February 2009 Archives

I am a subscriber to "Cook's Illustrated," a magazine. The editor, Christopher Kimball, writes an opening page on life in Vermont. It has the feel of an east coast version of Lake Woebegone, and frequently has nothing to do with cooking. This month, he provides his version of the Vermont Creed: "Seen worse." There are fourteen steps based on familiar sayings such as "Make Hay While the Sun Shines," "Check the Weather," and "Waste Not, Want Not." The one which is resonating through me is "When You Don't Know What To Do, Do the Work in Front of You," which is apparently something President Calvin Coolidge was heard to say.

Every so often I feel so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things which need to be done, that I don't know where to start. I'll stare at my desk, knowing that I could enter bills, or pay them, or file, or fill out applications for credit. I could balance checkbooks, or respond to requests for information. In the rest of the house I could clean, do the dishes, make my bed, dust, reorganize the bookshelves, feed the birds, go out to weed or water, or God forbid! CLEAN THE BASEMENT!!

Sometimes it just seems difficult to decide where to start. I hate indecision. I know from past efforts that if I simply choose one activity and get started, that the rest will fall into place. I won't get it all done in one day, but that's the nature of being a homeowner, or a bookkeeper, or a housekeeper.

I like Nike's logo: "Just Do It!" That's amazing advice for everyone, not just those facing exercise. You start with one small step and the rest will fall into place. Think of it as "One small step for man.."

I've come to understand that clutter saps my attention. I accomplish more during the day if I start by making my bed and cleaning the kitchen. I've created a morning ritual designed to clear the decks and get me out the doors in time for exercise three mornings a week. It's so satisfying, that I find myself waking early on the weekend, when I could sleep in, and those days when I ignore that routine, I'm likely to waste my time.

So, I guess I must have some Vermont in me, or perhaps I'm related to Calvin Coolidge. As Kimball points out, the upside to "Do the Work in Front of You," is that even if things don't turn out, you'll have your chores done! *G*.

So, everyone say it with me: "When You Don't Know What to Do, Do the Work in Front of You!"

Oh, dear younger and wiser sister, you were right. Couscous is not so bad.

I served a Middle Eastern beef stew tonight, and it was ladled over couscous. Dear Husband liked it...better than he liked the stew.

So....I bow low before you and acknowledge that you knew better than I.

(Is that enough, or do I need to keep this up??)

I can tell that spring needs to get here SOON! I've been searching magazines for new, tasty, healthy recipes to try, and I decided to make one from the most recent issue of "Real Simple."

The ingredients are: sweet potatoes, beef chuck roast, whole peeled tomatoes, apricots, chickpeas, red onion, spinach, almonds, kosher salt, cayenne pepper, cumin, cinnamon, and ginger. Everything but the spinach, almonds and chick peas are cooked in a crock pot all day, and then those items are added at the last moment. What this amounts to is a Middle Eastern beef stew. It is served over couscous, and I chose to make a pan of cornbread to offer as a side dish.

Unfortunately, even though I've been married to him for eighteen years, I forgot that Dear Husband is a traditionalist. He was hoping for something more like plain old beef stew. He gave it a shot, ate the beef and sweet potatoes, and then got up to dump the rest off his plate.

(Sigh.)

Scratch that recipe from the books. For those of you who are more adventurous, I thought this was pretty tasty, but I'd cut back a little on the cayenne.

Just a quick thought, tonight. It amazes me how different my sister's blog is from mine. A librarian friend has likened my blog to that of Samuel Pepys. Of course, I'm not a literary giant...it was the daily description of my life that she was referring to. Over at Just My Opinion, you're more likely to get thoughts about integrity or self-determination!

Go visit what Frankie has to say about helping kids to understand the concept of integrity. I think you'll find it interesting.

Dear Husband and I went to visit Elegante Mother today. I took her a bowl of cheddar chowder and a slice of an amazing chocolate cake with fudge frosting and fresh raspberries. She wasn't terribly thrilled with my homemade chowder, but she ate several spoonsful, along with the oyster crackers. The chocolate cake was something else, again. She ate half of it at lunch and saved the rest for later this afternoon. In EM's opinion, there's nothing better than chocolate!

We are seeing extremes in EM's memory. Some days we visit and she is clear as a bell, discussing the family in a way that lets you know she recognizes everyone. Other days she hasn't a clue who we are talking about. She informed my brother that she had never been married or had children. He asked her about the pictures on the wall above her bed and could see her trying to process the question without any luck.

Our brains are funny creatures.

EM is physically well, and still casing the joint. The nurse told me today that she gets frequent calls to send someone to guide EM back to her own wing. She has taken to walking the halls of the facility. I don't know if that is to get out of her room (or away from her roommate), or whether she feels the need for exercise, or whether she truly is looking for a way out. I'm relieved to know that she is able to get around on her own.

I'll return Monday. I promised to bring a Greek salad with me this time. Her eyes lit up at the thought of Feta cheese!

January is very often taken up with organization of papers, and preparation of taxes, and it usually leaves me little time for sewing. I have a number of projects that I have been working on that I want to finish. (So I can start NEW projects, of course!) To that end, I managed to steal two or three afternoons to work on a tote bag for Frankie, my youngest sis.

I made the mistake of not choosing pre-quilted fabrics for this project. I let Frankie choose three Batiks that are quite beautiful, so I had to layer them with batting, and quilt them before I completed the project. A friend who quilts helped me with a problem I was having with skipped stitches (I needed a lower number needle, a thinner one), and that helped me move through part of the quilting. Once I had the strips for the handle quilted, I decided to finish making the handle. Imagine a strip four inches wide by 110 inches long. I had to turn the long unfinished edges to meet in the center, and then fold the strip in half one more time, to enclose those raw edges. Then I had to sew them together parallel to each edge and down the middle.

Apparently, my machine can stitch through four thicknesses of batting and eight thicknesses of Batik, but I forgot a rule you learn early on in sewing: Do not PULL the fabric through the needle. I changed the foot. I changed the needle, I tried re-threading the machine, to no avail. I had messed up the timing, and it had to go to the sewing machine doctor.

He's a good kid. Before him, his dad worked on this machine. I sew on a Singer 301A which is almost as old as I am, and I love it. I've told them that they have to make this machine last as long as I do, and so far, they have. He had it a day and a half, before the called to tell me it was ready to pick up.

This weekend I have a little more time to work on the tote, so I'll share a picture when it's done. Thank goodness for good sewing machine doctors!

I should be blogging, but I just don't know WHAT to blog about. The absolutely crazy winter weather? Ed, who was ill yesterday? The incredible sale I found at Bath and Body. Elegant Mother's dislike of the nursing home?

There's not a lot of news in my corner of the world. I took lunch to EM on Monday and you'd think it was the best meal she had ever eaten. Unfortunately, she can't remember the LOBSTER that my brother took to her on Friday night. My offering was a simple tuna sandwich, fresh raspberries and part of a clementine. She ate all that, and was too full to eat the salad that came with it. Probably what she liked the best was a small iced coffee from Starbucks. I can see that she both wants and needs to drink more, and the iced coffee might have been the part of the meal she enjoyed the most.

EM has been in a nursing home about three weeks, and they lost her bottom teeth (temporarily), her shoes ( for a couple of days...and in the meantime, someone has given her a pair of embroidered felt slippers....we haven't a clue who they belong to),and now her glasses. I had to take her prescription sunglasses to her because she had been without glasses from some time on Saturday until lunch on Monday. We have informed the administration that they are missing, but no one seems to know anything about them. I'm going to print out a sign that says....Does EM have her glasses, her teeth and her shoes on this morning? to remind the aides to check for what seems obvious to us.

I'll be vising EM again today, and I'll take French onion soup, maybe half a sandwich, and something sweet to finish the meal. And, you can be sure I'll take her more iced coffee! The Empty Nester Ladies will be visiting this morning at 11:00, so she should have a nice day.

I think it's okay to say that I am TIRED OF THE COLD! I'm ready for spring. I want to be browsing the plant catalogs and planning what will go in our gardens. I doubt that I will have help with them this year, so I want to plant things that will make it with a minimum of assistance. Don't you get that green-thumb syndrome this time of year, too?

I suppose I should cut this short so that I can get ready for exercise this morning. I'm trying not to miss any of the sessions, because it's so hard to get back into the traces after being away several days. My exercise session, compared to what my younger sister does, is a laugh, but I can tell you that it makes a significant difference in my life. so I go. I don't like it....but I go! *G*

I hope you all have a good Wednesday!