Exceedingly Mundane

I finished this book a couple of nights ago and have been meaning to write a blurb about it. Not really a book review. I’ve decided after reading many “book reviews” at other people’s blogs that I cannot write a good review. I don’t think I write well enough to compare with most of you, LOL! So, I’m going to call them book blurbs and stick to that 😆

This is a book that I borrowed from my mother-in-law over the Christmas holidays. She had several of these, and I borrowed three, I think. They all say “Love Inspired” at the top, and the tagline “heartwarming inspirational romance”. So, I guess you could call them a Christian romance, but I didn’t really consider this book a romance book. It was a love story yes, but it’s not a romance in the sense of the Harlequin romance type of book.

I really liked it, and am glad I read it. It was light and predictable, but a good read. This particular one is about Elizabeth, a woman living with a “spoiled heiress” reputation, when in reality, she’s neither spoiled nor an heiress, but is hiding behind a mask of hurt and pain from a traumatic event that happened to her as a teenager. She was raped and has never been able to get close to a man since it happened. She has friends, family that she doesn’t like or respect, and a job she enjoys. Then, she meets Jackson, a man who moves to the horse ranch next door to become their foreman. He has his own reasons for being there, having just found out that he was adopted. He’s looking for his family and doesn’t realize at first that he will now find the woman of his dreams. It was predictable, it was light, it was easy to read, and it had a Christian slant to it. My kind of book. 🙂

For the record, that makes #2 for the year (I had previously finished “The Betrayal”, book 2 in the Beverly Lewis series I am reading), with a total of 610 pages read. Up next is a book I just started and I know already that I’m going to love, “The Year of Pleasures” by Elizabeth Berg. Berg is a new author for me, but one I have been wanting to read for a while. I think this one is going to be wonderful – so far, I am totally entranced and in love with her style of writing. Check back soon for the review of that one 🙂

Planning this week’s menu was a little bit of a struggle for me. This week, I have several ingredients that I am trying to use up and I have a lot of them! I bought a huge bag of potatoes at Kroger last week, on sale, and we’re having potatoes almost every day! I also bought a big thing of portebellini mushrooms (baby portobellos) and those are going to appear in the first couple of meals. It turned out to be an odd menu, but I’m sure we’ll survive!

Be sure to stop by Laura‘s blog and see what everyone else is planning for the week!

Monday – Tortellini with Portobello mushrooms (I don’t have a jar of alfredo sauce, so unless I run back to the grocery, I may try it using this alfredo sauce recipe), Salad, bread

Tuesday – Baked Potatoes with Creamy Mushroom Sauce, Salad

Wednesday – Grilled Chicken Salad with homemade zesty Italian dressing

Thursday – Golden Potato Soup, homemade bread

Friday – new recipe for Taco Pie

Saturday – Frito Pie or Wings – it’s Playoff Time, baby! Saints play at 7 PM, Woo-Hoo!

Sunday – TBD or Breakfast Food

The Creamy Mushroom sauce for the baked potatoes and the zesty Italian dressing recipes are older ones I have on recipe cards, and are not entered in our recipe system. They’re pretty simple recipes, but if anyone is interested in them, just email me or leave a comment if you want to see them, and I’ll be glad to type them up. 🙂

Have a great week!

One of the nicest and sweetest bloggers on the block (Susie of SusiePie fame) has tagged me with this meme. If she knew me better, she’d probably not want to know what I think, LOL. Just kidding! This one is pretty mild, and pretty fun to boot! Thanks Susie 🙂

1. As a child, what did you always say you wanted to be when you grew up? For the longest time, I wanted to be a pilot. Fly airplanes, fly into space, be an astronaut. I don’t remember ever wanting to be things like a doctor or a nurse or anything like that. I think I knew, even at a young age, that medical stuff, needles, sickness, pain, etc were not areas that I would be any good at!

2. If you had to choose one thing that you’ve always dreamed of doing, what would it be? What is stopping you? To go into space. See question #1 about wanting to be an astronaut. Maybe now, Tim will strike it rich one day and we can be space tourists, LOL. What is stopping me – myself, earlier in life for not pursuing this type of dream. Not enough discipline on my part, I’d say. As for the tourist part, obviously money is a huge impediment!

3. Who is your biggest fan? I hope it’s Tim, but I honestly have no idea. I don’t think I would have any fans.

4. What bible study or book (besides the obvious-the Bible) has most impacted your life to date? I must admit that I can’t really think of a proper answer for this one. I don’t read much non-fiction or study books of any kind. I’ve got a couple that I want to read, but I haven’t read them yet. Maybe I can answer this one better in a year or two. As for Christian fiction, most every book I have read by authors such as Karen Kingsbury and Lori Wick have left me with a sense of peace and renewed faith. I really enjoy this genre and read a lot of it, because of the positive aspects I feel when I read this type of book.

5. When are you the happiest? One of the happiest times I’ve had in recent years was when Tim took me to the mountains to celebrate my birthday. We had a wonderful time! It was my birthday and I got some nice presents, we went out to eat for breakfast for my birthday, he cooked me a juicy steak that night, we had a great cabin with a big hot tub on the deck, we went hiking and sightseeing and I got to take tons of great photos of fall foliage, etc. As for the day to day kind of happiness, I’m happiest being at home. When things are quiet, I have a good book, some down time and maybe a cup of yummy coffee or cocoa.

OK, I’ll tag Stacy, Cam, Dianne and my sister Gail for this one. If anyone else would like to play along, I’d love to come visit yours, so just leave me a note that you’d like to play. Thanks again to Susie for tagging me!

I saw over at Dawn‘s blog that she had tagged me and also my sister Gail with a book tag. Fun, here we go!

Here are the rules/requirements:
1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fourth sentence.
3. Post the text of the following 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Name of the author and book.
5. Tag three people of your own.

OK, the closest book is “The Betrayal” by Beverly Lewis, a book I just recently finished. I’ve flipped to page 123, and gone down to the fourth sentence. Here’s the next three sentences of text:

“Well, I daresay none of them has ever had such a defiant streak.” Mamma had frowned and shook her head. Clearly aggravated, she groaned a bit as she bent down to hoist the wicker hamper filled with damp clothing.

Hmmm, not very exciting, that passage. It’s a good book though, book 2 in a series of 5 books about the Amish as told by Christian author Beverly Lewis.

I won’t tag anyone specifically, but please feel free to play along. Leave me a comment if you play, and I’ll be sure to come and visit and leave you a comment! 🙂

Right around Christmas, I had a few days where I was not feeling very well. I wasn’t near-death kind of sick, just sort of run down, with a bad sore throat, a headache and I sort of ached all over. I was afraid it might have been the flu, but after I got some rest, took some Tylenol and sucked back a few Chloraseptic lozenges, I started to feel better.

I don’t get “near-death” sick very often. I don’t run fever much, and I have only thrown up 2 or 3 times in the last 10-11 years. But, if I do ever get really sick, we have a problem in our house. Tim and I treat sickness and feeling bad completely different. Completely.

When I’m sick, I like to have a little bit of attention paid to me. I know, I am probably asking a lot, but that’s what I like and it’s what I had growing up. If I didn’t feel good, my mom would mother me and make me chicken noodle soup (Campbells, from a can!), get me some Sprite or give me some crackers every few hours. She’d check on me and see how I was feeling. Personally, I don’t think that’s a lot to ask, but if you were to ask my husband that, you would not get that kind of answer. Tim, when he doesn’t feel good, wants to be left completely, totally and utterly alone. Don’t talk to him, don’t offer to bring him food or get him something to drink, don’t try to get him a Tylenol, just leave him alone. For hours or days on end. He doesn’t like to be touched, talked to, or basically even share the same room with me or anyone else. Me, I’m the polar opposite. I like those things. I don’t like to be in a dark room, all alone and left to die.

A couple of years ago, I was pretty sick. I was running fever and I was pretty weak. I laid down in bed (something I rarely do, so you’d think that would have tipped Tim off) and turned off the lights, tv, radio, etc. I had the door open, and apparently he looked in on me once, closed the door, and then proceeded to not come in for nearly 10 hours. TEN HOURS. After I woke up a few hours later, I lay there miserable, wondering, is he going to offer to bring me something to drink since I’m too weak to get up and get it myself? Will he offer me some soup or crackers since I’m too sick to open a can of Campbells chicken noodle and feed myself? Nope, nothing. I could have died and he wouldn’t have noticed.

I know, I’m going to get a lot of snide comments here. I have come to learn from Tim that apparently I’m asking for way too much. Apparently, I can learn to leave him alone and try not to talk to him, but he can’t learn to check on me (tsk, tsk, there I go again, being snarky) and get me a Sprite. 🙄 Now, before you pipe up and say what a bad wife I am, please let me state for the record, I really don’t think I am that bad. I am not asking to be petted and baby’d to death, just a cursory check and an offer of medicine or food every now and then would be nice. I love Tim to death and I know he loves me and I know he wouldn’t knowingly let me lay there and die. At least, I don’t think he would 😀

Ok, here’s today’s Question of the Day: How do you act when you’re sick? Do you want to be left alone or do you like a little attention? Does your spouse or family share the same way of thinking, or are there a lot of polar opposites in your home on this matter? Leave me a comment and let me know 🙂

Friday, January 05, 2007
Feast One Hundred & Twenty-Five

Appetizer
Which celebrity (or celebrities) do you think will make headlines this year? Probably the same ones who annoy me already. Like Brad and Angelina (although I think they will adopt another baby this year), Paris Hilton, poor dumb Britney Spears, etc. I just hope Tom Cruise stays in the background and doesn’t come out and jump on any more couches and drive me batty.

Soup
They say that good things come in small packages? What is something little that you think is great? A Godiva truffle!

Salad
Name a song that makes you want to dance. Black Horse and a Cherry Tree by KT Tunstall

Main Course
What is your favorite font? Hmmm, haven’t thought about fonts much since I haven’t been scrapbooking. I used to like using Tabitha or Comic Sans for journaling though.

Dessert
If you were to write a do-it-yourself article, what would it be about? How to waste time on the computer every day??? 🙄

I have an odd request, and it’s going to come off like I’m asking for something or begging, because, let’s face it, I am! It’s not a big thing, so if it doesn’t work out, I won’t break down and cry or anything. 🙁

I noticed on a box of Nabisco brand crackers I bought before Christmas that Rachael Ray’s picture was on the box. When I read the side of the box, I noticed an offer for one of her cookbooks, Express Lane Meals, if you collect a certain number of box tops and mail them in with a check for 4.99. Unfortunately, it calls for 6 box tops and I only have 2 of these boxes. We don’t eat a lot of crackers, but I did buy some for a cheeseball and some dips I made at the holidays. I might buy one or maybe two more boxes at most, around the time of the Super Bowl. But I seriously doubt that I will buy 6 boxes of crackers in the next few months.

So, here’s my shameless begging – if you have a box of these crackers that has this special “cookbook point” on it and you are NOT going to use it for yourself, would you mind mailing it to me? Like I said, I won’t break down and sob if I don’t get it, but on the other hand, I didn’t think it would be too awful to ask. Or is it? Am I just a shameless horrible good-for-nothing blogger??!

Here’s what they look like:

Thanks!

Tim worked quite a bit last night on getting me setup with a new photoblog for the Project365 photo project. Thank you sweetheart!!! It’s on my sidebar, or you can click here to reference it. I just updated it with today’s photo 😆 I have also started a listing of others who are participating in this project… so if you are and you’re not on my list, leave me a comment and let me know so I can add you!

Oh, and I’m still trying to decide on a look for this new photoblog. Right now I have the mountain one, just because it reminds me of winter, without being holiday oriented. That may change sooner or later!

Well, I’ve been thinking, mulling, pondering, and deliberating on whether or not to join the Project 365 photo project. It’s an awfully big commitment and I’m not sure one that I will be able to complete. The idea of taking and posting a photo a day for 365 consecutive days is rather daunting to me. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I take a ton of photos already. I would guess that I take, on average, 1000 photos a year, maybe more. Of nothing, of everything; of food, animals, people, events, holidays, flowers, things around the house, etc. Taking the photos is not that big of a deal to me, it’s something I am already doing. It’s just the general idea that I commit to a project this demanding and see it through to the end. It’s the “forced” nature of the project. I rather enjoy taking my photos and don’t want it to become a chore or something I feel that I *have* to do. Nor do I want it to be something I tried and failed. I’m a bit competitive, ya know, I don’t like to fail. 🙄

Having said that, I am going to at least attempt it. But, with the caveat that I might not complete it, that I might not post a picture every day (yup, my blog, my rules, my way, nanananana!). I will quit if I feel like it’s become something I don’t enjoy doing any more.

In the mean time, I’ve set up a separate area of the blog for this immense project. It’s called Project365 and is on my sidebar. I will also be posting a lot of the pictures here, as I’m doing today. I hope to incorporate the pictures I use for this photo project into my regular blogging. Some days I will and some I won’t. I often post photos anyway (yes, of Beau the wonder dog and food I cook, I know, but remember this blog ain’t named ‘Exceedingly Mundane’ for nothing!), so hopefully it won’t be too burdensome to post extra ones as a part of this project.

Drumroll please… click here to see the first two days entries, and my entry for today is below:

I found Beau staring out the window this morning into our backyard which was filled with birds. I think we have more birds in the wintertime because I put out suet, bird seed and also corn for the squirrels. We get a lot more activity, I think, when they have trouble finding other food. This morning, I was able to see both a cardinal and a dove in one section of a tree… I took multiple pictures and was able to get the camera to focus on either the dove or the cardinal but not both. This was the best of the lot 🙂

P.S. I just read over at Susie‘s blog that she is participating too. Yeah! I like how she’s setup a separate photo blog for this. I wanted to do this, but will require help from my geeky husband to get it going. Something to strive for in the future 🙂

Our fantasy football league has sadly come to an end. I hated to see it finish — we have such a good time playing every week. Congratulations go out to our friend Chris (code name: Jurisprudence What?) for coming in first, and to our friend Michael (code name: Skull Crushers) for being the runner-up. They both had a really great season! Both of their teams were pretty awesome, and they were both really hard to beat! Tim (code name: WhoDat) and our nephew Zack (code name: Bone Crushers), battled it out for third place, with Tim coming in third. I didn’t do too bad; I was pretty pleased with my results, although of course I would have rather won! I came in 5th (out of 16 teams in our league) and was the highest scoring female. My blog buddy Dawn also made it into the playoffs with me, and we were the only women who did. The men really dominated this year!

Anyway, we hated to see it come to an end, and can’t wait for next year. Next year will be the third annual Hambones fantasy football league, cool huh?! In the mean time, we’re really excited about the playoffs around here. Tim, my devoted Saints fan, is on cloud 9 that his team has made it into the playoffs, and we can’t believe they have a first round bye! We’ll be rooting for them and then looking forward to the Super Bowl!

P.S. Tim wants me to say “Geaux Saints!!!”

I have several topics rolling around in my head that I want to blog about. However, I can’t seem to decide which one to start with. I probably need to jot them down somewhere or start some draft blog posts, because a lot of the time I can’t think of a single thing to blog about. Nothing, nada.

Anyway, I thought I’d start at the beginning of my day. One of the first things I do every morning is make the bed. It’s something I was raised with. I can’t ever remember a time when my mom let me slide and not make the bed. I’m sure when I was very little, she did it for me, but I don’t remember those days. I can remember being older and living at home, and she always wanted the bed made. Since I’ve been grown and living on my own, it’s something that I have always, always done. And I mean 365 days a year always. Even when I’m sick. I make the bed every day. It must be some kind of weird gene I have!

So that’s today’s Question of the Day: Do you make your bed every day? Or does it just not matter to you? If you do, is it something your mom or someone else insisted on or taught you?

Have a great day everyone! I hope to get busy today with cleaning and getting things back to normal. I’ve made stabs over the last couple of weeks at keeping things picked up and semi-presentable looking, but I haven’t really done much cleaning, and my house shows it. We need some serious cleaning around here 🙄

I am so ready to get back to normal, back into a routine, and also trying to eat healthier. You know, my days are so messed up with the holidays that I just now realized this is Monday. I guess I’ll be off track all week! Thankfully, Laura over at OrgJunkie is back with this fun menu meme. Pop on over and check out some of the other participants menus for ideas and inspiration!

Without further ado, here’s my menu for the week:

Monday – traditional NY Day food (ham, greens for Tim, cabbage and cornbread. Due to a scheduling snafu the terribly traditional black-eyed peas did not get made). For supper, we’re having Tim’s world famous Rumien 🙂

Tuesday – Easy Baked Fish, coleslaw, mashed potatoes

Wednesday – Grilled Chicken Salad (Lite Night before Tim weighs in at work)

Thursday – new recipe for a Sausage and Potato chowder, homemade sourdough bread

Friday – Spaghetti or Date Night

Saturday – TBD

Sunday – game day food; our alma mater plays in a bowl game that night and I hope to order pizza delivery 🙂

OK, so we just finished our jigsaw puzzle! That sucker was 1000 pieces and so many of the same colors. Lots of white, greens and brown shades. We’ve been working very diligently on it since Saturday afternoon late. Here it is – Ta da!

Now, we’ll have to find something else to do for the rest of the holiday today. Tomorrow, I hope to get back into some kind of normal routine 🙄