In My Home This Week: Odds and Ends

In my home this week, I am starting my Saturday morning earlier than usual.   And I've done some very minor things about the house.  John is still sleeping, which isn't surprising because I think he was awake for a couple of hours in the night.  I suspect the change in weather than stormed and then blew through during the dark hours upset his painful hip.

I will say, I'm sort of glad that I had this illness because I abandoned my post on Thursday afternoon, little boy and ailing man alike and told them, "Cope on your own."   Well cope they did.  Caleb was good as gold.  John was up and down far more often than he's been being and while he's still experiencing some pain especially in the evening, he's walking better and moving more often.  I think had I not been ailing he might have avoided doing what he did.  On Friday he stripped the bed and bath, washed the laundry, vacuumed the house and puttered about.  Still, I'm awfully glad he's seeing the doctor this week.  I made the mistake of suggesting perhaps he needed an x-ray...Shan't say that again!  I'll leave the diagnosing up to the good doctor.

I've been awake since the wee hours of morning, not surprising when you consider I took a four-hour nap yesterday afternoon.  I am feeling, at the moment, fairly gung-ho.   We will see how long that lasts!

Work:  

My new island arrived last week. It's been tucked awkwardly in the back entry since its arrival.  It is my great hope that this week, John will feel up to putting it together. 

Rehang my back yard bird feeder and fill both feeders for the poor birds.  Later this week it will be warm as springtime once more, but they'll appreciate the seed while it's cold.

There's not much point in planning to do any cleaning outdoors.  We are smack in heavy pollen season and that means that anything I clean will be yellow green within an hour.  I will, however, try to finish weeding that one corner flower bed.  I'm very close to being done with it and now the ground is all soft from the rain, it should be far easier to finish.  If that goes as easily as I hope, I'll tackle the bed about the Sweet Gum tree and pull up any baby cedars and privet that took hold since I last did that task back in the autumn.

I got the kitchen work done early on last week and I just haven't decided what my next project area might be.  I'm tentatively thinking of moving the desk and shelf and bulletin board to the bedroom.  Then I can put my bill box and personal papers back on my desk.  And perhaps I'll shift the little cupboard over to the wall where the desk is, to sort of get the feel of what it might be like to have an upright freezer there.

If I plan nothing further for work this week, it's not due to lack of things to do, nor even to thinking I need a vacation.  I think I'd like to just putter around the house and see what catches my eye as being needful of making it fresh.

Kitchen:

I seem to be canny about when I'm about to be sick and throw odds and ends from the fridge together into prepped ahead meals.  I did that on Thursday morning.  I mixed up some leftover hamburger meat, taco meat and refried beans and made six burritos to put into the freezer.  I chopped the last of the turkey breast roast up and made a quick pot pie.  I'm glad I did because the family was on their own by afternoon.

This morning, I got up early and sorted out the fridge.  Now I know just what I have in there and what will, unfortunately, need to go out to the dogs.   There's a bit of turkey salad I think is a little too old for us to eat.  I've salad for tonight's supper and a piece of thawed steak and another dish that will go with that.  I've a plan for today's lunch and tomorrow's lunch.  

There's a chunk of homemade bread left that I'd like to make into croutons.

If I was undecided about going on back to the grocery to 'finish' my shopping, I think sorting out the fridge has convinced me it can wait.  Then when I stepped into the pantry I saw that shelf full of UHT milk that is about to expire.  I'm not sure how long it's really good for but I'll just bet that I can forgo a 'sale' and use what I have.  Can I postpone shopping again as far as the first of April?  I'm not sure, but I think I'm going to see how it goes.

Meals:

Steak and Italian Rice, Salad with Croutons.  Rice is leftovers from mid-week.  Croutons made from last week's end piece of bread loaf.

Feta and Roasted Tomato Pasta, Crisp Toast, Plain Green Salad.  I've had a half block of Feta cheese in the fridge for the longest time now.  I bought cherry tomatoes on sale the other day and it occurred to me in the wee hours this morning that I might make this lovely, easy pasta sauce once again.  We had it last while we were staying in St. Augustine.

Roast Chicken, Butternut Squash, Potatoes, Onions, and Apples, Green Beans. I bought a butternut squash a month or so ago and I want to cook it.  I'll probably put some of the cooked squash aside to go into the freezer.  I like using butternut squash in muffins and it makes a lovely pie.

Chicken Stuffed Poblano Peppers, Corn

Corned Beef, Cabbage, Potatoes, and Soda Bread

Corn Dog Casserole, Slaw This is such an easy casserole.  Just baked beans and hot dogs with a cornbread muffin topping.  I haven't made this in ages.

Ruebens, Potato Soup

Personal/Leisure:

If all goes well, and everyone remains well, I shall go see Mama and take her out to lunch.

Work on Genealogy files.  I've copious notes to put into place and they are crammed in a variety of notebooks.  Time to sort them out!  While it sounds like work and is, it's fun work for me.

Read the last Harry Potter book.

Set up outfits.  We've a fairly busy week ahead and this will help me to get out of the door more quickly.