I think it’s interesting and often helpful to see how other homemakers arrange their days and weeks. This Week With Dee is the start of a weekly feature in which I’ll share our menu, my planned household 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 listening to Paris jazz café music as I write this blog post. I have a cup of coffee at my side and my new Paris Café candle is burning. I may not be able to go to Paris just now but I can pretend! Click the picture below if you’d like to listen as you read this post.
First up, here is our menu for the week. As always, things are subject to change but I still like to have a starting place.
Menu
Monday…
- Moroccan chicken and veggies (this has been on my menu three weeks running but I WILL be making it tonight!)
- rice
- naan bread
Tuesday…
- Easy, Cheesy Black Bean Enchiladas
- green salad
Wednesday…
- roasted chicken
- mashed potatoes and gravy
- steamed broccoli
- biscuits
Thursday,,,
We have a meeting with our AdaFest committee at a local outdoor venue. Last month (our first in-person meeting now that all are vaccinated) we ordered Door Dash after the meeting and enjoyed dinner with another couple. We will probably do likewise this week. We got Chinese food last time. I’m thinking Mexican this time.
Friday…
- pork chops
- baked potatoes
- peas
- salad
Saturday…
- homemade soup (use up leftovers for this)
- grilled cheese sandwiches
Sunday…
- takeout for Mother’s Day
In My Home
I haven’t been following The FlyLady zones for some time. Being home almost constantly during the pandemic I haven’t felt the need for that much structure. I’ve just cleaned what looked like it needed cleaning. But our schedule is picking up a tiny bit and I want to fit in time to work in the yard, too. I think it’s best if I get back to a more routine cleaning schedule.
We are in Zone 2 – the kitchen this week. This works well for me because I washed the kitchen rugs a couple of days ago and want to get the floors mopped before putting them back. I include our laundry room in Zone 2, as well. Here are the tasks I plan to do this week:
- mop kitchen floor and replace washed rugs
- clean refrigerator
- replace burned out bulb in one of the kitchen light fixtures
- clean light fixtures
- some decluttering/organizing in the laundry room (ongoing project!)
- mop laundry room
Other tasks:
- change decor over entry arch
- drop off extra grocery bags at local church for their food bank (I have a LOT from over a year’s worth of grocery delivery!)
- start moving some houseplants outdoors
- clean porch table and chairs
- buy a few flowering plants for front porch
Work
We have an AdaFest committee meeting Thursday and there are a few things I need to get done before then:
- Get a PayPay account for our nonprofit.
- Figure out how to link the PayPal account on the AdaFest website.
- Print out spreadsheet of bands that have applied to play AdaFest.
Blog related:
- Write next installment of the Home Ec series for Life With Dee.
- Write recipe blog post.
- Work on Amazon store for Life With Dee.
Reading
The current reads in my Morning Basket are:
Dorothy Parker: Complete Poems
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
I read a few pages from each every morning. I generally have three books going at a time. One spiritual, one poetry and one self-development.
I’m finishing up last month’s LWD Book Club selection – The Enchanted April. I have a little over an hour left in the audiobook. I used to listen to audiobooks in the car all the time but since I don’t go much of anywhere these days it’s taking a lot longer to finish one.
I’ve just started this month’s LWD Book Club selection – Someday in Paris. This is my bedtime read. I love holding a “real” book but my bedtime read is always something on Kindle so I don’t need to have the light on. David goes to sleep quite a bit before I do.
Self Care
My daily self care generally includes meditation (I love the Chopra app), writing in my journal and afternoon teatime. A few other things I plan to do this week include:
- Stargazing – This is a favorite of mine and it looks like Wednesday and Thursday nights will be clear this week.
- Color in my newest adult coloring book. I find this so relaxing and one of the few things that shuts off my over-active mind.
- Give myself a manicure and pedicure. Now that it’s sandal weather I’m back to polishing my toenails.
- Color my hair. This is one of the things I’ve missed during the pandemic – salon hair coloring! I need to see if my stylist has been vaccinated. If so, I plan to schedule an appointment when the salon is empty soon! I’ll still be doing my own this week but hopefully next month I can get a cut, color and highlights.
Health and Fitness
I am determined to really focus on my health. Here are my goals this week:
- Drink 6 glasses of water a day. I’ve been consuming more tea and coffee than I probably should. Time to shift the focus to water.
- 20 minutes a day on the treadmill
- Consume at least two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables per day.
- Get at least 7 hours of sleep per night. I rarely sleep more than a couple of hours in a row but I’m going to at least make sure I get a total of 7. Even if it takes me 10 hours in bed to accomplish that!
- Get outdoors some each day.
Fun Activities
- Watch a movie with Chris – During the pandemic I’ve been going over to Chris’ (our adult son who lives next door) house to watch a movie with him once a week. We usually watch a classic or a foreign film. He has an impressive film collection.
- Listen to vinyl albums with David. We bought a couple of albums this past weekend and I’d like to have a little “listening party” with him.
Well, that about wraps things up. I think that will keep me plenty busy this week, don’t you think? Let me know what you think of this new blog feature and if there’s something else you’d like me to include. My plan is to give a brief accounting of the previous week each Monday. Maybe this will help keep me accountable!
I’d love to hear what you have planned for the week. Leave me a comment below and have a beautiful week!
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A day in my life ~ A look back
I enjoyed it! I felt like I need to join you in water, vege and fruit additions. I’m starting back with physical therapy tomorrow, trying to gain some strength back that I lost from sitting at home for a year. We shall see how it goes.
I haven’t done all that great with my dietary choices this past year but instead of eliminating anything I figure a better approach is to add healthy foods in the hope of crowding out some other things. I hope the physical therapy goes well. I’m participating in a daily exercise challenge for the next thirty days. We can do whatever exercise we want so I’m going to do 20 minutes a day on the treadmill or walk outdoors when the weather is nice. I hope that it will become a habit at that point.
I loved reading this. I follow the Side Track Home Executives method of house cleaning. I moved from cards to Todoist on my phone and have recently moved to Cozi. I love the layout and it keeps me on task. I will request Someday in Paris from the library. Have a lovely week. We’re off to a nursery today to buy flowers for our pots. Mother’s Day weekend is the best weekend here in Washington for planting outdoors.
I hope you found some lovely flowers for your pots. I think I’ll go get some on Friday. I never bought any last year because of the pandemic so I might splurge on some extras this year.
It’s interesting that you mention the Side Track Executives. I read the book many, many years ago and even set up a card file. I didn’t really follow through using it but several months ago I got the idea to try it again. I bought a really nice wooden file box and the index cards. And that’s as far as I got. My plan is to implement it for awhile and then do a blog post about it. We’ll see if that actually happens – ha!
I loved this post. I always find it interesting getting a peek in to what’s happening in other people’s lives. It’s why I got so in to blogging originally after I discovered it. 😉
I’ve gotten really bad about routines. My reaction to the jab hit me so hard there was no way I could do more than the essential tasks each day, and even those required a lot of willpower to complete. I’m still not feeling back to my normal, but I’ve seen a bit of improvement, and it reached the point where I knew I had to start tackling those non-essential tasks too. So I’m trying to catch up as best I can, while also attempting to remember to rest when I need to, which I’m bad about not doing, because I just want to get things done. You suffer with issues from fatigue, so I’m sure you know what I mean with that.
You sure have had a rough time of it. I hope you get back to normal soon.
I’m glad you enjoyed this post. Like you, I enjoy seeing how other people live. Sometimes I get ideas to add to my own life but even if I don’t, I still find it really interesting.
Thanks. I hope I do too.
Yeah, same here: sometimes I find things that might work for me, other times I don’t, but it’s always interesting.