To Do List for the Second Week of November: Will I?

 

Oh, the things I plan to do and then don't!  I could play catch-up with last week's list...

Tell me why, when I've planned to spend the day on the back porch getting wet and dirty, I refuse to do it while it's raining?  As if I'd be any less wet and dirty when I was all done with the task on a sunny day!  Yet my mind simply said, "Nope!  Not while it's raining, I'm not!"  Which means the patio and front porch didn't get swept clean of leaves either.  Among other things.  But I did get about half the tasks done and then did a few other things that weren't on the list, plus I read two books.  How's that for accomplishments? 

Ah well.  If at first...and all that good stuff about trying again, right?

1.  Too late to buy Caleb a card, but I've four more birthdays this month that I really ought to get birthday cards for.  Two will be late.  The recipients are so young that just the act of getting mail will likely be a thrill.  Two may make it on time, but with Georgia's mail system these days, who knows?  I'll skip getting Caleb one unless of course, I get it on the way to his party on Saturday...

While I'm out buying cards, I'll try to count up all that I need and see if I can get them in bulk somewhere online...And I'll order them.  I'm serious about my resolve to be better about this next year!

2.  Clean the back porch.  I'm focusing on this because it is the entryway most likely to be used by ourselves and most everyone else.  True strangers come to the front door.  Delivery folks, acquaintances and family all come to the back. Get leaves off front porch and patio.

3.  Pick up the limbs I pruned last week.  And prune the other rosebushes and that bit of tree I saw peeking out the backside of the flower bed after I pruned it last week.

4.  Deadhead the mums, pull spent pots of flowers.

5.  Get donations out of the house.  I've a whole bag of things to donate once again.  I will go through my closet one last time before I take that bag out though.  Might as well let go of something else if it's not being worn.

6.  Purchase pots, soil, bark, compost for the planters.

7.  Buy a new flag to replace my tattered one.

8. Continue to ponder resolutions for 2025.

9.  It's pay week.  Get the check book balanced, and set aside funds, etc. Bills are already paid so I shall not have to write out anything but tithes and one other check.  We'll get banking done for the month. 

10.  Get a turkey or turkey breast.  Pumpkin. I've a short list of things I'm completely out of (raisins, potatoes, lime juice... Not the usual stuff I'd buy but the occasional things we use).  

I've purposely put off buying anything at the grocery until pay day has come.  I've always given myself permission to buy food ahead of time, but I find more and more I'm trying to leave it off until we have a fresh allotment of funds in the grocery budget.  It's a good exercise to figure out what I can use as a substitute or what to keep on hand for substitutions.

Anyway, now that pay day is upon us, I feel safe restocking my kitchen for the month as well as the holiday wants.

11.  Work ahead on blog posts.

12.  Continue with the new method of housekeeping.  I didn't get it exactly the way I wanted last week but I still think it's the way to go.

13.  Again: Pin down how I want to decorate for Christmas.  I don't think I'll be buying much of anything. It's really a matter of color and theme. I have more than enough ornaments so there will be little need to purchase anything other than ribbon.

14.  Have a meal prep day again this week.  It's such a time saver in the long run, because one day of prep means I can have meals pretty much ready to go if I do get into any projects or tasks that take longer than I've thought it might.

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Journal for the First Week of November

 

Nov. 2, Saturday:  I have just watched the loveliest sunset.  That's something I've been doing routinely for a few weeks now.  The leaves are getting thinner and thinner on the pecan tree outside the living room window so I can see more of the sky than I could in summer.   John may go all around the house shutting shades as early as 5:30 or 6PM but he always leaves the west windows, the ones directly across from our chairs unshaded until after the sun has set.  Tonight's showing was all pale pink and lilac and deep grey blue.

Budget Thanksgiving

 

It's the month when we start looking ahead at Thanksgiving and Christmas and quite possibly New Year's meals.  There are plenty of festive occasions ahead starting at the end of this month and going right through until the start of the New Year ahead.

I've read much about 'budget meals' for these holidays and I thought it would be nice to try and create a few different menus on a budget.  The goal is to have a festive meal, one that doesn't look skimpy but at the same time doesn't send the budget too far astray.  

What's In Season? November 2024

I seriously was thinking this month's list of seasonal foods would be short, but as I looked at various websites, pondered what I typically see in the stores this time of year, etc., I realized that this month is rich in seasonal produce!

Fruits:

Apples

Cranberries

Meal Plans for the First Week of November

 

I think I would benefit from a breakfast plan.  The truth is that usually when I get up, John is ready to eat right away.  I haven't even had coffee, and with no plan, I'm often at a loss what to make.  If I get a plan figured out, I can at least have an idea of what I can do a day ahead to ease my passage, right?  Well, that's the idea anyway.

Lunch seems to be a less tense time.  John would prefer sandwiches, but reality is that we eat leftovers fairly often, too.  

To Do List for November 4-8

 

I've allowed myself to have some rather slow days of late, as in most of October, but I do have jobs I really want to attend to before the weather is cold.  So, there's nothing for it but to get myself busy and do them.  I'm not saying I'll run myself in the ground, but I do mean to get busy and get things done.  Are you ready?

1.  Clean the back porch.  I'll take time to blow off the patio and the front porch, but I want to clean the back porch.  There are things we need to put away, things I just plain want to move off the porch entirely and I want to clean the porch floor especially where the pets eat.  Once I clean those spots, I'll put a rug under their bowls to keep the floor clean.  I know it means I'll have to take them up if it rains so it won't stay wet but even as neatly as they eat, there are greasy spots I just don't want to keep cleaning up.  I save all my old rugs from the house so no expense will be involved.

Journal of the Last Week of October 2024

Saturday:  What a hectic past few hours.  I loved most of the minutes of it, but not quite all of them, lol.  The children came in after school yesterday afternoon.  I had about an hour of rest before they arrived and I'm glad of it because it was bump, bump, bump from the moment they arrived. 

As I assumed, no one wanted a chili dog except Josh.  He put entirely too much mustard on it and rather than scoop it off and start over, he ate about half and then left the rest.  I scooped it all off before giving it to the pets to finish off.  The kids ate Pomegranate with us, surprising me with how readily they tried it.  They ate birthday cake with us.