Getting Settled

This has been a busy week, and it has gone by so quickly. The week ahead will probably do the same. I am okay with that, I want the weeks to fly by until the sun comes back out.

It has been raining here since Tuesday, which limits us to the indoors during a time I was hoping to be able to enjoy what is left of the waning summer. I realize that, living in Georgia, there will be days and even whole weeks of summer-like weather during the day right on up through October, interspersed with weeks that are so autumnal you wonder how it could have been 80 degrees yesterday. Still, the real summer ends Tuesday, as autumn begins, and it will still be raining then.

The rain also brought with it a tiny band of ants that thought they should invade my newly filled pantry. I was horrified. I've never even had a pantry of my own, and only a few weeks in I am confronted with a band of marauders seeking shelter from the wet weather and my food. I was not horrified for long, though. I remembered reading at Passionate Homemaking that Lindsay had a great ant trap recipe. I set to work, and I must say it was almost frightening how I gleefully watched the ants march to their demise. But they got into my Nutella, and I had to throw it out. It was war.

The rain has been good, though, too. First of all, the state has been in a drought for years. We obviously need the rain, and now there is plenty of rain to go around. Secondly, It has given me ample opportunity to do nothing but take care of the inside of our house. My kitchen is finally completely unpacked, organized, and accessible.

To celebrate, I had the most productive day of my life, yesterday. Our family down here is having a family birthday party this month (any month when there are birthdays, there is a get together one day that month for all the celebrators of nascence (a.k.a. the birthday boys and girls). This month dh is part of that celebration, as his birthday was on the sixth. This last week had my niece Cora and my Nephew Tobin, both my brother and sis-in-law's kids, so Jen and I are providing main course and birthday cake. The menu is lasagna, and I'm making mine with homemade mozzarella cheese (the ricotta is not homemade, because it just seemed like too much work for yesterday, and even homemade ricotta is not a raw process, so it is pasteurized either way. As long as there is a little raw-milk-product present, Jeff handles the pasteurized dairy fairly well). We are of course having 2 lasagnas, because there will be a great deal of people, and also because not everyone in my family is so into the raw milk thing. Probably about half of us are.

So yesterday I made scrambled eggs, sausage, and toast for breakfast, made mozzarella cheese, made a black forest cake, made a batch of chicken salad for lunch, fought an epic battle with that ancient nemesis of mankind - the ant - and seem to have won, made us baked chicken with apples and barley (meal got switched up earlier in the week because dh was sick and just wanted scrambled eggs), and made the sauce for my lasagna. AND, for the first time ever in my life, I cleaned up after every single project. There are no dirty dishes hanging about, and not a crumb on a single countertop. I'll admit, the ants had a good bit to deal with that. Still, first time ever accomplishments should be celebrated. And I have never dirtied, cleaned, redirtied, cleaned, redirtied, and cleaned again. Usually that last "cleaned" gets left off. I slept sooooooooooooo well last night, having gotten so much done (and being pretty worn out). I can say that my house now smells more like baking foods and pasta sauce, and less like paint, and I am entirely enthused about that prospect.

The rainy weather also gave us an opportunity to sleep in - maybe a little too much, but still I'm grateful - and enjoy a slow-paced morning together. During that time we got online and found out about a dog being given away. A beautiful female American Bull Dog, 4 years old, all with records and up-to-date. We called the gentleman who is giving her away, and he seemed adamant that she go to a good home where people would take good care of her. So this looks much "safer" than our last experience (about a month and a half ago we got a dog, and the next day she died from heartworms.), but still just because of that last experience I am a little afraid of getting our hopes up. From the ad and from the pictures it looks like she is a great dog. Greate with people in general and especially children, and very protective of her home. So, this Saturday we are driving all the way out to Chattanooga to meet her and this gentleman, and hopefully bring her home with us!

We still have a couple rooms to get unpacked and set up (namely the office and Jeff's fish room), and presently the entire unscathed inventory of our pantry is on the diningroom table, but otherwise, this is really beginning to feel like home.