Running a more efficient home

Home is where the heart is for many reasons: we are in charge of how our homes look, what we accept in them, what goes on in them, and of course how it operates.  If you are anything like me, you'll want to ensure that your home is as efficient as possible in all the ways it can be, including when it comes to your energy usage. Here are some ways I do that. 

Consider your carbon footprint  

The average household has more gadgets than they used to, which means that our energy usage and the carbon footprints that we leave behind is higher than ever. I am a long time plugger inner who is now an unplugger. 

If you're interested in what's pulling electricity, smart meters tell you how much energy you use as a household and where it is being used the most. I think the electric company might still come and read too? Anyway knowing what is pulling the most electric in your house can help you narrow down where to focus your energy saving efforts.  

When in doubt, unplug if you can. 

Think about community solar panels 

I've dreamed of solar panels since they became a thing, as they are a great alternative to at least supplement our current electrical energy. They are a cleaner energy source that is effective and costs less to use, which gives us the best of both worlds. 

The only trouble with this is that installing solar panels on your home isn’t always something everyone can do due to installation costs. We have absolutely balked at that. So that's where the idea of community solar panels, which you can sign up for here, can come in. These are installed into a community and can be used by various households without being installed onto one house. Pretty cool. 

Get clever with mealtimes 

The price of food is up up freaking up. That combined with intense hatred of food waste has me even more focused on maximizing the efficiency of the food I buy. I'm back to thinking more and being more intentional with the meals I cook so I'm getting maximum value and nutrition and not wasting any food. Anything not used that I've planned to I will attempt to freeze.   

There are plenty of apps that can help you plan your meals and ensure that you use the food you buy as effectively as possible. Doing this means that you can cut down on your food waste and ensure that you save as much money as possible when food shopping. 

All aboard 

If only one person in a more than one person household is interested in making changes to maximize household efficiency, efforts are going to fall flat. For any changes to stick and have an impact on efficiency, everyone needs to be on board. Even if they have to be drug there, kicking and screaming. 

Find a way to make changes work for everyone so it's something you're doing together. 

In what ways do you maximize efficiency in your home? 

Build a New Life Around Your New Home

Moving to a new city can be equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking. Whether you're moving for a new job or a fresh start or just a change of scenery, the city where you move to might offer you a better quality of life or the general cost of living could be a lot lower than where you are now. Where do you begin when you're looking to move?

Choose the Best Neighborhood for You

The area you move to is very important because duh you'll be living there. In my life, community, diversity, proximity to the library, public transportation, and walk-ability are important. Price, of course as well. Figure out what tops your list and what areas might suit you. When we were looking to buy at the shore walk-ability and price were our top considerations. In Philly proximity to public transportation was at the top of the list. 

Give It Time

Your first few days in your new home might feel very strange. Even when I've moved two blocks the first few months felt weird. Getting settled into a new place takes time, so sit with it and reassess your feelings in six-ish months. Hopefully by then you'll have found some favorite spots, made some friends, gotten more comfortable in a routine and geographically will know the city a lot more, so you should feel settled in.

Join Something

Grounding yourself in your new space is important in order to form attachments. Once you know a few people and start to create a social life, it will feel more like home. Book club, gym, clean up crew, volunteer organization, pool league, whatever...join something and meet some new people using groups that relate to your interests. 

Keep Up To Date With Local

It’s also advisable to keep up to date with local goings-on. You can see what is going on at your local clubs and organizations by checking their sites, such as arlingtonnewsnetwork.com or the zillion facebook neighborhood pages. Of course there's always the local newspaper or local news online. Keeping up to date with current affairs and local news will tie you to your new local area.

Figure Out The Transport System

As soon as you arrive in your new home, you should take a look at the public transport information. Most cities have sites dedicated to this, such as Portland’s travelportland.com  which is superior to the SEPTA site, trust me. This will help you get around when you are exploring, and you won’t be so dependent on your car. I am glad I can use public transportation to get to work in Philly but I love being able to walk or bike most places at the shore. Bottom line if I don't have to use the car, I won't.

Are you coming up on a move? What's important to you when you're looking for a new place to live?

Wishing you a wonderful Easter Weekend, Chag Sameach, or just a good and restful weekend if it's not a holiday for you. Happy happy birthday to Gail today also! 

6 Home Improvements To Make This Summer And How To Ensure They Run As Smoothly As Possible

Not my house...Peace Valley Lavender Farm in Doylestown, PA

Now that warmer weather is starting to make an appearance and summer is creeping up on us, it's time to start thinking about home improvements. Whether it's getting your home ready for grilling and BBQs and gatherings or just setting up your place to make the most out of the warm weather - summer is the perfect time for home renovations. Less rain, more light at night to work, and the perfect weather...let's do this.

6 Home Improvements You Can Make This Summer

- Give Your Yard and Garden a Summer Makeover

The first and most obvious place in which to work is your garden and yard because you're outside so much more in the summer season. Whether you're out in the yard with the kids or hosting a BBQ for fam and friends, the yard and garden must be prepared. Is it safe? Is it an enjoyable place to spend time?

If you look out and see too much work, it might be worth bringing someone in to do the heavy lifting and get rid of overgrowth and hanging trees. Although landscaping is a lot more expensive in comparison doing it yourself, it could give your outdoor space the boost you need to fall in love with it all over again. If you're going to do a straight up renovation and need tips and tricks, check out this site here. Maybe it's just adding new rocks or mulch or switching out your cushions. That took us years because they're so pricey but it was so worth it to freshen everything up. 

- Create a Communal Space for Gatherings and Parties

If you're planning on hosting a lot of summer gatherings, consider making the communal area closest to your outdoor entry more people friendly. Mats to save your floors, a place to store your citronella candles and bug spray, etc.

- Change Up Your Accessories for a Sunnier Feel

If you're on a budget but you still want to give your home a fresh feel for summer, change up your accessories to reflect the season. One of the best ways to refresh your home without the cost is to swap accessories every time the season arrives. Whether it's swapped wall art, fresh pillow covers, candles with seasonally appropriate scents, bright dish towels, or different sets of flowers, it's amazing how much difference small changes actually make. I always shop my house and switch wall decor out between rooms to save money. I also move to lighter quilts that I move between rooms too. For more inspiration on how to create summer decor, check out this pinterest board. 

- Renovate Your Kitchen or Bathroom 

If you're ready to bring out the big guns on the renovation front, you may want to consider a kitchen or bathroom renovation. This is infinitely more work and money than most other home improvements, it will definitely be worth it both in use of spaces and in resale value down the line. With a kitchen or bathroom renovation, you must think about a number of different things before you get started. Do you need to hire help? Will you need a plumber? What design and features do you want to include? How long will the renovation take? How will you function without these vital spaces while they're under construction?

- Bring the Outside in With Some of the Season's Best Flowers

Another inexpensive way to improve your home during the summer months is to bring some of the outside in. This means looking at what some of the season's best flowers are and incorporating them into your home in a way that suits you. Whether that means looking after your first ever houseplants or buying a fresh bouquet every week (if you're near a Produce Junction, you can get gorgeous flowers under $5) , you will love the difference it can make. If you have flowers you can snip and bring in, then free is even cheaper. I do that with my hydrangeas a lot. 

- Upcycle Your Old Furniture to Bring it Back to Life

One of the best ways to give your home an entirely new look and feel without the cost is to upcycle any unwanted furniture you have. Give it a fresh coat of paint or completely renovate it for a new purpose. Upcycling is incredibly affordable and so easy to do. I've done it with a lot of furniture at the shore. I love when everything old is new again. 

How To Ensure Your Home Improvements Run Smoothly 

- Make Sure You're Setting Yourself A Budget You Can Stick To

One of the most important aspects of home renovations is setting a budget. This means not only thinking about what your overall budget is going to be but thinking about how much each individual aspect is going to cost you. Think about hiring help, materials and any extras you may need. Need advice when it comes to setting a budget?  

- Plan Everything Out Well In Advance

If you’re going to be carrying out home improvements it’s important you’re planning everything out in advance. There are so many different things you need to consider before you get started, so writing things down and creating a detailed plan will help ensure you don’t run into any errors.

- Don't Be Afraid To Ask A Professional For Help

While it's nice to feel as though you can do absolutely anything, the reality is you can’t. Whether it’s hiring an electrician or plumber or even an interior designer -if it's not in your wheelhouse, hire some help. 

- Shop Around When it Comes To Buying Materials And Equipment 

If you’re going to buying all of your materials and equipment personally, you must shop around for the best possible prices. Go to different stores and price things out online. You want quality items that will last. 

- Don't Rush Into Things 

When it comes to making home improvements it’s easy to get carried away and think you can do everything. The best thing to do to ensure you don’t make any mistakes in your excitement is to leave it for a couple of days before you start anything. Please note, that is not the way I do things. I jump in and don't look back. But not rushing into it is probably the way to go. I do schedule out improvements especially at the shore because we have to be doing something every weekend in order to be ready for rental season. 

At home we've changed out the outdoor cushions and gotten rid of our rusted out grill. The yard is mostly cleaned up but still needs work, and planting of the front garden will happen in mid-May. At the shore my dad is going to change out the faucet in the bathroom and fix the outdoor shower door. I need to finish contact papering the bathroom and changing out bedding and MFD has to power wash in May and paint the ceiling in the main house.

What's on your home improvement agenda this summer? 

TWTW - the one that started in 2017 and ended in 2018

If you have to get a security system installed, it's awesome if a friend of 25 years can oversee the installation. Thanks AJ! If anyone is in need in the southeastern PA area, let me know. I got a guy. I worked from home while that was going on and did absolutely nothing Friday night aside from shove Totino’s Pizza Rolls down my gullet.

MFD was in charge of flowers of the week and he did well.

Saturday morning we woke up to snow. I made dinner for later along with Mimi's breakfast muffins and a vat of iced coffee and painted my nails (OPI Berry Berry Broadway and Essie No Place Like Chrome).

We spent the afternoon at Fergie's to celebrate Angie's 40th, and it was Scott's birthday too. It was a lot of fun with great friends and music. And bathroom art. I freaking love art in bathrooms. And friends who carry the Bill of Rights in their wallet - looking at you Chris! Happy happy Ange, welcome to Club 40!

The good was balanced by the bad - Mom, Rich, and Sean had to say goodbye to Yogi Bear. He was a great dog and will be very missed.

Sunday I was out by 9 am, popping in on my niece and nephew then on to Dad and Carol's to help set up their Alexa, then to Target. On New Year's Eve I am always running around like an idiot. I don't get it. Even when it's not planned, it happens. It's like nothing can be done after 6 pm? I don’t know. When I got home we did our year end charitable contributions which was great this year because MFD won the Philadelphia String Band Association raffle so we were able to give more to more charities that are important to us! And we know we'll be good through January and February which are typically really tight months for us. I started to feel crappy so I showered and settled in with a book and the dogs and season one of The Goldbergs. Fucking hilarious. MFD went solo to the two NYE gatherings we were supposed to attend. I missed seeing our friends but didn't want to be the asshole who brought the cold germs. He was home at 11:30 and we rang in the New Year looking the worse for wear. LOL

New Year's Day - Monday - Mummers Day!
It started with a frantic scavenger hunt through the house for MFD's shoes and socks, which I raced to drop off at the club before the band left for the parade. Everyone has traditions. This is ours. I made elderberry extract - I swear my lack of taking it for the week between Christmas and New Year's left me in this position with this cold. I pumped myself up with this so I hope I head it off before it gets really bad.

I spent the morning preparing the traditional pork and sauerkraut and mashed potatoes for the New Year's Day meal. And dealing with a sink leak or clog or whatever that leaked through the basement ceiling. Happy New Year!

My ears were clogged and it was fucking cold so Debbie and I watched the parade at home with snacks. I had to rely on photos from MFD. I missed being down there. You really do need to see everything in person to fully appreciate it not to mention the pictures you get are tops. I also missed catching up with friends I don't see often. If you click on the band name you can see the performance and all have immediate music - Ferko came in 5th with their Peter Pan theme. I loved the Captain and Smee costumes, Peter Pan, and Tinkerbelle - the first female on the street with Ferko, which pleases me immensely. South Philly put on an exceptional show to win it and we are excited for our friends in SPSB as well as our friends and fam in Uptown for their great 6th finish. Everyone has their favorites, and I loved Quaker and Avalon, but Duffy and their mighty kid captain Jake who led the band instead of his dad, who passed unexpectedly in recent months, stole the show - this one is a must watch to the end. I cried at the end of their performance and three times watching video on FB of their prize announcements. I have never been moved to tears by the Mummers Parade before. For a link to all string band performances from the judge stands broken out by band, click here.

Weekly food prep

Breakfast is frozen breakfast burritos - I need to use them up and re-stock. Lunch is leftovers from Saturday's dinner or PBJ on english muffins. Dinner is NYD leftovers and chicken breasts when I need to make them.

Happy New Year!

Realizations from being away every weekend

Our dogs would prefer living in a place that has no steps.

I'm not worried letting it be known at least one of us is not home most weekends. Anyone looking to rob us would be sorely disappointed as there's nothing left in our house at home to steal since all of our money goes to the shore house and we have left that house just struggling along with no goods and no maintenance. And we have no cares about that.

I am happier in our efficiency apartment than I am in our three floor row home at home or the three floors of the main house at the shore. Even when the main house is empty, we don't stay up there. I do use the kitchen upstairs at the shore though when it's open.

I am outside much more in a place that is extremely walkable and has an ocean.

When I can walk or bike to get food for the day, I don't mind going to the store daily. If given the choice I prefer to drive nowhere.

When we make time for relaxing, we are more relaxed.

I could survive on less than a third of the clothes I have. I wear the same things every weekend without a care.

I don't  need all the stuff I have deemed necessary. I spend most weekends without any of it.

It is easy for me to disengage with real life. If I don't reply to texts immediately it will take me days to remember there was a text in the first place.

The concept of home feels a lot more fluid than it used to. For most of the year, my primary residence feels like the place I crash, do laundry, and get my mail delivered to and the place where I spend weekends feels more like home in my heart. If both places are home, am I really away from home every weekend or just home in a different location?  

TWTW - the last in July

This weekend was the first weekend I was home for the whole thing since April 22. Friday I kicked ass at work - four major deadlines all met with two hours left in the afternoon to play catch up.  Friday night was lounging, tomato sandwiches, and seeing MFD off to the shore. 

Saturday I ran out for some $5 flowers, painted my nails (nails OPI Black Dress Not Optional, toes Lost My Bikini in Molokini), and read. It was like the stress of the past few weeks was just hissing out of me and it was awesome. 

Saturday night was Frank's 40th birthday party. It was a lot of fun. Whenever I see my friends, and friends of friends, I find myself hoping that everyone has people they genuinely enjoy in their lives, people they can laugh with and love regardless of if you last saw them yesterday or six months or a year ago. 

Sunday was a clean up day - finish all laundry and put it away, empty the dishwasher, pick up around the house, lay out clothes for the week, finish a book and start another, and take a nap with the dogs. I woke up not as a troll. Miracle. It was a gorgeous day and the windows were open and it was so nice to just be and ramble around getting things done. I did make eggs in bacon in the oven for breakfast and got another 50 laughs out of a gift Mrs. G gave us at the party - his and hers nail clippers. 

Weekly food prep: breakfasts are scrambled eggs with cheese/mushrooms/green onion; lunches are loaded cauliflower bowls; snacks are pineapple, almonds, and cherry vanilla noosa yogurt. Dinners are a cold pasta salad with grilled chicken thighs and chicken cacciatore over rice. I also browned some ground beef for the dogs, of a higher quality than I eat myself naturally. Sunday dinner a la MFD was ribeyes, grilled veggies, and corn. And cherry pie because YOLO, damnit.

Tomorrow is August 1, and I am making the month of August pure list blogging aside from Thursday Thoughts (which is technically just a list of shit from the week), Show Us Your Books (August 8), Shit MFD Said at some point, and a sponsored post or two. I will reduce TWTW to list style too which is an iteration of this feature that I preferred back in 2012.

Since I think in lists, this excites me more than it should.

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

What I love about coming home from a trip abroad

We left our house for vacation at 1:30 on October 29 and got back to our house at 1:45 on November 9. It was one of our longer trips and one of our jet lag trips, and they are, of course, harder to bounce back from. So again, please excuse any grammatical errors or typos, I'm just not as sharp right now as I try to be.

What I love about coming home from a trip abroad
1. Seeing my dogs. Derr. And taking 479 photos of them and keeping and sharing them all even if they're terrible photos.

2. Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee. I always get one immediately upon return, but my heart does not sing with joy until I return to my Monday through Friday DD, where my worker friends greet me effusively and say how long it's been and hand me my order that I didn't have to place because they know what I'm getting.

3. Not having to locate an adapter before plugging something in.

4. All the ice I want, all the time.

5. Not having to calculate how much something is really costing me with a conversion rate. Or converting kilometers into miles.

6. Driving on the side of the road I normally drive on on roads that are wide enough to fit more than my car in my lane.

7. Cheese steaks. I typically always get a cheese steak the day I return. It screams hometown food to me.

8. Alone time. I love my people but I need my alone time.

9. Full, 24/7 access to a washer and dryer that I understand how to use. I could not figure out the combo washer/dryer in one of the places we stayed in and felt like a total moron.

10. Sleeping in my own bed!

While I love to travel, there's no place like home. However, there are some things I hate about returning from a trip, aside from the general fact that vacation is over. Things like:
1. Readjusting to eastern standard time. I feel like I am on quaaludes or something as I exist sort of here and sort of there.

2. Post-vacation sprawl. Bags and piles of clothes and foreign purchases are strewn everywhere and I don't have the energy to deal with it for a few days. I went heavy on the soap this trip (some of these are gifts though) and that is easy to put away so I'm filled with glee.

3. The thought of returning to my daily commute.

4. The laundry.

5. Trying to get up to speed on work and life in a hot hurry.

What do you love about coming home from a trip? One of these days I'll get a blog post up about this trip. One of these days, man.

Today and every day, saluting the veterans.

Linking up with Kristin

Driving and thinking, thinking and driving

Once upon a time I thought I would be a person who moves away from where they grew up. After college I planned to move to Boston where my college roommate was heading. I realized over the next six months that in my heart, that's not what I truly wanted or needed. But I was afraid to say it out loud. I equated not going with failing. I still remember telling Laura, Kim, and Kim that I had changed my mind while sitting on the beach in Ocean City. It felt like a huge weight was lifted, but for a while I was scared that I made the wrong decision or that I was stuck. Oh, early 20s. I don't miss your self doubt and resistance to following gut feelings.

When I look back over the last 17 years since college graduation, I know I made the right decision for me. Aside from being an hour away in Delaware for college, I've never lived more than 20 minutes from the town in which I grew up. I've traveled to many places within and outside of the United States, and this is where I always return. It's where my roots are. It's in my bones.

Saturday, on a drive, I passed:
-The corner where I sat watching the Lower Southampton July 4th Parade every year from childhood to my early 20s
-The Lower South fields where Gamma used to stock the stand and I entered my lifelong relationship with Swedish Fish
-The relocated library...Gamma took me to the original every week
-Kim's street, turning the opposite way just like I would have to go home to my house from there in high school
-Hanging a left on Arbutus and remembering a driver playing chicken with me on the way to Volleyball practice with Jenny, George, and Brian in the car
-Sailing down Old Lincoln Highway towards the high school like I've done so many times...speeding to make it before the first bell, going to gym night practice, to a football game on Friday night, to see both of my brothers graduate

It was like living the lyrics of My Hometown by The Boss...except that nothing was rundown, just different from it was when I was younger. Different but still the same.

I don't meander down back roads much anymore. But on days like Saturday it's like driving on memory, taking routes I couldn't direct you down but can drive myself like I'm on autopilot. I can practically see and feel previous versions of myself in front of me and sometimes feel like I'm existing in two separate times. I love that. 

What about you? Stayed in your home town or moved away?

Current Hausfrauing Schedule

Cleaning on a schedule is something I've been doing for over 10 years. I bet my parents wish I used it when I lived at home and was a mess! It was a little rigid at first, but it's come to be something that makes my life a lot easier. I don't need to think about it. I just do it. Like any other routine, once I'm in it it's automatic.

I've shared this before both on this blog and via email to people who've asked but I'm revisiting it here because I do what I want. Sometimes I make changes to my hausfrauing schedule every few weeks. Other times it goes unchanged for months.

It is rare for things to get unmanageably messy or dirty in my house because I don't buck the hausfrauing schedule. The only time things look like a shitbomb hit us is when I've been sick or when we've just returned from vacation and things are strewn about. But we all have those upside down weeks and I find if the actual cleaning goes by the wayside, keeping on top of the daily dos lets me coast for a while in a fairly presentable manner.

A copy hangs on my fridge because I'm a dork

My daily dos are ingrained in me so I don't need them there but it's a good reference. Some nights I'm lazy and don't do them, but honestly not too often because that just doubles the next day's work load. I don't like making things hard on myself. I also look at it like this - would I rather spend a half hour every day putting the house to rights, or a few hours on the weekend sorting through the stuff I've let pile up for 5 days, then a few more hours cleaning it? And the cleaning will require more elbow grease because I was too lazy to wipe off the counter in the bathroom after I brushed my teeth. I'll take a half hour a day.

We all have a lot of stuff going on. I don't like living in squalor but I don't like spending time on the weekends cleaning and running all of my errands so I try to space it out over the week.

If I miss a day of anything, it's not the end of the world. I do try to stay on top of things because when I do, tasks don't take a long time week to week. It all ties together - if I've kept everything picked up and put away, vacuuming or dusting all three floors of the house doesn't take more than a half hour even when I have to travel with the vacuum.

Keeping time to a minimum is important to me - I get home at six or later and exercise at night as well. Food prep on the weekends takes dinner out of the equation most days.

Hanging this up also reminds of the quarterly or monthly tasks that I hate but that must be done. Doing them on a schedule means there's really no more ass breaking spring cleaning here. I do my ass breaking spring cleaning out in the yard now. Blah

Hausfrauing doesn't bother me, but my favorite week of the month is undoubtedly the one that contains the Tuesday our cleaning lady comes. The rest of that week is cake! 

Do you use a cleaning schedule? Are you  a weekday or weekend cleaner?

 Linking up with Shanna for Random Wednesday

TWTW - where is January going?

Spotted at the gym Friday night: a Ghostbusters car. After a year and five months of living here Mae realized the china cabinet rattles sometimes and remained obsessed and disturbed all night while Gus adopted his typical WTF attitude about the situation. Other excitement: laundry and obsessive book reading. Have you heard of You?

Saturday presented itself with a small amount of wet, heavy snow. I am the neighbor you see outside shoveling snow in her pajama bottoms. It wasn't that cold, so no need to get gear on or get dressed to shovel. I followed that up with a nice breakfast of avocado on multi grain toast, eggs, and strawberries. Then I sat in my nice quiet house (thanks Kate for the gorgeous flowers) and ordered a new washer because ours shit the bed that morning. I was downstairs wringing out clothes over the sink like Laura Ingalls Wilder on the freaking prairie and MFD yelled down, "I guess we're not calling American Home Shield." No, we are not.

Things I'm attempting:
-Eliminating a lot of driving/after work errands so I had groceries delivered on Saturday. I was always all no one else can pick my produce and wrong again, they actually can.
-Sticking to my eating well 80% of the time thing, as evidenced by weekend lunches which usually tend to involve a lot of cheese.
-Using up all of my candles. I like how cheap and smelly (in a good way) some Glade candles are, but they burn foolishly. No thanks.
-This isn't new, but making more granite cleaner for my counter tops. This time I used melaleuca and wild orange essential oils.

Saturday night we met our good friends Jill & Frank at Cibo for a late dinner. Good food and the wait staff all sings so there was entertainment too. I had pan fried goat cheese over arugula with a balsamic reduction (I would eat this every day) and linguine & clams, one of my old favorites. I was not impressed with their dessert menu. My cheat meal for the week and those fuckers didn't have any cake. Why I didn't bring my point & shoot, I don't know. Sorry for the grainy pics. But take note of the elevator graffiti. Juicy karkass indeed...it hurts me to mirror their misspelling.

Work is crazy, so I spent a lot of Saturday day and Sunday working. I wanted to get going right away on Sunday morning so I whipped up a two minute breakfast, egg in a mug (click to go to the recipe), thanks to Nicole  from Nicole Marica Blog. I used regular eggs, tomatoes, and cheddar cheese. You can't beat the simplicity. Try it! Our washer was also delivered and installed before 11 a.m. Now that is some awesome.

Weekly food prep, starting from the bottom...hard boiled eggs and power breakfast muffins for this week's breakfasts; potato leek soup skinny style for this week's lunches; butternut squash, peas, quinoa in an olive oil/rice wine vinegar dressing; and baked shrimp, sauteed veggies, and brown rice for Sunday dinner with leftovers for Monday. Other dinners include baked chicken with the quinoa side, blackened salmon with roasted fingerling potatoes and steamed veggies, and eggs scrambled with veggies and salsa.

I closed Sunday out with the gym, clothes all laid out for the week, a book, and my beloved Downton Abbey.

If I could trouble you for a minute of your time on this fine Monday, would you mind clicking here and voting for MFD (Michael Doyle on this list) for Bucks County Happening Realtor and clicking here and voting for Mugshots owned by our BFF Angie on the Philly Happening List? And of course, if you're looking to buy, sell, invest, rent, or anything else to do with real estate in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, I got a guy I can recommend (MFD). And if you want a good local coffee place in Philly, check out Mugshots!

Lots of good stuff coming at you this week: breakfast burritos; recommendations from me/Emily at Martinis & Bikinis, and Nicole at Nicole Marica; a giveaway, and more. Let's end (!!) January on a high note, shall we?

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending