A Sunny Sunday

Cookbook Collection

I took this photo of my cookbook collection as a "before" picture, thinking I might declutter some of the books.  They take up about 15 inches on a 24 inches wide bookshelf, which, I suppose isn't too bad for a collection of cookbooks.  Several years ago, I used to belong to a "cookbook of the month club" and I bought quite a few cookbooks and had at least two 3-ft. wide shelves crammed full with cookbooks.  Over the years, I decluttered them until I thinned them down to what is pictured above (the white folder has a few recipes I've cut out from magazines and one or two handwritten ones).  My collection includes a notebook in which my mother handwrote some recipes (the book with the blue spine) and several notebooks in which a 17 year old me hand-copied recipes from a printed cookbook that my mother had, which she gave away before we left Sri Lanka (she later told me that if she had known I'd wanted the recipes, she would have kept the book; she bought me a replacement book on a return visit to Sri Lanka, but, it was a newer edition and some of the recipes had been "updated" and weren't the same.)  I keep thinking that a lot of these recipes can be found online, and I pulled out three of the books, thinking I might donate them, but, then, I put them all back again!  Decluttering books is like pulling teeth, for me!

We had sunshine, today, and the daytime high did go up to 77F (which is still quite cool for this time of the year; last year, we had a record setting 107F on Sept. 3).  But, it was nice and comfortable, not too hot, not too cold.

Maybe I did a bit too much, yesterday, cooking the beef smore, because my hip was a little painful when I woke up.  I considered taking a Tylenol, but, over the course of the day, the pain eased somewhat, so, I didn't take anything.  I've been trying to drink more water and that is helping, I think.  My goal is to drink 8 cups of water and I've drunk 7 cups, so far (10:00 p.m.); I am sure I'll be able to drink the last cup when I take my medications before I go to bed.  This amount of hydration does not include the two cups of tea I drank.

I took the trash and the bag of recycling out to the bins in the morning and I walked just once up and down the driveway and along the sidewalk in front of my house, just to keep the joints moving!  I noticed several vehicles parked on the front yard of the house next door and I could hear the voices of people working on the house.  I believe they are construction workers and not necessarily the owners of the house.  They seem to be doing quite a few renovations.  

I spent the majority of the afternoon on the living room sofa, resting my hip, reading blogs, watching online videos, playing Sudoku, etc.  And attending to Dancer!  Since yesterday, he's back to not liking any of the food I've been offering him; he takes a couple of bites and then, walks away and two minutes later, he's meowing at me again!  And it is such a sad sounding meow!  Then, I get up off the sofa and offer him something else.  As a result, he has his personal buffet spread out for him with separate bowls of three flavors of cat food and some tuna.  There are two kinds of kibble, too!  His water bowl is full and so is the bucket he likes to drink from!  And still he kept meowing.  Eventually, I figured out what he wanted - tuna from a freshly opened can, not the last bits from a can that was opened two days ago!  He is such a spoiled kitty!  He's due for his arthritis injection, too - I need to call the vet's office on Tuesday (Monday being a holiday, Labor Day, the vet's clinic will be closed) to schedule that.  The garden cats (Mama Cat and her admirer who visits from time to time, a fully black cat I call Black Jack) aren't quite as fussy and they will eat the opened cans of cat food that Dancer won't eat and whatever the garden cats don't eat, the possums will eat. 

In the evening, my hip felt much better and I did a little bit of tidying up and putting away.  I finally put away the new yarn in the yarn bin which is now full, again, and I cleaned the glass top of the family room coffee table.  I also ran the cleaning cycle on the washing machine as that light has been coming on the last couple of times I did laundry.  

Brunch was leftover milkrice with mackerel curry.  Dinner was some of the beef smore with bread.  I had some yogurt for dessert, afterwards.  

Today, I am grateful for:

- A sunny day and pleasant temperatures
- Being able to rest as needed
- The hip pain getting better, as the day progressed
- The few tidying/putting away tasks I managed to do
- Emails from friends

Today's joyful activity was relaxing in the afternoon sunshine coming through the window and watching online videos.

Tomorrow is a holiday, but, I'm not planning any Labor Day celebrations.  I'd like to get a little more tidying done, depending on how I am feeling.

What are your plans for Monday?  Is it a holiday where you are?