Exceedingly Mundane

This week’s question is very timely, considering I blogged a little about this yesterday! From their new website, here:

It happens even to the best readers from time to time… you close the cover on the book you’re reading and discover, to your horror, that there’s nothing else to read. Either there’s nothing in the house, or nothing you’re in the mood for. Just, nothing that “clicks.� What do you do?? How do you get the reading wheels turning again?

Well, since I got back on my reading kick a couple of years ago, I can honestly say that I have never reached the point where I don’t have something lined up next to read. I have a pretty good TBR pile here, and I have a huge list on my PDA of books to check out of the library. So the literal “don’t have a thing to read” dilemma has not happened to me. However, the “nothing you’re in the mood for” thing does apply to me! I actually have that a lot. Including yesterday. I had finished the last library book, and knew I wanted to work on some books from my bookshelves that are languishing there, feeling lonely and gathering dust. I just didn’t know which ones and what I felt like reading.

I am actually quite a “moody” reader, I admit. I tend to get in moods where I do or do not want to read certain kinds of books. This is really apparent for me when it comes to series books. I love to read series books, and I must read them in order, but I have this odd little quirk about not reading them back to back most of the time. I seem to get sort of burned out if I read a series of 3, 5 or even more books in consecutive order, with nothing else interspersed in there to change the mood or flow. (I think I must have a short attention span and need to switch things up. This also applies to any book over about 350 or 400 pages. I balk. I can’t do it, just too long!) I just don’t enjoy series books as much like that, if I read them back to back to back. So, I slide other books in there and work along on my series, without getting burned out on them. Does that make sense?

I finished another library book last night, the fifth book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith. I still have several of these left to go, and am slowly checking them out of the library. They’re really light and easy books to read, with a different pace and voice to them, but I do enjoy them. Really like little short stories and vignettes woven throughout each book. And certainly the setting, Botswana, is different from most everything I read.

I also enjoy these books because I don’t have to stop and look up a lot of words! 😆 I don’t like books where I have to stop every page or so and look up a word or figure out what it means. It distracts me from my reading, but I do have to know and therefore have to stop. In this book, I only wrote down four words, although I think I pretty much knew two of them (or figured it out from the sentence), but still, I love to learn new words.

Here’s the words I wrote down… see if you know any or all of them! I’ll put a link to the definitions on the extended page.

1. Diurnal
2. Didactic
3. Stentorian
4. Imprecations

For the record, that makes 35 books read so far this year, with a total of 10,907 pages read. I am still trying to decide what to read next. Therein lies my dilemma. I have a huge TBR pile of books here and then there’s always the library (and my ever-growing list of 100 or so books I want to check out). I am going to try to stay out of the library until after our vacation though. I don’t like to take library books with me out of town; I’d rather travel with my own books. So, I will have to go through my pile of books later today and see what strikes my fancy. I don’t think I want to read a book that is a part of a series, and I have a lot of those. I’ve already got so many other series started, in progress, that I don’t think I need to start any more. 🙄

Have a good day, and Happy Reading!!!

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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?

Look what I got in the mail over the long weekend!!!

I had entered one of the “Books Galore” giveaways over at Katrina’s blog, Callapidder Days. Katrina emailed me to let me know I had won one of the books, a book entitled “Last Light” by Terri Blackstock. Terri is an author I have not read, but had heard good things about. And, this book is part of a series, and I do love good series books! Anyway, it came in the mail over the weekend, signed by the author and everything! I don’t own a single book that has been signed by the author, so this is a wonderful thing for me 🙂 What really got me though, was that I had no idea Terri Blackstock lived just a few minutes from my house! I think it’s just the coolest thing to enter a contest on the Internet, win a book, and find out that the author lives 20 minutes from my home. Cool beans!

Thanks again to Katrina, and thanks to Terri Blackstock – I look forward to reading it! 😀

We’ve been incredibly busy the last few days. I’m still pretty tired. I feel like just crawling in the bed and throwing the covers over my head. Alas, that ain’t gonna happen. This is always a really difficult time of year for me, and I haven’t quite come out of the fog yet.

Let’s see, busy as a bee. Bzzzz. Friday was spent shopping with my sister Gail and seeing a lot of our family before a graduation ceremony on Saturday. We had pizza Friday night (hence the pizza poll below!). Saturday we went to graduation and a big lunch afterwards at a local restaurant. We got to see all of our great nieces and nephews, which doesn’t happen often, so that was all really nice. After the graduation festivities, Tim, my dad and I went to the cemetery to put flowers on my mom’s grave.

Sunday, we got up early to drive over to church with Tim’s mom and the rest of our family on that side. We all had lunch and hung out all afternoon, which was nice. We got home last night right before Survivor started. I was soooo disappointed that Yau-man was not the winner. I’ve decided this morning that Dreamz is now in my top 2 of all-time unlikeable Survivor players. He’s right up there with Johnny Fairplay as horrendous, unworthy, despicable characters on that show.

We rented a movie late Saturday night on PPV. It was one Tim and I thought we wanted to see, and we were wrong. Dead wrong. I won’t even tell you the title, because Tim said he is ashamed we even rented it and wasted money and time on it. He wouldn’t even rate it on a scale of 1-10 when I asked him what he thought of it. I didn’t make it more than 20 minutes into the blamed thing. Movies with horrible, abject violence and atrocious language (think the “F’ word every second sentence or more) are just not my thing.

I took a bunch of pictures over the last few days and have posted a select few over at my Project365 photoblog. Here’s one I liked that I didn’t post over there – one of me and Tim after graduation:

Hope everyone had a nice weekend and a Happy Mother’s Day. Here’s to a wonderful week ahead

Last week went pretty much according to plan, except that I didn’t make the new recipe for Honey Mustard pork chops that I wanted to try. I am going to move it to this week and give it a shot. On that night, I decided to make some Chinese food. So, we had a chicken stir fry with brown rice, some eggrolls, and I tried a new recipe for Egg Drop Soup. I liked the soup and will make it again, but with changes. I used low-sodium chicken broth (what I had on hand), and didn’t think to add salt. I will next time, and I will also use less cornstarch. I didn’t have green onions, but they would help, as would a dash of either rice wine vinegar or soy sauce. It was good though, and we both liked it, and it was very easy.

As always, thanks to Laura over at OrgJunkie for hosting this every week. Be sure to go over and check out all of the great menus.

Sunday – Pancakes

Monday – new recipe for Honey Mustard Pork Chops, smashed potatoes, green beans

Tuesday – Taco Salad, pinto beans

Wednesday – Light Night before Tim weighs in – eggs, oatmeal, toast

Thursday – Chicken Veggie Soup, corn muffins

Friday – Meatball Subs, oven fries

Saturday – Date Night or TBD

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.

Well, I feel like I should blog about something other than my weekly menu, a book or movie review, or a meme or tag. I do try to post my “question of the day” fairly often, because I feel like it’s a fun and kind of interesting way of talking about myself, as well as learning more about the wonderful people who take time out of their busy day to visit my blog. I love seeing the ways that we are all alike, yet all different. It reminds me that I live in a very small corner of our incredible world, and there are lots of other ways that people think, act and live.

However, that doesn’t really fill in for what most people expect to find in a blog. I feel like most people blog about interesting things, fun times out of their day, their kids and the cute things they say, family times, and a whole myriad of other entertaining topics. I don’t feel like my blog has been anywhere in that realm lately. Maybe its just me and the blahs, or maybe its just because I lead a very boring, an exceedingly mundane kind of life. I live a simple life and that’s totally by choice and by plan. But it doesn’t make for a very interesting blog.

Plus, I seem to be putting more of my daily type ramblings over on my Project365 blog. Swing by and check it if you haven’t. Nothing interesting, but at least it’s a photo and a blurb about something that happened during the day. Usually, it’s a picture of food, a flower or my dog. Riveting stuff!

So, here’s a few minor things in my head… buckle your seatbelts 🙂

Ok, I guess that’s enough boring randomness for today. Hope everyone else is having a great day, and a great week

So, judging by last week’s answers, apparently the question I should have been asking was:

Where DON’T you read??

Well, that’s a really good question! Last week’s question was “do you read in public and where” and apparently most of us bookworms do read most places where we have time. I read whenever I have time to wait – at the doctor’s office, hair salon, etc. I will even sit in a vehicle and read while I’m waiting on Tim. I can read in a car or plane, as motion sickness doesn’t bother me. I read on someones comments last week that they read in line at the grocery store. That’s something I have actually never done. I don’t take my book when I go to the grocery, Target, Walmart, etc.

Anyway!

Where I can’t read is anywhere that is crowded or loud. I can’t read at home if the room is full of people or the TV or music is blaring. I need peace and quiet to read. Same with out in public. If I’m in a crowded waiting room and there’s noise, I can take my book, but I won’t get much read. Same with an airport waiting area. I always try, but I usually end up distracted, watching people or else I just can’t concentrate. I can put on my iPod and turn on some quiet music (classical or relaxing elevator type music), but that’s about the only way I can read if it’s noisy or crowded. I just enjoy my peace and quiet too much, I think!

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 🙂

I’ve been known to go overboard on lots of things. It’s the “hoarding” or packrat mentality that I possess. Tim often jokes that if there is an empty space, I will fill it. I have enough toilet paper, paper towels, toothpaste and the like stashed around here for us for months on end. He got really worried when we got the new refrigerator, thinking I would go hog wild and go out and buy tons of food — just to fill it up 🙂 Silly boy. And oh, he says we should never move into a house with a walk-in pantry. He says I will be at Sam’s Club every week, buying stuff we can’t possibly eat in a lifetime.

Anyway, this mentality reared its ugly head, just a little, yesterday when I was grocery shopping. I stopped by the milk (ack, it’s up to 3.57 for a gallon of store brand skim milk, and going up every week, it seems), and I also needed to grab a creamer. Here’s what is residing in my refrigerator now:

I had blogged about seeing this Blueberry Cobbler flavor earlier and swore up and down I wouldn’t want to try it. It’s the thought of it being blue, I think. But then Sparky Duck emailed me and told me he had tried it and he really liked it, so I thought I would give it a try. I also spied another “limited edition” flavor in the International Delights brand, White Chocolate Raspberry. So, I couldn’t, you know, just let it sit there! There was only one there, so I had to get it 🙂

Yes, the first step is admitting you have a problem…

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! 🙂

I finished another library book last night. The second book by Southern author Joshilyn Jackson, although this was the first one I had read by her. I’m glad I got it from the library, because I don’t think it is one that I would want to own. It actually reminds me in an odd way of the book “We Are All Welcome Here” by Elizabeth Berg, in that it has a traditional Southern family, strong women, quirky and odd characters sprinkled throughout, difficult circumstances (a disability in each case) and situations that test them. Common themes, I’m sure, but the books seemed a bit similar to me, although I think I liked the characters in the Berg book better.

Rather than trying to write my own review, I’ve once again swiped (aka, totally plagiarized) this write-up from Amazon.com on this book:

Nonny Frett understands the meaning of the phrase in between a rock and a hard place better than any woman alive. She’s got two mothers, one deaf-blind and the other four baby steps from flat crazy. She’s got two men: a husband who is easing out the back door; and a best friend, who is laying siege to her heart in her front yard. And she has two families: the Fretts, who stole her and raised her right; and the Crabtrees, who lost her and won’t forget how they were done wrong. Now, in Between, Georgia, population 90, a feud that began the night Nonny was born is escalating, and a random act of violence is about to ignite a stash of family secrets. Ironically, it might be just what the town needs….if only Nonny weren’t stuck in between.

I liked the book, but I had a bit of a time getting “into” it. I ended up liking it though (especially with the ending, I much prefer books and movies with good endings), and I think I would recommend it. I’d like to read her first book “gods in Alabama” first though, before I go all out and recommend her to the utmost. I am so grateful to have a decent library, so I can check out these books without having to buy them first. 🙂

For the record, that makes 32 books read so far this year, for a total of 10,122 pages read. Up next is the newest Miss Julia book, “Miss Julia Strikes Back” by Ann B. Ross. I got on the waiting list at the library (I’m totally loving this online system, it is so easy to get on the wait list for new bestsellers!) and I was near the top of the list, so they called last week to say that this one was waiting on me. I have read the other 7 Miss Julia books and enjoyed them all, so I’m sure this one will be no exception. I won’t do a review on it when I’m finished, as I think they are all very similar. After that, I’m going to read another new-to-me-author, Anne George, and one of her “Southern Sisters Mystery” books. (Thanks Kim!!!) I SO wanted to read these in order, as there are 8 or 9 of them, but my library doesn’t have the earlier ones, so I’m going to have to start with one of the newer ones. I’m hoping they are books you can read out of order and not be lost.

Happy Reading, everyone!

I’m sticking with mostly tried and true stuff this week, with the exception of one lone new recipe. And to top that, everything else is chicken. We luvs us some chicken 🙂 As always, thanks to Laura over at OrgJunkie for hosting this every week. Be sure to go over and check out all of the great menus.

Here’s the plan, we’ll see if we can stick to it 🙂

Sunday – leftover steak fajitas

Monday – Grilled Chicken Hoagies (like a chicken version of a philly cheesesteak, if we can wing it), dilled potato salad

Tuesday – Crockpot Chicken Santa Fe with tortilla chips (Tim) and rice (me)

Wednesday – Grilled Chicken Salad (light night before Tim weighs in at work)

Thursday – new recipe for Honey Mustard Pork Chops, smashed potatoes, green beans

Friday – probably graduation festivities with family / TBD

Saturday – TBD

We’ve been really busy the last couple of days. Too busy to blog, I’m afraid, and this one is going to be short and sweet 🙂

We had a date night last night. Dinner at our favorite Chinese place, and then we went to the new Starbucks that recently opened in our little burg. After that, we rented “The Guardian” with Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. Tim’s pick, but we both liked the movie. He really liked it and said he’d give it a 8.5 to a 9.0. I’d probably rate it a 7 or 8, but only because of the ending. It was like Top Gun except with Coast Guard and rescue swimmers instead of pilots. Good movie.

Quick Pic – this is what was on Tim’s Starbucks cup… loved it!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend 😀