Rampant Consumerism

The Middle Child, aka Martha Stewart Jr., and I spent the morning doing our part for the economy. Now that we finally have a farmer's market in the area, that's where we started. They didn't have too much left by the time we got there but we'll have a lovely kale and potato soup for dinner. After that we went to one of our favorite places, the bookstore. We all love the bookstore in this family! Martha Jr. chose "Dragon Flight", the second book in a series. DH finished reading the first book to them a couple of weeks ago and they all LOVED it so they are looking forward to the next one. They didn't have the book I was looking for; oh, well, I didn't really need another cookbook.

We also stopped in at Hallmark for the ornament preview; it was so exciting! (My name is Kim and I am addicted to Christmas ornaments...) I am officially out of storage space so I really shouldn't buy any new ones, but I can't resist. I've been buying a new ornament every year for each of the kids, then when they get out on their own and have a tree they can take their ornaments with them. They'll have a full set of really nice Hallmark ornaments for their first trees, unlike the tree I had my first year on my own. I loved it, even with the cheap glass balls from K-Mart, but it would have been nice to have some sentimental ornaments to go on it. I think I got the idea from my aunt, who did this for my cousins. Can't remember, but I know it's not an idea original to me, I just recognized its greatness. It's a yearly ritual to let each child choose their ornament, either by looking through the catalog or going to the store with me, then watching them place it on the tree. The Eldest has chosen birds the past few years; they are part of an on-going series and they look lovely on the tree, so I picked up the newest one for her. Martha Jr. had a hard time choosing her ornament but finally settled on an adorable fairy. I pick out one or two new ornaments for myself, too. It's gotten to the point that I can't even put them all on the tree every year; I have to rotate them.

After tearing ourselves away from the Hallmark store, we went on to Ross where Martha Jr. wanted to find a shirt for her Halloween costume. No luck on her shirt, but I wound up with a new jacket (since my old one is from the '80s, it's about time), two dresses for Martha Jr., and some other odds and ends. We finished up with a quick run into Publix, where I found out that their french bread is soy free (yeah!!!) and then home.

Whew, what a busy day!