{ Typical day and a mug cake - Blogtober 2018 }

I thought I would start my post a little differently than usual today, by actually showing you a little clip of the view out my kitchen window.

When I sit and do dishes, I almost always have my window wide open, so that I cansit and listen to the birds and look out at the trees and the alpacas across the road.  I'm often in awe of God's creation, the colors, the thought that went into every single thing, whether animal or plant.

It's absolutely incredible!!!

I like getting my cleaning done, first thing in the morning.  Before I even have breakfast, I try to get everything done, I just feel like it sets the tone for the day and then I can relax a bit and not feel like I'm sitting to work on the computer, or crochet a bit, with a house looking a tip.

The never ending laundry.

Even though I'm home all day, I used to leave all my laundry for Saturday mornings, I don't know why, other than the fact that I waited to have all of hubby's work clothes, so that I could wash, iron and put it all away and ready for the new week of work.

But that means that Saturday mornings I would be stuck doing laundry for a while and it kind of ruined the time that I could be spending with him.

So I've started doing laundry halfway through the week or so, which helps break up this huge task into more manageable chunks of my time.

Something else I've been forcing myself to do, is to line dry the clothes and not rely on the dryer so much.  The dryer is one of the biggest energy suckers in a home and contributes quite a lot to your electric bill, besides, the weather is still nice and warm to be able to do this.  I know soon I'll have to depend on the dryer for getting the clothes dried during the cold months.

Another way I've been trying to cut back on some electricity, and I think I mentioned it already on the blog, is by not using the dishwasher as much.  I try to stay on top of the dishes by hand washing and not letting it all accumulate.

This morning, I also gave the kitchen window and window sill a good cleaning.  I think it's one of those spots in the house that tends to get forgotten and not cleaned as often as it should.  I'm not even going to lie and pretend that I clean it all the time, because I don't.  That doesn't mean that it's grungy or nasty, it's not, but every once in a while, I grab my faucet spray adapter and go to town.  Gets everything nice and clean and the water drains right out the bottom of the window to the outside.

We got some schooling done, I also finished one more diamond for the crochet along, and watched Mary Shelley while working on that.

Who hasn't heard of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein?  It's one of the most well known books ever to be sold.  The movie tells the story of Mary Shelley, and how she came to write the novel.  It's fascinating and I really enjoyed learning about this young lady and her life.

Halfway through the afternoon, I had a craving for chocolate, as I often do when I'm PMSing....too much information?  Well we're all friends here, aren't we?  Hahah

But, I had no chocolate on hand, and had to improvise.  Boy am I glad I did because I ended up making such a yummy mug cake that hit the spot and definitely  helped the chocolate craving.

I'll put the recipe up on the food blog tomorrow, and no I haven't forgotten about the recipe for the chicken I mentioned, I just didn't have a chance to sit down and post the recipe.  It's on the agenda for tomorrow though :)

I have some carpet cleaning to do in the morning, as well as bill paying, and then we are having dinner out with my mother and father in law, they will be coming through town.  We are excited to see them as we haven't since April, isn't it insane that you can live only 2 and a half hours from family and just not have the time to get together as often as you would like?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to that.

My sciatica has been quite bad today, I actually woke up in the middle of the night with pain on my hip and down my leg and it's been quite irritating today.  Unfortunately my tens unit is dead because I've used it so much that the battery ran out.  I'll have to get another battery tomorrow while we're out. 

For tonight I'll take some Motrin, rub on some Icy Hot and get some rest, it should help.

And that my friends, is all that I was up to today, you know, just a typical homemaking day around here :)