{ New knives and a new muffin pan }

Hi everyone, welcome back to my blog :)

It is Wednesday morning and I've just finished making my bed and tidying the bedroom, sent hubby off to work and need to get dressed, get some breakfast and make Jasmine's lunch, then take her work.

My mornings used to be pretty quiet and slow, but since Jas started working, it's been a flurry of activity and running around.  I sometimes laugh because before this happened I would have days where I was missing my kids being little and needing more, and I would often tell God that I missed that.

You know what I mean, the school runs, the rushed morning breakfast and running around doing things before you're even fully awake.

Well, when we ask or miss certain things, we often tend to get them back but not always in the same way they were before.

I guess I'm back to school *work* runs and busy mornings.

The weather has been insane, we've had pretty severe storms and tornado warnings and watches, and even though it's scary I do have to say it makes for some of the most gorgeous skies I have ever witnessed.

Remember when we were stationed in Arizona, I would always take photos of the sky?  It was STUNNING, and I've missed those as well, but I have to say Texas has provided some equally visually stunning ones.  Just look at those clouds???

Driving around in these storms is not exactly a fun thing to do, but we learn to roll with the punches and just go with the flow.

I have to apologize for the photo quality, this is the issue I'm having with my lenses and hence the reason I am hoping to remedy it as soon as I possibly can.  But, I wanted to show you one of my newest purchases.

On Monday, Curt was home earlier in the day, he had been in training the past two weeks and was done.  I always love having him home during the day :)

We had to go pick up Jasmine from work, and decided to go in and have a gander around the store.  I ended up putting a few items on layaway.  Now, I never use layaway, I prefer to buy if I have the money on me, but it is quite helpful when you want to make use of certain sales items without paying it all off in one go.

I've been needing a new comforter set, we currently have 2 sets which are years and I mean YEARS old, bought both back in Arizona.  Over time they have gotten ratty with all the washing, and one of them is starting to tear.

We also need new pillows, they are quite old too and I believe that you should be switching pillows out every few months, and we just haven't been able to do that.  So I put a new comforter set and two pillows on layaway, as well as a new purse for me.  Why the purse?

Well I have about 8 purses, all from thrift stores and over time they have gotten worse and are breaking.  Only 2 of those purses were actually gifted to me as birthday presents, and those are my Cath Kidston which I don't use very often so they're still in perfect condition and I REFUSE to get rid of those.

But for a day to day, I don't have a purse left that is not either breaking, tearing, scratched up and so on.

So, 3 items on layaway and then I picked up two things that I really wanted, one is the soap dispenser and sponge holder you see above.  LOVE it, works so well.

The other one is again something I've been needing for many years.  A knife set.  My knives are all about 10 years old and some are starting to rust, and you know, when you cook as much as I do, having a good set of knives is absolutely imperative.

They are not only beautiful but work a charm.  I'm so excited about having new knives to cook with, it's the little things.

The brand I guess is Tomodachi by Hampton Forge, and they weren't super expensive, they were only $20 for the set.  I know what you're thinking, they're cheap, they are crap, but really they are very good quality, really sharp and the handles are soft and great to grip.

The last thing I purchased was this muffin pan, it had been marked down and I've needed one for a super long time too.

See this is what happens when you go years and years just making do and eventually realize that things start falling apart and you have to start replacing.

I've been *making do* with a 6 cup muffin pan which is fine, but a little frustrating when you're trying to make big batches of muffins or cupcakes.  This will definitely help.

So there you have it, my little purchases that will no doubt help me out in the long run.

By the way, I took a break while posting, and I got dressed, had breakfast, gave Jasmine some breakfast too, fixed her lunch and am now ready to walk out the door.  Only thing I'm going to do real quick is just a few dishes that I have in the sink from breakfast.

I can not wait to get a proper lens back, these shots are all so horrid and remind me of pre early 2011 before I got my nice Canon camera LOL

One thing is for sure though, this has taught me or rather reminded me, that just because I didn't have a flashy super awesome camera before 2011, I still blogged daily and still shared my life, grainy picture after picture.

So, I need to give myself a kick in the old behind and get cracking with more posts and not so great photos, until the lens situation is resolved.

Right, now I'm off to wash those babies and get my girl to work.

Hope you all have a fantastic Wednesday.