Be Thankful For What We Have

A frost warning is on for our area tonight. I grabbed the last tub of tomatoes off the vine. If the warm July temperatures had held, I would even have more. There were marble sized tomatoes starting. 

Washed, drying and color coded for ripening in brown paper bags. 

And more peppers. The pepper plants are so healthy they look like overgrown bushes, profuse with leaves. And they are still flowering with more pepper buds. I have frozen so many peppers. 

Washed and drying. I then cored and seeded them, let them drain on a cooling rack and put them in ziplocks for what I am guessing will be weekly stuffed peppers. I am thinking of stuffing the baby ones with cream cheese, onion and sausage for appetizers at some point.  I have bags and bags of pepper strips on my freezer door, too. 

My dear husband remembered to grab the potted mums and put them to bed in the garage. I guess we are ready. 

I was asked to speak about my work on the county's Homeless Task Force last night. I said yes about a month or more ago and then the closer the date came, I started getting nervous. I tend to forget I don't really like to talk in front of groups I don't know and I forget I don't like to drive at night.  But, of course, it all went just fine. And then once I start talking, I can't stop and I don't want them to bring out a hook.  I wrote my speech that morning and tried to remember to look up at the crowd. 

I was speaking to a ladies church group who are focusing on the Corporal Works of Mercy. (Matthew 25:35-46) I was the "shelter the homeless" month. I gave a brief speech about the goals of the group, the challenges, and what we are looking at for the future. Basically we are just trying to put our finger in the holes of the dike since any type of solution will require huge amounts of cash and expertise that we don't have.

I think in a small rural community it is hard for people to realize the extent of the problem. Our homeless are hidden.  They are sleeping in vehicles, visiting 24 hour establishments, sleeping in campers or tents when weather permits, and "couch surfing", staying on friend's and relative's couches until they are forced to move to another location. A teacher I know has a student who is part of a family with 4 children and a mom who has been living in a camper on a relative's property. They are hooked up to power but have to go into the house for water and restroom.  

There are so many reasons people are homeless. In our community many stand alone rental houses were sold when housing prices rose. Many rentals became Airbnb locations since we have nearby vacation spots. Landlords can make more just renting in the summer to tourists than year round to families.  Working poor have been priced out of the market with lack of units and higher rents. Apartments that used to accept assistance like Metro have become private. Landlords don't have to meet housing standards and do the repairs that metro requires because people are willing to pay full rental for units with issues.  And then we have a segment of people who are just unable to navigate life and housing on their own. 

We do have "warming" shelters in my area. Basically cots in the meeting room at the police station where people (including families) can spend the night in bad weather. And it is a catch 22 as they might not seek shelter at a police station, yet the police station is safe and there are people there 24/7. We have two locations with showers available. We have a donation program for a program at a local laundromat for washing of clothing during a certain day and time. We have lists of food pantries and church that provide free meals. 

I shared the story of a woman that my own church organization helped last winter. She was a couch surfer, in her 50's and disabled, who had qualified and found a metro approved unit with affordable rent. She told me how uncomfortable it was to use someone else's bathroom to shower. You had to be careful not to use their shampoos or soaps, or personal items. She always felt in the way. The first thing she was looking forward to was to showering in her own shower in her own apartment.

I don't know where I am going with this. Except tonight is a night I am worried about people who don't have a home in my community. Do they have blankets? Do they have a place to go? Did they have dinner tonight?  

I should mention the ladies group had each member bring laundry detergent to donate to a woman's shelter in our area as part of their corporal works of mercy program. 

Wastral

 I am becoming a total wastrel. I was a dynamo when I was younger. My husband would leave for work at 5 am and I was left to get five children up, ready for school, make breakfasts and pack lunches, make sure they caught school buses. 

AND shower, do a hair do, put on real clothes, pack my own lunch, hopefully run a load of wash, and start the dryer, put dinner in a crock pot and get to work on time.  

I was also the girl scout leader, 4H advisor and Sunday School teacher.  

It makes me tired to write this. 

If there is nothing on my calendar these days, I will still be in my robe at 10:49 (thanks for the prompt, The Misadventures of Widowhood). Today is even worse because I COULD have gone somewhere. I was invited to a meeting at 9am concerning a new website that shares county resources to the needy. I even took a shower and plugged in my hair rollers. But my excuse was that I had so much too do at home today.  Yet, now it is 11:21 am and I am still drinking coffee and watching a reality show on foot surgery. This is just sad.  What a wastrel. 

Tonight I volunteered myself to help with a genealogy class in a neighboring city. I could get ready for that. I have financial paperwork I really really need to read and do something with.  I have sympathy and thank you notes that are overdue. Tomorrow at 9 I have a meeting of the Homeless Task Force and tomorrow after noon I sit in the church office and interview needy clients. Tomorrow night I need to be packed to travel two states away on Friday for a family funeral.  Laundry, that might be a good start. 

If there is one thing I am good at, it is frittering away time.  A week ago I got out my Autumn/Halloween decorations.  Most are falling out of boxes in my dining room. And my OCD Hoarder brain has decided the problem is that my storage boxes aren't clear so I have been googling prices in the area for clear boxes.  I did spend an entire day setting up my Cabinet of Curiosities (thank you Debbie-Dabble Blog for the idea) instead of clearing, dusting and vacuuming the dining room. 

And I did make the reservations for my Christmas getaway weekend which now has TEN participants for this year.  Another distraction since I will need to be searching for holiday accessories for the group at every dollar store in driving distance. 

Oh, and I voted this week. This was in the dentist office for the final appointment for my husband's million dollar tooth. We then went and voted, drove to a neighboring city where we went to four stores to find him a black belt and two more stores to find him a pair of more casual dress pants for calling hours.  Because he gave up soda and lost so much weight. And if you don't think this makes a non-soda drinker very angry, you are wrong. 

And now, instead of folding load one, I am whining about my own self on my own blog.  GET TO WORK MERRY. 

Early October

 

I promise this will be the last homecoming update. As you can see there was a sparce crowd at the game in the middle of pouring rain. Good think we upgraded and paid for reserved seats.  My hat worked out well keeping the raindrops off my glasses! My son in law is dressed for the "walk". They had the parents line up in the rain the whole second quarter, waited until the opposing team's band played (and they were fantastic!) and then gave such long biographies of the candidates our own band did not have time to perform.  Then they posed them for photos during the third quarter. As official purse holder of all things, we ended up staying until the end of the game which means we got home after midnight. 

The next day was the dance. Two tall grandsons on the left, granddaughter on the right. 

It turns out my editing limits number of stickers per photo so I had to compensate and put several ladies under one big sticker on the right. 

After waiting too long for vaccines last year; our youngest grandson came down with RSV the day before our shots; I was on the ball for October 1st this year.  We got our Influenza vaccine and Covid booster. 

I think my MM band aids spell Miss Merry! We told the pharmacist we would be back for the updated shingles vaccine and we were right. We did get the shingles vaccine following my bout in 2016. Unfortunately for us, the new one came out the next year. We were in our 50's and our insurance didn't cover the $300 shots so we were waiting. And waited overtime. After we got home from the pharmacy our neighbor announced she has shingles. I got online and scheduled our shots for this coming Monday.  

I am working on my Halloween costume! 

My grandson's preschool has a "trunk or treat" event every year.  You may remember last year grampa and mimi were dressed as the Grinch and Santa.  I had an idea for next year as soon as it finished.  Children have so many opportunities to go trick or treating these days and get so much candy. Why not hand out something more worthwhile?

The Scholastic Book orders have a special book each month for $1-$2. I also found books through the year at inexpensive prices on Amazon.  I have a crate of books to pass out! 

And what is my costume? Well,  I am going to be a book fairy!  I made my skirt from pages of two paperback books, one which was so silly I wanted to help no one else to read it, the other was a tea mystery (boo hoo) that I poured an entire cup of tea over by accident.  I bought an elastic waist skirt at Goodwill and sewed the pages on.  I am sure some will fall off so I will be taking more pages and a stapler with me for emergencies. 

I ordered a shirt that says "Book Fairy" from Walmart in July and it is sitting in a warehouse in this country waiting to be picked up. I think it has been there since late August. My daughter has a Cricut and is going to make me a replacement. And I have $1.25 fairy wings from the dollar store.  

I will be sharing photos from our "trunk" after the event. 

Our state has early voting starting on Tuesday so we will get that out of the way.  

We had our annual poll worker training last week and this year's focus was on "confrontational voters" and how to handle conflict. Fun times, fun times.  Meanwhile I think I am bringing shredded chicken and maybe a crock of soup, too. We need to keep our energy up! 

And I am also planning for that huge paycheck we get for our efforts. I am putting it towards another wonderful Hallmark Christmas Weekend at the resort we went to last year.  I got an email that I can get 40% off if I make reservations by October 8.  I am trying to wrangle the group for numbers so I can take advantage of the savings.  I am so excited already!

Q&A and Homecoming Update

I had a few questions on the last post! I'll try to answer them for everyone. 

Question 1: Yes, I fell off a ladder into a box of picture frames. The frames were empty as I was packing the box for donation. This was at least 10 years ago and my bones were much younger. I did not break any bones or even bleed as I remember. I did give up the book shelf project and make a cup of tea. By the time I finished my tea, the bruising and aching had started and I spent the rest of the weekend in a hot shower or in my recliner pouting. My husband hadn't retired yet and I was always making bad decisions when I was home alone. 

I have had three bad falls in my adult life - the ladder into picture frame fall, an interesting morning where I slipped in the shower and reached for a grab bar that we had installed for my mother (forgetting that we had removed the grab bar after she passed). I got a fist full of shower curtain, flipped out of the tub and landed on the floor with the shower rod landing on top of me. At first I laid there, certain I was broken in pieces. I gingerly started to move, was able to move so . . . I got up, got dressed and went to work. That was a really bad decision since by the time I got to work, I could hardly get out of my car. Just battered and bruised. The third fall was the charm. I was washing dishes and next I knew I was on the floor. Long story of my first ambulance ride, a "displaced spiral fracture" of my humerus, surgery a few days before the world closed for covid, blah blah blah.  That is THREE, the magic number and I do not intend to fall again. I am very conscious of my balance and use handrails and whatever else is available to keep me upright and stable. 

Question 2: What is in the suitcases? When they were decoratively stacked like a table, one held Barbie clothes, one held dress up clothes and one held the wardrobe for my very own American Girl Doll, Maryellen.  Since I decided to have them put on the top shelf and I am barred from using the ladder, the suitcases must remain empty for now. 

Becoming a Homecoming Princess is a lot more work than I was aware of and requires a lot of money. My granddaughter is required to have three semi formal outfits in addition to her homecoming dance dress. She has a mandatory meeting before school this Monday to discuss wardrobe expectations. Since her mother is a college professor and doesn't have free time to shop all week, they visited some establishments today (Sunday) on their way home from an event at a branch of the University. They purchased 3 lovely day dresses in fall colors and prints, one for the newspaper photo on Tuesday, one for the assembly on Friday and one for the football game on Friday night. 

She also got a wonderful pair of sparkly sandal shoes with comfort inserts like pillows. Her mother has some beige booties which would match any of the three dresses. However the school just installed a new track and field and we heard a rumor that last years royalty compromised with Converse tennis shoes with their dresses.  We are hoping that the wardrobe purchases fit in with what the senior girls think is the dress code for all this hoopla. My youngest daughter, her aunt, is a fashionista who was able to assist in some accessories including jackets and purses. Luckily they passed through our small town on their way home for the event for a fashion show for gramma. 

I would like to mention that the kids are calling this HoCo now, instead of homecoming. I am not on board with this vernacular. 

And, because life here on the farm (the farm with two tomato plants and two pepper plants) is still prolific, we were able to send them home with a basket of freshly picked tomatoes and peppers.  I think I have enough left from this picking to make more freezer salsa.