Looking Forward To A Bit Of Shopping!

 I need to purchase a couple of household items and I am really looking forward to shopping for them.  For too many years of my adult life neither my husband nor myself would dare to let even a breath escape that we needed some new appliance or piece of furniture because if my parents found out, within days a delivery truck would arrive at our house and the new sofa, set of pots and pans, can opener, beds and linens....you name it, would be brought to our front door.  Sigh.....  It was mostly at my dad's instigation. My mom tried for decades to convince him to back off because perhaps we would prefer to make our own choices, but he never listened.  For years we had furniture that we despised, appliances that we didn't like much and clothes neither of us wore, but Dad had a bad habit of doing these things for us without ever asking if it was okay and then expecting us to rain glory and honour upon his head for taking the initiative for purchasing all the things.  Sigh....  I think that underneath he really did mean well and he wanted to help us out, but he just didn't get it that he was badly overstepping.  (I think the year he announced that he and Mom were coming on holidays with us marked the beginning of a more healthy attitude on OUR part....we compromised and included them in our last week of 3 vacation weeks.) Most everything he bought us was on some kind of sale special so that rendered them nonreturnable and we were stuck. Oh well, beggars reallly couldn't be choosers in our case. hahaha

The first time we chose our own furniture was sometime in our late 50's, in the midst of our many moves, so we don't have anything particularly expensive or wonderful, BUT what we do have has been our own choice for the most part.  I have always found it difficult to turn down a well meaning gift when it is presented by a giver with an  eager attitude and/or grinning face, so proud of what he or she has done for us.  A good side effect of all the gifts is that I have learned to be gracious when being given something I am not really wanting or needing and that has been good for me.  It is something I needed to learn, that's for sure.

Anyway, all that to say I am very excited to be going frying pan and iron shopping later this week!  I love my PC non-stick, ceramic coated frying pan, but the finish got ruined recently when I accidentally put too high a heat under it, wandered off and scorched a couple of chicken breasts.  It took the top finish off so now it isn't as non-stick as it is supposed to be and I am not sure it is safe to use that way.  My iron's steamer unit has given up the ghost. No amount of cleaning the steam vents has restored its ability, and they weren't blocked with minerals anyway when they stopped working because I am obsessive about cleaning iron steam vents,  so it is time to go searching for a new one. I am very excited about searching for a new iron because there are many excellent brands available these days and I have been doing my research.   

Nothing to make me feel like life is returning to normal again like shopping for household goods!! Yeah, you betcha'!!