What I'm reading Wednesday...

The Tilted World

by Tom Franklin and Beth Ann Fennelly

The Mississippi river flood of 1927 was the most destructive flood in US history.   This story adds prohibition, bootleggers, and an orphaned baby to the mix.  It fulfills the 'book with multiple authors' category of the 2017 reading challenge. 

I am still working away on Elizabeth the Queen...or as I am now calling it The Book That Will Never End!

Frugal Friday File 2017, week 30...

Successes:
1.  Took Chloe to the drive in.  Made popcorn before we went and put in individual bowls. Took our own soda. Stopped for movie-sized boxes of Junior Mints and Milk Duds at the store so we wouldn't have to pay movie-concession prices.   (We didn't need the candy, and if it was just Carey and I we would have just taken the popcorn and soda, but since Chloe was with us, I wanted to make it an extra special event.)  Watched both movies of the double feature (Despicable Me 3 and Spider-Man: Homecoming), so feel like we got more for our money there.  Chloe stayed up right through the late feature (it was her choice to stay for it), and was still awake when we got home at 1 a.m.!

2.  Picked up 3 more days of work for August.  Lost one that was previously booked, but that's okay since I had accidentally booked it for the same day as quilting day at the library.

3.  I've been a bit bored, and considered making a trip to Dollar Tree or to browse Goodwill, but the truth is I don't need anything.  Realizing that before I spend any gasoline or money is a good thing.  What I need to do is fill some boxes to take TO Goodwill.  :)

4.  Having filled the freezer with meals for Carey to take to work, I found that all of our meal containers were full, and I had to wait for him to empty some containers and bring them back home.  I filled up enough again to feed him for another week.

5.  Carey picked up an extra day of work covering for a co-worker who needed time off.

Frugal From the Kitchen This Week:
Saturday:  leftovers
Sunday:  Sunday family dinner at Kasey's
Monday:  *Schlotzky sandwiches
Tuesday:  Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn
Wednesday:  leftovers
Thursday:  *barbecue
Friday:  *pizza

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

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!  :)