MY CHOICE IS EITHER/OR - BUT THERE WAS A THIRD CHOICE

 I suddenly realized that it was Wednesday night and I had no thought on what to write about.  Then the mess presented itself.  

First, I should explain that I am a rather picky eater so many nights I cook a completely separate dinner for myself from that which I cook for husband.  I mostly have set dinners to cook for me when I don't like a particular food he wants for dinner – for example, on Monday nights he has hot dogs and beans for dinner.  I can no longer eat hot dogs (due to getting sick after doing so once) and I don't like/eat beans.  So on Monday nights I make myself a chicken patty and rice left over from Chinese takeout – sometimes with a gravy, tomato sauce or left over chow mein vegetables.   Not a big deal.

But tonight it got sooooo much worse.  First there was dinner.  Husband was having smoked sausage with left over mu shoo chicken (see even our choices in Chinese takeout are very different) and some rice.  I had a boneless chicken breast with leftover pasta and added peas.  So to start with, after I cooked the kitchen was full of used pots in addition to our dishes, etc.  Not a problem, normally we watch TV (in the kitchen) and when he goes upstairs after the weather report at 11:20 pm I do the dishes.  Not a big deal.

We had discussed today having a chicken stew that we like for dinner tomorrow.  The plan was to cook the chicken tonight (2.5 hours) and then tomorrow afternoon I would take it off the bone and use the meat and broth to cook the stew.  Husband knew this was the plan and that I would be cooking the chicken after we ate dinner, and while we were watching TV.

Husband still had in the freezer a package of ½ pound of ham, left from the ham we cooked for New Year's Day dinner and had taken it out and put it in the fridge to make ham salad.  It never dawned on me that he planned to do this tonight after dinner – but that was his plan.  So the chicken had to wait.  

The sink was mostly full with the dishes from tonight and we had used both of our 2 quart pots, both of of our 1.5 quart pots and both of our 1 qt pots.  A lot to wash, but it did not bother me.   

I was about to go and take out the chicken to simmer for tomorrow's stew when husband told me that he was going to make his ham salad.  I looked around the kitchen at the lack of space (we have a rather small kitchen) and knew that if he had this idea in his head, we were going to make his ham salad “now”.  

I had to find the small food processor we have – and had forgotten completely about as we never used it until he decided to make ham salad Spring 2020 after we made a ham for Easter.  I found it.  The had to find the other items he needed to make it.  Remember, I said at the start of this post that I am picky eater, well there are foods that I don't even look at, let alone touch and one of them is any kind of meat salad or anything else with mayonnaise – or even mayonnaise on its own – and you know who is going to be cleaning all of this up.  He made his ham salad and while he was finishing up and putting it in a plastic container, I started the chicken cooking.

So now our kitchen sink had the assorted cooking and eating items from dinner, the equipment he used to make his ham salad and was overfull already.  

I left the chicken simmering while we finished watched TV.  I then had to start washing what was in the sink – which had to come out of the sink to do so.  Washing up done – even the terribly icky (to me) equipment used to make his ham salad and from heating his mu shoo.  

Then the garbage question.  If we leave the remnants  of the ham and other items from dinner in the kitchen they will get smelly in the garbage.  Tonight is one of the one the nights we can put out garbage for the morning – so it goes out tonight or sits either in the house or our large garbage can outside.  Which one?  The amount of garbage in the bag/pail is maybe 20% of the capacity at most  - probably less.  Which would you do – waste the rest of the bag or have smelly garbage – and I should mention that the style of bag I like (with twist ties) is getting harder and harder to find – in addition to being a general waste of the plastic bag to put it out so empty?

Aha!  I can almost always find another choice to a problem.  I took the matching sized bag of paper garbage from our office downstairs and dumped it into the kitchen bag, which filled the kitchen bag which could to out for pickup without wasting the bag.  I have another bag of the same size in our paper shredder which is just about full – so tomorrow after I pull apart the chicken for the stew, I can throw the bones and other icky parts into the replacement kitchen garbage bag and then dump into that bag the shredder's bag which should just about fill it – and then put that full bag in our outside can to take out of same and leave at the curb on Sunday night for Monday pickup.  I will have filled and used a new bag in the kitchen, and will need yet another one for the kitchen, but I will be able to continue to use the 2 bags in the office until they are full again.  Problem solved.  

The chicken finished cooking since I started writing this post and I have put it in a plastic container to deal with tomorrow and its liquid in a separate plastic container.  I have not yet dealt with the pot and utensils from cooking the chicken – they are soaking and will be washed when I do the wash up from our late night snack, so I have to chance to breath – until I need to go downstairs and change loads of laundry which are washing in the basement.  (Wednesday night is first laundry night, followed by finishing of same on Thursday night.)

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

When confronted with two choices and neither one of them works – look for a third and maybe even a fourth choice. Don't presume that the situation is “either or”.  Often there is another or several other choices that one has not thought of before.  In this case I managed to find a solution so I don't have smelly garbage in my kitchen while also not wasting a plastic bag by putting it out without it being filled. 

COVID 19 #22 STORING AND LISTING FOOD SO YOU CAN FIND IT IN THE FREEZER

 Last week I told you about our food shopping trip.  One thing I have to do at some point not too long after we go food shopping is write up new lists of what we have in the freezers so we use it all up and don't let anything go to waste by lack of memory.  

Everything that had to be was pushed into a freezer when we got home – other than a few items that were not frozen and could stay for a bit in the refrigerator, but needed to be frozen for longer time storage – such as fresh meat that will not be eaten for awhile.  I was not able when we got home to put a number of things in the freezer that makes more sense – meaning I try to keep packages that we pull out the items one or two at time in the upstairs freezer in the refrigerator – such as a package of hamburgers – so I have to run downstairs when we have same and pull out one burger for each of us – or just one for husband if I am eating something else.

Last Friday night I boiled the chicken we had bought.  Half of it was to be used for a Brunswick stew for Sunday night and the other half to be frozen for later use either in another of same or some other dish.  Since it takes quite awhile to cook the stew and the chicken meat has to cool down between being being cooked and being pulled off the bones for the stew, I often boil the chicken in advance so this is not unusual.  My plan was to make the actual stew Sunday afternoon.  I have to keep an eye on the stew while it is cooking so I also planned to do several chores downstairs at the same time so I would be nearby to check the stew and give it a stir every now and then.  

One of the things I planned to so was make new lists of what is in the freezers and see if I could switch anything around between the two so items I need to have in the kitchen are there and not down in the basement.  

I had cut a sheet of paper into 4 list shaped pieces across the width.  I used unused paper for this so there was nothing on the back of the lists to dirty the refrigerator door.  (I normally reuse paper that has been printed on and was an error, was something some website printed multiple pages when I only needed one part, and so forth- the back of the pages and often part of the front have no printing and it makes great scrap paper – full sheets or cut up.)

First I went to the basement to make a list for down there and see if I could juggle anything around to move some larger items (like second container of ice cream) to the basement freezer to have room in the upstairs freezer for the items I would prefer to keep up there for convenience.  This was not to be. I brought 2 pieces of the paper cut to make lists and a pencil – and a large towel that we have using to cover the kitchen table when we bring in new food items to let the alcohol they were rubbed with to kill any Covid 19 on the items.  I had to take things out of the freezer downstairs shelf by shelf to see what was there – there are 3 shelves and I put this on the floor so the food is not sitting on the floor itself.  I mark one list basement (or B) and “meat” on its top.  The second one is also marked on top for the basement and as “other”.  Technically not everything on the “meat” list is meat – it actually means main dish type item.  The “other” list is vegetables, bread, and so on that is not a main dish.  I rearranged the freezer so things fit it into better and listed the items on the papers.  

We have been buying what I call “frozen box meals” - by this I mean those meals intended for a family that are popped into the oven, cook an hour or so and are a main course and often also the vegetables and starch are mixed into the entree – examples of this is a prepared lasagna, turkey bake, and things such as small meatloaves or Salisbury steaks – these latter two need to have the side dishes cooked separately for them. We buy 2 each of a few kinds of each and have them Friday and Sunday nights when we used to go out for dinner in the normal days before the corona virus.  I stacked them so that the same dishes were together with the older ones on top of the newer ones so that when I take one – it is the older one.  

We have a few items which take up more room than they should for what they are.  Back in May husband ordered a 5 pound bag of frozen corn and a bag about the same size of french fries from BJs when we ordered from them.  I am maybe halfway through the bag of corn and it takes up a lot of room.  I just finally opened the bag of french fries – we also had 2 normal sized bags of french fries that we had to use up first before opening this one.  Add to that husband bought a bag of meatballs when we went to Walmart back in May and it was almost the size – and he does not like them.  So after one dinner from them, they were sitting in the freezer taking up space – possibly to do so long after the pandemic ends – so I decided I would eat them for dinner when he has something I do not particularly like.  Unfortunately one of the reasons he does not like them is that they have too much garlic.  So when I have them I have to go upstairs and rinse out my mouth with mouth wash after wards.  They are small meatballs and 6 are suppose to be a serving.  It will take at least a month and a half or longer to finish the bag, so last week I upped the serving size to 8 meatballs – every 3 weeks is one week less I will be eating them and one week faster that I get the space from them back in the freezer.  When these 3 items are finished and gone from the freezer and a normal bag of french fries and a normal size bag of corn are there instead the freezer will hold a lot more things.

As I am removing all these things from the freezer and rearranging them – periodically I run upstairs to check and stir the stew.

I then went upstairs and started on the freezer in the refrigerator.  I took out most of the items on the bottom shelf and put them on the kitchen table.  These 2 lists were the labeled the same way as downstairs except they were labeled as “upstairs” instead of “basement”.  I rearranged the items in this freezer as I listed them and then put them back.  Up here are things like leftover gravies and cranberry sauce. (Did you know can freeze these things?  We only use half a can of gravy and I froze ¾ of the can of cranberry sauce in ¼ of the can size in small plastic containers (pudding sized) when I opened the can and we had the first ¼ can with sliced (deli type) turkey.  Also on this shelf is frozen bread (none yet from this purchase) and frozen hot dog and hamburger rolls so they last longer as we are shopping much less often than normal.  I then took out the items on the top shelf and did the same.  Our top shelf is a lot taller than our bottom one and I had bought a good sized plastic “basket” that I put small items into to keep them together and also stand up bags in so it is easier to see them and I can take out the entire “basket” to check what it is in it.  I have frozen eggs in this basket, as well as frozen meats in portions to use.  Husband had ordered from BJs back in May 3 boxes of eggs (3 pounds) but they did not have them and he accepted a 5 pound restaurant pack of eggs instead.  We don't eat eggs early (or breakfast) and needed them to cook things.  We had worked our way through one of the two layers when the good by date came up and we froze the rest.  To freeze an egg one has to crack it open and mix the yolk and white so that the yolk is not intact.  (If left in the shell or the yolk intact they will expand too much and break the shell and/or the yolk.)  In the old days when I did this with maybe four or five eggs I would put them in plastic, lidded pudding cups – but I did not have dozens of cups.  I put a plastic sandwich in each of 5 cups at a time and put in some cups one egg and others two eggs – if we do eat eggs – a bag of 2 is used for each, if we need 3 (say for a cake mix) take a bag of two and a bag of one or 1 for something we take – we take a bag of one egg.  I have the 2 eggs in one plastic zip bag and the 1 eggs in another.  I list of all of the items up here the same way – main dishes on the
“upstairs meat” list and the rest on the “upstairs other” list.  To make dealing with and finding the frozen vegetables easier – when I open a bag of same I put the contents in a labeled quart zip bag which is labeled with the vegetable name and the date it is good until.  I reuse these bags when I use up the contents and change the good until date.  I have them – ready for this?  In alphabetical order in the lower shelf in the kitchen freezer door – easy to find.  

Having finished dealing with the freezers and listing their contents  (while stirring the stew in between) I put all of the lists on the refrigerator door with magnets (no point to having the downstairs freezer list downstairs – then I would have to go downstairs to see what I have – if all the lists are upstairs it I can see everything while upstairs.

These lists would not work as well when we are shopping normally – they would have to updated instead of replaced  - they work now being replaced as there are major changes each time due to the length of time between shopping trips.  

Since the stew was still not finished (it cooks a LONG time), I then stored away my July Lucy and Me  figurines from the living room and put my September ones – the August ones never went out.  Again, I was close to the kitchen to keep checking the stew.  

When the stew was almost finished I made some biscuits from refrigerated biscuit dough (this is not the same as the frozen biscuits, although the same brand) to go with the stew.  Freezer contents listed, frozen food arranged a bit better and easier to use, Lucy and Me bears out for the month and dinner cooked – all at the same time.  A good day of organizing and a bit fun in changing the bears.

THOUGHTS OF THE WEEK -

1 – If you have do something to do that takes awhile, but must be watched – see if there are other things you can do in the same or nearby physical location so time waiting to stir or check on the pot is not wasted.

2 – List what you have in your freezer (and for some people – also what is in your refrigerator – so you know what you have.

COVID 19 #11 - FOOD DELIVERY AND SHOPPING

On last Thursday (the day after I posted) we received another delivery for the food ordered. Again cans were dented – 5 of the 8 cans we received. I am sure I have mentioned that we don't ordinarily order things – and this is one of the things we worry about.

After we dealt the delivery on Thursday husband decided that it was time to go to the supermarket. His logic was that if we went during dinner time (around 6 pm) there would be less people there. Yes, we could go to the special hours for those who are older or at risk, but we are not morning people – we are barely asleep at 6 am when most of the special hours start. We have a Walmart Neighborhood Market at which we normally do a good deal of our food shopping. It is a supermarket and related items – no clothing, gardening etc. He went online and checked that items he planned to buy were in stock – they were.

He had me bring a can of Lysol spray and used it spray the cart – good idea (no, no one was wiping the carts off and even if they were – we had to bring from the parking lot to the store and would have had to touch it to do so). His plan was that I would push the cart and he would put the food in it – both wearing gloves of course. There was no one at the door counting people in and out as we expected there to be – nor anyone checking that we had masks on (we did). The store when we went in was emptier than the Walmart we had gone to for our medications looked from where we parked and looking in the exit doorway. There were directional markings on the floor, but so small I did not notice them and husband did not notice them until the second aisle we went through.

I had thought we were just there for “cold” items – but our first stop was soup – as he looked for and found some varieties which had not been available online – and the cans were not dented. People ignored the 6 foot rule – and even bumped into us. (Okay, this was the first aisle and we were going in the wrong direction – but still – walk into people when there is room to pass them by at least 2 feet?)

We then headed to the meat department. We normally buy regular foods – not organic. Only chicken breasts they had were organic – so we bought organic – 2 packages of 5 breasts each – a reasonable amount under the circumstances. Next some whole chickens caught husband's eye. “Can you cook a chicken?” I shrugged. “I guess it must be the same as turkey – just less time.” We bought a chicken – He was going for two, but I was concerned that maybe it wasn't the same roasting a turkey.

This led us into the freezer department. He added a number of frozen entrees for families that we had bought before - just not this many. I found the frozen vegetables – they had green peas and green beans that we needed (bought multiple bags of course – they are small), but no carrots. We did find frozen mixed vegetables which included same and I needed them for stews – so figured that was good and bought 2 bags of them. He also bought 2 boxes of frozen fried fish – something I don't eat.

As we headed over to the cheese and hot dogs aisle he stopped in the canned vegetables aisles – not really any vegetables we were looking for left – except – canned potatoes. He had looked online to order them and there had been none listed for delivery or pickup in store. We bought 6 cans, they are great in stews. We continued on – he bought 3 packages of 16 hot dogs – I did not point out that at 2 hot dogs for dinner once a week for him – that was 24 weeks worth of hot dogs. (I used to love hot dogs, but became ill after having them once and since then – it is not even easy for me to smell the while I cook them for him.) Added some American cheese and real cheese without whey that can he eat. He found one package of chicken strips similar to the chicken patties I eat when he has the hot dogs, close enough and one is better than none. Also bought 2 packages of presliced packaged turkey – good for dinner or lunch.

Then he headed to the household items. He uses baby shampoo to wash and finish the pieces he weaves and need more. He has been getting some weaving done while we are in the house – just set up his loom to weave 2 dish towels – something he has not woven before, but seem to be popular. A quick stop in the plastic bag aisle to pick up more zip bags in different sizes and we started for the check out. Our cart was the most full of any cart we have had in 40 years of marriage – more than when I would buy for Thanksgiving dinner for our two families and my regular weekly shopping at the same time. I was feeling good – he had overcome his fear of going out and we would probably not need to buy meat again for several months.

As we approached the checkout he turned pale – he did not feel good – really bad in fact. I told him to go to the car and wait. I checked out. Also had the biggest priced order we have ever had. I went out to the car he was terrible looking sitting in the driver's seat. He pushed the button to unlock the back hatch door so I could put in 9 large bags of groceries. (I had made sure to put all the cold items at the front of the order so those items would be bagged together for when we arrived home.) The parking lot was on an incline. I was holding the cart with one hand and trying to open the car hatch with the other and it was not opening. I finally managed to wedge a foot around a wheel so I could use both hands to open the back. He had to drive home as otherwise he would have been sicker.

When we arrived home sent him upstairs to lie down in bed. When we bring things such as food into the house (including the orders when we received them) I have been wiping them off in the porch with alcohol sprayed on pieces of paper towel and handing them in the door to him – he would then put them either in the fridge or a large towel layed out on the kitchen table until I could decide where to put them. Since he was not there I spread the towel on a small counter between the door and fridge. I brought a bag of cold food into the porch and started each item off and putting it on the towel – I had to stack items on each other. When all the cold items were in the house. I ran upstairs to check on husband.

He had tested his blood sugar and it was low. Apparently between the excitement/anxiety of being out and having trouble breathing through the mask – he had burned off the blood sugar he had and low blood sugar added to the trouble the breathing and anxiety made him ill. I brought up a bottle of a sugared drink he uses when he has a low and when he finished it, I left him to go to sleep.

I looked at what was on the counter – I was not sure it all would fit in the freezer where just about all would need to be stored. For the moment I stacked the already frozen items in the freezer – it just fit – and stacked the cold. Not frozen items in the fridge. I then went out and brought in a bag of non- cold items at a time and repeated the process of wiping the items down and putting them on the towel on the counter until all of them were in the house. (Having also done this earlier in the day with 4 cartons of food delivered I was exhausted.)

I looked at the clock and it was close to 8:45 pm. I went up and checked on husband – he was between sleep and awake and not yet ready to get up and come downstairs. I went back down and wondered – after getting all this food delivered or purchased and stored – what to make us for dinner as he would need to eat SOON. I started water boiling and added some pasta – I figured it was easy on the stomach and would give him carbs to offset his low blood sugar. At around 9:15 I checked with him again – he realized we needed to eat and I told him what I had done – he was unsure, but willing to try. He came down and was able to eat and agreed it was a good choice. We then also had some of the presliced turkey in sandwiches for dinner.

We could relax a bit – we now have plenty of food for a long time – well at least until he comes up with something else we need.

Oh – On Friday the last of the orders was delivered – including 8 pristine cans – no dents – why? These were packed in their cardboard base with shrink plastic holding them in place and small plastic pillow filled air around them to keep them from denting – the other cans had some pieces of paper as the only packing around them and the other food in the cartons and they bounced around – though at least 2 of them had to be dented when packed from the extent of the dents.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Fear is a problem if it stops us from doing something we need to do (or even really like to do). I was so glad that he overcame his fear. Generally our fear is worse than the thing we are afraid of. I am glad that we were able to go out food shopping for the first time since mid-March – next time we know what to expect and it will be easier.

Everyone – hoping you and your family stay well.

COVID 19 #6 - BILLS, DEPOSITS, AND MEALS FROM WHAT IS ABOUT.

Well, here we are again – another week in the house.  I am getting some stuff done.  I also have learned to pay bills – so far electric and heating oil – by charging them to my credit card.  The electric bill last month was a timing problem – it was due before the money for it would come in and we could not go out and move money into our checking account.  The heating oil company, which I normally pay by check for each delivery, has its employees working from home and no checks can be mailed to them as there is no one in the office to deal with them – and I am guessing that they don't want to go out to the bank to deposit it either.  I had hoped that we would not get another delivery this season, but we did.  (Better than running out any way.)  So today I called one of my credit card companies and told them that I would be making an unusual charge to my account (did the same before the electric company bill was charged) and wanted to let them know.  Then I called the oil company and charged the bill to the credit card by phone. 

I have received 2 checks by mail and not being one to use my cell phone to deposit them with an app, I deposited them “old school.  I wrote out a deposit slip for them and mailed them to the local bank branch we use with a self- addresses, stamped envelope to return the receipt to me.  Most income we have is direct deposited into our checking account.  Luckily over the past couple of months I have changed almost all of the direct deposits to our checking account from our savings savings account.  The ones not changed are small and will not come for several months. 

I have also been calling the bank/credit card companies' computers to check what deposits have been received for my account and what amounts are due for the credit cards as I am not receiving statements since they go to our Post Office Box and cannot be forwarded.  Being the old-fashioned non-trusting person that I am  - I do not use the computer for anything financial. 

I am still coming up with meals with what is at hand.  Go figure fried eggs with a touch of brown sugar is good.  Baked breast of chicken with leftover (from March) Chinese restaurant rice was good – and since the rice when boiled again expands greatly taking in the water – one of the most filling meals we have had.  I also found out that we have probably have popcorn to pop to make meals on its own for a week!  I have found 3 separate plastic boxes of it in our pantry closet. 

Well, I have been busy doing nothing and now husband is here and ready for snack before bed so I will run with this quick, short post for this week.

2018 Christmas mixed with 1775 Christmas

I hope those how celebrate Christmas had a good holiday.  I hate to use the Merry or Happy as there are many for whom that won’t happen, but good holiday has a larger definition and is more inclusive.  (By the way - Queen Victoria was the one who changed the expression from Merry to Happy in Britain.  Why?  Well what we think of as the meaning of Merry is not what it then meant.  To wish someone a Merry Christmas then, was to wish them a drunken Christmas.)

Did you get all of your holiday preparations done on time?  I didn’t.  Between time lost back in October and November to my husband’s injured shoulder/arm, doing an assortment of tasks twice to get them done finally and correctly, work, and my general laziness, compounded by the fact that I lost 2 evenings (which should have been 3 - but more on that later) to the Candlelight Nights reenactment event we do with our reenactment unit just before Christmas, I fell behind - even for me. 

Normally I would have everything I wanted to do finished, except my (infamous) Teddy Christmas Village setup.  Over the years it has become normal for me to be setting it up on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day night, or even just after same.  Dinner for Christmas Eve would be planned in advance,gifts wrapped, all the other trees and decorations up and in place.  Not this year. 

As I wrote last week, I had set up the living room and dining room and front hall decorations - mostly - in advance.  I put artificial roping over the windows in the living and dining room and did so this year in the dining room.  The living room involves moving a coffee table from in front of the windows to hang the roping there - and an embroidered hoop piece that I put in the center of the roping.  (The coffee table is there and not in front of the sofa since it became husband’s weaving room and while not heavy is shoved between 2 chairs and therefore hard to move.)  At Christmas Eve the roping was still waiting.  I put it back the box and sat the embroidered piece on a chair (which will not be sat in anyway).  While doing this annoys me - the lack of the roping does not change the holiday in any way. 

Last week, you may remember, I assembled the tree while writing my post to you.  On Thursday night I brought up the two boxes of decorations that go on it first (the nicer ones), put “Lion in Winter” in the DVD player (a tradition with husband and me) and started on decorating the tree.  It took a few hours but the decorations went on the tree.  I put them on the tree in sections as there are so many that it makes it easier to see them.  I put angels on the top section of the tree all around  - or at least on the 3 sides one can actually see.  On the front of the tree I put the ornaments we have bought on vacation - and about vacation - I remember as I start to leave a vertical space for key chain we bought at one of the Smithsonian Air and Space museums of a red fabric piece which says “remove before flight” as used on planes.  An ornament does not have to be an actual ornament is something we figured out a number of years ago.  (We were someplace and they had the same piece as a key ring -not this one - and as an ornament.  Key ring was $3, ornament was $15 - we bought the key ring.)  In addition to key rings, we have bought the pins that people put on their hats to show that they have been someplace and a variety of other small items.  On the side of the tree facing the front hall and to the left of the vacation ornaments are the Santa ornaments - there I have to leave a space long enough for Santa hanging from a parachute until I come to it. To the left of the them are the teddy bear ornaments - and above them the ones dated with our anniversary - towards the back of the tree - paper houses are hanging.  On the other side of the tree - facing the side of the room, but visible are sections with stars, characters (Snoopy, Alice in Wonderland...), (fake) candy, vehicles and so on.  Then other ornaments are mixed in around the tree in all of these - handmade ornaments (some embroidered of course), and so on. 

Friday night we were suppose to be at the Candlelight event, but there was a huge rain storm coming in and the restoration canceled the night on Thursday as it would be too dangerous for people to be out in the storm and they figured few people would come.  So I was able to work on the other two boxes of ornaments (while watching the second version of “Lion in Winter” that we have.  These boxes have larger ornaments - balls and such - so there are less of them.  I put the more “important” of them on the tree - and stopped.  The back of the tree - the side facing the window and not seen in the room (or outside as the drapes are closed) is naked this year - for the first time ever.  I cleared up the room and stored the boxes downstairs.  As I took a box down I brought a large Santa or elf figure upstairs.  This also allowed us to food shop Friday afternoon.  While I had already bought stuff earlier in the week to make a Brunswick stew for Christmas Eve dinner, we also need food items that don’t have to be cooked or cook quickly to eat for dinner when we come home at around 10:30/11 pm after the events. 

Saturday night (well, actually afternoon) we ate a bigger lunch than normal at Wendys as we were eating earlier and would eat dinner much later than normal.  We then went home to dress in our period style clothing.  I had previously laid out my clothing - in reverse order of how they worn so the first piece to be put on is at the top of the pile and the last (my apron) is at the bottom of the pile.  I put on my “stockings” and shoes (I can’t reach the shoes after I put on my stays) and then my “shift” (a white more or less A-line dress that serves as underwear in period).  Over this I wear “stays” - not a corset and not worn tightly tied as Scarlet O’Hara wore her corset.  The stays have lacing up the back and front and I only open the front lacing to put them on and off.  I had them on and laced up the front. I then pulled the lacing to tighten them (only to the feel of “a gentle hug” and then to tie them - suddenly I was holding a piece of the lacing in my hand and the rest had mostly unlaced itself.  The lacing had torn apart!  I do not have a spare lace as it came with (on) the stays. Husband suggested that I get some fabric seam tape from our studio.  I ran down glad of a solution.  Uh, Oh!  I had stored his weaving stuff - yarns, finished pieces, table on my side of the studio.  I had taken out what I thought we might need to access - safety pins, thread spools and such, but we never need seam tape - so I could not get any.  On my way back upstairs the thought hit me, I could pull the seam tape in the waistband of my other petticoat (skirt) out and use it - no problem unless I decide to wear my other petticoat the next night - then an even better idea hit - I have a spare apron and have it used it while cooking at events so it is stained and I would not be wearing it during this event.  I pulled it out.  I started trying to lace the stays with it - end was stiff and it was wider than the lacing - I grabbed a pen and used to point to push the lacing into each hole - and it worked great (no one sees it as it under the rest of my clothing.)  We then rushed - afraid to be late to get there as husband is in charge and the first night we have to make sure the building is set up right and that we have candles, etc. We got there half an hour early to be there an hour before the event started!  We sat in the car until we saw some employees of the restoration go into the building. 

Everything we needed was there and we rearranged things from how they had been left for us to how we needed them.  As unit members came in each started setting up what they normally work with.  We made sure to put the keys to the building in the spot where they are suppose to be kept (don’t want to miss them when we go to lock up later).  As 4pm approached we lit the candles inside the house and on the steps outside.  Three of the rooms are behind clear half height gates, the others are walk through.  I put on my cap and offered the mirror in one of the gated off rooms to other women in our unit before I slide that gate into place, the last of the gates to be put in place.  One of the fellows had the fire going in the kitchen and the musician was ready.  We had a very successful and fun - both for the crowds and us  - evening.  Members each do whatever they feel they would like to do at the event - sing, greet people at the door and tell them about the building, be a person of the past (as husband and I do) and talk about the house and “our” time as someone who knows nothing of the future, just up to the matching day in 1775.  We are on the village for some of our fellows to fire their muskets 3 times during the night in front of the building.  When we went back on Sunday night we found out that 1500 people had come through the village the night before!  And Sunday night seemed to have almost as many people.

Saturday night after we came home, changed our clothes and had dinner I brought up the rest of my Santas and elves and set all of them up in the living room at the entrance to the room.  (Most of them were Christmas gifts from someone husband worked with, two I made, one we bought, and one is husband’s since he was a boy.    At this point the excess packing was stored away and the room almost finished - for this year at least.

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday - eat lunch early and more than usual, change clothes, drive to restoration village - not as early this time as we knew that everything was ready for us.  The event was basically a repeat of the night before (and really every night we do this), while always being different based on who comes through the building and their interests as life in 1775 had about as many facets as life does today and one or the other of us (or several of us) will be able to talk on the different facets. 

After we, again, came home, changed our clothes and had dinner, I went back to Christmas decorating.  I brought up our Christmas stockings - one pair red and white fur with names for use in the years that there is something for them, one pair decorated with “Santa Claus, the movie” and one pair I embroidered for us.  There are is also a line of small stockings with the names of our Cabbage Patch kids on them (yes, we are that silly).  I also boiled the chicken I needed for the Brunswick stew for Christmas Eve dinner.

Christmas Eve day we went out for lunch and some short errands as places closed early.  While I cooked our dinner and set the table in the dining room - I had to, again, take the stuff we had brought back into the house from the RV to the RV.  Since the stew cooks a long time and has to be watched, I brought up and assembled the dining room tree and decorated it with brass ornaments we have received as members of Colonial Williamsburg.  I have, somehow, duplicates of two them and the two duplicates I put on the main tree in the living room.  I then took the handmade ornaments I had set aside as I did the main tree (the handmade ornaments are split between the two trees) and set up the tree in the studio for them and put them on the tree - the woven wheat snowflake I use for star on top (made by husband) needed a bit of reinforcing glue on one point and I fixed it. 

Ah, all that will/can be done was done at this point.  I turned on the living room and studio tree lights and finished cooking dinner.  We had dinner, I did the dishes.  I put the few (3) gifts we had bought ourselves in recycled Christmas gift bags.  Husband wrapped his 2 nieces’ Christmas gifts in Christmas paper and their birthday gifts in different in different paper and we put them in bags for Christmas Day.  We then went to Midnight Mass. 

Husband later went up to bed before me and I put our gifts under the tree - next to the empty fancy gift boxes there for “show”.

Christmas Day was spent at his sister’s house and the less said about it, the better.  Today was the 26th.  I paid all the bills due until after New Year’s Day, we mailed them, we went to the bank and transferred money to cover them and then came home for a quiet evening to rest up.  Tomorrow night we go back to the Candlelight Nights through Saturday night.  Ah, being in 1775 for 3 more nights - something we love.  Then the teddy village will be changed from fall to Winter/Christmas.
                       
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

None of us can do everything.  I could be upset and kicking myself for not getting all of the decorating done, but I did the best I could.  Husband points out that there is nothing missing when one looks at it all.  Another year, more will be done. 

Relax - you can only do the best you can - in decorating and organizing.  New Year’s Day will be here before I talk with you again - remember think of what you might want to change or improve and decide to try.  Don’t make resolutions - just pick something and think about what you can do.  And don’t forget - every day is the start of a new year.

I wish a happy, and healthy new year to all of you.

WHAT SHOULD YOU GET RID OF AND WHAT SHOULD YOU KEEP?

Pardon me - I didn’t post yesterday.  As I think I mentioned the most important annual Jewish holiday was yesterday and when it was over last night it slipped my memory what day of the week it was.  So here I am, a day late and a post short. 

As I was talking about last week, much of what one needs to know about organizing we know.  It is finding the time and pushing ourselves to do it that is the problem - at least for me.  Basically one has to sort through what one has and get rid of what is not being used and will not be used and then set up what is left in an organized manner so that one can find what one is looking for quickly. 

What to get rid of?  A good question.  Some of it is rather obvious - empty boxes of cereal for example.  They are garbage. Almost empty box?  Depends on how much is left - if you can eat it all while continuing to work - eat it and toss the box; if it is enough for a meal or two - use it up at meals and toss the empty box.  In this case I mean for the cereal box to stand for anything which gets used up, but the empty container is still around.  This week and last week I made a chicken stew that my husband loves for dinner.  Problem is that the garbage pickup is on Monday and Thursday and I was making the stew on Monday last week and Tuesday this week and both times had to hold it all both times until Wednesday night when I put it out for Thursday pick up.  The bones, skin and such have to be thrown out, but if I toss them in the kitchen garbage and they don’t go out right away, it will smell terrible.  I can take the kitchen bag out to the can outside, but it really upsets me to put the bag(s) out only about 1/3 full.  So, I put the chicken garbage into one of those plastic shopping bags that one gets at groceries stores, put same in the bowl I had used to hold the cooked chicken overnight (cooked the chicken one day, made the stew the next) before taking it off the bones and left it in the fridge.  When it was time for the garbage to go out I added the shopping bag of chicken icky stuff to it and out it went.  I then washed the bowl the bag had been in.  I actually have left over stew from both nights.  It can’t be frozen as it has potatoes in it and they never freeze well.  I have the stews in two canning jars in the fridge (one from last week and one from this).  I will hold them until the end of the next week - if husband has not eaten it by then (he really LOVES this stew) then it will go out that Sunday night in the garbage - it will not be allowed to sit beyond when it will be safe to eat.

Staying with the kitchen, some items are harder to get rid of.  Husband will decide that he likes something - say a particular canned soup - and buy a lot of it.  Then something will happen and it will not be eaten.  Say, he decides it raises his blood sugar too much and he should only have it once in a while.  The items sit........and sit.........and sit..........and sit.......and sit.  Suddenly they are past their date and one cannot even donate them.  It really kills me to throw out 6 full cans of something because it passed its date a year or two before - but out they must go.  They are taking up needed room and if they are eaten by accident they may make someone ill.  I have to check on some eggs we have in the fridge - wait, I will check right now - an entire dozen dated for June 16, 2018.  Now what do I do?  Normally I would toss the eggs.  But here is a bit of info - when eggs pass their date and are sent back to the producer by the stores they are allowed to be repackaged and sent back out a certain number of times - gross right, but it is true.  Eggs can be tested to see if they are still good and I will have to find the instructions on how to check them.  Okay, per “The Joy of Cooking” if the eggs float in cold water they are no good.  I will test them tomorrow and then throw them out if they float.  We go through periods where we eat eggs or use them in cooking and will buy them - and then the period of eating them ends - see husband deciding he likes something and then deciding not to have it any more, above - I think he was making quiches with them and then stopped doing so - and they sit.  Usually it only part of a dozen, which is left.  In case you are thinking - what about breakfast?  We wake up so late that we have lunch for breakfast, dinner for lunch and then a late night snack for supper, so eggs tend to be more of a dinner food here.  I am going to test them.....  Well, they will going out Sunday night with the garbage for Monday, the 3 I picked at random all floated - but, on the other hand, I was wrong - there are only 10, not a full dozen.  We have a quart of milk in the fridge also.  I know that is fresh, we bought it for a meeting of our reenactment unit last Monday - husband had volunteered to bring snack - oh that reminds me of something else, we are going to return an unopened package of cookies - we bought 2 different kinds for the meeting and apparently it was a chocolate mint cookie crowd, not a chocolate chip crowd.  But no one opened the milk to use in their coffee.  So I have to figure out how to use up a the quart - I guess we will be having diet pudding for snack a few times.  We were lucky to find the quart - mostly it comes in half gallons and more around here, and the quart cost almost as much as the half gallon.

So - when one sorts through stuff one will find stuff to toss, stuff to check and decide if it should be tossed - now or soon after, stuff to return, and stuff to use up.  If only I had some chocolate syrup for the milk, but if I buy same, then I will have a started bottle of chocolate syrup and someday in the future will be deciding if it should be thrown out or not.  (Plus we just plain should not have the extra carbohydrates.)

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

You know that you know what to do.   Go through and toss the floating eggs and the long past date things (whether they are actually dated or not) - and the chicken stuff which has been stored until you can toss it.  Get rid of the empty boxes or finish up what it is in them and get rid of them.  Return items which are in good condition which can be returned.  Use up the items that can still be used - before they have to be tossed because they are floating eggs.   This applies in the rest of the house as well as in the kitchen - paints and makeup can go past their use time also, for example.  The dress you bought for Sally’s wedding a month ago and then bought a different one, that you wore instead - return it if you can or donate it - unless you know that you can wear it for Harry’s wedding next month.  And so on.