What I'm reading Wednesday...

His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik

This one is TOTALLY out of my normal reading tastes, but in the interest of giving the 2017 reading challenge my all, I thought I'd make an attempt at it.  The cover indicates that Stephen King found it 'Terifically entertaining," not that I believe all the author recommendations found on book covers.

It will fulfill the "book involving a mythical creature" category.  It would also fulfill the "book with a red spine" which I kind of fudged on last week, but no way was I going to count it for a red spine and then have to read an additional mythical creature story.

And in the interest of full disclosure, I am still working my way through Elizabeth The Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch.

Making it Monday...

I made a run to the superstore today.  Back-to-school displays are a magnet for me.  I bought a composition book with grid pages for quilt designing, my favorite gel pens in black ink to last the year (I am always misplacing them), and the same pens but in pretty-colored ink for my to-do lists.  I avoided buying crayons, but I did open a box so I could drink in their beauty and breathe deeply of their one-of-a-kind scent-sation.  Nothing can send me back to the second grade like the smell of fresh crayons!  Favorite Crayola color?  Magenta.  Could live without Burnt Sienna.  (I'm not sure either of those colors are still part of the Crayola lineup.

Remember those old-school giant crayons that were flat on one side?  Ugh...HATED those...too waxy, so I could never get the depth of color I wanted.  I remember being insulted in kindergarten that our crayon usage was limited to those vile things. Would you believe it only just dawned on me a month or so ago that the flat side was so they wouldn't roll off of the table?!  I mean the box says 'Anti-Roll' right on the front!  What can I say?  I despised them so much.

I also bought envelopes while I was at the store, which is what I went for.  I had a very productive day of card making today, only to find that I was out of envelopes.  Can't get them in the mail without envelopes.  I don't believe I will show the photos of them until they have time to be received.  :)

Saturday snail mail...

Chloe's spending the night, so I let her loose with the Paper Pumpkin that arrived a week or so ago.  She actually made another different one as well, but I can't find it to save my life.  She wrote a sweet note in this one, and it is addressed and ready to go to her great grandmother.

I made this one with the stamps from the same Paper Pumpkin (except the 'you' which was from another one) using different colors etc.

My progress toward sending 52 letters in 52 weeks is lagging terribly this year.  I have a list of at least a dozen people to whom I need to send a letter.  I guess getting one out this week is better than none.  

Frugal Friday File 2017, week 29...

Successes:
1.  Readied a week's worth of individual servings of meals for freezer for Carey to take to work.

2.  Booked ten days of work over the next two months...all local, no commute...yea!

3.  Today was a lazy-stay-home-no-spend day.  I did some online window shopping, but never clicked on the buy-now button.

4.  Grooming the dog myself: bath, nails, ears.

5.  Made new dog bed.  Basically same as the last one, but with a removable cover that can be more easily removed and laundered.  The last one held up very well, but it sustained some soiling that required disposal (not frugal, but necessary for my well being).  FYI:  I've also been known to dispose of sheets back in the day when my children were ill in the middle of the night.


Frugal From the Kitchen This Week:
Saturday:  homemade hamburgers
Sunday:  Sunday dinner at Kasey's
Monday:  leftovers
Tuesday:  Pasta Caponata with Chicken Breast
Wednesday:  chicken burgers
Thursday:  pork chops, rice & gravy, corn pudding, green beans
Friday:  goulash

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

What I'm reading Wednesday...

I am still reading Elizabeth The Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch, but it is another one that takes some thinking and time.  Since I have been reading it a LOT and am still only 20% of the way through, I found myself needing a bit of a break for some easier reading.

The Widow by Fiona Barton

I just started The Widow, and got pulled into it pretty quickly.  I'm counting it as 'a book with a red spine' category for the 2017 reading challenge, though I don't really have any idea what color the spine is since it's an ebook.  The paperback cover shown above has red, so close enough!  :)

Frugal Friday File 2017, week 28...

Successes:
1.  Received our phone/cable bill.  We have our service through a cooperative, so once a year they pay each member a share of the company profits by deducting it from their bill.  Dropped this month's bill by almost $80.

2.  Menu planned.  Grocery list made.  Shopped and stuck to list.

3.  Made sure that the list included the fixin's for a fabulous dinner (salad with fresh berries, avocados, spinach, salmon [and pecans from the freezer]) to serve my company, so we can stay in, have a great meal and quiet time to visit and catch up without feeling like we're being frugal.  

4.   I didn't buy any of the Prime deals on Prime day.  I had a couple of things in my cart...and I may regret not having a head start as it gets closer to Christmas...but I figured if I had any doubt at all I didn't need to buy them this week.

5.  I called the pharmacy this week about my longstanding prescriptions that needed refilling and would need a call to the doctor's office to get a renewed scrip for the next 12 months.  Since I wanted them to get the renewals for all of my prescriptions and not just those needing filling imminently, I mentioned that somehow my prescriptions had gotten divided into some being filled one week and some two weeks later, and asked them to be sure to get Rx renewals for all of them when they called.  I had asked in the past about moving the refill for one batch to match the other and was told it would involve moving the refill date for some up by a day or two each month until eventually they were all filled at the same time.  I fell for accepted that explanation even though I thought it was ridiculous.  Today when I went to pick up my refills, they had all of them ready at the same time!  Yea!  No more wasting gasoline on special trips and waiting in line for ages.  Now if I could just get them to fill 90 days at a time.  Insurance won't do 90 days unless by mail order through their provider.  With all the mail theft we have in our area, not to mention the direct sun and 100+ degree heat baking everything in our black mailbox, I just don't want to go the mail-order route.

Frugal From the Kitchen This Week:
Saturday:  leftovers
Sunday:  Carey had leftovers, I had breakfast for dinner
Monday:  *Tex-Mex
Tuesday:  leftovers
Wednesday:  One skillet sausage and rice with onions and peppers, green beans
Thursday:  salmon with fresh salad
Friday:  homemade burgers

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving

at Work, Home, and School by John Medina

I finally finished this one on Saturday after working at it for quite awhile.  While it did take some concentration and thought, it was very interesting, and the science was written in a way that the layman could grasp.  

The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran

I picked this one up Saturday night, and read into the wee hours and all day Sunday until it was finished.  Set in the late 1800s, it followed a family from their home country of England, to Wellington, New Zealand, into the wilds of New Zealand when the wife and children are abducted by a Maori tribe, and finally to northern California.  I thought it was well written, and the characters well developed.  I really liked it.

Elizabeth The Queen: The Life of a Modern Monarch

by Sally Bedell Smith

I have only just started Elizabeth the Queen.  I chose this one to fulfill the "book about an interesting woman" category of the 2017 reading challenge...and because it was available as an ebook through my library.  :)

I considered books about Madelyn Albright and Condoleeza Rice as well, but I think the reason I came back to this one is the sheer length of time that the queen has been on the throne, the changes to the world she has seen during her reign, and the constant scrutiny she and her family have been under.  I know for certain I have never wanted her job.