In My Home This Week: Sprinting Into March

This week in my home...

 ...is looking very much like any other week with the added bonus that I've pretty much taken my living room apart (the gallery wall specifically) and am desperately trying to rework it and the mantel with just what I have on hand.  AND I've taken down the wall of pictures in the bedroom and am stacking things against the wall there trying to see how they might look together.  I'm minus two frames at the moment and have one picture I'm still debating but it desperately needs to be updated with a new frame and mat if I do want to use it.

Yes, it's a mess here just now and I'm not even apologizing for it exactly because I do love to switch things up to usher in a new season.  We've certainly not had a horrid winter weather wise but what with our losses this month, and an anxious period of strained waiting for what's surely meant to be good news...well I'm about ready to pass this season off and begin a new one!  And as always when I can't control changes elsewhere in my life, I take it out on my home and force it to change.

One of my current troubles is that I get ideas.  They start small and sort of bloom into bigger ones.  I start out in one direction and end up taking an unexpected turn in another.  As I plundered my things Friday looking for stuff to use, I came to a conclusion I've been uneasily acknowledging subconsciously: I have a number of things but not quite enough of any one thing to carry out a full theme.  So I end up with a lot of stuff overall and hardly anything I can use.  It's the whole overstuffed closet syndrome all over only it's shed and drawers and stashes here and there.  All of the things I have were gotten cheaply and are nice-ish but I change directions before I've finished up collecting to fulfill one idea and that is to my detriment.


I questioned myself long and hard Friday afternoon evening, when I finally stopped, about what I really want to accomplish in the living room and the answer finally came that I loved my gallery wall but after four or five or six (how long has it been?!) years, I'm bored with it.  It doesn't go with the blues and greens in the room.  It was too somber and too brown.  I want it lighter and brighter.  But to keep the feel of a country home.  I finally determined my best bet was to sort of pay a passing nod to English country which is a crazy mix of formal and elegant and rustic and comfortable.  The English pretty much have that look down pat, now don't they?  I only have 8 books dedicated to the English country look, so why so late recognizing that it might be the very look I want in my home?

Well, it's a work in progress, another unfinished project to add to all the others I've bemoaned having started.  But I'll sort it out this week I hope and if not this week surely by next?  Or the week after that?  Oh dear...

...I plan meals:

 It's shopping week but I really only need bread and lettuce, potatoes and  fresh fruits.  There are two gallons of milk in the freezer, two crowns of broccoli in the fridge.  I've debated had about going to get a purchase of beef for the freezer.  John has a long week off starting this morning and not returning to work until next Sunday.  I'm a little reluctant to suggest we add another activity but...we'll see.  In the meantime, I've plenty of food left on hand to make meals.  We'll start with today's dinner and work from there:

Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Green Salad, Garlic Parm Toasts, Bess Famous Coconut Pie
Freezer cooking day of sorts.  The meat sauce was a conglomeration of leftover tomatoes, tomato sauce and previously made spaghetti sauce with a half pound of ground meat browned and added in.  Bess' pie was made at Christmas and I put it in the freezer.  The bread used for toasts wasn't in the freezer but was dry enough to warrant a hurry up and use it attitude.

I have enough pasta and sauce left to make a small Poor Man's Lasagna.  My friend Dawn makes this for her husband.  She layers pasta, some ricotta or cottage cheese and the meat sauce in a baking dish, tops off with cheese and bakes until heated through.  I don't have the ricotta or cottage cheese, but will try to remedy that this week.  It's a nice easy meal to have in the freezer. 

Chili Rice, Pineapple Salad, Warm Tortillas,  SF Chocolate Pudding
Friday evening I heated up some leftover Taco Soup for my supper.  There was a good bit left so I mixed in the rice and beans leftover from the meal I made earlier in the week.  I'll heat it when we come in from church.  The microwave will make fast work of that.

Teriyaki Chicken, Mixed Oriental Vegetable Stir fry, Cara Cara Oranges

Chicken Tenders (from the local place), Baked Sweet Potatoes, Green Beans
I have a hair appointment this day.  I'll try to have the potatoes baked and beans ready to heat when I return and we should be able to eat in minutes.  I'll likely buy the tenders from the grocery money (I'll have extra due to the upcoming meat purchase).

we'll eat out
I have a doctor's appointment, there will be that handful of groceries to purchase and maybe we'll go ahead and make that meat market run after.

Steaks, Scalloped Potatoes, Tossed Salad, Rolls
We always treat ourselves to nice steaks when we visit the meat market.  No foul if we don't go as I sort of plan.  I have a sirloin in the freezer I can thaw and the meal will be the same.

Leftovers or picnic?
I know my husband...he'll do what must be done but he's going to get antsy to get away from home.  I have an idea of where I'd like to go and a couple of stops I'd like to make in the going.  I hope he will do what I'd like...I'll plan a picnic meal to go with us.

...I plan my work week:

Groceries, bills, meat market, hair appointment, doctor's appointment...I've mentioned all those already but they are on the docket for the first part of the week.

Make a slipcover for the older ottoman.

Clean up the mess I left under the faith tree and empty to wagon.

Once the wagon is empty, I need to start hauling stuff from the house to the shed.  That will involve picking up the excess stuff in the guest room, cleaning out the chiffarobe and piling it all in the shed.

Straighten the shed as much as I can while I'm putting stuff in.

All the usual housework, meals, etc.

Stop by the booth, settle up and fluff, adding at least 5 new items if I have enough tags.

Ordering printer ink...tags are needed!

Wash Blossom's bed and put it and her bowls in the shed. {Sigh}

 and I have some fun:

There's a huge yard sale way out in the middle of nowhere.  I've been before and still regret what I hadn't bought last time.  This time I'm going loaded with cash.  And yes, I do consider this sort of thing fun.

It's my hopes that I can talk John into going with me and then heading to the mountain.  I'll pack a picnic lunch for us.

Meat Market...believe it or not I consider this fun since it's something we only do every four to five months.

Finish three books...yes, more of my unfinished stuff coming to light.* Finished one...