monique

Fourth of July

A quiet day. John is working day shift. For pay, today is
equivalent to Christmas so he doesn't mind too much. He'll
also be getting time-and-a-half for the two graveyard shifts
he'll be working Friday and Saturday nights because he'll be
over 40 hours by the end of today.

I made the potato salad and the brownies and cut up the
strawberries for our picnic early in the morning, while the
house was still cool, although I've heard it'll only get
into the mid 70's this afternoon.

Ahhh... perfect weather for stitching! I've almost finished
making the Little Pink Vase top from Fat Quarter Fancywork.
The boys are in charge of the barbequing. All I have left
to do is get the rest of the fixin's ready. I'm using a log
cabin quilt top for a tablecloth with clay pots of red
geraniums and little flags to help hold it down. :-)

John called from work late in the afternoon to ask me if I
wanted half a beef. Karen has a entirely grain fed steer she
wants to sell half of and it's $1.59 a pound, including
wrapping. Sounds like a good deal to me. I'll have to clean
out the big freezer and get it ready. We're talking
about well over 100 pounds of meat. John says since we can
figure it'll last a year we'll divide the cost by twelve and
deduct that amount from the food budget money. Works for
me! The advantage of this is not only cheaper and more
tender meat it's also meat we don't usually buy. Usually
the percentages run about 30% ground beef, 35% steaks and
35% roasts.

Hope you have a safe and happy holiday!