My Tireless Retirement – Week 129

 

I have spent the past week really tapping into my inner domestic goddess.  I’ve truly been enjoying my home lately.  Even the mundane every day of tidying up, washing dishes, preparing a meal, making my bed, doing laundry and vacuuming the floor fills me up with productive satisfaction.  Once I settle into my chair to relax at the end of the day I look around and my heart swells with an overwhelming sense of joy and accomplishment.  I am very grateful for my home.

 

Outside I’ve continued to harvest pears, tomatoes and even an apple.  Although I’m not much of a gardener I’m thrilled with what I have managed to do this summer.  I canned twelve pints of sliced pears and added them to my LTFS shelves.

 

Last Saturday I spent the day with a friend and we made homemade pizzas, something she had never done before.  She had a great time as did I and we had plenty of leftovers.  I sent her home with quite a bit of pizza as well as a half dozen pint jars of what I’ve canned over the summer.  She was thrilled and I was happy for the opportunity to share.

 

I picked this up on sale at Fred Meyer

I divided up into five vacuum sealed packages for the freezer

While we were making and eating our pizza she and I discussed getting together to do some meal prepping, each of us bringing the ingredients for a couple of meals and then dividing them in half so we are both leaving with a good variety of meals to tuck into our freezers.  It sounds like a good idea to me and a lot of fun too.

 

Baked bread & a quiche from the freezer

Another friend of mine gave me a bag of fresh peaches from her backyard tree.  They are huge and so delicious.  One morning I sliced one and enjoyed it with my homemade granola and homemade yogurt.  I still have a few left to enjoy in the coming week.

 

With the changing temperatures I was ready to turn my oven on.  I baked a loaf of whole wheat bread and I also made up some pizza dough which I divided into four equal portions.  I rolled it out and made four small pizza crusts.  I par baked them and wrapped three of them for the freezer then  took the fourth one and topped it with the leftover pizza sauce, cheese and toppings I had in the refrigerator.  I then wrapped it up and put it away in the freezer as well.  Since I had the oven going I also pulled a frozen quiche from the freezer and baked that too.  My house smelled so good with all of that baking.

 

Meals I Prepared: 

I had some leftover chicken salad I had made the previous week and a croissant which I finished up for supper one evening.  The homemade pizza I made with my friend and all of the leftovers kept me going for a few days as well as the frozen quiche from the freezer I had baked.

 

I pulled out the last container of mushroom gravy and some rice I had in the freezer to thaw and reheat for a couple of meals which I paired with some steamed broccoli.  It was another week of delicious and easy to prepare meals once again.  I also had plenty of fresh fruit to enjoy.

 

I had another tree guy come by and take a look at all of my trees and give me an estimate to do some pruning on the big girl. I really liked this arborist.  They’ll be back in six weeks to give her some love and attention.  I’m so glad to no longer have to worry about that task anymore and to finally get this checked off of my “to do” list.  This particular job is just to big for me to do and although it comes with a hefty bill I am very happy to hand it off to the professionals.

 

I made sure to taste test the bacon

It was definitely a busy week for me.  I worked four days at the senior center and when I wasn’t at work I was busy puttering about the house.  I even managed to check a few more items off of my quarterly housekeeping checklist and realized it is almost time to start a new one.  Oh my gosh!  The final quarter of 2024 begins in a couple weeks.  Where does the time go?!