Diary of a Homemaker's Week: What Three Day Weekend?

 

Saturday:  I slept in this morning and enjoyed every minute of it.  I've been having pain on the right side of my left knee...but only at night when I'm stretched out trying to go to sleep.  I can walk on it all day long without any issue at all but lie down in the bed and within 15 minutes, my knee begins to be painful.  I've tried over the counter pain relievers, topical gel pain relievers, heat, even CBD oil rubbed on the spot, and nothing helps.  It hurts just enough to wake me at night.  As I've mentioned I have sleep issues anyway and while I've had the luxury these last few years of sleeping in after a poor night's rest, I am loathe to give up a night's sleep to pain!   

Never mind.  I slept in this morning and then I decided to just completely switch up my usual Saturday routine and I made cheese toast for breakfast because that is my favorite breakfast.  We haven't had it since week before last.  Then I prepped and put a chicken in the oven to roast to have for a midday meal.  John was a bit puzzled by it all, lol.  If ever I think I can get in a rut, my rut buddy is John and his goes a bit deeper than mine.

It was a beautiful sunny day all day long, not a single bit of passing cloud cover.  The daylilies are standing four or five feet tall and blooming their hearts out.  The hydrangea has burst into bloom and the gardenia have scented the air all about us. One of the winter pansies dropped seed into other flowerpots and one has bloomed!  Please, let this be the year I have flowers for summer.

I noted this evening that it was light until 9pm...and the cicadas are singing, welcoming in the heat of the days ahead.  It's getting near our summertime but there are still three more weeks of Spring.  I've no desire to rush this season.

I finished my Grace Livingston Hill book.  I was right, it's a keeper sort of book so will go back on the shelf, turned upside down to signal to me that I've read it and determined to keep it.  But here we are this evening and I feel a bit at loose ends.  Too late to start housework, not really ready to start another book when I finished one just two hours ago.  I like to sort of let a book finish soaking in before I grab up another.  Ah well, I suppose I could start shopping for birthday gifts.  This next month is a doozy for birthdays!

Meals:  Cheese Toasts

Roasted Chicken, Green Beans with Potatoes, Squash and Onions

Hamburger, Mushroom and Onion Pizza

Sunday:  We were up early.  In fact, I could have been up earlier still, because I was awake.   Now that it's getting light at 6am, I'm often awake about then, but I lingered in bed for a bit longer because I was comfortable.  I dozed back off and got up when my alarm went off 45 minutes later.   

Before we left for church this morning, I did not get the bed made nor the dishwasher unloaded.  I usually manage both those jobs on a Sunday morning, but not this one.  Even our breakfast was a simpler meal than usual, so I've no clue at all why it seemed to take so much longer to get ready.

We had a very good service.  Afterwards we headed over to Publix to pick up a few sales items and to purchase flowers for Mama.

Everything I bought was on sale except the half pound of beef bologna, a bag of apples and a bottle of prepared horseradish sandwich spread (all three of those were John's additions to the cart) and a package of meaty beef neckbones I found in the meat case for $3, price per pound was $2.49.  I don't typically buy neck bone, but I thought it would be nice to use to make beef broth.  Honestly these days I'm interested in finding bargain meats where I can find them.

I felt like my best buy today was 4 ears of corn for $2.  Ibotta offered a refund of 25c on up to 5 ears, so I got an automatic rebate of $1.75 back.  I'm not very savvy with Ibotta nor Fetch yet though I keep saying I need to try and be, but I'm not at all unhappy about today's little score.

We purchased a bag of ice to keep everything nice and cold. Then we went to Mama's to take her flowers and wish her a happy birthday.   I think all the children have been by to see her today as well, which is nice.  She's doing very well.

When we left Mama's, I was beyond hungry and offered to pay for lunch if John would go to a drive thru.  He must have been hungry, too because he didn't argue.  We took a more scenic, less traveled route home and enjoyed the drive. I think it took us five miles more than our usual more direct route but it's just a beautiful drive along country roads.   It's almost a mini vacation to go along that way.

Once we were pulling into our home road, I looked at the clock and said to John, "There's not much point in making the bed..." and he agreed.  I just pulled up the bedcovers, put away the groceries, did some light cleaning up, emptied the dishwasher and put those dishes away, then went out to water plants. I spied two more sprouted seeds in my flower bed.  I need to buy myself a watering can so I can water the shed flower bed.  

John took the bag of ice we'd bought, dumped it in the hard-shell cooler and then put the watermelon in that to chill. This time a year, I usually save my ice to reuse if I have the freezer space to keep it,  but I felt his was a pretty good idea.  The melon could chill, then be cut up and portioned and put in the fridge.  I thought, "Never mind, I'll use that ice to toss onto the shed flower bed later..."   Ha!

He's too quick for me.  He came in to lift out the melon and dumped the ice right into the sink and started running water over it, sigh.  I'll sort this little bit of frugal vs. not as much another day, lol.

After the melon was cut, I found I still had a big quarter of it to process.  Sam had brought us a piece of cake just big enough for the two of us to share.  He has the BEST recipe for a hot water chocolate cake.  I think it's a Hershey's recipe.  It comes out like a Devil's Food cake and is so very good.  He put an orange frosting on this one.  He'd brought it in one of the pie carriers I'd given Bess for her birthday, and I wanted to return that pronto, so I washed it up and dried it.  I bagged up the remaining watermelon and we took that up the road to them as we carried off our trash this evening.  

The farmer was busy harvesting the wheat across the road from their house.  It was good to see they were getting such a plentiful harvest off that field.  I saw that they were also baling the wheat straw.  I've said before and I'll say it again,  you want to make my heart go pitty pat boom?  Bales of straw in a freshly cut field of wheat or an American flag blowing in the breeze will do it for me 100 times out of 100.  

Monday:  Up early this morning and decided to be prompt about getting dressed.  I don't seem to get my feet under me half so well if I wait around before I get dressed on a weekday morning.  

I lay awake for an hour or so last night thinking of all the things I wanted to do but when it came right to it this morning, I decided I'd rather tackle the pantry/freezer and get those organized, in shape and inventoried once more.  I didn't do a big written list, but I went over each item and determined if I needed more or had plenty.  I carried my phone into the pantry with me and found that very handy for jotting down my shopping list.

While I was in the pantry, I came across a handful of pie plates and plastic food trays with a little lip.   The moment I' saw them I realized they were just what I needed to go under my plants for drip trays so all that water I pour into the pots doesn't run right out and onto the ground.  I carried them right to the front porch and put them under the plants that didn't have a saucer or drip tray.  I was pleased that I hadn't had to go buy anything after all. 

I fed the cat and hurried around to the back porch to feed the dogs. I put a drip tray under the fern in the big cast iron pot out there.  I slipped on my shoes and went out to deadhead flowers, putter about the back porch flower beds and counted spots where I might put more plants.  I have freshly rooted coleus just about ready to pot.  I took some cuttings off my mint and have brought them in to root.  My pot of mint is doing better than it had but I really need to get some fresh started. 

Back indoors, I decided to sort out the freezer and inventory the contents.  I realized it needed to be defrosted but I didn't want to do a full blown defrost task.  Instead, I turned off the freezer, scraped the thick ice near the top off the edges and then cleaned up the bottom before refilling. I really do feel lugging those heavy baskets in and out of that chest freezer!

I gathered up all the chicken frames and some of the veg from the tops and tails bag and put on a pot of chicken stock to simmer.   I went on and stripped meat from the chicken I roasted for Saturday's meal and put the skin and bones in the pot with the rest.  My goodness but that broth smells very good!  I'm just longing for a cup of hot broth now, lol and I'm neither sick nor is it cold.   But then I like a good cup of soup just about any time at all!

I made sandwiches for lunch.  John was busy playing guitar at the time.  The bread I baked Friday was a wee bit over dry.  I dampened paper towels, wrapped the sandwiches in those and then wrapped them with waxed paper.  It didn't make the bread wet, but it did help moisten it enough to make it palatable.  

I noted on a Jacques Pepin video that he mentioned wetting dry bread and then allowing it to sit for a few minutes to 'freshen' it.  He does this with old baguettes, just dips them in water and then pops them in a low oven for a few minutes to warm it.  That was where I got the idea to moisten my sandwich bread.

I haven't yet determined what I'm making for supper tonight.  Yes, I have my menu plan for the week but there are things in the fridge that I ought to use and I'm trying to decide how and when to use them and make meals similar to what I posted as well.

later:  John went over to mow at the yard across the field, also known as 'The Manor'.  I decided to make hay while the sun was shining and turned on the kitchen stove.  Mistake.  It's hot and all I can say in my favor is that at least I didn't turn on the oven to bake anything.

That chicken broth was really calling my name, so I strained the bones, skins and vegetables out of the stock and then fixed myself a nice cup.  Oh, my goodness!  It was truly so good!  And maybe that was where I made my mistake because I replanned tonight's menu slightly since John is mowing and there's only going to be me and him here for the meal.  

I decided to prep the corn I'd bought and put some up in the freezer.  I find that corn really seems to ramp up my blood sugar these days and so I only can eat about half a cup or so.  I shucked it, cut the ears in halves and blanched a few halves to go into the freezer before I boiled ours and stuck it in the microwave to stay warm.

Then I put pasta right in that pot of water I'd boiled the corn in to cook.  I had about two ounces of spaghetti left in a box, about 3 ounces cooked in the fridge and another 2 or so ounces of cooked I pulled from the freezer this morning.  Having seen how much chicken I had (and this is prior to picking over those bones!), I had made up my mind that I could use the last mushrooms and make some Spaghetti a la Diable to tuck away in the freezer.  I like to keep five or six entrees frozen just in case we need a handy meal because I'm sick or we've been detained longer than we'd planned.  I am down to just three at the moment.

I made a bowl of jello and put that in the fridge in case John wants something sweet later on.  

Then I decided to make potato salad.  

So, there I was standing in the kitchen, dirtying lots of dishes and thinking of just one more thing I might make while I was already making a mess, sigh.  I shall have to go back and sort all that out in a moment but for right now, I'm hot, want to cool off and rest my feet for a few moments.

I'd like to have everything all cleared away by the time John comes back but I've still got to put up the chicken stock and pick off the meat bits.  

Let me get busy once more and I promise you all, I'm done for this day!

Meals:  Pancakes with Strawberry syrup (and peanut butter for me to add a bit more protein), Turkey bacon

Deli Chicken Sandwiches, Fruit Bar  John kept calling these deli style sandwiches because I'd wrapped them up, lol.  

Brats, Potato Salad, Corn on the Cob, Pickles, Rye Bread

I thought, with summer coming in soon, that I'd add a little feature about what I 'harvest' in my home.  It might not be home-grown but I make some sort of harvest in my home most days.  It can be something made from 'nothing' like a chicken frame or something I'm freezing with an eye towards repurposing (Onions tops and tails, slices of bread, etc.) or it might actually be some type of produce or an entree from leftovers and bits left in boxes.  I might not have something every day but there are weeks where I do!

Daily Harvest:  1.5 quarts of concentrated chicken stock, 1 entree from leftovers into the freezer, 5 portions of corn into the freezer, 1.5 cups meat picked off bones to use in a future meal

Tuesday:  I made muffins this morning for breakfast.  They were so very good.  I dressed them up a little bit.  

I picked up the house and then sat down to go over the budget for the month just ahead.  I'll be re-doing that as there's more going out than coming in.  I know that won't work!  And why was it so?  I was trying to adjust some of our categories a little higher to accommodate the rise in gas prices, etc.  Obviously, I shall have to decrease some areas to find the right balance.  It's especially important to get the right balance this month as it will be five weeks before we are paid again.  I miss the days when we'd get an extra check twice a year because we had five weeks...  Welcome to retirement.  No one gives out extra for those extra weeks now, lol!

I closed the budget book, feeling more than a little down and walked into the kitchen, planning to clean up that room and thought, "Why not just get started on the appliance cleaning task today?"  I wanted to put it off, I did truly.   I walked outdoors to put the corn husks from yesterday in the compost, deadheaded the New Dawn rose, affixed the Bougainvillea to the larger trellis, and just puttered about.  I was avoiding the task indoors, obviously!

I came indoors and ran some hot water into the dishpan, added in some dishwasher detergent and got started by moving everything off the stove and getting under that stovetop.  It wasn't too bad.  There are a couple of areas, under gas pipes and pilot lights that are just difficult to get to.  John came in as I'd started wiping up the crumbs.  He came back with an old paintbrush and suggested I use that to brush the crumbs to a more accessible area.  That was an awesome suggestion that worked really well!

It was about this time that John said he wanted to ask me a question.  I'll tell you now that what he asked gave me a nasty shock. I won't tell you what he asked because the truth was that later, when I asked him to explain a bit more, it all turned out to be a misunderstanding.  He missed a few words in his first question that made it sound like he wanted me to do something that was not only not possible but was absolutely impossible.  Yes, it was a misunderstanding, but we had a tense conversation before that was apparent.  He went off to finish mowing the Manor house as he refers to Sam and Bess's home and I went back to my cleaning with great vigor, working out my emotions.

I cleaned the vent screen, the gas grates, the top of the stove and the splash back behind the stove, then I wiped out the oven.  I scrubbed out the microwave, cleaned the toaster oven.  I cleaned the mixer and the bread machine.  Then I took everything out of the fridge and started cleaning every part of it.

Do you know what I'd like to do?  I'd like to personally instruct the men/women who design a toilet seat and refrigerators about how hard they make it to properly clean them.  I have glass shelves in the fridge.  Stuff seeps into the edges where the glass is attached.  I used a toothpick, hot water, and then an orange wood stick to clean all those seams.  The drawers have this deep space that isn't quite as wide as a finger either side of the front of the drawer where you can't possibly get in to clean them.  

John came back from mowing while I was caught up in that cleaning task and I went out to take him a glass of cold water.  I sat down on the porch with him and asked him why he'd asked what he had earlier.  He explained in a better way.  I laughed about it and said, "Well, if I hadn't misunderstood things, I'd never have gotten this job done this week!"  And that's the truth.

It took me another hour or so to get the fridge fully cleaned and loaded up once more.  I thought, truly, that wiping out the shelves and drawers whenever I saw a spill was enough.  It wasn't.  It needs that deep clean all the same.  I didn't do the fridge freezer, nor did I run vinegar through the coffee pot. I haven't touched the slow cooker, or the toaster yet but I'm willing to bet those won't take half so long.

After I'd cleaned the kitchen up once more, I made lunch.  It was almost 2pm by then.  I rested for an hour or so then went to work making supper.  It wasn't on this week's menu, but it used the same leftovers I'd planned to use up in the other meal.

I had to clean the kitchen up all over again after doing that meal prep.  Some days dishes are never ending, aren't they?  I had another lot of dishes right after supper.  

I don't feel I did so terribly much today, nor yesterday either, really.   I'm as tired as if I'd done a hard morning's work in the yard, though.  

Picked up Grace Livingston Hill's Chance of a Lifetime to read.

Meals:  Strawberry Muffins, Boiled Eggs

Shredded Bbq Chicken Sandwiches, Pickles, Potato Salad

Chicken Enchiladas with White Sauce, Yellow Rice, Tomato and Lettuce Salad

Wednesday:  No kidding, I'm flat out tired.  It's 95 on my back porch right now and that's hot enough to make me head right back indoors.  I was out earlier painting the front porch furniture...but I'm getting started at the wrong part of the day, aren't I?

When I got up this morning, I dressed, made breakfast and didn't even sit down in my chair in the kitchen sitting for even a moment.  And why not?  My new chairs were scheduled for delivery today and I wanted very much to get my housework done, the old chairs moved and be all ready to have the new ones put right into place.

Breakfast, moving my chair, cleaning up the kitchen, making the bed, straightening the rooms and even swept the kitchen floor so nothing would be tracked across the carpet from the kitchen.  The chairs arrived at 10:30am sharp this morning.

John got a little frustrated when he came out on the porch and saw the delivery truck sitting down in the main driveway.  You see, our drive is grassed over, which we like because it means it doesn't wash out in the rain.  We and our family know where the driveway is just fine, but any new delivery people hesitate.  It looks to them as though they are driving over our grass.  I've told John we need to mark the starting area in some way, so people know it's okay to pull up the hill on the grass.  He scoffed at me this morning when I repeated that statement.  "We can see it; I don't see why they can't!"  "Because they are city people, not country folks like us!" to which he replied "Well..." lol

If we had the money, I'd love to do our driveway in crushed run from the bottom of the hill to the top and all the parking and backing up spaces.   We saw a particularly nicely done driveway that was outlined with smaller boulders of granite, so if you ran over one, you'd do no damage to your car unless you were seated very low indeed.  It looked really nice and very do-able.  But alas, not quite do-able for us at this time.  Perhaps one day.

Anyway, the chairs were delivered.  They are really nice.  John wants arm covers to protect the fabric from himself.  Little boys have been forewarned that the first one to crawl up over the back of a chair or jump on the seat goes home , no tears or arguments allowed.   Bess says we should have them sign a contract, so they won't have a thing to argue against, lol.

After the delivery, I finished cleaning my kitchen appliances.  I was in the middle of cleaning the Keurig when it stopped working.  I found a 2-minute YouTube video that solved the problem in less than 2 minutes for me.  I love that we have such easy access to information!

I cleaned the fridge freezer and the oven broiler, all things I forgot yesterday.  I was tired when I got done but it was only 11:30.   I decided to get my paint and go right on and start painting my porch furniture black.  It looks so nice, even if I haven't got to the second coat.  Just not to have it looking faded or shabby makes a HUGE difference.  

As usual I made quite a mess of myself because paint and I just are that way about one another.  I was just going to do the cafe set and do the rest of the pieces on the porch later, but you know I was such a mess I figured I ought to paint everything that needed to be painted and just get all the mess on me at one go.  So that's what I did.  

John sighed deeply when I came indoors all hot, sweaty, spotted with black like a leopard, lol.  He said I must truly be artistic to have so much paint on me, lol.  I used a brush on oil based enamel to paint the furniture, so I had to use GoJo to wash up.  I had to have him clean the sole of one foot before I could come indoors because of course, I somehow managed to step into a puddle of paint and why there was even a puddle in the first place is beyond me.

It was almost 2pm when we finally got our lunch today.  I hadn't taken out anything for supper, either.  I figured at this point of the day I was so tired I wasn't going to do a big meal prep.  I pulled out one of those frozen entrees, saved for just such a day.

After lunch, I started a loaf of bread.  After that, I sort of fell into the new chair which is so comfortable to read emails.  I had a text notice from a company that my package had been delivered.  I went down to the mailbox and discovered that I also had another package.  The new clothing subscription delivery had arrived.

I had an awesome customer service experience with this service over the weekend...but my order arrived with nothing but size S clothing.  That's it.  I emailed them to let them know and I was underwhelmed by the initial response.  I'll see how this plays out, but I don't mind saying I was mighty disappointed.  Oh well.  I'm sure they'll be just as pleasant about this as they were over the weekend.  And in the meantime, everything is bagged up and going back.

meals:  Grits, Fried Bologna, Toast

Potato soup for me, Bologna sandwich for John, watermelon

Beefy baked Tortellini, Green Salad, Bread and Butter

This evening supper was a little bit late, but we seem to be on that sort of schedule right now, where meals are considerably later than we're accustomed to having them.  After the bread was finished baking, John wanted to haul off the old chairs which was an involved process that required two trips.  I'd put our supper casserole in when I was preheating the oven but since it was frozen solid, it wasn't ready when the bread finished baking.  I don't like to leave food cooking even on a timer when we're going to be gone, so I had to finish heating up that casserole later.

Instead of coming right indoors and putting in the casserole, I stopped to water my plants.  I'm so excited to see the lavender blooms on my plants.  They are looking very healthy.  No sign of the basil and chives seeds sprouting.   

Once I came indoors, I put the casserole back in to finish heating, made a salad, then returned a call to Katie and chatted with her while I waited for the meal to finish up.  Dishes are done, the day is done. Yay!

It's been another good day of satisfying work.  Now I'm ready to rest!

Thursday:  I was up quite early this morning and started my day right away.  While I was waiting for breakfast to finish up, I went outdoors and removed the newspaper from under the chairs and straightened up the furniture on the front porch.  Once that area is clean, it will all look so lovely and fresh.  The chairs and table could all use a second coat but they look so much better even with just one coat, that I'm pretty happy.  I did promise myself that next time I drag out the paint I'll wear long pants. long sleeves, gloves and shoes!  Maybe less of me will acquire paint that way.

After breakfast I made the bed and then forced myself back outdoors, this time to attend to the mess about the Sweet Gum tree and the other two flower beds at the back of the house.  I need mulch to touch up two of the beds and the area around the Sweet Gum needs more than touching up.  I got a good bit done today but I did not finish.  I came back indoors just as my Shabat bread dough timed out in the bread machine.

I put that in the oven, then cleaned up the kitchen, took a nice cool sponge bath and put on my makeup.  Then I started our lunch prep.  I might have waited until nearly 2pm every day this week to eat but today I wanted to be sure I'd had my lunch before leaving home with the boys since it was our first library day.

Sam obligingly moved Caleb's car seat, which stays in my car in case I have to go pick him up, then put in Josh and Isaac's booster seats.   The boys brought their backpacks for books and seemed excited to go with me to the library.

Once there we discovered the place was pretty much empty.  I've said many times in the past that I'm always disappointed in my local library.  They have great sets of James Patterson and Anne Perry, but do they have any of the authors I most want to read?  Nope.  I went in with a short list today and I came out without one of the authors on that list.  Yes, I could order them from other branches but I didn't really want to do that.  I wanted the boys to see me choose books, too.  Sigh.  Oh well.  

They were excited to get their own cards and to choose their books.  Isaac refused to get more than three.  Josh picked out four.

I dropped off outgoing mail at the post office and then the boys and I went to the drugstore which has a coffee and ice cream bar.  I'd forgotten that our little town closes at 2pm on Thursdays.  Since I'd already told the boys we were getting ice cream after, I decided I'd be a woman of my word and take them to the next town to a Subway which sells scoops of ice cream.  It made for a nice ride and extended our day, but it was hot and both boys were sporting bright red cheeks despite the AC running at full tilt in the car.

When we arrived, they argued they wanted a sandwich and a soda and chips and ice cream.   Nope, I told them, just ice cream and water.  Isaac had already asked for his scoop and Josh was looking at the cookies. Then the girl behind the counter suggested they could make ice cream sandwiches if they had two cookies each.  Well, yes, I suppose they could have but I wasn't going for that much sugar, lol.  I thanked her, said "No, we'll just stick to ice cream and a bottle of water, each."   That was plenty enough money spent right there.  The boys grumbled but I know those boys.  They'd never have eaten a sandwich and chips and eaten ice cream.    We did a bag of chips to take back for Millie, since she's missing out outings at the moment.

They ate every bite of ice cream, drank all their water and tried to talk one another down all the way back home.  I got to share a bit of family history with them as we passed an old church where many of our older family members are buried.  We went by a wheatfield.  I asked Josh if he knew what crop was in the field. He told me immediately that it was wheat, and wheat makes bread!  I was very proud of him for knowing that.

When we got back to their house, Isaac wanted me to come see their garden, which is really Sam and Bess's garden but the boys are very comfortable in it and know which plants are which.  They were most proud of the apple tree that Sam has coming up in a pot, one of six seeds he planted that actually germinated and has grown.  Josh picked a very tiny fuzzy green bean and begged me to eat it.  I did.  I told him it was the greenest tasting green bean I'd ever had and that made Sam laugh.

While the boys were doing that, Sam was a blessing.  When I arrived, he swapped all the car seats back to their respective places.  I told him I hadn't realized until the last minute that my taking the boys to the library meant he'd have to work, too.

The boys were happy with our day today and I felt boosted.  I was asked if we'd do this weekly and I told them we'd see.  I never know if I might have to break a promise, but I explained we'd try it and see how it went to do it weekly.  I've got a sheet from the summer reading program which details what we might do on various days.   Sam has plans for one week in June with the boys and Bess is taking them to visit friends and relatives at various points, so I may not be going every single week.  

I told Josh and Sam, we'll see how this goes with our local libraries.  Our system is very large in area and the farthest library is over an hour and half away.  Two more libraries are about 45 minutes from us.  The nearest two are just fifteen miles apart, one in town here and one in the town where the boys attend school.  I said if the boys got bored with the offerings locally, we might go to another system, which has three libraries within 20 minutes of us and two more just 30 minutes away.  

I came home to find John under the mower.  Yes, the blasted thing broke another part.  He had a spare one thankfully and was back on it mowing the yard within a half hour.  He wanted to wait to hear all about my outing with the boys.  He realizes that this is a big thing for me, something I've very much wanted to enjoy with them.  Just as he finished mowing, I heard a great clap of thunder and immediately we had loads and loads of rain for at least an hour.  I'm glad for the hydrangea which was looking limp.  It's gorgeous with blooms just now, and I had planned to water it with the hose this evening.  I won't have to do so now!

meals:  Cheese Toast 

BLT's, Chips

Roast Beef with Onion Gravy, Peas, instant Mashed Potatoes, Squash (leftover) and Biscuits.   The roast went into the slow cooker this morning.  Really the hardest part of supper was making the biscuits.  

I made extra and put some biscuits in the freezer to bake later.

Friday:  Up early this morning and raring to go.  John, not so much, but he sighed deeply and got ready and off we went to the town house to work on that place.  For all the time we put in there, it often appears we've done exactly nothing when we return.  I think if I could convince John to go once a week we'd see progress, but as it was, it's been more then two weeks since we were there last and then we just dropped off mulch, which still needs to be laid.  

Today I picked up all the block and bricks I'd tossed here and there last time I was there alone, while John cut down two crepe myrtle that had gotten terribly overgrown.  This opened up the whole side of the shed where I could get in and sort out the pots that had been piled there.  I picked up trash, scavenged a few things for the house here and uprooted some of the stray Rudbeckia that had come up in the front lawn.

We worked for 2.5 hours. There's a load of stuff that needs to be done and it's very disheartening to know that what time we put in there often is like taking the tips off a fast-growing weed that doubles it's size by the time we return.  I'm going to try to push John harder to get over there at least once a week. 

I came away from the house with a scavenged lot of pots and planters, a dozen or so bricks which I used to start edging the flower bed at the front of the back porch, two strawberry pots, a huge white quartz rock that I also put in the border of the flower bed and a river rock that John referred to as a potato rock, because of it's shape.  I told John that it was precious little return for all the work going in there at present but there's another tidy spot left behind even if it does feel like very slow progress.

Home, to put away all the tools, lay down the brick along a flower bed edge and set up the pots I brought home and shower.  John started laundry, I made lunch.  Then I finished up my housework.  I've taken out something for supper.  Now I need, since I'm rested once more, to go clear off my desk and put away clothes on my dresser that are freshly laundered.  I think maybe after that, I'll be done for this week.

Are you sure there really was a three day weekend this week?  I swear I missed it!   How was your week?

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