The Week Ahead: Spring Songs

The birds are chirping, the peepers continue to peep and soon the frogs will be booming and the crickets humming.  Typically, this week marks the last frost of our year.  According to the weather app on my phone, our frosty mornings are over.    I won't be rushing right outdoors to plant (pollen is too high for that anyway) because the soil must begin to warm, but it's definitely the time to start thinking of our summer pots and any other flowers I'd care to plant.



I missed Peaches to Beaches this past weekend.  I simply did not feel well enough to go and I couldn't imagine how much more miserable being actively outdoors in the pollen would have made me.  I wasn't exactly sick.  Just stuffy head and runny nose and watery eyes and scratchy throat, but it's surprising how much oomph it took out of me.   I'm sure it had everything to do with the inability to fully breathe.  At any rate, any funds I might have spent at Peaches to Beaches will now be turned toward the yard and so, nothing's lost but something else is gained.

Daylight Savings Time starts this weekend.   I wish they would just leave it alone but they don't and so we must push the clocks ahead by one hour.  Spring ahead they tell us.  There is considerably less spring in everyone's step for about a week or so, though.

What I did:  I didn't start feeling the full brunt of the allergies until Wednesday.  Fortunately I made a huge push on Tuesday and Wednesday and got a lot accomplished.  So my planned week behind came up like this:
I did not air dry the curtains to remove the dust....I did get the blinds dusted down.  I didn't ask John to do anything with those cables, but I set myself the task of sorting them out and discovered that one was simply a loose length that was merely lying there and the remaining ones, I pushed back down into the hole they were protruding from.  There's a tiny little bit visible but it looks so much better and I've no complaints.  Nor did I pick up sticks in the yard.  Pollen allergies...enough said.

We didn't start a new bank account but we are agreed where we shall go.  On the other hand, John's begun talking about amping up a current savings account which is an auto withdrawal.  I don't mind but I'm a little frustrated since I thought I was doing pretty darn good at setting money aside and the plan was for me to continue to do this...  I mean, we do have a sizable beginning to the new account if we open it up.    I guess I'll wait and see, but if he doesn't move right away, I'll get on it and do it myself.

I got a small portion of the necessary shopping done.  It's just as well I couldn't do more because I've begun to rethink some of my future purchases.   And last, I tried an arrangement on the table between us but didn't care for it so I removed it.  I'm still trying to determine what will work best.  No books, because spills sometimes occur on that table.  Nothing likely to break if knocked over because  we so often do knock things over.  I'm thinking a plant might be all I really need.  I have one in the kitchen that needs to be divided and repotted as well as a piece of ivy I've rooted.  Or I might buy a small fern.

I realized as I went through my menu week that I had the bulk of a whole roast chicken left to deal with, so I cancelled the Chili Pineapple Chicken menu entirely.  On my meal prep day I made a lovely puff pastry topped chicken pot pie and a big pot of soup base for either chicken noodle or chicken and dumpling soup.   I still have the soup base.  I also have a double portion of Bolognese sauce, half of which I put in the freezer.  We ate out only once this past week.

Finally, I did work on genealogy, have a semi sort of spa day and added considerably to my stash of yo yos for the future throw I plan to make.  I did nothing at all with crochet.  I've finished the book club book I'm reading.  I hadn't meant to rush ahead with it but I got absorbed and I found reading the least taxing of activities overall.  I've since started another, Little Paris Bistro.

Now for the week ahead:

Work:

 

Zone: Kitchen/Back Entry/Laundry
This week I want to focus on cleaning the wall about the baking area.  It tends to get splashed fairly frequently.  If I'm feeling peppy, I'll wipe down the walls about the rest of the counters as well.

I want to remove some of the extras from the back entry.  Shoes, coats, hats, tend to accumulate there throughout the cooler months and now that the temperatures are warming we really don't need to have so much there.

Just the routine cleanings in these areas is enough really to keep me occupied for the week, taking time to do the little extra things I might not attend to during the rest of  the month.   This is the time I'll be wiping down appliances,  mopping floors, etc.  I think I'll add in cleaning out the fridge, too, since it's been about a month since I last did that task and because I need to see what we have before we shop.


For the rest of my work this week: It's a harvest week.  Bills are ready to mail out as soon as tithe checks are written.   Errands, grocery shopping etc will be attended to.

A day out with Mama is planned.

All the usual routine work and stuff I've left off doing despite my best intentions... I felt a pang on Friday when I glanced at that long list of projects I've meant to do.

Meals:


on my own x2, one of those out with Mama

Spaghetti with meat sauce, Green Salad, Garlic Bread, Easy Tiramisu

Chicken and Noodle Soup, Crackers, Cheese and Olives plate

Cubed Steak Sandwiches, Chips, Pickles, Fruit of some sort

Red Beans and Rice, Coleslaw, Corn Bread

Leftovers Day

My meal prep this week will be very easy indeed.

Leisure:  

l've taken up Little French Bistro by Nina George to read now.  The theme is that of a runaway wife.  I confess that there were days I dreamed of running away myself, usually when the budget was far too tight and the children far too unruly and the demands on myself were extremely heavy.  No fear I'll ever be that woman, but it was a recurring fantasy.  I'm curious to see how the book comes out.  I doubt it will last me the full week!

Crochet a dishcloth.  I do not want to start learning this new skill and never get around to doing anything with it.

It being mid-way of the month this week,  I'll pull out my vintage April magazines.  While at Mama's the other day, I helped myself to her stack of modern day magazines, many of which she's read for years on end.  I confess they left me cold.  Not one recipe or item interested me.  More and more I find myself most comfortable with these older magazines which made a real effort to urge women to make the most of home, their finances and taught them new skills to further promote their ability to the homely comforts.  Call me old fashioned and I'll thank you very nicely.