Cooking in Bulk

The kitchen at the new house we are moving to is not yet ready, and won't be for the next 3 weeks (delays in the counter top delivery), so for the past few days I've been cooking up a storm and freezing as much food as I can. The meals I've made are:

1) Spaghetti Bolognese

2) White Bean Chicken Chili

3) Red Beans and Rice

4) Mac and Cheese with Broccoli 

5) Cottage Pie

And for snacking/dessert, chocolate chip cookies. 

I am utterly exhausted and spent now. Today alone, in between all the cooking, I went grocery shopping, loaded the car, drove to the new house and unloaded the car while dealing with Elizabeth. I really hope I can sleep tonight, and not spend another night worrying and stressing out about the move.

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I have a headache today, and feel a little dizzy. This could be because I didn't finish my tea today (something I just discovered when I got up to put the cup in the kitchen), because I got distracted playing with E. This could also be because I didn't sleep enough, and E woke me up at 3am crying for milk. Either way, I have a headache and don't feel great, and feel sensitive to sound. 

Just my luck then, that today of all days the new dog in the apartment building + an older dog decide to have a hallway 'conversation'. I kept hearing the howling barks ('wok woooowoooowoooowoooowoooo') going on and on and followed the noise upstairs (not hard in a 3 story apartment with 12 apartments only I suppose), and realised the new dog in 3A was howling away at the dog in 3D, with the 3D dog responding now and then. Now I've never heard the dog in 3D before, even though I knew it was there, so this is definitely the 3A dog's doing. I guess it must be the same dog I saw a few days ago, some shaggy looking medium sized thing of a breed I definitely did not recognise. It's new owners were trying to coax him up and down the stairs. Anyway I guess the tenants of 3A aren't home even though the lights were switched on inside, and so the dog was doing its howling thing. 

This is definitely one of the quirks of living in an apartment building, hearing all the noise around. I usually find it comforting though, hearing signs of life outside, and running into neighbours and making conversation. In New York there was Eric, who lived upstairs with his 2 (and then 1) dogs, and Steve and Alexandra opposite us. Here in this apartment there's Mike, Chastity, and Julie.

I've lived in apartments for most of my adult life, starting with when I lived in London. On Thursday however, we will finally be moving into our new house. I am simultaneously stressed out by the move as well as looking forward to a new chapter in my life. Meanwhile, the work to prep for it has been seemingly endless, and the the stressors many. It will definitely be an interesting change.

New Stamps

I went to the Clayton post office today after several months to mail off some packages and buy some stamps. I don't know if you know this, but I am a huge sucker for nice designs on stamps. If there is a nice and cute version, why would I want to boring pre-printed ones from those machines, or a pharmacy? So I usually wait until I go to a post office to buy a whole bunch of stamps at one go, thus ensuring we have a supply of nice stamps at home. These stamps were from my latest visit today, and apparently the fruit and vegetables ones just came out. The state and country fairs one however, is really cool and is actually a series of 4 stamps that forms 1 larger image:

So anyway, very cool. 

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For the last 4 days, I have been out everyday. Part necessary errands, part cross stitching and embroidering mania. I feel a little bad that I have been out so much in a pandemic, but as Jon pointed out it's also probably from feeling pent up at being home throughout the pandemic, and now feeling more comfortable with driving as we have a 2nd car. 

This phase kind of started last week Tuesday after I got a huge surge of anxiety from dealing with (and driving to) the new house. Now I am actively trying to tamp down this somewhat manic stage, because as I mentioned, I feel bad and irresponsible even though I take all the necessary precautions like mask wearing and carrying E inwards in a carrier. Though now given that I think I have finally finished all my errands, and have practically bought something like 50% of the entire DMC thread collection, I think I will be staying home for the next week, unless I need to do grocery shopping. 

This has been a list of all the places I have been since last Wednesday to today:

14 July - New House, Schnucks

15 July - Target, JoAnn Fabric

16 July (with Jon, as he had the day off) - Target, Hobby Lobby, Once Upon a Child (last 2 in the same strip mall)

18 July - JoAnn Fabric, Marshalls, Buy Buy Baby, Ross Dress For Less (all in the same strip mall)

20 July - JoAnn Fabric, Marshalls, Buy Buy Baby, Dollar Tree, Aldi (first 3 in the same strip mall)

21 July - Michaels, Walgreens

22 July - Hobby Lobby, Burlington Coat Factory, Aldi (all in same strip mall), Walgreens

23 July - Post Office, Target, UPS Store, Schnucks

DMC Threads

For the month of June, I read zero books. This was because I started cross-stitching again, and finally completed a kit that I had purchased and first started way back in 2014. In the interim, I've 1) finished two MAs, 2) gotten married, 3) had a child, 4) moved across the country, and lastly 5) purchased a house, so let's just say a lot has been happening since I first started this cross stitch, to when I finally completed it 6 years later.

Anyway I have since moved on to try my hand at embroidery, which to the dismay of my hands involves a needle that is a lot sharper. I have since managed to poke out chunks of skin, which really stings when I do housework. Bodily damage aside, this has also meant that as I move away from kits that come with prepared colour threads, I now need to purchase threads.

Enter the DMC embroidery shelf. Since I have started (or re-started) this particular type of craftwork, I have spent close to 15 minutes in front the DMC shelves at Michaels and (today especially), Joann Fabric. I am starting to think that E is close to developing a huge aversion to the sight of the DMC shelf, because I invariably end up spending far more time there than her toddler mind can appreciate. The DMC shelf means I will stand still there, bending forwards and backwards and shuffling too and fro as I pick the 'perfect' colours, all while she is just stuck to me in a backwards facing front baby carrier (safest way to bring her around in the era of COVID). It means I will not be moving from aisle to aisle, giving her new things to look at. For this ill-behaviour on my part, I will be subjected to 1) mask pulling, 2) face slapping, 3) audible complaining and some shrieking, 4) weird stretches and flinging about.

All this parental abuse is worth it I suppose, as I sit here in front of the computer admiring my new hoard. At 60 cents a skein of thread, it's a relatively cheap hobby to go wild on, though I feel the skin on my hands is already tingling in imagined punishment.