This Week In My Home: Pollen Chronicles

In my home this week...

...pollen has begun to fly outdoors.  That means no hanging laundry outdoors.  It means carefully wiping off seats before we stop to rest.  It means hand washing if we go outdoors and if we spend any time at all out there we come in and shower.  It means no painting projects.  And of course, it's along about right now that I'm itching to have a brush in hand or to feel a spray paint can trigger give under the pressure of my finger.  It's now I am ready to hang quilts and curtains and pillows to air and freshen.  Not gonna happen!

So, mostly I shall focus myself indoors.  There's plenty to be done.  I seem to have finally shaken the malaise that grasped me the past few weeks.  I spent Saturday resting, listening to sermons and grabbing all the little inspired ideas that floated through my brain and jotted them down on a sheet of paper that I marked boldly "INSPIRED" just to remind myself that inspiration does still float.  I just have to catch it while it's floating through my brain.  Much better than insisting that fickle memory might well hold onto any really good ideas! 

You might have noted I put the last challenge to rest.  Too much already, on that end.  Next month's food challenge will be something different I think.  The budget challenges are fun in a way and have stretched my mind in a way it needed to be expanded but it's time to switch things up. 

Did any of you happen to read Dee's post on puttering?  Puttering is something I absolutely love to do and the linked articles point up the benefits of that little bit of seemingly unrelated tasks that bring about an atmosphere of hominess.  I call it piddling about the house instead of puttering, but it's all the same. 

I ended Saturday feeling very sleepy and restless, too.  This is the way Shabat normally ends for me.  I'm so relaxed that rest comes easily.  And because I'm rested I feel ready to get up and get at all those tasks that appeared to be overwhelming the week before.   Naturally though with this blasted time change, I went to bed ready to rest but the least little bit anxious that I'd have a shorter than usual night which resulted in an even shorter night.  I am pretty sure there will likely be a nap in my near future.  Perhaps with time change, I'll want it early enough to tend to my late afternoon/early evening choices.   I've a long list of things to do this week...

...I plan my work week:

John is working three days this week so I can pretty well plan my week and stick to it.  It's Harvest week, so I'll:
write out checks to pay bills, balance the checkbook 

do errands connected with pay day
make out a grocery list 

Because he's working so much this week I'll likely do the grocery shopping on my own.  For sure, I'm making a trip to The Fresh Market for meat on Tuesday. 

I'll proof read this post twice...I'm convinced I wrote somewhere here that I was returning to Fly Lady Zones so I could work more efficiently in my home.  This week is Kitchen zone per her website.  I plan to do some deeper cleaning tasks.  I won't list every job I'll do in the kitchen because frankly I don't know just what all I will do.  I do want to clear the counters and clean them well.  This will involve bleaching, which is occasionally necessary when you have white counters in a kitchen.  I generally do one section at a time and I use properly diluted bleach.  While everything is off the counters, it's also a great time to edit them and freshen the look of the kitchen. 

I'd like to freshen the inside of the closet where we have our trash can and cleaning supplies.  I painted it years ago which made it ten times brighter but I think it's time to put on a fresh coat.  Again, a good time to edit what's kept in that cabinet.  I'd really like to make it storage for the cleaning supplies I'm trying to stock up on just now.  That will free up space in my pantry which is where I've had to put them temporarily.  I only have dish soap and trash bags stored in the pantry but I don't much care to have soaps and cleaners stored in with the foodstuffs, even if the permeable packages are sealed in a plastic tote or buckets.

This week would be a good time to clean the fridge and inventory the freezer and the deep freeze.

I have a writer's meeting. I plan to leave home early so I can go by the grocery and hopefully get the free items on my card and a couple of needed things (milk and bread) to see us through until grocery shopping is done.  I need to take a snack with me to writer's meeting.  I'm low on fruit here at home, so I'll see what I can find at the store.  I also need to run by another store to pick up an in store order.

Make out a compact copy of my lists to keep in my purse.  I can use index cards for each category.  I rued the lack of lists with me this week when I was actually in a store.

I'm going to try to do some of the necessary shopping (lists in hand naturally) while I have time on my own to get to the store later this week.

Time to set up outfits once again.  I've worn all but one of the last group I set up and even wore some of those outfits twice! 

Work on blog posts for this week.

...I plan meals: 

on my own x 3  I have few leftovers...so I may well end up cooking for myself.  I'm pretty sure I'll pick up take out at least one day while shopping, but then again, I might not.  I'd much rather spend this allowance on the things needed/wanted for the house.

Lasagna, Salad, Green Beans, Garlic Bread

I've promised John a pan of lasagna.  I haven't made it in ages upon ages.  I'll make a full recipe and divide between three pans so I can freeze two for future meals.

Chicken, Black Bean and Rice Burritos,  Tossed Salad, Chocolate Pudding

Last of the challenge meals.  I expect to put half the burritos in the freezer, too.  And I think, with the meat purchase planned for this week, we'll have a full freezer once more.

Corned Beef, Cabbage, Mashed Potatoes, Irish Soda Bread

Toasted Reubens, Creamy Potato Soup

...I plan my leisure:

I expect I'll need leisure time this week, what with plans to do so much work and the long list of errands I'll be doing on my own, as well. 

I have one book nearly finished, one book that I'm about halfway done with, so definitely spend time this week reading.

Spend at least an hour this week working on the genealogy notebook.

Spa time.  I've been collecting recipes for homemade beauty products to attempt.  I'll give a few a try.  I admit I like store bought items but right now it's not a budget priority for me.  And I do have all the ingredients to do basic things right here at home, so I might as well diy those.

I mean to spend at least an hour each day either listening to uplifting spiritual music or sermons.  I've come to the conclusion that this is one lack I need to remedy and can easily 'fix' on my own.   John stumbled into a women's conference on one of the religion channels yesterday afternoon and wow!  I needed that uplifting!  I think this is the remedy I need for the spiritual stagnation I am feeling at the moment.  I started my day with two sermons this morning and yep, I feel uplifted all over again.