Exceedingly Mundane

I have a love/hate relationships with magazines. I love to subscribe to them, love to get them in my mailbox, love to flip through them when I first get them. But then…. I don’t read through them completely, and so I end up putting them in a magazine rack in my den. You know, to read more thoroughly later on. First I had one magazine holder, then I had to get a second one. So, you can imagine how many magazines I have sitting around here. Some of them go back two years, gasp!

I’ve found through the years that as I’ve aged, I’ve changed the kind of magazines I read. I guess we get to be more like our mothers the older we get!

I don’t tend to pay for most of the magazine subscriptions that I have, so I guess that is good. I do pay for one or two, but the majority of them I get through point programs that I do online. I get several from MyCokeRewards (since Tim drinks so much Coke Zero, we have a lot of codes from Coke Zero 2 liter bottles and cases)! I also get one of Tim’s golf magazines through e-rewards.

Here’s some of the ones that I have gotten in the last year, or are currently getting. Several of them are running out and I’m debating about renewing the subscription. I think I’m going to let Taste of Home go, although I do like it, but I’m trying to cook with less processed food products and also low-sodium, and that magazine is not strong in those areas.

Some of the magazines I get are:

Southern Living (Amazon deal)
Everyday Food (points)
Taste of Home (letting expire)
Good Housekeeping (points)
Redbook (points)
Better Homes & Garden (points)
Ladies Home Journal (points)
Everyday with Rachael Ray ($10 sub, but letting expire)

So, how about you… do you read magazines? Do you buy them at the store or subscribe? Do you read them and toss or recycle them quickly, or let them pile up? What’s your favorite magazine? Leave me a comment and let me know!

When I first started blogging over 5 years ago, I did a lot of memes. I think most of them have disappeared from the blogosphere. The Monday Menu meme at OrgJunkie’s site is still alive, and very active, from what I can tell. I don’t know if I’ll get back to posting my menus online. It’s enough for me to just try to do them at this point.

Last week, I ran across a revival of a meme that I used to do called the “Monday Morning Meme” over at one of my favorite bloggers site - Write from Karen. Karen posts 4 or 5 questions for bloggers to blog about on Mondays. This week, I’m going to be uber-selective and just pick one.

3. Thunderstorm arrives, power outage! How do you occupy your time?

Well, the first thing that comes to mind is that I would read. As I have blogged about recently, reading is harder for me than it used to be. I would probably try reading with my iPod on, or maybe working on a scrapbook page. Depending on the weather, I would probably try to sit outside and read a book or magazine. I know one thing for certain - I would call the power company ASAP to find out how long my power is going to be out! This has been such a hot summer that I wouldn’t want to be out long. Another thing I might do is play on my phone. I’ve been playing Words with Friends a lot lately, and having fun with that. I have several other games on my phone that I like to play. The only downside to that - I’d probably run my phone battery down and not be able to plug it back in and charge it back up!

How about you? Play along at your blog or leave me a message and let us know what you do when the power is out!

OK, so this morning in church, I noticed yet again that a lot of kids of all ages seem to be bringing their electronic devices into church. Apparently to keep them entertained, from what I can see. Cell phones, which I can *sort of* see, although I think they should be silenced and really shouldn’t be used. But I have also been seeing a lot of Nintendo DS’s and Playstation Portables (PSP’s). I guess the parents think it’s better to keep them quiet and entertained, or something. But, when I was their age, I was supposed to sit there and listen, or at least pretend to listen. Back in the dark ages, I was allowed, at most, to doodle on the program and fill in the letter O’s

So, do you think it’s ok for them to be using all of these devices in church? Or am I just horribly old-fashioned?

Hope everyone is having a blessed day!

I always have such good intentions about blogging. Take this blog post, for instance. I took this picture over a month ago, and stored it away to write a post about:

Now, here it is several weeks later, and I no longer have any of the dish soap or hand soap. I was going to blog about how I had bought my first Mrs. Meyer’s products last fall and winter. I love this pine scent that came out around the holidays. I was going to blab about how my local Target had this one seasonal scent, but I can no longer find these products at my store. And of course, they’re not at Walmart (where I normally shop, I know, I know!). I don’t shop at drugstore type stores (CVS, Walgreens, etc), so I don’t know if they carry them. I was pleasantly surprised to find some unscented Mrs. Meyer’s products at my local Marshalls / TJ Maxx stores. That’s where I got the countertop spray in the middle, which I do still have

I had the best intentions about doing a nice, little post about cleaning products, and what people use to clean their kitchen with. Are you a germophobe and very concerned about germs, and only use anti-bacterial products? Do you hand wash dishes, and if so, what brand or type of dish soap do you use? Are you adamant about your floors and countertops, and what do you use on them? Are you a sucker for a certain kind of dishwasher product - tabs, gel, powder, etc?

I must admit, I’m brand dependent, but only to the extent of what I can find in bulk at our local Sam’s Club, combined with what I like. I normally use Palmolive anti-bacterial dish soap. It’s an orange colored liquid that I buy in a huge container at Sams, then I fill up a glass olive oil with spout type container at home (did that make ANY sense?!) to use for washing pots and pans in the sink. I use Cascade tabs in my dishwasher. I’ve tried powder, gel and tabs, and I do like the ease and convenience of the tabs. Sam’s sells both Electrosol brand and Cascade brand, but I couldn’t tell a huge difference between them. The Cascade are a bit cheaper, so that’s what we use. I keep hand soap on my sink, but once I had used up all of my Mrs Meyers, I admit I went back to using the Equate brand from Walmart, an antibacterial one. I mop my floors with Armstrong floor cleaner. With a dog that is only allowed on the tile in the kitchen, my floors have to be cleaned pretty often

So, there, it’s not timely or well-stated, but I wanted to ramble on about cleaning products in the kitchen. I’m always interested in what other people use, and what they like and dislike. It’s usually a good way to find something new to try, that I might like better I am a homebody and I work hard to keep our home a happy, healthy, clean, comfortable place. These topics are so mundane to most, but always so intriguing to me!

Leave me a comment and let me know what you use at your house, or if you really could care less about this type of stuff Maybe you’re not the only cleaning up the kitchen, or maybe it just doesn’t matter. But if it does, and you’ve found products that you either like or dislike for whatever reason, let me know!

Oh, and have a great day!

It’s a little thing, but I’ve decided to go with more glass and less plastic in my kitchen. For quite a while now, I’ve been thinking about trying to get rid of most of my Rubbermaid / Tupperware / Misc Plastic containers. I have read (or as Tim thinks, bought into the hype) that there’s stuff in the plastic that can leach into your food. Plus, plastic gets stained with tomato products like spaghetti, chili, etc. Now, I like plastic for the no-breakage option, but I’m trying really hard to be careful and not chip or break my glass containers.

I bought a couple of 3 pack Pyrex glass storage containers at Walmart to give them a try. A few days later, Tim and I were at Sam’s, and he found this. He came and got me and said, “Let’s get this for you, I think you’ll love it!”. Such a sweetie

I told him, I really don’t need that many containers, nor do I have room for them. But, I started going through my cabinets and decided I could purge some other things that I had. I had a set of stainless /coated storage containers, some ramekins, as well as all of my Rubbermaid containers. Once I cleaned all of them out, I had enough room for all of my red Pyrex glass containers.

I’ve had them a few weeks now, and I really like them. I can mix up something like chicken salad in one of the containers, then just store it in the fridge. I can scoop up leftovers from supper, then when we want to warm them up for lunch the next day, I don’t have to worry about taking them out of the plastic and putting them on something else to warm up (that’s mostly what I had read about plastic, don’t microwave in it and heat them and the contents up). I can pop them in the freezer, I can put them in the dishwasher and they come out looking brand new. I really like this set from Sam’s Club, because I have some rectangular / oblong ones in addition to different sizes of round ones. Lots of variety and lots of storage sizes. All good things

So, here’s a quick question - do you do leftovers at your house? Do you store them in plastic or glass? Do you freeze leftovers?

Have a great, happy, joyous day

I’m just a little goofy, because I got excited when I found out a few days ago that this year, Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day are on the same day

If you’ve visited here before, you might remember me blogging about the fact that Tim doesn’t really buy into the “greeting card holidays” as he calls them. Valentines is his biggest pet peeve. And even though I love to get flowers or chocolates or even a card, I really do see his point.

In the beginning, when we were dating and first married, he pushed through his cynicism and did what I wanted - sent me expensive flowers, took me out to nice restaurants, etc for Valentines Day. One year, we waited at a local Italian place (Amerigo) for over two hours then had less than stellar food and service. We had been married a few years and I was starting to see his point, but that ill-fated date night out on Valentines Day sealed it for me. These days, we do little to observe Valentines. Tim is wonderful about getting me flowers or cards or happies any of the other 360+ days out of the year (anniversary and birthday don’t count!), so Valentines really is not a big deal for us. We normally grill out a steak and watch tv, no biggie.

This year though, I saw that the Chinese New Year is on February 14. So, I’m really excited! You see, Chinese food is one of my most favorite things in the whole world. And Tim loves to get take-out more than eat it in restaurants, so it’s a win-win thing for us. I’m hoping we can get some Chinese food this weekend; in fact, I’m already planning for it and looking forward to it We do have some steaks in the freezer, so maybe the other night (Saturday), we can grill out a steak and just celebrate both with our favorite foods

BTW, I’m a Dragon and Tim’s a Rooster on the Chinese zodiac… we always have fun reading about those on the paper place-mats at one of the local Chinese places we visit. Have you ever checked to see what you are? You can read about the Chinese New Year here at Wikipedia, or find out your sign here.

Do you have plans for either holiday this weekend?

I was surfing around a day or so ago (or maybe checking Twitter, I honestly can’t remember!), and I saw a link to this article, about washing bagged lettuce.

I normally watch The Today Show, so I didn’t see this segment on The Early Show. But, I must admit, I don’t always rewash those bags of pre-washed lettuce. I might think twice now! I try to buy heads of lettuce, or heads of romaine more precisely, and then wash them myself, run them through the salad spinner, and store in a gallon ziploc bag in my produce drawer. I have been buying some of those big plastic tubs of organic lettuce at either my grocery or at Fresh Market (our favorite spot to stop after church on Sunday and pick up food for lunch). I tend to not wash those either, but just pick out the lettuce and make a salad or whatever.

So, how about you… do you wash those pre-washed bags or tubs of lettuce again? Or do you not buy those and just buy heads of lettuce that you do wash yourself? Vote in the poll and let me know!

 Loading ...

I’ve gotten into a habit of asking a “Question of the Day” here at my blog. How I got into the habit of doing it, I will never know. But I really enjoy hearing what other people think about things, big or small, or what items you use in your daily life or how you feel about certain products, or current events or lots of other things. I think it’s a great way to learn about my blog friends, share a little something about myself, as well as see how many things we share in common vs things we are different about. That’s one thing I’ve definitely learned as I’ve aged - we all have a lot more in common than we think, and we all have differences. God made us unique, in big ways and small, and I like exploring that.

So, in keeping with the title of my blog, today’s Question of the Day is just about as mundane as you can get What kind of toothpaste do you use? I have always really liked it that when Tim and I got married, we never had issues with the toothpaste. The toilet seat going up and down, yes, that’s a big one in our house, but the toothpaste has never been an issue. We both use Crest and tend to like the same type flavors and textures. We’ve transitioned to gel over the last few years, but both grew up with plain old paste. We’re both kind of funny about the toothpaste tube. Tim is just as likely as his OCD-wife to squeeze from the middle, but then be diligent about squeezing it up and keeping it near the top.

OK, so how about you? Do you use one kind in your house and everyone is happy, or do you buy multiple brands, multiple flavors, multiple kinds? Have you ever changed because someone else was using a different kind and it was just easier to switch? Do you even care?! LOL! Leave me a comment and let me know!

I’ve been using a PC since the early 1980’s. The first PC I used was an IBM PC XT, with no internal hard drive, and 2 external 5 1/4″ floppy drives. Things have certainly come a long way! I now carry a PC thousands of times more powerful in the palm of my hand, and it doubles as my cell phone (my iPhone)

Windows has been my mainstay for quite a while now. Not because I like it, but more out of necessity. Tim is a Linux guy, but I am fairly mainstream in the apps I use and things I do. We’re going to buy a Macbook soon, hopefully this year if things work out. I think we’ll both be a lot happier in a Mac environment than a Windows one. In the meantime, I’m still using Windows. I stopped using IE years ago and switched to Firefox. But I had problems with Firefox late last year, and I tried Google Chrome. I didn’t like it at first, but it sort of grew one me. It seems faster and I like the way it loads.

I’ve been pretty happy with it, and am sticking with it for now. At least until we can get a Mac in the house, LOL!

How about you? Are you a PC or Mac user? Which browser do you use?

It’s not a novel concept, but it is one I like to do from time to time on my blog, and I am always trying to work to be better about. I’m talking about being grateful for something, anything, everything. We’re so very blessed, my husband and I, and we try to be mindful of that. I think an “attitude of gratitude” is a wonderful thing, and something I want to do more of on here.

Today, I’m grateful for water, specifically hot water! I blogged before that our hot water heater went out last week, but we still had cold water. I was so grateful, first for just water period, and then when our hot water heater was replaced. Hot water is wonderful on cold days. Cold showers, washing dishes in a sink full of cold water, etc, are not fun. Today, I scrubbed our bathrooms, and it was so nice to be able to crank it over to really warm and not get my hands frozen trying to clean.

Plus, in the large town nearby, they are having serious water problems. Schools are out today, city and state offices are closed, the DMV is even closed (so, you know it’s serious!), etc. All because they have over 100 water main breaks in the city. We are not on the same water system, and I’m so grateful. To have water, and to have hot water!

How about you? What is one thing, big or small, that you’re grateful for today? You don’t have to explain it, but you can Leave me a comment and let me know!

Ok, I’m obviously running out of things to blog about! I am constantly drawn to food blogs, recipes, cookbooks, grocery stores, food, Food Network, shows on the Travel Channel about food, etc. To say I love to eat is a gross understatement. To say I love to cook is apt on some days, and on other days, couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Today has been a good day. I’ve cooked twice, LOL! I made a loaf of banana bread and some potato soup for supper. We had sandwiches for lunch, and I had oatmeal for breakfast.

How about you, what did you eat today? Do you have something that you eat every day or something that you have on certain days like Saturday or Sunday?

Leave me a comment and let me know!

Can you believe this weather? It’s so cold! I remember reading late last summer and going into fall, that they were predicting a colder than normal winter for us this year. I was excited (and still am!), because I knew it would help kill the mosquitoes and fleas and stuff. However - I didn’t think it would get quite this cold! It’s been cold all week, and the forecast for the next two days are for the HIGHS to be below freezing!! That’s really, really, unusual for us. Plus, the lows the next three nights are forecast to be in the teens, with wind chills in the single digits or near zero. Baby, that’s cold!

On the bright side, we have heat, and we now have HOT WATER! If you read my previous post, you know we had our old hot water heater go out, and it was a bit of an ordeal to get the new one installed. But, it’s in now and it’s working great. I can wash dishes and not have my hands get frostbitten Hot showers and hot baths have never, even felt so good or been more appreciated around here

So, I’m assuming that it’s cold where most of you out there in bloggy-ville live… what’s your favorite thing to do when it gets this cold? Do you like to snuggle up under a blanket, by a warm fire, drink hot tea or cocoa? Do you live for a bowl of hot soup or some other comfort food? What’s your favorite thing about the cold? If you can think of one, LOL!

Leave me a comment and let me know, and remember — Stay Warm!

I bought a new set of sheets for our bed a couple of weeks ago. Exciting, huh?! Believe it or not, it’s not something I do often. I change our sheets weekly, but I take the set off, wash and dry them, and put them right back on! I don’t change them out to a different set very often (I’ve blogged about this in the past, here, three years ago), and really - I only have a couple of sets that fit our bed (ours is a queen and the guest room is a double).

Anyway, I was always under the assumption that the higher the thread count, the softer the sheets were. I never paid any attention to the type of cotton - 100% cotton, cotton blend, Egyptian cotton, sateen, etc. Apparently I should have!

I washed our new sheets and put them on the bed, excited to have nice new crisp clean soft sheets. WHAT? Soft, you ask? They’re 450 thread count (100% cotton sheets), so I assumed they’d be soft. But — they’re not! They’re rough, scratchy and not at all what I had hoped for. So, what have I been doing?

Washing them. Repeatedly. The first week I had them, I washed them 3 times! And they are getting softer. Of course, not fast enough for me To be fair, I had some old jersey knit sheets on our bed, which are very very soft. And I’m sure my last set that I used regularly before that have been washed so many times, they can’t help but be soft. But I was really hoping for these to be soft, right out of the package.

So - help me out for the time in the future when I venture out to buy new sheets again. What do you use? The highest thread count you can afford? Are you sure to buy Egyptian cotton? Sateen cotton? Some kind of blend? Leave me a comment and let me know!

P.S. Please note that flannel sheets aren’t “allowed” here, because I live with the human heater (aka Tim). Mr. Hot Natured thinks flannel sheets and electric blankets are horrid creations and aren’t allowed in the house under any circumstance!

I know it’s been talked about ad nauseum in the media, and I don’t want to get into a huge discussion here. But, I’d still like to know! Do you normally get flu shots for yourself or your family? And if not, do you plan on getting a flu shot this year, either the seasonal flu shot or the special H1N1 (swine) flu shot? I know the H1N1 flu is serious and more likely to affect younger people and children, and it’s a big concern.

As for me, I don’t plan on getting either one. I should have blogged about this years ago, but I don’t think I ever did. Years ago, when I worked full-time, my company offered flu shots to employees, as a preventive measure I’m sure. I got one (this was a very long time ago, maybe 18 years or so) and boom, a couple of days later I was sick. And I mean, very sick! I had the worse case of the flu I have ever had. I was out of commission for 5 or 6 days, and I could barely get up to go to the bathroom. I remember being miserable, and I remember laying there thinking, I am *never* going to get a flu shot, ever again! And so, to this day, I have not gotten a flu shot since. And you know what, I haven’t gotten the flu again either!

So, how about you? Vote in the poll or leave me a comment and let me know what you or you and your family are going to do this year about this.

Hope everyone is healthy and happy!

 Loading ...

I was reading an article in our paper yesterday about Blockbuster closing nearly 1,000 of their brick and mortar stores. I believe the same article is here. Anyway, it made me wax nostalgic on two things:

1) We haven’t wanted to drive to a video store in several years. We were already tired of slogging to the local Blockbuster and Hollywood Video, looking for the movie we wanted to be in stock, when we wanted it. We tried Netflix a couple of years ago and have been happy with them ever since. I don’t particularly like to get out and drive to get a movie, when I can have it delivered to me through the mail. And a plus for Netflix - we can watch a lot of things online.

Which brings me to my second point…

2) Just where the whole movie/tv watching thing is going. Waxing nostalgic - I’m old and apparently getting older all the time I remember the days when we had two rotary dial, plug in the wall phones in our house. There was no such thing as an answering machine, no phone you carry around with you. These days, my phone is always with me, I can text, surf the Internet, play games, keep my shopping lists on it, and a myriad of other things. We’ve sure come a long way. Same with TV and movies. Growing up, we had one tv and three channels. There was no such things as the remote control. Or more precisely, *I* was the remote control. If my dad wanted to change the channel, he just asked me to do it My, how things have changed. Not only do we have the channels and programs we have now (not all good, in my mind, some of the stuff on TV is bordering on trash), and the chances to watch them. DVR’s, On Demand and soon, streaming video and movies will be the way to go. We already hook up my laptop occasionally to our big screen TV, and watch things from Netflix like that. I foresee us getting a device to stream tv, movies, etc one day in the not too distant future.

Anyway, it constantly amazes me about how far things have come in my lifetime. Yet, I get stuck in my ruts. I don’t like driving to a store to get a video, so we use the mail order one. So, we have not tried Redbox yet - have you? I understand the appeal, it’s cheaper and fairly easy, I’m assuming. I was not all that surprised to read in the article that RedBox is owned by Coinstar, the brilliant people who started putting coin counter machines in stores and stuff. I think it’s smart, as is Redbox. But, I just don’t want to have to get out and go to a store to get a movie. How about you?

Vote in the poll, if you want, and let me know!

 Loading ...