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 writing to y’all during a co-working Zoom call I’ve been really enjoying lately. We “meet” for a few hours and alternate between 45 minutes of work time and 15 minutes of chat. It’s a lovely way to have some interaction with others. I also find that the structure helps me stay focused.
I’ve been thinking about hosting my own for the LWD community. Would anyone be interested? I’m thinking one afternoon a week for a couple of hours. We could use the work time for a project or cleaning or whatever. Then we could chat for a few minutes every half hour or so. Let me know if that sounds fun to you.
Now, turn up your speakers and enjoy this lovely music…
David left this morning for a short work trip and will return Wednesday night or Thursday. I’m not sure what he’ll think of tofu so I’m trying out a recipe with it tonight. I figure if Chris doesn’t care for it he can always run to town for fast food – ha!
MENU:
Monday…
- lemon garlic tofu (new recipe – Thanks to Tori, a blogger and LWD reader)
- asparagus
- salad
- French rolls
Tuesday…
- Lentil Tacos
- chips & salsa
Wednesday…
- whole roasted cauliflower with cheese sauce
- roasted mixed veggies
- sautéed spinach
Thursday…
- Penne Mediterranean (didn’t make it last week)
- salad
- garlic toast
Friday…
- fish and chips
- Crunchy Broccoli Slaw
Saturday…
- leftovers or takeout
Sunday…
- homemade soup
- grilled cheese sandwiches
- fresh fruit
What’s on your menu this week?
IN MY HOME:
REVIEW OF LAST WEEK
David and I ran errands together Friday. I needed to pick up my Azure Standard co-op order and do a few other things. David needed to pick up something he had made at a local machine shop and take it out to Francis (where he used to work before he started working from home). We decided to do all our errands together. Here is what we did:
– got gas in my car
– mailed a condolence card
– washed and vacuumed my car (It was positively green with pollen!)
– picked up my co-op order
– I ran into the grocery store for lettuce, fresh produce, butter and bread (didn’t do a grocery order this week but needed just a few items)
– dropped off some donations at the local ReUse Center
– picked up the part from the machine shop
– drove out to Francis so David could give the part to the mechanic
– drove back to town to get cat food
– got lunch at Whip Dip, a local drive-thru with really good burgers
Whew! It was nice to get all of our errands over with at once and together. I’m thinking this might be something we start doing regularly.
David and I both had a productive weekend. He’s been working on re-doing the flower beds across the front of the house. They used to be full of ivy which also grew up the pillars on the porch. I love vines. David hates them. For some reason, the ivy died this winter. He swears he didn’t do it. 😉
He knew I was unhappy to lose my vines so he offered to rebuild the beds and plant evergreen hedges and bushes in them. The landscape timbers were disintegrating anyway. He pulled them all out, along with the dead ivy, and is making the beds a little deeper. I want to have enough room in front of the hedges to plant flowers each spring.
Because he likes to do things properly, he is pouring concrete footings and putting rebar in them. He’ll then put landscape timbers on top of the concrete so they aren’t touching the ground. This should make them last a lot longer and look neater.
My big job for the weekend was changing my kitchen curtains. I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal but we have two large picture windows and another window over the sink. I had to take down the red and white check curtains, Well, actually David did the picture windows for me because he could just reach up and get them whereas I have to climb a step stool. That saved me 8 trips up and down the step stool.
I have a set of white curtains with black and white gingham ruffles. I like to have them up in the spring and summer for a lighter and brighter look. The red and white is warm and cheery for fall and winter. I ran the white curtains through a rinse cycle and dried them one piece at a time so I could take it directly from the dryer and hang it up. In the past I’ve ironed them but with all the ruffles it takes FOREVER! By doing it this way I avoided ironing.
While the curtains were down I took all the plants out of the window sills and washed the windows. I also took down the decorative plates and items on the ledges over the windows, wiped everything down and replaced them. There are decorative shelves on either side of the window over the sink and I took everything off, cleaned the shelves and washed the decor items before replacing.
It all looks so bright and clean for springtime! But oh, was I ever tired and sore!
I also cleaned and organized the bottom section of our floor-to-ceiling pantry. That part has two very deep pull-out drawers. These are where I keep beans, lentils, rice, pasta, grains, chips, crackers and croutons. A number of things had fallen off the back of the shelves where there is a gap of several inches. I threw away a number of expired items. I hate to waste food like that. But now I have a good grasp of what I have and should be able to stay on top of things better.
I’d love to have all matching containers like those beautiful Instagram pantries. Maybe someday!
The other household task I did was to declutter several drawers in the storage closet. We have eight of these plastic organizers with three little drawers each.
When we were homeschooling, many of the drawers housed craft items for the kids. There are some things I still use but there was a lot that I don’t. I threw away old dried up paints and clay. I’ve set aside some items that are still in good shape for a friend’s young daughter who is very artistic.
If you have space for them, these organizers are really handy. As of a few years ago, we no longer have a junk drawer. Instead, I keep things organized in these. There is one with nails, screws, and small repair items which used to just get dumped in a huge, jumbled mess of a junk drawer. I also have drawers for envelopes, labels, glue, tape, extra pens and pencils, scrapbooking paper, etc. I’m still in the process of decluttering and re-organizing all these drawers. For instance, do I still need a drawer just for bottles of glitter? I haven’t decided yet – ha!
THIS WEEK
As I mentioned, David is away for a few days. That’s usually a good time for me to get some extra projects done in the evenings. If it’s warm enough I’d like to work on the front porch and the patio. They both need a thorough cleaning.
I also want to go through some old notebooks and papers to see what I can part with.
WORK
As you may have noticed, I didn’t get any extra blog posts done last week as I had hoped. I’m going to give that another shot this week. I also have a lot of old posts that need to be updated. There are broken links to address and many could use better photos or the addition of updated information and sources. I did one yesterday. A couple of the articles I had linked to were no longer active so I looked up some new ones. I also added links to some resources.
Create a Beautiful Life With a Stargazing Ritual
I have so much old content here on the blog and over time, some of the posts become outdated in one way or another. I want to begin systematically updating and expanding posts where I can so they will offer more value to my readers.
READING
No significant change from last week. Still plugging along with several books. I’d like to actually finish something this week!
SELF CARE
I need to give myself a manicure and a pedicure sometime this week. That might be a good project while watching a movie one of the nights David is away.
HEALTH & FITNESS
I’m trying a new recipe using tofu tonight. We are trying to transition to more of a plant-based diet. One thing we tried recently were the Earth Grown Veggie Burgers from Aldi. We put them on toasted brioche buns and topped with cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, bread & butter pickles, and grilled onions. With good buns and all those toppings we found them quite tasty. And they are so easy to prepare. I’m going to keep some on hand in the freezer because they make a super easy meal. I put them on a sheet pan along with frozen french fries to bake together. I mixed up a quick homemade coleslaw on the side.
I’d like to find several super easy plant-based recipes using ingredients I can keep on hand. If you have any favorites, please send them my way!
FUN ACTIVITIES
We don’t have anything scheduled this week. I’d like to begin doing “artist dates”. If you’ve read “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron you’ll be familiar with the concept. If not, here is the author’s description:
Artist Dates are assigned play.
The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly “artistic” — think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the
imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well of images and inspiration. When choosing an Artist Date, it is good to ask
yourself, “what sounds fun?” — and then allow yourself to try it.
I actually made a rather extensive list of artist date ideas for myself not long ago. I’m somewhat limited because I’m avoiding crowded indoor situations due to Covid. Yet, I was still able to come up with around 85 ideas! Now I just need to start doing them.
If you’ve ever done artist dates I’d love to hear what you did.
~~~~~
What’s on your plan for the week ahead? Home tasks? Menu? Fun? What are you reading?
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I hope you enjoy the tofu – I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts. As I’m sure you aren’t surprised to hear, I have a lot of meat-free recipes of various kinds. Some list eggs or dairy, since I often just make those switches when making the meals, but they’re all at least meat (and fish) free.
I went through “The Artists Way” last year with some members of the ACB. I did a couple of artist dates, but was terrible for forgetting to keep my appointment with myself. I do remember one rather fun one that started as a relaxing bubble bath with a book to listen to, and ended in a bubble and water chasing game with the dogs that made me very glad when hubby offered to be the one to clean up the mess we’d made in the bathroom. LOL!
The Zoom call thing is an interesting idea, though I won’t make promises about attending if you were to set it up.
Sounds like your errand run was incredibly productive. It also sounds like you’ve had a very busy week.
In between various Zoom calls and things, I managed to sort through the craft stuff of my Dad’s he had been insisting I kept separated from my own, but had finally agreed it made sense – from an organization and space perspective, not to mention the unlikelihood of him actually using it considering he no longer does the reenactments he had the stuff to make costumes for – for me to just incorporate in to my own sewing stuff. Managed to clear some more space in my craft room, and empty a storage box that will then be useful when we sort out hubby’s gaming stuff later. I also got my physical braille books properly organized on their shelves. So that’s my office/craft room actually de-cluttered and organized completely at last. Tomorrow my Dad is meant to be coming to fetch one of the sofas we were given, since hubby and I agreed we don’t really need both of them (and getting rid of one of them will make accessing our DVD collection easier, not to mention make our living room less cluttered) so this week’s de-cluttering and organizing job is to move things around in there once the extra sofa is gone, so the room is arranged better.
Besides that, I have two Zoom calls to host (one on Monday, the other on Wednesday) as well as two to facilitate (the cooking call on Tuesday, and this month’s crafty book club call on Sunday). I’m also planning to go to two other Zoom calls (crochet on Tuesday and loom knitting on Thursday).
I’m now reading “The Borrowers Avenged” (the fifth Borrowers novel) by Mary Norton, and “Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone” (the nineth Outlander book) by Diana Gabaldon – I think that’s how you spell her name. I’m also still working my way through “Ivanhoe” by Walter Scott with the 18th and 19th century book club.
As for my menu… It’s a using up leftovers kind of week, so I don’t really have a proper menu.
I’ll bet that feels great to have your office/craft room completely organized!
I didn’t end up making the tofu last night because my son offered to bring home dinner for the two of us. I’m going to make it tonight instead.
Yes, it does. I’ll be glad when I can say the same for the other rooms. We’re making good progress, but still have hubby’s office and some areas of the living room and our bedroom to sort out. Hubby’s office especially is chaotic at the moment.
Well, whenever you make the tofu, I hope you enjoy it. Same goes for the other recipes I sent you.