I stayed up as late as I could but ended up going to bed at 8 p.m. I woke up when Tom got home, which wasn't his fault, but I couldn't get back to sleep until about 3 a.m. and slept until 5 a.m. and finally got up at 6. I took a mini-nap at 10 a.m. so I don't feel too bad.
I started a load of clothes as soon as I crawled out of bed this morning and managed to get 3 loads on the line. I wasn't sure how well this would work out, being in the 20s F but there is a nice wind going on so I thought I would experiment and see how it worked out. The first load was frozen stiff when I hung out the second load but by the time I got the third load on the line, the first load was no longer stiff and felt a bit dry. My hands, on the other hand, were pretty frozen by the last load. I wore my spiffy newly knitted mitts, which helped a lot, but I had to stop and thaw my hands out on that last load.
Oh, and it did snow last night and this morning (actually it's still throwing a few flurries now) but there's been no accumulation. Apparently there was some in Madison because there was a banner announcing school closings. But our ground is still green/brown.
I think I might go to the library today. I have some things on hold there. The temptation is there to swing by the store and pick up the things on the chalkboard (our grocery list) but I'm trying to stop going more than once a week. I was pondering this morning while toasty warm under my covers and reluctant to come out from under them to the room temperature of 50 F, that most of this frugality has to do with a person's mindset. I thought about how easy it would be to throw the clothes in the dryer and justify it just this once. Or swing by the store just this once. I think if you are meticulous about the little things, especially if they require a significant effort, being frugal with the larger things will come easier. I know that justifying eating out because of Zach's school made it so much easier for me to find excuses to buy things we didn't really need.
At least that's the way it works for me.
I'm hoping to get some baking done today in my toaster oven. Muffins or something like that. I might even dig out a cookie recipe. I've got some chocolate I should use up. Supper tonight will be stir fry so I can use up the rest of the chicken I cooked in the crockpot last night. I'm really sick of casseroles so I'm trying to find meals that are thrifty and stretch the meat I cook but that isn't a casserole. It's challenging.
Today is also going to be a mending day. My flannel sheet has a hole in it that has grown over the past couple of months so I'm going to take one of Tom's old flannel shirts and mend it. And I have wool socks to darn. Sometimes I'll re-knit the toe if that's where the hole is and if it's the heel, I've often re-knit the entire foot. That doesn't necessarily depend on whether I have the same yarn or not since that part is covered up by the shoe anyway. But this time they are tiny holes. I caught them before they got bigger and just set them aside so I'll just darn them.
I'm still hoping to get started on the downstairs pantry but today looks pretty full (for me) so I might leave that to next week.
Off to fix lunch and then off to the library.
TTFN
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