We took the girls to the Chelsea Market today and bought a bounty of vegetables for real cheap. These beets were just 50 cents a pound. Since we’ve been eating so poorly, we decided to make a simple, healthy vegetable soup for dinner with some Rosemary bread we picked up at the little Farmer’s Market a block from our place. Not sure what we’ll do with the beets, but they were hard to pass up at that price…and look how beautiful they are - the colors!

Claudine and Mia loved running around the place and I hadn’t been back to the Market since I freelanced in-house at a firm in that building when I was 7 months pregnant with C. Some shops seemed to have changed hands, but we stopped by my favorite spot, the fish store and had sushi and lobster bisque. Mark and I can’t seem to catch our breath on all the work and orders that are coming in daily, so we’ve made it a point to take some time each day to spend together, all 4 of us. Can’t say that these moments are relaxing - the pair of them have become a terror together!

Mark and I actually went and had lunch together today without the kids. Do you know how huge this is? This hasn’t happened in years. We were toying with the idea of going to Momofuku, the much celebrated restaurant of the moment, however after seeing the menu, I realized that it was familiar Korean-inspired food. Probably more artfully prepared than the relative hole-in-the wall places we go with my parents, but, familiar nonetheless. We chose to go, instead, to Soba-ya, a fresh soba place that we would go quite frequently when we lived around the corner in the East Village. We hadn’t been there in years, but we vowed to come back and bring the kids since they both love noodles. Along with our soba, we also had uni (sea urchin) which is possibly my favorite thing to eat ever.

I should have gone home afterwards, but today was a gorgeous day, right? I made a trip back to New York Central to buy more paper and I splurged on some gouche and a square notebook of paper since I have this grand idea that I will be doing a lot of drawing this summer. OK, so I really should have gone home then, but such a shame to go inside on a pretty day. More walking, window shopping, trying on dresses, but no purchases except for this big circle brass necklace from Anthropologie. Perfect day. Will work now.

I’m always looking for a better price on ingredients I am cooking with. When I lived in Portland, Oregon, I used to drive all around town to four or five different stores just to get the right products for the right prices. I’d go to the produce market, the Japanese market, the seafood store, the health food store, and even all the way out to Beaverton to the Korean and Indian stores. All this just for home cooking. So you can imagine how happy I am now to have found my favorite rose preserves at Sahadi’s on Atlantic Avenue at 65 percent of what I had previously been paying at a spice store in Manhattan. Since I’ve been using the preserves for my rose and black pepper thumbprint cookies, I’ve been using up quite a bit to bake for our Mother’s day gift boxes. I have always loved rose preserves, which is basically just rose petals cooked into a jelly. The flavor and texture of this particular brand, Mymoune, is just right for the cookies - I only have to chop the petals a bit to make it a little neater. These may just become a regular item now that I have found a cheaper source.

I went on one of my ruthless closet cleaning rampages and donated more stuff last weekend. I need the closet space and there were clothes that I wasn’t wearing (and if I think about it too much I’ll probably regret giving some of the items up). I almost forgot that I bought these Loeffler Randall sandals last Fall when they were marked way down. I waited and waited till they went further on sale as the weather got colder, and then they were mine. I haven’t worn them yet and probably won’t for another week or so as there is rain in the forecast for 6 STRAIGHT days, including Flea day (seriously guys, not so funny anymore), but I really love them and cannot wait to pull them out of the closet for good.

Something about Spring and the fact that there is more room in my closet makes me want to shop for new and pretty things to wear. This will be the first summer in 2 years where I won’t be pregnant or nursing (you can’t really wear dresses without buttons when you’re nursing, for example) and I really want to buy some tops. I’ve allowed myself to make a birthday purchase recently, but I have to admit that I am trolling the online stores again, which is dangerous. Okay, am closing browser window to Shopbop right now so as not to tempt myself anymore, ugh.

Right before Mark became jobless, I went a bit on a spending spree for the house. I had a good freelance year last year and admit that even though I am frugal, I can spend money (with limits, of course) like nobody’s business when I have it. We’re not talking big purchases, but a few nice chairs, some small danish modern chests off ebay, shelving and some art and frames to go with it. It does all add up though, so when we were suddenly dealing with unemployment I felt a whole lot of buyer’s remorse for my recent purchases.

At the time I could justify anything - “I work from home…I’m surrounding myself with nice things because I sit here and have to stare at the house all day…we’re not kids anymore, we can spend money on the apartment because that’s what adults do”. As I sit here, my mind racing through the millions of things I need to do for the food biz and for my work projects, my eye always seem to wander over to the ceramic plant orb by Perch, one of the last purchases I made. I don’t know, it just makes me happy. And with the way things are going these days, one can argue that it’s not a frivolous purchase after all, right?