Is my house dying? LOL

 Lately, I have stopped and asked myself if my house is dying. Or is it just like the human body in that one day everything is absolutely fine and the next day everything completely falls apart? It certainly feels that way lately, especially over the past week.  Now, first of all, I must say that I love my house.  I have been here for 16 years.  I have a great (or at least in my mind) relationship with my landlords and my neighbors.  I do not see myself leaving this house anytime soon.  But things lately have just been falling apart. 

First there's the refrigerator.  Several months ago, I noticed that my freezer was getting more and more condensation in it.  Things were almost automatically being covered in ice crystals once they were put in the freezer. For a while I could not figure it out. I adjusted the temperature in the freezer.  I moved things around, but nothing helped.  Then one day when I went to open it, I could feel cold air coming out through the top of the door.  I realized then that the seal had come loose and needed to be fixed. My landlord gave me the name and number of someone.  I contacted them and he said that my landlord needed to be the one to place the repair order since she would be paying for it.  I totally get that.  But then he said, after I described what was going on, that it was most likely not the seal.  He was very condescending about it even over text.  I wanted to ask how the air was escaping if it wasn't the seal, but I bit my tongue. My landlord contacted him and gave the go ahead, but he never called.  One month later and he never called.  Now my freezer is pretty much a block of ice.  

Not my freezer but you get the idea!

Second, there's the stove.  About six weeks ago, I was cooking something in the oven for Sunday lunch and poof!  It just stopped working all together.  All of the lights went out. Nothing.  Nada. Zilch.  But before I could do anything it popped right back on.  Ok.  Hmmmmmm.  The next Sunday, the same thing happened.  I started to feel as if my house has something against my Sunday lunches!! Then on Easter Sunday, as I was cooking our ham, it happened again.  Only this time it did not just pop right back on.  About five minutes went by which may not seem like a long time but when you have something in the oven and your entire meal cooking is timed out, five minutes is an eternity.  Even though nothing else was not working, I flipped all of the breakers.  That seemed to work as it came back on and I continued with my cooking. Thursday before last I was cooking some muffins for breakfast at the lake and it went out again.  This time, nothing seemed to work.  Flipping the breakers made no difference.  It was off about 4 hours this time and only came back on after Jason jostled it and turned the knobs.  That's not very reassuring.  So, there was definitely a short there somewhere.  Unplug the stove.  Yippee!

Third, Jason called me on Thursday morning to say that something strange had happened at the house.  As he was having his morning coffee he heard a very loud crashing sound. Looking around the house he could not find anything out of place. However, when he went to open the front door, he found that the glass in the screen door had shattered.  Our yard man, Rene, was there earlier mowing and it would have made sense that something hit the glass and shattered it.  But that did not happen because the glass the shattered was the pane inside the door not outside.  So now there's still glass everywhere and it keeps multiplying.  GRRRRRRRR And back to the refrigerator, the refrigerator part of it this week stopped keeping things cold.  They are slowly coming to room temperature.  WTH?!

This actually is the screen door at home!

Repairman is coming Monday to service the fridge.  I still need to clear it out this weekend.  New stove is coming the next Monday.  The broken door I can live with.  I have far more pressing needs.  I am thankful for landlords that are so helpful. But I need a break from things breaking down.  Please?  Just a few months for my psyche to recover and then have at it!  Another fun escapade in adulting!

Handbells - a lottery dream

 As many of you know, I have loved handbells for all of my life.  It is definitely something that I want to incorporate back into my life as I do miss being a part of a bell choir.  Mom rang bells at FBC in Monroe and that was my first introduction to handbells.  In my prekindergarten days, the adult handbell choir rehearsals were during the day on a weekday.  Back then, it was mostly all housewives so they could do that. Mom would take me with her to rehearsal, and I would sit and listen to them play.  She never had to worry about my misbehaving because I was so enthralled with the shiny brass bells and the music that was being made.  Anytime they would play during service while I was still young, I would get to stay in the adult service until after they rang then Dad would take me to be with the other children for the remainder of the time.

You had to be in third grade to ring in the children's bell choir.  I was so nervous auditioning for it.  For those of you who knew Jim Reich, he could be quite intimidating when it came to music.  I realize now that he knew (because everybody knew) how badly I wanted to ring bells that there would have been no question of allowing me into the choir.  Still, I remember being nervous and not knowing how I did once the audition was over.  The day after the audition, he called Mom to tell her that I was in.  I was beyond thrilled.  And that started my handbell ringing.  I rang bells until I was a senior.  I began subbing in the adult choir when I was in 7th grade and became a permanent member when I was in 8th grade.  I just loved it and I felt accepted by the ladies in the choir.  

So, I know we all have those lists of things we will buy when we win the lottery.  I am no different.  Splurging on things just for the fun of it would be part of the fun of having that kind of money.  If I ever win the lottery, one of the first things I am going to buy is a set of English handbells.  Of course, if that were to happen, I would need to have a house with a room big enough to practice the bells.  That should be easy enough.  I think it would be fun to start a community bell choir.  I feel there are probably enough people interested to do it just for fun.  If not, I have done solo ringing as well LOL Anyway, that is definitely on my list of must haves if Power Ball ever comes through.  In the meantime, my search for a choir continues.  I will keep you posted!

Changing a few things for my mental health

 I am just back this afternoon from a weekend at Lake Royale, NC for Jason's birthday.  It was a wonderful weekend and I really enjoyed myself.  Peaceful, relaxing and still full of celebration.  What this past weekend has made me realize is that getting out of my routine from time to time is good for my mental health. It was great to be in nature.  To be around friends.  And it was great to be disconnected.  I spent little time on my phone and even less time on my computer.  No television at all. Not that it was not available, I just chose not to watch.  I would go to sleep each night listening to music.  It was easy for my brain to shut down each night and that is a good thing.

I have also been slowly moving away from most of the social media sites that I am on.  That has done wonders for me.  While I understand the purpose they serve, I was on way too many of them.  It was causing me to become mentally and emotionally drained because of relying on the computer for any kind of social life. And yes, FOMO played a huge part in that.  Constantly being reminded of what I cannot do financially does wear a person down.  It really started to get to me so I have left many of those sites behind.  It's as if a huge weight has been lifted from my brain!

I am going to incorporate that and not relying on routine as ways to spend my days.  I feel so much better about myself even in the short time I have been away from Greensboro.  Change is a good thing!

Eating at my dining room table

 

There is no question that I have a lot of things, and I enjoy my things very much. One of the things that I try to do is use my things.  My home is filled with both family pieces and pieces that I have acquired over the years.  While most people are minimalists these days, I am on the other side of that spectrum, and I have absolutely no issue with that.  That is one of the reasons that you will often see me post my table settings and my Sunday meals online.  I enjoy using what I have and I enjoy sharing that with other people.

It reminds me of meals when I was growing up.  Almost all of the meals we ate were at the table.  We did not sit on the couch and eat very often.  Now, if someone was sick, they could eat somewhere other than the dinner table but that was about the only excuse for not eating at the table.  As most of you know, I was very close to Grandmother and spent much of my time with her.  Oh, what I would not give to go back and do that again.  But when I sit at my dining room table, I am almost immediately transported back to my childhood.  

First of all, my dining room table and chairs belonged to Grandmother and hold a special place in my heart.  So many holiday meals and Sunday lunches were eaten at this table during my formative years.  But I got to thinking the other day that I don't remember not eating at this table any time I was having a meal at her house.  When it was just the two of us, be it breakfast, lunch, or dinner, we would sit at the table and eat.  She sat in her place at the end of the table, and I sat to her left.  I always sat to her left no matter the occasion.  When I would spend the night, we would have dinner at the table and breakfast there the next morning.  It was never in her breakfast room but in the dining room. If we had a snack like ice cream or some of her homemade cookies, then we would have that in front of the television in the den.  But meals were always at the table.

So as I sit at my table and have my meals, even when I am alone, I think of her and those glorious times we had when I was a child.  I try to eat at my table several times a week.  Of course, I do enjoy having others over for the holidays but it's the everyday usage that is special to me. I find comfort in that.  Now it is time to share that comfort with others.  So, let's share a meal together at Grandmother's table.  Shall we?

Too many plastic containers

 

I admit that I have been slightly on the lax side of my "one drawer at a time" purging of the house as I am still working in the kitchen.  One on hand, I am disappointed at my progress but on the other hand, I have had other things to fill my time and so I needn't feel badly about where I am. So, my next cabinet to work on is where I keep all of my plastic food containers.  You just don't know the joy I am experiencing in my anticipation of working on this LOL

Mind you, there are other things in this cabinet.  I keep all of my mixing bowls here and most of my every day serving bowls.  I keep kitchen gadgets like my mandolin, my sifter and my cookie press.  But somehow, the plastic containers have just taken over.  While they were once well stocked on one shelf, now they are on all three shelves in the cabinet.  How does that happen?  It's like they multiply when I'm not paying attention.  

Not mine but you get the idea!

I am partly to blame because I will look at something like the container that my sandwich meat came in or the container that the soup came in, and I will be like "this is a great size, and I can definitely use it." And then it becomes like doing a puzzle or playing a game of Tetris trying to find room in the cabinet for yet one more plastic container. I almost always manage to wedge it in somewhere but then it becomes a very dangerous adventure when I try to pull something else out to use.  One false move and everything falls out of the cabinet. 

So, with this cabinet, it really is time to purge.  Thank goodness for recycling.  I can always get rid of some that way. There is just too much, and I do not enjoy getting stressed out simply by opening a cabinet door.  Of course, I could always just leave it and let whoever is in charge of my estate sale (years down the road) deal with it.  But that would be unkind LOL  I'll let you know how this goes!

Going to the lake

 One of the things that I want to do this year and that I wanted to do last year but never quite did is go out of town on weekend trips.  An entire weeks' vacation is financially not going to happen right now, but I have accepted that. So, I am looking to do more day trips and weekend trips. A lot of that will depend on money, of course, but also who I know that will invite me into their home for a few days.  The thing about that is I hate to ask because I don't feel that comfortable.  It is not that I do not think that my friends would not enjoy my company, I just do not feel like I can say to anyone right now "Hey, let me stay with on your couch for a few days" Ah, well. That just shows me that I need to be more involved in life outside of my own house.  

Having said that, this coming weekend I will be going out of town for a few days, and I am looking forward to it.  Jason, my roommate, and his husband Marc have their home at Lake Royale, NC.  It's near the Raleigh/Wake Forest area.  I have not been there since their wedding several years ago and I am quite looking forward to it.  We will be celebrating Jason's birthday. And this will be one of those trips where I just relax.  We have little on the agenda besides eating and that is fine with me.  I will take a book to read and just relax.  I know we could all use a little more relaxation in our lives.

My goal is to try and do this at least once a month.  Not go to their lake house but get out of town for at least one day.  Even though I have lofty travel goals of places like Charleston, Savannah, NYC, etc., there are many places here in NC that are just a few hours' drive away.  I think I can do that, but time will tell.  And budget.  That budget is always ever present, but it is what it is. We shall see how that goes. Want to join me?  Just let me know. 

Recipe of the week - Cucumber Salad

This cucumber salad is one of those dishes that I grew up with but did not enjoy as a child.  This is a congealed salad and in my kid's mind, Jello should be sweet not savory.  Mom really loved it and made it quite often. As an adult I have grown to love this.  I have made it for several get-togethers, and it always goes over well. While I recognize that this kind of dish is not to everyone's liking, it is still a good side dish.  This past Easter, I decided to make this salad and this time I tried it in a Jello mold.  I have never used a Jello mold before, but I was very proud of how it turned out. This is a great dish for warmer weather so I hope you enjoy it!

Cucumber Salad

1 medium cucumber

1 3oz package lime gelatin

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup mayonnaise

1 cup 4% cottage cheese

1 small onion, finely chopped*

Peel and seed cucumber.  Shred and pat it dry then set it aside. Combine salt, gelatin and boiling water in a bowl.  Stir until dissolved. Add mayonnaise and cottage cheese and mix until well blended.  Stir in onion and cucumber. Pour into your mold or Pyrex or whatever dish you are using.  Refrigerate until set. 

*the original recipe called for 1 small onion, grated.  I find that to be too messy, and I never do it correctly, so I basically just mince mine and it works just fine.