It's been established: I am a PCS worrier. Now some of you are PCS warriors. You roll with the punches, fill out your lists (even months in advance), and focus on the good stuff, like all the fun things you can do at your next duty station. Me, I fret about sesame seed oil.
I am in the middle of Operation Empty Freezer (or as Amy hilariously called it in the comments, Operation Eat All Meat.) And now I'm stressing over all my mismatched and missing ingredients.
I won't be able to cook anything with paprika, since it ran out last week and I can't buy more. Same with kosher salt. Salad may be out of the running because we only have a smidge of dressing left. No more pancakes either. Don't know what we're going to do with the half bottle of syrup left then.
This is my least favorite aspect of Operation Eat Everything. I have about half the ingredients to anything I could make. Syrup but no pancake mix. Bacon bits and croutons but no salad dressing.
I also have several bags of chocolate chips, a few cups of sugar, a teaspoon or two of vanilla...but no flour. So do I go buy flour so I can bake cookies to get rid of all the other ingredients, or do I just throw them away or pass them on to someone else? Either I buy the flour and have to throw it away, or I throw away the vanilla. Either way, something will be wasted.
And this is what I do, this is where I channel all my PCS stress. Instead of tackling real PCS issues, like finding a cleaning service or meeting with a realtor, I run cost comparisons on whether it's more economical to throw away chocolate chips or flour.
And it's not just the kitchen that vexes me. I am coming dangerously close to not getting clean either, but I have one bar of soap and a few hotel bottles of body wash to glide me through without having to buy more. And I'm hoping I've timed the baby's lotion just right.
For heaven's sake, I've been fretting about detergent for two years now! When my husband left on TDY, I sent the ACU detergent with him. He brought it home one weekend and forgot it, and I was so dismayed to hear that he'd gone out and bought a new jug. Now we're way overscheduled for detergent. Not good. I think I would've preferred if he'd thrown away a week's worth of ratty socks and tan t-shirts instead.
I wish I had a more mature outlook and could focus on useful things like learning to caulk instead of eyeballing shampoo and detergent. I hate that this somehow starts to seem important, that it will make or break us to throw away half a bag of flour. There are far bigger fish to fry, but I feel like if I can control all my ingredients and wet household goods, I am "accomplishing something" for the move. It's absurd. And yet I do it every time.
I hate Operation Eat Everything In Perfect Proportions, but I do so look forward to Operation Buy All New Stuff once we get settled at our next home.
The baby's gonna be ticked that she doesn't get any pancakes until September though...
