This Week In My Home: Fair Days


It is the week of the Georgia National Fair, something we look forward to and sometimes are able to attend.  This year the plans are to go...we'll see if our plans hold.  The weather at least will be very nice and pleasant all week long IF the forecasts are correct...but then again we only had a 30% chance of rain Saturday and guess what?  It was 100% raining from 5 until 7am that morning and after the skies cleared off it was clouding again by noon.  Pfft! Weather men.  The only sunshine I've seen today is on the televised football game.  I don't mind if it's cloudy when we go to the fair, but I will mind if it's rained out!

I did a lot of extra shopping this past week.  We purchased our quarterly bulk beef supplies at the meat market.  I stocked up on breakfast sausages (polska kielbasa, beef links and turkey sausage patties) and chicken breasts ($.88/pound and I'm figuring we'll get two servings from each breast as they are BIG).  So with the freezer fully stocked (I added bogo frozen cheese pizzas to the back freezer for easy meal days) I need purchase only eggs, bread, milk and produce this week.  Anything else is really and truly extra.  I suspect even with the spend ahead on the budget (not including the beef purchase but all the rest) I'll have money enough left to set a little aside and a little to indulge John's wants whatever they might be.  He's never unreasonable in splurges.



The money for the fair was set aside when we returned from vacation in May, left from funds we'd set aside for that trip.  I'd give much to put it towards a trip to the beach just now.  I need a break from the reality of our lives...just past Octobers when we broke our routine and played for a month.  I feel in the need of such respite but not seeing it happen.  So I'll stretch my stoic muscle and move on.

Here's the plan for meals this week:

Dinners:  Chicken and Dressing (crock pot), Baked Sweet potato, Salad with Apples, toasted walnuts

Tacos, Pico de Gallo, Whole kernel Corn, Crunchy Cabbage Salad with Cumin Vinaigrette

on my own

VFW Burgers and Fries, Caramel Apple

Pot Roast with Vegetables, Steamed Broccoli, Corn Muffins

Chicken Enchiladas, Green Salad, Baked Apples
I think I'll have leftover chicken from the first meal.  If not I'll poach a breast to use.

Swedish Meatballs, Whole Wheat Noodles, Sliced Beets, Green Beans

Breakfasts:  Gingerbread Apple Waffles, Turkey Sausage
Bagels/Cream Cheese, Fruit cups
Cold Cereal, Peanut Butter toast
Eggs and Toast
Sausage Egg Muffin Cups, Grits, Toast, 
Blueberry Muffins, Yogurt Parfait 
Western Style Omelet, Warmed over Corn Muffin

Suppers:  BLTs
Egg Salad Sandwiches
me on my own
Homemade Chicken Nuggets, crudites and dip
Pimento Cheese sandwiches, Vegetable soup
Turkey Pepperoni Pizza, Carrot and Pepper Strips
Leftover Vegetable Soup, PBJ



Jobs This Week

This week I hope to:

Get the guest room tamed once more

Finish the front porch?  Honestly, it's been a big lot of hurry up and wait.  After three nice days I felt the porch was at last dry enough to finish up and the next morning a heavy fog saturated the wood, it poured rain the next day...Now it's wait, wait, wait.  I'm not done decorating...Heck I haven't even started since I found I had next to nothing to work with and of course, what I do have all needs to be painted and freshened up, too.  I guess this will just be a standard on my list for the rest of this month.

John and I both have to have lab work done this week.  

Bills, groceries, errands

Clean up the new storage cabinet on the back porch.  I found a US Steel kitchen cabinet in lieu of the Plastic storage unit John wanted.  I'm happy, but guess what?  IT NEEDS FRESH PAINT.  Still a good hard bit of cleaning won't hurt.

Clean porch railings and get it off my list once for all.

Weed rose bed.

Plant the new package of daffodil bulbs.

Plant the pansies I purchased Friday.

Mop kitchen/baths.

I could go on and on, but I suffer enough guilt when I don't get items done on this weekly list, so I won't keep going.  Somewhere in here, I am hopeful we'll get to the fair.  It's the last few days of that time.  What do you have planned for the week ahead?

Fun This Week

How about a new category tacked on to this post each week?

 This week I hope to go to the fair.  I think it's on for tomorrow (Monday) if it isn't raining.


I hope to visit two more thrift stores in a distant town.  This would be on Tuesday provided my feet aren't hurting too badly from walking the fair.  We'll see.

I just realized that I don't have any real photos of fun things.  I show photos of me working and even have vintage photos of women working away in the home or yard.  I'll see if I can't remedy.  I do believe there should be a balance of fun and work and rest and work in our lives.  I guess I'd best start sharing the fun things, too!


5 comments:

Sew Blessed Maw [Judy] said...

Hope the rain holds off, and you two have a fun day at the fair.
Love that rose pitcher in bottom photo.. Have a great week.

Lana said...

We had a similar Saturday forecast but it rained nonstop all day and quite hard at times. We ended up with 1 1/2 inches. So much for the yard work and painting we needed to get done. Now that we are on the Saturday rain cycle I am afraid it will stick around. That is 3 rained out Saturdays in a row.

I looked over last week's menus and realized that I only used one of the dinners and ended up making what sounded good on each day. So, I just recycled them for this week. I will pick up a few items at Aldi when I go to visit a friend who has been in the hospital and am near the store on the other side of town today.

We are still getting settled back into the rooms that had the wallpaper down and painted. We have to rehang all of the pictures and all of the nails are gone so that is a cranky chore. This means I crank that they are all crooked and hubby uses his level and says they are not. :)

After our treat of going out to dinner and another night the movies last week we realized that we have let date night go by the wayside. Hubby works from home on Thursdays and so that has always been our night since he is home right when he is finished working. We did have two picnics at the lake front park near us this summer but other than that we have not been out. We must get back to those evenings off from the normal every day. I need to think of frugal things to do since it is getting too chilly for outside evenings. The cheapie movie theater is a real possibility since we found that they have upgraded the picture and sound and it was clean when we were there last week. You can't get much more frugal than a $5 movie date. We also have a seafood restaurant with 4.99 dinners on Thursdays but we try to not do all that fried food too often.

This week we have to finish moving back into the rooms upstairs, get all the plants that will overwinter in the garage onto the dolly that they will stay on all winter, empty and put away other flower pots and such. Empty the big pots with the tomato plants and winterize the fountain on the deck. The furniture and screen porch can wait for a bit.

Have a good week everyone!

Anonymous said...

Do they still have the good old fashioned state fairs? The little fairs we have now around here are mainly hawking something to buy. That plus some rides for the little ones. No animals or food preserving contests or buildings of people's crafts or hobbies on display and such. Someone told me with the bird flu and such their fairs were not allowed to even have some of the animals. Just a picture of your 4 H animal to enter to see if it could win a prize. How do you judge a picture? What fun is that? I feel sorry for the kids who have never seen a real fun and usually also educational fair. It was such a highlight to the year to go with your family to the fair. I really hope you two do get to go.
I looked at your first chicken in the crock pot dinner and knew that was what we were going to have too. the complete dinner. I have everything for it and it sounded so good!! Actually the menus hit a real spot for me this week.!! Yummy!!!
Our weather is still way too hot and humid to do much except the necessaries out side. Then it will switch to very windy I suppose! :( ... :-) I am still working as I have been all spring and summer, on redoing the yards and garden areas. I thought I would be done..but am not! Still I am glad to have as much as I have done done. Lots of hot work but needing to be done.
Oh I just noticed the Swedish meatballs on your menu... haven't had them in ages. Are you using the meatballs you just made? That sounds good too! Ya know, you may just have made out MY menus for now too!! LOL Thank you!! :)))))
Your wardrobe posts have still gotten me to looking around for new things to zing up my looks. Now my husband looks at the jewelry counter and purses to see what is there too in case I missed something!! He has spotted several very special things I have added to my wardrobe!! :))) What fun this all is!! I feel more confident and at ease now when out and about. The ladies I go out with at times do not much think about what they wear and at times I felt odd and a bit out of place being out with them now that I do care more and work on looking polished and put together. Yet this is my life and that is theirs and I am not going to do less to be like them. I like how I look now with the added care of being more put together and will keep doing it. No one says anything and we all enjoy each others company.
Sometimes I feel so terribly bogged down if I think of alllll the mannnny things I want to and neeeeed to do here. Oh so many! I have to concentrate on what I Have been able to do and just go from there to another on my mental and written list. Course you know how it is, while you are doing that thing more gets added to the list of things need to get done! That is life. :-)
Well I best get on and get something done!!!! Sarah

Karla said...

We skipped the fair this year. We don't go every year. Ours has become more of a "vendor extravaganza" with the same sales people in every building. It's not really worth the entrance money anymore.

I like the Fun This Week idea!! Let's see, since I just got back from a week-long vacation, my fun will be so much simpler this week than last. LOL I have a new book series I have borrowed from our library as e-books. It's a series a friend at church told me about by Kim Vogle Sawyer. I started reading the first book of the trilogy I'm reading at lunch so after I get some meal prep done this evening I plan to curl up with that to just soothe myself back into reality.

I know just what you mean about needing to get away. I've decided I'd really like to be a professional vacationer! LOL Know of anyone paying people to do that?

I also want to hit up some thrift stores this week. Just to see what I can see. :)

Vickie @Vickie's Kitchen and Garden said...

Sometimes we just need an escape- Hope the fair works for you. I would love to visit the big state fair but we have yet to do that.

Your fall planting will look so pretty come Spring. So glad there is always the promise of Spring! Have a great week!