I want to get a lot accomplished in a day's time.  After about an hour, I got up and cleaned house, a full Monday house blessing.  We had a big lunch with all the food I'd prepared to cook while the bread was baking.  Then I cleaned up the kitchen really well (again) and then it was full on rest time until our simple supper.

Sam had called me earlier in the day and asked if I'd run up to his house and move the pizza dough from the fridge to the oven.  When I went up Sheldon, his dog, went right into the house.  Sheldon is a deaf-mute dog.  He is sweet as can be, but he wasn't going back outdoors. I texted Sam that I'd calculated how long he'd be indoors before they came home and thought he'd be okay.  Fortunately, Sam agreed it would be all right.

Sam stopped by here on his way home.  He lets the kids ride the bus home because he gets that short quiet space between the classroom and home before the kids come in.  Sam is a student teacher this school year and will earn his degree at the end of the school year, I think.  He brought us cinnamon rolls he'd made and taken to the teacher's lounge.  He said he was shocked that no one took even one.  Well, they missed out, but we didn't!  

All in all, it was a pretty darn good Monday.  

Well, I paid for all my hard work Monday night.  I couldn't sleep for aching back and legs.  I had planned to visit Mama today and really didn't want to go over tired and worn down.  Nothing seemed to ease that leg pain, not medication, not heating pad, nothing.  I finally got up at 5am and went to the guest bed.  That mattress in that room is very firm.  Almost too firm if you want to know, but I have found that it will often help relieve my back and leg pain if all else fails.  Sure enough, I went off to sleep and got four good hours of rest.

Mama's apartment was strangely quiet. I asked where her dog was and she said, "Oh she died last week sometime."   I didn't care for Alaska, but she was who she lived with.  She was old and fussy, snippy and barking all the time.  Mama would yell at her, and she'd bark. Mama was not broken up about losing that dog either even though she'd had her a good 16 years or so.  

The day with Mama was about like always.  When I was taking her back home, she made comment that Tuesdays were my niece's day to visit.  Ashley goes by once a week and visits with her.  She does Mama's grocery shopping and light housekeeping for her.  I apologized to Mama and told her if I'd known I'd have come another day.  "Oh, it doesn't matter.  Ashley has no reason to come on Tuesday, she just does."  I said "Mama, she homeschools and has her own house and life to manage.  I'd think she comes on Tuesday because it best fits her schedules.  Mine is more open just now than hers."  It's so typical of Mama to not be aware of the responsibilities someone else has. I texted Ashley later and apologized to her.  I told her in future I'll choose to visit another day of the week.  

Ashley said she didn't mind, but I do.  She works in her home the way I work in mine.  I used to absolutely loathe people who took it for granted that I had 'nothing to do' when I was up to my eyeballs in projects and work at home!

We have a small leak under our bathroom sink. John came out of the bathroom last night and said, "I don't know why the box of Band-Aids is wet..."  That's all he said, too. So frustrating!  I went in to investigate.  Why he didn't do that is beyond me.  I found that it was only very slightly damp, but apparently at some point it had leaked before because I found two other boxes had previously been wet but had dried.  You know how cardboard appears and feels when it's been wet and then dried?  I took everything out from under that side of the cabinet and laid paper towel about the pipes.  When we went to bed it wasn't wet.  When I got up this morning, it was damp.  John found the fitting had a pinhole.  

John used to make these sorts of repairs, but he had a nightmarish situation under one of our sinks where he couldn't shut off the water and the cabinet flooded as did the floor.  Ever since, he's been very leery of amateur plumbing work.  Mind you all we have brand new pipes and brand-new shutoffs on our plumbing in the kitchen and our bathroom, but he's absolutely refuses to touch any of it.  We've put in a call to someone to fix it.  I hope they come before it decides to turn into a 'cut off the water' emergency leak.

I am quite serious about spending this month getting my supplies back up to snuff. I knew it would take extra money to do this and set aside my last pay from keeping the boys to boost my grocery and other funds this month.  I've already made inroads on my lists, and I still haven't spent all of my last two weeks' pay or touched August's grocery and household funds.  

I don't feel any particular urgency to restock.  This is something I am doing because for three or four months now we've been pretty much living off the supplies we had on hand.   They aren't depleted but we do have outages.  It will soon be cold/flu season.  I feel most comfortable when I am well stocked for that season.  

It was really brought home to me last week the need to restock.  We started running out of things, olive oil, Crisco, soap, deodorant, peanut butter, Q-tips, over the counter medications ran out.  It seemed like every time I turned around either, I'd use the last of something or John would say, "I just took out the last...." The trash can was filled with empty containers.  And I knew I'd been right to think it was time to start getting my supplies in order once more!

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.  Thank you!