Chili Day

It shouldn’t be long before you are all smelling the crockpot chili I just tossed together. My own crockpot “pot” cracked but a dear friend gave me an extra she had around her home. Hers is only a 4-1/2 qt and mine is a 6-1/2 qt, so I over-bought 2 cans (diced tomatoes and kidney beans) but they’ll wait in the pantry for the next batch. I filled this baby up to the top, allowing, under protest, 1/2-inch for breatheability. I can’t wait. I used up the last of my freezer stash two weeks ago and I’ve been craving it. This batch should make about 8 containers for the freezer plus one for tonight. Can’t wait to see what the final tally is.

I’m revved up this morning. Oh, don’t worry. It doesn’t mean I’m running around like a chicken without a head. I do like cliches, you’ll find. They are very handy. Unless I’m writing something special, I’ll grab a cliche whenever it works for me.

Anyhow, I’ve found that when I want to be physically productive, I must take a pain pill. I don’t really feel a lot of pain in the joints these days. After my nephew passed on (2/1), my food habits changed to a very healthy level and I also began Glucosamine with MSM on a daily basis. I have gone down from 192 to 170 in 6 months - that’s a nice gentle drop and still moving. I feel more energetic. I do not need my quad cane as much. I even find it easier to walk a downgrade, something that was getting to be very difficult.

Back to the subject. Even though I do not consciously feel the joint pain, I’ve obviously learned to deal with it and try to ignore it. When I take a pain pill, whether a Vicodin/Lortab 325 or Tylenol Arthritis, it’s not that I become pain-free, but it seems as though I find it much easier and welcome to get up and down more frequently, and do things.

I was thinking about defrosting the freezer while the chili is working, but I think I’ll wait until next week when I do a pot of chicken veggie soup. Today, while it is cooking, I really must count the charity crafting items we’ve accumulated over the summer and spring. It’s time to distribute to the local needy; time to get the things out of my home and into theirs.

So, now that I’ve had breakfast, put on the chili, cleaned up the empty cans and mess (little as it was), I’ll sit for half an hour, and then go into the back bedroom and start tossing things on the bed and into groups: homeless, babies, and hospice/care. I can turn on the old TV back there and still watch shows while I’m doing everything. By lunch, I should be done, or just a little later. I’ll shower, then, because I’ll need it.

And, this afternoon, I’ll spend some time finishing up the digital version of my self-published Busy Person’s Prayer Book and get it into my Etsy shop. It was my dream when I began that book to do a series and to make them available at very, very lost cost, to everyone who needed and wanted those wee prayers. 

Unfortunately, print-on-demand costs forced me to sell the paperback at $9.98 - that was way above what I wanted. Now I’ll be able to offer it for $0.99 per instant download. The only thing that still makes me feel disappointed is that only those online can get it that way - there are many in need of various published items who do not have, or do not want, a computer. I’ll have to work on that angle one of these days.

I also set out 3 large cartons of clothes that I gathered together in here yesterday, for Safe Nest to pick up later today. Even though we have our Fall Park Wide Yard Sale coming up (10/3, 4, 5), I rarely put clothes out a yard sale, except for jackets and special things. 

So, by the time I go to bed tonight, at least I can look back and see that I’ve accomplished something.