Exceedingly Mundane

Annie, from “My Life as Annie” emailed me a great idea for a “Question of the Day” – thanks Annie!

Annie said she was in the shower, and was wondering if she was the only one who did the “shampoo, rinse, repeat” cycle that is on so many shampoo bottles. She wondered if most of us just shampoo, rinse and condition and go on about our merry way, or if we do it twice. Great question, Annie!

I’m afraid I’m in the less is more category. I shampoo, rinse and then condition and rinse. I know, I know, I should be following the directions. Well, oops, I am! I just went and looked and my bottle says to shampoo, rinse and condition. It is probably because it’s a shampoo for color-treated hair, and maybe they don’t want you to overdo it and strip your color out. Plus, I think it’s a time issue for me – I already wash my face, shampoo, condition, wash my body and shave my girl stuff in there, so it takes me a while in the shower. I think if I did the double time on the shampoo, I’d be in there an awfully long time 🙂

OK, so Annie and I and all of the other inquiring minds out there want to know – do you shampoo, rinse and repeat or not? And while we’re on the subject, if you’d like to share what kind of shampoo you like and use, I’d love to hear that too 🙂

If you know me in real life, you know I’m a hoarder. I hoard certain kinds of things, like toilet paper, paper towels, toothpaste, cereal, etc. I buy these things in bulk at a warehouse club (we only have Sam’s here) and I always have plenty on hand. The way I’ve always looked at it, I see no reason to ever run out of toilet paper. There’s lots of other things that I don’t want or need to run out of, but in my mind, toilet paper is right up there at the top. So, I buy the huge bags that have like 36 rolls in them. Then, when we get low a few months later, and by low, I mean down to 6 or 8 rolls, I go back and buy more. Toilet paper is not something I ever intend to run out of.

I think a lot of this stems back to my post-college days. I had a suite-mate in college (a wonderful girl who shall remain nameless) who was not the most organized of girls, nor was she the most prepared. When we all graduated and moved into our first apartment, she and I both lived alone, but lived in apartment complexes across the street from each other. I had a hard time going to her apartment – there would be cereal bowls by the bathtub, with the spoon stuck to the bottom in a puddle of dried up milk. The rest of the apartment was a mess, too, with clothes (dirty and clean) lying around everywhere; the kitchen was a nightmare of leftover food stuck onto plates and bowls, pots and pans and glasses absolutely everywhere. Among other things, she was always running out of something. I used to make late-night runs with her a lot, until “the toilet paper incident”. After that, I told her I wouldn’t go anymore 🙁

She called me one night at about 12:30 AM (I had gone to bed at about 10:30 PM because I had to get up and go to work the next morning) and said she was out of toilet paper, and would I please run to the grocery store or convenience store with her. So, I drag myself up, get dressed, drive over to get her, have to wait on her to finish getting ready, then take her to buy toilet paper. I was not a happy camper the next day (I’ve always, always been irritable if I don’t get enough sleep!), and I told her to just buy more toilet paper next time!

So, the moral of the story is that I never run out of toilet paper. These days, I buy those big bags of Quilted Northern toilet paper at Sam’s Club and we always have plenty. How about you – do you stock up on toilet paper and similar items, or are you perpetually running out and having to go back to the store to get more? And if you really want to share, tell me what brand of toilet paper you use in your house! That’s today’s Question of the Day!

Today’s “Question of the Day” is short and sweet, and sort of stems from yesterday’s Menu Plan Monday. I guess I’m still thinking “foodie posts” 🙂

Now that summertime is upon us, I start thinking about meals differently. When it gets to be 96 and 97 degrees here in the late afternoon, the last thing I want to do is get in a hot kitchen. Of course, a lot of the time I plan things for Tim to grill out, and really – he probably doesn’t want to be out in that heat over a hot grill anymore than I want to be slaving away inside. So, I try to plan more crockpot meals, more skillet meals and more salads and sandwiches.

Anyway, now with Tim working from home more, we eat a lot of our meals here during the week. We eat out a lot on the weekend, but we do eat at home a lot too. I have no problem fixing us food 3 times a day, but I tend to not fix “big” meals but once a day. So, that’s today’s question.

Which meal of the day do you consider to be your “big meal”? Do you have a bigger breakfast, a bigger lunch or a bigger meal in the evening? Are they all about the same? Do you snack between meals? Do you eat a big meal in the evening and then do the couch potato thing (like we do way too often)?

Here’s my answers – I would rather have our big meal at lunch, but Tim likes it in the evening, so that’s our “big” meal of the day. We often tend to sit down and watch TV or a movie after dinner (after I’ve cleaned up the kitchen, I won’t sit down and enjoy TV, knowing there are dirty dishes in there waiting on me). I have a problem with snacking some days, too. About 3:30 or 4:00 PM, I start getting hungry. Some days I am fine, and can just drink a bunch of water, and some days I have to break down and have a snack. 🙂

How about you? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Today’s “Question of the Day” is short and sweet, but it is a kind of odd one! Which ear do you hold your phone to? I’ve discovered that the phone has to be on my left side. I think it has something to do with being right-handed. It doesn’t matter if it’s the cordless phone in the house or my cell phone, but I always put it on my left ear. If I try to hold the phone to my right ear, it just doesn’t feel right, doesn’t fit somehow. Tim has a Bluetooth earpiece that he wears, and I’ve noticed that it is always on his left ear. So, I’m wondering if everyone is like that, or maybe it’s just if you are right-handed, you always use your left ear?

Leave me a comment and let me know – do you always put the phone to your left ear, your right ear, or do you have any idea?! 🙂 Have a great day!

Today’s Booking Through Thursday question was one that wasn’t really applicable for me – do you own any foreign language books, and can you read them still. I thought I’d sort of do a quick variation of that and ask a “Question of the Day” about learning a foreign language, though.

Did you take a foreign language in either high school or college? Which one did you take? Do you remember much of it? Were you ever fluent? Or even better, do you speak a second language, either learned from your family or a friend? If you do speak another language, how often do you do this, on a daily, occasionally or very infrequent basis? Leave me a comment and let me know your answer to today’s “Question of the Day” 🙂

I just posted this photo over on my Project365 blog for today… not a great photo, but representative of my day:

It’s really hot and dry here, and I’m having to drag out the sprinklers and try to water the grass. Tim and I are both hoping that any new house we get in the future has an in-ground sprinkler system. Tim offered years ago to dig up part of our yard and install one for me, but the el-cheapo side of me didn’t see the need to spend the money. After all, I can get outside and drag sprinklers around as needed. Of course, the first few times I do this every spring or summer, I don’t mind a bit. As the summer wears on and the hotter and dryer it gets, it really gets to be a pain. 🙄

I remember growing up, I used to love it when my dad ran the sprinklers. I would put on my bathing suit and go outside to play in the sprinklers. I love getting wet and cooled off and playing in the water. I always thought if we had kids, that would be a fun summer thing for them to do. And along those same lines, I was hoping that our new dog Beau (who we got late last year in the fall, after we had put up the sprinklers for the year), would enjoy playing in them. Nope, no way. The dog does not like the sprinklers or the water hose. All fall and winter and early spring, the only time he was exposed to the water hose was to get a bath, which he detested. Now, consequently, he won’t go anywhere near the hose or sprinklers. We’ve both been working with him, trying to get him to drink water out of the hose. And he is getting better about that, but he still won’t go anywhere near the sprinklers.

So, how about a “Question of the Day” about sprinklers – do you have an in ground sprinkler system for your yard? If not, do you drag out the sprinklers or does someone else in your house take care of that? Do you have water restrictions where you live? And as for the kids and pets – do they like to play in the sprinklers? Or do you? 🙂 Leave me a comment and let me know!

Ok, so if you remember, we bought a new dishwasher and refrigerator a couple of weeks ago. I love, love, love both of them and am still very enamored of my shiny new appliances. Yep, I’m that kind of girl. Appliances make me all giddy 🙂

I debated for a while about whether to leave my shiny new fridge all empty and clean looking, as it was in this picture here, or to put some of my pictures and magnets and memorabilia back on it. I finally decided that I had to put some of it back. I love looking at my family photos and I do make it a point to get magnets from when we travel to fun places. So, I put some of the magnets back on the front, and pictures on the side. I tried not to have it as cluttered as the old refrigerator I had before.

That’s today’s “Question of the Day” – are you a person who likes putting things up on your fridge, like notes, pictures, schedules, your kids art work, magnets, etc? Or are you a clean refrigerator kind of person, and yours doesn’t have a single thing on it? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Oh, and in case you are interested, here’s what I have on mine now. The front, with just a few magnets from our travels:

And the side by my countertops. I fix my bowl of cereal here in the AM and like looking at all of the photos of family and friends. There’s also a couple of reminders about doctor appointments, my weekly menu and a schedule for the local minor league baseball team 🙂

I just got back from the grocery store, and was once again struck by something I find so amusing. Every time I go to the grocery store, whether to the local one near my house or the Super Walmart a little further away, I see a few lost looking men. These men usually have lists in their hand, and they seem to be totally lost, wandering aimlessly through the grocery aisles. Most of them have cell phones stuck to their ear, or I see them fumbling for their cell phone, to call in a question. Most men, it seems, wander the store with the phone perpetually on, so that their wives or whoever can talk them through the entire shopping expedition. The rare exception – this morning I saw an older gentleman making tracks through the grocery. He had three things – milk, beer and some flowers. I found that mildly amusing too. 🙂

Anyway, I love the grocery store and love to go food shopping. Must be part of my whole inherent “love to eat” mentality. I sometimes try to stop and help these little lost male lambs in the store, but most of the time, they are on the phone, so I leave them alone. I think Tim would be the same way, except that he really doesn’t ever go to the grocery store for me. He’ll go if I ask him, to pick up a few things, but that happens very seldom, maybe a handful of times a year. I can’t remember the last time he went to get more than one or two things by himself. He’ll go with me occasionally to Walmart, and hang out in the magazines, sporting goods, automotive or electronics section until I call him on the cell phone to tell him to meet me up front at the checkout. He’s not thrilled about going, but he will go if I ask him. Such a sweetie 🙂

How about you? This can be a really quick “Question of the Day” – do you like to go grocery shopping or do you detest it?

OK, we’ve got a “Question of the Day” here, except that it’s got multiple parts, and it’s going to hang out here for the next couple of days. We’ve got a busy weekend ahead, and I may or may not have a chance to blog much for the next 72 hours.

My nephew graduates from college tomorrow, and we’re going to have a bunch of family over tonight to hang out and eat supper. We’ll either have pizza or maybe grill something. But, today’s topic is Pizza.

Here’s some of the questions I want to ask, feel free to answer any or all of them!

1. What kind of pizza do you like?
2. What toppings do you like or not like?
3. Do you like thick and crusty pizza, deep dish, or really thin pizza?
4. What pizza place do you like to get pizza from – delivery, a local place, a chain restaurant? If delivery, are you particular to one place, local, Domino’s, Papa John’s, Pizza Hut, etc.
5. Do you ever make homemade pizza?
6. Do you have a family tradition of having pizza at certain times or on certain days of the week?
7. Do you eat the crust?
8. If you do eat the crust, do you like to dip it in something? Marinara or a sauce? (We LOVE the garlic butter sauce from Papa John’s).

Whew! Here’s MY answers:
I love pizza! I love ordering pizza and have it arrive piping hot at my door. I like different kinds of pizza than Tim does. Tim is happy with a “works” pizza, but I like things like a Hawaiian (ham and pineapple) or a spinach Alfredo, all things that Tim would really rather not eat. We both really love Papa John’s, but we basically never met a pizza we didn’t like. We have no self-control when it comes to pizza. We’ll eat until we’re absolutely stuffed. As for toppings, Tim will eat them all, and prefers a pizza with everything on it. Me, I don’t like green peppers, and I’m not fond of olives, but I’m trying to teach myself to eat olives, so we order them with it. I have never tasted an anchovy, but I really don’t think I’d like it. I’ve made homemade pizza and we like that. I have picked up pre-made pizzas at Sam’s and brought them home to bake in the oven and those are good too. We will eat the “cheaper” pizza like Little Ceasar, but we really like Papa John’s or Pizza Hut.

How about you? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Hope you all have a wonderful day, and a wonderful weekend! To all of you mothers out there, hope you have a great day on Sunday. If you still have your mom with you, hug her and tell her you love her. I miss my mom and plan on taking flowers to her grave this weekend. Then we’ll get to see Tim’s mom, which will be great 🙂 Gonna be a busy few days, but I’ll try to post if I have time, either to this blog or my Project365 photoblog.

Today’s “Question of the Day” is the shortest and easiest one yet! What color are your eyes? And if you’d like to elaborate, do you have the same color as one or both of your parents? If you have kids, do your kids have your eye color? And, if you really want to go all out — if you wear contacts, have you ever gotten or considered getting colored contacts to change your eye color?

My answer – my eyes are green. I do believe I have my mom’s eyes. Tim’s eyes are a beautiful hazel color. If we had been able to have children, I always wanted them to have Tim’s eyes.

So, how about you? Leave me a comment and let me know! Have a wonderful day 🙂

Judi, over at Mommy of Two‘s blog, has suggested a couple of great questions for my “Question of the Day” feature here on my blog. Isn’t she sweet?! Thanks Judi!

We’ve already asked two questions and here’s her last question – do you change out your closet when the season changes? or do you just keep all your clothing in the closet year round?

My Answer – I wish I had enough closet space to be able to move stuff around! As it is, we have all 3 closets in our house jam packed. It’s a good thing we don’t have other people living here, and a good thing our guests don’t bring a lot of clothes to hang up! I keep the majority of my clothes in our master bedroom closet, that I wear year round. I keep all of my spring, summer and fall clothes in our closet, and a few of my bigger bulkier winter stuff (sweatshirts, sweaters, fleece pullovers, big jackets, etc) in our spare bedroom/office closet. Tim does the same with his winter stuff in our other guest bedroom closet. But the majority of clothes we wear year round stay in our closet. Out of necessity. We just don’t have the space. I hope that one day, when we move to a bigger house, I have a lot more closet and storage space. I drool over the thought of a walk-in pantry, a linen closet in a hallway and {gasp} a walk in closet with built-ins and lots of shelving and rack space. The packrat in me would be in heaven. 🙂

So, how about you? Judi and I would love to know, so leave us a comment! 🙂

Today’s Question of the Day is short and sweet – do you eat peanut butter? If so, do you like creamy, crunchy, natural, or what type? Do you just eat peanut butter on a sandwich like a PB&J, or do you just like peanut butter in general? Do you have a specific brand you will only buy, like Peter Pan or Jif, or will you buy any brand if it’s cheaper?

Here’s my answer – I love peanut butter! I’m not picky about how I eat it. I will eat a teaspoon if I have the hiccups (works for me every.single.time). I love peanut butter smeared on a banana or in a sandwich. I love to make no-bake cookies using peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate, etc. I am a bit picky on brand, I normally prefer Jif. I do buy natural peanut butter (I think it’s the Smuckers brand) but I’m the only one who eats that, Tim won’t eat the natural stuff. I buy creamy, but you know, I’m not totally sure if Tim likes creamy or crunchy! He never complains, so I just keep buying the creamy stuff 🙂

How about you? Leave me a comment and let me know

Judi, over at Mommy of Two‘s blog, wrote me last week, and suggested a couple of great questions that I can ask here on my blog, as a “Question of the Day“. Thanks Judi! We asked the first one last week (here) and I wanted to ask the second one and see what everyone else had to say. Leave us a comment and let us know!!

Here’s her other question – do you wash all of your clothes/laundry in cold water or do you follow the instructions on the garment label?

And here’s my answer – I wash almost everything on cold. The only notable exceptions, that I can think of, are that I wash towels on warm and anything Tim wears outside when he sprays chemical get washed on hot (in the sanitary setting on my new washer). I would normally wash sheets on warm, but the tag on my sheets actually call for them to be washed on cold and delicate. I wash all of our regular, every day clothes (t-shirts, jeans, underwear, socks, etc) in cold water.

So, how about you? Jump in and answer today’s “Question of the Day” – do you wash your clothes on cold or whatever the garment label calls for?

Now that the weather is really warming up, I’m trying to fix more salads with our meals. I know, this is something I should do year round, but in the winter, I mostly want to make comfort foods like soups, stews and lots of bread 🙂 This time of year, we grill out more, and I try to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables.

I’ve bought lettuce the last two weeks and have been trying to fix a “side salad” with our nighttime meal. But, I seem to just be putting the same thing in our salads. I need some new ideas.

Here’s the problem – I don’t eat tomatoes and Tim doesn’t eat cucumbers. I know, I know – I could buy cucumbers for me and tomatoes for him, but it just seems easier to skip those since half of us don’t eat them. I have some things on hand (croutons, craisins, etc) that I could add, but I’m trying to watch the calorie content of what I put in the salad. You know, trying to stay healthy. So, I’ve been adding these things to our green salads: carrots, mushrooms (marinated, usually, not fresh), olives, pickles and sometimes hard-boiled eggs, and if I have it, red onion. Sometimes we sneak in some grated cheese, too. I would like to add more veggies, but I don’t seem to buy them often enough to use them up. If I plan ahead, I like to buy a bag of fresh broccoli, cauliflower and carrots and add that to the salad, but that doesn’t happen very often. Oh, and I would add fruit, dried or fresh, but Tim doesn’t “do” fruit, especially in a salad. I have a recipe for a great Oriental type green salad that has mandarin oranges in it and Tim won’t go near it. I have to add the oranges just to mine 🙄

So, that’s today’s Question of the Day – what do you add to your salad? What kinds of things do you keep on hand to put in a salad, and what healthy items do you add to your salad? As you can see, my vegetable crisper in my brand new refrigerator is very empty:

Help, I need some ideas! 😀

Judi, over at Mommy of Two‘s blog, is so sweet! She wrote me and suggested a couple of great questions that I can ask here on my blog, as a “Question of the Day“. Thanks Judi! I hope everyone has a chance to stop by and leave us a comment!

Here’s her first question – do you eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables a day? Do you come close?

I did a quick Google search on fruits and veggies and found the following info at this site:

Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are rich in nutrients. Many are excellent sources of vitamin A, vitamin C, folate or potassium. They are low in fat and sodium and high in fiber. The Food Pyramid suggests 3 to 5 servings of vegetables each day. One serving of vegetables can be:

1 cup of raw leafy vegetables
1/2 cup of other vegetables, cooked or raw
3/4 cup of vegetable juice

The Food Pyramid suggests 2 to 4 servings of fruit each day. One serving of fruit can be:

One medium apple, orange or banana
1/2 cup of chopped, cooked or canned fruit
3/4 cup of fruit juice
Count only 100% fruit juice as a fruit, and limit juice consumption. Many commercial bottled juices come in containers that hold more than 2 servings – which can add lots of sugar and calories to your daily diet. Punches, ades and most fruit “drinks” have only a bit of juice and lots of sugar. Fruit sodas are sugary drinks, and they don’t count as fruit, either.

Me first – I try, I really do, but I think most days I fall really short. I honestly am not sure if the info that I posted above is up to date (I admit, I didn’t spend that long searching!). I actually thought they had raised it to a recommended 7-9 servings a day. Irregardless, I don’t think I get enough. I want to eat better and try to make healthy meals for us. I try to make better choices when we eat out, but that is really hard. When we eat out, it’s sort of a splurge and I tend to make bad choices. However, I think I do better than Tim does, just because I love fruit and eat more of it than he does (as well as yogurt, dried fruit and other things he won’t touch). I also drink a glass of orange juice every morning with breakfast, and I think that counts as a serving. I’d say on a good day, I might eat 3-4 servings of fruit and vegetables a day, but I would fall really short of 7-9.

So, how about you? Do you eat the recommended amount per day? About how many do you think you eat?