Life returns to normal.

After the girl's weekend, life has returned to it's regularly scheduled program.

But the continuing heat and humidity has slowed me down a bit. Somebody left Mother Nature set on Broil with a side order of char!! Every morning, when I get up around 6AM, all of the windows are covered with condensation on the outside. Since I keep the house at 75 degrees, you can tell that the nighttime temperatures don't drop that low.

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Even the dogs are tired of the heat. Nick has taken up permanent residence on top of the air conditioning vents. The first time I saw him do this, he was sound asleep with his face on the vent and the air coming through was making his lips flap! Too funny!




But on to the work! The never-ending mulch project continues, but I'm almost done with this bed next to the driveway.



See? It's getting there!


Then I'm only left with around my studio building, and all around the backyard fence. This is good, because the mulch pile is shrinking again!



I even have my very own plant nursery in the backyard where I'm staging the discount shrubs I've been collecting. So everyday, I'm out there watering potted shrubs. And new planted shrubs. And vegetable beds. And hanging flower baskets. *Sigh*



The field mowing is getting done:



There are plenty more that still need mowing, but I'm not showing my untrimmed fields to the public!

There is the usual housework stuff (Boo! Hiss!): laundry, dishes, vacuuming, etc.

And then there is shopping! More like stealing, cuz in shopping, you have to give the merchants actual money. My version of shopping involves handing over coupons and taking home free or almost free stuff.

Today, I made a quick stop at Kroger and came home with with this for $6.04 and a savings of 81%.



The body wash was free, the 2 coffee drinks cost 25 cents each and one of the toilet cleaners was free when I bought the other. Basically, I paid for 1 toilet cleaner, 50 cents for coffee and the tax on everything. The body wash will be added to my new Health and Beauty cupboard I've started in the bedroom armoire.



I have enough razors, toothpaste and toothbrushes stored that now I can be choosy about when I buy certain things. Pretty much, if it's not free or less than 50 cents, I pass on the deal. It's a comfort to know that if the sh*t hits the fan, I have enough basic supplies to last quite a while!

Even the girls have gotten into couponing! Courtney hasn't had much time to do it, what with killing wild animals and going to San Francisco for a wedding, but Liz is sharing her knowledge with her girlfriends and has posted about her excursions on her new blog .