Happy Homemaker Monday

 The weather ... is lovely this morning with the sun shining brightly and the temperature already in the mid-twenties. According to the forecast we should be getting a bit of a break from the cold, cold weather we've been having.

Outside my kitchen window ... the squirrels are enjoying their feeder.

Right now I am ... writing this blogpost while sitting on our ancient rocking recliner. I'm guessing it saw its best days over thirty years ago, but it is still comfortable even if its hopelessly ugly and outdated.

Thinking ... about some dreams I had last night. They were so vivid and interesting. Most mornings I remember only faint wispy bits of my dreams but occasionally they will stick around a bit longer.

On my reading pile ... The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton, Embers in the London Sky by Sarah Sundin, and The Shady Hollow Mystery series by Juneau Black are next in line to be read.

My to-be-read pile is always quite large and I keep adding books to it.

Yesterday I read People Pleaser by Jinger Voulo. It was a quick read, had some food for thought, but I don't see myself wanting to read it again or adding it to our home library. 

On the menu for this week ...

Monday - Cream of Chicken Soup, Herbed Dinner Rolls
Tuesday - Meatballs with Orange Glaze, Asparagus Casserole, Ranch Potato Salad, Dinner Rolls
Wednesday - Mashed Potatoes, Sweetcorn, Potsticker Salad
Thursday - Jailhouse Rice, Loaded Salad
Friday - TexMex Potatoes, Lamb Burgers, Green Beans
Saturday - Hotdogs and Chili
Sunday - Meatlovers Pizza (homemade)

On my to-do list for today... clean the refrigerator, cook up a batch of tapioca pudding, do laundry, grocery shopping, and take care of the daily dozen.

Listening to ... Sharon play the piano. She plays beautifully and I could happily listen to her for a long time. Most of the time she's too busy studying to play, which makes it even more special when she does.

I'm thankful for ... red light therapy. LV has suffered a lot of pain with his ankle and foot since his accident almost three years ago. He would come home from work hobbling. On harder days it would be black and blue and swollen. In December we decided to give a red light therapy boot a try after hearing good things about it. 

The difference it has made in less than ten weeks is amazing. He no longer has constant pain. We are very thankful!

A simple pleasure ... playing games with Steven. This past week we've been pulling out Mancala quite regularly.

Currently

Reading ...  in the Bible, Ephesians.

In other books I am somewhere around a quarter of the way through Persuasion by Jane Austen. I felt this book started off slow for a Jane Austen book, which is saying something because none of her books start off in a gripping sort of way. If not for the fact that I determined to read  all of her books this year I would abandon it for something better.

I shall prevail. Hopefully by the end of the book I will think it was somewhat worth the time and effort it took.

Writing ... nothing exciting. More text messages, several letters, and a smidgeon of progress was made on my big project.

Watching ...  after organizing our DVD collection we discovered that we have several seasons of The Lucy Show we had never watched, so an episode or two have been enjoyed after lunch.

Listening ... to the noise of the ice falling off the trees. Everything was coated in ice this morning and now as the wind has picked up and the temperature has risen it is losing it's grip and falling in chunks taking lots of twigs and smaller branches with it.

Baking ... sourdough pretzel bites. They're so, so good! We've made four batches since Saturday. We shared batches two, three, and four with others, though we did sample some of each.

Cooking .. with the kind of weather that seems to be begging for soup it only seems right to be planning to make soup and grilled cheese for supper tonight.

Feeling ... a bit sore. I twisted my knee yesterday and it's still sore today. Regular walking is fine, but going up and down the stairs ... ouch!

Disliking ... mice. That's all I'm saying on this topic.

Loving ... the quick wit and ready humor that seems to abound in some of my favorite people.

Playing ... a variety of  games: Ice Cream Empire, Pass the Pandas, Top Trumps, and Uno No Mercy. We also did a 1,000 piece puzzle. Five hundred piece puzzles are my preferred size, but this one only took two days so it wasn't that bad.

Cleaning ... we are starting to deep clean the storage room today. I tidy and semi organize it quite often, but it's been quite a while since a proper deep clean has been done and I think it's time.