The Homemaker Plans Her Week: Catch Up

 

In my home this week, I shall actually (hopefully) spend more time in it than I have in quite a few weeks.  And I'm rather looking forward to that!

Again, I'm not planning deep cleaning tasks, but I have plenty to do to get my home ready for next week and to catch up on things I haven't been able to get done.  My zones this month will be turned topsy turvy and I guess I should explain that Zones themselves are a set number of rooms but the order in which I work those zones is how I number them based on what week I shall be doing them.  It's really a sort of prolonged block schedule, where I block out an entire week or a set number of days for each area of my home.

This is how I divide my home:

Porches/Patio

Kitchen/Laundry/Back Entry

Living/Dining Rooms/Front Entry

Beds and Baths

Pantry/Shed 

The days of the month correspond to how I work in each area.  I try to devote a whole week to the interior rooms.  And the odd days of the month that fall at the end or the beginning of another month, will be devoted to outdoors or the pantry, depending on which need the most work.   This month I actually set the porches/patio as my first work zone because they needed attention pretty badly.  Lots of leaves down and dead plants, etc.  I didn't quite finish that task last week, with all the work that went on at the town house, but I did at least touch on it and the porches look better if not exactly attractive and clean.  Good enough.

All that said, while I was lying awake last night, I planned three or four small makeovers of furnishings I might make in the coming weeks if I find time on my hands.  It's so fun to plan projects!  I got so involved and excited over my thinking that I had to distract myself with somber thoughts in order to calm down and get sleepy!

Now on to my work plans for this week.

Work:  

Zone 2 will be the beds and baths.  The guest room is full of things that need to go out to the shed.  There's a pile of things from the town house in the kitchen too that needs to go out.  The guest room needs to be rearranged.  I think I can make it more functional if I change things around a little. I need to clear the sewing table so we can use that as secondary seating if needed. I need to locate inflatable mattresses just in case.  There are donation items in the master bedroom closet.  And the baths could use a good deep clean.  This is a small enough task I feel perfectly comfortable including that in this week's zone work.  I want to wash rugs, shower curtains, towels and just freshen those spaces up.  It will be dependent on which days are clear. I prefer to hang rugs to dry rather than put them in the dryer.

Other tasks that require my attention this week: I need to work on a list of what I need to purchase to insure I have disposables on hand for the holiday next week.

I really need to make out a grocery list and shop properly.  However, this requires time and energy I don't necessarily have in real life.  So, this weekend I'll run by Kroger and pick up the digital deals which just happen to correspond nicely with the holiday.  Turkey, potatoes, Brussels sprouts, bread (I can freeze it for next week), etc. are on sale.  However, I hope to get a second day at the grocery this week and by that point to have a more comprehensive list.  No, I don't have much left in my grocery budget, but I will borrow from Peter this week to pay Paul...

We have one last thing to do at the town house.  One.  No, two, because pest control set up an appointment to come by this week, so two.  One will be hard though it shouldn't take long and the second is truly just a matter of sitting there waiting and locking the house up afterwards.  No big deal. And then...well I'm hopeful that I am pretty much done except for a check in now and then until next year.

Make out my Christmas gift list and determine who I need gifts for and my budget for getting said gifts.  I'll make a tentative shopping list, too and start looking at items I hope to purchase so I can have a better idea of budget requirements.  I won't order anything until end of the month, but I would like to at least have a clue what I'm doing.

Find Christmas cards and in spare moments start addressing envelopes.  I don't have any Christmas stamps.  I will buy those at the end of the month just before I mail the cards.

Finish off my Bible study on the book of Acts.  I've realized one of my issues with this is that I have heard for years we should spend our morning in Bible study and prayer.  That's my most productive and busiest time of day.  I simply lack physical energy come afternoons. So, I'm giving myself permission to move Bible study to the afternoons, which tend to be quieter and are usually the time when I read and am writing anyway. 

Kitchen:  

'Tis the season, isn't it?  I want to get the freezer organized and sorted out. It's packed again which is odd because I have 1 whole chicken and 1 turkey breast but the whole of the freezer is packed with stuff.  I honestly don't know why it's so full!

I added rutabaga greens last week and I'd like to cook them this week.  The man who sold them to me swore they don't smell like collards cooking, but you know, I think I'll just cook them outdoors in my slow cooker just in case.  Cooked greens will take up far less space in the freezer.

Make a banana poundcake and freeze that.  

I can go ahead and make my pies for Thanksgiving and freeze them too, if I can make room.

Sort out the fridge.  Not just check that I'm not missing food that I should be using, but really sort it out.  I have two open bottles of mustard.  I have five open jars of pickles.  Why?!  I'll combine what I can and cut down on the space hogs.  I would like to have room enough to thaw my turkey be it a breast or a whole bird is still to be determined, though we do have two confirmed guests (John's brother and sister-in-law).  

I will need space to thaw a turkey, put foods for the holiday and leftovers etc., so any space I can create this week will be much appreciated next week.

I have a lot of bread end pieces in the freezer, so I want to get those out and cube them. I'll make some into croutons. I think I might make a breakfast casserole.  I'll for sure put some of the cubes back into the freezer because I really like using them in my Thanksgiving stuffing.

I didn't can the chicken stock this past week.  I don't think I'm going to either.  Between meals this week that call for it and stuffing next week...I think I'll just freeze a portion of it and thaw to use.  But I did take time to read up on how to do it and it sounds so super easy with the pressure canner that I'm definitely going to start canning soon.  And I can use it as a pressure cooker as well.  Just need to practice and learn.   So let me make that part of my week: watch videos and read the booklet 19 more times and see how comfortable I can get with this 'new' thing.

Meals:  

It's meant to be fairly cool this week.  I want to plan meals that warm and deeply satisfy. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it one more time: this is my favorite season to cook for.  I am happiest making (and eating!) the long slow simmering sorts of dishes we eat so often this time of year. 

I mentioned last week that I make pizza every Saturday and I'd tired of it.  Well John seemed a little disappointed that pizza for lunch on Saturday was ending.  I thought long and hard about and decided that my issue is I'm tired of the sort of pizzas I've been making. We're going back to basics this week.  For lunch I'll make a plain old Pepperoni Cheese pizza.   We'll see if I still feel tired of it or if I'm just jaded on the fancying of the pizza I've done.

I'm planning blind here.  Will I get to the grocery store this week?  I sure hope so!  We're out of many things and variety is not the name of the game, but we do have plenty of food so I'm planning using what we have.

Buffalo Chicken Strips, Celery and Carrot Sticks, Sweet Potato Fries.  I bought the strips several weeks back and froze them.  I sliced a sweet potato last weekend and baked.  So good.  Too few.  I'll make sure to use two potatoes this time around.

Chili, Yellow Rice, Tortillas, Pineapple.  The tortillas were cheap from Kroger's reduced bakery rack last weekend.  I'll mix some of the chili and rice to make burritos for the freezer?  Might be a good idea.  

Meatloaf, Potatoes au Gratin, 3 Bean Salad, Corn muffins 

Tortilla Pie, Corn with Cumin Butter, Mandarins.  I'll use leftover chili, then top with cornbread mix.  That will be leftovers from making the corn muffins.  

Whole Roasted Chicken, Wild Rice, Roasted Whole Green Beans, Waldorf Salad.  If it looks like we've had loads of Waldorf Salad, we haven't.  I keep skipping making it but I know John likes eating it and really ought to make some.  This week...

Baked Chicken and Dumplings, Greens, Black Eyed Peas, Cranberry sauce.  I'll use leftover chunks of chicken to make this dish.  It's one of my favorite ones and the leftovers are even better than the first day meal.

Beef Stew, Cheddar Biscuits, Fruit Salad.  If I don't have fresh potatoes, then I'll use some of the small, canned potatoes.

Personal and Leisure:  

Finish the Bible Study.  I know I put this in the work section, but I don't really consider it work.  It's just something I really want to finish up.  I did hit on the fact that because it takes about an hour or so to do each section of the study that I'm less prone to do it in the morning and I've held this rather silly belief that a 'proper Christian' does her Bible study in the morning.  I'm letting go of that bit of foolish thinking and planning to do my study in the afternoon when I'd normally be sitting to read or write anyway.

I'll take time to scan my bookshelves and pull a book to read.  I have several new to me books that I haven't touched yet, several more that I long to revisit as they are old friends.  I just need to determine what I'm in the mood for and get started.  

Remember that annual review?  Yep, me too.  I came to one great revelation this week and that is that John and I have worked HARD this year.  It's been a very physical year, especially for me.  I'm rather proud of how much physically heavy work I've done.  I might not be writing out the annual review but I'm thinking it over as I work.  And if that's the only way I get this review done this year, that's okay.  It's giving me cues about what I want to do in the New Year and how I want to raise my expectations of what I can accomplish.

Go through those photos I brought home.  They're stacked in the guest room so this will be nice quiet work when I need a brief break.

One Last Thing:

One of our regular group of readers is desperate for some new blogs to read.  Would anyone care to share their list of favorites?  I know I'd appreciate it as well, since I tend to start a new list for the coming year.  I do have a few perennial favorites that I read year in and year out but truth, some folks quit blogging, some have died, and some have been fun to know for a year but aren't long time favorites that I want to keep following ad infinitum.

Please do share your list with us in the comments.

And for my part, vlogs you follow will also be welcome.  One I'm enjoying a great deal is Mapperton Live.  I like it not because it's an English Tudor home that's been preserved but there's a load of historical stuff that I find absorbing. 

Amazon Associate Affiliate Link:  

Pretty cloth napkins suitable for fall