Life in the middle of the night

Yes, I've been up for almost an hour, after tossing and turning since about midnight. David has discovered another plumbing problem. This time it's a leaky toilet in the upstairs bathroom. Most of the wall between the laundry room and the downstairs bathroom is rotten, and parts of it have been taken down. The plumber comes this morning. Now we know why the new bathroom floor was getting so dis-coloured. I imagine the sub-flooring around the toilet is rotten too, and will need replacing, as will the new floor we had put in a couple of years back. I think you can reach a point when your emotions become numb after dealing with "one more thing". ( we've all been there) I know that I just want to escape into the studio. But wait--isn't that where there is a leak in the foundation, and parts of the panelling are off, and the furniture out of place? Thank goodness we've had no more water there, since adjusting the eaves troughing.

Did our monthly grocery shopping yesterday, which should have meant that today we "power cook". I was really surprise at how cheap beef was. We bought a couple of good sized inside round roasts, for under $10. I can stretch them by turning them into Swiss steak and stews, but I did save part of it as an actual oven roast. I remember Daddy cooking the veggies around the roast, and how good it was. Loren was over yesterday for a few minutes, and we talked about stew made with beef and kidney, the way Daddy used to do it. I know he also added tomato, but can't remember if it was tomato sauce or ketchup. Loren was looking for the recipe for traditional Scottish "mince" like Grandma F used to make. It wasn't nearly as fancy as the way Mom used to make it, as Loren despises mushrooms, so it was basically hamburger and gravy. But I ask you--who writes down a recipe for mince?!

So I think I'll spend the next couple of hours cutting up veggies for the stew, so that , as soon as David gets up , I can get the thing put together and into the Crock Pot. Then it's onto banana bread, and finally ribs. Our Superstore had a deal where you got a gift card for $25.00, if you spent $250.00. I was $15.00 short, so went back and got a package of ribs. I know, I know--I shouldn't be eating them! But they're so good!