My Accomplishments

It's the winter that never wanted to quit.  Have you ever read The Chronicles of Narnia?  In the book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the kingdom of Narnia is suffering through the eternal winter that never ends because of the influence of the evil white witch.

This winter has felt a little like that.

Middle son had a planning weekend at the summer camp where he works this past weekend.  I drove up to pick him up yesterday.  I drove through a torrential, blinding downpour with a 6 foot visibility in front of my car.

I pulled off at my exit, and started winding my way through the back roads up to the camp.  There are two very low spots along that road that cross bridges over creeks.  Yesterday, these creeks were raging rivers.  I hit one low spot and for one heart stopping moment, I felt the car begin to float - the water was so much deeper than I had anticipated.  The thought "Oh sh*t, I'm going to be on the news because I was stupid enough to drive into standing water" crossed my head before the wheels on the other side touched pavement and my little car roared up out of the water. 

Picked up son and we drove back a different way, avoiding the standing water.

We came back through more torrential rain, and he decided he wanted to come home for a little while as he had a load of laundry he wanted to do.  No sooner did we pull into the driveway than it started to sleet.  For the next 2 hours, it sleeted.  Then, it shifted to snow for the next 2 hours, then back to sleet for 2 hours before turning back to torrential rain again.  He spent the night with us last night, and drove him back to school early this morning.  Glad he's going to school close to home!

Today, it's supposed to get up to 60*, and it's opening day for baseball.  The Orioles are playing the Red Sox, and I really wish I could be there.  Maybe next year!

Anyway, my accomplishments for this past week:

I've gotten some major cleaning done down in the basement this past week.  Husband and I decided that we are going to participate in the community yard sale next month.  We're going to sell some of the things in our basement.  (I can almost knock that one off of my long term list!)

As of today, all of the heat in the house is turned off.  If we have an exceptionally chilly day, we can light a fire in the wood stove to take the chill out of the house.

I switched out the emergency kit in the back of the car.  I switched the shoes out for a comfortable pair of sneakers, extra pairs of socks, a rain poncho, a lighter jacket, a change of clothes, and extra food that will be able to handle the warmer weather better.  Among the items I put in there are nuts, a tuna salad kit, and a couple of power bars.  I also checked the spare tire to make sure it is inflated and that all of the tools are there, as well as checked the fluids, and I changed out the batteries on the flashlight.  I shook out the blanket, and folded it back up again.  I'm keeping it in the trunk, just in case if I ever need it.

I cooked every meal from scratch, and husband and I both took our lunches to work every day this week.

I attempted another gluten free pizza crust.  This one turned out well, and I'll post more about it later this week.

I've staked out the new area for the strawberry patch.  I hope to have the beds put in place and the plants moved this week.

I found 20 Meyer Lemons on the discount rack at the grocery store for $1.50.  I zested all of them, and then I juiced them. In an ice cube tray, I put the juice from the lemons along with a little zest.  Everything was frozen.  The juice cubes are in a plastic bag.  The extra zest was frozen flat on a cookie sheet, and is now in a separate baggie, ready to be used.

I'm getting ready to start a new job tomorrow.  So, today I'm making a pot of veggie stock to make into broth cubes.  Hopefully, this will help cut down on my prep time in the future.