I hope you all enjoyed your holiday. I bemoaned mine as you know but in looking back, I have more to be grateful for than to complain about. Heartaches come all year long in all seasons, but they oughtn't to mar what was pleasant or sweet. It just took a bit of rest to see clearly once more.
Not to say that I did nothing but rest. Oh no indeed! I had a week of time child free to move and clean and declutter and arrange and organize and I took full advantage of it. It felt like the old days each time John said, "Now sit down and rest a bit!" One day I paid the price of sore ankles from having been on my feet for so many hours the day before but oh what a lot of things I got accomplished! I was so pleased with how things fell into place all around the house. And aside from a huge, but neat, pile of things in the guest room, all the boxes are unpacked, and everything has a place.
New Year's Eve weekend, we made a flying trip south to Kingsland to visit with our oldest son and his children. We came back the following day. It's a decent journey of about five hours one way. You'll understand when I say that New Year's Day was spent recovering!
Now it's time to begin a New Year of work and projects. Let's start out as we mean to go on, as Granny used to say to me. Indeed!
Work:
I'm excited to begin zone work once more for the year. This month I'm switching things up. Zone 1 for this week's focus area will be the Porches and Patio which is not at all where I typically begin the tasks of the month, but the porches were terribly neglected all through December and since the Kitchen is still 'new' and where I focused a world of energy these past two weeks, I think it would be nice to get the outdoors up to par as well.
That huge pile of stuff in the guest room? I need to sort it out into donate and keep and then move all the keep stuff out to the shed. I'll just go on and load up the donation pile.
At some point this week I need to go by the UPS store to return two items from Amazon. And let me just share with you what I did a few months ago. I ordered printer ink, the wrong printer ink. I opened the multi-pack before I realized it was the wrong ink. However, I still had the black ink unopened. Just on a whim, though I'd had it for two or three months, I went and looked up the return window on that item and it was still within the parameters of their return policy. That's $40 I can happily use and not a bad way to begin a New Year of savings!
While I'm at UPS, I'll just go across the street to drop off the donations.
I have a lamp in my living room that could use a new coat of paint, if weather/humidity allows. And if I can I'll paint a curtain rod to go into our bathroom. After pricing them and seeing the same thing, I have for $22 for that small window, I figure I might just as well paint what I have and call it good.
I have a few items on a mental list that I need to shop for...Well that never works for me! When I am out shopping, that mental list is blank...Then I get home and remember it all. So, I want to create a physical list so that when I am out I can shop for what we really need.
I'll have Caleb from Wednesday through Friday. And at some point, I plan to have the three from across the field for the bulk of a day as well.
Kitchen:
Starting my pantry/freezer challenge this week.
I'd like very much to bake something this week. I won't go all out with a fancy cake, but it would be nice to bake once again. I'll also be making bread, burger buns, and some muffins to go into the freezer for easy breakfasts in days ahead.
I want to clean out the freezer. I have a load of stuff in both freezers and some of it is just...well it needs to leave. I'm not using it, haven't considered using it, and frankly would rather have empty space to fill with stuff we will use. And while I'm at it, there might be something I want to use in my Pantry Freezer Challenge.
By the way, the perennial soup is done. We polished that off on Friday when the temperatures plummeted and one of the workmen showed up to work on the storage closet in the bathroom. He was half frozen by the time we had lunch and that soup and cornbread hit the spot. That said, I wouldn't mind starting another batch of soup to freeze.
Meals:
We were out of town this weekend, so no cooking and no leftovers to use up. I'm starting fresh as of Monday so one of the below meals will have been eaten already.
Pork Chops, Rice, Black eye Peas, Cornbread My New Year's Day menu or so I think...Since we spent the weekend eating quick meals on the go it's unlikely John will protest and send me off to get takeout so perhaps I can have my old traditional meal once more.
Salisbury Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Pear Salad
Taco Pasta, Corn, Salad, Pineapple
Roast Chicken with roasted Root Vegetables, Waldorf Salad, Rolls
Chicken Pot Pie, Slaw, Cranberry Sauce
Personal/Leisure:
Gather a stack of books to read my way through this month.
Set up wardrobe for the month.
Get back into the 'spa day' routine. I feel so much nicer when I take time to pamper my skin, shave, do manicure and pedicure, etc.
Get a haircut.
Journal, color, play good music and above all else read my daily Scriptures!
Give myself the care I need in order to care for others. We've a lot of 'stuff' happening in the family at the moment, some good, some not and it's looking like a season ahead where I am stretched to give and do more in a different quarter of my family.
7 comments:
Good morning friend
I laughed about your mental lists. I know exactly what you mean!
I’m glad you’re getting your house back in order.
Happy 2024 to you and John❤️
Oh the dreaded mental list. Like you, I'm worthless at remembering it. I have to keep a list on my phone going, especially because husband will remember what he wants/needs from the grocery store right after I've gotten home from shopping! So it has to go on the list for next time.
I absolutely love that green house with front porch you used above. That's what my dream house looks like in my head. Some day maybe I'll have a covered front porch like that.
I find that when my home is in order that I am able to handle those "stretching" moments better. Even with all of those things swirling around you, you sound more at peace.
Rhonda, I am sure you know how very good it does feel to be getting rid of boxes of stuff and turning spaces back into living quarters rather than storage quarters. Just hauled that pile of donations off. We literally waited in a line 8 cars deep with as many coming in behind us to also unload...Sort of made me aware that we all just have too much, don't we?
Karla, You and Rhonda both know all about that mental list. When John is going to the grocery, I always text him the list of what I said pick up because he never can remember it, lol.
Wendy, I know you are quite right: if the house is in order I can think more clearly and feel far less stress over all the other things going on because it's one thing I don't have to worry about.
For all that I've said I didn't enjoy Christmas much this year, I do feel a calmer somehow. It's more accepting the good and the bad, going right back to Aunt Eller's little talk in Oklahoma. "You just look at the good on this side and the bad on that one and say, 'Well all right then,'..."
Your menus sound good, Terri. I am at a point where I am so sick of planning food!!!
I must have missed something as I was unaware that your daughter and Caleb no longer live with you. Are they close by? I am sure he misses you and John.
Your self-care spa day is a great idea! I always feel better after I do a pedicure and manicure. I have never had that done by someone else. My daughters-in-law and granddaughters get them done all the time. Massages, too. Guess I am totally old-school!
Lej Mom, I LOVE to cook and I too get sick of planning and preparing meals. I'm trying to find ways to help myself out of that. One is to keep a few convenience items on hand that are versatile and inexpensive. Another is to double up an entree and put one in the freezer, so you have one in reserve. Also helps as a sick week plan, in case you go down and don't want family making meals. John would happily make me a PBJ, Bologna sandwich or fry eggs or burgers and that's about it...lol
Katie and Caleb moved out three weeks ago? And yes, he does miss us, had a very tearful phone call yesterday from a little boy who kept saying, "I want to come home." Mind you he'd quickly say the same to us if we had him more than a night. He'd miss Belly (Bella, Cody's little girl who is 9 months younger than Caleb) and Mama and Cody something fierce. He's very happy with them all as his family, but he does miss us, too.
Lej Mom, PS, they live about 30 minutes away and we are still sick child care as well as picking him up from daycare and such, at least until Katie finds day care in the town they are living in.
I do my own pedicure and manicure. Can't make myself comfortable with going into a salon, though I always admire the lovely work they do.
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