Literally Dreaming of Spring

Maybe we should have bone-chillingly cold weekends more often. Being stuck in the house made me very productive.

This weekend I have made meatballs, gravy, stuffed shells and banana bread. I have all the ingredients for pasta fagioli and was contemplating knocking it out, but will push that to tomorrow night. I’ve done three loads of wash. I’m in the process right now of starting tomato seeds. The table is set for dinner with a fresh tablecloth. I just got done sweeping the stairs. I’m casting about for more to do!

It was helpful getting a food order delivered on Saturday morning with ingredients I needed for those meals. (I am trying to avoid delivery; that was the first time in a while I used it.)  The meals also used up items on hand that otherwise would have been wasted, like vanilla yogurt that F stopped caring about, leftover dry shells from the holidays, and of course frozen bananas. If I buy six bananas, they will eat four. If I buy three, they will eat two. No one eats the final bananas, ever.

It’s also fun to use things like dried parsley from the garden, my endless supply of frozen garden tomatoes, and basil from my indoor plants, which are still alive, though now bolting. Maybe I can root another sprig and make another new plant?

I had two dreams this week that involved planting flowers. In one, I discovered all these pots of exotic tropical flowers that were half dead, and I rescued them and planted them. In the other, I fell into the clutches of a cult, escaped, and started planting flowers as soon as I got home.

Clearly both my subconscious and regular conscious have had it with temps like this:

That was yesterday morning.

No escape from this for at least a few more days. But! My onion seedlings are doing great, and soon there will be tomatoes and much more.

I printed out a calendar to use for keeping track of seed and garden stuff.

Not much happened this week besides doctor and dentist appointments, picking up N and F from places (and taking them places), and trying to stay warm.

I stopped at Target briefly yesterday to get three things I forgot to put in the ShopRite food order (and because F wanted to go there). When they sent me a survey later, I let them know how I feel about them lately and gave them a 3 rating. My husband commented that Target can’t win, since they have been boycotted by both the right and left. I said that maybe they should just pick the correct side then. 🤷‍♀️

Meals this week:

Monday: Homemade chicken soup from the rotisserie chicken, with lemon. Crowd pleaser! And used up pantry and fridge items.

Tuesday: Reunion Hall restaurant with Tom.

Wednesday: Leftover chicken soup (scrounge).

Thursday: Pizza from Stella Pizza.

Friday: Tuna (scrounge).

Saturday: Bar nibbles at local dive the Fish with Tom.

Sunday: Meatballs and stuffed shells.

Tuesday lunch: tuna. Wednesday and Friday: bought lunch.

Still thinking about Renee Good and Alex Pretti and wondering when they will have justice. Here is some reading I was doing on the latest on Kilmar Abrego Garcia and other problematic deportations (here and here). No doubt the immigration/deportation system has been problematic for a long time. I just can’t stand the purposeful cruelty that seems to be happening nowadays. (“The cruelty is the point.” — Adam Serwer.)

And here is something about another boycott, “Resist and Unsubscribe.” I’ve said it before, and don’t mean to be a broken record, but as the founder of this boycott says in the article, “The most radical act you can perform in a capitalist society is non-participation.” There are so many little ways to slowly start to push back against this system. One of the things I didn’t get to this weekend was sewing. I’ve got a hand towel and several items of clothes with holes I’m going to try to fix and keep in use. As I sit here half-watching the Super Bowl and its commercials, with my family, I think how tired I am of commercials, of entities trying to sell me stuff all day long. So tired.