Homemaking

I have gone to church by myself today. Thankfully, Deborah's friend who wrote in my blog met me there. We learned that our problems should not define who we are, and that there is no victory without some problems that we experienced. Our identity is more than our wounds or problems. IT IS NOT THE SUM OF OUR BROKENNESS. It has been difficult, to sing, and not hear her voice beside me.  So many things, including her bible which I took with me, are a constant reminder of her.  I've learned that  I still have love, joy, hope and power to share with those who are without.  I wonder if she was amongst us, if she would have a boyfriend by now. Even though, my family is considered still large by modern standards, I was used to cooking for a bigger family. I miss Deborah not eating my banana cake, soups or whatever. I miss her not being involved and getting her hands dirty building the shed, and removing the rubble, that I know she would have gladly helped us with. Last year she helped me stain an outdoor staircase that we built in the back, picked some strawberries, and cherries with me that we still enjoy, and helped put the bark mulch down in our yard. Though she would indicate some opposition to the suggested activities, she would obviously enjoy doing them once she started.  If my situation is not the end of my story, then God will have to show me what I am to do next.

I have hauled away most of the residual garbage of wood from our back yard. We tried to get a company to do it but a minimum of 200lbs of construction waste was going to cost 120 dollars. I think we saved about six hundred dollars by loading up our own SUV, and dumping it ourselves. Today, after church me and my husband were vacuuming, and washing the plastic panel in the back of our car.  I still have some large pieces left of the old shed, but the majority of the garbage is gone, and now, we have to get the ground ready for the mulch. I decided against a manicured lawn as it has no purpose other then sun tanning on. I felt that we need the mulch, in order to have the soil ready for planting as times may get really tough, very soon. We can already see what grocery prices are like. Plus, I always enjoyed a garden, and this year, I have sprouted potatoes to put in the ground.

I also heard that doing domestic things are good therapy for the mind, even depression. So, coming home from church, I bought two baked chickens, a container of coleslaw, not creamed, and four pizza doughs, ready made. I engaged the family after we ate one of the chickens and coleslaw to help me make pizza's. Some chopped the peppers and mushrooms, some grated the cheese, and some spread the tomato sauce, and olive oil into the dough. Before you know it, we had four beautiful pizza's for perhaps five dollars a piece. You may wonder what happened to the second chicken, well, I took some of the breast meat , chopped it, and put it on the pizza. We will also have plenty of meat left for chicken sandwiches for the days to come.