This Week In My Home: Feeling Gung Ho for Home

Between organizing my pantry Friday and the grocery shopping we did on Thursday, I'm feeling kinda flush in the food department.  That's amazing considering both freezers are a little low.  I've decided I'm going to fill those spaces with some ready prepared meals.  I have good incentives.  There's a vacation time coming up for my husband and May is the month I declare a holiday month more or less.  There's a little girl waiting to be born.  There's all sorts of celebrations from birthdays to Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Anniversary and EMS week.

Mind you, my idea of holiday is to take on umpteen plus 20 projects...Seriously.  I've traditionally taken time off from blogging, swearing I am going to read and relax and vacate my mind and soak up the month and I end up exhausted, tired and worked down to a nub because I immediately determine that all the time I'm 'saving' should be spent productively.  Well not this month!  Nope.  I will take a short bit of time off and I might be around a wee bit less, but I hope to blog a bit all through the month, simply because it means I will take quiet time each day to 'rest' which is generally what I consider writing, though I hardly know why, since it can be as much work as work is.



Anyway, as I always say, Come vacation or holiday or disaster, a household wants to be fed all the same, right?  Right. So let's plan meals, shall we?

The weather will be nice, neither too hot nor too cold.  John works two days, one of which I'll go out with Mama.  So just five meals needed for the week and that's what I shall plan.

Roast Beef Hash,  Green Beans, Iceberg Wedges,  Biscuits
I have leftover potatoes and roast beef in the fridge and I don't find that potatoes freeze well, unless they were canned potatoes.  I'd like to use this leftover up so it's top of the menu.

Oven Fried Chicken Legs, Potato Salad, Butter Beans, Strawberry Shortcake
I'll dip two biscuits in a sugary coating and bake off for the mini shortcakes.

Beef Broccoli, Fried Rice, Fresh Fruit Salad

Red Beans and Rice, Coleslaw, Corn Muffins, Orange Meringue Pie
By rights I should make this dish before the beef broccoli as leftover rice is best for fried rice, so I will plan to do just that.

Spaghetti With Fresh Tomato Sauce,  Green Salad, Cheesy Garlic Bread, Orange Meringue Pie


For the freezer this week I hope to add:
Pie Shells (at least 2 and perhaps 4.  I may even make a couple of graham crusts to freeze for convenience sake)
Macaroni and Cheese x 2
Chicken Enchiladas (using leftover chicken in fridge right now)
Biscuits (I'll make these and just set aside three or four for the Beef Hash dinner)
Twice Baked Potatoes (This is one exception to the 'frozen potato' rule.  Twice baked DO freeze well between stuffing and second baking).

Jobs This Week

I did pretty well last week.  I was able to mark through all but one job on last week's post, and then I worked my way down through a long list I created on Wednesday.  I completed all but one project that didn't require a purchase right away and left a dozen that DO require paint or fabric.

This week, with the start of a new month, I want to return to my weekly routines. This is where I focus on one area each week of the month, starting with the back entry/laundry/kitchen sitting.  That's deep cleaning in addition to the usual routine work. 

My extra jobs:

Sort and straighten the linen trunk.

Sort out the paints cupboard.

Get things shifted in the shed so we can put up the shelves I need to organize that spot. swept cleaned, organized one section and cleared out another.  John set up one shelf.  I tossed two big cardboard boxes, 1 bag of trash, a ton of dirt and filled two shelves on the new unit.  That's day one!

Day Two saw all but one section of the shed sorted out, a second box for donation, a few items coming into home as 'found' objects to stretch my wardrobe, a second bag of trash and second shelf up.

Tag items for the booth and take them into town to place.

Continue to try and alter the legs of the white jeans.

Clear out VCR player and VHS tapes.can't remove the vcr it's connected to something.  I need to wait until my electronically inclined kids are home to fix that.  But I've got the tapes bagged up.

Take photos and use as a guide for work next week in clearing out hot spots and refining areas.

Set up five new outfits.

Today (Sunday) I: cleaned, dusted, swept and organized the laundry area, cleaned the back entry storm door, and swept and dusted that area.  I moved out the bench and put the drying rack under the shelf at the entry. Dusted and swept the kitchn sitting area and generally straightened things up.  It was a lot more work than it sounds like!

I put six hot dogs in buns in the freezer, cooked, wrapped in waxed paper and ready to thaw and heat in the microwave for a quick meal.  Besides toast, it's the only cooking I did today.