Starting Over Sunday

Ok, so, I know it isn't Sunday and I needed to have written this yesterday but yesterday was Valentine's Day, which is lame excuse because we don't "do" Valentine's Day.  The better reason was I felt wretched all day -- allergies for sure and something was giving me indigestion  so I was a real woof-woof all day.  So, I am going to give it a go today.  Starting Over Sunday is a meme of my own creation to sort of re-start myself for the next week.  Never having been one to plan ahead much, this is a stretch for me but hopefully it will help me focus.  Want to join in?  Leave a link to your blog here in the comment section if you would like.

So, here I go--

1.  Continue with my new approach to housecleaning.  I absolutely hate to clean house and I am not good at it so I decided to take a lesson from one of my favorite books -- "A Woman of Substance" and follow Emma Hart's example of assigning a time to each task for it to be completed in.  I have been doing this, setting the kitchen timer and giving each task a 20 minute window of time.

Seems that the chores that I find to be so daunting (vacuuming?) and time consuming can actually be done is a very small amount of time if one gets up off her bum and actually does it.  Very enlightening.

2.  Meal Planning was a bust last week.  I had all the ingredients in the house for a number of meals but for some reason I couldn't find where I stashed my energy.  We ate out a lot.  Bad, bad Melissa.

 So, last night I started over.  We had a pork loin simply seasoned with salt and pepper and roasted in the oven.  I actually managed to not over cook the thing and it was really tender.  With it we had couscous, green beans and pear and cottage cheese salad.  I had also made some bread so we each had a slice of that.  Not sure what we will be having tonight -- must get on that soon so something will be defrosted.

3.  Laundry is now under control.  Laundry seems to be my nemesis.  It is prolific.  It multiplies itself in the night.  So, even though I am trying very hard to be frugal and green, I have been washing at least one load a day.  It might be two -- this morning it is two --but they aren't large.  I have an HE machine and I remember the salesman telling us that it was ok to wash small loads as this machine uses less water to begin with so that is what I am going on.

 It is working well for me because I am actually able to get it washed, dried, folded and put away all in the same day.  Did I mention that I am lazy? I might add that I am using the dryer again but in a much better way than before.  I just got so tired of wet laundry hanging everywhere and it never feeling like it was done that I had to go back to the dryer but I am very careful not to over dry and I am taking clothes out immediately and putting them away properly so nothing is over drying or sitting in the dryer until I remember that I put it in -- sometimes that could take days.  So, as of now I am up to date on the laundry and am actually working on my two loads for today as we speak.

4.  Dishwashing has become a non-issue because I have now trained myself to wash the dishes immediately upon use. Hmmmm.... I wonder if Hubs was done with his dinner last night when I took his plate?  Well, he shouldn't have left the table if he wasn't done.  I love my dishwasher but it is noisy and I really don't like unloading it.  So, I have figured out that to wash the dishes for the two of us isn't exactly time consuming so I have been doing them immediately instead of letting them sit there until I empty the dishwasher.  Maybe soon I will have disciplined myself to empty the dishwasher before bed so I can just load the dishwasher throughout the day and run it after dinner.  I am working on that but for now, I wash 'em as I see 'em.

A couple of weeks ago I bought a Bona floor system to help with the floors -- I have a lot of solid flooring in this house -- only two rooms with carpet and those are soon to be history. 

I really like this because it makes mopping really easy.  I don't do well with heavy equipment anymore so this is just perfect.  The dust mop is good but nothing much seems to stick to it.  So, today, I am going to go back to Swiffer for a bit even though it goes against my sensibilities because of all of its disposability.  I already have it so there isn't a purchase to be made.  I do use the furniture duster anyway so what is the difference?

Sleeping Beauty (aka the Hubs) and I are on two completely different schedules.  I get up early and go to bed early.  He sleeps very late in the morning (at least I think it is late) and he goes to bed later.  So, I am ready to get on things in the morning because by lunch I am more or less done.  I need to be able to get my stuff done and still be quiet lest I wake the sleeping monster.  So, dust mopping the floors, washing the dishes by hand, getting the laundry going all make it much easier for me to get on with my business while he is ......sleeping.  Shhhh!

A couple of goals this week are to train myself to empty the dishwasher before bed, do a bit of organization in the closet and get back to some sewing.  All of this rethinking the housework was in an effort to get me back to sewing and doing needlework.  I went to school with a girl whose mother would get up at 4 a.m and do all the housework -- top to bottom -- and the laundry each and every day.  She even wore a uniform.  Then, she would make breakfast and get the children off to school.  When they were gone she would retreat to her bedroom to shower and do her beauty routine (not to be disturbed during this process).  She would emerge, dressed to the nines, ready to go about her business of shopping.  Every. Single. Day.  It must have worked for her because she only recently passed away at the ripe old age of 90+.  So, there you go.

Well, the dryer is buzzing so I must go.  Have a wonderful day!