The Homemaker Plans Her Week: It's NOT Too Late!

 

But the best place to have some food set aside is within our homes, together with a little money in savings. The best welfare program is our own welfare program. ~ President Gordon B. Hinckley

It's hot, y'all.  Stinking hot.  John and I went out the other afternoon to get gas and stop at the hardware store and by the time we got home, we were wiping sweat off our arms and face. It felt like we'd just gotten out of the bath. Our clothing was soaked through.  And all we did was ride into town and back!  

I took the kids to the library today.  Being short of cash until payday, I told them I couldn't treat them to lunch out, but I bought along icy cold soda and bags of chips to have after the library.  Poor Josh got stung by a wasp while playing outdoors.  Fortunately, it didn't swell too badly but it hurt him, and he cried.  I recalled getting stung at 14 and wailing like a baby myself, so I'm not pointing fingers at him.  We put a cold compress on it right away and I took him home shortly thereafter but truthfully, before I took him home, I wanted to be sure he wasn't going to have a reaction.  He's terribly allergic to ants and mosquitoes but I saw no reason to be concerned.  There was some swelling by the time we got home, but not an alarming amount of swelling.  I told Sam so he could give him some antihistamine medicine.  

Well, let's get busy with my plans for the week!

Work:

I will continue work on the kitchen deep cleaning.  This week I plan to clear out the stuff I pulled from the cabinets and set aside.  I'll put in the places where they should go.  I'll dust the walls, mop the floors and clean all the appliances really well.  Specifically, I want to empty and clean the fridge, taking the shelves apart and getting all the nooks and crannies wiped down and sparkling once more. If I don't get all the appliances done this week it will be fine, but I want the fridge attended to this week.  It's been on my radar for weeks, so I know it's needing a good clean.

Paint the curtain rods and rehang the curtains.

I took down some flour and corn meal sacks from a grain mill that I'd framed and hung. I was going to paint the frames a plain black and rehang them, but I don't know... I like them but they are not quite what I want in the kitchen.  Katie recently gave me a set of four framed Currier and Ives prints.  If I truly want to move away from the kitschy (and I do!) I think these prints would be very lovely in the kitchen.  And because they are the four seasons, I thought they'd go really nicely with the plates I'd planned to hang, which are botanical prints of fruits from bloom to mature fruit.  

As these things go, I discovered I had some more Currier and Ives prints, and I thought I'd hang those in the room as well.  

Okay, I'm not just all about the kitchen this week.  I'm pushing myself to get busy and DO things.  I can stop and rest and cool off, but I need to start making the best of my time at home.  I'm going to work outdoors for 15 minutes every morning.  It's HOT.  I'm not out there to kill myself by working for hours on end, but so much of my outdoor things are badly neglected just now.  So, I'll take time to wipe down furniture, deadhead flowers, pull a few weeds.  But I will concentrate on what I can in one spot for 15 minutes only.  Then I'll sit down, cool off, shower, drink a glass of electrolyte water and get my indoor work started.

Last year I made out two lists: one was a planting guide and the other was a list of things I thought I could hot water bath can.  The other day they had a LOAD of Roma tomatoes and all I could think of using them for was canned tomatoes.  It's not that I won't use canned tomatoes but just now I'm pretty well stocked.  However, after I got home, I thought of salsa.  Yeah.   Having my list handy would be helpful. So, I'm going to dig through my stored papers from last year and find those two lists!

It is my hopes in the next week or two to plant a fall garden and continue to try to do something towards the #EveryBitCountsChallenge.  I put up sage, oregano and basil on Friday, very small quantities but there you are.  Every bit counts.  Which brings me to the title and the quote heading this post.  It is NOT too late to do something.  It's not too late to plant a garden for fall.  It's not too late to pick up produce at the grocery store that has been reduce and use it to make something for pantry or freezer.  If you don't can or don't want too, it's not too late to make an effort to set aside just $10 of your grocery budget every other week and stock up on something.  Buy 10 extra cans of green beans.  Buy an extra package of hamburger or an extra whole chicken to go into the freezer.  It's NOT too late to do these things.  You can make every month your Every Bit Counts Challenge if you want to.  It doesn't have to be right now in August just because it's a popular thing in social media homestead circles.  

And it's not too late to start a savings account!  Take $10 and put aside.  Save your coins, or $1 bills.  You'll be shocked how much that can add up to at the end of the year.  We used to take family vacations on what we'd saved in change and $1 bills.  

Although I'm no longer using the quote as my byline remember this: Start where you are.  Do What You Can.  Use What you Have.  And I'll finish with this from dear friend Rhonda: If You Do Stuff, Stuff Gets Done.  Stop thinking and start DOING.

Go visit Mama.

Get checkbook set for August pay day and then run errands for the month.  I need to pick up a prescription, as well.

Figure out how many bills will fall due prior to the next five week pay period.  I've already looked ahead into next year to see which months we'll have five weeks between pay periods.  It's a very interesting pattern.  Of the three periods in each year at least two of those five-week months are just two months apart.  I have choices here. I can set aside extra money, just a little each month to go towards those five-week months OR we can plan to NOT buy any groceries in those months to cover those bills OR I can plan to use a combination of the two.  

This month, our pay day fell five weeks after the last one.  I had to pay some bills ahead of pay day which lowered our balance considerably.  It will bounce back here in pay week but when I looked at the calendar, I realized I'm due to have another five-week month in October.  So I need to get busy and figure this system out.

Kitchen:

Meal Plan.

Bake Bread.

Make cookie dough and no bake cookies.  

Personal/Leisure:

I miss doing genealogy.  I thought I'd pull out my notebooks and start to play with them again.

Read.  The last set of books I got from the library didn't get read at all.  The books prior only one was read.  Enough.  I enjoy reading!  I can waste time all day long doing things that bring me far less pleasure.  READ.

Journal.  

Be more conscious of taking care of ME, especially my external body.  I'm going to establish one day a week for deeper pampering care and times for routine face, skin, hair and nail care.  

Wardrobe work?  I keep putting this down and the truth, when it's hot, I am a jeans, the lightest t-shirt I can find, hoop earrings and done sort of girl. I have three dresses that are lightweight and lovely and would be so much cooler and prettier than jeans and a t-shirt. Truth is, I don't think I have enough time to be in my closet playing with clothes, but I'll put this on my calendar as a block of time and do it.