MONDAY
I woke up early- before my daughter, even! I really wanted to stay in bed, but I had a lot to get done, so I hauled my carcass out and threw the beginnings of dinner in the crockpot- Tomato Butternut Squash Soup, using squash that I had roasted and frozen back in the late fall. Lemme tell you, this is *the* tomato soup recipe, the only one I use. It's fabulous. I blend it completely, using an immersion blender, so that it's creamy and wonderful and delicious. I threw some laundry into the washer, updated the blog, made an important phone call, and took my daughter grocery shopping (our usual grocery shopping day is Wednesday, but vacation last week threw everything off and we were out of the basics, along with having no produce in the house). We came home with lots of veggies and fruit, and after I put all of it away, I hung the laundry out to dry on my drying racks.
I checked on the rolls I'd planned to serve with dinner but was dismayed to find that they had gone moldy (BOO!), so I got some bread started using my bread machine. Thank goodness for having the ingredients on hand to be able to do that! After lunch, I ran my son to a lesson, and my daughter and I browsed the nearby Dollar Tree while we waited. When we got home, I had to move the clothes racks to the garage, as it had started to sprinkle, then I put my daughter down for her nap and baked the bread. After her nap, we made a trip to the library, where she played and I read a book from my Goodreads To Read list. We finished off our day with soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.
TUESDAY
My daughter and I started off our day with Reading and Geography lessons.
For reading, I'm using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I used it successfully with my son (by the time he was 5.5, he was reading at a fourth grade level, as per independent testing, so it worked well!), so I was happy to turn to it again this time around. My daughter looks forward to her lessons and is delighted by the stories. I will say that this week, I noticed a LOT of progress; lessons that were taking twenty minutes before vacation, she was now blowing through them in just ten minutes. We're both pretty excited about this!
For geography, we're reading through Lonely Planet's The Travel Book (I also have a map of the world where we place a marker of our country of the day). It's a squat, heavy book; each country is covered in four short pages. It has gorgeous photos. Some of the info, I need to explain to my daughter, as it's a little above her head at this age, but it's a nice, brief glimpse of another part of our world. After we read our pages here (on this day, we covered Benin), we usually look up the corresponding video of Geography Now on Youtube. This is a super fun series that is crammed full of info on the geography, customs, demographics, etc of a country. My daughter absolutely LOVES these videos, and when there isn't one for the country we've covered, she gets upset ("Mama! How will we dissect the flag?" she cried, mimicking the host of Geography Now. I appeased her by googling. If only every problem were so easily solved). We usually end our lesson by viewing more pictures of our country of the day and sometimes listening to what the official languages sound like.
After our lessons, I cleaned the kitchen and then we were off to the orthodontist with my son. Back at home, I cooked some beans in the Instant Pot and organized my kitchen shelves before leaving *again* to drop my son off at a friend's house. During nap time, I did dinner prep and cleanup and finished a book from my To Read list, then started another one that night.
WEDNESDAY
After our Reading and Geography lessons (we covered Bermuda- my daughter adores islands and always says in a dreamy voice, "We should go there one day!" Keep dreaming, kid!), my daughter went off to play in her room, so I cleaned the kitchen, and, inspired by Mimi's beautiful refrigerator over at A Tray of Bliss, I decided to tackle my own refrigerator, which *badly* needed a deep cleaning. Imagine if a refrigerator and a horror movie had a baby, and that's what mine looked like. No before pictures; your stomach and ability to sleep soundly will thank me! 'Just one shelf,' I said to myself as I began scrubbing. 'I'll just do one shelf today and tackle another shelf tomorrow. You know, break it up a little.'
The best laid plans...you know how those go, right?
I sat down to update the blog, but that picture of Mimi's lovely refrigerator kept popping into my mind, and before I knew it, I was hauling out more shelves and scrubbing down everything. (WHY DID THE SECOND SHELF SMELL LIKE FISH??? WE ALMOST NEVER EVEN EAT FISH; WHAT WAS THAT???? Told you it was terrible in there.) I stopped to run my son to a lesson, but continued after we returned home. I threw pinto beans in the Instant Pot, tossed together some guacamole, and carried on scrubbing (it really did take this long!), and once the inside was finally done (with only one incident of bleeding- no, really; apparently dried-on curry- at least that's what I think it was- can become quite sharp and stabby and turn into a sliver that will lodge itself deep in your right index finger if you're not careful!), I even wiped down the outside. The whole thing looks gorgeous now, and I kept returning to open the door and stare at its gloriousness.
So clean! So not disgusting!
For dinner, we had Chipotle-style rice bowls with pinto beans and guacamole and sauteed veggies, and it was super delicious. I relaxed the rest of the evening, a well-deserved rest, because LOOK AT THAT FRIDGE! *swoon*
THURSDAY
After Reading and Geography lessons (we travelled virtually to Bhutan), my daughter and I had a lovely park playdate with friends. She helped me to clean out the downstairs coat closet, which is something I do every summer. It's still pretty full, but I added quite a bit to our donation pile, and the best part is the doors actually close easily now, which is something they haven't done the 3.5 years we've lived here. Success! We gave my son a ride to a friend's house (teenagers! Always needing rides!), and I worked on a dishcloth during the afternoon. For dinner, in the interest of not wanting to junk up my beautiful clean refrigerator, we all ate leftovers (I had some quiche from the freezer), then worked some more on the dishcloth. And then it started to rain, and right outside our living room window was this...
Apparently the end is at our local Aldi.
So we all went outside for a short walk to enjoy this bit of loveliness. Afterwards, I ended the day by finishing a book from my To Read list.
FRIDAY
The weather was not about to cooperate with yard sales, so my daughter and I ran our usual grocery errands. Summer is in full swing and the produce sales are fantastic around here, so we picked up $35 of groceries, the vast majority of which was fruit and veggies. For lunch, we both enjoyed some of what we'd just bought, and I ate mine as a yogurt bowl, with honey and chia seeds.
Strawberries, cherries, blueberries, and raspberries under there. YUM!
We gave my son a ride after lunch, and during naptime, I did dinner prep for chana aloo masala. Post-nap, we visited the library, where my daughter played and I read a book from my To Read list. After dinner, I picked my son up and then watched a documentary on Netflix with my husband.
SATURDAY
It's the least wonderful time of the year, when I have to take the car in for emissions testing and registration. Not a stressful task (although it has been in the past, thanks to my anxiety); we're fortunate enough to have decently new cars that have run well so far, but it's one of those, "UGH, AGAIN?" things. So I ran and did that, then came home, got my daughter ready, and we were off to gymnastics. She gymmed, I read my book. After lunch, she went down for a nap and I ran to the library to pick up a book from interlibrary loan. I also grabbed a new movie from my library's Lucky Day shelves to watch with my husband that night. At home, I finished a book from my To Read list (which was, sadly, kind of terrible. I wondered if it was just me or if really was as bad as I thought it was, but no, the reviews for it- Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, etc- also thought it was not great). My husband and daughter went out after she got up, and I stayed home to prepare dinner so that we wouldn't have to go out. I threw together a quiche with three kinds of peppers and zucchini (using the Universal Quiche recipe from The Complete Tightwad Gazette, of course; eggs were also on sale this week, so we have a lot of them), and a salad.
Let them eat quiche!
My husband and I watched that movie from the library, and I finished another book from my To Read list before bed.
SUNDAY
We visited with family today. I knitted dishcloths while we chatted and while I was in the car; I've got just a small portion of a corner to finish, and then I'll have used up all my cotton yarn! And that will bring my total number of dishcloths knit in the past two weeks or so to eighteen. That's not too shabby, and they'll go into my stash for future gifts, Christmas or otherwise. I still need to finish up the ends, but I'll get that done and then move on to the next project. During my daughter's nap, I started reading a book I'd picked up off my library's new shelves, and then we headed back to a neighborhood picnic with my husband's family. My daughter enjoyed playing with her cousin and jumping in the free bounce houses that were available, and I enjoyed the time talking with family.
So, all in all a nice week! My back has been mostly okay this week, but Saturday night it started bothering me again. I'm having nerve issues and may end up needing to call the doctor again. (UGH.) I'll play it by ear and see how it goes, but I need another appointment anyway to renew some prescriptions, so I might as well bite the bullet and schedule something while I'm having problems, right?
Here's to hoping the next week is as busy and productive as this one! How was your week last week?
Goodreads To Read List: 161 books
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