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| Flourless Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies |
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| With Raisins (for me) |
The rains arrived late last night and it has continued to rain all day, today! A much needed, slow, steady rain that is good for the garden as the ground has time to absorb it.
It has been a bit cold, too, and I have had the heater on, all day! I am SO thankful to have a working heater and the hot water heater was repaired, too! Just in time!
Earlier in the week, it might have been on Thursday, cousin P blessed me with a bag of clothes. She had been going through her closet and had set aside some blouses (some with the tags still on!) and dresses for me. Today, my daughter and I tried them on. They fitted both of us, although some looked better on her than they did on me! I kept two of the dresses and a couple of the blouses for myself and gave the rest to my daughter. She will keep them in her closet, here, so I could borrow them if I want to! LOL!
Today, my daughter offered to help me go through and organize my dresser drawers, as an act of service. The majority of the dresser drawers are well organized (in my opinion), but, there were two smaller drawers that had become more like junk drawers that I kept saying I needed to organize but hadn't! Well, today, my daughter sorted through them and helped me to declutter and organize them. She did most of the work, just asking me questions - keep? donate? toss? Some items were relocated to better homes - tape measures went to my sewing basket, spare buttons went to my button box, some craft items to the craft supplies drawer, etc.
Things that had survived a prior decluttering session were decluttered this time around - a few pieces of costume jewelry (she took a few items for herself and put aside some bits and pieces that needed repairs), some sentimental items I had kept from her childhood, and some old letters, etc. At one point, however, I started to cry when I found something my mother had written; I kept that, as well as the eulogy my daughter, then aged 12, had written to read at my mother's funeral. I let her toss her karate patches and medals that I had saved for her (there's another box in the closet with all her karate belts), but, I kept her first pair of ballet slippers, bought when she was 5 years old!
It took us about one hour to go through the two drawers. I now have a small stack of old photographs and souvenirs to scrapbook and an empty drawer! I think I might go through the top of the dresser, tomorrow; I think I'd be able to store some of the items in the now empty drawer and clear up the dresser top!
Later in the afternoon, I did two loads of laundry.
Daughter requested French toast for brunch, today, which I made. I had a bowl of her Thai Green Curry soup and an apple for dinner and she had the rest of the Hawaiian chicken with rice for her dinner. For dessert, she baked the flourless oatmeal peanut butter cookies! She added raisins to a portion of the dough for me, because she doesn't like raisins.
Today, I am grateful for:
- The rain!
- A working heater and other appliances
- Clothes from my cousin
- My daughter's help with organizing my dresser drawers
- Cookies still warm from the oven!
Today's joyful act was having daughter help me with organizing the dresser drawers!
How was your Saturday? What are your plans for Sunday?
I find it's much easier to organize and declutter when someone is helping. Sounds like that was the case with your daughter's help.
ReplyDeleteHow do you make flourless oatmeal cookies?
It really was easier with her help, June.
DeleteAccording to my daughter (she found the recipe online), it was basically a cup of peanut butter, mixed with 3/4 cup rolled oats, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, and 1 tsp. vanilla, mixed together, made into small balls which were flattened a bit before being baked at 350F for 9-12 minutes. She said it takes 10 mins. in her oven but, they were done in 8 mins. in my oven. The recipe also called for optional chocolate chips and sea salt to be sprinkled on top, but, she didn't.
Thanks. Those sound good.
DeleteYou are welcome. :)
DeleteIt's lovely that your daughter is helping you to organise and declutter but I feel for you at the same time as I know how my own Mum used to feel when we did the same for her! We were always much more ruthless and less sentimental than she was with the things she'd kept but she didn't stand a chance against the two of us!
ReplyDeleteIt was, actually, very helpful, as she let me make the final decisions about what to keep/declutter. I knew I had to let some of it go, and having her ask me, "Do you want this? Do/will you wear it/use it?" etc., helped.
DeleteIt always feels good to get some decluttering done. I have lots of it that needs to be done here too. The cookies look delicious, enjoy!
ReplyDeleteDecluttering is very hard for me; I tend to hold on to things, especially if they have any sentimental value. But, it does feel good to know that at least some items have been removed.
DeleteThe cookies are good and not too sweet; I will be making them, again.
A rainy day was good for decluttering and baking delicious cookies. It must have made it a little easier to part with some items with your daughter's help and understanding, and now you have a free drawer ready to fill up again, because nature abhors a vacuum! 😀
ReplyDeleteSunday here was beautiful, cold but pleasant enough in the afternoon for a walk down by the river and right on the beach prominence where you can see all the way up and down the frozen river and the hills. Stunning!
I read somewhere that if you want chewy cookies, you should bake on a rainy day, because the added humidity in the air affects their texture!
DeleteHaving my daughter's help was very helpful! I told her that she would make a good professional organizer! :)
Sounds like you had a lovely day, today. I'm glad you were able to go for a walk. It was sunny here and clear until late afternoon; then it became partly cloudy. More rain is in the forecast for tomorrow!
Thank you for the oatmeal cookie recipe, Bless. I've been eating too much bread lately and am trying to reduce using white flour. Flourless oatmeal cookies sound like something I can try. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Nil. I think you will like them (not too sweet). :)
DeleteMarie Kondo always warns to declutter the sentimental items last, and now you know why. A little cry is not that uncommon. How nice to be doing it with your daughter though.
ReplyDeleteI tackled my "junk drawers" last week, and I have to say that my dresser drawers are all just clothes, so no sentimental items (although I may be holding on to a few things that no longer fit in hopes I will turn skinny one day.) There is a little basket of old jewelry and other bits and bobs - but I think as long as it is limited to that, I will just let it be.
I have been decluttering for a long time, now. It is not a one time thing with me. It is more like peeling an onion, one layer at a time. I've now come to the inner layers of the onion and, it seems to me, that just about every item left has some sentimental value! They don't have the same meaning to my daughter, so, it is easier for her to declutter them. But, she is very sweet - she knows how much these things mean to me and tells me to keep them as long as they please me. It's just that I feel that there are just too many things that please me! :D
DeleteWell done with decluttering your junk drawers. :)
I'm so pleased your daughter decided to stay for a while. It sounds like it's really good to have her around. Sorting through the drawers sounds as though it brought back lots of memories.
ReplyDeleteIt's really lovely having her home, again, Sharon. We get along well, together. :)
DeleteIt sounds like you really got that drawer all sorted out and it really helped to have your daughter take the lead. She knows what is important to you and understands the things you are sentimentally attached to and was still able to help in getting things sorted.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago you did a 30 items per month decluttering project ( or something similar to one item per day) and I have continued to do that, keeping track for each month.
I am up to 18 items for January and need to get cracking because February is next week.
I find that asking myself "when is the last time I used this" and "would I buy this again" helps me with the items that are not sentimental. I heard those questions on a financial you tube video when he started talking about clutter and it stuck with me.
How fun receiving the clothes from cousin P must have been.
I'm glad your garden got some nice soaking rain.
It really was helpful having my daughter go through the items with me. She did a lot of consolidating as part of the organizing - I tend to keep even the costume jewelry in separate boxes; she put all the like items together (all the necklaces in one box, all the earrings in one box, etc.) That alone got rid of multiple small boxes.
DeleteI still do the 30 items per month decluttering! Or, at least, try! This month, I probably decluttered at least 30 items from that one drawer! LOL. Those are very good questions to ask!
It was lovely to receive the clothes from cousin P. Now, I have an incentive to go through my own clothes to cull out a few!
According to the forecast, the garden will be getting more soaking rain tomorrow and Friday!