Winter Encore

We had some nice weather for a bit there, and even a thunderstorm one warm night. But Friday brought a chill wind and the return of sickness. Actually some of us have been sick most of this week. I took a sick day Friday and alternated between laying on the couch and then feeling like I needed to get up and get something done.

Still, I got carrot seeds planted outside the other night and the indoors seedlings are doing well. The tomatoes have to be potted on soon. And it is spring, by the calendar.

It was a pretty typical week for me: checking the stock market and the news each day to see how much further down the drain we’ve gone, then switching to Instagram to watch someone making pasta by hand. I am probably most concerned about the spectre of a constitutional crisis. When I looked up info about the last time a president defied the Supreme Court, it seems it hasn’t happened since the Civil War. I’m closely following the story of Trump defying the judge who ordered the planes that went to El Salvador to turn around.

Yesterday I planted some potato pieces in containers outside and removed some dead plants from last year. It was fairly warm. But this weekend has mostly been devoted to cleaning. Both bathrooms and the basement got the deep cleaning treatment. The kitchen is next. We also did some decluttering of the whole downstairs. I haven’t baked bread or cooked much this weekend so far. Cleaning had to be prioritized.

Here’s what we ate this past week:

Sunday: chicken nuggets, broccoli, and also riced broccoli and cauliflower in lemon pesto sauce (only eaten by me).

Monday: delicious shepherd’s pie with ground beef. I will use this recipe from now on!

Tuesday: eggs, pancakes, bacon and hash browns

Wednesday: roast chicken with “grandmom noodles” (Knorr creamy chicken noodles) and corn. First time ever roasting a chicken, for Tom.

Thursday: went out to a local restaurant chain. I had a long day at work. We used to go to this restaurant very regularly, but we realized that we hadn’t been since before Christmas. And honestly, the food is meh and expensive. But it was good to get out of the house.

Friday: frozen pizza

Saturday: Panera for me and F. (the carrot I dangled in front of her to get her to help with the cleaning marathon). I enjoyed my avocado and chicken sandwich way more than what I had on Thursday.

Lunches: large soup (2.49) and a Mexican pork and beans meal ($9). Had chicken salad with avocado on Friday at home, made from the leftover roast chicken.

Yesterday, prior to Panera, F. and I went to Costco. I got some things we needed, like tomato paste, tuna, and canned corn, and she picked out some things for her lunches. I also had food delivered from ShopRite on Friday, and took advantage of a bunch of sales and a promo code for $10 off. So we are pretty well set for the week ahead. I do not feel like cooking tonight though, the way I feel right now…

Small wins this week:

• Got a much needed four-shade eyeshadow for $3 (half off) at Rite Aid. I’d love to go without makeup but I can’t really show up at work like that.
• Finally sold the Apple Pencil Pro that I mistakenly bought F. for Christmas, for $70 on eBay. It is not compatible with her older model iPad. I would have gotten more for it but it has her name engraved on it.
• Cooked some ground beef that was in danger of being overlooked (we defrosted too much for the shepherd’s pie). Someone ate it the next day.
• Bought my favorite laundry detergent, Clean Cult sheets, from their website instead of from Amazon. And learned they are made in the US. Used a 20% off promo code I found by Googling.
• Managed to bake bread on Monday. This recipe is so odd; sometimes it tastes good to me, sometimes it tastes weird. Need to try something else next time. This was my best rise so far, though.

I have made note of several interesting articles this week. This one is about Europeans boycotting American products. Then this one is about the ongoing Target boycott started by black churches and talks about the economic boycotts of the civil rights movement. Was especially happy to see that Target appears to be being impacted. Where we shop matters!

Then there was this article about a new “conservative Cosmo” magazine which gave me a good laugh. “Despite the years of labor she has put into building the two businesses, [the magazine’s founder] insisted that she believed most women weren’t cut out for hard-charging careers.” Barf. I look forward to seeing this woman and her husband on an upcoming episode of American Greed because they definitely have that grifter whiff about them. For the record, since I haven’t made it clear in a while, yeah, I’m into baking bread and mending clothes, but mainly as a means of holding onto my hard-earned money and because I like to learn new skills. Tradwives scare me!