Dog Mom

Somewhere on Instagram, I saw a post or reel or something that asked, “Why do all my hobbies involve keeping something alive?” Feeling the same right now as I try to keep the garden watered in the heat, try to keep my fall seedlings healthy, and look after Molly the foster pup. No doubt it’s gratifying to see living things grow and thrive and know that you had something to do with it. Molly is the most immediate example. She has come a long way in the three weeks she has been here: her fur is growing back (she had mange) and she is gaining weight steadily. She looks like a real puppy now, not a drowned rat.

After a little lull, things are slowly getting busier. F. started to ask me questions about school supplies. I said hush your mouth! It’s July! But fall HS sports start in mid-August. The family birthday parties of August are claiming weekends. We received a move-in time slot for T’s college, for August 28. Shush! I’ll be over here drinking lemonade and daydreaming. I have time!

Despite wanting to laze about, I was fairly productive this week. Thursday night in particular: I skinned and froze tomatoes; roasted veggies in the oven, including leftover corn on the cob; dried parsley and put it away; and cleaned out the fridge. I remembered to put leftover ricotta in the freezer. And beforehand, I mowed the lawn and trimmed the stalks off the hostas. Other nights involved more yard work, dog walking, and puppy bathing. And always, continuing along with Prairie Fires.

I will have to produce a full report comparing and contrasting The Good Life with Prairie Fires when I am done the latter. They definitely cover some of the same ground. Something else that strikes me about Prairie Fires is that Laura and Rose (her daughter) embody that argument I’m always having with myself about whether I should be focusing on bringing more money in, or on cutting expenses. In the face of near constant financial insecurity, Rose is all for making money, while Laura’s fallback is thrift. Rose is always pushing her mother to write for money, and eventually she does (although money was far from her only motivation).

Today, F, her friend and I hit the farmers’ market for corn, blueberries, tomatoes and nectarines. I spent most of the day after that working on the yard and can now say that both front and back yards are fully mown and weed-whacked, concurrently. I also pulled a ton of weeds, spread more wood chips, picked a giant tomato, and generally cleaned up and got rid of trash. Plus Friday night, I potted on the lettuce, Brussel sprouts and broccoli.

I had been thinking about buying or building some tall raised planters, but after the electric bill came, I put that idea on hold. It was more than $800, possibly the biggest one I’ve ever gotten. Everyone was bitching about it on FB, and I gather that rates went up. So instead I moved some stuff around and in essence now have two repurposed large pots high enough off that ground that Rocco won’t bother them. That will help once it’s time to plant out the fall seedlings. Glad I resisted the urge to spend.

Meals this week:

Monday: Braised chickpeas with squash, ricotta and pesto, eaten with toasted sourdough bread.

The pesto was made with basil from the garden. Only I ate this, of course. It was easy and tasty. I think I would prefer a recipe where the end result is a mash or puree that you eat with the bread. I’ll have to try something else.

Tuesday: Prepared pulled pork from Sprouts, corn on the cob, and cheddar biscuits from a mix, plus leftover rotisserie chicken from the freezer for the non-pork eaters.

Wednesday: Another misdelivered Chopt salad turned up at our door. Salmon, sweet potatoes, some kind of lettuce and more. The others had chicken cutlets.

Thursday: Salad (leftover chicken, lettuce, carrots, Caesar dressing). The others had spaghetti.

Friday: Ellio’s pizza

Saturday: Thai food from Circles

Lunches: leftover chickpea dish; leftover pulled pork and biscuits; leftover chicken plus roasted veggies

Wins:

Found a penny on the street in Philly

Used Wawa points to buy a stuffed pretzel for F as part of her lunch. Too bad you can only use the points on specific, usually kind of junky, items.

Didn’t overspend on our beach day last Sunday (see below). We had leftover ride tickets from 4th of July, and F had to use her own money for anything else. We just bought pizza for dinner, and of course had to buy beach tags

Both Molly and Rocco are sleeping peacefully near me now. They’ve had so much fun lately just rolling around and gnawing on each other.

Tomorrow, hoping for some pool time. I wouldn’t say no to a beach trip either. We went last Sunday and it was so nice. Tom went fishing; F and her friend went in the water a while but then went to the boardwalk. So it was just me and my book under the umbrella (and the unfortunate musical selections of the group behind me, but oh well). I went in the water too… I’m tempted, very tempted, to rent a house for Labor Day Weekend.