This Week With Dee ~ Menu, Home Tasks & More (8/7/23)

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

We are going to California this coming week so how about some Beach Boys music today? Some of my fondest high school memories include driving around in my 1966 Mustang playing Beach Boys (on 8-track!). Even better were the times I rode with David in his Mustang to spend the weekend at his mom’s condo in San Clemente. The Beach Boys music will always trigger those memories.

We leave Saturday so I’m keeping meals pretty easy this week and using up fresh ingredients.

MENU:

Monday…

tuna melts on brioche buns
pasta salad
chilled peaches

Tuesday…

Mexican casserole
salad
tortilla chips & salsa

Wednesday…

spaghetti and meatballs
salad
mixed veggies
crusty French rolls

Thursday…

pork tenderloin
baked potatoes
Brussels sprouts
salad

Friday…

scrambled eggs with peppers and onion
veggie sausage patties
toast
orange juice

Saturday…

out of town

Sunday…

out of town

IN MY HOME:
REVIEW OF LAST WEEK

David was out of town Tuesday through late Thursday night. I spent a lot of time on a blog post Tuesday:

Get Organized With the Perfect Planner

On Wednesday I returned a library book, mailed a card, picked up some donations from Lisa and took those, plus my own, to our church for the rummage sale. It was SO HOT that day! When I got back in my car after taking things into the church fellowship hall the temperature read 105 in my car. That just about wore me out.

Thursday I washed the porch cushions. With all the cats and kittens we now have, they were covered with cat hair. I cleaned another drawer in my stove and lined it like I did the one last week.

David got home after midnight that night. It had been a 19 hour day for him and he was exhausted. He had flown on a packed flight with lots of people returning from vacations. He’s been isolating from me until we know he didn’t catch Covid. Now that we are using both downstairs bedrooms as offices we no longer have a guest room. We bought an inflatable mattress for him to use in his office for this purpose.

Now if, like me, you are decluttering, here is a cautionary tale. When I went to make up the bed for him before he got home I couldn’t find the mattress pad I had bought for the inflatable mattress. I think I must have donated it (and it was almost brand new). I went through the chest of drawers in my office (former guest room) and gave away the sheets and other bedding from the guest bed we got rid of. The new mattress pad was probably in there and I didn’t unfold it to see that it was twin size and not double. Oh, well. I made up his bed with two sheets in lieu of the mattress pad. Fortunately the top of the mattress is flocked, not vinyl, so it was okay. Guess I need to order another mattress pad. I see they have it in a pretty blue instead of just white:

Friday, I made a nice dinner since David had been away. We had BBQ chicken, homemade mashed potatoes, gravy and steamed broccoli/carrots/cauliflower. I also made my mom’s favorite Golden Touch Beans and brought them, plus the chicken and mashed potatoes to her for dinner.

Saturday, I cleaned the third and final stove drawer. Actually, David ended up cleaning it for me. He removed the entire drawer when he saw me starting to clean it. I really didn’t want to do it that way because I didn’t want to see the floor under the drawer – ha! The cabinet makers didn’t follow our measurements precisely and the stove barely fits. It hasn’t been moved since we got it wedged in there over 20 years ago. But I once read something in a cleaning book that said if you can’t see it and it doesn’t smell, don’t worry about it. I vacuumed a bit, put the newly clean and lined drawer back in and now I’m back to ignoring the floor under the stove.

The other project I did Saturday was to remove my cookbooks from the two areas I keep them, clean the shelves and replace the cookbooks. I do the edges of the shelves regularly but it had been awhile since I took everything off and throughly cleaned them. It’s the sort of project that no one else would even notice but I enjoyed looking through my collection. Several of the cookbooks belonged to my grandfather who was an incredible cook. It was fun to be reminded of this interest we share.

These shelves are at the end of the kitchen peninsula:

I had way more cookbooks than the other shelves would hold so I had this bookcase custom made.
I store onions and potatoes in those containers on the bottom shelf.

David got up early Sunday morning to go fishing. He’s still isolating from everyone but that was something fun he could still do. I, however, did NOT get up early to go fishing. Ha! I did the usual household chores, this week’s menu, worked on some blog related things and did some reading. It was a pretty low-key day for me.

THIS WEEK

Since we will be leaving for California early Saturday morning, this week will be devoted to getting ready for our trip. I don’t have any extra household tasks or projects planned for this week.

WORK

My biggest goal for this week is to get everything blog-related done for the time we will be away. We return Monday the 21st. I’ll have my laptop with me on the trip but only plan to do a quick check of notifications and essential emails each day.

READING

I finished a re-read of the book Chic and Slim by Anne Barone.

I’m almost done with The More of Less by Joshua Becker. I’ll likely finish it tonight.

David and I enjoy audiobooks on our long road trips. We started The Caine Mutiny on our last trip but it’s a LONG one. We should finish it this time.

SELF CARE

I need to give myself a manicure and a pedicure this week and color my hair before our trip.

HEALTH & FITNESS

I’ve been doing really well sticking with my daily exercise routine. I’m adding a bit more every week or two. I’m trying to work out how to keep up with this habit while traveling. I’m not keen on lying on a hotel room floor, though. I either need to come up with an alternative plan or bring a small mat to lie on.

FUN ACTIVITIES

I regret to say I didn’t watch a single movie while David was away last week. Perhaps I’ll squeeze one in this week.

HABIT OF THE MONTH (August)

Since I’ll be gone quite a bit of this month I decided to host a “choose your own adventure” challenge in the Life With Dee Facebook group for August. I’ve encouraged members to choose their own challenge for the month or repeat one we’ve already done.

If you aren’t already in the group, here is the link: