Have It Your Way

I look around my little crib here and things look acceptable. By "things" I'm referring to everything that takes up space in this house.

I get a message about a guest arriving and I take another look around. 

It's the small things that I've let slide. Take for instance the mattresses. A queen size bed occupies each of the guest rooms. At one time in the not so distant past, the old mattresses were those of the seven inch thick size. I've since replaced those with the fourteen inch thick ones. I still have the sheets used on the old mattresses. 

The fitted sheets are now what is  called "deep pocket" that fit these thick mattresses. I don't own any of these  so during the night, you find the fitted sheet creeping off the corners and curling up around your feet. 

Today I pulled all the old sheets out of the linen closet and pitched them. A few hours of my morning was spent shopping for new sheets. Only one of the extra bedrooms gets any use at all. I found some 650 thread count sheets that feel like silk. Carrie and I are testing them out tonight. This is where she sleeps when she stays over and she doesn't sleep alone so we both get to do a trial run on them.

I go cheap and sleazy on a lot of things. Linens and towels are my weakness. Too many years of living in cheap motels and using those little bars of soap and those thin towels and sheets left me with linen envy. I indulge in those things now.

I may buy something to wear that feels rough and less then great quality but my sheets and towels are as good as I can afford or I'll save up to splurge on them.

25 cans of vegetables bought on sale and stacked on the counter in the laundry room for the past month has now been put away in the pantry. The pantry was organized again and miscellaneous clothing items found their home in the dressers and chests in the bedrooms.

I was zipping right along today cleaning and organizing all the while  thinking the husband was going to cook dinner. He mentioned enchiladas and since I'm the one that does all the Mexican food, I screeched to a halt on the cleaning and moved into the kitchen at 1500 hrs. I was still there 3hrs later. 

I have a friend that loses herself in the kitchen. I'm lost in there but not in the same way as my friend. She hits another zone, relaxes and focuses on what she is cooking . She chops, grates, slices and dices and says this calms her. She uses the right amount of heat to cook the food she is preparing. She isn't in a hurry.

Me? My goal in life is to see how fast I can enter and exit the room of doom. There is only one speed on that stove and that's "high". The more slicing and dicing I have to do the worse my mood becomes. With each pan that will require washing and each spoon, fork or plate that will need some attention with soap and water later and I'm thinking about all those great places here in town where we could be hefting a menu and placing an order. 

I had a pot of beans bubbling because you just can't have a Mexican meal without the pinto beans being freshly cooked. I slipped the Poblano peppers on a cookie sheet and beneath the broiler while I diced onions and grated cheese. 

The menu was stacked enchiladas, chili rellenos and beans. Sounds easy doesn't it. Sounds as though this would take meer minutes to accomplish but I'm going to set you straight right now. Toasting the chili's was only the beginning. Each of these dishes required chopping, dicing and grating. Hot oil equals a greasy stove that will later need scrubbed. I think about all this as I am standing there at the stove looking at the mounting pile of pans. I clean as I go. It doesn't help. I'm still aware of the cleaning after all the preparation and there will be plenty of that. 

The meal was tasty and the husband was appreciative. I would rather have been cleaning house. That I don't mind doing.

Tomorrow I have a long list of things to be done and cooking is not on that list. It's not my turn. We will not be having Mexican food. Burger King sounds good to me. I'll even go pick it up.