On my own, again

Turtle came home on "furlough" Saturday night, and stayed til this morning. Partly because he missed me and home, and partly because you can't hunt on Sunday here. He got his first buck on Friday evening--a 3 pointer. Big body, small rack--not worth keeping and hanging on our wall. He went back to hunting with his dad today, and will be gone until probably sometime on Wednesday. (Just in time to do a little cooking for Thursday!)

In my "time off" (so far) I managed to deep clean and really set up our family room. I also picked up and cleaned our library. Pictures to come in a few days, hopefully. Speaking of pictures, I've decided that the quilt made by my bridesmaid would look much better in the library. The colors just work better with our decor in there. In the family room, I plan on hanging a picture that Turtle took while we were in Hawaii on our honeymoon. It's of the Spouting Horn, on the island of Kauai. Turtle and I sort of came to a consensus on that at the same time.
















I think some other pictures from Hawaii would be fun to add to that room, too. This one was taken by yours truly. It's a hibiscus, and I think this was taken near our hotel on the Big Island.
















Next up is the dining room. Lord, help me... I have so many "antiques" from both grandmothers, a few great grandmothers, some aunts...I don't know what to do with them. Who needs all of this STUFF???? I don't need flower of the month teacups, I don't need little Asian figurines...I think I'll try consigning it, maybe I can make some money off of this stuff? The things that I have memories of, I've kept, but some of this stuff, I didn't know my relatives had until it came to live with me. Freebies are great, but only when they can really be used.

I'm finally getting around to updating my budget spreadsheets. Honestly! My checkbook registers are sitting on the desk in front of me. Yes, I still use checkbook registers! How else does one track monies which are withdrawn by two people on any given day, at various places? I'm a voracious debit card user and rarely carry cash. (A random fact about me.) I'm also on my bank's website daily, making sure I check off which transactions have cleared, which ones Turtle made, which ones I forgot to write down... It's good to keep track of these things!