June is done. I'm ready for a vacation but I will wait just a bit longer. July has just enough going on that I feel I must wait...and my bank account dictates the same. Perhaps this week, John and I will find time to slip away for a day. Provided the weather isn't too hot, lol.
This week I begin my annual July bootcamp. Why do I choose July? For several reasons: we're halfway through the year. The budget for this month is a bit snugger (semi-annual renewals pop-up). Perhaps we're a little less optimistic about our finances overall than we were in January. The 3rd quarter budget has brought changes. I just feel the need to refresh my thinking. By this point of the year, I'm prone to slide into 'I can't..." rather than "I can" and often bootcamp gives me the boost I need to keep going and proving to myself that indeed I can.
This year, rather than reading the same old books over and over, I'm delving deep into blogs like Jess's Strangers and Pilgrims and Annabel's The Bluebirds are Nesting and The Bluebirds are Nesting on the Farm. Laine's Letters is always a wonderful reminder of how keeping an attitude of gratitude can change our outlook entirely, besides being a great resource for budget hints, recipes, and spiritual inspiration. I may add a few others, but I'll wager there's more than enough inspiration on these four sites to keep me going for months on end.
Work/Appointments:
It's hot. I'm not overly inclined to do much of anything. I get this heat related lethargy every year. This year I've decided that I'll meet my desire (do NOTHING) and my need (DO IT ALL) somewhere in the middle. I'm not going to tackle big deep cleaning projects or long-term tasks. If I can't break things down in bite-sized pieces, then I'm not going to start it.
What I will do this year is remind myself to Just Get It Done. Floor needs sweeping? Do it. Dusty furniture? Get up and dust it. I don't care if it's that week's zone area or not, Just Get It Done. I'm going to try hard to keep up routines (about an hour or so a day), and then I'll add in tasks as I see they require attention, but again, no big heavy duty, hard jobs. Not this month.
Visit Mama.
Take kids to the library.
Celebrate the fourth of July with a cookout and special meal. I expect it will be just John and I since everyone else is working the day before and after. No one wants to bookend a travel day with workdays, so I think most folks will be content to stay at home.
Kitchen:
'Tis the season when I use appliances more for cooking and turn on the stove and oven as little as possible. I'll be buying bread and bagels and English muffins. Lots of slow cooker and toaster oven meals are the plan for main dishes. On the fourth when we cook out, I'll go out in the early morning to do that job and not wait until it's too stinking hot to stand being outdoors.
I'll post meal plans separately. I'm decreasing meal size and adding in a daily afternoon snack. The menu may not look like a reduced meal size plan, but the quantity of food eaten will be smaller.
And impromptu as it is, I'm declaring July a pantry/freezer month. I will spend my decreased grocery funds this month, but I will concentrate on restocking the pantry with staples (flour, sugar, whole grain pasta, peanut butter, green beans, etc.) and restocking meats with clearance items from the discount store.
I also plan to go into the discount store at least once a week to check out the reduced produce offerings and see which of those I can translate into pantry/freezer items. Let's face it: bell peppers and onions are great to have on hand in the freezer. Potatoes and tomatoes can be canned. Fruits can be frozen or processed.
Personal/Leisure:
Continue eating low-carb.
Check my blood sugar regularly at a set time each day.
Stay on top of pedicure and manicure.
Wash and moisturize face morning and evening.
Read. Read. Read. Write.
Limit game time each day to 2 hours.
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3 comments:
I agree- July is a small cooking appliance month! One thing I’ve started doing here in Arizona where the temps are getting up to at least 105 every day, is putting my air fryer or slow cooker on the patio outside. I can’t abide the small amounts of heat they put out, and an added bonus is there’s no cooking smell in the house. We have hawks and bobcats that probably smell it but figure out how to open an air fryer!
Summer should just be spelled b-u-s-y. Lol.
I did freezer inventory last week before Jess and I did a grocery shopping day. It was a good thing, and saved my purchasing a few things.
We're going to my cousin's for the 4th for a large family gathering. Both my cousin and Greg are cooking pork butts for supper that night. I found what we needed in our freezer, so didn't have to buy any. (Greg's smoking our meat contribution right now. Each time he walks into the house, he smells like barbecue.)
I feel for Katie being pregnant in the hot hot summer. Jess's birthday is today, and a few days before she was born we had our town's centennial celebration. I walked a couple of parades and was already overdue. People were very nice to me. Lol.
Last weekend we were at an amusement park with the family, and it was miserable. The heat index was 104°, and we walked miles of asphalt from one end of the park to the other and back again. I do not plan to ever go to an amusement park again, ever. Ever.
Wishing you a wonderful July!! ♥♥♥
I too am so grateful for the smaller, less-heat-producing appliances we have on hand. I rely heavily on my toaster oven/air fryer combo that can do just about everything. I spent 3 hours on Saturday going through the fridge and repurposing and prepping easy meals so I wouldn't waste food. I had an overabundance of eggs (3 1/2 dozen) and veggies. I ended up making a quiche for breakfasts this week and on Sunday we had overnight french toast casserole that used up another 6 eggs. I made deviled eggs for lunch that day (another 6) and I finally am down to 1 dozen and 1 eggs. I had cooked salmon and made a salmon salad I didn't like so I turned that in ready-to-fry salmon patties for supper tonight. From the lemon pepper rotisserie chicken I made a lemon pepper chicken salad that used up some onion and celery that were looking desperate. From the leftover burrito filling I made 2 premade burritos that hubby can air fry since he's working from home this week. From the leftover enchilada filling, I made premade quesadillas for him as well. I even wrote on the ziploc bags how long and what temp to cook them for. I also had a lot of milk I knew we wouldn't use fast so I made a homemade chocolate pie filling (had a spare pie crust from the batch for quiche), and used some for the quiche and french toast casserole as well. I had a bunch of bits of cooked veggies and Israeli couscous in tiny amounts so I threw it all together in my tiny crockpot for my work lunch today. It was okay but I won't make it again. I had a batch of homemade minestrone (no pasta) last week for my lunches and rather than waste the rest, I froze in my souper cubes and added to my freezer for another batch of lunches in a month or two. Lastly, I made a broccoli chicken cheese casserole for my lunches this week as well. I'm looking forward to that. I think that's it, other than the no-bake chocolate peanut butter jars that just used on-hand pantry items. I felt very accomplished this weeken. I was going to make a batch of yogurt but realized I had enough to last us this week so I didn't need that to go bad too. My fridge is not any emptier but at least it's repurposed and easy to fix stuff for this odd week.
I think we are having our oldest daughter over for July 4. Not sure what I'll fix. I need to ask her what she'd like.
I've still been enjoying really good peaches from my local produce market. They are so juicy and plump and sweet this year and I've taken advantage of it.
The last thing I did this past weekend was clean out my closet. I had my colors analyzed and am switching away from black. So I got rid of all black stuff except one pair of slacks and a couple of pairs of shoes. I gave some to my daughter. The rest went to Goodwill. I also started cleaning out my craft stash because I discovered a resale craft store here in my town that sells used craft items so I'm taking a bunch of stuff I thought I'd do and haven't touched. Might as well help a local business and give someone else some treasures to use!
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