Metachrosis Monday

metachrosis ~ ability of animals to change colour

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians and Happy Columbus Day to my American friends.

Despite the fact that today is the actual holiday, like most people we had our big, family dinner yesterday. And the thing I’d like to know is, if I was just a contributor and not the host, how come my fridge is stuffed with leftovers? Mostly stuffing and veggies and fruit. The pie I brought that didn’t even get cut into went into the freezer for when my sisters stop in for a visit in a couple of weeks.

I was totally a bad diabetic too - I indulged in a piece of the daughter’s pecan pie for desert. Man can that girl bake a mean pie! And they’re so pretty too! I wish I could take credit for teaching her that skill, but though I’ll make a pie from scratch I don’t put nearly as much effort into it as she does.

So how are you spending your holiday weekend?

I looked at the three days I had coming and thought it would be the perfect time to at least start moving my office across the hall. Man, I don't know what I was thinking!

Oh, come on. Did you really expect it to be as easy as that?

Day one started with a trip to the city of Peterborough, north of us. And not just there, but to the north side of the city where the Fabricland is. The idea was to pick up the stuff I needed to make the grandbaby’s bunny costume for Halloween. To make a long story short, the fake fur was way too expensive, I wasn’t happy with the textured arctic fleece I ended up with, and they didn’t have a pattern in her size. But there was a giant thrift store in the same plaza where I scored an already made tiger costume in her size. The trick will be convincing her she wants to be a tiger instead of a bunny.

Two more stops in Peterborough, four more stops before home. I started out at 9:30 a.m. and didn’t get back until after 3 p.m. It was crazy out there, both the stores and the traffic. I was fried when I got back home and I’m not ashamed to admit that all I managed to do with the office was cleaning up and refurbishing the kitty litter area, and emptying the white bookcase we want out of there (it was already half empty).

Day two was spent re-organizing closets. Yeah, I know it seems kind of counter productive, but it had to be done. I got rid of a bunch of stuff and have a bunch of stuff set aside to donate. Now my arts and crafts are nicely organized in the workroom closet with room to spare for file storage, and the big closet in the hallway has all my sewing and yarn supplies, maybe not as nicely organized, but definitely easier to get at. And as a bonus there was room in a corner of it for my mops and broom so they don’t fall on me every time I open the linen closet.

Today I get to actually start working on the Great Office Shuffle. How far I’m able to get is anyone’s guess.

Manicism Monday

manicism ~ left-handedness

I used to be a list maker, and not all that long ago either. I like lists. They help me get/stay organized by showing at a glance what all I have to get done, and there’s nothing like the satisfaction of checking items off as they’re completed.

I’m not sure why I stopped using lists, but Friday night I found myself sitting down and making out list of what all I wanted to accomplish over the weekend. It was a pretty long list and I had no expectation of getting everything done, but at least it gave me an idea of what all I had to do.

Despite a plethora of other, probably more urgent things that needed to be done, I chose to start with cleaning out my craft closet.

Look at all those nicely labelled bins! And now my sewing stuff is a little easier to access, which is good because I’ve been in a sewing mood lately. This was followed by cleaning out the big chest freezer in the basement and the fridge freezer.

Now while these things were on my list, they were not the most important things. The more important things would have been cleaning the house and making salads in preparation for the in-laws coming to dinner on Sunday.

Because the closet cleaning was so time consuming, that and the freezers were pretty much all I had time for on Saturday. Which meant I had a whole crap load of stuff to get done on Sunday. However, much to my surprise, I got everything I needed to get done finished before my company arrived. Including making a plum pie. Sort of.

One of the grandbaby’s favourite books is Each Peach Pear Plum . It’s an “eye spy” book and at the very end all the characters share a plum pie. I didn’t even know you could use plums to make a pie, but I promised the grandbaby that as soon as plums were in season, I would bake her a plum pie.

Well, plums are in season now so last week I bought some to make her pie with. There will be no picture of this pie. I did not check for a recipe until after I bought the plums. The recipe called for four cups of sliced plums - I had about two and a half. This was around 3 p.m. on Sunday - my company was due to arrive around 4 p.m. Not time to go to the store. But then I remembered the packages of fruit I’d found in the freezer (not sure why I bought them) and thawed out the “Mango Medley” - mango, peach, and strawberry - and mixed them in with the plums.

It was not the prettiest pie I ever made, but it wasn’t too gross looking. It might have been better with ice cream, but I didn’t think of getting any. Much to my surprise it had a nice fruity taste, although I found one of the fruits - the mangos maybe - was a little on the bitter side. But the important thing is, Grammy kept her promise.

I had a great deal of satisfaction crossing item after item from my list and I’ve decided I’m going to keep it up. I just need to learn how to prioritize. And while it perhaps wasn’t a very relaxing weekend, at least it was a productive one. ;-)