Clearing out the cupboards - or how pain and chaos lead to order and mince pies

The last time I cleared out the kitchen cupboards - really cleared them out, was the morning of the day Pink arrived - 6 1/2 yrs ago. I recall quite clearly the look of alarm on the Husband's face to see me sitting, beached whale-like on the floor, surrounded by the contents of the cupboard, furiously labelling jars. 

This, then, is the contents of the same shelves in the kitchen dresser this morning. 

The shelves which have the flour, the sugar, the pasta, the rice, the baking sundries (sundries? well, the baking powder, the vanilla, the cooking chocolate (if I haven't eaten it), the half used, dried up tubes of writing icing...), the dried fruit and the nuts. Ah yes. The nuts. It all started in my quest for ground almonds.

You see, I was going to make the mince pies today, as a distraction activity (more about that later) and having perused both Delia and Nigella for inspiration on the pastry front, I decided that I needed to add some ground almonds. Trouble was, I could only find an unopened packet, and I just KNEW there was a half used packet in there somewhere.

So back to that distraction activity. Yes, while I am most definitely not pregnant, I am trying to cope with some horrible pain in my jaw muscles which has been getting steadily worse since Sunday evening - that's a whole 6 days now. Not that I've experienced much labour, being a veteran of the general anaesthetic and emergency c-section approach to giving birth, but really, honestly, this is worse than I remember that being. I am rattling like a proverbial pill bottle - codeine, paracetamol. neurofen and a low dose of an anti-depressant which is supposed to help with the spasms - and while I've used it to take the opportunity for some lovely reflexology, spending half my time with my face in a hot water bottle is getting a little boring.

After the anti-depressant was added into the mix yesterday (one to be taken at bedtime) I did have an amazing night's sleep last night, with the consequence that I went for longer than I have been without other pain relief. This morning was pretty grim as a result, and the Husband disappeared off with the kids to do some jobs leaving me to my hot water bottle. As the pain eased, I set to, determined to take advantage of the peace and quiet and get on with the mince pies, but first I had to find the almonds.

I emptied everything out on to the floor, so the shelves looked like this. So empty and inviting.

I found 3 open packets of raisins. 2 of pine nuts. 3 of flaked almonds.Several bags of plain flour at various stages of emptiness. 2 bottles of vanilla extract.  I also found the open pack of ground almonds I knew was in there. And a second unopened bag. The shame.

Then it was all out so I had to get it back. reader, I rationalised. I ordered. Where once there were 3 opened bags of raisins, now there is one. Jars have been filled, and don't tell anyone, but I actually threw out a tub of glace cherries which contained 5 little fruit and was so passed the use by date that even I had to admit defeat.

And then I put it all back in the cupboard. Amazing.

And did you want to know about the mince pies? Well, may be tomorrow. Here's a sneak preview: