The Simple Woman’s Day Book April 3, 2011

Outside my window… ~45 degrees and cloudy.  Am I detecting some contrariness in Northern Michigan weather?  It finally gets a tad warmer and the sun decides to hide.

I am thinking… ~that I’m enjoying Little Man’s desire to help me in the kitchen.  Today he baked a cake by himself; the only thing I did was put it in the oven and take it out.  Of course I made the frosting, but he did the decorating.  From all reports, the cake is delicious!  I have not had any yet, and am not sure I will until tomorrow.  I might freeze a few pieces to have another time.

I am thankful for… ~a cozy bed with a deliciously snuggly cotton weave blanket on it.

I am wearing… ~striped microfiber socks, my Joe Boxer galaxy pajama pants, and a grey tavern wench shirt.

I am remembering… ~the last cross stitch project I made.  I am getting ready to start a new one.

I am going… ~to completely organize and deep clean my bedroom this week.  I’m also going to crank out a menu for the week too.

I am currently reading…~Land of the Painted Caves by Jean M. Auel.  I am really disappointed so far.  The first nearly 200 pages are a recap of the first five books, in the effort to make this a stand alone novel.  That’s something that I don’t really appreciate.  Quite honestly there are sections of text describing the communal Festival of the Mother feast that appear to be literally copied and pasted from the previous book.  I will reserve final judgement until the end, I haven’t given up hope, but part of me hopes that she employs a time jump (a la Desperate Housewives) to add something to the story.

I am hoping…~to lose weight this week.  ANY weight would be nice.

On my mind… ~getting my mother’s Etsy store up and running.  She and her friend are opening a store called ‘Grandma’s Sew Cute Creations”.  They will have clothing for infants and small children, as well as some other fun items like totes, clothespin bags and pot holders. 

Noticing that… ~grocery prices are skyrocketing.  I mean really going up. I noticed a lot of things that I buy went up by 40 cents…that’s over a 10 percent increase in price.  Finding meat at sale prices under $2 a lb. doesn’t happen anymore.  I’ve had to adjust my threshold to $2.50 a lb.  Cheese has gone up exponentially…and taxes are going up too.  Honestly between food prices, gas prices and taxes, times are going to get pretty tough.

Pondering these words… “Anything worth having isn’t easily come by.”  I need to repeat this like a mantra.

From the kitchen… ~buttermilk fried chicken and home made macaroni and cheese last night; Amish buttermilk cookies yesterday too; today, Little Man’s fabulous Easter Cake.  On deck for this week, Boca burgers; breakfast for dinner; home made pizza and probably a chicken dish of some sort.

Around the house… ~Laundry is half done.  I’m not rushing it.  I got the hall closet and entry way done last week.  This week my focus will shift upstairs to my room.  It needs a good dusting, sweeping, mopping and I have one bookshelf that need to be decluttered and organized, with unwanted books going to the library.

One of my favorite things…~ nuts.  I love them.  Peanuts, walnuts, cashews, almonds, hazelnuts…the list goes on and on.  It kinda sucks that they’re so high in points, but at least I can still  have them.

S.