Doing stuff

I feel like this is the most productive I’ve been in, yikes – it feels like months. Physically productive I should amend. I’ve done creative stuff, but today Nova and I tackled a whole lot. We got up and made a breakfast of some banana and flax pancakes. A cup of raspberry tea for Nova and some coffee for myself.

I had fed and prepped my sourdough the night before and we dove right into making some bread. We got a large sourdough loaf going and then a batch of sourdough naan bread going. I also had some phyllo dough to use before it dries out, so I tried a little blueberry pasty recipe. It turned out alright and was super easy. The instructions on the recipe page were lacking however so I kind of had to improvise. Had I known this, I would have done them a little differently. But I might try again.

Then Nova decided she needed some Jell-O, so we mixed up a batch of blue Jell-O for desert after dinner. She asked me for it ALL afternoon. I had to keep her distracted.

We did 2 loads of laundry. I took Nova and Ash outside to play in the snow for a while. As they did that, I finally got around to cleaning out some of the old boxes and trash from the garage and got it prepped for garbage day. I also FINALLY trimmed off the dead “greenery” from my overwintering mums to discover that they are ACTUALLY surviving. I have them in a pot in the garage. So I gave them a little water and moved them to the back of the garage where it’s a little warmer. I took Ash for a little bit longer of a walk when Nova wanted to come in.

I printed out a few recipes to put in my family recipe book. We replaced our printer the other day and it’s working nicely. And one of the things I’ve been doing is writing out all of our favorite recipes. Some I’ve snagged from the internet, but most are either family recipes passed down or things that we’ve created ourselves and really enjoyed. I want to be able to give this little recipe book to Nova one day when she moves out, so she’ll always have her favorite things.

Then, I saw what was supposed to be this neat trick with the instant pot. You can cook beans without having to soak them overnight. I was kind of psyched by this, so we tried it. I found a recipe and got a pot of pinto beans cooking. Followed all of the directions and let it go. I got the pork chops prepped and broccoli only to discover that the bean trick was a bust. And no, you cannot cook dried beans in the instant pot without soaking them. It’s a lie, don’t believe the recipes. They’re dumb. Not only did it not work, but it made a god awful mess in the kitchen when I did the quick release. Bean juice EVERYWHERE!

So I poured the still crunchy beans out into a regular stock pot and stuck them on the stove to boil. After 30 more minutes, they were NEARLY edible. But we ate dinner anyway. The beans are still simmering on the stove. Still not done. It’s been 3 hours.

Got Nova a bath, 2 loads of dishes done, along with setting Rosie the vacuum up in the kitchen and dining room to clean for us.

Cleaned out the litter box (all the way, replaced all the litter), cleaned the cat dishes and got her all set up. Then we did a little nose work training with Ash. We’re teaching him to sniff out morel mushrooms for the spring. He’s doing pretty well in theory. We’ll see how he does in practice. That’s been where he kind of slips up. He’s a sweet dog. Smart, but also an idiot. I’m sure you know the type.

And now I’m sitting here, writing an entry for the first time in…. I don’t know – forever? Needless to say I’m tired tonight. Nova’s still raring to go. “Mom, let’s do this. Watch me, I’m riding my scooter. I want to play with Ash. Let’s go through pictures. I’m doing back flips on the bed!”

Oh to be a toddler again. I wish I remember more of my toddler days. I have a few memories from around 4 or so, then of course they’re pretty solid after that. Mainly, I remember getting in my mom’s gray barrel chairs and spinning until I was so dizzy I couldn’t even climb out of it. Or sitting in my kiddie pool and the big Sheepdog (Baby) jumping in with me. I hope Nova remembers more. I hope we’ve given her things worth remembering I guess.

But for now, I’m going to finish getting us ready for bed. It’s only 8:16 here, but I could crash without a second thought. Back to work tomorrow (this is my “Sunday” evening). I should be able to finish putting the flooring down in the unit I’m renovating. It feels good to see it all come together. I got the hot water heater successfully installed and working, new lights and fixtures. Once the floors are in, I can clean and put the baseboards back in. Pull in the new fridge and furniture and reinstall the toilet. We should be good. A week? Depends on what a pain the baseboards are. They looked kind of rough. I might have to sand them all down and re-stain them, but we’ll see.