Cooking

 The last week has been a lot. Stress and worry.  Hospital and transportation of family having surgery. Happily all has gone well with the outcome. There has been lots of cooking. Big meals for them, plus the 3 of us. Enough for a leftover meal as well.  My first meal was a hamburger soup as planned that used up all my vegetables that were looking forlorn. Added some beef and cheddar sliders and a big bowl of fresh mixed berries.  I had a one day break as friends took a meal. Then I did a BBQ with roasted veg and a big salad.  Then friends stepped up again.  Today I'm doing cheesy meatloaf  x 2 with garlic mashed, steamed broccoli carrots and peas. (Again enough for 6 people and leftovers for 3).  There has been in fact ZERO help from the family on the other side. Not unexpected, but again disappointing.  

dh is away for a couple more days.  I did a little "me" shopping yesterday. I have given myself a rule that nothing new unless I've run out, or have worn it out. So a couple toiletries and a pair of capri pants on for 40% off.  (I outgrew the other ones and I refuse to wear "pinchy pants" anymore.)  Overall I've reduced my wardrobe by at least 1/3. I don't need my "business casual" clothes anymore. Or at least not all of them.  Somebody my size (and a size smaller than me - haha) will find a lot at the goodwill.  I also went through all of the closets - dh has lost 65 lbs and so many things are too big and many things also fit again.  So I'm only keeping what fits.  Kid 3 is quite particular now so I don't buy him anything unless he's there. There was a big purge of his stuff with me gaining a couple hoodies and t-shirts. That's my style now :) comfy. We gain a lot of sports team gear every year with kid 3. Not directly purchased but it came with the team fees. The last couple of years we haven't had to pay anything, so that has been great, but we still get a bunch of apparel. Some of his friends have played on 3-4 teams per year (getting traded) I can't imagine all of the stuff!  I'm lucky he's in the same place so far.

Last week dh helped me do a pantry refresh. I have a large corner pantry and it gets messed up easily it seems. I do compare myself to the Swedish chef when I'm in the kitchen. I excuse some of it because I don't have the hand strength anymore so after a lot of chopping/dicing I drop stuff, and I also cant reach up with my right arm above my head. So things get put/shoved where I can easily reach. And I'm easily distracted, so I forget what I was just doing!  BUT for the last week I've been very good about putting everything back in its place!  Maybe it's a new leaf??

Well I'm procrastinating. I need to water all of my planters and the lawn, then a trip to the pharmacy and the library, then start the meal.  

So glad that I'm not rushing home from work to do all of this!!

The Good Things: Improving health and just need to rehab.

Clean kitchen

Able to provide to others

Sunshine and no wind today

Things that Suck:

Some people

Next week more family needing surgery (ugh!) So I will add 2 extra servings to the meals for them.

Fuzz is in the Air

 Fuzz is flying everywhere today. The neighbourhood poplar trees are all letting go of their fluff. It looks like a snowstorm. Allergies are going to be in full swing now! So gross. 

A couple more houses to see this week starting today. I'm hoping to see something that doesn't need a ton of work before moving in.  The one today is painted top to bottom blue/grey. Hopefully it isn't as bad in person as it is in the pictures. The layout is great and so is the location. Always hard to tell from pictures. Paint is very fixable but adds another step and expense.  A friend is selling her home, and it is gorgeous! BUT so many stairs and a suite in the basement. I'm not wanting to be a landlord, or have a big reno to remove it. Somebody will be lucky though as it was constructed and planned with care. Friday we see a nice 2 story close to me that dh really likes. The yard is a disaster with a perimeter of cedars that someone has butchered with the pruning shears. That will be several thousands to remove and replace to keep privacy. But if it checks all the boxes, then it can be dealt with. 

I bought a bunch of bedding plants for my planters.  Weather has not been cooperative to getting them done. Or if I wasn't a big baby and could brave the wind and cold temps with occasional drizzle I could get them done. I'm just hoping for a bit of sunshine. Planters will come with us with a move.

Sold one more thing on FB market. So now my sales are $375. One more item left to go worth $10. So far no takers! I have a small wine rack that isn't ever going to be used that I should list too.  I love wine, but my skin rash and menopause don't.

These next 3 weeks are going to be quite hectic. dh leaves for work out of province on Monday and not back until Friday night. Lots of family medical needs. Lots of organizing/cleaning and purging to do here when not helping out. Plus tons of cooking to keep my hyena fed and will be delivering meals when family can't do their cooking.

The only savings to be had are that I am buying in bulk and meal planning. Attempting to make BIG meals that will work for all of us.  I also have saved all of our "take-home" containers from eating out, those are great to transport side dishes and I don't want them returned (after a cupboard cleanout there are a ton of them!). Haha meeting my purging goals at the same time!  I also have a few dollarama tin containers that I will use up. 

First meal for all on Friday will be a hamburger soup and buns. Weekend tbd. They will have the other side of their family there to help (I hope) and I will resume meals on Monday.  Thankfully with dh gone kid 3 can help out some evenings.

I better run and get todays meal in the oven. (Oven baked chicken breasts and rice with broccoli and cheese) Then to see the house. Then to drop off some stuff for kid 1. Then to try and have a sleep before a very long day tomorrow.

The Good Things: A full fridge and pantry. Retired and able to help when I'm needed.

Things that suck: insomnia and menopause.

Oh and by the way I don't publish rude annon remarks. "LOLZ" to you too. Really, why do you need to be rude? The syntax is very revealing and it should be beneath you.

Toodles!

Spring has sprung and the wind is blowing.

 It has not been a great spring yet. There was only one day of rain in April and now all there has been is wind. An east wind blew down the hockey net out front. That has only happened once since 2002 with wind that direction.  Good thing I have it chained down so it only moved a few feet.

The garage sale was OK. Lots of people were looking for furniture and tools. I had none of that. I did get rid of several boxes of things. I gave a lot away too.

I sold 3 items now on FB marketplace. Made $325 so far. (Such a pain dealing with scammers and weirdo's to find normal people looking to buy)

I'm tired. (Which could be the title of every blog post I make.) But I have had very poor sleeps for the last few weeks. Running on 4-5 hours of sleep per night isn't enough. I don't like taking sedation, but I think I have to tonight. 

House hunting is daunting. We saw 4 homes on the weekend. The one that we would have put in an offer on already has a conditional sale. Today we look at another after dh is done work. It looks ok in the pictures. I'm not too hyped up on the location, dh is. So I will give it a chance. There is a presentation of offers on this one in a couple days.

We had an appointment at the bank yesterday to see about a mortgage. Young man, we knew many of the same people. Kid 3 is friends with many people he knows. The fellow was not really that helpful. We wanted some numbers. The scenario that we are buying first and then selling, down payment options, open rates so that we would do the balloon down payment when this house sells. Rates/options/terms. He wasn't doing anything without our credit scores.  OK. "Can you give us a ballpark?" - No I need your paystubs. My dh has been banking there for 20 years! He was literally looking at dh's accounts as he said this. Seriously. I hate banks.

So an online calculator it is then.

No wonder I'm not sleeping.

Kid 3 is working like crazy. Last week was 56 hours. Overtime plus he's doing a few hours at the place he worked last year.  Its like feeding a hyena I would think the comparison is. I am cooking like crazy these days. We are always out of something.  If I had any energy I would clean the pantry and lazy susan. That might help my organization. My freezer is clean and organized, so there's that. I am menu planning, so that helps quite a bit. He takes leftovers for  a big lunch the next day as the job is very labour intensive. High protein and lots of veg and fruit. Then somehow he has energy for 4x week training. Starting a new gym today with more flexible hours.

Next week family is having surgery. Then in 3 weeks another family having surgery.  I need to make some freezer meals. I will be the driver for appointments and the babysitter for sis in law's little one. dh has a week long conference and flies out in 2 weeks. 

Second verse same as the first - No wonder I'm not sleeping. 

The Good Things: Buying a house is OPTIONAL at this point.

I have the time (thanks retirement) and the $ (thanks savings) to help others.

Grandbaby is a delight and into everything.

Things that Suck:

The stress that comes with change.