This is the day that never ends…yes it goes on and on my friends!

Someone asked me the other day how I stay sane with a super busy schedule. The answer is LISTS (and chocolate, natch) but mostly – lists. I’m a very visual person, so being able to see everything that needs to get accomplished on any particular day in writing is incredibly helpful for me.

Today’s to-do list, planned down to the hour (I knoooow) was a doozie, and this extra long-feeling day was much needed to get everything done.

Highlights included a trip to the kitchen department at Lowe’s.

Ben and I are thinking about maybe redoing parts of our kitchen, so my Mom helped me measure everything out at home (I am seriously wretched at that stuff!!) before heading over to Lowe’s to check out our options.

Greek ↓

An upgrade to stone countertops and a tiled backsplash is probably an over-improvement for our house but, excuse me if I sound like a brat, I CANNOT DEAL with white tiled countertops anymore (I just want to be able to roll cookie dough out on a flat surface…is that too much to ask?!) especially if we stay for several more years while we save for land/something else in town.

Most helpful person ever ↓

After taking into account the removal of our current countertops, new stone, new sink, installation, hookups and a tiled backsplash – we’re most likely looking at a $5000 bill.

GULP.

The way I see it though is that at any given moment there are dozens of homes for sale around the neighborhood that are very similar to ours, and while we may not be able to make back every penny when we sell, an upgraded kitchen should help set it apart and hopefully get it sold faster –> savings in the end.

Plus $5000 is what it would cost at Lowe’s. We still need to do some shopping around and figure out what we can do ourselves to bring the cost down.

Does anyone who’s ever re-done kitchen countertops have any words of wisdom/pieces of advice for us?

After Lowe’s, in procrastination of organizing our home office, I hung up my Fall wreath!

I HEART this wreath! I made it several years ago and long for the day each Fall when I get to hang it up.

All I did was buy a plain wood wreath and a bunch of embellishments at the craft store, then attach everything with craft wire.

It’s held up extremely well and was very inexpensive to make.

My Fall-themed front entryway is complete.  

When there was no more admiring to be done, I attacked the home office. I am so bad about putting receipts and bill stubs away each month – choosing to pile them on top of one another instead. Smart!

Ugh.

After a little freelance action, I got to talking to my little brother (it’s his birthday today!) and missed my workout window. To tell you the truth, running around all day kind of took it out of me and besides, a tasty, hands-on dinner of fresh Gnocchi sounded more fun anyways.

Talk about a budget friendly meal!

My potato gnocchi recipe contains potato, salt, pepper, egg and flour.

 

That’s it!

The humble ingredients get mashed together and kneaded into a smooth potato dough. 

The dough is separated into sections, rolled and cut into little potato dumplings.

You can choose to leave the gnocchi as-is…

or roll them over the back of a fork to get those classic ridges.

 

Beatimous!

The gnocchi are gently cooked in simmering, salted water until they rise to the top. Then they’re plucked and added to a hot skillet with melted butter and freshly chopped garlic.

 

 

After they get a little crust on ‘em – they’re done!

My gnocchi were a little soft today (I don’t think I added enough flour) but they still tasted delightful.

How can you go wrong with butter and garlic though, hmmm?

My favorite part was the potato that had stuck a bit to the skillet and got uber crispy in the garlic butter. MUWAHAHAHA!!

Here’s complete step-by-step instructions plus a full recipe for making regular and sweet potato gnocchi!

Well I’m off to put some laundry away before crashing for the night. Although today seemed to last forever, this weekend was gone and over with before I knew it. I think a good reading sesh and some quiet time is what I need to mentally prepare myself for the upcoming week!

Have a great Monday everyone!

~~~~~

Do you like the color of your kitchen? What is it?

At the bare minimum, I want to re-paint my kitchen and get new window coverings/drapes. The current color is ORANGE (so orange it deserves all caps) which was fun for awhile, but I think we’re ready for a change!