Making do?

That is exactly what we are doing this week.  The frig holds just a few veggies, as we are heading out on Monday for points west, but there is a little of this and a little of that with which to work my culinary magic!

I have three mushrooms, cauliflower, a green pepper, some carrots, celery, parsley and green onions. Sounds like a good start on a stir fry to me!  As a treat tomorrow, I will make a cauliflower macaroni and cheese...that will leave only Saturday and Sunday to worry about! I am really trying to limit our grocery shopping since I have been wasting far too much. This is the year it stops! I am aiming for a budget of under six hundred a month, including of course, all things food. Not a lot when you consider the cost of restaurant meals these days.  I think that is a reasonable amount for two prairie raised old people with a penchant for strawberries out of season and shellfish!  Yesterday I made fish for supper, implementing the "buy it and cook it" philosophy.  We have a great fish market in our neighborhood, so we stopped by after our major shopping trip and picked up enough pickerel  for supper that very night. No fuss, no muss, no bother.

I think the best way to gain storage space in your home, is to stop storing things! That of course, does not apply to massive quantities of toilet paper.  Perhaps, in time that obsession, too, will pass.  Not any time soon though, as long as we are intent on consuming a high fiber diet!

This weekend I am hoping to transition our closets to summer. I have dresser drawers that have not been opened since I last cleaned. That tells me that the contents no longer require such good "real estate".  Time to box up those things and ship them out!

I have pared down my clothing to such an extent that I just may be able to keep all of it stored in my room.  Dare I hope? The planned tasks will mesh very well with doing loads of laundry and supervising the gutting of our hidey hole. I am going to entrust that physically challenging task to the capable hands and back of my dear hubby, who probably would love to spend the day in bed or in the bathroom reading, but will easily bend to my feminine wiles...you know, the ones where your nagging voice reaches the pitch capable  of shattering eardrums?  This area has been the bane of my existence since we moved into this house. It is the area right below our sunken  living room, which translates into a shortened basement area!  You have to watch your head every time you enter the storage space, or risk being bludgeoned by a water pipe.  It would make a great play area for children if you could ever keep the junk out of there!

Of course, these are all plans - and we all know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and men, right?