Giddiness abounds...

What have I become?  I am a girl who is downright giddy that her new freezer is resting in the basement, awaiting the electrician to come and give it a plug!

Does that get you all excited?  I know, a freezer and a steam mop in the same picture!!  If you are not excited yet, how about now?

Imagine all the tastiness that will fill those shelves!

In trying to avoid buying books on the matter, I have been Googling homemade food on a budget and freezer use and the like.  I did find one helpful short list of what you can freeze in a post by a woman who discovered that buying groceries for her family once a month, instead of weekly, led to cutting her grocery budget in half.  Some of what she wrote about I had started doing, such as dividing things  into servings before freezing it.  Her example was to divide tortillas into batches of six, which fits her family.  I started dividing my bacon, and that certainly made it last longer.  I bought the fresh meat chicken and divided it. In fact, some is grilling at the moment.  Anyway, I am trying to cobble together online advice about what I am trying to do.  I must say, I felt significantly less weird when I read this woman writing about how she grocery shops just once a month.

So, back to the freezer.  Firewood Man and one of his mates fetched it from Sears and brought it home.  They carried it to the basement and put the large filing cabinet, which is still waiting to go to its new home) in the garage.  Then, they switched the door opening for me so that it would work well for where I placed the freezer.  Then, Tim and Spenser also very kindly switched both doors on the basement refrigerator.  This way, you can open the door, pull out food, and set it on the counter without having to walk around the door.  I should have had him do that when he brought the refrigerator home for me in August of 2012.

After a lot of clearing my throat and jerking my head toward the laundry area, Tim commented on how much he liked the new wall color.  He's a man.  Apparently going from garish yellow to a soothing heritage GREEN is something that men won't notice right away.  I have wanted to do this for a long, long time.  Having someone come was just the impetus I needed to do this small paint job.  Of course, I could have taken photos of the whole space, but I wanted to show that I also decided to get rid of the shadow boxes that I have had since I was a girl—ones filled with all this miniature stuff—and fill the space with some of the photos that hung on my office wall at my last job.  That was the first time I was brave enough to really decorate my office the way I wanted it to be.  Of course, I lost my job soon thereafter, but the photos are a reminder of that bit of bravery.

[Please don't look at the rather large pile of ironing on the counter.  You are allowed to notice the cooking towels and napkins in the dirty laundry basket because it shows that I am saving on paper products.]

Wouldn't it be nice if I could have the gas pipe capped back at the ceiling????

Tim's friend had not yet seen the closet he built in the basement living space. It warmed the cockles of my heart to hear him point out all its features to his friend when I was in the other room.  I liked that he was proud of what he did for me.  And, of course, it really looks as if it were there all along.

I would say that I am too excited about what I might cook with more freezer space to sleep, but I would be lying. I slept 12 hours after that small painting job and it feels as if I have been up all night. Spencer commented on all the multicultural books I had on the bookshelf in the basement living space.  That reminded me that I need to move them back out.  And I have to vacuum and steam-mop. However, the latter work will need to wait until after the electrician is finished tomorrow.  Drilling holes to run wire through ceiling rafters makes for a bit of a mess, even if new plugs always bring bliss to this rather strange girl.

Fire, I believe, has always been my biggest fear in any place I have lived.  Tim was commenting on all the new wires in the ceiling from the kitchen and the new extension to the electrical panel.  I have spent far, far, far more bringing this house to code and to a comfortable and safe level of electrical access than anything else safe for the kitchen.  A part of me sighs over that thought, but I know that I have done everything I can to ensure the electrical load is balanced and all knob and tube wiring that can be replaced is.  The original wiring left does not carry much of a load. It is all lighting ... stairs, hallway, bedrooms.  Every single outlet and switch have been replaced, except for the original one in the dining room that I adore too much to think of safety.  As I have written before, I have done the work as much as for my own safety as for the desire to show future homeowners that one can live a modern life in an historical home without gutting its beauty.

Of course, with the home warranty-repaired sewage pipe and my own plumbing work, there really are no points of failure left in the home.  The roof is newish.  All the mechanicals are new.  The only "old" thing left is the dryer and there is absolutely no way that I will replace it until it dies.  The older ones dry way, way, way better than the two new ones I have owned.  I consider the dryer an added perk to the purchase of the home.

Anyway, I am now a freezer owner. I am the owner of a freezer still in need of a plug.  I am the owner of a freezer that is resting in place for 24-hours to ensure all the liquids have settled back to their proper location.  And I, being the owner of a freezer, am downright giddy over all the possibilities having said freezer might bring to her life.

Yep, I already asked Marie if she would teach me how to make the whole wheat dinner rolls on Friday.  Real yeast cooking, here I come!  Oh, mercy me!!

Maybe I should make those Irish Soda Muffins before Friday just to gird my loins???


I am Yours, Lord.  Save me!