Odd Comfort

 My General Anxiety Disorder, diagnosed, is on the extreme side of severe. The only real way to mostly control it is to be as comfortable as I can. And to find comfort wherever it appears. In a previous post I mentioned my college friend, Amina. 

Amina was majoring in business and, I minored in business. She was about 6 years older than me and had the same teachers and had already taken the classes I was taking. Her mother and her converted to Islam when her mom married her stepfather. He was paying for her college education so she can have a successful career. It's what confused me about the Islamic terrorist "no educated women" thing. 

I know her head always has to be covered by a head scarf. At dinner, when it would start to slip a little, I got nervous. But I always found peace and reverence to watching her do the mundane task of fixing it. Watching her fix her head scarf brought me comfort. 

There are other odd things that bring me comfort, like my monthly and seasonal hats and wraps collection. But lately I have had new and odd comfort object. I'll give you three guesses. 

1. Luxury towels? Nope, we even got the cheap "The Big One" brand towels from Kohl's recently and prefer them to the more expensive Apt 9 ones they replaced. 

2. Odd right, so a new coat? Yes, I get excited about Columbia brand coats. I hate coats in general! Even light ones are heavy and, I get an itchy neck from them all brands.

3. Wow! Okay, so, it's not likely to be the usual like blankets, pillows, and slippers. Is it a good book? Reasonable guess. But no. I read the Washington Post now. It's interesting but "comfort" isn't really the word I would use. 

It's technically two things. Table linens and dishes. When you're done being surprised scroll down. 

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So, like I said, I organize everything by month and season. Yes, that includes linens and dishes. I have monthly placemats and napkins and seasonal dishes for everyday use. We moved those with us from the condo when we got the house.

My favorite brand is Pfaltzgraff. When we got married 18 and a half years ago, we registered for the Pfaltzgraff Summer Breeze pattern. I still get compliments on it and our serving dishes are from that pattern. They deliver in a reasonable time frame and the pieces are great! Overall, they are a great company and I LOVE their products! 

Pfaltzgraff - Shop Dinnerware, Serveware, Drinkware, Flatware ...

Now I am starting to entertain for holidays too. All table linens below are from Kohl's and the napkin rings are from Amazon. I already had some Pfaltzgraff Winterberry plates from the condo. My parents used to come on Christmas morning for breakfast. This year, I collected the rest of what I needed for hosting Christmas Eve dinner (Josh's family) and Christmas Day dinner (my family). 

This November I will be hosting Thanksgiving. That pattern is the Pfaltzgraff Plymouth pattern. 

The final holiday is Passover, for now. At some point in the future, I will also host Easter. We aren't Jewish. As a kid, we started celebrating Passover to learn about a Jewish holiday. It also was a good excuse for my parents to see their friends after they all had us kids! Their daughter is my age and, we are still friends. We did it a few times before the pandemic. We decide to do it again this year. 

These were perhaps the dishes I am the most excited for. I have been collecting all of these dishes a little at a time. But some bowls and the mugs for this set were backordered. I STALKED the Pfaltzgraff website for a month until they came in tonight! Final order placed for..........Pfaltzgraff April!!!

I spend most of my time cooking, fixing, and cleaning. I take the eating and serving of that food seriously. When my dinners present well, it makes me feel good. Just looking at these dishes bring me comfort. These are actually pictures taken when I set these all up, one after the other, just for the good feeling of seeing it set up! 

No, there are no special dishes for summer. If I am doing a BBQ, it's paper plates! Although they will be summer themed paper plates. After all, the theme is a large part of the comfort.