My return to reality begins tomorrow. I’ve had a glorious time. I’ve read many books, napped, cooked a little, watched tons of movies, organized the house and had plenty of time to decompress, which I needed so badly. After a very stressful end of the year, I feel as if my family and I are in a better place, and I am hoping that this year continues down that path.

Everyone seems to be doing that one word thing where they choose a word to set the tone for the year. When I first thought of a word for myself, I chose PEACE but I’ve been thinking about it and I think SIMPLICITY ought to be my focus this year. My life shouldn’t be all that complicated but with all of the events and stuff that we participate in, so much time is spent prepping or running around trying to get people where they need to be. I don’t want to do that this year.

I want to prepare simple meals.
I want to spread appointments out so that we don’t have twenty things going on in one week.
I want to continue to purge my house of “stuff” because we just don’t need it.
I want each kid to work some down time into their schedule. They need it.

I’d like to go back to the time where people came home and talked to one another. It can be done, right? I’d like to think so.

What am I reading?

I just finished The Troop by Nick Cutter. Now THAT was an interesting read. It reminded me a lot of Bait by J. Kent Messum. It was so intense that I blew through it but I have to organize my thoughts before I review it. It’s wild, crazy ride of a book. Definitely NOT for the squeamish.

What am I cooking?

Not a thing. Cooking would require me to go to the store and that just isn’t going to happen.

What am I watching?

At the moment, nothing. But, I have all sorts of stuff recorded (Lincoln, Argo, Beaches). Plus, I’ve been on a Leave it to Beaver kick lately. I never tire of that show.

This week, rehearsals start-up again for Oliver. School starts again, too. Wish us luck! It’s bound to be a little crazy but I am going to try to ignore it and just go with the flow.

Hello! How are you all doing this fine Sunday? It’s a little after 10 a.m. here and I am just finishing up my second cup of coffee for the morning. The Hub is VERY excited about the Green Bay game scheduled for later today. The weather is going to be interesting. I seriously do not know how those guys play in such conditions. It’s crazy to me!

Speaking of weather, so many of you are dealing with record snowfall and here in California, we are dry as a bone! So dry, that the news stations are talking about nothing but water rationing which makes me very nervous. My house sits on a quarter acre which is mostly landscaped with grass. This takes a lot of water. If money were not a concern, I’d hardscape half of it but that is not an option for us right now.

A lot of my friends went skiing this past weekend and there was no snow! No REAL snow. Without snow pack, we are gonna be toast comes summer. I sure hope we get some weather soon. I do not want to deal with brush fires so early in the year.

Anyway, enough weather.

Yesterday we took a drive to Santa Barbara. We had delicious pizza for lunch AND I hit one of my favorite bookstores, Chaucer’s. It was incredibly busy and it was really hard to walk around. BUT, I was on a mission to find a copy of A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami and guess what? After teetering on a step stool to reach it, and trying it get it down with this very pushy lady refusing to move over, I got a copy!

I managed to also snag an audio copy from the library, but I am trying to collect print copies of all of Murakami’s books so I was happy to finally place my hands on this one.

After roaming around Santa Barbara all day long, we headed home but stopped for steak and shrimp fajitas. Boy, were they good. I am still thinking about that meal.

Today? We are just hanging around. We’ll watch football of course but my plan this week is to enjoy my  last week off from work. One more week and then it’s back to the grind.

What am I reading?

I have done a lot of reading or at least it feels as if I have. I finished The Rosie Project and loved it. I also finished The Last Days of California by Mary Miller and adored that one. If I can surround myself by books like those, all year-long, I’ll be a happy camper.

What am I cooking?

I haven’t been in a cooking mood. I think the warmer weather has kept me from wanting to cook. That said, it’s been cooler at night so of course it’s then that I am wanting soup or something warm and there’s nothing around to eat!

 What am I watching?

Oh, there has been a lot of watching. With the kids home, we have been watching lots and lots of movies. Mostly old stuff, because that is what we seem to like but we’ve been catching up on recorded shows too. In a little bit, I will be watching Rear Window. That is such a fun movie. The Girl is not into it but I am hoping to pull her away from her Kindle by having it on in the background.

What are you all up to? Did you do anything fun this weekend? Cooking anything good? Any resolutions you want to share? I am HORRIBLE with resolutions so I don’t make any, otherwise I’d share.

I just can’t believe that we are in 2014 now. The holidays flew by and so did my time off. My plan this week is to stretch out my last week home. I want every day to count. The Otter Pup is sure going to miss us when we all head back to school and work. She’s been my little lap dog for well over two weeks now. Who am I kidding? She probably can’t wait to have us out of here so she can return to all day snoozing.