In My Home This Week: All Routine

Most of the rooms I'm sharing now are from the late 1920's early 1930's.  I'm always amazed at the elaborate designs I find online from various porcelain/plumbing/linoleum manufacturers.  This bath, as you can see if quite elegant and probably unlike a thing anyone average would have had in their homes.  I say this because, having watched multiple restoration programs bathrooms were tiled but most usually in black and white and fixtures overall were rather plain.  

The green of this bath suite's porcelains was a brand new trend, just being introduced.  The design of the bathroom is over the top with an almost Middle Eastern/ Eastern Mediterranean feel.    The lantern as the central light, the grillwork on the window and what appears to be a vent above the tub, the onion shape of the arch in the shower, even the hookah says that this bath belonged to someone who had likely traveled the Middle East.  The colors are cool and lovely but the addition of that Turkish carpet and the pelmet above the shower alcove add warmth.  

In looking at this bathroom, I almost want to add a lovely rich rug to my own bath space instead of wasting time with bath mats!  Overall I think the room is exotic and lovely and while not likely a style I'd go for in my own home, I'd have loved to seen this bath while it was in it's prime.  It's a nice change from todays gray/white schemes.

In my home this week:  

If I lament anything it's the lack of routine, my home keeping routine, in this season of life.   I looked about the cluttered kitchen counters and the little tornado messes here and there as I was sitting in the kitchen the other day and I disliked mightily what I saw.   I am keeping house the best I can and at nap time and the end of day we whirl thru the rooms putting things to rights.  But I miss my neat and tidy countertops and the dust free lamps and all such as that.  These are thru no fault of Caleb.  He limits his messes to the floors where he's played.

No, it's solely on me.   I've ceased even trying to keep to any sort of routine and I shove things wherever they might fit rather than take time to put them away.

So this week, I'm going to slip back into my standard routines, not the deep cleaning ones, but the daily and weekly routines and reclaim my home.  It helps tremendously that I'm not nearly so tired as I was three, or even two, weeks ago.  

Work:

This week I want to focus on getting the living/dining rooms dusted.  I can see a film of dust over everything and I've noted the ceiling fan edges are looking ever so slightly fuzzy, too.

Other than specific task, the next jobs I want to focus upon are the daily routine: making beds, sweeping floors, tidying things up, emptying trash.    And my weekly routines: Monday cleaning is a little more intense as is Shabat cleaning on Fridays.

One thing that is bothering me no end lately is clutter.  It's mostly in the kitchen.  I'm unhappy with the appearance of my counters at present and would prefer less stuff visible.  Where to put things is going to be a struggle but I'm going to try and reduce what is on the countertops.   We'll see how well I can manage that.  

Outdoors I hope to get to the plants to cut herbs and bring in flowers to enjoy.  I also want to determine which plants I'm going to try and root and grow for planting out next spring before we start having frosts.  I think I have three or four varieties of coleus and some of it has not gone to seed at all, so I can't propagate except by cuttings.   I need to pull the big clear bin from the shed and determine which plants will fit in there. I'll try to bring in the next batch of plants for the house.  This time I think I'll bring in the Christmas cactus and make sure they are slug and bug free.  The poinsettia can stay outdoors a good bit longer.

The porches need to be blown off which is all part of my usual routines anyway.

And I shall leave my work at that for this week.

Kitchen:

I mentioned above that it's the clutter in the kitchen that is disturbing to me at present.  So my work in this area will focus upon cleaning and clearing countertops.   I've been remiss in not putting dishes away once dried after handwashing and I know well that it will be a tremendous help.

Another thing I mean to do this week is figure out how to put the locks on the cabinet doors.  Once the kitchen can look 'normal' again, it will be a huge help, too, I think, in how I am feeling about clutter.  

I made a meal plan for the week on Friday morning.  I started out planning for the weekend and before I knew it I'd drawn up a full meal plan.  I need to plan breakfasts and lunches, as well, but to have a supper plan is the biggest part of the day for me.  

I hope this week to avoid waste.  I had a couple of food items that had to be tossed entirely because I'd simply failed to plan to use them and then forgot them.  I'm not at Gathered Fragments proportions of leftovers and odds and ends but I do need to plan more carefully.

Besides making bread this week, I hope to make apple pies.  I'd like to put one or two in the freezer and give one to Sam and Bess.  I also want to look up to see if I might make a small batch of apple butter if there are enough apples to do all I plan.  At the very least I'll save the peels and cores to make apple jelly with since these are fresh from the orchard apples and not the waxed store brands.

Pizza  The trio of kids from across the field will be here this evening.  I'm going to just make pizza.  It's something they all like, it's easy enough to make for me and frankly I am weary this morning after lying awake listening out for Caleb.  I did sleep, just not quite enough.

Cider Basted Roast Chicken with Apples, Cauliflower, Potatoes, Carrots and Onions The biggest challenge with this dish is to not overdo the vegetables.  I must remember there are only two of us!

Stuffed Peppers, Mashed Potatoes, Lima Beans

Slow cooker Beef Stew, Corn Muffins

Chicken Tamale Pie, Green Salad I bought regular cornmeal the other day and thought I'd try this with proper mush if I have time to make it.

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Garlic Toast

Shoe Box Supper:  Chicken Wild Rice Soup  I'll likely use the broth and bits of chicken from our roast chicken, but will combine with a cream of chicken soup, wild rice mix and a can of mixed vegetables to make this soup.  In a real Shoe Box situation, I'd sub in bouillon cubes, and canned chicken breast.

Personal/Leisure:

I'm slowly making my way through the book, Jane Austen's Town and Country Style.  I haven't been in the mood to read fiction just lately though I've plenty of choices piled upon a section of the bookshelf just now.  

In August, I picked up the Bliss Victoria issue: Our Hearts Are in England and am also slowly browsing through it.  I tend to pick it up in the afternoon when I'm having coffee.  Caleb accepts the vision of me with a magazine in hand to be a personal challenge and tries his best to snatch it away.  Hence why I am only slowly making my way through the magazine.  Truth, I'd forgotten I picked this one up and found it in my magazine basket last week when I was plundering through looking for something else.

Something that has changed for me is that except for one or two vlogs and a quick perusal of instagram once a day, I'm over the whole video/screen thing at the moment.   I guess I can thank watching Caleb for that because in the evening I'm tired enough to not want to spend the entire evening looking at videos.  I'm sick of Pinterest and I'm over the game I had been engrossed in.   So this week I think I might take time to work on Genealogy stuff.  Yes, it's still the computer but it's so much more interesting than watching someone else clean house or looking at 150 recipes I've no intention of trying and so forth.  And somehow wandering around in history is nicer on an autumn evening than about anything else I can think of.