Last weekend I had the wonderful idea to go to 3 bookshops (they’re all the same, just different franchises within about a 2km radius) to check out the latest stuff. Clearly I am soooo led by God because there was a HUGE SALE!!!!

No time to do the happy dance because the biggest store was about to close so I had about 7 minutes to grab everything and pay. Now I am a champion shopper so I grabbed a basket, focussed and got on with the job at hand

We then went to the other two stores and got some more stuff at the one place.

And came home with this…

The two baskets on the right have things I picked up at Clicks – again, led by God – some great gift sets for rock-bottom prices.

This is my good deed of the day – we detoured at Pick & Pay and these stationery sets were going for R10 each ($US1.43), marked down from R39.99 ($US5.71) which is still dirt cheap. Anyway… I decided to pick some up and give them away.

You might be wondering why the photos above are in black and white – it’s because the pile of shopping doesn’t look so bad that way! But here is a smaller photo, in colour.

Anyway, I tackled both those surfaces this week and I’m very happy to say all that stuff is put away or has been given away.

1. Gave a stationery set to my cleaning lady for her 3 sons and another to an underprivileged school.
2. The books I bought purely for gifts have been put away on my gift shelf (which now overflows to a second shelf).
3. The books for me have been put on my bookshelf. I must say, it felt like I was working in a library because my bookshelf is sorted by topic, so I filed under job/work, family, life balance and novels.
4. Also moved some books to my bedside table to start reading soon.

What did you tackle today?

(don’t forget to check my main blog for my giveaway)

Look what I received on Friday from the Organising Junkie herself – good mail! What a lovely thank-you card all the way from Canada. I am already using the bookmark in my Bible.

Thank you so much, Laura – this made my day. I had been having a rather blah kind of day and this perked me right up

Now, onto my menu plan for the week…

Monday
Pork chops, sweetcorn & potato bake (recipe below) and carrots

Tuesday
M – out at work function (I’m told they will feed us)
D – chilli & rice

Wednesday
D – burgers
M – leftover pizza (if you have not yet tried Sandra’s pizza, do it. You won’t regret it!)

Thursday
Pasta with chickpea & vegetable sauce, topped with cheese

Friday
Chicken burgers and fat-free chips

Sweetcorn and potato bake
4 medium potatoes
1 can cream
style sweetcorn
salt, pepper, Italian herbs to taste

Scrub the potatoes with their skins on.
Dice into fairly big squares (about 2cm).
Throw into a microwave dish with spices and microwave on high for about 5 minutes (nearly but not quite done)
Now add the can of sweetcorn and stir the whole lot, to thoroughly mix.
Microwave for a further 2 – 3 minutes until potatoes are done.

There you go – done!

If you want to be decadent, you can top with cheese. I don’t, but I do add some more pepper. Yum.

For more Menu Plan Monday participants, go on over to Laura’s blog.

I’ve been a bad commenter this last week because we had power cuts on two of the nights so I’ve been prioritising and doing the absolute basics, like sending out my newsletter and responding to emails. Got to practise what I preach, right?!

Gorgeousness galore – these were spied on a colleague’s desk.

Does this not make you happy? Beautiful bright , colourful folders, neatly organised?