Monday Afternoon Thoughts

It's breezy enough outdoors to warrant the above photo.  Especially since I had pillows hanging out to air earlier this morning.  Oh the air was so nice, the humidity practically non-existent and the cooler temperatures (at least for mornings of late) are most welcome.  Daytimes we're still hitting in the middle 90's but by end of week we should be seeing low 90's instead...lol.  Yes every little degree less is counted in these last days of summer, as we strain hard towards the new coming season.

Hurricane Irene missed us entirely.  Typically a hurricane means we see squallish rain, high winds and sometimes damage even here in our inland abode, but not this time. Other than the counter clockwise movement of fat fluffy clouds in an otherwise blue sky, all we got was increased humidity.  I have watched some of the news footage of the damage done and am certainly thinking of all those who live along the East coast who did feel the force of that hurricane.  Most of my online friends are reporting no damage in their particular areas and I am grateful to hear it. 

Grandson Ross had a birthday this weekend and Amie called so I could speak to him.  His big conversation was to the point "HEY!"   He yelled that into the phone and then he ran outdoors to play with his presents.  Josie however also wanted to speak to me.  She told me that she'd been watching the news on Channel 14 and seen that  Hurricane Irene was headed up the coast.  "Gramma, I've been so worried about you!"  That among 3 dozen other things got said.  She was chattering away non-stop, telling me all about her manicure done by a friend of the family, all about how fun she found 3rd grade and on and on.  Then shewanted to talk to Grampa and before the call ended she wanted to talk to Aunt Katie.  We called Katie and told her to call her niece up to chat.  And Aunt Katie did talk to Josie that evening as well as to Amie. 

I've got any number of tasks to work on this afternoon.  I confess that I slept quite late this morning, past 8:30am which is very unusual for me.  I lay it at the feet of being so very busy from Thursday afternoon forward.  I was just plain tired after we got back home yesterday.  Not so tired that I wasn't mindful of the bonus a brief bout of picking up would do to help with today's chores.  I'm glad, in light of my sleeping in this morning, that I'd done that!

I have a stack of recipes on the table beside me, with the intent of working upon a 3 month supply of menu plans.  I also need to work on this week's menus.  Tomorrow morning early I hope to get out in my shed since I've done with zone work for the month.  I bought shelf brackets to put up in there so I can have more storage space.  I'd love to get those put in tomorrow and then perhaps gather some donations to take with me when Mama and I are out  mid-week.  The rest of the week is wide open.  It's time to start thinking of changing my home decor to suit autumn/winter months and I'm working on plans for that...well you see, I've got a whole new month ahead and I'm planning it full, it does seem.

I thought it would be easy enough to make a three month menu but it's going slowly.  A few tried and true and a few new only added up to thirty days of meals so far.  Of course, none of those menus plan for leftovers.  Nor have I added in the old standbys that don't require a recipe.  I suspect that shall net me another 30 days worth of meals.  Lots of work to be done there yet, but at least I can say I'm 1/3 of the way finished.

I want to take time to go through my wardrobe and sort out what I'll be wearing this coming season and which clothes will need to be set aside until next Spring.  I want everything clean and repaired that will need to be set aside.  Then there will be no surprises next spring when I pick up an item to wear and discover the hem is out or a button is missing.  Then, because I didn't do the same last year I need to check over the clothes for the coming season and make repairs.  I thought I might alter a few things to sort of change them up for the coming season.  New buttons or a bit of trim here and there or a new piece of jewelry fashioned from older pieces to jazz up the clothes I have.

And finally I need to work up a new budget.  When I sat down and figured our budget for the coming months with no overtime I didn't plan for no overtime and a new bill.  Yes, we added a cell phone plan to our line-up and while I've no complaints over it I do need to restructure our budget.   As well we'll start paying for propane for the next six months.  So yes, there's a bit of budget work due.

All in all it looks as though September will most certainly be busy enough.  Just the way I like it!