This Week In My Home: Spring Has Sprung

In My Home this week:

I went out Thursday and noted that the peach trees across the road from my home were just beginning to bloom.  There were four or five blooms on each tree.  Not much, but enough to let me know they were getting started.  We went out on Friday and I told John, "My goodness!  Those trees had barely begun to bloom out yesterday!"  And there they were, every tree full of pink blossoms and pink stretching as far as the eye could see.  Not just the peach trees either, but the wild pear and plums and turkey foot oaks and oaks and cedars and pines have all bloomed out seemingly overnight.  The whole world, it seems, at least here in middle Southwest Georgia is determined to hurry up and beat the arrival date of Spring by a week or so.  And with temperatures in the mid 80's the past two days it's felt like a new season!

But I am not fooled by this Spring.  It will be cold again.  Indeed, today it is much cooler than it was yesterday.  There will be chilly Spring rains that will occasion turning the heater on once again.  There will be hot days and stupidly cold nights to confuse us.  Plants will bloom and keep right on blooming.  Pollen will haze the distances between here and there and coat the cars in a new hue.  One day it will be too cold to walk barefoot across the new green of the lawn or to sit outdoors without a sweater.  And the very next day it will be hot enough to sunbathe and wish for a pool.  Spring is fickle in her affections, like any newly engaged girl about to come into the commitment of  marriage, as though a little afraid to prove herself just yet as being this way or that.

...I plan meals

If weather is fickle so are my menu plans!  I plan, as a rule, to use what I have in a timely manner.  I plan to suit a craving or special request. I plan, at the very least, to give myself ideas of what we might eat in a given week.  Sometimes, I follow the menus and sometimes I use the same ingredients in a totally different way.  This time of year, I am also under the direction of weather.  Is it hot and sunny?  We'll want lighter meals.  Is it cold?  Back to the hearty warming main dishes.  Sometimes I get caught out as I've done today with the menu.  Well today's food is prepared and so that is what we shall eat.  

Tuna Pasta Salad, Saltines, Hot Strawberry Cobbler

You see what I mean?  I'd planned per the weather man's forecast, foolish woman that I am and here we are with a cold pasta salad as main dish and its cool enough I'm seriously wondering if I oughtn't put socks on my feet.  No need to say we'll have something else, as John saw me making the salad yesterday and remarked then how much he has looked forward to this dish.  I added the Strawberry Cobbler this morning.  At least we'll have something warm and rich to offset the lighter pasta salad!

Now let me plan the rest of the week, best that I can.  Just three more meals this week since John is working three days.  I'll eat some leftovers from our Friday take out lunch tomorrow and I'll be out with Mama on Monday.  I hope by Thursday there will be more leftovers.

Chicken Fried Rice, Orange Wedges, Stir Fried Vegetables, Ginger Snaps

New England Boiled Dinner, Soda Bread, Carrot and Raisin Salad

Corned beef and Cabbages on sale this week for a great price.  I'll have leftovers of the corned beef for sandwiches.

Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Coleslaw

I thawed 1 pound of ground beef late this week.  I've been just longing for meat loaf and I shall make one.  Leftovers of that too are good for sandwich meat.

...I plan work:

Some of these tasks my look familiar...as in they were on last week's list and made this week's as well!

Groceries, bills, errands, banking.  John is working an extra 12 hour shift on Monday and he can pick up his check and deposit it that day.  I'll tend to bills and have them ready to go out.

Mopping floors.

Work on the bedroom wall.  Dee's suggestion of lowering the one picture is spot on. I can see it now that she's pointed it out.  So I'll refine that wall and that room shall be done, finished.

Transplant plants from pots in the back flower beds to the Patio flower pots.

The living room gallery wall also needs work.  The frames are mismatched and shall have to remain that way for just now but spacing is an issue as well.  I need to add other objects to the wall but it's all a process.

Sew the ottoman cover now I've got thread and elastic enough to work with.

Start to empty the file cabinet of excess papers now that I've got the new shredder.

I think I'll start a deep clean of the living room this week. It oughtn't take long really since I've kept up with weekly tasks but it could use a bit of spring freshening as far as cleaning goes.

Sand the dining chairs so I can paint them fresh.

Put screening in window screen frames. I might try to patch the ones with smaller holes even though the screen is not expensive as some of the screens are just not that badly worn.  Will see as I go along obviously.

Work one hour daily on Swagbucks to get to next gift card, but just one hour and that only in the very early morning hour when bonus time is used rather than regular internet time.

Pull out April magazines to review.

Start working on second quarter budget sheets.

...I have fun...

Fun?  I have so many projects I want to finish and tasks to tackle this week I'm not sure fun is really the operative word.  Here's where I've got to make a promise to myself: to not overdo and really set aside relaxing time!

I'll be out with Mama on Monday.  It isn't usually a physically taxing day but it is a wearing day all the same so that day will be little to no housework and recovering when I do return home.

It sounds more like work to me but will likely sound fun to others: I need warmer weather clothing: camisoles to wear under sheer tops, shirts I can wear over tanks and cover my flabby upper arms, shorts for days at home.  I haven't had to buy clothes to wear about the house in eons but I will this year.  I also need a second nightie.  Yes, to me this sounds like work but I'll take my time and be sure to be sensible with it all.

I found books at the Peaches to Beaches this past week and I am already enjoying one.  I think I'll make time to read for at least an hour every day this week.

Pedicure (done by myself) now that sandal season is upon us.