What I Do With My Time

We've been a bit surprised by the reaction to our recent move. Sure, doing something that people don't expect provides food for the rumor mill. But we've been asked several times if we like it in our new apartment – and then the askers of the question often seem surprised when we tell them we love it. Maybe we're supposed to be all mopey over moving out of our house – sad that we no longer have to pay for major home repairs as we live on a fixed income, dreading the summer and not being able to get out and mow the yard every week......and certainly next winter we won't know what to do with ourselves when it snows and we don't have to shovel!! Sorry, I've obviously morphed into being sarcastic!!

Mom and I attended a 90^th birthday reception Sunday afternoon, and I was answering that question frequently. It was nice to have positive reactions from people who have known me. One question I got was from someone in the next generation up who asked me what I was doing with all my time.

I laughed as I answered that I find myself being busy all the time. My big adjustment period, after all, was 14 months ago when we lost our jobs and I had to suddenly adjust to being home fultime. As for moving, I'm doing the same basic things here that I was at the house – and enjoying it more.

Hubby and I are still doing our podcasts. There's always some sort of house cleaning to do. We're within walking distance of the library, and I'm finding myself reading more. We take daily walks. I'm still enjoying online classes. There are so many things packed into every day.

As anyone who's read my blog knows, I love cooking – even the name of the blog bows to that love. And that's been one of my greatest joys since being at home full time – having time to spend in the kitchen. It's also one of the things I enjoy most about availing ourselves of the local food pantry. Some days, we question whether or not it's worth the time we spend waiting in line to get our share of the food. The people watching, though, is very entertaining. And we never know what we'll end up taking home with us.........and while we get favorite things, we also get some items that we would never buy in the store. And for me, that's where the fun comes in – finding recipes and trying new things.

Yesterday, for instance, we got an entire case of tomatoes. Some others from our apartment building who were further back in line didn't get any. So I was glad to share with them......with Mom.....with other neighbors. There were a lot of tomatoes in that box! Now I'm figuring out what I can do with the ones I kept.

This morning I made a large batch of homemade applesauce. And I found that doing that kind of kitchen work is a lot handier and more comfortable here. At the house, I ended up using the table for any sort of prep work. Here, we have enough counter space to use.....and the height of it doesn't make my back ache like the table does. That was a nice “plus”.

I checked out recipes on the computer for using swiss chard – I found some that look good, but that will be an experiment for another day. Today, I used some fresh green beans from yesterday's haul and made sauteed green beans that were finished with an herb butter. They were yummy! I definitely want to keep that recipe. I love fresh green beans cooked with bacon.....but these were still crisp and crunchy and had a great flavor.

I'm glad hubby's a willing participant in my kitchen experiments. He lets me know if a recipe misses the mark, but he's polite about it. I'm anxious for us to eat the applesauce that I made this morning so I can move to my next experiment. We got a sackful of fruit called “pear apples”. I'm guessing they are pear flavored but apple shaped. I've not tried them, but I plan to check out the flavor of one and then probably will make sauce out of them as well. They must be delicate little things – they came individually wrapped in stretchy foam containers that I dubbed “space suits”. I'll have to look for them in the store and see how much they cost! In the meantime, hopefully they'll be yummy!