Monday, November 8 - Wednesday, November 10, 2021 recap.

Happy Thursday! We’re almost to the weekend.

I’ve decided that instead of doing one massive weekly update with an unholy wall o’text, I’m going to do a twice weekly post about what’s going on in my life. The first will cover Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; the second will cover Thursday through Sunday. I think that’ll work out better. Let’s get this started!

Monday, November 8, 2021

After getting dressed and having breakfast with my daughter, I changed out the bathroom garbage (it’s garbage night!) and scooped out the litterbox. I put a cup of black beans in the Instant Pot, then sauteed onions, mushrooms, and garlic in preparation for that night’s dinner of black bean burgers. (I add the mushrooms into the burger mixture when they’re on sale; it gives it a heartier flavor.) I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, and then it was time for school drop-off.

Back at home, I tidied the living room and read a piece of writing a friend had sent me to look over (it was fabulous! I hope it gets published somewhere), then swept the floors. I did a 20 minute cleaning blitz in my daughter’s room.

So, my daughter is seven and…basically, she’s a hoarder, and the tiniest little tornado you’ve ever met. She can enter a room and turn it into complete chaos within minutes; her age and her tendency to be extremely easily distracted makes it overwhelming and frustrating for her to even know where to begin cleaning up when things get that bad. I expect this will change with time and maturity, but for now, she still needs my help. Unfortunately, spending hours at a time overhauling her room is an act of frustration and pain for me, so I decided to start working on her room twenty minutes at a time. This proved fruitful; I uncovered her floor and got a surprising amount done in such a short period of time. She was extremely grateful when she got home!

I then went downstairs and made the burgers for dinner (and put them in the fridge!), took out the recycling, and cooked up two batches of kale for dinner before running the dishwasher and taking out the compost.

I edited and posted a review of Love, Chai, and Other Four-Letter Words by Annika Sharma on my book blog; then wrote another review. I browsed through some of my favorite homemaking blogs, then mended a torn dress, and prepared lunch for my daughter. I’m still picking her up for lunch every day (it helps to control our anxiety about her being unmasked in the lunchroom; she’ll be fully vaccinated after December 10^th, so when she goes back to school after winter break, we’ll feel okay with her staying at school for lunch), so I packed everything up and met her for lunch at school. She eats lunch with me in the car while I read to her; we’re currently reading Princess in Disguise by E.D. Baker (her choice; I’m not loving this one!).

At home, I ate lunch, then did an 18-minute beginner Pilates workout video. My physiatrist, whom I see for my terrible back, suggested Pilates as a way to strengthen my core at my last appointment; I had to wait a few days after my second set of caudal injections last week before beginning, but this was my first attempt, and phew! I definitely felt it the next day. I think it’ll be good for me and I’m looking forward to continuing.

Afterwards, I settled down on my chair for 30 minutes of my personal Read Harder challenge. This is where I pick a book that I wouldn’t just read casually; it’s something like a classic novel or a more substantial work of non-fiction that I really need to focus on to get through, and that’s easier for me to read when no one is home to make noise and distract me! Currently, I’m reading The Joy of Sects: A Spirited Guide to the World’s Religious Traditions by Peter Occhiogrosso. When my timer sounded, I began going through email I’d been putting off for ages. I took a break to walk with my husband to pick my daughter up from school, but this continued after we got home. Yikes!

I pan-fried the black bean burgers right before we ate, then I did my Duolingo (still going strong with Norwegian!), cleaned up the kitchen, took the garbage and recycling cans to the road, showered, swished out the toilet, and wiped down the bathroom sink. Phew! I had a sore hip after all this, so I relaxed until it was time to put my daughter to bed. I read my current casual reading book, The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live by Danielle Dreilinger, until my husband came upstairs. We watched two episodes of Forensic Files and then went to bed.

What a busy day!

 

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

You would think with as busy as I had been the day before, I would’ve slept better, but nope! Regardless, it was up for breakfast and getting ready with my daughter at 6:30 am. I threw in a load of laundry before doing school drop-off and heading to Target. They didn’t have what I needed, so I came home to discover rumblings of a local issue online (I’ll talk more about that later this week). Because of this, I made plans to virtually attend my library’s board meeting on Wednesday. I also posted a book review for Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America by Eyal Press.

I switched the laundry, then folded and put away another load (I do a combination of hang drying and drying in my dryer, so there’s usually always something to put away!). I did a bit more preparation on that local issue, then did another twenty-minute cleaning blitz in my daughter’s room (once again, she was very grateful when she saw my hard work!). I had to make an extra trip out to the recycling bin by the road after this; my daughter hoards paper like crazy, and the only way to clear it out of her room is to do it when she’s not there! I did a little more computer work, prepared my daughter’s lunch, then put together a bag for local food pantries to drop off at the school office for their Service Week.

After my daughter had her lunch, I returned home to eat mine, then repeated the same Pilates video from the day before. I did my 30 minutes of my Read Harder challenge, and then dozed for twenty minutes, thanks to my poor sleep the night before. My husband and I walked the mile to pick our daughter up, then walked home. It was a beautiful fall day!

At home, I threw together a baked spaghetti and ran the dishwasher, then relaxed and played around online while my husband helped my daughter with her math homework. I finished my Duolingo, showered, and read The Secret History of Home Economics before putting my daughter to bed and watching three episodes of Forensic Files with my husband.

 

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Wednesday is grocery day here! In addition to getting ready and making sure my daughter gets ready (and doing her hair, which I do every morning), I make out my grocery list while eating breakfast every Wednesday morning. I check Aldi and two other local grocery store’s ads and make out my lists based on what’s on sale. Fortunately, one of the local stores had some fresh vegetables on sale, so that made me happy! I scooped the litterbox and unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher before dropping my daughter off at school.

In addition to the items on my list, the local grocery store I went to had their about-to-go-bad produce rack out today, and I grabbed two big bags of broccoli for two dollars! There are about three and a half or four pounds of broccoli in those bags, in totally fresh condition. I was THRILLED! We hadn’t had broccoli here in a while, so I immediately started thinking about all the things I could make with this. Some broccoli cheddar soup might be in our future. ; )

I picked up our usual at Aldi, including a pizza (Wednesday night is always Aldi pizza night!), but not the bedspread they had in their weekly ad. Poor Aldi has been hit hard by the supply chain problems this year. I’m hoping they’ll get this bedspread in at some point, because we’re in desperate need of a new one! It only took me a few minutes to put groceries away when I got home.

After that, I did an hour of volunteer work on my computer. I’m signed up to do two hours a week with a nonprofit dedicated to helping provide resources to people who leave high-control religious groups. It’s important, necessary work, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it! I usually listen to whatever’s playing on the Jewish Broadcasting Service while I do my work compiling resources (I’m finishing up lists of mental health resources); today I listened to a program of speakers commemorating the anniversary of Kristallnacht. Most often, I split my two hours per week up between two days, but occasionally I’ll get it all done in one day. Some weeks I do a little extra.

I threw my daughter’s lunch together and read to her while she ate, then came home and had lunch myself! Afterwards, I did the same 18-minute Pilates video (I’m going to pick one video and repeat it all week long, I think), then read for 30 minutes for my personal Read Harder Challenge (I started learning about Buddhism today! Super fascinating). When the timer went off, I set it again for twenty minutes and cleaned some more of my daughter’s room, then took out the compost, rinsed some dishes, and visited some of the homemaking blogs I enjoy. And then it was time for school pick-up! Just me, because my husband works later on Wednesdays. At home, I prepared the salad and dressing for dinner while supervising my daughter’s math homework. There's spinach under all those chopped vegetables!

When my husband got home, we ate dinner; I cleaned up and ran the dishwasher, did my Duolingo, and showered. The library board meeting began at 7 pm, so I pulled out my grandmother's cross-stitch to work on while I listened (the stitching is all complete; I'm working on the backstitching now). 

The sound quality was terrible, but watching the board meeting was actually really interesting, and I plan on making it a regular thing. I love our local library so much and was heartened to know they're in such good financial shape. They also showed drone videos of the progress at the library's new building (it's slated to open in late fall/early winter of 2022), which was SUPER EXCITING. This is a project years in the making and one desperately needed- the current building is old, out of date (and getting it up to date would cost more than a new building!), not handicap accessibly, and a whole host of other issues. This new library building is going to add so much to our community and I'm really looking forward to it.

When the meeting ended, I read my book for a little bit, and watched two episodes of Forensic Files with my husband before going to bed.

And that's it for the first half of my week! How has your week gone?