Well what a great report from you, pitimpinai!! The last I heard you were still very low in energy and still on a ton of medication and little appetite, and listen to you, helping the neighbor till up a lawn! LOL What a nice neighbor you were to plant tomatoes and Dahlias. :-) I am happy to hear that you've also benefited from a shorter work day. Great that you had all that time off saved up. I bet you really needed it to get your energy back. We have gotten pretty much back to what is normal for us here. The weather has been stupendous in the past month! I have never seen the cover crop in the veggie beds so high. We've also gotten all the leaves mowed and collected in bins, ours and three neighbors. [g] We have gotten somewhat cleaned up for the year in the garden, but I keep adding to my list of what I want to get done before the weather turns. Still have a small amount of bulbs to plant and three shrubs to get in the ground, some pots to clean and put away and that will just about do it. I am actually looking forward to a break from the garden. Not that we don't get outside and enjoy it, but it's nice this time of year, to focus on other things. During the gardening season, the garden seems to push out other priorities. [g] I enjoy the winter garden and by the time spring comes, I am just itching to get back to a new growing season. Glad you are able to enjoy gardening again and hope you stay well this winter! :-)

My appliances are all different brands and styles(they're mostly hand me downs and beggars cant be choosers) but I found a site that has some pretty cool options to make all your appliances look like they go together at http://www.applainceart.com. they have magnetic and vinyl coverings in a variety of colors, patterns and artwork that go over the facade of the appliance. Obviously its not as nice as getting a new appliance but it seems like a good alternative to making all my different appliances seem like they fit together. Here is a link that might be useful: appliance art

Thanks for asking, Jojoco. The town was just lovely. I loved your suggestions, too. Krebs was an absolute delight. I did something I always wanted to do; we had no entree or dessert, we just ordered eight appetizers and shared it all! We created our own tapas menu if you will. There were so many cool things I wanted to try, and since it was for a good cause I could justify it, LOL. DD thought I was crazy. The green grape, celery and green pea gazpacho ws TDF. I also loved the sashimi with melon and jalapeno. My fave may have been the stonefruit salad with Brie and proscuitto. Lovely lovely. Nest 58 was my favorite gift shop of the many we wandered into on our entire trip. Great stuff. Too bad so much of it was specific to the town (zip code, coordinates, etc). I did go twice and got some things for me, plus a housewarming gift for a friend. Never got to the Sherwood because DD wanted to go a second time to Gildas (yum). The Mirbeau Inn was very nice but the decor is a bit dated, even for that genre. The spa was good but not great IMHO. All in all, we had a lot of fun and kept busy. The Roosevelt spa in Saratoga is old but has a certain charm and has excellent massage therapists. I was this close to running away with Alex ... DD got a great makeup lesson. We did the painting thing there, too, and she won money at the track, on a horse called "Shopaholic"! We did do a lot of shopping. We had lunch (and shopping) in cute lil Hudson on the way up, and lunch (and shopping) in Rhinebeck on the way back. The best part was talking in bed till 2am.

I get my meats and poultry from a local farm or Butcher Box. For veggies and fruit I use a local CSA and Misfit Market. Dried goods, pasta, dairy and breads I buy at the local market. I buy seafood at the local fish monger. For paper goods, cleaner and laundry detergent I use warehouse store delivery. I stop by the local market for items I need during the week. I feed 5 adults and one child every week and my grocery costs run $350-$450 a week. Before the COVID lockdown, I went to a large supermarket every week, shopped every 6 weeks at a warehouse store and stopped by the local market for fill in items I needed during the week. My grocery costs ran $200-$250 week. The majority of our diet is organic and local grass fed/pasture raised items and wild caught seafood so its expensive. We aren't big on desserts except DH, DD and DS are addicted to Oreos. I hate them; to me they test like a pile of chemicals. The 6 of us used to dine out at a local pub once a week but have cut back to once every 2 weeks due to cost. We seldom have take-out so I cook 6-7 nights a week.