Putting Away

Well, after such a long trip there is the unpacking that seems to take ages. And then trying to do a weeks worth of laundry in just a few days. And then David didn’t quite make it through the night, and there are his bed linens to wash on top of that. I have found that after busy times, it’s easy to focus on the clean-up, and then you loose a few more days because you’ve cleaned up from the trip, and your house is messy, because you’ve been so busy cleaning up.

So through our last few busy times, including moves, I’ve found that I like to stick to my household list of daily chores like crazy during a “recovery time.” Because if I stick to my list, every part of my house gets clean over the course of a week. (Just not clean all at once. This is not a magic list.) For those curious followers, here’s my chore list:

Monday:
-clean sheets
-clean all bedrooms
-clean upstairs hallway and stairs
-“baking” day
-exercise

Tuesday:
-dust as much of the house as I can
-mop and vacuum house
-water plants

Wednesday:
-clean bathrooms
-meal plan for following week
-clean out fridge
-declutter piles around the house
-exercise

Thursday:
-grocery shopping
-clean out purse/diaper bag
-update receipts into budget
-clean microwave

Friday:
-mass cooking day
-water plants
-wipe down all of kitchen including appliances
-exercise

Saturday:
-prepare Sunday food
-declutter piles
-clean t.v. screen
-mop and vacuum house

So rarely does everything get done every day, but it’s good to have goals, right? (I had to laugh when typing out ‘exercise’ because that hasn’t gotten done in a few months!) If my whole house doesn’t get vacuumed on a vacuum day, at least one room does, and I can do another room on the next vacuum day. I usually have to dust in shifts too, but I wish I could get the whole thing done in a day. Silje’s starting to help me with it, but I find myself going back over what she does. We need to work on that.

But as you can see, today is Friday, and that means mass cooking day. I really only do major cooking on Fridays, and the rest of the days we do easy meals like pasta, or something involving a simple gravy over bread, or pull some yummy meal from the freezer. After grocery shopping yesterday, I bought enough to do 2 different types of meals to add to my freezer stash. I’ve made 3 meatloafs (all they need to do is thaw and bake when I need them) and I still need to make a few batches of chicken pot pie filling. In my opinion, it saves me so much time to cook in bulk, as I only have to do the dishes for them once, and I get to buy in bulk which also saves time, and money.

When we got back from vacation, I was astonished at how bare my freezer was, and how much my garden grew! We have no green beans left in the freezer, and the peas are long gone. I have 2 bags of sweet creamed corn left. We do have beans and peas in the garden now, and let me tell you, that keeps me busy. I was picking for a solid hour this morning, and I’m still not done shelling the peas. I had the kids helping me for awhile, but raw peas from the garden are so delicious, that not much was going to the freezer. My sister actually overheard me over the phone yell at my kids: “No more peas, I mean it!”

It’s that time of year when I yearn to sew, and knit or do some sort of craft, but the harvest (in my garden) is ready, and each day is spent picking, shelling, blanching, freezing. My evenings are spent sitting and shelling or snapping, instead of stitching Silje’s quilt which I still haven’t posted pictures of yet. I have no doubt that pretty soon my freezer will be brimming with food again, and hopefully some meals, as those meatloafs, so far, are the only meals in there. I’ve definitley ran it down and have had no time to replenish it this summer.

So when the seasonal garden work is done, and my chore list is done, I work more on the “unpacking.” I’ve already pulled out all the dirty laundry from the bags, washed them and put them away. You may notice that laundry isn’t on my chore list. That’s because, for those who have MSC (Many Small Children) know, laundry is a constant. The only thing remaining from our trip is 2 suitcases in our bedroom with a few unworn clothes, and the blankets and sleeping bags are just sitting in the hallway, waiting to be put back in their spots. That will get done when the daily things get done first…and the blogging of course.

I’m also thinking of canning that I hope to get done this year. Since Knut has been on the south beach diet, we don’t go through as much jellies and jams, and I still have over 20 jars in our cold room. I did see this recepie for a pumpkin butter that just looks delicious! Not south beach exactly, but it does look good and I’m sure has less sugar than jelly. Our pumpkins are doing just great this year, so I think I’ll try it out when they’re ready. I don’t think we’ll have much for apples this year, and I didn’t get any of the surplus of apples put away into sauces last fall because, well I had a baby. Some things just have to be let go.

August is upon us, and that means the beginning of “putting away” both in the freezers, the cans, and the suitcases. I can’t wait until this winter when my freezer is full of yummy vegis and meals, and I have no gardening to do and can spend my evenings at home with Knut watching t.v. and quilting. (Well, I’d be the one doing the quilting. Knut’s not that into it.)