PROGRESS AT A SLOW SPEED

BY EVENING I WAS ZONKED.  Took a nap.  Hubby was so sweet and fixed supper while I slept.  Out came a Bison Burger and potato chips.  He put spring greens, grilled onion, tomato, mustard and ketch-up on it.  What a nice thing to wake up to.

The burger was delicious and I enjoyed every bite.  So good.  We generally use ground beef for our hamburgers, but this bison was in the freezer.  It was delicious and I did not miss ground beef at all.  We still have some bison pot roast in the deep freeze.  Later this week I will try my hand at a pot roast made out of bison.  A first.   

I haven't used bison for pot roast so it will be interesting none the less.  Supposedly bison is a sweeter meat than beef.  I'll marinate it over night with strong coffee and garlic, slow cook it in the crockpot and see how things turn out. Let you know later.

Planned on going to the COTTAGE this afternoon.  Getting out of the house and taking a drive will lift my spirits.  The front porch plants need watered.  I need to sort through another huge box of papers as well.  A table will be set up in the kitchen to place items on so I can paint next week.

The pantry will be a very light grey color and the kitchen cabinets will be bright white with silver hardware.  Got this far after bantering back and forth on what colors the cabinets will be.  I have flipped flopped back and forth with a lengthy battle going on in my mind about this.  Going to go white cabinets with soft gray tile floors for the kitchen that has stainless steel appliances.  Pretty sure the backsplash tile will be white subway tile.  Not sure what type of ceiling will go up.  This is still in the works.  The pantry will have a mason jar hanging light.  

So many decorating ideas have come to mind about how we will fit inside this COTTAGE.  Many hours have gone into thinking things through on this.  I started gathering ideas from the internet to help with this task.  Fitting all these ideas into my head have caused massive discomfort. 

AS FOR KITCHEN STORAGE...Found some gallon sized Mason Jars.  What a relief. Locating oversized Mason Jars made me a happier camper.  Hobby Lobby had only two, but they were 50% off.  This made me smile. Located another two at a Ace Hardware.  

Filled the jars with All-purpose Flour, White Wheat Flour, organic Sugar and organic Brown Sugar.  

Placing Bay Leaves in with the flour helps keep bugs out.

I'd like to have some more mason jars for cereals and tea.  They will be filled with fruits, vegetables, spices, pasta, bread crumbs, corn meal, etc. and possibly left overs when needed. I don't want to store left-overs in plastic if I can help it.

Got motivated to drive straight over to HOBBY LOBBY in a different community in hopes they'd have some of these gallon size Mason Jars.  They had ONE, but it wasn't marked as being on sale. I didn't want to pay $28.99 for one.  This just about made me sick.  I stood there and decided okay I will bite the bullet and pay this for one jar.  As we checked out, the price on the cash register said the mason jar was half off!  I was glad I went ahead and decided to get it.  The 50% off helped.  

Before leaving town, we went for our Starbuck's unsweetened Iced Tea and as we drove off the car over heated.  We could hear a bubbling noise.  That's not good.  I found a place to park in the shade on this hot Kansas day to let the car cool off.  

One thing I remember from what a minister told me once was if your car overheats, turn the heater on.  Now, this was miserable as the day was in the mid 90s anyhow, but the car's temp did start to cool off.  I reached a place under a shade tree and had my ice tea to sip on as we waited for the car to cool down.  

I was so glad that my smart hubby was with me.  She cooled and Hubby said to go to a Auto Parts store to get some coolant.  We weren't too far so that's what I did.  We drove back to the shade tree and he filled the thirsty car up with coolant under the hood.  She cooled.  The air conditioner even started cooling better.

I wanted to go to Walmart to see if they had any of these gallon size Mason Jars.  They had ONE priced super good.  Now I have 2 more Mason jars for my Kitchen Pantry.  I felt like we had a successful shopping day.  That's 6 jars altogether in two days.  

Drove across the Flint Hills Prairie to the COTTAGE to water the plants, set up a folding table to place dishes on it, gathered up a couple boxes of MORE papers to take to the main house to go through and drove HOME.  I day-dreamed while I sat in the COTTAGE.  I think we will move forward on remodeling this week.  Both Hubby and I are feeling more like ourselves.  

When I got HOME, I washed the two additional jars and will fill with cereal and oatmeal later this evening.  I have to reorganize the small pantry I have at the main house so the jars will have a place to go.  Makes me want to organize my kitchen AGAIN.    

SPIRITUAL READING...Decided to start reading the Book of Leviticus.  Read Chapter One very slowly and out loud.  It helps me to hear the words as well as to read them at the same time. I want to read about the levitical laws concerning food.  Food doesn't save our souls giving us salvation, yet it aids us with good health which makes our earthly bodies better equipped to function staying healthy for the journey.    

HEALTH...Vitamins and minerals continued.  Vitamin C, Zinc and Vitamin D3, Ceylon Cinnamon, Garlic, Berberine, Co Q-10, Apple Cider Vinegar.   I was looking at my fingernails today and noticed that a nice color has grown in with the darker pink growing out.  Just estimating as I think the difference in the two shades of pink started happening when I started taking better vitamins and eating organic foods. 

This made me more hopeful that the vitamins and organic eating truly are helping with my health journey.  We have bounced back from having co vid and I believe our vitamins/organic foods helped with that.  Praise The Lord.  With the co vid, I only had a slight fever for one day. Blood oxygen levels stayed high.  Nausea was mild.  The cough was awful and the fatigued draining for a few days.  I believe we are on the mend with little if any side effects.  I did have to stop taking the antiviral meds three days into it as they lowered my heart rate.  A day after I stopped taking the meds, my heart rate returned to normal.

THANKFUL that I am feeling better and back to getting some things done.  Praise the LORD. Back to the details.  What is said about God is in the details? 

Blessings,

~d 

     

~PLEASANT DAY~

I FELL ASLEEP AROUND 9 and woke up around 11 last night.  It's a mistake to do this as I could not fall back to sleep.  Getting up, I decided to wash a couple of large mason jars to store asparagus and strawberries in.  The fridge will have to have some more stuff shuffled so these jars fit.  I had placed 6 jars of various nuts in and they do take up more room. Perhaps I'll get this figured out as I day dream about the COTTAGE FRIDGE over at small town America when the time comes.  

I was cleaning out the fridge bins at 1 in the morning.  Something was stinking and I had to get to the bottom of it.  Disinfected the drawers and all is better.  

When I was over at the COTTAGE today, I gathered a few more large mason jars to bring back to this main house to store celery and carrot sticks in.  That's 6 jars of nuts, a jar for asparagus to stand in, strawberries, celery and carrot carrots.  Maybe I need one for blueberries mixed with raspberries and blackberries.  Shall see if I can make this work.  I may go so far as to get smaller jars and store ketch-up, pickles and mustard in.  That's scary for sure.    

l definitely need to shuffle to make room for the larger jars.  With working at having healthier eating habits, the mason jars will help with storing food as well as making the inside of the fridge more organized with eye appeal and healthier snacks.  This all made me think of a few years ago when I was laboring at making my fridge more HOUSE BEAUTIFUL like Pinterest showing the inside of gorgeous fridges that are out of this world stunning.  Is it possible for me to have such a fridge???  Dunno.

SO ORGANIZED

Hubby and I got up early to go work at the COTTAGE this morning.  Our Granddaughter had agreed to pull weeds out of the two front flowerbeds that were greatly grown over with small trees and weeds.  She did a super job that made me smile.  It looks so much better like someone cares about their flowerbeds.

Hubby mowed the lawn and I stayed inside shredding old papers and checks.  23 years back isn't needed these days.  I went down memory lane again as I read old checks and statements when the kids were still living at HOME.  All are grown now with children of their own.  Today is my oldest brother's 71st Birthday.  Several of the statements had checks to him for his yearly birthdays.  Kind of ironic seeing these.  I wondered what he is doing in heaven today on his birthday?

SO many medical checks were written over the years.  Pause.  So many.  My paper shredder was busy as it chewed up hundreds of pieces of paper.  Hundreds.  More to go.  Having a hay day at this task.     

Tidied on the Tv room and made progress on the COTTAGE.  After Grand went HOME, Hubby and I continued working inside.  Hubs worked at tearing out the old floor in the Bathroom.  The temp outside raised to 97 degrees.  Inside the COTTAGE, it was very comfortable.  Being there allowed me to know first hand what cooling the place would be like on a super hot day.  Nice.

By 4 we were tired and ready to go HOME.  Not sure about supper tonight.  Veggies are needed. Noticed as we drove HOME, the Northern skies looked hazy like a late night thunderstorm will blow in to add some excitement to the night after being so active and worn out already.

After I rest up a bit, I will return to the upstairs Bedroom and gather more storage boxes to carry down to the main floor to load into the car for another round of taking storage boxes to the COTTAGE.  I have to make the Bedroom comfortable for guest coming the 4th of July.  

I pray I can get this done.  Stay steady moving things out of the room and out of this house. Much to do...so do it.  

I hope and pray that we make great headway on the COTTAGE.  The Bathroom is getting gutted and the ideas are swirling in my head.  Hopefully by the end of July the Bathroom will be up and going and  the Pantry completely painted and loaded with Pantry items.  What a nice thought that is.

Found this on the internet and paint colors come to mind.  Whaalaah.  So pretty and peaceful.

When I sit in the COTTAGE TV room, I look around the room and think what we will be doing to it in the near future.  Think the Living room and TV room will be painted CALM by Benjamin Moore.  Lovely, quiet, soothing color.  I need soothing when the world I live in is chaotic.  Peace be still comes to mind.  The TV room will be a quiet room to read and write in.  Think and pray. Sit and relax.  Write out bills, listen to music, surf the internet, write letters and look at magazines.  Maybe watch television in the TV room.  Grins and a movie or two.  Popcorn!

This is a time to DOWNSIZE and forge ahead in LIFE as a 66 year old.  Wife, mother, grandma, mother-in-law, daughter, sister, cousin, friend and neighbor.  Hello world.  

Add some pearls and away you go.  Classic.

Today as I was daydreaming, I was thinking about doing some sewing.  It's been years.  Years and years.  New dresses come to mind like a classic sheath dress.

Welcome week-end.  Pray it is a blessed one.  Amen.

~d