"When the going gets tough..."

“... the tough go shopping!” I think the original saying was “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” But shopping works for me!

A week ago Saturday my husband surprised me by coming home from work and suggesting, “This would be a good day to spend in a store.” It was raining -- hard. None of the Saturday afternoon tasks he had planned could be done. I was only too happy to go along with his suggestion. The store he had in mind for himself was Lowe’s. I had any number of places nearby to Lowe's from which to choose.

It may be surprising, but I chose Wal-Mart. The Wal-Mart in the town we’d be in is much nicer and more well-stocked than the one in our own town. So I spent a couple of hours there, wandering the aisles and looking for things on my list. One particular goal of my search was to find a few items to spiff up my kitchen. I’d been so inspired by Kelly’s essay at FlyLady.net -- “The Cost of a New Kitchen” that I wanted to find a few simple items to help with that goal. I found some really cute place mats that featured all different fruits on a green-checked background. The walls in my dining area are sort of a retro green, and I have a strawberry theme in both kitchen and dining area. So these mats were perfect. And only 97¢ for two! I also bought a new dish drainer for my sink. I’ve only seen these items before in neutral colors like white or cream or brown -- but I found a RED one. It’s actually called “Intense Red” and looks perfect in my strawberry kitchen. And it makes me smile every time I look at it!

The other thing I was looking for was some sort of container to corral loose recipes I have stacked on one corner of my kitchen counter. I have an old, tall recipe file box there, but I seldom use the recipes in it anymore. My most frequently used recipes I keep in a photo album kept with my cookbooks -- works perfectly. And I have an expandable file folder full of clipped recipes to try. But most of these on my counter are recipes I use quite a bit and don’t have room for in the photo album. I think inevitably I am going to have to buy another one of those, but knowing me, I also know there will probably always be a stack of loose recipes on my counter. What I want to do is reorganize a lower cabinet and be able to free up enough space to store the old tall file box in there. I can’t just throw those recipes out -- they are from my childhood and my kids’ childhoods, and every now and then somebody asks me for one of them. Then for the loose recipes -- well, what I found was, I think, intended to be a planter. It’s galvanized metal, long and narrow, with an embossed ivy design. I think it will hold my recipes just fine, and look neater and decorative at the same time. I plan to put index cards in it for dividing the recipes into categories. We’ll see if it works. If not, I can always use it as a planter! Now, to get that cupboard reorganized...

We also went to a consignment shop that day. I had hoped to find some clothes -- I’ve lost quite a bit of weight and need to find some smaller, inexpensive things -- but I didn’t find what I was looking for. I did, however, buy 2 books -- a Gooseberry Patch Christmas book #2 which I passed on to my daughter, since I have that volume, but it’s a keeper and I knew she would use it -- and a hardcover book on making crafts to sell that has some really practical ideas in it.

We ended our rainy-day outing with supper at a favorite diner. It was such fun to dash in out of the pouring rain to a warm, bustling place full of good cheer and comfort food. (I ordered breakfast.)

What a wonderful way to spend a rainy afternoon!