Tag Archives: cooking

How I Spent the Day

Posted on by learning to live like water

I did say I had some cooking to do, didn’t I? So, I went into the kitchen at about 3:30. I decided it might be a good idea to get the house cooled down, since I was about to turn on the oven. I shut all the windows and flipped the switch to on, and turned the temp inside down a few degrees.

Let me say that I have been lax as a mom lately. All that stupid drama, but I’ve reset my focus on things that are important to me. Like making balanced good meals. I was a good cook at one time. I feel like I’ve forgotten more than I remember. I intend to change that, and get my screwed up priorities straightened out.

Then, I turned the oven on. Got out a box of Snickerdoodle cookie mix and made some for my son. His favorite cookie. Last night I had made one of my favorite snacks for the party. You take a toothpick and put on a piece of mozzarella cheese, a leaf of basil, and a grape tomato. Then you drizzle it with balsamic vinegar dressing. My son got none of those, except one. He tasted them and said, “Those are FIRE, Mom.” Meaning, they are really good. So I had some tomatoes left, some mozzarella left, and a bit more basil in my herb garden. So I put some more of those together.

Then I took a rack of spareribs and put them in the oven at really low with a little bit of water, after rubbing them with some BBQ rub. They need to cook like that for about 3 hours. But they will be goooooood. If you like ribs.

Then, I remembered that I had to make a dish to take to my friend Susan’s house Wednesday night. Her son is getting married. It is a quick and quiet wedding. The bride is not pregnant, but they met on FB, he is in the service. He is on leave from Japan and dying to marry this girl. So despite the fact that they have only spent one week together in real life, no one could talk them out of it. I think it will be a kind of weird wedding, not a lot of people. But Susan is one of my best friends, and her son and my son were very close for many years. I love him dearly, though am terribly worried about this.

I had boiled a dozen eggs yesterday. Today I fried a bunch of bacon nice and crisp and crunched it up into little pieces, mixed it with the hard boiled yolks, and made deviled eggs.

I’m all done cooking now, for the time being. I will put some corn on the cob on when my son gets home. But for now, I am sitting on the deck, once again, with a glass of wine and a bunch of stuffed olives. Yum. And writing again. Like an obsessed woman, lol.

I actually did a couple other good things today. I got a couple more pieces up on my Etsy site, www.sundogsdesigns.etsy.com. I posted some stuff on my Living Like Water FB page. I read. I chatted with a friend. I napped. But all in all, I had a good, relaxing but fairly productive day. Here are a couple pics of the necklaces I put up on Etsy today.

Love and light, all.

Cleaning House, Frozen Pipes….UGH.

Posted on by learning to live like water

I spent my day off more or less productively.  I got done what I’d said I would.  Got my two spare bedrooms cleaned, and my hallway carpet.  I found a bag full of clothes in my size that hadn’t fit me, and I had stuffed them away “for when they fit”.  LOL.  Always the plan, to get into these smaller clothes at some point.  Well, I took them out and I found a new pair of pants, two pairs of shorts, and two shirts and a jacket that fit.  Cool….Most of them still had tags on them!

And I made some cookies.  They are called “pecan clouds” and are basically meringue stuffed with pecans.  One of my and my son’s favorite cookies.  Not a ton of sugar, but really good.  If you like pecans.

Now I’m having a drink.  The energy spike about his health comes and goes, but I’ve gotten some assistance with it, which is greatly appreciated.

It’s been so frigid here for the last 2 days. Lows well below 0, highs in the 10’s.    The pipes to my washing machine are inside a common wall with the garage which is not heated, and have frozen.  I thawed them out with the hair dryer, ran a load of laundry, and they froze again.  So, thawing them again. It should warm up enough tonight that they won’t do it anymore.

And it’s snowing again, and going to change to rain, which will freeze.  The temp tomorrow will be 70° higher than yesterday.  WTF.

Fun.  Winter fun.  It’s a chapter in my book, “Why I want to live in Florida”.  LOL.

 

A Little Closer to Not Working

Posted on by learning to live like water

I just talked to my mother. She’s 94, living in a memory care facility in Florida. She is not happy there, even though hospice workers tell us that it’s one of the best in the area. She wants to be with her family, which is what we would all hope if we make it to 94. But she had a major stroke last fall, and cannot speak, read, or write and is partially paralyzed on her right side. Sad, she was an English teacher, and an avid reader. We used to talk for ages about the books we were reading. Mom needs care 24/7. I wish it weren’t so, because no matter how good the facility, at least down there, the aide to patient ratio is about 20 to 1, and the aides just can’t spend time with her, and time is all she craves. I get so sad thinking about it, imagine never being able to ask a question, voice an opinion, take part in any activities. I asked her if there were things for her to do tonight, and she said, “Oh yes….” which was a good sign. She can usually answer yes and no questions, which is what I try to ask her, and then she babbles unintelligibly until you ask another question.

Her voice was weak tonight, very soft, and quiet. It’s never been like that before. It makes me so sad. I so wish I already lived in Florida. She would be happy at this place if we could come visit her every day. My little sis is going to see her next week. I’m happy about that.

My vacation is whittling down to the last couple of days. Tomorrow I have a party for which I had to make an appetizer and dessert. I made “Pecan Cloud” cookies, which are really just baked meringue with pecans in them. They are so good!!! For an appetizer, I got some proscuitto, fresh peaches, arugula and blue cheese. You layer the peaches with the arugula and blue cheese and wrap the proscuitto around it. They are really good.

Then another friend texted me about doing something on Sunday, it’s going to be 90. We made tentative plans to do something, we will decide at the party tomorrow. Because the rest of our crowd will be there. Probably be about 60 people, it will be fun. Sunday will probably be the beach, or maybe my friend’s boat.

I have had such a nice vacation. Trip to the Adirondacks, Newport, a party, the beach, great weather. Good friends, saw S one evening, and had a couple days at home, to do stuff around here and relax, Reading, writing. It’s all good.

Except Mom. I wish she was happy.

And except, I want to retire more than ever. To spend my days as I feel like, and to be closer to my mother.