Luckily I have been doing quite bit of reading during breakfast, while waiting at an activity and before bed (that's only for a few minutes zzz...). I have been on the look out for more books at the thrift stores and getting some good books my friend recommends. Here's what's new to my library. Back When We Were Grownups By Anne Tyler
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler
Paper Daughter by M. Elaine Mar This book looks interesting.
Searching for Caleb by Anne Tyler
The Amateur Marriage by Anne Tyler
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
To Kill A Mockingbird (from my birthday) My favorite book growing up.
To Kill A Mockingbird (from my birthday) My favorite book growing up.
Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
Leaving Cold Sassy by Olive Ann Burns
I have to admit I have had lots of freezer thoughts lately. With all the produce in my kitchen they are mostly destined for the the freezer to be enjoyed later.- A friend and I recently disovered that bananas can be frozen. Yes! There 3 spotty bananas just sitting there that won't last another day. So I sliced and placed them on a cook sheet and into the freezer they went. After they froze I put them in bag to be used later for smoothies or if needed a baking recipe
- We have a large quantity of apples waiting for us. So far I have made couple of batches of applesauce and fruit sauce and froze them in containers. The fruit sauce is a mixture of sliced apples, strawberries, some blueberries and raspberries. It can be any any combination I'm thinking for next time maybe apple, peach, and strawberry for another batch. I'm not much of a canner so this is all going to be frozen.
- Apple crisps and apple pies are a family favorite and I had actually considered freezing some pies but just can't wrap my brain around it. I googled something and came across these comments where people just freeze the filling. The individual would use a tin foil pie plate put saran wrap on it, then pour the apple pie filling and freeze. Once it was frozen the pie filling is a solid piece frozen piece and would go into a freezer bag. :)) They stack nicely and don't take up as much room as a pie. I thought brilliant I need to give that a try.
- Well that idea led me to conversation with my friend Lucy (she's my baker buddy) about freezing filling for apple turnovers. We were thinking of freezing small amounts of apple filling for turnovers in muffin tins. Once they are frozen pop them out and put them in bags. We haven't tried this yet but I'm hoping it will work. I don't know if I need to spray the muffin tin or saran wrap it. If anyone has any recommendations I'd love to know.
- The last item on my freezing list I just picked up yesterday at my mom's house are green peppers. My brother said that my mom was going to stuff them and freeze them. I immediately thought I've got to try that! This is my plan today steam peppers for 5 minutes and let them cool down. Sometime later today make my turkey burger recipe. Once the turkey burger cool down mash them a little and stuff the peppers. Line the peppers on a cookie sheet and freeze. Once they are frozen into the bag they go. A future frozen meal ready.
Ok that's a lot of freezer talk and I hope I'm not being too overzealous today. I'm hoping to have a lot of helpers. We'll see how progress goes.
I also want to thank everyone for your wonderful comments about the art studio. We all enjoyed reading them. Thank you :))
The top shelf are for pens, pencils and paper from Dick Blick. The second shelf is for paper, colored chalk and crayons and markers sorted by color. The third shelf is for dry erase boards and markers and chalk boards and chalk. I also keep Home Depot paint chips they are great for cutting for toddlers or making up games for the older ones.
The top shelf is for stamps and glue. The second shelf is for the arts and crafts and stickers to be used but I don't to plan to replenish. The bottom shelf has clay tools and wooden cutting boards for the clay. The clay is in the red bucket. On both sides of the shelves the encyclopedias are stack there to be used over time for crafting and creativity.
The top shelf is for electronics and science. The second shelf has science experiments and books to go along with experiments. I keep forks, spoons, knives, bowls, flour, salt, cornstarch and a few other things here. The bottom shelf is for recycled materials toilet paper tubes, sticks, tissue paper, boxes etc.
The top shelf has a basket of acrylic paint and a basket of white old t shirts to be tye died later. I'm also keeping a stack of old composition notebooks which I'll explain in another post how revamp those. 
Top shelf is for painting time. The bottom shelf is a mish mash of stuff. There is one basket of used paper catalogs, construction and origami paper that's been folded many times. The second basket is cut up foam sheets and the third basket for felt. The row of green boxes at first was for me to sort out things like bottle caps, ribbons, shoe laces, string for beading but I found that it could be helpful for the kids as well. It's a good place for me to drop off stuff I find around the house and they pick up the green basket and use the materials. The round basket on the right is for marbles.
The top shelf is for instructional books drawing, clay, crafts, needlework, etc. The bottom shelf I call textiles it's for the yarn, needles, hooks, thread, fabric, socks, t shirts and stuffing. Anything that maybe needed for needle work.
Way up top the shelves closest to the ceiling is where I store the bulk stuff that I have stocked up on. 
The typing area. I'm keeping my eye out at the thrift stores for another typewriter.
That's what's been ongoing here. I'm showing this all to you at it's best but I expect there will be a lot of activity here in the afternoons and during the indoor cooler months.
We are all little of always running out of bread or buying bread with too many questionable ingredients. So finally I have begun making homemade bread from 
Looks like tea doesn't it? It's actually Carrot Top Tea. I was excited to try this but once I did I wasn't so sure. The recipe goes like this: Steep carrot tops for 20 minutes in boiling water. Pull out the tops and filter through a coffee strainer. Refrigerate it's sweet.
Looking forward to these lovely reads soon and knitting in my future.
This is as good as it is going to get for now. I have the shelves labelled to keep me in check. The top shelf is for pasta, second shelf for extra baking needs, the third is for a few empty containers, fourth shelf is for cereal paper plates and seasonal things like hot cocoa or ice cream cones, the fifth shelf is for unopened snacks. The sixth shelf are for the open snacks but I have been trying into put them in containers so there aren't too many open packages. It gives them a neater look and they are easier to grab if we need a snack on the go. The containers are from Ikea. The bottom shelf is for some canned store bought foods and the flour and sugars. I really like the tall Ikea containers for the flour and sugars it makes it look neater and it's easier to see how much is left. I think I definitely need a few more. lol
