This week we are all healthy (fingers crossed, knock on wood).  Illnesses over, birthday party over, back to regular school for what feels like the first time.  I’m getting tons done around the house.  Lots of deep cleaning, and more regular cleaning of floors and bathrooms.  I trekked across town for an additional skein of Knerd Yarn in Birthday Suit and completed a shawl that was waiting patiently all summer to be finished.

I bought a replacement microwave for our glitchy one.  It seems like every model I review has some bad lemons, and they all go bad after a year or two anyway.  Grr, nothing is made to last any more.  After much deliberation I decided to just use the exact same model as before.  Our original microwave was purchased from Ikea in December with all the new kitchen materials.  But it wasn’t installed until the end of February.  So even though it started breaking after less than a year of use, we were past warranty.  It’s one of the cheapest models available and when it worked I loved it.  So we bought the exact same one.  That made installation a snap.  We swapped the units without any measuring or hardware fitting.  That’s one giant To Do item marked off my list since early spring!

Now that the birthday cake and candy are almost gone I can bake!  Smitten Kitchen recently shared a recipe for British flapjacks.  What’s this??  British baking I haven’t heard of?  I found Mary Berry making them on an old program.  With her stamp of approval and my bottle of Lyle’s Golden syrup I whipped up a batch and now my kitchen smells heavenly.  I used this recipe from Bon Appetit because their measurements were much simpler than Smitten’s fussy weights.  Mary insists that these are a simple, frugal, easy, kid-approved tray bake for when they get home from school.

What’s next . . . meal planning and grocery shopping, lunch, work, then enjoy the quiet a little longer before the boys come home.  I like this all very much.