The Week Ahead: Work, Work, Work

In my home this week, I am thinking we'll have a less hectic paced week ahead.  Fingers crossed.  I know of only two outings, both in the evening hours.   At the moment I'm writing this post, the week ahead appears to be wide open.  Will it stay that way?  

I always love the song "Whistle While You Work", as it denoted a satisfaction with having a job and getting it done.  Granny often whistled as she was working in house and yard.  I've been more prone to singing or at the very least talking out loud to myself which John finds a bit disconcerting but he's gotten used to it.  Goodness, had I not started talking to myself I'd spent days and days without sound of a real person speaking, lol, while he was working long days, or resting on his off days.  I make decent company for myself.

But I was talking about work. I like my work in my home and about my house. I like doing a job and seeing that it has beginning, middle, end.  I love starting a project and seeing it all the way through to the finish.  I like work.

Work:  

Mama has requested I spend a day with her this week.  In an effort to combine errands and visits in that area, I will try to leave home super early and get a haircut as well as run by Walmart in her town to see if they have 25-pound bags of flour.  I opened my bag a couple of weeks ago and have filled my canister three times since.  I don't want to run out and so far, Walmart has the best price on flour of anyone around besides Aldi.   John is reluctant for me to buy from Aldi after finding those grain weevils in my stored flour.   I'm not even going to fool myself into thinking I can do these things AFTER visiting with Mama because inevitably I'm worn completely out after a visit and all I want to do is go home right then.  If I start my day with errands and then visit, I'll be just as tired when I'm done with her but not have to waste gas in making another separate trip to attend to these two tasks.

On Sunday, after church, we'll run by Kroger so I can pick up milk, butter and peaches at Kroger.   Kroger is just about 1 mile from the church.

Zone 3 this week will be the living room/dining room and front entry.  This room is not in need of deep cleaning, but I'll definitely do all the usual tasks of vacuuming deeply, dusting, cleaning the ceiling fan, general decluttering and straightening up, removing unseasonable decor and the excess items that look cozy in winter but make it look cluttered in summer.   The bookcases really need a good going over as they look jumbled.

Because I've already taken care of curtains and rearranging furniture this month, I think I shall have time to begin the work of recovering the wing chair.

I'm sure that mowing the town house yard will take one morning at least.  We keep having just enough rain to promote growth, which beats the alternative of no rain and brown crisp lawns.

We must go to Lowe's and get a new mailbox.  I opened the door on ours one day last week and it fell off completely.  It's rusted through at the bottom. John had already repaired it a bit over a year ago.  While there we'll also pick up mulch if it's not sopping wet, we'll look at and price upright freezers.

Kitchen:

I bought bagels at Aldi last week because I didn't have time to make them.  Well, now I have a package of purchased bagels I can postpone that until the first week of August.  

I had a big failure last week. I had food waste.  I took out items prior to the weekend to thaw and then forgot them.  There was luncheon meat I'd urged John to eat that he snubbed.  An item or two got pushed way to the back of the fridge and was lost.  I didn't do my usual Sunday search to see what was in the fridge and address the usage of those items.  As item after item went into the trash, I was upset with myself.   On Sunday I shall sit down and go over the fridge thoroughly to plan how I might use items in the week ahead.  I'll repeat the task on Thursday so I can plan what I might use in the coming weekend.  It's been quite a while since I've had more than a potato or carrot spoil (neither of which I will take blame for).  I don't want a repeat of last week's losses, not just because its money wasted but it's unnecessary waste.

Meals:  

Skillet Lasagna, Garlic Bread, Salad   This will use up some broken lasagna noodles that remain in an opened box, some of the ground turkey I bought at Aldi.  I wanted a quick and easy meal for Friday night, and I want to use those lasagna noodles up.     A hint I've seen a lot recently is that when you use ground turkey in a dish, but want it to taste like beef, add a bit of powdered bouillon and a little water to the pan and let that season the ground turkey.  

Whole Roasted Chicken, Zucchini au Gratin, Pan Roasted Potatoes, Banana Poundcake

Chicken with Mushrooms and Wild Rice, Green Peas, Salad

Tuna Pasta Salad

Sirloin Patties, Herb Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Orange Gelatin with Peaches

out

Cubed Steak Sandwiches, Fries, Pickles

Chicken Salad Plates, Tomato Basil Soup

Personal/Leisure:

Pedicure for sure.

Set up outfits for the rest of the month

Get my hair cut.

Work on Genealogy.  I find myself eager to get back to this task that I' periodically set aside for months.

Finish reading Georgette Heyer's The Toll-Gate.

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