I do a lot of on-line shopping especially at this time of the year. I don’t know about you but I have a hard time keeping track of things I order online. And with Christmas just around the corner, I’m going to need to make sure I order the gifts in time for delivery.
I decided to make an Online Shopping List for keeping track of my orders.
It has the important information at my fingertips. I made a printable if you are interested in one for yourself. depending on your shopping list, you might need to print off more than one sheet.
Spring has finally arrived. It was sunny and warm in my neck of the world. Cold and windy (enough to drag out the winter coats and hats) on Wednesday quickly changed to warm and sunny yesterday. In fact we had temperatures in the low 80’s! No humidity and no bugs…I’ll take it.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. It is a time to celebrate!
what I’m reading
My Book Club met at my house on Monday. We discussed Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Windspear. This is the first book in the series of 18 and though I read it several years ago I loved it enough to recommend it for the book club. They all loved it, too, and plan to continue the series on their own. The books takes place between 1913-1929 in England. If you like historical fiction, you might like this series that follows Maisie, a female private investigator and psychologist, from her adolescence to opening her agency and landing her first case.
what I’m listening to
About month ago Mr. Aitch and I had tickets to see/listen to the Airmen of Note, the Air Force Jazz Band. The concert was postponed due to bad weather but they came back last weekend to hold a band clinic for the area high schools and then preform for the public. We both love jazz and they did not disappoint. If you have to opportunity to hear them, please take advantage of it.
what I’m loving
These bunny racecars were stuck in the planter in front of one of the cluster mailboxes down the street. How sweet for Easter!
Maybe it’s cabin fever. Perhaps it’s aging. Or the weather. Could I be overwhelmed? Underwhelmed?
Whatever it is, I’m in a funk.
I haven’t touched my knitting in over a week.
Yesterday when I was outside with Pepper, I saw everything that needs to be done in the yard. More dead or dying trees should be cut down. The 550-600 pavers want to be a walkway around the deck. The almost bare sometimes muddy path between the deck and garage door and around the garage longs for a paver/concrete sidewalk. The flower beds in front of the house are pathetic.
The good things about being outside were the fresh air and the clear, sunshiny skies with a few whipsy clouds.
Inside the house… Let’s not even think about that!
Well, I have no motivation. My just-do-one-thing voice is on vacation. I sit and play games on my iPad. All. Day. WTH?!
I tried to make pie crust for the beef pot pies we had last week. I completely screwed it up. I forgot to cut the butter/lard into smaller chunks before adding to the flour. Then I forgot to cut the fat into the flour before adding the water. Everything went into the food processor at the same time. I couldn’t figure out why I had this overworked lump of stickiness with a big hunk of frozen lard in the middle.
I took a deep breath, cleaned the food processor, took another deep breath, and started over. Perfect pie crust.
So is it just me? Or do you suffer from the February Funk?
One of the libraries I belong to offers access to Hoopla, an online resource for ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, music, and videos (TV and movies). I try to keep my book buying down so when I find something I might like, I check it out on Hoopla.
I’m so enamored with it and all the different stitches that I might see a newly designed sock in my future.
what I’m learning
A new word for my vocabulary is: voluntold (vŏl′ən-tōld) forcefully volunteered; ordered to do something. One of the teens at church was voluntold to be the lector for the service. I read online that this word has been around for several years but this was the first I’d heard about it.
what I’m loving
This luxurious lotion bar for my very dry skin.
The light scent of mint, lemon balm, and lavender also has a hint of honey from the beeswax. The sunflower oil and Shea butter make it a little sticky but glides across the skin like, well, butter. No more dry, flaky skin on my arms and legs.
My BFF’s daughter’s family has a farm in Pennsylvania where they raise bees, sheep (for meat, not wool), pick-your-own blueberries, chickens/eggs, flowers, and a pumpkin patch. Her sons also show sheep, dairy beef, pigs, and goats.
Katie makes salves, lotion bars, sprays, and candles as well as wool dryer balls with most of the ingredients sourced from her farm. The only things she not from her farm are the Shea butter, sunflower oil, and green tea. She has a list of the different scents and products here and here.
You can find more about her farm on her FaceBook page here.
what I’m working on
We had some pretty gusty winds starting Monday evening through Wednesday. One of our big oak trees in the side yard lost a huge limb.
The view from inside the kitchen
The limb stretches from the base of the trunk to the lower right-hand corner.
I was sitting at the kitchen table facing the window and watched it snap and fall to the ground. Some small broken branch pieces and twigs hit the window. Fortunately nothing was damaged other than the tree.
Knitting In Flashes 