Cough, Wheeze, and Sneeze

EJ has finished his first week of working first shift and is now beginning his second week. He is enjoying this shift because he is naturally a morning person and feels less tired and more productive. He enjoys the beautiful early morning drive to work and he now enjoys receiving a warm welcome home rather than having to say goodbye to us. On second shift, he left us in the afternoon and returned long after we were in bed.

I’ve adjusted my schedule so that we go to bed when EJ does. That’s not a particularly hard adjustment because Hannah Joy has always nagged me to go to bed at that time anyway. It was easier just to go to bed when she wanted to (9 pm) and I’d read until EJ messaged me during his 10 pm lunch break. So she’s happier now that we all go to bed at the same time. EJ now gets up earlier than we do (4 a.m. instead of 10 a.m.). I used to get out of bed at around 7 a.m. but now I’m getting up between 5:30 and 6:00 am. I’ve rearranged the order in which I do my morning chores so that I can continue feeding Hannah Joy at about 7:15 a.m. so she’s not begging/nagging to eat earlier in the evening. It’s a little bit of an adjustment for her because she’s now last on my schedule of morning chores rather than first, but I think she’ll get used to it. Like EJ, I am also more of a morning person and feel more productive.

The hardest part of the new schedule is keeping track of the days. EJ works four 10-hour days. Before, he worked Monday through Thursday and got Friday through Sunday for his weekend. But that has shifted. Now he works Sunday through Tuesday, gets Wednesday and Thursday off, works Friday, and gets Saturday off. This makes it difficult to remember which day it is because I think of Sunday as his “Monday” and “the weekend” is in the middle of the week rather than Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is our day of rest–our Shabbat. Give me time and I’m sure I will eventually get it straight in my mind. Maybe.

Two weeks ago the weather was hot. Last week the weather was nice but cool with temperatures in the low 70s. Both weeks it was very dry and we had to water the gardens ourselves. Our “soil” is sand and does not retain moisture like other types of soil. However, today–and for the next couple of days–it is raining, which is nice. I imagine the plants thirstily drinking in the water because rain does better at watering the world than our garden hoses.The rain is turning the dry yellow grass back to green.

Before it started to rain this morning, I went out and harvested a few of my herbs–sage, oregano, and rosemary. When I finish this post, I will prepare them for drying in the dehydrator. (I also picked a few chamomiles, but I put them to dry in a rack hanging in the hallway.) When the herbs are dry–tomorrow– I will grind them with our little electric grinder, and then store them in glass jars. We have one little grinder for herbs and another for spices. Last week I ground dried red peppers with the spice grinder. It set up clouds of spicy dust that made me wheeze and cough and sneeze. I’d grind a quarter cup of peppers then leave the room to wheeze, cough, and sneeze for several minutes. Then I’d pour the ground-up peppers into the glass jar and leave the room to wheeze, cough, and sneeze for several minutes. This was repeated until all the peppers were ground up and put into their glass jar. While I was doing this, EJ took Hannah Joy outside to escape the fumes. It was an ordeal but I’m satisfied with the results.

Friday evening I saw several dark shadows fly across the living room windows and then I heard a bunch of tweets. I went outside to see what was happening. When I saw a couple adult robins on guard, I realized that the dark shadows had their babies leaving the nest on their first flight. I think first flights are always fun to observe.

I keep a shallow bowl of water on the large boulders for the critters during the summer. The robins especially like to take baths in it. They do so several times a day, sometimes lining up to wait their turn. I’ve also seen rose-breasted grosbeaks bathing in the bowl, and last week I saw an indigo bunting. It’s really fun to watch them all happily splashing.

Last week EJ called the propane company to make sure we are on the budget plan for the year. If we are on the budget plan, we can prepay the propane for the year at a reduced price. With inflation driving the cost of everything so high, I was anxious about how much it would cost us, especially since our electricity has almost doubled. I envisioned having to deplete our meager savings. I prayed fervently that God would provide for us. Well, last year EJ prepared extra because we were expecting inflation to hit and we weren’t sure how high it would go. So we still have extra left in our propane account. With what we have left in the account, we only had to pay $101 to bring us up to the amount we actually spent last year on propane. I felt weak with relief and gratitude. God really does take care of us.

Ok…time to go work on preparing my herbs for drying. Preparation involves separating the leaves from the stems so they dry more quickly in the dehydrator.