Sunday Stickiness

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I made 6 meals of pork tourtiere meatloaf, we ate one, the rest are in the freezer now. Tonight was supposed to be pork stew so that is put off to Tuesday which was the meatloaf. And everything is in the freezer with a little bit of breathing room due to using boxes so things don't fall over and changing some containers to smaller ones that take up less space.

Tomorrow the freezer will be even better as dinner is leftover chicken made up as a casserole with box stuffing. I've never made this but found an OK looking recipe (I don't keep sour cream on hand and that is in most of the recipes.) That gets two more containers out of the freezer and should not generate leftovers. And gets the box of stuffing bought for Thanksgiving, off my pantry shelf (the kids like it, I don't.)

Of course, the stew will generate a leftover meal.

By going through the freezer over and over, rearranging stuff, I'm getting a better sense of what's in there and making plans to use it up. Dh has a tendency to 'save' food until it shouldn't be consumed. He is still eating up his 2021 Christmas batch of homemade egg roles (and we've given dozens to the kids.)

My Amazon package arrived and it was missing one of the three items, ironically, the sticky notes. It was invoiced in two parts, and both shipped items arrived (albeit to the mail room) but each had only one item in it. They have generated a refund. The 'help chat' couldn't tell me if both items were to be in the bag but I suspect they were because they didn't ask me to wait to see if it turned up.

I should be doing something right now but instead I'm just having a cup of tea. I worked hard at cooking this afternoon and then on cleaning up after. Dh helped by portioning the meatloaves and wrapping them, but I had to put them in the freezer bag.

Here's a fun thought about how little we use consumables at times.

My dad bought me a vacuum sealer so it must be older than 2003. At that time he also bought a 3 pack refill. We quickly learned we could reuse milk bags (our milk comes in 1.3L heavy plastic pouches), so today I used up the second of the 4 rolls of plastic to make custom sized bags. The vacuum part has ceased to work but the sealer is still going strong. We freeze most meat in single meal packages so it seals hundreds of things a year, not counting bags of crackers or chips between snacking.

It took me 5 minutes to find the box with the extra rolls in it. I've moved them from when we first moved here and I cleaned out all the cupboards in November and couldn't recall seeing them. Sure enough, they were in a drawer I didn't clean out because I thought it was only small drawer with large garbage bags (something we don't use often here since we have a garbage chute.) There was something else in it!

[Lady Maverick]

I am ready for Calgon to take me away.

All's well that ends well. It has been a stressful couple of hours, but everything is calm now.

DD11 has been freaking out including tears because all our phones have been squealing with multiple severe weather alerts telling us to get into our safe place.

While the storm was at its worst going over the top of us, I was on the road trying to get to DS14. He has spent 3 hours with the youth minister trying to get several friends vehicles unstuck at the lake. 5 big trucks stuck, a tractor, a backhoe and who knows what else they got stuck. When the storm started getting close to them DS14 panic'd. I didn't get the whole story yet how they calmed DS14 down but apparently it was a challenge. I drove through rain blowing sideways and got within 2 miles of where all the vehicles were stuck. There was NO WAY I wanted to drive the SUV on a muddy trail during a crazy storm, so they brought DS14 to the road to get into my vehicle. Everyone involved was stressed out.

There are still tornados on the ground from this storm, but I am in no danger. It is moving away from me.

[Harmony]

Blessed, you are a good example to your daughters. Sorry things are so hard now with DH. He should listen to you.

I worked out in the garages 7 1/2 hours. I am bushed. After we ate I had to nap and then I got enough energy to clean up the kitchen. I tackled all the shelves along the side of the garage. There are 15 shelves there plus the tops. Besides those there are 3 wooden cabinets (like kitchen cabinets) on the walls. I did the sink cabinet which houses odd cleaners in the laundry room and underneath the kitchen sink also. I've gone through all the cleaners and put all but the everyday ones in a big plastic container in the garage.

I must have gotten a lot of steps in. I had rolled the garbage bin out to the road as it was heavy and I didn't want DH pawing through it to question why this, why that, but then since it was out there every time I found something to toss I walked down the driveway to the bin. And when I washed all the plastic containers, I walked back to the back yard to use the hose there instead of doing them in the laundry tub where I usually do it. I am putting as little water down into the system as possible.

One shelf was badly rusted in a couple spots. I sanded them and spray painted with a very shiny dark purple aerosol I found, and it looks pretty cool. I put the remainder of the shingles we had bought to repair the roof on top of the shingles we had but could not find, so that saved the space of one shelf. Reorganized all the stuff for outside, bug things and fertilizers, etc.

I was so tired when I came in that I could not get my own dinner together. DH had his and I complained and he said "it was your choice to do that cleaning". Our pastor started a series on marriage today and DH said it was good. I wonder if he really listened.

Oh well, what else is new. I need to get in the shower. I'm running the dishwasher, was too tired to wash them all.

LadyM I am glad you are safe. What a story! I am watching the reports and it does look very scary. Yikes!

[lucylee]

Just checking in -- survived two nights of Nana-duty with both dgrands. They were really good. They ARE growing up. They still fight, but they do play together better now and there are fewer squabbles.
Last night, dgd wanted to sleep in our room on a pallet by our bed, because dgs was "picking at" her. Tonight dgs admitted he was, but said it was "Probably the least I've picked at her in YEARS!"
Around 1:00 a.m. I heard the pitter patter of his feet, and there he was, crowding into her pallet and they both slept there like two little puppy dogs.

LadyM -- I have not seen the weather or anything else since they arrived Friday, so I didn't know you were in the midst of such bad weather! So glad you're safe, and (((HUGS))) for ds!
I had no idea mice would eat candles either. Wow.

Waving to ALL... so many of you are having such hard times right now and you are ALL in my thoughts always. Praying for better days, for healing, and for strength. Maybe March will come in like a LAMB for all of us.