Bone-lazy cheapskate

My hands hurt, my feet ache, my back is sore and even my face aches. I have spent most of the last two days racing (hah!) up and down a three tier scaffolding re staining our house. We have actually been at it for two weeks, but since we are both working full time, well, you know. I had two days in a row off, and the rentals were due back. This started as a simple project of fixing some loose trim. However, as soon as we began to stain the trim it became obvious that the whole house was thirsty. Our house is entirely wood sided. We do a good job when we stain, so we haven't had to do it often, but it is a twenty year old house.
Sweet C says that not many women my age would take on a project that involved climbing scaffolding three stories high or putting a ladder on the top of the scaffolding to reach just that little bit higher. (I'm short) He is right. Most women are smarter than that. While I am, in reality, bone-deep lazy, I am also extremely cheap. I can never pay someone else to do a job that we are perfectly capable of doing ourselves, so I get myself, my husband and all the kids involved in these huge projects.
I am getting old though. Everything hurts more than it did when I was younger. The ground looks further away. Twisting myself around to reach something from the top of a ladder makes my back ache longer. I held a spray bottle in one hand and a brush in the other because the liquid is as thin as water and needs to be driven into the wood with a brush, so my hands hurt. And I was on my feet the whole time. Even in the house standing on a ladder makes my feet hurt. But why does my face hurt?

Over veg-ing

I am so out of practice at working full time! I get the work done fine, maybe even a little too much (my tendency is to fill out my time card and then later study something I need to, do e-mail to my boss, sort things for the next day. I swore I wouldn't 'give' time away this time but I do that just the same), However, I am having trouble keeping up with my housework. I am tired when I get home. I don't want to start a new cleaning project or renovating project. I will get better as I get used to work (I keep promising myself!), but right now I just want to sit and knit - crochet, and watch Christmas specials. At least I don't have to worry about doing any chores outside. It is too cold, too snowy and I did most of what I needed to in the yard before it became too cold and snowy. I would have liked to move some strawberry plants, but they will wait til next year. No, it is the renovating that needs my time and attention and is just not getting it. I WILL DO BETTER, I WILL DO BETTER. Think affirmations really work?

Refilling the space

So, we are filling the empty bottles with whole grains and legumes, which play a much larger part in our diets nowadays. I know the parlor seems a funny place to stage such a thing, especially since I have always had a rule about 'no stuff' in the parlor, but it seemed the only place to gather that many filled bottles. We need 100 jars in order to use the oxegen packets, which come in packages of 100 and begin to work as soon as you open the packet. In case you cannot tell, there is no wheat or rice in the mix there. That is because when we did our inventory we found that we had plenty of white rice and wheat. We are getting there.

Preparation

Sweet C has, for some time, been concerned with our food storage. He has wanted to inventory, throw out old things and replace with things we are eating now. More whole grains for one thing.
This past weekend was our regional conference. The Saturday night meeting was all about preparation. Not emergency preparation but simply being prepared for what ever may come in our lives. They spoke about the economy, and getting out of debt. They spoke about not turning our wants into needs. They spoke a lot about food storage, and challenged us to get a three month supply as soon as possible, even if it is by buying 3 extra cans of food per week. They also spoke about getting together a store of money. Start with making sure we have a one month supply of savings, then build it up to three, then six, until we all have a years financial needs set aside (Huge goal!!!)
Sunday meeting were more on the theme of spiritual preparation. We had two general authorities so it was really, really good, but many people were more impressed by the Saturday night meeting.
I had been cleaning out our storage room three or four bottles at a time. This week C began to help me. Yeah! He can carry much more than I can. He carried out a couple of hundred bottles. So I have been emptying the bottles into trenches in the largest garden bed. (Hard on the back.) I know it looks really silly, but it does feed the soil and gets all the old fruit out of the storage room so I can put in new and fresh. I'm a little torn. All those bottles represent a lot of work. In the old days when the kids were little we would put up 4 or 5 batches of everything, every year. My kids, little or big, were very good hard workers, and helped a ton. We never ate it all, so I had bottles that were very old and discolored. I won't be bottling so much in the way of fruit and vegetables now - with only two of us we will never eat as much as we used to bottle. I emptied a huge variety of stuff, but I think I feel the worst about the salsa and the black raspberry syrup. Those two were the most work, and taste the best. I doubt I will get much more bottled this year though. Still to much cleaning and sorting to do. Wish me luck.