This, that and the other thing

This

On Thursday, I did a little clean-out of the pantry. My am I ever a pack-rat. I save a lot of stuff. If someone brings a take-out container into the house, I wash and save it. If my husband brings an aluminum catering-size pan home, I save it. When we finish a can of coffee, I save the canister. So, on Thursday, I made myself cull through that stuff and toss or recycle as much as possible. I did save 2 catering pans, 1 oatmeal canister, and there's this 1 extra large canister from chili powder. My guess is it would hold about 3 quarts of liquid, it's that big. (I buy a couple of spices in super large sizes then store in the freezer.) I washed out the chili powder canister. It's a nice size, and see-through, so would be good for storing something. I just haven't figured out what yet. It just looks too good to toss. I know, I'm a pack-rat.

The pantry is a lot more organized, now, and I made room for autumn stock-ups.

That

Evidently, everyone else's appetites were off last week, too.  I didn't make nearly as much as I usually do for lunches and breakfasts to-go, but there was a lot leftover at the end of the week. This turned out to be a very good thing, for me, as I used all of this to make Friday night's dinner. We had refried bean, herbed rice and cheese tacos, and rhubarb sauce for dinner that night. Easy cooking night for me.

And that other thing

frugal spinster's blog post on Friday reminded me that this is the time of year that bread products go moldy. It's warm and humid right now, enough for those tiny mold spores to proliferate. I lost a pancake last week (I was looking forward to having the very last pancake with my breakfast on Friday, boo hoo), to mold. I realized that it's that time of year to keep all baked goods in either the fridge or freezer. So, I went into the kitchen and sliced up the last of the loaf of bread, and tossed it into the freezer. It was a good reminder, and at least I only had 1 pancake grow mold.

August is our month for fun!

While many American's calenders indicate that summer just has 1 month left, in our family we're just hitting the middle of summer. My daughters don't start up with classes until the end of September. I'm grateful for that, as it gives me more time to plan summer fun. And we won't really think about classes until mid to late September.

So, in making plans for this month, I've come up with a list of things I want to do, just for fun. Usually my lists are work lists. But after a hard year, I want some fun.

Here's what I've come up with so far:

• take breakfast to the beach (actually doing that this morning, just with daughters as they have the day off from work)
• go to the Seattle Art Museum (free on the first Thursday of every month)
• do Glazed and Amazed pottery and glass painting with 2 daughters (this has been on our list for a very long time! And now I've found a coupon in the most recent flyer -- yippee!)
• farmer's market at the beach on Wednesday, then browse the second-hand bookstore in Old Town, just up the hill
• tour the lighthouse on a Saturday afternoon and bring dinner to the beach, for the entire family (you'll notice that we go to the beach either in the early morning, or late afternoon evening. I'm just not a fan of beach at midday -- too hot, sticky and crowded!)
• visit the u-pick flower patch in the farm area near us. The micro-climate in that area is drier, sunnier and about 5 degrees warmer, so many more varieties of flowers do well in that area.
• set up croquet and horseshoes in back yard -- Sunday afternoon family time, and practice practice, practice my croquet stroke for the upcoming church picnic -- don't want to have a 9 year old beat me again!
• church family picnic

That's it for my August plans. What will you be doing this month?