The Menu this Week and Natural Cleaning

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I wanted to tell you what is on the menu this week and about some natural cleaning I got accomplished. Really should clean it more often, but you know how it goes.

Last week, I cleaned the coffee maker with vinegar and water. This week, it was the handheld shower head.

I’ll explain how I go about it. It’s really very simple.

Cleaning a Handheld Shower Head:

I got a gallon-sized Ziploc bag and filled it halfway with white vinegar and the other half with water. Then I sunk the shower head into the solution and zipped it shut around it. I managed to get it sitting upright so the liquid wouldn’t spill out while it soaked.

Then I left it overnight. The next morning, I took the showerhead out and poured the liquid down the bathtub drain. This helps to keep the tiny holes open through which your water flows.

If the nozzles are clogged, you can take a toothbrush and clean them.

Over time, those little holes can get clogged with mineral deposits. This is a cheap way of cleaning something you use every day.

I do not remove the shower head from the shower arm. This was just a maintenance cleaning.

What’s on the Menu?

Here is what I have on the menu this week. I ordered what I needed from Walmart and had it delivered Monday, as I do every week or so.

Bean & Cheese Enchiladas

On the menu this week are bean and cheese enchiladas. Again. Yes, I know I made them several weeks ago. But it’s a very cheap and easy meal, so it’s a favorite of mine. Plus, I have these wonderful leftovers I can eat for days!

I used beans, enchilada sauce, soft tortillas, cheese, and chopped onions. It’s quite filling. The soft tortillas end up crispy on the ends, which I like.

Cucumber Salad

I’m also adding a cucumber salad to this week’s menu. This will add a crunchy side dish to the bean-and-cheese enchiladas. Because I couldn’t remember the ingredients aside from cucumbers, onions, and vinegar, I referred to a recipe I found online.

Ingredients in the cucumber salad: Red onion, green onion, lime juice, vinegar, honey, sea salt, black pepper, and garlic salt. I won’t be adding the green onion.

This will be my meal for 4-5 nights. If you don’t like leftovers, then my way of eating isn’t for you!

Do you have any favorite easy, cheap meals you cook regularly?

Yesterday, I had taken the filled trash bag to the porch can and, on the way back, my right ankle turned over. It wasn’t a bad fall. I just scraped up the side of my right knee. That ankle is weak from the old injury and turns over easily.

How I Reach the Outdoor Trash Cans from the Porch:

If I haven’t told you how I take the trash to the big trash cans without going down my porch steps, I’ll explain. It’s much like watering my plants on the ground from the hose on the west side of the house.

When I moved here in 2024, I had the driveway widened and concrete added from the driveway to the east side of the porch. It looks nicer, as it is a good place to store the trash can and recycling container.

This allows me to reach over the porch railing to open the trash cans. That means I don’t have to walk up and down the steps, which is hard on my ankle and knees.

How to Water Outdoor Plants

Kendra had one of her guys come last year and cement a thick wooden pole into the ground. The water hose is attached to that pole, and during the summer, the water is left on but turned off at the pole.

Thus, I don’t have to go down the steps, once again, and it’s so handy for me! There are ways to get things accomplished if you have health or physical problems. You just have to get creative.

How I Fertilize Outdoor Plants

I have a container I ordered some years ago for fertilizing plants.

Using a powdered fertilizer, I mix the recommended amount into this container and fill it with water. Then I spray the water/fertilizer blend onto the soil in the plant containers.

You don’t have to hook it up anywhere to use it. Just recharge it when necessary.

This way, I don’t have to hook anything up to the water hose to fertilize plants.

Weather & Planting:

It got cold on Sunday night, cold enough to freeze the cat’s water I keep on the porch for them. I had tried to clip dead leaves off plants on Sunday, but the wind was blowing so hard that it was a failed endeavor.

Then last night it froze the hosta that had already emerged. So I hope cutting it back will revive it.

I’m looking forward to planting the seeds I ordered from Renee’s Garden.

To save money, I’m not planning to buy any bedding plants from the nursery. I haven’t ever just planted seeds before, I don’t think, or for a very long time anyway. So we’ll see how it goes. My money is having to go to dental bills right now.

These are the veggies and herbs I’m planning to plant. All will be in the containers that I used last year.

I don’t think I’ve ever planted watermelon, but these are small ones you can plant in containers.

What I’m Watching:

Broadchurch

I just finished watching Broadchurch on Netflix. What a wonderful series! It’s so much better than the US series of the same name. If you haven’t watched it, give it a glance.

David Tennant and Olivia Colman are excellent actors.

I prefer watching a series at night. They’re usually an hour or less long, which fits my evening schedule. I like to read after that before I go to sleep.

Gypsy Limited Series:

Last night, I began watching a Netflix limited series titled Gypsy, starring Naomi Watts and Billy Crudup. It features a custom acoustic re-recording of “Gypsy” by Stevie Nicks.

The main character, Naomi Watts, is a complex, manipulative therapist struggling with her own desires. It focuses on the breach of professional boundaries when a therapist inserts herself into her patients’ lives under an alias.

What I’m Reading:

I just finished reading the book A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St. James and will be reviewing it this week.

I’m now reading All That is Mine I Carry With Me by William Landay. I like his novels. I’ve read his book Defending Jacob twice.

The book is based on a true story.

All That is Mine I Carry With Me

Book Summary:

One afternoon in November 1975, ten-year-old Miranda Larkin comes home from school to find her house eerily quiet. Her mother is missing. Nothing else is out of place. There is no sign of struggle. Her mom’s pocketbook remains in the front hall, in its usual spot.
 
So begins a mystery that will span a lifetime. What happened to Jane Larkin?
 
Investigators suspect Jane’s husband. A criminal defense attorney, Dan Larkin, would surely be an expert in outfoxing the police.
 
But no evidence links him to a crime, and the case fades from the public’s memory, a simmering, unresolved riddle. Jane’s three children—Alex, Jeff, and Miranda—are left to be raised by the man who may have murdered their mother.
 
Two decades later, the remains of Jane Larkin are found. The investigation is awakened. The children, now grown, are forced to choose sides. With their father or against him? Guilty or innocent? And what happens if they are wrong?