Independence Days- week 17

My goodness, where has the time gone.  Another week gone by.  It's been a busy but productive one.  Things are really moving along here rather quickly and spring is here- well, in theory anyway.  The snow that came and went so quickly didn't seem to bother anything that was already up and growing outside and the lilacs are ready to burst out of their leafy buds.

Here's the latest IDC update.

1.  Plant something- No, but I did place my order for my 'small fruits' that should arrive about the time we close on the house purchase or shortly after. My tomatillos are up and my tomatoes and peppers are ready to be transplanted into larger pots.

2.  Harvest something- Nope

3.  Preserve something- Um, no.

4.  Store something- Lets see, more mini-chocolate chips, and all our little jars of 'wedding honey'.  I'll have to think of something special for that.  I did make a double batch of chocolate chip waffles to freeze tonight as we were out and my crazy schedule has kept me from my usual weekend waffling.

5. Manage reserves- eating almost entirely out of reserves except for milk, eggs and bread. Yeah, I know, I could bake my own but time has been a bit thin for the past two weeks.  I also figure that eating out of reserves means less to move when we get around to that.

6.  Cook something new- Nope, it's been the old standbys lately.  I tend to fall back on the standards when things get crazy around here.  They are things I know will be eaten and are generally quick and easy.

7.  Prep something-  We're in the middle of the ultimate prep- the acreage purchase.  Since we are buying 'as is' the inspections won't stand in the way of the purchase but we're having them done anyway.  The well inspection was this morning and the septic is tomorrow.  Really, unless something falls through with the bank we're set to hopefully close before our date of the 30th.  V met briefly with the mortgage guy at the credit union this afternoon, dropped off the latest bank statements, and locked us in at a rate of 4.75.  What will probably take the longest is the appraisal by the bank, although with the state of the market, no one seems tremendously busy so things are getting done rather quickly.  I guess I could count my fruit order as well as prepping.  I took advantage of an online sale (not Gurney's which I was worried about earlier) and for a reasonable amount I'm getting 2 blueberry bushes, 2 red currants, 6 red raspberries, 50 strawberry plants and a blue climbing rose that J14 has been wanting.

8.  Reduce waste- Just the usual.  But I was talking to one of my co-workers (the one who teaches and works for us 1 day a week) today and she makes an annual summer trip to Brazil with students for an educational/service trip for therapy with disadvantaged children there.  I was bemoaning the great toy sort and she told me that she would love to have any toys we don't want (except really big things) to take with her for the children there.  I talked to the children about it tonight and they seemed to like the idea so we'll probably be boxing things up to go to Brazil.

9.  Learn a new skill- Hmmm, I don't know. Dancing probably doesn't count.  I haven't had any hands-on experience yet but we've been doing lots of research in home repair/rehab and I've been working on redesigning the kitchen at the new house to put in an island.  I found a killer range that I want to get,  it's a 6 burner with one huge burner (I'm thinking canner), a small- simmer burner, and regular ones.  It comes with a griddle that fits over the two center burners and both the burners and oven can be match lighted in case of a power outage.  To make it an even sweeter deal, it is even fairly locally made- in Illinois- in a small plant.

10.  Work on community food security-  Unfortunately, no.

11. Regenerate what is lost- We had a fabulous time reconnecting with family over the weekend. It was fun to spend time with my nieces and nephews now that they are grown up and get to know them better on more equal terms.

12.  Behavior change-  I continue to work on not procrastinating.  The house stuff has been hopping but I found myself last week struggling to complete the final evaluation of my student before his last day.  But I got it done and he has moved on and now I actually have to do my job by myself!  

Wow!  I know that house stuff has been moving but I feel like I've been spinning my wheels in other areas.  But after writing this all out, I'm feeling pretty good about the past week.  

And now, I'm off to package waffles for freezing and I need to get some sleep-  the late nights and early mornings of the weekend are catching up with me as is the non-stop nature of the past few weeks.  I'm actually looking forward to the physical labor part of getting this house. At least then, it's labor not worrying about what will go wrong.