This Week With Dee ~ Menu, Home Tasks & More (9/11/23)

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

Hello, friends! I hope your week is off to a good start. We actually were in bed by 10:30 last night and I was asleep before 11:30. I slept reasonably well. I think I got up twice but was able to go back to sleep in short order both times. I awoke to a nice, cool morning and enjoyed a nice walk with all the cats and kittens. A good way to start the week!

MENU:

Monday…

Easy meal!

red beans and rice (I have a mix in the pantry. I’ll add sliced, browned smoked sausage and extra plain rice because these mixes are too salty. That will also give us leftovers for lunch.)
coleslaw (I made a cabbage dish last week and have a bit of cabbage left.)
cornbread (I have some leftover from last week.)

Tuesday…

Family favorite!

tacos
chips & salsa

Wednesday…

spaghetti & meatball casserole
salad
garlic bread

Thursday…

homemade vegetable soup
crackers
sliced oranges

Friday…

roasted whole chicken
broccoli rice casserole
rolls (I have three left in the freezer)

Saturday…

leftovers or takeout

Sunday…

grilled steaks (We have three really good steaks in the freezer from my birthday dinner last year. Time to cook them!)
baked potatoes
salad

IN MY HOME:
REVIEW OF LAST WEEK

I’ve started a slow transition to fall decor. We have an archway in our entry hall and I have seasonal decor that goes over the arch. I switched out the springtime flowers for a beautiful fall spray that I bought at the Amish auction a few years ago. I put away the summer throw pillows from the family room and put out the fall ones. We have two tables in our family room and I switched out the light blue nautical placemats for warm colored ones with roosters on them. I also put away the light blue pillar candle on one of the tables and brought out a peach cobbler scented candle that my mom gave me last year.

I also hung the fall wreath on the front porch. I’ve had this one for a couple of decades and would really like a new one. But every one I’ve liked has been SO expensive! I’m not sure I feel justified in the expense for something I’m the only one who will even notice. But hey, if you happen to see something nice on sale online somewhere, let me know.

THIS WEEK

I’m getting back into The FlyLady zones. This week is Zone 3 which is the bathroom and one extra room. This month I’m doing the laundry room and my office for Zone 3 work. The bathrooms are in decent shape so I’m focusing on these, instead. My plan is to work 5-15 minutes each day in each of those two rooms.

Here is an example:

Laundry Room – Today is the day I wash bedding. That will be two loads since I’m washing the new mattress pad in addition to the sheets. After those are washed and dried, I will wipe down the washer and dryer. I am also going to give the laundry sink a good scrub.

My Office – I put away the summer throw pillows from the family room and got out the fall ones. I store our seasonal pillows in large totes in my office closet. I also plan to deal with the piles on my drafting table. Here is what it currently looks like:

It’s all too easy to use this surface for books, mail, magazines, and other things I need to deal with. But I want to keep the surface available for projects so I’m tackling the piles today.

I’m planning to try to get to the farmers market early Wednesday morning and hope they’ll still have some good produce. Afterwards, I have two stops to drop off donations. Finally, I’ll run into Braum’s to pick up frozen garlic bread to go with our spaghetti & meatball casserole. I’ll check with my mom first to make sure she doesn’t need anything. I’m trying to keep her out of Walmart because Covid is on the rise and she’s so vulnerable. I bought her groceries last Thursday and she eats so very little these days.

WORK

I’m working on a long blog post about Autumn. I plan to post it September 23rd, the autumn equinox.

I’m also still working on getting a month’s worth of social media posts scheduled. I post regularly on the Life With Dee Facebook page, the LWD private FB group and my French Chic Facebook group.

READING

I listened to about an hour and a half of The Well-Lived Life, this month’s LWD Book Club selection last week in the car. I had hoped to finish it last week but I still have over 4 hours left. Maybe I should take my phone when I walk.

This month’s artist is Leonardo da Vinci and I’ve been reading from this:

This month’s poet is Walt Whitman so I’ve been reading from this:

And I continue to read from The Living Bible – The Book of Common Prayer daily lectionary readings. I got behind during our travels in August but I’m almost caught up.

If you don’t already have Audible, you can get a free trial here. We’ve definitely been enjoying it on these long drives.

SELF CARE

My plan for this past week was to do a manicure and pedicure. I did the manicure with clear polish. I removed the polish from my toenails and trimmed them. I didn’t polish them because I want to order a new color for fall. This is the one I’m looking at:

I’ll probably order it today and is should be here by Saturday.

HEALTH & FITNESS

I’m doing fairly well with my walking challenge. There was one day I only did 7 minutes, another I did just 20 and one day I missed entirely. But otherwise, I’ve done 30 minutes a day. I walked 20 minutes this morning and will do another 10-15 after dinner.

I’m also doing well with my morning exercises on weekdays. I need to do them on weekends, too, but 5 days a week isn’t bad.

FUN ACTIVITIES

We’ve now done our Friday night “Cocktails and The O.C.” two weeks in a row. We watched three episodes this week.

On Thursday night we drafted Fantasy Football teams. This is a family team plus a few friends to round it out. We used to do Fantasy Football at a local restaurant. They are closed on Sundays but would let us do the draft there on a Sunday afternoon in the bar. That was always fun. They had a plaque on the wall where we would have the winner’s name engraved each year. Guess who won twice? Yep. Me. Do I know a lot about NFL football? Nope. But the rest of my family does and it’s something fun for us all to do the next few months. The trash talk on the chat is the best part. 🙂

Are you wondering if I actually did an artist date this past week? Well, not exactly but sort of. I started a Pinterest board for artist date ideas and then spent the better part of an hour reading blog posts and watching YouTube for ideas to add to my ongoing list of ideas. And I’ve decided what I’m doing this week. I’ll tell you about it next week.

HABIT OF THE MONTH (September)

For the month of September, our LWD group challenge is to take a daily walk. I’m committing to a 30 minute walk every day but if you want to join, choose what’s right for you.