Shaking Things Up

Tired of the same old routine?  Tired of doing everything just as you've always done it, day in and day out?  Me, too!  So last week I decided to shake things up and I've had the most FUN while getting all my tasks done.

Remember my Household Routines?  The daily/weekly/monthly schedules?  I shook them up this month.  Oh I still hit upon my daily tasks, after all those are MUSTS, but I've changed up how I go about them.  Instead of starting at the master bath or in the back entry, I start at the front entry or in the hallway and work my way into the house from there.  Granted, if you knew the size of my home, you'd wonder why it mattered...It matters only in that it gives me a new perspective when I'm looking at my home.  I'm accustomed to seeing it from the other two vantage points.  But now I'm seeing it with 'new eyes' so to speak, a bit of a wake-up call to myself to notice things I might have missed in my habitual ways of looking at the items I own and see on a daily basis.

Instead of working on my home in the original order of the weekly schedules (week 1/entries/laundry/breakfast, week 2 living room/dining room) I'm looking at the tasks I hope to accomplish all month long and then tackling those that seem to need it most.  Last week I spent the week working in the kitchen.  I didn't quite get through with all I meant to do in that area, but I was very proud to see it looking nice.  I just couldn't stand the idea of waiting almost all month long to get in there to do those jobs.  This week I started working on my bedroom.  Again, it was a task that seemed to glare at me and shout that it needed to be attended to.  When John is off this week I'll get him to help move the heavier pieces of furniture so I can finish that job up and then I may well move on to the shed which is also rather loud in it's cries to be tended to.



Again, this whole business of tending to the jobs that cry out to be done rather than wait until the right week to get to them suits me just fine.  For one thing, all those simpler easier tasks can be done on days when I'm busy already and the heavier tasks can take a full day's time when I have time to attend to them in full.

I shook up my grocery budget, too.  I've been trying to shop weekly for the longest time now, almost three full years and there's always something that comes up and prevents it.  This month when I worked on the budget I saw that I'd let things get badly out  of  hand in the grocery department and being rather determined to save the overage and stick to my budget too, I decided to take out my grocery budget in weekly increments. It's making me think differently about what I purchase and in what quantity.  Knowing that I can get more money the very next week does change my perspective.  It's one thing to think it will be 14 days until I can shop again and another entirely to realize I can shop again in 7 days.  Why, very little is so needed that we can't make out for a week without it!

This pantry/freezer challenge is shaking things up, too.  I'm determined to use every last bit of our foodstuffs I can.  So a 1/2 cup of salsa, 1/3 cup pizza sauce, 1 thick slice of turkey Spam, etc have all come into play in meals this week.  I've made croutons and fashioned a snack cake from mashed frozen bananas with a yummy broiled frosting on top.  And I've been looking at my kitchen as a harvest area, as I described yesterday.

This morning's harvest was an unexpected one...You see in the photo above my little pot garden taken towards the end of December.  The beets to the left of the photo which look so lush and green? 

This morning when John left it was pouring rain and I went to the front porch to signal goodbye to him as he left our driveway...And there on the front porch was Trudy.  And a big pile of dirt and all the beets dug up!!!

I must assume it was her because Maddie does not bother my plants.  Trudy however, has been known to try to lie atop the pots of plants and I guess last night in the damp air that pot of beets looked like a nice bed to lie upon, only she didn't fit very well.

I knew the beets were done, but decided in the interest of getting some good from them, to harvest and cook the beet greens as part of my dinner for today.  I steamed them and they were quite good.  I hadn't planned to harvest them but it's better than tossing them out I suppose...All the more reason to hurry up and get busy upon my kennel turned gardening spot where I can shut silly doggies out!

Tomorrow while out to do the shopping, I'll just visit one store.  I've looked over ads for the other stores and not one of them has a decent sale.  I've drastically slashed my original shopping list (after all, there's always next week) and hope to be home inside of two hours tomorrow.  That's a big change, too.

Well that's quite enough shaking up of things for the day I think.  I am now in 'restful quiet work mode' and that is one thing I do not feel needs to changed!