This Chapter Begins...

Jan 11, 2004

My Big Step...... I am stepping out into the world of collegedom...at the ripe old age of 28 . My first class is tomorrow night, and just the thought of it literally takes my breath away. I am taking four classes: Personal Health, Western Civilization Since 1648, Introduction to Man's Physical Environment, and Freshman English. I look at each one with equal amounts of dread.

With college added to my already overly-full schedule, I am just determined there has to be a way to be organized in all aspects of my life. And I'm a confessed organizational disaster. I've got to figure out how to balance working full-time (40 hours), going to school full-time (12 hours), keeping our church's medical aid plan operational, all the while trying to keep up with my house-cleaning, my laundry, my budget, my diet, and my exercise program. And it would be nice to schedule some sewing and even some sleep in there every once in a while. I've got all sorts of tips lined up for myself, but if anyone wants to contribute any additional insights, feel free.

Congratulations to my brother Alvin. He and Doretta announced their engagement on January 1. A July 24 wedding is planned. As you can imagine... we've launched Operation Skinny Wedding. Lord willing and my eyes open on time, I shall be getting up at 5:15 a.m. tomorrow morning and hitting the gym.

Today I once again proved that cooking is simply not my thing. It was my turn to stay home from church with my mom's bed-bound patient and cook the family's fare. I wanted a one-dish meal, so I picked out Cheeseburger Soup. Things progressed nicely for the first little while until I grated my knuckle right along with a carrot. Ouch! I finally had everything in the pot and my hands were feeling dry, so I went in search of some of Jolene's lotion. I glanced into the toilet and noticed some "moron" had forgotten to flush. So I flushed the toilet, then went to fishing around in Jolene's cupboard to find "the lotion that was not." I was in the cupboard right above the "Porcelain Express" and was a bit concerned that something might fall, ending with a great splash. I made a move as if to put the lid down, when what to my horrified eyes should appear but a rising water level and the same two pieces of toilet paper that had been about halfway down only a short time before. I did some swift maneuvers, but it was too late. The toilet overflowed, the liquid splashing down around my toes as I whirled and swirled and grabbed for every towel within the immediate vicinity. NOT my love language!

I recovered as best I could then went back to finishing my pot of soup. Everything was ready by 12:00, and it was quite tasty! I set the burner to "simmer" then sat down to wait for the Fam. I picked up my cross stitch and finally got to relax for the first time of the morning. 12:10.... sniff, sniff.... please, God, NO! I ran to the stove, dipped my tasting spoon into it and confirmed that yes, it was scorched. HOW does soup scorch on "simmer"???? Then I did go into a tail spin. With the Fam due home at any moment, how could I explain that lunch for the day was not going to be a reality? You should've seen me.... the cd player was quickly punched to OFF....I raced into the pantry to see what in the world I could come up with immediately.

I finally decided that I was going to make another attempt at cheeseburger soup. Boy, did I improvise. There was no more delicate grating of carrots.... I grabbed a bag of somebody's already-washed carrots and celery left over from a lunch last week, and I went to hacking and chopping those things into big old chunks. I took the last can of chicken broth, dumped it into a much-smaller pot. Thank goodness for a Campbell's family size chicken and rice soup can I found in the pantry. I dumped it into the pot. Because there was rice in it already, I didn't have to cook any more rice. I boiled it full speed ahead to try to soften up the celery and carrots... I had had some hamburger left over from the first pot, so in it went as well. Mushroom soup, milk, and sour cream topped it off, and twenty minutes after I started, I had the same effect as what I had had after a whole morning's work for the big pot....only on a much smaller scale. :-(
Since it was a considerably smaller portion, I thought I would make some biscuits to help fill people up. Out came the bisquick... I whipped up a batch of biscuits quicker than anything.

Into the driveway rolled Mom and Dad and Martin and Jolene. I popped the biscuits into the oven. Here comes Martin in the door...nosier than he needed to be. "What's in there?" he asked, pointing to my carefully covered Big Pot. "Nothing!" I snapped, smacking his inquiring hands away. Would he give it up? No. I had to literally drape myself over the pot to keep him from lifting the lid. The more I protested, the more he tried to peel me off it.

My resolve beginning to crumble, I screeched, "I burned the soup!! Are you happy now??" Oh hah hahah cha cha!......just as I figured, the persecution began immediately. Was I in the mood? No! My jaw set, I continued to stir the soup with slow, deliberate motions and ordered Martin outside to get the ice.

Would you believe the next thing we knew the smoke alarm was going off? What?? Must be time to change the batteries. I sent Jolene to wave something in front of it (dumb thing), and it quit..... momentarily. And then it resumed its high-pitch shrilling. What could be setting it off?? Oh NO! The biscuits! Straight from the oven.... into the trash can.

The only thing left for the whole sordid mess was to dish out very controlled portions of the cloned Cheeseburger Soup, which reportedly, was quite tasty in the end! As if I were the local dog, I tucked my tail between my legs... but I'm finding.... Life goes on.

Here's to hoping the rest of the week goes a little better than today did! I've got my knuckle bandaged, and there's no chance of burning my sandwich for tomorrow, so things are starting to look up!