Diary of a Homemaker's Week: Busy Happy Week

 

Saturday:  We woke early, which is usual for us this time of year.  Truth told I could get up an hour earlier than I do but I tend to try to let John have a quiet space in the morning before I come out of the room.  Some mornings I might doze back off, but usually, I lie there and think about the day, sometimes pray before I get up and dress.  It's a leisurely way to start a Sabbath morning and that's the way I started this morning.

John is off to volunteer with a dinner for the homeless today, and I am here alone.  After he drove through town, he asked me what was going on, the sidewalks were full of vendors and food trucks, etc.  I was puzzled as he, but vaguely recalled a motion at a town meeting back in early April to have a vendor day in town.  Not one mention of it since then and no advertising that it was happening today in our local paper.  I hope it all goes well.  He said, "Well you might go..."  I reminded him that we are currently a one car household, and he had the car, lol.  It is easy to forget that, because we've had two cars for most of our married lives.

We had another heavy hour-long rainstorm yesterday afternoon.  I couldn't help but feel thankful that we are getting this rain.  It means that everything will stay fresh, and the seeds will germinate. 

I've had a quiet morning at home watching vlogs, reading, and planning our pizza supper for tonight.  John has just called.  He encountered a major accident at an intersection we normally would use to come home.  I was able to direct him to an alternate route home from there.  I grew up in that area as a young girl and know those back roads well.

He's just said he's planning to stop at the peach shed and then he'll be home in about a half hour.  I plan to read the rest of the afternoon.  

Meals:  Bagels with cream cheese.  Time to make more bagels...

Baked Chicken Breast, Homemade Egg rolls

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Sunday:  John did not stop at the peach shed on Saturday.  He drove in and drove right back out again.  He said the place was packed and I replied, "Yes, I guess it was.  It's a summer weekend..." and when he told Katie today of his experiences, she said "Of course it was!  It's summer."  John just looked at me with a smile and shook his head, because she did sound just like me in that moment.

We went to church and then to Kroger where I picked up several grocery items on sale or free with coupons.  Though now I'm thinking I mightn't have gotten home with one item that I paid for.  I'll have to check behind myself and see.

I was most interested in the sale on milk, $1.27/half gallon with card and digital coupons.  I had a customer appreciation coupon for cheese but discovered that it was far cheaper per pound, even after coupon to buy the 1-pound blocks rather than the 2-pound block.  I used another C.A. coupon to get free Hillshire farm sausage, and a decent savings on 18ct eggs.  I skipped the purchase of another bag of flour only because I'd been scrolling around on Walmart's site the night before and discovered I could get flour 70c a bag cheaper than at Kroger's price minus the C.A. coupon.

My splurge item today was a $5 rotisserie chicken and potted plant for the front porch.  The plant cost no more than cut flowers and will give lasting pleasure all summer long.

Came home to have lunch with Caleb and Katie.  He wanted to 'help' put things away and did so quite nicely.  His reward was a 'Srawbelly' which he'd found in the fridge as we were putting things away.  They left and then returned later to stay another two hours or so.  Then we packed up and went back to church for a special service.  We came back around 9pm.

Meals:  Breakfast Sandwiches

Fried Chicken, Roasted Asparagus, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy (John's request).  I made the whole packet of mashed potatoes because I knew I had roast leftovers in the fridge, and I thought a shepherd's pie would be nice from that.

Cheese Sandwich, split a single soda

Monday:  I slept like a rock last night and didn't wake until this morning.  I was full of ambition, but alas it didn't translate into getting great things done after all.

As soon as we'd had breakfast this morning, I made the bed and then dressed.  I started the load of dishes I'd started yesterday over again.  Why?  When Caleb and Katie returned yesterday I was washing a load of dishes.  Caleb came along and turned it off!  If I could only rinse the dishes I'd have considered them washed and moved on but I don't have a feature that allows me to just rinse.  I had to start over entirely.  So those dishes should be well and truly cleaned.

I gathered up compost bin, the rooted coleus slips and a bit of mint I'd rooted and took them outdoors to plant.  I walked across the yard to empty the compost into the can where I keep it going, then checked over the shed flower bed, which is full of tiny green seedlings.  Please, please, let me have flowers for summer!

I planted the coleus, some more touch me not seeds I'd gathered last year and looked in vain for the Achimenes or Star of India corms I put away.  I shall have to order more of them.  It's the only way I'll ever found the old ones!

It was so humid outdoors, stinking humid and heavy.  I was sweating profusely with just that little activity.  I was so drained after doing those tasks I came indoors and sat down and stayed there for nearly an hour.  I don't know why some days are that draining.  Perhaps I needed the water I failed to drink first off this morning.

I decided I'd sort out the fridge, because that wouldn't be much work, would it?  Ha!  I had leftover fried chicken, that rotisserie chicken I'd bought yesterday, a bit of roast and gravy left from last week, mashed potatoes, turkey gravy, a bunch of tomatoes that were looking less than prime, a bit of broccoli stalk I'd said I'd use, leftover peas...

Here's what I did: I removed the skin from the leftover fried chicken.  I removed the meat from the bone, then chopped it.  I made a simple chicken gravy, added in that chicken, a few frozen mixed vegetables and the last of the turkey gravy and made a batch of chicken pot pie filling.  That went into the freezer.  The skin from the chicken went to the dogs and the bone into a new broth bag.

I cleaned up my space, removed the meat from the rotisserie chicken and put the skin and bones in the broth bag.  I divided the meat into three portions.  I made shredded barbecue chicken for future sandwiches.  That went into the freezer.  As did the bag for making broth.  I made chicken salad from one portion (and boiled extra eggs for breakfast one morning) and then sliced breast meat for sandwiches this week.  As I told John, $5 is cheap for 2 pounds of sandwich meat!

I cleaned up (repeatedly, yes) and cut the roast beef. I tossed the meat into the leftover beef gravy I'd kept, drained the peas and tossed those in as well.  Then I used the mashed potatoes to top that mixture.  I'll be having that for supper tonight.

Clean up.  Shredded broccoli and put that in the freezer.

Chopped tomatoes and made a marinated tomato sauce.  This is really good over warm pasta or using croutons to make a panzanella.  

All that sounds so easy and simple but it wasn't that way in real life.  I created a lot of dirty dishes.  I still had to unload the dishwasher and there were lots of dishes to handwash.  But I decided when those were taken care of that I was very much done for the day.  

Ambition bit the dust.  Yes it did.

Meals:  Toast, Cereal, Bananas, Strawberries

Chicken Salad Sandwiches, Chips

Shepherd's Pie, Lettuce and Tomato Salad, Biscuits

Tuesday:  Slept in quite late this morning.  Yesterday morning and this morning both were not good mornings for me. I got plenty done but I didn't feel quite well.  Not sick.  Just not well.  I don't know if I'm fighting off something and that's draining me or what, but this morning the slightest activity had me sweating profusely.  I soaked through my clothing and at lunchtime, I made myself a glass of an electrolyte product to drink.  

Despite my later start, I did not allow the day to get away from me without accomplishing some portion of my goals.   I knew I was not up to cleaning the front porch, which was my sincerest intention but in light of how I felt and how much I sweat indoors I wasn't about to go outdoors to do a thing.  I made sure to dust the living room well, cleaned the ceiling fans and had John vacuum behind me while I cleaned up the kitchen floor.

Then I started work on tonight's supper, a portion of which was on the menu.  I pulled all the bread end slices from the fridge freezer and cut those into cubes.  I don't need croutons at the moment, so I put the cubes back in the freezer.  These will turn into a strata eventually.  

I had taken ground venison, ground beef and Italian sausage out to thaw, a total of about 2.5 pounds of ground meat.  I mixed half a pound each of ground beef, Italian sausage and venison to make a meatloaf.  I took the remaining beef and venison and browned it with an onion.  After it was cooked, I took up half and seasoned it for tacos and made sloppy joes with the other half.  I put a small meatloaf, the taco meat and half of the sloppy joe mix into the freezer, all meant for future meals.  One of the meatloaves was destined for tonight's supper.  I also cooked a potato recipe I have that calls for similar ingredients to the fresh tomato sauce I made yesterday. I used half that tomato sauce mixture in that dish.  Tomorrow, I'll cook pasta and we'll eat the rest of the sauce over pasta.

All throughout the morning, Katie was on the phone with me at various times.  She found a buyer for her car, as is, and also found a new one to purchase.  This involved me as we were co-owners of her car, in name only, due to an insurance issue we ran into last year when we were getting it insured.  

After lunch we took her old car over to her and then followed her to the dealership.  We waited there for a good bit of time, as one does at any dealership.  When my part was finally done, we went back to get Caleb's car seat from John's car (the one Katie's been driving).  I took it with me.  I had to go pick up a prescription refill and would be within a block of the daycare center.  I dropped off the seat at the daycare and headed home.

I was so glad I had supper more or less made.  I came home, tossed things in the oven to reheat and went to take a cool shower.  While I was in the shower, Katie called to say she was bringing the new car out for us to see.  John invited her to supper, which was fine with me.  I know well enough that we must sit down and eat right away as once I ask Caleb if he's hungry his reply is a quick "Eat! Eat!" and he runs for the chair in which he sits.

I admired the car after supper, then John went out to look it over.  It's a newer car with few miles upon it, and it perfectly fits her budget.  So glad to have the old car out of the yard and to once again be a two car household.

Caleb and I sat on the back porch and ate a cookie, which I'd made this afternoon prior to leaving home.  I found the cookie dough in the freezer as I was digging out the bread end pieces.  It's sugar cookie dough.  I didn't want to bother with making it into proper sugar cookies.  I made thumbprint cookies, using lemon curd in half of them and blueberry preserves in the other half.  I haven't tried the blueberry ones but the lemon curd cookies are delicious.

Caleb had blueberry.  He was quite happy with his cookie but wanted to move from the rocking chair to another chair to sit.  He carefully placed his cookie on the table and started to climb and Maddie walked over and carefully picked up the cookie and went out to the yard with it.  When Caleb realized she had the cookie, he wanted to go get it from her.  I assured him he could have another, but it took quite a bit of convincing him to come indoors to get one.  Mostly he was peeved at Maddie for taking his cookie!

Meals:  Hardboiled eggs, cheese, toast

Sloppy Joes

Meatloaf, Armenian Potatoes, Green Beans, Sliced bread 

Wednesday:  I felt better this morning when I woke.  And taking advantage of feeling better sent me off to the front porch.  It had been sprinkling off and on since I'd gotten out of bed, but the front porch cleaning task was going to be a wet job no matter how I looked at it, so why not just go on and do it in the rain?

I am well pleased with how clean I got it this morning.  All the green algae has been removed.  The ceiling and siding look fresh and clean once more.  I still need to use bleach to remove some slight mildew issues on the white paint, and the to paint the flooring but all in all the porch looks better.  I want a few flowering plants (two I think but perhaps three) and that space will be complete enough for me to move on to working on the back porch.  

I went around back when I was done to find John sitting on the back porch.  He'd cleaned up his car and gathered Katie's things in one spot so she can easily retrieve them all.  He'd cleaned upholstery and vacuumed it well.  We'd both worked hard.

When we'd rested a few minutes, I came indoors to make beds, while he started laundry.  I'd left dishes running in the dishwasher when I went out to the porch to work.  After showers, I tackled the checkbook and got our totals brought up to date and paid bills.

Sam stopped by to borrow an onion and chatted with me for a bit.  Then I went back to my paperwork.  It was nearly 1:45 by the time I stopped to make lunch.   After lunch, we loaded up trash in the car, gathered outgoing mail and went off to do our banking.

When we returned home it was coffee time.  John went out with his onto the front porch and admired my hard work of the morning.  I refilled the hummingbird feeder and settled in my chair to answer emails and go over grocery ads for the week.

Now I need to go figure out supper.  I didn't take anything out this morning and I haven't really got leftovers to speak of in the fridge.  It's nearly 4:30...Hmmmm...I've put myself in a jackpot haven't I?  Let me run go see what I could possibly rustle up.

Meals:  Biscuits, Sausage

Smoked Chicken Nachos

Oriental Pepper Steak, Brown Rice, Ambrosia

Thursday:  I'm sitting here with my feet up for the first time today.   John and I are tired.  We are planning tomorrow's work, which includes going to do an hour's worth of work at the town house.  I'll spread mulch while he deals with the back yard mowing.  Katie started the task but the mower quit on her so he'll check fuel levels.

It's not the best time to be planning a morning's work when we're fresh out of our own busy morning here at home but truth told if I don't push John to go do this, it's never going to be a priority.  In fact, I very prudently asked him "What are your plans for today?" this morning, because the man can find one excuse or ten of why he can 'wait until tomorrow' to do any task, and we all know that tomorrow never comes.  So after I asked him what his plans were and he told me he had no plans, he got his feet under him and went outdoors to pick up the piles of branches in the yard from that windstorm three weeks ago.   Bless Bess, who had conveniently brought the truck to the house and parked it near one of the piles so that he could haul limbs to her burn pit in something larger than the wagon that he pulls behind his mower.

My morning started at the usual time.  John was still in bed asleep when I rose and I just had the idea this morning that I wanted to see what the day felt like first hand, so while coffee brewed I went to the backdoor.  There was a swallow tail butterfly on the door mat, opening and closing it's wings.  And there was another butterfly on the porch railing.  I grabbed my coffee and headed outdoors.

It was just lovely.  It was warm, but not hot, with a gentle breeze and the sunshine was not beating down.  The birds sang and sang.  Rufus was sitting in the front yard barking, but it was more like he was talking to someone than being protective or warning.   He must have gotten a whiff of coffee on a stray breeze, because he walked around to the back porch and lay down at my feet.   

As I sat there admiring the day, I started thanking God for everything: the breeze, the ability to hear the birds and see the butterflies, the land we live on, our home, our family, that I was able to be near Granny in those last years and that because I am here, I feel almost as close to her.  I thanked him for the church we're attending and the blessings we've experienced this week alone.  I found tears running down my face.  And then I just sat there quietly, sipping my coffee and feeling happy.

It was after breakfast that I kicked the two of us into action.  John headed outdoors while I got busy picking up the house and making bread and bagels and banana muffins.   I started supper in the crockpot (off menu again but never mind it's the lack of produce that's throwing me off...we really need to go to the grocery), and washed a thousand dishes and fed the pets, took John a cold glass of orange juice after he'd been working in the yard for about 2 hours.  I made lunch, brought in packages that arrived, put new pillow covers on old pillows in the living room and navy hand towels on the new chairs' arms, washed a dozen or more dishes, and then I swept the floors.

At that point, I made myself a glass of iced water and sat down to read a chapter of my library book, Emilie Richards' Happiness Key.  When I heard John drop something on the back porch, I hurried out with a glass of water for him, then urged him to come indoors so we could eat our simple lunch.

That's where we started today's segment isn't it?  My plans for the afternoon are to work on a post for the future, based on an idea I jotted down this morning when it came to me, read more of my book and not do a blessed thing else except possibly nap until supper time tonight.  We've already planned tomorrow morning's work.  I've got lunch pretty much covered and will try to remember to take something out tonight to thaw for supper, though I do have an alternate idea if I should forget.   I'm taking the boys to a program at the local library tomorrow afternoon.  And just like that we'll have run back around to another weekend.  

Meals:  Cheese Omelet, Toast

Two different pasta salads.  One had the fresh tomato sauce, and the other was a Cheddar Bacon and Ranch.  Both were good and though I made them with only four ounces of pasta each were a bit too much for us to eat.

Alpine Chicken, Creamed Corn, Slaw

Friday: Yesterday afternoon, Katie and Caleb came by so that Katie could clear the rest of her belongings out of the Honda.  I asked them to stay to supper.  When Caleb was asked if he wanted to Eat Eat he said "No..."   Of course, he ate and ate heartily.  "No" is his new "Yes" to any question asked these days.

We all laughed a lot at him.  I told him that the dog's had cookies and he could give one to Maddie.  He took one from the jar, called for Maddie and when she arrived on the porch, he put the biscuit in HIS mouth.  John said he must have been getting back at her for stealing his cookie the other day, lol.  Of course, we didn't allow him to eat it, but Maddie didn't want the one that he'd put in his mouth either, lol.

We're just back from working at the town house (and a small amount of yard work here too for me) and now that I'm fresh once more, I am forcing myself to sit for a good 30 minutes with my feet up before tackling the housework.  John and I each have a tall glass of icy pink lemonade to help restore us.  

There's a full load of wash on that will need to be hung to dry.  I've told John that with the heat we're having there's absolutely no point in wasting electricity on drying clothes when we have a line to hang them on outdoors.

The kitchen must be cleaned and the baths.  I need to prep supper or at least be certain I have a viable supper plan and components put together so I can make supper easily tonight.  I must make our bed up with fresh linens.  

At the town house, I blew off the carport and sidewalk.   John strimmed the overgrown back yard, put gas and oil in the lawnmower so that Katie may tackle the front lawn, if she can.   I spread 8 bags of mulch, had to put down new weed mat in many places and gathered all the loose bricks about the place and brought them home with me.   That took roughly 2.5 hours this morning.

At home, I unloaded the brick and placed them about a flower bed as border, then planted the Rudbeckia I brought home last week.

This afternoon I am taking Millie and Josh to the library program in town and keeping them until Sam returns from picking up his grocery order and Isaac.   Then home to put together supper and get ready for Shabat and a long weekend full of plans.  Hence why I am making myself rest right now in between rounds.

John kept complaining this morning as we worked that we were old.  I kept telling him to stop.  Finally when he said it one more time, I looked him in the eye and pointed out that not one of our 30 or 40 year old kids do what we do.  "You can say we're tired all day long and it would be true, but by jingo we are NOT old!"  That made him laugh out loud which was needed because tired people like us tend to snip snap and bark loud and we've done plenty of that already this morning, too.

Before John was ready to leave this morning, I put a pan of canned biscuits, 8 eggs in muffin tins and bacon in the oven to heat and made up a batch of Bacon, Egg, Cheese Breakfast Biscuits.  I carried three with us.  We ended up feeding one to the hungry cat that came to join us under the carport at Katie's.  He'd killed a snake this morning so we figured he deserved breakfast as well.

I keep meaning to share that on Saturday Bess brought me 2 cases of black beans.  A friend of hers had given her 10 cases.  I'd just done my pantry inventory last week and had put black beans on my list.  One item off that list now.    Katie gave us a jar of honey and peaches that were brought into the office this week.  

I listed the book I'd been reading in yesterday's segment.  I've linked it below.  I was very iffy about it at first.  I like Emilie Richard's books for the most part but this one was prickly.  I didn't like any of the main characters at all until along about Chapter 8 or 9.  But after that point, the story had picked up very nicely and I got intrigued and could barely put the book down.  In fact, last night I didn't even get on the computer, I just tucked right into my book and read all evening long until I'd finished the thing.

My thirty minutes is up...Boy did that go fast!

That's been our week done and ahead for the rest of the day...How was your week?

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