This Week With Dee – where I share our menu, my planned home tasks for the week, what I’m reading, self care plans and more. I hope it will give you some ideas for planning your own week or at least a glimpse of one homemaker’s life.
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THIS WEEK WITH DEE
I’m starting to feel a bit more motivation. The coming of spring usually does that for me. Let’s hope it sticks around! Pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea, click the playlist below and let’s see what the week has in store.
MENU:
I pulled out a few cookbooks and selected some new recipes for this week. Sometimes you just need to change things up. The new-to-me recipes include curried chickpeas, shepherd’s skillet and round steak casserole. If we really like any of these I’ll try to remember to share them.
Monday…
- curried chickpeas
- rice
- naan bread
- apple slices
Tuesday…
- chicken tacos
- refried beans
- chips and salsa
Wednesday…
- Shepherd’s Skillet
- broccoli
- salad
Thursday…
- round steak casserole (crockpot)
- salad
- biscuits
Friday…
- baked parmesan fish filets
- baked potatoes
- asparagus
- salad
Saturday…
- leftovers or takeout
Sunday…
- “breakfast for dinner”
IN MY HOME:
REVIEW OF LAST WEEK
One of the highlights of the past week was a very pleasant patio lunch with David on Wednesday. It was sunny and in the low-70s. Absolutely perfect! We went to a barbecue restaurant and I had a delicious salad with smoked chicken on it. It was so nice to have this little mid-week “date” with my husband. We had the patio to ourselves which was lovely but I have no idea why people in our area crowd indoors (especially during a pandemic!) instead of enjoying perfect weather. We joke that they must be afraid of fresh air.
While eating lunch we received a text from a friend asking if we’d like to meet them Thursday evening for an event at a local outdoor venue. They were showcasing local vendors of cigars, stout and hand-forged knives. While none of those are on our to-buy list, it was great to see friends and enjoy some socializing. We picked up dinner to-go afterwards at a nearby restaurant.
Sadly, my niece’s 12 year old son passed away on Saturday following a heroic battle with cancer the past 7 months. His name was Bryson and I know the family would appreciate your thoughts and prayers during this time of tremendous grief.
THIS WEEK
I have three Zoom meetings/calls this week – Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The Wednesday meeting is at 9 a.m. and it looks to be a fairly nice day so that’s when I’m planning to pick up a grocery order for ourselves and my mom.
I’m continuing my spring cleaning. All I’ve done so far is to thoroughly dust 11 of the 19 shelves in the large, built-in bookcase in our family room. I should finish that today. That still leaves the bookshelves at the top of the stairs, in my office and our library. Not to mention the bookcase of cookbooks in the kitchen and several other smaller collections of books. I’d love to finish all of these this week but that’s unlikely.
WORK
I’m pleased to say I achieved “inbox zero” yesterday. I also went through a bunch of email files and deleted a TON of stuff. Yes, I’m an email hoarder. I do have things well-organized in files but I tend to keep things way past their usefulness. My goal is to do “inbox zero” at least once a month in order to stay on top of things.
I’m working on creating a cohesive collection of my Francophile posts here on the blog. Some of the older ones need a bit of updating. And I want to organize links to all of them in one easy-to-navigate page.
I’m also determined to work on my book. I am going to write for a total of 3 hours a week. And I’m scheduling that time!
READING
I didn’t do much reading last week other than the books I read a bit from each morning. I did listen to perhaps 30-45 minutes of The Blue Castle on Scribd. I’d like to finish it this week. We’ll see…
SELF CARE
I haven’t been sleeping well…at all. I know this keeps showing up here but more sleep is something I need to keep striving for. I did buy an annual subscription to Calm. I’ve heard good things about the “sleep stories” and want to give those a try.
HEALTH & FITNESS
My kids and I are going to form a team to do a walking challenge later this month. It’s a virtual “Trail of Tears” walk. We are Choctaw and I think this will be meaningful for us. I need to get back in the swing of things and work up to it over the next couple of weeks.
FUN ACTIVITIES
Our weather will be on the cooler side this week so unless that changes, we don’t have any outdoor plans. I did buy myself a new puzzle which I’d like to get started on.
HABIT OF THE WEEK
I haven’t been playing the piano at all lately and I’d like to get back into the habit.
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What’s on your plan for the week ahead? Home tasks? Menu? Fun? What are you reading?
You may also enjoy…
What’s For Dinner? ~ Two Weeks of Meal Ideas
Making the Most of Our Time at Home ~ 15 Ways to Avoid Boredom
5 Favorite Family Film Classics to Enjoy Together
I’m really sorry to hear about Bryson. My thoughts are with his family.
I’m glad it was an otherwise good week for you by the sound of it. Awesome job on achieving inbox zero! Sounds like a busy week ahead. Hope it’s going well, and the weather is staying nice. I like that you’re looking through your recipes to try some new ones.
I’m doing a bit of a freezer and cupboard clear out, and right in the middle of it I got given a bunch of cans of veggies, all of which are peas, carrots, and sweetcorn. Not to mention the several cans of chickpeas I still have from the last time someone gave me a bunch of cans of things. So I’m playing with various ways of cooking with the same ingredients to use those up too, while throwing in some new stuff from time to time. Anyway, this is my menu for this week:
Monday: pasta with tomato sauce.
Tuesday: root vegetable mash with peas, carrots, and sweetcorn.
Wednesday: leftovers from Tuesday.
Thursday: take-away.
Friday: tofu omelette, baked potato, and peas.
Saturday: sweetcorn fritters, chips, and peas.
Sunday: chickpea burgers, baked potatoes, and mixed vegetables.
As for how my week looks…
I have a bunch of calls to make, including chasing up a repair guy and a dog groomer. Lilie has a vet checkup Friday. I have six Zoom calls to go to that I just want to for fun, or because they’re meetings I regularly attend (not counting the daily check-in). I’ve got the book club I co-facilitate Friday too. And I’m also hosting Zoom meetings at least twice, possibly three times (won’t know about Sunday until the last moment, because we get the schedule on Saturdays). The other things I need to do this week are to submit an article and advert that are going in an online magazine I sometimes contribute to, and have promised something for, as well as send a message to an audio book narrator telling her I want something by the end of the month or she’s off the project. Other than that it’s just dealing with the usual day to day stuff like housework and eMails and such. And hopefully getting some reading done too, since I’m unfortunately not getting as much of that done as I’d like.
I hope your week has been going well. We got a tiny bit of snow this morning and I thought of you.
I’m going to be sharing a vegan recipe using canned chickpeas soon!
It’s not been too bad of a week. Great about the recipe. I could use some inspiration for using them up.
Bryson and your family have been added to my prayer list. I can’t imagine what a terrible loss this is.
Thank you. The death of a child is really tragic.
Thanks for sharing your life with us. I spent the whole day in my P.J.s my left shoulder gives me alot of pain when I do things. Very disappointed my shoulder surgery was moved to April 22 instead of the 5th. Dr. became sick. I have been putting this surgery off since 1/2015. The recovery time is long 6-12 months. Finally got one of two topiary cut back. Trying to whip the yard into shape so I do not have to look at the weeds during my mending time. My husband has been working on our living room. I was only able to paint the walls. Dan is putting in new base board in and finished the fancy trim around the drop ceiling. Looks mighty French. It really helps my mood to do yard work in the sunshine. By the way I have a problem falling asleep also. I find it help fully to get into a position I wake up in and slow down my breathing, paying attention to breath in thru the noise and out the mouth. I never know when I fell asleep. Hope this helps…. Best Nights ahead, Barbara Ann
So sorry about the surgery delay! And thanks for the sleep tip. I’ll try it.