Exceedingly Mundane

Another week down, closer to having the house finished! That can’t come soon enough for me 🙂

Let’s see, the week was fairly quiet. I did housework and normal stuff on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday after work, Elizabeth stopped by and we took a pickup bed full of boxes to the storage unit, then took Liz to see the house for the first time. Wednesday, Suzanne stopped by for a visit.

Thursday, I had returns to make to a few stores. Then, Gail came and brought Sam and Katelyn back to their house, they had been staying with her since the weekend. She came here and we went shopping and to run errands. We ran by Marshall’s and TJ Maxx and bought a couple of small things. Then we stopped at Big Lots and actually found some food items, I was pleasantly surprised at what a large assortment of Bob’s Red Mill products they had. I’ll have to remember to go back there after we move and stock up on a few things. After that, we went over to see Suzanne’s apartment, as Gail had not had a chance to visit her there. We hung out a while, then ran by Fresh Market to get the Thursday Meal Deal. This month’s (July) deal was cheeseburgers. We got 4 burger patties (2 beef, 2 turkey), brioche rolls from the deli, cookies, coleslaw, and slice cheese. Next month’s deal is supposed to be noodle bowls, I’ll be interested to see what all that entails.

Gail spent the night and then headed out Friday. I ran to Kroger and did a big grocery run. Tim did not play golf all weekend, which is very odd. Saturday, he decided to stay here and work on the house. We’re down to the wire to get things fixed up around here to put our current house on the market, before we move to the new house. He cleaned up outside, washed down the siding and doors, painted around the front and back doors and also washed the gutters. I did some packing inside, in the master bedroom closet.

Sunday, I got up and was nearly ready for church when Tim came in the bathroom and said “I do NOT feel good, I can’t go to church”. Which for Tim to say, means he is near death’s door 🙂 He stayed home all day and rarely left the couch. Now, today (Monday) he is even worse with a stomach bug, but is working. Suzanne came over Sunday afternoon and stayed for several hours. She had a setback and is very upset. I went over to her apartment today (Monday) and tried to get her up and out of bed at lunchtime. She is not eating and is very depressed. Before I left, she called and got an appointment at an outpatient counseling place across town, and is hopefully going to be accepted and start a 6 or 8 week intensive outpatient therapy regimen. She is really struggling and we’re doing our best to help her.

We should be contacting a realtor soon, to list the house, which means we’ll shift into an even higher gear. I am going to have to clean more around here, bummer! And have things presentable at a moment’s notice, I suppose. I’m just itching to get a final date on the house and proceed straight to the moving phase 🙂 We ran up to the house yesterday with Suzanne and they had everything prepped for painting but had not started. They had, however, stained the outside doors and they looked really good.

Another week down, wonder how many to go before we have a closing date! At least July is almost over. Oh, and Saints training camp started, so that is wonderful news, LOL!

I’ve posted many times in the past, probably every July and August, about how these are always the two hardest months of the year for me. When I worked full-time, I rarely took vacation during this time, and it was a long time between July 4th and Labor Day. Now that I’m not working, Tim is but plays golf all summer (and we rarely go on vacation this time of year), and the heat is so bad (although this year not NEARLY as bad as normal), the two months of July and August always seem interminably long. And this year is no exception, and probably even worse, since we are trying ever so hard to patiently wait for them to finish with building our house!

We check on the house every week. Tim, usually 2-3 times a week, me usually once or maybe twice. He comes away uber-excited and pumped up. Me, I get dejected that they don’t seem further along and there seems to be *so* much left to do 🙂 It helps that we’ve been taking pictures every step of the way, and sharing them on an IOS photo stream for family, so I can look back to May when it was just dirt, then foundation, then framing and see just how far they HAVE come. But still 😀

We logged another week in the books. Tim and our neighbor Rick finished up the gates and the fence work, so that is now done. It looks really great. I teased them both that we should hire them out, they do really good work 🙂 Tim had a rough week at work, having to work late a couple of nights and having some really bad days where he was chasing problems and on conference calls pretty much the entire day. I hope next week is a lot better for him.

On Wednesday, Kathryn, Katelyn and Sam dropped by after work for Sam to come stay with us, just like his big sister did a couple of weeks ago 🙂 Sam and I had fun, when we spent time together. He was mostly happy to take his mom’s ipad, go in his room, close the door and binge-watch cartoon “movies” or tv shows from Netflix. He could do that hours at a time, unless he got hungry. He never seemed to get bored! If we tried to read a book (he did NOT want to do that!), watch something together on tv or play the Wii together, he got bored in about 8 minutes flat! LOL! We went to the library and got books for bedtime stories, had dinner at Newk’s (HIS choice, surprisingly!) on Wednesday night with Uncle Tim, and then went to check on the house. Sam had a ball playing in the mountain of sawdust in the garage, LOL! Thursday, Aunt Liz came over for a late lunch, then we went to Sam’s Club and Kroger to pick up some things that Sam likes to eat (chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, chocolate chip waffles, strawberries). We ran into Aunt Suzanne in the grocery, which was nice. Aunt Liz stayed for supper and waited for Uncle Tim to finish work late, so he could work on her vehicle when he finished. She was long overdue for an oil change 🙂 It was good to get to see her, and we look forward to seeing more of her as she winds down summer vacation and gets ready to get back to teaching in August. Sam watched a lot of Netflix on Friday, since it pretty much rained all day. His parents and Katelyn came by after work on Friday and we all visited for a while then went to eat. At Newk’s again, Sam’s choice 🙂 He seems to like their free breadsticks and cheese pizza.

Saturday, Tim had an early morning tee time and then stopped by to check on the house again. They are still finishing up cabinets and building the island and his vanity for his bathroom by the office, also known as one of the guest baths. He spent some time helping me visualize the kitchen and layout and where things might go after he got home. I’m still struggling with the difference in cabinets and drawers at the new house, versus what I have here, where it’s located and how I use it. It really helped when he tried to help me see it and work things out in my mind, but it will really just be after we move and get things unpacked and try to live in the space, before it’s actually going to click for me, I think. One of my big failings, I just can’t visualize things until I actually *do* them.

Today is Sunday, so church. Another good service in the same series, Characters who Teach Character. Guest speaker Floyd Vanderbergh, with Strategic Impact and also a member of our church. He spoke on Gideon and his experience from the book of Judges, good sermon. Afterwards, we ran by Kroger, since we were completely out of milk and almost out of bread. I’ve been trying to use more of what i have here, but still need milk, bread, juice, eggs and lots of produce 🙂

Tim is going to play golf later, and right now he is happily watching recorded British Open coverage on the DVR. I saw online today that there are 7 more Sundays until Saints regular season football begins. I cannot wait!

In other news, Tim’s parents left Monday morning on a cross country trip. They’ve been to Memphis, St Louis, Dodge City Kansas, Mesa Verde Colorado and are driving through Nevada today, headed to the redwoods in California. They’re having a great time, I think!

On the home front, I’m going to try to cook more from my pantry and freezer this week. Tonight (Sunday) we are going to have breakfast food. I don’t have anything nailed down, but am tentatively planning meals this coming week of hot italian sausage sub sandwiches one night, salads, oven bbq chicken with coleslaw and baked beans. I probably won’t get to the crockpot red beans and rice (with sausage), maybe next week on that one. And I have a package of frozen ravioli that I am going to use soon. As I’ve warned Tim, I’m spending less at the grocery right now, which is counter-intuitive to what is going to happen – that I’m going to spend a lot more re-stocking things after we move, when we have less cash to work with. But, oh well!

I finished a library loan book yesterday, the latest by Dee Henderson entitled “Undetected” about a US Navy submarine captain and a genius young lady in the field of sonar. Good book, and now I’ve got another library loan, “Missing You” by Harlan Coben. I don’t read a lot of fiction that is not Christian, but he is one I do enjoy. Not sure what I’ll read after that… We’ve got some stuff to watch on the DVR, since we didn’t watch much while Sam was here and Tim has been busy since Thursday watching British Open coverage.

OK, that’s it for another boring weekly update! 🙂 Hope everyone out there (if anyone is actually out there reading this!) is having a great week and weekend 😀

Some more random questions! I’m slowly trying to work out (in my poor head!) where I’m going to put things in the new house. I’ve lived in my current house 21 years and I can’t seem to figure out where things will go in the new house. So, I have some questions about where YOU put things in your own home!

1) Where do you store onions and potatoes?

2) Do you keep cleaning supplies in each bathroom and the kitchen? Or just have in one space and move around as you clean?

3) Do you keep your jewelry in the bedroom, bathroom or a closet?

4) Do you store spices next to your stove?

Sandra, over at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom, posted this meme. Even though she didn’t tag me specifically, I thought I’d play along 🙂

Aprons – Y/N If Y what does your favorite look like?
Yes, I have a grand total of one! Red, with an embroidered “S” on it, that my sister Gail made and gave to me for Christmas a few years ago. I love it! 🙂

Baking – Favorite thing to bake?
Cookies or brownies, but I love to bake everything. Oh, and bread, does that count?! 🙂

Clothesline – Y/N
I don’t have one, but the house I grew up in had one. I wish I did, but the house we are at doesn’t have room in the backyard, and I don’t think it is allowed either here, or the neighborhood where we will be moving soon. Both have pretty strict covenants

Donuts – Have you ever made them?
No. And I haven’t added that to my culinary bucket list… yet!

Everyday – One homemaking thing you do everyday?
Making the bed. Some kind of dishes or unloading the dishwasher.

Freezer – Do you have a separate deep freeze?
Yes. A small one out in the garage. It’s an older one with a manual defrost and I’ll be very happy one day to get a bit larger one, but mostly, a frost-free one!

Garbage Disposal – Y/N
Yes

Handbook – What is your favorite homemaking resource?
My recipes file – I have a personal recipe software program on my computer, and the recipe database I maintain on our website (here)

Ironing – Love it or hate it?
I don’t like it, but will do it rarely, when the need arises. I don’t find that need very often!

Junk drawer- Y/N – Where is it?
I have two in the kitchen right now. Not sure how that is going to translate to the new house. Probably one in the kitchen and one in my desk drawer in the hall

Kitchen – Color and decorating scheme?
Current house – yellow and red. The new house is a very open plan and will have beige most everywhere, with a speckled brown/black/white granite on the island and countertops. Island will be black. For now, I’ll keep my red accents (towels, rags, potholders, etc) until I can afford to replace them. And then, I don’t know what color scheme I’ll go with… could always use suggestions!!! 🙂

Love – What is your favorite part of homemaking?
Making a house feel like our home. Having it be comfortable and cozy. Making everyone feel welcome. Cooking to feed and nourish our bodies. Lots of things 😀

Mop – Y/N
I have a steam mop that I use on the tile. I try not to use it on the laminate, I have a spray that I use, with a rag, on my hands and knees. I’ll have to find out from the builder how to care for the floors at the new house. I think most of the house is pine, will need cleaning instructions!

Nylons – Wash by hand or in washing machine?
I haven’t worn them in years, but when I did, I just wash them by hand and hang them up in the bathroom. Classic!

Oven – Do you use the window to check on things or do you open the door?
Now that I have a nice new stove (sniff sniff, hate leaving it behind, but glad for more new appliances), I use the window.

Pizza – What do you put on yours?
On homemade, it’s usually pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, olives, red onion and cheese. When we order, I usually get a Hawaiian pizza and Tim gets a supreme

Quiet – What do you do during the day when you get a quiet moment?
Read!

Recipe Card Box – Y/N
Yes, I still have one with some pretty old battered recipe cards. I use it often!

Style of house
Hmmm, no idea! Both our current one (21 years old) and the new house are very similar to other houses in their respective neighborhoods. There’s a certain style to brick houses here. The new house is very open though, which we love 🙂

Tablecloth and napkins – Y/N
I either use a tablecloth or runner on the kitchen table. I will eventually, in the distant future, get a dining room table at the new house and I guess I’ll use either a tablecloth or place mats. I only have a few cloth napkins, just for show. We use paper napkins!

Under the kitchen sink – Organized or toxic wasteland?
Fairly well organized. I hope the new house is the same! Looking forward to having the sink in the laundry room, where I can store a lot of cleaning supplies in there.

Vacuum – How many times per week?
One on a schedule, daily or as needed the rest of the week

Wash – How many loads per week?
Hmm, without Beau, it probably averages 5-6, depending on the time of year

X’s – Do you make a daily to do list and check it off as you do things?
No, I just know what I want or need to do each day. If there’s something special going on, a get-together or holiday or party or something, I make lists for that, but not on a day-to-day basis

Yard – Y/N – Who does what?
Tim does most all of the yard work. I cut grass maybe once or twice a year if he needs help. I do plant flowers and herbs, but he does the regular maintenance stuff

Zzz’s – What is the last homemaking task you do for the day before you go to bed?
Clean up the kitchen

OK, some Exceedingly Mundane random and assorted questions for today:

1) What is the price of milk where you live?

2) When was the last time you printed out a photograph?

3) What’s a movie or TV show you are liking or have enjoyed recently?

4) Do you have an area in your house that has clutter? Something that piles up on you, like mail or dishes or laundry or receipts?

5) How much is gas where you live?

That’s basically the update for this past week: Tim and our neighbor Rick have been rebuilding fences. 🙂

Let’s see, this past week Tim did not play golf once. He played last Sunday, but has not played again. He and Rick worked on our fence and then Rick’s. They have all the 2×4’s up, all the fence boards up now and are working on gates (2 each).

Wednesday at lunch, we drove out to check on the house. Still working inside on cabinets and trim, putting up crown moulding and they had started on the inside brick. Friday afternoon, we got some rain showers around 4 PM, so Tim and Rick decided to take a break. We went back to check on the house, then went out to eat (Chinese buffet!) and to Harbor Freight. At the house, they had finished the inside brick, both the keeping room fireplace and the arch going from the great room into the kitchen/keeping room. They had the outside shutters built, but not installed. I’m hoping for garage doors, driveway and things like that soon. I am hoping they can do some outside stuff while the carpenters are still busy inside. Oh, and Friday evening, they had started on my screened-in back porch! Yippee!

Friday, I ran errands most of the day. I went to Kroger, to Harbor Freight (for a gift card) and the post office and also to Sam’s. Suzanne met me at Sam’s and got a whole cart full of stuff! I hope she has room to store it all 🙂 She also filled up her Toyota with gas.

Saturday was a work day around here. Tim and Rick started around 7:30 AM and finished up about 7:45 PM. I worked some in the attic in the morning (the only time it’s bearable up there), and threw down some stuff to take to the storage unit, as well as some stuff I dragged to the curb for the garbage to pick up. I found my old footlocker and got even more nostalgic and misty-eyed. 🙂 I’ve had that blue footlocker since I was a pre-teen or teen, and it contains papers from my childhood all the way through college.

Sunday was church (guest speaker from a church plant in New Orleans, but still on the same series, Characters who teach Character). The speaker used Jehosheba from 2 Kings 11, who saved the baby Joash from the queen mother Athaliah, who killed all of her grandsons after her son Ahaziah had died. Jehosheba saved the royal line of David, thereby keeping God’s promise, and showed tremendous courage. So this week’s character trait was courage, good sermon 🙂

After church, we stopped by Corner Bakery, but the line was out the door (we were late, had stopped to visit and chat after church), so we went to Walmart instead. I had to get some color safe bleach, mouthwash and I got 2 totes to store stuff from my footlocker in the attic. Since Tim had been working so hard on the fence all week and not playing golf, I told him to pick where he wanted to eat, so of course, he picked Dickey’s BBQ! I have a new plan of action for there, to stay away from some of the meat. I tried a baker (potato) this time and plan to try the Smokehouse Salad next time. I’m still eating pretty bad, but maybe not as much red meat and cholesterol for me. I got the pork tangler potato. Huge baked potato with pulled pork and fried onion strips on top, it was extremely tasty! After our free ice cream, I got Tim to walk next door to Home Goods. I had wanted to look for an Oxo container to store my flax in (I got a HUGE bag at Sam’s, and need something to parcel it out into). I couldn’t find the size I wanted, so I got a glass jar with green lid instead, cute for my new pantry! 🙂

Sunday, we got a rain shower around 1:45, so that sealed it for Tim, he was really too tired to play golf he said. I thought he might cave and go, but after the rain, it was a bit soggier and a lot more humid, so he decided to stay home and rest. After a couple of good naps for him, we rented “NonStop” with Liam Neeson from Amazon video. Good movie! Then we watched an old movie I had recorded on the DVR, the last Twilight one. Then we cleaned up a few tv shows. Oh, and we tried Extant this week on the DVR, the summer sci-fi show with Halle Berry. Tim is on the fence with it, but I sorta liked it. We’ll see how it goes and if we keep up with that one or not.

Now, it’s another Monday and I need to be cleaning house, but I’m very unmotivated. It is hard with boxes and junk everywhere. But we need to get things cleaned up, Tim wants to list the house soon and I dread having to have it ready to show at a moment’s notice. I also hate that he will have to figure out where to go to work if the realtor wants to show it during the day, but that’s a bridge we’ll cross when we get to it 🙂 First, he has to finish the gates and call the fence “done” 😀

Oh, and for food, I made pork fajitas last week, chili dogs, and then we ate out Chinese buffet Friday night. Saturday night I made veggie quesadillas. Sunday we had Dickie’s for lunch, then popcorn with the movie, then Tim made us homemade salsa for supper (I was going to do breakfast food, but he said he was fine with just salsa and chips). Tonight I’m making meatless stuffed peppers and a salad, and I will probably do fried rice and potstickers later this week.

Well… I certainly do ramble about nothing! Not much to report, but there’s another week in the books. One week closer to them finishing the house and us being able to move! I’m so antsy and ready for them to just be done already 😀

Or at least, today is hopefully going to be a lazy Sunday!

Had another busy week, just to hit the highlights:

Monday, we met with the carpenter, his boss and our builder at the new house for a couple of hours. They asked more questions than I knew how to answer about the size, dimensions, placement etc of cabinets in the kitchen and master closet. I’m basically getting Tim to help with that! I liked the layout of cabinets in the other house we are basing our house on, so I was going by that. I really liked how the laundry room was laid out. When we got up there Monday afternoon, they had already started the laundry room and it was different. So, different is fine! Just make it efficient and give me as much space as you can! I did talk to the builder about adding me a small linen closet in the space outside the master suite. It will only be 14 inches deep, but hey, I’ll take it. Ok, I just now went and measured my cedar chest, the one my parents gave me on my Sweet Sixteenth birthday. It’s 13 1/2″ deep, so now I’m even happier. Will give me more space for extra pillows, blankets and the quilts from my grandmother and the one Tim’s Mamaw made for him that we sleep under every winter 🙂

Tim laid out the master closet, with two built in dressers and one shoe rack (that’s what the builder calls it, we called it shelving, LOL!). He went by the house a couple of days later and didn’t like the second built-in, so he had them take it out and go back to rod space. We’ll have to share that one built-in dresser and the shoe rack, but oh well. We’re used to sharing, as we are in such a small space right now. I will just be really happy for a place to put my purses and all of his golf hats! LOL!

Wednesday, I got my haircut and ran errands. I still miss my dad every time I go for a haircut, as I always, always, without fail, went to see him on those days, when he was living here in the assisted living place. I’ve been thinking about him and my mom so much these days, since they helped me buy this house, and raised me in one house all my life. Bittersweet, that’s our key word.

Thursday, I spent most of the day in the kitchen, and Friday we went to Mount Olive to Tim’s Aunt Becky’s house for the annual Fourth of July get-together. Had a great time, as always. This year, I finally got my camera back out and took a lot of photos. That nostalgia stuff with missing my parents and moving out of this house that I’ve lived in for 21 years is till going strong, so I want to take a lot of photos of family at all times of the year, especially holidays. I posted a lot of them on Facebook, so I won’t post any here.

Biggest news that day – Brittany and David got engaged the night before! We’re so excited for them 🙂

After we got back on Friday, Tim went to Lowe’s and bought a new refrigerator for the new house. I had picked out a Whirlpool Gold french door style to match all the new appliances. We were originally going to get it at the builders supply place where everything else is coming from. But Lowe’s was having a sale through the holiday weekend, and it was 800 off regular price, and 400 less than what they quoted us at the contractor place. So Tim talked to them and they are going to order it, and store it until we move in September. How awesome is that?! I had no idea Lowe’s would do that. Tim went ahead and got an extended warranty on it, just in case. He also went for his main purpose -to buy a load of lumber to rebuild the fence.

We started on that Saturday morning. He tore down the old fence at our current house, and had bought posts and concrete to redo those, but decided to go with the ones already in place, as they look fine. He hung all the 2×4’s and then started on the dog ear boards. He got the front done, but we have all the back and Rick and Sharon’s side left to do. He is playing golf today (Sunday), since he doesn’t work on Sundays, but says he won’t play golf again until the fence is done! So, WOW, I will see a lot of him for the next few days, hahaha!

We were both exhausted last night by the time we stopped at dark and picked up all his tools. I was already sore and hurting, and today is no better. I’m just no good with manual labor! I’m so glad we’re having everything contracted out at the new house and there are no DIY home improvement projects on my horizon. Tim loves them, but me, eh, I do not. Anyway, we went to church, then for a late breakfast/brunch at Waffle House, then stopped by Kroger for milk and produce. Now, Tim is playing golf and I’m trying to be lazy! (Note for reference, the Lake Caroline clubhouse burned yesterday, July 5th, big loss). Been shredding old papers, stuff from the 90’s and 2000’s. I’ve shredded two full garbage bags so far, so I think I’m done for a bit! Need to still go through more magazines, I’ve got a huge pile left. And most of the house left to pack, but today, I think today I’m going to take it easy. 😀

Update: Tim called about 6:30 and happily reported that he shot his lowest score ever, a 70 at Lake Caroline! He was so happy and said all he wanted to celebrate was a burger at 5 Guys! LOL! I didn’t want to eat that bad, but he was so giddy, that I couldn’t turn him down. So we had a nice dinner at 5 Guys to celebrate!

Not a weekly update but a random sampling of items in my head…

* The rice trick with wet electronics really works. We had never had a reason to try it until I dropped one of the house cordless phones into a sink full of dish water last night. Sigh. I’m SO clumsy. It really bothers me. Luckily, Tim took out the battery, dried out the unit, we put it all in rice overnight and it’s working fine this morning.

* There are squirrels are all over my bird feeder. Now, this is notable because I also have a squirrel feeder on the other end of my yard. Granted, it is currently devoid of eat-able corn, but still. I miss Beau, he was my squirrel hunter. And apparently, I need to investigate getting a squirrel proof bird feeder.

* I haven’t been doing Menu Plan Monday, but thought I’d post what we had this week. I’m on a mission to clean out some stuff from the freezer and pantry. Less to move! This week:

Monday – l had a BEC (bacon egg and cheese) and Tim had a BLT with the one and only tomato he will probably get from his plant. It’s nearly dead 🙁
Tuesday – pork fried rice with homemade pink sauce and potstickers
Wednesday – Crockpot chicken and artichokes over penne pasta, caesar salad
Today (Thursday) – turkey sloppy joes, Harry&David dip with crackers, chips & fruit
Friday – eat at the family reunion (I’m taking crunchy asian slaw and chocolate chip cookies, gotta get in the kitchen this afternoon)
Saturday and Sunday are undecided, but I might make chili dogs for Tim

* Had another Pinterest FAILURE. I made a coffee creamer with sweetened condensed milk that I pinned, and I did NOT like it. Poured almost all of it down the drain this morning. I hate wasting, but I just didn’t like it.

* I had a good time watching the World Cup this summer, Team USA made it to the quarterfinals but lost on Monday to Belgium, such a heart-breaking game. Haven’t watched any Wimbledon, and Tim is looking forward to the British open (golf)

* Tim is drinking tea now at home and no Coke Zero… yeah! We used to buy cases of Coke Zero at Sam’s Club, and he’s now gotten off of them almost totally, at least at home. I think he gets Cokes out at the golf course, and I know if we go out for burgers or pizza, he gets one, but he’s doing MUCH better!

* And lastly, I’m a basil killer. Every year. Every.Single.Year. My plant starts out great and then once they start flowering, they go downhill fast. Now, it rained every day last week and I think my basil got too wet, it looks horrible. Half the stems are dark brown, I guess from water rot. Sigh, I think my oregano is almost gone too.

I’m sure there’s lots of other random thoughts floating around my brain, but that is all for now! Whew! 🙂