Exceedingly Mundane

I haven’t blogged a whole lot lately, other than the occasional meme, and my daily “A Happy a Day in August”, a challenge I picked up at Big Orange Michael‘s blog. There’s not a whole lot exciting going on, other than the occasional new car and day trip to the in-laws. Mostly, my days are filled with routine, mundane to most everyone but me, and our days are very ordinary.

Ordinary.

I have been thinking about this word a lot lately. I read a blog entry at a scrapbooker’s site (Cathy Zielske), where she referenced something another lady had written at her blog. I’ll put it in the extended (-More-) section for you to read, if you’d like. It really struck a chord with me. These are my days – ordinary. Not to be confused with boring or meaningless or — dare I say — mundane. Although I do live a mundane existence. Which is why I named this blog “Exceedingly Mundane”.

It’s a happy, quiet, content little existence for me. I find great comfort in routine, in schedules, in patterns, in things happening as planned. I am not a spontaneous person. Tim is, and I’ve been slowly learning to adjust to it, but it still goes against my nature. My nature is very business-like, very practical, very much like the mathematics and computer degree I hold (though faded and not used as much these days). Very ordered, 1, 2, 3, 4. Very methodical. Very logical. This brings me great joy, great peace, great contentment. It does not, however, lead to interesting blog entries. 😀 Nor do my hobbies and the things I do during each day to fill my time (and yes, contrary to popular belief, I actually stay very busy). I have too many hobbies, I’m afraid, and therefore am not able to give top billing to any of them at any given time. They all have to fight for my attention, and get a piece of my time, but they all get shorted and none gets as huge a block of time as I’d like. I love to read, I alway have. I love to take photos and “mess” with them, always have. Since I was 12 and got my first camera. I love scrapbooking and recording our memories (which is a must for me, with my terrible memory and all. I’m afraid I’m going to be 70 one day and not remember any of my life, at all). I love to cook and bake. I would do this more, but we would each weigh 500 pounds. I love to watch tv and movies. I love to play on the computer, I have dozens of things that can occupy me for any length of time on the computer. And mostly, the overriding factor, is that I love to spend time with Tim, doing whatever we can together.

All of these are great and wonderful things, but not all that exciting to blog about. So therefore, blog readers, I extend my apologies for not having a happening, exciting blog. This one fits me just fine though, like an old comfortable sweatshirt, and I’ve decided to keep it. 😆

P.S. I’ve also read on several scrapbooker’s blogs that they have and enjoy the book “Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life” by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I think I will add it to my Amazon wish list (not that I ever get much off of there, but a girl has to have a tangible place to wish and dream!) There’s a website for the book, including a section of excerpts, which is where I linked to.

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I forgot to blog earlier today that I finished another book last night. I finished the first Harmony book that I had checked out from the library – “Home to Harmony”. I still need to write a short review of it on the main Hambones website.

Suffice it to say that I enjoyed it, once I finally got into it. It’s along the same vein as the Mitford books by Jan Karon, but instead of Episcopalian Father Tim, we have a Quaker pastor named Sam Gardner, who has moved back to his very small, very quaint hometown of Harmony, Indiana. The book is more a series of small vignettes, but the characters are the same and I’ve learned who they all are now, so that will make for good reading on the next couple of books in this series that I intend to read. Each chapter is like a little short story, each has a heartwarming point to make or a scripture to highlight, and so it’s nice to pick up this book and read a chapter or two and then put it down if need be. Rather refreshing after some of the things I have read!

OH, and chalk this book up as #22 on the list for the year. I think I will easily meet my goal of reading 25 books before the end of the year… I started on #23, “Just Shy of Harmony” today! 😀

With this burning in my bathroom, it makes it smell good (and doesn’t seem like it needs cleaning as much as I know it does!). Yankee Candles make me happy every day.

This week’s questions are totally unrelated to one another; just a ‘pot pourri’ of randomness! Have a great week and thanks for playing!

1. When putting groceries away, do you rotate your food so your newest items (cans and such) are in the back, and older food in the front? Sigh, I try. Sometimes I am better at it than others, but I really do try. I’m such a hoarder, and if I don’t, stuff will get pushed to the back and it will sit there, covered up, for eons.

2. Do you own a digital camera? If so, how long have you had one? If not, do you plan to purchase one soon? Yes, I’ve had one since Christmas 2002. I dearly love my camera. I think it’s starting to have a few problems, and if it gets unusable, we’ll replace it. I can’t live without a camera, and now that I have a digital, I won’t ever go back to film.

3. How do you store your precious photos? All of my photos are precious to me! I have boxes and boxes, photo albums, scrapbooks, full of them. All of my digital photos are in multiple places (windows pc, hambones, on cd, and a cd in the fire-proof safe). I also have most of my film negatives in our safe, just in case.

4. It’s 6:00 a.m. and you’ve just lost power due to a severe thunderstorm; they say it will probably take at least 12 hours before power will be restored; what do you do? I have no idea. We’re underground and I don’t think we’ve ever been more than a couple of hours without power. I’d go nuts, I’m sure.

5. How many times a year do you (or does someone dear to you) wax your automobile? Huh. Good question. Probably never.

6. Gas prices; what can we say except they’ve reached an all-time high. How are you dealing with this? I grumble an awful lot. Worry. Stress. Try to stay home more. Tim could care less. He will still jump in the truck and go whereever he wants, no matter how much gas is.

7. Have you ever purchased a book or cd twice, forgetting that you already had it? I don’t think so. I have won a CD on the radio that I already owned. I know I have never doubled up on books, and I don’t think I ever did on CD’s. I download all my music now that I have my iPod. No more buying CD’s for me! 🙂

I just finished another scrapbook layout, the second one from Thanksgiving 2002. I started it on Friday afternoon, and it took me almost 2 hours to cut out these border strips. I like how that part turned out… not sure about the rest of it. I think I moved things around about 15 times before I finally glued stuff down. It is quite a hindrance to scrapbook when you are as indecisive as I am!

Anyhoo, here’s the finished product:

P.S. It looks better in person, the colors are a lot more vivid. Still plain, but hey – that’s my style!

I was tagged by my buddy Dawn at her blog – “Thoughts from Along the Broken Road”. It’s a music meme kind of thing, which I love! Thanks, Dawn, and I love reading your blog every day girl! 😀

Here’s the instructions:

List ten songs that you are currently digging… it doesn’t matter what genre they are from, whether they have words, or even if they’re no good but they must be songs you’re really enjoying right now. Post these instructions, the artists, and the ten songs in your blog. Then tag five other random people to see what they’re listening to.

And my answers… like Dawn, I love music and have hundreds of songs I listen to (on my new iPod that Tim got me in June!!). Here’s the first 10 that spring to mind:

1. Ever the Same by Rob Thomas
2. Now Comes the Night by Rob Thomas
3. Mississippi Girl by Faith Hill
4. If Something Should Happen by Darryl Worley
5. Behind These Hazel Eyes by Kelly Clarkson
6. Memories of Us by Keith Urban
7. Anything but Mine by Kenny Chesney
8. Do You Want Fries with That by Tim McGraw
9. As Good as I Once Was by Toby Keith
10. If Heaven by Andy Griggs (still love this one, reminds me of my mom)

I’ll tag some of the family and friends whose blogs we host on our website … they don’t normally do memes or quizzes, but I’ll cross my fingers and hope they play along this time. 😀

Tagging:

Amanda
Chris
Elizabeth
Shanna

Ok, simple one today. Blogging makes me happy. I have a streak going, and I’m very proud of it (I’ve worked very very hard at keeping my streak alive!). I haven’t missed a single day blogging since we were gone over the Memorial Day weekend and I didn’t have Internet access. Love it when I meet a goal 😀

We’ve had a busy weekend… Rewind to Friday night. I had food out ready to cook, a flank steak I had marinated all afternoon, but Tim wanted to go out to eat. So….. we did! We went to Captain’s Catch in Madison. I had a shrimp po-boy with fries and Tim had red beans and rice (and YUCK, they had jalapenos on them). Then, we went to Walmart and picked up food for Saturday.

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We’re getting to see all the parents today (Tim’s mom and dad, and my dad), so that makes me happy today!

We’re headed out (in the new Explorer) in about an hour, going to Tim’s parents house for the day. His mom’s birthday is next week, so we’re going to go visit and celebrate with her. We’ll also get to see my dad, as he is coming for the morning and lunch, and to help Tim with a deer stand. Which, obviously, I know nothing about, so you’ll have to ask Tim about that! 🙂

Why am I such a dork? Why do I look at something and think “oh, that won’t take long” or “nothing to it”?

I’m working on a new scrapbook layout and trying to use up some of my older supplies. I have this sheet of Embossible Designs, except that they are printed on white cardstock. I think “huh, I’ll just trim the white off”. DUH, it’s taking me FOREVER. I’ve been at it thirty minutes already and look how little I have done.

Sigh, at this rate, it’s going to take me 2 hours just to trim these border strips. What a dork I am.

Something that makes me happy (although not necessarily today, but I thought of it today, doesn’t that count? )

Tagless T-shirts

Now, who thought of this? And why didn’t I think of it and patent the idea? I could be sitting in a chateau in the Swiss Alps now if I had come up with this brilliant idea. I have a few short sleeve tshirts and shirts that are tagless, wish they all were. What made me think about it …. I was surfing earlier this morning for long sleeve t-shirts for fall and winter. Ran across some that were tagless; those appeal to me a lot more. Good selling point! 😀

Feast Sixty
Friday, August 19, 2005

Appetizer
Do you get excited when the season begins to change? Which season do you most look forward to? Yes, well as little of a seasonal change we get here in the Deep South. It will be hot here through at least October, which I hate. We’re coming up on my most favorite time of the year, I love fall and winter. I love when it starts to cool off, finally!

Soup
What day of the week is usually your busiest? Monday – catching up from the weekend, when Tim and I spend all of our time together. I let everything else go, usually cooking, always cleaning, laundry, picking up the house. I usually grocery shop on Monday or Tuesday also, so Monday is very busy.

Salad
Would you consider yourself to be strict when it comes to grammar and spelling? What’s an example of the worst error you’ve seen? Yes, sigh. Bad spelling or grammar (mostly spelling) is a pet peeve of mine. Something I picked up from my mom, the substitute English teacher. She was always very particular about it, so I learned that from her.

Main Course
Who has a birthday coming up, and what will you give them as a gift? Let’s see, my mother-in-law’s is next week (shh, can’t give it away). Next is Zack, not sure what we will get him. Then next is Amanda, she gets whatever she asks for, maybe a gift card or scrapping stuff.

Dessert
If you could have any new piece of clothing for free, what would you pick? Hmmm, good question. I haven’t had a good all-purpose winter coat in a while. Tim got me a leather one a few years back, but my other one is about 10 years old. Not that I need a coat more than, oh say – 2 weeks out of the year! I’d probably pick a nice track suit for fall/winter before a coat, something I could wear every day!

Catching up on some things in my to-do list. I just entered movie reviews for the two movies we saw last weekend, over at Hambones. We went to the theatre to see “Fantastic Four” and then rented “Man of the House” with Tommy Lee Jones. We enjoyed both. Both were light and funny and fairly clean. Pretty predictable in plot, but we like those some times!

Just added some great photos that Wendy sent of Nathan, and also a really great one of her and Nathan. Check them out in the Photos section of Hambones, they are really good! Nathan has the greatest smile 🙂