I haven't shared a post about my plans in a few weeks. Between baby sitting and a general 'all up in the air' sort of mentality, I found it frustrating to try and do much of anything. I couldn't start a big project at any point, I couldn't plan a week properly. In consequence I'd work myself down to a heap of jelly one day and then spend four days sitting about twiddling my thumbs. Well I'm over all that! I need a plan to go by and at least keep me partially focused. Even if big things fall by the way side, I need the accountability to keep me on target in little ways.
So here we are. Me planning the week ahead. Let's see how it goes!
Work: Grocery shopping. I don't need anything except some dairy items. I won't let that stop me from shopping. I'm going to focus on my storage needs/wants. I'd rather spend my money on long term things than let it get absorbed, and it will, into the vast unknown of 'no plans for this budget'. Some of the items I'm looking for are shelf stable milk, both liquid and powdered, cereal which we've gotten woefully low on after months of having boxes and boxes of the stuff, canned meats to piece out our freezer meats.
I have given up on finding whole grain elbow macaroni at the grocery and refuse to pay the asking price for the 'low carb' version, so I ordered a half dozen boxes from Amazon. That's the one pasta item I cannot find in traditional retail, while spaghetti, penne, rigatoni, and even lasagna noodles abound. All that said, to say this, I'll start a list of food items to order. I'd love to think I'm going to go from store to store to shop but I'm not, not in this season. It's stinking hot. It's costly to travel multiple times to the shopping area. I loathe venturing into unfamiliar stores. I cannot see for three minutes with fogged up glasses and can't remove my mask. So aside from the most familiar stores, I'll shop online if it is reasonable.
Bill paying...Which isn't so hard. Mostly it means I'll tot up the checkbook when our check arrives this week. Most all of the bills come due at the end of the month and that money will be set aside. I usually pay as the bills arrive, but there's always one or two that I need to make out a check for right away.
Plan and prep some 'convenience' food items. Here's the deal: I really needed and wanted something convenient this past week due to scarcity of time. I had not done meal prep. I did not have any frozen entrees. I didn't have any frozen convenience foods, aside from hot dogs and burger patties and I can only do those about once each and then I'm done. I need something I can either dump into the crockpot or make quickly at the end of the day. I do like a few convenience foods but loathe a steady diet of commercially prepared convenience food ad nauseum. So I'll make my own. I'm thinking I'll cook taco meat and freeze in portions. Put together a few 'dump' recipes that I can simply put into the crockpot fully frozen when I see that the day is going off track. I'll freeze smaller, individual sized casseroles which thaw more quickly and cook more quickly.
Get curtains washed and quilts aired.
Figure out zones and begin to work them once more. I have been doing the whole house task oriented cleaning lately and rather like it for one job each week, but can't figure out how it might work on a daily basis.
Task oriented cleaning: floors all over house. Deep vacuum, sweep, mop.
Food Prep Day and Gather Fragments.
Weed the flower bed about the Sweet Gum tree. This is partly done so not a huge task.
Clear the sticks from about the Sweet Gum, Pecan, and Faith trees.
Calculate how many blocks to finish off that area around the Sweet Gum and buy them.
Get serious about fall planting and locate seeds online or in retail. Buy soil for pots and bags.
Start work on back porch.
Get front porch paint touched up.
Make a dedicated spreading area for the compost where I can turn it properly. This will likely be something I end up discussing with John as he'll have an opinion on where it will least interfere with his mowing.
Measure the area between the two sheds for future flower or vegetable or combination beds. Figure out how many blocks I'll need. Price them while picking up landscape blocks.
I need to repot or add to the soil of several of my plants. And I have a few that need to be potted now they have rooted.
Get back on the ball with my Math class. I dropped it entirely in July and this first week of August. I was so proud of myself working on that so I'll get busy.
Get an Iced Tea Chat written out and posted.
I know all this looks like a lot but most of these are jobs that take minutes...but I keep missing out on them because I forget about them. Now they are written out, I have a list to remind me of things I can do to help things along.
Plan meals. All three meals. Because we eat at home so often and seldom eat out, I'm finding that without a plan, I am lost. I know this already. So I'll just start planning and plan to plan all three meals instead of just our main meal. We happen to eat three meals every day. It's not like we'll skip a meal, lol.
Breakfasts: Doughnuts, Cheese Cubes
Bagels. I plan to make these from scratch.
English Muffin Sandwiches: I'll try my hand at making these a second time.
Omelet and Hash browns
Cereal with Fruit and Peanut butter Toast
Toasts, Cheese and Buttered
French Toast with Crisp Bacon
Lunches: Cheese and Pepperoni Pizza
out at least once this week
Deli sandwich on grocery day
Tuna Fish Salad, Corn Chips
Pimento Cheese with Potato Chips
Turkey Club Sandwiches
leftovers
Suppers: Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Green Salad, Garlic Toast
I'll wager we skip at least one night due to the lateness we'll eat lunch on grocery day or our day out or both!
Mongolian Chicken, Rice, Broccoli, Pickled Raw Carrot Salad
Twice Baked Potatoes, Green Beans, Tossed Salad
Taco Bowls with Rice, Beans, Chips and toppings
Cubed Steaks, Mashed Potatoes, Peas, Pear Salad
Sausage and Wild Rice Stuffed Acorn Squash with Aioli Drizzle, Butter Beans, Sliced Tomatoes
Leisure: This is one area where I've been lax in July. I either veg out with a game or YouTube and that's it. So I'm going to schedule in reading time and genealogy time and limit YouTube to a set amount of time each day. I have good incentive for the genealogy work since my accidental subscription to Ancestry ends next month and I'd like to make good use of it while I still have it.
I also want to sit on the porch and go visit Millie and maybe push myself to walk (ugh...I can do it all day long in St. Augustine or at the fair but to just walk for walking's sake here on my own property...Still I want to become familiar with my own grounds once more, so I shall walk.
I think that's enough leisure. It's starting to sound like as much work as the work!