Exceedingly Mundane

Weekly boring update, installment seventeen. Busy week around here!

Glad That… We were able to go see our nephew Zack graduate from East Central Community College. He’s off to Delta State in the fall, to play golf and hopefully do really well academically. We are so very proud of him!

Sad That… Hmmm…???

Book I’m reading: – I finished reading my library book, “All The Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr. Took a breather for a day or so and then picked up the one I had started earlier, “The Pepper in the Gumbo” by Mary Jane Hathaway.

Things we ate: Monday, we ate leftovers and worked on cleaning out the fridge. Once again, I’m very grateful to be married to a man who will actually EAT leftovers. And one that tries anything I decide to make. Very grateful! Tuesday, I had out stuff to make, and Tim saw a commercial on tv for some burger. Suddenly, he only wanted a burger. So, off to Sonic to make him happy! I went grocery shopping Wednesday and bought stuff to make more burgers, so we had some beef and some chicken burgers Wednesday night, along with grilled corn on the corn and grilled potatoes and onions (cooked the potatoes almost completely inside first). Thursday was Cinco de Mayo, so I made bean enchiladas, spanish rice and an avocado salad. Friday, we were out of town at a graduation, and ate at a steakhouse afterwards with the whole family. Tim had a steak and I had grilled shrimp. Saturday was leftovers and Sunday we went to a family dinner at my in-laws for Mother’s Day.

Burger with the sides:

TV and Movies: – Regular shows like Blacklist, Blue Bloods, NCIS, etc. I rewatched Star Wars (again) and am back to Harry Potter for a bit. Tim watched a lot of NBA playoff games. We caught up on all the Supergirl shows backlogged on the DVR. We have an even larger count of Marvel Agents of Shield to get to!

A Happy for Me!! – Tim ordered some stuff for him and got me another happy! I love the Kendra Scott pink necklace he got for my birthday a year and a half ago, so he got me another Kendra Scott, this one is black mother-of-pearl and believe me, the photo doesn’t do it justice!

Bonus! A couple of photos from Mother’s Day yesterday, first the boys with their parents then Emi and I with Linda:

Random Thought du Jour: We’ve realized as we’ve aged, that we can’t do what we did in our teens and twenties, as far as food goes. It’s sad. In college, we used to order pizza at midnight and a couple of skinny girls devour a whole pizza. I never gained a pound doing that. Now, I look at a piece of pizza or cake and I gain a pound! Tim is really, REALLY good at being disciplined with food and eating. I, however, am NOT. One thing that does help me though is trying to watch my portions. I try to use smaller plates, smaller bowls, etc. And here’s one thing we use all the time:

Ramekins work well for us in portioning out things like salad dressing on the side, fruit, desserts (one very small scoop of ice cream), etc. Ramekins are my friend!
Do you have any ideas or tips on eating better or healthier or something you try to do in your world? Please share, I’d love to know!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Weekly boring update, take fourteen!

Glad That… We were able to go to a concert at our church Friday night! Third Day and Steven Curtis Champman were playing together. Apparently this was just the second stop of their collaborative tour, they mentioned it a couple of times. Tim told me on the way home, he was worried on the first couple of songs, that they didn’t sound great. I didn’t notice and enjoyed the whole thing! It was loud, but thankfully, my tinnitus was not much worse after we left, which was a very pleasant surprise 🙂 We had a great time, first time we’ve had date night in a while. Tim has been playing golf on Fridays, and we haven’t had a date night since February, before the time changed. I really enjoyed the whole evening!

Here’s a shot we took with Tim’s apple watch before we left (the phone was low, so the angle is off, but oh well, it was quick and easy!):

At the concert:

Sad That… Is it bad that I’m not coming up with stuff for this category?! 😀

Book I’m reading: – I *finally* finished “A Passion Most Pure” by Julie Lessman. That book has taken me longer than anything I’ve read in a while. I can’t quite tell if I was just busier (probably half of it) or if I just got bogged down in the book. It was good, but it was a little on the “wordy” side, is the best way I know to describe it! Moved on to the first in a trilogy of Amish cozy mysteries, this one is called A Plain Death by Amanda Flower. Plugging right along with it!

Things we ate: Monday, I made some ranch chicken burgers for Tim to throw on the grill. The only problem was, he cranked up the grill right before a big thunderstorm came swooping in, and he had fun (NOT!) grilling in the pouring rain! The burgers were good though, and I made coleslaw to go with them. Tuesday we had leftovers. Wednesday I tried a new recipe for a french toast casserole using mini croissants, and we had grits, eggs and sausage to go with it. Thursday was more cleaning up out of the fridge, aka leftovers. Friday and Saturday night we went out to eat! Friday, to my favorite Greek place and Saturday to a Mexican place out of town, where we met his brothers and our sisters in law. 🙂

The french toast casserole was made with mini-croissants and was a keeper. I’ll try to get it on the recipe section of the website soon:

TV and Movies: Tim finished up his Masters coverage Monday, so now we can get back to regular shows on the DVR. I have a couple of movies taped that I want to watch, but haven’t gotten to them yet. Dancing with the Stars for me, Tim won’t watch with me any more. To be fair, I’m amazed he ever watched AT ALL with me! We finally got to Blacklist Sunday night, and it was quite the bombshell, as promised. I’m sure they’ll figure a way out of it though!

A Happy for Me!! – look what I ordered myself from Amazon! I’m such a huge Star Wars fan, I’m surprised I waited this long to order it 🙂 Oh, and I just love Amazon Prime. Click, and it shows up on my doorstep a couple of days later! We use it for everything. I ordered some 3 way LED bulbs a couple of weeks ago. Poof, they show up, it’s like magic! 😀 I’m sure the Star Wars movie will be on constant rotation all summer. I tend to go on movie binges in the summer once all of our network shows end in May. I do Harry Potter-a-thons, and Lord of the Rings-a-thons. Now I can watch The Force Awakens all summer long! 😀

LOVE!

Random Thought du Jour: In Bible Study this week, it was raining, and all the ladies were unhappy about the rain. Now, granted, I don’t particularly like to get out and about in the rain. But, for the most part, I love rainy days! I love the grey, overcast skies. I love the free water for my flowers and grass. As I told everyone in my small group, I love the rain because then I appreciate the sunny days all the more 🙂 So, how about you? Do you like rainy days or do you really dislike them? I really love a good, rainy, grey day. My favorite thing is to curl up and read a good book or watch a good movie.

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Weekly boring update, take twelve…

Glad that… my sister Gail was able to come this week and visit for a couple of days. We always have so much fun together, hanging out, going shopping (buying stuff!), grabbing some “girl food” out, etc. I get most of my clothes shopping done when we go together. This time was no different, I got a lot of clothes for spring and summer.

Sad that… I think the cool weather is almost over. We’re still having a few nights in the 40’s but they are getting fewer and farther between. Not quite ready for summer yet. Also, pretty sad that I didn’t have a great reading month in March. I think I read five fiction books, and also finished up a book with my church Bible study group (Armor of God by Priscilla Shirer). Six in one month is not great towards meeting my GoodReads challenge!

Something that makes me happy…. Lots of shopping this week produced new spring and summer clothes for me, some casual shoes, and best of all – two new lamps for the house! 🙂

An Unexpected Happy… got a check in the mail we were not expecting!

Book I’m reading: I had started “The Forgiving Hour” by Robin Lee Hatcher last weekend. I finished it late Monday night and then had a busy couple of days. I finally picked an old one late in the week, from my Kindle library called “A Passion Most Pure” by Julie Lessman. Slow going, I seem to be doing more shopping and tv watching this week than reading!

Things we ate: Monday, I made breakfast for supper, and made a double batch of biscuits for Tim for the week. Foodwise, Tim’s love language is biscuits. Mine is chocolate! 😀 Tuesday Gail was here and we were shopping all day and had a really late lunch (about 2:30 PM) and so we just had a snack and Tim had a sandwich. Wednesday, Gail was here (weather was bad and we talked her into staying!) and I thought Tim would want more than a sandwich, so I fixed turkey cutlets with gravy, and pasta for the sauce, roasted broccoli and mushrooms and a salad. Thursday, we had a lot of lettuce in the crisper, so I grilled some chicken breasts and we had a big grilled chicken salad. Friday, I put in a roast all day in the crockpot and we had that with mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, yeast rolls and honey butter. Saturday was corn dogs for lunch and leftovers for supper. Sunday was leftovers too! Need to work on some menu ideas for this week! 🙂

TV and Movies: Regular tv shows. Nothing out of the ordinary. We didn’t get a lot of regular shows cleaned off the DVR, which is bad news because the Masters (big golf tournament every April) is next week, and Tim will need LOTS of space to record all that HD golf coverage 😀 I was able to clean up 3 of my old movies, two parts to Hallmark Channel’s The Bridge (book by Karen Kingsbury, I was mildly disappointed in the movie adaptation). I also watched an old one I had recorded, The Lucky One, with Zac Efron, based on the Nicholas Sparks book.

Around the house: Tim put out fertilizer Wednesday, so hopefully our grass will start greening up! Everyone else’s is miles ahead of ours 🙁

New Project in the works: Tim ordered a surprise for me and has a new project in the works! Hope to update in the next week or two. In the mean time, any guesses? Gail already knows, so she better not guess!

Random Thought du Jour: Do you like cereal? I eat cereal one day a week, usually on Sundays before church. It’s my splurge! I try to be healthy and eat oatmeal the other days of the week. I always loved cereal growing up. I used to beg my mom to buy the sugary ones. She rarely splurged but I remember that I used to love one, they were called Sugar Smacks!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Weekly boring update, take eight… it is getting a lot harder to come up with even boring things to chat about. I might need to switch to every other week!

Glad that… My sister Gail got to come to town and go shopping with me. I got a few new pieces of clothing, but still need a lot more, so she will have to come back again to shop more with me. My wardrobe (or lack thereof) needs a lot of help! We had fun though, and a good lunch at Panera, so a good thing 😀

We ordered the same thing at Panera (you know, great minds think alike!):

Sad that… Our most recent Bible Study ended on Thursday. We finished up the six week “Armor of God” study by Priscilla Shirer. We have this week off for Spring Break, then pick up on St. Patrick’s Day with our last study of this session. I have to get my book for “Hosea” by Jennifer Rothschild at church soon.
And… there’s only one more episode of Downton Abbey. Sniff sniff. (Monday morning update: I have it recorded on the DVR and have to watch it, but I don’t want to, I don’t want it to end!)

Something that makes me happy…. We found a new Chinese place! We discovered a little hole in the wall up in Canton that has probably been there for 25 years or more. We didn’t have high hopes, but we were really surprised, everything we ordered was delicious! Also, they seem to do a better takeout business than dine-in, so that is good news for us in the future. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to order take-out Chinese and have leftovers for days 🙂

My shrimp with lobster sauce (I always like a brown sauce and not the white one so many restaurants here use!):

Tim’s Dragon and Phoenix (which at this particular restaurant was General Tso’s chicken with sesame shrimp):

And a first for us! The ticket was written in Chinese!! Very cool 😀

An unexpected happy… After eating out Friday night, I didn’t expect to eat out again over the weekend. On Sunday after church, we went to lunch with some friends, and had a great time, so that was unexpected. And even better… on the way home, Tim treated us to this!!!:

Book I’m reading: I had just downloaded a book from Amazon (my February Kindle prime loan) when I posted last week. So I had not really even started it, it’s a Dan Walsh book entitled “When Night Comes”. Read on that most of the week! Finished it up late Friday night and Saturday started a new one I’ve had in my Kindle cloud for a while, looks like tough subject matter about abuse and infidelity. Not sure yet if I’ll finish it but it’s called “What She Left for Me” by Tracie Peterson.

Things we ate: Our nephew Zack came to stay with us on Monday, as he had a two day golf tournament at Tim’s club on Monday and Tuesday. I took chicken out to cook, but got outvoted by the two guys, who both wanted pizza. They have different tastes (Tim=supreme and Zack=Meats), so I ordered what they wanted and we pigged out when they got home with the pizza. I did *try* to be good and made me a big salad to go with my pizza. Tuesday, I made a big pot of chicken tortilla soup with the chicken I had defrosted for Monday. Wednesday, I ate out a late lunch with Gail at Panera and wasn’t all that hungry. I made us an egg white omelet with ham and cheese and some fruit (Kettle chips for Tim). Thursday we ate leftovers! Friday night was date night at a new-to-use Chinese place. We got steamed dumplings, and Dragon & Phoenix (for Tim), shrimp with lobster sauce (for me), see above! It was all delicious 🙂 Saturday was more leftovers, and Sunday was lunch out, and breakfast for supper. Here’s what I had most days for lunch (leftover pizza, chips and fruit, OINK OINK!!):

TV and Movies: Not a lot of anything to report here. Zack was here Monday and we watched a couple of episodes of Brain Games with him. Tuesday we watched BlindSpot and a couple of other normal shows. Glad that Blindspot is back and wish we were getting Blacklist too. We lost internet plus cable tv and home phone service on Wednesday and didn’t get to watch anything that night. We finally watched Survivor from OnDemand on Friday night. The DVR is pretty full, and we don’t seem to be making much of a dent in it! LOL! 🙂 Tim had a library book due back and was on a deadline, so we spent several evenings reading our books (one of my favorite things, it won’t last much longer, I’ll be a golf widow till dark most evenings). Sunday night, we watched Bridge of Spies that I got at the library.

Random Thought du Jour: I think I’ve *finally* made the switch from regular milk to organic milk. I resisted for so long, because of the cost. I don’t know what groceries cost in the rest of the country, but here things seem expensive. Plus, we pay 7% tax on groceries here, so things add up quick. A gallon of regular, store brand skim milk is about 3.65 here, and the organic store-brand one is 7.00 a gallon. Plus tax. But, I bought organic a time or two and Tim commented on how much better it tasted, so I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade. I don’t drink a lot of milk. I use almond milk in my oatmeal every morning, and have cereal on Sundays before church, and don’t tend to do milk any other time. But, it’s good for him and I do like cereal more now, so I guess it’s worth it! 😀

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Weekly boring update, take seven!

Glad that… Tim finished my jewelry holder that he had been making me! He started on it a week or two ago, and we had to make a couple of trips to Lowe’s and then across town to Hobby Lobby to get knobs. It looks great, and is so wonderful for holding so many of my necklaces! I have 3 jewelry drawers built into my dresser in the bedroom, I’ve had them for years and love them, but I have so many necklaces (I never get rid of jewelry, most of it comes back in style one way or another eventually), that I needed more room for necklaces, they were constantly getting tangled and mixed up.

Sad that… There’s only one more episode of Downton Abbey. Sniff sniff.

Something that makes me happy…. we finally got a flag bracket installed and our American flag hanging out front!

Book I’m reading: Reading “No One to Trust” by Lynette Eason. It was a great paced book about a couple in witness protection (except that the wife had no idea her husband was not who he said he was). I loved it except (mini-spoiler), it had a bad mafia boss who kept pet snakes! ::shiver:: Really enjoyed it, and then moved on to the second in the Wings of the Nightingale series by Sarah Sundin, “On Distant Shores”. I read the first earlier this year and enjoyed it so much that I bought the other two in the series. These are Christian historical romances, set during WWII, about flight nurses. Finished that one Sunday and downloaded one from the library, a Dan Walsh book entitled “When Night Comes”.

Things we ate: Sunday night, we grilled out before it started raining – alFresco chicken burgers (I had mine plain, no bread), mixed grill veggies (asparagus, onions and mushrooms was what I had on hand) and grilled pineapple. Monday, we were really off schedule from Tim’s near all-nighter on Sunday night, so we didn’t eat lunch till nearly 3 PM. By supper, what I had planned to cook didn’t happen, as neither of us were really all that hungry. So Tim had leftovers and I had an egg sandwich with fruit. Tuesday, I made an old recipe, chicken crescents, and heated up some store-bought soup. Wednesday, I tried another new recipe, for a crockpot mexican enchilada style casserole. Once again, mixed reactions, Tim really liked it and I … did not. Luckily, he was happy to eat leftovers the next couple of days. I also made a new recipe for a baked oatmeal that I really liked and had several mornings for breakfast. Saturday we had a late lunch after Tim finished playing golf. I let him pick, and he picked… drumroll please!!! No surprise here, he picked Dickey’s BBQ rather than anything else in town. I cooked for a friend whose mom had passed away, and kept us back a smidge, so we ate that on Sunday (maple bbq pulled chicken, coleslaw, chips, chocolate chip skillet cookie and banana bread for breakfast). I am happier on the days we eat leftovers, I am not really in much of a cooking mood these days 🙁

Grilled aspargus, onions and mushrooms in my favorite grilling basket:

New baked oatmeal (yes, I added chocolate chips, chocolate makes everything better!):

TV and Movies: Last Sunday night, we finished up the last Garage Sale mystery that I had recorded on the DVR, I think there have been 4 of those so far and we’ve watched them all. I’m really happy that Tim will watch some of these Hallmark mysteries with me. I like that they are clean and easy to watch, just like the cozy mysteries I like to read. Ready for them to make more! This weekend, we watched a couple more I had recorded on the DVR from free preview weekends. Blended, with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler, and then Last Vegas with Robert deNiro, Michael Douglas and Morgan Freeman. The rest of the week, we watched our regular shows.

Random Thought du Jour: Today is a Leap Day. I feel really sorry for people born on February 29 that only get to celebrate every four years. And I don’t remember why we have an extra day every four years, I guess I need to google that and learn something new today! I’m a little sad that January and February are over. I love my two month hibernation period when it’s colder, darker, wetter and I can stay inside and enjoy the solitude. Spring is just around the corner, and the time changes soon! 🙂

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Weekly boring update, take six! This one is short and sweet, not a lot going on this week and very little to blog about 🙁

Glad that… Things are quiet and nothing earth-shattering is going on! Nice, quiet, even-keeled week. We had a beautiful sunset on Tuesday; I dragged out the big camera and took a few shots, but believe me, it was more breathtaking earlier, I took a wee bit too long to get my camera:

Sad that… I tried a new recipe for frosted brownies to take to Bible Study this week. They were ok, but nowhere near as good as my regular brownies. Why I try new recipes sometimes, I don’t understand. I sort of feel like I threw away many dollars worth of ingredients trying something new 🙁

Book I’m reading: Finished reading “Midnight on the Mississippi” by Mary Ellis – it’s a library download. I was very discouraged to see a small notice on my library’s digital website that they are changing systems, and I will have nearly a month long period where I can’t download titles. You would think that I don’t have approximately 1300 free and paid books in my Kindle cloud reader. Sigh. No, I’m just a wee bit upset that my library won’t let me download for a few weeks, LOL! Anyway, Midnight on the Mississippi was good and that was my first book by Mary Ellis but hopefully won’t be my last. Went back to the one I had been reading before, “Blue Moon Bay” by Lisa Wingate. Finished it Saturday and started a new one, another library download, “No One to Trust” by Lynette Eason. I always enjoy her books, and look! Another library download while I still can! 😀

Things we ate: Sunday, Tim surprised me after church and offered to take me out to eat Chinese! My favorite, so he knows I never turn down an offer like that. We ate so much at lunch that I didn’t have to cook Sunday night, we just had popcorn. Monday, we were both feeling bad for indulging so much lately that I just fixed us each a huge salad. Tuesday, I made pork chops with sauerkraut. Wednesday, I had to bake to take food to Bible Study Thursday morning (frosted brownies), so I took the easy route and made a big pot of taco soup. Thursday, I was in the mood for breakfast food (yes, again), so we had egg mcmuffins, grits and sausage for supper after Tim got in from playing golf. Friday and Saturday, we had a big lunch out both days, so we ended up eating either cereal or popcorn for supper.

TV and Movies: Nothing stand out here, regular shows and lots of back episodes of “Brain Games”. They had a marathon last weekend and I recording approximately 30 episodes, it seems like, on the DVR. We’re working through them one or two a night. Watched all the regulars like Blacklist (not as creepy this week, thank goodness), Elementary, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five O, NCIS, etc.

Something that makes me happy: – new chalkboard art crafted by my husband (I’ve figured him out, each time I change the wreaths on the door for a new holiday, he keys in on drawing a new design on his coffee bean jar!):

Fun Thing We Did: – Tried a new-to-us restaurant, a chain called Genghis Grill. We were across town running errands and stopped in to try the “create your own stir fry” concept. Mine was really good, and Tim enjoyed his. I used mostly ginger and citrus seasoning and he used hotter stuff, so we were both happy 🙂

Random Thought du Jour: Does anyone else feel guilty to spend money going through the car wash? I grew up washing cars in the driveway. You drag out the garden hose, get some soap and wash it. It’s cheap, but it is work. Tim really enjoys driving the vehicles through the car wash. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like having a clean vehicle and I’m even giddier knowing he thinks of me and does mine for me. But I always feel more than a wee bit guilty that we’re spending that money driving through the car wash….

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Weekly boring update, take five! Nothing really exciting going on this week. Tim is having to work every weekend in February, but he took off one day of vacation during the week to go play golf when it was warm. He’s starting to get antsy for the time to change and him to switch to golf mode. Which means I will turn into a golf widow for 7-8 months. Sigh.

Goofy thing that happened… We were watching this week’s Elementary, and there was a character on there that is a high functioning autistic. She’s interested in Sherlock and they had her in a couple of spots on the show. Tim looked at me and said, “she reminds me of you!”. I’m like, you think I’m autistic? He was like, well, she’s literal and routine oriented and very honest and that’s you. I still can’t figure out if he meant it as a compliment or a put-down. 😀

Glad that… Happy to report that I tackled my Walmart list/trip this week. We were a lot poorer when I left, but we aren’t out of anything now! 🙂

Sad that… Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia passed away over the weekend. The court had a balance between conservatives and liberals and I’m afraid that the scales are going to tip away from the conservative side. Very sad day indeed.

Book I’m reading: Finished “With Every Letter” by Sarah Sundin, very good book! Started “Blue Moon Bay” by Lisa Wingate, second in the Moses Lake series. I was only about 25% through with that one when one became available at my library’s download site (I’ve been on the wait list for a few weeks). So I downloaded and started on that one, “Midnight on the Mississippi” by Mary Ellis. This is a new author to me, so I’m hoping that it’s a good one 🙂

Things we ate: Sunday night, we had wings while watching the Super Bowl. Monday, we had tomato soup and grilled cheese, something I’ve been craving for a while. Tuesday I made a crockpot ravioli and a big salad. Wednesday night, from a choice of 3 items, Tim picked eggs in purgatory again (we had bacon and cheese grits with them again, any one want to guess why he picked this one?!). Thursday night, I got Tim to grill out, we had grilled salmon, grilled asparagus and wild rice. Friday night we had chili dogs and chips. Saturday we ran late to Lowe’s, so rather than coming in late and fixing food, we swung thru Chick-Fil-A and got sandwiches. Yummy!

TV and Movies: I don’t think we watched any movies this week! We were mostly watching regular TV shows from the DVR. I truly think the only thing we watch live all year long is the Super Bowl, and that was a struggle. Tim was constantly grabbing the remote to fast forward thru the commercials, and I was like, “I wanna watch the commercials!!!” It doesn’t take long to form SOME new habits, now does it?! 🙂 DVR’s have definitely changed the way we watch tv. We never watch a show live and rarely watch it on even the same night it is on. We gave up on Duck Dynasty and deleted it from the DVR. We tried a couple of episodes of Brain Games and liked it. We’re nerdy that way 🙂 Kept up with our regular stuff on the DVR (NCIS x3, Limitless, Scorpion, Blacklist, Elementary, Blue Bloods, etc). Looking forward to Survivor starting back next week.

Something that makes me happy: – I came in Thursday to discover an early Valentines happy from my sweetheart!!!

Fun Thing We Did: – It won’t seem like fun to anyone else, but we went to Sam’s together 🙂 Tim also went with me into HomeGoods first and we bought some new kitchen glasses for him. He *hates* stores like Home Goods, so this was a biggie for him. He does, however, like Sam’s so he will go there willingly with me. We walked out with a cart full and a couple of hundred dollars poorer. I’d call that fun, but I am rather odd 🙂

Random Thought du Jour: OK, this random thought popped into my head one day. I was skimming through some of Amazon’s deal of the day that they have. I kept seeing a bluetooth shower speaker. I’ve seen shower speakers for years, long before there was a cell phone in existence. I don’t quite think I’ve ever understood the allure of a shower speaker. I know people sing in the shower, although I am not one of those people. And my husband was in the military so he takes very quick showers. So I guess I just don’t get it. Do you have a shower speaker, have you ever had one, or do you know of anyone who has ever had one? And secondly – do you sing in the shower?! 🙂

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Weekly boring update, take four! Nothing really exciting, except we did a lot of eating out 🙂

Good thing that happened… I was treated to lots of surprises this week by my sweet husband. First, I got a surprise night off from cooking on Tuesday! I get emails from Sonic about any kind of special they have, as well as new food and stuff they offer. I always forward them to Tim and always he answers back, thanks but no thanks 🙂 This time, however, he decided to take me up on my offer! I pushed back Tuesday’s meal plan till Wednesday and we drove to Sonic Tuesday night for burgers and drinks 🙂 I love doing fun things like that, unplanned, in the middle of the week 😀 And THEN… two days later, he called after I finished Bible Study on Thursday and offered to take me on a lunch date. We went to a local Mexican place and had a quick lunch. SO! Two unplanned, middle of the week, splurge dates. My kind of week!

Sad that… my tinnitus has been acting up. In addition to the normal high pitched screeching I hear in my ears, now my right ear is doing the pulse-thumping thing. It’s called pulsatile tinnitus and it really drives me nuts. I’ve often thought that Van Gogh must have had tinnitus, to drive him mad enough to cut off his own ear. 🙁

Book I’m reading: I read 8 books in January! Great month of reading for me 🙂 Read “Critical Pursuit” by Janice Cantore. Started “With Every Letter” by Sarah Sundin. I am really enjoying it, so I went ahead and purchased the other two in this series, since they were on sale at Amazon. I’m looking forward to reading them soon.

Things we ate: Sunday night, we had an Al Fresco chicken burger along with some salad and fruit. Monday was salad night – I made a quinoa salad with sun dried tomatoes and artichokes, and we had a huge green salad. Tuesday I had something planned, but we went to Sonic instead 🙂 Wednesday we had chicken quesadillas, mexican rice, pinto beans and an avocado salad. Thursday, we had a big lunch out so, we just had a quick supper of leftovers. Friday I offered to cook, but he picked salad from the choices I gave him (sigh, the boy has a lot of willpower that I do not possess!). Saturday I made ribs, cole slaw and sweet potatoes. Sunday we ate out after church with friends (Mexican again) and then I’m planning wings and snacks for the Super Bowl. We had originally planned to have a Super Bowl party, but the first few people I talked to in January said they already had other plans, so we nixed it for this year. Maybe next year!

TV and Movies: This was a week of movie watching in our house! I watched my regular daily shows/cooking shows some afternoons. But in the evenings, there hasn’t been a lot of our shared shows to watch together. Apparently we watch a lot on CBS, and they haven’t had any new shows this week, they must be waiting till after they air the Super Bowl tonight. We did watch Blacklist and Elementary. Tim and I watched several of my Hallmark movies together: a Murder She Baked movie (Peach Cobbler mystery); A Bone to Pick, an Aurora Teagarden mystery and the first Flower Shop mystery: Mum’s the Word. I watched “The Hundred Foot Journey” by myself and loved it! It was right up my alley – Helen Mirren and food! 🙂 Friday night we watched Thor: Dark World again. Saturday we watched an old one on the DVR, XMen Origins: Wolverine. I think a lot of our shows come back this week (all the NCIS, Tim’s favorite Limitless, Blue Bloods, Hawaii Five-O, etc, all on CBS) so we should do more tv and less movies this coming week.

Something that makes me happy: – Tim continues to use his chalkboard art skills to update the coffee bean jar. Here’s what he drew me for Valentines Day:

Fun Thing We Did: – bought tickets to a Third Day / Steven Curtis Chapman concert at our church. Can’t wait for that, they’ll be here in April. 🙂

Random Thought du Jour: I need to go to Walmart soon. I have certain items I only get there and tend to stay away from Walmart when at all possible. There are certain items I just won’t buy at Kroger though, so a Walmart trip is going to be coming up soon. Now, take note, I haven’t stepped foot in our Walmart since before Christmas, so I have a lot of things on my list to get. Sigh. I wish we had a Target closer, but they are a lot further away. And I think Target is more expensive for the things I’m looking to buy. Which do you prefer – Target or Walmart?

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Weekly boring update, take three!

Glad that… – We had some winter weather early in the week. Most people don’t like the cold or the rainy or dreary days. I do, as long as I get to stay home and enjoy it! Fires, hot cocoa, snuggling under blankets, reading or watching tv. I try to get in as much hibernation as I can in January and February. I love this time of year, especially since we have such a long hot summer. By the weekend, it felt like spring, since the highs on Saturday and Sunday were like 73-74 degrees. Yikes!

Sad that… Tim is already half out of the walking habit with me! We walked two days this past week, not as much as previous weeks. Oh well, it was good while it lasted and I still haven’t given up hope. He has his walking challenge for wellness with work until late Feb or early March. However, he’s back to doing P90X workouts at lunch, rather than going walking with me. I mostly expected it though – he gets bored easily with just walking! The sad part for me is that this time of year, I’d much rather just sit at home and eat/read/watch tv/surf/etc rather than walk! 🙂

Good thing that happened… Tim had his yearly checkup this past week. Now, this doesn’t sound like a big deal to anyone, right? Well, it took me 16 or 17 years to convince him to go to the doctor for a checkup. I’m over the moon that he goes yearly now, to get things checked out and make sure he’s ok. I love him more than life itself and just want him to be healthy. And happy, but that’s more something I can do than the doctor. He got a good report, and he doesn’t need blood pressure medicine! Yippee!

Book I’m reading: “The Crimson Cord” by Jill Eileen Smith. Finished that one (really good!) and started another free one for my Kindle, “Critical Pursuit” by Janice Cantore.

Things we ate: Lots of leftovers and salad Sunday-Tuesday. I made potato soup on Wednesday. It was a really cold day and I had a bag of potatoes! Thursday, I made eggs in purgatory, black pepper bacon and grits. Tim loved the eggs, so those will be a keeper. Friday, I made sloppy joes and oven fries. (I gave him a choice of 3 things and predictably, he picked the sloppy joe’s, one of his favorites!) Saturday we were gone all day to my in-laws and so Sunday we ate leftovers. Maybe Monday too! We stretched last weekend’s leftovers through Tuesday with salads, so I like that (I try not to cook on Sundays).

TV and Movies: Regular stuff on the DVR. I made a concerted effort to clear off some of my Hallmark movies. First I watched The Gourmet Detective, then an Aurora Teagarden mystery (Real Murders). I really enjoyed both, but especially love Candace Cameron Bure and that cast. Then, I got Tim to watch the second Gourmet Detective with me (at least they are clean!). Tim and I also watched Transcendence with Johnny Depp, something we had recorded from a free preview weekend. I’d call that one…. weird. It did keep my attention though 🙂 The highlight of the TV viewing week: we rented The Martian from iTunes on Friday night. At home date night, complete with hot cocoa. Good movie, we had tried to see it at the theater and missed it, so we were glad to stream it at home. 🙂

Something that makes me happy: – We built our house over a year and a half ago and I really haven’t blogged about much of it 🙂 There’s so many things in the new house that make me happy. Here’s one:

This is the cabinet above my microwave and wall oven. It’s just a tall cabinet with slots, and I use it to store a ton of cookie sheets, muffin tins, sheet pans, pizza pans, cutting boards, my toaster oven pans, a cast iron griddle and my Emile Henre pizza stone that I love. This stuff used to take up so much room in the old kitchen. But, I seemed to stack it on the bottom of a shelf, so it was a royal pain to dig through to get down to what I wanted. Now, it’s easy to store and easy to see and grab what I want. It makes me happy 🙂

Random Thought du Jour: I need a new wallet. Funny how that is something I never think to shop for, either online or when I venture to a department store. And I’m very particular about things like wallet and my purse. It has to have the right configuration, be the right size, etc. Picky, I am!

Hope everyone is having a great day!

Boring though it might be, I’m going to give this another try 🙂 Nothing really going on around here to blog about, but the blog is called “exceedingly mundane” for a reason!

Glad that… – Tim is still walking with me! I’m determined to enjoy every minute (even though it’s nearly wearing me out!) until March 13. The time changes that date and I magically turn into a golf widow till the fall. 🙁 Of course, the end of this week turned out wet and COLD, so we didn’t get to walk all that much. But next week looks much better, so I’m still hopeful 🙂

Good thing that happened… The Bible Study I attend at our church started back up on Thursday Jan 21. I go to the one called Manna and this time, we are doing “Armor of God” by Priscilla Shirer. I think it’s going to be really good!

Book I’m reading: I finished “Random Acts of Malice” by Christy Barritt (my January prime loan book) and started “The Girl from the Train” by Irma Joubert. Finished it last night and started “The Crimson Cord” by Jill Eileen Smith. I have usually loved every single historical Christian fiction book I’ve read by Jill Eileen Smith, so I’m very hopeful that this one is great too.

Things we ate: Worked on leftovers, chili and restaurant leftovers from the weekend. Tuesday I made fish and veggies. Wednesday I made homemade chicken meatballs, sauce, noodles, roasted broccoli and sauteed green beans (Liz was here and we had cheese toast with ours, no bread or cheese for Tim). Thursday I made party cheeseburgers and fries, as Elizabeth was here again hanging out with us. Friday lunch we ate at Tim’s favorite place, Dickie’s BBQ, at lunch before the movie. Tim’s mom fed us two meals on Saturday, since we spent the whole day there 🙂

Pot of Chili, yum!

TV and Movies: I watched a Murder She Baked from Hallmark, and we watched some regular tv shows on the DVR. NFC and AFC Championship games today, Sunday January 24. Which means the Super Bowl is two weeks from today! We went Friday afternoon to a second viewing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Loved it just as much the second time around 🙂

Weather – Cold in the early part of the week, some days I had a hard time warming up! Tim even broke out a hand warmer one day and let me keep it in the front pocket of my hoodie all day, LOL! Really rainy on Thursday, grey and rainy all day. So much so that I wore my rain boots to Bible Study and out running errands 😀 Friday it was SO cold, and snow flurries on and off all day. We were in and out and I froze to death – temps in the mid 30’s and wind chills in the low 20’s. BRRR!

Random Thought du Jour: Very grateful for family. We spent the whole day on Saturday with Tim’s family. It was so great to see everyone and catch up and just hang out 🙂

Hope everyone is having a great day!