Best Laid Plans

 You know how it is.  We make plans.  God laughs.  And sometimes I think He might send that Murphy character just to keep us humble.  :)

Thursday of this week was my grocery delivery day.  It has become a normal thing that the weekly sale ads contain very little that I am willing to spend money on.  But this week I lucked out.

I haven't seen any chicken at a reasonable price in ages.  Yet there it was.  Family packs of chicken drumsticks and thighs for 99 cents per pound.  Average weight per pack/ 6 - 7 lbs.  There was a limit of four each.  I got 8 packs of chicken.

And here is where the plan comes in.  I planned to package the drumsticks in meal sized amounts for myself and toss them into the freezer.  I did.  I planned to stuff the thighs into wide mouth pint jars and can them.  That's when Old Murphy reared his ugly head.  Sale chicken pieces are often odd sizes and that was true with the thighs.  Wasn't working very well. 

So on to Plan B.  Tossed half the thighs into my largest stock pot, covered them with water and cooked them until tender.  Did it again with the other two trays.  Was planning to take the meat from the bones and can it that way.

Murphy wasn't quite done with me.  I am old.  I am arthritic.  I have lots of good days and a few not so stellar days.  The next morning, I found out quickly that I would not be wrestling a large pressure canner.  Luckily, I still had some freezer space, so into the freezer went several pounds of cooked chicken thighs.

The point to all of this is that things don't always work out the way we would like.  In my case, chicken is still chicken, and it was at a good price.  Doesn't matter if it is canned or frozen.  It is food.  And no matter how it is preserved, it is there when needed.

There seems to be silver linings in the clouds if we look for them.  My silver lining in the chicken freezing debacle was that instead of taking the time to do some canning, I was able to use the time to add some information to my genealogy program.  I found that the website "Find A Grave" has a considerable amount of information on those ancestors I am looking up.  I not only find where they are buried, but often I find links to other family members.

My family thinks I am obsessed with my family tree - all branches.  And I guess I am.  I know most of my family has little interest, but my hope is that maybe someday they will want to know about those who went before.

Continuing to prepare is important.  Especially now when a good share of the world seems to be going bat guano crazy.  I also believe it is good to know where we come from.  Don't have to be as deep into genealogy as I am, but if we don't learn from history, we will just repeat it - mostly the bad.

Hang in there.  Keep stacking.  And most importantly, keep praying.