Loving Home

I don't know about you but I am so ready for fall. I am tired of high 80's low 90's weather. It seems the last couple of years summer comes early and stays late. I look forward to: leaves turning colors cool mornings long sleeves but not quite sweater weather Canadian Thanksgiving then .... American Thanksgiving getting ready for winter getting ready for Christmas I honestly get ready for Christmas year round. It just makes it so much easier. I am not as far along with getting ready for winter then I would like to be right now. I need to go to the farmer's market and do some more canning. I want to check out Palmer's Produce also. I want to try to can carrots this year. My dream is to be able to avoid the grocery store during the winter if I can help it. David is really good picking up a little of this or that, so is Ian. I need to make a list of what I still want to do.

This is my first "at home" day in a long time. So what am I doing? Sleeping in and then computer. What a waste of a good morning most folks would say but for me it is heaven. Thursday is the one day that Rachel has a ride to and from school. So Thursday shall become my day to stay home and let David have the car. Don't get me wrong, I don't mine running Rachel here and there but it really tires me out and I need a break. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I go swimming and by Thursday I am sore so it is good. Ian has adjusted to his job and it is kinda strange to think of him working in an office setting. They are having a pizza party during lunch and if Ian had had a football shirt he could have worn jeans but alas his first paycheck has not arrived yet so he was unable to buy one last night. Hopefully by next time he will have one. He is hoping that his first check will arrive in the mail today. Once he gets his first full five day check then he can work on a b...

My dear son, Ian, started his first job, post graduation yesterday and he is already thinking of continuing the search. I had to laugh. He has never had to travel through a "rush-hour" to work before and I know he is his mother's son, I dislike interstate travel. He was 6 minutes late his first day and on time his second but he is so stressed that he is finding it hard to relax once he is there. I was afraid that this might happen. He has promised to not quit until the next one has been located. Tennessee is one of those states that can fire without giving a reason. I will counsel him to wait until he has decided that it is not a good fit. Two days is not a good indicator of a good fit or not. Please keep him in your prayers as he adjusts to real life.

As both of my children ponder moving out I began to wonder how things would change. How would your life change? The big area I was looking at was my food storage. Right now I am storing for four adults plus guests. Soon it could just be 2 adults plus guests. I would buy slightly different food also. Dh and I are diabetic and I could see slightly changing the way we eat. Our garden would shrink a little bit also and I can see planting more fruit trees instead. Of course, I most likely will keep storing for four adults just in case they come back home or have a rough month with their bills. My dear sweet mother in law helped us through some very tough times. I need to be their for my children also with out being a crutch. They will need to make their own mistakes as we made ours. Other things that could change would be my utility bills. Both my children shower everyday and sometimes twice a day, plus their laundry, etc. It sure would be quiet around here also. ~smile~ So mu...

This is definitely one area that I need a lot of work in. My style of filing leaves a lot to be desired. I think I am going to make a goal or two for the next couple of months. 1. Get to the filing cabinet and use it. ~smile~ it is not in the best of spots and I need to figure out where to put it so I can use it more. 2. Reorganize my kitchen. I really want to get this done before Rachel starts school on August 30. She is such a great helper and with her not going away to school this year getting it organized will help us both. If I can get going on these two others will fall into place. If I can work on these two things on good days then on the bad days I am not fretting about how bad the house looks.

It has cooled down enough to can again. I have two quarts of diced tomatoes in the canner right now and then I will have pickled sweet banana pepper rings to can. Not sure how many 1/2 pints I will get. After this I will officially be out of pint and half pint jars. I really need to go through and find the cranberry salsa I made last year. David did not like it so I need to dump and wash the jars. I also need to make barbecue sauce and cranberry sauce to can. I need to make zucchini bread and cake to use some of the shredded zucchini from last year in the deep freeze. Next couple of days will be busy busy.

Okay, I just went through the freezer and my deep freeze and through out 1 1/2 garbage bags of very old or freezer burn items. I also moved all of my protein (except for beans) into the freezer in the kitchen. I don't have as much as I thought. I have: Salmon Tilapia 2 whole chickens (on the small size) 3 meals of chicken 1 pkg turkey bacon 1 roll of ground turkey 1 roll of pork sausage 1 hamburger patty I thought I had more ground meat. Not good. Payday is not until Friday so here is my meaus: Breakfast: cereals eggs, toast and bacon waffles or pancakes Lunches: leftovers peanut butter and jelly sandwiches tuna sandwiches Dinners: chicken thighs, boiled new potatoes and veggie salmon, corn and veggie sloppy joes with a bean stretcher added whole chicken, peas, carrots and onions spaghetti tilapia, peas and carrots Also on Friday we are going out to eat to celebrate Ian's college graduation. Not sure where yet. I will not need anything from the grocery story. I have the...