Category: Food

Food projects.

Feral Choir Concert Toddler

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Seeing how I posted my goals for the week on Wednesday, the chance that I’d make significant progress on them was small. It’s just been such a busy week, and with needing to still rest when I start feeling tired I just don’t have a lot of time for the extra things. It’s a frustrating place to find oneself, but nothing terrible will happen as a result. I would just like to be able to do all the things, is that too much to ask?! 😉

Top priorities this past week:

  • Processing the garden harvest
  • Ward Choir logistics
  • Band Booster everythings
  • Walks
  • Secret Christmas knitting

Caring

Rachel had her first choir concert of the year on Tuesday and it was really lovely. I love seeing how much kids can do after only a handful of weeks into the school year. Even the freshman choir sounded great!

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Unfortunately, the family that sat behind us at the concert had a free-range toddler who pulled out some of my hair, and when I turned towards whatever the heck had yanked hair out of my scalp the offender wetly sneezed directly onto my eyeballs.

Zero stars. Would not recommend. It got even worse later on when the toddler tripped and smashed its face into the back of my seat and screamed their anguish into my ear. I was very glad when the concert finally ended and I got to go home.

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Nathaniel had his last cross country meet today and he did SO GOOD. He placed TENTH in his race with a time of 20:00.0. He wanted a 19-minute-anything time so badly, but alas…ha ha ha. Considering that he ran his first race of the season with a time of 23:03.0, I think he can safely be pleased with his progress over the season.

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Garden

I think all we managed to work on after all the work at the beginning of the week was to get the last pumpkin roasted and pureed. I did go to the store and purchase ingredients to make Green Tomato Mincemeat, but the excursion made my incisions hurt, so I decided to rest a bit before continuing with my plans. Unfortunately, I started feeling crummy that evening, and I woke up Friday morning feeling awful and ended up sleeping most of the day away. I think I was fighting off whatever the Choir Toddler sneezed into my face. I needed to do a bunch of other stuff today, so I still haven’t gotten to the mincemeat.

Community

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The church Halloween party was last night and Rachel and Renaissance helped out with the face painting. Renaissance also took over getting our van ready for trunk or treating once it became obvious that I would not be attending the party due to feeling so yucky, and she did a delightful job!

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Ward Choir logistics were dealt with this week and we’ll have sheet music to sing from tomorrow as long as I remember to make copies in the morning. I also ordered all of the Christmas sheet music and expect it to arrive next week, and I could cry over how much it all cost, but if I can get everyone I want to help out with the Christmas program it will be amazing. I am very excited about the possibilities.

I did not get to Band Booster stuff, but it’s high on my list of priorities for next week. The fabric for the table runners should arrive Tuesday afternoon, so I guess I’ll start sewing up table runners on Wednesday or Thursday. (Boring! But needed.)

Health

I went on zero walks this week. Between getting over the cold from last week and dealing with the Choir Toddler flash illness this week I just haven’t had the energy to do much more than some halfhearted office-y work from the couch. I’m doing my best, folks.

Healing from my surgeries is feeling good. One of my incisions is healing a little slower than it should so I have to do some extra care for that three times a day, but it looks like it’s working and the wound is finally closing up. Grocery shopping really tired me out on Wednesday, so I’m still working towards having more energy. It’ll come back.

Creativity

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I worked on my not-secret knitting for a little while before Rachel’s choir concert. Emily and I went on a little yarn crawl together in July and I saw a skein of self-striping yarn in perfect Christmas colors and I had to have it. I’m making some adorable Christmas socks for myself from it and adding in solid red heels and toes because it’s perfect. I’m almost done with knitting up the heel flap of the first sock. I love that you can take the downtime of daily life (like waiting for a concert to begin) and use it to get further along on a project, rather than wasting that time looking at a phone. More crafting in public is needed! Join the cause!

I didn’t work on anything else due to the aforementioned ickiness that prevailed all week. I’m falling so far behind! Fingers crossed for a healthy new week!

Highlights

  • When Nathaniel came running over the crest of the hill before the finish line in his race, way before I expected to see him.
  • The huge smile on Rachel’s face when we handed her the bouquet of flowers after her choir concert.
  • How cute the van looked after Renaissance finished decorating it for the Halloween party.
  • Emily brought me Panda Express for lunch one day as she came home from running errands because she thought I’d like it.

Lowlights

  • The Feral Choir Concert Toddler :::squinty side-eye:::
  • Two illnesses in one week

Despite all the illnesses, I AM getting stronger and feeling better each week, so that’s good. Michael and I both are really excited for how much better I could potentially feel in my daily life once I get all healed up. Ugh, the amount of pain and lost days I’ve had to deal with for the past ten years is gobsmacking. And it could just be over now. Maybe. That’s incredibly exciting. We shall see…

I’ll leave you with a photo that Nathaniel texted me while he was out on a run this week. I may not be getting out a lot to enjoy this beautiful autumn weather, but my kids send me pretty pictures of it, for which I’m grateful. There’s always happy little glimmers to make one smile…

Busy with Harvesting

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Last week’s decision to have little goals to work towards each day was a great success!  I felt like I was going to be physically ill at the end of Monday and Tuesday from the effort, but by Wednesday I could do each thing each day with relative ease. Unfortunately, I caught a cold from one of the kids and the symptoms began manifesting on Thursday evening, so I didn’t get much more done after that point. I felt much better by this last Monday and have been slowly ramping up efforts yet again. It’s nice to actually do stuff again!

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

  • Monday: Pizza (Michael)
  • Tuesday: Corn & Zucchini Soup, Whole Wheat Rolls
  • Wednesday: Beef & Pumpkin Stew that turned out terrible, so I converted it into a Beef & Pumpkin Curry that was more than decent
  • Thursday: Pork & Tomatillo Stew
  • Friday: TBD
  • Saturday: Marry Me Pasta, Salad
  • Sunday: TBD

Clothing

Just trying to get strong enough to handle doing laundry again. The goal is one load a day and I’ve met that goal once thus far this week.

Cleaning

Cleaning is still a little strenuous for me, so I’m doing light tidying. The kids don’t like that I’m noticing messes now and I’m coherent enough to keep on top of them to clean up after themselves. They’re good kids, but geez, if they aren’t going to be nagged to clean, they are not going to do it. I could worry unnecessarily about this, but I was the same way when I was their ages, and I got my act together at some point.  I’ll just keep nagging and hope they sort themselves out in the future.

Caring

When I was cutting up garden vegetables for freezing, I took the time to dice up some of the green peppers, and added some onion and garlic to the bag so Michael could have a ready-to-go bag of diced veggies for when he makes roasted potatoes for breakfast on the weekends.  It’s a little thing, but I hope it makes him feel loved.  He hates chopping things because his hands are better suited for brute strength activities and not so much for fine motor things like dicing vegetables.

Creativity

I did not finish a penguin block last week because I got sick. I also realized that I’ve been having a hard time with this quilt because I’m making it out of flannel, which I’m not enjoying piecing with at all. I’d like to sit down and calculate whether or not it’s feasible to finish this quilt before Christmas decorating season this year—if it’s not feasible I might move onto something else for the time being.

Oh…I will need to move onto something else for a little while. The decorations for the band’s big fundraiser are looking more than tired and we’ve decided to replace the table runners this year, which I’ll be sewing up. I ordered the fabric today, so I don’t know when it will get here, but I’ll start working on those once the fabric arrives.

I also need to keep going on the secret Christmas knitting. I was supposed to be 50% done with one project last weekend, but I’m only at the 25% mark.  Eek. I do have a fabulous excuse, but still…I like to finish my projects no matter what.

Gardening

There was a Freeze Warning issued yesterday and I made the decision to just harvest everything in the garden, ripe or not, seeing that it’s the end of October and true freezes can legitimately start happening now. I had hoped to focus on getting caught up on office type things this week, but Mother Nature forced my hand and I’ve been processing produce for storage.  Mostly chopping and freezing things because canning feels like it would be too much at the moment. I think I will try to can up some Green Tomato Mincemeat tomorrow, though. I’ve read good things about the recipe, and there’s a lot of green tomatoes sitting on my counter. I’m absolutely chuffed over the garden’s output this year. It’s easily my best year of gardening ever; I just wish I had been strong enough to can a lot of the veggies because that’s one of my goals in life. I aspire to have the pantry full of jewel-toned jars of homemade yumminess lining the walls. It’s always such a beautiful sight.

See that huge zucchini in the box? It yielded twenty-two cups of shredded zucchini! That’s a lot of future zucchini bread!

Celebrating

The girls are helping with the church Halloween party and Renaissance cut down my corn stalks after we harvested the corn and she’s planning to tie them up nice so they can be placed on the front porch as decorations. Rachel ordered herself a costume from Amazon and Nathaniel has come up with the laziest costume that will still work for him, so we’re covered on costumes. Yay, Halloween. Should probably buy some candy to hand out.

Community

Ward Choir: We’re changing our meeting time and I’m meeting with my pianist this week to discuss Christmas music. I was not able to attend our last/first rehearsal because I wasn’t feeling well, so a friend ran the rehearsal, for which I’m very thankful. I am really hoping to be done with feeling poorly and get these Christmas rehearsals going!

Band Boosters: We had another fundraiser planning meeting this week and made a lot of decisions. So much work to do! Music programs in our schools do not happen on their own, folks! I am thisclose to creating vinyl lettering for my van’s rear window that has a Venmo QR code for people to donate to for the band. People donate to bachelorette parties, why not music in our schools? I truly wonder if that would work…?

Top priorities this week:

  • Processing the garden harvest. Ren and I have ploughed through a lot of it already, but still need to figure out what to do with the tomatoes that are over-ripe, under-ripe, and green. We also need to puree a pumpkin, and I want to oven-roast the green cherry tomatoes to have on-hand for adding a handful to soups for extra flavor, etc.
  • Ward Choir logistics.
  • Band Booster everythings.
  • Walks. They stopped happening while I was feeling unwell, so I need to get back in the habit.
  • Secret Christmas knitting, because I’m behind on it, but also because it forces me to take a break during the day and I can feel that I’m sometimes a little more tired than I should be due to the harvest processing.

I wish you all a happy and productive week! It’s so nice how good you feel when you’re able to dig in and just get some work done! Ren and I worked hard this morning in the kitchen and while we were eating lunch she sighed and said, “It’s just a good day. I did work that matters and that I like doing, and I’m eating a lunch that tastes good. That’s a good day.” I just looked at her and felt so proud. She gets it. Life is a lot of work, but a lot of the work is really enjoyable if you let it be enjoyable. Hopefully this beautiful time of year brings you numerous opportunities to enjoy the work that’s being asked of you!

Inching Along

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I’m still recuperating from surgery, but starting to feel like I might just live after all.  It’s been four weeks since my first procedure, and two and a half weeks since the second.  I have to keep reminding myself of that second date because I can easily remember the first date and I get discouraged that I’m not further along in my recovery, but then I remember the second date and I feel better about where I am.

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:
Monday: Orange Chicken Bowls (Renaissance)
Tuesday: Beef & Pumpkin Stew, if I have the energy.  If not, quesadillas made by someone else.
Wednesday: Beefy Pasta (Ren or Emily)
Thursday: Pizza
Friday: TBD (Michael)
Saturday: TBD (Michael)
Sunday: TBD (Michael)

Clothing

We’ll see if I can handle doing any laundry this week.  I tried a week or two ago and could load clothes in the washer, but that was about it.  Michael’s been good about keeping the laundry caught up, but it’ll be good to take over that task from him so he has less to worry about.  Trying to fold and put away clothing will once again be a focus.

Cleaning

I’m still restricted quite a bit in my activity, so I shouldn’t be doing much cleaning.  If I have the energy for it I try to wipe down the kitchen table and counters after breakfast.  At some point that should become an easy task again, right?  I’ve also been puttering around in my craft room, putting away a thing here and a thing there. I tire extremely easily, so there’s not a lot getting done, but every little bit helps.  Maybe I can aim to clean the kitchen surfaces each morning, put away a certain number of things in the craft room each day, and spend a set amount of time (5-10 minutes) each day unearthing my office desk from beneath the mountain of paperwork that is currently camouflaging its existence?

Caring

I’m still healing, but also trying to regain energy, which is a tricky balance to strike.  I’m trying to walk further distances and/or go on more walks each day, and that’s going relatively well.  I’ve added in Stretchy Calf Raises to the end of all my walks in an attempt to fend off any plantar fasciitis that may be brewing as I’m sure my muscles have atrophied everywhere and I do not want to have to deal with plantar fasciitis on top of everything else.

I complained to my doctor about being bored out of my skull at my last check-up and he suggested I allow myself to read as much as my heart desired.  I think I read nine books and seventeen magazines last week.  I’m getting tired of reading.  Kristin Hannah’s The Women is excellent.  I can’t read anything else by her while I’m recovering though—she writes the most heartbreaking stories and I feel like I need to avoid the downers right now while my body is trying to manufacture warmth and light and healing vibes.  It’s hard to convince your cells to rejuvenate when you’re feeding your mind and heart a bunch of tension and sorrow.

I don’t have any extra space to care for others right now.  Which is ok.  Stinky, but ok.  I do need to remember to reach out to my brother on his birthday.  Which reminds me that I should get back into the habit of checking my To-Do List app each morning, if only to make sure I’m not missing any important reminders.

Creativity

I’d like to start doing some creative things each day.  I’ve got the time, and it would require me to sit and stand up, which is good for helping me regain my strength.  Major Post-Back Surgery of 2015 vibes going on here, but hey, that’s how I ended up making my Farm Girl Vintage quilt!  I would almost start another Farm Girl Vintage quilt now, but there’s a lot of other projects that I really should work on instead.

  • Complete a penguin block for Renaissance’s Christmas quilt
  • Spend 30 minutes each day doing some Christmas knitting

Gardening

There’s not a lot that I can do in the garden, which is so beautifully overgrown and ripe that it hurts.  Michael and Renaissance are doing their best to use up what we’ve got out there, for which I’m profoundly grateful.  Renaissance has processed two of the pumpkins into puree and Michael has been picking my tomatoes and peppers and cramming them into everything he cooks for us these past few weeks.  I grew a boatload of beautiful San Marconi peppers—they’re about ten inches long each and a vibrant red that just makes you happy to look at them.  We ate the purple corn I grew and it was really good—when you cook it, the purple turns black and grey, which made for excellent Halloween-ish corn on the cob.  Renaissance called up a friend who really likes making salsa and gave him four pounds of our tomatillos, which he was really jazzed about.

This may not be a great food storage year for us, but we had fun in the garden throughout the summer and we’re doing the best we can with the harvest.  Hopefully this surgery solves all the problems that have made it difficult for me to process harvests and spend extended time in the kitchen to do canning and preserving.  Losing out on this harvest is worth it if I can do the work in years to come.

Celebrating

I’m not sure what my kids are doing for Halloween.  I think Michael’s taking care of it?  And, honestly, the kids are set up with their teen accounts on Amazon and can just order a costume if they want one and I’d approve it.  They know this, so I’m not going to worry about it.  If they forget, they can throw something together from what we already have around the house.  I’m not going to stress about Halloween this year.

Community

I was supposed to resume ward choir practice this week.  I pushed it out another week because I knew I didn’t have the strength.  We’ll be starting up this Sunday.  It’s going to be rough.  I need music for them to practice, especially Christmas music.  My contact in the bishopric was released and now I need to go through whoever the new guy is.  It takes a while to figure things out.  I had hoped to do a big Christmas program this year, but I’m now leaning towards a more simplified one because I know I’m stretched too thin.  Getting caught up with life is going to take a while.

Band Boosters are chugging along without me.  Sigh.  I mean, it’s what you want to happen, and they are all exceedingly capable women, so everything is good.  I’m just sad that I’m not there with them.  I get extremely bummed out about missing out on it all, but so very thankful that they’re handling everything just fine.

Top priorities this week:

  • Complete 2 walks a day, with 10 Stretchy Calf Raises at the end of each of the walks
  • Wipe kitchen surfaces after breakfast each day
  • Clean up 10 things in craft room each day
  • Spend 10 minutes clearing off office desk each day
  • Spend 30 minutes doing Christmas knitting each day
  • Finish 1 penguin block by the end of Sunday
  • Fold and put away 1 load of laundry each day

So that’s me. Just trying to get up and moving again. There’s a lot of hope and a little bit of budding excitement that this surgery may have drastically improved my quality of life, given that my back doesn’t hurt anything like it used to and I’ve now gone a full four weeks without a pain flare-up. I just need to be careful with my recovery and find that delicate balance between enough rest and enough activity. Patience, patience…

I Just Need to Post a Meal Plan

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A little bit of a late post for a “week ahead” post, but late is better than never. I’ve found that I’ve started to rely on these posts for remembering what I’ve planned to make for dinner in the upcoming week while I’m out and about.

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

  • Monday: —
  • Tuesday: Leftovers
  • Wednesday: Chicken Tostada Salad
  • Thursday: Burgers, Marinated Cucumbers,
  • Friday: Mint & Cumin Chicken Satay, Rice, Steamed Sugar Snap Peas w/ black sesame seeds, Cucumber Salad with yogurt-dill sauce
  • Saturday: Chicken, Roasted Red Pepper & Green Bean Salad, Wheat Rolls
  • Sunday: Chicken Fajitas, Rice

Top priorities this week:

  • Graduation party preparations: Housecleaning, gardening, food prep, party prep

School lets out, finally, this week, so that’s nice. We have a lot of work to do around here, so this post is short. Have a great week!

It Begins: Graduation Week

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Big week ahead!  I’m starting to feel really worn out by everything, but I’m trying to ignore the feeling and just enjoy everything that’s going on.  Next week will be much less busy and I’ll make sure to take some time to rest and recover, but until then I just gotta keep going!

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:  Don’t judge me, it’s going to be an extremely busy week where I’ll only have about thirty minutes to throw dinners together.

  • Monday: Costco Chicken Alfredo & Mac ‘n Cheese, Green Goddess Salad, French Bread
  • Tuesday: Waffles, Eggs, Bacon
  • Wednesday: Pizza
  • Thursday: Hot Dogs
  • Friday: Salad Bar
  • Saturday: Citrus & Honey Chicken Breasts, Cilantro Rice, Broccoli, Strawberry & Spinach salad
  • Sunday: Chicken Tostada Salad, Fajita Veggies

Clothing

  • Everyone needs dresses hemmed for some reason
  • I cannot find Michael’s khakis, which he needs for graduation.  Where could they have possibly gone?  Super annoying.  I’ve looked in all the places they should be and in places they could be and nope.
  • Continually monitor the wrinkly-ness of Renaissance’s graduation robe after each thing she needs to wear it to this week and re-iron as needed.

Cleaning

I didn’t even get to the toaster last week, so…don’t hold your breath on any of the other things!

Caring

All eyes are on graduation this week, so everything that isn’t that has been rescheduled for dealing with next week. Oh! Michael and Nathaniel needs haircuts before graduation. They look like shaggy dogs right now.

Creativity

  • The graduation signature quilt blocks are halfway assembled and they may stay that way through the graduation party.  What’s done so far is enough for them to be serviceable at the party, so I’m going to spend my time on more pressing things and circle back to finishing these blocks when I have time, which may not be until after the party.
  • I need to start sewing up the bunting for the grad party decorations.  I just think it will add the nicest touch.
  • Other grad party decoration preparations will probably wait until next week when I have more time.

Gardening

  • I need to kill some slugs.  As predicted, they’re gobbling up the petunias.  If I could just remember to buy slug killer at the store, I could easily move this problem to a much more positive outcome.
  • Still need to get the Three Sisters planted, but we’ve got an atmospheric river pouring on us right now and the weather’s not set to clear up until graduation ceremony day and I will be beyond busy during that time.  Maybe I can get to this on the weekend?  Same to the front porch plantings and figuring out what the heck I want to do with the front yard plantings.

Celebrating

There’s so much going on this week—Baccalaureate ceremony, a choir concert, and graduation!  There’s still a lot that needs to be done for some of these things, but we should be OK.

Community

  • I can push most of this stuff to next week and I am actively trying to do so.  I did reach out to my ministering companions to try to set something up for next week and one of them has gotten back to me, so that’s a start.
  • With the release of the thirteen new hymns I have some work to do on the music front at church and I got a bit of a start on it yesterday with good outcomes.  Someone recommended that I join the “Music Callings Resources” Facebook group for good ideas, but so far it’s only seemed to be a big bunch of squabbling complainers who are personally offended that the Church didn’t pick their favorite song for release, and if it’s not that kind of person, it’s the super annoying “I know more about music than you do” people who enjoy flaunting their musical knowledge and elevated opinions.  I’m hoping it’s just a little agitated over there because of the announcement, but I’ll leave the group if, after my 30 day snooze wears off, it’s still a lot of the same a month from now.  What an absolute downer of an experience.

Top priorities this week:

  • Graduation and all of its associated events
  • Keep everyday life afloat in the midst of all the graduation stuff

Graduation is really here! I remember my mom friends being all “it’s going to go by so fast!” at the beginning of the school year, and while I think we kept so, so busy this year with all the fun that a senior year brings, it is weird that graduation is actually here. I think I’m still recovering from the epic prom dresses, so graduation feels like it popped up out of nowhere! I was telling Michael this morning that I’m so glad there’s all these graduation warm-up events before actual graduation because, based on how much I’m tearing up at these pre-graduation events, I don’t think I’d make it through the actual graduation ceremony with any sort of composure if I was just thrown into it without any of this other stuff happening first. Emily’s graduation was a big deal, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t really involved with her activities and peer group because we were still kind of new to the area, COVID was still impacting things a bit, and she wasn’t involved in as many things as Renaissance is. Graduation feels so much bigger when you actually know the kids who are graduating and have a lot of memories with them. My cup runneth over…see you on the other side of this week!

I Feel Graduation at my Back, Breathing down my Neck

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Alright friends, we are gearing up for the true craziness of graduation and end-of-school season.  I’m a little jealous of my Utah friends who are already done with their kids’ school year, just as I’m only really beginning to get going with the end of ours.  At least all the work is comprised of good things, right?  It’s busy, and busy isn’t a bad thing.

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

  • Monday: Memorial Day BBQ
  • Tuesday: Orange Chicken bowls
  • Wednesday: Pork burritos
  • Thursday: Leftovers/Something easy
  • Friday: BBQ Chicken
  • Saturday: BBQ, etc.
  • Sunday: Warm Goat Cheese and Chicken Salad

Clothing

  • Just keep trying to get on top of the laundry
  • Tailor Rachel’s new church dresses, if I can find the time
  • Go through bag of boy clothes that I found in closet and see if they’ll fit Nathaniel
  • Rotate out cold weather wardrobes, if I can find the time
  • Make sure everyone has clothes for graduation
  • Check fit of Ren’s recital dress, make plans for tailoring if needed

Cleaning

  • Clean oven
  • Clean pantry
  • Clean toaster (Let’s be honest, this is the only one that has a shot at being completed this week!)

Caring

  • Try to do more drives with Emily, but the schedule is super tight this week
  • Caring will be accomplished simply by making sure everyone is fed and showing up to things on-time this week

Creativity

  • I’d like to be 25% done with Renaissance’s graduation quilt by the end of the week.
  • I need to start working on the bunting for her grad party decorations
  • I’m learning how to make graduation leis as well, and would like to finish three of them to hand out at graduation next week.

Gardening

  • Goodness, am I glad we did all that work over the weekend.  Good job, Memorial Day Weekend Brooke Family!
  • Need to plant the berries in containers
  • Need to plant corn and beans.  I might throw pumpkins into the same patch to test out the whole “Three Sisters” idea.  Kids are onboard to find out if it truly works.
  • Need to play front porch containers.
  • Lawn feeding

Celebrating

  • Renaissance will get a lot of opportunities to wear her graduation cap and gown throughout the next week.  I didn’t realize how many different things she was going to be doing in that getup.  I’ll have to stay on top of steaming/ironing the gown so it doesn’t look wrinkly.
  • I need to do a lot of ordering of supplies for the grad party.
  • Get creative work done now so I can free up time to work on food later.
  • Taskify food preparation
  • Submit rental orders
  • Respond to people who have offered to lend supplies
  • Get recital program squared away

Community

  • I’m about to have another calling in the next week or two, whenever they officially call me, and I’ll need to organize that.  I’m going to ease into that calling rather slowly because I am monstrously busy right now.  I should have told them I could launch into the calling following Ren’s grad party and to hold off until that date, but I wasn’t thinking at that moment.  Sigh.
  • I need to get June’s hymns squared away and posted
  • I have new ministering sisters and assignments and I need to make contact and figure all that out
  • Band Boosters follow-ups
  • Check on available water bottles for graduation

Top priorities this week:

  • Graduation & recital clothing
  • Graduation quilt progress
  • Party decorations & ordering progress
  • Planting last of plants in garden
  • June’s hymns

Alright, off I go to do all the things!  I wish you a productive week as well.

Summer is just around the corner…

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Hello and happy new week to you!  I’ve got a rather normal week ahead of me, which is a very nice thing after all the stress of prom dress sewing, and I’m hoping to just get chores and laundry caught up.  There’s a few end-of-school-year events sprinkled throughout, but they mostly just require me to show up and watch; not a lot of work required on my part.

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

  • Monday: Thai Spicy Chicken Enchiladas, Peas, Lemony Quinoa
  • Tuesday: Meatloaf, Lemon-roasted potatoes w/ oregano, Green Bean Salad w/ Mustard seeds, Herbs & Baby Chard
  • Wednesday: Spaghetti, Caesar, French bread/garlic bread
  • Thursday: Leftovers
  • Friday: Baked Potato Bar, Broccoli Slaw
  • Saturday: Warm Goat Cheese & Chicken Salad,
  • Sunday: Chicken Satay, Stir Fry Veggies, Rice

Clothing

  • Get the laundry under control, yet again.
  • Wardrobe rotation

Cleaning

I think I’m going to change my daily routine and put cleaning first thing because it’s not getting done very consistently when it’s scheduled later in my day.

Caring

  • The girls need haircuts before graduation.  I wonder if I’m up for cutting their hair myself?  It worked fine when they were younger…
  • Driving lessons

Creativity

  • Need to start working on Renaissance’s graduation quilt
  • Need to start working on a few decoration items for Ren’s graduation party

Gardening

  • Behind on planting seeds, so need to catch up on that
  • Need to assemble hanging baskets
  • Weeding, as always
  • Transfer tomato and pepper seedlings into larger pots because they’re not quite ready to go out yet, but they’re outgrowing the starting trays

Celebrating

  • Take down the last Christmas tree this weekend.  It’s a two-person job and Michael and I have not been home and well at the same time on a single weekend since before Christmas to do it.  This is, by far, the longest I’ve ever had a tree up and it’s driving me insane.
  • Finish up addressing and sending out Ren’s graduation party invitations

Community

  • Nathaniel’s last Cross Country meet is this week
  • Renaissance’s last band concert is this week

Top priorities this week:

  • Get grad party invitations out
  • Get Christmas tree down
  • Garden
  • Cleaning
  • Laundry

Alright, forward we go! I should be able to accomplish a lot this week, given that the forecast is pretty rainy and I’ll be forced to work inside the house most days.

The Eye of the Senior Year Storm

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It’s been a couple of weeks since I wrote up a beginning of the week homemaking post! The amount of time that is needed to make ballgowns is surprising, even to me. With that being said, home management fell by the wayside in order to free up time to sew, so I’ll be swinging the scales back towards cleanliness and order for the next couple of weeks, and then it will be time to start prepping for Renaissance’s high school graduation festivities!

Cooking

This week’s meal plan:

  • Monday: Tacos
  • Tuesday: CP Picadillo Tostadas, Lemony Quinoa Salad with Radishes, Avocado & Basil, Veggie Slaw
  • Wednesday: Rhubarb-glazed Pork, Crushed Red Potatoes, Spring Beans, Peas & Zucchini Ribbons, Rice Pilaf
  • Thursday: IP BBQ Shredded Chicken Burgers, Broccoli Slaw, Lemon-roasted potatoes with oregano
  • Friday: Spaghetti, Normandy Vegetables, Caesar Salad, French Bread
  • Saturday: Barbecue
  • Sunday: Thai Spicy Chicken Enchiladas, Peas, Green Bean Salad with Mustard Seeds, Herbs & Baby Chard

Clothing

  • Laundry will be a priority this week, along with folding and putting away everything (It’s pretty bad in here)
  • Wardrobe rotation from cold weather clothes to warm weather clothes
  • Wash Rachel’s choir dress
  • Nathaniel needs new clothes, especially for church

Cleaning

*silent screaming* There’s so much to do that I can’t even pick a place to start. I might just work on whatever the Tody app tells me is the most overdue and work forward from there. Oh! I do want to spend some time cleaning up the prom dress sewing leftovers, just for the sake of closure. Feels like that’d be a nice thing to do.

Caring

  • Get Nathaniel signed up for summer school so he can free up space in his regular school year schedule
  • Driving practice with Emily & Rachel
  • Help the girls start looking for summer jobs
  • Replace batteries in smoke detectors
  • Make checkup appointments for everyone
  • Create FHE schedule
  • The girls need haircuts
  • Decide if Nathaniel is going to YM camp

Creativity

I will be taking a break for at least a week, if not two. The craft room definitely needs a good cleaning and decluttering, but that might have to wait until after graduation festivities.

Gardening

  • Direct sow 4th Week of April seeds:
    • Cosmos
    • Sunflower: Autumn Beauty
    • Impatiens
    • Zinnia
    • Cucumber
    • Summer Squash
    • Viola
  • Direct sow 1st Week of May seeds:
    • Alyssum
    • Marigolds
    • Sunflower: Jua Maya
    • Cabbage
    • Green Beans (Bush)
    • Lettuce
  • Direct sow 2nd Week of May seeds:
    • Zucchini
    • Sunflower: Sunshine
    • Melons
    • Carrots
  • Plant petunias
  • Assemble hanging baskets
  • Research lawn feeding and weed killing and make a plan
  • WEEDING
  • Ramp up slug killing endeavors because the little demons are eating everything

Celebrating

  • Breathe a sigh of relief that prom season is over, clean up the mess, and engage in some well-deserved recovery activities
  • Clean up the errant Christmas items that I’ve noticed but told myself to ignore while working on the prom dresses
  • Do a wrapping paper/gift bag bin purge
  • Renaissance’s Graduation Party:
    • Address & mail out invitations
    • Check that everyone has appropriate clothing
    • Decide decorations
    • Decide menu
    • Decide activities
    • Decide party favors
    • Purchase serving items

Community

  • Church:
    • Check in with this week’s upcoming special musical number
    • Check sacrament meeting topics for June and pick hymns
    • Enter hymns into Gospel Library app
    • Set up/confirm special musical numbers for June
    • Check in with newly-assigned ministering companions
    • Reach out to newly-assigned ministering sisters
    • Taskify ministering reminders
  • Band Parent Committee:
    • Prepare agenda for meeting, print
    • Print mailing list signup flyers
    • Parade logistics

Top priorities this week:

  • Summer School Registration
  • Garden
  • Laundry
  • Cleaning
  • Graduation party planning

Hopefully I’ll get the blog posts written for each of the prom dresses, too. The weather is going to be really great this week, so I’m looking forward to spending time outdoors after so many weeks toiling away in the craft room. Happy homemaking to you all!

On the Eve of Prom

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Hello dear ones, and welcome to the last day before prom and all of its craziness in the world of dressmaking!  I feel like I have hardly left the craft room all week long, logging an average of eight hours per day working on Renaissance’s dress.  (Keep in mind that from 2:30pm onwards, I generally have no say over how my day goes because it’s all chauffeuring and music lessons and dinner prep and cleanup.)  I have had some very long days this week!

Top priorities this past week:

  • Finishing Renaissance’s prom dress
  • Starting Rachel’s church prom dress, if possible

Creativity

The weather has cooperated with me this week and was mostly rainy and gray, which makes me feel entirely NOT guilty for staying inside and sewing all day, ha ha ha.  I got the skirt attached correctly to Renaissance’s dress and went about my merry way with attaching the lining to the bodice, sewing in the sleeves (which, if I may say, I did an excellent job on the sleeves!), and then hemming the skirts.

Marking the hem of this dress was a memory I’ll keep, and not for any particularly memorable reason.  It was just nice to spend that time with Renaissance, amidst the flurry of a busy day, where she got to put on her dress for the first time and we were able to ooh and aah over it and let the excitement build.  If you’re looking to strengthen the upper half of your posterior muscle chain, I highly recommend marking hems on skirts.  I’m sure there’s an easier way to do it, but I had to lay on my stomach and keep my head and shoulders lifted for thirty minutes while I measured and marked the entirety of the hem.  I was sore the next day!

I am hoping I can get in and redo the top skirt’s hem because it’s looking “homemade” in a bad way.  After scrutinizing it I decided to change my approach on the bottom skirt’s hem and sew it by hand and I think it’s looking much better.  It just takes forever.  I’ve got about 12-14 inches left to hem, which will take 30-45 minutes.  I still need to trim the top skirt because it’s dragging on the one side, so I’ll do that by hand tonight and then I’ll unpick and re-hem by hand portions of the top skirt until I either finish it or run out of time.

Thank goodness I found a backup dress for Rachel.  I have had no time whatsoever to even begin working on her dress.

Gardening

In brief moments of time away from the prom dress, I cleaned out my countertop garden.  It had reached 100 days of growing and most of the plants had died off, but the three basil plants were still going strong.  It was the first time I’ve cleaned it out and discovered that you definitely want to remove any spent pods when they die because if you don’t, the roots will start rotting and molding underwater, which made for a lot of unpleasantness.

I harvested the last of my basil plants and made pesto for a soup I made during the week.  Unfortunately, the basil plants had passed the point of maturity and the pesto ended up tasting exceptionally “green.”  It’s such a delicate dance of allowing the basil leaves to get large enough, but not so large that their flavor starts to mimic lawn grass.

Caring

Nathaniel had his first home cross country meet this week, and it works out that it starts right after Renaissance’s oboe lesson ends, and her oboe lesson is at his school, so she just walked on over and we cheered him on.  I’m so proud of him.  Last summer he realized it would be easier to be healthy if he became a runner, so he decided to join track and cross country.  He’s literally in it just for the exercise.

Well, I wish you a happy Friday and ensuing weekend and look forward to sharing prom photos with you next week.  (I need to remember to charge my camera’s batteries!)  Cross your fingers that I can finish up Ren’s dress to a “good homemade” level!

Gathering Steam

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Welcome to the end of my first week back after the Big Spring Sickness of 2024!  Whew, it was a nasty bug—I’ve heard that multiple people in our area required medical intervention due to it.  Ugh, so much exhaustion experienced by all.  All in all, though, it was a good week full of good weather and a lot of productivity.

Top priorities this past week:

  • Prom Dressses
  • Garden tasks
  • Driver’s licenses tasks

Creativity

Ren’s Prom Dress:  I was still quite weak at the beginning of the week, so progress on Ren’s prom dress didn’t happen until Wednesday, but I put in about four hours of work and all of the basic elements of the dress (Bodice, lining, underskirt) are assembled in their basic forms and I can now move forward with attaching them to each other and doing finishing work.  The end is in sight!

Rachel’s Prom Dress:  I’ve not made any progress on this, which is extremely unfortunate because I was supposed to begin working on it in earnest this week.  We’ll get there when we get there.

Garden

I actually used some of the rhubarb this week, which was good because it’s starting to become a behemoth of a plant! We had a lovely rhubarb/mixed fruit crumble for dessert one night. Soooo good.

I got caught up on starting seeds and direct sowing seeds!  Renaissance helped me plant four different varieties of marigolds in one starting tray, and I planted sweet peppers, hot peppers, pepperoncini peppers, Big Daddy tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, slicing cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, zucchini, crookneck squash, broccoli, and cilantro in the other tray.  I still have a few spots open for some more seeds in the second tray, which I might use for some herbs. 

I transplanted my started pansies and delphiniums into the garden, but they’ve been struggling for weeks in their trays and I do not know what to expect from them in the future. 

I direct sowed the last bit of peas, and some Bells of Ireland and Four O’ Clocks.  I also went back and fortified the trellises with better staples to hold them to the ground for the peas and sweet peas.

Caring

Driver’s Licenses: Renaissance is officially a licensed driver!  WOO HOO!  We finally did it!  I took her to the DOL on Tuesday and she’s got the paper!  We are waiting for our insurance company to get back to us on adding her to our policy, and once we have that confirmation she’ll be good to go.  She can’t park on campus until she has proof of insurance, so we’re waiting on that task as well.  Michael is also replacing the brakes on the kids’ car this weekend so they can be extra safe.

Rachel has been studying every afternoon for her Driver’s Knowledge test this weekend.  It’s a good thing I made a note to make sure she was doing this—every afternoon has found her completely forgetful of the task AND I had to intervene at one point because she was playing video games while listening to a YouTube video about driving rules and considered it as studying.  Uh, no.  I’ve not been her favorite person this week because I keep insisting on nitty gritty studying tactics.  You’ll thank me when you pass the test, girlie.

Emily hasn’t done any practice driving because I’ve been too busy with getting caught up with life this week, but I’ve scheduled daily drives for the next six weeks to get her back up to snuff.

Regarding the bridal shower and wedding gifts, I think I’ll just return them to Amazon and then re-order them and have them delivered to the couple’s new address.  I still need to text the mom and get that figured out.

Renaissance and I sat down to talk about her post-high school plans and run the numbers.  She qualified for every merit and music scholarship available at the colleges, but we are just middle-class enough to not warrant any financial assistance via the FAFSA, so she was going to be on the line for $17,000-30,000 per year to attend the four-year universities she was thinking about attending.  That is simply not feasible for her, so she’s going to go with her alternate plan of attending technical college and earning an associate degree in culinary & pastry arts so that she can have a marketable skill that can then help her finance her future plans.  She was really torn between studying music or studying pastry, so either option was fine with her.  The pastry program is good in that she can then transfer to a four-year school and earn some sort of business and/or food science degree, if she desires.  I think she wants to eventually open a bakery of her own, and that she wants to work with local high school students and the community to offer educational opportunities and/or internships in culinary areas.

I’m disappointed that the money couldn’t work out for a four-year option.  I entered the financials into a copy of the spreadsheet that I had made when we did this for Emily two years ago, and I was appalled to find out that one of the schools they both applied to increased their tuition by $17,000 in just two years!  It’s bonkers out there, and it led to some very serious conversations with Emily this week in order to adjust her expectations for the future as well.  You just can’t expect an 18-22 year old and their family to cough out or sign up for loans in the amount of $120,000 for a college education at a Division 3 school!  That’s almost the cost of our first house!  Gross.  The technical school option will end up costing just $8,000 a year, which is a sum we can work with.  And HELLO…a pastry chef in the family?  That’s just cool.  Ren was also wise and applied to start in January so she can spend a few more months working to save up money to pay for it all.  If you know of any bakeries hiring, she’s looking!

It was a really busy week, with a lot of important things happening, and I think it’s turned out well.  Hopefully this weekend sees a lot of time for sewing, weeding, and driving practice!