Terry and I no longer travel during the summer months. What with the cats and the yards, and the hotter summers, we just don’t feel that it’s a good idea to be gone. Even though I don’t have the responsibility of storytelling during these three months, there seems to be other tasks to accomplish like catching up on medical appointments. I got in the habit of doing that when teaching and still do.
The cats, the yards, upkeep of the house, laundry, meals…those are the things that take up so much time, especially in the summer. I see friends twice a month for lunch. Terry goes to cardio rehab. There’s church on Sundays. It’s all very simple. Nothing grand or elaborate.
And yet it all takes lots of time. The food part, especially. Planning, shopping for, fixing, eating, cleaning up. I don’t remember food being such an issue when I was younger and working. I shopped after work, fixed foods on Saturday and Sunday that would provide leftovers for us through the week. Then on Fridays, we went out to dinner, and started it all over again.
Terry and I do our own breakfasts, but there needs to be food in the refrigerator and cupboards to accommodate that. Terry orders coffee from Peets and makes a fresh pot every morning. He also makes fresh orange juice every few days. We share those beverages. Terry eats cold cereal every morning except on Saturdays. He makes pancakes every Saturday which requires eggs, buttermilk and Bisquick, which I must keep stocked. I occasionally buy bacon when I find uncured for a reasonable price for him to enjoy during the week with leftover pancakes. I eat a bagel, toast, frozen waffle, or some such bread product almost every morning.
Lunch is usually on our own. It’s only at dinner time that we sit down together and have a good meal. That takes planning, coordination, and plain old preparation. If we eat out for lunch, like I did on Tuesday, we bring home either leftovers or an extra meal to share for dinner. Some weeks during the school year I order dinners from the cafe/bakery to pick up on Friday so we will have food for over the weekend.
It all sounds so simple, and yet just the daily living seems to consume a whole lot of time, effort, and energy.
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Now that we’re retired and more “foot-loose and fancy free”, we also have a schedule for meals.
Monday, and Friday, we have cereal for breakfast (Al gets oatmeal with raisins on Monday, and Raisin Bran on Friday, I have granola with blueberries those days). Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, I fix eggs, sausages and toast for both of us. Occasionally, if we’re going somewhere, we’ll have a McDonald’s breakfast or we’ll go out to brunch.
We eat our big meal at noon (my choice after growing up in the south where it was too hot to cook dinner in afternoon).
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is meat, starch, and a vegetable. Tuesday is “fix-it-yourself”, Thursday is Whoppers, and Saturday is “eat up the leftovers.” Sunday noon we eat out.
Evenings we have cheese and crackers, or instant noodles, or popcorn, or leftovers, or whatever.
Terry nor I care much for eggs, unless used in a baked good! It takes weeks to use a dozen eggs around here. Occasionally I will make burritos with scrambled eggs and cheese. I flavor the eggs with a good picante sauce so they no longer taste like eggs.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m now old-old, but I can easily double (if not triple) the time and energy required merely to accomplish the “activities of daily living”. Then add in a washing machine that’s stuck half full on “rinse” and a computer that’s stuck on slow. Frustration is the order of the day!
We have a fabulous washer and dryer that are quite efficient, and they run almost every day. We seem to be very dirty people, and, of course, there is all the cat bedding that gets its own loads. I am always patting the washer and dryer and give thanks for their valuable service.
Funny you should mention food being more of a difficulty. We have to navigate that chore too. We try to eat healthy, but it’s not always easy. We also take care of my mom who wants only soft foods. We haven’t had steak in ages. You eat a much more varied diet for breakfast than we do. We eat the same thing every morning. Cereal with bananas and fresh blueberries with mocha or coffee. Art makes oatmeal on Saturdays. That’s it. :-l but then… we’re OK with it.
Thinking up meals is so much effort. I grocery shopped today, and still don’t know exactly what I’m going to be fixing. A friend gave us a lot of tomatoes so I did get the makings for BLTs. I also got lots of salad ingredients as that’s always an easy way to go when it’s over 100 degrees at dinner time. The fruit bowl is again full. I could live on fruit.
It’s true. Sometimes I wonder how I ever managed to do all of it and hold down a full-time job. I remember once reading that “housework expands to fill the time available” and think maybe it’s a fact. 🙂
Actual housework gets short shrift around here. I clean the bathrooms 2 to 3 times a week. Terry vacuums the whole house once a week but also uses the stick vacuum to take care of cat fur. He changes our bedding and washes everything once a week. That chore takes all day. I dust and polish as the need arises. Which seems to be more often than when I was working. I think our being home almost every day makes the house dirtier, too. Thank God for the appliances that do so much of the “heavy lifting.”
Recently, my husband found a greeting card that says, “I hate it when I go into the kitchen looking for food and all I find is ingredients.” How we laughed!! I am the cook in the family and he is the cleaner-upper, but the agreement when he retired is that we are each on our own for breakfast and lunch. I fix dinner which we eat together. It is getting harder and harder, however, after almost 53 years of marriage to retain interest in cooking. I am grateful my husband never objects to popcorn suppers or leftovers or a suggestion to go out.
I enjoy cooking, but the procurement of ingredients is more of a hassle now.