Wednesday, Problem solving with a blog, COVID News

 Slug and Hubby on the Train at Icy Point.  We had so much fun. Wish we were still there. Vacations are just never long enough.

I got some great suggestions and reminders in my comments on my last post which really helped to make me feel a little less on edge about jumping right back into the fire.  First of all I was reminded that coming back from a vacation the first week is always rough.  And you know it is.  Why should I think I am any different?  It is this way for everyone and I am not special, I can do what everyone else does and just suck it up.

Also, I can say NO!  Thank you Cheryl, I had a lady come in today with a bag of alterations and she wanted me to alter some swim suits. I did not really know how and it made me nervous.  I told her so and did not do them.  I can do so many other things well, why stress myself over a $10.00 job?  I don't need to, so I won't.

Jackie, at Land of the living skies, reminded me that her garden is coming on hard.  Now our garden was almost a total wash this year, but in years past I would be picking a bushel full of produce every other day and having to process it.  Now I am complaining about getting apple sauce made and grape jelly.  This is the time of year  that for the next 6 weeks to two months we harvest and it is a lot of work.  I have been spared that in so many ways. I need to remind myself and be thankful!

Hubs cut and cored almost all of the apples and we made applesauce until midnight.  I helped with the final batch and I was tired so we left it until this morning to finish.  We also got all of the grapes ready to juice and cook down.  We made 20 quarts of applesauce and froze it.  It is so good. I put the grapes that were ready on the stove and they are simmering and Hubs is out picking the last of them because I told him I was not going to do this again. The kitchen is a land of milk and honey mess and I want it done!  By the way Hubs is a huge help with this and he had to be, or it will not get done.

I now have 6 wedding dresses and many bridesmaid dresses among other things in the shop all due out before the end  of the month. Again I did not get as much done yesterday as I wanted to.  It was frustrating.  Last night we had (HAD) to go pick up pet supplies, and prescriptions and a few fresh things for the fridge.  I would have loved to have deep cleaned the fridge but I just could not with all the applesauce and grape mess.   I have a hard time ignoring things and getting distracted.  Stay on task and get the most important things done, don't veer off and create work.

So I need some advice. My eldest daughter called and she could tell by my voice I was  tired and not myself.  I told her the shop was just so busy and I was having trouble getting back on track.  She asked me what I was doing as she could hear the cranking of the apple sieve. I told her making applesauce and dad had picked the grapes and they needed to be done.  She was upset that I was even making applesauce.  "Mom you can buy that from the store and it is not extensive, why are you wasting your precious time when you are so busy? You can buy grape jelly, it is the cheapest of the jellies?  Why do you do this to yourself?"   I had no answer for her.  Other than it is what I always have done.

We always had a big garden,I always canned, I always cooked from scratch unless we were deep in the middle of  a performance .  Even then when the other parents were bringing in fast food, I was bringing in something homemade.  Not always, but it was a way to save money. SO my question is as busy as I am, am I foolish to try and save money doing these things any more?  I do not can green beans as they are too much work and I can get them for .30 a can once a year.  So I quit doing that it did not pay. It was not worth my time.  I don't know?  I have just always done these things and my food is so much better than what I can buy. I had a smart a$$ comment I wanted to give back to her, "I haven't always lived a married life on 6 figures, I raised you and educated all of you on less than $40,000 a year and you turned out pretty good."

This is how we survived, I made due.  I told hubs what she had said and his response was , "That is not the point."  So my question is what is the point? Help needed here....

I am also sure that the majority of my business is weddings and this is wedding season, plus it is a COVID wedding season, and I need to make hay while the sun shines.  It will not always be this busy.  At least I hope not.

Last night, I ran to the garden and picked 3 large lemon cucumbers and all the ripe tomatoes and made a large salad, and then cooked up a spaghetti squash ( one of the few we were able to harvest) and I grabbed some homemade frozen sauce and sliced up that leftover steak into the sauce. It was delicious. But again would it be easier to just buy spag sauce instead of making it in large batches usually with my homegrown produce?  I had to laugh as we picked up prescriptions last night for both of us for the month and it was $94.18.  Then we got pet supplies, cat food, dog food, dog treats, chicken food, and freezer bags in several sizes, which came to $98.69.  This was more than a months supply of some things.  Then onto Winco for groceries which came to $50.45 and that will hold us for a couple weeks.  DO you see why I do what I do?

Now Albertsons has cheese, and ice cream and brats on special and I will go buy those they all have limits.  But that is how I shop. it saves me money.  Does it take more time to live out of a pantry and  a freezer and shop only the loss leaders?  It certainly saves money, but does it really save on precious time?  I don't know?  I don't know if I would or could change?

Anyway the apples are done, and  I am deep into grape juice.  Hubs is still on the back porch taking grapes off the stems. I AM GOING TO GET SOME SEWING DONE!!!!!!

By the way our Governor has called out the National gaurd in the Pan handle of Idaho, because of COVID.  We have only 4 ICU beds left in this part of the country.  We have cases and deaths outnumbering the other two waves put together and they are mostly the unvaccinated and much younger people.   National gaurd are trained nurses, and doctors, and personel to keep hospital laundries and cafeterias open and the hospitals running as all are short staffed and eshausted.  What a mess.

My spell check is not working forgive me:)

Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.

Kim