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.
This post may contain affiliate links and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Read more here.
THIS WEEK WITH DEE
You might have noticed the absence of a “This Week” post last week. But I’m back and ready to embrace a new week.
Let’s kick things off some classic folk music. This playlist evokes so many memories for me. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
MENU:
Monday…
- Mexican chicken, corn, zucchini and black beans
- rice
- avocado slices
Tuesday…
- tacos
- refried beans
Wednesday…
- Vietnamese Shaking Beef
- rice
- marinated red onions
- salad
Thursday…
- dinner at The Lot following AdaFest meeting
Friday…
- pork tenderloin
- mashed potatoes
- asparagus
- salad
Saturday…
- leftovers or soup
Sunday…
- waffles
- eggs
- fresh fruit salad
IN MY HOME:
REVIEW OF LAST WEEK
David was out of town on business from Tuesday morning to Friday night last week. I got my Covid booster shot on Monday and while I didn’t have any unusual reaction, I was pretty tired Tuesday. I gave myself permission to just take it easy. I slept unusually well Tuesday night and felt great on Wednesday.
On Thursday I drove to Oklahoma City for the funeral of a very dear man. Jeff was my choir director in University Chorus way back in the early 80s and then served as our church choir director for 18 years before moving away several years ago. I have loved and admired both he and his dear wife, Doris, for decades.
There was an invitation to join the Westminster Presbyterian Church choir for his memorial service and I knew there was no better way for me to honor his memory than to sing for him one last time. It turned out to be quite the ordeal for me to get there (minor car trouble, two lengthy delays due to road construction and a third delay due to a traffic issue) and I was 15 minutes late for the rehearsal. I started to question whether I was getting some sort of sign that I shouldn’t go.
But despite the problems getting there, I’m glad I went. The service was glorious and a truly fitting tribute to a man who had devoted his entire life to music. The postlude was Toccata on Amazing Grace (arranged by Christopher Pardini) played magnificently on the pipe organ. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one utterly overcome by this triumphant music.
I was pretty tired Friday so the main thing I did was pick up and put away a two-week grocery order. David was home from his business trip around 5:30. We had both had very late lunches and opted to skip dinner.
On Saturday we met friends in Norman for a late lunch. It was a lovely day and we enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the restaurant’s patio. We had hotel reservations for that night so after we all checked in we met in the hotel lobby for cocktails and conversation until we were ready for dinner.
We took an Uber to Red Rock Canyon Grill on Lake Hefner. They don’t take reservations but we put ourselves on a waitlist prior to our arrival. It was about an hour wait but none of us minded. We sat on the patio enjoying one another’s company and the occasional siting of a sailboat coming in with lights on (it was well after dark).
It was a perfect night for outdoor dining, something we don’t take for granted in Oklahoma. We all took our time enjoying the cool breeze off the lake as we ate.
Back to the hotel for another round of cocktails and still more conversation before calling it a night around midnight. We met up for brunch the next morning and then said our goodbyes. It was a truly wonderful weekend and a much-needed getaway for us all. We were supposed to have attended a Sheryl Crow concert Saturday night and had bought our tickets a few months ago. However, we decided it wasn’t a good idea under the current Covid situation and opted for safer weekend plans instead. I can’t say I was truly disappointed as we had such a fabulous time anyway.
THIS WEEK
I have a webinar this evening, a Zoom meeting Wednesday morning and an AdaFest meeting Thursday at The Lot (outdoor music and food truck venue). I also have workshop Zoom calls every afternoon this week.
Other than all those Zoom calls/meetings my primary goal this week is to work on our patio. We ordered furniture for the patio and I want to get it all cleaned up and decorated. Our weather is beautiful right now and I want to take advantage of that by planning some barbecues with our kids and friends before winter arrives.
WORK
I have a bit of work to do for our nonprofit and hope to do two more blog posts this week. If the notecards we ordered for our nonprofit arrive this week I need to write thank you notes to all of our sponsors.
READING
I’m still reading West With Giraffes but hope to have it done by Friday when the October LWD Book Club selection will be announced here on the blog.
SELF CARE
It’s prime stargazing season!
HEALTH & FITNESS
I’m focusing on nutrition this week by increasing fruit and vegetable intake.
FUN ACTIVITIES
I want to make sure we have one or two movie nights this week. I now have the new streaming channel – France Channel – so I’d love to watch a French movie.
HABIT OF THE WEEK
An earlier bedtime and reading before I fall asleep is the habit I’m working on this week.
~~~~~
What’s on your plan for the week ahead? Home tasks? Menu? Fun? What are you reading?
You may also enjoy…
10 Ways to Add Beauty to Your Everyday Life
Oh, my gosh, this MUSIC! Classic folk tunes! These were the songs of my teens and early 20’s and I have to say I was weeping over the memories of that time in my life. That music played an enormous part in my outlook on life. How I miss some of these artists! Thank you so much for sharing this.
I was hoping someone else would feel that way. Isn’t it wonderful? I’m going to recreate this on Spotify so it will be easy to listen to on my phone while stargazing.
I enjoy your playlists – thank you!
Sounds like you’ve had lots of busyness lately, but glad you had a chance to have a fun little getaway, too. We finally had a little getaway ourselves (we haven’t traveled since early March 2020) a couple of weekends ago to St Joseph, MI. It was our anniversary. It’s hard for us to get away because of our two cats, especially the one with kidney disease. She needs a lot of care. Thanks to two good friends, they took turns coming over to take care of the kitties, so we were able to have our little getaway.
I sat down today to make some dinner meal plans and didn’t get very far. I go through these periods where I’m totally uninspired and not in the mood for any particular food or dish. I still need to go through some more cookbooks and my Pinterest boards. All I know is that tomorrow night, I’m going to make a chicken-broccoli-egg noodle casserole.
Have a good week!
I’m glad you finally got a chance to get away. And I’m so glad you are enjoying the music. I used this YouTube playlist to inspire the October playlist that I’ll be sharing in the newsletter tomorrow.
I totally get the uninspired thing. I tried a new recipe last night – Vietnamese Shaking Beef – and we all loved it. It required a couple of ingredients I don’t usually have on hand (oyster sauce and fish sauce) and now I’m looking forward to finding other recipes to use them.
I love classic folk music. Huge John Denver and Jim Croce fan!!!! I’ve been in a bit of a funk last week and am finally back in action and motivation. I posted on the goals I’m working on for the month of October. So excited to be back in action!
I’m glad you enjoyed the music, too. I had high hopes for a productive Monday but I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep. Hopefully I can join you in being back in action tomorrow!
Sorry for your loss, but glad you were able to get away for a few days.
Having spent the last weekend of September hanging out in A&E, my plans for last week involved getting to see a dentist to deal with my dental issues, an appointment to go back to the hospital to have my bloods checked again, and an early birthday outing that I was determined to go to and enjoy despite how bad I was feeling. Luckily that was it for my plans, since it was all I managed to achieve. And I scrapped what should have been my menu in favour of having anything I could actually manage to eat, because eating only increased the pain from the abscess I had.
You’ve sure had a rough go of it lately. Hope you are on the road to recovery.
I’m getting there.