No Clean Underwear--Again???

nderwear.

None clean.

Again.

Yes, in today's Eldersitting blog post, I'm airing Mom and Dad's dirty laundry.

Dad had a heart attack in November. They put in a stent the next day, and he's recovered quite well for an 83 year old with COPD! Since then, he's had cardiac rehab three days a week. In Big Town. About 18 miles away. And he hasn't driven in the intervening months. So, I drive him there. Did I mention it's three days a week?

So, three days a week driving to cardiac rehab. Another one or two for physical therapy or various other appointments. Plus, I've been sick a couple of times, myself. (Unfortunately, I think the mild winter, which I've thoroughly enjoyed otherwise, has something to do with it.) Between all these things, I have fallen behind on housework. Very far behind!

One of the things I'm farthest behind on is laundry. It's actually one of my favorite jobs to put off in the first place, so having no time is a great excuse to not get it done. I finally got Dad to let me know when he takes the second to last pair of underwear from his drawer. In the meantime, I had to buy some extras for him. At first, I never had to worry about Mom running out--she had more pairs than Dad, and since I had to wash his, I washed hers, too, and she didn't run out. But, now that I've bought him more underwear... you guessed it, now Mom sometimes runs out. And she's not yet trained to let me know when that happens!

Today, I bought her a package of underwear. Ten pairs. That oughta last awhile.

Of course, by then Dad will have forgotten to let me know when he's nearly out, so I'll have to buy him some more. And then Mom will forget to let me know when she's nearly out, so I'll have to buy her some more. And so on. And so on. And so on.

I can see it now: we have a large capacity HE washing machine that holds four times as many clothes as the old washer did. And there's going to come a time when I fill it to capacity with nothing but underwear.

Merry Christmas!

esus Christ is born!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We enjoyed celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior with many family members. A few too many, it seemed, at some times. But there wasn't one I would have chosen not to have there, and there was one who couldn't make it that I wish would have been here, too. So, I guess all the anxiety was worth it. ;)

My daughter was one of the visitors. Her last day, she wanted to go to a bookstore that she thought was in the mall in Big Town. I couldn't remember a bookstore in the mall, and it's not a very big mall.

"It's by the staircase," she said.

The staircase? Curious. I couldn't remember a staircase in our little mall. She must have been thinking of one in Big City or Another Big City or where she goes to college. There's no staircase in the mall in Big Town.

Then I remembered.

"Do you mean the four steps leading to a slightly lower elevation in the mall?"

Sure enough, there is a bookstore in the mall in Big Town. Right next to the (tiny) staircase.

Low-Sodium Cooking

ad had a new problem a few weeks ago: his feet and ankles were swollen like elephant legs. He went to the doctor, got a 2-week supply of a diuretic, and was told to lower his salt intake and not to eat ham or canned soup.

What had I been serving for lunch every day the previous two weeks? Canned soup and lunch meat sandwiches. Oops.

What did I cook almost every evening meal with? Either canned cream of mushroom soup, dry onion soup mix, or chicken or beef broth/bouillon. I was appalled when I looked at the sodium count on those items! I've been killing Dad!!

So, I went to the store, determined to find some ingredients that I could cook with that wouldn't be horribly high in sodium. Low-sodium cream of mushroom soup: still too much sodium. Low-sodium dry onion soup mix: yeah, um, that one doesn't exist, at least not in the grocery stores in Big Town.

That meant it was time to find new recipes. Google, here I come!

So many recipes call for the canned and boxed items I'd been using that the first step was to find substitutes for those. And I found a wonderful site that has been very helpful in teaching me how to make homemade cream soup, chicken stock, and beef stock, for which I can monitor and control the amount of sodium that goes in. The site is Home Ec 101: Real skill for real people with real lives (what you wish your mama taught you).

From this site, I've learned to make:

• Bechamel sauce--a creamy white sauce that is made from butter, flour, and cream/half and half/milk. You can vary the recipe by adding chicken stock, vegetable stock, or fish stock and adding things like mushrooms to mimic cream of mushroom, cream of celery, cream of shrimp, or cream of chicken soup. I've learned that if you're careful with the re-heating process (heat it on low on the stove from frozen), it doesn't separate, and so it can be made in large batches and frozen.
• Chicken stock--chicken stock takes a lot of cooking time, but not a lot of effort, to make, so I made large batches of it and freeze it in 1 or 2 cup portions.
• Chicken soup--her homemade soup is delicious, and once you've made the chicken stock, very easy and quick to prepare.
• Dumplings--my husband loves chicken and dumplings. He prefers the firmer, almost pasta-like dumplings, and I always made the fluffy, biscuit-like dumplings. I found on the Home Ec 101 site that adding egg is what changes the consistency.

So now, I will be able to post some things about cooking from scratch.

Oh, and Dad's feet and ankles are back to normal! Yay!

The Guardian

One job I've inherited that I wasn't expecting when we moved here is guardianship of my younger sister. She is mentally retarded, and as such, has been a ward of the state since her 21st birthday. Our parents have been her guardians, but now, they can't handle the task anymore, and have passed the role to me. This'll be interesting.

My sister lives in a group home in Big Town. Her favorite TV show is Cops (this will be important later). For the past several months, she has been in love with a guy who lives in another group home near hers. When I first heard they had gone on a date, I was excited and thought maybe she'd be able to get married. That's always been her dream! But, not only are the guy's guardians not open to the idea of him getting married, but apparently, he is some kind of a "Casanova," having been seeing several women at the same time. He told my sister once that he'd broken up with all the others, and that she was his only girlfriend. But, they have group dances, and my sister caught him kissing another woman at one of them. :(

So, I've seen her twice in the last couple of weeks, and each time, I've comforted her while she cried, listened to her tell me how much she loves him, and tried to help her understand that... well, he's a pig.

I think I made a breakthrough yesterday. We were walking through the grocery store, and she said, "He's a bad boy. He's gonna go to jail!"

It's a shame, honey, but they don't put boys in jail for breaking girls' hearts. Not even on Cops. But at least, I think she finally understands.

Adjusting to Life in Rural Town

We live on a farm a few miles outside of Rural Town. A short jaunt brings us to Big Town. A looooong jaunt brings us to Big City.

My dear husband grew up in Another Big City. He is not accustomed to life in Rural Town. This became quite clear on a recent solo trip to he made to Rural Town. After telling a clerk the reason for his visit, he was told that he would need to talk to the proprietor, who was not in. Satisfied with that, Hubby turned to leave, but was halted by the following exchange:

Clerk: So, how's your father-in-law? (This caught Hubby off guard in itself, because he didn't know the woman from Eve, but she didn't even say the relationship, she said Dad's name.)

Hubby: Umm... Did you know he's in the hospital?

Clerk: Yeah, my husband heard it come over the [Rural Town Emergency Medical Services] pager.

Hubby: Oh, well he seems to be doing better, and should be able to come home tomorrow.

Clerk: Good, glad to hear it. Are you living in Rural Town?

Hubby: Umm... No, we are living out on the farm with them.

Clerk: Oh, that's great. And you have one child going to school here?

Hubby: Umm... Yes.

Clerk: I saw you at the school open house the other day. And at the Bar and Grill last Friday night. (Yes, Rural Town not only has a Cafe, it also has a Bar and Grill.)

Hubby: Oh, I see.

To me, having grown up in Rural Town, an non-momentous conversation. To him? I'm sure he felt like Big Brother was watching him, very, very closely.

I'm sure he'll get used to it. :)

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