Waiting for the stove that didn't come

 As an adult, there's almost nothing as satisfying as getting a new appliance.  At least in my world there isn't.  As you know, I have been waiting for a new stove for several weeks now.  I am so excited to have a working stove again you have no idea! I am thankful for the induction burner that Jason has and have enjoyed using it but it's not the same.

I took Monday off of work because my new stove would be arriving at some point during the day. I remember when my new washer came and they showed up before 8:00 a.m. so I wanted to be prepared.  With that in mind, you would think that I spent Sunday getting everything ready.  That's a big fat no.  Sunday has returned to being my day of rest.  And I totally take advantage of that these days.  Anyway, I got up early on Monday.  Well not any earlier than I normally do but I got up with a more defined plan of action in case my new utensil of cooking magic arrived early.

I cleared off all the counters that were around where the stove goes.  I unplugged things and put them in various places throughout the house.  I took stuff out the cabinets as well, just in case.  I pulled the stove out from the wall.  I wanted to clean behind there because...well...it needed it after 10+ years of service.  And yes, it desperately needed it.  Lots of sweeping the floor and wiping down the walls.  Now the walls are stained with grease so I could only do so much, but it was a heap better than what it was before.  Then realizing that the stove was going to have to come through the front door, it was time to move furniture.  I moved everything in my living room and dining room that would be in the path of the new stove. Chairs, tables, plants all good pushed up against the walls to provide ample space for my new toy.  Plenty of room for the delivery!

So, once I am all done with that, I sit down to finish my coffee and have breakfast. I am finishing up my yogurt when my phone buzzes.  It's a text from Lynn, my landlord.  She asks me if I had heard anything from the appliance company on delivery. I told her I had not.  About 20 minutes later she texts again saying that she found an email saying it will be delivered on Thursday.  Really!?!  I took a non-paid day off of work and now they're not coming.  I just spent the last two hours getting my house ready for them and now they're not coming. I was not a happy camper! Oh well, such is life.  First world problems.

So, I decided that I was not going to live like that for the next three days.  I pulled all of my furniture out and reset my table.  That, of course, relaxed me hehe.  Then I pushed the stove back into place.  I got all of the appliances back on the counter and plugged in and filled the cabinets back up. Actually, things looked pretty good so it wasn't a bad morning.  I just hated waiting several hours for a stove that never came.  Bring on Thursday!!

Sorting the cooking utensils

 

Yesterday, I went through my kitchen utensil drawers and one of the drawers started to break.  The front of the drawer has begun to come off.  If you have been following the recent status of my kitchen, this will come as no surprise.  No working stove, a fridge that won't keep things cold, a leaking dishwasher and now a broken drawer.  I really don't know what's wrong with my kitchen, but I hope it fixes itself soon because I am getting quite tired of the situation.  

Anyway, I have these two drawers full of different kinds of utensils that I use for cooking and serving.  And I do use many of them on a regular basis, so those utensils are safe. For those utensils, I normally have at least two of them because things break and I want to have a backup just in case.  It is frustrating when you're cooking and something that you really need breaks and you don't have something to replace it with.  Those utensils are all safe.  I also have utensils that I do not use much but will use when needed like my pastry blender.  I have only used it a handful of times, but when I need it, I need it.  So, more things that are safe.

Not my drawer but you get the idea.  I have two drawers full like this!

So that left me with pieces that I have used only once or have never used to really think about whether I wanted to continue taking up that space in the drawer.  I have an apple corer that I have used once.  While it did come in handy when I needed it, is it worth saving since I used it so little.  The answer....yes.  Who knows?  For some reason, I just couldn't let go of it.  Ah, well.  I did find an egg slicer at the bottom of the back of the drawer which will be going to a new home.  I find that slicers like that almost never work out like they are advertised and end up making a huge mess.  And two small white paddle like spatulas that I have no clue where they came from.  

My loss will be Goodwill's gain. While it's not much, it's something and every little bit helps.  It gives me more space for more utensils.  One drawer at a time!

Proverbs 27:9

 

The older that I get, the more I know how precious good friends are.  I have more good friends than I often realize and that is reassuring.  I will sometimes tell myself that I do not have that many good friends because so many of the people I love are not here in Greensboro.  I need to stop thinking that way and be thankful for these friendships.  And, luckily, I do have some very dear friends that are like family here in town.  And my heart is always open for more!

Gift Giving - Looking way ahead LOL

 We all know that I love gift giving.  I get so much pleasure out of finding those unique gifts for friends and family.  Sometimes it is something someone has mentioned in passing that they have forgotten about and it's a total surprise that I remembered.  Like for Jason's birthday this year, I got him a spinning tulip for his yard.  It's a piece of yard art that he talked about one night and I filed it away for later usage.  Perfect!

Sometimes I take things that I know a person likes and find something way out of the box based on that information.  For Michael's 30th birthday, I got him a Tears for Fears gold record.  It's not something he expected and he loved it. 

And, generally, I like to buy things way in advance which brings me to today's post.  One day when I was browsing on Ebay, such a shocker right, I found this alphabet block by Tim Wolfe of the Cairn Studios.  I enjoy looking up the Cairn Studios pieces because I collect the gnomes that they produced.  Anyway, this block was the letter G with a goose on top.  I thought it was super cute so I did some more research.  He did the entire alphabet with animals.  They are fantastic!

In the early 90s, Cairn Studios did a Wind in the Willows series.  Mom fell in love with their Mr. Toad and snapped it right up.  A little while later she went back to The Candlewick (our go to store for nice gifts in the Monroe Mall) and bought the rest of the series:  Badger, Ratty and Mole.  Then she made the announcement that this set would go to the first grandchild.  Well, even then in high school I knew deep down that would not be coming from me, so congratulations, Margaret LOL

Anyway, when I saw the Tim Wolfe alphabet blocks, I decided that I would do something similar.  Not for a grandchild because that ship has sailed LOL But, I thought how nice it would be for my first great niece or great nephew.  It will make a lovely addition to a nursery one day. And, if it ends up that I don't have a great niece or nephew (which will be totally fine), I will just enjoy them for myself.  And you know I love the thrill of the hunt when it comes to antiques and collectibles.  I'll just add this series to the many things I collect LOL So far, I have A through E.  I think they are so sweet and I look forward to finding more!  Hopefully I'll complete the set before a baby comes but I think we are way away from that LOL

If I Were a Bell - Josie De Guzman

 When I came home from work today and turned on the television, Guys and Dolls was playing on one of my movie channels.  I had forgotten how utterly charming and fun this score is along with some beautiful melodies.  This is one of my favorites from the 1992 Broadway Revival, Josie De Guzman singing the role of Sarah Brown. 

Finding ways to incorporate spirit into my life more

 I do not define myself as overly religious, but I do consider myself spiritual. I was talking to someone about that the other day. I have my own relationship with God that has nothing to do with the church or any form of organized religion. That works for me and I hope that works for God as well. But I also know that there are things in my life that are spiritual that do not have to do directly with God and I need to incorporate those into my life more.  I find them very rejuvenating.  They are calming and grounding, which I know I definitely need more of!

I find being in nature very spiritual.  Being surrounded by things that are green is so soothing.  Being out in nature is not something that I do often but when I do, I very much enjoy it.  There are plenty of places around Greensboro where I can experience nature that I do not take advantage of.  So many beautiful parks to explore.  And we have several greenways for walking here in Greensboro.  And I think even just getting out into my own yard and doing some work out there would be good for my soul.  

Music is also something that is very spiritual to me.  I need to take more time to sit down and listen to music.  I mean focus on the music and not just have it playing in the background.  It relaxes me and takes me to a place where I feel peaceful.  I don't do that often enough. Basically, I want to find more things in my life that ground me and give me peace.  And I want to incorporate those things into more of my daily existence. Spirituality comes in all forms, and I want to explore as many as I can.  

Getting out of the house

 I actually got out of the house this week and had dinner with a new friend.  Actually, I'll go ahead and say it, I got out of the house this week because I had a date.  Yes, I had a date.  I haven't been on a date in 2 years, so I did not know what to expect of this. But I had an absolutely wonderful time.  We had dinner at Saffron, a local Indian restaurant.  One of my favorites.  The food was great as always.  And the conversation was so refreshing.  We have many, many things in common so that made the conversation very easy.  Which is always a good thing when you're on a date.  There's almost nothing as painful as that awkward silence when you realize that you have little in common with the person you're dining with.  We did not suffer from that.  I will refrain from naming names at this point in anticipation of a second date which I am pretty sure will happen.  At the very least, I have made a new friend that I know I will enjoy spending time with.  I have no expectations and that's one of the reasons the evening was so relaxed.

I also spent time this week getting my garage organized.  Well, let's say I worked on getting it more organized.  And I enjoy things like that.  You could hardly see the floor in my garage anywhere and now there is a lot more room.  The reason being is that Michael needed to return a chest of drawers to me that he had been using for the past few years and I needed to make room for that.  I have three different sets of stuff out in my garage:  Mine, Michael's and Jason & Marc's.  So, I organized the room so that everyone's stuff is in the same area.  I think I did a pretty good job and it's amazing what I can do when I set my mind to it.  In getting my own stuff corralled, I found several boxes of things to get rid of.  And I am soon going to post these things online and offer them up to people.  This is a way to get my antiques selling off of the ground.  Well, antiques and other stuff.  I am excited about that.  

So, there has been some fun in my life this week.  It's nice to do things that I enjoy.  Especially in these dark times of our world.  Every bit of light in life helps!