Last night, somebody commented to me that I was a master of
time management. It sure doesn’t feel that way. Lately, it seems like I’m
running in ten directions at once and not getting much accomplished.
My daughter’s alarm goes off at 5:45, so she can have plenty
of time to get ready for her 7 AM school bus. I heard her walking around and
got up too. It was 5:51 when I walked into the kitchen. I thought that with
three hours to work, I should surely be able to get a load of plums in the
canner before leaving for work. So… here are the steps I took.
1.
Wipe and label jars of cinnamon pears that I
canned Monday.
2.
Take box of cinnamon pears down to basement.
3.
Realize there’s not enough room on shelf 49 for
all the cinnamon pears.
4.
Move Apple Butter to shelf 48.
5.
Update inventory spreadsheet on top of chest
freezer to show that Apple Butter has been moved.
6.
Look through freezer for an idea of what to make
for dinner. No idea.
7.
Refill empty box with wide-mouth canning jars.
8.
Realize that I need the sink cleaned out to wash
canning jars.
9.
Empty and refill dishwasher.
10.
Take clean plastic yogurt containers that were
in dishwasher out to recycling bins in garage.
11.
Realize I need more counter space to work – take
Sorghum Flour from yesterday’s Amazon order to refill empty canister.
12.
Take empty box from Amazon order out to recycling
bin in garage.
13.
Wash canning jars.
14.
Realize stomach is growling and wants breakfast.
Grab a gluten-free pear muffin and a chai latte.
15.
Putting empty containers from Vanilla Almond
Milk and Chai Concentrate tops off garbage can. Empty trash.
16.
Walking through garage to trash can, see that
there are a lot of little leaves on the carpet just before coming into the kitchen.
Grab the broom and do a quick sweep so all the debris doesn’t get tracked into
the house.
17.
Settle into my chair with muffin and chai.
18.
Grab phone to check e-mail.
19.
Check Facebook.
20.
Respond to message on Facebook.
21.
Clear two levels in Bubble World.
22.
Open blinds and watch for bus.
23.
Call out alert to Bethany when the bus goes down
the street across from our house.
24.
Finish up chai and head back to kitchen.
25.
Fill 9 wide-mouth canning jars with plums. Start
to cover with syrup and realize I didn’t make enough.
26.
Make more syrup, finishing off bag of sugar.
27.
Wash hands and grab phone to add sugar to
shopping list.
28.
Check Facebook notification that popped up on
phone. “Like” cute picture a friend posted.
29.
Check pantry for another bag of sugar.
30.
Realize flashlight for checking pantry is in bedroom,
since I was reading by flashlight last night.
31.
Retrieve flashlight from bedroom.
32.
Make bed.
33.
Try to finish with the syrup I’ve made. Run out of
syrup.
34.
Search cupboard for more sugar. Find enough for
2 more cups of syrup. Wonder what my neighbor Judy would think if I showed up
on her doorstep at 7:20 AM asking for a cup of sugar.
35.
Finish up (just barely) with the last two cups
of syrup.
36.
Put plums in canner.
37.
Search ten boxes of canning jars in basement,
looking for any more wide-mouth pints. (There’s still one more container of
plums in the fridge – probably enough for 4 more pints.) Move some jars around
to empty out boxes.
38.
Take empty cardboard boxes out to recycling in
garage.
39.
Search fridge for items in wide-mouth pints that
can be downsized to half-pints. Find one (sweet pepper rings – with one or two
sweet pepper rings floating in about ¼ cup of pickle juice).
40.
Add “Make Pickle Dip” to my to-do list to use up
the pickle juice.
41.
Hear elementary bus going by… my signal that I
need to hit the shower if I want to be on time for work!
42.
Miss a phone call from Bethany asking me to
bring a certain shirt to the volleyball game.
43.
Put shirt in car so I don’t forget it.
44.
Take plums out of canner.
45.
Search fridge for something for lunch.
46.
Find another wide-mouth canning jar that I can
downsize into a smaller jar.
47.
Rearrange dirty dishes in dishwasher to add those
emptied by making my lunch.
48.
Take three cardboard boxes emptied during fridge
search out to recycling.
49.
Hurry to answer the phone, thinking Bethany
forgot something else… telemarketer.
50.
Get out crockpot to start teriyaki chicken.
51.
Sort yesterday’s mail that was still on the
table where I put the crockpot.
52.
Realize I can’t make teriyaki chicken because there’s
sugar in the recipe, and there’s no sugar in the house!
53.
Put BBQ chicken in the crockpot (Plan B).
54.
Fix hair, apply make-up.
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| Current knitting project is another "manly bib" like this one... |
55.
Toss together “knitting to go” bag for
volleyball game.
 |
| But this one has a bow tie instead of a regular tie. |
56.
Out the door… on time! (Highly unusual… since,
as you can see, I end up going down a lot of “rabbit trails”!)
If you Google "Kale Chips Recipe", you can find thousands of recipes... using various spices and combinations of oil and lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar. I usually mix 2 Tablespoons of oil with a Tablespoon of lemon juice, mix it with a bowlful of kale, spread on a cookie sheet in a single layer and sprinkle with salt. Bake for 15 minutes (anywhere from 350 to 400 degrees, depending on what's already in the oven). 
