THURSDAY'S MEANDERING THOUGHTS

It's been a long week and exhaustion is plaguing me both physically and emotionally.  I will be so happy to be done working two jobs next week.  The exhaustion is preventing me from being as organized and prepped as I would like to be, which is causing more exhaustion in many ways.  Even if it's store bought frozen dinners everybody should have a couple emergency meals available.  If I had food put up that I could pull out on nights I can barely stay awake it would be so helpful.  I will plan on working on this on the weekends now that they'll be free.  Canning beans, stews, and soups up so we have meals at hand will be a huge time and money saver.  I'm sure Matt wouldn't mind if I made up a lasagna one night and froze a couple for future meals.  For us, loaf pans of lasagna are the perfect size and freeze easily so a regular size batch of lasagna will actually net us 3 to 4 meals.  Since we don't have any pizza joints in town that we really like I might try my hand at making and freezing up some for future meals.

Another thing that has been bothering me has been how much food we've been wasting lately.  I'm sure everybody has seen the Ziplock commercial where they say the average family throws out $400 worth of food every year.  I could do a lot with $400!  Our waste takes many forms from forgetting to put food away after supper, putting things in the fridge and forgetting, and buying fruit and not eating it (I'm guilty of this since Matt doesn't eat much fruit).  So I've decided to start focusing on this. 

This afternoon I realized I'd forgotten to take anything out for supper.  Since I don't have much in emergency food supplies I had to think about what was in the fridge and cupboards and plan a meal.  I had about 1/2 pound of sausage, maybe a little less, that I wanted to use up which was left over from making pizza Tuesday night.  I discussed it with Matt after he got home.  I suggested we use the sausage to make patties and serve it with a box of mac & cheese from the cabinet and some type of vegetable.  He came up with a better idea, he fried the sausage up with some peppers from our frozen stash in the freezer and some onion and put it in some brat rolls we had left over from last week.  This yummy sandwich served with ranch was something he'd eaten at a bar years ago and came to mind when we were talking about options.  It was an excellent use of what we had on hand and used up a couple items before they went bad. 

Sunday I didn't have time to start anything before I left for work so Matt said he'd take care of it.  I had some chicken tenders in the fridge he pulled out and grilled.  There were several left over that would have typically been thrown out.  Instead I made sure to incorporate them into my lunches this week.  Monday I chopped up two of the tenders and put it on top of a salad for a protein source.  Wednesday I made a quesadilla with the last tender and some of the frozen green peppers with sides of sour cream and leftover home canned salsa.  I also bought some mini guacamole containers to try and took one of those and some leftover chips that are starting to go stale.  Excellent meals at no cost and using up items I already had on hand.  Hopefully I stay diligent about using things up. 

I normally frown on wasting money on single serve containers because they're so much more expensive than a large size that I can break into servings here at the house.  I love homemade guacamole but don't have time to make it fresh all the time.  I also haven't tried the store versions so I wasn't sure if I would like it and I also know I probably wouldn't eat a whole container before it went bad.  This way I can spread my guacamole servings over a longer period of time without the worry they will go bad.  I may do the same thing with hummus.  It also helps prevent me from overeating.

SATURDAY MORNING FALL MEANDERING THOUGHTS

I was trying to sleep in this morning since I don't have to be to work until late this afternoon BUT of course that didn't happen.  The furkids cooperated for a change but I was awake at 6 am and then the man's phone went off at 45 minutes later calling him into work so I gave up on the thought of staying in my nice cozy bed and decided to be productive.  I will admit I'm a little disorientated with it still being dark out this time of day.

The nights are getting chillier here and I desperately need to pull all my winter clothes out and go through them as well as getting the house cleaned and winterized.  I need to order some new clothes.  I have pulled out the fleece sheets, washed them and have them on the bed.  It's so much nicer climbing into bed on flannel or fleece sheets and having that warmth over climbing into bed with the chill of cotton sheets in the winter.  I have also pulled out my light winter coat and have started wearing it.  I realize that many here wear fleece until temps hit zero or below but I'm not that warm blooded and need a heavier coat.

Fall is such a wonderful transitioning time, unfortunately our fall has been rainy and short this year which hasn't been helped by the fact that I work seven days a week.  I should have had all the outside windows cleaned before now.  With temps so cold I'm not sure I'll be able to do it until spring now.  Lawn furniture needs to be stored and the leaves will need to be raked soon.  We have a leak in the mudroom roof that needs to be checked on and dealt with before the snow starts.

As for the inside of the home, I love the transition of moving from summer into the cozy winter mood.  Quilts, blankets, and afghans to cuddle up in.  I miss having a fireplace to have the season's first fire in.  I normally would have my harvest and Halloween decor out but that's something I may work on today.  We're having a Halloween decorating contest at work for our cubicles so I need to see what I have and decide if I want to participate in that.  I need to plan some crafts and get supplies ordered in to make them.  Stocking up on reading material is also a good idea.  I like to keep my reading balanced so I alternate genres; mystery, biographies, history, fiction, self-help, etc.

This is a wonderful time to do some home cleansing; both physically cleaning and spiritually cleaning.  Getting the carpets cleaned in preparation for the holidays, taking screens out for the winter and washing the windows before putting up plastic (if you do), and getting the cabinets in order for stocking up for the winter.  I've been picking up extra cans each week while grocery shopping in preparation.  Samhain (Halloween) is considered the pagan New Year and is the perfect time to do some spiritual cleansings and blessings. Sage-ing your home for spiritual cleansing should be a routine ritual for getting the negativity out. 

My menus start to shift from lighter meals to heartier ones.  Stews and soups appear regularly now in some form.  Lemonade gives way to hot apple cider and hot teas.  This is also the perfect time to rethink vitamins and supplements you're taking (or not).  With cold and flu season here already, a well stocked vitamin and supplement cabinet can be a wonderful thing.  Stocking up for hot toddy makings is mandatory for me as well as making sure I have echinacea and goldenseal tablets or tincture on hand.  I also have a lung support supplement that I bought from Mountain Rose Herbs to hopefully help prevent bronchitis if I do get sick.  Basics like Motrin, NyQuil, Robitussin, and such also need to be restocked.

Well my laundry is done and Matt's kindly toasted me a piece of homemade raisin bread so my meanders are at an end.

THE START OF AUTUMN

The nights and mornings are starting to get crisp and chilly again.  This is the time of year I love.  I can feel the snap of cold in the air.  The changing energy is so strong.  The leaves are starting to change.  The scent of autumn is so unique.  The windows are open and the chilly air flows through the house.  I live close to I94 so there are a lot of semis rumbling by and I've discovered an odd liking for the sounds of their air brakes rumbling as they come off the freeway.

I'm already missing the longer sunlit evenings though.  The furkids don't like walking in the dark and it's getting harder to get out and walk them before it does get dark.  The positive is that I'm not awakening in the wee hours because the sun is spilling through the windows or because the furkids think it's time to get up because the sun is up.


Having moved to the Prairie a year ago, I'm missing my fall walks through the forest.  People keep telling me we have trees here, but scattered trees are not a forest and there's a special magick walking through a heavy forest canopy that can't be had here.  As I was driving to Bismarck over the weekend, the wind was blowing through the tall grasses and it reminded me of ocean waves.  In the book and movie Sarah Plain and Tall, Sarah mentions about the prairie reminding her of ocean waves and as I was driving I recalled that passage of the book and movie and understood what she meant having lived by the ocean in Virginia and Maine.  There's a field by the friends I was visiting and listening to the winds in the grasses was similar to ocean waves as strange as I'm sure that sounds.

This crisp weather already has me craving heartier meals; chili, thick soups, stews.   I relish being able to use the oven again without having to turn the air conditioning up.  Bread making is soon to commence.  Homemade pizza will start being crafted on a regular basis.  A good pizza is one thing I have not been able to find locally.  Last week I made a Canadian bacon and green pepper pizza that was quite tasty.  I tried a mac and cheese at Applebee's last week that I want to try and duplicate.  It had a wonderful smoky cheddar taste with the sweetness of the honey pepper sauce.  I also want to duplicate their beer pub pretzels.

This time of year is when I start itching to work on what use to be considered winter activities; quilting, spinning, and knitting.  I haven't made a quilt in over 10 years but have been itching for at least a year now to make one.  I want to work on learning to spin more this winter and of course work on my knitting.  I know I'll be needing thick, warm wool socks for winter so the itch to start sock knitting starts.  Since we have no yarn stores locally I'll either have to make a trip to Bismarck or Fargo to check out yarn stores or place an order so I have it on hand.  I'm starting to get the soapmaking itch too.  All activities that seem to fit well with autumn and autumn energies.