The Homemaker Plans Her Week: Baby Blue

 

We had a busy weekend.  Friday we went to keep Caleb while Katie went to her OB appointment.  This was a long appointment where they did all sorts of tests and ultrasounds and incidentally learned the gender of her baby.  Then we did some errands before returning home.  I did my Friday Home Blessing on Thursday, anticipating that I'd be tired by the time we returned.

On Saturday we were back at her home for a gender reveal party.  Her best friend had been given the results, so Katie and Cody would have the 'surprise'.  It turns out that the ones surprised were those of us who weren't at the appointment because the baby was front and center during the ultrasound and though the technician said nothing to indicate gender, Kate told me that it was very obvious.

Looks like Caleb gets his wish for a baby brother!

Sunday we went to church and I tidied the house as best I could. I was in a lot of pain.  Nothing but bones and muscles but it was one of the harder days pain-wise.  I knew I'd have Millie most of the day and it seemed expedient to work ahead on Sunday so I pushed through and did it.

Work:

This week I'll start working in Zone 2: Kitchen.  I know that this is only the first week of May, but I am going to work my zones as each week comes and since May started last Wednesday, I worked my first zone then.  The house has come a long way in the past four months and doesn't need heavy-duty cleaning.  And now that I'm caught up, I can relax and work through my cleaning lists each month, catching any job I see needs doing.  

I will order some foam so I can recover the chair cushions in the kitchen sitting area.  I'm not quite ready to start that task but I'd like to go ahead and gather materials.

I want to touch up the paint on the front porch furniture (Ha...turns out most of that 'wear' was pink chalk someone had thoughtfully colored the furniture with...) and get the other two chairs and the table on the patio painted.  I'm setting myself up for a lot of work, but I made such a mess last week while painting that I just want to get it all done at once and be finished with it.  

I have planting to get done.  I picked up two bags of soil on Friday, have half a trash can of ready compost, and the old soil from pots and planters.  I don't expect to get all this done in one week but I'll get started.

I'm not planning to do more than this.  That's more than plenty with the routine housework to be done as well.

Keep Millie on Monday.

Kitchen:

Make bread and bagels.  I still want to try my hand at Croissants but not sure that's happening this week if I'm working in the yard.

Pull several expired items from the pantry and plan to use them in meals or snacks.

It took me four months but I finally hung a picture on the kitchen wall. This week I want to start decorating the kitchen.  I'll be painting eventually but that isn't happening right now and I'm ready to see my kitchen take on a bit of personality.  

I could have put this on my work list, but here it is.  Underneath my kitchen sink is a mess. I've redone it twice and nothing has worked well for me. What I have there needs to be there because I've nowhere else to put it, but it's not good when things fall out each time the door is opened.  I'll see what I can do differently even if it means making a purchase.

Meals:

I've promised myself that on Fridays I'm having an easy meal that requires little effort to make and little effort to clean up.  It's my reward to myself for having made meals all week long.

Sour Cream Pork Chops and Potatoes, Collard Greens.

Whole Roasted Chicken and Veg, Chickpea Greek Salad.  I'm using up the last of the cucumber and tomato salad and mixing it with a partial can of chickpeas that are also leftover.  

Chicken Noodle Casserole, Green Beans, Sliced Tomatoes. I'll make a Casserole with leftover chicken.   I want to use up some crushed chips as topping on the casserole.

Roast Beef With Gravy, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli.   I have a container of cooked beef with gravy in the freezer.  It is an older freezer item and I meant to use it last month in my big clear out.  This is a tentative plan to use this item.  I may be inspired to do something different, like a shepherd's pie.  We'll see.

Lasagna Roll-ups with Marinara Sauce, Garlic Bread, and Salad.  I hope to use the yogurt cheese in place of the ricotta in this recipe.  I won't make a full recipe since I have only about six lasagna noodles.

Shortbread Ham Supper, Creamed Cabbage, Potatoes and Beans

Club Sandwich, Chips, Tomato Soup.  If we're very hungry I'll add the soup.  Otherwise, I'll leave it off.

Personal/Leisure:

Reading along this month with the Elizabeth Goudge book club, The Scent of Water.  Because the main character loves to read Jane Austen, as did Goudge herself, I thought I'd choose a Jane Austen book to read, too.  Lately, I'm enjoying  Austen spin-off novels.  Jamie at  "An Oregon Cottage" blog mentioned one not long ago that she'd especially enjoyed so I have ordered it and placed it on my stack of books to be read.

This is how my weeks are playing out lately for leisure, and I'm okay with it.  I'm avoiding using computer time as 'rest time' during the day, though occasionally I might spend an hour writing. I try to stay away from the computer until evening.   Most evenings I spend about an hour or so playing games.  I do keep a fairly strict time limit on that.   One night a week I read from my blog list, and one night I spend on Pinterest scanning whatever I find interesting or want to learn more about.  Another night I catch up on the vlogs I follow.  The other four nights, I alternate reading, Sudoku, and coloring.  

I'd like to add a bit of self-care time to the evening downtime.   I'm thinking perhaps a half hour each night to work on skincare, manicure, brushing my hair 100 strokes, etc.

I need to catch up with the girl in charge of the cemetery project and submit some of my family records for her to write stories about.  I hadn't meant to drop off the face of the planet with her as I have done.

I do not want to fail to take time to just sit on the porch for a bit each day and listen to the birds.  The Sedge Wren is back, nesting in the new geranium hanging basket. She's singing her heart out most days and we often surprise her when we come out of the front door.  She's been nesting here around the house on one of the porches for about five or six years now.

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