We had a busy day yesterday. Dear Husband went sailing, and I attended the christening of one of my grand nieces. I was supposed to attend a party following the christening, but I needed to visit with Elegante Mother. My-Sister-The-Nurse was going to make a stop to check on her, and I needed to learn how to use a new piece of equipment.
EM is unable to assist with her own transport from bed to chair, and chair to recliner, and so on, so we are now using a Hoyer to move her. A Hoyer is a lift. A sling is placed under EM’s body, and it’s hooked up to the arms of the Hoyer. A hand pump is activated to lift her into a sitting position, and then you swing her to the chair and lower her in place. It’s really an amazing piece of equipment, and Elegante Mother treats it as her own personal Riverview ride. We thought she might be distressed at being moved in this way, but she is absolutely calm about the entire thing. YEA for EM and for us!!!! One more problem overcome.
I stayed to visit with EM for a while, reading to her from the “Country” magazine and generally keeping her company. She is so frail, it’s difficult to see her like this, but she has an amazing will to stay with us. As I’ve said, she’s the Energizer Rabbit, and she will go on, and on and on!
I’d put a roast in the crockpot before I left for the christening, and Dear Husband had everything pulled together for dinner by the time I got home. It was good to put my feet up and relax and just enjoy his company.
Funeral Planning
I mentioned in a previous post that we have had to begin the planning for Elegante Mother’s funeral. She is in her nineties now and I suppose we should have done this long ago. It’s quite eye-opening to have to make choices for a loved one.
Elegante Mother requested that we choose a simple casket, and we were able to honor her wishes. I knew that the casket would go into a vault, but I thought the cemetery would provide the vault. I was surprised that we were encouraged to choose a vault at the funeral home. I’ve always assumed that a vault is leak proof, and was required to preserve the water table below the cemetery. Actually, the reason for a vault is to prevent damage and/or cave-ins when the cemetery employees dig the space for the internment. Who knew!?
We were shown about a dozen examples of vaults, and I want you to know that they were all garish, and in bad taste, and they ran from $1300 to four or five thousand dollars! We ultimately chose the least expensive, since no one will see it, and also chose a color that we felt was more suitable. I was really upset to find that they are NOT leak proof!
We also arranged for obituaries to be posted in three large local newspapers, three smaller newspapers and two weeklies. EM has friends and family spread across the Midwest who will need to be informed of her passing. Did you know that the standard charge for an obit in a large city newspaper is $254.00??
I can’t imagine having to make these choices when you have just lost a loved one. I can see that Dear Husband and I have a little more planning to do so that his children, or my family don’t have to try to figure out what our wishes might have been.
Zuppa for Dinner!
I’m rushing the season, I know. Soup has been on my mind for several weeks, and today I followed through on it. The house is cool, so it felt like it should be a soup night. Last year, or perhaps it was two years ago, Dear Husband took me to dinner at Maggiano’s in the Fall and I had Sausage and Orzo soup. I found one of those knock-off recipes and gave it a try.
The soup has celery, onion, carrots and garlic, diced tomatoes with their juice, chicken stock, seasonings, and bite sized chunks of Italian sausage. You boil orzo and put some in your soup bowl, and then ladle the soup over it. Dear Husband baked garlic bread, and offered me some watermelon to round out the meal. I think I might be able to wait for Fall, now that I’ve assuaged my soup cravings.
Yet livin’
Like most of you, I’m just busy with living. I’ve done some gardening, some reading, a little piecing, the usual suspects of household chores and errands. I seem to be able to make it to only two of the three exercise classes we have in a week, so I need to add more exercise at home.
Frankie, my youngest sis, and her daughters and their boyfriends came to Chicago last weekend to see the city sights. Sunday evening they came to stay overnight with us, and we collectively made Eggplant Parmiagiana, and Farmer’s Tomato Pie for dinner.
Monday morning, Frankie and I visited with the funeral home where Elegante Mother will have her wake one day. EM is doing well at the moment. Dear Husband and I visited with her late Tuesday afternoon, and I’ve rarely seen her looking so good. She was able to put together several sentences for us, and seemed quite concerned that we be treated well as her guests. We’d taken groceries, five new T-shirts, and some flowers to her before we went on to dinner. The reason for the visit to the funeral home lies at the feet of the Federal government. Should EM ever run out of funds and require assistance from Medicare, they will take all her assets with the exception of whatever has been set aside for her funeral. We needed to make the choices that will lead to a contract to be funded. It was distressing work, but I know we will be glad that it’s been taken care of one day.
I went for a regular teeth cleaning visit a couple of weeks ago, and the periodontist asked me to have the dentist take x-rays of one of my teeth. The upshot of that visit is that I will need to see the oral surgeon and have a tooth removed, so that they can work on a crown next to it. I’ve known for ages that I would loose this tooth sooner than later. Unfortunately, sooner seems to be here. You know…..it’s hell to get old!
We had quite a storm come through this evening. Thanks for the rain! We needed it. I was supposed to water the container garden today, and didn’t get to it. This most likely saved the plants. I need to get ten new iris into the ground. I think I may plant some of them early tomorrow morning.
I hope you’re all staying cool, keeping hydrated, and having fun this summer.
TOMATOES!!!
I have harvested my first tomatoes of the season! I thought I’d get the jump on the chipmunks and deer and bunnies and pick the very few tomatoes that were ready to eat. I have three yellow pear tomatoes, the tiny ones, a cherry tomato, and what I think may be a “Celebrity” tomato.
The chipmunks planted tomato seeds in the gardens at the sidewalk leading to the front door. The seed was in seventh heaven, because that’s one of the areas that has full sunlight, and it gets water regularly from roof run off, and overlap from watering the containers. It turns out there are two cherry tomato plants. They exploded with growth when the heat arrived and were growing across the sidewalk. Our guests had to hop over them. I should have corralled them sooner, but didn’t have anything to use. Dear Husband clipped apart an old trellis and we slid it under them and propped them up. It could look better, but the plants seem to be thriving.
When I weeded across the front of the house, to see if the Russian Blue sage was still there, I discovered more tomato plants, and left them. We’ll see if there will be tomatoes to harvest, there, too.
I’m looking forward to ripe homegrown tomatoes in “Summer” salad, and “Farmer’s Tomato Pie!”
Visit the May 13, 2003 archives for the recipe for Farmer’s Tomato Pie. “Summer” salad is diced tomatoes or thin tomato wedges, with cucumber slices and sliced green onions, with dill, in a vinaigrette. You can add other veggies, or omit those you don’t care for to personalize the recipe.
Garden Work
I MUST get into the habit of taking before and after pictures!
Frankie worked with me in the herb garden for an hour and a half yesterday, when it was deliciously cool in the early morning. I looked out over the garden this morning, and to the side there are three huge piles of herbs and brush waiting to be picked up, and a wheel barrow that is filled to the brim, waiting to be sent to the north 40. There’s also a new pile of mulch that needs to be distributed, but I’ll have to wait until the guys empty the wheelbarrow for me.
We cut back the chives, feverfew, lemon balm, the flower stalks of the lamb’s ears, and a good portion of the oregano. I decided to take the oregano down to the crown, and in the process came across a bunny nest. Something moved. Oooops…… I left some of the oregano around it to shade it. I hope….well, never mind. Enough said.
I also cut back spent stalks on the salvia, at Frankie’s suggestion. There are new starts coming up in the center of the plant, and Frankie tells me that there will be a flush of new growth now.
I have a rudbekia “Goldsturm” in the herb garden, and one more in a tiny area to the left of the back door to the garage. Catnip was trying to overgrow the one by the garage, so I pulled out all that catnip. It has spread to virtually all the gardens, so I don’t have to worry about running out of it. Besides, with Ed gone, I don’t need a lot of catnip right now.
I was startled to find that the chives were already growing back today! What an amazing plant!
Friday we had unexpectedly heavy rain. Frankie was woken by the sound of the rain on the roof, which is a pretty rare occurrence in this house. It’s structured in a way that there’s a lot of air space between the roof and the ceilings in most of the rooms, but the two “barrel” bump outs at the front of the house and the skylights can be pretty noisy in really hard rains. When we were out and about on Saturday morning, we found lots of streets that were closed due to flooding. I understand that some of the expressways in Chicago were closed for a bit.
I was delighted to have the rain. We were getting a little desperate, and I had begun watering with a hand-held watering wand. I was going to have to shift to a sprinkler, not my favorite thing to do. I had just planted cosmos and cleome in the gardens at the front of the house. I suspect that all that seed is now lodged at the front of the bed, and I’ll get a line of plants right at the sidewalk! Still, I am glad we had rain.
A Visitor
My sister, Frankie, of Just My Opinion, has been visiting with me this weekend. We went to a birthday brunch for our most special sister: My-Sister-The-Nurse, visited with Elegante Mother, went to the French Market for flowers and veggies, and came home to Frankie’s pasta salad for dinner on Saturday.
Sunday morning, we went out to garden early in the morning, and spent about an hour and a half putting the herb garden into shape for the remainder of the summer. We came in for breakfast and to clean up, and then worked through the middle of the afternoon to finish the Log Cabin quilt top that we started a year ago. It’s based on one of Eleanor Burn’s “Quilt in a Day” books. If we had been able to work for one entire day, we might have actually completed it in a day, but we’ve been working two hours one month, and two another. We have officially finished the top! YEA!!! It will be sent off to my favorite machine quilter so that Frankie will get to use this quilt this season!
That left us a little time to hit the shops for clothes for Frankie’s first day back at school, and preparation of dinner for five: Dear Husband, Stepson #2 and his girlfriend, and the two of us. We took advantage of summer veggies and had fresh green beans, and a “Summer Salad” (tomatoes, green onions, and cucumbers in a vinaigrette with LOTS of dill!), and crimini mushrooms. We rounded out the meal with a flank steak, baked potatoes and sweet potatoes, sliced tomatoes for those who don’t eat the Summer Salad, and watermelon.
We gathered in the living room to veg out for the evening, and I turned on the TV.
“Leverage” is a show that I enjoy, and Frankie had never seen it. We watched two episodes and chatted about Round Robin quilts, and whether we wanted to do one within our family.
Frankie has to be on her way this morning. I’ll really miss the early morning visits. We both head for our personal choice of caffeine and something to read while we rise up into our daytime personae. Sometimes we check e-mail, sometimes we sit and chat. But once the coffee or tea has had the chance to do it’s work, we are off and running. We both have found that it’s more fun to garden when you have company. It’s not just the idea that many hands make work light, though that IS important, but sometimes it’s just the fact that you have company and that your endeavor doesn’t have to be solitary. I need to go visit her this fall and help her with her gardens. Turn about is fair play, and I really owe her the help!
So, in a few moments, we will be parting and starting our days, separately once again. It has been a lot of fun to have these days together!
More weeding
I know, I know, I’m fixated on weeding. If you had as much weeding to do as I do, you would be too!
I can’t seem to remember to take before and after pictures to illustrate the work that I’m doing. I started weeding the day lily bed along the south side of the house. The weeds were so healthy that they had shaded the lilies and some of them have languished. I got about 75% of the bed weeded. I walked around the corner of the house and discovered that there is extensive work to be done on the west side of the house, too. As with the front gardens, I weeded up to the poison ivy and stopped for the day.
I had to prune out some mulberry upstarts, but everything else was just weeds. I cleared a path to the meters on the side of the house. I really don’t know how the meter readers have been getting in to do their work. I’m rather surprised that the companies haven’t called to tell me that I needed to provide access.
I asked Dear Husband to be my delivery man. I wanted some mulch for the gardens that have been weeded, to keep more seed from germinating, and to help hold moisture around the plants. He brought me two cubic yards! Just before he got home with it, he saw a sign offering mulch for the same price with FREE DELIVERY! I believe that he likes to grouse about having to help with the gardens. You should see how nice the herb garden looks with the chat we laid this spring!
If I could persuade the men of the house to help me, I’d clear a narrow bed on the west side of the house and plant hydrangeas and other blooming shrubs. It would cut down on the weeding, add to the beauty of the house and grounds, and create an easier path to mow. We really need to improve what my niece would call our “eyesore.”
Summer Salads
My family has a salad that is standard on the tables of almost all my siblings. A visitor to my parent’s home years ago dubbed it “Summer Salad,” and so we’ve called it. You all have variations of this salad: diced tomatoes, cucumbers, green onion and a vinaigrette (or in my case, Zesty Italian dressing) with LOTS of dill. Occasionally, I’ll toss in some broccoli flowerettes, or perhaps some cauliflower, but I really like it the traditional way.
Unfortunately, Dear Husband is not as enamored of it as I am. I can easily make a bowl of it for myself, but then I need to come up with a salad for him.
I’ve been thinking that I’d like to create chunkier side salads. For instance, tomatoes, cauliflower flowerettes and pea pods. I need more ideas. Do you have a blend that your family really likes? I hope you’ll share your suggestions with me.
Mexican Chicken Salad
I’ve been trying to find new salads to serve this summer. I want a way to bring more veggies into our meals, and I want to serve something other than the same old things we’re used to preparing. I was surfing for variations on chicken salad and came across this recipe: Mexican Chicken Salad.
Chicken, corn, black beans, red onion, grape tomatoes, and red peppers are all dressed with a mixture of cider vinegar, honey, cumin, chili powder, salt and cayenne pepper and chilled. It’s served mixed with greens. Avocado, pepper jack cheese, sour cream, salsa and blue corn chips are served as garnishes, allowing each person to choose how to finish off their salad.
I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about the beans and corn but the salad is good. The dressing is not overpowering because it’s spread over a LOT of salad. This would be a really good salad to take to a pot luck, or to fix for a large summer party. I doubt I will make it just for Dear Husband and myself, but I’d make it again if there were more than two of us at dinner.