A View From A Room

 I sat carefully licking the folds I had creased into some yellow scrap paper. Last week, the legal pad sheets had addresses I needed. This week, the reverse sides of the paper were to become my daily chore lists. Once the folds had been sufficiently creased and licked, I tore off straight strips of paper without the use of scissors. I set the smaller strips of paper aside and wondered what use I might find for them as I took one of the index card sized sheets and wrote out my list of daily chores, one per line, till the page was filled. The left side contained each chore and after it, abbreviations for next week's days of the week so I can circle them when each chore gets done. I thought about being part of the "Save the Trees" generation and how thoroughly the mindset had imbedded itself into my daily habits. I cannot bear to throw away a piece of paper until it has completely been used! Some tree gave its life so I could use that paper and I will not let it be in vain!...

👍$18.54. That's how much I spent for about 23 meals while I was out of town recently and needing to do microwave cooking or no cooking on a tight budget. Here's what I bought; .60 - Bolillos 2 packs on discount (got 3 of  them total of 6 rolls) 1.00 - Ramen Noodles 2 pkgs    .96 - eggs 6 count 1.00 - Evaporated milk  1.84 - two cans GV chili beans 1.67 - small pkg cheese slices 2.72 - quick Oats 2.24 - peanut butter 2.12 - pkg of 2 minute brown rice   .45 - bananas (3) 1.94 - 2 sticks butter 2.00 - 2 apples Here's what I ate.  Egg and cheese and 1/2 bolillo sandwich 4x Oatmeal, banana and milk 3x Beans, rice and cheese 2x Peanut butter, 1/2 bolillo 2x Beans and cheese 2x Fried egg and 1/4 bolillo (for toast) 4x Ramen and Egg 2x 1/2 Apple (slices) with peanut butter 4x * I only had about 1/2 an egg per meal. I made patties with them and cut them in half. It got me through just fine and I had leftovers!

It has been a busy past several weeks, during which time I have been back and forth to South Texas to see my brother before he passed away and then seeing to funeral arrangements, arrangements for family to stay and set up Dog boarding for my dogs. In the middle of that, I had surgery and had to recover from that.  I am back home, tired, missing my brother,  but feel at peace that I did my level best. Picking up the dogs from being boarded yesterday was kind of funny. I envisioned that they would head straight for me, all wiggles and smiles. Instead, as the Vet tech brought all 5 out one at a time, they ignored me and headed straight for the door. They just wanted to go! Once we got home, and they ran around the house and went outside to tell the neighbor dogs they were back, they settled into  greeting me.  It didn't take them long to settle in. Bailey, my youngest Pom, was a little distant at first and Bow, my oldest and a Golden Retriever, just laid on the...