Monthly Maintenance and Rambling

This is our maintenance week. The first week of every month we specify as our week to make sure things get done.

We clean our guns(we both have our carry permits), we run down the generator and recharge it, we clean the filters on the air conditioners, ad nauseam.

One of the things I do is run some vinegar through the coffee pot. It stinks but does clean it out. We clean the filters on the air conditioners. We clean the fan blades and the motors. I wash rugs and blankets that sit on the back of chairs. We take this week to make sure that everything that needs regular attention gets it. We have found that if we set a specific week aside for maintenance, it actually happens.

We (meaning my husband) found the part for the mower. If we can find a bit of time that is drier, we (meaning my husband) will mow, hopefully tomorrow. Or just in the morning, wet or not.

As a random aside, it took my son all of one day to fall out of his pattern of getting up in the morning. He is back to his staying up late, playing video games and watching you tube all night(I do not provide the internet that allows him to do this any more. He downloads stuff when he is at dad's house, so he doesn't need it when he is home) He swears he has goals, but just can't seem to stick with them. As seems to be typical for a millennial, he thinks things should be handed to him without work. He has a short amount of time before he has to figure it out and go somewhere. It may be the Marines if he can figure out a few things, or flat on his face, because he doesn't get to just stay here forever.  I hope he can figure it out since I don't want him to wind up a failure, but I can't fix everything for him. He has to grow up at some point.

We finally got our gazebo put up. It said it could be put up in 30 minutes. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
It took us a couple of hours. It wasn't really hard, it was just that the directions left a lot to be desired. Now that it is up, we are glad for that and are looking forward to being able to spend some time outside in an enclosed space and try to avoid some mosquitos. And flies. And other creepy crawlies.

Someone set off fireworks on Saturday night and my poor puppy freaked out. There hasn't been any since then, but not holding my breath that there won't be any tonight. I am hoping that with time we can get him over the loud noise fear.

Another thing that we try to do every week is plan our meals. It makes it much easier to plan buying groceries and using the food that we have that is fresh. Less waste means less money wasted. And less money wasted means more money saved.

For me, more money saved means we get to where we want to go. I have wanted a "simpler" lifestyle since I was a kid. My husband was the same. It's not that we don't want to work, we just want to work for ourselves on our own land. Also, we want to spend our time together. I know that there are folks out there who actually enjoy spending time together and folks who don't. We are one of those couples that enjoys being together.

Last night for supper we had sirloin steaks (broiled - I am so glad for my broiler pan), beans and greens for my husband and I and green beans for my picky eater kid.

What sort of thing(s) do you look at to ensure maintenance of the things you need to take care of? How often do you change filters? Clean filters? Just in general check the maintenance and status of the stuff you own? Would you check those items more than once a month? What sort of things do you do weekly or monthly?

P.S. Supper tonight is roasted chicken and mashed potatoes.

P.P.S. Today I am thankful for air conditioning since it was so hot and muggy out today.