Goals for July '21

 

The year is officially half over.  If 2020 dragged and moaned and groaned it's way through to the finish line, 2021 is determined to slide into home plate on a single hit it seems.  It could slow down just a teeny bit if it wanted my opinion.  

We don't have a lot on our personal calendars for July and for that I'm glad.   That's not to say there's nothing to do.  There's plenty!  

For one thing this month, I mean to do a pantry/freezer challenge.   Yes, I'll buy produce and dairy products but for the most part, I hope to save my grocery money this month, clear some space in the freezers and learn to use what I have.

Last week we ate some Chicken Tamales that I'd stocked in the pantry.  They were okay.  Okay isn't quite good enough for my pantry.  I'm going to become a food snob and only stock things we really like, a LOT.  Ditto for the instance mashed potatoes.  I find we really really like Idahoan brand, far more than we like the Aldi ones.  Idahoan it shall be from hence forth.  In the meantime, there's a box of Aldi potato flakes to use up.  We've discovered that our local grocery brand of cereal is cheaper than Aldi and tastes as well.  It's a limited selection but it's cheaper. It comes in huge bags though, like the Malt O Meal cereals.  So we've two big bags of that at present.

This isn't just a money saving plan for summer,  it's an experiment to see what brands we prefer and in future to stock those brands.  We're not terribly picky overall.  Most things at Aldi suits us just fine.  Canned Pineapple however, we've determined we like best if it's bought from another store.  There are a few of those lesser liked cans to use.  later note:  We bought three different brands and thus far are finding that even the name brands seem to have been processed a little too soon.  If that's going to be consistently the case, we'll go right back to eating the Aldi brand as it's by far the cheapest and a very substantial savings over all.

So this month is a goal to discover what we can purchase cheaper elsewhere and what we prefer flavor-wise and to use up those things that are just 'okay'. 

I want to get a complete grasp on what a year's worth of food will look like for us.   I am not a repeat recipe cook but nearly all recipes I try rely on the same groups of ingredients.   I am seldom going to attempt a recipe that doesn't require exactly what I typically keep on hand.   There is one problem however... Every food storage site I've read thus far relies on the homemaker knowing what menus  they use on a regular basis  for a set period of time.  My pantry works a little differently, since I don't make things on a rotation basis as most of the food storage cooks do.   However, we do make a few things routinely.   This means I need to go back and look at menus and determine which of those are on high repetition and then multiply how often we've eaten that particular meal by the number of ingredients it takes to make it and then I'll know just what I need to have on hand in order to prepare  as much as usual.  

Figuring out how much extra we'll need for those other recipes I am prone to make or try randomly will be more difficult to plan quantities for but I'm going to try.  It boggles my mind a little, not because it's complicated but because food storage really is  very detail oriented and that is something I seem to have a harder time focusing upon when it comes to foods.

We like spaghetti with meat sauce.  How often do we have it?  How much pasta, tomato sauce, tomatoes, etc., do we require to make it as often as we have it each year?  

I have always tended instead to simply say that we eat an average of 4 ounces of pasta each time we eat it and we're likely to use spaghetti once a month so 6 - 8 ounce boxes should do us.   But spaghetti with meat sauce is not all the recipes that call for spaghetti that I make.  In summer, we often use spaghetti with a fresh tomato sauce and any time we've a roasted chicken, or I've made bone broth and picked over bones, we're likely going to have Spaghetti ala Diable.  And now and then we use spaghetti for other meals.  No wonder I so often run out of spaghetti! 

That's not all the pasta we eat either.  We have mac and cheese or a ravioli pasta bake or lasagna and then we have tuna pasta salads a lot during the warmest months.   So how much pasta do we really eat?  It's going to be a challenge to figure out not just what I plan to cook but what we really  eat and how often we're prone to eating it in order to determine what we'll need for a year's supply of pasta alone.  This month is going to be the month I begin that process.  

And finally,  how do I mean to use some of the foods we store but eat less often?   Do I have a recipe for them?  Do I know how to prepare them so that we will enjoy them?   I keep canned chicken breast and corned beef on hand but I seldom reach for those items unless they are nearing expiration.  How can I use them?  I need to have a record of recipes that are tried and true which use those ingredients that we really like.  Here's where some of my vintage magazines will come in handy as they often carry recipes targeting the use of canned meats in their ads...After all canned foods were considered 'convenience meals' in the 1940's and '50's!

I want to  get the town house flower beds filled in and mulched.  I hope to get the front flower beds planted, too, but I can't say if that will happen all at once or not.   I need to look up planting times and best varieties for our zone area   It is my hopes to get the hydrangea in front of the bay window put in this month.   

As for my own yard, I have a flower bed that I MUST get mulch into or it's going to become a booger bear to get weeds out of it.  I figure I need two bags, perhaps three, of mulch.  I won't bother to mulch Maddie's hole in the corner of that bed.  She'll just dig it out anyway.  But I'm going to border her spot with rocks to try and help prevent her messing up the rest of that bed.  There are other existing beds that require mulch, too, but it's all touch up work.  And then I would really like to expand my flower beds but not at all sure I should plan that into this month.

I have dreams of flowers this year which thus far are mighty slow in coming to fruition.  I'll try to add a few more to the beds and porches this month.  We'll see how that goes this month.  It's not altogether lack of funds but also planning where things might go.  I have more shady areas than in years past.  I'd like to add one or two perennial plants this month, as well as a few annuals.

I want to work at recovering my chair and ottoman in the living room.  I have a staple gun.  I have fabric.  I can't make up my mind if I' want to slipcover or actually cover the pieces.  I thinkit might be best to do a recover of the chair, but slipcover the cushion and make covers for the arms and ottoman that could be laundered.  It will be a slow and  tedious task and I mean to take my sweet time at getting it done because trying to do it in a hurry will never work.

Order a fabric protector spray to protect the cushions of the dining chairs and my chair and ottoman once they are covered.

Aside from the few purchases I've mentioned above (all of which do have a dollar limit on them), and the upcoming Amazon subscription shipment in late July,  I am declaring this month a Nothing Extra month.   That means I don't shop for leisure or pleasure.  I don't need anything extra  this month.  My goal is to attend only to the previously planned purchases and then to just stop.  So no quick run into the dollar store to spend $45 nor into a grocery to do a walk up and down aisles 'just to look' that ends up with $100 out of pocket.   I really do want to try to save some money this month.  Every time I've given myself one of these challenges it's a guarantee I've been challenged.  I don't expect this month will be any different.

Work out my July wardrobe.  I am just limited enough in what I have to feel I might easily be bored.  So my goal this month is to be a little more daring, to try things I might normally think was a little too edgy for my usual.  I also need to look at what might need to be culled after this month.  I wore a shirt on Sunday that I realized is very near it's end days for wearing out of house.  It's starting to pill up and it's not the sort of material that can be shaved or pumiced to remove pills from it.  

Go over my annual goals for this year and see how I am doing here at the half way mark.  I will determine which goals need to be altered and which I need to work at harder in order to obtain those things I had hoped to see come to fruition at the end of this year.   I'll be examining many areas of my life so I don't mean to go about this lightly and just skim through them.  I want to really understand where I am compared to where I hope to be and if there are goals I've not met or am not focusing upon to determine if they are still applicable.

Read more.  I've been pushing myself to read more and I'm really enjoying it.  I have a larger stack by my chair than I've had in some time and it feels good to glance over at it and know that these are books I've chosen to give me quiet time.

Write more.  I'm writing more in my journal once again.  If I do nothing more at the beginning or end of a day than brain dump and let go of thoughts that are intruding upon other matters I need to think over, then it's beneficial to me.   So far, I've had less severe anxiety than I've had in the past few years for this time of the year so I'm thinking it's more than beneficial.  

Decrease computer time.  I have a habit of settling before the computer.  It's not reading email or blog work though those things can take time enough but disciplining my time with YouTube and  with a Hidden picture puzzle game I like.   I'm eating up time I might spend reading.  Or even working on hobbies that I really enjoy like my genealogy lines.  

This month as I work in each area of my home, I want to consider how my home works and what I can do to make it run smoother, work better and increase my pleasure in it overall.  For instance, just now I was thinking  of getting jigsaw puzzles which I love working with but I stop each time I find one I'd like.  Why?  Because I have no space where I can work on one.  But there's a spot across the room where  I might put a small table.  It's near a window so it would get good light.  I already have a chair there.

Get out of the house.  Here of late it seems we only leave home for one of three reasons: we're going to church or something else to do with church, running an errand,  or working outdoors.  John and I haven't had a real date since Mother's Day when he surprised me with a lunch out. note I'll amend this statement.  He took me out to breakfast this past weekend but it's been quite awhile since our last date.  This should be changed.  We've gone nowhere we'd meant to go this spring and now it's summer.  It is harder to leave home this time of year with three yards to do the upkeep on but we could do a day trip somewhere.  We could just get out and go for a ride along the byways.  This was meant to be our year to get OUT and do things and here it is July and we've had exactly one trip thus far.  The year will have gotten away from us before we know it.

Spend time with the grandchildren.   There's a balance I need to strike where I get to spend time with them when I'm feeling well, not just when a babysitter is required and I'm worn down or in pain but must help out despite how I feel.  I want to have them because I want to have them not because I'm asked to have them.  Summer is short and Josh and Taylor and yes, even Isaac will be in school before I know it this year, just this month to go and then they all return to school.

I'm sure without blinking twice I could write as much or more about what I'd like to do in the month ahead but I'm equally sure that these, with weekly goals tossed in and all the usual routine stuff will keep me more than busy enough!

What are your goals for July?