Busy at Home

For a couple who is staying home to avoid the COVID19 pandemic we have been extremely busy which has lead to exhaustion.  Let me explain further. I told everyone the my craft space has even turned into another dual purpose room, part pantry and part fiber room.

So Saturday we cleaned the room out. We scrubbed the walls, guess what we still were scrubbing formula off the walls.  I got down on my hands and knees to scrub the stubborn formula stains off the tiles.  Thank goodness for my bottle of Parsons.  Then we ran roomba and scuba.

Sunday we set up a 6 foot tall by 24 in wide shelving system.  Then we started to load it, don’t worry I saved the top shelf for fiber.  I might have also put a few small baskets on the bottom shelf.  I also did some deep cleaning and emptied 2 boxes.

Today we got our 5 cubic foot frostless freezer.  With not wanting to go into the stores even during the times set aside for older people, getting food has been interesting to say the least.   We make a fantasy wish list of everything we need and the stores send us what they have or have too much of.  On one order we ordered a variety of meat and they sent us the equivalent servings of ground turkey even though we did not order turkey at all.  On another order we ordered a variety of frozen vegetables, green beans, spinach and mixed vegetables. For the 2 packages of mixed vegetables we ordered we got the 1 pound bags for everything else we got huge family sized mixed vegetables.  This is one time I am glad to be older, the grocery stores here were trying to tell everybody to skip the stores for the first week of the month so the people who receive food stamps and seniors can shop. I am so glad I put my birth year on my loyalty cards.

Besides setting up the freezer we got Wednesday mornings delivery this morning and today’s delivery this afternoon. This involves unpacking everything in the garage. Wiping down the cans with alcohol and putting it on a shelf in the garage for a few days.  The meat in plastic wrap has to be sprayed down with alcohol and for it to evaporate, then it goes in the freezer.  For meat packed in paper we put it in a ziplock and then the freezer. Everything gets cleaned off. We even bought a fruit and vegetable wash.  The whole process takes at least 30 minutes if not more per order.  This leaves us both exhausted. Then there were a couple of boxes delivered too.

I have set up a quite spot with my rocking chair and knitting in the dual room and for the first time in weeks was able to relax.

This and That

I know it is going to be a bad body day when I find my self doing stretching in the middle of the night. I try to stretch things out so that I can go back to sleep. I also find that the more I hurt on any given day the less creative that I am. I think that maybe creativity and pain share some of the same gray matter. Normally this is not an issue, but I have 2 patterns to design, knit and write the pattern in about 2 months. I will try after dinner and hope that I can get an inch or two knit and written at the same time. Long gone are the days when I sit and knit something up and then try to go back and figure out what I had knit to write the pattern. I have a very big back log of those to write up.

I did get to go to the staff appreciation party for Eric's day program today. I got to cook the hot dogs. The lesson I learned from this is not to barbecue with a hot grill right next to where the young adults are. Next year I will pick a grill away from where everyone is eating and playing. I spent 2 hours trying to keep people away from the hot grill. After everyone had, had their share of hot dogs, I got people to squirt the hot coals with the water guns instead of me. After 45 minutes I could relax and the fire was out.

It might seem funny to most people, but the highlight of my day was when 3 cases of diapers, 7 cases of formula and 2 other boxes of Eric's supplies showed up this afternoon. Just knowing that I won't run out of the basics is so nice. I don't think it much matters when they get moved. As long as we have room to park the chair and stack the supplies all is good until the cleaning bug hits.

I am really excited about tomorrow. I get to take a weaving class with Donna at Grandma's Spinning Wheel here in Tucson. A big thank you goes out to John, Teri and Eric for such a great Mothers Day present. I am going to learn how to warp and weave on a rigid heddle loom. If any one has any thoughts on which brand is better please let me know. Also are plastic or metal gears better? What size is good for a knitter/spinner as an all around loom? It should also fold for easy storage.

Well it is time to go cook dinner.