Tired of consuming

I am sick, sick, sick of money. I'm sick of spending it, I'm sick of worrying about it, I'm simply sick of having to deal with it. I'm really tired of all this Buying that has to be done. All these trips to the store, all this buying and consuming. It never ends. Groceries, household things, clothes, toothpaste, gas for the car (and the panic attack that comes with it), and all those small things that are always popping up. It's like a big, hungry black hole.

Okay. Off my chest.

Recovering from a weekend of family visiting. My oldest brother, Kurt, was here with my two nieces, Niya (10) and Keenan (almost 8). It was not at all surprising that having three extra people here in this smaller/different space was, at times, challenging. No yard to go hang out in, so the nearby park had a lot of visits. We stuck close to home because they had driven so far to get here and had an even longer trip in the car this week; we tried to avoid driving as much as possible.

It was nice to see how Quinn loved his cousins ("This is my sweet cousing, Keenan!" was a constant refrain), and how happy he was to have them here. When it became clear to him that they were leaving yesterday morning, he told me "I don't want them to leave! I like them to be here with me!". Awww.

Homemade pizza was a big hit on Sunday. I have THE BEST dough recipe if anyone is interested...

Erick's job, although involving much less time out in the field, did last night. He had to get up at 1 am to drive to the Columbia River to help with sampling. It's now 2 pm and he's still not home. I'm expecting that exhausted, dazed look on his face when he finally gets home sometime this afternoon.

Besides my ranting and putting my house back in order, there's not much going on. Except the usual.