What's Been Going On: Thursday, 3 March - Sunday, 7 March, 2022

Whew! Another busy weekend. Constant motion, my perpetual state these days. The good part about that is that I’ve been sleeping pretty well, because I fall into bed exhausted most days! There’s just so much to do, but it’s good work, for the most part – or at least, I try to see it as good work. Naps are good, too.

We had our first super-gorgeous day of the year! Saturday was absolutely beautiful, and we were able to have the windows open Friday and Saturday afternoon. I hate having the house all closed up; it always raises my spirits to have fresh air flowing through open windows, so this was a lovely early March treat. It’ll be weeks, possibly months before this is a regular occurrence (and then it’ll get hot enough to turn the air conditioning on!), so I definitely appreciated every moment of it now.

Here's what I was up to the second half of last week!

 

Thursday, 3 March, 2022

I got our muffins in the oven (from the batter I’d made the night before and put in the fridge), and edited and posted Thursday’s post. After breakfast and coffee, I got a batch of refried beans in the Instant Pot. My beans are kind of old, so they took multiple long rounds in the IP, but they made it, which thrilled me. Less waste!

My daughter and I did her math lesson, and while she started in on the problem set, I threw a load of laundry in the wash. We paused to look for the glasses she had taken off and set down in a mystery place (on top of her circuit board set, of course…), and then we finished her book on volcanoes and earthquakes. We read more about fashion history, read the first section of a book about museum artifacts, and then it was time for lunch.

I switched/hung the laundry (I do a combo), and then we tackled spelling and language arts. We read three chapters of history (the history book contained a photograph of an item from the museum artifacts book!), and did our thirty minutes of Read Harder/silent reading (I’m reading  Everything You Need to Know About Asian-American History; my daughter is reading Matilda by Roald Dahl), then read more on the history of voting in the US. My daughter did some more math and spelling work, and I blended the beans up

I loaded the dishwasher and took out the compost, then worked a little on a crocheted blanket I’d started this summer. I made a batch of tortas, read two chapters of Le Petit Prince, put the tortas in the oven to warm, and then it was time for dinner.

I did my Duolingo, put dinner away, and showered. I read my book, and my husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Friday, 4 March, 2022

I had breakfast and coffee, wrote out my Friday post, and got dressed. We started our day with On This Day in History and geography (Kazakhstan), did a math lesson, and my daughter did her worksheet while I emptied and refilled the dishwasher and cleaned off the stovetop. Her elementary school didn’t have school today, so I let her take an easy day, and we watched the documentary Dive!, about dumpster diving and food waste. Definitely a lot of food for thought there!

We had lunch, I took out the recycling and compost, and sliced and prepared a batch of Brussels sprouts. I took out another batch of compost and cooked a batch of soyrizo, then herded my daughter through spelling. We did our 30 minutes of Read Harder/silent reading, and school was done for the day.

I ran to Walgreens to pick up a prescription, then got a batch of Spanish rice in the rice cooker. I read two chapters of Le Petit Prince, read my book, and threw the Brussels sprouts in the oven. I swept the living room and the kitchen, then finished reading The Cold Vanish by Jon Billman. I warmed the leftover tortas in the oven, stirred the soyrizo into the cooked Spanish rice, ran the dishwasher, and it was time for dinner, a mishmash of leftovers and Spanish rice and Brussels sprouts. : )

I did my Duolingo and showered, put dinner away, then sat down with my cross-stitching. I logged on to my synagogue’s virtual services, and afterwards, I began reading How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith (already loving this book, it’s incredible!). My husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

Saturday, 5 March, 2022

Breakfast and coffee, and then I blasted out three book reviews that I needed to get written! I got dressed and unloaded and refilled the dishwasher, and then I sliced the five pounds of strawberries I’d bought this week (we’ll eat these over the course of the week; if they start getting too soft, they’ll go into the freezer for smoothies). I then got the tops into a bowl to turn into a batch of strawberry syrup. Waste not, want not!

I filled and ran the dishwasher, took out the cycling, folded the load of laundry I’d washed yesterday, and put away my half of it. I spent a little bit of time on the computer, we had lunch, and then I did a Freecycle pickup just a mile or two from my house (socks and headbands for my daughter). We went on a three-mile walk, since the weather was so nice, and then I settled down to cross-stitch away the afternoon while watching YouTube documentaries – one about young nuns, and a few about the Amish.

After dinner (more leftovers!), I did my Duolingo and showered. I stitched some more, put my daughter to bed, read my book, and my husband and I watched an episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Sunday, 6 March, 2022

Breakfast and coffee! I put dishes in the dishwasher, got dressed, and cleaned my daughter’s room. And then I was finally able to put away her laundry!

I made a crockpot full of what we call orange soup – butternut squash, sweet potato, carrots, sautéed onion and garlic, rosemary, sage, and thyme, and vegetable broth, with a can of coconut milk stirred in at the end, after you puree everything. Total comfort food. I scooped the litterbox, took out the recycling and compost, then cleaned up and swept the kitchen.

I made out a menu for the week and worked on more cross-stitching. I had some time to write out part of a future blog post, and then it was time to pick up my son! He and I drove to pick up some pizza, and then drove back home to have lunch together. He’s still thinking about moving back in; I still hope he decides to. : )

I drove him back after lunch and cleaned up the kitchen. I filled and ran the dishwasher, and made my batch of strawberry syrup (dumping the leftover bits in the compost. Enjoy, birds and squirrels!).

 

I did some ironing, swept the living room, and sat down to work on this post. I dozed for a bit, then finished crocheting the blanket I’d started this summer in order to use up yarn (that didn’t seem to be good for anything else!). This will get wrapped up and given to my mom as a gift.

 

I blended the soup and added the can of coconut milk, emptied and reloaded the dishwasher, and continued working on this post. And then I picked up a triangle scarf I’d started knitting at the beginning of the winter and began to work on that.

We had dinner, I did my Duolingo, showered, and showered my daughter, and then it was back to work on my scarf (which I wear as a hat – I made one of these last year and they’re great. They allow me to keep my head warm even when I have my hair up, and they don’t mess up my hair!). And I finished it! The pattern can be found here.

 

I read my book, and my husband and I watched one episode of Deadly Women before bed.

 

Phew! It was a good weekend. I feel like I got a lot done, so hopefully this week will run smoothly. I have two doctor appointments (just checkups!), scheduled in the days before my daughter was homeschooled, so my husband is coming home early today, and I’ll take my daughter with me on Friday. Not a big deal, we’ll take school on the road. That’s the beauty of homeschool!

And we woke up today to snow. Because of course! ; )