Menu Planning Monday - Busy Week

Monday Stuffed boneless porkchops* Faux Rice Pilaf (Rice cooked in beef bouillion with little bits of leftover veggies,chopped onions and celery) Green beans (from garden!) Tuesday Hamburgers on grill Onions, sliced tomatoes Grilled garden vegetables Wednesday (Busy night) Frozen DiGiorno's pizza Green salad Thursday Baked ziti, meatballs Garlic bread Friday Leftover ziti, meatballs Green salad Saturday Roast chicken Mashed potatoes Tomato slices in Italian dressing Sunday My son is cooking dinner!

*Recipe: Stuffed boneless porkchops

4 Boneless pork chops 2 oz Cream cheese 2 tbsp bread crumbs or cracker crumbs Sm. can Black olives, chopped 1/2 tsp Garlic powder or chopped garlic in jar 1/4 tsp black pepper (or to taste) With a sharp knife, slice along one side of the pork chop and continue to slice into the body of the pork chop to make a "pocket" for stuffing. Mix cream cheese, black olives, crumbs and seasonings. Place one large spoonful of seasoned mixture in "pocket" of pork chop. Use one or two toothpicks to seal the pork chop closed. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until pork chops are browned and cooked thoroughly.

This and that

Haven't blogged much this week but have been busy, busy, busy! The vegetable garden is really coming along beautifully. Brayden picked our first cherry tomato, and he was so excited! He is also able to see "baby" cucumbers on the cucumber plants from the seeds he helped me plant. I have green beans ready to pick, zucchini about a week or so away, eggplant coming along nicely, and baby green peppers. We even have a baby watermelon, which is a first-time plant for me. Brayden and I go out to the garden and do 5 or 10 minutes of weeding every day he's here. Although it's been terribly hot (high 80's to mid 90's), we also had rain every few days. This morning was the first time I've had to water the garden. I've added mulch to the garden this year, and it's made a big difference. When I have mulched in the past, I've used straw, but this year I've been shredding newspaper and junk mail, collecting it in trash bags, then watering it down in the bag and letting it sit for a few days, then adding it as mulch. I don't use any paper with colored inks or any shiny texture to it. I have read that this will also increase worms in the garden, and with my Ohio heavy clay soil, that would be a great benefit. Obviously, the frugal side of me is loving it because I don't have to buy mulch or straw, and the recycler in me is loving it for putting junk mail to use! I'm almost done with my list of housework. Still have the family room and some window washing to go, but then I'm done. Everything looks nice again -- fresh, clean and dust and clutter-free. Ahhh. Feels so much better. I've ordered some new sheets for the guest bed and am crossing my fingers that they arrive before the guests! Today Jeff and I are picking up Brayden and heading to a NASCAR show here in town. We go every year, and think Brayden will really enjoy seeing the cars that we watch on TV. They usually give away freebies, like die cast cars, so he'll have fun with those too. It will be another busy week this week, with JJ and Lisa arriving for the afternoon on Thursday, then back for Sunday, Monday and Tuesday until they leave. I am so looking forward to visiting with them. JJ is insistent that he will be cooking dinner for us on Sunday night -- woo hoo! Any time anyone besides me cooks, I'm in heaven!

Catching up when you're behind on housework

I'm normally a fairly routine and scheduled person. First thing every morning I sit down and make my "To Do List" for the day. I have a notebook that I use specifically for that purpose, and I've done it for so long that it's become a habit. For the past three weeks, while babysitting for my grandson, my daily list has been comprised of ways to keep him busy and having fun, with little mention of housework. I find myself in a position that I know many people find themselves in. I love my house to be clean and organized -- and it's not right now. Some clutter has crept in, particularly in my "office" where my bookshelves became a stash area for craft items I didn't want within Brayden's reach (playdoh, markers, crayons, etc.). My family room became a catch-all for toys and books. The refrigerator, which normally gets cleaned out every week on trash day, has a stale smell to it. Although my guest room isn't cluttered, I do have company coming next week and would like to freshen everything up -- wash windows and curtains, change linens, dust, and generally give the room a good sprucing up and cleaning out. So how do you get your house "back" once it's in a state of clutter and dust? Similar to the philosophical question "How do you eat an elephant?" ... One bite at a time. I walked around the house yesterday afternoon and made a list of everything I needed (and wanted) to get done in the next week before my son and DIL arrive for a visit. As I tell my husband, they are not the King and Queen of England stopping by, so perfection is not my goal here. However, having a clean and clutter free house is important to me, and even more important when I have visitors coming. The list I made was a bit daunting. But I made a second list, and took the tasks "one bite at a time" and now it all seems not only possible, but not that big of a deal. My second list was a list of days between now and when company arrives. I looked at my list of "need to do's" and decided what needed to be done closest to their arrival day -- clean the bathrooms, wash the kitchen floor, etc -- and what I could do beforehand that would stay clean (declutter, wash curtains and windows). And I assigned a reasonable amount of tasks to each day. Here's my list: Wednesday Errands: Buy fabric for kitchen valances, new flowers for entry way, get a haircut Declutter office desk and bookcases, dust Clean refrigerator, take out all trash Thursday Wash upstairs curtains Wash windows upstairs Declutter family room bookcase (while laundry is running) Move all toys to playroom in basement Friday (babysitting day) Clean and sweep deck, patio, front porch and walkway Plant flowers Saturday Put up new valances in kitchen Organize kitchen food and dish cupboards Polish counters Sunday Shampoo carpets (Jeff) Dust and clean dining room, including china hutch Re-arrange furniture in family room Monday Wipe down stairs, all baseboards Dust/polish family room, office Tuesday Dust and vac guest room, upstairs hallway, upstairs bathrooms Change linens in guest room and master bedroom Straighten linen closet Wednesday Clean all bathrooms (toilet, tub, tile, sink) Restock guest bathroom (soap, TP, clean towels) Wash Kitchen floor Clean fridge, take out all trash Thursday Last minute tidying What seemed daunting and impossible, now seems possible (and, to be honest, a bit exciting because I love it when my house is clean!). I don't see any day that is more than three hours of work, with the exception of shampoo'ing carpets, a task which I've gladly delegated to my husband. I have some sewing I want to do, and see plenty of time in the afternoons and evenings to get it done! So don't let getting behind on your housework be overwhelming. Go from room to room and make a list of everything you need and want to do, break it down into "bites" and give yourself permission to get things completed over a fairly long period of time, but with a deadline. You'll get it done!

Catching up on life

I have to laugh. I'm so far behind on so many things after babysitting for three weeks. I guess I've forgotten how I stayed organized and kept a clean house when I had two toddlers (mumblemumble) years ago. Two year old Brayden was here from 7am to 5:30 pm, five days a week, and absolutely nothing got done around here, with the exception of making the bed every morning and doing quick pick-ups at night. As I always say, there's a reason God invented menopause -- 'cause us ol' ladies don't have the energy needed to take care of toddlers! I spent all day Saturday pretty much in recovery-mode. Putting toys away, wiping up the nastiest of the spills and handprints, and generally just relaxing and unwinding. Jeff and I did go out to check a few yard sales, and I found a wonderful sale with vintage linens -- hand embroidered pillowcases and great colorful 1950's tablecloths -- the lady only wanted .25 cents apiece! I've got them washed, but still need to iron them and will then put up some pictures. Wonderful find. On Sunday, Jeff and I spent the morning in the vegetable garden, roto-tilling and pulling weeds and, yes, picking my first red tomatoes! The garden is loving this rainy summer, though I did lose about 3/4's of my green beans -- I imagine the seeds rotted in the ground. But tomato plants look great -- some higher than four feet! -- green peppers have baby peppers on them, eggplants have baby eggplants, green beans have flowers, and zucchini's should be here in another week or so. Monday was my first real day without anyone else in the house, and I used it to get caught up on some paperwork, do a little blog reading, downloaded some audio books (Jeff surprised me with an 8 gig MP3 player!), washed the linens bought on Saturday, did some laundry, deadheaded some flowers, and pretty much had an easy day of it. Today, daughter Mary stopped by for a quick visit in the A.M., then I headed to my friend Lynn's house to bring her a housewarming gift. Lynn's new house is a great house, but the piece de resistance is her finished basement -- about 1200 square feet of beautifully finished basement that is her new sewing studio, complete with full kitchen, bathroom, laundry room (in addition to the ones upstairs), fabric storage, and patio! It's full of all her wonderful antique sewing machines and quilting and sewing supplies -- and is one of the most comfortable places I've ever visited. Love it love it love it and happy for her. She's a wonderfully creative person and her "studio" is a place for that creativity to thrive. Go Lynn! After visiting with Lynn, I headed out grocery shopping ($54!!!), then home to visit with my neighbor, Michelle, for a bit. She's the wife of the neighbor who is/was so mad at me for not letting him cut down my trees. He did wave to me last week, so perhaps all will heal eventually. My trees didn't get cut, so I'm not holding a grudge. The rest of the day was spent doing more laundry, and making a list of things I need to get done before my son and his wife come to visit next week. Three weeks behind on house cleaning and company coming for the first time in a year -- it figures, doesn't it?? LOL But, I always work best with a deadline, so I'll get it done! Tomorrow I'm going to start washing curtains and windows. Really all the house needs is a good dusting, vac'ing, shampoo the family room carpet, and do some more fingerprint (and nose print) patrol on windows and doors. The inside of the fridge needs a good cleaning, and the entire house needs one more good "picking up" of toys and items that have been moved from their home. JJ and Lisa will be here for a few hours on Thursday, but won't be staying overnight with us until Sunday night (her family is in this area as well). I can't wait to see them! So if I'm not blogging as much, you know I'm either stretched out on the couch still recovering from the shock of having a 2 yr old in the house for 3 weeks, or I'm wiping down baseboards and scrubbing bathroom floors!