Exceedingly Mundane

I’m trying to get back to more of a regular schedule of blogging. It’s harder than you would think! 🙂 Even for someone as verbose as me 🙂

Going to copy some of my blog friends and try to come up with some sort of weekly, or maybe bi-weekly, wrap-up. Categories subject to change at any given time! 🙂

Biggie for the week: Last week was a really busy one for Tim and a really quiet one for me! He had a big project at work that started Sunday evening (1/10). He slept Saturday night, got up and we went to early church, and he started working about 9 PM Sunday night. He came to bed for 45 minutes around 4:40 AM Monday morning and then they called with a problem about 5:30 AM. He worked all day and then finally stopped around midnight Monday night. So, by my random calculations, he worked off and on for nearly 27 hours. He took that one nap, stopped once for food (the rest of the time, I took him food into the office) and I got him out of the house once to go walking, he had been sitting so long and said he was starting to hurt in his shoulders and back. The rest of the week was busy, but not as bad. They are still working on problems, but it’s getting better every day. He’s working a lot of hours and a lot of nights, but this was a huge deal. This was the third time they had tried to implement this huge system, years of code that he rewrote. Big deal! There’s several more phases to this project, but this one was far and away the largest chunk. Yeah for Tim!

Glad that… – my yearly ob/gyn appointment and mammogram are over! I got a good report on all my numbers – blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, etc. Happy that maybe all of this trying to eat better and walk are helping 🙂

Fun thing I found… I have rediscovered my love of Hallmark 🙂 We switched to AT&T UVerse many years ago, probably 5 or 6 years. They were in a dispute with Hallmark and we didn’t get that channel. Sometime last year, we finally got the Hallmark channel added. And much to my surprise, another channel called Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. Both in hi-def, yippee! I have also discovered that there are a slew of movies on the mystery channel made from cozy mystery series books, some of my favorites. I’ve already recorded and watched a couple of Murder She Baked, based on the Hannah Swenson books by Joanne Fluke, of which I’ve read a lot. And I’ve watched a couple of Garage Sale mysteries with Lori Loughlin, even though I haven’t read those books. And I’ve got set to record some Flower Shop Mysteries (starring Brooke Shields) and Aurora TeaGarden mysteries (starring Candace Cameron Bure), both based on book series I’m pretty sure, although I haven’t read any of them. Looking forward to lots of cozy murder mystery movies in my future!

Book I’m reading:I finished “Danger on the Mountain” last Saturday, then got Rogue Laywer by John Grisham from my library’s Kindle download site. After I finished that one, I started my Kindle Prime loan for January, the third in a trilogy by Christie Barritt, “Random Acts of Malice”. Love her books!

Things we ate: I’m not doing an awful lot of cooking. Unless you count huge salads as cooking. Tim started his healthy eating and P90X kick two days after Christmas. He lost like 5 or 6 pounds the first week! Men! This Monday, 1/11, he started a walking challenge at work which is great for me, since he’s willing for two months to walk some with me. Helps me meet my Fitbit numbers most every day. He still just wants to eat mostly salads, with some other light food thrown in. I made salmon, spinach and couscous one night. Made a chicken and rice soup another night. Lots of salads. We went out to eat Friday night. It was originally scheduled as date night, but my sister called and asked to tag along, so I won’t call it a date. We went to a local Mexican place, Taqueria de Guadalupe. Tim had a molcajete and I had the grilled shrimp and veggies. Also made a big pot of chili for the weekend. Love chili when it’s cold! 🙂

TV and Movies: aforementioned Hallmark movies, my regular daily shows (The Chew, Rachael Ray, The Kitchen, etc). I’m also so happy that Downton Abbey is back, but so sad it’s the last season. I thoroughly enjoy each new show that I record on Sunday night. The Blacklist was back Thursday, hooray! We love Red around here. Lots of NFL football on the tv and we also watched the college football championship, although with Tim working nonstop, it took two nights of DVR watching (and many naps) to make it through 🙂

New Things I’m trying: I’ve tried two new-to-me things so far this year: coloring and a scripture writing challenge. The coloring is fun and relaxing but so far I haven’t really committed to it. I have so many other things I like to do and want to do. I pulled out some old colored pencils I had from my scrapbooking days and printed off a few flower mandala pages from the internet and I’ve been working on one. It is VERY relaxing and I do enjoy it. I always loved coloring as a kid! I’m a total “inside the lines” girl, so it really appeals to me! The second thing I’ve started is a daily scripture writing challenge. This one I am hoping to keep up with. I didn’t start till 1/11, but so far, so good. I’m really enjoying it. I need to spend more time with my Bible and Bible study. And I’ve always been an advocate that anything I write down, I’m more apt to commit to memory and it helps me retain more of it. Plus, another biggie for me, my handwriting is ATROCIOUS these days! I barely handwrite anything at all, anymore, everything is electronic for me, even my grocery list. So this hits a number of good areas for me – scripture reading and writing, memory work, writing skills, quiet time, etc.

Weather – typical January weather, although a bit warmer at times than I would like. Better than our 80 degree Christmas day. Several nights this week I had to bring my herbs in from outside onto my back covered porch. A few days of sun, a few of grey and dreary and one shower. Not overly wet and not too cold. I love January and February, they are good for my hibernation tendencies!

Random Thought du Jour: do I want to order a coloring book and more pencils? Haven’t decided whether to pursue the coloring. Also, do I want to explore getting a spiralizer for making “noodles” or “zoodles” out of zucchini or other veggies. Has anyone used one and do you like it, and more importantly, do you use it often? I just don’t think I would use it more than once or twice before it got tossed in the drawer and forgotten. 🙂

Hope everyone is having a great day!